146 



ZAMANG OF GUAYRA. 



tufa. Fields of corn were mingled with crops of 

 sugar-canes, coffee, and plantains. The level of 

 the country above the sea is only from 576 to 640 

 yards ; and, except in the district of Quatro Villas 

 in the island of Cuba, wheat is scarcely cultivated 

 in large quantities in any other part of the equinoc- 

 tial regions. La Victoria and the neighbouring vil- 

 lage of San Matheo yielded 4000 quintals, or 3622 

 cwt., annually. It is sown in December, and is fit 

 for being cut in seventy or seventy-five days. The 

 grain is large and white, and the average produce is 

 three or four times as much as in Europe. The cul- 

 ture of the sugar-cane, however, is still more pro- 

 ductive. 



Proceeding slowly on their way, the travellers 

 passed through the villages of San Matheo, Turmero, 

 and Maracay, where every thing was indicative of 

 prosperity. " On leaving the village of Turmero," 

 says Humboldt, " we discover, at the distance of a 

 league, an object which appears on the horizon like 

 a round hillock, or a tumulus covered with vegeta- 

 tion. It is not a hill, however, nor a group of very 

 close trees, but a single tree, the celebrated Zamang 

 of Guayra, known over the whole province for the 

 enormous extent of its branches, which form a hemi- 

 spherical top of 614 feet in circumference. The 

 zamang is a beautiful species of mimosa, whose 

 tortuous branches divide by forking. Its slim and 

 delicate foliage is agreeably detached on the blue of 

 the sky. We rested a long while beneath this 

 vegetable arch. The trunk of the Guayra zamang, 

 which grows on the road from Turmero to Maracay, 

 is not more than sixty-four feet high and nine and a 

 half in diameter ; but its real beauty consists in the 

 general form of its top. The branches stretch out 

 like the spokes of a great umbrella, and all incline 

 towards the ground, from which they uniformly re- 

 main twelve or fifteen feet distant. The circumfe- 

 rence of the branches or foliage is so regular, that I 



