156 



COW-TREE. 



modern nations, — is distributed in the seeds, and de- 

 posited in the roots of vegetables ; while the milk 

 which we use as food appears exclusively the pro- 

 duct of animal organization. Such are the impres- 

 sions which we receive in early childhood, and such 

 is the source of the astonishment with which we 

 are seized on first seeing the cow-tree. Magnificent 

 forests, majestic rivers, and lofty mountains clad in 

 perennial snows, are not the objects which we here 

 admire. A few drops of a vegetable fluid impress 

 us with an idea of the power and fecundity of na- 

 ture. On the parched side of a rock grows a tree 

 with dry and leathery foliage, its large woody roots 

 scarcely penetrating into the ground. For several 

 months in the year its leaves are not moistened by a 

 shower ; its branches look as if they were dead and 

 withered ; but when the trunk is bored, a bland and 

 nourishing milk flows from it. It is at sunrise that 

 the vegetable fountain flows most freely. At that 

 time the blacks and natives are seen coming from 

 all parts, provided with large bowls to receive the 

 milk, which grows yellow and thickens at its sur- 

 face. Some empty their vessels on the spot, while 

 others carry them to their children. One imagines 

 he sees the family of a shepherd who is distributing 

 the milk of his flock." 



The travellers had resolved to visit the eastern 

 extremity of the cordilleras of New-Grenada, where 

 they end in the Paramos of Tirnotes and Niquitas ; 

 but learning at Barbula that this excursion would 

 retard their arrival at the Orinoco thirty -five days, 

 they judged it prudent to relinquish it, lest they 

 should fail in the real object of their journey, that 

 of ascertaining by astronomical observations the 

 point at which the Rio Negro and the River of Ama- 

 zons communicate with the former stream. They 

 therefore returned to Guacara, to take leave of the 

 family of the Marquis del Toro, and pass three days 

 more on the shores of the Lake of Valencia. It 



