52 



THE CANADA. 



portion of the rock-strewn bed which overspreads a large 

 extent of the low grounds. It is a tributary of the Tula,, 

 if my surmise is right. At the point where our pathway 

 came upon it, the vale was comparatively open and spa- 

 cious, though surrounded by mountains of considerable 

 elevation, and there was much in the whole landscape 

 which brought the scenery of the Italian Alpine valleys 

 to my recollection ; but four or five leagues higher up, 

 shortly after the traveller has passed a large hacienda 

 belonging to a wealthy cura on the left bank, it con- 

 tracts ; and, for the succeeding thirty or forty miles., 

 takes that peculiar character which has given a name to 

 the river. 



The fifth and sixth of March were occupied in advan- 

 cing from the priest's country seat, slowly up the magnifi- 

 cent ravine, on a rough mule path, worn by the numer- 

 ous conducta, with which this is one way of descent from 

 the table land above ; threading thickets which strug- 

 gled with the limpid mountain stream for possession of 

 the chasm, and often riding along the bed of the river* 

 w r hich I believe had to be crossed considerably above a 

 hundred times. 



We considered the scenery of the Canada superior to 

 any we had ever seen, comparable to it — and we were, 

 as you know, no novices in mountain defiles. I nowhere 

 met with the sublimity of an Alpine mountain gorge on 

 a great scale, clothed with such beauty. A varied veg- 

 etation, stimulated by the alternate vehemence of a trop- 

 ical sun, and the gentle dews and moist showers from 

 the mountains above, into an inconceivable rankness and 

 richness of growth — all that is beautiful and gorgeous in 

 colouring and curious in detail — birds, butterflies, in- 

 sects, fruits, and flowers — are here presented to the eyes 

 of the traveller, in the midst of a chaos of rent and riven 

 rock and dizzy precipice, which would be worthy of the 

 most savage defile of the most savage Alpine districts of 

 Europe. No one who has not beheld with his own eyes» 

 can imagine the vigour with which nature puts forth her 

 strength under this incitement from alternate heat and 

 moisture. 



