410 



of La Guayra to Caraccas ; and only two hours 

 to return. With loaded mules, or on foot, the 

 journey is from four to five hours. The as- 

 cent begins with a ridge of rocks extremely 

 steep, and stations that bear the name of Torre- 

 quemada, Curucuti, and Salto, to a large inn 

 (La Venta) built at six hundred toises above the 

 level of the sea. The denomination of the 

 Burnt Tower indicates the sensation that is felt 

 in descending toward La Guayra. A suffocat- 

 ing heat is reflected by the walls of rock, 

 and still more by the barren plains, on which 

 the traveller looks down. On this road, as on 

 that from Vera Cruz to Mexico, and wherever 

 on a rapid declivity the climate changes, the 

 increase of muscular strength and the sensa- 

 tion of well-being, that we experience as we 

 advance into strata of cooler air, have always 

 appeared to me less striking than that feeling 

 of languor and weakness, which seizes on the 

 frame, when we descend toward the burning 

 plains of the coast. Such is the organization 

 of man, that, even in the moral world, we are 

 less soothed by what meliorates our condition, 

 than affected by a new sensation of pain. 



From Curucuti to Salto the ascent is some- 

 what less laborious. The windings of the road 

 contribute to render the declivity easier, as 

 in the old road over Mount Cenis. The Leap, 

 or Salto, is a crevice, which is passed on a draw- 



