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mirable property, which the leaves possess, of 

 attracting the water dissolved in the atmo- 

 sphere. We passed a very indifferent night in a 

 narrow and deeply laden canoe; and reached 

 the mouth of the river Mancanares at three in 

 the morning. Accustomed for several weeks 

 past to the aspect of mountains, to a stormy sky, 

 and to gloomy forests, we were struck with the 

 invariable clearness of the air, the nakedness 

 of the soil, and the mass of reflected light, which 

 characterize the site of Cumana. 



At sunrise, we saw the zamuro vultures*, in 

 flocks of forty or fifty, perched on the cocoa- 

 trees. These birds range themselves in files to 

 sleep together like fowls ; and their indolence 

 is such, that they go to roost long before sun- 

 set, and awake not till after the sun is above 

 the horizon. This idleness seems as if it were 

 shared in those climates by the trees with pen- 

 nate leaves. The mimosas and the tamarinds 

 close their leaves in a clear and serene sky, 

 twenty-five or thirty-five minutes before the 

 setting of t he sun, and unfold them in the morn- 

 ing when its disk has been visible for the 

 same time. As I noticed pretty regularly the 

 setting and rising of the sun, in order to ob- 

 serve the effect of the mirage, or of the terres- 

 trial refractions, I was enabled to give continu- 



* Vultur oura- 



