94 



formed into cylindrical roots two feet thick. 

 The tree looks as if it were supported by but- 

 tresses. This scaffolding however does not pe- 

 netrate very deep into the earth. The lateral 

 roots wind at the surface of the ground, and 

 when at twenty feet distance from the trunk 

 they are cut with a hatchet, we see the milky 

 juice of the fig-tree gush out, which, when de- 

 prived of the vital influence of the organs of the 

 tree, is altered and coagulates. What a won- 

 derful combination of cells and vessels exists in 

 these vegetable masses, in these gigantic trees 

 of the torrid zone, which without interruption, 

 perhaps during a thousand years, prepare nu- 

 tritious fluids, raise them to the height of one 

 hundred and eighty feet, convey them down 

 again to the ground, and conceal beneath a 

 rough and hard bark, under the inanimate 

 layers of ligneous matter, all the movements of 

 organic life ! 



I availed myself of the clearness of the nights, 

 to observe at the plantation of Tuy two emer- 

 sions of the first and third satellites of Ju- 

 piter. These two observations gave, according 

 to the tables of Delambre, long. 4h 39' 14" ; 

 and by the chronometer I found 4 h 39' 10". 

 These are the last occultations 1 observed be- 

 fore my return from the Oroonoko ; they served 

 to fix with some accuracy the eastern extre- 

 mity of the valleys of Aragua, and the foot of 



