196 



form sediments and incrustations of carbonat of 

 lime ; perhaps they traverse strata of primitive 

 limestone, so common in the mica-slate and 

 gneiss of the coasts of Caraccas. We were sur- 

 prised at the luxuriant vegetation that surrounds 

 the basin ; mimosas with slender pinnate leaves, 

 clusias, and fig-trees, have pushed their roots into 

 the bottom of a pool, the temperature of which 

 is 85°, and the branches of these trees extended 

 over the surface of the water, at two or three 

 inches distance. The foliage of the mimosas^ 

 though constantly humectated with the hot va- 

 pours, displayed the most beautiful verdure. 

 An arum, with a woody stem, and with large 

 sagittate leaves, rose in the very middle of a 

 pool, the temperature of which was 70°. The 

 same species of plants vegetate in other parts 

 of those mountains at the brink of torrents, the 

 temperature of which is not 18°. What is still 

 more singular, forty feet distant from the point, 

 whence the springs gush out at a temperature of 

 90°, other springs are found entirely cold. They 

 all follow for some time a parallel direction ; 

 and the natives showed us, that by digging a 

 hole between the two rivulets, they could pro- 

 cure a bath of any given temperature they 

 pleased. It seems remarkable, that in the hot- 

 test as well as the coldest climates, people dis- 

 play the same predilection for heat. On the 

 introduction of Christianity into Iceland, the 



