387 



These questions are very interesting in the 

 study of the relative antiquity of rocks, which is 

 the principal basis of geognosy. I know not of 

 any formations of muriat of soda in the Llanos. 

 Horned cattle prosper here without those famous 

 bareros, or muriatiferous lands, that abound in 

 the Pampas of Buenos Ayres. 



After having wandered a long time, and always 

 without any traces of a road, in the desert savan- 

 nahs of the Mesa de Pavones, we were agreeably 

 surprised to find a solitary farm, the Hato de 

 Alta Gracia, surrounded with gardens and 

 basins of limpid water. Hedges of bead-trees 

 encircled groups of icacoes loaded with fruit. 

 Farther on, we passed the night near the small 

 village of San Geronymo del Guayaval, founded 

 by Capuchin missionaries. It is situate near the 

 banks of the Rio Guarico, which falls into the 

 Apure. I visited the ecclesiastic, who had no 

 other habitation than his church, not having yet 

 built a house. He was a young man, and re- 

 ceived us in the most obliging manner, giving 

 us all the information we desired. His village, 

 or to use the word established among the monks, 

 his mission, was not easy to govern. The 

 founder, who had not hesitated to establish for 

 his own profit a pulperia, in other words, to sell 

 bananas and guarapo in the church itself, had 

 shown himself as little delicate in the choice of 

 the new colonists. Many vagabonds of the 



