s 



journey across the Llanos. The heat was ex- 

 cessive, on account of the reverberation of the 

 soil, almost every where destitute of plants. 

 The centigrade thermometer however during 

 the day (in the shade) was only from thirty to 

 thirty-four degrees, and at night from twenty- 

 seven to twenty-eight degrees. Here therefore, 

 as almost every where within the tropics, it 

 was less the absolute degree of heat, than it's 

 duration, that affected our organs. We were 

 thirteen days in crossing the steppes, resting a 

 little in the Caribbee (Cardibes) missions, and 

 in the little town of Pao. I have given al- 

 ready* the physical picture of those immense 

 plains, which separate the forests of Guyana 

 from the chain of the coast. The eastern part 

 of the Llanos, through which we passed, between 

 Angostura and Nueva Barcelona, wears the same 

 savage aspect as the western part, by which 

 we came from the valleys of Aragua to San 

 Fernando de Apure. In the season of drought, 

 which it is here agreed to called summery though 

 the Sun is in the southern hemisphere, the 

 breeze is felt with greater force in the steppes 

 of Cumana, than in those of Caraccas ; because 

 these vast plains, like the cultivated fields of 

 Lombardy, form an inland basin, open to the 

 east and closed on the north, south, and west ? 



* Vol. iv, p. 290—415, 



B % 



