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to the simple expression of the country, " he 

 can see every where well around him." What 

 appears to us a covered country, slightly undu- 

 lated, with a few scattered hills, is to him a 

 frightful region bristled with mountains. Every 

 thing is relative in our judgments on the ine- 

 quality of the ground, and the state of the 

 surface. After having passed several months 

 in the thick forests of the Oroonoko, in places 

 where you are accustomed when at any distance 

 from the river, to see the stars only in the ze- 

 nith, as through the mouth of a well, a journey 

 in the steppes has something in it agreeable 

 and attractive. The traveller feels new sensa- 

 tions ; and, like the Uanero, enjoys the happiness 

 <c of seeing well around him." But this enjoy- 

 ment, as we ourselves experienced, is not of 

 long duration. There is no doubt something 

 solemn and imposing in the aspect of a bound- 

 less horizon, whether viewed from the summits 

 of the Andes or the highest Alps, amid the 

 immensity of the ocean, or in the vast plains 

 of Venezuela and Tucuman. Infinity of space, as 

 poets have said in every language, is reflected in 

 ourselves ; it is associated with ideas of a superior 

 order ; it elevates minds, that delight in the calm 

 of solitary meditation. It is true also, that every 

 view of an unbounded space bears a peculiar 

 character. The view enjoyed from a solitary 

 peak, varies according as the clouds reposing on 



