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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 



