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grasses, that separate all the links of the granitic 

 mountains, from Encaramada as far as beyond 

 the Cataracts of Maypures. The line of the 

 forests is seen only in the distance. The horizon 

 is every where bounded by mountains, partly 

 woody, and of a dark tint, partly bare, with 

 rocky summits, gilt by the beams of the setting 

 Sun. What gives a peculiar character to the 

 scenery of this country are banks of rock* 

 nearly destitute of vegetation, that are often 

 more than eight hundred feet in circumference, 

 yet scarcely rise a few inches above the sur- 

 rounding savannahs. They now make a part of 

 the plain. We ask ourselves with surprise, whe- 

 ther some extraordinary revolutions have carried 

 away the earth and plants ; or the granite nu- 

 cleus of our planet show itself bare, because the 

 germes of life are not yet developed on all it's 

 points. The same phenomenon seems to be 

 found also in the Shamo, that separates Munga- 

 lia from China. Those banks of solitary rock 

 in the desert are called tsy. I think they would 

 be real table-lands, if the surrounding plains 

 were stripped of the sand and mould that cover 

 them, and which the waters have accumulated 

 in the lowest places. On these stony flats of 

 Carichana we observed with eagerness the ris- 

 ing vegetation in the different degrees of it's de- 



Laxas. 



