A YOUNG NATURALIST. 



175 



examining this wonderful flower, and Lucien, finding a sec- 

 ond, very soon covered his head with it ; but the poisonous 

 and penetrating odor exhaled from the corolla made him 

 feel sick, so he soon relinquished this novel head-dress. 



A few more steps brought us to the bottom of the ra- 

 vine, and Sumichrast and PEncuerado set to work to bathe 

 their stings in the cool water; while I and Lucien sat 

 down together on a rock, washed on one side by the stream, 

 and leisurely contemplated the beautiful scene before us. 



In front of us was situated an immense mountain, cleft 

 open as if by the hand of some giant, the sides of which 

 were clad with a carpet of verdure of a thousand different 

 shades. At the bottom, as if for the purpose of stopping 

 up the immense fissure, there was an enormous accumula- 

 tion of gray and dark-tinted rocks, between which appear- 

 ed, every here and there, the foliage of some tree, enamelled 

 with flowers. From the midst of the mountain, as if from 

 some invisible cavern, sprung out a large sheet of transpa- 

 rent water, which, although calm and almost motionless in 

 appearance, descended in one fall to a rock which projected 

 in the cataract, like the prow of a ship. As if rendered fu- 

 rious by the shock, and seeming to revel in the uproar, the 

 water, converted into foam, bounded over the obstacle, and 

 fell in two columns, separated by the black point of crag ; 

 then, springing with impetuous speed, from step to step, 

 down a gigantic staircase, it entered a receptacle hollowed 

 out like a shell, which received the foaming water, from 

 whence it flowed gently into a basin edged with verdure. 

 The torrent, quieted for a time, resumed its course, and 

 striking against impediments, rolled on from fall to fall, and 

 from valley to valley, until it reached the plains, more than 

 three thousand feet beneath. 



This cascade recalled to my memory one I had seen 

 about a year before, when exploring the environs of Tuxtla, 



