404: 



Kotcs on the Infiuence 



[No. 36,,, 



der it fit for the respiration of man, and thus the air wants that 

 pecuKar softness which makes it so equable even in hot tropical 

 climates. 



If these are the principal causes of the mortality in our new co- 

 lony the remedy will of course be apparent to every one. Already 

 a great improvement has taken place in the houses of the merchants 

 and in the barracks of the soldiers, and the results have been most 

 satisfactory. But the colonists must not stop in this stage of 

 their improvements. Let the Governor and the inhabitants use 

 every means in their power to clothe the hill sides in and around 

 the town mth a healthy vegetation : let them plant trees and 

 shrubs by the road sides, in gardens and in every place available 

 for such purposes, and, then, I have no doubt, that Victoria will 

 be quite as healthy as Macao. No one can approve of the selec- 

 tion of Hong Kong as a British settlement, but that part of 

 the business being irremediable we must make the most of our 

 bargain." 



But perhaps no one, more beautifully than Humboldt, describes 

 the arid dryness which the aspect of a tropical country presents 

 w^hen destitute of vegetation. After a descent of 1,000 feet from 

 the valleys of Aragua had brought the travellers towards the 

 Oronoko they " entered the basin of the Llanos in the Mesa de 

 Paja in the 9th degree of latitude. The sun was almost at the 

 zenith; the earth wherever it appeared sterile and destitute of ve- 

 getation was at the temperature of 48° or 50°. Not a breath of 

 air was felt, yet, in the midst of this apparent calm, whirls of dust 

 incessantly arose. All around us, says Humboldt, the plains seem- 

 ed to ascend toward the sky and that vast and profound soli- 

 tude appeared to our eyes like an ocean covered with sea-weeds. 

 The earth there was confounded with the sky, through the dry 

 fog and strata of vapour, the trunks of palm trees were seen 

 from afar ; stripped of their foliage and their verdant summits, 

 these trunks appeared like the masts of a ship discovered at the 

 horizon. 



There is something awful but sad and gloomy in the uniform 

 aspect of these steppes. Every thing seems motionless ; scarcely 

 does a small cloud as it passes across the zenith and announces 

 the approach of the rainy season, sometimes cast its shadow^ on 



