98 
CULTlVATrO’ OF r.AliOK I’LAlVS. 
opinions I have deduced from the climatic action of these 
steppes considered as surfaces, or continuous masses. They 
have obsen^ed that downs enclosed within cultivated and 
wooded land sooner yield to the labours of the husbandman 
than soils alike circumscribed, but forming part of a vast 
surface of the same nature. This observation is extremely 
just, whether in reference to soil covered with heath, as in the 
north of Europe ; Avith cistuscs, mastic-trees, or palmettos, as 
in Spain ; or with cactuses, argemoues, or brathys, as in equi- 
noetial America. The moi’c space the association occupies, 
the more resistance do the social plants oppose to the labourer. 
AVith this general cause others are combined in the Llanos of 
A^enczuela ; viz. the action of the small grasses which im- 
poverish the soil ; the total absence of trees and brushwood ; 
the sandy a\ iuds, tlie heat of which is increased by contact 
Avith a surface absorbing the ray.s of the sun during twelve 
hours, and unshaded, except by' the stalks of the aristide.s, 
ehancluises, and paspalums. Tlie progress obscrA’able on the 
vegetation of large trees, and the cultiAmtion of dicotyledonous 
plmats in the vicinity of toAAuis, (for instance around Cala- 
bozo and Pao) prove what may be gained upon the Llano, by 
attacking it in small porlaons, enclosing it by degrees, and 
diA'iding it by coppices and canals of irrigation. Possibly the 
influence of the winds, which render the soil sterile, might be 
diminished by soAving on a large scale, for example, over 
fifteen or twenty acres, the see^ of the psidium, the croton, 
the cassia, or the tamarind, AA-hich prefer dry, open spots. 1 
am far from hclicA'ing that the savannahs Avill ever disappear 
entirely -, or that the Llanos, so useful for pasturage and the 
trade m cattle, Avill ever be onltivated like the A*allies of 
Araguaor other parts near the coast of Caracas and Cumana: 
butl am persuaded, that in the lapse of ages a coiisiderablo 
portion of these plains, under a goA'ernment favourable to 
industry, will lose the wild aspect Avhich has characterized 
them since the first conquest by Europeans. 
After three days’ journey, we began to perceive the chain 
of the mountains of ’Oumana, Avhich separates the Llanos, oi% 
as they are often called here, “ the great sea of verdure,”* 
from the coast of the Caribbean Sea. If the Bergantin be 
• “ Los Llanos son como un mar de yerbas” — “ The Llanos are like • 
vast sea of grass” — is an observation often repeated in these regions. 
