SCENERY OF THE LAKE. 
3 
gives them a gloomy and monotonous aspect. The northern 
shore on the contrary, is cheerful, pastoral, and decked with 
the rich cultivation of the sugar-cane, coffee-tree, and 
cotton. Paths bordered with oestrums, azedaracs, and other 
shrubs always in flower, cross the plain, and join the scat- 
tered farms. Every house is surrounded by clumps of trees. 
The ceiba with its large yellow flowers* gives a peculiar 
character to the landscape, mingling its branches with those 
of the purple ervthrina. This mixture of vivid vegetable 
colours contrasts finely with the uniform tint of an un- 
clouded sky. In the season of drought, where the burning 
soil is covered with an undulating vapour, artificial irriga- 
tions preserve verdure and promote fertility. Here and 
there the granite rock pierces through the cultivated ground. 
Enormous stony masses rise abruptly in the midst of the 
valley. Bare and forked, they nourish a few succulent 
plants, which prepare mould for future ages. Often on the 
summit of these lonely hills may be seen a fig-tree or a 
elusia with fleshy leaves, which has fixed its roots in the 
rock, and towers over the landscape. With their dead and 
" ithered branches, these trees look like signals erected on 
a ®teep cliff. The form of these mounts unfolds the secret 
of their ancient origin ; for when the whole of this valley 
was filled with water, and the waves beat at the foot of the 
peaks of Mariara (the Devil’s Nook)! and the chain of the 
coast, these rocky hills were shoals or islets. 
These features of a rich landscape, these contrasts be- 
tween the two banks of the lake of Valencia, often reminded 
me of the Pays de Vaud, where the soil, cvervwhere cul- 
tivated, and everywhere fertile, offers the husbandman, the 
shepherd, and the vine-dresser, the secure fruit of their 
labours, while, on the opposite side, Chablais presents only 
a mountainous and half-desert country. In these distant 
■climes surrounded by exotic productions, 1 loved to recall 
to mmd the enchanting descriptions with which the aspect 
oi the Leman lake and the rocks of La Meillerie inspired 
a great writer. Now, while in the centre of civilized Europe, 
i endeavour in my turn to paint the scenes of the New 
orld, i do not imagine I present the reader with clearer 
* Carnet tullendas (Bombax hibiscifolius). 
t El Rincon del Diablo. 
B 2 
