VEGETATION OF THE BASIN. 
39 
of Mariara. Wherever the waters evaporate in the air, they 
form sediments and incrustations of carbonate of lime; pos- 
sibly they traverse strata of primitive limestone, so common 
in the mica-slate and gneiss of the coasts of Caracas. W e 
were surprised at the luxuriant vegetation that surrounds 
the basin; mimosas with slender pinnate leaves, clusias, and 
fig-trees, have pushed their roots into the bottom of a pool, 
the temperature of which is 85“ ; and the branches of these 
trees extended over the surface of the water, at two or three 
inches distance. The foliage of the mimosas, though con- 
stantly enveloped in the hot vapours, displayed the most 
beautiful verdure. An arum, with a woody stem, and with 
large sagittate leaves, rose in the very middle of a pool the 
temperature of which was 70°. Plants of the same species 
vegetate in other parts of those mountains at the brink of 
torrents, the temperature of which is not 18°. What is still 
more singular, forty feet distant from the point whence the 
springs gush out at a temperature of 90°, other springs are 
found perfectly cold. They all follow for some time a parallel 
direction; and the natives showed us that, by digging a hole 
between the two rivulets, they could procure a bath of any 
given temperature they pleased. It seems remarkable, that 
m the hottest as well as the coldest climates, people display 
the same predilection for heat. On the introduction of 
Christianity into Iceland, the inhabitants would be baptized 
only m the hot springs of Hecla: and in the torrid zone 
in the plains, as well as on the Cordilleras, tho natives flock 
from aU parts to the thermal waters. The sick, who come 
to La Trinchera to use vapour-baths, form a sort of frame- 
work over the spring with branches of trees and very slender 
reeds. They stretch themselves naked on this frame, which 
appeared to me to possess little strength, and to be danger- 
ous of access. The Kio de Aguas Calientes runs towards the 
north-east, and becomes, near the coast, a considerable river, 
swarming with great crocodiles, and contributing, by its 
inundations, to the insalubrity of the shore. 
Vb descended towards Porto Cahello, having constantly 
the river of bot water on our right. The road is extremely 
picturesque, and the waters roll down on the shelves of 
rock. W e might have fancied we were gazing on the eas- 
CRG.es of the ficuss, that flows down Mount St. Gothard ; 
