108 
OltIGIN OF THE LLANOS. 
Indian of-.Tavita to us gravely, “ where there are nc marshes ; 
because the water ceases to collect when you. imprudently 
kill the serpents that attract it.” 
We suffered greatly from the heat in crossing the JVlesa 
de Calabozo. The temperature of the air augmented sensibly 
every time that the wind began to blow. The air was 
loaded with dust ; and during these gusts the thermometer 
rose to 40° or 41°. We went slowly forward, for it would 
have been dangerous to leave the mules that carried our 
instruments. Our guides advised us to fill our hats with 
the leaves of the rhopala, to diminish the action of the solar 
rays on the hair and the crown ot the head. We found 
relief from this expedient, which was particularly agreeable, 
when we could procure the thick leaves of the pothos or 
some other similar plant. , 
It is impossible to cross these burning plains, without 
inquirino- whether they have always been in the same state ; 
or whether they have been stripped of their vegetation by 
some revolution of nature. The stratum of mould now 
found on them is in fact very thin. The natives believe 
that the vuhiuires and the chapavales (the little groves of 
palm-trees and rhonala) were more frequent and more exten- 
sive before the arrival of the Spaniards. Since the Llanos 
have been inhabited and peopled with cattle become wild, 
the savannah is often set on fire, in order to ameliorate 
the pasturage. Groups of scattered trees are accidently 
destroyed with the grasses. The plains were no doubt less 
bare in the fifteenth century, than they now are ; yet the 
first Conquistadores, who came from Coro, described them 
then as savannahs, where nothing could be perceived but 
the sky and the turf, generally destitute of trees, and dii- 
ficult to traverse on account of the reverberation of heat 
from the soil. Why does not the great forest of the Orinoco 
extend to the north, on the left bank of that river ? Why 
does it not fill that vast space that reaches as far as the 
Cordillera of the coast, and which is fertilized by numerous 
rivers ? These questions are connected with all that relates 
to the history of our planet. If, indulging in geologies/ 
reveries we suppose that the steppes ot America, and the 
desert of Sahara, have been stripped of their vegetation b? 
an irruption of the ocean, or that they formed originally the 
