130 
HATO DTi ALTA GBACIA. 
same formation as that of Quire, on the coast of Paria, 
which contains sulphur ? or do the masses of tli is latter 
substance, found in the valley of Buen Pastor and on the 
banks of the Orinoco, belong, with the argillaceous gyp- 
sum of the Llanos, to a secondary formation much more 
recent. 
These questions are very interesting in the study of the 
relative antiquity of rocks, which is the principal basis of 
geology. I know not of any salt-deposits in the Llanos. 
Horned cattle prosper here without those famous harems , 
or muriatiferous lands, which abound in the Pampas of 
Buenos Ayres.* 
After having wandered for a long time, and without any 
traces of a road, in the desert savannahs of the Mesa de 
Pavones, we were agreeably surprised when we came to a 
solitary farm, the Hato de Alta Gracia, surrounded with 
gardens and basins of limpid water. Hedges of bead-trees 
encircled groups of ieacoes laden with fruit. Farther on 
we passed the night near the small village of San Geronymo 
del Guayaval, founded by Capuchin missionaries. It is 
situated near the banks of the Bio Guarico, which falls 
into the Apure. I visited the missionary, who had no other 
habitation than his church, not having yet built a house. 
He was a young man, and he received us in the most 
obliging manner, giving us all the information we desired. 
His village, or to use the word established among the 
monks, his Mission, was not easy to govern. The founder, 
who had not hesitated to establish for his own profit a 
ptdperia, in other words, to sell bananas and guarapo in the 
church itself, had shown himself to be not very nice in the 
choice of the new colonists. Many marauders of the Llanos 
had settled at Guayaval, because the inhabitants of a Mis- 
sion are exempt from the authority of secular law. Here, 
as in Australia, it cannot be expected that good colonists 
will be formed before the second or third generation. 
We passsd the Guarico, and encamped in the savannahs 
south of Guayaval. Enormous bats, no doubt of the tribe 
of Phyllostomas, hovered as usual over our hammocks 
during a great part of the night. Every moment they 
seemed to be about to fasten on our faces. Early in the 
* Known in North America under the name of ‘ salt-licks.’ 
