254 
SAVANNAHS OF ATUTTRS 
which I traced in another work shortly after my return to 
Europe.* The savannahs of At urea, covered with slender 
plants and grasses, are really meadows resembling those of 
Europe. They are never inundated by the rivers, and seem 
as if waiting to be ploughed by the hand of mail. Notwith- 
standing their extent, these savannahs do not exhibit the 
monotony of our plains ; they surround groups of rocks and 
blocks of granite piled on one another. On the very bor- 
ders of these plains and this open country, glens are seen 
scarcely lighted by the rays of the setting sun, and hollows 
where the humid soil, loaded with arums, helieouias, and 
lianas, manifests at every step the wild fecundity of nature. 
Everywhere, just rising above the earth, appear those 
shelves of granite completely bare, which we saw at Cari- 
chana, and which I have already described. Where springs 
gusli from the bosom of these rocks, verrucarias, psoras, and 
lichens are fixed on the decomposed granite, and have there 
accumulated mould. Little euphorbias, peperomias, and 
other succulent plants, have taken the place of the crypto- 
gamous tribes ; and evergreen shrubs, rhexias, and purple- 
flowered melnstomas, form verdant isles amid desert and 
rocky plains. The distribution of these spots, the clusters 
of small trees with coriaceous and shining leaves scattered 
in the savannahs, the limpid rills that dig channels across 
the rocks, and wind alternately through fertile places and 
over bare shelves of granite, all call to mind the most lovely 
and picturesque plantations and pleasure-grounds of Europe- 
We seem to recognise the industry of man, and the traces 
of cultivation, amid this wild scenery. 
The lofty mountains that bound the horizon on every 
■side, contribute also, by their forms and the nature of their 
vegetation, to give an extraordinary character to the land' 
■scape. The average height of these mountains is not more 
than seven or eight hundred feet above the surroundiu£ 
plains. Their summits are rounded, as for the most part i u 
granitic mountains, and covered with thick forests of the 
laurel-tribe. Clusters of palm-trees, t the leaves of which* 
curled like feathers, rise majestically at an angle of seventy 
degrees, are dispersed amid trees with horizontal branches 
* Views of Nature, p. 153 (Bohn’s edition), 
f El cucurito. 
