SITUATION OF THE CaVEEX. 
255 
only, four hundred paces from the cavern, without yet pen 
ceiving the entrance. The torrent runs in a crevice hoi. 
lowed out by the waters, and we went on under a comioe, 
the projection of which prevented us from seeing the sky. 
The path winds in the direction of the river ; and at the 
last turning we came suddenly before the immense opening 
ot the grotto. The aspect of this spot is majestic, even to 
the eye of a traveller accustomed to the picturesque scenery 
ot the higher Alps. I had before this seen the caverns of the 
peak of Derbyshire, where, lying down flat in a boat, we 
proceeded along a subterranean river, under an arch two feet 
high. 1 had visited the beautiful grotto of Treshemienshiz, 
in the Carpathian mountains, the caverns of the Hartz, and 
those of Franconia, which are vast cemeteries,* containing 
bones of tigers, hyaenas, and bears, as large as our horses, 
Mature in every zone follows immutable laws in the distri- 
bution of rocks, in the form of mountains, and even in those 
changes which the exterior crust of our planet has under- 
gone. So great a uniformity led me to believe that the aspect 
of the cavern of Caripo would differ little from what I had 
observed in my preceding travels. The reality far exceeded 
my expectations. If the configuration of the grottoes, the 
splendour of the stalactites, and all the phenomena of in- 
organic nature, present striking analogies, the majesty of 
equinoctial vegetation gives at the same time an individual 
character to the aperture of the cavern. 
.The Cueva del Guacharo is pierced in the vertical profile 
of a rock. The entrance is towards the south, and forms 
an arch eighty feet broad and seventy-two high. The rock 
which surmounts the grotto is covered with trees of gigantic 
height. The mammee-tree and the genipa,t with large and 
* The mould, which has covefed for thousands of years the soil of the 
caverns of Gaylenreuth and Muggendorf in Franconia, emits even now 
choke-damps, or gaseous mixtures of hydrogen and nitrogen, which rise to 
the roof of the caves. This lact is known to the persons who show 
these caverns to travellers ; and when I was director of the mines of the 
h ichtelbcrg, 1 observed it frequently in the summer-time. M. Laugier 
found in the mould of Muggendorf, besides phosphate of lime, O'lO of 
animal matter. I was struck, during my stay at Steeben, witli the ammo- 
niacal and foetid smell produced by it, when thrown on a red-hot iron. 
T Caruto, Geuipa amerieana. The flower at Caripe, has sometimes five, 
sometimes six stamens. 
