438 
ARItn A.L AT THE VALLEY. 
b y thick clouds, di’ifted by a cold and rough wind. Rapid 
slopes, covered with yellow and dry grass, now seen in 
shade, and now suddenly illumined, seemed like precipices, 
the depth of which the eye sought in vain to measure. 
We proceeded onwards, in single Hie, and endeavoured to 
support ourselves by our hands, lest we should roll down. 
The guides, who carried our instruments, abandoned us 
successively, to sleep on the mountain. Among those who 
remained with us was a Congo black, who evinced great ad- 
dress, bearing on bis bead a large dipping-needle: be bold it 
constantly steady, notwithstanding the extreme declivity of 
the rocks. The fog had dispersed by degrees in the bottom 
of the valley ; and the scattered lights wo perceived below 
us caused a double illusion. The steeps appeared still more 
dangerous than they really wore ; and, during six hours of 
continual descent, we seemed to be always equally near the 
iarms at the foot of the Silla. Wo heard very distinctly 
the voices of men and the notes of guitars. Sound is ge- 
nerally so well propagated upwards, that in a balloon at 
the elevation of three thousand toises, the barking of dogs 
is sometimes heard.* 
Wo did not arrive till ten at night at the bottom of the 
valley. We wore overcome with fatigue and thirst, having 
walked for fifteen hours, nearly without stopping. The soles 
of our feet were cut aud torn by the asperities of a rocky soil 
and the hard and dry stalks of the gramina, for we had' been 
obliged to pull off - our boots, the soles having become too 
slippery. On declivities devoid of shrubs or ligneous herbs, 
which may bo grasped by the hand, the danger of the 
descent is diminished by walking barefoot. In order to 
shorten the way, our guides conducted us from the Puerta 
de la Silla to the farm of Gallegos by a path leading to a 
reservoir of water, called el Tanque. They missed their 
way, however; and this last descent, the steepest of all, 
brought us near the ravine of Chacaito. The noise of the 
cascades gave this nocturnal scene a grand aud wild cha- 
racter. 
Wc passed the night at the foot of the Silla. Our friends 
at Caracas had been able to distinguish us with glasses on 
* Gav-Lussac’s account of his ascent on the 15th of September, 1805. 
