VALLE V or SAX l>EI)liO. 
483 
Descending the woody mountain of the Higuerote to the 
south-west, we reached the small village oT San Pedro, 
situated iu a basin where several valleys meet, and almost 
three hundred toises lower than the table-land of Euena- 
vista. Plantain-trees, potatoes,* and coffee are cultivated 
together on this spot. The village is very small, and the 
church not yet finished. We met at an inn (pulperia) 
several European Spaniards employed at the government 
tobacco farm. Their dissatisfaction formed a strange con- 
trast to our feelings. They were fatigued with their 
journey, and they vented their displeasure in complaints 
and maledictions on the wretched country, or to use their 
own phrase, estas tierras infelices, in which they were doomed 
to live. We, on the other hand, were enchanted with 
the wild scenery, the fertility of the soil, and the mildness 
of the climate.. Near San Pedro, the talcose gneiss of Bue- 
navista passes into a mica-slate filled with garnets, and con- 
taining subordinate beds of serpentine. Something ana- 
logous to this is met with at Zoblitz in Saxony? The 
serpentine, which is very pure and of a fine green, varied with 
spots of a lighter tint, often appears only superimposed on 
the mica-slate. I found in it a 'few garnets, but no metal- 
loid diallage. 
The valley of Sau Pedro, through which flows the river of 
the same name, separates two great masses of mountains 
the Higuerote and Las Coeuyzas. We ascended westward 
m the direction of the small farms of Las Lagunetos and 
Garavatos. These are solitary houses, which serve as bins 
and where the mule-drivers obtain their favourite beverage’ 
the gmrapo, or fermented juice of the sugar-cane: intoxi- 
cation is very common among the Indians who frequent 
this road. Near Garavatos there is a mica-slate rock of 
singular form ; it is a ridge, or steep wall, crowned by a 
tower. We opened the barometer at the highest point of 
the mountain Las Coeuyzas, t aud found ourselves almost 
at the. same elevation as on the table-land of Buenavista, 
which is scarcely ten toises higher. 
lhe prospect at Las Lagunetas is extensive, hut rather 
uniform. This mountainous and uncultivated tract of ground 
* Solanum tuberosum, 
t Absolute height 845 toises. 
2 i 3 
