Chap. VIII. PAEALLEL CHAINS. 119 
of Brazil-wood, cut and piled up for exportation on a hill in 
the vicinity. Continuing our journey on the following 
morning, we had to pass through the fire of a burning 
savana. The line of progressing combustion ran across a 
valley through which the road passed. But from the 
scantiness of the grass in consequence of the rocky nature 
of the soil, the flames were not dangerous, and our horses 
crossed them without resistance. We felt, however, a 
very sensible increase of the temperature in the valley, in 
which we found the air close^ and the smoke extremely 
annoying. Of the shrubs and trees which stood scattered 
in the valley, the leaves only had suffered from the fire, 
and no trunks or branches were seen actually burning or 
recently ignited. This is very different in some of the 
savanas of the United States. In western Texas I saw 
the trunks of oak-trees burning many days after the fire 
had passed over the prairie. 
Our road continued through a wide longitudinal valley 
between two main ridges of mountains parallel to each 
other; but the space thus included, instead of exhibiting 
one general bottom, is filled up with minor elevations in 
the form of flat domes, broad transversal yokes, and lower 
hills, by which it is divided into different hydrographic 
sections. The highest mountains were all the time to our 
left. Before reaching the town of Juigalpa, and while the 
road led along the side of a mountain, some hills with 
regular slopes and terraces like those of a modern fortress 
were seen on the opposite side of the valley. The whole 
conveyed the impression of an artificial formation, and 
I was sorry that neither time nor circumstances permitted 
a minute examination. The sky was threatening with the 
first thunderstorm of the rainy season, which begins sooner 
in the mountains of this region than in the low country 
