Humbolt's travels and discoveries in South America . mountains of Xew Anda-lusia. This second excursion was commenced on the•4th of September, the tra^-ellers rjuirtin-- the city of€umana at an early hour. •After a journey of two hours, says Hujnboldt,• we reached the foot of the lofty chain of the interiormountains, which runs from east to west, from the Bri-gantine to the Ccrro do Sail Lorenzo. Here, neuspecies of rock commence, and, wdth them, a newaspect of vegetation. Everything here assumes a moremajestic and picturesque character. The ground, wa-tered by springs, is intersected in all d
Humbolt's travels and discoveries in South America . mountains of Xew Anda-lusia. This second excursion was commenced on the•4th of September, the tra^-ellers rjuirtin-- the city of€umana at an early hour. •After a journey of two hours, says Hujnboldt,• we reached the foot of the lofty chain of the interiormountains, which runs from east to west, from the Bri-gantine to the Ccrro do Sail Lorenzo. Here, neuspecies of rock commence, and, wdth them, a newaspect of vegetation. Everything here assumes a moremajestic and picturesque character. The ground, wa-tered by springs, is intersected in all directions. Trees,of a gigantic height, and covered with creepers,, shootup in the ravines: their bark, blackened and burnedby the twofold action of light and atmospheric oxygen,forms a contrast with the vivid green of the pothos anddracontium, the leather-like and glossy leaves of whichfrequently shoot out to the length of several feet. Theparasitical monocotyledons, between the tropics, maybe said to occupy the place of the mosses and the. THE ALPS OF AMEEICA. 15 lichens of our northern zone. As we proceeded, themountains, both by their shape and grouping, broughtto our recollection the scenery of Swisserland and theTyrol. Upon these Alps of America, even at consider-able heights, we met with the Heliconia, the Costus,the Maranta, and others of the cane family; while,near the coast, the same plants delight only in low andswampy situations. It is thus, that, by an extraor-dinary similarity, in the torrid zone, as in the north ofEurope, under the influence of an atmosphere continu-ally loaded with fog, as upon a soil moistened by melt-ing snow, the vegetation of mountains presents all thecharacteristic features of that of marshy places. The cabins of the Mestizoes dwelling in these partswere found placed in the midst of small enclosures,containing bananas, papayas, sugar-canes, and remarks, that the small extent of theircleared spots would surprise us, if
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