drums--and all sorts of
ornaments for the person. Their feather dresses are remarkable for
their elegance and the labour bestowed on them.

The Purupurus, one of the most savage tribes, have an instrument--
employed by no others--called the palheta. It is a piece of wood with a
projection at the end, in which the base of the arrow is secured. The
arrow is held with the handle of the palheta in the hand, and thus
thrown as a stone from a sling. The natives exhibit wonderful dexterity
in the use of this weapon, and with the greatest facility kill birds,
fish, and game of all sorts with it.

PART FOUR, CHAPTER ONE.

NORTHERN REGIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA.

VENEZUELA.

New Granada is almost entirely a mountain region, occupied by the
northern end of the Andes, except where it slopes down towards the
Isthmus of Panama and the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela, however, contains
three distinct zones or characters of country--mountains, forests, and
open plains. The mountain regions, which are also three in number, are
separated by wide plains. On the west, the mountains belong to the
Andes--being spurs of that range--a large portion consisting of
table-lands, called paramos, from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the
sea-level. Among them lies the Lake of Maracaibo, ninety-two miles in
length, and eighty-two in width--the largest in South America. On the
north-east is the Sierra de Bergantin, and in the south-east the Sierra
de Parima. The forests extend from the Orinoco southward, joining that
of the Amazon--a vast tract, but seldom penetrated by the traveller.

The natives call the three zones into which they divide their country
the Tierras Calidas, or hot countries--rising not more that 2000 feet
above the sea, and in which only tropical plants and fruits flourish;
the Tierras Templadas, or temperate country--from 2000 to 7000 feet
above the sea, where the agricultural productions of Europe succeed
best; and the Tierras Frias, or cold countries--which rise above the
former, to the height of 15,000 feet, the summits of the mountains
reaching 148 feet above the snow-line.

Two seasons exist in the tropics, into which the year is divided--the
wet and the dry. Though the heat is greatest in the former, it is
called winter, as the sun then passes twice over the zenith; while
during the dry season, which is called summer, the sun is in the
southern hemisphere. During the whole year the north-east trade-wind
blows across th