n, to an aerial vegetation. The small, gnarled,
low-branched trees, have often scarcely one half of their roots in the
earth: the other half spreads over the surface of the soil; then winding
round the roots or branches of some neighboring plant, fastens on it,
and intimately uniting with it, forms a kind of suspension bridge, over
which the intertwining of numerous luxuriant climbing plants makes a
strong, impenetrable network. All the trees and shrubs are covered with
innumerable parasites, which, in the higher regions, are met with in
their smaller forms, as lichens, mosses, &c.; but lower down, in the
course of the various transformations they undergo, they appear in
larger development.

The whole vegetable kingdom here is stamped by a peculiar character. It
presents immense fulness and luxuriance: it spreads widely, with but
little upward development, rising on the average only a few feet above
the earth. Trees, shrubs, and tendrils, in endless complication of
color, entwine together, sometimes fostering, sometimes crushing each
other. Out of the remains of the dead arises a new generation, with an
increase of vital impulse. It seems as though the ice-crowned Andes
looked down with envy on the luxuriant vegetation of the forests, and
sought to blight it by sending down cold, nightly winds. The low
temperature of the night counteracts that extreme development which
the humidity of the soil and the great heat of the day promote. But
what the vegetation loses in upward growth it gains in superficial
extension, and thereby it secures more protection against the
ever-alternating temperature.

The further we descend the eastern declivity, the more difficult becomes
the way. During the rainy season deep fissures are worked out by the
flow of waters; the ground is slippery and full of holes. The sides of
these hollow passes are often so close together that the rider cannot
keep his legs down on each side of his mule, and is obliged to raise up
his feet and thrust them forward. When beasts of burthen, coming in
opposite directions, meet in these places, the direst confusion ensues,
and frequently sanguinary conflicts arise among the Indians. The weaker
party are then obliged to unload their mules, and the poor beasts are
dragged backward by their hind legs, until they reach a point at which
there is sufficient space for the others to pass. When I was proceeding
through one of these cavities on Christmas-eve, 1840, I encoun