THE GREAT CAVERN OF GUACHARO in south america.

Abridged from the interesting Narrative of Humbolt, vol. iii.

The Cueva del Guacharo is pierced in the vertical profile of a rock.

The entrance is toward the south, and forms a vault eighty feet broad, and seventy-two feet high.

The rock, that surmounts the grotto, is covered with trees of gigantic height.

The mammee-tree, and the genipa with large and shining leaves, raise their branches vertically toward the sky; while those of the courbaril and the erythrina form, as they extend themselves, a thick vault of verdure.

Plants of the family of Pothos with succulent stems, oxalises, and orchideæ of a singular structure, rise in the driest clefts of the rocks; while creeping plants, waving in the winds, are interwoven in festoons before the opening of the cavern.

We distinguished in these festoons a bignonia of a violet blue, the purple dolichos, and for the first time that magnificent olandra, the orange flower of which has a fleshy tube more than four inches long.

The entrances of grottoes, like the view of cascades, derive their principal charm from the situation, more or less majestic, in which they are placed, and which in some sort determines the character of the landscape.

What a contrast between the Cueva of Caripe, and those caverns of the North crowned with oaks and gloomy larch trees!

But this luxury of vegetation embellishes not only the outside of the vaults, it appears even in the vestibule of the grotto.

We saw with astonishment plaintain-leaved heliconias eighteen feet high, the praga palm-tree, and arborescent arums, follow the banks of the river even to these subterranean places.

The vegetation continues in the cave of Caripe, as in those deep crevices of the Andes, half excluded from the light of day; and does not disappear, till, advancing in the interior, we reach thirty or forty paces from the entrance.

We measured the way by means of a cord; and we went on about four hundred and thirty feet, without being obliged to light our torches.

Daylight penetrates into this region, because the grotto forms but one channel, which keeps the same direction from south-east to north-west.

Where the light begins to fail, we heard from afar the hoarse sounds of the nocturnal birds, sounds which the natives think belong exclusively to those subterraneous places.

The guacharo is the size of our fowls, has the mouth of the goatsuckers and procnias, and the port of those vultures, the crooked beak of which is surrounded with stiff silky hairs.

It is difficult to form an idea of the horrible noise occasioned by thousands of these birds in the dark part of the cavern, and which can only be compared to the croaking of our crows, which, in the pine forests of the north, live in society, and construct their nests upon trees, the tops of which touch each other.

The shrill and piercing cries of the guacharos strike upon the vaults of the rocks, and are repeated by the echo in the depth of the cavern.

The Indians shewed us the nests of these birds, by fixing torches to the end of a long pole.

These nests were fifty or sixty feet high above our heads, in holes in the shape of funnels, with which the roof of the grotto is pierced like a sieve.

The noise increased as we advanced, and the birds were affrighted by the light of the torches of copal.

When this noise ceased around us, we heard at a distance the plaintive cries of the birds roosting in other ramifications of the cavern.

The Indians enter into the Cueva del Guacharo once a-year, near midsummer, armed with poles, by means of which they destroy the greater part of the nests.

At this season several thousands of birds are killed; and the old ones to defend their brood, hover around the heads of the savage Indians, uttering terrible cries, which would appal any heart but that of man in an untutored state.

We followed, as we continued our progress through the cavern, the bank of the small river which issued from it, and is from twenty-eight to thirty feet wide.

We walked on the banks, as far as the hills formed of calcareous incrustations permitted us.

Where the torrent winds among very high masses of stalactites, we were often obliged to descend into its bed, which is only two feet in depth.

We learnt, with surprise, that this subterraneous rivulet is the origin of the river Caripe, which, at a few leagues distance, after having joined the smaller river of Santa Maria, is navigable for canoes.

It enters into the river Areo under the name of Canno de Terezen.

We found on the banks of the subterraneous rivulet a great quantity of palm-tree wood, the remains of trunks, on which the Indians climb to reach the nests hanging to the roofs of the cavern.

The rings formed by the vestiges of the old foot-stalks of the leaves, furnished as it were the footsteps of a ladder perpendicularly placed.

The Grotto of Caripe preserves the same direction, the same breadth, and its primitive height of sixty or seventy feet, to the distance of 1,458 feet, accurately measured.

I have never seen a cavern in either continent, of so uniform and regular a construction.

We had great difficulty in persuading the Indians to pass beyond the outer part of the grotto, the only part which they annually visit to collect the fat.

The whole authority of los padres was necessary, to induce them to proceed as far as the spot where the soil rises abruptly at an inclination of sixty degrees, and where the torrent forms a small subterraneous cascade.

The natives connect mystic ideas with this cave, inhabited with nocturnal birds; they believe, that the souls of their ancestors sojourn in the deep recesses of the cavern.

“Man,” say they, “should avoid places which are enlightened neither by the Sun nor by the Moon.”

At the point where the river forms the subterraneous cascade, a hill covered with vegetation, which is opposite the opening of the grotto, presents itself in a very picturesque manner.

It appears at the extremity of a straight passage, 240 toises in length.

The stalactites, which descend from the vault, and which resemble columns suspended in the air, display themselves on a background of verdure.

The opening of this cavern appeared singularly contracted, when we saw it about the middle of the day, illumined by the vivid light reflected at once from the sky, the plants, and the rocks.

The distant light of day formed somewhat of magical contrast with the darkness that surrounded us in those vast caverns.

We climbed, not without some difficulty, the small hill, whence the subterraneous rivulet descends.

We saw that the grotto was perceptibly contracted, retaining only forty feet in height; and that it continued stretching to the north-east, without deviating from its primitive direction, which is parallel to that of the great valley of Caripe.

The missionaries, with all their authority, could not induce the Indians to penetrate farther into the cavern.

As the vaults grow lower, the cries of the guacharoes become more shrill.

We were obliged to yield to the pusillanimity of our guides, and retrace our steps.

We followed the course of the torrent to go out of the cavern.

Before our eyes were dazzled with the light of day, we saw, outside the grotto, the water of the river sparkling amid the foliage of the trees that concealed it.

Having at length reached the entrance, and seated ourselves on the bank of the rivulet, we rested after our fatigues.

We were glad to be beyond the hoarse cries of the birds, and to leave a place where darkness does not offer even the charm of silence and tranquillity.