with the Praga palm-tree, plaintain-leaved heliconias, eighteen feet high, and arums that resembled trees in their size!

It was not found necessary to light their torches till they had reached the distance of 430 feet, owing to the continuous direction of the cavern, which allows the light of day to penetrate thus far; and when this began to fail, the hoarse cries of the nocturnal birds, whence the place derives its name and celebrity, began to be audible from a distance. The Guacharo is about the size of a common fowl, and resembles in form the vulture tribe, with a beak surrounded by stiff hairs; its plumage is of a dark blueish gray, mixed with small streaks of black; white large heart-shaped spots, bordered with black, mark the head, wings and tail; it is strictly a nocturnal bird, and is almost the only one which does not prey on animals, its food being fruits. The shrill, discordant noise made by thousands of these birds, brought from the inmost recesses of the cave, and reverberated from the arched roofs, form a clamour of which it is impossible to form an idea. Their Indian guides, by fixing torches to the ends of long poles, showed the travellers the nests of the bird, which were constructed in funnel-shaped holes, with which the roof of the grotto was pierced in all directions, and generally at about sixty feet above their heads.

There is an annual destruction of these birds by the Indians, who obtain from their young an oil much used in that country. They bring down their nests by means of long poles, and many thousands of the old birds are killed while endeavouring to defend their helpless progeny; they keep hovering over the heads of their enemies uttering the most discordant cries. The young that fall with the nests are immediately opened, and a thick layer of fat that is found in their intestines is melted down in pots of clay, and is known by the name of guacharo butter (Manteca or Aceite) it is half liquid, transparent, without smell, and may be kept a year without becoming rancid, and, according to the Baron who ate it at the convent, where no other oil is used, it

imparts no disagreeable taste or smell to the food dressed with it. The habits of the bird, excluded from daylight, using little exercise, and feeding on vegetable food, account for the production of this quantity of fat in a manner analogous to that in which geese and oxen are known to become large by similar modes of treatment; the quantity of this oil obtained, bears but a small proportion to the carnage thus made annually by the hunters; they do not obtain more than 150 or 160 bottles, of about sixty cubic inches each, of pure manteca; the rest, which is less transparent, is kept in earthen vessels.

There are two causes why this destruction of the birds at the oil-harvest, as it is termed, have not extirpated the race; one is that the Indians are prevented by superstition from penetrating very far into the interior of the cavern, and the other that neighbouring caverns too small to be penetrated by man, afford a place of security to them to breed and multiply in; at least it appears that no perceptible diminution of their numbers has been observed.

The travellers in continuing to explore the cave, followed the banks of the stream which issues from it, and is from twenty to thirty feet wide; they pursued this course as far as the hills formed of the calcareous depositions admitted. When the torrent wound among high masses of stalactites, they were often obliged to descend into the bed of the stream, which is only about two feet in depth; on its banks they observed great quantities of palm-tree wood, the remains of trunks the Indians made use of to climb to the nests which they could not otherwise get down.

Still pursuing the course of the river, the cavern preserving the same width and height to the distance of 1458 feet from the mouth; the travellers on turning round, were struck with the singularly beautiful appearance which a hill covered with the richest vegetation, immediately fronting the entrance of the grotto, presented; this, brilliantly illuminated by the sun's rays and seen through the vista of the dark cave, formed a

striking contrast to the surrounding obscurity; while the large stalactites depending from the roof were relieved against the luminous back ground of verdure. After surmounting, with some difficulty, an abrupt rise in the ground where the stream forms a small cascade, they found that the cave diminished in height to forty feet, but retained its original direction: here a blackish mould was found, either brought by the rivulet, or washed down from the roof by the rain-water which penetrates the crevices of the rock; and in this, to the delight of the travellers, they found seeds growing, which had been brought thus far into the cave by the birds, but so altered by the deprivation of light, that they could not even recognise the species of plant thus produced under such unfavourable circumstances. It was found impossible to persuade the Indian guides to advance further; the cries of the birds, rendered still more horrible by the contraction of the cave, had such an effect on their minds, that they absolutely refused to proceed; and to the regret of Humboldt and his friend they were compelled to retrace their steps.

THE SUN.

"Great source of day! best image here below
Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,

From world to world, the vital ocean round,
On nature write with every beam His praise."

The sun is, indeed, a most glorious luminary, and is without doubt, the most perfect image of his great Creator that we can behold among inanimate beings; and indeed so nigh in one respect does he resemble his Maker, that of the Sun it may be said, that he also is

"Too glorious to be gazed on in its sphere."

It is no wonder, then that the fallen reason of idolatrous nations "should mistake so fair a copy for the adorable original," and that philosophers should be divided so much in their opinions respecting his substance. In one thing, however, even from the imperfect glance we

have been able to procure of this glorious body, it is found to differ from, and to fall infinitely shorter of its Creator, for the sun has its spots, while HE who made the Sun, is

"Light itself,

Pure, spotless, uncreated light, ineffable."

According to Dr. Gregory," the sun is very generally considered as composed of the matter of light and heat whether these are to be regarded essentially the same or not ;" but he is careful how he expresses himself even in this cautious manner of declaring his sentiments for he adds, "perhaps it will be speaking more correctly, to say, that he is the source of both, and that he both warms and enlightens the bodies that surround him." The sun is indeed the great fountain of light and heat, and it is amazing to think with what rapidity of motion he sends forth his rays to illumine and cherish the world for so great is the distance of this bright body from us, that, were the motion of light no swifter than a cannon ball, it would take, according to the computation of philosophers, thirty-two years in arriving at the earth; and were it no swifter than sound, it would take upwards of seventeen years; but light flies with such incredible velocity that it arrives at the earth in about seven or eight minutes, being at the rate of no less than 200,000 English miles in a second of time. By this means the inconvenience that would result from a slower

progress of light is obviated, and the kindly effects of this inestimable and indispensable blessing are conveyed to us in an instant.

The rays of the sun are not sparingly dispensed, nor come to us from a nigardly hand. The rays of light are copiously diffused, and in sufficient abundance to chase away the most minute vestige of the shades of night. The extension of light is a most valuable property of that great and invaluable blessing, for it is by it that we are enabled to see bodies at a distance during the day, and by the same operating cause, the mariner during the hours of darkness, observes the fiery beacon glimmering from afar.

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The heat of the sun is also most potent in its operations. With ease it penetrates into the bowels of the earth, and finds its way into the most secret recesses of nature; so that in the expressive language of Scripture, "there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." But, indeed, what could possibly exist without it? The Sun may be truly styled the grand enlivening principle of the universe; without his influence the crimson tide behoved to stagnate in the veins of animated beings; "the trees could never break forth into leaves, nor plants spring up into flowers;" we would no more behold the meadows mantled over with green, nor the valleys standing thick with corn; or, to speak in the beautiful language of the prophet, "no longer would the fig-tree blossom, nor fruit be in the vine; the labour of the olive would fail and the fields could yield no meat; the flocks must be cut off from the fold, and there would be no herd in the stall." It penetrates the beds of metal, and finds its way to the place of sapphires. In short, the beneficial agency of this magnificent luminary is inexpressible.

The sun is also the fountain of cheerfulness. While all nature is enlightened by his presence, it is also cheered by its gifts. "Truly (says Solomon) the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." And the author of "The Spectator" has well observed, that the sun has a particular influence on the mind of man and making the heart glad, for a proof of which he refers us to a consideration of the natural world, when this luminous globe withdraws his rays for a few moments by an eclipse.

The human mind delights in variety, and one great cause that produces cheerfulness in the heart of man, as he walks abroad and contemplates the face of nature, is no doubt that diversity of light and shade, of colour and hue, that in every direction salutes his eye. In this respect, also, the sun may be said to be the fountain of cheerfulness, as it is certainly the cause of color! The sun is the great limner of nature, whose beautifying rays paint.creation. "The blushing beauties of the rose,