154 EARLY TRAVELLING.

they had lost their way, perplexed him, and we found
it difficult to inspire him with confidence. At length
he consented to guide us to the farm of the Cayman,
but without slackening the gentle trot of his horse.”

In order to escape the burning heat of the day,
Humboldt determined to start next morning at
two A.M., in the hope of reaching Calabozo, a small
town situate in the midst of the Llanos. ‘ The
aspect of the country was the same. ‘There was no
moonlight ; but the great masses of nebule that
decorated the southern sky, enlightened, as they
set, a part of the terrestrial horizon. The solemn
spectacle of the starry vault, which displayed itself
in its immense extent; the cool breeze that blew
over the plain during the night; the waving mo-
tion of the grass wherever it had attained any
height—everything recalled to mind the surface of
the ocean. ‘The illusion, above all, augments when
the disk of the sun shows itself at the horizon, re-
peating its image by the effects of refraction, and
soon, losing its flattened form, ascends rapidly and
straight towards the zenith.

In proportion as the sun rose higher, and the
earth and the strata of superincumbent air took
different temperatures, the phenomenon of mirage
displayed itself, with its numerous modifications.
This phenomenon, the most anciently obscrved,
has received in Sanscrit the expressive name of