: I then told the child that all reptiles of this kind
change their skin twice a year, and they get out of it as if from a
sheath.

We continued our descent, and l'Encuerado, who had taken the lead,
suddenly turned back to us with his head covered with an immense
vegetable helmet. I at once recognized it to be the flower of a plant I
had met with in the neighboring mountains. Nothing could be more
splendid than this blossom, which, before it is full-blown, looks like a
duck sitting on the water. In a single morning the enormous corolla
opens out and changes into a form resembling a helmet surmounted by a
crest; the interior of it, lined with yellow velvet, almost dazzles the
eyes. The seed of this creeper, the Indian name of which I forget, is
flat, and of a heart-like shape, having depicted on one of its faces a
Maltese cross.

[Illustration: The Cataract.]

Even Sumichrast for a moment forgot his injuries while examining this
wonderful flower, and Lucien, finding a second, very soon covered his
head with it; but the poisonous and penetrating odor exhaled from the
corolla made him feel sick, so he soon relinquished this novel
head-dress.

A few more steps brought us to the bottom of the ravine, and Sumichrast
and l'Encuerado set to work to bathe their stings in the cool water;
while I and Lucien sat down together on a rock, washed on one side by
the stream, and leisurely contemplated the beautiful scene before us.

In front of us was situated an immense mountain, cleft open as if by the
hand of some giant, the sides of which were clad with a carpet of
verdure of a thousand different shades. At the bottom, as if for the
purpose of stopping up the immense fissure, there was an enormous
accumulation of gray and dark-tinted rocks, between which appeared,
every here and there, the foliage of some tree, enamelled with flowers.
From the midst of the mountain, as if from some invisible cavern, sprung
out a large sheet of transparent water, which, although calm and almost
motionless in appearance, descended in one fall to a rock which
projected in the cataract, like the prow of a ship. As if rendered
furious by the shock, and seeming to revel in the uproar, the water,
converted into foam, bounded over the obstacle, and fell in two columns,
separated by the black point of crag; then, springing with impetuous
speed, from step to step, down a gigantic staircase, it entered a
receptacle hollowed out like a shell, which receiv