NOCTURNAL LIFE IN THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS.

WE passed the night as usual, under the open sky, on a sandy flat on the bank of the Rio Apure, closely bordered by the impenetrable forest. It was not without difficulty that we succeeded in finding dry wood to kindle the fire with which it is always customary in that country to surround a bivouac in order to guard against the attacks of the jaguar.

The oars of our boat were placed upright and carefully driven into the ground, to form poles from which our hammocks could be suspended. Deep stillness prevailed; only from time to time we heard the blowings of the fresh water dolphins, peculiar to the Orinoco net-work of rivers.

Soon after eleven o'clock such a disturbance began to be heard in the adjoining forest, that for the remainder of the night all sleep was impossible. The wild cries of animals appeared to rage throughout the forest. Among the many voices which resounded together, the Indians could only recognise those which, after short pauses in general uproar, were first heard singly. There was the monotonous howling of the howling monkeys; the plaintive, soft, and almost flute-like tones of the small sapajous*; the snorting grumblings of the striped nocturnal monkey; the interrupted cries of the great tiger, the cuguar or maneless American lion, the peccary †, the sloth, and a host of parrots, of parraquas, and other pheasant-like birds. When the tigers came near the edge of the forest, our dog, which had before barked incessantly, came howling to seek refuge under our hammocks. Sometimes the cry of the tiger was heard to proceed from amidst the high branches of a tree, and was in

*Sapajou, species of monkey, of which the "Weeper" is the best

known.

† Peccary, a mammal allied to the hog.

such case always accompanied by the plaintive piping of the monkeys, who were seeking to escape from the unwonted pursuit.

If one asks the Indians why this incessant noise and disturbance arises on particular nights, they answer with a smile, that "the animals are rejoicing in the bright moonlight, and keeping the feast of the full moon." To me it appeared that the scene had probably originated in some accidental combat, and that hence the disturbance had spread to other animals, and thus the noise had increased more and more. The jaguar pursues the peccaries and tapirs, and these, pressing against each other in their flight, break through the interwoven tree-like shrubs which impede their escape; the apes on the tops of the trees, being frightened by the crash, join their cries to those of the larger animals; this arouses the tribes of birds who build their nests in communities, and thus the whole animal world becomes in a state of commotion.

Longer experience taught us that it is by no means always the celebration of the brightness of the moon which disturbs the repose of the woods. We witnessed the same occurrence repeatedly, and found that the voices were loudest during violent falls of rain, or when, with loud peals of thunder, the flashing lightning illuminated the deep recesses of the forest. A good-natured Franciscan monk used to say, when fearful on the closing in of night that there might be a thunder-storm, "May Heaven grant a quiet night both to us and the wild beasts of the forest!"

Humboldt.

CAPTURE OF A CAYMAN.*

THE Indian had made his instrument to take the cayman. It was very simple. There were four pieces of tough hard wood, a foot long and about as thick as your little finger, and barbed at both ends; they were tied round the end of the rope in such a manner that, if you conceive the rope to be an arrow, these four sticks would form the arrow's head; so that one end of the four united sticks answered to the point of the arrow-head, while the other end of the sticks expanded at equal distances round the rope. Now it is evident, that if the cayman swallowed this (the other end of the rope, which was thirty yards long, being fastened to a tree), the more he pulled the faster the barbs would stick into his stomach. The wooden hook, if you may so call it, was well baited with the flesh of the peccary, and the entrails were twisted round the rope for about a foot above it.

Nearly a mile from where we had our hammocks, the sand-bank was steep and abrupt, and the river very still and deep. There the Indian pricked a stick into the sand; it was two feet long, and on its extremity was fixed the machine; it hung suspended about a foot from the water, and the end of the rope was made fast to a stake driven well into the sand.

The Indian then took the empty shell of a land tortoise, and gave it some heavy blows with an axe. I asked why he did that. He said it was to let the cayman hear that something was going on. In fact, the Indian meant it as the cayman's dinner bell.

Having done this, we went back to the hammocks, not intending to visit it again till morning. During the night the jaguars roared and grumbled in the forest, as though the

* Cayman, a name popularly applied to the alligator. It is a species of crocodile.

being tied round the end of the mast), and dropt down upon one knee, about four yards from the water's edge, determining to thrust it down his throat in case he gave me an opportunity. I certainly felt somewhat uncomfortable in this situation, and I thought of Cerberus * on the other side of the Styx† ferry. The people pulled the cayman to thẻ surface; he plunged furiously as soon as he arrived in these upper regions, and immediately went below again on their slackening the rope. I saw enough not to fall in love at first sight. I now told them we would run all risks, and have him on land immediately. They pulled again, and out he came. This was an interesting moment. I kept my position firmly, with my eye fixed steadfastly on him. By this time the cayman was within two yards of me. saw he was in a state of fear and perturbation: I instantly dropped the mast, sprung up, and jumped on his back, turning half round as I vaulted, so that I gained my seat with my face in a right position. I immediately seized his fore legs, and, by main force, twisted them on his back, and thus they served me for a bridle.

I

He now seemed to have recovered from his surprise, and probably fancying himself in hostile company, he began to plunge furiously, and lashed the sand with his long and powerful tail. I was out of reach of the strokes of it by being near his head. He continued to plunge and strike, and made my seat very uncomfortable.

The people roared out in triumph, and were so vociferous that it was some time before they heard me tell them to pull me and my beast of burden farther in land. I was apprehensive the rope might break, and then there would have been every chance of going down to the regions under water with the cayman. Such a catastrophe, however, was soon no doubt greatly to the Waterton.

out of the reach of possibility chagrin of the vanquished animal.

*Cerberus, the watch-dog of Pluto.

Styx, the river which separated the infernal regions from the other world.

ASPECTS OF AMERICAN STEPPES.

WHEN, under the vertical rays of the never-clouded sun, the carbonised turfy covering falls into dust, the indurated soil cracks asunder as if from the shock of an earthquake.

If at such times two opposing currents of air, whose conflict produces a rotatory motion, come in contact with the soil, the plain assumes a strange and singular aspect. Like conical-shaped clouds, the points of which descend to the earth, the sand rises through the rarefied air in the electrically charged centre of the whirling current; resembling the loud waterspout dreaded by the experienced mariner. The lowering sky sheds a dim, almost straw-colored light on the desolate plain. The horizon draws suddenly nearer; the steppe seems to contract, and the heat becomes almost unbearable. The hot, dusty particles which fill the air increase its suffocating heat, and the east wind, blowing over the long-heated soil, brings with it no refreshment, but rather a still more burning glow. The pools which the yellow fading branches of the fan-palm had protected from evaporation now gradually disappear. As in the icy north the animals become torpid with cold, so here, under the influence of the parching drought, the crocodile and the boa become motionless and fall asleep, deeply buried in the dry mud. Everywhere the death-threatening drought prevails, and yet, by the play of the refracted rays of light producing the phenomenon of the mirage, the thirsty traveller is everywhere pursued by the illusive image of a cool, rippling, watery mirror. The distant palm-bush, apparently raised by the influence of the contact of unequally dense strata of air, hovers above the ground, from which it is separated by a narrow intervening margin. Half-concealed by the dark clouds of dust, restless with the pain of thirst and hunger, the horses and cattle roam here and there, the cattle lowing

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