d
of pasturage, swim for hours about the inundated plain, seeking a scanty
nourishment from the flowing panicles of the grasses which rise above
the lurid and bubbling waters. Many foals are drowned, many are seized
by crocodiles, crushed by their serrated tails, and devoured. Horses and
oxen may not unfrequently be seen which have escaped from the fury of
this blood-thirsty and gigantic lizard, bearing on their legs the marks
of its pointed teeth.

[A widely different scene is that of the forest region, the
nocturnal noises of whose animal inhabitants are thus
picturesquely described.]

Below the mission of Santa Barbara de Arichuna we passed the night
as usual in the open air, on a sandy flat, on the bank of the Apure,
skirted by the impenetrable forest. We had some difficulty in finding
dry wood to kindle the fires with which it is here customary to surround
the bivouac, as a safeguard against the attacks of the jaguar. The air
was bland and soft and the moon shone brightly. Several crocodiles
approached the bank; and I have observed that fire attracts these
creatures as it does our crabs and many other aquatic animals. The oars
of our boats were fixed upright in the ground, to support our hammocks.
Deep stillness prevailed, only broken at intervals by the blowing of the
fresh-water dolphins, which are peculiar to the river net-work of the
Orinoco.

After eleven o'clock such a noise began in the contiguous forest, that
for the remainder of the night all sleep was impossible. The wild cries
of animals rung through the woods. Among the many voices which resounded
together, the Indians could only recognize those which, after short
pauses, were heard singly. There was the monotonous, plaintive cry
of the howling monkeys, the whining, flute-like notes of the small
sapajous, the grunting murmur of the striped nocturnal ape, the fitful
roar of the great tiger, the cougar, or maneless American lion, the
peccary, the sloth, and a host of parrots, parraquas, and other
pheasant-like birds. Whenever the tigers approached the edge of the
forest, our dog, who before had barked incessantly, came howling to seek
protection under the hammocks. Sometimes the cry of the tiger resounded
from the branches of a tree, and was always then accompanied by the
plaintive, piping tones of the apes, who were endeavoring to escape from
the unwonted pursuit.

If one asks the Indians why such a continuous noise is heard on certai