thousands are
said to perish when the river Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco, is
swollen, before they have time to reach the rising ground of the Llanos.
The mares, during the season of high water, may be seen, followed by
their colts, swimming about and feeding on the grass, of which the top
alone waves above the waters. In this state they are pursued by
crocodiles; and their thighs frequently bear the prints of the teeth of
these carnivorous reptiles. "Such is the pliability," observes the
celebrated traveller, "of the organization of the animals which man has
subjected to his sway, that horses, cows, and other species of European
origin, lead, for a time, an amphibious life, surrounded by crocodiles,
water-serpents, and manatees. When the rivers return again into their
beds, they roam in the savannah, which is then spread over with a fine
odoriferous grass, and enjoy, as in their native climate, the renewed
vegetation of spring."[1072]

_Floods of the Parana._--The great number of animals which are drowned
in seasons of drought in the tributaries of the Plata, was before
mentioned. Sir W. Parish states, that the Parana, flowing from the
mountains of Brazil to the estuary of the Plata, is liable to great
floods, and during one of these, in the year 1812, vast quantities of
cattle were carried away, "and when the waters began to subside, and the
islands which they had covered became again visible, the whole
atmosphere for a time was poisoned by the effluvia from the innumerable
carcasses of skunks, capybaras, tigers, and other wild beasts which had
been drowned."[1073]

_Floods of the Ganges._--We find it continually stated, by those who
describe the Ganges and Burrampooter, that these rivers carry before
them, during the flood season, not only floats of reeds and timber, but
dead bodies of men, deer, and oxen.[1074]

_In Java, 1699._--I have already referred to the effects of a flood
which attended an earthquake in Java in 1699, when the turbid waters of
the Batavian river destroyed all the fish except the carp; and when
drowned buffaloes, tigers, rhinoceroses, deer, apes, and other wild
beasts, were brought down to the sea-coast by the current, with several
crocodiles which had been stifled in the mud. (See above, p. 503.)

On the western side of the same island, in the territory of Galongoon,
in the Regencies, a more recent volcanic eruption (that of 1822, before
described) (see above, p. 431) was attended by