Natural Historij in Foreign Countries, 391 



eleven to three, all nature is hushed, as in a midnight silence, and scarce a 

 note is heard, save that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo ; it is then 

 that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade, and 

 wait for the refreshing cool of evening. At sundown, the vampires, batSj 

 and goatsuckers, dart from their lonely retreat, and skim along the'tKees on 

 the river's bank. The different kinds of frogs almost stun the e^r with their 

 hoarse and hollow-sounding croaking, while the owls and goatsuckers lament 

 and mourn all night long. About two hours before daybreak, you will 

 hear the red monkey mourning, as though in deep distress ; the houtou, a 

 solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, .distinctly 

 articulates houtou, houtou, in a low and plaintive tone, an hour before sun- 

 rise ; the maam whistles about the same hour ; the hannaquoi, pataca, and 

 niaroudi announce his near approach to the eastern horizon, and the par^ 

 rots and paroquets confirm his arrival there. The crickets chirp from sun- 

 set to sunrise, and often during the day, when the weather is cloudy. The 

 beterouge is exceedingly numerous in these extensive wilds ; and not only 

 man, but beasts and birds, are tormented by it. Musquittoes are very rare 

 after you pass the third island in the Demerara, and sand-flies but seldom 

 appear." (Waterton.) 



; - SOUTH AMERICA. ' 



Lizards, — The colonists ^re particularly fond of the flesh of a very large 

 ' sort of lizard, which is every where common in the shrubberies near the sea, 

 where it lives upon crabs, and other animals cast up by the tide. The 

 Monitor (JLac^rta Teguikin Linn.) is tolerably well figured in Seba (t. ii. 

 -pi. 105., fig. 1.), but erroneously, by him, made a native of Java. It is the 

 object of an active chase on the part of the Brazilians, who employ, to take 

 it, lines of brass wire, and hooks baited with a piece of meat. The voracity 

 of this lizard is so great, that such an apparatus serves to take a great num- 

 ber, every day, in spite of their shyness and agility. (Ann. des Sciences Nat.) 



Pearls. — The discovery of pearls in the province of Goyaz in Brazil, is 

 due to the president, M. Lopez Gama, who caused researches to be made 

 among the shells which abound in the salt-water lakes. He has found four 

 perfect pearls, one large and three smaller. They are all finely rounded 

 and polished. It is not said in what species of shells the pearls have been 

 found. {Diario Fluminense, October.) 



Delta of the Oroonoko and the Maragnon. — The whole coast of Guiana 

 abounds in banks of mud, which are daily increasing, and causing the land 

 -to encroach upon the sea. This process is greatly aided by the tangled 

 ■roots of the Rhizophora Mangle, which extend to the very edge of the 

 waves, and even under the water. The rivers supply only a portion of the 

 detritus, for the sea itself is muddy to the extent of 200 geographical miles 

 by 10 in breadth, along the shore ; whereas the rivers are quite limpid. That 

 the Maragnon, however, contributes a considerable portion of alluvial mat- 

 ter is probable, when we consider its extended course of 1350 miles, and its 

 immense breadth of fifty miles at its embouchure, while its depth is very 

 great. During the rainy season, and the melting of the snows on the Andes, 

 its inundations exhibit an immense sea of water, charged with earthy de- 

 tritus and vegetable remains. The current is then so strong, that it is per- 

 ceptible at 60 miles from the coast, and this, being opposed by the usual 

 current of the Atlantic, from east to west, gives origin to vast banks of sand 

 towards the shores of Brazil, on the north-west of Guiana. One of the cir- 

 cumstances which contribute so powerfully to this eflfect, is the jyororoca, 

 -or high flux, which occurs at the mouth of the Maragnon three days before 

 every new and every full moon. It arrives in two hours at the beach, in 

 mountainous waves of 12 to 15 ft. higl;i. The sea is then driven more vio- 

 lently towards the north-west ; and, albng the coast of Guiana, forms very 



