370 Natural History in Foreign Countries, 



{New York Med, and Phys. Journal, vol. ii. p. 210.) — J. M. Philadelphia, 

 May 1.3. 1829. 



A Den of Rattlesnakes. — An emigrant family inadvertently fixed their 

 cabin on the shelving declivity of a ledge, that proved a den of rattlesnakes. 

 Warmed by the first fire on the hearth of the cabin, the terrible reptiles 

 issued in numbers, and, of course, in rage, by night, into the room where 

 the whole family slept. As happens in those cases, some slept on the floor, 

 and some in beds. The reptiles spread in every part of the room, and 

 mounted on every bed. Children were stung in the arms of their parents, 

 and in each other's arms. Imagination dares not dwell on the horrors of 

 such a scene. Most of the family were bitten to death ; and those who 

 escaped, finding the whole cabin occupied by these horrid tenants, hissing, 

 and shaking their rattles, fled from the house by beating off' the covering of 

 the roof, and escaping in that direction. {Flint's Geography and History of 

 the United States, vol. i. p. 115.) 



The Mammoth Cave, in Warren County, Kentucky, is a cavern in lime- 

 stone, which has been explored by gentlemen of science for the astonishing 

 distance of ten miles, without finding the end. {Amer. Quart. Rev., March, 

 1829.) 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



The Birds of Demerara are surpassed by those of no country in the 

 world. Almost every one of those singular and elegant birds, described by 

 Buffon as belonging to Cayenne, are here to be met with, but only by an 

 indefatigable naturalist. {Waterton.) 



Migration of Butterflies. — On the coast of Brazil, for many days in 

 March, a great number of white and yellow butterflies take their flight from 

 the north-west to the south-east. They are never observed to alight in 

 their course, and are not impeded by forts or other extensive buildings 

 crossing their path. As the sea is in the direction towards which they fly, 

 it is probable they perish there. {Lindley's Brazil.) 



The Electric Eel. — That most singular animal, the electric eel (Gymno- 

 tus electricus), abounds in the river Orinoco in South America, and is 

 caught, as we are informed by recent travellers, by driving a number of wild 

 horses into the pools which they frequent. They exert their benumbing 

 powers on the horses till exhausted, when they may be taken without dan- 

 ger. {Bulletin des Sciences Nat.) 



Coalfields hi Peru. — M. Mariano de Rivero, director-general of the mines 

 belonging to the Republic of Peru,is employed in drawing up a memoir on the 

 coal fields of his district, which promises to be of considerable interest. Near 

 to Cerro, he informs us, from four to ten leagues, there are numerous beds 

 of fossil charcoal, of which the chief deposits near Raucas are of very good 

 quality, and are situated on the slope of a hilly ridge several leagues in 

 extent. The principal bed lies north and south between strata of fine sand- 

 stone. He has found in these coal fields a considerable quantity of yellow 

 amber, but he could not discover any impressions of the organic remains of 

 plants and animals. The coal is used for heating steam-engines, &c. {An- 

 nales des Scien. Nat. for March.) 



The Cordilleras. — The great mountain chain of the Andes is divided, be- 

 tween the 14° and 20° of south latitude, into two longitudinal ranges, called 

 by the Creoles Cordilleras. These ranges are separated by an inter-alpine 

 longitudinal valley, the lowest part of which is about 12,000 or 13,000 ft. 

 English above the level of the Pacific. At the northern extremity of this 

 valley is situated the celebrated Lake Titicaca, upon whose banks the 

 empire of the Incas originated. The western Cordillera lies between the 

 Pacific Ocean and the Valley of Desaguadero, appropriately named the 

 Tartary of the New World ; and here are situated many volcanoes in a stated 



