NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 197 



the Apure and the Payara, are inhabited by Yaruros and 

 Achaguas, who are called savages in the mission-villages 

 established by the monks, because they will not relinquish 

 their independence. In reference to social culture, they 

 however occupy about the same scale as those Indians, who, 

 although baptized and living "under the bell" (baxo la cam- 

 panct), have remained strangers to every form of instruction 

 and cultivation. 



On leaving the Island del Diamante, where the Zambos, 

 who speak Spanish, cultivate the sugar-cane, we entered into 

 a grand and wild domain of nature. The air was filled with 

 countless flamingoes {Phcenicopterus) and other water-fowl, 

 which seemed to stand forth from the blue sky like a dark 

 cloud in ever- varying outlines. The bed of the river had here 

 contracted to less than 1000 feet, and formed a perfectly 

 straight canal, which was inclosed on both sides by thick 

 woods. The margin of the forest presents a singular spectacle. 

 In front of the almost impenetrable wall of colossal trunks of 

 Csesalpinia, Cedrela, and Desmanthus, there rises with the 

 greatest regularity on the sandy bank of the river, a low 

 hedge of Sauso, only four feet high; it consists of a small 

 shrub, Hermesia castanifolia, which forms a new genus (4) of 

 the family of Euphorbiacese. A few slender, thorny palms, 

 called by the Spaniards Piritu and Corozo (perhaps species 

 of Mariinezia or Bactris) stand close alongside ; the whole 

 resembling a trimmed garden hedge, with gate-like openings 

 at considerable distances from each other, formed undoubtedly 

 by the large four-footed animals of the forests, for convenient 

 ' access to the river. At sunset, and more particularly at 

 break of day, the American Tiger, the Tapir, and the 

 Peccary (Pecari, Dicotyles) may be seen coming forth from 

 these openings accompanied by their young, to give them 

 drink. When they are disturbed by a passing Indian canoe, 

 and are about to retreat into the forest, they do not attempt 

 to rush violently through these hedges of Sauso, but proceed 



