ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



935 



midst of these aquatic scenes lives, 

 in peace and liberty, the nation of 

 the Quaranis, on the tops of the 

 maritia, or palm-trees with fantail- 

 ed leaves, in hammocks formed of 

 the fibres of the leaves plaited and 

 overlaid with clay. In these frail 

 fabrics do the women light their 

 fires and dress their vegetable food. 

 The tree on which each family is 

 suspended, furnishes it with the 

 whole of its food. The pith of the 

 maritia, which resembles sago, and 

 its shelled fruit, furnishes this sin- 

 gular people, according to their res- 

 pecliveages, with nourishmentboth 

 salubrious and pleasant. The wine 

 of the palm is refreshing drink, and 

 can even produce that state of ine- 

 briation which constitutes the su- 

 preme happinessofthesavage. But 

 although the members of this aerial 

 republic enjoy a constancy of un- 

 disturbed repose, this is by no means 

 the case with other savage tribes. 

 Agitated by the most malignant 

 passions, they are always ready to 

 bathe themselves in blood. Those 

 miserable wretches have no plea- 

 sure but in murder and rapine. 

 When a tribe, weaker than its 

 neighbours, ventures to traverse 

 the plains, the individuals use the 

 precaution of defacing their foot- 

 steps, to escape being surprised and 

 massacred. Nature seems to have 

 seconded the ferocious propensities 

 of those savages, in producing, in 

 the burning climates of the torrid 

 zone, the most active poisons. The 

 darts and arrows impregnated with 

 "these carry with them inevitable 

 death. And when these instru- 

 ments are wanting to the savages, 

 their ferocious industry finds means 

 of supplying their place. The 

 frightful Ottomaque is id the habit 



of dipping the nail of his finger in 

 the curare, a very active poison, 

 extracted from a species of the 

 phyllanthus, and theleastlaceration 

 produced by that nail is mortal. 

 Thus the visions of primitive inno- 

 cence vanish before the discoveries 

 of travellers. Men become gene- 

 rous only in proportion to the de- 

 gree of their civilization. 



There have been lately published 

 some numbers or deliveries of the 

 Atlas Pittoresque, which was to ac- 

 company the Relatio7i Historiqice, 

 &c. under the title of Views of the 

 Cordilleras and Monuments of the 

 People of America, hy Alexander de 

 Humboldt. 



Travels in the North of Europe, 

 containing Observations on some 

 Parts of the Coasts of the Baltic 

 and the North Sea. By J. A. De 

 Luc, F. R. S. Translated Jrom 

 the French MSS. illustrated with 

 a Map and Drawings. 



The investigations of philosophers 

 in the present period, appear to be di- 

 rected chiefly to two opposite ex- 

 tremeB;nature ill her grandest opera- 

 tions, and in her most subtle, minute, 

 andsecret resources; the kindred stu- 

 dies of astronomy and geology, and 

 the properties of light and heat. It 

 was observed in the last article, that 

 some remarks have been made by 

 Humboldt, in his travels in the 

 equatorial regions, that might per- 

 haps occasion some embarrassment 

 to geologists. Geology is the 

 youngest of the sciences ; it is but 

 lately that the exact figure of the 

 earth was ascertained ; and later 

 still that men were tolerably ac- 

 quainted with physical geography. 



Geology 



