47 



Take it up and examine it ; here is a long, ovate-lanceolate leaf (bractea), transversely 

 bent in the middle : from the angle on the under side proceeds a slender stalk, at the end 

 of which is fixed a round body like a pea, which looks, as it descends, as if it hung by a 

 thread from the leaf-like wing : this contains the seed. — Gosse^s ' Canadian Naturalist.' 



16. Splitting of trees by the freezing of water. Old trees, when cut down, are often 

 found to have the heart-wood so separated from the sap-wood, as to fall apart when a 

 log is split through the centre ; and we find that the crevice or intermediate space has 

 been occupied by a film of ice. This explains those loud reports which we heard just 

 now, and which so often occur in the forest in frosty weather. Some water has lodged 

 in the tree — perhaps in some maggot's or woodpecker's hole — which freezing, rends 

 the wood by its irresistible force of expansion ; into the rent so formed, the water per- 

 colates as soon as a thaw comes, and freezing again, extends the crevice downwards, 

 each rent attended with these sudden and startling sounds. — Id. 



17. Arrow-poison plant. Our path was over " hill and dale," mostly in a N.N.W. 

 and N.W. direction. It became eveiy moment wilder : we had to cross several moun- 

 tain-streams, which flowed in deep beds, precipitating at their banks a ferruginous mat- 

 ter ; underbush became scarce ; it appeared as if Nature here delighted only in gigantic 

 forms. Our Indians thought they had mistaken the track ; but as we arrived at a 

 stream which ran rapidly over the sloping ground, exhibiting granitic shelves, we ob- 

 served that several paths united ; and crossing the brook our guides stopped, and point- 

 ing to a ligneous twiner which wound itself snake-like from tree to tree, they called out 

 " Urari," the name of the plant in the tongue of our guides. My wish was thus real- 

 ized ; and that plant which Baron de Humboldt was prevented from seeing, and which 

 was one of the chief objects of Mr. Waterton's ' Wanderings,' but without success, I 

 now saw before me. — Schomburgk in ' Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.' July, 1841. 



18. Preparation of the Indian arrow-poison. It is only the bark of the woody parts 

 and its alburnum which are considered to possess the poisonous principle in the high- 

 est degree. The stem of the plant is therefore cut into pieces about three feet in length, 

 off which the bark is stripped, and after having been pounded it is steeped in water, for 

 which purpose a new earthen vessel is used ; here they allow it to remain for some time 

 well covered, until the water is of a yellowish colour, when it is filtered through a fun- 

 nel-shaped matappa lined with plantain-leaves. Several other plants have been mean- 

 while procured, and after their juice has been extracted in a similar manner, this ex- 

 tract is kept ready to be added to the former, at the moment it has been concentrated 

 on a slow fire to the consistency of a syrup. The addition of that juice gives a darker 

 colour to the Urari, which, from the time of its becoming concentrated, has the appear- 

 ance of tar : it is now put into small calabashes, which are covered with leaves to pre 

 vent the poison from coming in immediate contact with the air. * * This is 

 the unadorned account of the preparation of the Urari, and the method which is fol- 

 lowed by the Macusis at and about Pirara, and the Wapisianas of the Canuku moun- 

 tains where the plant grows. There appears to be no danger whatever in the prepara- 

 tion, and the vapours which are disengaged are entirely innocent ; but the circumstance 

 that it requires several days to watch the pot closely on the fire and to take off the scum 

 &c., before it is properly concentrated, as well as the superstitious customs with which 

 the poison-maker, for his own advantage, surrounds the preparation of it, prevent the 

 Indian, with his natural indolence, from making it more than once or twice a year. Id. 



18. Effects of the poison. As much as I had heard of this fatal poison, I never- 

 theless cannot abstain from noting the astonishment by which I was seized when I saw 



