16 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



poor animals when the heat of the sun has absorbed the waters 

 from the surface of the earth. 



When, after a long drought, the genial season of rain 

 arrives, the scene suddenly changes (38). The deep azure 

 of the hitherto cloudless sky assumes a lighter hue. Scarcely 

 can the dark space in the constellation of the Southern 

 Cross be distinguished at night. The mild phosphorescence 

 of the Magellanic clouds fades away. Even the vertical stars 

 of the constellations Aquila and Ophiuchus shine with a 

 flickering and less planetary light. Like some distant moun- 

 tain, a single cloud is seen rising perpendicularly on the 

 southern horizon. Misty vapours collect and gradually over- 

 spread the heavens, while distant thunder proclaims the 

 upproach of the vivifying rain. 



Scarcely is the surface of the earth moistened before the 

 teeming Steppe becomes covered with KyllingiaB, with the 

 many-panicled Paspalum, and a variety of grasses. Excited 

 by the power of light, the herbaceous Mimosa unfolds its 

 dormant, drooping leaves, hailing, as it were, the rising sun 

 in chorus with the matin song of the birds and the opening 

 flowers of aquatics. Horses and oxen, buoyant with life and 

 enjoyment, roam over and crop the plains. The luxuriant grass 

 hides the beautifully spotted Jaguar, who, lurking in safe con- 

 cealment, and carefully measuring the extent of the leap, darts, 

 like the Asiatic tiger, with a cat-like bound on his passing prey. 



At times, according to the account of the natives, the 

 humid clay on the banks of the morasses (39), is seen to rise 

 slowly in broad flakes. Accompanied by a violent noise, as 

 on the eruption of a small mud- volcano, the upheaved earth 

 is hurled high into the air. Those who are familiar with 

 the phenomenon fly from it; for a colossal water-snake or a 

 mailed and scaly crocodile, awakened from its trance by the 

 flrst fall of rain, is about to burst from his tomb. 



When the rivers bounding the plain to the south, as the 

 Arauca, the Apure, and the Payara, gradually overflow their 

 banks, nature compels those creatures to live as amphibious 



