OUAIACUM. 



GUANO. 



in* 



ounue either the lammellioorn insect* or the** Pkaltna which Mire 

 n. food to the goatsucker*. He states that it u difficult to form an 

 id** of the horrible noise made by thousands of the*e bird* in .the 

 dark recesses of the cavern, whence their shrill and piercing cries 

 strike upon the vaulted rocka and are repented by the echo in the 

 depthi of the grotto. By fixing torche* of oopal to the end of a 

 long pole, the Indiana ahowed the neata of these birds 50 or 60 feet 

 above the heads of the explore, in funnel-shaped holes, with which 

 the cavern-roof is pierced like a sieve. 



Once a year, near Midsummer, the Ouacharo cavern is entered by 

 the Indians. Armed with poles they ransack the greater part of the 

 nesta, while the old birds hover over the heads of the robbers, as if 

 to defend their brood, uttering horrible cries. The young which full 

 down are opened on the spot. The peritoneum is found loaded with 

 fat, and a layer of the same substance reaches from the abdomen to 

 the vent, forming a kind of cushion between the bird's legs. Hum- 

 boldt here remarks that this quantity of fat in frugivorous animals, 

 not exposed to the light, and exerting but little muscular motion, 

 brings to mind what has been long observed in the fattening of geese 

 and oxen. It U well known, he adds, how favourable darkness and 

 repose are to thi* process. At the period above mentioned, which is 

 generally known at Caripe by the designation of ' the oil harvest,' 

 huU are built by the Indians, with palm-leaves, near the entrance 

 and even in the very porch of the cavern. There the fat of the young 

 birds just killed is melted in clay-pots over a brushwood tire ; and 

 this fat is named butter, or oil (manteca, or aceite), of the Ouacharo. 

 It is half liquid, transparent, inodorous, and BO pure that it will keep 

 above a year without becoming rancid. In the kitchen of the monks 

 of the convent of Caripe no other oil is used, and Humboldt never 

 found that it imparted a disagreeable taste or smell to the aliments. 

 The quantity of very pure manteca collected does not exceed 150 or 

 160 bottles, each being 60 cubic inches; the rest, which ia less trans- 

 parent, is preserved in large earthen vessels : the whole hardly seems 

 to correspond with the immense annual carnage of birds. The use 

 of the Ouacharo oil is very ancient, and an Indian family, bearing 

 the name of Horacomas, pretend to be the lawful proprietors of the 

 cavern, as deaoendants from the first colonists of the valley, and lay 

 claim to the monopoly of the fat; but, when Humboldt jrrote, the 

 monks had taken care that their righU were merely honorary. The 

 Indi.n. were obliged, in conformity with the system of the mission- 

 aries, to furnish oil of Guacbaroes sufficient for the church lamp ; the 

 rest, Humboldt was assured, was purchased from them. He observes 

 that the race of Ouacharo Birds would have been extinct long uince 

 if several circumstances had not contributed to its preservation. The 

 native*, withheld by superstitious fears, seldom dare to proceed far 

 into til* recesses of the cavern. Humboldt had great difficulty in 

 parmading them to pan beyond the outer port of the cave, the only 

 portion of it which they visit annually to collect the oil ; and the whole 

 authority of the Padres was necessary to make them penetrate as far 

 a* the spot where the floor rises abruptly at an inclination of sixty 

 ilag.mii, and where a small subterranean cascade is formed by the 

 tomot. In the minds of the Indians this cave, inhabited by nocturnal 

 birds, is associated with mystic ideas, and they believe that in the 

 deep re nesses of the cavern the souls of their ancestors sojourn. They 

 say that man should avoid places which are enlightened neither by 

 the sun nor the moon ; and " to go and join the Uuacharoes" means 

 to rejoin their fathers in short, to die. At the entrance of the cave 

 the magicians and poisoners perform their exorcisms to conjure the 

 chief of the evil spirits. It appears also, as another cause of preserva- 

 tion, that Ouacharo Birds inhabit neighbouring cnverns too narrow 

 to be aooeasible to man, and from these perhaps the great cavern is 

 repeopled ; for the missionaries declared that no sensible diminution 

 of the birds had been observed. Young birds of this species have been 

 sent to the port of Cumana, and have lived there several days, but 

 without taking any food ; the seeds offered to them not suiting them. 

 The crop* and gizzards of the young birds opened in the cavern 

 contain all sorts of hard and dry fruits, which are conveyed to them 

 by their parent*: these are preserved, and, under the name of 'semilla 

 del Ouacharo' (Ouacharo seed), are considered a celebrated remedy 

 against intermittent fevers, and sent to the sick at Cariaco and other 

 low localities where fever prevail*. Our limit* will not allow in to 

 ponue Humboldt' s description further; and we must content 

 ourselves with referring the reader to the ' Narrative' for many inte- 

 resting details respecting the cavern itself and the surrounding 

 noenery, giving only in conclusion, the situation, elevation, and tempe- 

 rature of this extraordinary grotto. 



The Cneva del Ouacharo, then, is situated nearly in 10 10' lat., 

 and consequently in the centre of the torrid zone. It* elevation is 

 504 toise* about the level of the Oulf of Cariaco. Humboldt found, 

 in the month of September, the temperature of the interior air in 

 every part of it between 64 6' and 66 of Fahrenheit, and the external 

 atmosphere 61 2'. At tBe entrance, the thermometer in the air gave 

 63* 7' ; but when it was immersed in the water of the little subterra- 

 neous river it stood, even to the end of the cave, at <!2' 2'. 



GUAIAri'M, a genus of Plant* belonging to the natural order 

 XfyopkyUaeea, and inhabiting several of the West India islands, in 

 low place* near the sea. The most remarkable species is O, ojRcinalt, 

 from which the hardlcompact black-green wood called Lignum Vita! 



is obtained, which is so heavy that it sinks in water, and from which 

 pestles, ship-blocks, rollers, castors, Ac. are turned. This plant 

 growl about twelve feet high, with round knotty branches. The 

 leave* are equally pinnate, with about three pairs of opposite, smooth, 

 roundish ovate or obovate oblique leaflet*. The flowers are a beau- 

 tiful bright blue, growing in small axillary clusters. The petals are 

 oblong, downy in the inside, about three times as long as the sepal*. 

 There are ton stamens, and an ovate compressed ovary, which become* 

 an inversely heart-shaped succulent yellow capsule, with from two to 

 five cells, and a single roundish compressed seed in each cell This 

 plant produces the gum-resin known in medicine under the name of 

 Ouaiacum, which is bitter, acrid, and stimulant, partly soluble in 

 water, and wholly in alcohol It is employed as a diaphoretic and 

 alterative. [QCAIACDM, in ARTS AND Sc. Div.] The foliage is very 

 detersive, and ia used in the West Indies to scour and whiten floors, 

 which it is said to do better than soap. Spike cylindrical, elon- 

 gated; bracts 3-nrnvd. Flower rose-purple and fraerant. Pollen- 

 celU open in front and below, stopped below by oblong glutinous 

 valves quite distinct from the stigma, and to the broader ends of 

 which the glands of the pollen masses are attached. It U found 

 in hilly pasture*. 



officinal*. 

 1 , a magnified view of the ttamcni and ovary. 



(1. albida has a 3-lobed lip, the lobes unequal and entire, the middle 

 lobe longest and broadest ; sepals and lateral petals connivent, spur 

 much shorter than the germen, root-knobs clustered. The stem is 

 from 6 to 12 inches high ; leaves oblong-obtuse, upper ones lanceo- 

 late-acute ; the spike elongated, cylindrical ; the wood, according to 

 Hernandez, is internally blue. It is called in some of the West Indian 

 Islands Bastard Lignum Vibe. 



Q. arboreum is a large tree terminating in a beautiful head, with 

 very hard wood, and is called by the natives of Cumana (iuaiacum, 

 but they give this name to all hard woods. The leaves have 7 to 

 14 pairs of oval-oblong blunt leaflets, which are unequal at the 

 base, and are usually alternate, the petioles and branchlets somewhat 

 pubescent ; the petals unguiculate, and orange-coloured; the stamen* 

 with short appendages at their base ; capsules stipitate. 6-winged. 



GUAN. rCRACID-B.] 



OUANITE, a native Phosphate of Magnesia and Ammonia, found 

 by Tescheurcher in Ouano. It has a specific gravity of 1'5, and a 

 hardness of 2'0. It occurs in brilliant rhombic prisms. 



OUANO, the Peruvian name for the droppings of sea-fowl. In 

 some of the islands off the coasts of America and Africa this imbalance 

 has accumulated in such immense <jimiititi.-< OK to have repaid the 

 labour of collecting it and bringing it to Kurope, where it is used a* 

 a manure. It is now universally admitted to be one of the most 

 valiuMe of manures, and although it obtains a liiirli price it is increas- 

 ingly employed in the agriculture of Europe. One of the advantages 



