IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST. 213 



animals are rejoicing in the bright moonlight, and keeping the feast 

 of the full moon." To me it appeared that the scene had probably 

 originated in some accidental combat, and that hence the disturbance 

 had spread to other animals, and thus the noise had increased more 

 and more. The jaguar pursues the peccaries and tapirs, and these, 

 pressing against each other in their flight, break through the inter- 

 woven tree-like shrubs which impede their escape; the apes on the 

 tops of the trees, being frightened by the crash, join their cries to 

 those of the larger animals; this arouses the tribes of birds, who 

 build their nests in communities, and thus the whole animal world 

 becomes in a state of commotion. Longer experience taught us that 

 it is by no means always the celebration of the brightness of the 

 moon which disturbs the repose of the woods: we witnessed the 

 same occurrence repeatedly, and found that the voices were loudest 

 during violent falls of rain, or when, with loud peals of thunder, the 

 flashing lightning illuminated the deep recesses of the forest. The 

 good-natured Franciscan monk, who, although he had been suffering 

 for several months from fever, accompanied us through the Cataracts 

 of Atures and Maypures to San Carlos on the Rio Negro, and to the 

 Brazilian boundary, used to say, when fearful on the closing in of 

 night that there might be a thunder-storm, " May Heaven grant a 

 quiet night both to us and to the wild beasts of the forest !" 



Scenes, such as those I have just described, were wonderfully 

 contrasted with the stillness which prevails within the tropics dur- 

 ing the noontide hours of a day of more than usual heat. I 

 borrow from the same journal the recollections of a day at the 

 Narrows of Baraguan. At this part of its course the Orinoco 

 forces for itself a passage through the western portion of the 

 Parime Mountains. What is called at this remarkable pass a 

 " Narrow " (Angostura del Baraguan), is still a bed or water-basin 

 of 890 toises (5690 English feet) in breadth. On the naked rocks 

 which formed the shores we saw only, besides an old withered 

 stem of Aubletia (Apeiba tiburba), and a new Apocinea (Alla- 

 manda salicifolia), a few silvery croton shrubs. A thermometer 

 observed in the shade, but brought within a few inches of the 

 towering mass of granite rock, rose to above 40 Reaumur (122 

 Fahr.). All distant objects had wave-like, undulating outlines, the 



