156 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Some of our modern bloods have been shallow enough to 

 try to ape this poor empty-headed coachman, on a little 

 scale, making London their Zodiac. Well for them, if 

 tradesmen's bills, and other trivial perplexities, have not 

 caused them to be thrown into the King's Bench. 



The productions of the torrid zone are uncommonly 

 grand. Its plains, its swamps, its savannas, and forests, 

 abound with the largest serpents and wild beasts ; and its 

 trees are the habitation of the most beautiful of the 

 feathered race. While the traveller in the old world is 

 astonished at the elephant, the tiger, the lion, and rhino- 

 ceros, he who wanders through the torrid regions of the 

 new, is lost in admiration at the cotingas, the toucans, the 

 humming-birds, and aras. 



The ocean, likewise, swarms with curiosities. Probably 

 the Flying-fish may be considered as one of the most 

 singular. This little scaled inhabitant of water and air 

 seems to have been more favoured than the rest of its 

 finny brethren. It can rise out of the waves, and on wing 

 visit the domain of the birds. 



After flying two or three hundred yards, the intense heat 

 of the sun has dried its pellucid wings, and it is obliged to 

 wet them in order to continue its flight. It just drops into 

 the ocean for a moment, and then rises again and flies on ; 

 and then descends to remoisten them, and then up again 

 into the air ; thus passing its life, sometimes wet, some- 

 times dry, sometimes in sunshine, and sometimes in the pale 

 moons nightly beam, as pleasure dictates, or as need re- 

 quires. The additional assistance of wings is not thrown 

 away upon it. It has full occupation both for fins and 

 wings, as its life is in perpetual danger. 



The Bonito and Albicore chase it day and night ; but the 

 Dolphin is its worst and swiftest foe. If it escape into the 

 air, the dolphin pushes on with proportional velocity 



