IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST. 271 



break through the interwoven 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 ol 

 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 V 



Scenes, such as those I have just described, were wonder- 

 fully contrasted with the stillness which prevails within the 

 tropics during the noontide hours of a day of more than 

 usual heat. I borrow from the same journal the recollec- 

 tions 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 Bara- 

 guan), is still a bed or water-basin of 890 toises (5690 

 English feet) in breadth. On the naked rocks which formed 



