THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



IN describing the WORLD'S WONDERS as seen by the Great 

 Explorers, we will divide our subject into three parts, or divi- 

 sions, viz : The Tropical , Arctic, and Antarctic, so as to preserve 

 a sequence, and have system in the narrative. The Tropical 

 World will have precedence, in consideration of its more prolific 

 life, both animal and vegetable, and because it presents more 

 anomalous and curious features than other parts of the globe. 

 Indeed, in the tropics there seems to be a superabundance of 

 growth, which led Sir Thomas Buckle to declare : *' Amid this 

 pomp and splendor of nature no place is left for man. He is 

 reduced to insignificance by the majesty with which he is 

 surrounded. The forces that oppose him are so formidable that 

 he has never been able to make headway against them, never 

 able to rally against their accumulated pressure. The whole of 

 Brazil, notwithstanding its immense apparent advantages, has 

 always remained entirely uncivilized ; its inhabitants wandering 

 savages, incompetent to resist those obstacles which the very 

 bounty of nature had put in their way." 



In the tropics we have two directly opposite effects of the sun, 

 one tending toward the multiplication of life, while the other 

 operates to destroy it. In no other part of the globe do we find 

 great deserts like that of Sahara, or such pestilential vapors as 

 continually arise from wofuse vegetation which is as rapid 



