IN THE TIME OF FLOODS 63 



mulating there for ages. This flood-borne vegetable 

 matter, carried down the stream through what were 

 usually some of the healthiest plains of South America 

 from the great primeval forest of San Carmilo, brought 

 with it a plague which attacked all the higher 

 forms of animal life from reptiles to man. It was 

 the modern equivalent of that corruption of the Nile 

 water which preceded the plagues of Egypt. Don 

 Ramon Paez states that " the first symptoms of the 

 epidemic appeared among the crocodiles, whose hideous 

 carcases might then be seen floating down the stream 

 in such prodigious numbers that both the waters and 

 the air of that fine region were tainted with the 

 effluvium." The symptoms of a crocodile epidemic 

 are then described, probably for the first time. " It 

 was observed that they were first seized by a violent 

 fit of coughing, followed by a vomit, which obliged 

 them to quit their watery homes, and finally to find 

 a grave among the thickets on the river-banks. The 

 disease next attacked the fish and other inhabitants 

 of the water with equal violence, until it was feared 

 that the streams would be depopulated. The fearful 

 mortality among them can be estimated from the 

 fact that for more than a month the rippling waters 

 of that noble river, the Apure, were constantly wash- 

 ing down masses of putrefaction, its surface being 

 almost hidden from view for many weeks. The next 

 victims were the pachydermata of the swamps. It 

 was a piteous sight to see the capybaras and the 

 grizzly wild swine dragging their paralysed hind- 

 quarters after them : hence the name of ' derren- 



