CASsn.l.s POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



In niie]>art of the travels of 1 1 umboldt, we rc.-.d lliat he and hi.s companions continued to descend 

 tnnii the table-land of < luardia till they reached the Indian village of Santa Cruz. They passed, at first, 

 along a slope, extremely slippery and steep, to which had been given the name of Baxada del Purgatorio, 

 or Descent of Purgatory. It is a rock of schistose sandstone, decomposed, covered with clay, the tains 

 nt' which appears frightfully steep, from the effect of a very common optical illusion. A s the travellers 

 looked down from the top to the bottom of the hill, the road seemed inclined more than sixty degrees- 

 The mules, in going down, drew their hind legs near to their fore legs, and, lowering their cruppers, let 

 themselves slide at a venture. A rider runs no risk, provided he slackens the bridle, thereby leaving 

 the animal quite free in his movements. From this point is perceived, towards the left, the great 

 p\ r.imid of Guacharo ; its calcareous peak is very picturesque, but the sight of it is soon lost oil enter- 

 ing the thick forest known by the name of the Montana de Santa Maria. 



Humboldt and his fellow-travellers descended without intermission for seven hours. It is 

 dillicult to conceive a more tremendous descent ; it is absolutely a road of steps a kind of ravine 

 in which, during the rainy season, impetuous torrents dash from rock to rock. The steps are from two 

 to three feet high, and the beasts of burden, after measuring with their eyes the space necessary to let 

 their load pass between the trunks of the trees, leap from one rock to another. Afraid of missing 

 their mark, they were seen to stop a few minutes to scan the ground, and bring together their fore feet, 

 like wild goats. If the animal does, not reach the nearest block of stone, he sinks half his depth into the 

 soft, ochreous clay that tills up the interstices of the rock. When the blocks are wanting, enormous 

 roots serve as supports for the feet of men and beasts. Some, of these roots are twenty inches thick, 

 and they often branch out from the trunks of the trees, much above the level of the soil. " The 

 Creoles," says Humboldt, " have sufficient confidence in the address and instinct of the mules, to 

 remain in their saddles during this long and dangerous descent. Fearing fatigue less than they did, 

 and being accustomed to travel slowly for the purpose of gathering plants, and examining the nature 

 of the rocks, we preferred going down 011 foot ; and, indeed, the care which our chronometers demanded 

 left us no liberty of choice." 



When the mules are set at liberty, they go, as it is said, " j>nm bmca agua" that is, "to search 

 for water." There are little pools which they find, guided by their instinct, by the view of some 

 scattered tufts of niauritia, and by the sensation of humid coolness, caused by little currents of air, 

 which, to the traveller, appear calm and tranquil. When the pools of water are far distant, and the 

 people are too lazy to lead the cattle to these natural watering-places, they confine them during five or 

 six hours in a very hot stable before they let them loose. Excess of thirst then augments their 

 sagacity, sharpening, as it were, their senses and their instinct. No sooner is the stable opened, than 

 the horses and mules especially the latter, for their penetration exceeds the intelligence of the horses 

 rush into the savannahs. With upraised tails and heads thrown back, they run against the wind, 

 stopping from time to time, as if exploring space ; they follow less the impressions of sight than of 

 smell, and at length announce, by prolonged neighings, that there is w.Uer in the direction of their 

 course. All these movements are executed more promptly, and with readier success, by horses born in 

 the Llanos, and which have long enjoyed their liberty, than by those that come from the coast, and 

 are i he offspring of domestic horses. " In animals, for the most part," says Humboldt, " as hi man, the 

 quickness of the senses is diminished by long subjection, and by the habits that arise from a fixed 

 abode and the progress of cultivation." 



'I another genus,* a single species only, a native of South America, was long known to natu- 

 ralists. The researches of Major Farquhar subsequently introduced another species to science, from 

 Hie deep forests of Sumatra and the peninsula of Malacca. Since then another American specie 

 been diseovered. 



The g,.,,,.,-;,. characters are as follow : The molars, seven on each side above, and six below, haxe 



' CTOwM crossed by two transxerse ami straight ridges, at least until worn down by attrition ; the 



m each jaw are six ; the ea nines two, separated from the molars by a wide interval; the nose 



'I into a short, flexible sort of trunk ; the fore feet have four toes, and the hind feet, three ; 



<m is dense, and thickly covered will, short, close hair. 



1 Tapirua. Ginilin. 



