166 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Inf 



instances the age has been computed at four thousand the 

 grandeur becomes a demoniac power. As yet, says Dr. Herman 

 Massius, no axe has thinned these aboriginal wildernesses, no 

 skill drained these moors abounding in terrors, and which have 

 been denounced under the name of cypress swamps, described 

 by Sealsfield with such terrible and lively colouring. Gigantic 

 trunks, more than three hundred feet in height and of unheard- 

 of strength, crowd close together, entwining their branches, and 

 spreading even over the brightest day the obscurity of night ; 

 so that the foot which penetrates hither can only venture its 

 timid step by the gleam of torches. Blocks of stone and half- 

 rotten trunks of trees, piled up in wild confusion, rise from out 

 the bottomless mire. Here alligators, serpents, and the biting 

 tortoise lie in ambush, the sole lords of this frightful pool, 

 reeking under the burning heat of an almost tropical sun. 

 Such is the aspect of things in summer ; whilst in spring the 

 thick and muddy waters of overflowing rivers pour tumultu- 

 ously for miles over this ungenial vegetation. With our eye 

 upon a scene like this, may we not say that, though the world 

 possesses many emblems of paradise, it also has some which 

 are, at least, hints of the infernal. ST. 



Influence Lost in Form but not in Force. 



The Amazon, the Eiver Plata, Orinoco, Mississippi, Zaire, 

 Senegal, Indus, Ganges, Yangtsee, or Irawaddy, &c. &c., these, 

 and such like stupendous rivers, extend their influence to a 

 considerable distance from the coast, and occasionally perplex 

 and delay the navigator in open sea, who finds himself struggling 

 against a difficulty wholly unconscious of the cause. The 

 River Plata, at a distance of 600 miles from the mouth of the 

 river, was found to maintain a rate of a mile an hour ; and the 

 Amazon, at 300 miles from the entrance, was found running 

 nearly three miles per hour, its original direction being but little 

 altered and its water nearly fresh. We are reminded by this 

 of other influences which also lose their form but not their 

 force. Though the man dies, his influence still lives. He no 

 longer acts upon the world in the capacity of public speaker, 

 writer, or statesman, but his influence has gone forth and 



