THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



ing excursions in the vicinity, and on one occasion 

 I had the good fortune, while riding along the 

 wooded banks of the Yacuma, a tributary of the 

 Mamore, to arrive suddenly at a beautiful pond, 

 or rather small lake, embosomed in the forest, 

 where, to my delight and surprise, I descried for 

 the first time the queen of aquatics, Victoria 

 regin! There were at least fifty flowers n view; 

 and Belzoni could not have been more enraptured 

 with his Egyptian discoveries, than was I, on 

 beholding this beautiful and novel sight, which 

 few Englishmen can have witnessed. Fain would 

 I have plunged into the lake to obtain specimens 

 of the splendid flowers and foliage; but the knowl- 

 edge that these waters abounded with alligators, 

 and the advice of my guide, deterred me. - '* 



In the travels of Mungo Park in the interior of 

 Africa, he is said to have been at one time so ex- 

 hausted by fever, and so depressed with his for- 

 lorn and apparently hopeless condition, that he 

 had lain down to die. His eye, however, chanced 

 to light on a minute moss,t with which he had 

 been familiar in his native Scotland. The effect on 

 him was magical ; the reflection instantly occurred, 

 that the same Divine hand which made that little 

 plant to grow beneath that burning clime was 

 stretched out in loving care and protection over 

 him; and, smiling amidst his tears, he cast himself 

 on the love of his heavenly Father, and was com- 

 forted. We may well believe that the sight of the 

 fork-moss would ever afterwards call up a vivid 

 recollection of that desolate scene, and that he 

 could never look on it without strong emotion. 



If it should be thought that some of the inci- 



* Lond. Journ. of Bot., iv. p. 571. + Dicramim bryonies. 

 184 





