22G 



KIO NEGRO, A TRIBUTARy 



Kio N'ctn-o. 



CHAP. XV III. Mapanarc snakes, and in the morning a large viper was 

 Snakes and found heneatli the jaguar-skin on which one of them 

 vipei-s. had slept. This species of serpent is white on the belly, 



spotted with brown and black on the back, and grows to 

 the length of four or five feet. Humboldt remarks, that 

 if vipers and rattlesnakes had such a disposition for 

 offence as is usually supposed, the human race could not 

 have resisted them in some parts of America. 



Embarking at sunrise they proceeded down the Pimi- 

 chin, whieli is celebrated for the number of its windings. 

 It is navigal)le during tlie whole year, and has only one 

 rapid. In four hours and a half they entered the Rio 

 Negro. " The morning," says Humboldt, " was cool 

 and beautiful ; we had been confined thirty-six days in 

 a narrow canoe, so unsteady that it would have been 

 overset by any one rising imprudently from his seat, 

 without warning the rowers to preserve its balance by 

 leaning to tlie opposite side. We had suffered severely 

 from the stings of insects, but we had withstood the in- 

 saluln-ity of the climate ; we had passed without accident 

 the numerous falls and bars that impede the navigation 

 of the rivers, and often render it more dangerous than 

 long voyages by sea. 



" After all that we had endured, I may be allowed to 

 of Humboldt mention the satisfaction which we felt in having reached 

 the tributaries of the Amazon, — in having passed the 

 isthmus which separates two great systems of rivers, — 

 and in having attained a certainty of fulfilling the most 

 important object of our journey, — that of determining 

 l)y astronomical observations the course of that arm of 

 the Orinoco whieli joins the Rio Negro, and whose ex- 

 istence had been alternately proved and denied for half a 

 century. In these inland regions of the New Continent 

 we almost accustom ourselves to consider man as inessen- 

 tial to the order of nature. The earth is overloaded with 

 plants, of which nothing impedes the development. An 

 immense layer of mould evinces the uninterrupted action 

 of the organic powers. The crocodiles and boas are 

 masters of the river ; the jaguar, pecari, dante, and 



Sntisfiiction 



