GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. lio 



sumanae vastitatis, ob sestus fere intolerabiles immanibus ser- 

 pentibus, crocodiles, tigride jaguare atque vario et malefico 

 genere animalium infestae." 



In some places this general character is modified by pecu- 

 liar local circumstances, but still every where is to be found 

 an excessively luxuriant vegetation. " Forests, the growth of 

 thousands of years, of an impenetrable thickness, fill the humid 

 country situated between the Oronoco and the Amazons. 

 Immense masses of lead-coloured granite narrow the foamy 

 beds of the rivers. The mountains and woods resound un- 

 ceasingly with the roar of cataracts, the growl of the jaguar, 

 or the dull howl of the red monkey, which foretells the ap- 

 proach of rain. In those places where the lowness of the 

 waters leaves a sandy beach uncovered, with open mouth, but 

 motionless as a rock, lies a crocodile, whose scaly body is 

 covered with birds. The tiger-marked boa, his tail fixed 

 round the trunk of a tree, his body rolled upon itself, sure of 

 his prey, lays in ambush on the bank ; suddenly he uncoils to 

 seize the young bull which is just passing." Such is the pic- 

 ture which Humboldt, in his beautiful *' Tableaux de la 

 Nature," has sketched of these regions. Such are the cha- 

 racters of a country, one-fourth of which is excluded from this 

 subclimate, whilst those low level plains, which bound it on 

 the north, and of which the following picture has been drawn 

 by the same traveller, are included in it. 



" At the foot of the chain of mountains which resisted the 

 violent action of the waves, when in the early age of our planet 

 their irruption formed the Gulf of Mexico, commences a vast 

 plain which stretches beyond the reach of sight. When we 

 have left behind us the smiling vallies of Caraccas, and the 

 Lake of Tacarigua, sprinkled with islets, and reflecting in its 

 waters the images of the plantains with which it is surrounded; 

 when we have quitted the fields adorned by the tender verdure 

 of the sugar-cane of Taiti, or the bowers shaded by the thick 

 foliage of the cacao, the view is borne towards the south, over 

 steppes or deserts, which rise insensibly, and terminate the 

 horizon in a distance without bounds. Quitting those places 

 where Nature is so prodigal of organic life, the astonished 

 traveller enters upon a desert devoid of vegetation. Not a hill 

 or rock rises like an island in this immense void." In the 

 dry season, not a plant is to be seen save a few Mauritia palms 



