820 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
In Guiana the dwellings of the termites are enormous hillocks, 
fifteen feet in height, which men only venture to attack from a dis- 
tance, and by means of gunpowder. You may judge, therefore, the 
importance of the ant-eater, which dares to enter this gulf, and seek 
out the horrible female whence issues so accursed a torrent. 
(Smeathmann, Mémotre sur les Termites.) 
Does climate save us? The termites prosper in France. Here, 
too, the cockchafer flourishes; and even on the northern slopes 
of the Alps, under the very breath of the glaciers, it devours vegeta- 
tion. In the presence of such an enemy every insectivorous bird 
should be respected ; at least, the canton of Vaud has recently placed 
the swallow under the protection of the law. (See the work of 
Tschudi.) 
Page 134. You frequently detect there a strong odour of musk.— 
The plain of Cumana, says Humboldt, presents, after heavy rains, an 
extraordinary phenomenon. The earth, moistened and reheated by 
the sun’s rays, gives forth that odour of musk which, under the 
torrid zone, is common to animals of very different classes—to the 
jaguar, the small species of the tiger-cat, the cabiai, the galinazo vul- 
ture, the crocodile, the viper, the rattlesnake. The gaseous emana- 
tions which are the vehicles of this aroma appear only to disengage 
themselves in proportion as the soil enclosing the débris of an innu- 
merable quantity of reptiles, worms, and insects, becomes impregnated 
with water. Everywhere that one stirs up the soil, one is struck by 
the mass of organic substances which alternately develop, transform, 
or decompose. Nature in these climates appears more active, more 
prolific, one might say more lavish of life. 
