102 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



to confirm what he said ; for on one side it had been nearly- 

 taken out to the bottom, at different times, which probably 

 would not have been the case had the first or second trial 

 failed. 



Its strength was proved on a middle-sized dog. He was 

 wounded in the thigh, in order that there might be no 

 possibility of touching a vital part. In three or four 

 minutes he began to be affected, smelt at every little 

 thing on the ground around him, and looked wistfuUy at 

 the wounded part. Soon after this he staggered, laid him- 

 self down, and never rose more. He barked once, though 

 not as if in pain, His voice was low and weak ; and in 

 a second attempt it quite failed him. He now put his 

 head betwixt his fore-legs, and raising it slowly again, he 

 fell over on his side. His eye immediately became fixed, 

 and though his extremities every now and then shot con- 

 vulsively, he never showed the least desire to raise up his 

 head. His heart fluttered much from the time he lay 

 down, and at intervals beat very strong ; then stopped for 

 a moment or two, and then beat again; and continued 

 faintly beating several minutes after every other part of 

 his body seemed dead. 



In a quarter of an hour after he had received the poison 

 he was quite motionless. 



A few miles before you reach the great fall, and which, 

 indeed, is the only one which can be called a fall, large 

 balls of froth come floating past you. The river appears 

 beautifully marked with streaks of foam, and on your 

 nearer approach the stream is whitened all over. 



At first, you behold the fall rushing down a bed of 

 rocks, with a tremendous noise, divided into two foamy 

 streams, which at their junction again form a small island 

 covered with wood. Above this island, for a short space, 

 there appears but one stream, all white with froth, and 



