6 
Sand-banks abound in all parts of the Magdalena. Here the hideous Caimans bask in the sun, sometimes 
forty to fifty in one spot. At night, these very sand-banks serve the traveller as resting-places, and he is glad, 
after having spent the whole day in the narrow canoe, to stretch his weary limbs on the soft sands. Here great 
masses of wood have been piled up by the current in the wet season, and dried up by the sun after the retreat 
of the waters. They take fire by the least spark, and, sometimes make enormous bonfires, which frighten the 
mews and other birds, that have their nests in the sand. 
A river voyage in the dry season is very fit to give an idea of animal life in the tropics. Then the animals, 
from the want of water in the forest, are compelled to come to the river’s side. Herds of droll Monkeys 
move noisily along the tops of the highest trees; Parrots of all kind, sizes, and colours, from the small 
Perriquito up to the Macaw, fill the air with their yelling shrieks. Tapirs, Guinea-pigs, Agutis and Armadils 
people the underwood, and Iguanas are seen climbing over slender branches. Here and there a serpent lies 
coiled up on a bough, and Humming-birds, glittering in all the hues of the rainbow, whirr about the blossoms 
of the forest. Hocco-fowl (Paujils) and many other birds of the hen and pheasant-tribe tire the ear with their 
monotonous screams. The clumsy Tortoise plumps shyly into the water, and occasionally a Jaguar is seen 
quenching his thirst in the river. 
Of water-fowls there are a great variety. Several species of Herons, Ibis, Spoonbills, innumerable quantities 
of Mews and many kind of Ducks are met with. At the river’s mouth, near the sea-coast, the trees are covered 
with the large nests of Pelicans. At night the dismal noise of howling Monkeys is blended with the roaring 
of the Jaguar. 
This animal lives in fierce feud with the Caiman, and the traces of their struggles are often visible in the 
sand of the banks. The Indians relate, that, when the Jaguar is about to cross the river, he previously sets up a 
loud roaring, to scare away the Caimans, which then are seen quitting the banks and even the surface of the water, 
and crawling away into the mire. These monsters of the deep are in general very shy on hearing a noise, savage 
and dangerous as they are otherwise. Early in the morning thirty or forty of them are sometimes seen in a quiet 
bay, swimming slowly along the surface of the water. They move along imperceptibly, seemingly with open 
jaws ; for suddenly the long head of the monster starts forth from the water, holding a large fish, while, all around 
a great number of fishes, startled by the noise, bound up high out of the water. The Caimans in the muddy 
water bear much resemblance to huge floating trees, and this is supposed to deceive the fish. 
The vegetation is magnificent. The eye is charmed by the variety of the outline of the forest, arising from 
its being composed of so many different kind of trees, which now appear as mighty sheds on stout trunks, now, 
as in the instance of the Mimosse, bearing light and feathery foliage on slender stems. 
Everywhere the trunks are thickly overgrown with creepers, winding their graceful tendrils from tree 
to tree and hanging down in beautiful festoons. The Guaduas, representatives of the Indian Bamboos, are 
highly beautiful, appearing either in large independent groups or pi’ojecting their enormous canes from amidst 
the thicket of the shore. They are distinguished by the regular curving of their canes, forming almost sections 
of a circle, and by their fine grasslike foliage. 
The magnificent Palma real (Cocos butyracea)' is found nearly all along the river, and, of smaller Palms, 
species of Bactris, and Astrocaryum. A slender Euterpe is met with near the mouth of the river Sogamozo, 
and the beautiful foliage of Helicpuias and strong canes of Sacharum (S. contractuni, S, dubium), partly cover 
the banks. 
Ad fol. 9. 
Huts of Indians near HarL 
The huts of the native Indians continue to this day in the same state as they were described by the first 
discoverers of this part of the world. Stout Bamboo-canes, stuck perpendicularly into the ground and 
occasionally joined by tendrils of creepers, constitute the walls, and the roof is thatched with Palm-leaves. 
There are no windows, yet the huts are light and airy, the lattice-like walls freely admitting wind and 
sunshine. 
The Indians of the Magdalena river have very little wants ; their furniture is very simple. Some Tortoise- 
shells serve as dishes, a hollow stone is used for grinding maize and cocoa. Spoons, large and small basins and 
cups they make of the fruit of the Tutuma-tree (Crescentia Cujete) and enormous pumpkins or calebasses are used 
as bottles and jugs. They are skilful hunters, though their implements are very primitive, being nothing but 
rudely cut bows, and arrows of enormous length, made of the stems of large Gramineas (Sacharum) and 
armed with points of iron or hard wood. With these they kill birds and fishes very dexterously, and the light 
^ Kunth^ Synops. pi. vol. iv. p. 355. 
