THE SAVANNAHS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
03 
Can think lie hears the senseless clay 
In unreproachful accents say, 
“The hand that took my life away. 
Dear master, was it thine ? 
“ And if it be, the shaft be blessed. 
Which sure some erring ain\ addressed. 
Since in your service priz’d, caressed, 
I in your service die ; 
And you may have a fleeter hound 
To match the dun deer’s merry bound ; 
But by your couch will ne’er be found 
So true a guard as I.” 
And to his last stout Percy rued. 
The fatal chance, for when he stood, 
’Gainst fearful odds in deadly feud. 
And fell amid the fray. 
E’en with his dying voice he cried, 
“ Had Kecldar but been at my side. 
Your treacherous ambush had been spied — 
I had not died to-day !” 
The Savannahs of South America. 
We are informed by Humboldt, that, during the periodical 
swellings of the large rivers in South America, great numbers of 
quadrupeds are annually drowned. Of the wild horses, for ex- 
ample, which graze in immense troops in the savannahs, thou- 
sands are said to perish, when the river Apure is swollen, before 
they have time to reach the rising grounds of the Llanos. The 
mares, during the season of high water, may be seen, followed 
by their colts, swimming about and feeding on the grass, of 
which the top alone waves above the waters. In this state they 
are pursued by crocodiles; and their thighs frequently bear the 
prints of the teeth of these carnivorous reptiles. “Such is the 
pliability, ” observes the celebrated traveller, “ of the organiza- 
tion of the animals which man has subjected to his sway, that 
horses, cows, and other species of European origin, lead, for a 
time, an amphibious life, surrounded by crocodiles, water-serpents, 
and marsetees. When the rivers return again into their beds, 
they roam in the savannah, which is then spread over with a fine 
odoriferous grass, and enjoy, as in their native climate, the re- 
newed vegetation of spring'*.” — Ly ell’s Geology . 
* Humboldt’s Pers. Nar., vol. iv, p. 394-396. 
