92 NATURAL HISTORY OF 
in the play of imagination, the regions of supreme 
repose — form a feature in the physiognomy of the 
country peculiar to this continent. “ Forests, the 
growth of thousands of years,” says Humboldt in his 
“ Tableau de la Nature,” “of an impenetrable thick- 
ness, fill the humid country situate between the 
Oronoco and the Amazons. Immense masses of 
lead-coloured granite narrow the foamy beds of the 
rivers. The mountains and woods resound unceas- 
ingly with the roar of cataracts, the growl of the 
jaguar, or the dull howl of the red monkey, which 
foretells the approach 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 co- 
vered with birds. The tiger-marked boa, his tail 
fixed to the trunk of a tree, his body rolled upon 
itself, sure of his prey, lies in ambush on the bank ; 
suddenly he uncoils to seize the young bull which 
is just passing.” 
Brazil has always been regarded as the most fer- 
tile region of South America, and that portion of it 
lying between the twelfth and twenty-fifth degrees 
of south latitude may be considered the richest in 
the world in Coleoptera. Mexico perhaps is next 
to it, for that country is much more prolific than 
Guiana, so often referred to by the older Ento- 
mologists, w r ho became acquainted with its produc- 
tions through the early French and Dutch settlers, 
who have always been zealous collectors and culti- 
