16-1 
bitee-sceneey. 
the shelter of a solitary tree, his slumbers are disturbed by 
a serenade from the forest. 
We set sail before sunrise, on the 2nd of April, lhe 
morning was beautiful and cool, according to the feelings of 
those who are accustomed to the heat of these climates. 
The thermometer rose only to 28° in the air, but the dry 
and white sand of the beach, notwithstanding its radiation 
towards a cloudless shy, retained a temperature of 36°. The 
porpoises (toninas) ploughed the river in long files. The 
shore was covered with fishing-birds. Some of these perched 
on the floating wood as it' passed down the river, and 
simprised the fish that preferred the middle of the stream- 
Our canoe was aground several times during the. morning- 
These shocks are sufficiently violent to split a light hark- 
We struck on the points of several large trees, which remain 
for years in an oblique position, sunk in the mud. These 
trees descend from Sarare, at the period of great inun- 
dations, and they so fill the he'd of the river, that canoes in 
going up find it difficult sometimes to make their way over 
the shoals, or wherever there are eddies. AVe reached » 
spot near the island of Carizales, where we saw trunks ot 
the locust-tree, of an enormous size, above the surface oi the 
water. Thev were covered with a species of plotus, nearly 
resembling the arihinga, or white bellied darter. These 
birds perch in files, like pheasants and parrakas, and the 
remain for hours entirely motionless, with their beaks raised 
toward the sky. . . i 
Below the island of Carizales we observed a diminution 
the waters of the river, at which we were the more sur- 
prised, as, after the bifurcation at la Boca de Arichuna, there 
is no branch, no natural drain, which takes away water fro’" 
the Apure. The loss is solely the effect of evaporation,, au® 
of filtration on a sandy and wet shore. Some idea of tb 
magnitude of these effects may he formed, from the fa°, 
that we found the heat of the dry sands, at different hours o 
th e day, from 36° to 52°, and that of sands covered vvit 
three or’ four inches of water 32°. The beds of rivers ;lf " 
heated as far as the depth to which the solar rays ca 
penetrate without undergoing too great an extinction » 
their passage through the superincumbent strata of vat*- ‘ 
