278 
CRIES OF MONKEYS. 
menon ; for the trunks of the dicotyledons, in spite of the heat 
of the dimate, *.nd the intensity of the light, are less burnt 
within the tropics than in the temperate zone. It may be said 
that the trunks of the ferns, which, like the monocotyledons, 
are enlarged by the remains of the petioles, decay from the 
circumference to the centre ; and that, deprived of the cor- 
tical organs through which the elaborated juices descend to 
the roots, they arc burnt more easily by the action of the 
oxygen of the atmosphere. T brought to Europe some 
powders with metallic lustre, taken from very old trunks of 
Meniscium and Aspidium. 
In proportion as we descended the mountain of Santa 
Maria, we saw the arborescent ferns diminish, and the 
number of palm-trees increase. The beautiful large- winged 
butterflies (nymphales), which fly at a prodigious height, 
became more common. Everything denoted our approach to 
the coast, and to a zone in which the mean temperature of the 
day is from 28 to 30 degrees. 
The weather was cloudy, and led us to fear one of those 
heavy rains, during which from 1 to 13 inch of water some- 
times falls in a day. The sun at times illumined the tops of 
the trees ; and, though sheltered from its rays, we felt an 
oppressive heat. Thunder rolled at a distance ; the clouds 
seemed suspended on the top of the lofty mountains of the 
Q-uacharo; and the plaintive howling of the araguatoes, 
which we had so often heard at Caripe, denoted the prox- 
imity of the storm. "We now for the first tim® had a near 
view of these howling apes. They are of the family of the 
alouates,* the different species of which have long been 
confounded one with another. The small sapajous of Ame- 
rica, which imitate in whistling the tones of the passeres, have 
the bone of the tongue thin and simple, but the apes of 
large size, as the alouates and marimondes,t have the tongue 
placed on a large bony drum. Their superior larynx has six 
pouches, in which the voice loses itself; and two of which, 
shaped like pigeons’ nests, resemble the inferior larynx of 
birds. The air driven with force into the bony drum pro- 
duces that mournful sound which characterises the aragua- 
toes. I sketched on the spot these organs, which are imper- 
Stentor, Geoffroy. 
f Ateles, Geoffroy. 
