Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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In Greenland The Dog Eats The Refuse Of The
Fisheries; And When Fish Are Wanting, Feeds On Seaweed.
The ass and
the horse, originally natives of the cold and barren plains of Upper
Asia, follow man to
The New World, return to the wild state, and lead
a restless and weary life in the burning climates of the tropics.
Pressed alternately by excess of drought and of humidity, they
sometimes seek a pool in the midst of a bare and dusty plain, to
quench their thirst; and at other times flee from water, and the
overflowing rivers, as menaced by an enemy that threatens them on all
sides. Tormented during the day by gadflies and mosquitos, the horses,
mules, and cows find themselves attacked at night by enormous bats,
which fasten on their backs, and cause wounds that become dangerous,
because they are filled with acaridae and other hurtful insects. In
the time of great drought the mules gnaw even the thorny cactus* in
order to imbibe its cooling juice, and draw it forth as from a
vegetable fountain. (* The asses are particularly adroit in extracting
the moisture contained in the Cactus melocatus. They push aside the
thorns with their hoofs; but sometimes lame themselves in performing
this feat.) During the great inundations these same animals lead an
amphibious life, surrounded by crocodiles, water-serpents, and
manatees. Yet, such are the immutable laws of nature, that their races
are preserved in the struggle with the elements, and amid so many
sufferings and dangers. When the waters retire, and the rivers return
again into their beds, the savannah is overspread with a beautiful
scented grass; and the animals of Europe and Upper Asia seem to enjoy,
as in their native climes, the renewed vegetation of spring.
During the time of great floods, the inhabitants of these countries,
to avoid the force of the currents, and the danger arising from the
trunks of trees which these currents bring down, instead of ascending
the beds of rivers in their boats, cross the savannahs. To go from San
Fernando to the villages of San Juan de Payara, San Raphael de
Atamaica, or San Francisco de Capanaparo, they direct their course due
south, as if they were crossing a single river of twenty leagues
broad. The junctions of the Guarico, the Apure, the Cabullare, and the
Arauca with the Orinoco, form, at a hundred and sixty leagues from the
coast of Guiana, a kind of interior Delta, of which hydrography
furnishes few examples in the Old World. According to the height of
the mercury in the barometer, the waters of the Apure have only a fall
of thirty-four toises from San Fernando to the sea. The fall from the
mouths of the Osage and the Missouri to the bar of the Mississippi is
not more considerable. The savannahs of Lower Louisiana everywhere
remind us of the savannahs of the Lower Orinoco.
During our stay of three days in the little town of San Fernando, we
lodged with the Capuchin missionary, who lived much at his ease.
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