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 The Place Where We Had Landed Our Instruments, The Banks Being
Steep, We Saw New Proofs Of The Indolence Of The Gallinaceous Birds Of
The Tropics.
The curassaos and cashew-birds* have the habit of going
down several times a day to the river to allay their thirst.
(* The
latter (Crax pauxi) is less common than the former.) They drink a
great deal, and at short intervals. A vast number of these birds had
joined, near our station, a flock of parraka pheasants. They had great
difficulty in climbing up the steep banks; they attempted it several
times without using their wings. We drove them before us, as if we had
been driving sheep. The zamuro vultures raise themselves from the
ground with great reluctance.
We were singularly struck at the small quantity of water which the Rio
Apure furnishes at this season to the Orinoco. The Apure, which,
according to my measurements, was still one hundred and thirty-six
toises broad at the Cano Rico, was only sixty or eighty at its mouth.*
(* Not quite so broad as the Seine at the Pont Royal, opposite the
palace of the Tuileries, and a little more than half the width of the
Thames at Westminster Bridge.) Its depth here was only three or four
toises. It loses, no doubt, a part of its waters by the Rio Arichuna
and the Cano del Manati, two branches of the Apure that flow into the
Payara and the Guarico; but its greatest loss appears to be caused by
filtrations on the beach, of which we have before spoken.
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