Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 521 of 777 - First - Home
These Sendas Are
Formed In The Inundated Forest Like Paths On Dry Ground.
The Indians,
in going from one mission to another, pass with their boats as much as
possible by the same way; but the communications not being frequent,
the force of vegetation sometimes produces unexpected obstacles.
An
Indian, furnished with a machete (a great knife, the blade of which is
fourteen inches long), stood at the head of our boat, employed
continually in chopping off the branches that crossed each other from
the two sides of the channel. In the thickest part of the forest we
were astonished by an extraordinary noise. On beating the bushes, a
shoal of toninas (fresh-water dolphins) four feet long, surrounded our
boat. These animals had concealed themselves beneath the branches of a
fromager, or Bombax ceiba. They fled across the forest, throwing out
those spouts of compressed air and water which have given them in
every language the name of blowers. How singular was this spectacle in
an inland spot, three or four hundred leagues from the mouths of the
Orinoco and the Amazon! I am aware that the pleuronectes (dabs) of the
Atlantic go up the Loire as far as Orleans; but I am, nevertheless, of
opinion that the dolphins of the Temi, like those of the Ganges, and
like the skate (raia) of the Orinoco, are of a species essentially
different from the dolphins and skates of the ocean. In the immense
rivers of South America, and the great lakes of North America, nature
seems to repeat several pelagic forms.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 521 of 777
Words from 141508 to 141768
of 211397
