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 699 of 777 - First - Home
Warm Discussions Arose; The Least Noise Amid
The Foliage Of The Trees Was Listened To With An Attentive Ear; And
When The Air Was Again Filled With Mosquitos They Were Almost Hailed
With Pleasure.
We could not guess what modification of the atmosphere
had caused this phenomenon, which must not be confounded with the
periodical replacing of one species of insects by another.
After four hours' navigation down the Orinoco we arrived at the point
of the bifurcation. Our resting place was on the same beach of the
Cassiquiare, where a few days previously our great dog had, as we
believe, been carried off by the jaguars. All the endeavours of the
Indians to discover any traces of the animal were fruitless. The cries
of the jaguars were heard during the whole night.* (* This frequency
of large jaguars is somewhat remarkable in a country destitute of
cattle. The tigers of the Upper Orinoco are far less bountifully
supplied with prey than those of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and the
Llanos of Caracas, which are covered with herds of cattle. More than
four thousand jaguars are killed annually in the Spanish colonies,
several of them equalling the mean size of the royal tiger of Asia.
Two thousand skins of jaguars were formerly exported annually from
Buenos Ayres alone.) These animals are very frequent in the tracts
situated between the Cerro Maraguaca, the Unturan, and the banks of
the Pamoni. There also is found that black species of tiger* of which
I saw some fine skins at Esmeralda.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 699 of 777
Words from 190145 to 190401
of 211397
