The Naturalist on the River Amazons: A Record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and Aspects of Nature Under the Equator, During Eleven Years of TravelJ. Murray, 1864 - 466 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
afterwards alligators amongst anchor animal ants appearance arrived ashore banks beach beautiful birds boat branches Brazil Brazilian broad cacao Cafuzo called Cametá campos canoe Cardozo Caripí channel CHAP clothed coast colour distance dry season Ecitons eggs farinha feet fish foliage Fonte Boa forest fruit habits hammocks head height inches Indians inhabitants insects interior islands Japurá kind land larvæ leaves length lower main river mameluco mandioca miles monkeys montaria morning mouth mulatto narrow natives nearly neighbourhood neighbouring night o'clock paddle palms Pará passed Portuguese praia residence Rio Negro rocinha round sails sand sandy Santarem seemed seen Senhor shore side skin Solimoens sometimes species specimens stream Tabatinga Tapajos thickets Tocantins took Toucan town travelling trees tribes trunks Tupí turtles Upper Amazons vegetation vessel village voyage walk whilst wild wind woods young СНАР
Popular passages
Page 40 - ... in the still hours of midday, a sudden crash will be heard resounding afar through the wilderness, as some great bough or entire tree falls to the ground. There are, besides, many sounds which it is impossible to account for. I found the natives generally as much at a loss in this respect as myself. Sometimes a sound is heard like the clang of an iron bar against a hard, hollow tree, or a piercing cry rends the air: these are not repeated, and the succeeding silence tends to heighten the unpleasant...
Page 35 - It is never either spring, summer, or autumn, but each day is a combination of all three. With the day and night always of equal length, the atmospheric disturbances of each day neutralising themselves before each succeeding morn ; with the sun in its course proceeding mid-way across the sky, and the daily temperature the same within two or three degrees throughout the year — how grand in its perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march of Nature under the equator...
Page 33 - The heat increased rapidly towards two o'clock (92° and 93° Fahr.), by which time every voice of bird or mammal was hushed; only in the trees was heard at intervals the harsh whirr of a cicada. The leaves, which were so moist and fresh in early morning, now become lax and drooping ; the flowers shed their petals.
Page 322 - I hold to the opinion that although humanity can reach an advanced state of culture only by battling with the inclemencies of nature in high latitudes, it is under the equator alone that the perfect race of the future will attain to complete fruition of man's beautiful heritage, the earth.
Page 16 - Fig. 2 ; but the front is clothed with hairs, instead of being polished, and they have in the middle of the forehead a twin ocellus, or simple eye, of quite different structure from the ordinary compound eyes, on the sides of the head. This frontal eye is totally wanting in the other workers, and is not known in any other kind of ant. The apparition of these strange creatures from the cavernous depths of the mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of the Cyclopes of Homeric fable.
Page 40 - We often read in books of travels of the silence and gloom of the Brazilian forests. They are realities, and the impression deepens on a longer acquaintance. The few sounds of birds are of that pensive or mysterious character which intensities the feeling of solitude rather than imparts a sense of life and cheerfulness.
Page 34 - The whole eastern horizon would become almost suddenly black, and this would spread upwards, the sun at length becoming obscured. Then the rush of a mighty wind is heard through the forest, swaying the tree-tops ; a vivid flash of lightning bursts forth, then a crash of thunder, and down streams the deluging rain. Such storms soon cease, leaving bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night. Meantime all nature is refreshed ; but heaps of flower-petals and fallen leaves are seen under the...
Page 157 - Their imagination is of a dull, gloomy quality, and they seem never to be stirred by the emotions : — love, pity, admiration, fear, wonder, joy, enthusiasm. These are characteristics of the whole race. The good fellowship of our Cucamas seemed to arise, not from warm sympathy, but simply from the absence of eager selfishness in small matters.
Page 225 - It is scarcely exaggerating to say that the waters of the Solimoens are as well stocked with large alligators in the dry season, as a ditch in England is in summer with tadpoles.
Page 331 - Post 8vo. 8s. 6d. (FC) Principles of Athenian Architecture, and the Optical Refinements exhibited in the Construction of the Ancient Buildings at Athens, from a Survey. With 40 Plates. Folio.