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 Travel, Band 2J. Murray, 1863 - 423 Seiten |
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alligators amongst animal ants appearance ashore Aveyros banks beach bees birds body branch Brazil Brazilian broad cacao Cafuzo called campos canoe Cardozo Cebidae civilised clay cloth colour Cuparí distance dry season Ecitons eggs excursions farinha feet fish Fonte Boa forest forms fruit habits hammocks head horde inches Indians inhabitants insects interior Japurá Joao José kind land larvæ length live main river mameluco mandioca miles monkeys montaria morning mouth mulatto Mundurucús narrow natives nearly neighbourhood neighbouring nests night o'clock palms Pará passed Passés pools Portuguese praia ramble Rio Negro round sand sandy Santarem seemed seen Senhor settlement shore side sloping soil Solimoens species stream SURUBIM Tabatinga Tapajos TEIUS Termites tion Toucan town traders trees tribe Tucúnas Tupí turtles Tushaúa Upper Amazons vegetation vessel village whilst wind wings women woods workers young
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Seite 320 - As the laws of Nature must be the same for all beings, the conclusions furnished by this group of insects must be applicable to the whole organic world ; therefore, the study of butterflies — creatures selected as the types of airiness and frivolity — instead of being despised, will some day be valued as one of the most important branches of Biological science.
Seite 146 - Soon afterwards another loud explosion took place, followed by others which lasted for an hour, till the day dawned, and we then saw the work of destruction going forward on the other side of the river, about three miles off. Large masses of forest, including trees of colossal size, probably 200 feet in height, were rocking to and fro, and falling headlong one after another into the water. After each avalanche the wave which it caused returned on the crumbly bank with tremendous force, and caused...
Seite 12 - When they are at work, a number of little jets of sand are seen shooting over the surface of the sloping bank. The little miners excavate with their fore feet, which are strongly built and furnished with a fringe of stiff bristles ; they work with wonderful rapidity, and the sand thrown out beneath their bodies issues
Seite 147 - The line of coast over which the landslip extended was a mile or two in length ; the end of it, however, was hid from our view by an intervening island. It was a grand sight : each downfall created a cloud of spray ; the concussion in one place causing other masses to give way a long distance from it, and thus the crashes continued, swaying to and fro, with little prospect of a termination. When we glided out of sight, two hours after sunrise, the destruction was still going on.
Seite 306 - Nothing in animal physiognomy can be more hideous than the countenance of this creature when viewed from the front ; the large, leathery ears standing out from the sides and top of the head, the erect spear-shaped appendage on the tip of the nose, the grin and the glistening black eye all combining to make up a figure that reminds one of some mocking imp of fable.
Seite 390 - ... fashion, on the endless streams or in the boundless forests. I was leaving the equator, where the well-balanced forces of Nature maintained a land-surface and climate that seemed to be typical of mundane order and beauty, to sail towards the North Pole, where lay my home under crepuscular skies somewhere about fifty-two degrees of latitude.
Seite 89 - The reptile has a most hideous appearance, owing to its being very broad in the middle, and tapering abruptly at both ends. It is very abundant in some parts of the country ; nowhere more so than in the Lago Grande, near Santarem, where it is often seen coiled up in the corners of farm-yards, and detested for its habit of carrying off poultry, young calves, or whatever animal it can get within reach of.
Seite 65 - A still more remarkable ant was found up the Tapajos, in a channel of about a quarter of a mile in breadth. Wherever the beach was sandy it was covered with ' swarms of the terrible ' fire-ant, whose sting is likened by the Brazilians to the ' puncture of a red-hot needle. There was scarcely a square ' inch of ground free from them.
Seite 13 - They are solitary wasps, each female working on her own account. After making a gallery two or three inches in length in a slanting direction from the surface, the owner backs out and takes a few turns round the orifice apparently to see whether it is well made, but in reality, I believe, to take note of the locality, that she may find it again. This done, the busy workwoman flies away ; but returns, after an absence varying in different cases from a few minutes to an hour or more, with a fly in...
Seite 173 - Mr. Bates, another most capable judge, remarks with reference to the savage tribes on the Upper Amazons, " that the strange inflexibility of the Indian organization, both bodily and mental, is owing to the isolation in which each small tribe has lived, and to the narrow round of life and thought, and close intermarriages for countless generations, which are the necessary results. Their fecundity is of a low degree, for it is very rare to find an Indian family having so many as four children, and...