Wanderings in South America | Page 5

bat, the other
measures above two feet from wing to wing extended.
Snakes are frequently met with in the woods betwixt the sea-coast and
the rock Saba, chiefly near the creeks and on the banks of the river.
They are large, beautiful and formidable. The rattlesnake seems partial
to a tract of ground known by the name of Canal Number-three: there
the effects of his poison will be long remembered.
The camoudi snake has been killed from thirty to forty feet long;
though not venomous, his size renders him destructive to the passing
animals. The Spaniards in the Oroonoque positively affirm that he
grows to the length of seventy or eighty feet and that he will destroy the
strongest and largest bull. His name seems to confirm this: there he is
called "matatoro," which literally means "bull-killer." Thus he may be
ranked amongst the deadly snakes, for it comes nearly to the same
thing in the end whether the victim dies by poison from the fangs,
which corrupts his blood and makes it stink horribly, or whether his
body be crushed to mummy, and swallowed by this hideous beast.
The whipsnake of a beautiful changing green, and the coral, with
alternate broad traverse bars of black and red, glide from bush to bush,
and may be handled with safety; they are harmless little creatures.
The labarri snake is speckled, of a dirty brown colour, and can scarcely
be distinguished from the ground or stump on which he is coiled up; he
grows to the length of about eight feet and his bite often proves fatal in
a few minutes.
Unrivalled in his display of every lovely colour of the rainbow, and
unmatched in the effects of his deadly poison, the counacouchi glides
undaunted on, sole monarch of these forests; he is commonly known by
the name of the bush-master. Both man and beast fly before him, and
allow him to pursue an undisputed path. He sometimes grows to the
length of fourteen feet.
A few small caymen, from two to twelve feet long, may be observed

now and then in passing up and down the river; they just keep their
heads above the water, and a stranger would not know them from a
rotten stump.
Lizards of the finest green, brown and copper colour, from two inches
to two feet and a half long, are ever and anon rustling among the fallen
leaves and crossing the path before you, whilst the chameleon is busily
employed in chasing insects round the trunks of the neighbouring trees.
The fish are of many different sorts and well-tasted, but not, generally
speaking, very plentiful. It is probable that their numbers are
considerably thinned by the otters, which are much larger than those of
Europe. In going through the overflowed savannas, which have all a
communication with the river, you may often see a dozen or two of
them sporting amongst the sedges before you.
This warm and humid climate seems particularly adapted to the
producing of insects; it gives birth to myriads, beautiful past
description in their variety of tints, astonishing in their form and size,
and many of them noxious in their qualities.
He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated
nature, and whose ear is not shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will
be delighted in passing up the River Demerara. Every now and then the
maam or tinamou sends forth one long and plaintive whistle from the
depth of the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan and
the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo is heard during the interval.
The campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger; at a
distance of nearly three miles you may hear this snow-white bird
tolling every four or five minutes, like the distant convent-bell. From
six to nine in the morning the forests resound with the mingled cries
and strains of the feathered race; after this they gradually die away.
From eleven to three all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and
scarce a note is heard, saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo; it
is then that, oppressed by the solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest
shade and wait for the refreshing cool of evening.
At sundown the vampires, bats and goat-suckers dart from their lonely

retreat and skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different kinds
of frogs almost stun the ear with their hoarse and hollow-sounding
croaking, while the owls and goat-suckers lament and mourn all night
long.
About two hours before daybreak you will hear the red monkey
moaning as though in deep distress; the houtou, a solitary bird, and
only found in the thickest recesses of the forest, distinctly articulates
"houtou, houtou," in