|7|
A Burning Day on the Orinoco.—On the nakedrocks which formed the shores we saw only, besides anold withered stem of Aubletia and a new Apocinea, afew silvery eroton shrubs. A thermometer, observed inthe shade, but brought within a few inches of thetowering mass of granite rock, rose to above 122 de-grees Fahrenheit. All distant objects had wave-likeundulating outlines, the effect of mirage; not a breath ofair stirred the fine dust like sand. The sun was in thezenith, and the flood of light which he poured downupon the river, and which, from a slight rippling move-ment of the waters, flashed sparkling back, renderedstill more sensible the red haze which veiled the dis-tance. All the naked rocks and boulders around werecovered with a countless number of large thick-scalediguanas, gecko lizards, and variously spotted salaman-ders. Motionless, with uplifted heads and open mouths,they appeared to inhale the burning air with ecstasy.At such times the larger animals seek shelter in therecesses of the forest, and the birds hide themselvesunder the thick foliage of the trees, or in the clefts ofthe rocks; but if, in this apparent entire stillness ofnature, one listens for the faintest tones which an at-tentive ear can seize, there is perceived an all-pervadingrustling sound, a humming and fluttering of insectsclose to the ground, and in the lower strata of the at-mosphere. Everything announces a world of organicactivity and life. In every bush, in the cracked bark ofthe trees, in the earth undermined by insects, life stirsaudibly. It is, as it were, one of the many voices ofof nature, heard only by the sensitive and reverent earof her true votaries.—Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature.
