A Burning Day on the Orinoco.—On the naked rocks which formed the shores we saw only, besides an old withered stem of Aubletia and a new Apocinea, a few silvery eroton shrubs.

A thermometer, observed in the shade, but brought within a few inches of the towering mass of granite rock, rose to above 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

All distant objects had wave-like undulating outlines, the effect of mirage; not a breath of air stirred the fine dust like sand.

The sun was in the zenith, and the flood of light which he poured down upon the river, and which, from a slight rippling movement of the waters, flashed sparkling back, rendered still more sensible the red haze which veiled the distance.

All the naked rocks and boulders around were covered with a countless number of large thick-scaled iguanas, gecko lizards, and variously spotted salamanders.

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 the recesses of the forest, and the birds hide themselves under the thick foliage of the trees, or in the clefts of the rocks; but if, in this apparent entire stillness of nature, one listens for the faintest tones which an attentive ear can seize, there is perceived an all-pervading rustling sound, a humming and fluttering of insects close to the ground, and in the lower strata of the atmosphere.

Everything announces a world of organic activity and life.

In every bush, in the cracked bark of the trees, in the earth undermined by insects, life stirs audibly.

It is, as it were, one of the many voices of of nature, heard only by the sensitive and reverent ear of her true votaries.—Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature.