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Alexander von Humboldt: „Nocturnal life of animals in the primeval forest“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1849-Das_naechtliche_Leben-15-neu> [abgerufen am 19.04.2024].
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| Titel | Nocturnal life of animals in the primeval forest | ||||
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| Jahr | 1850 | ||||
| Ort | Pietermaritzburg | ||||
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Nachweis in: The Natal Witness, and Agricultural and Commercial Advertiser 5:229 (5. Juli 1850), [o. S.].
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung. | ||||
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On leaving the Island del Diamante (in the
Ori-noco), we entered on scenes of nature characterisedby wildness and grandeur. The air was filled withcountless flocks of flamingoes and other water birds,which
appeared against the blue sky like a darkcloud with continually
varying outlines. The riverhad here narrowed to between nine
hundred andone thousand feet, and flowing in a perfectly
straightline, formed a kind of canal enclosed on either sideby dense wood. The margin of the forest presentsat
this part a singular appearance. In front of thealmost impenetrable
wall of giant trunks, thererises from the sandy river beach, with
the greatestregularity, a low hedge of Sauno, only four feethigh, consisting of a small shrub, Hermesia Cas-taneifolia which forms a new genus of the family ofEuphorbiaciæ. Some slender thorny palms standnext; and the
whole resembles a close, well-prunedgarden hedge, having only
occasional openings atconsiderable distances from each other, which
havedoubtless been made by the larger four-footed beastsof the forest to gain easy access to the river. Onesees, more especially in the early morning and atsunset, the
American tiger or jaguar, the tapir andthe peccary, lead their
young through these open-ings to the river to drink. When startled
by thepassing canoe, they do not attempt to regain theforest by breaking forcibly through the hedge whichhas been described, but one has the pleasure ofseeing these wild
animals stalk leisurely along, be-tween the river and the hedge, for
four or five hun-dred paces, until they have reached the nearestopening, when they disappear through it. In thecourse of an almost uninterrupted river navigationof 1,520
geographical miles on the Orinoco to nearits sources on the
Cassiquiare and on the Rio Negro—and during which we were
confined for seventydays to a small canoe—we enjoyed the
repetition ofthe same spectacle at several points, and, I mayadd, with new delight. There came down togetherto
drink, to bathe, or to fish, groups consisting orthe most different
classes of animals, the large mam-malia, being associated with many
colored herons,palamedeas, and proudly stepping curassow andcashew birds. “Es como en el Paradiso,” “It
ishere as in Paradise,” said with a pious air our
steers-man, an old Indian who had been brought up in thehouse of an ecclesiastic. The peace of the goldenage was, however, far from prevailing among theanimals of this
American paradise, who carefullywatched and avoided each
other.—Humboldt.
NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS IN THEPRIMEVAL FOREST.