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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-17-neu> [abgerufen am 28.03.2024].

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Titel Nocturnal life of animals in the primeval forest
Jahr 1851
Ort London
Nachweis
in: The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Younger Members of the English Church 1:5 (Mai 1851), S. 360–365.
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Kapitälchen.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: VI.118
Dateiname: 1849-Das_naechtliche_Leben-17-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 6
Zeichenanzahl: 10137

Weitere Fassungen
Das nächtliche Leben im Urwald (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1849, Deutsch)
The Nocturnal Life of Animals in the Primeval Forest (London, 1849, Englisch)
The nocturnal life of animals in the primeval forest (London, 1849, Englisch)
Nocturnal Life of Animals in the Primeval Forest (London, 1849, Englisch)
The forest at midnight (Banbury, 1849, Englisch)
Life of animals in the primeval forest (Belfast, 1849, Englisch)
Das nächtliche Thierleben im Urwalde (Leipzig, 1849, Deutsch)
A Burning Day on the Orinoco (London, 1850, Englisch)
A Burning Day on the Orinoco (Nottingham, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal Life of Animals. – A Night on the Apure (London, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal life of animals. – A night on the Apure (London, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal Life of Animals. – A Night on the Apure (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal Life of Animals. – A night on the Apure (Devizes, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal Life of Animals – A Night on the Apure (Manchester, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal life of animals in the primeval forest (Pietermaritzburg, 1850, Englisch)
The Forest at Midnight (Worcester, 1850, Englisch)
Nocturnal life of animals in the primeval forest (London, 1851, Englisch)
Der Waldsaum am Orinoco (Leipzig, 1851, Deutsch)
Das nächtliche Thierleben im Urwalde (Baltimore, Maryland, 1853, Deutsch)
Syd-Amerikas skogar (Borgå, 1854, Schwedisch)
A night on the banks of a south american river (Glasgow, 1856, Englisch)
[Das nächtliche Leben im Urwald] (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1858, Englisch)
Vida nocturna dos animaes nas florestas do Novo Mundo (São Luís, 1859, Portugiesisch)
|360|

NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS IN THEPRIMEVAL FOREST.

If we comprehend in one general view the wooded regionwhich includes the whole of the interior of South America,from the grassy steppes of Venezuela to the Pampas ofBuenos Ayres, or from 8° north to 19° south latitude, weshall perceive that this connected forest of the tropical zonehas an extent unequalled in any other portion of theearth’s surface. Its area is about twelve times that ofGermany. Traversed in all directions by systems ofrivers, in which the minor and tributary streams exceedour Rhine or our Danube in the abundance of theirwaters, it owes the wonderful luxuriance of the growthof its trees to the combined influence of great moistureand high temperature.‘The rivers, with their countless lateral arms, afford theonly routes by which the country can be traversed. Be-tween the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and the Rio Negro,|361| astronomical observations, and, where these were want-ing, determinations by compass of the directions of therivers, respectively showed us that two lonely missionvillages might be only a few miles apart, and yet that themonks, when they wished to visit each other, could onlydo so by spending a day and a half in following the wind-ings of small streams, in canoes hollowed out of thetrunks of trees. A striking evidence of the impenetra-bility of particular parts of the forest is afforded by atrait related by an Indian, of the habits of the largeAmerican tiger, or panther-like jaguar. These creaturesare often led, by their love of wandering and by theirrapacity, to lose themselves in such impenetrable parts ofthe forest that they can no longer hunt along the ground,and live instead in the trees, where they are the terrorof the families of monkeys and of the prehensile-tailedviverra, the cercoleptes.‘On leaving the Island del Diamante, in which Zambos,who speak Spanish, cultivate sugar-canes, we entered onscenes of nature characterized by wildness and grandeur.The air was filled with countless flocks of flamingoes andother water-birds, which appeared against the blue skylike a dark cloud with continually varying outlines. Theriver had here narrowed to between 900 and 1000 feet,and, flowing in a perfectly straight line, formed a kind ofcanal enclosed on either side by dense wood. The marginof the forest presents at this part a singular appearance.In front of the almost impenetrable wall of giant trunks ofCæsalpinia, Cedrela, and Desmanthus, there rises from thesandy river beach, with the greatest regularity, a low hedgeof sanso, only four feet high, consisting of a small shrub,which forms a new genus of the family of Euphorbiaceæ.Some slender thorny palms stand next; and the whole re-sembles a close, well-pruned garden hedge, having only occa-sional openings at considerable distances from each other,which have doubtless been made by the larger four-footed|362| beasts of the forest to gain easy access to the river. Onesees, more especially in the early morning and at sunset, theAmerican tiger or jaguar, the tapir, and the peccary, leadtheir young through these openings to the river to drink.When startled by the passing canoe, they do not attemptto regain the forest by breaking forcibly through the hedgewhich has been described, but one has the pleasure of seeingthese wild animals stalk leisurely along, between the riverand the hedge, for four or five hundred paces, until theyhave reached the nearest opening, when they disappearthrough it. In the course of an almost uninterruptedriver navigation of 1520 geographical miles on the Ori-noco to near its sources, on the Cassiquiare, and on theRio Negro—and during which we were confined forseventy-four days to a small canoe—we enjoyed the repe-tition of the same spectacle at several different points,and, I may add, always with new delight. There camedown together, to drink, to bathe, or to fish, groups con-sisting of the most different classes of animals, the largermammalia being associated with many coloured herons,palamedeas, and proudly-stepping curassow and cashewbirds. “Es como en el Paraiso,” it is here as in Paradisesaid, with a pious air, our steersman, an old Indian whohad been brought up in the house of an ecclesiastic. Thepeace of the golden age was, however, far from prevailingamong the animals of this American paradise, whichcarefully watched and avoided each other. The capybara,a cang, three or four feet long, is devoured in the riversby the crocodiles, and on shore by the tiger. It runs soindifferently, that we were several times able to catchindividuals from among the numerous herds which pre-sented themselves.‘Below the Mission of Santa Barbara de Wuchuna wepassed the night as usual, under the open sky, on a sandyflat on the banks of the Rio Apure, closely bordered bythe impenetrable forest. It was not without difficulty|363| that we succeeded in finding dry wood to kindle the fire,with which it is always customary in that country to sur-round a bivouac, in order to guard against the attacks ofthe jaguar. The night was humid, mild, and moonlight.Several crocodiles approached the shore; I think I haveobserved these animals to be attracted by fire, like ourcray-fish, and many other inhabitants of the water. Theoars of our boat were placed upright and carefully driveninto the ground, to form poles from which our hammockscould be suspended. Deep stillness prevailed; only fromtime to time we heard the blowing of the fresh-waterdolphins, which are peculiar to the Orinoco network ofrivers, which followed each other in long lines.‘Soon after 11 o’clock such a disturbance began to beheard in the adjoining forest, that for the remainder of thenight all sleep was impossible. The wild cries of theanimals appeared to rage throughout the forest. Amongthe many voices which resounded together, the Indianscould only recognise those which, after short pauses inthe general uproar, were first heard singly. There wasthe monstrous howling of the aluates (the howlingmonkey); the plaintive, soft, and almost flute-like tonesof the small sapajous; the snorting grumblings of thestriped nocturnal monkey; the interrupted cries of thegreat tiger, the cuquar or maneless American lion, thepeccary, the sloth, and a host of parrots, of parraquas,and other pheasant-like birds. When the tigers camenear the edge of the forest, our dog, which had beforebarked incessantly, came howling to seek refuge underour hammocks. Sometimes the cry of the tiger washeard to proceed from amidst the high branches of a tree,and was in such case always accompanied by the plaintivepiping of the monkeys, who were seeking to escape fromthe unwonted pursuit.‘If one asks the Indians why this incessant noise anddisturbance arises on particular nights, they answer, with|364| a smile, that “the animals are rejoicing in the brightmoonlight, and keeping the feast of the full moon.” Tome it appeared that the scene had probably originated insome accidental combat, and that hence the disturbancehad spread to other animals, and thus the noise hadincreased more and more. The jaguar pursues the pec-caries and tapirs, and these, pressing against each otherin their flight, break through the interwoven tree-likeshrubs which impede their escape; the apes on the topsof the trees, being frightened by the crash, join theircries to those of the larger animals; this arouses thetribes of birds, who build their nests in communities, andthus the whole animal world becomes in a state of com-motion. Longer experience taught us that it is by nomeans always the celebration of the brightness of themoon which disturbs the repose of the woods: we wit-nessed the same occurrence repeatedly, and found thatthe voices were loudest during violent falls of rain, orwhen, with loud peals of thunder, the flashing lightningilluminated the deep recesses of the forest. The good-natured Franciscan Monk, who, although he had beensuffering several months from fever, accompanied us,used to say, when fearful on the closing in of night thatthere might be a thunder-storm, “May heaven grant aquiet night both to us and to the wild beasts of theforest.”’Scenes, such as those I have just described, were won-derfully contrasted with the stillness which prevails withinthe tropics during the noontide hours of a day of morethan usual heat. I borrow from the same journal therecollections of a day at the Narrows of Baraguan:—‘On the naked rock which formed the shores, we sawonly, besides an old withered stem of aubletia, and a newapocinea, a few silvery croton shrubs. A thermometerrose to 122° Fahrenheit. All distant objects had wave-like undulating outlines, the effect of mirage; not a breath|365| of air stirred the fine dust-like sand. The sun was inthe zenith, 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, rendered stillmore sensible the red haze which veiled the distance.All the naked rocks and boulders around were coveredwith a countless number of large thick-scaled iguanas,gecko-lizards, and variously-spotted salamanders. Mo-tionless, with uplifted heads and open mouths, they ap-peared to inhale the burning air with ecstasy. At suchtimes the larger animals seek shelter in the recesses ofthe forest, and the herds hide themselves under the thickfoliage of the trees, or in the clefts of the rocks; but if,in this apparent entire stillness of nature, one listens forthe faintest tones which an attentive ear can seize, thereis perceived an all-pervading rustling sound, a hummingand fluttering of insects close to the ground, and in thelowest strata of the atmosphere. Everything announcesa world of organic activity and life. In every bush, inthe cracked bark of the trees, in the earth undermined byhymenopterous insects, life stirs audibly. It is, as itwere, one of the many voices of nature, heard only bythe sensitive and reverent ear of her true votaries.’—Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature.