Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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No One Enters The Woods In The Torrid Zone Without Being
Armed With A Machete, Not Only To Cut His Way Through The Woods,
But As A Defence Against Wild Beasts.) The Tiger, Crouching Over
His Prey, Awaited Their Approach With Tranquillity, And Fell Only
After A Long And Obstinate Resistance.
This fact, and many others
verified on the spot, prove that the great jaguar* of Terra Firma
(* Felis onca,
Linn., which Buffon called panthere oillee, and
which he believed came from Africa.), like the jaguarete of
Paraguay, and the real tiger of Asia, does not flee from man when
it is dared to close combat, and when not intimidated by the number
of its assailants. Naturalists at present admit that Buffon was
entirely mistaken with respect to the greatest of the feline race
of America. What Buffon says of the cowardice of tigers of the new
continent, relates to the small ocelots.* (* Felis pardalis, Linn.,
or the chibiguazu of Azara, different from the Tlateo-Ocelotl, or
tiger-cat of the Aztecs.) At the Orinoco, the real jaguar of
America sometimes leaps into the water, to attack the Indians in
their canoes.
Opposite the farm of Bermudez, two spacious caverns open into the
crevice of Cuchivano, whence at times there issue flames, which may
be seen at a great distance in the night; and, judging by the
elevation of the rocks, above which these fiery exhalations ascend,
we should be led to think that they rise several hundred feet. This
phenomenon was accompanied by a subterranean, dull, and long
continued noise, at the time of the last great earthquake of
Cumana.
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