Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Number Of Matacani, Or Little Deer,* (* They Are
Called In The Country Venados De Tierras Calientes (Deer Of The
Warm
lands.)) is so considerable in the Llanos, that a trade might be
carried on with their skins.* (* This trade
Is carried on, but on a
very limited scale, at Carora and at Barquesimeto.) A skilful hunter
could easily kill more than twenty in a day; but such is the indolence
of the inhabitants, that often they will not give themselves the
trouble of taking the skin. The same indifference is evinced in the
chase of the jaguar, a skin of which fetches only one piastre in the
steppes of Varinas, while at Cadiz it costs four or five.
The steppes that we traversed are principally covered with grasses of
the genera Killingia, Cenchrus, and Paspalum.* (* Killingia
monocephala, K. odorata, Cenchrus pilosus, Vilfa tenacissima,
Andropogon plumosum, Panicum micranthum, Poa repens, Paspalum
leptostachyum, P. conjugatum, Aristida recurvata. (Nova Genera et
Species Plantarum, volume 1 pages 84 to 243.) At this season, near
Calabozo and San Jerome del Pirital, these grasses scarcely attain the
height of nine or ten inches. Near the banks of the Apure and the
Portuguesa they rise to four feet in height, so that the jaguar can
conceal himself among them, to spring upon the mules and horses that
cross the plain. Mingled with these gramina some plants of the
dicotyledonous class are found; as turneras, malvaceae, and, what is
very remarkable, little mimosas with irritable leaves,* called by the
Spaniards dormideras.
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