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 Satellite Of The Earth Appears To All
Savage Nations The Abode Of The Blessed, The Country Of Abundance.
The
Esquimaux, who counts among his riches a plank or trunk of a tree,
thrown by the currents on
A coast destitute of vegetation, sees in the
moon plains covered with forests; the Indian of the forests of Orinoco
there beholds open savannahs, where the inhabitants are never stung by
mosquitos.
After proceeding further to the south, where the system of
yellowish-brown waters commences,* (* Generally called black waters,
aguas negras.) on the banks of the Atabapo, the Tuni, the Tuamini, and
the Rio Negro, we enjoyed an unexpected repose. These rivers, like the
Orinoco, cross thick forests, but the tipulary insects, as well as the
crocodiles, shun the proximity of the black waters. Possibly these
waters, which are a little colder, and chemically different from the
white waters, are adverse to the larvae of tipulary insects and gnats,
which may be considered as real aquatic animals. Some small rivers,
the colour of which is deep blue, or yellowish-brown (as the Toparo,
the Mataveni, and the Zama), are exceptions to the almost general rule
of the absence of mosquitos over the black waters. These three rivers
swarm with them; and the Indians themselves fixed our attention on the
problematic causes of this phenomenon. In going down the Rio Negro, we
breathed freely at Maroa, Daripe, and San Carlos, villages situated on
the boundaries of Brazil. But this improvement of our situation was of
short continuance; our sufferings recommenced as soon as we entered
the Cassiquiare.
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