Para; or, Scenes and adventures on the banks of the Amazon |
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alligators Amazon amid animal Anzevedo appearance arrived bank beautiful beneath birds boat branches Brazil Brazilian breeze bushes Cajueiro cannon-ball tree canoe Captain Caripe CHAPTER charming companion cottages curious damsels dark delicious delight distance drooping ducks ears eels egrets electrical eels exceedingly eyes feathered feet in length fish flowers foliage forest fruit garden gaze grove guava hammocks hand head heard hour immense Indian insects island Jungcal kind Largo light looking lovely magnificence Marajo mastication miles mind monkeys montaria morning mulatto natives natural Nazere never night occasion ourselves palms parrots perceived plumage Portuguese pretty prodigious province purpose remarkable Rio Negro river Roscenia roseate spoonbills scene scenery schooner seemed seen Senhor shore shrubbery side slave snake soon species spectacle spot strange stream streamlet suddenly surface tall thicket tion toucans trees tropical veranda vessel walk wild wonderful woods
Popular passages
Page 219 - ... extend horizontally over the surface of the water. By their wild cries, and the length of their reeds, they prevent the horses from running away and reaching the bank of the pool. The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by the repeated discharge of their electric batteries.
Page 218 - The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the mud, and excites them to combat. These yellowish and livid eels, resembling large aquatic serpents, swim >on the surface of the water, and crowd under the bellies of the horses and mules. A contest between animals of so different an organization furnishes a very striking spectacle.
Page 219 - Others panting, with mane erect, and haggard eyes, expressing anguish, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by which they are overtaken. • They are driven back by the Indians into the middle of the water ! but a small number succeed in eluding die active vigilance of the fishermen.
Page 219 - They are drowned from the impossibility of rising amid the prolonged struggle between the other horses and the eels. We had little doubt, that the fishing would terminate by killing successively all the animals engaged ; but by degrees the impetuosity of this unequal combat diminished, and the wearied gymnoti dispersed.
Page 127 - ... more gigantic foliage ; the character of grandeur which they impress upon the landscape of the countries they inhabit ; their immense value to mankind, as affording food, and raiment, and numerous objects of economical importance ; or, finally, the prodigious development of those organs by which their race is to be propagated.
Page 156 - East, and besprinkled us with a shower of luminous beams, which trembling through the interstices of the leaves, seemed like the spirits of so many diamonds ! A more divine spectacle of beauty never was beheld. The most gorgeous creations of the poet's imagination, if realized, could not surpass in magnificence this sun-lighted arbor, with its roses and flowers of varied hues, all set like stars in a canopy of green. Sprightly humming-birds flitted before us, sparkling like jewels for a moment, than...
Page 219 - During a long time they seem to prove victorious. Several horses sink beneath the violence of the invisible strokes, which they receive from all sides in organs the most essential to life; and stunned by the force and frequency of the shocks, disappear under the water. Others, panting, with mane erect and haggard eyes, expressing anguish, raise themselves, and endeavour to flee from the storm by which they are overtaken.
Page 6 - ... for the first time, in all her pristine loveliness, and seemed indeed, to our excited imagination, to present but a dreamy picture of fairy land. At an early hour in the morning we weighed anchor, and with a fresh breeze and strong tide rapidly moved up the noble river, gliding by the most beautiful scenery that fancy can conceive. The nearly impenetrable forest which lined the shore was of a deep emerald green, and consisted of exceedingly lofty trees, of remarkably curious and grotesque figures,...
Page 123 - ... white, with a tinge of brown. The Bearded Eagles, of which so many fabulous tales have been related, are inhabitants of the highest parts of the great chain of the Alps that separates Switzerland from Italy, They are frequently seen of immense size. One that was caught in the canton of Glarus, measured from the tip of its beak to the extremity of its tail, nearly seven feet, and eight feet and a half from tip to tip of its wings ; but some have been shot that were much larger. These birds form...
Page 16 - The operation of making the shoes is aa simple as it is interesting. Imagine yourself, dear reader, in one of the seringa groves of Brazil. Around you are a number of good-looking natives, of low stature and olive complexions. All are variously engaged. One is stirring with a long wooden stick, the contents of a cauldron, placed over a pile of blazing embers. This is the liquid as it was taken from the rubber tree. Into this a wooden last, covered with clay and having a handle, is plunged.