b K. . 87 1 H "I giyf tiifff sooks for lhe founding of a College in tlds Colony" IWW»,^«jiWrfKgKg»W Gift Of Dr. Hiram Bingham ofthe Class of 1898 ¦ ~~ 1907 ESQLIMAUX DOG-TEAM. THE POLAE AND TeOPICAL WOELDS: A DESCEIPTION OF MAN AND NATUllE IN THE \ - ¦• ' ;Jolar and f cfdstorial j},egions of ths Ipobs, BY DR. G. HART"WIG, AUTHOR OF "THE SEA AND ITS LI"W]SrG WONDERS," AND THE "HARMONIES OF NATUllE." EDITF.D, WITH ADDITION'AL CIIAPTF.RS, BY DR. A. n. GUP]RNSEY. WITH NEARLY TWO HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. H. 0. JOHNSON, PHILALELPUIA, PENN. 1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by BILL, NICHOLS & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wasliington, D. C. bK.?")! H fU.AItK W. BRYAN A CO., ELEOTROTYPRK.S. PRINTEItS AND BINDERS, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. PREFACE, T"N editing and combining into one volmne the two admirable works -^ of Dr. Hartvs^ig, " The Polar World" and " The Tropical World," I have had in view, while working in the spirit of the Author, to avail myself of all new sources of information, and especially to enlarge upon those features which are of especial interest to American readers. Thus, in " The Polar World," I have added a chapter descriptive of our new acquisition of Alaska, full materials for which came into my hands from our Department of State. I have also added a chapter describing the remarkable exploring expedition in the Arctic regions, performed by my friend, Charles Francis Hall. This expedition is especially notable from the clear proof which it furnishes that, had Sir John Franklin only known how to avail himself of the facilities for living afforded by the region in which he was cast away, his whole party might have survived and made then way back to their homes ; and also that the fearful suffer ings so graphically narrated by the lamented Kane might all have been avoided, had he only have known how to adapt his mode of Iffe to the requirements of an Arctic climate. Of HaU's second expedition, lasting from 1864 to the close of 1869, no full account has been published ; he has been too busily engaged in preparing for a third expedition to find time to prepare the narrative of that which he had just accomplished. I have, however, his own testimony to the fact that all his previous opinions are fully confirmed. His own appearance is abundant proof that more than ten years mainly spent in the high Arctic regions, is not necessarily more exhaustive of life, than the same space of time passed among us. In the few weeks whieh will elapse between the writing of this preface and the opening of northern navigation. Hall will have set Dut on his third expedition, sent out under the auspices of our Govern ment, and supplied with every requisite for thorough exploration. We nay confidently expect that he will be able to solve the still vexed ques- ions as to the nature of the region which encircles the northern pole. VI preface. In " The Tropical World," my additions to the labors of Dr. Hartwig have been much more considerable. Since his work was written, im mense additions have been made to our knowledge of portions of the region lying within the Tropics. Squier has traversed the plateaus of Bolivia and Peru ; and apart from the abstracts of his journeys which he has published, he has favored me with much information to be embodied in the great work upon which he has for years been engaged. Holton has furnished a curious book on the great table-land of Bogota ; Orton has crossed the Andes, explored the Valley of Quito, and descended the Amazon from its upper waters to its mouth; and Agassiz has made large contributions to our knowledge of the natural history of the mighty Valley of the Amazon. Our knowledge of the hitherto almost unknown parts of Africa has been more than doubled since Dr. Hartwig prepared his work. Anders- SON and Baldwin ^ have told their hunting adventures in Southern Africa ; Barth has traversed the great Sahara ; Speke and Baker have solved the mystery of the source of the Nile ; Du Chailllt has again pierced the continent on the line of the equator, and described the mys teries of the home of the gorilla. Perhaps the most entirely fresh account of a part of the Tropical World is Wallace's work on the Malay Archipelago, a group of islands sur passing in extent all the inhabitable parts of Europe, and, although now almost uninhabited, capable of sustaining a population greater than that Qow living outside of China and India. Of all these, and many more authorities, I have made free use ; and in both parts of the work, I have steadily kept in view the leading idea of Dr. Hartwig : To describe the Polar and Tropical Worlds in their prin cipal natural features, and to point out the influence of their respective climates upon the development of animal and vegetable hfe, and par ticularly upon human beings. The liberality of the Publishers has placed at my disposal illustrations far exceeding in number and beauty those in the original work. They present to the eye information which words would often be inadequate to express to the ear. I trust that my own additions to the work will not be found unworthy of the foundation laid by Dr. Hartwig. Alfred H. Guernsey. New yoBK, March, 1871. CONTENTS. chapter I. THE ARCTIC LANDS. The barren Grounds or Tundri. — Abundance of animal Life on the Tundri in Summer. — Their Silence and Desolation in Winter. — Protection afforded to Vegetation by the Snow. — Flower-growth in the highest Latitudes. — Character of Tundra Vegetation. — Southern Boundarv-line of the banen Grounds. — Their Extent. — ^The forest Zone. — Arctic Trees. — Slowness of their Growth. — Monotony of the Northern Forests. — Mosquitoes. — The various Causes which determine the Severity of an Arctic Climate. — Insular and Continental Position. — Currents. — Winds. — Extremes of Cold observed by Sir E. Belcher and Dr. Kane. — How is Man able to support the Rigors of an Arctic Winter ? — Proofs of a milder Clim;\te having once reigned in the Arctic Regions. — Its Cause according to Dr. Oswald Heer. — Peculiar Beauties of the Arctic Regions. — Sunset. — Long lunar Nights. — The Aurora Page 17 CHAPTER II. ARCTIC LAND QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. The Reindeer. — Structure of its Foot. — Clattering Noise when walking. — Antlers. — Extraordinary olfactory Powers. — The Icelandic Moss. — Present and Former Range of the Reindeer. — Its hivalu- able Qualities as an Arctic domestic Animal. — Revolts against Oppression.— -Enemies of the Rein deer.— The Wolf.— The Glutton or Wolverine.— Gad-flies.— The Elk or Moose-deer. — The Musk- ox. — The Wild Sheep of the Rocky Mountains. — The Siberian Argali. — The Arctic Fox. — Its Bur rows. — The Lemmings. — Their Migrations and Enemies. — Arctic Anatidse. — The Snow-bunting. — The Lapland Bunting. — The Sea-eagle. — Drowned by a Dolphin 34 CHAPTER III. THE ARCTIC SEAS. Dangers peculiar to the Arctic Sea. — Ice-fields.— Hummocks. — Collision of Ice-fields. — Icebergs.- Their Origin. Their Size. — The Glaciers which give them Birth. — Their Beauty. — Sometimes useful Auxiliaries to the Mariner. — Dangers of anchoring to a Berg. — A crumljling Berg. — The Ice-blink. Fogs. Transparency of the Atmosphere. — Phenomena of Reflection and Refraction. — Causes which prevent the Accumulation of Polar Ice. — Tides. — Currents. — Ice a bad Conductor of Heat.— Wise Provisions of Nature 45 CHAPTER IV. ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. Populousness of the Arctic Seas. —The Greenland Whale. —The Fin Whales.— The Narwhal.— The Beluga, or White Dolphin. — The Black Dolphin. — His wholesale Massacre on the Faeroe Isl ands. The Ore, or Grampus. — The Seals. — The Walrus. — Its acute Smell. — History of a young Walrus. — Parental Affection. — The Polar Bear. — His Sagacity. — Hibernation of the She-bear. — Sea-birds 59 CHAPTER V. ICELAND. Volcanic Origin of the Island. — The Klofa Jokul. — Lava-streams. — The Burning Mountains of Krisu- vik. The Mud-caldrons of Reykjahlid.— The Tungo-hver at Reykholt.— The Great Geysir. — The viii CONTENTS. Strokkr.— Crystal Pools.— The Almannagja.— The Surts-hellir.— Beautiful Ice-cave.— The Gotha Foss.— The Detti Foss.-Climate.-Vegetation.-Cattle.— Baibarous Mode of Sheep-sheering.— Reindeer.— Polar Bears.— Birds.— The Eider-duck.— Videy.—Vi^r.— The Wild Swan.— The Ra ven.— The Jerfalcon.— The Giant auk, or Geirfugl.— Fish.— Fishing Season.— The White Shark.— Mineral Kingdom.— Sulphur.— Peat.— Drift-wood ^^Se 68 CHAPTER VL HISTORY OF ICELAND. Discovery of the Island by Naddodr in 861.— Gurdar.— Floki of the Ravens.— Ingolfr and Leif.— Ulfliot the Lawgiver.— The Althing.— Thiiij^-valla.— Introduction of Christianity into the Island.— Fi-ed- erick the Saxon and Thorwold the Traveller.— Thangbrand.— Golden Age of Icelandic Literature. — Snorri Sturleson.— The Island submits to Hakon, King of Norwaj', in 1264.— Long Series of Ca lamities.— Great Eruption of the Skapta Jokul in 1783.— Commercial Monopoly.— Better Times iji Prospect 89 CHAPTER VII. THE ICELANDERS. Skalholt.— Reykjavik.— The Fair.— The Peasant and the Merchant.— A Clerpi-man in his Cups.— Hay- , making. — The Icelander's Hut. — Churches. — Poverty of the Clergy.— Jon Thorlaksen. — The Semi nary of Reykjavik.— Beneficial Influence of Ihe Clerg_v. — Home Education. — Tlie Icelander's Winter's Evening.— Taste for Literature. — The Language. — The Public Library at P.eykjavik. — The Icelandic Literary Society. — Icelandic Newspapers. — Longevity. — Leprosy. — Travelling in Iceland. — Fording the Rivers. — Crossing of the Skeidara by Mr. Holland. — A Night's Bivouac 98 CHAPTER VIIL THE WESTJIAN ISLANDS. The Westmans. — Their extreme Difficulty of Access. — How they became peopled. — Heimaey. — Kaufstathir and Ofanlej'te. — Sheep-hoisting. — Egg-gathering. — Dreadful Mortalitj' among the Children. — The Ginklofi. — Gentleman John. — The Algerine Pirates. — Dreadful Sufferings of the Islandei 3 Hi CHAPTER IX. FROM DKONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. Mild Climate of the Norwegian Coast. — Its Causes. — The Norwegian Peasant. — Norwegirin Constitution. — Romantic coast Scenery. — Drontheim. — Greiffenfeld Holme and Viire. — TheSea-ragle. — The Herring- fisheries. — The Lofoten Islands. — The Cod-fisheries. — Wretched Condition of the Fishermen. — Tronis.i. — Altenfiord.— The Copper Mines. — Hammerfest the most northern Town in the World. — The North Cape 120 CHAPTER X. SPITZBERGEN — BEAK ISLAND — .IAN MEYBN. The west Coast of S|iitzbergen. — Ascension of a Mountain by Dr. Scoresbj'. — His Excursion along the Coast. — A stranded Whale. — Magdalena Bay.— Multitudes of Sea-birds. — .4nimal Life.— Midnight Silence. — Glaciers.— A dangerous Neighborhood. — Interior Plateau.— Flora of Spitzbergen. — Its Similarity with that of tlie .\lps above the Snow-line. — Reindeer. — The hyperborean Ptarmigan. — Fishes.— Coal. — Drift-wood.— Discovery of Spitzbergen by Barentz, Heemskei-k, and Ryp.— Brilliant Period of the Whale-fishery.— Cofiins.—Ei.iht English Sailors winter in Spitzbergen, 1630.— Jlelan- choly Death of some Dutch Volunteers. — Russian Hunters. — Their Mode of wintering in Spitzber gen. — Scharostin. — Walrus-ships from Hammerfest and TromsS. — Bear or Cherie Island. — Bennet. — Enormous Slaughter of Walruses.— Mildness of its Climate. — Mount Misery. — Adventurous Boat- voyage of some Norwegian Sailors. — Jan Meyen.— Beerenberg 13j CHAPTER XI. NOVA ZEMBLA. The Sea of Kara. — Loschkin. — Rosmysslow. — L'ltke. — Krotow. — Pachtussow. — Sails along the east ern Coast of the Southern Island to Matoschkin Schar. — His second Voyage and Death. — Meteoro- CONTENTS. ix logical Observations of Ziwolka. — The cold Summer of Nova Zembla. — VonBaer's scientific Voyage to Nova Zembla. — His Adventures in Matoschkin Schar.— Storm in Kustin Schar. — Sea Bath and votive Cross.— Botanical Observations. — A natural Garden.— Solitude and Silence. — A Bird Ba zar. — Hunting Expeditions of the Russians to Nova Zembla Page 147 CHAPTEB XII. THE LAPPS. Their ancient History and Conversion to Christianity. — Self-denial and Poverty of the Lapland Clergy. — ^Their singular Mode of Preaching. — Gross Superstition of the Lapps. — The Evil Spirit of the Woods. — The Lapland Witches. — Physical Constitution ofthe Lapps. — Their Dress. — The FjjlUap- pars. — Their Dwellings. — Store-houses. — Reindeer Pens. — Milking the Reindeer. — Migration. — The Lapland Dog. — Skiders, or Skates.— The Sledge, or Pulka. — Natural Beauties of Lapland. — Attachment of the Lapps to their Country. — Bear-hunting. — Wolf-hunting. — Mode of Living of the wealthy Lapps. — How they kill the Reindeer. — Visiting the Fair. — Mammon Worship. — Treasure- hiding. — " Tabak, or Braende." — Affectionate Disposition of the Lapps. — The Skogslapp. — The Fisherlapp , 156 CHAPTER XIII. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTRfe. His Birthplace and first Studies. — Journey in Lapland, 18S8. — The Iwalojoki. — The Lake of Enara. — The Pasttn- of Utzjoki. — From Rowaniemi to Kemi — Second Voyage, 1841-44. — Storm on the White Sea — Eeturn to Archangel. — The Tundras ofthe European Samoiedes. — Mesen. — Universal Drunkenness. — Sledge Journey to Pustosersk. — A Samoiede Teacher. — Tundra Storms. — Abandon ed and alone in the Wilderness. — Pustosersk. — Our Traveller's Persecutions at Ustsylmsk and Ish- emsk. — The Unsa. — Crossing the Ural. — Obdorsk. — Second Siberian Journey, 1845-48. — Overflow ing of the Obi. — Surgut. — Krasnojarsk. — Agreeable Surpri.'se. — Turuchansk — Voyage down the Jenissei. — Gastrin's Study at Plachina. — From Dudinka to Tolstoi Noss. — Frozen Feet. — Return Voyage to the South. — Frozen fast on the Jenissei. — Wonderful Preservation.— Journey across the Chinese Frontiers, and to Transbaikalia. — Return to Finland. — Professorship at Helsingfors. — Death of Castren, 1855 ^ 168 CHAPTER XIV. THE SAMOIEDES. Iheir Barbarism. — Num, or Jilibeambaertje.— Shamanism.— Samoiede Idols. — Sjada;!.— Hahe. — The Ta- debtsios, or Spirits. — The Tadibes, or Sorcerers. — Their Dress. — Their Invocations. — Their conjuring Tricks. — Reverence paid to the Dead. — A Samoiede Oath. — Appearance of the Samoiedes. — Their Dress. — A Samoiede Belle. — Character ofthe Samoiedes. — Their decreasing Numbers. — Traditions of ancient Heroes 179 CHAPTEE XV. THE OSTIAKS. What is the Obi? — Inund.itions. — An Ostiak summer Yourt. — Poverty of the Ostiak Fishermen.— .4 winter Yourt. — Attachment ofthe Ostiaks to their ancient Customs. — An Ostiak Prince. — Archeiy. — Appearance and Character of the Ostiaks. — The Fair of Obdorsk 185 CHAPTER XVI. rOSQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS — ^THEIR VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY ALONG THE SHORES OP THE POLAR SEA. Ivan the Terrible. — Strogonoflf. — Yermak, the Robber and Conqueror. — His Expeditions' to Siberia. — Battle of Tobolsk. — Yermak's Death. — Progress of the Russians to Ochotsk.— Semen Deshnew. — Condition of the Siberian Natives under the Eussian Yoke. — Voyages of Discovery in the Reign of the Empress Anna. — Prontschischtschew. — Chariton and Demetrius Laptew. — An Arctic Heroine. — Schalaurow. — Discoveries in the Sea of Bering and in the Pacific Ocean. — The Lachow Islands. — Fossil Ivory. — New Siberia. — The wooden Mountains. — The past Ages of Siberia 191 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XVIL SIBERIA — FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. Siberia.— Its immense Extent and Capabilities.— The Exiles.— Mentschikoff.— Dolgorouky.-Miinich.— The Criminals.— The free Siberian Peasant.— Extremes of Heat and Cold.— Fur-bearing Animals.— The Sable.— The Ermine.— The Siberian Weasel.— The Sea-otter.— The black Fox.— The Lynx.— The Squirrel.— The varying Hare.— The Suslik.— Importance of the Fur- trade for the Northern Provinces of the Eussian Empire.— The Gold-diggings of Eastern Siberia.— The Taiga.— Expenses and Difficulties of searching Expeditions.— Costs of Produce, and enormous Profits of successful Speculators. — Their senseless Extravagance.— First Discovery of Gold in the Ural Mountains. — Jakowlew and Demidow. — Nishne-Tagilsk Page 204 CHAPTER XVIII. middicndouff's adventures in taimubland. For what Purpose was Middendorff s Voyage to Taimurland undertaken ? — Difficulties and Obstacles. — Expedition down the Taimur River to the Polar Sea. — Storm on Taimur Lake. — Loss of the Boat. — Middendorff ill and alone in 75° N. Lat. — Saved by a grateful Samoiede. — Climate and Vegetation of Taimurland 220 CHAPTER XIX. THE JAKUTS. Their energetic Nationalit}'. — Their Descent. — Their gloomy Character. — Summer and Winter Dwell ings. — The Jakut Horse. — Incredible Powers of Endurance of the Jakuts. — Their Sharpness of Vis ion. — Surprising local Memory. — Their manual Dexterity. — Leather, Poniards, Carpets. — Jakut Gluttons. — Superstitious Fear ofthe Mountain-spirit Ljeschei. — Offerings of Horse-hair. — Improvised Songs.— The River Jakut 228 CHAPTER XX. WRANGELL. His distinguished Services as an Arctic Explorer. — From Petersburg to Jakutsk in, 1820. — Trade of Jakutsk. — From Jakutsk to Nishne-Kolymsk. — The Badarany. — Dreadful Climate of Nishne-Ko- lynisk. — Summer Plagues. — Vegetation. — Animal Life. — Reindeer-hunting. — Famine. — Inundations. — The Siberian Dog. — First Journeys over the Ice of the Polar Sea, and Exploration of the Coast beyond Cape Shelagskoi in 1821. — Dreadful Dangers and Hardships. — Matiuschkin's Sledge-journey over the Polar Sea in 1822. — Last Adventures on the Polar Sea. — A Run for Life. — Return to St. Petersburg 233 CHAPTER XXI. THE TUN6.USI. Their Relationship to the Mantchou. — ¦ Dreadful Condition of the outcast Nomads. — Character of theTungusi. — Their Outfit for the Chase. — Bear-hnnting. — Dwellings. — Diet. — A Night's Halt with Tungusi in the Forest. — Ochotsk 244 CHAPTER XXII. GEORGE WILLIAM SXELLER. His Birth. — Enters the Russian Service. — Scientific Journey to Kamchatka. — Accompanies Bering on his second Voyage of Discover)'. — Lands on the Island of Kaiak. — Shameful- Conduct of Bering. — Ship wreck on Bering Island. — Bering's Death. — Eeturn to Kamchatka. — Loss of Property. — Persecutions of the Siberian Authorities. — Frozen to Death at Tjunien 248 CHAPTER XXIII. Kamchatka. Climate. — Fertility. — Luxuriant Vegetation. — Fish. — Sea-birds. — Kamchatkan Bird-catchers. — TheBaj' of Avatscha. — Petropaylosk. — The Kamchatkans. — Their physical and moral Qualities. — The Fri- iillaria Sarrcma, — The Jluchanior. — Bears. — Dogs 254 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTEE XXIV. THE TCHUKTCHI. The Land of the Tchuktchi. — Their independent Spirit and commercial Enterprise. — Perpetual Migra tions. — The Fair of Ostrownoje. — Visit in a Tchuktch Polog. — Eaces. — Tchuktch Bayaderes. — The Tennygk, or Reindeer Tchuktchi. — The Onkilon, or Sedentary Tchuktchi. — Their Mode of Life Page 262 CHAPTER XXV. BERING SEA — THE RUSSIAN FUR COMPANY — THE ALEUTS. Bering Sea. — Unalaska. — The Pribilow Islands. — St. Matthew. — St. Laurence. — Bering's Straits. — The Russian Fur Company. — The Aleuts. — Their Character. — Their Skill and Intrepidity in hunting the Sea-otter. — The Sea-bear. — Whale-chasing. — Walrus-slaughter. — Tho Sea-lion 268 CHAPTER XXVI. ALASKA. Purchase of Alaska by the United States. — The Russian American Telegraph Scheme. — Whymper's Trip up the Yukon. — Dogs. — The Start. — Extempore Water-filter. — Snow-shoes. — The Frozen Yu kon. — Under-ground Houses. — Life at Nulato. — Cold Weather. — Auroras. — Approach of Summer. — Breaking-up of the Ice. — Fort Yukon. — ^Furs. — Descent of the Yukon. — Value of Goods. — Arctic and Tropical Life. — Moose-hunting. — Deer-corrals. — Lip Ornaments. — Canoes.— Four-post Coffin. — The Kenaian Indians. — The Aleuts. — Value of Alaska 277 CHAPTER XXVII. THE ESQUIMAUX. Their wide Extension. — Climate ofthe Regions they inhabit. — Their physical Appearance. — Their Dress. — Snow Huts. — The Kaj'ak, or the Baidar. — Hunting Apparatus and Weapons. — Enmity be tween the Esquimaux and the Eed Indian. — The "Bloody Falls." — Chase of the Reindeer. — Bird- catching. — Whale-hunting. — Various Stratagems employed to catch the Seal. — The " Keep-kuttuk." — Bear-hunting. — Walrus-hunting. — -Awaklok and Myouk. — The Esquimaux Dog. — Games and Sports. — Angekoks. — Moral Character. — Self-reliance. — Intelligence. — Iligliuk. — Commercial Ea gerness of the Esquimaux. — Their Voracity. — Seasons of Distress ' 290 CHAPTEE XXVIIL THE FUR-TRADE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. The Coureur des Bois. — The Voyageur. — The Birch-bark Canoe.— The Canadian Fur-trade in the last Century. — The Hudson's Bay Company. — Bloody Feuds between the North-west Company of Can ada and the Hudson's Bay Company. — Their Amalgamation into a new Company in 1821. — Recon struction ofthe Hudson's Bay Company in 1863. — Forts or Houses. — The Attihawnieg. — Influenc of the Company on its savage Dependents. — The Black Bear, or Baribal. — The Brown Bear. — The Grizzly Bear. — The Eaccoon. — -The American Glutton. — The Pine Marten. — The Pekan, or Wood-shock.— The Chinga. — The Mink. — The Canadian Fish-otter. — The Cros.'icd Fox. — The Black or Silvery Fox. — The Canadian Lynx, or Pishu. — The Ice-hare. — The Beaver. — The Musquash 304 CHAPTER XXIX. THE CREE INDIANS, OR EYTHINYUWUK. The various Tribes of the Crees. — Their Conquests and subsequent Defeat.— Their Wars with the Black feet.— Their Character.— Tattooing.— Their Dress.— Fondness for their Children.— The Cree Cradle.— Vapor Baths. — Games.— Their religious Ideas.— The Cree Tartarus and Elysium 319 CHAPTER XXX. THE TINNE INDIANS. The various Tribes of the TinnS Indians.— The Dog-rib.«.— Clothing.— The Hare Indians.— Degraded State of the Women.— Practical Socialists.— Character.— Cruelty to the Aged and Infirm 327 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XXXI. THE LOUCriEUX, OR KUTCHIN INDIANS. The Countries they inhabit. — Their Appearance and Dress. — Their Love of Finery.— Condition ofthe Women.— Strange Customs.— Character. — Feuds with the Esquimaux. — Their suspicious and timo rous Lives. — Pounds for catching Reindeer. — Their Lodges Page 331 CHAPTER XXXIL ARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY, FROM THE CABOTS TO BAFFIN. First Scandinavian Discoverer of America. — The Cabots. — "WiUoughby and Chancellor (1553-1554). — Stephen Burrough (1556). — Frobisher (1576-1578). — Davis (1585-1587). — Barentz, Cornells, and •¦ Brant (1594).— Wintering of the Dutch Navigators in Nova Zembla (1596-1597).— .John Knight (1606).— Murdered by the Esquimaux.— Henry Hudson (1607-1609). — BaflSn (1616) 335 CHAPTER XXXIII. ARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY, FROM BAFFIN TO m'CLINTOCK. Buchan and Franklin. — Ross and Parry (1818). — Discovery of Melville Island. — Winter Harbor (1819- 1820). — Franklin's first land Journey. — Dreadful Sufferings. — Parry's second Voyage (1821-1823). — Iligliuk. — Lyon (1824). — Parry's third Voyage (1824). — Franklin's second land Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea. — Beechey. — Parry's sledge Journey towards the Pole. — Sir John Ross's second Journey. — Five Years in the Arctic Ocean. — Back's Discovery of Great Fish River. — Dease and Simpson (18B7-1839). — Franklin and Crozier's last Voyage (1845). — Searching Expeditions. — Richardson and Rae. — Sir James Eoss. — Austin, — Penny. — De Haven. — Franklin's first Winter- quarters discovered by Ommaney. — Kennedy and Bellot. — Inglefield. — Sir E. Belcher. — Kellett. — M'Clure's Discovery of the North-west Passage. — Collinson,' — Beliefs Death. — Dr. Rae learns the Death of the Crews of the " Erebus " and " Terror." — Sir Leopold M'Clintock 344 CHAPTEE XXXIV. KANE AND HAYES. Kane sails up Smith's Sound in the " AAvance " (1853). — Winters in Rensselaer Baj'. — Sledge Journey along the Coast of Greenland. — The Three-brother Turrets. — Tennyson's Monument. — The Great Humboldt Glacier. — Dr. Hayes crosses Kennedj' Channel. — Morton's Discovery of Washington Land. — Mount Parry. — Kane resolves upon a second Wintering in Rensselaer Bay. — Departure and Return of Part of the Crew. — Sufferings of the AVinter. — The Ship abandoned. — Boat Journey to Upernavik. — Kane's Death in the Havana (1857). — Dr. Haj'es's Voyage in 1860. — He winters at Port Foulke. — Crosses Kennedy Channel. — Reaches Cape Union, the most northern known Land upon the Globe. — Koldewey. — Plans for future Voyages to the North Pole 365 CHAPTER XXXV. NEWFOJNDLAND. Its desolate Aspect. — ^Forests. — Marshes. — Barrens. — Ponds. — Fur-bearing Animals. — Severity of Cli mate. — St. John's. — Discovery of Newfoundland by the Scandinavians. — Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Rivalry of the English and French. — Importance of the Fisheries. — The Banks of Newfoundland. Mode of Fishing. — Throaters, Headers, Splitters, Salters, and Packers. — Fogs and Storms. — Seal- catching 376 CHAPTER XXXVI. GREENLAND. A mysterious Region. — Ancient Scandinavian Colonists. — Their Decline and Fall. — Hans Egede. His Trials and Success. — Foundation of Godthaab. — Herrenhuth Missionaries. — Lindenow. — The Scores- bys. — Clavering. — The Danish Settlements in Greenland. — The Greenland Esquimaux. — Seal-catch ing. — The White Dolphin.— The Narwhal.— Shark-fishery. — Fiskernasset. — Birds.— Reindeer-hunt ing. — Indigenous Plants. — Drift-wood. — Mineral Kingdom. — Mode of Life of the Greenland Esqui maux. — The Danes in Greenland. — Beautiful Scenery.— Ice Caves 382 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXVIL THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. Comparative View of the Antarctic and Arctic Regions. — Inferiority of Climate of the former. — Its Causes. — The New Shetland Islands. — South Georgia. — The Peruvian Stream. — Sea-birds. — The Gi ant Petrel. — The Albatross. — The Penguin. — The Austral Whale. — The Hunchback. — The Fin-back. — The Grampus. — Battle with a Whale. — The Sea-elephant. — The Southern Sea-bear. — The Sea- leopard.— Antarctic Fishes , ', Page 391 CHAPTER XXXVIIL ANTARCTIC VOYAGKS OF DISCOVERT. Cook's Discoveries in the Antarctic Ocean. — Bellinghausen. — Weddell — Biscoe. — Ballenv. — Dumont d'Uryille. — Wilkes. — Sir James Ross crosses the Antarctic Circle on New Year's Day, 1841. — Dis covers Victoria Land. — Dangerous Landing on Franklin Island. — An Eruption of Mount Erebus. — The Great Ice Barrier. — Providential Escape. — Dreadful Gale.— Collision. — Hazardous Passage be tween two Icebergs. — Termination of the Voyage 4Ul CHAPTER XXXIX. THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. Description ofthe Strait. — Western Entrance. — Point Dungeness. — The Narrows. — Saint Philip's Bay. — Cape Froward. — Grand Scenery. — Port Famine. — I he Sedger River. — Darwin's Ascent of Mouut Tarn. — The Bachelor River. — English Reach. — Sea Reach. — South.Desolation. — Harbor of Mercy. — Williwaws. — Discovery ofthe Strait by Ma:;ellan (October 20, 1521). — Drake. — Sarmiento. — Cav endish. — Schouten and Le Maire. — Byron. — Bougainville. — Wallis and Carteret. — King and Fitz roy. — Settlement at Punta Arenas. — Increasing Passage through the Strait. — A future Highway of Commerce 408 CHAPTEE XL. PATAGONIA AND THE PATAGONIANS. Difference of Cliraate between East and West Patagonia. — Extraordinary Aridity of East Patagonia. — ¦ Zoology. — The Guauaco. — TheTucutuco. — The Patagonian Agouti. — Vultures. — The Turkey-buz zard. — The Carrancha. — The Chiman.go. — Darwin's Ostrich. — The Patagonians. — Exaggerated Ac counts of their Stature. — Their Physiognomy and Dress. — Religious Ideas. — Superstitions. — Astro nomical Knowledge. — Division into Tribes. — The Tent, or Toldo. — Trading Eoutes. — The great Cacique. — Introduction of the Horse. — Industry. — Amusements. — Character 417 CHAPTER XLI. THE FUE GIAN S. Their miserable Condition. — Degradati''n of Body and Mind.^ — towers of Mimicrj'. — Notions of Barter. — Causes of their low State of Cultivation. — Their Food. — Limpets. — Cyttaria Darwini. — Constant Migrations. — The Fuegian Wigwam. — Weapons. — Their probable Origin. — Their Number, and va rious Tribes. — Constant Feuds. — Cannibalism. — Language. — Adventures of Fuegia Basket, Jemmy Button, and York Minster. — Missionary Labors. — Captain Gardiner. — His lamentable End 425 CHAPTEE XLIL CHARI.es FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. HaU's Expedition.— His early Life.— His reading of Arctic Adventure.— His Resolve.- His Arctic Out fit.— Sets saUon the "George Henry."— Tlie Voyage.— Kudlago.—Holsteinborg, Greenland.— Pop ulation of Greenland.— Sails fbr Davis's Strait.— Character of the Innuits.— Wreck of the " Rescue." — Ebierbing and Tookoolito.— Their Visit to England.— HaU's first Exploration.— European and In nuit Life in the Arctic Regions.— Building an Igloo.— Almost Starved.— Fight for Food with Dogs. —Ebierbing arrives with a Seal.— How he caught it.— A Seal-feast.— The Innuits and Seals.— The Polar Bear. How he teaches the Innuits to catch Seals. — At a Seal-hole. — Dogs as Seal-hunters. — Dogs and Bears. — Dogs and Reindeers.— Innuits and Walruses. — More about Igloos. — Innuit Imple ments. — Uses ofthe Reindeer. — Innuit Improvidence. — A Deer-feast.— A frozen Delicacy.— Whale- skin as Food. — Whale-gum.— How to eat Whale Ligament. — Raw Meat. — The Dress of the Innuits- sr CONTENTS. A pretty Style. — Religious Ideas of the Innuits. — Their kindly Character. — Treatment of the Aged and Infirm.— A Woman abandoned to die.— HaU's Attempt to rescue her. — The Innuit Nomads, without any form of Government. — Their Numbers Diminishing. — A Sailor wanders away. — HaU's Search for him. — Finds him frozen to death. — The Ship free from Ice. — Preparations to return. — Reset in the Ice-pack. — Another Arctic Winter. — Breaking up of the Ice.— Departure for Home.— Tookoolito and her Child " Butterfly."— Death of " Butterfly."— Arrival at Home.— Results of HaU's Expedition.— Innuit Tradi tions.— Discovery of Erobisher Relics.— HaU's Second Expedition, Page 433 THE TEOPIOAL WOELD. CHAPTER I. THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE OF THE TROPICAL WORLD. Characteristics of the Polar and Tropical Worlds.— Geographical and Climatic Limits of the Zones. — Distribution of Land and Water. — Climatic Importance of the Ocean. — Currents of the Ocean. — The Gulf Stream. — Influence of the Gulf Stream upon the Climate of Europe. The Sargasso Sea. — Columbus and the Gulf Stream- — The Pacific and Indian Currents. — Heat and Force. — Relative Positions of Hot and Cold Currents. — Currents of the Air. — The Trade Winds. — Atmospheric Currents and Climate. — The Calm Belt near the Equator. — Rainfall of Diflferent Regions. — Rainy and Dry Seasons within the Tropics. The Monsoons. — Winds as Regulators of Eains. — Annual Rainfall. — Whirlwinds. — Their Rotary Motion. — Tropical Islands. — Volcanic Islands. — Coralline Islauds. — Atolls and Reefs. — Influence of the Ocean upon Life in the Tropical Islands, 471 CHAPTER II. TABLE LANDS AND PLATEAUS OP THB TROPICAL WORLD. Influence of Elevation upon Climate — The Puna of Peru: Squier's Description of the Puna. — The Soroche or Veta. — View from La Portada. — EflTects of the Soroche. — The Sarumpe. — The Veruga Water. — Effects of the Veta on Animals. — Vegetation of the Puna. — The Llama. — The Huanacu. — The Alpaca. — The Vicuna. — Hunting the Vicuna. — The Hunts of the Ancient Incas. — Enemies of the Vicuna. — Other Native Animals. — The Ox, Horse, Mule and Sheep. — Waterfowl. — Warm Valleys. — Rapid Change of Climate According to Elevation. — Lake Titicaca: The Sacred Island of Titicaca. — Manco Capac, the First Inca. — His Journey from Lake Titicaca to Cuzco. — ^Fact and Myth respecting Manco Capac. — Extent of the Inca Empire — Inca Civilization originated in the Puna, near Lake Titi caca. — The Sacred Rock on the Island. — Ruins and Relics on the Island. — The Hacienda on the Island. — The Eve of St. John. — The Bath of the Incas. — Other Sacred Islands. — Ruins at Tihuanico. — Some more ancient than the Incas. — Immense Monolithic Gateways and Hewn Stones. — Inca Civilization. — The Great Military Roads. — System of Posts and Post-Stations. — The Valley of Quito: Approach to the Valley from the Pacific Coast. — A Tropical Region— Climbing the Cordillera. — Scenes by the Way. — Quito. — Climate ofthe Valley. — Astronomical Site. — Trees, Fruits, Vegetables, and Flowers. — Animals. — Birds. — Insects, Reptiles, and Fish. — The Population of the Valley. — Indians. — Half-Breeds. — Whites. — Courtesy of the People — A Polite Message.-^-Scenery of the VaUey. — Volca noes. — Imbabura. — Destruction of Otovalo. — Cayamba. — Guam^ni. — Antisana. — Sincho- lagua. — Cotopaxi. — The Inca's Head. — Tunguragua. — Altar. — Sangai. — Its Perpetual Erup tion. — Chimborazo. — Caraguarizo. — lUinza. — Corazon. — Pichincha. — Its immense Crater. — Descent into the Crater. — Eruptions of Pichincha. — The Table-Land of Bogota: Voyage CONTENTS. XV up the Magdalena — Ascent to the Plateau. — BogotA and the BogotAnos. — Traveling at Bogota. — Table-Land of Mexico : Its Extent. — The Tierra CaUenta. — The Tierra Templada. — The Tierra Fria. — The Valley of Anahuac. — The Volcanoes of Orizaba, Popocatapetl, Iztacihuatl, and Toluca. — The Sihhim Slope: Approach and Ascent. — Dorjiling. — The Sikkim Peaks. — Altitude of Kinchin-junga. — Flight of the Condor, Page 480 CHAPTER III. SAVANNAS AND DESERTS OF THB TROPICAL WORLD. Water and Life. — Characteristics of the Savannas. — The Llanos: The Dry Season. — Eff'ects upon Vegetable Life. — Effects upon Animal Life. — Approach of the Rainy Season. — Revival of Vegetable and Animal Life. — Vast Migrations of Animals. — The Pampas: Horses and Cattle in the New World. — Effects of their Introduction upon the Character of the Popu lation. — The Mauritia Palm. — Living in the Tree-tops — The Grand Chaco — Its Indian Inhabitants. — The Guachos. — The Lasso and Bolas. — The Plains of Southern Africa: Thorny Bushes. — Excessive Droughts. — A Great Hunting Ground. — Species of Game. — Vegetation — Watery Tubers. — Esculent Gourds. — Possibility of Wells. — Water-Pits in the Kalahari. — Mode of Pumping Up the Water. — Livingstone''s Theory of Water-Making Ants. — More Probable Explanation. — Inhabitants of Southern Africa. — The Lake Region of Equatorial Africa: Little Known. — Explorations of Livingstone and Burton. — Speke's Journey. — His Notices of the Country. — Moderate and' Equable Temperature. — The Inhabitants. — Charac teristics of a Real Desert. — The Atacama of Peru; Its Arid Character. — The Mule the Ship of this Desert. — The Australian Desert : Its Utter Desolation. — Sturt's Exploration. — Leichardt. — Lost Rivers. — Tke Sahara: Extent and General Characteristics. — The Capital of Fezzan. — Perilous Adventure of Barth. — Plains and HiUs. — Oases. — Luxuriant Vegeta tion of the Oases. — Contrasts of Light and Shade. — The Khamsin or Simoom. — Animals and Reptiles. — The Ostrich and ite Chase. — Fluctuations of Animal and Vegetable Life according to the Seasons, 499 CHAPTER IV. TROPICAL FORESTS. — VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. Characteristics of the Tropical Forests. — Variety of Trees and Plants. — Aspect During the Rainy Season. — Beauty After the Rainy Season. — A Morning Concert. — Repose at Noon. — Awakening at Evening. — Nocturnal Voices of the Forest. — The Amazon: Course of the River. — Size of its Basin. — The Tide at its Mouth. — Rising of the River. — Igaripes, or Canoe- Paths. — Inundations of the Amazon. — Vast Variety of its Vegetation. — Fishes. — Agassiz's Specimens. — Alligators and Turtles. — Turtle-Hunting. — Insects — Ants. — Butterflies — Spi ders. — Lizards. — Frogs and Toads. — Snakes. — Paucity of Mammalia- — The Jaguar. — Scan tiness of Human Population — Indian Tribes — ^Mundurcu Tattooing. — Travelers' Accounts of the Tribes. — Men with TaUs. — Orion's Summary of their Character. — His Own Expe rience Favorable. — He finds them Honest and Peaceable. — Agassiz's Notices of the Indians. — Their Familiarity with Animals and Plants. — Whites. — Negroes. — Mixed Breeds. — Agas- Eiz and Orton on the Capacity of Amazonia, 514 CHAPTEE V. CHARACTERISTIC FORMS OP TROPICAL VEGETATION. General Features of Tropical Forests. — Number of Species of Plants. — The Baobab. — Its Gigantic Size. — Age of tho Great Trees. — Dragon-Trees. — The Great Dragon-Tree of Orotava — The Sycamore. — The Banyan. — The Sacred Bo- Tree. — The Oldest Histori cal Tree.— The Teak.— The Satin-wood.— The Sandal Tree.— The Ceiba.— The Ma hogany Tree — The Mora. — The Guadua. — Bamboos. — The Aloe — The Agave. — The Cactus — The Screw Pine. — Mimosas. — Lianas. — Climbing Trees. — Epiphytes. — Water Plants. — Buttressed Trees. — Trees with Fantastic Roots. — Mangroves. — Marsh Forests. Palms. — The Cocoa Palm — The Sago Palm.— The Saguer Palm.— The Areca Palm.— The Palmyra Palm. — The Talipot Palra. — Ratans. — The Date Palm — Oil Palms. — Variety of Size, Form, FoUage and Fruit — Future Commercial Value of the Palm, 525 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VL THE CHIEF NDTRITIVE PLANTS OP THE TROPICAL WORLD. Rice. — Aspects of Rice-Fields at Diflferent Seasons. — The Rice-Fields of Ceylon. — Ladang and Sawa Rice. — Rice in South Carolina. — The Rice-Bird. — Paddy. — ^Maize. — When first brought to Europe. — Appearance of the Plant. — Its Enormous Productiveness. — ^Freedom from Disease. — Wide Extent of its Cultivation. — Benjamin Franklin's Account of Maize. — MiUet. — The Bread-Fruit. — Its Taste. — Modes of Cooking. — The Banana and Plantain. — ¦ Their Great Productiveness. — The Sago Palm. — Manufacture of Sago. — Sago Bread. — Cheap Living. — A Siesta and Starvation. — The Cassava. — Yams. — The Sweet Potato. — Arrow Root. — The Taro Root. — Tropical Fruits. — The Chirimoya. — The Litchi. — The Mangosteen. — The Mango. — The Durion. — Its Taste and Smell. — Large Fruit on Tall Trees, Page 545 CHAPTER VIL SUGAR — COFFEE — CHOCOLATE COCA — SPICES. Sugar: Its Importance. — The Home ofthe Sugar-Cane. — Ancient Theories about Sugar. — The Introduction of the Cane into Europe and America. — Characteristics of the Plant. — Mode of Cultivation. — Coffee: Its Home. — Introduction into Egypt and Europe, and elsewhere. — Present Coffee Countries. — Coffee Culture in Brazil. — Agassiz's Description of a Coffee Estate. — The West Indies and Ceylon. — The Coffee-Plant. — Methods of Preparing the Berries.— The Enemies of the Plant.— The Golunda.— The Coffee Bug.— The Coffee Moth. — Cacao, or Chocolate: Its Culture and Preparation. — Coca: Description ofthe Plant. — Mode of its Use. — Its Effects. — Indian superstitions connected with it. — Cinnamon: Known to the Ancients. — Cinnamon in Ceylon. — Mode of Culture and Preparation. — General Account of this Spice — Nutmegs and Cloves. — Enormities of the Dutch Monopoly. — Pepper. — Pimento. — Ginger, 559 CHAPTER VIIL INSECTS. Multitude of Tropical Insects. — Beetles. — Dragon Flies. — Leaf Moths. — The Leaf Butterfly. — Fire Flies. — Insect Plagues: Mosquitoes. — Chigoes, or Jiggers. — The Filaria Medinensis. — The Bete Rouge.— Ticks.— Land-Leeches.— The Tsetse Fly.— The Tsalt-Salya Locusts.— Cockroaches. — Enemies ofthe Cockroach. — Useful Insects : The Silk- Worm. — The Cochineal Insect. — Tbe Gum-Lac Insect. — Edible and Ornamental Beetles, 581 CHAPTER IX. ANTS — TERMITES — ANT-EATERS — SPIDERS — SCORPIONS. Ants: Vast Numbers of Ants iu the Tropical World. — Pain caused by their Bites. — The Ponera Clavata.— The Black Fire-Ant.— The Dimiya of . Ceylon.— The Red Ant of Angola.— The Vivagua of the West Indies. — The Umbrella Ant. — Household Plagues. — Troubles of Natu- ralists.- The Ranger Ants.— The Bashikouay of Western Africa.— House-Building Ants. — Slaveholding Ants.— Aphides, or Plant-Lice.— Insect Cow-Keepers.— TVmjVes ; Their Ravages among Books and Furniture. — Their Citadels.— Domestic Economy. — Defensive Warfare.— American Termites.— The Enemies ofthe Termites.— How to Catch, Cook, and Eat them.— The Marching Termite.— ^n^-^crfers ,¦ The Great Ant-Bear.— His Mode of Hunting. — Mode of Defense. — Anatomical Structure. — Lesser Ant-Bears. — Manides and pangolins.- The Aard-Vark.— ArmadiUos.— The Porcupine Ant-Eater.— Spt'rfers .• Their Physical Structure.— Their Webs.— Means of Protection.— Mode of Catching their Prey.— Maternal Instinct.— Their Enemies.— Uses of Spiders. — Scorpions: Their Aspects and Habits. — Their Venom, gg^ CHAPTER X. SERPENTS — LIZARDS — PROGS AND TOADS. Serpents: Rarity of Venomous Serpents.— Habits and External Characteristics of Serpents.— The Labarri.— The Trigonocephalus.— Antidotes to the Poison of Serpents.— Sucking out CONTENTS. xvii the Venom.— The Poison-Fangs.— The Bush-Master.— The Echidna Ocellata.— Rattle snakes. — Their Enemy the Hog. — The Cobra de CapeUo. — The Haje. — The Cerastes. — Boas and Pythons. — The Boa-constrictor. — The Water Boa. — Fascination by Snakes. — Henderson's Argument against It. — Thorpe's Reasons in its Favor. — Du Chaillu on the Subject. — Enemies of Serpents. — The Secretary Bird. — The Adjutant Bird.— The Mon- goos. — Serpents Eating Serpents. — The Locomotion of Serpents. — Anatomy of their Jaws. — A Serpentine Meal. — Pet Serpents. — Tree Snakes. — Water Snakes. — Stories of Enormous Snakes. — Du ChaUlu's Big Snake. — WaUace's Bigger One. — Lizards: The Geckoe. — Anatomy of its Feet. — Their Wide Distribution. — The Anohs. — Its Combative- ness. — The Chameleon. — Its Habits, Change of Color, and Characteristics. — The Iguana. — The Teju.— Water Lizards. — Flying Dragons. — The Basilisk. — Frogs and Toads: The Pipa Frog.— Tree Frogs.— WaUace's Flying Frog.— The Bahia Toad.— The Giant Toad.— The Musical Toad, Page 616 CHAPTEB XI. ALLIGATORS — CROCODILES — TORTOISES AND TURTLES. AUigators and Crocodiles: Their Habits. — Cayraen, Gavials and Crocodiles. — Mode of Seizing their Prey. — Size of Alligators. — Alligators on the Amazon. — Alligator and Crane. — Man- Eating Alligators. — Their Contests. — Tenacity of Life. — Laying their Eggs. — Tenderness for their Young. — Their Enemies. — Torpidity in the Dry Season. — "Playing 'Possum." — Tortoises and Turtles: The Galapago Islands. — The Elephantine Tortoise. — Rate of Trav eling. — Marsh Tortoises. — Manufacture of Tortoise Oil. — Turtles on the Amazon. — Sea- Turtles. — Their Enemies. — Modes of Capturing Turtles. — The Green Turtle. — The Hawks- bill Turtle. — Barbarous Modes of Removing the Shell, and SeUing the Meat. — The Cori aceous Turtle, 635 CHAPTER XII. BIRD-LIFE IN THE TROPICAL WORLD. Difficulties of the Subject. — Wide Range of Birds. — The Toucan. — Humming-Birds. — Cotin- gas. — The Campanero, or Bell-Bird. — The Realejo, or Organ-Bird. — The Manakins. — The Cock of the Rock. — The Troopials. — The Baltimore Oriole. — The Cassiques. — The Mock- ing-Bird. — The Toropishu. — The Tunqui. — Goat-Suckers. — The Cilgero. — Flamingos. — The Ibis. — Spoon-Bills. — Birds of the New and the Old World. — Sun-Birds. — Honey-Eat ers. — The Ooellated Turkey. — The Lyre-Bird. — Birds of Paradise. — Fables respecting them. — Their Character and Habits. — Their Dancing-Parties. — Mode of Shooting and Snaring them. — The Australian Bower-Bird. — The Brush-Turkey. — The Adjutant. — The Copper-smith. — The Indian Baya. — The Tailor-Bird. — The Grosbeak. — The Korw^. — Parrots. — The Brazilian Love-Parrot. — Their Powers of Mimicry. — Cockatoos. — Macaws. — The Ara. — Paroquets. — The Ostrich. — His Swiftness of Foot. — Modes of Capturing it. — Stratagems to Save its Young. — Its Enemies. — Its Young. — Resemblance to the Camel. — Its Powers of Digestion. — Uses of its Eggs. — The Rheas. — The Cassowary. — The Emu, 645 CHAPTER XIII. THE climbers: EATS, SLOTHS, AND SIMI.S!. Bats: Their Wonderful Organization. — The Fox-Bat — Eaten bythe Malays. — Vampire Bats — Their Blood-sucking Propensities. — The Horseshoe Bat. — The Nycteribia. — The Flying Squirrel. — The Galeopithecus. — The Anomalurus. — The Sloth: Pitifnl Description given of Him. — His beautiful Organization for his peculiar Mode of Life. — His rapid Movements in the Trees — His Means of Defense. — His Tenacity of Life. — The Unau — The Ai. — Gigantic Primeval Sloths. — Monkeys: Good Climbers, but bad Walkers. — Imperfectly known to the Ancients. — Similitudes and Differences between Man and Apes. — The Chim panzee. — The Gorilla. — Du Chaillu's First Encounter with a GorUla. — The GoriUa and her Toung. — The Orang-Utan, or Mias. — Wallace's Accounts of Shooting the Orang. — Their Tenacity of Life. — Size of the Orang. — The Orang as a Combatant. — The Orang fighting xviii CONTENTS. the Crocodile and Python.— Habits of the Orang.— WaUace's Young Pet Orang.— The Gibbons.- Monkeys of the Old and New Worids.— The Semnopitheci.— The Proboscis Monkey.— The Sacred Ape of the Hindus.— The Cercopitheci.- The Magots.— The Cyno cephali, or Baboons.— The Maimon.— The Great Baboon of Senegal.— The Derryas.— The Loris. — Monkeys of the New World. — Monkeys Distinguished by their Tails and Teeth. The WouraU Poison.— The Indian Blow Pipe.— Mildness of American Monkeys.- The Howling Monkeys.— The Spider-Monkeys.— The Fox-taU Monkeys.— The Saimaris.— Noc turnal Monkeys. — The Domesticated Nocturnals. — The Squirrel-Monkey Page 669 CHAPTER XIV. TROPICAL. BBAST» AND BIRDS OP PRET. Variety of Carnivorous Creatures. — Birds of Prey: The Condor. — His Marvelous FUght. — His Cowardice. — Modes of Capturing them. — The Turkey-Buzzard, or Carrion Vulture. — The King of the Vultures.— The Urubu. — Capable of Domestication. — The Harpy Eagle.— The Sociable Vulture.— The Bacha.— The Fishing Eagle. — The Musical Sparrow-Hawk.- The Secretary Eagle. — Beasts of Prey : The Lion. — Fictitious Character ascribed to him. — Mode of Seizing his Prey. — Lions and Giraffe. — Lion and Hottentot. — Andersson and a Lion. — Livingstone's narrow Escape. — ^Lion-Hunting in the Atlas. — By the Bushmen. — Cap turing their Young. — ^Former and present Range of the Lion. — Lion and Rhinoceros. — Livingstone's Estimate of the Lion. — The Tiger. — Their Ravages in Java. — Wide Range of the Tiger. — Tiger-Hunting in India. — Escape from a Tiger. — ^Animals announcing the Ap proach of a Tiger. — Turtle-hunting Tigers. — The- Panther and Leopard. — The Cheetah. — The Hyena. — The Spotted and Brown Hyenas. — The Felidae of New World. — The Jaguar. — Hunting the Jaguar. — The Cougar, or Puma. — The Ocelot. — The Jaguarandi. — The Tiger-Cat, 693 CHAPTER XV. THE ELEPHANT^ — RHINOCEROS — HIPPOPOTAMUS — CAMEL — ZEEEA. The Great Tropical Pachydermati.— 3'Ae Elephant: I>ifference between the tame and wild Elephant.— His Instinctive Timidity.— Acuteness of His Senses. — His Sagacity in CUmbing Hills.— His wonderful Trunk. — ^His Tusks.— Elephant Herds.- The Rogue, or SoUtary Ele phant. — ^The Asiatic and African Species. — The African Elephant tamed in Ancient Times. —Present Range of the African Elephant.— Native Modes of Hunting the African Elephant. —The Elephant and the Rifle.— Perils of Elephant-Hunters.— Elephant^Hunting in Abyssinia. —The Asiatic Elephant.— Elephant-Hunting in Ceylon.— The Panickeas, or Native Elephant- Hunters.— Elephantine Head-Work.— Obstinate Brutes.— TAe Rhinoceros : Range and Char acter of the Rhinoceros.- Two Species, the Black and the White.— Size of the Rhinoceros.— Acuteness of its Senses.— Its winged Attendant.— Its parenta^ Affection.— Its nocturnal Habits.— Modes of Hunting the Rhinoceros.— The One-Horned or Indian Rhinoceros!— The Two-Horned Rhinoceros of the Malay Archipelago.— Rhinoceros-Paths in 3a,\a..— The Hip popotamus : Is the Hippopotamus the Behemoth of Job ?— Habits of the Hippopotamus.— Its uncouth Aspect.— Rogue Hippopotami.— InteUigence ofthe Hippopotamus.— Uses of ita Skin and Teeth.— Mode of KiUing the Hippopotamus.— TAe Camel: Its Adaptation to the Tropical Sand-Wastes.— Its Physical Organization adapted to its Mode of Life.— Its Foot and its Stomach.— Its Desert Home.— The Camel and the Arab.— The Two-Humped and One-Humped Camels.— The Camel an immemorial Serf.— Its Aspect and Temper.- rA« Giraffe: Beauty of the Giraffe.— Its Means of Defense.— Its special Organization.— The Lion and the Giraffe.— The Giraffe known to the Ancients.— 2e6ra and Quaggas: Thevc Abundance in Southern Africa.— Distinction Between the Quagga and the Zebra.— Capacity for Domestication.— Their Union for Defense.— The Gnu, the Quagga, and the Zebra —The Zebra the Tiger-Horse of the Ancients.— The African Boar.— The Malayan Babirusa — Finis, 712 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1.2.3. 4. 6.6.7. 8.9. 10.11.1-2.13.14. 15. 16.17. 18.19. 20.21.22. 23. 24. 25. 26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38.39. 40.41.42.43.44.45. 46.47.48. 43. 50.51.52. 53.54. 55. 56. PAQE. Esquimaux Dog-team, 1 The Tundra of Siberia, 17 Indian Summer Encampment, Alaska, 18 Rocks and Ice, . . . ... 20 Coast of Labrador, 21 Coast of Norway, 22 Arctic Forest, 23 Verge of Forest Region, 24 Forest Conflagration, 26 Arctic Clothing 29 Arctic Moonlight 30 Aurora seen in Norway, 31 Aurora seen in Greenland 32 Group of Reindeer, 35 Elks, 39 The Musk-ox,- 40 Argali 41 The Snowy Owl 43 Bernide Goose, . 44 The Sea-eagle, . . .... 44 Arctic Navigation, . .... 46 Among Hummocks, .... 46 Drifting on the Ice 47 Forms of Icebergs, 47 Gothic Icebergs 48 Pinnacle Icebergs, 48 Icebergs Aground, 49 Icebergs and Glacier, Frobisher Bay, 51 Glacier, Bute Inlet, 52 Scaling an Iceberg, 53 An Arctic Channel, 56 Open Water, 57 Glacier Discharging 58 Tbe Whale, 60 The Narwhal, 61 Walruses on the Ice 63 Home of the Polar Bear, 66 The GuU 67 Lava-fields 68 Effigy in Lava, 70 The Strokkr, 72 Entrance to the Almannagja, ... 73 The Almannagja, 74 The Hrafnagja, 75 The Tintron Eock, 75 FaU of the Oxeraa, 76 Icelandic Horses 81 Shooting Reindeer 82 The Eider-duck, 83 The Jyrfalcon, 85 The Giant Auk 8b Cathedral at ReykjavUc -no Thingvalla, Logberg and Almannagja, 92 Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland, . 98 Governor's Residence, Reykjavik, . 99 Icelandic Houses, 103 PAGE. 57. Church at Thingvalla, 105 58. The Pastor's House, Thingvalla, . 106 59. The Pastor of Thingvalla, .... 107 60. Bridge River, Iceland, Ill 61. Icelandic Bog 113 62. Coast of Iceland, 114 63. Westman Isles, 115 64. Home of Sea-birds, 117 65. Fishing in Norway, 120 66. Norwegian Farm, 122 67. Steaming Along the Coast, . . .123 68 The Puffin 124 69 The Dovrefjeld 127 70. Midnight Sun off Spitzbergen, . . 131 71. Magdalena Bay, Spitzbergen, . . . 134 72. Burial in Spitzbergen, 139 73. Arctic Fox, 140 74. Chase of the Walrus, 143 75. A glimpse of Jan Meyen's Island, . 145 76. A Samoiede Priest, 179 77. Banks of the Irtysch 185 78. Group of Kirghis, 188 79. View of TagUsk 191 80. The Beach at Nicolayevsk, . . .196 81. On the Amoor, 197 82. Village on the Amoor, 198 83. Koriak Yourt, 199 84. Kamchatka Sables, 201 85. Tartar Encampment, 204 86. Siberian Peasant, 207 87. View of Irkutsk, 209 88. A Jakut Village, 229 89. Bering's Monument at Petropavlosk, 248 90. Church at Petropavlosk, .... 254 91. View of Petropavlosk, 257 92. Dogs Fishing, 259 93. Dog-team, 259 94. Dogs Towing Boat 260 95. Frame-work of Tchuktchi House, . 262 96. Tchuktchi Canoe, 263 97. Tchuktchi Pipe, 264 98. An Aleut '268 99. View of Sitka, 270 100. A Baidar 272 101. Fort St. Michael 277 102. The Frozen Yukon, 279 103. Under-ground House 280 104. Fish-traps on the Yukon, . . . .281 105. Aurora at Nulato 282 106. Breaking up of the Ice, 283 107. Fort Yukon 285 108. A Deer Corral, 286 109. Lip Ornaraents, 287 110. A Baidar 288 111. Four-post Coffin, 288 112. Tanana Indian, 289 XX LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. PAGE. 113. Winter Hut of Hunters, . . . .309 114. Fort Edmonton, North Saskatche wan, 311 115. Trader's Camp, 312 116. Swamp formed by Deserted Beaver Dam, 314 117. Hunting Bison in the Snow, . . . 319 118. Herd of Bisou 320 119. Driving Bison over a Precipice, . . 321 120. Watching for Crees, 322 121. A Cree ViUage, 324 122. The Albatross, 396 123. Strait of MageUan 408 124. A Highway of Commerce. . . . 410 125. Patagonians 417 126. Coast of Fuegia 425 127. Fuegian Traders, 427 128. A Fuegian and his Food, .... 429 125. Starvation Beach, 432 130, Surveying in Greenland, .... 433 13L Hall and Companions, in Innuit Cos tume, . . . . . 434 132. Kudlago, 436 133. Greenland Currency, 437 134. Woman and Child. i( Drawn and Engraved by an Innuit,) .... 438 135. Festival ofthe Birthday of the King of Denmark 439 136 Preparing Boot-soles, 440 137. Wreck of the Rescue 441 138. The George Henry laid up for the Winter, 442 139. Storm-bound, 443 140. Innuit Stone Lamp, 444 141. Fighting for Food 445 142. Through the Snow 446 143. Waiting by a Seal-hole, 447 144, Looking for Seals, 448 145. Innuit Strategy to Capture a Seal, . 449 146. Seal-hole and Igloo, 450 147. Waiting for a Blow, 450 148. Dog and Seal, 451 149. Spearing through the Snow, . . . 452 150. Dogs and Bear, 463 151. Barbekark and the Reindeer, . . . 454 152. Head of Reindeer, . ' 454 PAGE. 153. Spearing the Walrus, 455 164. Innuit Igloos, 456 155. Walrus Skull and Tusks, .... 457 156. The Woman's Knife, 457 157. Innuit Implements, 458 188. Finding the Dead 461 159. Innuit Summer Village, .... 462 160. Returning to the Ship, 463 161. Over the Ice 464 162. The Frozen Sailor 465 163. FareweU of the Innuits, . . . .467 164. Elephants Tied Up, 470 165. Waterspout 471 166. The Puna of Peru, 481 167. Fountain of the Incas, 488 168. Ascending the Andes, 490 169. Cattle-Hunting on the Pampas, . . 501 170. Natives of the Kalahari, .... 503 171. Igaripg, or Canoe-Path, 514 172. Forest on Panama Railroad, . . . 526 173. Baobab Tree, with the Grave of Mrs. Livingston 528 174. Avenue of Palms, Rio de Janeiro, . 539 175. Palms on the Middle Amazon, . . 543 176. Manufacture of Sago, 552 177. Siesta on the Amazon, 554 178. Robber-Crab of the Malay Archipel ago, 580 179. Leaf Butterfly, 583 180. Mosquito, Natural Size and Magni fied, 585 181. A Termite Citadel, 603 182 Aard Vark or Earth-Hog, .... 609 183. Rattlesnake Charming a Rabbit, . 622 184. Snake Charming a Squirrel, . . . 624 185. KilUng the Snake— Central Africa, 628 186. AUigator .and Crane, 637 187. Natives of Aru shooting the great Bird of Paradise, 654 188. African Weaver-Birds, 660 189. Female GoriUa and Young, . . .680 190. Female Orang-Outang, 681 191. Lions Pulling Down a Giraffe, . . 699 192. An Obstinate Brute • . 720 193. A Little Head-Work 721 194. Chase of the Wild Boar, .... 735 THE POLAR WORLD. THE TUNDRA OP SIBERIA CHAPTER I. THE ARCTIC LANDS. The barren Grounds or Tundri. — Abundance of animal Life on the Tundri in Summer.— Their SUence and Desolation in Winter. — Protection aflTorded to Vegetation hy the Snow. — Flower-growth in the highest Latitudes. — Character of Tundra Vegetation. — Southern Boundary-line of the barren Grounds. — Their Extent. — The forest Zone. — Arctic Trees. — Slowness of their Growth. — Monotony of the Northern Forests. — Mosquitoes. — The various Causes which determine the Severity of an Arctic Climate. — Insular and Continental Position. — Currents. — Winds. — Extremes of Cold observed by Sir E. Belcher and Dr. Kane. — How is Man able to support the Rigors of an Arctic Winter ?-.- Proofs of a milder Climate having once reigned in the Arctic Regions. — Its Cause Recording to Dr. Oswald Heer. — Peculiar Beauties of the Arctic Eegions. — Sunset. — Long lunar Nights. — The Aurora. A G-LANCE at a map of the Arctic regions shows us that many of the^ -^^ rivers belonging to the three continents — Europe, Asia, America — dis charge their waters into the Polar Ocean or its tributary bays. The terri tories drained by these streams, some of which (such as the Mackenzie, the Yukon, the Lena, the Yenisei, and the Obi) rank among the giant rivers of the earth, form, along with the islands within or near the Arctic circle, the vast region over which the frost-king reigns suprerae. Man styles hiraself the lord of the earth, and may with some justice lay claim to the title in raore genial lands where, arraed with the plough, he com pels the soil to yield him a variety of fruits } but in those desolate tracts 2 18 THE POLAR WORLD. which are winter-bound during the greater part of the year, he is generally a mere wanderer over its surface — a hunter, a fisherman, or a herdsman — and but few small settlements, separated from each other by immense deserts, give proof of his having made sorae weak attempts to establish a footing. It is difficult to determine with precision the limits of the Arctic lands, since many countries situated as low as latitude 60° or even 50°, such as South Greenland, Labrador, Alaska, Kamchatka, or the country about Lake Baikal, have in their climate and productions a decidedly Arctic character, while others of a far more northern position, such as the coast of Norway, enjoy even in winter a remarkably mild teraperature. But they are naturally divided into two principal and well-marked zones — that of the forests, and that of tbe tree less wastes. INDIAN SUMMER ENCAMPMENT, ALASKA. The latter, coraprising the islands within the Arctic Circle, forra a belt, more or less broad, bounded by the continental shores of the North Polar seas, and gradually raerging toward the south into the forest-region, which encircles them with a garland of evergreen eoniferffi. This treeless zone bears the name of the " barren grounds," or the " barrens," in North America, and of " tundri " in Siberia and European Russia. Its want of trees is caused not so much by its high northern latitude as by the cold sea-winds which sweep unchecked over the islands or the flat coast-lands of the Polar Ocean, and for railes and miles compel even the hardiest plant to crouch before the blast and creep along the ground. Nothing can be more melancholy than the aspect of the boundless morasses or arid wastes of the tundri. Dingy mosses and gray lichens form the chief THE ARCTIC LANDS. 19 vegetation, and a few scanty grasses or dwarfish flowers that may have found a refuge in some more sheltered spot are unable to relieve the dull monotony of the scene. In winter, when animal life has mostly retreated to the south or sought a refuge in burrows or in caves, an awful silence, interrupted only by the hooting of a snow-owl or the yelping of a fox, reigns over their vast expanse; but in spring, when the brown earth reappears from under the melted snow and the swamps begin to thaw, enormous flights of wild birds appear upon the scene and enliven it for a few months. An admirable instinct leads their winged legions from dista|nt climes to the Arctic wildernesses, where in the morasses or lakes, on the banks of the rivers, on the flat strands, or along the fish-teem ing coasts, they find an abundance of food, and where at the same time they can with greater security build their nests and rear their young. Some re main on the skirts of the forest-region ; others, flying farther northward, lay their eggs upon the naked tundra. Eagles and hawks follow the traces of the natatorial and strand birds ; troops of ptarmigans roam among the stunted bushes ; and when the sun shines, the finch or the snow-bunting warbles his merry note. While thus the warmth of summer attracts hosts of migratory birds to the Arctic wildernesses, shoals of salmon and sturgeons enter the rivers in obe dience to the instinct that forces them to quit the seas and to swim stream upward, for the purpose of depositing their spawn in tho tranquil sweet wa ters of the stream or lake. About this time also the reindeer leaves the forests to feed on the herbs and lichens of the tundra, and to seek along the shores fanned by the cooled sea-breeze some protection ag.iinst the attacks of the stinging flies that rise in myriads from the swamps. Thus during several months the tundra presents an animated scene, in which man also plays his part. The birds of the air, the fishes of the water, the beasts of the earth, are all obliged to pay their tribute to his vai'ious wants, to appease his hunger, to clothe his body, or to gratify his greed of gain. But as soon as the first frosts of September announce the approach of win ter, all animals, with but few exceptions, hasten to leave a region where the sources of life must soon fail. The geese, ducks, and swans return in dense flocks to the south ; the strand-birds seek in some lower latitude a softer soil which allows their sharp beak to seize a burrowing prey; the water-fowl for sake the bays and channels that will soon be blocked up with ice ; the reindeer once more return to the forest, and in a short time nothing is left that can in duce man to prolong his stay in the treeless plain. Soon a thick mantle of snow covers the hardened earth, the frozen lake, the ice-bound river, and con ceals them all — seven, eight, nine months long — under its monotonous pall, except where the furious north-east wind sweeps it away and lays bare the naked rock. This snow, which after it has once fallen persists until the long summers day has effectually thawed it, protects in an admirable manner the vegetation of the higher latitudes against the cold of the long winter season. For snow is so bad a conductor of heat, that in mid-winter in the high latitude of T8° 20 THE POLAR WORLD. \1 - *" "^'"554,, EOOKS AND ICE. 50' (Rensselaer Bay), while the surface temperature was as low as —30°, Kane found at two feet deep a teraperature of - 8°, at four feet +2°, and at eight feet -f 26°, or no more than six degrees below the freezing-point of water. Thus covered by a warm crystal snow-mantle, the northern plants pass the long winter in a comparatively mild temperature, high enough to maintain their life, while, without, icy blasts — capable of converting mercury into a solid body — howl over the naked wilderness ; and as the first snow-falls are more cellular and less condensed than the nearly impalpable powder of winter, Kane justly observes that no " eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than the sleeping-dress of winter about the feeble plant-life of the Arc tic zone." Thanks to this protection, and to the influence of a sun which for months circles above the horizon, and in favorable localities calls forth the pow ers of vegetation in an incredibly short time, even Washington, Grinnell Land, and Spitzbergen are able to boast of flowers. Morton plucked a crucifer at Cape Constitution (80° 45' N. lat.), and, on the banks of Mary Minturn River (78° 52'), Kane came across a flower-growth which, though drearily Arctic in its type, was rich in variety and coloring. Amid festnca and other tufted grasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star of the chickweed ; and, not without its pleasing associations, he recognized a solitary hesperis — the Arctic representative of the wall-flowers of home. Next to the lichens and mosses, which form the chief vegetation of the treeless zone, the cruciferse, the grasses, the saxifragas, the caryophyllse, and the compositse are the families of plants most largely represented in the barren grounds or tundri. Though vegetation becomes more and more uniform on advancing to the north, yet the number of individual plants does not decrease. THE ARCTIC LANDS. 21 When the soil is moderately dry, the surface is covered by a dense carpet of lichens ( Cornicularice), mixed in damper spots with Icelandic moss. In more tenacious soils, other plants flourish, not however to the exclusion of lichens, ex cept in tracts of meadow ground, which occur in sheltered situations, or in the COAST OP LABRADOR. alluvial inundated flats where tall reed-grasses or dwarf willows frequently grow as closely as they can stand. It may easily be supposed that the boundary-line which separates the tun dri from the forest zone is both indistinct and irregular. In some parts where the cold searwinds have a wider range, the barren grounds encroach consider- 23 THE POLAR WORLD. ably upon the limits of the forests ; in others, where the configuration of the land j)revents their action, the woods advance farther to the north. Thus the barren grounds attain their most southerly limit in Labrador, where they descend to latitude 57°, and this is sufficiently explained by the position of that bleak peninsula, bounded on three sides by icy seas, and washed by cold currents from the north. On the oj)posite coasts of Hudson's Bay they begin about 60°, and thence gradually rise toward- the mouth of the Mackenzie, where the forests advance as high as 68°, or even still farther to the north along the low banks of that river. From the Mackenzie the barrens again descend until they reach Bering's Sea in 65° N. On the opposite or Asiatic shore, in the land of the Tchuktchi, they begin again more to the south, in 63°, thence continually rise as far as the Lena, where Anjou found trees in 71° N., and then fall again toward theObi, where the forests do not even reach the Arctic circle. From the Obi the tundri retreat farther and farther to the north, until finally, on the coasts of Norway, in latitude 70°, they terminate with the land itself. Hence we see that the treeless zone of Europe, Asia, and America occupies- a space larger than the whole of Europe. Even the African Sahara, or the Pampas of South America, are inferior in extent to the Siberian tundri. But the possession of a few hundred square miles of fruitful territory on the south western frontiers of his vast empire would be of greater value to the Czar than that of those boundless wastes, which are tenanted only by a few wretched pastoral tribes, or some equally wi-etched fishermen. The Arctic forest-regions are of a still greater extent than the vast treeless plains which they encircle. When we consider that they form an almost con- 1 COAST OF NORWAY. THE ARCTIC LANDS. 23 tinuous belt, stretching through three parts of the world, in a breadth of from 15° to 20°, even the woods of the Amazon, which, cover a surface fifteen times greater than that of the United Kingdora, shrink into comparative insignifi cance. Unlike the tropical forests, which are characterized by an immense variety of trees, these northern woods are almost entirely composed of conif- eraj, and one single kind of fir or pine often covers an immense extent of 24 THE POLAR WORLD. ground. The European and Asiatic species differ, however, from those which grow in Araerica. Thus in the Russian empire and Scandinavia we find the Scotch fir {Pinus sylvestris), the Siberian fir and la:rch {Abies sibirica, Larix sibiricci), the Picea obovata, and the Pinus cembra ; while in the Hudson's Bay territories the woods principally consist of the white and black spruce {Abies alba and nigra), the Canadian larch {Larix canadensis, and the gray pine {Pinus banJcsiana). In both continents birch-trees grow farther to the north than the coniferaB, and the dwarf willows form dense thickets on the shores of every river and lake. Various species of the service-tree, the ash, and the elder are also met with in the Arctic forests ; and both under the shelter of the woods and beyond their limits, nature, as if to compensate for the want of fruit-trees, produces in favorable localities an abundance of bilberries, bogberries, cran berries, etc. {JEmpetrum, Vaccinium), whose fruit is a great boon to man and beast. When congealed by the autumnal frosts, the berries frequently reriiain hanging on the bushes until the snow melts in the following June, and are then a considerable resource to the flocks of water-fowl migrating to their northern breeding-places, or to the bear awakening frora his winter sleep. ¦¦J*!- "„ ¦^j%/'" ^-Wf ;r*f 1 -*T«^?.'*.' y^ij ' VERGE OP rOBEST REGION. THE ARCTIC LANDS. 35 Another distinctive character of the forests of the high latitudes is their apparent youth, so that generally the traveller would hardly suppose them to be more than fifty years, or at most a century old. Their juvenile appearance increases on advancing northward, until suddenly their decrepit age is re vealed by the thick bushes of lichens which clothe or hang down from their shrivelled boughs. Farther to the south, large trees are found scattered here and there, but not so numerous as to modify the general appearance of the forest, and even these are mere dwarfs when compared with the gigantic firs of more teraperate climates. This phenomenon is sufficiently explained by the shortness of the sumraer, which, though able to bring forth new shoots, does not last long enough for the forraation of wood. Hence the growth of trees becomes slower and slower on advancing to the north ; so that on the banks of the Great Bear Lake, for instance, 400 years are necessary for the formation of a trunk not thicker than a man's waist. Toward the confines of the tundra, the woods are reduced to stunted stems, covered with blighted buds that have been unable to develop themselves into branches, and which prove by their numbers how frequently and how vainly they have striven against the wind, untU finally the last remnants of arboreal vegetation, vanquished by the blasts of winter, seek refuge under a carpet of lichens and mosses, from which their annual shoots hardly venture to peep forth. A third peculiarity which distinguishes the forests of the north from those of the tropical world is what may be called their harmless character. There the traveller finds none of those noxious plants whose juices contain a deadly poison, and even thorns and prickles are of rare occurrence. No venomous snake ghdes through the thicket ; no crocodile lurks in the swamp ; and the northern beasts of prey — the bear, the lynx, the wolf — are far less dangerous and blood-thirsty than the large felidse of the torrid zone. The comparatively small number of animals hving in the Arctic forests corresponds with the monotony of their vegetation. Here we should seek in vain for that immense variety of insects, or those troops of gaudy birds which in the Brazilian woods excite the admiration, and not unfrequently cause the despair of the wanderer ; here we should in vain expect to hear the clamorous voices that resound in the tropical thickets. No noisy monkeys or quarrel some parrots settle on the branches of the trees ; no shrill cicadas or melan choly goat-suckers interrupt the solemn stillness of the night ; the howl of the hungry wolf, or the hoarse screech of some solitary bird of prey, are almost the only sounds that ever disturb the repose of these awful solitudes. When the tropical hurricane sweeps over the virgin forests, it awakens a thousand voices of alarm ; but the Arctic storm, however furiously it may blow, scarce ly calls forth an echo from the dismal shades of the pine-woods of the north. In one respect only the forests and swamps of the northern regions vie in abundance of .animal life with those of the equatorial zone, for the legions of gnats which the short polar sumraer calls forth frora the Arctic morasses are a no less intolerable plague than the mosquitoes of the tropical raarshes. Though agriculture encroaches but little upon the Arctic woods, yet the agency of man is gradually working a change in their aspect. Large tracts of 36 THE POLAR WORLD. forest are continually wasted by extensive fires, kindled accidentally or inten tionally, which spread with rapidity over a wide extent of country, and con tinue to burn until they are extinguished by a heavy rain. Sooner or later a new growth of tiraber springs up, but the soil, being generally enriched and saturated with alkali, now no longer brings forth its aboriginal firs, but gives birth to a thicket of beeches {Betula alba) in Asia, or of aspens in America. THE ARCTIC LANDS. 37 The line of perpetual snow may naturally be expected to descend lower and lower on advancing to the pole, and hence many mountainous regions or ele vated plateaux, such as the interior of Spitzbergen, of Greenland, of Nova Zembla, etc., which in a more temperate clime would be verdant with woods or meadows, are here covered with vast fields of ice, from which frequently glaciers descend down to the verge of the sea. But even in the highest north ern latitudes, no land has yet been found covered as far as the water's edge with eternal snow, or where winter has entirely subdued the powers of vegeta tion. The reindeer of Spitzbergen find near 80° N. lichens or grasses to feed upon ; in favorable seasons the snow melts by the end of June on the plains of Melville Island, and numerous lemmings, requiring vegetable food for their sub sistence, inhabit the deserts of New Siberia. As far as raan has reached to the north, vegetation, when fostered by a sheltered situation and the refraction of solar heat from the rocks, has everywhere been found to rise to a considerable altitude above the level of the sea ; and should there be land at the North Pole, there is every reason to believe that it is destitute neither of animal nor vege table life. It would be equally erroneous to suppose that the cold of winter in variably increases as we near the pole, as the teraperature of a land is influ enced by many other causes besides its latitude. Even in the most northern regions hitherto visited by man, the influence of the sea, particularly when fa vored by warm currents, is found, to mitigate the severity of the winter, while at the sarae time it diminishes the warmth of summer. On the other hand, the large continental tracts of Asia or America that shelve toward the pole have a more intense winter cold and a far greater summer's heat than many coast-lands or islands situated far nearer to the pole. Thus, to cite but a few examples, the western shores of Nova Zembla, fronting a wide expanse of sea, have an average winter temperature of only — 4°, and a mean summer temper ature but little above the freezing-point of water (+36^°), while Jakutsk, sit uated in the heart of Siberia, and 20° nearer to the Equator, has a winter of — 36° 6', and a summer of +66° 6'. The influence of the winds is likewise of considerable importance in de termining the greater or lesser severity of an Arctic climate. Thus the north erly winds which prevail in Baffin's B^y and Davis's Straits during the sum mer months, and fill the straits of the American north-eastern Archipelago with ice, are probably the main cause of the abnormal depression of temperature in that quarter ; while, on the contrary, the southerly winds that prevail during summer in the valley of the Mackenzie tend greatly to extend the forest of that favored region nearly down to the shores of the Arctic Sea. Even in the depth of a Siberian winter, a sudden change of wind is able to raise the ther mometer from a mercury-congealing cold to a temperature above the freezing- point of water, and a warm wind has been known to cause rain to fall in Spitz bergen in the month of January. The voyages of Kane and Belcher have made us acquainted with the low est temperatures ever felt by man. On Feb. 5, 1854, while the former was wintering in Smith's Sound (78° 37' N. lat.), the mean of his best spirit-ther mometer showed the unexampled temperature of —68° or 100° below the 38 THE POLAR WORLD. freezing-point of water. Then chloric ether became solid, and carefully pre pared chloroform exhibited a granular pellicle on its surface. The exhalations from the skin invested the exposed or partially clad parts with a wreath of vapor. The air had a perceptible pungency upon inspiration, and every one, as it were involuntarily, breathed guardedly with compressed lips. About the same time (February 9 and 10, 1854), Sir E. Belcher experienced a cold of -55° in Wellington Channel (75° 31' N.), and the still lower temperature of — 62° on January 13, 1853, in Northumberland Sound (76° 52' N.). Whym- per, on December 6, 1866, experienced —58 at Nulatto, Alaska (64° 42' N.). Whether the temperature of the air descends still lower on advancing to ward the pole, or whether these extreme degrees of cold are not sometiraes surpassed in those mountainous regions of the north which, though seen, have never yet been explored, is of course an undecided question : so much is cer tain, that the observations hitherto made during the winter of the Arctic re gions have been limited to too short a time, and are too few in nuraber, to en able us to deterraine with any degree of certainty those points where the greatest cold prevails. All we know is, that beyond the Arctic Circle, and eight or ten degrees farther to the south in the interior of the continents of Asia and America, the average temperature of the winter generally ranges from — 20° to —30°, or even lower, and for a great part of the year is able to con vert mercury into a solid body. It may well be asked how m.an is able to bear the excessively low tempera ture of an Arctic winter, which must appear truly appalling- to an inhabitant of the temperate zone. A thick fur clothing ; a hut small and low, where the warmth of a fire, or simply of a train-oil lamp, is husbanded in a narrow space, and, above all, the wonderful power of the human constitution to accommodate itself to every change of cliraate, go far to counteract the rigor of the cold. After a very few days the body develops an increasing warmth as the ther mometer descends ; for the air being condensed by the cold, the lungs inhale at every breath a greater quantity of oxygen, which of course accelerates the internal process of combustion, while at the same time an increasing appetite, gratified with a copious supply of animal food, of flesh and fat, enriches the blood and enables it to circulate more vigorously. Thus not ouly the hardy native of the north, but even the healthy traveller soon gets accustomed to bear without injury the rigors of an Arctic winter. " The mysterious compensations," says Kane, " by which we adapt our selves to»climate are more striking here than in the tropics. In the Polar zone the assault is immediate and sudden, and, unlike the insidious fatality of hot countries, produces its results rapidly. It requires hardly a single winter to tell who are to be the heat-making and acclimatized men. Petersen, for in stance, who has resided for two years at Upernavik, seldom enters a room with a fire. Another of our party, George Riley, with a vigorous constitution, es tablished habits of free exposure, and active cheerful temperament, has so inured himself to the cold, that he sleeps on our sledge journeys without a blanket or any other covering than his walking suit, while the outside tem perature is --30°." THE ARCTIC LANDS. 29 There are many proofs that a milder climate once reigned in the northern regions of the globe. Fossil pieces of wood, petrified acorns and fir-cones ARCTIC CLOTHING. have been found in the interior of Banks's Land by M'Clure's sledging-parties. At Anakerdluk, in North Greenland (70° N.), a large forest lies buried on a mountain surrounded by glaciers, 1080 feet above the level of the sea. Not only the trunks and branches, but even the leaves, fruit-cones, and seeds have been preserved in the soil, and enable the. botanist to determine the species of the plants to which they belong. They show that, besides firs and ISequoias, oaks, plantains, elms, magnolias, and even laurels, indicating a climate such as that of Lausanne or Geneva, flourished during the miocene period in a coun try where now even the willow is compelled to creep along the ground. Dur ing the same epoch of the earth's history Spitzbergen was likewise covered with stately forests. The same poplars and tha same swamp-cypress ( Taxo dium dubium) which then flourished in North Greenland have been found in a fossilized state at Bell Sound (76° N.) by the Swedish naturalists, who also discovered a plantain and a linden as high as 78° and 79° in King's Bay-^a proof that in those times the cliraate of Spitzbergen can not have been colder 30 THE POLAR WORLD. than that which now reigns in Southern Sweden and Norway, eighteen degrees nearer to the line. We know that at present the fir, the poplar, and the beech grow fifteen de grees farther to the north than the plantain — and the miocene period no doubt exhibited the same proportion. Thus the poplars and firs which then grew in Spitzbergen along vvith plantains and lindens raust have ranged as far as the pole itself, supposing that point to be dry land. In the miocene times the Arctic zone evidently presented a very different aspect from that which it wears at present. Now, during the greater part of the year, an immense glacial desert, which through its floating bergs and drift- ice depresses the temperature of countries situated far to the south, it then consisted of verdant -lands covered with luxuriant forests and bathed by an open sea. What may have been the cause of these amazing changes of climate ? The readiest answer seems to be — a different distribution of sea and land ; but there is no reason to believe that in the miocene times there was less land in the Arctic zone than at present, nor can any. possible combination of water and dry land be imagined sufficient to account for the growth of laurels in Green land or of plantains in Spitzbergen. Dr. Oswald Heer is inclined to seek for an explanation of the phenomenon, not in mere local terrestrial changes, but in a difference of the earth's position in the heavens. We now know that our sun, with his attendant planets and satellites, per- ARCTIC MOONLIGHT. '^' -J forms a vast circle, embracing perhaps hundreds of thousands of years round another star, and that we are constantly entering new regions of space untrav- THE ARCTIC LANDS. 31 elled by our earth before. We come from the unknown, and plunge into the unknown ; but so rauch is certain, that our solar system rolls at present through a space but thinly peopled with stars, and there is no reason to doubt that it may once have wandered through one of those celestial provinces where, as the telescope shows us, constellations are far more densely clustered. But, as every star is a blazing sun, the greater or lesser number of these heavenly bodies must evidently have .a proportionate influence upou the temperature of space; and thus we may suppose that during the miocene period our earth, being at that time in a populous sidereal region, enjoyed the benefit of a higher temperature, which clothed even its poles with verdure. In the course of ages the sun conducted his herd of planets into raore solitary and colder regions, which caused the warm miocene times to be foUowed by the glacial period, during which the Swiss flat lands bore an Arctic character, and finally 1= f^^%sr** T%'^ ftiiujtw" ^' Vft. AURORA SEEN IN NORWAY. the sun eraerged into a space of an intermediate character, which determines the present condition of the cliraates of our globe. Though Nature generally wears a more stern and forbidding aspect on ad vancing toward the pole, yet the high latitudes have many beauties of their 33 THE POLAR WORLD. own. Nothing can exceed the magnificence of an ArcticUunset, clothing the snow-clad mountains and the skies with all the glories of color or be more serenely beautiful than the clear star-light night, illumined by the brilliant moon, which for days continually circles around the horizon, never setting until THE ARCTIC LANDS. SS she has run her long course of brightness. The uniform whiteness of the land scape and the general transparency of the atmosphere add to the lustre of her beams, which serve the natives to guide their nomaflic life, and to lead them to their hunting-grounds. \p >~* But of all the magnificent spectacles that relieve the monotonous gloom of the Arctic winter, there is none to equal the magical beauty of the Aurora. Night covers the snow-clad earth ; the stars glimmer feebly through the haze which so frequently dims their brilliancy in the high latitudes, when suddenly a broad and clear bow of light spans the horizon in the direction where it is traversed by the magnetic meridian. This bow sometimes remains for several hours, heaving or waving to and fro, before it sends forth streams of light ascending to the zenith. Sometimes these flashes proceed from the bow of light alone; at others they simultaneously shoot forth from many opposite parts of the horizon, and form a vast sea of fire whose brilliant waves are con tinually changing their position. Finally they all unite in a magnificent crown or copula of light, with the appearance of which the phenomenon attains its highest degree of splendor. The brilliancy of the streams, which are com monly red at their base, green in the middle, and light yellow toward the zenith, increases, while at the same time they dart with greater vivacity through the skies. The colors are wonderfully transparent, the red approaching to a clear blood-red, the green to a pale emerald tint. On turning from the flaming firmament to the earth, this also is seen to glow with a magical light. The dark sea, black as jet, forms a striking contrast to the white snow-plain or the distant ice-mountain ; all the outlines tremble as if they belonged to the unreal world of dreams. The imposing silence of the night heightens the charms of the magnificent spectacle. But gradually the crown fades, the bow of light dissolves, the streams be come shorter, less frequent, and less vivid ; and finally the gloom of winter once more descends upon the northern desert. 34 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER IT. ARCTIC LAND QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. The Reindeer.— Structure of its Foot.— Clattering Noise when walking.— Antlers.— Extraordinary olfactory Powers. — The Icelandic Moss. — Present and Former Range of the Reindeer. — Its invalu able Qualities as an Arctic domestic Animal. — Revolts against Oppression. — Enemies of the Rein deer. —The Wolf.— The Glutton or Wolverine.— Gad-flies.— The Elk or Moose-deer.— The Musk- ox.— The Wild Sheep of the Kocky Mountains.— The Siberian Argali.— The Arctic Fox.— Its Bur rows. — The Lemmings.- Their Migrations and Enemies. — Arctic Anatidaev^iThe\Snow-bunting. — 1 he Lapland Hunting. — The Sea-eagle.— Drowned by a Dolphin. aC I ^T^HE reindeer may well be called the camel of the nwl^eradwlstes, for it is -*- a no less valuable companion to the Laplander or t(ijche Samojede than the " .ship of the desert " to the wandering Bedouin. It is the only member of the numerous deer family that has been domesticated by man ; but though un doubtedly the most useful, it is by no means the most comely of its race. Its clear, dark eye has, indeed, a beautiful expression, but it has neither the noble proportions of the stag nor the grace of the roebuck, and its thick square-form ed body is far from being a model of elegance. Its legs are short and thick, its feet broad, but extremely well adapted for walking over the snow or on a swampy ground. The front hoofs, which are capable of great lateral expansion, curve upward, while the two secondary ones behind (which are but slightly developed in the fallow deer and other members of the family) are considera bly prolonged : a structure which, by giving the animal a broader base to stand upon, jjrevents it from sinking too deeply into the snow or the morass. Had the foot of the reindeer been formed like that of our stag, it would have been as unable to drag the Laplander's sledge with such velocity over the yielding snow-fields as the camel would be to perform his long marches through the" desert without the broad elastic sole-pad on which he firmly paces the unsta ble sands. The short legs and broad feet of the reindeer likewise enable it to swim with greater ease— a power of no small importance in countries abounding in rivers and lakes, and where the scarcity of food renders perpetual migrations necessa ry. When the reindeer walks or merely moves, a remarkable clattering sound is heard to some distance, about the cause of which naturalists and travellers by no means agree. Most probably it results from the great length of the two digits of tho cloven hoof, which when the animal sets its foot upon the ground separate widely, and when it again raises its hoof suddenly clap against each other. A long mane of a dirty white color hangs frora the neck of the reindeer. In summer the body is brown above and white beneath ; in winter, long-haired and white. Its antlers are very different from those of the stag, having broad palmated summits, and branching back to the length of three or four feet QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. 35 Their weight is frequently very considerable — twenty or twenty-five pounds ; and it is remarkable that both sexes have horns, while in all other merabers of the deer race the males alone are in possession of this ornament or weapon. The female brings forth in May a single calf, rarely two. This is sraall and weak, but after a few days it follows the mother, who suckles her young but a 36 THE POLAR WORLD. short time, as it is soon able to seek and to find its food. The reindeer gives very little milk — at the very utmost, after the young has been weaned, a bottle- ful daily ; but the quality is excellent, for it is uncommonly thick and nutritious. It consists almost entirely of cream, so that a great deal of water can be added before it becomes inferior to the best cow-milk. Its taste is excellent, but the butter made from it is rancid, and hardly to be eaten, while the cheese is very good. The only food of the reindeer during winter consists of moss, and the most surprising circumstance in his history is the instinct, or the extraordinary olfac tory powers, whereby he is enabled to discover it when hidden beneath the snow. However deep the LicJien rangiferinus may be buried, the animal is aware of its presence the moment he comes to the spot, and this kind of food is never so agreeable to him as when he digs for it himself. In his raanner of doing this he is remarkably adroit. Having first ascertained, by thrusting his muzzle into the 'snow, whether the moss lies below or not, he begins making a hole with his fore feet, and continues working until at length her uncovers the lichen. No instance has ever occurred of a reindeer making such a cavity with out discovering the moss he seeks. In summer their food is of a different na ture ; they are then pastured upon green herbs or the leaves of trees. Judg ing from the lichen's appearance in the hot months, when it is dry and brittle, one might easily wonder that so large a quadruped as the reindeer should make it his favorite food and fatten upon it ; but toward the month of Septera ber the lichen becomes soft, tender, and damp, with a taste like wheat-bran. In this state its luxuriant and flowery ramifications somewhat reserable the leaves of endive, and are as white as snow. Though domesticated since time immemorial, the reindeer has only partly been brought under the yoke of man, and wanders in large wild herds both in the North American wastes, where it has never yet been reduced to servitude, and in the forests and tundras of the Old World. In America, where it is called " caribou," it extends from Labrador to Mel ville Island and Washington Land ; in Europe and Asia it is found frora Lap land and Norway, and from the mountains of Mongolia and the banks of the Ufa, as far as Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. Many centuries ago — probably during the glacial period — its range was stUl more extensive, as reindeer bones are frequently found in French and German caves, and bear testimony to the severity of the cliraate which at that time reigned in Central Europe ; for the reindeer is a cold-loving animal, and will not thrive under a milder sky. All attempts to prolong its life in our zoological gardens have failed, and even in the royal park at Stockholm Hogguer saw some of these aniraals, which were quite languid and emaciated during the summer, although care had been taken to provide them with a cool grotto to which they could retire during the warmer hours of the day. In summer the reindeer can enjoy health only in the fresh mountain air or along the bracing sea-shore, and has as great a longing for a low temperature as man for the genial warmth of his fireside in winter. The reindeer is easUy tamed, and soon gets accustomed to its master whose society it loves, attracted as it were by a kind of innate sympathy ; for unlike THE ARCTIC LANDS. 37 all other domestic animals, it is by no means dependent on man for its subsist ence, but finds its nourishment alone, and wanders about freely in summer and in winter without ever being inclosed in a stable. These qualities are inesti mable in countries where it would be utterly impossible to keep any domestic animal requiring shelter and stores of provisions during the long winter months, and make the reindeer the fit companion of the northern nomad, whose simple wants it almost wholly supplies. During his wanderings, it carries his tent and scanty household furniture, or drags his sledge over the snow. On account of the weakness of its back-bone, it is less fit for riding, and requires to be mounted with care, as a violent shock easily dislocates its vertebral column ; the saddle is placed on the haunches. You would hardly suppose the reindeer to be the same animal when languidly creeping along under a rider's weight, as when, unencumbered by a load, it vaults with the lightness of a bird over the obstacles in its way to obey the call of its master. The reindeer can be easily trained to drag a sledge, but great care must be taken not to beat or otherwise ill-treat it, as it then be comes obstinate, and quite unmanageable. When forced to drag too heavy a load, or taxed in any way above its strength, it not seldom turns round upon its tyrant, and attacks him with its horns and fore feet. To save himself from its fury, he is then obliged to overturn his sledge, and to seek a refuge under its bottom until the rage of the animal has abated. After the death of the reindeer, it may truly be said that every part of its body is put to some use. The flesh is very good, and the tongue and marrow are considered a great delicacy. The blood, of which not a drop is allowed to be lost, is either drunk warm or raade up into a kind of black pudding. The skin furnishes not only clothing impervious to the cold, but tents and bedding ; and spoons, knife-handles, and other household utensils are raade out of the bones and horns ; the latter serve also, like the claws, for the preparation of an excellent glue, which the Chinese, who buy them for this purpose of the Rus sians, use as a nutritious jelly. In Tornea the skins of new-born reindeer are prepared and sent to St. Petersburg to be manufactured into gloves, which are extremely soft, but very dear. Thus the cocoa-nut palm, the tree of a hundred uses, hardly renders a greater variety of services to the islanders of the Indian Ocean than the rein deer to the Laplander or the Samojede ; and, to the honor of these barbarians be it mentioned, they treat their invaluable friend and companion with a grate ful affection which might serve as an example to far more civilized nations. The reindeer attains an age of from twenty to twenty-five years, but in its domesticated state it is generaUy killed when from six to ten years old. Its most dangerous enemies are the wolf, and the glutton or wolverine ( Gulo bo realis or arcticus), which belongs to the bloodthirsty marten and weasel family, and is said to be of uncommon fierceness and strength. It is about the size of a large badger, between which animal and the pole-cat it seems to be inter mediate, nearly resembling the former in its general figure and aspect, and agreeing with the latter as to its dentition. No dog is capable of raastering a glutton, and even the wolf is hardly able to scare it from its prey. Its feet are very short, so that it can not run swiftly, but it climbs with great facility 38 THE POLAR WORLD. upon trees, or ascends even almost perpendicular rock-walls, where it also seeks a refuge when pursued. When it perceives a herd of reindeer browsing near a wood or a precipice, it generaUy lies in wait upon a branch or some high cliff, and springs down upon the first animal that comes within its reach. Sometimes also it steals unawares upon its prey, and suddenly bounding upon its back, kiUs it by a sin gle bite in the neck. • Many fables worthy of Miinchausen have been told about its voracity ; for instance, that it is able to devour two reindeer at one meal, and that, when its stomach is exorbitantly distended with food, it will press itself between two trees or stones to make room for a new repast. It will, indeed, kill in one night six or eight reindeer, but it contents itself with sucking their blood, as the weasel does with fowls, and eats no more at one meal than any other carnivorous animal of its own size. Besides the attacks of its mightier enemies, the reindeer is subject to the persecutions of two species of gad-fly, whioh torment it exceedingly. The one {GEstrus tarandi), called Hurbma by the Laplanders, deposits its glutinous eggs upon the animal's back. The larvae, on creeping out, immediately bore themselves into the skin, where by their motion and suction they cause so many small swellings or boils, which gradually grow to the size of an inch or more in diameter, with an opening at the top of each, through which the larvae may be seen imbedded in a purulent fluid. Frequently the whole back of the animal is covered with these boils, which, by draining its fluids, produce ema. elation and disease. As if aware of this danger, the reindeer runs wild and fu rious as soon as it hears the buzzing of the fly, and seeks a refuge in the nearest water. The other species of gad-fly ( GEstrus nasalis) lays its eggs in the nostrils of the reindeer ; and the larvae, boring themselves into the fauces and beneath the tongue of the poor animal, are a great source of annoyance, as is shown by its frequent sniffling and shaking of the head. A pestilential disorder like the rinderpest will sometimes sweep away whole herds. Thus in a few weeks a rich Laplander or Samojede may be reduced to poverty, and the proud possessor of several thousands of reindeer be compel led to seek the precarious livelihood of the northern fisherman. The elk or moose-deer ( Cervus alces) is another member of the cervine race peculiar to the forests of the north. In size it is far superior to the stag, but it can not boast of an elegant shape, the head being disproportionately large, the neck short and thick, and its immense horns, which sometimes weigh near fifty pounds, each dilating almost immediately from the base into a broad palmated form ; while its long legs, high shoulders, and heavy upper lip hanging A'ery much over the lower, give it an uncouth appearance. The color of the elk is a dark grayish-brown, but much paler on the legs and beneath the tail. We owe the first description of this gigantic deer to Julius Csesar, in whose tirae it was still a comraon inhabitant of the Gerraan forests. But the conquer or of Gaul can hardly have seen it himself, or he would not have ascribed to it a single horn, placed in the middle of the forehead, or said that both sexes are perfectly alike, for the female is smaUer and has no antlers. At .present the elk is still found in the swampy forests of East Prussia, Lithuania, and Po- ARCTIC LAND QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. 40 THE POLAR WORLD. land, but it chiefly resides in the more northern woods of Russia, Siberia, and America. It is a mild and harmless animal, principally supporting itself by browsing the boughs of willows, asps, service-trees, and other soft spe cies of wood. It does not, like the reindeer, seek a refuge against the at tacks of the gad-flies, by wandering to the coasts of the sea, or retreating to the bare mountains, where it would soon perish for the want of adequate food, but plunges up to the nose into the next river, where it finds, moreover, a spe cies of water-grass {Festuca fiuitans) which it likes to feed upon. Though naturally mild and harmless, it displays a high degree of courage, and even fe rocity when suddenly attacked ; defending itself with great vigor, uot only with its horns, but also by stiiking violently with its fore feet, in the use of which it is particularly dexterous. It is generaUy cai:ight in traps, as it is extremely shy and watchful, and finds an easy retreat in the swamp or the forest. The only time of the year when it can be easily chased is in the spring, when the softened snow gets covered during the night with a thin crust of ice which is too weak to bear the animal's weight. Though not ranging so far north as the reindeer or the elk, we find in the Old World the red-deer ( Cervus elaphus), in the vicinity of Drontheira, in Nor way, and along with the roebuck beyond Lake Baikal, in Siberia, while in America the large-eared deer ( Cervus niacrotis), and the Wapiti, or Canada stag {Cervus strongylo-ceras), extend their excursions beyond 55° of northern lati tude. The latter is much larger and of a stronger make than the European red-deer, frequently growing to the height of our tallest oxen, and possessing great activity as well as strength. The flesh is little prized, but the hide, when raade into leather after the Indian fashion, is said not to turn hard in drying after being wet — a quality which justly entitles it to a preference over almost every other kind of leather. One of the most reraarkable quadrupeds of the high northern regions is the musk-ox {Ovibos moschatus), which by some naturalists has been consid ered as intermediate between the sheep and the ox. It is about the height of a deer, but of much stout er proportions. The horns are very broad at the base, almost meeting ^ on the forehead, and curving down- ^ vrard between the eye and ears un til about the level of the mouth, when they turn upward. Its long thick brown or black hair hanging down below the middle of the leg, and covering on all parts of the ani mal a fine kind of soft ash-colored wool, which is of the finest description, and capable of forming the most beau tiful fabrics manufactured, enables it to remain even during the winter beyond 70° of northern latitude. In spring it wanders over the ice as far as Melville THE MUSK-OX. ARCTIC LAND QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. 41 Island, or ^ven Smith's Sound, where a number of its bones were found by Dr. Kane. In Septeraber it withdraws more to the south, and spends the coldest months on the verge of the forest region. Like the reindeer, it sub sists chiefly on lichens and grasses. It runs nimbly, and climbs hills and rocks with great ease. Its fossil reraains, or those of a very analogous species, have been discovered in Siberia : at present it is exclusively confined to the New World. In the Rocky Mountains, frora the Mexican CordiUera plateaux as far as 68° N. lat., dwells the wild sheep ( Ovis montana), distinguished by the alraost cir cular bend of its large, triangular, transversely striped horns, from its relative the Siberian argali ( Ovis argali), which is supposed to be the parent of our do mestic sheep, and far surpasses it in size and delicacy of flesh. Both the Amer ican and the Asiatic -wild sheep are in the highest degree active and vigorous, ascending abrupt precipices with great agility, and, like the wild goat, going over the narrowest and most dangerous passes with perfect safety. Among the carnivorous quadrupeds of the northern regions, many, like the lynx, the wolf, the bear, the glutton, and other members of the weasel tribe, have their head-quarters in the forests, and only occasionally I'oam over the tun- 43 THE POLAR WORLD. dras ; but the Arctic fox ( Canis lagopus) almost exclusively inhabits the treeless wastes that fringe the Polar Ocean, and is found on almost aU the islands that lie buried in its bosom. This pretty little creature, which in winter gi-ows per fectly white, knows how to protect itself against the most intense cold, either by seeking a refuge iu the clefts of rocks, or by burrowing to a considerable depth in a sandy soil. It principally preys upon lemmings, stoats, polar hares, as weU as upon all kinds of water-fowl and their eggs ; but when pinched by hunger, it does not disdain the carcasses of fish, or the moUuscs and crustaceans it may chance to pick up on the shore. Its enemies are the glutton, the snowy owl, and man, who, from the Equator to the poles, leaves no creature immolested that can in any way satisfy his wants. The lemmings, of which there are many species, are smaU rodents, peculiar to the Arctic regions, both in the New and in the Old World, where they are found as far to the north as vegetation extends. They live on grass, roots, the shoots of the wiUow, and the dwarf birch, but chiefly on lichens. They do not gather hoards of provisions for the winter, but live upon what they find be neath the snow. They seldom prove injurious to man, as the regions they in habit are generally situated beyond the limits of agriculture. From the voles, to whom they are closely allied, they are distinguished by having the foot-sole covered with stiff hairs, and by the strong crooked claws with which their fore feet are armed. The best known species is the Norwegian lemming {Lemmus norwegicus), which is found on the high mountains of the Dovrefjeld, and farther to the north on the dry parts of the tundra, where- it inhabits small burrows under stones or in the moss. Its long and thick hair is of a tawny color, and prettily marked with black spots. The migrations of the lemming have been grossly exaggerated by Olaus Magnus and Pontoppidan, to whom the natural history of the North owes so many fables. As they breed several times in the year, producing five or six at a birth, they of course multiply very fast under favorable circumstances, and are then forced to leave the district which is no longer able to afford them food. But this takes place very sel dom, for when Mr. Brehm visited Scandinavia, the people on the Dovrefjeld knew nothing about the migrations of the lemming, and his inquiries on the subject proved equally fruitless in Lapland and in Finland. At all events, it is a fortunate circumstance that the lemmings have so many enemies, as their rapid multiplication might else endanger the balance of existence in the northern regions. The inclemencies of the cliraate are a chief means for keeping them in check. A wet summer, an early cold and snowless auturan destroy thera by millions, and then of course years are necessary to recruit their numbers. With the exception of the bear and the hedgehog, they are pursued by all the northern carnivora. The wolf, the fox, the glutton, the marten, the ermine devour them with avidity, and a good leraming season is a time of unusual plenty for the hungry Laplander's dog. The snowy owl, whose dense plumage enables it to be a constant resident on the tundra, almost exclusively frequents those places where lemmings, its favorite food, are to be found ; the buzzards are constantly active in their destruction ; the crow feeds its young with lem mings ; and even the poor Lap, when pressed by hunger, seizes a stick and ARCTIC LAND QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. 43 for want of better garae, goes out lemraing-hunting, and rejoices when he can kill a sufficient nuraber for his dinner. Several birds, such as the snowy owl and the ptarmigan {Lagopus albus), which can easily procure its food under the snow, winter in the highest lati tudes ; but by far the greater number are merely summer visitants of the Arc tic regions. After the little bunting, the first arrivals in spring are the snow- geese, who likewise are the first to leave the dreary regions of the north on their southerly migration. The common and king eider-duck, the Brent geese. THE SNOWY OWL. the great northern black and red throated divers, are the next to make their appearance, followed by the pintail and longtail ducks {Anas caudacuta aud glacialis), the latest visitors of the season. These birds generaUy take their departure in the sarae order as they arrive. The period of their stay is but short, but their presence imparts a wonderfully cheerful aspect to regions at other times so deserted and dreary. As soon as the young are sufficiently fledged, they again betake themselves to the southward ; the character of the season much influencing the period of their departure. As far as man has penetrated, on the most northern islets of Spitzbergen, or on the ice-blocked shores of Kennedy Channel, the eider-duck and others of the Arctic anatidse build their nests ; and there is no reason to doubt that if the pole has breeding-places for them, it re-echoes with their cries. Nor need they fear to plunge into the very heart of the Arctic zone, for the flight of a goose being forty or fifty miles an hour, these birds may breed in the re motest northern solitude, and in a few hours, on a fall of deep autumn snow, convey themselves by their swiftness of wing to better feeding-grounds. One of the raost interesting of the Arctic birds is the snow-bunting {Plec- trophanes nivalis), which may properly be called the polar singing-bird, as it breeds in the most northern isles, such as Spitzbergen and Novaja Zemlya, or 44 THE POLAR WORLD. BERNIDE GOOSE. on the highest mountains of the Dovrefjeld, in Scandinavia, where it enlivens the fugitive sumraer with its short but agreeable notes, sounding doubly sweet from the treeless wastes in which they are heard. It invariably builds its nest, which it lines with feathers and down, in the fissures of mountain rocks or under large stones, and the entrance is generaUy so narrow as merely to allow the parent birds to pass. The remarkably dense win ter plumage of the snow-bunting especiaUy qualifies it for a northern residence, and when in captivity it will rather bear the severest cold than even a moderate degree of warmth. In its breeding-places it lives almost exclusively on insects, particularly gnats : during the winter it feeds on aU sorts of seeds, and then famine frequently compels it to wander to a less rig orous cliraate. The Lapland bunting ( Centrophanes lapponicus), whose white and black pluraage is agreeably diversified with red, is likewise an inhabitant of the higher latitudes, where it is frequently seen in the barren grounds and tundras. Both these birds are distinguished by the very long claw of their hind toe, a structure which enables thera to run about with ease upon the snow. Among the raptorial birds of the Arctic regions, the sea-eagle {Salioetus albicilla) holds a conspicuous rank. At his approach the gull and the auk conceal themselves in the fissures of the rocks, but are frequently dragged forth by their relentless eneray. The divers are, according to Wahlengren, more imperiUed frora his attacks than those sea-birds which do not plunge, for the latter rise into the air as soon as their piercing eye espies the universally dreaded tyrant, and thus escape ; while the forraer, blindly trusting to the ele ment in which they are capable of finding a temporary refuge, allow him to approach, and then suddenly diving, fancy themselves in safety, while the eagle is only waiting for the moment of their re-appear ance to repeat his attack. Twice or thrice they may possibly escape his claws by a rapid plunge, but when for the fourth time they dive out of the water, and remain but one instant above the surface, that instant seals their doora. The sea-eagle is equally for midable to the denizens of the ocean, but sometimes too great a confidence in his strength leads to his destruction, for Kitt- litz was informed by the inhabitants of Kam schatka that, pouncing upon a dolphin, he is not seldora dragged down into the water by the diving cetacean in whose skin his talons remain fixed. THE SEA-EAGLE. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 45 i|f?i;«tl\\' UlsiHC-rfO"''' ARCTIC NAVIGATION. CHAPTER III. THE ARCTIC SEAS. Dangers peculiar to the Arctic Sea. — Ice-fields; — Hummocks. — Collision of Ice-fields. — Icebergs. — Their Origin. — Their Size. — Tbe Glaciers which give them Birth. — Their Beauty. — Sometimes useful Auxiliaries to the Mariner. — Dangers of anchoring to a Berg. — A crumbling Berg. — The Ice-blink. — Fogs. — Transparency of the Atmosphere. — Phenomena of Reflection and Refraction. — Causes which prevent the Accumulation of Folar Ice. — Tides. — Currents. — Ice a bad Conductor of Heat- Wise Provisions of Nature. T^HE heart of the first navigator, says Horace, raust have been shielded with -*- threefold brass — and yet the poet knew but the sunny Mediterranean, with its tepid fioods and smiling shores : how, then, would he have found words to express his astonishment at the intrepid searaen who, to open new vistas to science or new roads to coramerce, first ventured to face the unknown terrors of the Arctic main ? In every part of the ocean the mariner has to guard against the perils of hidden shoals and sunken cliffs, but the high northern waters are doubly and trebly dangerous ; for here, besides those rocks which are firmly rooted to the ground, there are others which, freely floating about, threaten to crush his ves sel to pieces, or to force it along with them in helpless bondage. The Arctic navigators have given various names to these movable shoals, 46 THE POLAR WORLD. which are the cause of so much delay and danger. They are icebergs when they tower to a considerable height above the waters, and ice-fields -when they have a vast horizontal extension. A floe is a detached portion of a field ; pack-ice, a large area of floes or smaller fragments closely driven together so as to oppose a firm barrier to the progress of a ship ; and drift-ice, loose ice in motion, but not so firmly packed as to prevent a vessel from making her way through its yield ing masses. The large ice-fields which the whaler encounters in Baffin's Bay, or on the seas between Spitzbergen and Greenland, constitute one of the marvels of the deep. There is a solemn grandeur in the slow majestic motion with which they are drifted by the currents to the south ; and their enormous masses, as mile after mile comes floating by, impress the spectator with the idea of a boundless extent and an irresistible power. But, vast and mighty as they are, they are unable to withstand the elements combined for their destruction, and their apparently triumphal march leads them only to their ruin. When they first descend from their northern strongholds, the ice of which they are composed is of the average thickness of from ten to fifteen feet, and their surface is sometimes tolerably smooth and even, but in general it is cov ered with numberless ice-blocks or hummocks piled upon each other in wild con- ^xl^ \ AMONG HUMMOCKS. fusion to a height of forty or fifty feet, the result of repeated collisions before flakes and floes were soldered into fields. Before the end of June they are cov ered with snow, sometimes six feet deep, which melting during the summer forms smaU ponds or lakes upon their surface. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 47 \ DRIFTING IN THE ICE. Not seldom ice-fields are whirled about in rotatory motion, which causes their circumference to gyrate with a velocity of several miles per hour. When a field thus sweeping through the waters comes into coUision with another FORMS OF ICEBERGS. 48 THE POLAR WORLD. which may possibly be revolving with equal rapidity in an opposite direction ^when masses not seldora twenty or thirty mUes in diameter, and each weigh ing many millions of tons, clash to gether, imagination can hardly con ceive a more appaUing scene. The whalers at all times require unremit ting vigilance to secure their safety, but scarcely in any situation so much as when navigating amidst these fields, which are more particularly dangerous in foggy weather, as their motions can not then be distinctly ob served. No wonder that since the establishment of the fishery numbers of vessels have been crushed to pieces between two fields in motion, for the strongest ship ever built must needs be utterly unable to resist their power. Some have been uplifted and thrown upon the ice ; some have had their hulls completely torn open ; and others have been overrun by the ice, and buried beneath the fragments piled upon their wreck. The icebergs, which, as their name indicates, rise above the water to a FORMS OF ICEBERGS. A- much more considerable height than the ice-fields, have a very different or igin, as they are not formed in the sea itself, but by the glaciers of the northern highlands. As our rivers are continually pouring their streams into the ocean, so many of the gla ciers or ice-rivers of the Arctic zone, descending to the water-edge, are slowly but constantly forcing them selves farther and farther into the sea. In the summer season, when the ice is particularly fragile, the force of cohesion is often overcorae by the weight of the prodigious raass es that overhang the sea or have been undermined by its waters ; and in the winter, when the air is probably 40° or 50° below zero and the sea frora 28° to 30° above, the unequal expan sion of those parts of the raass ex posed to so great a difference of temperature can not fail to produce the sep aration of large portions. FORMS OF ICEBERGS. THE ARCTIC BEAS. 49 Most of these swimming glacier-fragments, or icebergs, which are met with by the whaler in the Northern Atlantic, are formed on the mountainous west coast of Greenland by the large glaciers which discharge themselves into the fiords from Smith's Sound to Disco Bay, as here the sea is sufficiently deep to float them away, in spite of the enormous magnitude they frequently attain. As they drift along down Baffin's Bay and Davis's Strait, they not seldom run -^*1 -I 'f *fr ICEBERGS AGROUND. aground on some shallow shore, where, bidding defiance to the short summer, they frequently remain for many a year. Dr. Hayes measured an iraraense iceberg which had stranded off the little harbor of Tessuissak, to the north of Melville Bay. The square waU which faced toward his base of measureraent was 315 feet high, and a fraction over three-quarters of a mUe long. Being alraost square-sided above the sea, the same shape must have extended beneath it ; and since, by measurements made two days before, Hayes had discovered that fresh-water ice floating in salt wa ter has above the surface to below it the proportion of one to seven, this crys tallized mountain must have gone aground in a depth of nearly half a mUe. A 50 THE POLAR WORLD. rude estimate of its size, made on the spot, gave in cubical contents about 27,000 miUions of feet, and in weight something like 2000 millions of tons ! Captain Ross in his first voyage raentions another of these wrecked bergs, which was found to be 4169 yards long, 3689 yards broad, and 51 feet high above the level of the sea. It was aground in 61 fathoms, and its weight was estimated by an officer of the "Alexander" at 1,292,397,673 tons. On ascend ing the flat top of this iceberg, it was found occupied by a huge white bear, who justly deeming " discretion the best part of valor," sprang into the sea be fore he could be fired at. The vast dimensions of the icebergs appear less astonishing when we con sider that many of the glaciers or ice-rivers from which they are dislodged are equal in size or volume to the largest streams of continental Europe. Thus one of the eight glaciers existing in the district of Omenak, in Green land, is no less than an English mile broad, and forms an ice-wall rising 160 feet above the sea. Further to the north, Melville Bay and Whale Sound are the seat of vast ice-rivers. Here Tyndall glacier forms a coast-line of ice over two miles long, almost burying its face in the sea, and carrying the eye along a broad and winding valley, up steps of ice of giant height, until at length the slope loses itself in the unknown ice-desert beyond. But grand above all is the magnificent Humboldt glacier, which, connecting Greenland and Washington Land, forms a solid glassy wall 300 feet above the water-level, with an unknown depth below it, while its curved face extends fuU sixty miles in length from Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes. In the temperate zone it would be one of the mightiest rivers of the earth ; here, in the frozen solitudes of the North, it slow ly drops its vast fragments into the waters, making the solitudes around re-echo with their fall. As the Polar shores of continental Araerica and Siberia are generally flat, and below the snow-line, they are consequently deprived both of glaciers and of the huge floating masses to which these give birth. In a high sea the waves beat against an iceberg as against a rock ; and in calm weather where there is a swell, the noise made by their rising and falling is tremendous. Their usual form is that of a high vertical wall, gradually sloping down to the opposite side, which is very low ; but frequently they ex hibit the most fantastic shapes, particularly after they have been a long time exposed to the corroding power of the waves, or of warm rains pelting them from above. A number of icebergs floating in the sea is one of the most magnificent spectacles of nature, but the wonderful beauty of these crystal cliffs never ap pears to greater advantage than when clothed by the midnight sun with all the splendid colors of twilight. " The bergs," says Dr. Hayes, describing one of these enchanting nights, " had wholly lost their chilly aspect, and glittering in the blaze of the briUiant heavens, seemed in the distance Hke masses of burnished metal or solid flame. Nearer at hand they were huge blocks of Parian marble inlaid with mamraoth geras of pearl and opal. One in particular exhibited the perfection of the grand. Its form was not unlike that of the Colosseum, and it lay so far away THE ARCTIC SEAS. 51 I" ' I ni;.|i;|i , , '' ^ ; I I'li'lv Jill 'i|iif ii'l 1 1 i'i " M II .lll 'llll I ' ll'l III' ll 'I' |"M>"I'|| \ I that half its height was buried beneath the line of blood-red waters. The sun, slowly rolling along the horizon, passed behind it, and it seeraed as if the old Roman ruins had suddenly taken fire. In the shadow of the bergs the water was a rich green, and nothing could be more soft and tender than the gradations of color made by the sea shoaling on the sloping tongue of a oerg 53 THE POLAR WORLD. GLACIEE, BUTE INIET. close beside us. The tint increased in intensity where the ice overhung the water, and a deep cavern near by exhibited the solid color of the malachite min gled with the transparency of the emerald, while in strange contrast a broad streak of cobalt blue ran diagonally through its body. The bewitching charac ter of the scene was heightened by a thousand little cascades which leaped into the sea from these floating raasses, the water being discharged from lakes of melt ed snow and ice which reposed in quietude far up in the valleys separating the high icy hills of their upper surface. From other bergs large pieces were now and then detached, plunging down into the water with deafening noise, while the slow moving swell of the ocean resounded through their broken archways." A similar gorgeous spectacle was witnessed by Dr. Kane in Melville Bay. The midnight sun came out over a great berg, kindling variously-colored fires on every part of its surface, and making the ice around the ship one great re splendency of gemwork, blazing carbuncles and rubies, and molten gold. In the night the icebergs are readily distinguished even at a distance by their natural effulgence, and in foggy weather by a peculiar blackness in the atmosphere. As they are not unfrequently drifted by the Greenland stream considerably to the south of Newfoundland, sometimes even as far as the for tieth or thirty-ninth degree of latitude (May, 1841, June, 184-2), ships sailing through the north-western Atlantic require to be always on their guard against them. The ill-fated " President," one of our first ocean-steamers, which was lost on its way to New York, without leaving a trace behind, is supposed to have been sunk by a collision with an iceberg, and no doubt many a gaUant bark has either foundered in the night, or been hurled by the storm against these floating rocks. THE ARCTIC SEAS. 53 But though often dangerous neighbors, the bergs occasionally prove useful auxUiaries to the mariner. From their greater bulk lying below the water- line, they are either drifted along by the under-current against the wind, or, from their vast dimensions, are not perceptibly influenced even by the strongest gale, but, on the contrary, have the appearance of raoving to windward, because every other kind of ice is drifted rapidly past thera. Thus in strong adverse winds, their broad masses, fronting the storra like bulwarks, not seldora afford protection to ships mooring under their lee. Anchoring to a berg is, however, not always unattended with danger, par ticularly when the sumraer is far advanced, or in a lower latitude, as all ice be comes exceedingly fragile when acted on by the sun or by a teraperate atraos- SOAIilNG AN ICEBERG. phere. The blow of an axe then sometimes suffices to rend an iceberg asunder, and to bury the careless seaman beneath its ruins, or to hurl him into the yawn ing chasm. Thus Scoresby relates the adventure of two sailors who were attempting to fix an anchor to a berg. They began to hew a hole into the ice, but scarcely had the first blow been struck, when suddenly the immense mass split from top to bottom and fell asunder, the two halves falling in contrary directions with a prodigious crash. One of the sailors, who was possessed of great presence of mind, immediately scaled the huge fragment on which he was standing, and r,emained rocking to and fro on its summit until, its equilibrium was restored"; but his companion, faUing between the masses, would most likely have been crushed to pieces if the current caused by their motion had not swept him within reach of the boat that was waiting for them. Frequently large pieces detach themselves spontaneously from an iceberg 54 THE POLAR WORLD. aud faU into the sea with a treraendous noise. When this circumstance, caUed " calving," takes place, the iceberg loses its equUibrium, sometimes turns on one side, and is occasionally inverted. Dr. Hayes witnessed the crumbling of an immense berg, resembling in its general appearance the British House of Parliament. First one lofty tower came tumbling into the water, starting from its surface an immense flock of guUs ; then another foUowed ; and at length, after five hours of roUing and crashing, there remained of this splendid mass of congelation not a fragment that rose fifty feet above the water. One of the raost remarkable phenomena of the Polar Sea is the ice-blink, or reflection of the ice against the sky. A stripe of Ught, similar to the early dawn of morning, but without its redness, appears above the horizon, and traces a complete aerial map of the ice to a distance of many mUes beyond the ordi nary reach of vision. To the experienced navigator the " blink " is frequently of the greatest use, as it not only points out the vicinity of the drift-ice, but indicates its nature, whether compact or loose, continuous or open. Thus Scoresby relates that on the 7th of June, 1821, he saw so distinct an ice-blink, that as far as twenty or thirty miles all round the horizon he was able to ascer tain the figure and probable extent of each ice-field. The packed ice was dis tinguished frora the larger fields by a more obscure and yellow color ; while each water-lane or o2Den passage was indicated by a deep blue stripe or patch. By this means he was enabled to find his way out of the vast masses of ice in which he had been detained for several days, and to emerge into the open sea. The tendency of the pack-ice to separate in calm weather, so that one might almost be tempted to believe in a mutual repulsive power of the individual blocks, is likewise favorable to the Arctic navigator. The perpetual daylight of summer is another advantage, but unfortunately the sun is too often veiled by dense mists, which frequently obscure the air for weeks together, particular ly in July. These fogs, which are a great impediraent to the whaler's opera tions, have a very depressing influence upon the spirits ; and as they are at tended with a low temperature, which even at noon does not rise much above freezing-point, the damp cold is also physically extremely unpleasant. At other times the sun sweeps two or three times round the pole without being for a moment obscured by a cloud, and then the transparency of the air is such that objects the most remote may be seen perfectly distinct arid' clear. A ship's top-gaUant mast, at the distance of five or six leagues, may be discern ed when just appearing above the horizon with a common perspective-glass, and the summits of mountains are visible at the distance of from sixty to a hundred miles. On such sunny days, the strong contrasts of light and shade between the glistening snow and the dark protruding rocks produce a remarkable deception in the apparent distance of the land, along a steep mountainous coast. When at the distance of twenty miles from Spitzbergen, for instance, it would be easy to induce even a judicious stranger to undertake a passage in a boat to the shore, from a belief that he was within a league of the land. At this distance the portions of rock and patches of snow, as weU as the contour of the different THE ARCTIC SEAS. 5S hills, are as distinctly marked as similar objects in many other countries, not having snow about them, would be at a fourth or a fifth part of the distance. Nothing can be more wonderful than the phenomena of the atmosphere de pendent on reflection and refraction, which are frequently observed in the Arc tic seas, particularly at the commencement or approach of easterly winds. They are probably occasioned by the coraraixture, near the surface of the land or sea, of two strearas of air of different temperatures, so as to occasion an irregular deposition of imperfectly condensed vapor, which when passing the verge of the horizon apparently raises the objects there situated to a considerable distance above it, or extends their height beyond their natural dimensions. Ice, land, ships, boats, and other objects, when thus enlarged and elevated, are said to loom. The lower part of looming objects are sometimes connected with the horizon by an apparent fibrous or columnar extension of their parts ; at other times they appear to be quite lifted into the air, a void space being seen between them and the horizon. A most remarkable delusion of this kind was observed by Scoresby whUe sailing through the open ice, far from land. Suddenly an immense amphitheatre inclosed by high walls of basaltic ice, so like natural rock as to deceive one of his most experienced officers, rose around the ship. Sometiraes the refraction produced on all sides a simUar effect, but still more frequently remarkable con trasts. Single ice-blocks expanded into architectural figures of an extraordina ry height, and sometimes the distant, deeply indented ice-border looked like a number of towers or minarets, or like a dense forest of naked trees. Scarcely had an object acquired a distinct form, when it began to dissolve into another. It is well known that simUar causes produce simUar effects in the warmer regions of the earth. In the midst of the tropical ocean, the mariner sees ver dant islands rise from the waters, and in the treeless desert fantastic palm- groves wave their fronds, as if in mockery of the thirsty caravan. When we consider the intense cold which reigns during the greatest part of the year in the Arctic regions, we might naturally expect to find the whole of the Polar Sea covered, during the winter at least, with one solid unbroken sheet of ice. But experience teaches us that this is by no means the case ; for the currents, the tides, the winds, and the swell of a turbulent ocean are mighty causes of disruption, or strong impediments to congelation. Both Lieutenant de Haven and Sir Francis M'Clintock* were helplessly carried along, in the depth of win ter, by the pack-ice in Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay. A berg impelled by a strong under-current rips open an ice-field as if it were a thin sheet of glass ; and in channels, or on coasts where the tides rise to a con siderable height, their flux and reflux is continually opening crevices and lanes in the ice which covers the waters. That even in the highest latitudes the sea does not close except when at rest, was fuUy experienced by Dr. Hayes during his wintering at Port Foulke ; for at all times, even when the temperature of the air was below the freezing-point of mercury, he could hear from the deck of his schooner the roar of the beating waves. From all these causes there has at no point within the Arctic Circle been found a firm ice-belt extending, • See Chapter XXXH. 66 THE POLAR WORLD. AN ARCTIC CHANNEL. either in winter or in summer, more than from fifty to a hundred miles from land. And even in the narrow channels separating the islands of the Parry Archipelago, or at the mouth of Smith Sound, the waters will not freeze over, except when sheltered by the land, or when an ice-pack, accumulated by long continuance of winds from one quarter, affords the same protection. But the constant raotion of the Polar Sea, wherever it expands to a consider- THE ARCTIC SEAS. 57 able breadth, would be insufficient to prevent its total congelation, if it were not assisted by other physical causes. A magnificent system of currents is continuaUy displacing the waters of the ocean, and forcing the warm floods of the tropical regions to wander to the pole, while the cold streams of the frigid zone are as constantly migrating toward the Equator. Thus we see the Gulf Stream flowing through the broad gateway east of Spitzbergen, and forcing out a return current of cold water to the west of Spitzbergen, and through Davis's Strait. The comparatively warm floods which, in consequence of this gre.at law of circulation, come pouring into the Arctic seas, naturally require some time before they are sufficiently chilled to be converted into ice ; and as sea-water has its maxiraura of density, or, in other words, is heaviest a few degrees above the freezing-point of water, and then necessarily sinks, the whole depth of the OPEN VJfATER. sea must of course be cooled down to that teraperature before freezing can take place. Ice being a bad conductor of heat, likewise liraits the process of congelation ; for after attaining a thickness of ten or fifteen feet, its growth is very slow, and probably even ceases altogether ; for when floating fields, or floes, are found of a greater thickness, this increase is due to the snow that falls upon their surface, or to the accuraulation of huraraocks caused by their coUision. Thus, by the corabined influence of these various physical agencies, bounds have been set to the congelation of the Polar -waters. Were it otherwise, the Arctic lands would have been raere uninhabitable wastes ; for the existence of the seals, the walrus, and the whale depends upon their finding some open wa ter at every season of the year ; and deprived of this resource, all the Esqui maux, whose various tribes fringe the coasts in the highest latitudes hitherto discovered, would perish in a single winter. If the Arctic glaciers did not discharge their bergs into the sea, or if no currents conveyed the ice-floes of the north into lower latitudes, ice would be 68 THE POLAR WORLD. constantly accumulating in the Polar world, and, destroying the balance of na ture, would ultimately endanger the existence of man over the whole surface of the globe. ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. 69 CHAPTER IV. ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. Populousness of the Arctic Seas. — The Greenland Whale. — The Fin Whales. — The Narwhal. — The Beluga, or White Dolphin. — The Black Dolphin. — His wholesale Massacre on the Faeroe Isl ands. — The Ore, or Grampus. — The Seals. — The Walrus. — Its acute Smell. — History of a young Walrus. — Parental Affection. — The Polar Bear. — His Sagacity. — Hibernation of the She-bear. — Sea-birds. THE vast multitudes of animated beings which people the Polar Seas form a remarkable contrast to the nakedness of their bleak and desolate shores. The colder surface-waters almost perpetually exposed to a chilly air, and fre quently covered, even in summer, with floating ice, are indeed unfavorable to the development of organic life ; but this adverse influence is modified by the higher teraperature which constantly prevails at a greater depth ; for, contrary to what takes place in the equatorial seas, we find in the Polar Ocean an in crease of temperature from the surface downward, in consequence of the warmer under-currents, flowing from the south northward, and passing be neath the cold waters of the superficial Arctic current. Thus the severity of the Polar winter remains unfelt at a greater depth of the sea, where myriads of creatures find a secure retreat against the frost, and whence they emerge during the long summer's day, either to line the shores or to ascend the broad rivers of the Arctic world. Between the parallels of 74° and 80° Scoresby observed that the color of the Greenland sea varies from the purest ultraraarine to olive green, and frora crystalline transparency to striking opacity — appearances which are not transitory, but permanent. This green semi-opaque water, whose position varies with the currents, often forming iso lated stripes, and soraetiraes spreading over two or three degrees of latitude, mainly owes its singular aspect to sraall medusae and nudibranchiate moUuscs. It is calculated to form one-fourth part of the surface of the sea between the above-mentioned parallels, so that many thousands of square miles are absolute ly teeming with life. On the coast of Greenland, where the waters are so exceedingly clear that the bottom and everj' object upon it are plainly visible even at a depth of eighty fathoms, the ground is seen covered with gigantic tangles, which, togeth er with the animal world circulating among their fronds, remind the spectator of the coral-reefs of the tropical ocean. NuUipores, mussels, alcyonians, sertu- larians, ascidians, and a variety of other sessile animals, incrust every stone or fill every hollow or crevice of the rocky ground. A dead seal or fish thrown into the sea is soon converted into a skeleton by the myriads of small crustaceans which infest these northern waters, and, like the ants in the equatorial forests, perform the part of scavengers of the deep. 60 THE POLAR WORLD. Thus we find an exuberance of life, in its smaller and smallest forms, peo, pUng the Arctic waters, and affording nourishraent to a variety of strange and bulky creatures— cetaceans, walruses, and seals— which annually attract thou sands of adventurous seamen to the icy ocean. Of these sea-mamraaUans, the most important to civUized manis undoubted- ly the Greenland whale {Balcena mysticetus), or smooth-back, thus called from its having no dorsal fin. Formerly these whales were harpooned in considerable numbers in the Icelandic waters, or in the fiords of Spitzbergen and Danish Greenland ; then Davis's Straits became the favorite fishing-grounds ; and more recently the inlets and various channels to the east of Baffin's Bay have been invaded ; whUe, on the opposite side of America, several hundreds of whalers penetrate every year through Bering's Straits into the icy sea beyond, where previously they lived and multiplied, unmolested except by the Esquimaux. THE WHALE. More fortunate than the smooth-back, the rorquals, or fin-whales {Balcenop tera boops, musculus, physalis, and rostratus), still remain in their ancient seats, from which they are not likely to be dislodged, as the agility of their move ments makes their capture more difficult and dangerous ; while at the same time the small quantity of their fat and the shortness of their baleen render it far less remunerative. They are of a more slender form of body, and with a more pointed muzzle than the Greenland whale ; and while the latter attains a length of only sixty feet, the Balcenoptera boops grows to the vast length of 100 feet and more. There is also a difference in their food, for the Greenland whale chiefly feeds upon the minute animals that crowd the olive-colored waters above described, or on the hosts of little pteropods that are found in many parts of the Arctic seas, while the rorquals frequently accompany the herring-shoals, and carry death and destruction into their ranks. The seas of Novaja Zemlya, Spitzbergen, and Greenland are the domain of the narwhal, or sea-unicorn, a cetacean quite as strange, but not so fabulous as the terrestrial animal which figures in the arms of England. The use of the ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. 61 enormous spirally wound tusk projecting from its upper jaw, and frora which it derives its popular name, has not yet been clearly ascertained, some holding it to be an instrument of defense, -while others suppose it to be only an orna ment or raark of the superior dignity of the sex to which it has been awarded. Among the nuraerous dolphins which people the Arctic and Subarctic seas, the beluga {Delphinus leucas), improperly called the white whale, is one of the most interesting. When young it has a brown color, which gradually changes into a perfect white. It attains a length of from twelve to t-wenty feet, has no dorsal fin, a strong tail three feet broad, and a round head -with a broad trun cated snout. Beyond 56° of latitude it is frequently seen in large shoals, par ticularly near the estuaries of the large Siberian and North American rivers, which it often ascends to a considerable distance in pursuit of the salmon. A troop of belugas diving out of the dark waves of the Arctic Sea is said to afford THE NARWHAL. a magnificent spectacle. Their white color appears dazzling, from the con trast of the sombre background, as they dart about with arrow-like velocity. The black dolphin {Globicephalus globiceps) is likewise very common in the Arctic seas, both beyond Bering's Straits and between Greenland and Spitz bergen, whence it frequently makes excursions to the south. It grows to the length of twenty-four feet, and is about ten feet in circumference. The skin, like that of the dolphin tribe in general, is sraooth, resembling oUed silk ; the color a bluish-black on the back, and generaUy whitish on the belly ; the blub ber is three or four inches thick. The full-grown have generaUy twenty-two or twenty-four teeth in each jaw; and when the mouth is shut, the teeth lock between one another, like the teeth of a trap. The dorsal fin is about fifteen inches high, the tail five feet broad; the pectoral fins are as many, long and comparatively narrow ; so that, arraed with such excellent paddles, the black dolphin is inferior to none of his relatives in swiftness. Of an erainently social disposition, these dolphins so:astiraes con gregate in herds of many hundreds, under the guidance of several old experi- 63 THE POLAR WORLD. enced males, whom the rest foUow like a flock of sheep— a property frora which the aniraal is caUed in Shetland the " ca'ing whale." No cetacean strands more frequently than the black dolphin, and occasionally large herds have been driven on the shores of Iceland, Norway, and the Orkney, Shetland and Faeroe islands, where their capture is haUed as a godsend. The inteUigence that a shoal of ca'ing whales or grinds has been seen approaching the coast, creates great ex citement among the otherwise phlegmatic inhabitants of the Faeroe Islands. The whole neighborhood, old and young, is instantly in motion, and soon nuraer ous boats shoot off frora shore to intercept the retreat of the dolphins. Slowly and steadily they are driven toward the coast; the phalanx of their eneiliies draws closer and closer together ; terrified by stones and blows, they run ashore, and lie gasping as the flood recedes. Then begins the work of death, amid the loud shouts of the executioners and the furious splashings of the victims. In this manner raore than 800 grinds were massacred on August 16,1776; and duriug the four summer months that Langbye sojourned on the island in 1817, 623 were driven on shore, and served to pay one-half of the imported corn. But, on the other hand, many years frequently pass without yielding one single black whale to the tender mercies of the islanders. The ferocious ore, or grampus {Delphinus area), is the tiger of the Arctic, seas. Black above, white beneath, it is distinguished by its large dorsal fin, which curves backward toward the tail, and rises to the -height of two feet or more. Measuring no less than twentj'-five feet in length and twelve or thirteen in girth, of a courage equal to its strength, and armed with formidable teeth, thirty in each jaw, the grampus is the dread of the seals, whom it overtakes in spite of their rapid flight ; and the whale himself would consider it as his most formidable enemy, were it not for the persecutions of man. The grampus gen erally ploughs the seas in small troops of four or five, following each other in close single file, and alternately disappearing and rising so as to resemble the undulatory raotions of one large serpentiform animal. The family of the seals has also numerous and mighty representatives in the Arctic waters. In the sea of Bering we meet with the formidable sea- lion and the valuable sea-bear, whUe the harp-seal, the bearded seal, and the hispid seals {Phoca groenlandica, barbata, hispida), spreading from the Parry Islands to Novaja Zeralya, yield the tribute of their flesh to numerous wild tribes, and that of their skins to the European hunter. Few Arctic animals are raore valuable to man, or more frequently raentioned in Polar voyages than the walrus or morse ( Trichechus rosmarus), which, though aUied to the seals, differs greatly from them by the development of the canines of the upper jaw, which form two enorraous tusks projecting down ward to the length of two feet. The morse is one of the largest quadrupeds ex isting, as it attains a length of twenty feet, and a weight of from fifteen hundred to two thousand pounds. In uncouthness of forra it surpasses even the ungain ly hippopotamus. It has a sraall head with a reraarkably thick upper lip, cov- ei'ed with large peUucid whiskers or bristles ; the neck is thick and short ; the naked gray or red-brown skin hangs loosely on the ponderous and elongated trunk ; and the short feet terminate in broad fin-Uke paddles, resembUng large ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. 63 ill-fashioned flaps of leather. Its moveraents on land are extremely slow and awkward, resembling those of a huge caterpillar, but in the water it has all the activity of the seals, or even surpasses them in speed. Gregarious, like the seals and many of the dolphins, the walruses love to lie on the ice or on the sand-banks, closely huddled together. On the spot where 64 THE POLAR WORLD. a walrus lands, others are sure to follow ; and when the fi?rst comers block the shore, those which arrive later, instead of landing on a free spot farther on, prefer giving their friends who are in the way a gentle push with their tusks so as to induce them to raake room. Timorous and almost helpless on land, where, in spite of its formidable tusks, it faUs an easy prey to the attacks of raan, the walrus evinces a greater degree of courage in the water, where it is able to make a better use of the strength and weapons bestowed upon it by nature. Many instances are known where walruses, which never attack but when provoked, have turned upon their assaUants, or have even assembled from a distance to assist a wounded com rade. Like the seals, the walrus is easily tamed, and of a most affectionate temper. This was shown in a remarkable m.anner by a young walrus brought alive from Archangel to St. Petersburg in 1829. Its keeper, Madame Dennebecq, having tended it with the greatest care, the grateful animal expressed its pleasure whenever she came near it by an affectionate grunt. It not only foUowed her with its eyes, but was never happier than when allowed to lay its head in her lap. The tenderness was reciprocal, and Madame Dennebecq used to talk of her walrus with the same warmth of affectioii as if it had been a pet lapdog. That parental love should be highly developed in animals thus susceptible of friendship may easily be iraagined. Mr. Laraont, an English gentleman whora the love of sport led a few years since to Spitzbergen, relates the case of a wounded walrus who held a very young calf under her right arra. When ever the harpoon was raised against it, the mother carefully shielded it with her own body. The countenance of this poor animal was never to be forgot ten : that of the calf expressive of abject terror, and yet of such a boundless confidence in its mother's power of protecting it, as it swara along under her wing, and the old cow's face showing such reckless defiance for all that could be done to herself, and yet such terrible anxiety as to the safety of her calf. This parental affection is shamefully misused by man, for it is a coramon artifice of the walrus-hunters to catch a young animal and make it grunt, in or(3er to attract a herd. The walrus is confined to the coasts of the Arctic regions, unless when drift- ice, or some other accident, carries it away into the ofien sea. Its chief resorts are Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, North Greenland, the shores of Hudson's and Baffin's bays ; and on the opposite side of the Polar Ocean, the coasts of Ber ing's Sea, and to the north of Bering's Straits, the American and Asiatic shoi-es from' Point Barrow to Cape North. It has nowhere been found on the coasts of Siberia from the raouth of the Jenisei to the last-mentioned promontory, and on those of America from Point Barrow to Lancaster Sound ; so that it inhabits two distinct regions, separated frora each other by vast extents of coast. Its food seems to consist principally of marine plants and shell-fish, though Scoresby relates that he found the remains of fishes, or even of seals, in its stomach. As the Polar bear is frequently found above a hundred mUes from the near est land, upon loose ice steadily drifting into the sea, it seems but fair to assign ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. 65 hira a place among the marine animals of the Arctic zone. He hunts by scent, and is constantly running across and against the wind, which prevails from the northward, so that the same instinct which directs his search for prey also serves the important purpose of guiding him in the direction of the land and more solid ice. His favorite food is the seal, which he surprises crouching down with his fore paws doubled underneath, and pushing himself noiselessly forward with his hinder legs until within a few yards, when he springs upon his victim, whether in the water or upon the ice. He can swim at the rate of three miles an hour, and can dive to a considerable distance. Though he at tacks man when hungry, wounded, or provoked, he will not injure hira when food more to his liking is at hand. Sir Francis M'Clintock relates an anecdote of a native of Upernavik who was out one dark winter's day visiting his seal- nets. He found a seal entangled, and whilst kneeling down over it upon the ice to get it clear, he received a slap on the back — from his corapanion as he supposed ; but a second and heavier blow raade him look smartly round. He was horror-stricken to see a peculiarly grim old bear instead of his comrade. Without taking further notice of the man. Bruin tore the seal out of the net, and began his supper. He was not interrupted, nor did the raan wait to see the meal finished, fearing, no doubt, that his uninvited and unceremonious guest might keep a corner for him. Many instances have been observed of the peculiar sagacity of the Polar bear. Scoresby relates that the captain of a whaler, being anxious to procure a bear without wounding the skin, made trial of the stratagera of laying the noose of a rope in the snow, and placing a piece of kreng, or whale's carcass^ within it. A bear, ranging the neighboring ice, was soon enticed to the spot. Approaching the bait, he seized it in his mouth ; but his foot, at the same moment, by a jerk of the rope, being entangled in the noose, he pushed it off with the adjoining paw, and deliberately retired. After having eaten the piece he carried away with him, he returned. The noose, with another piece of kreng, being then replaced, he pushed the rope aside, and again walked tri umphantly off with the kreng. A third time the noose was laid, and this time the rope was buried in the snow, and the bait laid in a deep hole dug in the centre. But Bruin, after snuffing about the place for a few minutes, scraped the snow away with his paw, threw the rope aside, and escaped unhurt with his prize. The she-bear is taught by a wonderful instinct to shelter her young under the snow. Towards the month of December she retreats to the side of a rock, where, by dint of scraping and allowing the snow to faU upon her, she forms a cell in which to reside during the winter. There is no fear that she should be stifled for want of air, for the warmth of her breath always keeps a sraall pas sage open, and the snow, instead of forraing a thick uniforra sheet, is broken ' by a little hole, round which is coUected a raass of glittering hoar-frost, caused by the congelation of the breath. Within this strange nursery she produces her young, and reraains with thera beneath the snow until the month of March, when she emerges into the open air with her baby bears. As the time passes on, the breath of the family, together with the warmth exhaled from their 6 THE POLAR WORLD. HOME OF THE POLAR BEAR. bodies, serves to enlarge the cell, so that with their increasing dimensions the accoraraodation is increased to suit them. As the only use of the snow-burrow is to shelter the young, the male bears do not hibernate like the females, but roam freely about during the winter months. Before retiring under the snow, the bear eats enormously, and, driven by an unfailing instinct, resorts to the most nutritious diet, so that she becomes prodigiously fat, thus laying in an in ternal store of alimentary matter which enables her not only to support her own life, but to suckle her young during her long seclusion, without taking a morsel of food. By an admirable provision of nature, the young are of won derfuUy small dimensions when compared with the parent ; and as their growth, as long as they remain confined in their crystal nursery, is remarkably slow, they consequently need but little food and space. The Polar bear is armed with formidable weapons, and a proportionate power to use them. His claws are two inches in length, and his canine teeth, exclusive of the part in the jaw, about an inch and a half. Thus the hoards of provisions which are frequently deposited by Arctic voyagers to provide for some future want, have no greater enemy than the Polar bear. " The final cache," says Kane, " which I relied so much upon, was entirely destroyed. It had been built with extrerae care, of rocks which had been assembled by very heavy labor, and adjusted with much aid, often, from capstan-bars as levers. ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. 67 The entire construction was, so far aS our means permitted, most effective and resisting. Yet these tigers of the ice seemed hardly to have encountered an obstacle. Not a morsel of pemraican reraained, except in the iron cases, which being round, with conical ends, defied both claws and teeth. They had rolled and pawed thera in every direction, tossing thera about like footballs, although over eighty pounds in weight. An alcohol can, strongly iron-bound, was dashed into sraaU fragments, and a tin can of liquor smashed and twisted almost into a ball. The claws of the beast had perforated the metal and torn it up as with a chisel. They were too dainty for salt raeats ; ground coffee they had an evident reUsh for ; old canvas was a favorite, for sorae reason or other ; even our flag, which had been reared ' to take possession ' of the waste, was gnawed down to the very staff. They had raade a regular frolic of it ; roUing our bread-barrels over the ice ; and, unable to masticate our heavy India-rubber cloth, they had tied it up in unimaginable hard knots." Nurabers of sea-birds are found breeding along the Arctic shores as far as raan has hitherto penetrated ; sorae even keep the sea in the high latitudes all the winter, wherever open water exists. On the most northerp rocks the razor bill rears its young, and the fulmar and Ross's gull have been seen in lanes of water beyond 82° lat. As the sun gains in power, enormous troops of puffins, looms, dovekies, rotges, skuas, burgerraasters, Sabine's gulls, kittiwakes, ivory / /¦A p.^ gulls, and Arctic terns, retum to the north. There they enjoy the long sum mer day, and revel in the abundance of the flsh-teeming waters, bringing life and animation into solitudes seldom or perhaps never disturbed by the presence of man, and mingling their wild screams with the hoarse-resounding surge or the howling of the storm. In many localities they breed in such abundance, that it may be said, almost without exaggeration, that they darken the sun when they fly, and hide the waters when they swim. 68 THE POLAR WORLD. LAVA-FIELDS. AvPf / CHAPTER V. ICELAND. Volcanic Origin of the Island. — The Klofa Jokul. — Lava-streams. — The Burning Mountains of Krisu. vik. — The Mud-caldrons of Reykjahlid.— The Tungo-hver at Reykholt. — The Great Geysir.— The Strokkr. — Crystal Pools. — The Almannagja. — The Surts-hellir. — Beautiful Ice-cave. — The Gotha Foss. — The Detti Foss. — Climate. — Vegetation. — Cattle. — Barbarous Mode of Sheep-sheering. — Reindeer.— Polar Bears.— Biids.-The Eider-duck.— Videy.—Vigr. — The Wild Swan. — The Ra ven. — The Jerfalcon. — The Giant auk, or Geirfugl. — Fish. — Fishing Season. — The White Shark.— Mineral Kingdom. — Sulphur. — Peat. — Drift-wood. ICELAND raight as well be called Fireland, for all its 40,000 square miles have originally been upheaved from the depths of the waters by volcanic power. First, at some imraeasurably distant period of the world's history, the sinall nucleus of the future island began to struggle into existence against the superincurabent weight of the ocean ; then, in the course of ages, cone rose after cone, crater was forraed after crat,er, eruption followed on eruption, and lava-stream on lava-stream, until finally the Iceland of the present day was piled up with her gigantic "jokuls," or ice-mountains, and her vast promon tories, stretching like huge buttresses far out into the sea. In winter, when an alraost perpetual night covers the wastes of this fire-bom land, and the waves of a stormy ocean thunder against its shores, imagination can hardly picture a more desolate scene ; but in sumraer the rugged nature of Iceland invests itself with many a charm. Then the eye reposes with de- ICELAND. 69 light on green valleys and crystal lakes, on the purple hills or snow-capped mountains rising in Alpine grandeur above the distant horizon, and the stran ger might almost be terapted to exclaira with her patriotic sons, " Iceland is the best land under the sun." That it is one of the most interesting — through its history, its inhabitants, and, above all, its natural curiosities — no one can doubt. It has all that can please and fascinate the poet, the artist, the geologist, or the historian ; the prosaic utilitarian alone, accustomed to value a country merely by its productions, raight turn with sorae conterapt frora a land without corn, withput forests, without mineral riches, and covered for about two-thirds of its surface with bogs, lava-wastes, and glaciers. The curse of sterUity rests chiefly on the south-eastern and central parts of the island. Here nothing is to be seen but deserts of volcanic stone or im mense ice-fields, the largest of which — the Klofa Jokul — alone extends over more than 4000 square railes. The interior of this vast region of neve and glacier is totaUy unknown. The highest peaks, the most dreadful volcanoes of the island, rise on the southern and south-western borders of this hitherto inac cessible waste ; the Oraefa looking down from a height of 6000 feet upon all its rivals — the Skaptar, a name of dreadful significance in the annals of Iceland, and farther on, like the advanced guards of this host of slurabering fires, the Katla, the Myrdal, the Eyjafjalla, and the Hecla, the raost renowned, though not the raost terrible, of all the volcanoes of Iceland. As the ice-fields of this northern island far surpass in magnitude those of the Alps, so also the lava-streams of -iEtna or Vesuvius are insignificant when compared with the enorraous masses of molten stone which at various periods have issued from the craters of Iceland. From Mount Skjaldebreith, on both sides of the lake of Thingvalla as far as Cape Reykjanes, the traveller sees an uninterrupted lava-field more than sixty miles long, and frequently from twelve to fifteen broad ; and lava-streams of still raore gigantic proportions exist in many other parts of the island, particularly in the interior. In gener.al, these lava^streams have cooled down into the raost fantastic forms imaginable. " It is hardly possible," says Mr. Holland, " to give any idea of the general appear ance of these once molten masses. Here a great crag has toppled over into sorae deep crevasse, there a huge mass has been upheaved above the fiery stream which has seethed and boiled around its base. Here is every shape and figure that sculpture could design or iraagination picture, jurabled to gether in grotesque confusion, whilst everywhere rayriads of horrid spikes and sharp shapeless irregularities bristle amidst them." By the eruptions of the Icelandic volcanoes many a fair meadow-land has been converted into a stony wilderness ; but if the subterranean fires have fre quently brought ruin and desolation over the island, they have also endowed it with many natural wonders. In the " burning mountains " of Krisuvik, on the south-western coast, a whole hill-slope, with a deep narrow gorge at its foot, is covered with innumer able boiling springs and fumaroles, whose dense exhalations, spreading an in tolerable stench, issue out of the earth with a hissing noise, and completely hide the view. 70 THE POLAR WORLD. EFFIGY IN LAVA. The Namar, or boiling mud-caldrons of Reykjahlid, situated among a range of mountains near the My vatn (Gnat-Lake), in one of the most solitary spots in the north of the island, on the border of enormous lava-fields and of a vast un known wilderness, exhibit volcanic power on a still more gigantic scale. There are no less than twelve of these seething pits, all filled with a disgusting thick slimy gray or black liquid, boiling or simmering with greater or less vehemence, and emitting dense volurans of steara strongly impregnated with sulphurous gases. Some sputter furiously, scattering their contents on every side, while in others the muddy soup appears too thick to boil, and after remaining quiescent for about half a rainute, rises up a few inches in the centre of the basin, emits a puff of steam, and then subsides into its former state. The diameter of the largest of all the pits can not be less than fifteen feet; and it is a sort of mud Geysir, for at intervals a column of its black liquid contents, accorapanied with a violent rush of steam, is thrown up to the height of six or eight feet. Pi'o- fessor Sartorius von Waltershausen, one of the few traveUers who have visited this remarkable spot, says that the witches in Macbeth could not possibly have desired a more fitting place for the preparation of their infernal gruel than the mud-caldrons of Reykjahlid. Among the hot or boiling springs of Iceland, which in hundreds of places gush forth at the foot of the mountains, sorae are of a gentle and even flow, and can be used for bathing, washing, or boiling, while others of an interraittent na ture are mere objects of curiosity or wonder. One of the most remarkable of the latter is the Tungo-hver, at Reykholt, in the " valley of smoke," thus named from the columns of vapor emitted by the thermal springs which are here scat tered about with a lavish hand. It consists of two fountains within a yard of each other — the larger one vomiting a column of boiling water ten feet high for the space of about four rainutes, when it entirely subsides, and then the smaller one operates for about three minutes, ejecting a column of about five feet. The alternation is perfectly regular in time and force, and there are authentic ac counts of its unfailing exactitude for the last hundred years. But of aU the springs and fountains of Iceland there is none to equal, either fn grandeur or renown, the Great Geysir, which is not merely one of the curi- ICELAND. 71 osities of the country, but one of the wonders of the earth, as there is nothing to compare to it in any other part of the world. At the foot of the Laugafjall hill, in a green plain, through which several rivers meander like threads of silver, and where chains of dark-colored raount ains, overtopped here and there by distant snow-peaks, form a grand but mel ancholy panoraraa, dense voluraes of steara indicate from afar the site of a whole systera of thermal springs congregated on a small piece of ground which does not exceed twelve acres. In any other spot, the smallest of these boiling fountains would arrest the traveller's attention, but here his whole mind is ab sorbed by the Great Geysir. In the course of countless ages this raonarch of springs has formed, out of the silica it deposits, a mound which rises to about thirty feet above the general surface of the plain, and slopes on all sides to the distance of a hundred feet or thereabouts from the border of a large circular basin situated in its centre, and measuring about flfty-six feet in the greatest diaraeter and fifty-two feet in the narrowest. In the middle of this basin, forming as it were a gigantic funnel, there is a pipe or tube, which at its open ing in the basin is eighteen or sixteen feet in diameter, but narrows consider ably at a little distance from the inouth, and then appears to be not raore than ten or twelve feet in diaraeter. It has been probed to a depth of seventy feet, but it is raore than probable that hidden channels ramify farther into the bow els of the earth. The sides of the tube are smoothly polished, and so hard that it is not possible to strike off a piece of it with a hammer. Generally the whole basin is found filled up to the brim with sea-green wa ter as pure as crystal, and of a temperature of frora 180° to 190°. Astonished at the placid tranquillity of the pool, the traveller can hardly believe that he is really standing on the brink of the far-famed Geysir ; but suddenly a subterra nean thunder is heard, the ground trembles under his feet, the water in the ba sin begins to simmer, and large bubbles of steara rise from the tube and burst on reaching the surface, throwing up smaU jets of spray to the height of sev eral feet. Every instant he expects to witness the grand spectacle which has chiefly induced him to visit this northern laud, but soon the basin becomes tran quil as before, and the dense vapors produced by the ebullition are wafted away by the breeze. These smaUer eruptions are regularly repeated every eighty or ninety minutes, but frequently the traveUer is obliged to wait a whole day, or even longer, before he sees the whole power of the Geysir. A detonation loud er than usual precedes one of these grand eruptions ; the water in the basin is violently agitated ; the tube boils vehemently ; and suddenly a magnificent col umn of water, clothed in vapor of a dazzling whiteness, shoots up iuto the air with immense impetuosity and noise to the height of seventy or eighty feet, and, radiating at its apex, showers water and steara in every direction. A second eruption and a third rapidly follow, and after a few minutes the fairy spectacle has passed away like a fantastic vision. The basin is now completely dried up, and on looking down into the shaft, one is astonished to see the water about six feet frora the rira, and as tranquil as in an ordinary well. After about thirty or forty rainutes it again begins to rise, and after a few hours reaches the brim of the basin, whence it flows down the slope of the mound 73 THE POLAR WORLD. into the Hvita, or White River. Soon the subterraneous thunder, the shaking of the grouud, the siraraering above the tube, and the other phenomena which at tend each minor eruption, begin again, to be followed by a new period of rest, and thus this wonderful play of nature goes on day after day, year after year, and century after century. The mound of the Geysir bears witness to its im mense antiquity, as its water contains but a minute portion of silica. After the Geysir, the most remarkable fountain of these Phlegraean fields is the great Strokkr, situated about four hundred feet from the former. Its tube, THE STKOKKR. the margin of which is almost even with the general surface, the smaU raound and basin being hardly discernible, is funnel-shaped, or reserabling the flower of a convolvulus, having a depth of forty-eight feet, and a diaraeter of six feet at the raouth, but contracting, at twenty-two feet frora the bottom, to only eleven inches. The water stands frora nine to twelve feet under the brim, and is gen erally in violent ebullition. A short tirae before the beginning of the erup tions, which are niore frequent than those of the Great Geysir, an enorraous mass of steam rushes from the tube, and is followed by a rapid succession of jets, sometimes rising to the height of 120 or 150 feet, and dissolving into silvery mist. A peculiarity of the Strokkr is that it can at any tirae be provoked to an eruption by throwing into the orifice large raasses of peat or turf ; thus chok ing the shaft, and preventing the free escape of the steam. After the lapse of about ten minutes, the boiling fluid, as if indignant at this attempt upon its liberty, heaves up a column of mud and water, wilh fragments of peat, as black as ink. ICELAND. 73 About 150 paces from the Great Geysir are several pools of the most beau tifuUy clear water, tinting with every shade of the purest green and blue the fantastical forms of the silicious travertin which clothes their sides. The slight est motion communicated to the surface quivers down to the bottom of these crystal grottoes, and. imparts what raight be called a sympathetic tremor of the water to every delicate incrustation and plant-like efflorescence. " Aladdin's Cave could not be more beautiful," says Preyer ; and Mr. Holland remarks that neither description nor drawing is capable of giving a sufficient idea of the sin gularity and loveliness of this spot. In many places it is dangerous to approach within several feet of the margin, as the, earth overhangs the water, and is hol low underneath, supported only by incrustations scarcely a foot thick. A plunge into waters of about 200° would be paying rather too dearly for the conteraplation of their fairy-like beauty. ENTRANCE TO THE ALMANNAGJA. The gigantic chasm of the Alraannagja is another of the volcanic wonders of Iceland. After a long and tedious ride over the vast lava^plain which extends between the SkalafeU and the lake of ThingvaUa, the traveUer suddenly finds himself arrested in his path by an apparently insurmountable obstacle, for the 74 THE POLAR WORLD. enorraous Almannagja, or AUman's Rift, suddenly gapes beneath his feet— a colossal rent extending above a mile in length, and inclosed on both sides by abrupt walls of black lava, frequently upward of a hundred feet high, and sep arated from about fifty to seventy feet fi-om each other. THE ALMANNAGJA. A corresponding chasm, but of inferior dimensions, the Hrafnagja, or Ra ven's Rift, opens its black rampart to the east, about eight miles farther on ; and both forra the boundaries of the verdant plain of ThingvaUa, which by a grand convulsion of nature has itself been shattered into innumerable small parallel crevices and fissures fifty or sixty feet deep. Of the Hrafnagja Mr. Ross Browne says : " A toilsome ride of eight miles brought us to the edge of the Pass, which in point of rugged grandeur far surpasses the Almannagja, though it lacks the extent and symmetry which give the latter such a remarkable effect. Here was a tremendous gap in the earth, over a hundred feet deep, hacked and shivered into a thousand fantastic shapes ; the sides a succession of the wildest accidents ; the bottora a chaos of broken lava, all tossed about in the most terrific confusion. It is not, however, the ex traordinary desolation of the scene that constitutes its principal interest. The resistless power which had rent the great lava-bed asunder, as if touched with pity at the ruin, had also fiung from the tottering cliffs a causeway across the gap, which now forms the onlj' means of passing over the great Hrafnagja. No huraan hands could have created such a colossal work as this ; the imagi nation is lost in its raassive grandeur ; and when we reflect that miles of an almost impassable country would otherwise have to be traversed in order to ICELAND. 75 THE HRAFNAGJA. reach the opposite side of the gap, the conclusion is irresistible that in the bat tie of the eleraents Nature stiU had a kindly reraerabrance of man. THE TINTRON BOCK. 76 THE POLAR WORLD. "Five or six mUes beyond the Hrafnagja, near the summit of a dividing ridge, we carae upon a very singular volcanic formation, called the Tintron. It stands, a little to the right of the trail, on a rise of scoria and burnt earth, frora which it juts up in rugged reUef to the height of twenty or thirty feet. This is, strictly speaking, a huge clinker, not unUke what coraes out of a grate — hard, glassy in spots, and scraggy aU over. The top part is shaped like a shell ; in the centre is a hole about three feet in diameter, which opens into a vast subterranean cavity of unknown depth. Whether the Tintron is an ex tinct crater, through which fires shot out of the earth in by-gone times, or an isolated raass of lava, whirled through the air out of some distant volcano, is a question that geologists must determine. The probability is that it is one of those natural curiosities so comraon in Iceland which defy research. The whole country is full of anomalies — bogs where one would expect to find dry land, and parched deserts where it would not seera strange to see bogs ; fire where water ought to be, and water in the place of fire." " Ages ago," says Lord Dufferin, " some vast comraotion shook the foun dations of the island ; and bubbling up frora sources far away amid the inland hiUs, a fiery deluge must have rushed down between their ridges, until, esca ping from the narrower gorges, it found space to spread itself into one broad sheet of molten stone over an entire district of country, reducing its varied surface to one vast blackened level. Oue of two things then occurred : either. - V the vitrified mass contracting as it cooled, the centre area of fifty square miles (the present plain of Thingvalla) burst asunder at either side from the adjoining pl.iteau,and sinking down to its present level, left two parallel gjas, or chasms, which form its lateralbound- aries, to mark the limits of the disruption ; or else, while the pith or marrow of the lava was still in a fluid state, its upper surface became solid, and formed a PALL OF THE OXERAA. ICELAND. 77 roof, beneath which the molten stream flowed on to lower levels, leaving a vast cavern into which the upper crust subsequently pluraped down." In the lapse of years, the bottora of the Alraannagja has become gradually filled up to an even surface, covered with the most beautiful turf, except where the river Oxeraa, bounding in a magnificent cataract from the higher plateati over the precipice, flows, for a certain distance between its walls. At the foot of the fall the waters linger for a moraent in a dark, deep, briraraing pool, hemmed in by a circle of ruined rocks, in which anciently all women convicted of capital crimes were immediately drowned. Many a poor crone, accused of witchcraft, has thus ended her days in the Almannagja. As raay easily be im agined, it is rather a nerve-trying task to descend into the chasm over a rugged lava-slope, where the least false step raay prove fatal ; but the Icelandic horses are so sure-footed that they can safely be trusted. Frora the bottora it is easy to distinguish on the one face marks and formations exactly correspond ing, though at a different level, with those on the face opposite, and evidently showing that they once had dovetailed into each other, before, the igneous mass was rent asunder. Two leagues frora Kalraanstunga, in an iraraense lava-field, which probably originated in the Bald Jokul, are situated the renowned Surts-hellir, or caves of Surtur, the prince of darkness and fire of the ancient Scandinavian mytholo- gj'. The principal entrance to the caves is an extensive chasm forraed by the falling in of a part of the lava-roof ; so that, on descending into it, the visitor finds himself right in the mouth of the main cavern, which runs in an almost straight line, and is nearly a raile in length. Its average height is about forty, and its breadth fifty feet. The lava-crust which forms its roof is about twelve feet thick, and has the appearance of being str^ified and columnar, like basaltic pillars, in its formation. Many of the blocks of lava thus formed have become detached and faUen into the cavern, where they lie piled up in great heaps, and heavily tax the patience of the traveller, who has to scrarable over the rugged stones, and can hardly avoid slipping and sturabling into the holes between thera, varied by pools of water and raasses of snow. But after having toiled and plodded to the extreraity of this dismal cavern, his perseverance is amply rewarded by the sight of an ice-grotto, whose fairy beauty appears still more charming, in contrast with its gloomy vestibule. From the crystal floor rises group after group of transparent pillars tapering to a point, while from the roof brUliant icy pendants hang down to raeet thera. Columns and arches of ice are ranged along the crystaUine walls, and the light of the candles is reflect ed back a hundred-fold from every side, tiU the whole cavern shines with aston ishing lustre. Mr. Holland, the latest visitor of the Surts-hellir, declares he never saw a raore briUiant spectacle ; and the Gerraan naturalist, Pl-eyer, pro nounces it one of the most magnificent sights in nature, reminding him of the fairy grottoes of the Arabian Nights' Tales. From the mountains and the vast plateau which occupies the centre of the island, numerous rivers descend on all sides, which, fed in summer by the melt ing glaciers, pour enormous quantities of turbid water into the sea, or convert large aUuvial flats into morasses. Though of a considerable breadth, their 78 THE POLAR WORLD. course is frequently very short, particularly along the southern coast, where the jokuls from which they derive their birth are only separated from the sea by a narrow foreland. In their impetuous flow, they not seldora bear huge blocks of stone along with them, and cut off aU communication between the inhabitants of their opposite banks. The chief rivers of Iceland are, in the south, the Thiorsa and the Hvita, which are not inferior in width to the Rhine in the middle part of its course ; in the north, the Skjalfandafljot and the Jokulsa and the Jokulsa i Axarfirdi, large and rapid streams above a hundred miles long ; and in the east the La- garfliot. As raay be expected in a mountainous country, containing many glacier-fed rivers, Iceland has numerous cascades, many of thera rivalling or surpassing in beauty the far-famed faUs of Sw-itzerlaiid. One of the most celebrated of these gems of nature is the Goda-foss, in the northern part of the island, formed by the deep and rapid Skjalfandafljot, as it rushes with a deafening roar over rocks fifty feet high into the caldron below ; but it is far surpassed in magnificence by the Dettifoss, a fall of the Jokulsa i Axarfirdi. " In some of old earth's convulsions," says its discoverer, Mr. Gould, — ^for from its remote situation, deep in the northern wilds of Iceland, it had escaped the curious eye of previous travellers — " the crust of rock has been rent, and a frightful fissure formed in the basalt, about 200 feet deep, with the sides co- luminar and perpendicular. The gash terminates abruptly at an acute angle, and at this spot the great river rolls in. The -"wreaths of water sweeping down ; the frenzy of the confined streams where they meet, shooting into each other from either side at the apex of an angle ; the wild rebound when they strike a head of rock, lurching out half way down ; the fitful gleara of battling torrents, obtained through a veil of eddying vapor ; the Geysir-spouts which blow up about seventy feet from holes whence basaltic columns have been shot by the force of the descending water ; the blasts of spray which rush upward and burst into fierce showers on the brink, feeding rills which plunge over the edge as soon as they are born ; the white writhing vortex below, with now and then an ice-green wave tearing through the foam to lash against the waUs ; the thunder and bellowing of the water, which make the rock shudder under foot, are all stamped on ray mind with a vividness which it wiU take years to efface. The Almannagja is nothing to this chasm, and Schaffhausen is dwarfed by Dettifoss." The ocean-currents which wash the coasts of Iceland from opposite direc tions have a considerable influence on its climate. The south and west coasts, fronting the Atlantic, and exposed to the Gulf Stream, remain ice-free even in winter, and enjoy a coraparatively raild temperature, while the cold Polar cur rent, flowing in a south-western direction from Spitzbergen tp Jan Mayen and Iceland, conveys alraost every year to the eastem and northern shores of the island large masses of drift-ice, which soraetiraes do not disappear before July or even August. According to Dr. Thorstensen, the mean annual teraperature of the air at Reykjavik is -|-40°, and that of the sea -|-42°, while acoording to Herr von Scheele the mean annual temperature at Akureyre, on the north coast ICELAND. 79 is only +33°, though even this shows a coraparatively mild climate in so high a latitude. But if Iceland, thanks to its insular position and to the influence of the Gulf Stream, remains free frora the excessive winter cold of the Arctic continents, its suraraer, on the other hand, is inferior in warmth to that which reigns in the interior of Siberia, or of the Hudson's Bay territories. The mean summer temperature at Reykjavik is not above -f54°; during many ycars the therraoraeter never rises a single time above +80° ; sometiraes even its raaximum is not higher than +59° ; and, on the northern coasf, snow not seldom falls even in the middle of summer. Under such circurastances, the cultivation of the cereals is of course impossible ; and when the drift-ice re mains longer than usual on the northern coasts, it prevents even the growth of the grass, and want and famine are the consequence. The Icelandic sumraer is characterized by constant changes in the -weather, rain continually alternating with sunshine, as with us in April. The air is but seldom tranquil, and storms of terrific violence are of frequent occurrence. Towards the end of September winter begins, preceded by mists, which finally descend in thick masses of snow. Travelling over the mountain-tracks is at this time particularly dangerous, although cairns or piles of stone serve to point out the way, and here and there, as over the passes of the Alps, small huts have been erected to serve as a refuge for the traveller. In former times Iceland could boast of forests, so that houses and even ships used to be built of indigenous timber; at present it is alraost entirely destitute of trees, for the dwarf shrubberies here and there met with, where the birch hardly attains the height of twenty feet, are not to be dignified with the name of woods. A service-tree {Sorbus ancuparia) fourteen feet high, and raeasur- ing three inches in diaraeter at the foot, is the boast of the governor's garden at Reykjavik ; it is, however, surpassed by another at Akureyre, which spreads a full crown twenty feet frora the ground, but never sees its clusters of berries ripen into scarlet. The damp and cool Icelandic suraraer, though it- prevents the successful cul tivation of corn, is favorable to the growth of grasses, so that in sorae of the better farms the pasture-grounds are hardly inferior to the finest meadows in England. About one-third of the surface of the country is covered with vege tation of some sort or other fit for the nourishment of cattle ; but, as yet, art has done little for its improvement — ploughing, sowing, drainage, and levelling being things undreamt of. With the exception of the grasses, which are of paramount importance, and the trees, which, in spite of their stunted propor tions, are of great value, as they supply the islanders with the charcoal needed for shoeing their horses, few of the indigenous plants of Iceland are of any use to man. The Angelica archangelica is eaten raw with butter ; the matted roots or stems of the Menyanthes trifoliata serve to protect the backs of the horses against the rubbing of the saddle ; and the Icelandic moss, which is fre quently boiled in mUk, is likewise an article of exportation. The want of bet ter grain frequently compels the poor islanders to bake a kind of bread from the seeds of the sand-reed {Elymus arenarius), which on our dunes are merely picked by the birds of passage ; and the oarweed or tangle {Laminaria sac- 80 THE POLAR WORLD. charina) is prized as a vegetable in a land where potatoes and turnips are but rarely cultivated. When the first settlers carae to Iceland, they found but two indigenous land-quadrupeds : a species of field-vole {Arvicola oeconomus) and ,the Arctic fox ; but the seas and shores were no doubt tenanted by a larger number of whales, dolphins, and seals than at the present day. The ox, the sheep, and the horse which accompanied the Norse colonists to their new home, forra the staple wealth of their descendants ; for the number of those who live by breeding cattle is as three to one, corapared with those who chiefly depend on the sea for their subsistence. Milk and whey are alraost the only beverages of the Icelanders. Without butter they will eat no fish ; and curdled milk, which they eat fresh in suramer and preserve in a sour state during the winter, is their favorite repast. Thus they set the highest value cn their cattle, and tend thera with the greatest care. In the preservation of their sheep, they are rauch harapered by the badness of the cUmate, by the scantiness of winter food, and by the attacks of the eagles, the ravens, and the foxes, raore particularly at the lambing season, when vast numbers of the young aniraals are carried off by all of thera. The wool is not sheared off, but torn from the animal's back, and woven by the peasantry, during the long winter evenings, into a kind of coarse cloth, or knit into gloves and stockings, which form one of the chief articles of export. ." While at breakfast," says Mr. Shepherd, " we witnessed the Icelandic meth od of sheep-shearing. Three or four powerful young woraen seized, and easily threw on their backs the struggling victims. The legs were then tied, and the wool pulled off by main force. It seemed, frora the contortions of sorae of the wretched aniraals, to be a cruel raethod ; but we were told that there is a period in the year when the young wool, beginning to grow, pushes the old out before it, so that the old coat is easily pulled out." The nuraber of heads of cattle in the island is about 40,000, that of the sheep 500,000. The horses, which nuraber frora 60,000 to 60,000, though small, are very ro bust and hardy. There being no wheel carriages on the island, they are raere ly used for riding and as beasts of burden. Their services are indispensable, as without thera the Icelanders-would not have the means of travelling and car rying their produce to the fishing villages or ports at which the annual suppUes arrive from Copenhagen. In winter the poor animals must find their own food, and are consequently mere skeletons in spring ; they, however, soon recover in sumraer, though even then they have nothing whatever but the grass and small plants which they can pick up on the hills. The dogs are very siraUar to those of Lapland and Greenland. Like them, they have long hair, forraing a kind of coUar round the neck, a pointed nose, pointed ears, and an elevated curled tail, with a temper which raay be charac terized as restless and irritable. Their general color is white. In the year 1770 thirteen reindeer were brought frora Norway. Ten of them died during the passage, but the three that survived have raultiplied so fast that large herds now roara over the uninhabited wastes. During the win ter, when hunger drives them into the lower districts, they are frequently shoti ICELAND. 81 ICELANDIC HORSES. y - \ but no attempts have been raade to tarae thera : for, though indispensable to the Laplander, they are quite superfiuous in Iceland, which is too rugged and too much intersected by strearas to adrait of sledging. They are, in fact, generally considered as a nuisance, as they eat away the Icelandic moss, which the island ers would willingly keep for their own use. The Polar bear is but a casual visitor in Iceland. About a dozen come drifting every year with the ice from Jan Mayen, or Spitzbergen, to the north ern shores. Ravenous with hunger, they immediately attack the first herds they raeet with ; but their ravages do not last long, for the neighborhood, aris ing in arms, soon puts an end to their existence. In Iceland the ornithologist finds a rich field for his favorite study, as there are no less than eighty-two different species of indigenous birds, besides twenty- one that are only casual visitors, and six that have been introduced by raan. The swampy grounds in the interior of the country are peopled with legions of golden and king plovers, of snipes and red-shanks ; the lakes abound with swans, ducks, and geese of various kinds ; the snow-bunting enlivens the soli tude of the rocky wilderness with his lively note, and, wherever grass grows, the coraraon pipit {Anthus pratensis) builds its neat little nest, weU lined with horsehair. Like the lark, he rises singing frora the ground, and frequently surprises the traveller with his raelodious warbling, which sounds doubly sweet in the lifeless waste. The eider-duck holds the first rank among the useful birds of Iceland. Its chief breeding-places are smaU flat islands on various parts of the coast, where it is safe from the attacks of the Arctic fox, such as Akurey, Flatey, and Videy, 6 THE POLAR WORLD. which, frora its vicinity to Reykjavik, is frequently visited by traveUers. AU these breeding-places are private property, and several have been for centuries in the possession of the sarae families, which, thanks to the birds, are araong the wealthiest of the land. It raay easily be iraagined that the eider-ducks are guarded with the most sedulous care. Whoever kiUs one is obliged to pay a ICELAND. 83 EIDER-DUCK. flne of thirty dollars ; and the secreting of an egg, or the pocketing of a few downs, is punished with all the rigor of the law. The chief occupation of Mr. Stephenson, the aged proprietor of Videy, who dwells alone on the islet, is to examine through his telescope all the boats that approach, so as to be sure that there are no guns on board. During the breeding season no one is allowed to land without his special perraission, and aU noise, shouting, or loud speaking is strictly prohib ited. But, in spite of these precautions, we are inforraed by recent travellers that latterly the greater part of the ducks of Videy have been terapted to leave their old quarters for the neighboring Engey, whose proprietor hit upon the plan of laying hay upon the strand, so as to afford them greater faciUties for nest-building. The eider-down is easUy coUected, as the birds are quite tarae. The feraale having laid five or six pale greenish-olive eggs, in a nest thickly lined with her beautiful down, the coUectors, after carefully re moving the bird, rob the nest of its contents, after which they replace her. She then begins to lay afresh, though this tirae only three or four eggs, and again has recourse to the down on her body. But her greedy persecutors once raore rifle her nest, and oblige her to line it for the third time. Now, however, her own stock of down is exhausted, and with a plaintive voice she calls her mate to her assistance, who willingly plucks the soft feathers from his breast to supply the deficiency. If the cruel robbery be again repeated, which in former tiraes was frequently the case, the poor eider-duck abandons the spot, never to return, and seeks for a new home where she may indulge her maternal instinct undis turbed. Mr. Shepherd thus describes his visit to Vigr, in the Isaf jardardjup, one of the head-quarters of the eider-duck in the north of Iceland : " As the island was approached, we could see flocks upon flocks of the sacred birds, and could hear their cooings at a great distance. We landed on a rocky wave-worn shore, against which the waters scarcely rippled, and set off to investigate the island. The shore was the most wonderful ornithological sight conceivable. The ducks and their nests were everywhere in a manner that was quite alarming. Great brown ducks sat upon their nests in masses, and at every step started up from under our feet. It was with difficulty that we avoided treading on some of the nests. The island being but three-quarters of a mile in width, the oppo site shore was soon reached. On the coast was a wall buUt of large stones, just above the high-water level, about three feet in height, and of considerable thickness. At the bottom, on both sides of it, alternate stones had been left out, so as to form a series of square compartments for the ducks to make their nests in. Almost every corapartraent was occupied ; and, as we walked along the shore, a long line of ducks flew out one after another. The surface of the water also was perfectly white with drakes, who welcoraed their brown wives with loud and clamorous cooing. When we arrived at the farmhouse we were 84 THE POLAR WORLD. cordiaUy welcomed by its mistress. The house itself was a great marvel. The earthern wall that surrounded it and the window embrasures were occu pied by ducks. On the ground, the house was fringed with ducks. On the turf-slopes of the roof we could see ducks ; and a duck sat in the scraper. " A grassy bank close by had been cut into square patches like a chess board (a square of turf of about eighteen inches being removed, and a hoUow made), and aU were filled with ducks. A windmiU was infested, and so were all the outhouses, mounds, rocks, and crevices. The ducks were everywhere. Many of thera were so tame that we could stroke them on their nests ; and the good lady told us that there was scarcely a duck on the island which would not aUow her to take its eggs without flight or fear. When she first became possessor of the island, the produce of down from the ducks was not more than fifteen pounds' weight in the year, but, under her careful nurture of twenty years, it had risen to nearly one hundred pounds annually. It requires about one pound and a half to make a coverlet for a single bed, and the down is worth from twelve to fifteen shillings per pound. Most of the eggs are taken and jjickled for winter consumption, one or two only being left to hatch." Though not so important as the eider, the other members of the duck family which during the summer season enliven the lakes and swamps of Ice land are very serviceable. On the Myvatn, or Gnat Lake, one of their chief places of resort, the eggs of the long-tailed -duck, the wild duck, the scoter, the comraon goosander, the red-breasted merganser, the scaup-duck, etc., and other anserines are carefully gathered and preserved in enorraous quantities for the winter, closely packed in a fine gray volcanic sand. The wild swan is frequently shot or caught for his feathers, which bring in many a dollar to the fortunate huntsman. This noble bird frequents both the salt and brackish waters along the coast and the inland lakes and rivers, where it is seen either in single pairs or congregated in large fiocks. To build its nest, which is said to resemble closely that of the flamingo, being a large mound, coraposed of mud, rushes, grass, and stones, with a cavity at top Uned with soft down, it retires to sorae solitary, uninhabited spot. Much has been said in ancient times of the singing of the swan, and the beautj' of its dying notes ; but, in truth, the voice of the swan is very loud, shrill, and harsh, though when high in the air, and modulated by the winds, the note or whoop of an assemblage of thera is not unpleasant to the ear. It has a peculiar charm in the unfrequented wastes of Iceland, where it agreeably interrupts the profound silence that reigns around. The raven, one of the coramonest land-birds in Iceland, is an object of aver sion to the islanders, as it not only seizes on their young lambs and eider-ducks, but also commits great depredations araong the fishes laid out to dry upon the shore. Poles to which dead ravens are attached, to serve as a warning to the living, are frequently seen in the meadows ; and the Icelander is never so hap py as when he has succeeded in shooting a raven. This, however, is no easy task, as no bird is raore cautious, and its eyes are as sharp as those of the eagle. Of all Icelandic birds, the raven breeds the earliest, laying about the middle of March its five or six pale-green eggs, spotted with brown, in the inaccessible ICELAND. 85 crevices of rocks. Towards the end of June, Preyer saw many young ravens grown to a good size, and but little inferior to the old ones in cunning. In the gloomy Scandinavian mythology the raven occupies a rank equal to that of the eagle in the more cheerful fables of ancient Greece. It was dedi cated to Odin, who, as the traditional history of Iceland inforras us, had two ravens, which were let loose every morning to gather tidings of what was go ing on in the world, and which on returning in the evening perched upon Odin's shoulders to -whisper the news in his ear ; the name of one was Hugin, or spirit ; of the other, Mumin, or memory. Even now many superstitious no tions remain attached to the raven ; for the Icelanders believe this bird to be not only acquainted with what is going on at a distance, but also with what is to happen in future, and are convinced that it foretells when any of the family is about to die, by perching on the roof of the house, or wheeling round in the air "with a continual cry, varying its voice in a singular and melodious manner. The white-taUed sea-eagle is not uncomraon in Iceland, where he stands in evil repute as a kidnapper of lambs, and eider-ducks. He is sometimes found dead in the nets of the fishermen ; for, pouncing upon a haddock or salmon, he gets entangled in the meshes, and is unable to extricate himself. The skins of the bird, which seems to attain a larger size than in Great Britain, most likely from being less disturbed by man, are sold at Reykjavik and Akureyre for from three to six rix-doUars. The jyrfalcon {Falco gyrfalco), generally considered as the boldest and most beauti ful of the falcon tribe, has its head-quarters in Iceland. As long as the noble sport of falconry was in fashion, for which it was highly esteeraed, the trade in falcons was worth frora 2000 to 3000 rix-doUars annually to the islanders, and even now high prices are paid for it by English araateurs. The rarest bird of Iceland, if not entirely extinct, is the Giant-auk, or Geirfugl. The last pair was caught about seventeen years ago near the Geirfuglaskers, a group of sol itary rocks to the south of the Westman Isles, its only known habitat besides some sirailar cliffs on the north-eastern coast. Since that tirae it is said to have been seen by sorae fisherraen ; but this testimony is extremely doubtful, and the question of its existence can only be solved by a visit to the Geirfuglaskers themselves — an undertaking which, if practicable at aU, is attended with extreme difficulty and danger, as. these rocks are corapletely isolated in the sea, which even in calra weather breaks with such violence against their abrupt declivities that for years it must be absolutely irapossible to approach them. In 1858 two English naturalists determined at least to make the attempt, and settled for a season in a smaU hamlet on the neighboring coast, eager to THE JYRFALCON. 86 THE POLAR WORLD. THE GIANT-AUK. seize the first opportunity for storming the Geirfugl's stronghold. They wait ed for several months, but in vain, the stormy sumraer being more than usually unfavorable for their undertaking ; and they were equally unsuccessful in the north, whither they had sent an Icelandic student specially instructed for the purpose. The giant-auk is three feet high, and has a black bill four inches and a quarter long, both mandibles being crossed obliquely with several ridges and furrows. Its wings are mere stumps, like those of the Antarctic penguins. Thirty pounds have been paid for its egg, which is larger than that of any other Eufopean bird ; and there is no knowing the price the Zoological Society would pay for a live bird, if this truly " rara avis " could stiU be found. The waters of Iceland abound with exceUent fish, which not only supply the islanders with a great part of their food and furnish them with one of their chief articles of exportation, but also attract a number of foreign seamen. Thus about 300 French, Dutch, and Belgian fishing-sloops, manned with crews amounting in all to 7000 men, annually make their appearance on the southern and western coasts of Iceland, particularly those of the Guldbringe Syssel, or gold-bringing country : thus named, not from any evidence of the precious raetal, but from the golden cod-harvests reaped on its shores. Between thirty and forty EngHsh fishing-smacks yearly visit the northern coast. When they have obtained a good cargo they run to Shetland to discharge it, and return again for more. The Icelandic fishing-season, which begins in February and ends in June, occupies one-half of the raale inhabitants of the island, who come flocking to the west, even from the remotest districts of the north and east, to partake of the rich harvest of the seas. Many thus travel for more than 200 miles in the midst of winter, whUe the storm howls over the naked waste, and the pale sun scarcely dispels for a few hours the darkness of the night. In every hut where they tarry on the road they are welcome, and have but rarely to pay for their ICELAND. 87 entertainment, for hospitality is still reckoned a duty in Iceland, On reaching the fishing-station, an agreeraent is soon made with the proprietor of a boat. They usually engage to assist in fishing frora February 12 to May 12, and re ceive in return a share of the fish which they help to catch, besides forty pounds of flour and a daily allowance of sour curds, or " skier." All the raen belonging to a boat generally live in the sarae damp and nar row hut. At daybreak they launch forthj to brave for raany hours the inclem encies of the weather and the sea, and whUe engaged in their hard day's work their sole refreshment is the chewing of tobacco or a mouthful of skier. On returning to their comfortless hut, their supper consists of the fishes of inferior quality they may have caught, or of the heads of the cod or ling, which are too valuable for their own consumption. These are split open and hung upon lines, or exposed on the shore to the cold wind and the hot sun ; this renders thera perfectly hard, and they keep good for years. In this dried state the cod is caUed stockfish. About the middle of May the migratory fishermen return to their homes, leaving their fish which are not yet quite dry to the care of the fishermen dweUing on the spot. Towards the middle of June, when the horses have so far recovered frora their long winter's fast as to be able to bear a load, they corae back to fetch their stockfish, which they convey either to their own homes for the consumption of their own farailies, or to the nearest port for the purpose of bartering it against other articles. Haddocks, fiatfish, and herrings are also very abundant in the Icelandic seas ; and along the northern and north western coasts the basking shark is largely fished for all the suraraer. Strong hooks baited with raussels or pieces of fish, and attached to chains anchored at a short distance frora the shore, serve for the capture of this monster, which is scarcely, if at all, inferior in size to the white shark, though not nearly so for midable, as it rarely attacks man. The skin serves for raaking sandals ; the coarse flesh is eaten by the islanders, whora necessity has taught not to be over- nice in their food; and the liver, the most valuable part, is stewed for the sake of its oU. " We had observed," says Mr. Shepherd, " that the horrible smell which in fested Jsa-fjordr varied in intensity as we approached or receded from a cer tain black-looking building at the northern end of the town. On investigating this buUding, we discovered that the seat of the stnell was to be found in a mass of putrid sharks' livers, part of which were undergoing a process of stew ing in a huge copper. It was a noisome green mass, fearful to contemplate. The place was endurable only for a few seconds ; yet dirty-looking men stirred up the mass with long poles, and seemed to ehjoy the reeking vapors." The sahnon of Iceland, which formerly reraained undisturbed by the phleg matic inhabitants, are now caught in large numbers for the British market. A smaU river bearing the significant name of Laxaa, or Salmon River, has been rented for the trifling sum of £100 a year by an English company, which sends every spring its agents to the spot well provided with the best fishing appara tus. The captured fish are immediately boiled, and hermetically packed in tin boxes, so that they can be eaten in Loudon almost as fresh as if they had just been caught. 88 THE POLAR WORLD. The mineral kingdora contributes but little to the prosperity of Iceland. It affords neither metals, nor precious stones, nor rock-salt, nor coal; for the seams of " surturbrand," or " lignite," found here and there, are too unimportant to be worked. The solfataras of Krisuvik and Husavik, though extremely inter esting to the geologist, likewise furnish sulphur in too impure a condition or too thinly scattered to afford any prospect of being worked with success, not to mention the vast expense of transport over the almost impassable lava-tracks that separate them from the nearest ports. In 1839-40, when, in consequence of the monopoly granted by the Neapolitan Government to a French company, sulphur had risen to more than three times its usual price, Mr. Knudsen, an en terprising Danish inerchant, undertook to work the mines of Krisuvik, but even then it would not answer. In 1859, a London corapany, founded by Mr. Bushby, — who having explored the sulphur districts, had raised great expectations on what he considered their dormant wealth, — renewed the atterapt, but after a year's trial it was aban doned as perfectly hopeless. The " solfataras of Iceland," says Professor Sar torius of Waltershausen, " can not compete with those of Sicily, where more sulphur is wantonly wasted and trodden under foot than all Iceland possesses. While the " Naraars " of the north, which are far richer than those of Krisuvik, annually furnish scarcely raore than ten tons, the sulphur mines of Sicily pro duce at least 50,000, and, if necessary, could easily export double the quantity." As coal is too expensive a fuel for any but the rich in the small sea-port towns, and peat, though no doubt abundantly scattered over the island, is dug only in a few places, the majority of the people make use of singular substi tutes. The commonest is dried cow's and sheep's dung; but many a poor fisherraan lacks even this " spicy " raaterial, and is fain to use the bones of aniraals, the skeletons of fishes or dried sea-birds, which, with a stoical con terapt for his olfactory organs, he burns, feathers and all. There is, however, no want of fuel in those privileged spots where drift-wood is found, and here the lava hearth of the islander cheerfully blazes either with the pine conveyed to him by the kindly Polar currents from the Siberian forests, or with some tropical trunk, wafted by the Gulf Streara over the Atlantic to his northern home. HISTORY OP ICELAND. 89 CATHEDRAL AT REYKJAVIK. CHAPTER VI. HISTORY OF ICELAND. Discover}' of the Island by Naddodr in 861. — Gardar. — Floki of the Ravens.— Ingolfr and Leif. — Ulfliot the Lawgiver. — The Althing. — Thingvalla. — Introduction ofChristianity into the Island. — Frederick the Saxon and Thorwold the Traveller. — Thangbrand. — Golden Age of Icelandic Literature. — Snorri Sturleson. — The Island submits to Hakon, King of Norway, in 1254. — Long Series of Calamities. — Great Eruption of the Skapta Jokul in 1783. — Commercial Monopoly. — Better Tiines in Prospect. '¦ I "^HE Norse vikings were, as is well known, the boldest of navigators. They -*- possessed neither the sextant nor the corapass ; they had neither charts nor chronoraeters to guide them ; but trusting solely to fortune, and to their own indomitable courage, they fearlessly launched forth into the vast ocean. Many of these intrepid corsairs were no doubt lost on their adventurous expe ditions, but frequently a favorable chance rewarded their temerity, either with sorae rich booty or some more glorious discovery. Thus in the year 861, Naddodr, a Norwegian pirate, while saiUng frora his native coast to the Faeroe Islands, was drifted by contrary winds far to the 90 THE POLAR WORLD. north. For several days no land was visible — nothing but an interminable waste of waters ; when suddenly the snow-clad raountains of Iceland were seen to rise above the mists of the ocean. Soon after Naddodr landed with part of his crew, but discovered no traces of man in the desert country. The viking tarried but a short tirae on this unproraising coast, on which he bestowed the appropriate narae of Snowland. Three years later, Gardar, another northern freebooter, while sailing to the Hebrides, was likewise driven by storray weather to Iceland. He was the first circuranavigator of the island, which he called, after hiraself, Gardar's holra, or the island of Gardar. On his return to his native port, he gave his countrymen so flattering an account of the newly-discovered land, that Floki, a faraous vi king, resolved to settle there. Trusting to the augury of birds, Floki took with hira three ravens to direct him on his way. Having sailed a certain distance beyond the Faeroe Islands, he gave liberty to one of thera, which iraraediately returned to the land. Proceeding onward, he loosed the second, which, after circling for a few minutes round tKe ship, again settled on its cage, as if terri fied by the boundless expanse of the sea. The third bird, on obtaining his lib erty a few days later, proved at length a faithful pilot, aud flying direct to the north, conducted Floki to Iceland. As the sea-king entered the broad bay which is bounded on the left by the huge Snafells Jokul, and on the right by the bold proraontory of the Guldbringe Syssel, Faxa, one of his companions, re marked that a land with such noble features must needs be of considerable ex tent. To reward him for this reraark, M'hich flattered the vanity or the arabi tion of his leader, the bay was immediately naraed Faxa Fiord, as it is still call ed to the present day. The new colonists, attracted by the abundance of fish they found in the bay, built their huts on the borders of a small outlet, stiU bearing the narae of Rafna Fiord, or the Raven's Frith ; but as they neglected to make hay for the winter, the horses and cattle they had brought with them died of want. Disappointed in his expectations, Floki returned horae in the sec ond year, and, as raight naturally have been expected frora an unsuccessful settler, gave his countrymen but a dismal account of Iceland, as he definitely named it. Yet, in spite of his forbidding description, the political disturbances which took place about this tirae in Norway led to the final colonization of the island. Harold Haarfager, or the Fair-haired, a Scandinavian yarl, having by violence and a successful policy reduced all his brother-yarls to subjection, first consoli dated their independent domains into one realm, and made hiraself absolute mas ter of the whole country. Many of his former equals subraitted to his yoke ; but others, animated by that unconquerable love of liberty innate in men who for many generations have known no superior, preferred seeking a new home across the ocean to an ignominious vassalage under the detested Harold. In golfr and his cousin Leif were the first of these high-minded nobles that emi grated (869-870) to Iceland. On approaching the southern coast, Ingolfr oast the sacred pillars belonging to his former dwelling into the water, and vowed to establish himself on the spot to which they should be wafted by the waves. His pious intentions were for the time frustrated, as a sudden squall separated him from his penates and HISTORY OP ICELAND. 91 forced him to locate hiraself on a neighboring proraontory, which to this day bears the name of Ingolfrshofde. Here he sojourned three years, until the fol lowers he had sent out in quest of the raissing pillars at length brought him the joyful news that they had been found on the beach of the present site of Reyk javik, whither, in obedience to what he supposed to be the divine sumraons, he instantly removed. Ingolfr's friend and relative Leif was shortly after assas sinated by some Irish slaves whom he had captured in a predatory descent on the Hibernian coast. The surviving chieftain deplored the loss of his kinsraan, laraenting " that so valiant a man should faU by such villains," but found conso lation by kiUing the murderers and annexing the lands of their victim. When, in course of time, he himself felt his end approaching, he requested to be bur ied on a hill overlooking the fiord, that from that elevated site his spirit might have a better view of the land of which he was the first inhabitant. Such are the chronicles related in the " Landnama Bok," or " Book of Occu pation," one of the earliest records of Icelandic history. Ingolfr and his companions were soon followed by other emigrants desirous . of escaping from the tyranny of Harold Haarfager, who at first favored a move ment that removed far beyond the sea so many of his turbulent opponents, but subsequently, alarmed at the drain of population, or desirous of profiting by the exodus, levied a fine of four ounces of silver on all who left his dorainions to settle in Iceland. Yet such were the attractions which the island at that tirae presented, that, in spite of aU obstacles, not half a century elapsed before all its inhabitable parts were occupied, not only by Norwegians, but also by settlers frora Denraark and Sweden, Scotland and Ireland. The Norwegians brought with thera their language and idolatry, their cus toms and historical records, which the other colonists, but few in numbers, were compeUed to adopt. At first the udal, or free land-hold system of their own country, was in vigor, but every leader of a band of eraigrants being chosen, by force of circurastances, as the acknowledged chief of the district occupied by himself and corapanions, speedily paved the way for a derai-feudal system of vassalage and subservience. As the arrival of new settlers rendered the pos session of the land raore valuable, endless contests between these petty chiefs arose for the better pastures and fisheries. To put an end to this state of an archy, so injurious to the coramon weal, Ulfliot the Wise was coraraissioned to frarae a code of laws, which the Icelanders, by a single simultaneous and peace ful effort, accepted as their future constitution. The island was now divided into four provinces and twelve districts. Each district had its own judge, and its own popular " Thing," or asserably ; but the national will was embodied and represented by the "Althing," or suprerae parliament of Iceland, which annually raet at Thingvalla, under an elective pres ¦ ident, or " Logmathurraan," the chief magistrate of this northern republic. On the banks of the river Oxeraa, where the rapid stream, after forming a magnificent cascade, rushes into the lake of ThingvaUa, lies the spot where, for many a century, freemen met to debate, while despotic barbarians still reigned over the milder regions of Europe. IsoFated on all sides by deep volcanic chasms, which sorae great revolution of nature has rent in the vast lava-field 93 THE POLAR WORLD. fl .^ THINGVALLA, LOGBERG, AND ALMANNAGJA. around, and erabosoraed in a wide circle of black precipitous hills, the situation of ThingvaUa is extreraely roraantic, but the naked dark-colored rocks, and the traces of subterranean fire visible on every side, impart a stern melancholy to the scene. The lake, the largest sheet of water in the island, is about thirty miles in circumference ; its boundaries have undergone raany changes, especial ly during the earthquakes of the past century, when its northern margin col lapsed, while the opposite one was raised. The depth of its crystal waters is very great, and in its centre rise two small crater-islands, the result of some un known eruption. The mountains on its south bank have a picturesque appear ance, and large volumes of steam issuing from several hot sources on their sides prove that, though all be tranquil now, the volcanic fires are not extinct. Ouly a few traces of the ancient Althing are left — three sraall mounds, where sat in state the chiefs and judges of the land — ^for as' the assembly used to pitch their tents on the borders of the stream, and the deliberations were held in the open air, there are no imposing ruins to bear witness to a glorious past. But though all architectural pomp be absent, the scene hallowed by the recollections of a thousand years is one of deep interest to the traveller. The great features of nature are the same as when the freemen of Iceland assembled to .settle the affairs of their little world ; but the raven now croaks where the orator appealed to the reason or the passions of his audience, and the sheep of the neighboring pastor crop undisturbed the grass of desecrated Thingvalla. Mr. Ross Browne thus describes fhe scene.: " After a slight repast I walked out to take a look at the Logberg, or Rock of Laws, which is situated about HISTORY OE ICELAND. 93 half a raile frora the church. This is, perhaps, of all the objects of historical association in Iceland, the raost interesting. It was here the judges tried crira inals, pronounced judgraents, and executed their stern decrees. On a small pla teau of lava, separated from the general mass by a profound abyss on every side, save a narrow neck barely wide enough for a foothold, the famous " Thing " assembled once a year, and, secured from intrusion in their deliberations by the terrible chasm around, passed laws for the weal or woe of the peoi)le. It was only necessary to guard the causeway by which they entered ; all other sides were well protected by the encircling moat, which varies from thirty to forty feet in width, and is half filled with water. The total depth to the bottom, whioh is distinctly visible through the crystal pool, must be sixty or seventy feet. Into this yawning abyss the unhappy criminals were cast, with stones around their necks, and raany a long day did they lie beneath the water, a ghastly spectacle for the crowd that peered at them over the precipice. All was now as silent as the grave. Eight centuries had passed, and yet the strange scenes that had taken place here were vividly before me. I could imagine the gathering crowds, the rising hura of voices ; the pause, the shriek, and plunge ,¦ the low raurraur of horror, and then the stern warn ing of the lawgivers and the gradual dispersing of the multitude. The di mensions of the plateau are four or five hundred feet in length by an aver age of sixty or eighty in width. The surface is now covered with a fine coating of sod and grass^ and furnishes good pasturage for the sheep belong ing to the pastor." Christianity was first preached in Iceland about the year 981, by Friedrich, a Saxon bishop, to whom Thorwald the traveller, an Icelander, acted as inter preter. Thorwald having been treated with great severity by his father, Ko- dran, had fled to Denraark, where he had been converted by Friedrich. He returned with the pious bishop to his paternal home, where the soleran service of the Christians made sorae impression on Kodran, but still the obstinate pa gan could not be prevailed upon to renounce his ancient gods. " He must be lieve," said he, " the word of his own priest, who was wont to give him excel lent advice." " Well, then," replied Thorwald, " this venerable raan whom I have brought to thy dwelling is weak and infirm, while thy well-fed priest is full of vigor. Wilt thou believe in the power of our God if the bishop drives hira hence ?" Friedrich now cast a few drops of holy water on the priest, which iraraediately burnt deep holes into his skin, so that he fled, uttering dreadful curses. After this convincing proof, Kodran adopted the Christian faith. But persuasion and miracles acted too slowly for the fiery Thorwald, who would willingly have converted all Iceland at once with fire and s-word. His serraons were iraprecations, and the least contradiction roused him to fury. Unable to bear so irascible an associate, the good bishop Friedrich, giving up his mission ary labors, returned to Saxony. As to Thorwald, his restless disposition led him to far-distant lands. He visited Greece and Syria, Jerusalem and Constan tinople, and ultiraately founded a convent in Russia, where he died in the odor of sanctity. Soon after Thangbrand was sent by the Norwegian king, Olaf Truggeson, as 94 THE POLAR WORLD. missionary to Iceland. His method of conversion appears to have been very like that of his erratic predecessor ; for while he held the cross in one hand, he grasped the sword with the other. " Thangbrand," says an ancient chronicler, " was a passionate, ungovernable person, and a great manslayer, but a good scholar and clever. He was two years in Iceland, and was the death of three men before he left it." Other missionaries of a more evangelical character took his place, and proved by their success that raild reasoning is frequently a far raore effectual raeans of persuasion than brutal violence. They raade a great number of proselytes, and the whole island was now divided into two factions ready to appeal to the sword for the triumph of Christ or of Odin. But before coraing to this dread ful extreraity, the voice of reason was heard, and the contendms parties agreed to submit the question to the decision of the Althing. /v The asserably met, and the raoraentous debate was ] ffoceeding,jvhen sud denly a loud crash of subterranean thunder was heard, and the earth shook un der their feet. " Listen !" exclairaed a follower of Odin, " and beware of the anger of our gods : they will consurae us with their fires, if we venture to ques tion their authority." The Christian party hesitated ; but their confidence was soon restored by the presence of raind of their chief orator, Thorgeir, who, pointing to the lava-fields around, asked with whora the gods were angry when these rocks were raelted : a burst of eloquence which at once decided the ques tion in favor of the Cross. The new faith brought with it a new spirit of intellectual developraent, which attained its highest splendor in the twelfth century. Classical studies were pursued with the utmost zeal, and learned Icelanders travelled to Germany and France to extend their knowledge in the schools of Paris or Cologne. The Icelandic bards, or scalds, were renowned throughout all Scandinavia ; they fre quented the courts of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and were everywhere received with the highest honors. The historians, or sagamen, of Iceland were no less renowned than its scalds. They becarae the annalists of the whole Scandinavian world, and the simplicity and truth by which their works are distinguished fully justify their high repu tation. Among the many remarkable men who at that tirae graced the litera ture of the Arctic isle, Samund Erode, the learned author of the " Voluspa" (a work on the ancient Icelandic mythology) and the "Havamal" (a general chronicle of events from the beginning of the world) ; Are Thorgilson, whose "Landnama Bok'? relates with the utmost accuracy the annals of his native land ; and Gissur, who about the year 1180 described his voyages to the distant Orient, deserve to be particularly mentioned ; but great above aU in genius and farae was Snorri Sturleson, the Herodotus of the North, whose eventful life and tragic end would well deserve to be recounted at greater length. Gifted with the rarest talents, and chief of the most powerful family of the island, Snorri was elected in 1215 to the high office of Logmathurraan ; but dis gusting his sturdy countryraen by his excessive haughtiness, he was obUged to retire to the court of Hakon, king of Norway. During this exile he coUected the materials for his justly celebrated "Heimskringla,' or Chronicle of the HISTORY OF ICELAND. 95 Kings of Norway. Returning home in 1221, he was again naraed Logmathur- man ; but as he endeavored to pave the way for the annexation of his native country to the Norwegian realm, his foreign intrigues caused a rising against his authority, and he was once more compelled to take refuge in Norway. Here he remained several years, until the triumph of his own faction allowed him to return to his famUy estate at Reikholt, where he was raurdered on a dark September night in the year 1241. Thus perished the raost reraarkable man Iceland ever has produced. The repubUc itself did not long survive his faU ; for, weary of the interrainable feuds of their chiefs, the people voluntarily submitted to Hakon in 1254, and the middle of the thirteenth century was signalized by the transfer of the island to the Norwegian crown, after three hundred and forty years of a turbulent but glorious independence. Frora that tirae the political history of the Icelanders offers but little inter est. With their annexation to a European raonarchy perished the vigor, rest lessness, and activity which had characterized their forefathers ; and though the Althing still raet at Thingvalla, the national spirit had fied. It was still further subdued by a long chain of calaraities — plagues, faraines, volcanic erup tions, and piratical invasions — which, following each other in rapid succession,. devastated the land and decimated its unfortunate inhabitants. In 1402 that terrible plague, the raeraory of which is stiU preserved under the name of the " Black Death," carried off nearly two-thirds of the whole pop ulation, and was followed by such an inclement winter that nine-tenths of the cattle in the island died. The raiseries of a people suffering frora pestilence and faraine were aggravated by the English fishermen, who, in spite of the re monstrances of the Danish governraent, frequented the defenseless coast in con siderable numbers, and were in fact little better than the old sea-robbers who first colonized the island, plundering and burning on the raain, and holding the wealthy inhabitants to ransora. Their predatory incursions were frequently re peated during the seventeenth century, and even the distant Mediterranean sent its Algerine pirates to add to the calamities of Iceland. The eighteenth century was ushered in by the small-pox, which carried off sixteen thousand of the inhabitants., In the raiddle of the century — severe win ters following in rapid succession — vast numbers of cattle died, inducing a fara ine that again swept away ten thousand inhabitants. Since the first colonization of Iceland, its nuraerous volcanoes had frequently brought ruin upon whole districts — twenty-five tiraes had Hecla, eleven times Kotlugia, six tiraes TroUadyngja, five times Oraefa, vomited forth their tor rents of molten stone, without counting a nuraber of submarine volcanic explo sions, or where the plain was suddenly rent and flames and ashes burst out of the earth; but the eruption of Skaptar Jokul in 1783 was the most frightful visitation ever known to have desolated the island. The preceding winter and spring had been unusually raild, and the islanders looked forward to a prosper ous suraraer ; but in the beginning of June repeated trerablings of the earth, increasing in violence from day to day, announced that the subterranean powers that had long been slurabering under the icy mantle of the Skaptar were ready to awake. All the neighboring peasants abandoned their huts and erected 96 THE POLAR WORLD. tents in the open field, anxiously awaiting the result of these terrific warnings. On the 9th, immense piUars of smoke coUected over the hill country toward the north, and, rolling down in a southerly direction, covered the whole district of Sitha with darkness. Loud subterranean thunders foUowed in rapid succession, and innumerable fire-spouts were seen leaping and flaring through the dense canopy of smoke and ashes that enveloped the land. The heat raging in the interior of the volcano melted enormous masses of ice and snow, which caused the river Skapta to rise to a prodigious height; but on the llth torrents of fire usurped the place of water, for a vast lava-stream breaking forth from the mountains, flowed down in a southerly direction, untU reaching the river, a tre mendous conflict arose between the two hostile elements. Though the channel was six hundred feet deep and two hundred feet wide, the lava-flood pouring down one fiery wave after another into the yawning abyss, ultimately gained the victory, and, blocking up the stream, overflowed its banks. Crossing the low country of Medalland, it poured into a great lake, which after a few days was likewise completely filled up, and having divided into two streams, the un exhausted torrent again poured on, overflowing in one direction some ancient lava-fields, and in another re-entering the channel of the Skapta and leaping down the lofty cataract of Stapaf oss. But this was not all, for while one lava- flood had chosen the Skapta for its bed, another, descending in a different direc tion, was working similar ruin along the banks of the Hverfisfliot. Whether the same crater gave birth to both, it is irapossible to say, as even the extent of the lava-flow can only be measured from the spot where it entered the in habited districts. The stream which followed the direction of Skapta is calcu lated to have been about fifty railes in length by twelve or fifteen at its great est breadth ; that which rolled down the Hverfisfliot, at forty railes in length by seven in breadth. Where it was inclosed between the precipitous banks of the Skapta, the lava is five or six hundred feet thick, but as soon as it spread out into the plain its depth never exceeded one hundred feet. The eruption of sand, ashes, pumice, and lava continued tiU the end of August, when at length the vast sub terranean turault subsided. But its direful effects were felt for a long tirae after, not only in its irarae diate vicinity, but over the whole of Iceland, and added raany a raournful page to her long annals of sorrow. For a whole year a dun canopy of cinder-laden clouds hung over the unhappy island. Sand and ashes, carried to an enorraous height into the atraosphere, spread far and. wide, and overwhelmed thousands of acres of fertUe pasturage. The Faeroes, the Shetlands, and the Orkneys were deluged with volcanic dust which perceptibly contaminated even the skies of England and HoUand. Mephitic vapors obscured the rays of the sun, and the sulphurous exhalations tainted both the grass of the field and the waters of the lake, the river, and the sea, so that not only the cattle died by thousands, but the fish also perished in their poisoned eleraent. The unhealthy air, and the want of food— for hunger at last drove them to have recourse to untanned hides and old leather — gave rise to a disease resembUng scurvy among the un fortunate Icelanders. The head and Umbs began to sweU, the bones seemed HISTORY OP ICELAND. 97 to be distending. Dreadful cramps forced the patient to strange contortions. The gums loosened, the decomposed blood oozed from the mouth and the ulcer ous skin, and a few days of torment and prostration were followed by death. In many a secluded vale whole families were swept away, and those that es caped the scourge had hardly strength sufficient to bury the dead. So great was the ruin caused by this one eruption that in the short space of two years no less than 9336 raen, 28,000 horses, 11,461 cattle, and 190,000 sheep — a large proportion of the wealth and population of the island — were swept away. After this dreadful catastrophe followed a long period of volcanic rest, for the next eruption of the Eyjafialla did not take place before 1821. A twelfth eruption of Kotlugja occurred in 1823, the twenty-sixth of Hecla in 1845-46 ; and ultimately the thirteenth of Kotlugja in 1860. Since then there has been repose ; but who knows what future disasters may be preparing beneath those icy ridges and fields of snow of Skapta and his frowning compeers, where no human foot has ever wandered, or how soon they raay awaken their dormant thunders ? Besides the sufferings caused by the elements, the curse of monopoly weighed for many a long year upon the miserable Icelanders. The Danish kings, to whom on the amalgamation of the three Scandinavian monarchies the aUegiance of the people of Iceland was passively transferred, considered their poor dependency as a private domain, to be farmed out to the highest bidder. In the 16th century the Hanseatic Towns purchased the exclusive privilege of trading with Iceland; and in 1594 a Danish corapany was favored with the monopoly, for which it had to pay the paltry sum of 16 rix-dollars for each of the ports of the island. In the year 1862 a new comjDany paid 4000 dollars for the Icelandic rao nopoly ; but at the expiration of the contract, each of the ports were farraed out to the highest bidder — a financial iraprovement whicli raised the revenue to 16,000 dollars a year, and ultimately to 22,000. The incalculable raisery pro duced by the eruption of the Skapta had at least the beneficial consequence that it somewhat loosened the bonds of monopoly, as it now became free to every Danish merchant to trade with the island; but it is only since April,. 1855, that the last restrictions have fallen and the ports of Iceland been opened to the merchants of all nations. It is to be boped that the beneficial effects of free trade will graduaUy heal the wounds caused by centuries of neglect and misfortune ; but great progress must be made before Iceland can attain the de gree of prosperity which she enjoyed in the tiraes of her independence. Then she had above a hundred thousand inhabitants, now she has scarcely half that nuraber ; then she had raany rich and powerful families, now medioc-' rity or poverty is the universal lot ; then she was renowned all over the North as the seat of learning and the cradle of Uterature, now, were it not for her re markable physical features, no traveller would ever think of landing on her rugged shores. 7 98 THE POLAR WORLD. REYKJAVIK, THB CAPITAL OF ICELAND. CHAPTER VII. THE ICELANDERS. Skalholt.— -RerKiavik.— The Fair. — The Peasant and the Merchant.— A Clergyman in his Cups. —Hay-making.— The Icelander's Hut.— Church es. —Poverty of the Clergy.— Jon Thorlaksen. —The Seminarj' of Reykjavik.— Beneficial Influ ence of the Clergy.— Home Education.— The Ice lander's Winter's Evening.— Taste for Literature. —The Language.— The Public Library at Beyk- javik.- The Icelandic Literarj' Society.— Icelandic Newspapers.— Longevity.— Leprosy.— Travelling in Iceland.- Fording the Rivers.— Crossing of the Skeidara by Mr. Holland.— A Night's Bivouac. NEXT to ThingvaUa, there is no place in Iceland so replete with historical interest as Skalholt, its ancient capital. Here in the eleventh century was founded the flrst school in the island ; here was the seat of its first bishops ; here flourished a succession of great orators, historians, and poets ; Isleif, the oldest chronicler of the North ; Gissur, who in the beginning of the twelfth century had visited all the countries of Europe and spoke all their languages ; the philologian Thorlak, and Finnur Johnson, the learned author of the " Ec clesiastical History of Iceland." The Cathedral of Skalholt was renowned far and wide for its size, and in the year 1100, Latin, poetry, music, and rhetoric, the four liberal arts, were taught in its school, more than they were at that time THE ICELANDERS. 99 in many of the large European cities. As a proof how early the study of the ancients flourished in Skalholt, we find it recorded that in the twelfth century a bishop once caught a scholar reading Ovid's " Art of Love ;" and as the story relates that the venerable pastor flew into a violent passion at the sight of the unholy book, we may without injustice conclude that he must have read it him self in some of his leisure hours, to know its character so weU. Of all its past glories, Skalholt has retained nothing but its name. The school and the bishopric have been reraoved, the old church has disappeared, and been replaced by a sraall wooden building, in which divine service is held once a month ; three cottages contain all the inhabitants of the once celebrated city, and the extensive churchyard is the only memorial of its forraer irapor tance. Close by are the ruins of the old school-house, and on the spot where the bishop resided a peasant has erected his miserable hovel. But the ever-changing tide of huraan affairs has not bereft the now lonely place of its natural charras, for the meadow-lands of Skalholt are beautifully ira bedded in an undulating range of hills, overlooking the junction of the Bruara and Huita, and backed by a raagnificent theatre of mountains, among which Hecla and the Eyjafialla are the most prominent. governor's residence, REYKJAVIK. Reykja-vik, the present capital of the island, has risen into iraportance at the expense both of Skalholt and ThingvaUa. At the beginning of the present cen tury the courts of justice were transferred frora the ancient seat of legislature to the new metropohs, and in 1797 the bishoprics of Hoolum and Skalholt, united into one, had their seats Ukewise transferred to Reykjavik. The ancient school of Skalholt, after having first migrated to Bessestadt, has also been 100 THE POLAR WORLD. obUged to follow the centralizing tendency, so powerful in our times, and now contributes to the rising fortunes of the small sea-port town. But in spite of all these accessions, the first aspect of Reykjavik by no raeans corresponds to our ideas of a capital. " The town," says Lord Dufferin, " con sists of a collection of wooden sheds, one story high — rising here and there into a gable end of greater pretensions — built along the lava-track, .and flanked at either end by a suburb of turf huts. On every side of it extends a desolate plain of lava that once raust have boiled up red-hot from some distant gateway of heU, and faUen hissing into the sea. No tree or bush relieves the dreariness of the landscape, and the mountains are too distant to serve as a background to the buildings ; but before the door of each merchant's house facing the sea there flies a gay little pennon ; and as you walk along the silent streets, whose dust no carriage-wheel has ever desecrated, the rows of flower-pots that peep out of the windows, between curtains of white muslin, at once convince you that, notwithstanding their unpretending appearance, within each dwelling reign the elegance and comfort of a woman-tended home." Twenty years since, Reykjavik was no better than a wretched fishing-viUage, now it already numbers 1400 inhabitants, and free-trade promises it a still greater increase for the future. It owes its prosperity chiefly to its excellent port, and to the abundance of fish-banks in its neighborhood, which have induced the Danish raerchants to make it their principal settlement. Most of them, how ever, merely visit it in summer like birds of passage, arriving in May with small cargoes of foreign goods, and leaving it again in August, after having disposed of their wares. Thus Reykjavik raust be lonely and dreary enough in winter, when no trade animates its port, and no traveller stays at its solitary inn ; but the joy of the inhabitants is all the greater when the return of spring re-opens their intercourse with the rest of the world, and the delight may be iraagined with which they hail the first ship that brings them the long-expected news from Europe, and perhaps some wealthy tourist, eager to admire the wonders of the Gey sirs. The most busy time of the town is, however, the beginning of July, when the annual fair attracts a great number of fishermen and peasants within its walls. From a distance of forty and fifty leagues around, they come with long trains of pack-horses ; their stock-fish slung freely across the animals' backs, their more damageable articles close pressed and packed in boxes or skin bags. The- greater part of the trade in this and other small sea-ports — such as Akreyri, Hafnafjord,Eyrarbacki, Berufjord, Vapnaf jord, Isafjord, Grafaros,Bu- denstadt, which, taken all together, do not equal Heykjavik in traffic and pop ulation — is carried on by barter.* Sometiraes the Icelander desires to be paid in specie for part of his produce, but theu he is obUged to bargain for a long time with the merchant, who of course derives a double profit by an exchange of goods, and is loth to part with * In 1855, Iceland imported, among others, 65,712 pieces of timber, 148,038 lbs. of iron, 37,700 lbs. hemp, 15,179 fishing-lines, 20,342 lbs. salt, 6539 tons of coal. The chief exportations ofthe same year were, tallow, 932,906 lbs., wool, 1,669,323 lbs., 69,305 pairs of stockings, 27,109 pairs of gloves, 12,712 salted sheepskins, 4116 lbs. eider-downs, 25,000 lbs. other feath ers, 244 horses, and 24,079 ship's pounds (the'ship's pound =320 lbs.) salt fish. THE ICELANDERS. 101 his hard cash. The dollars thus acquired are either melted down, and worked into sUver massive girdles, which in point of execution as -weU as design are said, on good authority,* to be equal to any thing of the kind fashioned by English jewellers, or else deposited in a strong-box, as taxes and wages are all paid in produce, and no Icelander ever thinks of investing his raoney in stocks, shares, or debentures. He is, however, by no raeans so ignorant of raercantile affairs as to strike at once a bargain with the Danish traders. Pitching his tent before the town, he first pays a visit to aU the merchants of the place. After carefuUy noting their several offers (for as each of thera invariably treats hira to a drara, he with some justice mistrusts his meraory), he returns to his caravan and makes his calculations as well as his soraewhat confused brain allows him. If he is ac companied by his wife, her opinion of course is decisive, and the foUowing morning he repairs with all his goods to the raerchant who has succeeded in gaining his confidence. After the business has been concluded, the peasant erapties one glass to the merchant's health, another to a happy meeting next year, a third to the king, a fourth because three have been drunk already. At length, after many erabraces and protestations of eternal friendship, he takes his leave of the merchant. For tunately there is no thief to be found in all Iceland ; but in consequence of these repeated libations, one parcel has not been well packed, another negligently at tached to the horse, and thus it happens that the poor peasant's track is not un frequently raarked with sugar, coffee-beans, salt, or flour, and that when he reaches home, he flnds some valuable article or other missing. It would, however, be doing the Icelanders an injustice to regard them as generally interaperate ; for though witliin the last twelve years the population has increased only ten per cent., and the iraportation of brandy thirty, yet the whole quantity of spirits consuraed in the island araounts to less than three bot tles per annura for each individual, and, of this allowance, the people of Reykja vik and of the other small sea-ports have more than their share, while many of the clergy and peasantry in the reraoter districts hardly ever taste spirituous liquors. Dr. Hooker raentions the extraordinary effect which a sraall portion of rum produced on the good old incumbent of Middalr, -whose stomach had been accustomed only to a milk-diet and a little coffee. " He begged me," says the doctor,f " to give him sorae rum to bathe his wife's breast ; but hav ing applied a portion of it to that purpose, he drank the rest without being at all aware of its strength, which, however, had no other effect than in causing this clerical blacksraith,J with his larae hip, to dance in the raost ridiculous raan ner in front of the house. The scene afforded a great source of raerriraent to all his family except his old wife, who was very desirous of getting him to bed, while he was no less anxious that she should join him in the dance." Dr. Hooker justly remarks that this very circumstance is a convincing proof how unaccustomed this priest was to spirituous liquors, as the quantity taken could not have exceeded a wine-glass full. * Barrow, "Visit to Iceland," 1834. t " Journal of a Tour in Iceland," p. 110. f All the clergymen are blacksmiths, for a reason that will be stated hereafter. 103 THE POLAR WORLD. After his visit to the fair, the peasant sets about hay-making, which is to him the great business of the year, for he is most anxious to secure winter fodder for his cattle, on which his whole prosperity depends. The few potatoes and tur nips about the size of marbles, or the cabbage and parsley, which he may chance to cultivate, are not worth mentioning ; grass is the chief, nay, the only produce of his farm, and that Heaven may grant clear sunshiny days for hay-making is now his daily prayer. Every person capable of wielding a scythe or rake is pressed into the work. The best hay is cut from the " tiin," a sort of paddock coraprising the lands ad joining the farm-house, and the only part of his grounds on which the peasant bestows any attention, for, in spite of the paramount importance of his pasture- land, he does but little for its improvement, and a meadow is rarely seen, where the useless or less nutritious herbs are not at least as abundant as those of a better quality. The " tun " is encircled by a turf or stone wall, and is seldom more than ten acres in extent, and generally not more than two or three. Its surface is usually a series of closely-packed mounds, like graves, most unpleasant to walk over, the gutter, in some places, being two feet in depth between the mounds. After having finished with the " tftn," the farmer subjects to a proc ess of cutting all the broken hillsides and boggy undrained swamps that lie near his dweUing. The blades of the scythes are very- short. It would be im possible to use a long-bladed scythe, owing to the unevenness of the ground. The cutting and making of hay is carried on, when the weather will permit, through aU the twenty-four hours of the day. When the hay is made it is tied in bundles by cords and thongs, and carried away by ponies to the earthen houses prepared for it, which are similar to and adjoin those in which the cattle are stalled. "It is a very curious sight," says Mr. Shepherd, "to see a string of hay-laden ponies returning home. Each pony's halter is made fast to the tail of the preceding one, and the little animals are so enveloped in their bur dens that nothing but their hoofs and the connecting ropes are visible, and they look as though a dozen huge haycocks, feeling theraselves sufficiently raade, were crawling off to their resting-places.'' When the harvest is finished the farmer treats his faraily and laborers to a substantial supper, consisting of rautton, and a soup of milk and flour ; and although the serious and taciturn Icelander has perhaps of all men the least taste for music and dancing, yet these siraple feasts are distinguished by a plac id serenity, no less pleasing than the more boisterous mirth displayed at a southern vintage. Almost aU labor out-of-doors now ceases for the rest of the year. A thick mantle of snow soon covers mountain and vale, meadow and moor ; with every returning day, the sun pays the cold earth a decreasing visit, until, finally, he hardly appears above the horizon at noon ; the wintry storm howls over the waste, and for raonths the life of the Icelander is confined to his hut, which frequently is but a few degrees better than that of the filthy Lap. Its lower part is built of rude stones to about the height of four feet, and between each row layers of turf are placed with great regularity, to serve in stead of mortar, and keep out the wind. A roof of such wood as can be pro- THE ICELANDERS. 103 ICELANDIC HOUSES. cured rests upon these walls, and is covered with turf and sods. On one side (generally facing the south) are several gable ends and doors, each surmounted with a weather-cock. These are the' entrances to the dwelling-house proper, to the smithy, store-room, cow-shed, etc. A long narrow passage, dark as pitch, and redolent of unsavory odors, leads to the several apartments, which are sep arated from each other by thick walls of turf, each having also its own roof, so that the peasant's dwelling is in fact a conglomeration of low huts, which some times receive their light through sraall windows in the front, but more frequent ly through holes in the roof, covered with a piece of glass or skin. The fioors are of staraped -earth ; the hearth is raade of a few stones clurasily piled togeth er ; a cask or barrel, with the two ends knocked out, answers the purpose of a chiraney, or else the sraoke is allowed to escape through a mere hole in the roof. The thick turf walls, the dirty floor, the personal uncleanliness of the inhab itants, all contribute to the poUution of the atraosphere. No piece of furniture seems ever to have been cleaned since it was first put into use ; all is disorder and confusion. Ventilation is utterly irapossible, and the whole faraily, fre quently consisting of twenty persons or more, sleep in the sarae dormitory, as well as any strangers who raay happen to drop in. On either side of this apartment are bunks three or four feet in width, on which the sleepers range themselves. -:. Such are in general the dweUings of the farmers and clergy, for but very few of the more wealthy inhabitants live in any way according to our notions of comfort, whUe the cots of the poor fisherman are so wretched that one cao hardly beUeve them to be tenanted by human beings. 104 THE POLAR "W^ORLD. The farra-houses are frequently isolated, and, on account of their grass-cover ed roofs and their low construction, are not easily distinguished frora the neigh boring pasture-grounds ; where four or five of them are congregated in a grassy plain, they are dignified with the name of a village, and become the residence of a Hrepstior, or parish constable. Then also a church is seldom wanting, which however is distinguished from the low huts around merely by the cross planted on its roof. An Icelandic house of prayer is generally from eight to ten feet wide, and frora eighteen to twenty-four long ; but of this about eight feet are devoted to the altar, which is divided off by a partition stretching across the church, and against which stands the pulpit. A sraall wooden chest or cupboard, placed at the end of the build ing, between two very sraall square windows not larger than a common-sized pane of glass, constitutes the communion-table, over which is generally a raiser able representation of the Lord's Supper painted on wood. The height of the walls, which are wainscoted, is about six feet, and frora thera large wooden beams stretch across from side to side. On these beams are placed in great disorder a quantity of old Bibles, psalters, and fragments of dirty raanuscripts. The interior of the roof, the rafters of which rest on the walls, is also lined with wood. On the right of the door, under which one is obliged to stoop consider ably on entering, is suspended a bell, large enough to make an intolerable noise in so small a space. A few benches on each side the aisle, so crowded together as almost to touch one another, and affording accoramodation to thirty or forty persons when squeezed very tight, leave room for a narrow passage. These churches, besides their proper use, 'are also made to answer the pur pose of the caravanseras of the East, by affording a night's lodging to foreign tourists. They are indeed neither free from dirt, nor from bad smells ; , but the stranger is still far better off than in the intolerable atmosphere of a peas ant's hut. Mr. Ross Browne thus describes the church and parsonage at Thingvalla ; " The church is of raodern construction, and, like all I saw in the interior, is made of wood, painted a dark color, and roofed with boards covered with sheets of tarred canvas. It is a very priraitive little affair, only one story high, and not more than fifteen by twenty feet in dimensions. From the date on the weather-cock it appears to have been built in 1858. The congregation is sup plied by the tew sheep-ranches in the neighborhood, consisting at most of half a dozen famUies. These unpretending Uttle churches are to be seen in the vicinity of every settleraent throughout the whole island. Siraple and homely as they are, they speak weU. for the pious character of the people. " The pastor of Thingvalla and his family reside in a group of sod-covered huts close by the church. These cheerless little hovels are really a curiosity, none of them being over ten or fifteen feet high, and all huddled together with out the slightest regard to latitude or longitude, like a parcel of sheep in a storra. Some have windo-ws in the roof, and some have chimneys ; grass and weeds grow all over thera, and crooked by-ways and dark aUeys run among them and through them. At the base they are walled up with big lumps of lava, and two of them have board fronts, painted black, while the remainder are THE ICELANDERS. 105 CHURCH AT THINGVALLA. patched up with turf and rubbish of all sorts, very much in the style of a stork's nest. A low stone wall encircles the premises, but seems to be of little use as a barrier against the encroachments of live-stock, being broken up in gaps every few yards. In front of the group some attempt has been made at a paveraent, which, however, must have been abandoned soon after the work was com menced. It is now Jittered aU over with old tubs, pots, dish-cloths, and other articles of domestic use. "The interior of this strange abode is even more complicated than one would be led to expect frora the exterior. Passing through a dilapidated door way in one of the smaller cabins, which you would hardly suppose to be the main entrance, you find yourself in a long dark passage-way, built of rough stone, and roofed with wooden rafters and brushwood covered with sod. The sides are ornamented with pegs stuck in the crevices between the stones, upon which hang saddles, bridles, horse-shoes, bunches of herbs, dried fish, and various articles of cast-off clothing, including old shoes and sheepskins. Wide or nar row, straight or crooked, to suit the sinuosities of the different cabins into which it forms the entrance, it seems to have been originally located upon the track of a blind boa-constrictor. The best roora, or rather house — for every roora is a house — is set apart for the accoraraodation of traveUers. Another cabin is occupied by sorae members of the pastor's faraily, who bundle about like a lot of rabbits. The kitchen is also the dog-kennel, and occasionally the sheep-house. A pile of stones in one corner of it, upon which a few twigs or scraps of sheep-raanure serve to raake the fire, constitute the cooking apartraent. The floor consists of the original lava-bed, and artificial puddles composed of 106 THE POLAR WORLD. slops and offal of diverse unctuous kinds. Smoke fiUs all the cavities in the air not already occupied by foul odors, and the beams, and posts, and rickety old bits of furniture are dyed to the core with the dense and variegated atmosphere around them. This is a fair .specimen of the whole estabhshraent, with the ex ception of the travellers' room. The beds in these cabins are the chief arti cles of luxury." The poverty of the clergy corresponds with the meanness of their churches. The best living in the island is that of Breide'-Bolstadr, where the norainal stipend araounts to 180 specie dollars, or about £40 a year; and Mr. Hol land states that the average livings do not amount to more than £10 for each parish in the island. The clergymen must therefore depend almost entirely for subsistence on their glebe land, and a small pittance to which they are entitled for the few baptisms, marriages, and funerals that occur among their parishioners. The bishop himself has only 2000 rix-doUars, or £200, a year, a miserable pittance to make a decent appearance, and to exercise hospitality to the clergy who visit Reykjavik from distant parts. It can not be wondered at that pastors thus miserably paid are generaUy obliged to perform the hardest work of day laborers to preserve their famUies from starving, and that their external appearance corresponds less with the dig nity of their office than with their penury. Besides hay-making and tending the cattle, they may be frequently seen leading a train of pack-horses from a fishing- station to their distant hut. They are all blacksmiths also from necessity, and the best shoers of horses on the island. The feet of an Iceland horse would be cut to pieces over the sharp rock and lava, if not well shod. The great resort of the peasantry is the church ; and should any of the numerous horses have lost a shoe, or be likely to do so, the priest puts on his apron, lights his Uttle char coal fire in his smithy (one of which is always attached to every parsonage), and sets the aniraal on his legs again. The task of getting the necessary char- THE pastor's HOUSE, THINGVALLA. THE ICELANDERS. 107 y/' '-K.;^ coal is not the least of his labors, for 'whatever the distance may be to the nearest thicket of dwarf-birch, he must go thither to burn the wood, and to bring it home when charred across his horse's back. His hut is scarcely bet ter than that of the raeanest fisherraan ; a bed, a rickety table, a few chairs, and a chest or two, are aU his furniture. This is, as long as h& lives, the condi tion of the Icelandic clergyman, and learning, virtue, and even genius are but too frequently buried under this squalid poverty. But few of my readers have proba bly ever heard of the poet Jon Thor laksen, but who can withhold the trib ute of his admiration from the poor priest of Backa, who with a fixed in come of less than £6 a year, and con demned to aU the drudgery which I have described, finished at seventy years of age a translation of Milton's "Paradise Lost," having previously translated Pope's " Essay on Man." Three of the first books only of the " Paradise Lost " were printed by the Icelandic Literary Society, when it was dissolved in 1796, and to print the rest at his own expense was of course irapossible. In a few Icelandic verses, Thor laksen touchingly aUudes to his penury : — " Ever since I came into this world I have been wedded to Poverty, who has now hugged rae to her bosom these seventy winters, all but two ; and whether we shaU ever be separated here below is only known to Him who joined us together." As if Providence had intended to teach the old raan that we must hope to the last, he soon after received the unexpected visit of Mr. Henderson, an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who thus relates his interview : " Like most of his brethren at this season of the year, we found him in the meadow assisting his people in hay-making. On hearing of our arrival, he made all the haste horae which his age and infirmity would allow, and bidding us welcome to his lowly abode, ushered us into the humble apartment where he translated my countrymen into Icelandic. The door is not quite four feet in height, and the room may be about eight feet in length by six in breadth. At the inner end is the poet's bed, and close to the door, over against a small win dow, not exceeding two feet square, is a table where he commits to paper the effusions of his Muse. On my telling hira that my countrymen would not have forgiven me, nor could I have forgiven myself, had I passed through this part of the island without paying hira a vLsit, he repUed that the translation of MU- THE PASTOR OP THINGVALLA. 108 THE POLAR WORLD. ton had yielded hira many a pleasant hour, and often given hira occasion to think of England." This visit was followed by agreeable consequences for the venerable bard. The Literary Fund soon afterwards sent him a present of £30, a modest sura according to our ideas, but a mine of wealth in the eyes of the poor Icelandic priest. His life, however, was now near its close, as it is stated in a short view " Of the Origin, Progress, and Operations of the Society," dated March 3d, 1821, that "the poet of Iceland is now in his grave ; but it is satisfactory to know that the attention, in this instance, of a foreign and reraote society to his gains and his fortunes was highly gratifying to his feelings, and contrib uted not immaterially to the corafort of his concluding days." He wrote a letter in very elegant Latin, expressing his heartfelt gratitude for the kindness and generosity of the Society, so accordant with the character of the British nation, and accompanied it with a MS. copy of his translation. The latter was first printed in Iceland in 1828, but his own original poems did not appear before 1842. The school where most of the Icelandic clergymen, so poor and yet gener ally so respectable in their poverty, are educated, is that of Reykjavik, as few only enjoy stipends which enable them to study at Copenhagen. There they live several years under a milder sky, they become acquainted with the splen dor of a large capital, and thus it might be supposed that the idea of returning to the dreary wastes of their own land must be intolerable. Yet this is their ardent desire, and, like banished exiles, they long for their beloved Iceland, where privation and penury await them. In no Christian country, perhaps with the sole exception of Lapland, are the clergy so poor as in Iceland, but in none do they exert a more beneficial in fluence. Though the island has but the one public school at Reykjavik, yet perhaps in no country is elementary education more generally diffused. Every mother teaches her children to read and write, and a peasant, after providing for the wants of his family by the labor of his hands, loses no opportunity, in his lei sure hours, of inculcating a sound morality. In these praiseworthy efforts the parents are supported by the pastor. He who, judging from the sordid condition of an Icelandic hut, might imag ine its inhabitants to be no better than savages, would soon change his opin ion were he introduced on a winter evening into the low, ill-ventilated room where the family of a peasant or a small landholder is assembled. Vainly would he seek a single idler in the whole company. The woraen and girls spin or knit ; the raen and boys are all busy mending their agricultural imple ments and household utensUs, or else chiseUing or cutting with admirable skiU- ornaraents or snuff-boxes in silver, ivory, or wood. By the dubious light of a tallow lamp, just making obscurity visible, sits one of the family, who reads with a loud voice an old " saga " or chronicle, or maybe the newest number of the " Northurfari," an Iceland Uterary almanac, published during the last few years by Mr. Gisle Brinjulfsson. Sometiraes poeras or whole sagas are repeat ed frora memory, and there are even itinerant story-tellers, who, like the trouba- THE ICELANDERS. 109 dours and trouveres of the Middle Ages, wander from one farm to another, and thus gain a scanty livelihood. In this raanner the deeds of the ancient Ice landers remain fixed in the meraory of their descendants, and Snorre Sturleson, Samund, Frodi, and Eric Rauda are unforgotten. Nine centuries have elapsed ; but every Icelander still knows the naraes of the proud yarls who first peopled the fiords of the island ; and the exploits of the brave vikings who spread ter ror and desolation along aU the coasts of Europe stiU fiU the hearts of the peaceful islanders of our days with a glow of patriotic pride. Where education is so general, one raay naturaUy expect to find a high de gree of inteUectual cultivation araong the clergy, the public functionaries, and the wealthier part of the population. Their classical knowledge is one of the first things that strike the stranger with astonishment. He sees men whose appearance too frequently denotes an abject poverty conversant with the great authors of antiquity, and keenly alive to their beauties. TraveUing to the Gey- sirs, he is not seldom accosted in Latin by his guide, and stopping at a farra, his host greets hira in the sarae language. I have specially named Jon Thorlaksen, but Iceland has produced and still produces raany other raen who, without the hope of any other reward but that which proceeds frora the pure love of literature, devote their days and nights to laborious studies, and live witb Virgil and Horaer under the sunny skies of Italy and Greece. In the study of the modern languages, the Icelanders are as far advanced as can be expected from their limited intercourse with the rest of the world. The English language, in which they find so many words of their own and so many borrowed from the Latin, is cultivated by many of the clergy. The German they find still raore easy ; and as all the Scandinavian languages pro ceed frora the sarae root, they have no difficulty in understanding the Danish and the Norwegian tongues. Of all the modern languages or dialects which have sprung from the ancient Norse, spoken a thousand years ago all over Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, none has undergone fewer changes than the Ice landic. In the sea-ports it is mixed up with many Danish words and phrases, but in the interior of the island it is still spoken as it was in the times of In golfr and Eric the Red, and in the whole island there is no fisherman or day laborer who does not perfectly understand the oldest writings. It may easily be imagined that among a people so fond of literature, books must be in great request. Too poor to be constantly increasing their small col lections of modern publications, or of old " sagas " or chronicles, by new acqui sitions, one assists the other. When the peasant goes on Sundays to church, he takes a few volumes with him, ready to lend his treasures to his neighbors, and, on his part, selects from among those which they have brought for the same purpose. When he is particularly pleased with a work, he has it copied at home, and it may be here remarked that the Icelanders are frequently most excellent calligraphists. The foundation of a public library at Reykjavik in 1821, at the instigation of the learned Professor Rafn of Copenhagen, was a great boon to the people. It is said to contain about 12,000 volumes, which are kept under the roof of the 110 THE POLAR WORLD. cathedral. Books are freely lent for months, or even for a whole year, to the inhabitants of remote districts. This UberaUty is, of course, attended with some inconvenience, but it has the inestimable advantage of rendering a nura ber of good works accessible to numerous families too poor to purchase thera. Another excellent institution is the New Icelandic Literary Society, founded in 1816. It has two seats, one in Copenhagen, the other in Reykjavik, and its chief object is the publication of useful works in the language of the country. Besides an annual grant of 100 specie doUars (£24) awarded to it by the Danish Government, its income is confined to the yearly contributions of its merabers,* and with this scanty means it has already published many exceUent works. Though remote from the busy scenes of the world, Iceland has three news papers, the Thyodtholfr and the Islendingur, which appear at Reykjavik, and the NoHhri, which is published at Akreyri, on the borders of the Polar Ocean. The Islendingur is said to contain many excellent articles, but it would sorely task the patience of those who are accustoraed to the regular enjoyraent of the " Times " at breakfast ; as it soraetiraes appears but once in three weeks, and then again, es if to make up for lost time, twice in eight days. In spite of their ill-ventilated dwellings and the hardships entailed upon, them by the severity of the climate, the Icelander^ frequently attain a good old age. Of the 2019 persons who died in 1858, 25 had passed the age of niaety, and of these 20 belonged to the fair sex. The mortality among the children is, however, very considerable ; 993, or nearly one-half of the entire number hav ing died before the age of five in the year above-mentioned. Cutaneous affec tions are very comraon araong Icelanders, as may easily be supposed from their sordid woollen apparel and the uncleanliness of their huts ; and the northern leprosy, or " likthra," is constantly seeking out its victims among them. This dreadful disease, which is also found araong the fishermen in Norway, in Green land, in the Faeroes, in Lapland, and, in short, wherever the same mode of life exists, begins with a swelling of the hands and feet. The hair faUs off ; the senses becorae obtuse. Turaors appear on the arras and legs, and on the face, which soon loses the serablance of huraanity. Severe pains shoot through the joints, an eruption covers the whole body, and finaUy changes into open sores, ending with death. He whom the leprosy has once attacked is doomed, for it mocks all the efforts of medical art. Fortunately the victims of this shocking complaint are rather objects of pity than of disgust, and as it is not supposed to be contagious, they are not so cruelly forsaken by their relations as their fel low-sufferers in the East. In the hut of the priest of ThingvaUa, Marmier saw a leper busy grinding corn. Some of the poorest and most helpless of these unfortunate creatures find a refuge in four small hospitals, where they are pro vided for at the public expense. Since a regular steam-boat communication has been opened between Ice land, Denmark, and Scotland, the number of tourists desirous of viewing the * Their number in 1860 was 991. During his voyage to Iceland in 1850 Prince Napoleon was named honorary president, a distinction he shares with the Bishop of Reykjavik. Among the 46 honorary members I find the name of Lord DuS'erin. THE ICELANDERS. Ill matchless natural wonders of the island has considerably increased. But trav elling in the island itself is still attended with considerable difficulties and no trifling expense, to say nothing of the want of all comforts ; so that most of its visitors are content with a trip to Thingvalla and the Geysir, which are but a couple of days' journey from Reykjavik, and very few, Uke Mr. HoUand, raake the entire circuit of the island, or, like Mr. Shepherd, plunge into the terra in cognita of its north-western peninsula. The only mode of travelling is on horseback, as there are no roads, and therefore no carriages in Iceland. The distances between the places are too great, the rivers are too furious, and the bogs too extensive to aUow of a walking tour being made. Even the tourist with the most modest pretensions requires at least two riding horses for him self, two for his guide, and two packhorses ; and when a larger company travels, it always forms a cavalcade of from twenty to thirty horses, tied head to tail, the chief guide mounted on the first and leading the string, the other accelerat ing its motions by gesticulation, sundry oaths, and the timely application of the whip. The way, or the path, lies either over beds of lava, so rugged that the horses are aUowed to pick their way, or over boggy ground, where it is equally necessary to avoid those places into which the animals might sink up to their belly, but which, when left to themselves, they are remarkably skillful in detecting. With the solitary exception of a few planks thrown across the Bruera, and a kind of swing bridge, or Mdfr, contrived for passing the rapid Jokulsa, there are no bridges over the rivers, so that the only way to get across is to ride through them — a feat which, considering the usual velocity of their current, is not seldom attended with considerable danger, as will be seen by the foUowing account of the crossing of the Skeidara by Mr. HoUand. 113 THE POLAR WORLD. *' Our guide," says this intrepid traveller, " urged on his horse through the stream, and led the way towards the mid-channel. We followed in his wake, and soon were all stemming the impetuous and swollen torrent. In the course of our journey Ave had before this crossed a good many rivers more or less deep, but aU of them had been mere chUd's play compared to that which we were now fording. The angry water rose high against our horses' sides, at times almost coming over the tops of their shoulders. The spray from their broken crests was dashed up into our faces. The stream was so swift that it was impossible to follow the individual waves as they rushed past us, and it alraost made us dizzy to look down at it. Now, if ever, is the time for firra hand or rein, sure seat, and steady eye ; not only is the streara so strong, but the bottom is full of large stones, that the Korse cau not see through the murky waters ; if he should fall, the torrent will sweep you down to the sea — its white breakers are plainly visible as they run along the shore at scarcely a mile's dis tance, and they lap the beach as if they waited for their prey. Happily, they wUl be disappointed. Swimming would be of no use, but an Icelandic water- horse seldom makes a blunder or a false step. Not the least of the risks we ran iu crossing the Skeidara was from the raasses of ice carried down by the stream from the Jokul, many of them being large enough to knock a horse over. " Fortunately we found much less ice in the centre and swiftest part of the river, where we were able to see and avoid it, than in the side channels. How the horses were able to stand against such a streara was marveUous ; they could not do so unless they were constantly in the habit of crossing swift rivers. The Icelanders who live in this part of the island keep horses known for their qualities in fording difficult rivers, and they never venture to cross a dangerous stream unless raounted on a tried water-horse. The action of the Icelandic horses when crossing a swift river is very peculiar. They lean all their weight against the stream, so as to resist it as much as possible, and move onward with a peculiar side-step. This motion is not agreeable. It feels as if your horse were raarking tirae without gaining ground, and the prog ress raade being really very slow, the shore frora which you started seeras to recede from you, whilst that for which you are making appears as far as ever. " When we reached the raiddle of the streara, the roar of the waters was so great that we could scarcely make our voices audible to one another ; they were overpowered bythe crunching sound of the ice, and the bumping of large stones against the bottora. Up to this point a diagonal line, rather down streara, had been cautiously foUowed ; but when we came to the middle, we turned our horses' heads a little against the stream. As we thus altered our course, the long line of baggage-horses appeared to be swung round altogether, as if s-wept off their legs. None of them, however, broke away, and they con tinued their advance without accident, and at length we all reached the shore in safety." After a day's journey in Iceland, rest, as may well be supposed, is highly acceptable. Instead of passing the night in the peasant's hut, the traveller, when no church is at hand, generally prefers pitching his tent near a running THE ICELANDERS. 113 stream on a grassy plam ; but sometimes, in consequence of the great distance frora one habitable place to another, he is obliged to encamp in the midst of a bog where the poor horses find either bad herbs, scarcely fit to satisfy their hunger, or no food at all. After they have been unloaded, their fore legs are bound together above their hoofs, so as to prevent them straying too far whUe their masters arrange themselves in the tent as comfortably as they can ' 114 THE POLAR WORLD. COAST OF lOHLAND CHAPTER VIII. THE WESTMAN ISLANDS. The Westmans. — Their extreme Difficulty of Access. — How they became peopled. — Heimaey. — Kaufstathir and Ofanleyte. — Sheep-hoisting. — Egg-gathering. — Dreadful Mortality among lhe Children.— The Ginklofi.— Gentleman John.— The Algerine Pirates.— Dreadful Sufferings of the Islanders. RISING abruptly frora the sea to a height of "91 6 feet, the smaU Westman Islands are no less picturesque than difficult of access. Many a traveller while sailing along the south coast of Iceland has admired their towering rock- waUs, but no modern tourist has ever landed there. For so stormy a sea rolls between thera and the mainland, and so violent are the currents, which the slightest wind brings forth in the narrow channels of the archipelago, that a landing can be effected only when the weather is perfectly calra. The Dri- fanda foss, a cascade on the opposite mainland, rushing from the brow of the Eya- fyalla range in a column of some 800 or 900 feet in height, is a sort of barometer, which decides whether a boat can put off with a prospect of gaining the West mans. In stormy weather the wind eddying among the cliffs converts the fall, though considerable, into a cloud of spray, which is dissipated in the atmos phere, so that no cascade is visible from the beach. In calm weather the coluran is intact, and if it remains so two days in succession, then the sea is usually calra enough to aUow boats to land, and they venture out. As thelce- landers, through storray weather, are frequently cut off frora Europe, so the in habitants of the Westmans are still more frequently cut off from Iceland, and it is seldom more than once a year that the mails are landed direct. The few letters from Denraark (for the correspondence is in aU probability not very active) are landed in Iceland at Reykjavik, and thence forwarded to the islands by boat, as chance raay offer, for, during the whole winter and the greater part THE WESTMAN ISLANDS. 115 of the summer, coraraunication is irapossible. It will now be understood why tourists are so little inclined to visit the Westraans, despite the magnificence of their coast scenery, for who has the patience to tarry in a miserable hut on the opposite raainland till the cascade inforras hira that they are accessible, or is inclined to run the risk of being detained by a sudden change of the weather for weeks or even months on these solitary rocks ? Mr. Ross Browne thus describes the general aspect of the cOast of Iceland : "Nothing could surpass the desolate grandeur of the coast as we approached the point of Reykjaness. It was of an almost infernal blackness. The whole country seeraed uptorn, rifted, shattered, and scattered about in a vast chaos of ruin. Huge cliffs of lava split down to their bases toppled over tlie surf. Rocks of every conceivable shape, scorched and blasted with fire, wrested from the main and hurled into the sea, battled with the waves, their black scraggy points piercing the mist like giant hands upthrown to smite or sink in a fierce death-struggle. The wild havoc wrought in the conflict of eleraents was appalling. Birds screaraed over the fearful wreck of raatter. The surf frora the inroUing waves broke against the charred and shattered desert of ruin with a terrific roar. Columns of spray shot up over the blackened fragments of lava, while in every opening the lashed waters, discolored by the coUision, seethed and surged as in a huge caldron." WESTMAN ISLES. Of the Westman Islands, he says : " Towards noon we raade the West- man Isles, a small rocky group some ten railes distant from the main island. A fishing and trading estabUshment, owned by a corapany of Danes, is located 116 THE POLAR WORLD. on one of these islands. The Arcturus touches twice a year to deliver and re ceive a mail. On the occasion of our visit, a boat came out with a hardy-look ing crew of Danes to receive the raail-bag. It was doubtless a matter of great rejoicing to thera to obtain news from home. I had barely tirae to make a rough outline of the islands as we lay off the settlement. The chief interest at tached to the Westman group is, that it is supposed to have been visited by Columbus in 1477, fifteen years prior to his voyage of discovery to the shores of America." The puffin, or the screeching sea-mew, seem the only inhabitants for which nature has fitted the Westmans, and yet they have a history which leads us back to the times when Iceland itself first became known to man. About 875, a few years after Ingolfr followed his household gods to Reyk javik, a Norwegian pirate, perchance one of the associates of that historical personage, landed on the coast of Ireland, attacked with fire and sword the de fenseless population, captured forty or fifty persons, men, women, aud children, and carried thera off as slaves. The passage raust have been any thing but pleasant, for it gave the Hibernians such a foretaste of the wretchedness that awaited thera in Iceland, their future abode, that, taking courage from despair, they rose on their captors, threw them overboard, and went ashore on the first land they met with. A day of rare serenity must have witnessed their arrival on the Westraans, a spot which of all others seemed most unlikely to becorae their horae. Why they reraained there, is a secret of the past ; raost likely they had no other al ternative, and fi-eedom on a rock was, at aU events, better than slavery under a cruel viking. Thus these weather-beaten islets were first peopled by raen from the west, whence they derive their name, and it is supposed that the present inhabitants are the descendants of those children of Erin. No one will be inclined to envy them the heritage bequeathed to thera by their fathers. The Westraans are fourteen in number ; but of these only one, called Hei maey, or Home Island, is inhabited. It is fifteen railes from the coast of Iceland, and forty-five frora Hecla. Though larger than aU the others put together, its entire surface is not raore than ten square railes. It is almost surrounded with high basaltic cliffs, and an otherwise iron-bound shore ; its interior is covered with black ashy-looking cones, bearing undoubted evidence of volcanic action ; in fact, the harbor, which lies on its north-east side, and is only accessible to small craft, is formed out of an old crater, into which the sea has worn an en trance. The inhabitants are located in two vUlages ; Kaufstathir, on a little grassy knoll near the landing-place, and Ofanleyte, on the grassy platform of the island. Only three of the other islets produce any vegetation or pasturage, and it is said that on one of these the sheep are hoisted with a rope out of the boats by an islander, who, at the risk of his neck, has clirabed to the top of the precipitous rock. The others are raere naked cliffs or basaltic piUars, the abode of innumerable sea-birds, which, when accessible, are a precious resource to the islanders. For, as may well be supposed, the scanty grass lands afford nourish ment but to a few cows and sheep ; and as the unruly waters too often prevent THE WESTMAN ISLANDS. 117 their fishing-boats frora putting to sea, they depend in a great raeasure for their subsistence upon the sea-birds, in whose capture they exhibit wonderful courage and skiU. In the egg-season they go to the top of the cliff, and, put ting a rope round a man's waist, let him down the side of the perpendicular rook, one, two, or three hundred feet ; on arriving at the long, narrow, hori zontal shelves, he proceeds to fill a large bag with the brittle treasures depos ited by the birds. When his bag is full, he and his eggs are drawn to the top by his companions. If the rope breaks, or is cut off by the sharp corners of the rock, which, however, happens but seldom, nothing can save the luckless fowler, who is either precipitated into the sea, or dashed to pieces on the rocks below. HOME OF SEA-BIRDS. At a later period in the season they go and get the young birds, and then they have often desperate battles with the old ones, who will not give up fight ing for their offspring tiU their necks are broken, or their brains knocked out with a club. Where the cliffs are not accessible frora the top, they go round the bottora in boats, and show a wonderful agUity and daring in scaling the most terrible precipices. Ill summer they get the eggs and the fresh meat of the young birds, which they also salt for the winter. The feathers form their chief article of export, besides dried and salted codfish, and with these they procure their few nec essaries and luxuries, consisting principally of clothing, tobacco and snuff, spir its, fish-hooks and lines, and salt. As there is no peat on these islands, nor dried fish-bones in sufficient quantity, they also make use of the tough old sea-birds as fuel. For this purpose they split them open, and dry them on the rocks. The Westraans form a separate Syssel, or county, and they have a church, and usually two clergymen. Their church was rebuilt of stone, at the expense of the Danish Government, in 1774, and is said to be one of the best in Iceland. 118 THE POLAR WORLD. Unfortunately the two clergymen to whom the spiritual care of the islanders is confided seem to have but a very indifferent flock, for their neighbors on the raainland give rather a bad character to the inhabitants of Heimaey, describing thera as great sluggards and drunkards. The population, which was formerly more considerable, amounts to about 200 souls, but even this is more than raight be expected frora the dreadful raor tality which reigns among the children. The eggs and the oily flesh of sea-birds furnish a miserable food for infants, particularly when weaned, as is here cus tomary, at a very early age ; but the poor islanders have nothing else to give them, except some fish, and avery insufficient quantity of cow's or sheep's mUk. This unhealthy diet, along with the boisterous air, gives rise to an incurable in fantile disease, called Ginklofi {tetanus). Its first syraptoras are squinting aud rolling of the eyes, the muscles of the back are seized with incipient craraps and becorae stiff. After a day or two lock-jaw takes place, the back is bent like a bow, either backward or forward. The lock-jaw prevents swallowing, and the craraps become more frequent and prolonged until death closes the scene. The same disease is said to decimate the children on St. Kilda in consequence of a similar mode of life. The only means of preserving the infants of Heimaey from the Ginklofi, is to send them as soon as possible to the raainland to be reared, and thus a long con tinuance of bad weather is a death-warrant to many. Who would supjjose that the Westman Islanders, doubly guarded by their poverty and almost inaccessible cliffs, could ever have becorae the prey of free booters ? and yet they have been twice attacked and pillaged, and weU-nigh ex terminated by sea-rovers. I have already mentioned, in a previous chapter, that before the discovery of the banks of Newfoundland, the English cod-fishers used to resort in great num bers to the coasts of Iceland, where some of them — now and then — appeared also in the more questionable character of corsairs. One of these worthies, who, like Paul Clifford, or Captain Macheath, so effectuaUy united the suaviter in moc?o with -the fortiter in re, as to have merited the name of "Gentleraan John," carae to the Westraans in 1614 and set the church on fire, after having previous ly reraoved the little that was worth taking. After this exploit he returned to Great Britain, but King Jaraes I. had him hung, and ordered the church orna ments which he had robbed to be restored to the poor islanders. It was, how ever, written in the book of fate that they were not to enjoy them long, for in 1627, a vessel of Algerine pirates, after plundering several places on the eastern and southern coasts of Iceland, fell like a thunderbolt on Heimaey. These mis creants, compared with whora John was a " gentleraan " indeed, cut down every man who ventured to oppose them, plundered and burnt the new-built church, and every hovel of the place, and carried away about 400 prisoners — men, women, and children. One of the two clergymen of the island, Jon Torsteinson, was murdered at the tirae. This learned and pious man had translated the Psalms of David and the Book of Genesis into Icelandic verse, and is spoken of as the " raartyr " in the history of the land. The other clergyman, Olaf Egil- THE WESTMAN ISLANDS. 119 son, with his wife and children, and the rest of the prisoners, was sold into slavery in Algiers. The account of his sufferings and privations, which he wrote in the Icelandic language, was afterwards translated and published in Danish. It was not until 1636, nine years after their capture, that the unfortunate Heimaeyers were released, and then only by being ransoraed by the King of Denmark. Such was the misery they had endured from their barbarous task masters, that only thirty-seven of the whole number survived, and of these but thirteen lived to return to their native island. 130 THE POLAR WORLD. FISHING IN NORWAY. CHAPTER IX. FROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. Mild Climate of the Norwegian Coast. — Its Causes. — The Norwegian Peasant. — Norwegian Constitution. — Romantic coast Scenery. — Drontheim. — Greiffenfeld Holme and Yare.— The Sea-eagle. — The Herring- fisheries. — The Lofoten Islands. — The Cod-fisheries. — W retched Condition of the Fishermen.— Tromso- — Altenfiord.— The Copper Mines. — Hammerfest the most northem 'Town in the- World. — The North Cape. OF all the lands situated either within or near the Arctic Circle none enjoys a raore temperate climate than the Norwegian coast. Here, and nowhere else throughout the northern world, the birch and the fir-tree climb the mount ain-slopes to a height of 700 or 800 feet above the level of the sea, as far as the PROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. 121 70th degree of latitude ; here we stiU find a flourishing agriculture in the inte rior of the Malanger Fjord in 69°. On the opposite side of the Polar Ocean extends the inaccessible ice belt of East Greenland; Spitzbergen and Nova 2embla are not 400 mUes distant frora Talvig and Hararaerfest, and yet these ports are never blocked with ice, and even in the depth of winter remain con stantly open to navigation. What are the causes which in this favored region banish the usual rigors of the Arctic zone ? How comes it that the winter even at the North Cape (mean teraperature -f 22°) is rauch less severe than at Que bec (raean temperature +14°), which is situated 25° of latitude nearer to the equator ? The high mountain chains which separate Norway frora Sweden and Fin land, and keep off the eastern gales issuing from the Siberian wastes, while its coasts lie open to the mild south-westerly winds of the Atlantic, no doubt ac count in some measure for the comparative mildness of its cliraate ; but the main cause of this phenomenon must no doubt be sought for in the sea. Flow ing into the Atlantic Ocean between Florida and Cuba, the warm Gulf Streara traverses the sea frora west to east, and although about the raiddle of its course it partly turns to the south, yet a considerable portion of its waters flows on ward to the north-east, and streaming through the wide portal between Iceland and Great Britain, eventually reaches the coasts of Norway. Of course its warmth diminishes as it advances to the north, but this is iraparted to the winds that sweep over it, and thus it not raerely brings the seeds of tropical plants frora Equatorial America to the coasts of Norway, but also the far more important advantages of a milder temperature. The soil of Norway is generally rocky and sterile, but the sea amply makes up for the deficiencies of the land, and with the produce of their fisheries, of their forests, and their mines, the inhabitants are able to purchase the few for eign articles which they require. Though poor, and not seldora obliged to reap the gifts of nature araidst a thousand hardships and dangers, they envy no other nation upon earth. ¦The Norwegian peasant is a free man on the scanty bit of ground which he has inherited frora his fathers, and he has all the virtues of a freeman — an open character, a mind clear of eyery falsehood, a hospitable heart for the stranger. His religious feeUngs are deep and sincere, and the Bible is to be found in every hut. He is said to be indolent and phlegmatic, but when necessity urges he sets vigorously to work, and never ceases tiU his task is done. His courage and his patriotism are abundantly proved by a history of a thousand years. Norway owes her present prosperity chiefly to her liberal constitution. The press is completely free, and the power of the king extremely Umited. All privileges and hereditary titles are abolished. The Parliament, or the " Stor thing," which assembles every three years, consists of the " Odelthing," or Up per House, and of the " Logthing," or Legislative Assembly. Every new law re quires the royal sanction ; but if the Storthing has voted it in three successive sittings, it is definitively adopted in spite of the royal veto, PubUc education is admirably cared for. There is an elementary school in every village, and where tbe population is too thinly scattered, the schoolmaster may truly be said 132 THE POLAR WORLD. to be abroad, as he wanders from farm to farra, so that the raost distant fami lies have the benefit of his instruction. Every town has its public library, and in many districts the peasants annually contribute a dollar towards a collection of books, which, under the care of the priest, is lent out to all subscribers. No Norwegian is confirmed who does not know how to read, and no Norwegian is allowed to marry who has not been confirmed. He who attains his twentieth year without having been confirmed has to fear the House of Correction. Thus ignorance is punished as a crirae in Norway, an excellent example for far richer and raore powerful nations. The population of Norway araounts to about 1,350,000, but these are very unequally distributed ; for while the southern province of Aggerhuus has 513,000 inhabitants on a surface of 35,200 square miles, Nordland has only 59,000 on 16,325, and Finmark, the most northern province of the land, but 38,000 on 29,925, or hardly more than one inhabitant to every square mile. But even this scanty population is immense when compared with that of Eastern Siberia or of the Hudson s Bay territories, and entirely owes its existence to the mildness of the cliraate and the open sea, which at aU seasons affords its produce to the fisherraan. It is difficult to iraagine a raore secluded, solitary life than that of the " bond ers," or peasant proprietors, along the northern coasts of Norway. The farms, confined to the smaU patches of raore fruitful ground scattered along the fjords, at the foot or on the sides of the naked mountains, are frequently many mUes distant from their neighbors, and the stormy winter cuts off all communication NORWEGIAN FARM. FROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. 133 '(^^ STEAMING ALONG THE OOAST. between them. Thus every faraily, reduced to its own resources, forras as it were a small commonwealth, which has but little to do with the external world, and is obliged to rely for its happiness on internal harmony, and a moderate com petency. Strangers seldom invade their solitude, for they are far frora the or dinary tracks of the tourist, and yet a journey frora Drontheira to Hammerfest and the North Cape affords many objects of interest well worthy of a visit. The only mode of comraunication is by sea, for the land is everywhere inter sected by deep fjords, bounded by one continuous chain of precipitous cliffs and rocks, varying from one thousand to four thousand feet ih height. Formerly, even the sea-voyage was attended with considerable difficulties, for the misera ble " yoegt," or Scandinavian sloop, the only means of conveyance at the dis posal of the traveUer, required at the best of times at least a month to perform the voyage from Drontheira to Hararaerfest, and in case of storray weather, or contrary wind, had often to wait for weeks in some intermediate port. Now, however, a stearaer leaves the port of Drontheira every week, and conveys the traveller in five or six days to the remote northern terminus of his journey. Innumerable isles of every size, frora a few yards in diaraeter to as raany miles, stud the line of coast, and between these and the mainland the steamer ploughs its way. Sometimes the channel is as narrow as the bed of a river, at others it expands into a raighty lake, and the ever-varying forras of the isles, of the fjords, and of the raountains, constantly open new and magnificent prospects to the view. One grand colossal picture foUows upon another, but unfortu nately few or none show the presence of man. From tirae to tirae only sorae fishing-boat makes its appearance on the sea, or some wooden farm-house rises 134 THE POLAR WORLD. on the solitary beach. On advancing farther to the north, the aspect of nature becomes more and more stern, vegetation diminishes, man is more rarely seen, and the traveUer feels as if he were on the point of entering the gloomy re gions of perpetual death. With the sole exception of Archangel, Drontheim is the most populous and important town situated in so high a latitude as 63° 24'. Although the cradle of ancient Scandinavian history, and the residence of a long line of kings, it looks as if it had been buUt but yesterday, as its wooden houses have frequently been destroyed by fire. The choir of its magnificent cathedral, built in the eleventh century, and once the resort of innumerable pUgrims who came flocking to the shrine of St. Olave from aU Scandinavia, is the only remaining meraorial of the old Tronyem of the Norse annalists and scalds. The raodern town has a most pleasing and agreeable appearance, and the lively colors with which the houses are painted harmonize with the prosperity of its inhabitants, which is due in a great measure to its thriving fisheries, and to the rich iron and copper mines in its neighborhood. The taU chimneys of raany smelting-huts, iron foundries, and other manufactories, bear evidence that modern industry has found its way to the ancient capital of Norway. In point of picturesque beauty, the bay, on a peninsula of which the town is situated, does not yield to that of Naples. Up and down, in every direction, appear the villas of the merchant, and ships of aU burden riding at anchor in the bay, and boats passing and repassing. In a small island of the bay, fronting the town, is the celebrated castle of Munkholm, where in forraer times many a prisoner of state has bewailed the loss of his liberty. Here, among others, Greiffenfeld, who had risen from obscurity to the rank of an all-powerful minister, was incarcerated for eighteen years (1680-98.) At Hildringen, where the potato is stiU cultivated with success, and barley ripens every four' or five years, begins the province of Nordland, -which e?;tends from 65° to 69° 30' N. lat. The mostly uninhabited isles along the coast are caUed " Holme," when rising like steep rocks out of the water, and " Vare " when flat and but little elevated above the level of the sea. The latter are the breeding-places of nuraberless sea-fowls, whose eggs yield a welcorae harvest to the inhabitants of the neighboring raainland or of the larger islands. A well-stocked egg-var is a valuable addition to a farra, and descends from father to son, along with the pasture-grounds and the a herds of the paternal land. When the propri etor comes to plunder the nests, the birds re raain quiet, for they know by experience that I only the superfluous eggs are to be removed, ; But not unfrequently strangers land, and leave { not a single egg behind. Then all the birds, THE puppiN. several thousands at once, rise from their nests and fill the air with their doleful cries. If such disasters occur repeatedly they lose courage, and, abandoning the scene of their misfortunes, retire to another var. Most of these birds are sea-guUs {Maasfugl^ PROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. 125 or Maage), their eggs are large, and of a not disagreeable taste. The island of Lovunnen is the favorite breeding-place of the puffin, which is highly esteemed on account of its feathers. This silly bird is very easily caught. The fowler lets down an iron hook, or sends a dog trained on purpose into the narrow clefts or holes of the rock, where the puffins sit crowded together. The first bird being pulled out, the next one bites and lays hold of his tail, and thus in succession, till the whole family, clinging together like a chain, is dragged to Ught. This rocky coast is also rauch frequented by the sea-eagle, who is very much feared over the whole province, as he not only carries away lambs and other small aniraals, but even assaUs and not seldora overpowers the Norwegian oxen. His mode of attack is so singular that if Von Buch had not heard it so posi tively and so circumstantially related in various places, situated at great dis tances from each other, he would willingly have doubted its truth. The eagle darts down into the waves, and then rolls about with his wet plumage on the beach until his wings are quite covered with sand. Then he once raore rises into the air and hovers over his intended victira. Swooping down close to hira, he claps his wings, flings the sand into the eyes of the unfortunate brute, and thoroughly scares it by repeated blows of his pinions. The blinded ox rushes away to avoid the eagle's attacks, until he is completely exhausted or tumbles do-wn some precipitous cliff. The sea-coast frora Alsten to Rodoe, which is crossed by the Arctic Circle, is particularly rich in herrings, as it furnishes more than one-half of the fish ex ported to Bergen. In respect of the capital invested, the cod-fishery must be regarded as the most important of the Norwegian deep-sea fisheries, but in the number of hands employed, the herring-fishery takes precedence The number of men actually engaged in the latter is not less than 60,000, and considerably more than double that number are directly or indirectly interested in the result of their operations. The herrings taken in 1866 filled 750,000 barrels, each weigh ing 224 lbs., the largest catch ever taken on the Norwegian coast, at least in recent years. As the moveraents of the fish aro extremely erratic, large shoals being found one year in a part of the coast where none -wiU be seen the year foUowing, the fisherraen are forced to move frora place to place, and forraerly the herrings frequently escaped altogether for want of hands to capture thera. Now this difficulty is in a great measure removed. Telegraph stations are erected at different places on the coast, from which the movements of the shoals are carefully watched ; and field telegraphs are kept in readiness to be joined on to the main line, so as to summon the fishermen frora every part of the country on the first appearance of the fish at any new point. The best time for the herring-fishery is frora January to March, and in 1866, 200,000 barrels, or more than one-fourth of the total catch, were caught between Feb- Tuary llth and 14th. At the northern extremity of the province of Nordland, between 68° and 69° N. lat., are situated the Lofoten Islands, or Vesteraalen Oerne, which are separated from the mainland by the Vestfjord. This broad arm of the sea is 136 THE POLAR WORLD. remarkable both for its violent currents and whirlpools, among which the Mael strom has attained a world-wide celebrity, and also frora its being the most northerly limit where the oyster has been found. But it is chiefly as the re sort of the cod that the Vestfjord is of the highest importance, not only to Nordland, but to the whole of Norway. No less than 6000 boats from aU parts of the coast, manned probably by more than h.alf of the whole adult male population of Nordland, annuaUy assemble at Vaage, on the island of Ost Vaa- goe, and besides these, more than 300 yoegts, or larger fishing-sloops, from Bergen, Christiansand, and Molde, appear upon the scene. The banks of New foundland hardly occupy more hands than the fishing-grounds of the Vestf jord, which, after the lapse of a thousand years, continue as prolific as ever;* nor is there an instance known of its having ever disappointed the fisherman's hopes. In Harold Haarfagr's times, Vaage was already renowned for its fish eries, and several yarls had settled in this northern district, to reap the rich harvest of the seas. At a later period, under the reign of Saint Olave (1020), the annual Parliament of Nordland was held at Vaage, and, in ] 120, the benev olent King Eystein, brother of Sigurd the Crusader, caused a church to be erected here in honor of his saintly predecessor, along with a number of huts, to serve as a shelter to the poor fishermen, a deed which he himself prized more highly than all his chivalrous brother's warlike exploits in the East, for " these men," said he, " will still remeraber in distant times that a King Ey stein once lived in Norway." The reason why the fish never cease visiting this part of the coast is that the Lofoten Isles inclose, as it were, an inland or mediterranean sea, which only communicates with the ocean by several narrow channels between the islands, and where the fish find the necessary protection against storray weather. They asserable on three or four banks well known to the fishermen, seldom arriving before the middle of January, and rarely later than towards the end of Febru ary. They remain in the sheltered fjord no longer than is necessary for spawn ing, and in April have all retired to the deeper waters, so that the whole of the fishing season does not last longer than a couple of months. The fish are either caught by hooks and lines, or raore frequently in large nets about twen ty fathoms long and seven or eight feet broad, buoyed with pieces of light wood, and lested with stones, so as to maintain a vertical position when let down in the water. The fish, swimming with impetuous speed, darts into the meshes, which effectually bar his retreat. The nets are always spread in the evening, and hauled up in the morning ; for as long as it is daylight, the fish sees and avoids thera, even at a depth of sixty or eighty fathoras. A single haul of the net frequently fills half the boat, and the heavy fish would undoubt edly tear the raeshes if they were not iraraediately struck with iron hooks, and •flung into the boat as soon as they are dragged to the surface. ^Claus Niels Sliningen, a -merchant of Borgund, first introduced the use of these nets in the year 1685, an innovation which raore than doubled the total * In-1866 the total catcTi of cod was 21,000,000, about 12,000,000 of which were salted (clip fish), and the remainder'aried (stock-fi^h); each fish making on au average 2 lbs. of clip-fish, and one-fourth less ¦of stodk-fiih. FROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. 137 produce of the fisheries. But (as with aU useful inventions) loud complaints were raised against hira in Norway, and as late as 1762 no nets were allowed at Drontheim, " to prevent the ruin of the poor people who had not the capital to provide theraselves with them." The life of a fisherman is everywhere fuU of privations and dangers, but no where raore so than at the Lofoten Islands. Here, after toiUng on the stormy sea for many hours, he has nothing but the miserable shelter of a darap, filthy, over-crowded hut, which affords hira neither the rest nor the warrath needed after his fatiguing day's work. Even the iron-framed sons of the North are frequently unable to resist such continuous hardships, and bring home with them the seeds of contagion and death. Malignant fevers have frequently dec imated the population of Norway, and their origin may generally be traced to THE DOVREFJELD. the fishing-grounds. " The Arab and the Persian," says Leopold von Buch, " buUd caravanseras for the wayfarers through the desert ; the inhabitants of the Alps have founded 'hospices ' on the summits of the raountain passes ; and the Norwegian has erected houses of refuge on Dovrefjeld, but none for the fishermen of Lofoten. Near Rodoe there is a large hospital for the sick of Nordland ; would it not be as well to build houses in Lofoten, so as not to crowd the hospitals and churchyards ?" This was written at the beginning of the present century, but the poor fisherraen are stiU as neglected as ever, for a more recent traveller, Marmiei-, beheld with pity the wretched huts in which they spend three winter months far frora their families. In the channel between Hvalo and the mainland lies, in 69° 45' N. lat., the 138 THE POLAR WORLD. sraaU island of Tromso, where about fifty years since only a few fishenneii re sided, whose huts have gradually expanded into a thriving little town of about 3000 inhabitants, along the shore opposite the mainland. Its staple exports are dried and salted cod, and train-oU. The livers of the cod are put in open barrels and placed in the sun, and the melted portion which rises to the sur face is skiraraed off, being the purest oil. The coarse refuse is boUed in great iron pots by the side of the sea, and yields the coramon " train-oU." The mus cular raatter which remains is coUected into barrels and exported as a powerful manure ; some of it is sent to England. The town consists mainly of one long straggUng street, foUowing the wind ings of the shore, and has a picturesque appearance from the harbor. The houses are all of wood painted with lively colors, and the roofs, mostly covered with grass, diversified- with, bright clusters oi yellow and white flowers, look pretty in sumraer. Troraso has a Latin school, and even boasts of a news paper, the Tromso Tidende et Blan for Nordland og Finmarken ("The Troraso Gazette, a paper for Nordland and Finraark "). This paper is publish ed twice a week ; and as only one mail arrives at Tromso every three weeks, the foreign news is given by instalraents, spreading over six successive num bers, untU a fresh dispatch arrives. The island of Tromso is beautifuUy situated, being on aU sides environed by mountains, so that it seeras to lie in the midst of a huge salt lake. Its sur face rises in gentle slopes to a tolerable elevation, and no other Arctic isle con tains richer pasturage, or dwarf plantations of greater luxuriance. Many raeadows are yellow with buttercups and picturesque underwood, and the heathy hiUs are covered with shrubs, bearing bright berries of many hues. The pride of the Tromsoites in their island and town, and their profound at tachment to it, are remarkable. No S-wiss can be more enthusiastically bound to his mountains and vales, than they are to their circumscribed domain. To the north of Tromso lies the broad and deep Altenf jord, whose borders are studded with nuraerous dweUings, and where the botanist raeets with a vegetation that may weU raise his astonishment in so high a latitude. Here the common birch-tree grows 1450 feet, and the Vaccinium, myrtillus 2030 feet above the level of the sea; the dwarf birch {Betula nana) still vegetates at a height of 2740 feet, and the Arctic wiUow is even found as high as 3500 feet, up to the limits of perenriial snow. Alten is moreover celebrated through its copper-mines. A piece of ore hav ing been found by a Lap-woman in the year 1825, accidentally feU into the hands of Mr. Crowe, an English merchant in Hammerfest. This gentleman immediate ly took raeasures for obtaining a privUege frora Government for the working of the mines, and all preUminaries being arranged, set off for London, where he founded a company, -with a capital of £75,000. When Marmier visited the Al- tenfjord in 1842, more than 1100 workraen were employed in these most north erly mining-works of the world, and not seldora more than ten English vessels at a tirae were busy unloading coals at Kaafjord for the smelting of the ores. New copper-works had recently been opened on the opposite side of the bay at Raipass, and since then the establishment has considerably increased. FROM DRONTHEIM TO THE NORTH CAPE. 129 Hararaerfest, the capital of Finraark, situated on the west side of the island of Hvalo, in 70° 39' 15", is the raost northern town in the World. Half a centu ry since, it had but 44 inhabitants ; at present its population araounts to 1200. As at Tromso, very many of the houses, forraing one long street winding round the shore, have grass sown on their roofs, which gives the latter the appearance of little plots of raeadows. With us the expression, " he sleeps with grass above his head," is equivalent to saying " he is in his grave ;" but here it- may only mean that he sleeps beneath the verdant roof of his daily home. Many large warehouses are built on piles projecting into the water, with landing-quays be fore them ; and numerous ranges of open sheds are filled with reindeer skins, wolf and bear skins, walrus tusks, reindeer horns, train-oil, and dried fish, ready for exportation. The chief home traffic of Hammerfest consists iu barter with the Laps, who exchange their reindeer skins for brandy, tobacco, hardware, and cloth. Sorae enterprising raerchants annually fit out vessels for walrus and seal hunting at Spitzbergen and Bear Island, but the principal trade is with Archangel, and is carried on entirely in " lodjes," or White Sea ships, with three single upright raasts, each hoisting a huge try-sail. These vessels supply Ham merfest with Russian rye, meal, candles, etc., and receive stock-fish and train-oil in exchange. Sometiraes, also, an English ship arrives with a supply of coals. The fishing-grounds off the coast of Finraark, whose produce forras the sta ple article of the merchants of Hammerfest, are scarcely inferior in importance to those of Lofoten, the number of cod taken here in 1866 araounting to 15,000,000. A great part of the fish is purchased by the Russians as it coraes out of the water. Of the prepared cod, Spain takes the largest quantity, as in 1865 up wards of 44,000,000 lbs. of clip-fish (nearly the whole yield for the year) was consigned to that country. Of the dried variety, 10,000,000 lbs. were exported to the Mediterranean, and upwards of 4,000,000 lbs. raore to Italy. Sweden and HoUand corae next in order, the supply in each case being over 5,000,000 l;bs. Great Britain takes scarcely any stock-fish, but 1,500,000 lbs. of clip-fish, and the large export to the West Indies is alraost entirely composed of the lat ter article. The winter, though long and dark, has no terrors for the jolly Hammerfest- ers, for all the traders and shopkeepers form a united aristocracy, and rarely a night passes without a feast, a dance, and a drinking-bout. The day when the sun re-appears is one of general rejoicing; the first who sees the great luminary proclaims it with a loud voice, and every body rushes into the street to exchange congratulations with his neighbors. The island of Hvalo has a most dreary, ster ile aspect, and considerable masses of snow fill the ravines even in sumraer. The birch, however, is still found growing 620 feet above the sea, but the fir has disappeared. It raay well be supposed that no stranger has ever sojourned in this interest ing place, the farthest outpost of civilization towards the Pole, without visiting, , or at least atterapting to visit, the far-famed North Cape, situated about sixty miles from Hararaerfest, on the island of Magero, where a few Norwegians live in earthen huts, and still raanage to rear a few heads of cattle. The voyage to this magnificent headland, which fronts the sea with a steep rock -wall nearly a 9 130 THE POLAR WORLD. thousand feet high, is frequently difficult and precarious, nor can it be scaled without considerable fatigue ; but the view from the sumrait araply rewards the trouble, and it is no small satisfaction to stand on the brink of . the most northern proraontory of Europe. " It is irapossible," says Mr. W. Hurton, " adequately to describe the erao tion experienced by me as I stepped up to the dizzy verge. I only know that I devoutly x-^turned thanks to the Almighty for thus permitting me to realize one darling dream of my boyhood. Despite the wind, which here blew violently and bitterly cold, I sat down, and wrapping ray cloak around me, long contera plated the spectacle of Nature in one of her subliraest aspects. I was truly alone. Not a living object was in sight ; beneath my feet was the boundless expanse of ocean, with a sail or two on its bosom at an immense distance ; above rae was the canopy of heaven, flecked with fleecy cloudlets ; the sun was luridly glearaing over a broad belt of blood-red raist ; the only sounds were the whistling of the wandering winds and the occasional plaintive screara of the hovering sea-fowl. The only living creature which carae near me was a bee, which humraed merrily by. What did the busy insect seek there? Not a blade of grass grew, and the only vegetable raatter on this point was a cluster of withered raoss at the very edge of the awful precipice, and this I gathered, at considerable risk, as a memorial of the visit." SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 131 MIDNIGHT SUN OFF SPITZBERGEN. CHAPTER X. SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. The west Coast of Spitzbergen. — Ascension of a Mountain by Dr. Scofeshy. — His Excursion along tho Coast. — A stranded Whale. — Magdalena Bay. — Multitudes of Sea-birds. — Animal Life. — Midnight Silence. — Glaciers. — A dangerous Neighborhood. — Interior Plateau. — Flora of Spitzbergen. — Its Similarity with that of the Alps above the Snow-line. — Reindeer. — The hyperborean Ptarmigan. — Fishes. — Coal. — Drift-wood. — Discovery of Spitzbergen by Barentz, Heemskerk, and Fyp. — Brilliant Period of the Whale-fishery. — Coffins. — Eight English Sailors winter in Spitzbergen, 1630. — Melan. choly Death of some Dutch Volunteers. — Russian Hunters. — Their Mode of wintering in Spitzber gen. — Scharostin. — Walrus-ships from Hammerfest and TromsS. — Bear or Cherie Island. — Bennet. — Enormous Slaughter of Walruses. — ^Mildness of its Climate. — Mount Misery. — Adventurous Boat- voyage of some Norwegian Sailors. ^Jan Meyen. — Beerenberg. 'T^HE archipelago of Spitzbergen consists of five large islands : West Spitz- -'- bergen, North-east Land, Stans Foreland, Barentz Land, Prince Charles Foreland ; and of a vast number of smaller ones, scattered around their coasts. Its surface is about equal to that of two-thirds of Scotland ; its most southern point (76° 30' N. lat.) lies nearer to the Pole than MelviUe Island ; and Ross Islet, at its northern extremity (80° 49' N. lat.), looks out upon the unknown ocean, which perhaps extends without interruption as far as the Straits of Bering. Of aU the Arctic countries that have hitherto been discovered, GrinneU 133 THE POLAR WORLD. Land and Washington alone lie nearer to the Pole ; but while these ice-block ed regions can only be reached with the utmost difficulty, the western and north-western coasts of Spitzbergen, exposed to the mild south-westerly winds, and to the infiuenee of the Gulf Stream, are frequently visited, not only by walrus-hunters and Arctic explorers, but by amateur traveUers and sportsraen. The eastern coasts are far less accessible, and in parts have never yet been accurately explored. As far as they are known, they are not so bold and in dented as the western and north-western coasts, which, projecting in mighty capes or opening a passage to deep fjords, have been gnawed into every varie ty of fantastic forra by the corroding power of an eternal winter, and justify, by their endless succession of jagged spikes and break-neck acclivities, the name of Spitzbergen, which its first Dutch discoverers gave to this land of " serrated peaks." The mountains on the west coast are very steep, raany of them inaccessible, and raost of them dangerous to climb, either from the smooth hard snow with which they are encrusted even in summer, or from the looseness of the disin tegrated stones which cover the parts denuded by the sun, and give way un der the slightest pressure of the foot. More than one daring seaman has paid dearly for his teraerity in venturing to scale these treacherous heights. The supercargo, or owner, of the very first Dutch whaler that visited Spitzbergen (1612) broke his neck in atterapting to climb a steep mountain in Prince Charles Foreland, and Barentz very nearly lost several of his men under similar circumstances. Dr. Scoresby, who in the course of his whaling expeditions touched at Spitzbergen no less than seven teen times, was more successful in scaUng a mountain 3000 feet high, near Mitre Cape, though the approach to the summit was by a ridge so narrow that he could only advance by sitting astride upon its edge. But the panorama which he beheld, after having attained his object, amply repaid him for the danger and fatigue of clarabering for several hours over loose stones, which at every step roUed with fearful rapidity into the abyss beneath. " The prospect," says the distinguished naturalist, " was raost extensive and grand. A fine sheltered bay was seen to the east of us ; an arm of the same on the north-east ; and the sea, whose glassy surface was unruffled by a breeze, formed an immense expanse on the west ; the icebergs, rearing their proud crests almost to the tops of the mountains, between -which they were lodged, and de fying the power of the solar beams, were scattered in various directions about the sea-coast and in the adjoining bays. Beds of snow and ice, filling extensive hollows and giving an enamelled coat to adjoining valleys, one of which, com mencing at the foot of the raountain where we stood, extended in a continued line towards the north as far as the eye could reach ; mountain rising above mountain, until by distance they dwindled into insignificance ; the whole con trasted by a cloudless canopy of deepest azure, and enlightened by the rays of a blazing sun, and the effect aided by a feeling of danger — seated, as we were, on the pinnacle of a rock, almost surrounded by tremendous precipices ; all united to constitute a picture singularly sublime. " Our descent we found reaUy a very hazardous, and iu some instances a SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 133 painful undertaking. Every movement was a work of deliberation. Having, by rauch care and with some anxiety, made good our descent to the top of the secondary hiUs, we took our way down one of the steepest banks, and slid for ward with great facUity in a sitting posture. Towards the foot of the hill an expanse of snow stretched across the line of descent. This being loose and soft, we entered upon it without fear, but on reaching the middle of it, we came to a surface of solid ice, perhaps a hundred yards across, over which we launched with astonishing velocity, but happily ^scaped without injury. The men, whom we left below, viewed this latter movement with astonishment and fear." After this perUous descent, Scoresby continued his excursion on the flat land next the sea, where he found scattered here and there many skuUs and other bones of sea-horses, whales, narwhals, foxes, and seals. Two Russian lodges, formed of logs of pine, with a third in ruins, were also seen ; the former, from a quantity of fresh chips about them and other appearances, gave evidence of having been recently inhabited. These huts were built upon a ridge of shingle adjoining the sea. Among the boulders heaped upon the shore, numerous sea- birds had built their nests or laid their eggs, which they defended with loud cries and determined courage against the attacks of gulls. The only insect he perceived was a smaU green fly, but the water along the coast was filled with medusse and shrimps. The strong north-west winds had covered the strand with large heaps of Fucus vesiculosus and Laminaria sa.ccharina, the same which the storms also cast out upon our shores. The view of this high northem life was extremely interesting, but Dr. Scoresby was stUl further rewarded by the discovery of a dead whale, found stranded on the beach, which, though rauch swollen and not a little putrid, proved a prize worth at least £400. By a harpoon found in its body, it appear ed to have been struck by some of the fishers on the Elbe, and having escaped from them, it had probably stranded itself on the spot where it was found. When the first incision was raade, the oil gushed forth like a fountain. It was a slow and laborious work to transport the blubber to the ship, which on ac count of the dangerous nature of the coast was obliged to reraain two raUes off at sea. After five boat-loads had safely been brought on board, the wind . suddenly changed, so that the ship was driven far out to sea, and the boat reached her with great difficulty. Of the numerous fjords of Spitzbergen, once the busy resort of whole fleets of whalers, and now but rarely visited by man, none has been more accurately described by raodern Arctic voyagers than the raagnificent harbor of Magda lena Bay. Here the Dorothea and the Trent anchored in 1818, on their way to the North Pole ; here also the French naturaUsts, who had been sent out in the corvette La Recherche (1835-36) to explore the high northern latitudes, sojourned for several weeks. * The number of the sea-birds is truly astonishing. On the ledges of a high rock at the head of the bay Beechey saw the little auks {Arctica alie) extend in an uninterrupted Une full three miles in length, and so closely congregated that about thirty feU at a single shot. He estimated their numbers at about 134 THE POLAR WORLD. 4,000,000. When they took fiight they darkened the air ; and at the distance of four railes their chorus could distinctly be heard. On a fine summer's day, the beUowing of the walruses and the hoarse bark of the seals are mingled with the shriU notes of the auks, divers, and guUs. Although all these tones produce a by no means harmonious concert, yet they have a pleasing effect, as denoting the happy feelings of so many creatures. SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 185 When the sun verges to the pole, every animal becomes mute, and a silence broken only by the bursting of a glacier reigns over the whole bay — a remark able contrast to the tropical regions, where Nature enjoys her repose during the noonday heat, and it is only after sunset that Ufe awakens in the forest and the field. Four glaciers reach down this noble inlet : one, called the Wagon Way, is 7000 feet across at its terminal cliff, which is 300 feet high, presenting a mag nificent wall of ice. But the whole scene is constructed on so colossal a scale that it is only on a near approach that the glaciers of Magdalena Bay appear in all their imposing grandeur. In clear weather the joint effect of the ice un der the water, and the reflection of the glacier-wall above, causes a remarkable optical delusion. The water assumes a milk-white color, the seals appear to gambol in a thick creara-like liquid, and the error only becomes apparent when. On leaning over the side of the boat, the spectator looks down into the trans parent depth below. It is extreraely dangerous to approach these cliffs of ice, as every now and then large blocks detach theraselves frora the raass, and frequently even a con cussion of the air is enough to raake thera fall. During the busy period of Spitzbergen history, when its bay used to be fre quented by whalers who anchored under the glacier-walls, these ice-avalanches often had disastrous consequences. Thus, in the year 1619, an English ship was driven by a storra into Bell Sound. While it was passing under a preci pice of ice, a prodigious mass carae thundering down upon it, broke the raasts, and threw the ship so violently upon one side that the captain and part of the crew -were swept into the sea. The captain escaped unhurt, but two sailors were killed and several others wounded. One day a gun was fired from a boat of the Trent when about half a mile from one of the glaciers of Magdalena Bay. Iraraediately after the report of the rausket, a noise reserabling thunder was heard in the direction of the ice- stream, and in a few seconds more an enormous raass detached itself from its front, and feU into the sea. The men in the boat, supposing themselves lo be beyond the reach of its influence, were tranquilly contemplating the magnificent sight, when suddenly a large wave came sweeping over the bay, and cast their Uttle shallop to a distance of ninety-six feet upon the beach. Another time, when Franklin and Beechey had approached one of these ice- waUs, a huge fragment suddenly slid frora its side, and fell with a crash into the sea. At first the detached mass entirely disappeared under the waters, cast ing up clouds of spray, but soon after it shot up again at least 100 feet above the surface, and then kept rocking several minutes to and fro. When at length the tumult subsided, the block was found to raeasure no less than 1500 feet in circumference ; it projected 60 feet above the water, and its weight was calcu lated at raore than 400,000 tons. Besides the glaciers of Magdalena Bay, Spitzbergen has many others that protrude their crystal walls down to the water's edge ; and yet but few ice bergs, and the largest not to be compared with the productions of Baffin's Bay, are drifted from the shores of Spitzbergen into the open sea. The reason is 136 THE POLAR WORLD. that the glaciers usually terminate where the sea is shaUow, so that no very large mass if dislodged can float away, and they are at the same time so fre quently dismembered by heavy swells that they can not attain any great size. The interior of Spitzbergen has never been explored. According to the Swedish naturalists,* -who climbed many of the highest mountains in various parts of the coast, all the central regions of the archipelago form a level ice- plateau, interrupted only here and there by denuded rocks, projecting Uke isl ands from the crystal sea in which they are imbedded. The height of this pla teau above the level of the ocean is in general frora 1500 to 2000 feet, and frora its frozen solitudes descend the various glaciers above described. During the sum mer months, the radiation of the sun at Spitzbergen is always very intense, the thermometer in sorae sheltered situations not seldom rising at noon to 62°, 67°, or even 73°. Even at midnight, at the very peak of the high mountain ascend ed by Scoresby, the power of the sun produced a temperature several degrees above the freezing-point, and occasioned the discharge of strearas of water from the snow-capped summit. Hence, though even in the three warmest months the teraperature of Spitzbergen does not average more that 34^°, yet in the more southern aspects, and particularly where the warmth of the sun is absorbed and radiated by black rock-walls, the mountains are not seldora bared at an eleva^ tion nearly equal to that of the snow-line of Norway, and various Alpine plants and grasses frequently flourish, not only in sheltered situations at the foot of the hills, but even to a considerable height, wherever the disintegrated rocks lodge and forra a tolerably good soil. The Flora of Spitzbergen consists of about ninety-three species of flowering or phenogamous plants, which generally grow in isolated tufts or patches ; but the mosses which carpet the moist lowlands, and the still more hardy lichens, which invest the rocks with their thin crusts or scurfs as far as the last limits of vegetation, are much more numerous. Some of the plants of Spitzbergen are also found on the Alps beyond the snow-line, at elevations of frora 9000 to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. According to Mr. Martms, nothing can give a better idea of Spitzbergen than the -vast circus of nive, in the centre of which rises the triangular rock known to the visitors of Charaouny as the Jardin or the Courtil. Let the tourist, placed on this spot at a tirae when the sun rises but little above the horizon, or better still, when wreaths of mist hang over the neighboring mountains, fancy the sea bathing the foot of the amphi theatre of which he occupies the centre, and he has a complete Spitzbergen prospect before him. Supposinghim to be a botanist, the sight of the Ranuncu lus glacialis, Cerastium, alpinum, Arenaria hiflora, and Erigeron uniflorus will stUl further increase the illusion. The only esculent plant of Spitzbergen is the Cochlearia fenestrata, which here loses its acrid principles, and can be eaten as a salad. The grasses which '* Within the last few years, no less than three scientific expeditions have been sent out to Spitz bergen at the expense of the Swedish Government. During the summer of 1858, Messrs. Otto Torell, Guennerstedt, and Nordenskjold visited the western parts of the archipelago. In 1861 the whole coast, from Ice Sound to Dove Bay iu North-east Land was accurately investigated by Messrs. Torell, Malm- gren, Chydenius, etc., and in 1864 Messrs. Nordenskjold, Duner, and Malmgren visited the southern shores aud Wjde Jan's Water. A fourth expedition has just left the port of Gothenburg (June, 1868) SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 137 Keilhau found growing near sorae Russian huts in Stans Foreland are during the summer a precious resource for the reindeer, which, though extremely shy, make their appearance from time to tirae in every part of the land from the Seven Islands to South Cape, and are more abundant than could have been ex- pected. The Polar bears are probably their only native enemies on these isl ands, and their fleetness furnishes them with ample means of escape from a pursuer so clumsy on land. Lord Mulgrave's crew kiUed fifty deer on Vogel sang, a noted hunting-place, and on Sir Edward Parry's polar expedition about seventy deer were shot in Treurenberg Bay by inexperienced deer-stalkers, and without the aid of dogs. During the winter these large herbivora live on the Icelandic moss which they scent under the snow, but it may weU be asked where they find shelter in a naked wUderness without a single tree. In May and June they are so thin as scarcely to be eatable, but in July they begin to get fat, and then their flesh would everywhere be reckoned a delicacy. Besides the reindeer, the only land-quadrupeds of Spitzbergen are the Polar bear, the Arctic fox, and a small field-mouse, which in summer has a mottled, and in winter a white fur. Of the birds, the hyperborean ptarmigan {Lagopus hyperborea), which easily procures its food under the snow, undoubtedly winters in Spitzbergen, and probably also the lesser red-pole, which perhaps finds grass seeds enough for its subsistence during the long polar nights, while the snow-bunting (Plec- trophanes nivalis), and the twenty species of water-fowl and waders that fre quent the shores of the high northern archipelago during the summer, all mi grate southward when the long sumraer's day verges to its end. Until very lately the Spitzbergen waters were supposed to be poor in fishes, though the numerous finbacks, which towards the end of summer frequent the southern and south-western coasts, and, unlike the large smooth-back whales, chiefly live on herrings, as well as the troops of salmon-loving white dolphin seen about the estuaries of the rivers, sufficiently proved the contrary, not to mention the herds of seals, and the hosts of ichthyophagous sea-birds that breed on every rocky ledge of the archipelago. Phipps and Scoresby mention only three or four species of fishes occurring in the seas of Spitzbergen, while the Swedish naturalist Malmgren, the first who seems to have paid real attention to this interesting branch of zoology, collected no less than twenty-three species in 1861 and 1864. The northern shark {Scymnus microcephahts) is so abundant that of late its fishery has proved highly remunerative. The first ship which was fitted out for this purpose in 1863 by Hilbert Pettersen, of Troraso, returned from Bell and Ice Sounds with a full cargo of sharks' livers, and in 1865 the same enterprising merchant sent out no less than five shark-ships to Spitzbergen. The cod, the coraraon herring, the shell-fish, the halibut have likewise been caught in the waters of the archipelago, and there is every reason to believe that their fishery, which has hitherto been entirely neglected, might be pursued with great success. The mineral riches of Spitzbergen are, of course, but little known. Coal of an exeellent quality, which might easUy be worked, as it nearly crops out on the surface at a short distance from the sea, has, however, been discovered 138 THE POLAR WORLD. lately by Mr. Blomstrand in King's Bay, and sirailar strata exist in various parts of BeU Sound and Ice Sound. Large quantities of drift-wood, probably from the large Siberian rivers, are deposited by the currents, particularly on the north coasts of North-east Land, and on the southern coasts of Stans Fore land. In English Bay Lord Dufferin saw innuraerable logs of unhewn tira ber, raingled with which lay pieces of broken spars, an oar, a boat's flagstaff, and a few shattered fragments of some long-lost vessel's planking. Most probably the Norwegians had their attention directed at a very early period to the existence of a land lying to the north of Finmarken by the troops of migratory birds which they saw flying northward in spring, and by the casual visits of sea-bears, which the drift-ice carried to the south. There can be no doubt that they were the first discoverers of Spitzbergen, but their his tory contains no positive records of the fact, and it was not before the sixteenth century that Europe first became acquainted with that desolate archipelago. Sir Hugh WUloughby may possibly have seen it in 1559, but it is certain that on June 19, 1596, Barentz, Heemsk'erke,.and Ryp, who had sailed in two ships from Amsterdam to discover the north-eastern passage to India, landed on its western coast, and gave it the narae it bears to the present day. In the year 1607 it was visited by the unfortunate Henry Hudson, and four years later the first English whalers were fitted out by the Russia Corapany in London to fish in the bays of Spitzbergen, or East Greenland, as it was at that tirae called, being supposed to be the eastern prolongation of that vast island. Here our countryraen met with Dutchmen, Norwegians, and Biscayans frora Bayonne and the ports of Northern Spain, and commercial rivalry soon led to the usual quarrels. In the year 1613 James I. granted the Russia Company a patent, giving them the exclusive right to fish in the Spitzbergen waters, and seven ships of war were sent out to enforce their pretensions. The Dutch, the Nor wegians, and the Biscayans were driven away ; a cross with the name of the King of England was erected on the shore, and Spitzbergen received the name of " King James his Newland." This triuraph, however, was but of short du ration, and after a struggle, in which none of the combatants gained any decis ive advantage, all parties came at last to an araicable agreeraent. The English received for their share the best stations on the south-western coast, along with English Bay and Magdalena Bay. The Dutch were obliged to retreat to the north, and chose Arasterdara Island, with Smeerenberg Bay, as the seat of their operations. The Danes or Norwegians established their head-quarters on Dane's Island ; the Hamburgers, who also came in for their share, in Ham burg Bay ; and the French or Biscayans on the north coast, in Red Bay. At present a right or smooth-backed whale rarely shows itself in the Spitzbergen waters, but at that time it was so abundant that frequently no less than forty whalers used to anchor in a single bay, and send out their boats to kUl these cetaceans, who carae there for the purpose of casting their young in the shel tered fi-iths and channels. The fat of the captured whales was iraraediately boUed in lai-ge kettles on the shore, and the bays of Spitzbergen presented a most animated spectacle during the summer season. Numerous coffins — an underground burial being irapossible in this frost- SPITZBERGEN— -BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 139 BURIAL IN SPITZBERGEN. hardened earth — still bear witness to those busy tiraes, and also to the great mortality among the fishermen, caused doubtless by their interaperate habits. They are particularly abundant at Sraeerenberg, where Admiral Beechey saw upwards of one thousand of them ; boards with English inscriptions were erected over a few, but the greater nuraber were Dutch, and had been deposited in the eighteenth century. Sorae coffins having been opened, the corpses were found in a state of perfect preservation, and even the woollen caps and stock ings of the mariners, who might perhaps have rested for more than a century on this cold earth, were stiU apparently as new as if they had been but recently put on. In the seventeenth century the English and the Dutch raade several at terapts to establish permanent settlements in Spitzbergen. The Russia Com pany tried to engage volunteers by the promise of a liberal pay, and as none came forward, a free pardon was offered to criminals who would undertake to winter in Bell Sound. A few wretches, tired of confinement, accepted the pro posal, but when the fleet was about to depart, and they saw the gloomy hiUs, and felt the howling north-eastern gales, their hearts failed them, and they en treated the captain who had charge of them to take thera back to London and let thera be hanged. Their request to be taken back was coraplied with, but the corapany generously interceded for thera, and obtained their pardon. Sorae tirae after, in the year 1630, an English whaler landed eight men in Bell Sound to hunt reindeer. They remained on shore during the night, but meanwhile a storm had arisen, and on the foUowing morning their ship had 140 THE POLAR WORLD. vanished out of sight. It was towards the end of August, and they had no hope of rescue at this advanced period of the year. Their despair may be imagined, but they soon recovered their courage, and wisely deterrained to raake preparations for the impending winter, instead of losing time in useless lamentations. Their first care was to lay in a stock of food, and in a short time they had kUled nineteen reindeer and four bears. Fortunately they found in Bell Sound the necessary materials for the erection of a hut. A large shed fifty feet long and thirty-eight broad had been built as a workshop for the men of the Russia Corapany, and they very judiciously constructed their small hut of stones and thick planks within this inclosed space. They thus gained a better protection against the icy wind and room for exercise during storray weather, one of the best preservatives against the scurvy. They made their beds and winter dresses of the skins of the' animals they had killed, sewing them together with needles made of bone splinters, and using disentangled rope-ends as- thread. Their hut was ready by September 12, and to preserve their supply of meat as long as possible, they lived four days of the week on the offal of whales' fat which lay scattered about in great plenty. From October 26 to February 15 they saw no suu, and from the 13th to the 31st of Deceraber no twilight. The new year began with excessive cold : every piece of metal they touched stuck to their fingers like glue, and their skin became blistered when exposed to the air. The re-appearance of the sun was as a resurrection from death. To in crease their joy, they saw two bears on the ice, one of which they kiUed, but they found, what has since been frequently experienced by others, that the AKCTIC EOX. SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 141 liver of the animal has poisonous qualities, or is at least very unwholesome, for, after eating it, they were all attacked with a kind of eruptive fever, and their skin peeled off. Towards the raiddle of March their provisions were well-nigh exhausted, but the Polar bears appearing more frequently, replenished their stock. Soon also the migratory birds arrived from the south, the foxes crept out of their burrows, and many were caught in traps. On June 5 the ice be gan to break up, and on the following morning one-half of the bay was open. A gale forced them to seek the shelter of their hut. There, seated round the fire, they spoke of their approaching delivery, when suddenly a loud halloo was heard. They immediately rushed out into the open air, and hardly be lieved their eyesight, for they were greeted by their comrades of the previ ous sumraer, and saw their own well-known ship at anchor in the bay. Thus were these brave-hearted raen rescued after a ten raonths' exile in the lati tude of 77°. The possibility of wintering in Spitzbergen having thus been proved, some volunteers belonging to the Dutch fleet were induced by certain emoluments to attempt the sarae enterprise on Arasterdara Island ; but, less fortunate than their predecessors, they aU fell victiras to the scurvy. A diary which they left behind recorded the touching history of their sufferings. " Four of us," these were its last words, " are stUl alive, stretched out flat upon the floor, and might still be able to eat if one of us had but the strength to rise and fetch some food and fuel, but we are all so weak, and every raoveraent is so painful, that we are incapable of stirring. We constantly pray to God soon to release us frora our sufferings, and truly we can not live much longer without food and warmth. None of us is able to help the others, and each must bear his burden as well as he can." Since that time both the English and the Dutch have given up the idea of forming perraanent settleraents in Spitzbergen, but scarcely a year passes that some Russians and Norwegians do not winter in that high northern land. As far back as the seventeenth century, the forraer used to send out their clumsy but strongly-built "lodjes " of from 60 to 160 tons from the ports of Archan gel, Mesen, Onega, Kola, and other places bordering the White Sea, to chase the various animals of Spitzbergen, the reindeer, the seal, the beluga, but chief ly the walrus, the most valuable of all. These vessels leave home in July, or as soon as the navigation of the White Sea opens, and as the shortness of the season hardly allows them to return in the sarae year, they pass the winter in sorae sheltered bay. Their first care on landing is to erect a large cross on the shore, a cereraony they repeat on leaving, and such is their religious faith that under the protection of that holy symbol they mock all the terrors of the Arc tic winter. Near the place where their vessels are laid up, they build a large hut from twenty to twenty-five feet square, which is used as a station and mag azine ; but the huts used by the men who go in quest of skins, and which are erected at distances of from ten to fifty versts along the shore, are only seven or eight feet square. The smaller huts are usually occupied by two or three men, who take care to provide themselves from the store-house with the necessary provisions for the winter. Scoresby visited several of these huts, some con- 142 THE POLAR WORLD. structed of logs, others of deal two inches in thickness. They are of the same kind as those used by the peasants in Russia, and, being taken out in pieces, are erected with but Uttle trouble in the most convenient situation. The stoves are built with bricks, or with clay found in the country. During the stay of the hunters, they employ themselves in killing seals or walruses in the water, and bears, foxes, deer, or whatever else they raeet with on land. , Each ship is furnished with provisions for eighteen months, consisting of rye flour for bread, oatmeal, barley-meal, peas, salt beef, salt cod, and salt haUbut, together with curdled milk, honey, and linseed oil ; besides which, they enjoy the flesh of the animals which they kill. Their drink consists chiefly of quas, a national bev erage made from rye flour and water ; malt or spirituous liquors being entirely forbidden, to prevent drunkenness, as, when they were allowed it, they drank so immoderately that their work was often altogether neglected. (Their fuel for the raost part is brought with them from Russia, and drift-wood is used for the same purpose. The hunters, seldom travelling far in winter, make their short excursions on foot on snow-skates, and draw their food after thera on hand-sledges. Not sel dora they are overtaken by terrific snowstorms, which force them to throw theraselves flat upon the ground, and soraetiraes even cost them their lives. Their best preservation against the scurvy is bodily exercise ; they also use the Cochlearia fenestrata, which grows wild in the country, either eating it without any preparation, or drinking the liquor prepared from it by infusion in water. Yet, in spite of all their precautions, they often fall a prey to this terrible scourge. In the year 1771, Mr. Steward, of Whitby, landed in King's Bay to gather drift-wood, and found a Russian hut. After having vainly called for ad- inittauce, they opened it, and found a corpse stretched out on the ground, its face covered with green mould. Most likely the unfortunate raan, having bur ied all his corarades, had, as the last survivor, found no onfe to perform the same kind office for himself. Generally the Russian hunters, after spending the whi ter in Spitzbergen, return home in the following August or Septeraber ; but their stop is often prolonged during several years ; and Scharostin, a venerable Russian, who died in 1826 in Ice Sound, is deservedly reraarkable for having spent no less than thirty-two winters of his long life in that high northern land, where he once reraained during fifteen consecutive years. Surely this man ought to have been crowned king of Spitzbergen — On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow ! Every year, at the beginning of summer, about a dozen vessels leave the ports of Hammerfest and Tromso for Spitzbergen. Forraerly it was a very coramon thing for them to procure three cargoes of walrus and seals in a season, and less than two full cargoes was considered very bad luck indeed ; now, however, it is a rare thing to get more than one cargo in a season, and many -wessels return home after four months' absence only half full. Yet, in spite of this diminution, the numbers of walruses stiU existing in that country are very considerable, par ticularly on the northern banks and skerries, which are only accessible in open SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 148 seasons, or perhaps once in every three or four summers, when the persecuted animals get a Uttle time to breed and replenish their numbers. About midway between Hammerfest and. Spitzbergen Ues Bear Island, orig inaUy discovered by Barentz on June 9, 1596. Seven years later, Stephen Ben- 144 THE POLAR WORLD net, a shipmaster in the service of the Muscovy Company, while on a voyage of discovery in a north-easterly direction, likewise saw Bear Island on August 16. Ignorant of its previous discovery by Barentz, he called it Cherie Island, after Sir Francis Cherie, a member of the company, and to this day both names are used. Bennet found some walruses on its desert shores, and returned in the fol lowing year with a vessel fitted out by a merchant of the name of Welden, to wage war with these sea-monsters. His first operations were not very successful. Of a herd of at least a thousand walruses, he kUled no more than fifteen, and a later attack upon an equally enormous troop raised the entire nuraber of his victiras to no raore than fifty. Their tusks alone were brought away, and along with sorae loose ones collected on the beach formed the chief produce of the ex pedition. At first the unwieldy creatures were fired at, but as the bullets made no great impression on their thick hides, grapeshot was now discharged into their eyes, and the blinded aniraals were finally kiUed with axes. In the following year Welden hiraself proceeded to Bear Island, and the art of walrus-killing gradually improving by practice, this second expedition proved far more profitable than the first. Care had also been taken to provide large kettles and the necessary fuel to boil their fat on the spot, so that besides the tusks a quantity of oil was gained. In 1606 Bennet again appeared on the field of action, and the dexterity of the walrus-hunters had now becorae so great that in less than six hours they killed raore than 700, which yielded twenty-two tons of oil. During the following voyage, Welden, who seeras to have acted in partnership with Bennet, each taking his turn, killed no less than 1000 walruses in seven hours. Thus Bear Island proved a raine of wealth to these enterpris ing men, and though the walruses are not now so abundant as in the good old tiraes, yet they are still sufficiently numerous to attract the attention of specula tors. Every year several expeditions proceed to its shores from the Russian and Norwegian ports, and generally some men pass the winter in huts erected on its northern and south-eastern coasts. Considering its high northern latitude of 76°, the climate of Bear Island is un coraraonly mild. According to the reports of some Norwegian walrus-hunters, who remained there from 1824 to 1826, the cold was so moderate during the first winter that, until the middle of November, the snow which fell in the night melted during the daytime. It rained at Christmas, and seventy walruses were killed during Christmas week by the light of the moon and that of the Aurora. Even in February the weather was so mild that the men were able to work in the open air under the same latitude as MelviUe Island, where mercury is a solid body during five months of the year. The cold did not becorae intense be fore March, and attained its maxiraura in AprU, when the sea froze fast round the island, and the white bears appeared which had been absent during the whole winter. The second winter was raore severe than the first, but even then the sea reraained open until the raiddle of Noveraber— evidently in consequence of the prevailing south-westerly winds. The greater part of Bear Island is a desolate plateau raised about 100 or 200 feet above the sea. Along its western shores rises a group of three mountains, supposed to be about 200 feet high. \ \ SPITZBERGEN— BEAR ISLAND— JAN MEYEN. 145 and towards the south it terrainates in a solitary hill to which the first discov erers gave the appropriate name of Mount Misery. At the northern foot of this terrace-shaped elevation the plateau is considerably depressed, and forras a kind of oasis, where grass {Poa pratensis), enlivened with violet cardaraines and white polygonums and saxifragas, grows to half a yard in height. , The general character of the sraall island is, however, a raonotony of stone and mo rass, with here and there a patch of snow, while the coasts have been worn by the action of the waves into a variety of fantastic shapes, bordered in some parts by a flat narrow strand, the favorite resort of the walrus, and in others afford ing convenient breeding-places to hosts of sea-birds. In Coal Bay, four parallel seams of coal, about equidistant from each other, are visible on the vertical rock- waUs, but they are too thin to be of anj practical use. Bear Island has no harbors,-and is consequently a rather dangerous place to visit. During the first expedition sent out from Hararaerfest, it happened that some of the men who had been landed were abandoned by their ship, which was to have cruised along the coast while they were hunting on shore. But the current, the wind, and a dense fog so confused the ignorant captain that, leaving them to their fate, he at once returned to Hammerfest. When the men became aware of their dreadful situation, they determined to leave the island in their boat, and taking with them a quantity of young walrus fiesh, they luckUy reach ed Northkyn after a voyage of eight .days. It seems almost incredible that these sarae people iraraediately after revisited Bear Island in the sarae ship, and A GLIMPSE or JAN MEYEN' 8 ISLAND. 10 146 THE POLAR WORLD. were again obliged to return to Norway in the same boat. The ship had an chored in the open bay of North Haven, and having taken in its cargo, consist ing of 180 walruses, which had aU been killed in a few days, was about to leave, when a storm arose, which cast her ashore and broke her to pieces. The Rus sians had built some huts in the neighborhood, and the provisions might probably have been saved, but rather than winter in the island the crew resolved to ven ture home again in the boat. This was so small that one-half of thera were obliged to lie down on the bottora while the others rowed ; the autumn was al ready far advanced, and they encountered so savage a storm that an English ship they fell in with at the North Cape vainly endeavored to take them on board. After a ten days' voyage, however, they safely arrived at Magero, thus proving the truth of the old saying that " Fortune favors the bold." The dis tance from Bear Island to North Cape is about sixty nautical miles. In a straight line between Spitzbergen and Iceland lies Jan Meyen, which, exposed to the cold Greenland current, alraost perpetually veiled with raists, and surrounded by drift ice, would scarcely ever be disturbed in its dreary solitude but for the nuraerous walrus and seal herds that frequent its shores. The ice- bears and the wild sea-birds are its only inhabitants ; once sorae Dutchmen at terapted to winter there, but the scurvy swept them all away. Its most remark able features are the volcano Esk and the huge raountain Beerenberg, towering to the height of 6870 feet, with seven enorraous glaciers sweeping down its sides into the sea. NOVA ZEMBLA. 147 CHAPTER XI. NOVA ZEMBLA. The Sea of Kara. — Loschkin. — Rosmysslow. — Lutke. — Krotow. — Pachtussow. — Sails along the east ern Coast of the Southern Island to Matoschkin Schar. — His second Voyage and Death. — Meteoro logical Observations of Ziwolka. — The cold Summer of Nova Zembla. — VonBaer's scientific Voyage to Nova Zembla. — His Adventures in Matoschkin Schar. — Storm in Kostin Schar. — Sea Bath and votive Cross. — Botanical ObseiTations. — A natural Garden. — SoUtude and Silence. — ^A Bird Ba zar. — Hunting Expeditions ofthe Russians to Nova Zembla. npHE sea of Kara, bounded on the west by Nova Zembla, and on the east by -*- the vast peninsula of Tajmurland, is one of the most inhospitable parts of the inhospitable Polar Ocean. For all the ice which the east-westerly marine currents drift during the summer along the Siberian coasts accumulates in that immense land-locked bay, and almost constantly blocks the gate of Kara, as the straits have been named that separate Nova Zembla from the island of Waigatz. The rivers Jenissei and Obi, which remain frozen over until late in June, likewise discharge their vast masses of ice into the gulf of Kara, so that we can not wonder that the eastern coast of Nova Zembla, fronting a sea which opposes almost insuperable obstacles to the Arctic navigator, has remained al most totaUy unknown until 1833, while the western coast, exposed to the Gulf Stream, and bathed, in sumraer at least, by a vast open ocean, has long been traced in all its chief outlines on the map. The walrus-hunter Loschkin is indeed said to have sailed along the whole eastern coast of Nova Zembla in the last century, but we have no authentic records of his voyage, and at a later period Rosmysslow, who, penetrating through Mathew's Straits, or Matoschkin Schar, found Nova Zembla to consist of two large islands, investigated but a small part of those unknown shores. From 1819 to 1824 the Russian Government sent out no less than five expedi tions to the sea of Kara ; the faraous circuranavigator Adrairal Llitke en deavored no less than four tiraes to advance along the eastern coast of Nova Zembla, but all these efforts proved fruitless against the superior power of a stormy and ice-blocked sea. Yet in spite of these repeated failures, two enter prising men — Klokow, a chief inspector of forests, and Brandt, a rich merchant of Archangel — fitted out three ships in 1832 for the purpose of solving the mysteries of the sea of Kara. One of these vessels, coraraanded by Lieutenant Krotow, was to penetrate through Mathew's Straits, and, having reached their eastern outlet, to sail thence across the sea to the mouth of the Obi and the Jenissei ; but nothing more was heard of the Ul-fated ship after her first separation frora her companions at Kanin Nos. The second ship, which was to sail along the westem coast of Nova Zem bla, and, if possible, to round its northern extremity, was more fortunate, for 148 THE POLAR WORLD. though it never reached that point, it returned home with a rich cargo of wal rus-teeth. The third ship, finaUy, under Pachtussow's command, was to penetrate through the gate of Kara, and from thence to proceed along the eastern coast. When Pachtussow, according to his instructions, had reached the straits, all his efforts to effect a passage proved ineffectual. It was in vain he raore than once steered to the east ; the stormy weather and large masses of drift ice con stantly threw him back, the short summer approached its end, and thus he was obliged to put off all further attempts to the next year, and to settle for the winter in Rocky Bay within the gate of Kara. A sraaU hut was built out of the drift-wood found on the spot, and joined by means of a gallery of sail-cloth to a bathing-roora, that indispensable comfort of a Russian. The laying of traps, in which many Arctic foxes were caught, and the carrying of the wood, which had sometimes to be fetched from a distance of ten versts, occupied the crew during fair weather.^ In AprU a party under Pachtussow's comraand set out for the purpose of exploring the western coast. On this expedition they were overtaken on the twenty-fourth day of the raonth by a terrible snow- storra, which obliged them to throw themselves flat upon the ground to avoid being swept away by the wind. They remained three days without food under the snow, as it was impossible for thera to reach the dep6t of provisions buried a few versts off. On June 24 the gate of Kara was at length open, and Pachtussow would gladly have sailed through the passage, but his ship was fast in the ice. He therefore resolved, in order to raake the best use of his tirae, to examine the eastern coast in a boat, and reached in this raanner the small Sawina River, where he found a wooden cross with the date of 1742. Most likely it had been placed there by Loschkin, his predecessor on the path of discovery. He now returned with his boat to the ship, which, after an imprisonment of 297 days, was at length, July 11, able to leave the bay. On Stadolski Island, near Cape Menschikoff, they found a wretched hut, which proved that they were not the first to penetrate into these deserts. But the hut was tenantless, and a nuraber of huraan bones were strewn over the ground. One of Pachtussow's companions now related that in 1822 a Samo jede, named Mawei, had gone with his wife and children to Nova Zembla, and had never returned. On gathering the bones, they were found to compose the skeletons of two children and of a woman, but no remains could be discovered of the man. Most likely the unfortunate savage had been surprised by a snow storm, or had fallen a prey to a hungry ice-bear, on one of his excursions, and his family, deprived of their support, had died of hunger in the hut. On J-aly 19 they reached the river Stawinen, and on the 21st Liitke's Bay, where a nuraber of white dolphins and seals of an unknown species were found. Here contrary winds arrested the progress of the navigators during eighteen days. On August 13 Pachtussow entered Matoschkin Schar, and reached its western mouth on the 19th, Thus he succeeded at least in circumnavigating the southern island, which no one had achieved before hira, and as his exhaust ed provisions did not aUow him to spend a second winter in Nova Zembla, he NOVA ZEMBLA. 149 resolved to retum at once to Archangel. But contrary winds drove hira to the island of Kolgujew, and thence to the mouth of the Petschora, where, on September -3, a dreadful storra at length shattered his crazy vessel. The crew found refuge in a hut, but this also was filled by the water ; so that they had to wade several versts before they could reach the dry land. Pachtussow now traveUed by way of Archangel and Onega to St. Peters burg, where he coraraunicated the results of his journey to the Minister of Marine, who gave hira a raost flattering reception, well raerited by his ability and courage. The success he had already obtained encouraged the hope that a second expedition would be able to coraplete the undertaking, and consequent ly, by an imperial order, the schooner Krotow and a transport were fitted out, with which Pachtussow once raore sailed frora the port of Archangel on August 5. His instructions were to winter in Mathew's Straits, and thence to attempt in the following suraraer the exploration of the eastern coast of the northern island. The winter hut he built at the western entrance of the straits was ready for his reception by October 20. It was of stately diraensions, for a Nova Zembla residence — 25 feet long, 21 broad, 8 feet high in the centre, 5 at the sides, and consisted of two compartments, one for the officers and the other for the crew. They found the cold very endurable, but were rather incom moded by the sraoke, which did not always find a ready passage through the opening in the roof. Soraetiraes the snow accumulated in such masses, or the storm raged so furiously round the hut, that they could not leave it for eight days running, and frequently the hole in the roof had to serve them for a door. Eleven white bears were killed about the hut during the winter; one on the roof, another in the passage. Pachtussow, well aware that occupation is the best remedy against melancholy, kept his crew in constant activity. They were obliged to fetch wood from distances of ten or eleven versts, not seldom during a cold of —36°, which, thanks to their thick fur dresses, they bore re markably weU, particularly as a teraperature lower than —25° never occurred, unless during perfectly calm weather. He also made them lay fox-traps at considerable distances frora the hut, and amused them with shooting at a mark and gymnastic exercises. By this means he succeeded in preserving their health, and warding off the attacks of the scurvy. As early as April the indefatigable Pachtussow fitted out two sledge-parties, for the exploration of the eastern coast. The one, consisting of seven men, he commanded in person ; the other was led by the steersman Ziwolka. Both parties travelled in company as far as the eastern entrance of the straits, where one of the huts in which Rosmysslow had wintered seventy years before was still found in a good condition. Pachtussow now returned for the purpose of accurately surveying the straits, while Ziwolka proceeded along the east coast, with a small tent and provisions for a month. All his men had Samojede dresses, but they were already so hardened that they did not wear the upper coat with the hood even during the night, although snow-storms not seldom occurred. Once their boots were frozen so hard that they could not pull thera off before they had been previous ly thawed, and as drift-wood was nowhere to be found, they were obliged to ISO THE POLAR WORLD. burn the poles of their tent, and to keep their feet over the fire until the leather became soft. On May 18, the thirty-fourth day of his journey, Ziwolka re turned to his comraander, after having explored the east coast northward to a distance of 150 versts. Meanwhile Pachtussow had been busy building a boat eighteen feet long, with which he intended to pi-oceed along the western coast to the northern ex tremity of the island, and, the elements perraitting, to return to the straits along its eastern shores. About the beginning of June the migratory birds made their appearance, and introduced a very agreeable change in the monoton ous fare of the navigators, who, a few weeks later, enjoyed the sight of bloom ing flowers, and gathered antiscorbutic herbs in large quantities. Thus the high northern land had assumed its most friendly aspect, and looked as cheerfully as it possibly could, when, on July 11, Pachtussow and Ziwolka set out for the north with the boat and the transport, the schooner being left behind in the straits with the surgeon and a few invalids. At first the wind and weather favored their course, but on July 21 the boat was smashed be tween two pieces of ice, so that they had hardly time to escape upon the land with the nautical instruments, a sack of flour, and some butter. In this unpleasant situation they were obliged to remain for thirteen days, until at last a walrus-hunter appeared, who took the shipwrecked explorers on board, and brought thera safely back to their winter-quarters on August 22. Thus this first atterapt ended in coraplete disappointment, and the season was already too far advanced to permit of its renewal. Yet Pachtussow, resolving with praiseworthy zeal to make the most of the last days of the short summer, set out again on August 26 for the eastern entrance of the straits, and proceeded along the coast, until he was stopped by the ice at some distance beyond the small islands which bear his name. Convinced of the fruitlessness of all further efforts, Pachtussow bade adieu with a sorrowful heart to the coast, which still stretched out before hira in un discovered mystery, and sailed back again to Archangel on September 20. Soon after his return he f eU ill, and four weeks later his mourning friends carried him to his grave. The Arctic Ocean is so capricious that in the foUo-wing year the walrus- hunter Issakow, of Kem, who had no discoveries in view, was able to round without difficulty the north-eastern extreraity of Nova Zerabla, but, fearful of encountering the dangers of that dreadful coast, he alraost immediately returned. During the two -winters he spent in Nova Zembla, the steersman Ziwolka had daily consulted the thermometer, and the result of his observations gave to the western entrance of Mathew's Straits a mean annual temperature of -f 17°. Thus Nova Zembla is colder than the west coast of Spitzbergen, which, al though still farther to the north, is more favorably situated with regard to the winds and currents, and frora five to ten degrees warmer than the high north ern parts of Siberia and continental America, which sustain a comparatively nuraerous population, while Nova Zembla is uninhabited. Hence this want, and the circumstance that the vegetation of these islauds scarcely rises a span NOVA ZEMBLA. 151 above the ground, while the forest region still penetrates far within the con fines of the colder continental regions above raentioned, are to be ascribed not to the low mean annual teraperature of Nova Zembla, but to the unfavorable distribution of warmth over the various seasons of the year. For although high Northern Siberia and Araerica have z.far colder winter, they enjoy a con^ siderably warmer suramer, and this it is which in the higher latitudes determines the existencei or the development of life on the dry land. During the winter the organic world is partly sheltered under the snow, or else it migrates, or it produces within itself sufficient warmth to defy the cold — and thus a few de grees more or less at that time of the year are of no material consequence, while the warmth of sumraer is absolutely indispensable to awaken life and determine its development. The comparatively mild, winter of Nova Zembla (no less than thirty-three de grees warraer than that of Jakutsk) is therefore of but little benefit to vegetable Ufe, which on the other hand suffers considerably from a sumraer inferior even to that of MelviUe Island and Boothia Felix. A coast where the sun, in spite of a day of several months' continuance, generates so smaU a quantity of heat, and where yet some vegetation is able to flourish, raust necessarily be well worthy the attention of botanists, or rather of all those who take an interest in the geographical distribution of plants. For if in the primitive forests of Brazil the naturalist admires the effects of a tropical sun and an excessive humidity in producing the utraost exuberance of vegetation, it is no less interesting for hira to observe how Flora under the raost adverse circurastances still wages a suc cessful war against death and destruction. Thus a few years after Pachtussow's expedition, the desire to explore a land so remarkable in a botanical point of view, and to gather new fruits for science in the wilderness, induced Herr von Baer, though already advanced in years, to undertake the journey to Nova Zerabla. Accompanied by two younger naturalists, Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Roder, the celebrated Petersburg academician arrived on July 29, 1837, at the western en trance of Mathew's Straits, sailed through them the next day in a boat, and reached the sea of Kara, where he admired a prodigious number of jelly-fisheS {P leur obr achia pileus) swimming about in the ice-cold waters, and displaying a marveUous beauty of coloring in their ciliated ribs. This excursion might, however, have had very disagreeable consequences, for a dreadful storm, blow ing from the west, prevented their boat frora returning, and forced thera to pass the night with some walrus-hunters, whom they had the good-fortune to meet with. On the following day the storra abated, so that the return could be at tempted ; they were, however, obliged to land on a smaU island in the Beluga Bay, where, wet to the skin, and their lirabs shaking with cold, they fortunately found a refuge in the ruins of a hut in which Rosmysslow had wintered in 1767. Meanwhile the wind had veered to the east, accompanied by a very disagreeable cold rain, which on the raountains took the form of snow ; they were now, how ever, able to make use of their sail, and arrived late at night at the spot -\vhere their ship lay at anchor, completely wet, but in good health and spirits. " We could esteem ourselves happy," says Von Baer, " in having paid so 153 THE POLAR WORLD. slight a penalty for neglecting the precaution, so necessary to aU traveUers in Nova Zembla, of providing for a week when you set out for a day's excursion." On August 4, after a thorough botanical exaraination of the straits, the party proceeded along the west coast. The wind, blowing from the north, brought them to the Kostin Schar, a maze of passages between numerous islets, where the walrus-hunters in Nova Zerabla chiefiy asserable. On August 9 an excursion was raade up the river Nechwatowa, where they rested in a hut which had been erected by sorae fisherraan eraployed in catching " golzi," or Arctic salmon. On returning to the ship, a dreadful storm arose from the north-east, which lasted nine days, and, very fortunately for the botanists, caught thera in the Kostin Schar, and not on the high sea. Although they were anchored in a sheltered bay, the waves frequently swept over the deck of their vessel, and compelled thera to reraain aU the tirae in their sraall, low cabin. Only once they raade an atterapt to land, but the wind was so strong that they could hardly stand. Their situation was rendered still raore terrible and anxious, as part of the crew Avhich had been sent out hunting before the storm began had not yet returned. When at last the storm ceased, winter seeraed about to begin in good earn est. Every night ice forraed. in the river, and the land was covered with snow, which had surprised the scanty vegetation in its fuU bloom. At length the hunters retur.ned, after having endured terrible hardships, and now preparations were made for a definitive departure. A general bath was taken, without which no anchorage in Nova Zembla is ever left, and, according to ancient custom, a votive cross was likewise erected on the strand, as a memorial of the expedi tion. On August 28 the anchors were weighed, but they were soon dropped again in the Schar, to examine on a small island the vegetable and animal products of the land and of the shore. The former offered but few objects of interest, but they were astonished at the exuberance of raarine life. After having been de tained by a thick fog in this place for several days, they at length sailed towards the White Sea, where they were obliged by contrary winds to run into Tri Os- trowa. Dreary and desolate as the tundras at this extreme point of Lapland had appeared to them on their journej' outward, they were now charmed with their green slopes, a sight of which they had been deprived in Nova Zembla. On September 11 they at length reached the port of Archangel, with the agreeable prospect of passing the winter iu a comfortable study at St. Peters burg instead of spending it, like Barentz and his associates, as might easily have happened, in a wretched hut beyond the 70th degree of northern latitude. Having thus briefly sketched Von Baer's adventures, I wiU now notice some of the most interesting scientific results of his journey. The rocky west coast of Nova Zembla has about the same appearance as the analogous part of Spitzbergen, for here also the mountains, particularly in the northern island, rise abruptly to a height of three or four thousand feet from the sea, while the eastern coast is generally fiat. In both countries, angular blocks of stone, precipitated from the suraraits, cover the sides of the hills, and frequently make it impossible to ascend them. In fact, no rock, however hard NOVA ZEMBLA. 153 or finely grained, is able to withstand the effects of a cUraate where the sura mer is so wet and the winter so severe. Nowhere in Nova Zembla is a grass- covered spot to be found deserving the narae of a meadow. Even the folia- ceous lichens, which grow so luxuriantly in Lapland, have here a stunted ap pearance ; but, as Von Baer remarks, this is owing less to the climate than to the nature of the soU, as plants of this description thrive best on chalky ground. The crustaceous lichens, however, cover the blocks of augite and porphyry with a raotley vesture, and the dingy carpet with which Dryas octopetala invests here and there the dry slopes, forraed of rocky detritus, reminds one of the tundras of Lapland. The scanty vegetable covering which this only true social plant of Nova Zembla affords is, however, but an inch thick, and can easily be detached like a cap from the rock beneath. On a clayey ground in moist and low situations, the mosses afford a pro tection to the polar willow {Salix polar is), which raises but two leaves and a catkin over the surface of its covering. Even the most sparing sheet of humus has great difficulty to forra iu Nova Zembla, as in a great nuraber of the plants which grow there the discolored leaf dries on the stalk, and is then swept away by the winds, so that the land would appear stiU more naked if raany plants, such as the snow ranunculus {Ranunculus nivalis), were not so extreraely absteralous as to require no hu mus at all, but merely a rocky crevice or some loose gravel capable of retaining moisture in its interstices. But even in Nova Zembla there are some more favored spots. Thus when Von Baer landed at the foot of a high slate raountain fronting the south-west, and reflecting the rays of the sun, he was astonished and delighted to see a gay mixture of purple silenes, golden ranunculuses, peach-colored parryas, white cerastias, and blue palemones, and was particularly pleased at finding the weU- known forget-me-not araong the ornaraents of this Arctic pasture. Between these various flowers the soil was everywhere visible, for the dicotyledonous plants of the high latitudes produce no raore foliage than is necessary to set off the colors of the blossoras, and have generally raore flowers than leaves. The entire vegetation of the island is confined to the superficial layer of the soil and to the lower stratura of the air. Even those plants which in warm climates have a descending or vertical root have here a horizontal one, and none, whether grasses or shrubs, grow higher than a span above the ground. In the polar willow, a single pair of leaves sits on a stem about as thick aa a straw, although the whole plant forms an extensive shrub with numerous ram ifications. Another species of wUlow {Salix lanata) attains the considerable height of a span, and is a perfect giant araong the Nova Zerabla plants, for the thick subterranean trunk soraetiraes raeasures two inches in diameter, and can be laid bare for a length of ten or twelve feet without finding the end. Thus in this country the forests are raore in than above the earth. This horizontal developraent of vegetation is caused by the sun principally heating the superficial sheet of earth, which imparts its warmth to the stratum of air immediately above it, and thus confines the plants within the narrow 154 THE POLAR WORLD. limits which best suit their growth. Hence also the influence of position on vegetation is so great that, while a plain open to the winds is a complete des ert, a gentle mountain slope not seldom resembles a garden. The absence of all trees or shrubs, or even of aU vigorous herbage, imparts , a character of the deepest solitude to the Nova Zerabla landscape, and inspires even the rough sailor with a kind of reUgious awe. " It is," says Von Baer, " as if the dawn of creation had but just begun, and life were still to be called into existence." The universal silence is but rarely broken by the noise of an animal. But neither the cry of the sea-mew, wheeling in the air, nor the rus tling of the lemraing in the stunted herbage are able to animate the scene. No voice is heard in calm weather. The rare land-birds are silent as well as the insects, which are comparatively stiU fewer in number. This tranquUlity of nature, particularly during serene days, rerainds the spectator of the quiet of the grave; and the leramings seem like phantoms as they glide noiselessly from burrow to burrow. In our fields even a slight motion of the air becomes visible in the foliage of the trees or in the waving of the corn ; here the low plants are so stiff aud imraovable that one might suppose them to be painted. The rare sand-bee {Andrena), which on sunny days and in warra places flies about with languid wings, has scarcely the spirit to hum, and the flies and gnats, though more frequent, are equally feeble and inoffensive. As a proof of the rarity of insects in Nova Zembla, Von Baer mentions that not a single larva was to be found in a dead walrus which had been lying at least fourteen days on the shore. The hackneyed phrase of our funeral ser mons can not therefore be applied to these high latitudes, where even above the earth the decay of bodies is extremely slow. However poor the vegetation of Nova Zembla may be, it still suffices to nourish a number of lemraings, which live on leaves, steras, and buds, but not on roots. The slopes of the raountains are often underrained in all directions by their burrows. Next to these lemmings, the Arctic foxes are the most nu merous quadrupeds, as they find plenty of food in the above-raentioned little rodents, as well as in the young birds, and in the bodies of the raarine animals which are cast ashore by the tides. White bears are scarcely ever seen during the summer, and the reindeer seems to have decreased in numbers, at least on the west coast, where they are frequently shot by the Russian raorse-hunters. The hosts of sea-birds in sorae parts of the coast prove that the waters are far raore prolific than the land. The foolish guiUemots ( Uria troile), closely congregated in rows, one above the other, on the narrow ledges of vertical rock-walls, raake the black stone appear striped with white. Such a breeding- place is called by the Russians a bazar. On the surarait of isolated cliffs, and suffering no other bird in his vicinity, nestles the large gray sea-raew {Larus glaucus), to whora the Dutch whale-catchers have given the na,rae of " burgh- erraaster." While the ice-bear is raonarch of the land animals, this gull appears as the sovereign lord of all the sea-birds around, and no guillemot would ven ture to dispute the possession of a dainty morsel clairaed by the iraperious burgherra aster. This abundance of the sea has also attracted raan to the desert shores of NOVA ZEMBLA. 155 Nova Zembla. Long before Barentz made Western Europe acquainted with the existence of Nova Zembla (1594-96), the land was known to the Russians as a valuable hunting or fishing ground ; for the Dutch discoverer raet with a large number of their vessels on its coast. Burrough, who visited the port of Kola in 1556, in search of the unfortunate WiUoughby, and thence sailed as far as the mouth of the Petschora, likewise saw in the gulf of Kola no less than thirty lodjes, all destined for walrus-hunting in Nova Zerabla. Whether, before the Russians, the adventurous Norseraen ever visited these desolate islands, is unknown, but so rauch is certain, that ever since the tiraes of Barentz the expeditions of the Muscovites to its western coast have been uninterruptedly continued. As is the case with all fishing speculations, their success very much depends upon chance. The year 1834 was very lucrative, so that in the foUowing season about eighty ships, with at least 1000 men on board, sailed for Nova Zembla frora the ports of the White Sea, but this tirae the results were so unsatisfactory that in 1836 scarce half the number were fitted out. In 1837 no more than twenty vessels were eraployed, and Von Baer relates that but one of thera which penetrated into the sea of Kara made a considerable profit, whUe all the rest, with but few exceptions, did not pay one-half of their expenses. The most valuable animals are the walrus and the white dolphin, or beluga. Among the seals, the Phoca albigena of Pallas distinguishes itself by its size, the thickness of its skin, and its quantity of fat ; Phoca groenlandica and Phoca hispida rank next in estimation. The Greenland whale never extends his ex cursions to the waters of Nova Zembla, but the fin-back and the grampus are frequently seen. The Alpine salmon {Salmo alpinus), which towards autumn ascends into the mountain-lakes, is caught in incredible numbers ; and, finally, the bean- goose {Anser segetuan) breeds so frequently, at least upon the southern island, that the gathering of its quiU-feathers is an object of some importance. 156 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XII. THE LAPPS. Their ancient Historj' and Conversion to Christianity. — Self-denial and Poverty of the Lapland Clergy. — Their singular Mode of Preaching.— Gross Superstition of the Lapps. — The Evil Spirit of the Woods.— The Lapland Witches.— Physical Constitution ofthe Lapps. — Their Dress. — The Fjilllap- pars. — Their Dwellings. — Store-houses.— Reindeer Pens. — Milking the Reindeer. — Migration.— The Lapland Dog. — Skiders, or Skates. — The Sledge, or Pulka.— Natural Beauties of Lapland.— Attachment of lhe Lapps to their Country. — Bear-hunting. — Wolf-hunting. — Mode of Living of the wealthy Lapps. — How they kill the Reindeer. — Visiting the Fair. — Mammon Worship. — Treashre- hiding. — " Tabak, or Braende." — Affectionate Disposition of the Lapps. — The Skogslapp. — The Fisherlapp. THE nation of the Lapps spreads over the northern parts of Scandinavia and Finland frora about the 63d degree of latitude to the confines of the Polar Ocean ; but their nuraber, hardly araounting to more than twenty thousand, bears no proportion to the extent of the vast regions in which they are found. Although now subject to the crowns of Russia, Sweden, and Nor way, they anciently possessed the whole Scandinavian peninsula, until the sons of Odin drove them farther and farther to the north, and, taking possession of the coasts and valleys, left thera nothing but the bleak raountain and the deso late tundra. In the thirteenth century, under the reign of Magnus Ladislas, King of Sweden, their subjugation was completed by the Birkarls, a race dwelling on the borders of the Bothnian Gulf. These Birkarls had to pay the crown a slight tribute, which they wrung raore than a hundred-fold from the Lapps, until at length Gustavus I. granted the persecuted savages the protec tion of more equitable laws, and sent raissionaries among them to relieve thera at the sarae time frora the yoke of their ancient superstitions. In 1600 Charles IX. ordered churches to be built in their country, and, sorae years after, his son and successor, the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus, founded a school for the Lapps at Pitea, and ordered several elementary works to be translated into their language. In the year 1602, Christian IV., King of Denmark and Nor way, while on a visit to the province of Finraark, was so incensed at the gross idolatry of the Lapps that he ordered their priests or sorcerers to be persecuted with bloody severity. A worthy clergyman, Eric Bredal, of Drontheim, used means more consonant with the spirit of the Gospel, and, having instructed several young Lapps, sent them back again as missionaries to their families. These interpreters of a purer faith were, however, received as apostates and traitors by their suspicious countryraen, and crueUy murdered, raost likely at the instigation of the sorcerers. In 1707 Frederic IV. founded the Finraark raission, and in 1716 Thoraas Westen, a raan of rare zeal and perseverance, preached the Gospel in the wildest districts of the province. Other mission aries and teachers foUowed his example, and at length succeeded in converting the Lapps, and in some measure conquering their ancient barbarism. Nothing THE LAPPS. 157 can be more admirable than the self-denial and heroic fortitude of these rainis ters of Christ, for to renounce all that is precious in the eyes of the world to follow nomads little better than savages through the wilds of an Arctic country surely requires a courage not inferior to that of the soldier Who seeks preferment at the cannon's mouth. The Lapland schoolmaster enjoys an annual salary of twenty-five dollars, and receives besides half a dollar for every child instructed. But the priest is not much better off, as his stipend araounts to no raore than thirty dollars in money, and to about 150 dollars in produce. Among this miserably paid clergy there are, as in Iceland, men worthy of a better lot. The famous Lo- stadius was priest at Karesuando, seventy-five leagues frora Troraso, the near est town, and a hundred leagues frora Tornea. His family lived upon rye bread and fishes, and but rarely tasted reindeer flesh. Chamisso raentions another Lapland priest who had spent seven years in his parish, which lay beyond the Umits of the forest region. In the sumraer he was completely isolated, as then the Lapps wandered with their herds to the cool shores of the icy sea ; and in the winter, when the moon afforded light, he travelled about in his sledge, fre quently bivouacking at the temperature of freezing mercury, to visit his Lapps. During all that time his solitude had been but twice broken by civilized raan ; a brother had come to see him, and a botanist had strayed to his dwelling. He well knew how to appreciate the pleasure of such meetings, but neither this pleasure nor any other, he said, was equal to that of seeing the sun rise again above the horizou after the long winter s night. It is a singular custom that the pastors preaching to the Lapps deliver their harangues in a tone of voice as elevated as if their audience, instead of being asserabled in a sraall chapel, were stationed upon the top of a distant raount ain, and labor as if they were going. to burst a bloodvessel. Dr. Clarke, who listened to one of these sermons, which lasted one hour and twenty minutes, ventured to ask the reason of the very loud tone of voice used in preaching. The minister said he was aware that it must appear extraordinary to a stranger, but that, if he were to address the Laplanders in a lower key, they would consider him as a feeble and impotent missionary, wholly unfit for his office, and would never come to church ; that the raerit and abilities of the preacher, like that of raany a popular politician, are always estimated by the strength and power of his lungs. Though the Lapps (thanks to the efforts of their spiritual guides) hardly even remember by name the gods of their fathers — Aija, Akka, Tuona — they still pay a secret homage to the Saidas, or idols of wood or stone, to whom they were accustomed to sacrifice the bones and horns of the reindeer. They are in fact an extreraely superstitious race, faithfully believing in ghosts, witchcraft, and above aU in StaUo, or TroUer, the evil spirit of the woods. Many of them, when about to go hunting, throw a stick into the air, and then take their way in the direction to which it points. The appearance of the Aurora borealis fills thera with terror, as they believe it to be a sign of divine wrath, and generally shout and howl during the whole duration of 158 THE POLAR WORLD. the grand phenoraenon, which their ignorance connects with their own petty ex istence. The pretended gift of being able to predict future events is coraraon araong the Laplanders. The sorcerers faU into a raagic sleep, during which their soul wanders. In this state, Uke the somnambules of raore polished nations, they re- Veal things to come or see what passes at a distance. Men and women Effect the power of fortune-telling by the comraon trick of palmistry, or by the inspec tion of a cup of liquor ; and this, to insure the greatest possible certainty, must be a cup of brandy, which at once explains the whole business of the prophecy. The Lapland witches pretended, or perhaps stiU pretend, to the power of still ing the wind or causing the rain to cease, and such was their reputation that English seamen trading to Archangel made it a point to land and buy a wind from these poor creatures. The Lapp's are a dwarfish race. On an average, the men do not exceed five feet in height, raany not even reaching four, and the woraen are considerably less. Most of them are, however, very robust, the circumference of their chest nearly equalling their height. Their complexion is more or less taw^ny and copper-colored, their hair dark, straight, and lank, its dangling masses adding much to the wildness of their aspect. They have very little beard, and as its want is considered a beauty, the young men carefuUy eradicate the scanty sup ply given them by nature. Their dark piercing eyes are generally deep sunk in their heads, widely sep arated from each other, and, like those of the Tartars or Chinese, obliquely slit towards the temples. The cheek-bones are high, the raouth pinched close, but wide, the nose flat. The eyes are generally sore, either in consequence of the biting sraoke of their huts or of the refraction frora the snow, so that a Lapp seldom attains a high age without becoming blind. Their countenances gener ally present' a repulsive combination of stolidity, low cunning, and obstinacy. Hogguer, who dwelt several months araong thera, and saw during this time at least 800 Lapps, found not twenty who were not decidedly ugly ; and Dr. Clarke says that many of thera, when raore advanced in years, might, if exhibited in a menagerie of wUd beasts, be considered as the long-lost link between man and ape. Their legs are extreraely -thick and clumsy, but their hands are as sraall and finely shaped as those of any aristrocrat. The reason for this is that from gen eration to generation they never perform any manual labor, and the very trifling work which they do is necessarily of the lightest kind. Their limbs are singular ly flexible, easily falling into any posture, like all the Oriental nations, and their hands are constantly occupied in the beginning of conversation with filling a short tobacco-pipe, the head being turned over one shoulder to the person ad dressed. Such are the traits by which the whole tribe is distinguished from the other inhabitants of Europe, and in which they differ from the other natives of the land in which they live. The sumraer garb of the raen consists of the " poesk," a sort of tunic, gener ally raade of a very coarse light-colored woollen cloth, reaching to the knees, and fastened round the waist with a belt or girdle. Their woollen caps are shaped THE LAPPS. 159 precisely like a night-cap, or a Turkish fez, with a red tassel and red worsted band round the rira, for they are fond of lively hues strongly contrasted. Their boots or shoes are raade of the raw skin of the reindeer, with the hair outward, and have a peaked shape. Though these shoes are very thin, and the Lapp wears no stockings, yet he is never annoyed by the cold or by striking against stones, as he stuffs thera with the broad leaves of the Carcx vesicaria, or cyperus grass, which he cuts in summer and dries. This he first combs and rubs in his hands, and then places it in such a manner that it covers not only his feet but his legs also, and, being thus guarded, he is quite secure against the intense cold. With this grass, which is an admirable non-conductor of heat, he likewise stuffs his gloves in order to preserve his hands. But as it wards off the cold in winter, so in sumraer it keeps the feet cool, and is consequently used at aU seasons. The women's apparel differs very little from that of tho other sex, but their girdles are more ornamented with rings and chains. In winter both sexes are so packed up in skins as to look more like bears than human beings, and, when squatting according to the fashion of their country, exhibit a mound of furs, with the head resting upon the top of it. According to their different mode of life, the Lapps raay be aptly subdivided into FjaUlappars, or Mountain Lapps ; Skogslappars, or Wood Lapps ; and Fisherlapps. The FjaUlappars, who forra the greater and most characteristic part of the nation, lead an exclusively pastoral life, and are constantly wandering with their herds of reindeer frora place to place, for the lichen which forras the chief food of these aniraals during the greater part of the year is soon cropped frora the niggard soil, and requires years for its reproduction. For this reason, also, this people do not herd together, and never more than three or four families pitch their huts, or tuguria, upon the sarae spot. Of course the dwelling of the no mad Lapp harmonizes with his vagrant habits ; a rude tent, which can easily be taken to pieces, and as easily erected, is all he requires to shelter his family and chattels. It consists of flexible stems of trees, placed together in a conical form, like a stack of poles for hops, and covered in the summer with a coarse cloth, in winter with additional skins, to be better fenced against the inclemencies of the climate. To form the entrance, a part of the hanging, about eighteen inches wide at the bottom, and terrainating upward in a point, is raade to turn back as upon hinges. The hearth, consisting of several large stones, is in the centre, and in the roof iraraediatel)'- above it is a square opening for the escape of smoke and the admission of rain, snow, and air. All the light which the den receives when the door is closed comes from this hole. The diameter of one of these conical huts generaUy measures at its base no more than six feet ; its whole circumference, of course, does not exceed eighteen feet, and its extreme height raay be about ten feet. The floor is very nearly covered with reindeer skins, on whioh the inraates squat during the day and sleep at nights, contract ing their limbs together and huddling round their hearth, so that each individ ual of this pigmy race occupies scarcely more space than a dog. On the side of the tent are suspended a number of pots, wooden bowls, and other household utensils ; and a sraall chest contains the holiday apparel of the faraily. Such 160 THE POLAR WORLD. are the dweUings of those araong the Laplanders who are caUed wealthy, and who sometimes possess very considerable property. Near the tent is the dairy or store-house of the establishraent. It consists of nothing raore than a shelf or platforra, raised between two trees, so as to be out of the reach of the dogs or wolves. The means of ascent to this treasury of curds, cheese, and dried reindeer flesh, is simply a tree stripped of its branches, but presenting at every foot or so knobs, which serve the same pur pose as staves on a ladder, the tree being obUquely reared against the platforra. •Another characteristic feature of a Lapp encampment is found in the inclos ures in which the reindeer are penned during the night or for the purpose of milking. These are circus-like open places, each of a diaraeter of about one hundred and fifty feet, and are formed by stumps of trees and poles set upright on the ground, and linked together by horizontal poles. Against the latter are reared birch poles and branches of trees, varying from six to ten feet in height, without the slightest atterapt at neatness, the whole being as rude as well can be — a sufficient security against the wolves being all that its builders desire. The milking of a herd of reindeer presents a most animated scene. When they have been driven within the inclosure, and all outlets are secured, a Lapp, selecting a long thong or cord, takes a turn of both ends round his left hand, and then gathers what sailors call the bight in -loose folds, held in his right. He now singles out a reindeer, and throws the bight with unerring aim over the antlers of the victira. Sometimes the latter makes no resistance, but in general the raoraent it feels the touch of the thong it breaks away from the spot, and IS only secured by the most strenuous exertions. Every minute raay be seen an unusually powerful deer furiously dragging a Lapp round and round the in closure, and soraetiraes it fairly overcoraes the restraint of the thong, and leaves its antagonist prostrate on the sod. This part of the scene is highly exciting, and it is irapossible not to admire the trained skill evinced by all the Lapps, woraen as well as men. The resistance of the deer being overcome, the Lapp takes a dexterous hitch of the thong round his muzzle and head, and then fastens him to the trunk of a prostrate tree, raany of which have been brought within the level inclosure for that especial purpose. Men and woraen are indiscrimi nately engaged both in singling out milch reins and in milking thera. Every one is fully occupied, for even tho little children are practising the throwing of the lasso, in which they evince great dexterity, although their strength is insuf ficient to hold the smallest doe. When the pasture iri the neighborhood is fully exhausted, which generaUy takes place in about a fortnight, the encampraent is broken up, to be erected again on some other spot. In less than half an hour the tent is taken to pieces, and packed with all the household furniture upon the backs of reindeer, who by long training acquire the capacity of serving as beasts of burden. On the journey they are bound together, five and five, with thongs of leather, and led by the women over the mountains, whUe the father of the family precedes the raarch to select a proper place for the new encarapraent, and his sons or serv ants follow with the remainder of the herd. Towards the end of spring the Lapps descend from the mountains to the THB LAPPS. 161 sea. When they approach its borders, the reindeer, sniffing the sea air from a distance, rush tumultuously to the fjord, where they take long draughts of the salted water. This, as the Lapps believe, is essential to their health. As the summer advances, and the snow melts, they ascend higher and higher into the mountains. At the approach of winter they retreat into the woods, where, with the assistance of their dogs and servants, they have enough to do to keep off the attacks of the wolves. The reindeer dog is about the size of a Scotch terrier, but his head bears a wonderful resemblance to that of the lynx. His color varies considerably, but the hair is always long and shaggy. Invaluable as are his services, he is nevertheless treated with great cruelty. For their winter journeys the Lapps use sledges or skates. One of their skates, or " skiders," is usually as long as the person who wears it ; the other is about a foot shorter. The feet stand in the middle, and to them the skates are fastened by thongs or withes. The skiders are made of fir-wood, and cov ered with the skins of young reindeer, which obstruct a retrograde raoveraent by acting Uke bristles against the snow — the roots pointing towards the fore part of the skate, and thus preventing their slipping back. With these skiders, the Lapp flies like a bird over the snow, now scaling the mountains by a tortu ous ascent, and now darting down into the valley : Ocior cervis et agente nimhos Ocior Euro. Such is the rapidity of his course that he will overtake the swiftest wild beasts ; and so violent the exercise that, during the most rigorous season of the year, when earnestly engaged in the chase, he will divest himself of his furs. A long pole with a round baU of wood near the end, to prevent its piercing too deep in the snow, serves to stop the skater's course when he wishes to rest. The Laplander is no less expert in the use of the sledge, or " pulka," which is made in the form of a small boat with a convex bottom, that it may slide aU the raore easily over the snow ; the prow is sharp and pointed, but the sledge is flat behind. The traveUer is swathed in this carriage like an infant in a cradle, with a stick in his hand to steer the vessel, and disengage it from the stones or stumps of trees which it may chance to encounter in the route. He must also balance the sledge with his body, to avoid the danger of being overturned. The traces by which this carriage is fastened to the reindeer are flxed to a col lar about the animal's neck, and run dovm over the breast between the fore and hind legs, to be connected with the prow of the sledge ; the reins managed by the traveUer are tied to the horns, and the trappings are furnished with little beUs, the sound of which the aniraal likes. With this draught at his tail, the reindeer wiU travel sixty or seventy English mUes in a day ; often persevering fifty mUes without intermission, and without taking any refreshment, except occasionaUy moistening his mouth with the snow. His Lapland driver knows how to find his way through the wilderness with a surprising certainty ; here a rock, there a fir-tree, is irapressed as a landmark on his faithful memory, and thus, Uke the best pUot,he steers his sledge to the distant end of his journey. Frequently the Aurora lights him on his way, iUumining the snow-covered 11 163 THE POLAR WORLD. landscape -with a magic brilliancy, and investing every object with a dream-like, supernatural beauty. But even -without the aid of this mysterious coruscation, Lapland is rich in grand and picturesque features, and has aU the roraance of the mountain and the forest. In suramer countless rivulets meander through vaUeys of alpine verdure, and broad peUucid rivers rush down the slopes in thundering cataracts, embracing islands clothed -with pine-trees of incomparable dignity and grace. Whoever has grown up in scenes like these, and been accustomed from infancy to the uncontrolled freedom of the nomad state, receives impressions never to be erased ; and thus we can not wonder that the wild Laplander believes his country to be a terrestrial paradise, and feels nowhere happy but at horae. In the year 1819 a Scotch gentleman attempted to acclimatize the reindeer in Scotland, and induced two young Laplanders to accompany the herd which he had bought for that purpose. The reindeer soon perished, and the Lap landers would have died of nostalgia if they had not been sent home by the first opportunity. Prince Jablonowsky, a Polish nobleman, who travelled about thirty years since through a part of Russian Lapland, took a Lapp girl with him to St. Petersburg. He gave her a superior education, and she was weU treated in every respect. She raade rapid progress, and seeraed to be perfectly reconcUed to her new home. About two years after her arrival, it happened that a Russian gentleraan, who possessed extensive estates near the capital, bought a small herd of reindeer, which arrived under the guidance of a Lapp family. As it was winter-time, and these people had brought with thera their tents, their sledges, and their snow-shoes, they soon became objects of curiosity, and crowds of fashionable visitors flocked to their encampraent ; among others, the good-natured prince, who imprudently conducted his pupil, the young Lap land girl, to see her countryraen, an interview which he supposed woidd give her great pleasure. But from that moment she becarae an altered being ; she lost her spirits and her appetite, and, in spite of every care and attention, her health declined frora day to day. One morning she disappeared, and it was found on inquiry that she had returned to her faraUy, where she reraained ever after. Another very reraarkable instance of the Laplanders' love of their country is related by Hogstrora. During the war of Gustavus III. with Russia, a young Laplander enlisted in a regiment which was passing through Tornea. He served in several campaigns as a comraon soldier, was made a sergeant in consequence of his good conduct and courage ; and having given himself the greatest trouble to improve his education and acquire military knowledge, at length, after twenty years of service, attained the rank of captain in the Swedish army. After this long time spent in the civilized world, and having become ac customed to all its enjoyments and comforts, he felt a strong desire to revisit his faraily and his country. Scarcely had he seen his native mountains, and spent a few days among his countryraen and the reindeer, than he at once quit ted the service, and resuraed the noraad life of his youth. The Laplander's chief desire is for peace and tranquillity. Exposed to all the privations of a vagrant life, and to every inclemency of weather, he endures THE LAPPS. 163 the greatest hardships -with equanimity, desiring only not to be disturbed in the enjoyment of the little that is his — not to be interfered with ia his old Qustoms and habits. Yet this same peaceful Laplander, who has so easily submitted to a foreign yoke, is one of the boldest hunters, and not only pursues the elk or the wild reindeer, but engages in single combat with the bear. Like all the other Arctic nations of Russia and Siberia, he has strange notions about this animal, which in his opinion is the most cunning and gifted of all created beings. Thus he supposes that the bear knows and hears aU that is said about him, and for this reason he takes good care never to speak of him disrespectfully. It may seem strange that he should venture to slay an animal which ranks so high in his es teem ; but the temptation is too strong, as its flesh has an exceUent flavor, and its fur, though not near so valuable as that of the American black bear, is stUl worth frora fifteen to twenty dollars. Al the beginning of winter, the bear, as is weU known, retires either into a rocky cave, or under a cover of branches, leaves, and raoss, and remains there without food, and plunged in sleep until the next spring recalls him to a more active existence. After the first fall of snow, the Lapp hunters go into the for est and look out for traces of the bear. Having found them, they carefuUy mark the spot, and retuming after a few weeks disturb the slurabering brute, and excite hira to an attack. It is not considered honorable to shoot hira while sleeping ; and in many parts of Lapland the hunter who would kiU a bear with any other weapon but a lance would be universally despised. Hogguer accompanied two Lapps, well-armed with axes and stout lances with barbed points, on one of these bear-hunts. When about a hundred paces frora the lair the company halted, whUe one of the Lapps advanced shouting, telling his comrades to make as much noise as they could. When about twenty paces from the cavern, he stood still and flung several stones into it. For some time aU was quiet, so that Hogguer began to fear that the lair was deserted, when suddenly an angry growl was heard. The hunters now redoubled their clamor, until slowly, like an honest citizen disturbed in his noonday slumbers, the bear came out of his cavern. But this tranquillity did not last long, for the brute, as soon as he perceived his nearest enemy, uttered a short roar and rushed upon him. The Lapp coolly awaited the onset with his lance in rest, until the bear, coming quite near, raised himself on his haunches and began to strike at him with his fore paws. The hunter bent down to avoid the strokes, and then sud denly rising, with a sure eye and with all his might, plunged his lance into the heart of the bear. During this short confiict the Lapp had received a slight wound on the hand, but the marks of the bear's teeth were found deeply im pressed upon the iron of the lance. According to an ancient custora, the wives of the hunters asserable in the hut of one of thera ; and as soon as they hear the returning sportsraen, begin chanting or howUng a song in praise of the bear. When the raen, laden with the skin and flesh of the aniraal, approach, they are re ceived by the woraen with opprobrious epithets, and forbidden ingress through the door ; so that they are obUged to raake a hole in the waU, through which they enter with their spoils. This comedy, which is meant to pacify the manes 164 THE POLAR WORLD. of the victira, is stiU acted, though not so frequently as forraerly ; but the cus tom of begging the bear's pardon with raany tears is corapletely out of dale. The animal's interment, however, stiU takes place with aU the ancient honors and ceremonies. After having been skinned, and its flesh cut off, the body is buried in anatomical order — the head first, then the neck, the fore paw, etc. This is done from a belief in the resurrection of the bear, who having been decently buried, will, it is hoped, aUow himself to be kUled a second time by the sarae Lapp ; while a neglect of the honors due to hira would exasperate the whole race of bears, and cause them to wreak a bloody vengeance on the disrespectful hunter. The wolf is treated with much less ceremony. Many a wealthy Lapp, the owner of a thousand reindeer, has been reduced to poverty by the ravages of this savage beast, which is constantly prowling about the herds. Hence one of the first questions they put to each other when they raeet is, " Lekor rauhe ?" " Is it peace ?" — which means nothiag more than, " Have the wolves molested you ?" Such is their detestation of these animals that they believe thera to be creatures of the devil, contarainating aU that touches thera while alive. Thus they will never shoot a wolf, as the gun that kiUed hira would ever after be accursed. At the first alarm that wolves have appeared, the neighbors assemble, and the chase begins. For miles they purstie him over hiUs and valleys on their " skiders," and kill him with clubs, which they afterwards burn. They will not even defile themselves with skiuning him, but leave his hide to the Finnish or Russian colonists, who, being less scrupulous or superstitious, make a warm cloak of it, or- sell it for a few doUars at the fair. Among the Fjall Lapps there are many rich owners of 1000 or 1500 rein deer, 300 of which fuUy suffice for the maintenance of a faraily. In this case the owner is able to kUl as many as are necessary for providing his household with food and raiment, while the sale of the superfluous skins and horns enables him to purchase cloth, flour, hardware, and other necessary articles — ^not to for get the tobacco or the brandy in which he delights. The price of the eutire carcass of a reindeer, skin and all, varies from one to three dollars Norsk (four shillings and sixpence to thirteen shillings and sixpence). A fine skin will al ways sell for one doUar in any part of the North. It will thus be seen that a Lapp possessing a herd of 500 or 1000 deer is virtually a capitalist in every sense of the word, far richer than the vast majority of his Norwegian, Swedish, or Russian feUow-subjects, although they all affect to look upon him with su preme contempt. The daily food of the mountain Laplanders consists of the fattest reindeer venison, which they boil, and eat with the broth in which it has been cooked. Their summer diet consists of cheese and reindeer-milk. The rich also eat bread baked upon hot iron plates. Their mode of killing the reindeer is the method used by the butchers in the South of Italy — the most ancient and best method of slaying cattle, because it is attended with the least pain to the animal, and the greatest profit to its pos sessor. They thrust a sharp-pointed knife into the back part of the head be tween the hoiTis, so as to divide the spinal marrow from the brain. The beast THE LAPPS. 165 instantly drops, and dies without a groan or struggle. As soon as it faUs, and appears to be dead, the Laplander plunges the knife dexterously behind the off- shoulder into the heart ; then opening the animal, its blood is found in the stora ach, and ladled out into a pot. Boiled with fat and flour, it is a favorite dish. An iraportant epoch in the life of the FjaU Lapp is his annual visit to one of the winter fairs held in the chief towns or -viUages which the raore industri ous Swedes, Norwegians, or Fins have founded on the coasts here and there, or in the well- watered valleys of his fatherland, and which he attends frequently from an immense distance. After a slight duty to Government has been paid, business begins ; but as every bargain is ratified with a full glass of brandy, his thoughts get confused before the day is half over — a circurastance which the cunning merchant does not fail to turn to account. On awaking the next morn ing, the vexation of the noraad at his bad bargains is so rauch the greater, as no people are raore avowed mamraon-worshippers than the Lapps, or more inclined to sing, with our Burns : — 0 wae on the siller, it is sae prevailin '! Their sole object seems to be the amassing of treasure for the sole purpose of hoarding it. The avarice of a Lapp is gratified in coUecting a number of silver vessels or pieces of sUver coin ; and being unable to carry this treasure with him on his journeys, he buries the whole, not even raaking his wife acquainted with the secret of its deposit, so that when he dies the members of his famUy are often unable to discover where he has hidden it. Some of the Lapps pos sess a hundred-weight of silver, and those who own 1500 or 1000 reindeer have much raore ; in short, an astonishing quantity of specie is dispersed araong them. SUver plate, when offered to them for sale, must be in a polished state, or they will not buy it ; for such is their ignorance, that when the metal, by being kept buried, becomes tarnished, they conceive that its value is impaired, and exchange it for other sUver, which being repolished, they believe to be new. The merchants derive great benefit from this traffic. Brandy and tobacco are the chief luxuries of the Lapps. The tobacco-pipe is never laid aside except during meals ; it is even used by the women, who also swaUow spirits as greedily as the raen ; in fact, both sexes wiU alraost part with life itself for the gratification of dram-drinking. If you walk up to a Lapp, uncouthly squatted before his tent, his very first salutation is made by stretching forth a ta-wny hand and demanding, in a whining tone, " Tabak " or " Braendi." Dr. Clarke relates an amusing instance of their propensity for spirituous liquors. On his very first visit to one of their tents, he gave the fa ther of the family about a pint of brandy, thinking he would husband it with great care, as he had seen him place it behind him upon his bed near the skirt ing of the tent. The daughter now entered, and begged for a taste of the brandy, as she had lost her share by being absent. The old man made no an swer, but when the request was repeated, he slyly crept round the outside of the tent until he came to the spot where the brandy was, when, thrusting his arm beneath the skirting, he drew it out, and swaUowed the whole contents of the bottle at a draught. 166 THE POLAR WORLD. The practice of drara-drinking is so general that raothers pour the horrid dose down the throats of their infants. Their christenings and funerals be come mere pretexts for indulging in brandy. But their mild and pacific dis position shows itself in their drunkenness, which is manifested only in howling, jumping, and laughing, and in a craving for more drams with hysteric screams untU they faU senseless on the ground — whUe at the same time they wiU suffer kicks, cuffs, blows, and provocations of any kind without the smallest irasci- biUty. When sober they are as gentle as lambs, and the softness of their lan guage, added to their effeminate shrUl tone of voice, remarkably corresponds with their placable disposition. An amiable trait in the character of the Lapp is the -warmth of his affection towards his wife, his children, and his depend ents. Nothing can exceed the cordiality of their mutual greetings after sep arations, and it is to be feared that but few married men in England could match the Lapp husband who assured Castren that during thirty years of wed lock no worse word had passed between himseff and his wife than " Loddad- shara," or " My Uttle bird." In spite of his fatiguing life, and the insufficient shelter afforded him by his hut, the Fjall Lapp is generaUy vigorous and healthy, and not seldom lives to a hundred years age. Continual exercise in the open air braces his constitu tion, his warm clothing protects him against the cold of winter, and his gen erous meat diet maintains his strength. To prevent the scurvy, he eats the berries of the Empetrum nigrum or Rubus chamcemorus, and mixes the stems of the Angelica araong his food. But his chief remedy against this and every other bodily evil is warm reindeer-blood, which he .drinks with delight as a universal panacea. The Skogs Lapp, or Forest Lapp, occupies an intermediate grade between the Fjall Lapp and the Fisher Lapp, as fishing is his sumraer occupation, and hunting and the tending of his reindeer that of the winter months. His herds not being so numerous as those of the Fjall Lapp, he is not driven to constant migration to procure them food ; but they require more care than his divided pursuits aUow him to bestow upon thera, and hence he inevitably descends to the condition of the Fisher Lapp. Lastadius describes his life as one of the happiest on earth — as a constant change between the agreeable pastime of fish ing and the noble amusement of the chase. He is not, like the Mountain Lapp, exposed to all the severity of the Arctic winter, nor so poor as the Fisher Lapp. He is often heard to sing under the green canopy of the firs. The villages of the Fisher Lapps — as they are found, for instance, on the banks of Lake Enara — afford a by no means pleasing spectacle. About the miserable huts, whioh are shapeless masses of mingled earth, stones, and branches of trees, aud scarcely equal to the dweUings of the wretched Fuegians, heaps of stinking fish and other offal i,aint the air with their pestilential odors. When a stranger approaches, the inraates come pour ing out of their narrow doorway so covered with dirt and verrain as to make hira recoil with disgust. Not in the least asharaed, however, of their appear ance, they approach the stranger and shake his hand according to the code of Lapp politeness. After this preUrainary, he raay expect the following ques- THE LAPPS. 167 tions : " Is peace in the land ? How is the emperor, the bishop, and the cap tain of the district ?" The more inquisitive of the filthy troop then ask after the home of the stranger, and being told that it is beyond the mountains, they further inquire if he coraes from the land where tobacco grows. For as our imagination loves to wander to the sunny regions. Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit. And the voice of the nightingale never is mute ; SO the fancy of the Lapp conceives no greater paradise than that which pro duces the weed that, along with the brandy-bottle, affords him his highest luxury. 168 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XIIL MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTREN. His Birthplace and first Studies. — Joumey in Lapland, 1838. — The Iwalojoki. — The Lake of Enara.— The Pastor of Utzjoki. — ^From Rowaniemi to Kemi. — Second Voyage, 1841^4. — Storm on the White Sea. — Return to Archangel. — The Tundras ofthe European Samoiedes. — ^Mesen. — Universal Drunkenness. — Sledge Joumey to Pustosersk. — A Samo'iede Teacher. — ^Tundra Storms. — Abandon ed and alone in the Wilderness. — Pustosersk. — Our Traveller's Persecutions at Ustsylmsk and Ish- emsk. — The Uusa. — Crossing the Ural. — Obdorsk. — Second Siberian Joumey, 1845-48. — Overflow ing of the Obi. — Surgut. — Krasnojarsk. — Agreeable Surprise. — Turuchansk. — Voyage down the Jenissei. — Gastrin's Study at Plachina. — From Dudinka to Tolstoi Noss. — Frozen Feet. — Return Voyage to the South. — Frozen fast on the Jenissei. — Wonderful Preservation. — Journey across the Chinese Frontiers, and to Transbaikalia. — Return to Finland. — Professorship at Helsingfors. — Death of Castren, 1855. ¦jl/rATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTRl^N, whose interesting journeys form -'-'-'- the subject of the present chapter, was born in the year 1813, at Rowani emi, a Finland vUlage situated about forty miles from the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, immediately under the Arctic Circle ; so that, of all raen who have attained celebrity, probably none can boast of a more northern birthplace. While StUl a scholar at the Alexander's College of Helsingfors, he resolved to devote his life to the study of the nations of Finnish origin (Fins, Laplanders, Samoiedes, Ostiaks, etc.) ; and as books gave but an insufficient account of them, each passing year strengthened his desire to visit these tribes in their own haunts, and to learn from theraselves their languages, their habits, and their history. We raay iraagine, therefore, the joy of the enthusiastic student, whora pov erty alone had hitherto prevented from carrying out the schemes of his youth, when Dr. Ehrstrom, a friend and medical feUow-student, proposed to take him as a corapanion, free of expense, on a tour in Lapland. No artist that ever crossed the Alps on his way to sunny Italy could feel happier than Castren at the prospect of plunging into the wUdernesses of the Arctic zone. On June 25, 1838, the friends set out, and arrived on the 30th at the small town of Muonioniska, where they remained six weeks — a delay which Castr6n put to good account in learning the Lapp language from a native catechist. At length the decreasing sun warned the travellers that it was high time to continue their journey, if they wished to see more of Lapland before the winter set in ; and after having, with great difficulty, crossed the raountain ridge which forras the water-shed between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Polar Sea, they embarked op the roraantic Iwalojoki, where for three days and nights the rushing waters roared around them. In spite of these dangerous rapids, they were obliged to trust themselves to the stream, which every now and then threatened to dash their frail boat to pieces against the rocks. Arraed with long oars, they were continuaUy at work during the daytirae to guard against MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTREN. 169 this peril ; the nights were spent near a large flre kindled in the open air, with out any shelter against the rain and wind. The Iwalo River is, during the greater part of its course, encased between high rocks ; but a few miles before it discharges itself into the large Lake of Enara, its valley iraproves into a fine grassy plain. Small islands covered with trees divide the waters, which now flow more tranquilly ; soon also traces of culture appear, and the astonished traveller finds in the village of Kyro, not wretched Lapland huts, but weU-built houses of Finnish settlers, with green meadows and cornfields. The beautiful Lake of Enara, sixty miles long and forty miles broad, is so thickly studded with islands that they have never yet been counted. After the travellers had spent a few days among the Fisher Lapps who sojourn on its borders, they proceeded northward lo Utzjoki, the limit of their expedition, and one of the centres of Lapland civilization, as it boasts of a church, which is served by a man of high character and of no little ability. On accepting his charge, this self-denying priest had performed the journey from Tornea in the depth of winter, accompanied by a young wife and a female relation of the lat ter, fifteen years of age. He had found the parsonage, vacated by his predeces sor, a wretched building, distant some fifteen miles frora the nearest Lapp habi tation. After establishing himself and his family in this dreary tenement, he had returned. frora a pastoral excursion to find his horae destroyed by a fire, from which its inraates had escaped with the loss of all that they possessed. A miser able hut, built for the temporary shelter of the Lapps who resorted thither for divine service, afforded the family a refuge for the winter. He had since con trived to build himself another dwelling, in which our party found hira, after five years' residence, the father of a family, and the chief of a happy household. Gladly would the travellers have remained some lirae longer under his hospita ble roof, but the birds of passage were moving to the south, warning them to follow their example. Thus they set out, on August 15, for their homeward voyage, which proved no less difficult and laborious than the fonmer. At length, after wandering through deserts and swamps — ^frequently wet to the skin, and often without food for many hours — they arrived at Rowaniemi, where they erabarked on the Kemi River. " With conflicting feelings," says Castren, " I descended its streara ; for every cataract was not only well-known to me from the days of my earliest childhood, but the cataracts were even the only acquaintances which death had left me in the place of my birth. Along with the mournful irapressions which the loss of beloved relations raade upon ray mind, it was delightful to renew my inter course with the rapid stream and its waterfalls — those boisterous playfel lows, which had often brought me into peril when a boy. Now, as before, it was a pleasant sport to rae to be hurried along by their turaultuous waters, and to be wetted by their spray. The boatmen often tried to persuade me to land before passing the most dangerous waterfalls, and declared that they could not be answerable for my safety. But, in spite of all their remon strances, I remained in the boat, nor had I reason to repent of my boldness, for 170 THE POLAR WORLD. He who is the steersman of aU boats granted us a safe arrival at Kemi, where our Lapland journey terminated."* In 1841 Castren published a metrical translation, into the Swedish language, of the " Kalewala," a cycle of the oldest poems of the Fins ; and at the end of the same year proceeded on his first great journey to the land of the European Samoiedes, and frora thence across the northern Ural Mountains to Siberia. In the famous convent of Solovetskoi, situated on a small island in the White Sea, he hoped to find a friendly teacher of the Samoiede language in the Archiman drite Wen j amin, who had labored as a missionary araong that savage people, but the churlish dignitary jealously refused him all assistance; and as the tun dras of the Samoiedes are only accessible during the winter, he resolved to turn the interval to account by a journey among the Terski Lapps, who inhabit the western shores of the White Sea. With this view, in an evil hour of the 27th June, 1842, though suffering at this time from illness severe enough to have de tained any less persevering traveller, he embarked at Archangel in a large corn- laden vessel, with a reasonable prospect of being landed at Tri Ostrowa in some twenty-four hours ; but a dead calm detained him eight days, during which he had no choice but to endure the horrible stench of Russian sea-stores in the cabin or the scorching sun on deck. At length a favorable wind arose, and after a few hours' sailing nothing was to be seen but water and sky. Soon the Terski coast came in view, with its white ice-capped shore, and Castren hoped soon to be released from his floating prison, when suddenly the wind changed, and, increasing to a storm, threatened to dash them on the cUffs of the Solovet skoi Islands. " Both the captain and the ship's company began to despair of their lives ; and prayers having been resorted to in vain, to conjure the danger, general drunkenness was the next resource. The captain, finding his own brandy too weak to procure the stupefaction he desired, left me no peace tiU I had given him a bottle of rura. After having by degrees eraptied its contents, he at length obtained his end, and fell asleep in the cabin. The crew, foUo-wing his example, dropped down one by one into their cribs, and the ship was left without guidance to the mercy of the winds and waves. I alone reraained on deck, and gloomUy awaited the decisive moment. But I soon discovered that the wind was veer ing to the east, and, awaking the captain frora his drunken lethargy, sent him on deck, and took possession of his bed. Exhausted by the dreadful scenes of the day, I soon fell into a deep slumber ; and when I awoke the foUowing morning, I found myself again on the eastern coast of the White Sea, at the foot of a high sheltering rock-wall." Continued bad weather and increasing illness now forced Gastrin to give up his projected visit to the Lapps, and when he returned to Archangel, both his health and his purse were in a sad condition. He had but fifteen roubles in his pocket, but fortunately found sorae Samoiede beggars stiU poorer than himseff, one of whom, for the reward of an occasional glass of brandy, consented to be come at once his host, his servant, and his private tutor in the Samoiede lan- * Reisen in Lappland, etc. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTREN. 171 guage. In the hut and society of this savage he passed the remainder of the summer, his health improved, and soon also his finances changed wonderfully for the better — the Government of Finland having granted him a thousand sil ver roubles for the prosecution of his travels. With a light heart he continued his linguistic studies until the end of November, wheu he started with renewed enthusiasm for the land of the European Samoiedes. These immense tundras extend from the White Sea to the Ural Mountains, and are bounded on the north by the Polar Sea, aad on the south by the region of forests, which here reaches as high as the latitudes of 66° and 67°. The large river Petschora divides these dreary wastes into two unequal halves, whose scanty population, as may easily be imagined, is sunk in the deep est barbarism. It consists of nomadic Samoiedes, and of a few Russians, who inhabit some miserable aettleraents along the great streara and its tributary rivers. To bury himself for a whole year in these melancholy deserts, Castren left Archangel in November, 1842. As far as Mesen, 345 versts north of Archan gel, the scanty population is Russ and Christian. At Mesen civilization ceases, and farther north the Samoiede retains for the most part, with his priraitive habits and language, his heathen faith — having, in fact, borrowed nothing from occasional intercourse with civilized man but the means and practice of drunk enness. Castren's first care, on his arrival at Mesen, was to look for a Samoiede interpreter and teacher ; but he was as unsuccessful here as at Somsha, a village some forty versts farther on, where drunkenness was the order of the day. He took the most temperate person he could find in all Somsha into his service, but even this raoderate man would, according to our ideas, have been accounted a perfect drunkard He now resolved to try the fair sex, and engaged a female teacher, but she also could not remain sober. At length a man was introduced to him as the most learned person of the tundra, and at first it seemed as if he had at length found -what he wanted ; but after a few hours the Samoiede be gan to get tired of his nuraerous questions, and declared hiraself iU. He threw himself upon the floor, wailed and lamented, and begged Castren to have pity on him, until at length the incensed philologist turned hira out-of-doors. Soon after he found him lying dead drunk in the snow before the " Elephant and Castle " of the place. Thus obliged to look for instruction elsewhere, Castren resolved to travel, in the middle of winter, to the Russian viUage of Pustosersk, at the mouth of the Petschora, where the fair annually attracts a number o'f Samoiedes. During this sledge-journey of 700 versts, he had to rest sometiraes ia the open air on the storm-beaten tundra, and sometimes in the rickety tent of the Samoiede, or in the scarcely less wretched hut of the Russian colonist — where the snow pene trated through the crevices of the waU, where the flame of the light flickered in the wind, and a thick cldak of wolf-skin afforded the only protection against the piercing cold of the Arctic winter. For this arduous lour, two sledges, with four reindeer attached to each, were eraployed — the traveUer's sledge, which was covered, being attached to an un covered one occupied by the guide. The Kanin Tundra stretched out before 173 I'HE POLAR WORLD. them, as they flew along, almost as naked as the sea, of which they s.iw the margin in the east ; and had not the wind here and there driven away the snow which Heaven in its mercy strews over this gloomy land, they raight have been in doubt on which eleraent they were travelling. Daily, from lirae to time, some dwarf firs made their appearance, or clumps of low wUlows, which generally de note the presence of some little brook slowly winding through the flat tundra. The village of Ness, on the north coast, was the first halting-place, and here Castren flattered himseff he had at length found what his heart desired, in the person of a Samoiede teacher who knew Russian, and was gifted wilh a clear er head than is usuaUy possessed by his race. " The man was conscious of his superioi'ity, and while acting as a professor looked down with contempt upon his weaker brethren. Once, some olher Samo iedes venturing lo correct one of his translations, he commanded them to be si lent, telling them they were not learned. I tried by all possible means to se cure the services of this Samoiede phenomenon. I spoke kindly with him, I paid him well, gave him every day his allowance of brandy, and never once for bade him to gel drunk when he felt inclined to do so. Yet, in spile of aU my endeavors to please, he fell unhappy, and sighed for the liberty of the tundra. ' Thou art kind, and I love thee,' said he one day to me, ' but I can not endure confinement. Be therefore merciful, and give me my freedom.' " I now increased his daily pay and his rations of brandy, sent for his wife and child, treated his wife also with brandy, and did all I could to dispel the melancholy of the Samoiede. By these means I induced him to remain a few days longer with me. " While I was constantly occupying him, the wife was busy sewing Samoiede dresses, and sometimes assisted her husband in his translations. I often heard her sighing deeply, and having asked for the reason, she burst into tears, and answered that she grieved for ber husband, who was thus imprisoned in a room. ' Thy husband,' was my reply, ' is not worse off than thyself. Tell nie, what do you think of your own position ?' ' I do not think of rayseff — I ara sorrow ful for my husband,' was her ingenuous reply. At length both the husband and the wife begged rae so earnestly to set them at liberty that I aUowed them lo depart." On the way from Pjoscha lo Pustosersk, after Castren had once raore vainly endeavored lo discover that rara avis, a Samoiede teacher, he became thorough ly acquainted with the January snow-storms of the luridra : " The wind arose about noon, and blew so violently that we could not see the reindeer before our sledges. The roof of my vehicle, which at first had afforded me some protec tion, was soon carried away by the gale.- Anxious about my fate, I questioned my guides, whenever they stopped to brush off the snow which had accumulated upon me, and received the invariable answer, ' We do not know where we are, and see nothing.' We proceeded step by step, now foUowing one direction, now another, until at length we reached a river well known to the guides. The leader of the first sledge hurried his reindeer do-wn the precipitous bank, and drove away upon the ice to seek a more convenient descent ; but as he did not return, the other guide likewise left me to look after his companion, and thus I MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTREN. 173 was kept waiting for several hours on the tundra, without knowing where my guides had gone to. " At first I did not even know that they had left me, and when I becarae aware of the fact, I thought that they had abandoned me to my fate. I wiU not atterapt lo describe ray sensations ; but my bodUy condition was such, that when the cold increased with the approach of night, I was seized with a violent fever. I thought my last hour was come, and prepared for my journey lo an other world." The re-appearance of the guides relieved Castren of his anxiety, and when the Uttle parly reached some Samoiede huts, the eldest of the guides knelt down at the side of our traveUer's sledge and expressed his joy in a prayer lo God, beg ging Castren to join him in his thanksgivings, " for He, and not I, has this night saved thee." The next moming, as the weather seemed to improve, and the road (along the Indiga River) to the next Russian settlement was easy to find, Castren re solved to pursue his journey. " But the storm once more arose, and became so dreadfuUy violent that I could neither breathe nor keep ray eyes open against the wind. The roaring of the gale stupefied ray senses. The moist snow wetted me during the day, and the night converted it into ice. Half frozen, I arrived after midnight at the settleraent. The fatigues of the journey had been such that I could scarcely stand ; I had alraost lost my consciousness, and my sight had suffered so much from the wind that I repeatedly ran with my fore head against the waU. The roaring of the storm continually resounded in my ears for many hours after." A few days later Castren arrived at Pustosersk, undoubtedly one of the dreariest places in the world. With scarcely a trace of arboreal vegetation, the eye, during the greater part of the year, rests on an interminable waste of snow, where the cold winds are almost perpetuaUy raging. The storms are so violent as not seldom to carry away the roofs of the huts, and to prevent the wretched inhabitants from fetching water and fuel. In this Northern Eden our inde fatigable ethnologist tarried several raonths, as it afforded hira an excellent op portunity for continuing his studies of the language, manners, and religion of the Samoiedes, who come to the fair of Pustosersk during the winter, lo barter their reindeer skins for flour and other commodities, and at the same lime lo indulge in their favorite beverage — brandy. At length the Samoiedes retired, the busy season of the place was evidently at an end, and Castren, having no further in ducement to remain at Pustosersk, left it for the village of Ustsylmsk, situated 150 versts higher up the Petschora, where he hoped stiU to flnd some straggling Samoiedes. The road to Ustsylmsk leads through so desolate a region, that, according to the priests of the neighborhood, it can not have been originally created by God -with the rest of the world, but must have been formed after the Deluge. Near Ustsylmsk (65° 30' N. lat.) the country iraproves, as raost of the northern trees grow about the place ; but, unfortunately, a sirailar praise can not be awarded to its inhabitants, whom Castren found to be the most brutal and obstinate Raskolniks (or sectarians) he had ever seen. Without in the least caring for the Ten Commandments, and indulging in every vice, these 174 THE POLAR WORLD. absurd fanatics fancied themselves better than the rest of mankind, because they made the sign of the cross with the thumb and the two last fingers, and stood for hours together before an image in stupid conteraplation. Our homeless traveller soon became the object of their persecutions; they called him "wiz ard," " a poisoner of rivers and weUs," and insulted him during his walks. At length they even attempted to take his life, so that he thought best to retreat to Ishemsk, on the Ishma, a hundred versts farther to the south. But, unfor tunately, his bad reputation had preceded him, and although the Isprawnik (or parish official) and his wife warmly look his part, the people continued to regard him with suspicion. Towards the end of June Gastrin ascended the Petschora and its chief trib utary, the Uusa, as far as the vUlage of Kolwa, where he spent the remainder of the summer, deeply buried as usual in Samoiede studies. Beyond Kolwa, which he left on September 16 for Obdorsk, there is not a single settlement along the LTusa and its tributaries. As he ascended the river, the meadows on its low banks appeared colored with the gray tints of autumn. Sometiraes a wild animal started from its lair, but no vestige of raan was lo be seen. Countless flocks of wUd ducks and geese passed over the traveUer's head, on their way southward. After raany a tedious delay, caused by storms and contrary winds. Gastrin reached (on September 27) a wretched hul, about forty versts from the Ural, where he was obliged to wait a whole month, with fourteen other persons, untU the snow-track over the mountains becarae practicable for sledges. The total want of every corafort, the bad company, the perpetual rain, and the dreary aspect of the country, made his prolonged stay in this miserable ten ement alraost unbearable. At length, on October 25, he was able to depart, and on Noveraber 3 he saw the Ural Mountains raising their snow-capped suramits to the skies. " The weather is mild," said his Samoiede driver, " and thou art fortunate, but the Ural can be very different." He then described the dreadful storms that rage over the boundary-chain which separates Europe from Asia, and how they precipitate stones and rocks from the mountain-tops. This tirae the dreaded pass was crossed in safety, and on Noveraber 9, 1843, Castren arrived at Obdorsk, on the Obi, exhausted in strength and shattered in health, but yet deUghted to find himself in Asia, the land of his early dreams. Obdorsk — the most northerly colony in Western Siberia, and, as may easily be imagined, utterly deficient in aU that can be interesting to an ordinary traveller — was as rauch as a university to the zealous student, for several thousands of Samoiedes and Ostiaks congregate to its fair from hundreds of versts around. No better place could possibly be found for the prosecution of his research es ; but the deplorable condition of his health did not allow hira to remain as long as he would have desired at this fountain-head of knowledge. He was thus obliged to leave for Tobolsk, and to return in March, 1844, by the shortest road to Finland. In the foUowing sumraer (1845) we again find him on the banks of the jfrtysch and the Obi, plunged in Ostiak studies with renewed energy and enthu- MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTRifiN. 175 siasm. After having sojourned for several weeks at Toropkowa, a small island at the confluence of these V^o mighty strearas, he ascended the Obi in July as far as Surgut, where he arrived in the beginning of August. In consequence of the overflovdng of its waters, the river had spread into a boundless lake, whose monotony was only relieved, frora lirae to tirae, by sorae small wooded island or some inundated -viUage. The rising of the stream had spread misery far and wide, for many Oetiak families had been obliged to aban don their huts, and to seek a refuge in the forests. Those who had horses and cows had the greatest difficulty to keep thera alive ; and as all the meadows .were under water, and the auturan, with its night-frosts, was already approach ing, there was scarcely any hope of raaking hay for the winter. As Castren proceeded on his journey, the low banks of the river rose above the waters, and appeared in all their wild and glooray desolation. The number of inhabitants along the Obi is utterly insignificant when compared with the wide extent of the country ; and as hunting and fishing are their chief occupa tions, nothing is done to subdue the wilderness. The weary eye sees but a dull succession of moors, willow bushes, dry heaths, and firs on the higher grounds. Near every flourishing tree stands another bearing the marks of decay. The young grass is hemmed in its .growth by that of the previous year, which even in July gives the meadow a dull ash-gray color. Cranes, wild ducks, and geese are almost the only Uving creatures to be seen. From Siljarski to Surgut, a distance of 200 versts, there are but three Russian villages ; and the Ostiaks, who form the main part of the population, generally live along the tributary rivers, or erect their summer huts on the smaller arras of the Obi, where they can make a better use of their very imperfect fishing implements than on the principal stream. Surgut, once a fortress, and the chief to-wn of the Cossack conquerors of Si beria, is now reduced lo a few miserable huts, scattered among the ruins of re peated conflagrations. Here Gastrin remained till September 24, occupied wilh the study of the va rious dialects of the neighboring Ostiak tribes, and then ascended the Obi as far as Narym, a distance of 800 versts. Most of the fisherraen had already retired from the banks of the river, and a death-like stillness, rarely interrupted by an Ostiak boat rapidly shooting through the stream, reigned over its waters. Fortunately the weather was fine, at least during the first days of the journey ; and the green river-banks, the birds singing in the trees, and the sunbeams glancing over the wide mirror of the Obi, somewhat enlivened the monotony of the scene. • After having enjoyed at Narym a remarkably tnild Siberian winter, as no crows had been frozen to death, and having increased his knowledge of the Os tiak dialects, Castren proceeded in the foUowing spring, by way of Tomsk, lo Krasnojarsk, on the Jenissei, where he arrived in April, 1846, and was welcomed in a most agreeable and unexpected manner. It will be reraerabered that dur ing his stay at Ishemsk, in the tundra of the Samoiedes, he found warm-hearted friends and protectors against the insane bigotry of the Raskolniks in the Is prawnik and his young and amiable wife. Of the latter it might truly be said 176 THE POLAR WORLD. that she was like a flower born to blush unseen in the desert. Remarkably elo quent, she was no less talented in expressing her thoughts by writing ; and yet she was only the daughter of a serf who had been exDed to Krasnojarsk, and had spent a great part of a sraall properly, acquired by industry and economy, in the education of his gifted daughter. The Isprawnik, a young Pole of insin uating manners, having gained her affections, she had accomj)anied him to Ish emsk as his wife. From what Castren had told her three years since about his future plans, she knew that he would probably arrive about this time at Krasnojarsk, and had written a letter, which reached its destination only a few hours before hira. It was to her father, earnestly begging hira to pay every attention to the horaeless stranger. The feelings of Gastrin raay easily be imagined when the old man knocked at his door, and brought him these friendly greetings from a distance of 6000 versts.* But his stay at Krasnojarsk was not of long duration, for he was impatient lo proceed northward, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the tribes dwelling along the Jenissei, after having studied their brethern of the Obi. From June till the end of July, his literary pursuits detained him at Turuchansk, where, in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, he had much to suffer from the heat and the mosquitoes. In the beginning of August the signs of approaching winter raade their appearance, the cold north wind swept away the leaves from the trees, the fishermen retired to the woods, and the ducks and geese prepared to migrate to the south. And now Castren also took leave of Turuchansk — not however, like the birds, for a more sunny region, but lo buiy himseff still deep er in the northern wilds of the Jenissei. Below Turuchansk the river begins to fiow so languidly, that when the wind is contrary, the boat must be dragged along by dogs, and advances no more than from five to ten versts during a whole day. Thus the traveller has full time to notice the wiUows on the left bank, and the firs on the right ; the ice-blocks, surviving memorials of the last winter, which the spring inundations have left here and there on the banks of the vast stream; and the countless troops of wild birds that fly with loud clamor over his head. About 365 versts below Turuchansk is situated Plachina, the fishing-station of a small tribe of Samoiedes, among whom Castren tarried three weeks. He had taken possession of the best of the three huts of which the place consisted, but even this would have been perfectly intolerable to any one but our zealous ethnologist. Into his study the daylight penetrated so sparingly through a sinall hole in the wall, that he -was often obliged to write by the light of a resi nous torch in the raiddle of the day. The flame fiickering in the wind, which blew through a thousand crevices, af fected his eyes no less severely than the smoke, which at the same time reader- ed respiration difficult. Although the roof had been repaired, yet during every strong rain — and it rained almost perpetually — he was obliged to pack up his papers, and lo protect himself from the wet as ff he had been in the open air. From this delightful residence. Gastrin, still pursuing his study of the Samoi- * The verst is about three-fifths of a mile. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTRfiN. 177 ede dialects, proceeded down the river lo Dudinka, and finally, in Noveraber, to Tolstoi Noss, whose pleasant cliraate may be j udged of by the fact that it is sit uated in the latitude of 71°. This last voyage was performed in a " balok," or close sledge, covered wilh reindeer skins. The tedlousness of being conveyed like a corpse in a dark and narrow box, induced him to exchange the " balok " for an open sledge ; but the freezing of his feet, of his fingers, and of part of his face, soon caused hira to repent of his teraerity. As soon as this accident was discovered at the next station, Castren crept back again into his prison, and was heartily glad when, after a nine days' confinement, he at length arrived at Tolstoi Noss, which he found to consist of four wi'etched huts. Here again he spent several weeks studying by torchlight, for the sun had made his last appearance in November, and the day was reduced lo a faint gliramering at noon. In Jan uary we find hira on his return-voyage to Turuchansk, a place which, though not very charming in itself, appeared delightful lo Castren after a six months' resi dence in the tundras beyond the Arctic Circle. Turuchansk can boast at least of seeing some daylight at all seasons of the year, and this may be enjoyed even within-doors, f or Turuchansk possesses no less than four houses with glass windows. Longing to reach this comparative ly sunny place, Castren, against his usual custom, resolved to travel day and night withoul stopping, but his impatience well-nigh proved fatal to him. His Samo ede guide had not perceived in the dark that the waters of the Jenissei, over which they were travelling, had oozed through fissures in the ice, and in undated the surface of the river far and wide. Thus he drove into the water, which of course was rapidly congealing; the reindeer were unable to drag the sledge back again upon the land, and Castren stuck fast on the river, with the agreeable prospect of being -frozen to death. From this imrainent danger he was rescued by a wonderful circurastance. Letters having arrived frora the Imperial Acaderay of St. Petersburg, a courier had been dispatched frora Turu chansk to convey thera lo Castren. This courier fortunately reached hira while he was in this perilous situation, helped him on land, and conducted him to a Samoiede hut, where he was able to warm his stiffened limbs. After such a journey, we can not wonder that, on arriving at Turuchansk, he was so tormented with rheumatism and toothache as lo be obliged to rest there several days. With sore joints and an aching body, he slowly proceeded to Jeniseisk, where he arrived on April 3, 1847, in a wretched state of health, which however had not interrupted his Ostiiik studies on the way. I rapidly glance over his subsequent travels, as they are but a repetition of the same privations and the sarae hardships, all cheerfully sustained for the love of knowl edge. Having somewhat recruited his strength at Jeniseisk, he crossed the Sajan Mountains to visit some Samoiedes beyond the Russian frontier — a jour ney which, besides the usual fatigues, involved the additional risk of being ar rested as a spy by the Chinese authorities ; and the year after he visited Trans baikalia, to make inquiries araong the Burial priests about the ancient history of Siberia. Having thus accoraplished his task, and thoroughly investigated the wild na tions of the Finnish race frora the confines of the Arctic Sea to the Altai — a task 13 178 THE POLAR WORLD. which cost him his health, and the best part of his energies — ^he longed to breathe the air of his native country. But neither the pleasures of home, nor a professorship at the University of Helsingfors, richly earned by almost super- nuraan exertions, were able lo arrest the germs of disease, which journeys such as these could scarcely fail to plant even in his originally robust constitution. After lingering sorae years, he died in 1855, universaUy lamented by his coun trymen, who justly mourned his early death as a national loss. THE SAMOIEDES, 179 A SAMOIEDE PBIEST. CHAPTER XIV. \ THE SAMOIEDES. Their Barbarism. — Num, or Jilibeambaertje. — Shamanism.— Samoiede Idols. — Sjadaei.— Hahe. — ^The Ta- debtsios, or Spirits. — The Tadibes, or Sorcerers. — Their Dress. — Their Invocations. — Their conjuring Tricks. — Reverence paid to the Dead. — A Samoiede Oath. — Appearance of the Samo'iedes. — Their Dress. — A Samoiede Belle. — Character ofthe Samoiedes. — Their decreasing Numbers. — Traditions of ancient Heroes. ^T^HF Saraoiedes, the neighbors of the Laplanders, are still farther removed -*- from civilized society, and plunged in even deeper barbarism. The wildest tundras and woods of Northern Russia and Western Siberia are the horae of the Samoiede. With his reindeer herds he wanders over the naked wastes, from the eastern coast of the White Sea to the banks of the Chatanga, or hunts in the boundless forests between the Obi and the Jenissei. His intercourse -with the Russians is confined to his annual visit at the fairs of such miserable settle ments as Obdorsk and Pustosersk, where, far from improving by their compa ny, he but too often becomes the prey of their avarice, and learns to know thera merely as cheats and oppressors. Protestant raissionaries have long since brought instruction to the Laplander's hut, but the majority of tbe less fortu- ¦nate Samoiedes still adhere to the gross superstitions of their fathers. They believe in a Supreme Being — Num, or Jilibeambaertje — who resides in the air, and, like the Jupiter of old, sends down thunder and lightning, rain and snow ; and as a proof that something of a poetic fancy is to be found even araong the most savage nations, they call the rainbow " the hera of his garment." As this deity, however, is loo far removed from them to leave them any hope of gain- 180 THE POLAR WORLD. ing his favor, they never think of offering him either prayer or sacrifice. But, besides Nura, there are a great raany inferior spirits, or idols, who directly in terfere in human concerns — capricious beings, who allow themselves lo be in fluenced by offerings, or yield to magical incantations ; and to these, therefore, the Samoiede has recourse when he feels the necessity of invoking the aid or averting the wrath of a higher Power. The chief of all Samoiede idols is in the island of Waygatz — a cold and mel ancholy Delos — where it was already found by old Barentz. This idol is a mere block of stone, with its head tapering to a point. It has thus been fashioned, not by a mortal artist, but by a play of nature. After this original the Samo iedes have formed many idols of stone or wood of various sizes, which they call " Sjadsei," frora their possessing a humau physiognomy {sja). These idols they dress in reindeer skins, and ornament them with aU sorts of colored rags. But a resemblance to the huraan form is not the necessary attribute of a Samoiede idol ; any irregularly-shaped stone or tree raay be thus distinguished. If the object is smaU, the savage carries it everywhere about with hira, carefully wrap ped up ; if too cumbersome to be transported, it is reserved as a kind of nation al deity. As with the Ostiaks, each Samoiede tribe has in its train a peculiar sledge — the Hahengan — in which the household idols (or Hahe) are placed. One of these Penates protects the reindeer, another watches over the health of his worshippers, a third is the guardian of their connubial happiness, a fourth takes care to fill their nets with fish. Whenever his services are required, the Hahe is taken from his repository, and erected in the tent or on the pasture- ground, in the wood or on the river's bank. His mouth is then smeared with oil or blood, and a dish with fish or flesh is set before hira, in the full expecta tion that his good offices will amply repay the savory repast. When his aid is no longer necessary, he is put aside without any further cereraony, and as lit tle noticed as the Madonna of the Neapolitan fisherman after the storm has cea.sed. The Hahe, or idols, are very convenient objects of reverence to the Samoiede, as he can consult them, or ask their assistance, without being initiated in the secrets of magic ; while the Tadebtsios, or invisible spirits, which everywhere hover about iu the air, and are raore inclined to injure than to benefit raan, can only be invoked by a Tadibe, or sorcerer, who, like the Curasean Sibyl, works himself into a state of ecstatic frenzy. When his services are required, the first care of the Tadibe is to invest himself with his raagical raantle — a kind of shirt made of reindeer leather, and hemmed with red cloth. The seams are covered in a sirailar raanner, and the shoulders are decorated with epaulettes of the same gaudy material. A piece of red cloth veils the eyes and face — for the Tadibe requires no external organs of sight to penetrate into the world of spirits — and a plate of polished raetal shines upon his breast. Thus accoutred, the Tadibe seizes his raagical drura, whose sounds summon the spirits to his will. Ils form is round, it has but one bottom, made of rein deer skin, and is more or less decorated with brass rings and other ornaments, according to the wealth or poverty of its possessor. During the ceremony of invocation, the Tadibe is generaUy assisted by a disciple, raore or less initiated THE SAMOIEDES. 181 in the raagic art. They eilher sil down, or walk about in a circle. The chief sorcerer beats the drum, at first slowly, then with increasing violence, singing at the same time a few words to a mystic raelody. The disciple iraraediately falls in, and both repeat the sarae monotonous chant. At length the spirits appear, and the consultation is supposed lo begin ; the Tadibe frora tirae to time remaining silent, as if listening to their answers, and but gently beating his drum, while the assistant continues to sing. Finally, this mute conversation ceases, the song changes into a -wild howling, the drum is violently struck, the eye of the Tadibe glows -with a strange fire, foara issues from his lips — when suddenly the uproar ceases, and the oracular sentence is pronounced. The Tadibes are consulted not only for the purpose of recovering a strange reindeer, or to preserve the herd from a contagious disorder, or to obtain success in fishing ; the Samoiede, when a prey to iUness, seeks no other medical advice ; and the sorcerer's drum either scares away the malevolent spirits that cause the malady, or summons others to the assistance of his patient. The office of Tadibe is generally hereditary, but individuals gifted by nature with excitable nerves and an ardent imagination not seldora desire to be initia ted in these supernatural communications. No one can teach the candidate. His morbid fancy is worked upon by solitude, the contemplation of the gloomy aspect of nature, long vigils, fasts, the use of narcotics and stimulants, until he becomes persuaded that he too has seen the apparitions which he has heard of from his boyhood. He is then received as a Tadibe with raany ceremonies, which are held in the silence of the night, and invested with the magic drum. Thus the Tadibe partly believes in the visions and fancies of his pwn overheated brain. Besides dealing with the invisible world, he does not neglect the usual arts of an expert conjuror, and knows by this raeans to increase his influence over his siraple-rainded countrymen. One of his commonest tricks is similar to that which has been practised with so rauch success by the Brothers Daven port. He sits down, with his hands and feet bound, on a reindeer skin stretched out upon the floor, and, the light being removed, begins to summon the minis tering spirits to his aid. Strange unearthly noises now begin to be heard — bears growl, snakes hiss, squirrels rustle about the hut. Al length the turault ceases, the audience anxiously awaits the end of the spectacle, when suddenly the Tadibe, freed frora his bonds, steps into the hut — no one doubting that the spirits have set hira free. As barbarous as the poor wretches who submit to his guidance, the Tadibe is incapable of iraproving their raorai condition, and has no wish to do so. Under various naraes — Scharaans araong the Tungusi, Angekoks among the Esquimaux, medicine-raen araong the Crees and Chepewyans, etc. — we find sira ilar magicians or impostors assuming a spiritual dictatorship over all the Arc tic nations of the Old and the New World, wherever their authority has not been broken by Christianity or Buddhisra ; and this dreary faith still extends its infiuenee over at least haff a raillion of souls, from the White Sea to the ex tremity of Asia, and from the Pacific to Hudson's Bay. Like the Ostiaks and other Siberian tribes, the Samoiedes honor the raeraory of the dead by sacrifices and other ceremonies. They believe that their de- 183 THE POLAR WORLD. ceased friends have stiU the same wants, and pursue the same occupations, as when in the land of the living ; and thus they place in or about their graves a sledge, a spear, a cooking-pot, a knife, an axe, etc., to assisi them in procuring and preparing their food. At the funeral, and for several years afterwards, the relations sacrifice reindeer over the grave. When a person of note, a prince, a Starschina, the proprietor of numerous herds of reindeer, dies (for even amoTig the miserable Samoiedes we find the social distinctions of rich and poor), the nearest relations make an image, which is placed in the tent of the deceased, and enjoys the respect paid to him during his lifetime. At every meal the im age is placed in his former seat, and e'very evening it is undressed and laid down in his bed. During three years the image is thus honored, and then buried ; for by this time the body is supposed to be decayed, and lo have lost all sensation of the past. The souls of the Tadibes, and of those who have died a violent death, alone enjoy the privilege of imraortality, and after their terres trial life hover about in the air as unsubstantial spirits. Yet in spite of this privUege, and of the savory morsels th.at fall to their share at every sacrificial feast, or of the presents received for their services, the Tadibes are very unhappy beings. The ecstatic condition into which they so frequently work themselves shatters their nerves and darkens their mind. Wild looks, bloodshot eyes, an uncertain gait, and a shy manner, are araong the ef fects of this periodical exciteraent. Like the Ostiaks, the Saraoiedes consider the taking of an oath as an action of the highest religious importance. When a crirae has been secretly corarait ted against a Samoiede, he has the right to demand an oath from the suspected person. If no wooden or stone Hahe is at hand, he manufactures one of earth or snow, leads his opponent to the iraage, sacrifices a dog, breaks the image, and then addresses him -\Yith the following words : — " If thou hast committed this crime, then must thou perish like this dog." The ill consequences of perjury are so much dreaded by the Samoides — who, though they have but very faint ideas of a future state, firmly believe that crime will be punished in this life, murder with violent death, or robbery by losses of reindeer — -that the true crirainal, when called upon to swear, hardly ever submits to the cereraony, but rather at once confesses his guilt and pays the penalty. The raost effectual security for an oath is that it should be solemnized over the snout of a bear — an aniraal which is highly revered by all the Siberian tribes, frora the Karachatkans to the Samoiedes, as well as by the Laplanders. Like the Laplanders, they believe that the bear conceals under his shaggy coat a hu man shape with more than human wisdom, and speak of hira in terras of the highest reverence. Like the Lapps also, wheu occasion offers, they will drive an arrow or a bullet through his skin ; but they preface the attack with so many compliraents that they feel sure of disarming his anger. The appearance of the Samoiedes is as wild as the country which they in habit. The dwarfish stature of the Ostiak, or the Lapp, thick lips, smaU eyes, a low forehead, a broad nose so rauch flattened that the end is nearly upon a level with the bone of the upper jaw (which is strong and greatly elevated), THE SAMOIEDES. 183 raven-black shaggy hair, a thin beard, and a yellow-brown coraplexion, are their characteristic features, and in general they do nothing lo iraprove a form which has but little natural beauty to boast of. The Samoiede is satisfied if his heavy reindeer dress affords him protection against the cold and rain, and cares little if it be dirty or ill-cut ; some dandies, however, wear furs triramed with cloth of a gaudy color. The woraen, as long as they are unraarried, lake sorae pains with their persons ; and when a Saraoiede girl, with her sraall and lively black eyes, appears in her reindeer jacket lightly fitting round the waist, and trim raed with dog-skhi, in her scarlet raoccasins, and her long black tresses orna mented with pieces of brass or tin, she may well terapt sorae rich adrairer to offer a whole herd of reindeer for her hand. For araong the Samoiedes no father ever thinks of bestowing a portion on his daughter : on the contrary, he expects from the bridegroora an equivalent for the services which he is about to lose by her raarriage. The consequence of this degrading custom is that the husband treats his consort like a slave, or as an inferior being. A Samoiede, who had murdered his wife, was quite surprised at being sumraoned before a court of justice for what he considered a trifling offense; "he had honestly paid for her," he said, " and could surely do what he liked with his own." The senses and faculties of the Samoiedes correspond lo their raode of life as nomads and hunters. They have a piercing eye, delicate hearing, and a steady hand : they shoot an arrow wilh great accuracy, and are swift runners. On the other hand, they have a gross taste, generaUy consuming their fish or their reindeer flesh raw ; and their smell is so weak that they appear quite in sensible to the putrefying odors arising from the scrapings of skins, stinking fish, and olher offal which is aUowed to accumulate in and about their huts. The Saraoiede is good-natured, rael.ancholy, and phlegmatic. He has, in deed, but indistinct notions of right and wrong, of good and evil ; but he pos sesses a grateful heart, and is ready to divide his last morsel with his friend. Cruelty, revenge, the darker crimes that pollute so many of the savage tribes of the tropical zone, are foreign to his character. Constantly at war with a dreadful climate, a prey to ignorance and poverty, he regards most of the things of this life with supreme indifference. A good raeal is of course a matter of importance in his eyes ; but even the want of a meal he will bear with stoical apathy, when it can only be gained by exertion, for he sels a still higher value on repose and sleep. A common trait in the character of all Samoiedes is the gloomy view which they take of life and its concerns ; their internal world is as cheerless as that which surrounds them. True men of ice and snow, they relinquish, without a murmur, a life which they can hardly love, as it imposes upon thera many privations, and affords them but few pleasures in return. They are suspicious, like all oppressed nations that have much to suffer from their more crafty or energetic neighbors. Obstinately attached to their old customs, they are opposed to all innovations ; and they have been so often de ceived by the Russians, that they raay well be pardoned if they look with a mistrustful eye upon all benefits coraing frora that source. The wealth of the Samoiedes consists in the possession of herds of reindeer, 184 THE POLAR WORLD. and P. von Krusenstern, in 1845, calculated the nuraber owned by the Sarao iedes of the Lower Petschora, near Pustosersk, al 40,000 head — a rauch sraall er number than what they formerly had, owing to a succession of misfortunes. The Russian settlers along that immense stream and ils tributaries graduaUy obtain possession of their best pasture-grounds, and force them lo recede -within narrower and narrower limits. Thus raany have been reduced to the wretch ed condition of the Arctic fisherman, or have been compelled to exchangfe their ancient independence for a life of submission to the will of an iraperious raaster. The entire number of the European and Asiatic Saraoiedes is estiraated at no more than about 10,000, and this number, sraall as it is when corapared to the vast territory over which they roam, is still decreasing frora year to year. Before their subjugation by the Russians, the Saraoiedes were frequently at war with their neighbors, the Ostiaks, the Woguls, and the Tartars, and the rude poems which celebrate the deeds of the heroes of old are still sung in the tents of their peaceful descendants. The minstrel, or troubadour — if I may be al lowed to use these naraes while speaking of the rudest of mankind — is seated in the centre of the hut, while the audience squat around. His gesticulations endeavor to express his sympathy with his hero. His body trembles, his voice quivers, and during the raore pathetic parts of his story, tears start to his eyes, and he covers his face with his left hand, while the right, holding an arrow, di- ' rects its point lo the ground. The audience generally keep silence, but theii' groans accompany the hero's death ; or when he soars upon an eagle to the clouds, and thus escapes the malice of his enemies, they express their delight by a triumphant shout. THE OSTIAKS. 185 BANKS OF THE IRTYSCH. CHAPTER XV. THE OSTIAKS. What is the Ohi? — Inundations. — An Ostiak summer Yourt. — Poverty of the Ostiak Fishermen. — .4 winter Yourt. — Attachment of the Ostiaks to their ancient Customs. — An Ostiak Prince. — Archeiy. — Appearance and Character of the Ostiaks. — The Fair of Obdorsk. WHAT is the Obi ? — " One of the raost melancholy rivers on earth," say the few European traveUers who have ever seen it roll its turbid waters through the wUderness, " its raonotonous banks a dreary succession of swaraps and dismal pine-forests, and hardly a living creature lo be seen, but cranes, wUd ducks, and geese." If you address the same question to one of the few Russians who have settled on its banks, he answers, with a devout mien, " Obi is our mother;" but if you ask the Ostiak, he bursts forth, in a laconic but en ergetic phrase, " Obi is the god -\\'hora we honor above all our other gods." To him the Obi is a source of life. With its salraon and sturgeon he pays his taxes and debts, and buys his few luxuries ; whUe the fishes of inferior quaUty which get entangled in his net he keeps for his own consumption and that of his faithful dog, eating thera raostly raw, so that the perch not seldora feels his teeth as soon as it is pulled out of the water. In spring, when the Obi and its tributaries burst their bonds of ice, and the floods sweep over the plains, the Ostiak is frequently driven into the woods, where he finds but Uttle to appease his hunger ; at length, however, the waters subside, the flat banks 186 THE POLAR WORLD. of the river appear above their surface, and the savage erects his suraraer hut close to its^ stream. This hovel has generaUy a quadrangular forra, low waUs, and a high pointed roof, made of willow-branches covered wilh large pieces of bark. These, having first been softened by boUing, are sewn together, so as to forra large mats or carpets, easUy rolled up and transported. The hearth, a mere hole inclosed by a few stones, is in the centre, and the smoke escapes through an aperture at the top. Close to the hut there is also, generaUy, a small store-house erected on high poles, as in Lapland ; for the provisions must be secured against the attacks of the glutton, the wolf, or the owner's dogs. Although the Obi and its tributaries — the Irtysch, the Wach, the Wasju- gan — abundantly provide for the wants of the Ostiaks, yet those who are ex clusively fishermen vegetate in a stale of the greatest j)overty, in indolence, drunkenness, and vice. The wily Russian settlers have got thera corapletely in their power, by advancing thera goods on credit, and thus securing the prod uce of their fisheries frora year to year. During the whole suramer Russian speculators from Obdorsk, Beresow, and Tobolsk sail about on the Obi, to re ceive from their Ostiak debtors the salraon and sturgeon which they have caught, or to fish on their own account, which, as having better nets and raore assistance, they do with much greater success than the poor savages. The Russian Government has, indeed, confirmed the Ostiaks in the posses sion of almost all the land and water in the territories of the Lower Obi and Irtysch, but the Russian traders find means to monopolize the best part of the fisheries ; for ignorance and stupidity, in spite of all laws in their favor, are nowhere a match for raercantile cunning. Al the beginning of winter the Ostiaks retire into the woods, where they find al least some protection against the Arctic blasts, and are busy hunting the sable or the squirrel ; but as fishing affords them at all times their chief food, they take care to establish their winter huts on some eminence above the reach of the spring inundations, near some small river, which, through holes raade in the ice, affords their nets and anglers a precarious supply. Their winter yourt is soraewhat more solidly constructed than their sumraer resi dence, as it is not reraoved every year. It is low and sraall, and its walls are plastered with clay. Light is adraitted through a piece of ice inserted in the wall or on the roof. In the belter sort of huts, the space along one or several of the walls is hung with mals raade of sedges, and here the family sits or sleeps. Sometimes a small anlecharaber serves to hang up the clothes, or is used as a repository for household utensils. Besides those who live solely upon fishes and birds of passage, there are other Ostiaks who jjossess reindeer herds, and wander in suraraer lo the border of the Polar sea, where they also catfch seals and fish. When winter approaches, they slowly return to the woods. FinaUy, in the raore southerly districts, there are sorae Ostiaks who, having entirely adopted the Russian mode of life, cultivate the soil, keep cattle, or earn their livelihood as carriers. In general, however, the Ostiak, like the Samoiede, obstinately withstands all innovations, and remains true to the customs of his forefathers. He has been so often deceived by the Russians that he is loth to receive the gifts of THE OSTIAKS. 187 civilization from their hands. He fears that if his children learn to read and write, they will no longer be satisfied to live like their parents, and that the school will deprive him of the support of his age. He is no less obstinately at tached to the religion of his fathers, which in all essential points is identical with that of the Samoiedes. In some of the southern districts, along the Ir tysch, at Surgut, he has indeed been baptized, and hangs up the iraage of a saint iu his hut, as his Russian pope or priest has instructed hira to do ; but his Christianity extends no farther. Along the tributaries of the Obi, and be low Obdorsk, he is slill plunged in Schamanism. Like the Samoiedes, the Ostiaks, whose entire number amounts to about 25,000, are subdivided into tribes, reminding one of the Highland clans. Each tribe consists of a nuraber of farailies, of a coramon descent, and sometiraes comprising many hundred individuals, who, however distantly related, con sider it a duty to assist each other in distress. The fortunate fisherman di vides the spoUs of the day with his less fortunate clansman, who hardly thanks him for a gift which he considers as his due. In cases of dispute the Star schina, or elder, acts as a judge ; ff, however, the parties are not satisfied with his verdict, they appeal to the higher authority of the hereditary chieftain or prince — a title which has been conferred by the Empress Catherine II. on the Ostiak magnates, who, from time immeraorial, have been considered as the heads of their tribes. These princes are, of course, subordinate lo the Russian officials, and bound to appear, with the Starschinas, at the fairs of Beresow or Obdorsk, as they are answerable for the quantity and quality of the various sorts of furs which the Ostiaks are obliged to pay as a tribute to Government. Their dignity is hereditary, and, in default of male descendants, passes to the nearest raale relation. It raust, however, not be supposed that these princes are distinguished from the other Ostiaks by their riches or a more splendid appearance ; for their mode of life differs in no way frora that of their inferiors in rank, and, like thera, they are obliged to fish or to hunt for their daily sub sistence. On entering the hut of one of these dignitaries, Castren found him in a ragged jacket, while the princess had no other robe of state but a shirt. The prince, having liberally helped himself from the brandy-bottle which the trav eUer offered him, became very communicative, and complained of the suffer ings and cares of the past winter. Pie had exerted hiraself to the utraost, but without success. Far frora giving way to indolence in his turf-hut, he had been out hunting in the forest, after the first snow-fall, but rarely pitching his bark- tent, and frequently sleeping in the open air. Yet, in spite of all his exertions, he had often not been able to shoot a single ptarraigan. His stores of meal and frozen fishes were soon exhausted, and soraetiraes the princely faniily had been reduced to eat the flesh of wolves. The Ostiaks are excellent archers, and, like all the olher hunting tribes of Siberia, use variously constructed arrows for the different objects of their chase. Smaller shafts, with a knob of wood at the end; are destined for the squirrels and other smaU animals whose fur it is desirable not lo injure ; while large ar rows, with strong triangular iron points, bring down the wolf, the bear, and 188 THE POLAR WORLD. sometimes the fugitive exUe. For, to prevent the escape of criminals sentenced lo banishment in Siberia, the Russian Government aUows the Ostiaks to shoot any unknown person,- not belonging to their race, whora they raay meet with on their territory. Although weU aware of this danger, several exiles have at tempted to escape to Archangel along the border of the Arctic sea ; but they either died of hunger, or were devoured by wild beasts, or shot by the Ostiaks. There is but one instance known of an exile who, after spending a whole year on the journey, at length reached the abodes of civilized man, and he was par doned in consideration of the dreadful sufferings he had undergone. The Ostiaks are generally of a small stature, aud raost of thera are dark-com plexioned, with raven-black hair like the Samoiedes ; sorae of them, however, have a fairer skin and light-colored hair. They have neither the oblique eyes nor the broad projecting cheek-bones of the Mongols and Tungus, but bear a greater resemblance to the Finnish, Samoiede, and Turkish cast of countenance. They are a good-natured, indolent, honest race ; and though they are extremely dirty, yet their smoky huts are not more filthy than those of the Norwegian or Icelandic fisherman. As araong the Saraoiedes, the woraen are in a very de graded condition, the father always giving his daughter in raarriage to the highest bidder. The price is very different, and rises or falls according to the circumstances of the parent ; for while the rich man asks fifty reindeer for his child, the poor fisherman is glad to part with his daughter for a few squirrel- skins and dried sturgeon. Before taking leave of the Ostiaks, we will still tarry a moment at the smaU town of Obdorsk, which raay be considered as the capital of their countrj', and entirely owes its existence lo the trade carried on between thera and the Rus sians. Formerly the merchants from Beresow and Tobolsk used merely to visit the spot, but the difficulties of the journey soon compelled them to establish permanent dwellings in that dreary region. A certain nuraber of exiles serves to increase the scanty population, which consists of a strange medley of various nations, araong whora Castren found a Calmuck, a Kirghis, and a Polish cook, GROUP OE KIRGHIS. THE OSTIAKS. 189 who bitterly complained that he had but few opportunities of showing his skill in a town where people lived d la Ostiak. In fact, most of the Russian in habitants of the place have in so far adopted the Ostiak mode of life, as to deem the cooking of their victuals superfiuous. When Castren, on his arrival at Obdorsk, paid a visit to a Tobolsk merchant, who had been for some time settled in the place, he found the whole famUy lying on the floor, regaling on raw fish, and the raost civilized person he rael wilh told him that he had tasted neither boiled nor roast flesh or fish for half a year. Yet fine shawls and dresses, and now no doubt the crinoline and the chignon, are found amidst all this barbarisra. Edifices with the least pretensions to architectural beauty it would of course be vain to look for in Obdorsk. The houses of the better sort of Russian settlers are two-storied, or consisting of a ground-floor and garrets ; but as they are built of wood, and are by no means wind-tight, the half-fam ished Ostiaks, who have settled in the town, are probably more comfortably housed in their low turf-huts than tJie prosperous Russian inhabitants of the place. The latter make it their chief occupation to cheat the Ostiaks in every possible way ; sorae of thera, however, add to this profitable, if not praiseworthy occupation, the keeping of reindeer herds, or even of cows and shce;\ Thc fair lasts from the beginning of winter to February, and during this time the Ostiaks who assemble al Obdorsk pitch their bark-tents about the town. With their arrival a new life begins to stir in the wretched place. Groups of the wild sons and daughters of the tundra, clothed in heavy skins, make their appearance, and stroU slowly through the streets, admiring the high wooden houses, which to them seem palaces. But nothing is lo be seen of the animation and activity which usually characterize a fair. Concealing some cost ly fur under his wide skin mantle, the savage pays his cautious visit to the trad er, and makes his bargain amidst copious libations of brandy. He is well aware that this underhand way of dealing is detrimental to his interests ; that his lim-^ orous disposition shrinks from public sales, and frequently he is not even in the situation lo profit by competition ; for among the thourands that flock to the fair, there are but very few who do not owe to the traders of Obdorsk much more than they possess, or can ever hope to repay. Woe to the poor Ostiak whose creditor should find him dealing with some other trader ! — for the seizure of aU his movable property, of his tent and household utensOs, would be the least punishment which the wretch turned adrift into the naked desert would have to expect. The fair is not opened before Government has received the furs which are due to it, or at least a guarantee for the amount from the mer chants of the place. Then the magazines of the traders gradually fill with furs — with clothes of reindeer skin ready made, with feathers, reindeer flesh, frozen sturgeon, raaramolh tusks, etc. For these goods the Ostiaks receive flour, baked bread, tobacco, pots, kettles, knives, needles, brass buttons and rings, glass pearls, and other trifling articles. An open trade in spirits is not allowed ; but brandy may be sold as a medicine, and thus many an Ostiak takes advantage of the fair for undergoing a cure the reverse of that which is recomraended by hy dropathic doctors. 190 THE POLAR WORLD. Towards the end of February, when the Ostiaks have retired into the woods — where Ihey hunt or lend their reindeer herds until the opening ofthe fishing- season recalls thera to the Obi — the trader prepares for his journey to Irbit, where he hopes to dispose of his furs at an enorraous profit, and Obdorsk is once raore left until the following winter to its death-like solitude. CONQUEST OP SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS. 191 CHAPTER XVL CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS-THEIR VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY ALONG THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA. Ivan the Terrible.— Strogonoff.— Yermak, the Robber and Conqueror.— His Expeditions to Siberia.— Battle of Tobolsk.— Yermak's Death.— Progress of the Russians to Ocj^sk.— Semen Deshnew.— Condition of the Siberian Natives under the Russian Yoke.— Voyages •)iscovery in the Roign of the Empress Anna.— Prontschischtschew.— Chariton and Demetrius Ll^tew.- An Arctic Heroine. —Schalaurow.— Discoveries in the Sea of Bering and in the Pacific Ocean. —The Lachow Islands.— Fossil Ivory.— New Siberia.— The wooden Mountains. — The past Ages of Siberia. IN the beginning ofthe thirteenth century, the now huge Empire of Russia was confined lo part of her present European possessions, and divided into several independent principalities, the scene of disunion and almost perpetual warfare. Thus when the country was invaded, in 1236, by the Tartars, under Baaty Khan, a grandson ofthe faraous Gengis Khan, it fell an easy prey to its conquerors. The raiseries of a foreign yoke, aggravated by intestine discord, lasted about 250 years, untU Ivan Wasiljewilsch L (1462-1505) becarae the deliverer of his country and laid the foundations of her future greatness. This able priuce subdued, in 1470, the Great Novgorod, a city until then so powerful as to have raaintained its independence, both against the Russian grand princes and the Tartar khans ; and, ten years later, he not only threw off the yoke ofthe Khans of Khipsack, but destroyed their empire. The conquest of Constanti nople by the Turks placed the spiritual diadem of the ancient Cfjesars on his 193 THE POLAR WORLD. head, and cafised him, as chief of the Greek orthodox Church, to exchange his old title of Grand Prince for the more significant and imposing one of Czar. \ His grandson, Ivan Wasiljewilsch IL, a cruel but energetic raonarch, con quered Kasan in 1552, and thus corapletely and permanently overthrew the do rainion of the Tartars. Two years later he subdued Astrakhan, and planted the Greek cross on the borders of the Caspian Sea, where until then only the Cres cent had been seen. In spite of the inliuraan cruelty that disgraced his character, and earned for him the name of Terrible, Ivan sought, like his illustrious successor, Peter the Great, to introduce the arts and sciences of Western Europe into his barbarous realm, and to improve the Russian manufactures by encouraging German artists and mechanics to settle in the country. It was in his reign that Chancellor dis covered the passage from England lo the White Sea, and Ivan gladly seized the opportunity thus afforded. Soon after this the port of Archangel was built, and thus a new seat was opened to civilization al the northern extremity of Europe. After the conquest of Kasan, several Russians settled in that province ; among others, a merchant of the name of Strogonoff, who established some salt-works on the banks of the Kama, and opened a trade with the natives. Araong these he noticed some strangers, and having heard that they came from a country ruled by a Tartar Khan, who resided iri a capital called Sibir, he sent some of his people into their land. These agents returned with the finest sable skins, which they had purchased for a trifling sum ; aud Strogonoff, not so covetous as to wish to keep all the advantage of his discovery to himself, immediately in forraed the Governraent of the new trade he had opened. He was rew.Trded with the gift of considerable estates at the confluence of the Karaa and Tschin- sova, and his descendants, the Counts Strogonoff, are, as is well known, reckoned araong the richest of the Russian nobility. Soon after Ivan sent sorae trOops to Siberia, whose prince, Jediger, acknowl edged his supremac^and proraised to pay hira an annual tribute of a thousand sable skins. But thSRbnneclion was not of long duration, for a few years after Jediger was defe.ated' by another Tartar prince, naraed Kutchum Khan ; and thus, after Russian influence had taken the first step to establish itself beyond the Ural, it once raore becarae doubtful whether Northern Asia was to be Christian or Moharamedan. The question was soon after decided by a fugitive robber. The conquests of Ivan on the Caspian Sea had called into life a considerable trade with Bokhara and Persia, which, however, was greatly disturbed by the depredations of the Don Cossacks, who made it their practice to plunder the caravans. But Ivan, not the man to be trifled with by a horde of freebooters, immediately sent out a body of troops against the Don Cossacks, who, not ven turing to meet them, sought their safety in flight. At the head of the fugitives, whose number araounted to no less than 6000 men, was Yermak Timodajeff, a raan who, like Cortez or Pizarro, was destined to lay a new empire at the feet of his master. But while the troops of the Czar were following his track, Yer mak was not yet dreaming of future conquests; his only aim was to escape the executioner ; and he considered himseff extremely fortunate when, leaving his CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS. 193 pursuers far behind, he at length arrived on the estates of Strogonoff. Here he was well received — better, no doubt, than if he had come single-handed and de fenseless ; and Strogonoff having raade hira acquainted with Siberian affairs, he at once resolved to try his fortunes on this new scene of action. As the tyr anny of Kutchura Khan had rendered hira odious to his subjects, he hoped it would be an easy task lo overthrow his power ; the prospect of a rich booty of sable skins was also extremely attractive ; and, finally, there could be no doubt that the greatest dangers were in his rear, and that any choice was better than to fall into the hands of Ivan the Terrible. Strogonoff, on his part, had excel lent reasons for encouraging the adventure. If it succeeded, a considerable part of the profits was likely to fall to his share ; if nol, he at least was rid of his unbidden guest. Thus Yermak, in the sumraer of 1578, advanced with his Cossacks along the banks of the Tschinsova into Siberia. But, either from a want of knowledge of the country, or from not having taken the necessary precautions, he was overtaken by winter before he could make any progress ; and when spring ap peared, famine compelled him to return to his old quarters, where, as may easi ly be iraagined, his reception was none of the most cordial. But, far frora losing courage from this first disappointment, Yermak was firmly resolved to perse vere. He had gained experience — his self-confidence was steeled by adversity ; and when Strogonoff attempted to refuse hira further assistance, he pointed to his Cossacks wilh the air of a man who has the means of enforcing obedience to his orders. This tirae Yermak took better measures for insuring success ; he compelled Strogonoff to furnish him with an araple supply of provisions and ammunition, and in the June of the following year we again find him, with his faithful Cossacks, on the raarch to Siberia. But such were the impediments which the pathless swaraps and forests, the severity of the cliraate, and the hos tUity of the natives opposed to his progress, that towards the end of 1580 his force (now reduced lo 1500 men) had reached no farther than the banks of the Tara. The subsequent advance of this little band wa^t constant succession of hardships and skirmishes, which caused it lo meltJ^ay Uke snow in the sunshine; so that scarcely 500 reraained when, at the confluence of the Tobol and the Irtysch, they at length reached the carap of Kutchura Khan, whose over whelming nurabers seeraed to mock their audacity. But Yermak fell as little fear at sight of the innuraerable tents of the Tar tar host, as the wolf when meeting a herd of sheep. He knew that his Cossacks, armed with their matchlocks, had long since disdained to count their enemies, and, fully determined to conquer or to die, he gave the order to attack. A dreadful battle ensued, for though the Tartars only fought wilh their bows and arrows, yet they were no less brave than their adversaries, and their vast supe riority of numbers made up for the inferior quality of their weapons. The struggle was long doubtful — the Tartars repeating attack upon attack like the waves of a storm-tide, and the Cossacks receiving their assaults as firmly and immovably as rocks ; until, finally, the hordes of Kutchura Khan gave way to their stubborn obstinacy, and his carap and all its treasures feU into the hands of the conquerors. 13 194 THE POLAR WORLD. The subsequent conduct of Yerraak proved that he had aU the qualities of a general and a statesraan, and that his talents were not unequal to his fortunes. Without losing a single moraent, he, iraraediately after this decisive battle, sent part of his sraaU band to occupy the capital of the vanquished Kutchura, for he well knew that a victory is but haff gained if one delays to reap ils fruits. The Cossacks found the place evacuated, and soon after Yerraak made his tri umphal entry into Sibir. His weakness now becarae a source of strength, for, daunted by the wonderful success of this handful of strangers, the people far and wide carae to render him homage. The Ostiaks of the Soswa freely con sented to yield an annual tribute of 280 sable skins, and olher tribes of the sarae nation, who were more backward in their submission, were compeUed by his menaces to pay him a tax, or jassak, of eleven skins for every archer. It was nol without reason that Yermak thus sought to coUect as many of these valuable furs as he possibly could, for his aira was lo obtain from Ivan a pardon of his former delinquencies, by presenting him with the richest spoils of his victories, and he well knew that it would be impossible for him to main tain his conquests without further assistance from the Czar. Great was Ivan's astonishment when an envoy of the fugitive robber brought him the welcome gift of 2400 sable skins, and informed hira that Yerraak had added a new prov ince to his realm. He at once comprehended that the hero who with small means had achieved such great successes, was the fittest raan to consolidate or enlarge his acquisitions ; he consequently not only pardoned all his former of fenses, but confirmed him in the dignity of governor and comraander-in-chief in the countries which he had subdued. Thus Yermak's envoy, having been received with the greatest distinction at Moscow, returned to his fortunate raas ter with a robe of honor which had been worn by the Czar himself, and the still more welcome intelligence that re-enforcements were on the march to join him. MeanwhUe Yerraak had continued to advance into the valley of the Obi be yond its confluence with the Irtysch ; and when at length his force was aug raented by the arrivaFof 500 Russians, he pursued his expeditions with increas ing audacity. On his return frora one of these forays, he encamped on a smaU island in the Irtysch. The night was dark and rainy, and the Russians, fatigued by their march, relied too rauch upon the badness of the weather or the terror of their narae. But Kutchum Khan, having been informed by his spies of their want of vigilance, crossed a ford in the river, and falling upon the unsuspecting Russians, kiUed them all except one single soldier, who brought the fatal intel ligence to Sibir. Yerraak, when he saw his warriors fall around him like grass before the scythe, without losing his presence of raind for a raoment, cut his way through the Tartars, and endeavored lo save himself in a boat. But in the raedley he feU into the water and was drowned. By the orders of Kutchura, the body of the hero was exposed to every indig nity which the rage of a barbarian can think of ; but after this first explosion of impotent fury, his foUowers, feeling asharaed of the ignoble conduct of their chief, buried his remains with princely pomp, and ascribed miraculous powers to the grave in which they were deposited. The Russians have also erected a CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIAJSTS. 195 monument to Yermak in the town of Tobolsk, which was built on the very spot where he gained his first decisive victory over Kutchura. It is inscribed wilh the dates of that raemorable event, and of the unfortunate day when he found his death in the floods of the Irtysch. His real raonument, however, is all Sibe ria from the Ural to the Pacific ; for as long as the Russian nation continues to exist, it wiU remember the name of Yermak Timodajeff. The value of the man became at once apparent after his death, for scarcely had the news of the disaster arrived, when the Russians immediately evacuated Sibir, and left the country. But they well knew that this retreat was to be but temporary, and that the present ebb of their fortunes would soon be followed by a fresh tide of success. After a few years they once more returned, as the definitive masters of the country. Their first settlement was Tjumeu, on the Tara, and before the end of 1587 Tobolsk was founded. They had, indeed, stiU raany a conflict with the Woguls and Tartars, but every effort of the natives to shake off the yoke proved fruitless. As gold had been the all-powerful raagnet which led the Spaniards from His paniola lo Mexico and Peru, so a small fur-bearing aniraal (the sable) attracted the Cossacks farther and farther to the east; and although the possession of fire-arms gave them an iramense advantage over the wild inhabitants of Sibe ria, yet it is as astonishing wilh what trifiing means they subdued whole nations, and perhaps history affords no other exaraple of such a vast extent of territory having been conquered by so sraall a nuraber of adventurers. As they advanced, small wooden forts (or ostrogs) were built in suitable places, and became in their turn the starting-posts for new expeditions. The foUowing dates give the best proof of the uncommon rapidity with which the tide of conquest rolled onward lo the east. Tomsk was founded in 1604 ; and the ostrog Jeniseisk, where the neighboring nomads brought their sable skins to market, in 1621. The snow-shoes of the Tunguse, which they sometimes saw ornamented with this costly fur, induced the Cossacks to follow their hordes, of which many had corae frora the middle and inferior Tunguska, and thus, in 1630, Wassiljew reached the banks of the Lena. In 1636 JeUssei Busa was commissioned to ascend that mighty river, and to impose Jassak on all the natives of those quarters. He reached the western mouth of the Lena, and after navigating the sea for twenty-four hours carae to the Olekraa, which he ascended. In 1638 he discovered the Tana, on whose banks he spent another winter; and in 1639, resuming his voyage eastward by sea, he reached the Tchendoma, and wintering for two years among the Jukahirs, made them also tributary to Russia. In that same year another party of Cossacks crossed the Altai Mountains, and, traversing forests and swamps, arrived at the coasts of the inhospitable Sea of Ochotsk ; while a third expedition discovered the Araoor, and buUt a strong ostrog, caUed Albasin, on its left bank. The report soon spread that the river rolled over gold-sand, and colonists carae flocking to the spot, both to col lect these treasures, and to enjoy the fruits of a milder climate and of a more fruitful soU. But the Chinese destroyed the fort in 1680, and carried the gar rison prisoners to Peking. 196 THE POLAR WORLD. Albasin was soon after rebuilt ; but as Russia at that tirae had no incUna tion lo engage in constant quarrels with the Celestial Empire about the posses sion of a remote desert, aU its pretensions to the Amoor were given np by the treaty of Nerlschinsk (1689). This agreement, however, like so many others, was doomed to last no longer than it pleased the more powerful of the con tracting parties to keep it, and came lo nothing as soon as the possession of the Amoor territory became an object of importance, and the increasing weakness of China was no longer able to dispute its possession. Thus, when Count Nicholas Mourawieff was appointed Governor-general of Eastern Siberia in 1847, one of his flrst cares was to appropriate or annex the Amoor. He imme diately sent a surveying expedition to the mouth of the river, where, in 1851, regardless of the remonstrances of the Chinese Government, he ordered the sta- THE BEACH AT NICOLAYEVSK. tions of Nicolayevsk and Mariinsk to be built; and in 1854 he himself sailed down the Amoor, with a numerous flotilla of boats and rafts, for the purpose of personally opening this new channel of intercourse with the Pacific. Other expeditions soon followed, and the Chinese, finding resistance hopeless, ceded to Russia in the year 1858, by the treaty of Aigun, the left bank of the Amoor as far as the influx of the Ussuri, and both ils banks below the latter river. Thus the Czar found sorae consolation for the losses of the Criraean campaign in the acquisition of a vast territory in the distant East, which, though at present a mere wilderness, may in tirae becorae a flourishing colony. In 1644, a few years after the discovery of the Amoor, the Cossack Michael Staduchin formed a winter establishment on the delta of the Kolyma, which has CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS. 197 ON THE AMOOR. expanded into the town of Nishnei-Kolymsk, and afterwards navigated the sea eastward to Cape Schelagskoi, which may be considered as the north-eastern cape of Siberia. In 1648 Semen Deschnew sailed from the Kolyma with the intention of reaching the Anadyr by sea, and by this remarkable voyage — which no one else, either before or after him, has ever performed — discovered and passed through the strait, which properly should bear his narae, instead of Bering's, who, saiUng from Kamchatka northward in 1728, did not go beyond East Cape, being sat isfied with the westerly trending of the cape beyond the promontory. Some of Deschnew's companions subsequently reached Kamchatka, and were put to death by the people of that peninsula, which was conquered, in 1699, by Atlas- soff, a Cossack officer who came from Jakutsk. After having thus rapidly glanced at the progress of the Russian dominion from the Ural to the Sea of Ochotsk, it raay not be uninteresting to inquire whether the natives had reason to bless the arrival of their new raasters, or to curse the day when they were first made to understand the meaning of the word jassak, or tribute. Unfortunately, history teUs us that, whUe the con- 198 THE POLAR WORLD. querors of Siberia were fully as bold and persevering as the companions of Cortez and Pizarro, they also equaUed them in avarice and cruelty. Under their iron yoke whole nations, such as the Schelagi, Aniujili, and Omoki, melted away; others, as the Woguls, Jukahires, Koriaks, and Italmenes, were reduced to a scanty remnant. The history of the subjugation of the Italmenes, or natives of Kamchatka as described by Steller, raay suffice to show how the Cossacks made and how they abused their conquests. When Atlassoff, with only sixteen raen, carae to the river of Kamchatka the Italmene chieftain inquired, through a Koriak interpreter, what they want^ ed, and whence they carae ; and received for answer that the powerful sove reign, to whom the whole land belonged, had sent them to levy the tribute which they owed him as his subjects. The chieftain was naturally astonished at this information, and offering the strangers a present of costly. furs, he requested them lo leave the country, and not to repeat their visit. But the Cossacks thought proper to remain, and built a small wooden fort, Verchnei Ostrog whence they feU on the neighboring viUages, robbing or destroying aU they could lay hands upon. Exasperated by these acts, the Italmenes resolved to attack the fort; but as the wary Cossacks had kept up a friendly intercourse with some of them, and had moreover ingratiated themselves with the women the plans of their enemies were always revealed to them in proper time and led to a StiU greater tyranny. At length the savages appeared before the os trog in such overwhelming numbers that the Cossacks began to lose courage- AJ^W^ VILLAGE ON THE AMOOE. CONQUEST OP SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS. 199 KORIAK YOURT. yet by tbeir superior tactics they finally raanaged to gain a complete victory, and those who escaped their bullets were either drowned or taken prisoners, and then put to death in the most cruel manner. Convinced that a lasting security was impossible as long as the natives re tained their numbers, the Cossacks lost no opportunity of goading them to re volt, and then butchering as many of thera as they could. Thus, in less than forty years, the Kamchatkans were reduced to a twelfth part of their original numbers ; and the Cossacks, having made a solitude, called it peace. In former times the nomads of the North used freely lo wander wilh their reindeer herds over the tundra, but after the conquest they were loaded with taxes, and confined lo certain districts. The consequence was that their rein deer gradually perished, and that a great nuraber of wandering herdsraen were now compelled lo adopt a fisherman's life — a change fatal to raany. It would, however, be unjust to accuse the Russian Government of having wUffuUy sought the ruin of the aboriginal tribes ; on the contrary, it has con stantly endeavored to protect them against the exactions of the Cossacks, and in order to secure their existence, has even granted thera the exclusive posses sion of the districts assigned to them. Thus the Ostiaks and Samoiedes, the Koriaks and the Jakuts, have their own land, their own rivers, forests, and tun dri. But if it is a comraon saying in European Russia " that heaven is high, and the Czar distant," it may easily be imagined that beyond the Ural the weak indigenous tribes found the law but a very inefficient barrier against the rapac ity of their conquerors. Thus, in spile of the Governraent, the Jassak was not unfrequently raised, under various pretenses, to six or ten tiraes its original araount ; and the natives were, besides, obliged to bring the best of their produce, frora considerable dis tances, to the ostrog. 200 THE POLAR WORLD. Nor could the Govemment prevent the accumulation of usurious debts, nor the leasing of the best pasturages or fishing-stations for a trifling sum quite out of proportion to their value; so that the natives no longer had the- means of feeding their herds, and sank deeper and deeper into poverty. And if we consider, finaUy, of what eleraents Yerraak's band was originally composed, we can easily conceive that, under such masters, the lot of the Sibe rian natives was by no means to be envied. « The year 1734 opens a new epoch in the history of Siberian discoveries. Until then they had been raerely undertaken for purposes of traffic ; bold Cos sacks and Prorayschlenniki (or fur-hunters) had gradually extended their ex cursions lo the Sea of Bering ; but now, for the first tirae, scientific expeditions were sent out, for the more accurate investigation of the northern coasts of Siberia. Prontschischtschew, who sailed westward from the Lena lo circumnavigate the icy capes of Taimurland, was accorapanied by his youthful wife, who win tered with hira al the Olenek, in 72° 54' of latitude, and in the following sum mer took part in his fruitless endeavors to double those raost northerly points of Asia. He died in consequence of the fatigues he had to undergo, and a few days after she followed hira to the grave. A similar exaraple of feraale devo tion is not to be rael wilh in the annals of Arctic discovery. After Prontschischlschew's death, Lieutenant Chariton Laptew was ap pointed to carry out the project in which the former had failed. Having been repulsed by the drift-ice, he was obliged to winter on the Chatanga (1739-40) ; but renewed the attempt in the following summer, which however exposed him to still severer trials. The vessel was wrecked in the ice ; the crew reached the shore with difficulty, and many of them perished from fatigue and famine before the rivers were sufficiently frozen to enable the feeble survivors to return to their former winter-station at Chatanga. Notwithstanding the hardships wbich he and his party had endured, Laptew prosecuted the survey of the proraontory in the following spring. Setting out with a sledge-party across the Tundra on April 24, 1741, he reached Taimur Lake on the 30th ; and following the Taimur River, as it flows from the lake, ascertained its mouth lo be situated in lat. 75° 36' N. On Au gust 29 he safely returned to Jeniseisk, after one of the most difficult voyages ever perforraed by raan. The resolution with which he overcarae difficulties, and his perseverance amid the severest distresses, entitle him to a high rank araong Arctic discoverers. While Chariton Laptew was thus gaining distinction in the wilds of Tai murland, his brother, Dimitri Laptew, was busy extending geographical knowl edge to the east of the Lena. He doubled the Sviatoi-noss, wintered on the banks of the Indigirka, surveyed the Bear Islands, passed a second winter on the borders of the Kolyma, and in a fourth season extended his survey of the coast to the Baranow Rock, which he vainly endeavored to double during two successive suramers. After having passed seven years on the coasts of the Polar Ocean, he returned to Jakutsk in 1743. CONQUEST OP SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS. 201 Fourteen years later, Schalaurow, a merchant of Jakutsk, who sailed from the Jana in a vessel built al his own expense, at length succeeded in doubling the Baranow Rock, and proceeded eastward as far as Cape Schelagskoi, which prevented his farther progress. After twice wintering on the dreary Kolyma, he resolved, with admirable perseverance, lo make a third attempt, but his crew would no longer follow hira. Frora a second sea-journey, which he undertook in 1764 to that cape, he did not return. " His unfortunate death is the more to be lamented," says Wrangell, " as he sacrificed his property and life to a disin terested aim, and united intelligence and energy in a reraarkable degree." On his map, the whole coast from the Jana to Cape Schelagskoi is marked, with an accuracy which does hira the greatest honor. In 1785 Billings and Sa- rytchew were equally unsuccessful in the endeavor to sail round the cape which had defeated all Schalaurow's endeavors ; nor has the voyage been ac complished to the present day. As the sable had gradually led the Russian fur-hunters to Kamchatka, so the still more valuable sea-otter gave the chief impulse to the discovery of the Aleutic chain and the opposite con tinent of America. When Atlassow and his band arrived al Kamchatka by the end of the seventeenth century, they found the sea-otter abounding on its coasts ; but the fur-hunters chased it so eagerly that, before the middle of the eighteenth century, they had entire ly extirpated it in that country. On Bering's second voyage of discovery (1741-42), it was again found in con siderable numbers. Tschirigow is said to have brought back 900 skins, and on Bering's Island 700 sea -otters — whose skins, according to present pri ces, would be worth about £20,000 — were kiUed almost without trouble. These facts, of course, encouraged the merchants of Jakutsk and Irkutsk to undertake new expeditions. GeneraUy, several of them formed an association, which fitted out some hardly seaworthy vessel at Ochotsk, where also the captain and the crew, con sisting of fur-hunters and other adventurers, were hired. The expenses of such an expedition araounted to the considerable sum of about 30,000 roubles, as pack-horses had to transport a great part of the necessary outfit all the dis tance from Jakutsk, and the vessel generally reraained four or five years on the voyage. Passing through one of the Kurile Straits, these expeditions sailed at first along the east coast of Kamchatka, bartering sables and sea-otters for rein deer skins and olher articles ; and as the precious furs becarae raore rare, ven tured out farther into the Eastern Ocean. Thus Michael Nowodsikoff discovered the Westem Aleuts in 1745 ; Paikoff the Fox Islands in 1759 ; Adrian Tolstych almost all the islands of the central group^ whioh stiU bear his name, in 1760 ; KAMCHATKA SABLES. 202 THE POLAR WORLD. Stephen Glottoff the island of Kadiak in 1763, and Krenitzin the peninsula of Aljaska in 1768. When we consider the scanty resources of these Russian navigators, the bad condition of their miserable barks, their own iraperfect nau tical knowledge, and the inhospitable nature of the seas which they traversed, we can not but admire their intrepidity. In the Polar Sea there are neither sables nor otters, and thus the islands ly ing lo the north of Siberia might have reraained unknown tiU the present day, if the search after mararaoth-teeth had not, in a simUar manner, led to their dis covery. In March, 1770, while a merchant of the name of Lachow was busy collect ing fossil ivory about Cape Svialoinoss, he saw a large herd of deer coming over the ice from the north. Resolute and courageous, he at once resolved to follow their tracks, and after a sledge-journey of seventy versts, he carae to an island, and twenty versts farther reached a second island, al which, owing to the rough ness of the ice, his excursion terminated. He saw enough, however, of the rich ness of the two islands in mammoth-teeth, to show him that another visit would be a valuable speculation ; and on raaking his report to the Russian Govern ment, he obtained an exclusive privilege to dig for raararaoth-bones on the isl ands which he had discovered, and to which his name had been given. In the sumraer of 1773 he consequently returned, and ascertained the existence of a third island, much larger than the others, mountainous, and having its coasts covered with drift-wood. He then went back to the first island, wintered there, and relurned lo Ustjansk in spring wilh a valuable cargo of mammoth-tusks. There hardly exists a more remarkable article of coramerce than these re mains of an extinct animal. In North Siberia, along the Obi, the Jenissei, the Lena, and their tributaries, from lat. 58° to 70°, or along the shores of the Polar Ocean as far as the American side of Bering Strait, the remains of a species of elephant are found imbedded in the frozen soil, or become exposed, by the an nual thawing and crdmbling of the river-banks. Dozens of tusks are frequently found together, but the most astonishing deposit of mammoth-bones occurs iu the Lachow Islands, where, in some localities, they are accumulated in such quantities as to form the chief substance of the soil. Year after year the tusk- hunters work every summer at the cliffs, without producing any sensible dim inution of the stock. The solidly-frozen matrix in which the bones lie thaws to a ceriain extent annually, allowing the tusks lo drop out or to be quarried. In 1821, 20,000 lbs. of the fossil ivory were procured from the island of New Siberia. The ice in which the raaramolh remains are imbedded sometiraes preserves their entire bodies, in spite of the countless ages which must have elapsed since they walked on earth. In 1 799 the carcass of a raaramolh was discovered so fresh that the dogs ate the flesh for two suramers. The skeleton is preserved at St. Petersburg, and specimens of the woolly hair — proving that the climate of Siberia, though then no doubt much railder than at present, slill required the protection of a warm and shaggy coat— were presented to the chief muse ums of Europe. The remains of a rhinoceros, very similar to the Indian species, are likewise CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS. 303 found in great nurabers along the shores, or on the steep and sandy river-banks of Northem Siberia, along with those bf fossU species of the horse, the musk- ox, and the bison, which have now totally forsaken the Arctic wilds. The Archipelago of New Siberia, situated to the north of the Lachow Isl ands, was discovered by Sirowatsky in 1806, and since then scientiflcally ex plored by Hedenslrom in 1808, and Anjou in 1823. These islands are reraark able no less for the nuraerous bones of horses, buffaloes, oxen, and sheep scat tered over their desolate shores, than for the vast quantities of fossil-wood ira bedded in their soil. The hills, which rise to a considerable altitude, consist of horizontal beds of sandstone, alternating with biturainous bearas or trunks of trees. On ascending thera, fossilized charcoal is everywhere met wilh, in crusted with an ash-colored matter, which is so hard that it can scarcely be scraped off with a knife. On the sumrait there is a long row of bearas resem bUng the forraer, but fixed perpendicularly in the sandstone. The ends, which project frora seven to ten inches, are for the most part broken, and thfe whole has the appearance of a ruinous dike. Thus a robust forest vegetation once flourished where now only hardy lichens can be seen ; and many herbivorous aniraals feasted on grasses where now the reindeer finds but a scanty supply of moss, and the polar bear is the sole lord of the dreary waste. 304 THE POLAR WORLD. ^ J— ^: TAKTAR ENCAMPMENT. CHAPTER XVII. SIBERIA- FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. Siberia.— Its immense Extent and Capabilities.— The Exiles.— Mentschikoff.— Dolgorouky.-Miinich.— The Criminals.— The free Siberian Peasant.— Extremes of Heat and Cold.— Fur-bearing Animals.— The Sable.— The Ermine.— The Siberian Weasel.— The Sea-otter.- The black Fox.— The Lynx.— The Squirrel. — The varying Hare.— The Suslik. — Importance of the Fur-trade for the Northern Provinces of the Russian Empire.— The Gold-diggings of Eastern Siberia.— The Taiga.— Expenses and Difficulties of searching Expeditions. — Costs of Produce, and enormous Profits of successful Speculators. — Their senseless Extravagance. — First Discovery of Gold in the Ural Mountains.- Jakowlew and Demidow. — Nishne-Tagilsk. SIBERIA is at least thirty tiraes more extensive than Great Britain and Ire land, but its scanty population forms a miserable contrast lo its enormous size. Containing scarcely three millions of inhabitants, it is comparatively three hundred limes less peopled than the British Islands. This sraall popula tion is, raoreover, very unequally distributed, consisting chiefly of Russians and Tartars, who have settled in the south or in the railder west, along the rivers and the principal thoroughfares which lead frora the territory of one large streara to the olher. In the northern and eastern districts, as far as they are occupied, the settleraents are likewise alraost entirely conflned to the river- banks ; and thus the greater part of the enorraous forest-lands, and of the in terminable tundras, are either entirely uninhabited by man, or visited only by the huntsman, the gold-digger, or the migratory savage. And yet Siberia has not been so niggardly treated by Nature as not to be SIBERIA— FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGOINGS. 205 able to sustain a far more considerable population. In the south there are thousands of square miles fit for cultivation; the numbers of the herds and flocks raight be increased a hundred-fold, and even the climate would become milder after the labor of raan had subdued the chilling influences of the forest and the swarap. But it is easier to express than to realize the wish to see Si beria more populous, for its reputation is hardly such as to terapt the free col onists to settle within its limits ; and thus the Russian Governraent, which would wUlingly see its raore temperate regions covered with flourishing to-wns and villages, can only expect an increase of population from the slow growth of time, aided by the annual influx of the involuntary emigrants which it sends across the Ural to the East. Many a celebrated personage has already been doomed to trace this mel ancholy path, particularly during the last century, when the all-powerful favor ite of one period was not seldora dooraed to exUe by the next palace revolu tion. This fate befell, araong others, the famous Prince Mentschikoff. In a covered cart, and in the dress of a peasant, the confidential minister of Peter the Great, the man who for years had ruled the vast Russian Empire, was con veyed into perpetual banishment. His dwelling was now a simple hut, and the spade of the laborer replaced the pen of the statesman. Domestic misfor tunes aggravated his cruel lol. His wife died from the fatigues of the jour ney ; one of his daughters soon after feU a victim to the smallpox ; his two other children, who were attacked by the same malady, recovered. He him seff died in the year 1729, and was buried near his daughter at Beresow, the seat of his exile. Like Cardinal Wolsey, after his faU he remembered God, whom he had forgotten during the swelling tide of his prosperity. He con sidered his punishment as a blessing, which showed hira the way to everlasting happiness. He built a chapel, assisting in its erection with his own hands, and after the services gave instruction to the congregation. The inhabitants of Beresow still honor his memory, and revere him as a saint. They were oonflrmed in this belief by the circumstance that his body, having been disin terred in 1821, was found in a state of perfect preservation, after a lapse of ninety-two years. One day, as his daughter walked through the viUage, she was accosted by a peasant frora the window of a hut. This peasant was Prince Dolgorouky, her father's enemy — the man who had caused his banishment, and was now, in his turn, doomed lo taste the bitterness of exile. Soon after the princess and her brother were pardoned by the Empress Anna, and Dolgorouky took pos session of their hut. Young Mentschikoff was flnally reinstated in all the hon ors and riches of his father, and frora hira descends, in a direct line, the fa mous defender of Sebastopol. Marshal Mtlnich, the favorite of, the Erapress Anna, was doomed, in his six tieth year, to a Siberian exile, when Elizabeth ascended the throne. His prison consisted of three rooms — one for his guards or jailers, the second for their kitchen, the third for his own use. A wall twenty feet high prevented him from enjoying the view even of the sky. The man who had once govemed Russia had but haff a rouble daUy lo spend ; but the love of his wffe — ^who. 206 THE POLAR WORLD. although fifty-five years old, had the courage and the self-denial to accompany him in his banishment— aUeviated the sorrows of his exile. The venerable couple spent twenty-one years in Siberia, and on their return from exile, fifty- two children, grandchUdren, and great-grandchildren, were assembled to meet them at Moscow. The revolution which placed Catherine the Second on the throne had nearly once more dooraed the octogenarian statesman to banish ment, but he fortunately weathered the storm, and died as governor of St. Petersburg. In this century, also, many an unfortunate exile, guiltless al least of ignoble crimes, has been dooraed to wander to Siberia. There many a soldier of the grande arm'ee has ended his life ; there stiU lives many a patriotic Pole, ban ished for having loved his country " not wisely but loo well ;" there also the conspirators who marked with so bloody an episode the accession of Nicholas, have had lime to reflect on the dangers of plotting against the Czar. Most of the Siberian exiles are, however, comraon criminals — such as ift our country would be hung or transported, or sentenced to the treadmill : the as sassin, the robber — to Siberia ; the smuggler on the frontier, whose free-trade principles injure the imperial exchequer — to Siberia; even the vagabond who is caught roaming, and can give no satisfactory account of his doings and in tentions, receives a fresh passport — to Siberia. Thus the annual number of the exiles araounts to about 12,000, who, ac cording to the gravity of their offenses, are sent farther and farther eastward. On an average, every week sees a transport of about 300 of these " unfortu nates," as they are termed by popular corapassion, pass through Tobolsk. About one-sixth are immediately pardoned, and the others sorted. Murderers and burglars are sent to the mines of Nerlschinsk, after having been treated in Russia, before they set out on their travels, with fifty lashes of the knout. In former tiraes their nostrUs used to be torn off, a barbarity which is now no longer practised. According to Sir George Simpson's " Narrative of a Journey Round the World " (1847), Siberia is the best penitentiary in the world. Every exile who is not considered bad enough for the mines — those black abysses, at whose en trance, as at that of Dante's hell, all hope raust be left behind — receives a piece of land, a hul, a horse, two cows, the necessary agricultural implements, and provisions for a year. The first three years he has no taxes to pay, and, dur ing the following ten, only the half of the usual assessment. Thus, if he choose to exert himseff, he has every reason to hope for an improvement in his condi tion, and at the same lime fear contributes lo keep him in the right path ; for he well knows that his first trespass would infallibly conduct him to the mines, a by no means agreeable prospect. Under the influence of these stimulants, many an exile attains a degree of prosperity which would have been quite be yond his reach had he remained in European Russia. Hofmann gives a less favorable account of the Siberian exUes. In his opin ion, the prosperity and civilization of the country has no greater obstacle than the mass of criminals sent to sweU its population. In the province of Tomsk, which seems to be richly stocked with culprits of the worst description, aU the SIBERIA— FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 307 wagoners belong to this class. They endeavored to excite his compassion by hypocrisy. " It was the wiU of God !" is their standing phrase, to which they tried to give a greater emphasis by turning up the whites of their eyes. But, in spite of this pious resignation to the Divine will, Hofmann never met with a worse set of drunkards, liars, and thieves. As to the free Siberian peasant, who is generaUy of exile extraction, aU SIBERIAN PEASANT. traveUers are agreed in his praise. " As soon as one crosses the Ural," says WrangeU, " one is surprised by the extreme friendliness and good-nature of the inhabitants, as much as by the rich vegetation, the well-cultivated fields, and the excellent state of the roads in the southern part of the government of Tobolsk. Our luggage could be left without a guard in the open air. ' Ne- boss !' ' Fear not !' was the answer when we expressed sorae apprehension ; 208 THE POLAR WORLD. ' there are no thieves among us.' This may appear strange, but it must be re membered that the Tomsk wagoners, described above, are located far more to the east, and that every exiled crirainal has his prescribed circuit, the bounds of which he raay not pass without incurring the penalty of being sent to the mines. According to Professor Hansteen, the Siberian peasants are the finest raen of aU Russia, with constitutions of iron. With a sheepskin over their shirt, and their thin Unen trowsers, they bid defiance to a cold of 30° and raore. They have nothing of the dirty avarice of the European Russian boor ; they have as much land as they choose for cultivation, and the soil furnishes all they require for their nourishment and clothing. Their cleanliness is exeraplary. Within the last thirty years the gold-diggings have somewhat spoilt this stale of prira itive simplicity, yel even Hofmann aUows that the West-Siberian peasant has retained rauch of the honesty and hospitality for which he was justly celebrated. Besides agriculture, raining, fishing, and hunting, the carriage of merchan dise is one of the chief occupations of the Siberians, and probably, in propor tion to the population, no other country eraploys so large a number of wagon ers and carriers. The enormous masses of copper, lead, iron, and silver pro duced by the Altai aud the Nerlschinsk mountains, have to be conveyed from an immense distance to the Russian markets. The gold from the East-Siberian diggings is indeed easier lo transport, but the provisions required by the thou sands of workmen eraployed during the summer in working the auriferous sands, have to be brought to them, frequently from a distance of many hundred versts. The milUons of furs, from the squirrel lo the bear, likewise require consider able means of transport ; and, finally, the highly iraportant caravan-trade with China conveys thousands of bales of tea from Kiachla lo Irbit. Siberia has in deed many navigable rivers, but a glance al the map shows us at once that they are so situated as to afford far less facilities to comraerce than would be the case in a raore temperate climate. They all fiow northward into an inhospita ble sea, which is forever closed to navigation, and are themselves ice-bound dur ing the greater part of the year. Enormous distances separate them frora each other, and there are no navigable canals to unite them. On sorae of the larger rivers steam-boats have indeed been introduced, and railroads are talked of; but there can be no doubt that, for many a year to come, the carl and the sledge will continue to be the chief raeans of transport in a country which, in consequence of its peculiar geographical position, is even in its raore southern parts exposed to all the rigors of an Arctic winter. Thus at Jakutsk (62° N. lat.), which is situated but six degrees farther to the north than Edinburgh (55° 58'), the raean teraperature of the coldest month is —40°, and mercury a solid body during one-sixth part of the year; while at Irkutsk (52° 16' N. lat.), situated but little farther to the north than Oxford (51° 46'), the thermometer frequently faUs lo —30°, or even —40° ; tempera tures which are of course quite unheard of on the banks of the Isis. For these dreadful winters in the heart of Siberia, and under coraparatively low degrees of latitude, there are various causes. The land is, in the first place, an immense SIBERIA— PUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 309 plain slanting to the north ; moreover, il is situated at such a distance from the Atlantic, that beyond the Ural the western sea-winds, which bring warmth to our winters, assume the character of iv R* 1 K m J-* I f i It iiiiiii cold land-winds ; and, finally, it merges in the south into the high Mongoli an plateau, which, situated 4000 feel above the level of the sea, has of course but little warrath to impart to it in winter ; so that, from what ever side the wind may blow at that season, it constantly conveys cold. But in sumraer the scene undergoes a total change. Under the influence of the sun circling for months round the North Pole, floods of warmth are poured into Central Siberia, and rap idly cause the thermoraeter to rise; no neighboring sea refreshes the air with a cooling breeze; whether the wind corae frora the heated Mongolian deserts, or sweep over the Siberian plains, it imbibes warmth on every I side. Thus the terrible winter of .Ta- ; kutsk is followed by an equally im- ! moderate summer (58° 3'), so that rye and barley are able to ripen on a soil which a few feel below the surface is perpetually frozen. The boundless woods of Siberia harbor a nuraber of fur-bearing an imals whose skins forra one of the chief products of the country. Araong these persecuted denizens of the for est, the sable {.Sf artes zibellina), which closely resembles the pine -marten {Martes abietum) in shape and size, deserves to be particularly noticed, both for the beauty of its pelt, and its iraportance in the fur-trade. Sleeping by day, the sable hunts his prey by night; but though he chiefly relish es animal food, such as hares, young birds, mice, and eggs, he also feeds on berries, and the tasteful seeds of the Pinus cembra. the banks of sorae river, in holes of the earth, or beneath the roots of trees. In cessant persecution has gradually drivenhira into thc most inaccessible forests; 14 \t His favorite abode is near 310 THE POLAR WORLD. V the days are no more when the Tunguse hunter willingly gave for a copper kettle as many sable skins as it would hold, or when the Kamchatkan trapper, could easily catch seventy or eighty sables in one winter; but Von Baer stiU esti mates the annual produce of aU Siberia at 45,000 skins. The finest are caught in the forests between theLena and the Eastern Sea, but Kamchatka furnishes the greater nuraber. A skin of the finest quality is worth about forty roubles on the spot, and at least twice as much in St. Petersburg or Moscow, particularly when the hair is long, close, and of a deep blackish-brown, with a thick brown underwool. Skins with long dark hair tipped with while are highly esteemed, but still more so those which are entirely black — a color to which the Russians give the pref erenoe, while the Chinese have no objection lo reddish tints. In consequence of this difference of taste, the sables from the Obi, which are gen erally larger but of a lighter color, are sent to Kiachla, while tbe darker skins, from Eastern Siberia, are directed to St. Petersburg and Leipsic. The cha,se of the sable is attended with many hardships and dangers. The skins are in the highest perfection at the commenceraent of the winier ; accord ingly, towards the end of October, the hunters assemble in small corapanies, and proceed along the rivers in boats, or travel in sledges lo the place of rendez vous — taking with thera provisions for three or four months. In the deep and solitary forest they erect their huts, made of branches of trees, and bank up the snow round them, as a further protection against the piercing wind. They now roam and seek everywhere for the traces of the sable, and lay traps or snares for his destruction. These are generaUy pitfalls, with loose boards placed over them, baited wilh fish or flesh ; fire-arms or cross-bows are more rarely used, as they daraage the skins. The traps must be frequently visited, and even then the hunter oflen finds that a fox has preceded him, and left but a few worth less remnants of the sable in the snare. Or sometiraes a snow-storra over takes him, and then his care must be to save his own life. Thus sable-hunt ing is a continual chain of disappointments and perils, and at the end of the season it is frequently found that the expenses are hardly paid. Until now the sable has been but rarely tamed. One kept in the palace of the Arch bishop of Tobolsk was so perfectly doraesticated, that it was allowed to stroll about the to-wn as it liked. It was an arch-enemy of cats, raising itself furi ously on its hind-legs as soon as it saw one, and showing the greatest desire to fight it. In former times the ermine {Mustela erminea) ranked next to the sable as the most valuable fur-bearing animal of the Siberian woods ; at present the skin is worth no more than from five to eight silver kopeks at Tobolsk, so that the whole produce of its chase hardly amounts to 200,000 roubles. This little ani mal reserables in its general appearance the weasel, but is considerably larger, as il attains a length of from twelve to fourteen inches. Its color, which is red dish-brown in sumraer, becoraes milk-white during the winter in the northern regions, with the exception of the tip of the tail, which always remains black. Its habits likewise greatly resemble those of the weasel ; it is equally alert in all its raovements, and equally courageous in defending itself when attacked. It lives on birds, poultry, rats, rabbits, leverets, and all kinds of smaller animals. SIBERIA— FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 311 and will not hesitate lo attack a prey of much greater size than itseff. Although various species of ermine are distributed over the whole forest region of the north, yet Siberia produces the finest skins. The largest corae from the Kolyma, or are brought lo the fair of Ostrownoje by the Tchulchi, who obtain them from the coldest regions of America. The Siberian weasel ( Viverra siberica), which is much smaller than the er mine, is likewise hunted for its soft and perfectly snow-while winter dress — the tip of the tail not being black, as in the latter. The sea-otter, or kalan {Enhydris lutris), the most valuable of aU the Rus sian fur-beariag animals, as 110 sUver roubles is the average price of a single skin, is nearly related to the weasel tribe. The enormous value set upon the glossy, jet-black, soft, and thick fur of the kalan sufficiently explains how the Russian hunters have followed his traces from Kamchatka to Araerica, and almost entirely extirpated hira on many of the coasts and islands of Bering's Sea and the Northern Pacific, where he formerly abounded. His habits very much resemble those of the seal ; he haunts sea-washed rocks, lives mostly in the water, and loves to bask in the sun. His hind feet have a membrane skirt ing the outside of the exterior toe, like that of a goose, and the elongated form of his flexible body enables him lo swim with the greatest celerity. The love of the sea-otters for their young is so great that they reckon their own Uves as nothing to protect them from danger ; and Steller, who had more opportunities than any other naturalist for observing their habits, affirms that, when deprived of their offspring, their grief is so strong that in less than a fortnight they waste away to skeletons. On their flight they carry their young in their raouths, or drive them along before them. If they succeed in reaching the sea, they begin to mock their baffled pursuer, and express their joy by a variety of antics. Sometimes they raise themselves upright in the water, rising and faUing -with the waves, or holdiag a fore pa-w over their eyes, as if to look sharply at him ; or they throw themselves on their back, rubbing their breast with their fore paws ; or cast their young into the water, and catch thera again, like a mother playing with her infant. The sea-otter not only surpasses the fish-otter by the beauty of his fur, but also in size, as he attains a length of from three to four feet, exclusive of the taU. His food consists of small fishes, molluscs, and crus taceous animals, whose hard calcareous covering his broad grinders are weU adapted lo crush. Next to the sea-otter, the black fox, whose skin is of a rich and shining black or deep brown color, wilh the longer or exterior hairs of a silvery-white, furnishes the most costly of all the Siberian furs. The average price of a sin gle skin amounts to 60 or 70 silver roubles, and rich amateurs wiU wUUngly pay 300 roubles, or even more, for those of first-rate quality. The skin of the Siberian red fox, which ranks next in value, is worth no more than 20 roubles ; the steel-gray winter dress of the Siberian crossed fox (thus named from the black cross on his shoulders), frora 10 to 12 roubles; and that of the Arctic fox, though very warm and close, no more than 6 or 8. The bear family Uke-wise furnishes raany skins to the Siberian furrier. That of the young brown bear ( Ursus arctos) is highly esteeraed for the trimming 313 THE POLAR WORLD. of pelisses ; but that of the older animal has little value, and is used, like that of the polar bear, as a rug or a foot-cloth in sledges. The lynx is highly prized for its very thick, soft, rust-colored winter dress, striped with darker brown. It attains the size of the wolf, .and is distinguished from all other members of the cat tribe, by the pencils of long black hair which lip its erect and pointed ears. Il loves to Ue in ambush for the passing rein deer or elk, on some thick branch at a considerable distance from the ground. With one prodigious bound il leaps upon the back of its victira, strikes its tal ons into its flesh, and opens with its sharp teeth the arteries of its neck. Though singly of but little value, as a thousand of ils skins are worth no more than one sea-otter, the squirrel plays in reality a far more iraportant part in the Siberian fur-trade than any of the before-raentioned .animals, as the total value of the gray peltry which it furnishes to trade is at least seven limes greater than that of the sable. Four millions of gray squirrel skins are, on an average, annually exported to China, from two to three millions to Europe, and the horae consumption of the Russian Empire is beyond all doubt stiU more considerable, as il is the fur most commonly used by the middle classes. The European squirrels are of inferior value, as the hair of their winter dress is stiU a mixture of red and gray; in the territory of the Petschora, the gray first becomes predominant, and increases in beauty on advancing towards the east. The squirrels are caught in snares or traps, or shot with blunted arrows. Among the fur-bearing animals of Siberia, we have further to notice the vary ing hare, whose winter dress is entirely white, except the tips of the ears, which are black ; the Baikal hare ; the ground-squirrel, whose fur has fine longitudinal dark-brown stripes, alternating with four light-yellow ones ; and the suslik, a species of marmot, whose brown fur, with white spots and stripes, fetches a high price in China. It occurs over all Siberia as far as Kamchatka. Its burrows are frequently nine feet deej) ; this, however, does not prevent its being dug out by the hunters, who likewise entrap it in spring when it awakes from its winter sleep. Summing together the total amount of the Russian fur-trade. Von Baer es timates the value of the skins annually brought to the market by the Russian American Fur Company at haff a million of silver roubles, the produce of Eu ropean Russia at a million and a half, and that of Siberia at three millions. As agriculture decreases on advancing to the north, the chase of the fur-bearing animals increases in importance. Thus, in the most northern governments of European Russia — Wjatka, Wologda, Olonez, and Archangel — it is one of the chief occupations of the inhabitants. In Olonez about four hundred bears are killed every year, and the immense forests of Wologda furnish from one hun dred to two hundred black foxes, three hundred bears, and three millions of squirrels. Although the sable and the sea-otter are not so numerous as iu former times, yet, upon the whole, the Russian fur-trade is in a very flourishing condition ; nor is there any fear of its decreasing, as the less valuable skins — such as those of the squirrels and hares, which from their nurabers weigh most heavily in the balance of trade — are furnished by rodents, which multiply very rapidly, SIBERIA— FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 213 and find an inexhaustible supply of food in the forests and pasture-grounds of Siberia. The chase of the fur-bearing animals affords the North-Siberian nomads — such as the Ostiaks, Jakuts, Tungusi, and Samoiedes — the only raeans of pro curing the foreign articles they require ; hence it taxes aU their ingenuity, and takes up a great deal of their time. On the river-banks and in the forests they lay innumerable snares and traps, aU so nicely adapted lo the size, strength, and pecuUar habits of the various creatures they are intended to capture, that il would be almost impossible to improve them. An industrious Jakut wUl lay about five hundred various traps as soon as the first snow has fallen ; these he visits about five or six times in the course of the winter, and generaUy finds some animal or other in every eighth or tenth snare. The produce of his chase he brings to the nearest fair, where the tax-gath erer is waitiag for the jassak, which is now generally paid in raoney (five pa per roubles =f our shillings). With the reraainder of his gains he purchases iron kettles, red cloth for hemming his garments, powder aud shot, rye-meal, glass pearls, tobacco, and brandy — which, though forbidden to be sold publicly, is richly supplied to him in private — and then retires to his native wilds. From the smaUer fairs, the furs are sent by the Russian merchants to the larger staple places, such as Jakutsk, Nerlschinsk, Tobolsk, Kiachla, Irbit, Nishne-Novgorod, and finaUy St. Petersburg and Moscow ; for by repeatedly sorting and matching the size and color of the skins, their value is increased. About thirty years ago firs were stUl the chief export article of Siberia — to China, European Russia, and Western Europe — but since then the discovery of its rich auriferous deposits has made gold its most important produce. The precious metal is fouud on the western slopes of the Ural chain and in West Siberia ; but the most productive diggings are situated in East Siberia, where they give occupation lo raany thousands of workmen, and riches to a few suc cessful speculators. The vast territory drained by the Upper Jenissei and its tributaries, the Su perior and the Middle Tunguska, consists for the greater part of a disraal and swampy primeval forest, which scarcely thirty years since was alraost totaUy unknown. A few wretched noraads and fur-hunters were the only inhabitants of the Taiga — as those sylvan deserts are called — and squirrel skins seeraed all they were ever likely lo produce. A journey through the Taiga is said to be one of the raost fatiguing and tedious tours which it is possible to make. Up- hiU and down-hUl, a narrow path leads over a swampy ground, into which the horses sink up to their knees. The rider is scarcely less harassed than the patient animal which carries him over this unstable soil. No bird enlivens the solitary forest with its song ; the moaning of the wind in the crowns of the trees alone interrupts the gloomy silence. The eternal sameness of the scene — day after day one constant succession of everlasting larches and fir-trees — is as wearying to the mind as the alraost impassable road to the body. But suddenly the sound of the axe or the creaking of the water-wheel is heard; the forest opens, a long row of huts extends along the banks of a riv ulet, and hundreds of workmen are seen moving about as industrious as a hive 314 THE POLAR WORLD. of bees. What is the cause of aU this activity— of this sudden change frora a death-Uke quiet to a feverish life ? These are the gold-fields ; the sands of these swampy grounds are mixed, like those of the Pactolus, with gold, and their fortunate possessors would not exchange them for the finest meadows, cornfields, or vineyards. Fedor Popow, a hunter of the province of Tomsk, is said to have been the first discoverer of gold in Siberia ; and Government having granted per mission to private persons to search for the precious metal, a few enterprising men directed their attention lo the wUd spurs of the Sajan Mountains. A brU Uant success rewarded their endeavors. In the year 1836 an exploriug-party, sent out by a merchant named Jakin Resanow, discovered a rich deposit of auriferous sand near the banks of the Great Birussa; and in 1839-40, simUar deposits were found along several of the tributaries of the Upper Tunguska, and StiU farther lo the north, on the Oklolyk, a rivulet that flows into the Pit. The expenses of a searching-party amount, on an average, to 3000 silver roubles (£600) ; and as very often no gold whatever is found, these hazardous explorations nol seldom put both the purse and the perseverance of their under takers to a severe trial. Thus Nikita Maesnikow had spent no less thau 260,000 sUver roubles (£52,000) in fruitless researches, when he at length discovered the' rich gold-fleld on the Peskin, which, as we shaU presently see, amply remuner ated him for his previous losses. Of the difficulties which await the gold-searchers, a faint idea may be formed, on considering that the whole of the auriferous region, which far surpasses in size most of the European kingdoms, consists of one vast forest like that above described. Patches of grass-land on which horses can feed are of very rare oc currence, and damp moss is the only bed the Taiga affords. As the gold-search ers are very oflen at work some hundreds of versts frora the nearest village, they are obliged to carry aU their j^ro-visions along with them. Their clothes are almost constantly wet, from their sleeping in the damp forest, from the frequent rains lo which they are exposed, and frora their toUing in the swarapy ground. Scarcely have they dug a few feet deep when the pit fiJls with water, which they are obliged to purap out as fast as il gathers, and thus standing up to their knees in the raud, they work on untU they reach the solid rock, for then only can they be certain that no aurfferous layer has been neglected in their search. When we consider, moreover, that all this labor is very often totaUy useless, their perseverance can not but be adraired ; nor is it to be wondered at that exploring-parties have soraetiraes encamped on the site of rich gold-deposits without examining the spot, their patience having been exhausted by repeated faUures in the vicinity. When the winter, with its deep snowfalls, suddenly breaks in upon the searchers, their hardships become dreadful. The frost and want of food kiU their horses, their utensils have to be left behind ; and drag ging their most indispensable provisions along with them on small sledges, they are not seldom obliged to wade for weeks through the deep snow before they reach sorae inhabited place. But even the severity of a Siberian winter does nol prevent the sending out of exploring-parties. Such winter explorations are only fitted out for the more SIBERIA— PUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 315 accurate examination of very swampy aurfferous grounds that have been dis covered in the previous year, and where it is less difficult to work in the frozen soil than to contend with the water in summer. A winter-party travels with out horses, the workmen themselves transporting all that they require on light sledges. They are obliged to break up the obdurate soil with pickaxes, and the sand thus loosened has lo be thawed and washed in warm water. After their day's work, they spend the night in huts made of the branches of trees, where they sleep on the hard ground. It requires the iron constitution of a Siberian to bear such hardships, to which many fall a prey, in spile of their vigorous health. A gold-deposit havrag been found, the fortunate discoverer obtains the grant of a lot of ground, 100 sashens (600 feet) broad, and 2500 sashens (or 5 versts) long. Two adjoining lots are never granted to the same person, but a subse quent purchase or amalgamation is permitted. At first Government was satis fied with a moderate tax of 15 per cent, of the produce ; subsequently, however, this was doubled, until within the last few years, when, the gold production having been found to decrease, the primitive impost was returned to, or even reduced to 5 per cent, for the less productive mines. Besides this tax, from four to eight gold roubles per pound of gold, according to the richness of the dig gings, have to be paid for police expenses. Only a twelve years' lease is granted, after which the digging reverts to the crown, and a new lease has to be pur chased. As the severe climate of the Taiga limits the working-time to four months (from May to September), the period of the concession is thus in reality not more than four years. The first care of the lessee is, of course, to collect the necessary provisions and working apparatus. The distant steppe of the Kirghese furnishes him with dried or salted meat ; his iron utensUs he purchases in the factories of the Ural ; the fairs of Irbit and Nishne-Novgorod supply hira with every other arti cle ; and rye-meal and fishes he easily obtains from the Siberian peasants or traders. By water and by land, all these various stores have to be transported in summer to the residence or establishraent of the gold-digger on the border of the Taiga. The transport through the Taiga itseff takes place during the winter, on sledges, al a very great cost ; and the expense is stUl more increased if time has been lost through inattention, as then all that may stUl be wanting has to be conveyed to the spot on the backs of horses. Most of the raen that are hired for working in the diggings are exiles — the remainder generally free peasants, who have been reduced in their circum stances by misfortunes or misconduct. The procuring of the necessary work men is an affair of no small trouble and expense. Before every summer cam paign the agents of the gold-diggers travel about the country like recruiting- sergeants, and after giving many fair words and some hand-money, they take the passport of the raan engaged as a security for his appearance. But although a passport is an indispensable document in Siberia, yet it nol seldom happens that the workman finds means lo obtain a new one under some other name, aud, engaging himseff lo a new master, defrauds the first of his hand-money. It may be easily imagined that, as the workmen only consist of the refuse 316 THE POLAR WORLD. of society, the greatest discipline is necessary lo keep them in order. The sys tem of a secret poUce, so cherished by aU arbitrary governments, is here ex tended to its utmost limits ; scarcely has a suspicious word faUen among the workmen, when the director is immediately informed of it, and takes his meas ures accordingly. Every man knows that he is watched, and is himseff a spy upon his companions. Hofmann relates an instance of a plot singularly nipped in the bud. In one of the gold-diggings on the Noiba, the workmen, at the instigation of an under- overseer, had refused to perform a task assigned to them. It was to be feared that the spirit of insubordination would gain ground, and extend over aU the neighboring diggings. The director, consequently, sent at once for mUitary as sistance ; this, however, proved to be unnecessary, for when the Cossacks arrived at the Noiba, a thunder-storm arose, and at the very moment they came ridiag up to the digging a flash of lightning killed the ringleader in the midst of the mutineers. As soon as the raen recovered from the first shock of their surprise and terror, they aU exclaimed, " This is the judgment of God!" and, without any further hesitation, at once returned to their duty. Besides free rations, the ordinary wages of a common workman are 15 rou bles banco, or 12 shiUings a month, but raore experienced hands receive 50 or even 60 roubles. The pay dates from the day when the workman makes his appearance al the residence, and thenceforward, also, his rations are served out to him. They consist of a pound of fresh or salt meal, or an equivalent portion of fish on fasting-days, cabbage and groats for soup, besides fresh rye-bread and quas (the. favorite national beverage) ad libitum. The whole number of workmen employed in a gold-digging subdivide theraselves into separate socie ties, or artells. Each of these elects a chief, or head-man, to whom the provis ions for his arteU are weighed out, and to whom aU the other comraon interests are intrusted. The sale of spirituous liquor is strictly forbidden, for its use would render it impossible lo maintain order ; and, according lo law, no gin-shop is allowed lo be opened within 60 versts of a digging. The pay and the liberal rations received would alone be insufficient to allure workmen to the diggings, for, as we have seen, the voyage there and back is extremely irksome, and the labor very fatiguing. Aji exceUent plan has conse quently been devised for their encouragement. The contract of each workman distinctly specifies the quantity of his daily work, consisting of a certain number of wheelbarrows of sand — from 100 to 120, according to the distance from the spot where it is dug to the place where itis washed out — each reckoned at three ponds,* which one party has to fiU, another to convey to the wash-stands, and a third to wash. The task is generaUy completed by noon, or early in the afternoon. For the labor they perform during the rest of the day, or on Sundays and holidays, they receive an extra pay of two or three roubles for every solotnik of gold they wash. Every evening the workraen come with the produce of their free labor to the office, the gold is weighed in their presence, and the arteU credited for the amount of its share. This free-work is as advantageous for the mas- * The poud is equal to 40 pounds. The poud is divided into 96 solotniks. SIBERLA— PUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 317 ters as the laborers. The former enjoy a net profit of eight or ten roubles per solotnik, and aU the working expenses are of course put to the charge of the contract labor ; and the latter earn a great deal of money, according to their in dustry or good-luck, for when fortune favors an artell, its share may amount to a considerable sum. During Hofmann's stay at the Birussa, each workman of a certain artell earned in one afternoon 72 roubles, and the Sunday's work of another of these associations gave lo each of its members 105 roubles, or £4. The artisans — who, though employed in a gold-mine, are nol engaged in dig- giag or washing the aurfferous saad — are also rewarded from tirae lo time by a day's free-labor in places which are known to be rich. On one of these occasions a Cossack on the Oktolyk received 300 roubles for his share of the gold that was washed out of 49 wheelbarrows of sand. These of course are extraordinary cases, but they show how much a workman may gain ; and be ing of course exaggerated by report, are the chief inducements which attract the workmen, and keep them to their duty. If the free-labor is unproductive, many of the workraen desert or give up free-labor altogether, and in both cases the master is a loser. To prevent this, it is customary, in many of the diggings, to pay the workmen a fixed sum for their extra work. At the end of the season the workmen are paid off, and receive provisions for their home-journey. Generally, the produce of their summer's labor is spent, in the first villages they reach, in drinking and garabling ; so that, to be able to return to their families, they are obliged to bind themselves anew for the next season, and to receive hand-money frora the agent, who, knowing their weakness, is generally on the spot lo lake advantage of it. After spending a long winter f uU of want and privations, they return to the Taiga in spring, and thus, through their own folly, their life is spent in constant misery and hard labor. During the winter the digging is deserted, except by an under-overseer and a few workraen, who make the necessary preparations for the next campaign, receive and warehouse the provisions as they arrive, and guard the property agaiast thieves or wanton destruction. The upper-overseer or director, mean while, is fuUy occupied at the residence in forwarding the provisions and stores that have arrived there during the summer to the mine, in making the neces sary purchases for the next year, in sending his agents about the country to engage new workraen ; and thus the winter is, in fact, his busiest time. With. the last sledge transport he returns to the digging, to receive the workmen as they arrive, and to see that aU is ready for the suraraer. As his situation is one of great trust and responsibility, he enjoys a considerable salary. Maes nikow, for instance, paid his chief director 40,000 roubles a year ; and 6000 or 8000 roubles, besides free station, and a percentage of the gold produced, is the ordinary emolument. \ It is thus evident that the expenses of a Siberian gold-mine are enormous, but when fortune favors the undertaker he is amply rewarded for his outlay ; an annual produce of 10, 15, or 20 ponds of gold is by no means uncommon. In the year 1845, 458 workraen employed in the gold-mine of Mariinsk, be- 318 THE POLAR WORLD. longing to Messrs. Golubdow and Kusnezow, produced 81 pouds 19| lbs. of the much-coveted metal; in the year 1843 the mine of Olginsk, belonging to Lieutenant Malewinsky, yielded 82 pouds 37i lbs.; and in 1844, the labor of 1014 workmen, employed in the mine of Kresdowosdwishensk, belonging to Messrs. Kusnezow and Schtschegolow, produced no less than 87 pouds 14 lbs. of gold. But even Kresdowosdwishensk has been distanced by the mine of Spasky, situated near the sources of the Peskin, which, in the year 1842, yielded its fortunate possessor, the above-mentioned Counsellor Nikita Maes nikow (one of the few men who -were already extremely rich before the Sibe rian auriferous deposits were discovered), the enormous quantity of 100 pouds of ffold ! From 1840 to 1845, Maesnikow extracted from this raine no less than 348 pouds 6 lbs. of gold, worth 4,135,174 silver roubles, or about £640,000. Still more recently, in 1860, the Gawrilow mine, belonging lo the house of Rja- sanow, produced 102^ pouds of pure gold. But in Siberia, as elsewhere, mining operations are frequently doomed to end in disappointment, particularly ii the space destined to be worked in the foUowing summer has not been carefuUy exarained beforehand, as the ore is often very unequally distributed. A speculator, ha-ving discovered a gold-mine, examined four or five samples of the sand, which gave a highly satisfactory re sult. DeUghted with his good-fortune, he made his arrangements on a grand scale, and collected provisions for 500 workmen; but when operations began, il was found that he had, unfortunately, hit upon a smaU patoh of aurfferous sand, the vicinity of which was totally void of gold, so that his 500 workmen produced no more than a few pounds of ore, and he lost at least £10,000 by his adventure. The entire gold produce of East Siberia araounted, in 1845, lo 848 pouds 36 lbs., and in 1856 to about 1100 pouds ; but latterly, in consequence of the increasing wages and dearness of provisions, which has caused many of the less productive raines to be abandoned, it has soraewhat diminished. In 1860, 31,796 raen, 919 women, and 8751 horses and oxen, were employed in the Si berian gold-mines. As may easUy be imagined, the discovery of these sources of wealth in the desert has caused a great revolution iu the social state of Siberia. The riches so suddenly acquired by a few favorites of fortune, have raised luxury lo an unexampled height, and encouraged a senseless prodigality. Some sterlets* having been offered for 300 roubles to a miner suddenly raised frora penury to wealth, " Fool !" said the upstart, with the superb mien of a conquering hero, to the fish-dealer, " wUt thou sell rae these excellent sterlets so cheap ? Here are a thousand roubles ; go, and say that thou hast dealt with me !" The smalltown of Krasnojarsk, romantically situated on the Jenissei, is the chief seat of the rich miners. Here may be seen the choicest toilettes, the most showy equipages, and champagne (which in Siberia costs at least £1 a bottle) is the daily beverage of the gold aristocracy. Unfortunately, Krasno jarsk had, until very recently, not a single bookseller's shop to boast of; and * A species of sturgeon highly esteemed by epicures. SIBERIA— PUR-TRADE A2TD GOLD-DIGGINGS. 319 while thousands were lavished on vanity and sensual enjoyments, not a rouble was devoted to the improvement of the mind. Less rich in gold than the province of Jeniseisk, but richer in copper and iron, and above aU in platina, is the Ural, where mining industry was first intro duced by Peter the Great, in the last years of the seventeenth century, and has since acquired a colossal development. Though gold was discovered in the Ura- lian province of Permia as early as 1745, yet its production on a large scale is of more modern date. In the year 1816 the whole quantity of gold furnished by the Ural amounted only to 5 pouds 35 lbs., while iu 1834 il had increased lo 405 pouds. The discovery of the precious metals on the estates of the large mine-propri etors of the Ural, who already before that time were among the wealthiest men of the erapire, has increased their riches lo an enormous extent, and given a European celebrity to the naraes of Jakowlew and Demidoff. Werch Issetsk and Werchne Tagilsk, in the province of Permia, belonging to the Jakowlew family, have an extent of more than three mUlions of acres, with a population of 11,000 souls. Besides iron and copper, their chief produce, these estates yielded, in 1834, 58 pouds of gold. Nishne-Tagilsk, belonging, since 1725, to the Demidoffs, is a still raore raag nificent possession ; for il raay truly be said, that perhaps nowhere in the world are greater mineral riches congregated in one spot than here, where, besides vast quanlities»of iron and copper, the washing of the sands produced, in 1834 no less than 29 pouds of gold, and 113 pouds 3 lbs. of platina. The estate ex tends over four miUions of acres, and its population, in 1834, amounted lo 20,000 souls. The town of Nishne-Tagilsk has about 15,000 inhabitants, and Helraersen (" Travels in the Ural ") praises the Deraidoffs for their zeal in carrying the civilization of Em-ope lo the wUds of the Ural. In an excellent eleraentary school, 150 boys are clothed, fed, and educated at their expense. Those pupUs who distinguish themselves by their abilities are then sent to a higher school, such as the Demidoff Lyceum in Jaroslaw, or the University of Moscow, and after the termination of their studies obtain a situation on the estates of the famUy. The palace of the Demidoffs has a fine collection of paintings by the first Italian masters ; but it is seldom ff ever inhabited by the proprietors, who prefer Florence and Paris to the Ural. The founder of the famUy was an em inent gunsmith of the to-wn of Tula, whose abUities gained him the favor of Peter the Great, and the gift of the mines on which the colossal fortune of his descendants has been raised. 330 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XVIIL MIDDENDOBFF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND. For what Purpose was MiddendorfFs Voyage to Taimurland undertaken ? — Difficulties and Obstacles. — Expedition down the Taimur River to the Polar Sea. — Storm on Taimur Lake. — Loss of the Boat.— Middendorff ill and alone in 75° N. Lat.— Saved by a grateful Samoiede.— Clknate and Vegetation of Taimurland. ON following the contours of the Siberian coast, we find to the east of Nova Zembla a vast tract of territory projecting towards the Pole, and extend ing its promontories far into the icy sea. This country — which, frora its prin cipal river, may be called Taimurland — is the most northern, and, I need hardly add, the most inhospitable part of the Old World. The last huts of the Rus sian fishermen are situated about the mouth of the Jenissei, but the whole terri tory of the Taimur River, and the regions traversed by the lower course of the Chatanga and the Pasina, are completely uninhabited. Even along the upper course of these two last-named rivers, the population is exceedingly scanty and scattered ; and the few Samoiedes who migrate dur ing the summer to the banks of the Taimur, gladly leave them at the approach of winter, the cold of which no thermoraeter has ever measured. As may easi ly be iraagined, Taimurland has but few attractions for the trader or the fur- hunter, but for the naturalist it is by no means without interest. We have seen in a former chapter how Von Baer, prorapted by the disinter ested love of science, travelled to Nova Zerabla lo examine the productions of a cold insular summer beyond the 70lh degree of latitude. The instructive re sults of his journey rendered it doubly desirable to obtain information about the effects of summer in a continental climate, situated if possible stiU farther to the north ; and as no region could be better suited to this purpose than the interior of the broad mass of Taimurland, the Academy of Sciences of St. Peters burg resolved to send thither a scientific expedition. Fortunately for the suc cess of the undertaking, Von Middendorff, the eminent naturalist, whose offer of service was gladly accepted, was in every respect the right man in the right place ; for to the most untiring scientific zeal, and an unwavering determination, he joined a physical strength and a manual dexterity rarely found united with learning. In the Lapland moors he had learned to bivouac for nights together, while chasing the waterfowl, and on foot he was able to lire the best-traiaed walrus-hunter. He understood how to construct a boat, and to steer it with his own hand, and every beast or bird was doomed that came within reach of his unerring baU. In one word, no traveller ever plunged into the Arctic wUds more independent of baggage, followers, or the raeans of transport. On April 4 we find Middendorff, accompanied by Mr. Brandt, a Danish for ester, and a single servant, on the ice of the Jenissei between Turuchansk and MIDDENDORPF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND. 331 Dudino. Here his companions were attacked by measles ; but as it was high time to reach the Chatanga before the melting of the snow, the patients were carefully packed uj) in boxes lined with skins, and the whole party — whose num bers, raeanwhile, had been increased by the addition of a topographer and of three Cossacks — eraerged from the region of forests on April 13, having to face a cold of —36°, and a storra that almost overturned their sledges. With Tunguse guides they traversed the tundra in a north-easterly direction as far as the Pasina, and thence passing on from one Samoiede horde to another, al length reached Koronnoie Filippowskoi (71° 5' lat.) on the Boganida, an affluent of the Chela, which is itself a tributary of the Chatanga. Here a halt was made, partly because all the party except Middendorff were by this time attacked with the reigning epidemic, and jiartly to wait for the Samoiedes, whom they intend ed to join on their suramer migration to the north. During this interval Mid dendorff made an excursion to the Chatanga, for the purpose of gathering in formation about the voyage down that river, and to make the necessary prepara tions. In the viUage of Chatangsk, however, he found nearly all the inhabitants suffering from the measles ; and as no assistance was to be expected from them, he resolved to aller his route, and to proceed as soon as possible to the River Taimur, which would in all probability afford him the best means for penetrat- iog to the extreme confines of continental Asia. As this most northerly river of the Old World lies far beyond the boundaries of arboreal growth, a boat-frame of twelve feet on the keel had to be made at Koronnoie before setting out. Brandt was left behind with part of the company, to make a prolonged series of meteorological observations, and to gather as complete a collection as possible of the animals and plants of the country, while Middendorff started on his ad venturous tour (May 19) with sixty-eight reindeer, under the guidance of afew Samoiedes on their progress to the north, and accorapanied only by the topog rapher, an interpreter, and two Cossacks. The difficulties of this journey, since a boat-frarae, fuel, provisions, physical instruments, apparatuses for the preser vation of objects of natural history, forming altogether a load for many sledges, had to be transported along with the travellers, would have been great at all times, but were now considerably increased by the epidemic having also seized the tribe of Samoiedes which Middendorff expected to find near the small River Nowaia, and which was to guide him farther on to the Taimur. At length, after a search of three days, he found the remnant of the horde, which had been decimated and reduced to a deplorable condition by the epidemic. In vain he sought for the well-known faces of the chief personages of the horde, with whom he had negotiated on the Boganida — " they were all dead." Of thirty-five per sons, one only was completely healthy ; a second could hardly crawl about ; but the others lay prostrate in their tents, coughing and groaning under their skin coverings. Leaving seven corpses on the road, they had advanced by slow jour neys to join Middendorff, until they broke down, so that instead of receiving aid al their hands, he was now obliged to help thera in their distress — an assist ance which they amply repaid, as we shall see in the sequel. Unfortunately the illness had prevented the Samoiede women from sewing together, as they had promised, the skins that were necessary to complete the 333 THE POLAR WORLD. covering of the travellers' tent, so that they had much to suffer during a violent snow-storm, which raged from May 27 to 30. Thus after another long delay and an irreparable loss of time, considering the extreme shortness of the sum mer, Middendorff was not able to start frora the Nowaia before May 31. The softening of the snow rendered the advance of the sledges extremely difficult, so that it was not before June 14 that he reached the Taimur at a considerable distance above the point where the river discharges its waters into the lake. Encamping on a steep declivity of its bank, Middendorff now set about buUd ing his boat. On June 30 the ice on the river began lo break up, and on July 5 the navigation of the streara was free. By the light of the midnight sun the boat was launched, and christened " The Tundra," to commemorate the diffi culties of its construction in the deserts of 74° N. lat. Constant north winds retarded the voyage down the river and over the lake, beyond which the Taimur, traversing a hilly country, is inclosed within steep and picturesque rocks. The increasing rapidity of the stream now favored the travellers, and the storms were less troublesorae between the mighty rock-walls ; but unfortunately Mid dendorff, instead of being able, as he had expected, to fill his nets with fish as he advanced, and to establish depots for his retum journey, found himseff obUged to consume the provisions he had taken with him in the boat. On Au gust 6 the first night-frost took place, and from that time was regularly repeal ed. Yet iu spite of these warnings, Middendorff continued his journey dovra the river, and reached the sea on August 24, in 76° N. lat. But now it was high time to return. " The fear of leaving my undertaking half unfinished," says Middendorff, " had hitherto encouraged me to persevere. The great distance from any hu man habitation, the rapid stream, against which we had now to contend, and the advanced season, wilh its approaching dark nights- and frosts, made our return an imperative necessity, and I could have but little reliance on our reraaining strength. The insufficient food and the fatigues of our joumey, often prolong ed to extreme exhaustion, had reduced our vigor, and we aU began lo feel the effects of our frequent wading through cold water, when, as often happened, our boat had grounded upon a shaUow, or when the flat mud-banks of the riv er gave us no other alternative for reaching the dry land. It was now also the second month since we had not slept under a tent, having aU the time passed the nights behiad a screen erected . on the oars of the boat, as a shelter against the wind. Pro%'ided with a good load of drift-wood, collected on the shore of the Polar Ocean, we began our return voyage on August 26. The borders of the river were already incrusted with ice. Wading becarae extreraely irksome, the river having meanwhile fallen above six feet, and the shallows frequently forcing us to step inlo the water and puU the boat along. " Fortunately the wind reraained favorable, and thus by rowing to the utmost of our strength, and with the assistance of the broad saUs of our ' Tundra,' we surmounted two rapids which, encased between abrupt rocks, seemed to defy our utmost efforts. "On the 31st, a malicious gust of wind, bursting out of a narrow gorge, threw our boat against the rocks and broke the rudder. The frost and wet. MIDDENDORPF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND. 233 together with the shortness of our provisions, tried us sorely. Nol a day pass ed without sleet and snow. " On September 5, whUe endeavoring to double during a violent storm a rocky island al the northern extremity of Lake Taimur, one wave after another dashed into the boat, which I could only save by letting her run upon a sand bank. The violent wind, with a temperature of only -f27° al noon, covered our clothes with solid ice-crusts. We were obliged to halt four days till the storm ceased; our nets and my double-barrelled gun proved daily more and more unsuccessful, so that hunger combined with cold to render our situation almost intolerable. On the 8lh, while on the lookout for ptarmigan, I saw through my telescope a long stripe of silver stretching over the lake, and, re turning lo my comrades, informed them that we must absolutely set off again the next moming, regardless of wind and weather. " On the foUowing day the ominous indications of the telescope rendered it necessary to approach the more open west side of the lake ; which I followed uatU stopped by the ice, along whose borders I then sailed in order to reach the river, which must sliU be open. Meanwhile the wind had corapletely fallen, and, to our astonishraent, we saw the water in our wake cover itself with a thin crust of ice as soon as we passed. The danger of freezing fast in the middle of the lake was evident." Unfortunately, whUe endeavoring to reach the river, the boat was crushed between two ice floes, and was with great difficulty dragged on shore. The only chance of rescue now was to meet with some Samoiedes on the upper course of the river, for these nomads never wander northward Jbeyond the south ern extremity of the lake, and from this our travellers were still at a great distance. " We made a large hand-sledge," continues Middendorff, " and sel off -with out loss of time onthe 10th, in spite of the rainy weather, which had complete ly dissolved the sparing snow upon_the hills. The sharp stones cut inlo our sledge-runners like knives, and after having scarcely made three versts, the ve hicle feU lo pieces. The bad weather forced us to stop for the night. The fa^ tigues of our boat-journey, the want of proper food, and mental anxiety, had for several weeks been undermining my health : a total -want of sleep destroyed the remainder of my strength, so that, early on the llth, I felt myself quite unable to proceed." In this extremity Middendorff adopted with heroic self-denial the best and only means for his own preservation and that of his comrades. If, by depart ing without loss of lime, they -were fortunate enough to reach the Samoiedes before these nomads had left the Taimur country for the south, he also might be rescued ; if they found them very late, they at least might expect to save their Uves ; ff the Saraoiedes could not be found, then of course the whole parly was dooraed. Thus Middendorff resolved to separate at once frora his cora rades. A reranant of flesh extract, reserved for extrerae cases, was di-vided into five equal portions ; the naturalist's dog, the faithful companion of all his pre vious journeys, was killed, though reduced to a mere skeleton, and his scanty flesh similarly distributed among the party. The blood and a soup made of the 334 THE POLAR WORLD. bones served for the parting repast. Thus of his own free-wUl, the winter hav- ing already set in, Middendorff, ill and exhausted, remained quite alone in the icy desert, behind a sheltering rock, in 75° N. lat., several hundred versts from aU human dweUings, almost without fuel, and wilh a raiserable supply of food. The three first days he was stiU able to move. He saw the lake cover itself cora pletely with ice, and the last birds depart for the south. Then his strength ut terly faUed hira, and for the next three days he was unable to stir. When he was again able to move, he felt an excessive thirst. He crawled to the lake, broke the ice, and the water refreshed hira. But he was not yet free frora disease, and this was fortunate, as want of appetite did not make him feel the necessity of food. Now foUowed a succession of terrible snow-storms, which completely iraprisoned the solitary traveUer, but at the same time afforded him a better shelter against the wind. "My companions," he writes in a letter to a relation, "had now left me twelve days; human assistance could no longer be expected; I was convinced that I had only myself to rely upon, that I was doomed, and as good as number ed with the dead. And yet my courage did not forsake me. Like our squir rels, I turned myself according to the changes of the wind. During the long sleepless nights fancy opened her domains, and I forgot even hunger and thirst. Then Boreas broke roaring out of the gullies as if he intended to sweep me away into the skies, and in a short time I was covered with a comfortable snow- raantle. Thus I lay three days, thinking of wretches who had been iraraured alive, and grown raad in their dreadful prison. An overwhelraing fear of in sanity befell rae — it oppressed ray heart — it became insupportable. In vain I attempted to cast it off — my weakened brain could grasp no other idea. And now suddenly — ^like a ray of light frora heaven — the saving thought flashed upon rae. " My last pieces of wood were quickly lighted — some water was thawed and warraed — I poured into it the spirits frora a flask containing a speciraen of nat ural history, and drank. A new life seeraed to awaken in me ; my thoughts re turned again lo my faniily, lo the happy days I had spent with the friends of my youth. Soon I fell into a profound sleep — ^how long it lasted I know not — but on awakening I felt like another man, and my breast was filled with grati tude. Appetite returned with recovery, and I was reduced to eat leather and birch-bark, when a ptarmigan fortunately came within reach of my gun. Hav ing thus obtained sorae food for the journey, I resolved, although still very fee ble, to sel out and seek the provisions we had buried. Packing some articles of dress, my gun and ammunition, ray journal, etc., on ray small hand-sledge, I pro ceeded slowly, and frequently resting. At noon I saw, on a well-known decliv ity of the hills, three black spots which I had not previously noticed, and as they changed their position, I at once altered my route to join them. We approach ed each other — and, judge of my deUght, it was Trischun, the Samoiede chief tain, whora I had previously assisted in the prevailing epideraic, and who now, guided by one of my companions, had set out with three sledges to seek me. Eager to serve his benefactor, the grateful savage had made his reindeer wander without food over a space of 150 versts where no moss grew. MIDDENDORPF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND. 325 " I now heard that my companions had fortunately reached the Samoiedes four days after our separation; but the dreadful snow-storms had prevented the nomads from coming sooner to my assistance, and had even forced them twice to retrace their steps. " On September 30 the Samoiedes brought me to my tent, and on October 9 we bade the Taimur an eternal fareweU. After five months -vve hailed with dehght, on October 20, the verge of the forest, and on the foUowing day we reached the smoky hut on the Boganida, where we had left our friends." Haviag thus accompanied Middendorff oa his adventurous wanderings through Taimuria, I will now give a brief account of his observations on the climate and natural productions of this northern land. The remark of Saussure that the difference of temperature between light and shade is greatest in suramer, and in the high latitudes, was fully confirmed by Middendorff. While the thermometer marked —37° in the shade, the hillsides exposed to the sun were dripping with wet, and towards the end of June, though the mean temperature of the air was still below the freezing-point of water, the enow had already entirely disappeared on the sunny side of the Taimur River. Torrents came brawling down the hills ; the swollen rivers rose forty or sixty feet above their winter level, and carried their icy covering along with them to the sea. Oa August 3, in the very raiddle of the short Taimurian summer, in 74° 15' of latitude, Middendorff hunted butterflies under the shelter of a hill, bare-foot ed and in light under-clothes. The thermometer rose in the sun to -|-68°, and close to the grouud to 4-86°, while at a short distaace on a spot exposed to the north-eastern air-current it fell at once to -f 27°. The moisture of the air was very reraarkable. In May thick snow-fogs al most perpetually obscured the atmosphere, so that it was impossible to ascer tain the position of the sun. It appeared only in the evening, or about midnight, and then regularly a perpendicular column of luminous whiteaess descended from its orb to the earth, and, widening as it approached the horizon, took the form and the appearance of a colossal lamp-flame, such as the latter appears when seen through the mists of a vapor bath. From the same cause parhelia and halos were very frequent. During the daytime the snow-fogs, in perpetual raotion, either entirely veil ed the nearest objects, or magnified their size, or exhibited them in a dancing motion. In June the snow-fog became a vapor-fog, which daily from time to time precipitated its surplus of raoisture in form of a light rain, but even then the nights, particularly after eleven o'clock, were mostly serene. Experience proved, contrary to Ariigo's opinion, that thunder-storm.s take place within the Arctic zone. The perpetual motion of the air was very re markable. The sun had merely to disappear behind a cloud to produce at once a gust of wind. Towards the end of August, the southern and the northern air- currents, like two contending giants, began to strive for the mastery, until finaUy the storms raged with extreme violence. But in those treeless deserts their fury finds nothing to destroy. It is impossible to form any thing like a correct estimate of the quantity of 15 336 THE POLAR WORLD. snow which annuaUy faUs in the highest latitudes. So much is certain that it can nol be smaU, to judge by the violence and sweUing of the rivers in spring. The summits of the hiUs, and the decUvities exposed to the reigning -winds, are constantly deprived of snow, which, however, fUls up the bottom of the valleys to a considerable height. Great was Middendorff's astonishment, while travel ling over the tundra at the end of winter, to find it covered with no more than two inches, or at the very utmost half a foot, of snow ; the dried stems of the Arctic plants everywhere peeping forth above its surface. This was the natu ral consequence of the north-easterly storms, which, sweeping over the naked plain, carry the snow along with them, and form the snow-waves, the compass of the northern nomads. It is extremely probable that, on advancing towards the pole, the fall of snow gradually diminishes, as in the Alps, where its quantity likewise decreases on ascending above a certain height. On measuring the thickness of the ice, Middendorff was very much surprised to find it nowhere, both in the lakes and on the river, thicker than eight feet, and sometimes only four and a half; its thickness being constantly proportionate to the quantity of snow with which it was covered. Al first he could hardly be lieve that this simple covering could afford so efficacious a protection against the extreme cold of winter iu the 74th degree of latitude, but the fact is well kaown to the Saraoiedes, who, whenever they require water, always make the hole where the snow Ues deepest. The tundras of Taimuria were found to consist principally of arid plateaux and undulating heights, where the vegetation can not conceal the boulders and the sand of which the crust of the earth is formed. The withered tips of the grasses scarcely differ in color from the dirty yel low-brown moss, and the green of the lower part of the stalks appears as through a veil. Nothing can be of a raore dreary raonotony than this vegetation when spread over a wide surface; but in the hardly perceptible depressions of the plains where the spring water is able to collect, a fresher green gains the upper hand, the stalks are not only longer, but stand closer together, and the grass, growing to a height of three or even four inches, usurps the place of the raoss. Here and there small patches of Dryas octopetala, or Cassiope tetragona, and muoh more rarely a dwarf ranunculus, diversify the dingy carpet, yet without being able to relieve its wearisome character. But very different, and indeed truly surprising, is the aspect of the slopes which, facing the Taimur lake or river, are protected against the late and early frosts. Here considerable patches of ground are covered with a lively green, intermingled with gayljr-colored flow ers, such as the brilliant yellow Sieversia, the elegant Oxytropis, the blue and white Saxffragas, the red Armeria alp)ina, and a beautiful new species of .Del phinium. All these various flowers are not dwarfs of stunted growth, for Pole- raones, Sisymbrias, Polygonums, and Papavers above a foot high decorate the slopes, and Middendorff found an islet in the Taimur covered like a field with a Senecio, of which some of the most conspicuous specimens were'more than a foot and a half high, and bore no less than forty flowers above an inch in diameter. The progress of vegetation is uncommonly rapid, so that, as Middendorff re- MIDDENDORFF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND. 337 marks, if any one wishes lo see the grass grow, he must travel lo the Taimur. Scarcely do the first leaves peep forth when the blossoms also appear, as if, con scious of the early approach of autumn, they fell the necessity of bringing their seeds to a rapid maturity under this wintry sky. With regard to the animal creation, the general law of polar uniformity was fully confirmed in Taimurland. The same lemraings were found which peo ple the whole north of Asia and America, and as high as 75° N. lat. they found the traces of the snow-hare, which inhabits the complete circle of the Arctic re gions of the globe. The Arctic fox, everywhere at home in the treeless wastes, is here also pursued by the northern glutton; and following the herds of the reindeer, the wolves, and the Samoiedes, roams up and down the tundra. The ptarmigan, which in' Scandinavia and on Melville Island feeds on berries and buds, appears also as a sumraer visitor at the mouth of the Taimur in 75° 4' N. lat., and the ivory gull of the northern European seas likewise builds its nest on the rocks of that distant shore. The more vigorous vegetation on the sheltered declivities of the Taimur pro vides food for a comparatively greater number of insects than is found on the coasts of Nova Zembla. Bees, hornets, and three different species of butterflies, buzzed or hovered round the fiowers, and caterpillars could be gathered by dozens on the tundra, but their mortal enemies had pursued them even here ; and ichneumon flies crept out of most of them. Two spiders, several flies, gnats, and tipulae, a curculio, and half a dozen carabi completed Middendorff's entomological list, to which, no doubt, further researches would have consid erably added. Thus, at the northern extremity of Asia, as in every other part of the world, the naturalist finds the confirraation of the general law that, where the raeans of life are given, life is sure to corae forth. 238 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XIX. THE JAKUTS. Tlieir energetic Nationality. — Their Descent. — Their gloomy Character. — Summer and Winter Dwell ings. — The Jakut Horse. — Incredible Powers of Endurance of the Jakuts. — Their Sharpness of Vis ion.— Surprising local Memory. — Their manual Dexterity. — Leather, Poniards, Carpets. — Jakut Gluttons. — Superstitious Fear ofthe Mountain-spirit Ljeschei. — Off'erings of Horse-hair. — Improvised Songs. — The River Jakut. , THE Jakuts are a remarkably energetic race,' for though subject to the Mus covite yoke, they not only successfuUy maintain their Language and man ners, but even impose their own tongue and customs upon the Russians who have settled in their country. Thus in Jakutsk, or the " capital of the Jakuts," as with not a little of national pride and self-complacency they style that dreary city, their language is much more frequently spoken than the Russian, for al most all the artisans are Jakuts, and even the rich fur-merchant has not seldom a Jakut wife, as no Russian now disdains an alliance with one of that nation. At Amginskoie, an originally Russian settlement, Middendoi-ff found the greatest difficulty in procuring a guide able to speak the Russian language, and all the Tunguse whom he met with between Jakutsk and Ochotsk understood and spoke Jakut, which is thus the dominant language from the basin of the Lena to the extreme eastern confines of Siberia. In truth, no Russian workman can compete with the Jakuts, whose cunning and effrontery would make it diffi cult even for a Jew to prosper among them. Though of a Mongolian physiognomy, their language, which is said to be intelligible at Constantinople, distinctly points to a Turk extraction, and their traditions speak of their original seats as situated on the Baikal and Angora, whence, retreating before raore powerful hordes, they advanced lo the Lena, -vyhere in their turn they dispossessed the weaker tribes which they found in possession of the country. At jiresent their chief abode is along the banks of that immense river, which they occupy at least as far southward as the Aldan. Eastward they are found on the Kolyma, and westward as far as the Jenissei. Their total number amounts to about 200,000, and thoy forra the chief part of the population of the vast but almost desert province of Jakutsk. They are essentially a pastoral people, and their chief wealth consists in horses and cattle, though the northern portion of their nation is reduced to the reindeer and the dog. Besides the breeding of horses, the Russian fur-trade has developed an industrial form of the hunter's state, so that among the Jakuts property accumulates, and we have a higher civilization than wUl be found elsewhere in the same latitude, Iceland, Finland, and Norway alone ex cepted. Of an unsocial and reserved disposition, they prefer a solitary settle raent, but at the same time they are very hospftable, and give the stranger who THE JAKUTS. 339 claims their assistance a friendly welcome. Villages consisting of several huts, or yourts, are rare, and found only between Jakutsk and the Aldan, where the population is somewhat denser. Beyond the Werchojansk ridge the solitary huts are frequently several hundred versts apart, so that the nearest neighbors sometimes do not see each other for years. In summer the Jakut herdsraen live in urossy, light conical tents fixed on poles and covered with birch rind, and during the whole season they are per petuaUy employed in making hay for the long winter. In 62° N. lat., and in a climate of an alraost unparaUeled severity, the rearing of their cattle causes them far more trouble than is the case with any other pas toral people. Their supply of hay is frequently exhausted before the end of the winter, and frora March to May their oxen must generally be content with willow and birch twigs or saplings. A JAKUT VILLAGE. At the beginning of the cold season the Jackut exchanges his summer tent for his warm winter residence, or yourt, a hut built of beams or logs, in the form of a truncated pyramid, and thickly covered with turf and clay. Plates of ice serve as windows, and are replaced by fish-bladders or paper steeped in oil, as soon as the thaw begins. The earthen floor, for it is but rarely boarded, is generally sunk two or three feet below the surface of the ground. The seats and sleeping berths are ranged along the sides, and the centre is occupied by the tschuwal, or hearth, the smoke of which finds its exit through an aperture in the roof. Clothes and arms are suspended from the walls, and the whole premie 230 THE POLAR WORLD. ses exhibit a sad picture of disorder and filth. Near the yourt are stables for the cows, but when the cold is very severe, these useful animals are received into the faraily roora. As for the horses, they remain night and day without a shelter, at a temperature when mercury freezes, and are obliged to feed on the withered autumnal grass which they find under the snow. These creatures, whose powers of endurance are almost incredible, change their hair in summer like the other quadrupeds of the Arctic regions. They keep their strength, though travelling perhaps for months through the wilderness without any other food than the parched, half-rotten grass met with on the way. They retain their teeth to old age, and -reraain young much longer than our horses. "He who thinks of improving the Jakut horse," says Von Middendorff, " aims at something like perfection. Fancy the worst conceivable roads, and for nourish ment the bark of the larch and wiUovv^, with hard grass-stalks instead of oats ; or merely travel on the post-road to Jakutsk, and see the horses that have just run forty versts without stopping, and are covered with perspiration and foam, eating their hay in the open air without the slightest covering, at a tem perature of —40°." But the Jakut himseff is no less hardened against the cold than his faithful horse. " On Deceraber 9," says Wrangell, " we bivouacked round a fire, at a temperature of —28°, on an open pasture-ground, which afforded no shelter against the northern blast. Here I had an excellent opportunity for admiring the unparalleled powers of endurance of our Jakut attendants. On the long est winter journey they lake neither tents nor extra covering along with them, not even one of the larger fur-dresses. While travelling, the Jakut contents himself with his usual dress ; in this he generally sleeps in the open air ; a horse rug stretched out upon the snow is his bed, a wooden saddle his pillow. With the same fur jacket, which serves him by daytirae as a dress, and which he pulls off when he lies down for the night, he decks his back and shoulders, while the front part of his body is turned towards the fire alraost without any covering. He then stops his nose and ears with sraall pieces of skin, and cov ers his face so as to leave but a sraall opening for breathing — these are all the precautions he takes against the severest cold. Even in Siberia the Jakuts are called ' men of iron.' Often have I seen them sleeping at a temperature of —4° in the open air, near an extinguished bivouac fire, and with a thick ice- rind covering their almost unprotected body." Most of the Jakuts have an incredible sharpness of vision. One of them told Lieutenant Anjou, pointing to the planet Jupiter, that he had oflen seen yonder blue star devour a sraaller one, and then after a tirae cast it out again.* Their local memory is no less astonishing ; a pool of water, a large stone, a solitary bush imprints itself deeply into their remembrance, and guides them after a lapse of years through the boundless wilderness. In m.anual dexterity they surpass .ill other Siberian nations, and some of their articles, such as their poniards and their leather, might figure with credit in any European exhibi tion. Long before the Russian conquest they made use of the iron ore on the * Humboldt likewise mentions an artisan of Breslau whose sight was so sharp as to enable him to point out the position of Jupiter's satellites. THE JAKUTS. 331 Wilui lo manufacture their own knives and axes, which, either from the excel lence of the material or of the workmanship, rarely break, even in the severest cold — a perfection which the best Sheffield ware does not attain. Since time immemorial they have been acquainted with the art of striking fire with flint and steel, an invention unknown even to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Their leather is perfectly water-tight, and the women raake carpets of white and colored skins, which are even exported lo Europe. It is almost superflu ous to mention that a people so capable of bearing hardships, so sharp-witted, and so eager for gain as the Jakuts must needs pursue the fur-bearing ani mals with which their forests abound with untiring zeal and a wonderful dex terity. The horse renders the Jakut services not less important than those of the reindeer to the Samoiede or the Lapp. Besides usiog it for carrying or riding, the Jakut makes articles of dress out of its skin, and fishing-nets of its hair ; boUed horse-meat is his favorite food, and sour mare's milk, or kumyss, his chief beverage. Of the latter he also raakes a thick porridge, or salamat, by mixing it with rye-flour, or the inner rind of the larch or fir tree, to which he frequently adds dried fish and berries, and, to render it perfect, a quantity of rancid fat, of which he is immoderately fond. He is in fact a gross feeder, and some professional gluttons are capable of consuming such astonishing mass es as lo shame the appetite even of an Esquimaux. During his stay at Ja kutsk, Sir George Simpson put the abilities of two distinguished artists to the test, by setting two pouds of boiled beef and a poud of raelted butter before them. Each of them got a poud of meat for his share ; the butter they were allowed to ladle out and driuk ad libitum. The oae was old aad experienced, the other young and full of zeal. At first the latter had the advantage. " His teeth are good," said the elder champion, " but with the assistance of my saint (crossing hiraself), I will soon corae up to him." When about half of their task was finished. Sir George left his noble guests to the care and inspection of his secretary, but when he returned a few hours after, he was informed that aU was consumed, while the champions, stretched out on tbe floor, confirmed the secretary's report, and expressed their thanks for the exorbitant meal they had enjoyed by respectfully kissing the ground. After one of these disgusting feats, the gorged gluttons generally remain for three or four days plunged in a torpid state like boa snakes, without eating or drinking, and are frequently rolled about on the ground to proraote digestion. It may also be noticed, as a proof of the low state of intellectual culture among the Jakuts, that at every wedding among the richer class two professed virtuosi in the art of gormandizing are regularly invited for the entertainment of the guests. One of thera is treated at the bridegroom's expense, the other at that of the bride, and the party whose champion gains the victory considers it as a good omen for the future. The Jakuts, besides being a pre-eminently pastoral people, are also the uni versal carriers to the east of the Lena. For beyond Jakutsk, the only roads are narrow paths leading through swaraps, dense forests, or tangled bushes, so that the horse affords the only means of reaching the more even and lower 333 THE POLAR WORLD. countries where reindeer or dogs can be attached to sledges. Without the Jakut and his horse, the Russian would never have been able to penetrate to the Sea of Ochotsk, and from thence to the Aleutian chain ; but for hira,. they never would have settled on the Kolyma, nor have opened a commercial inter course with the Tchuktchi and the western Esquiraaux. Before the possession of the Amoor had opened a new road to coramerce, thousands of pack-horses used annually to cross the Stanowoi hills on the way to Ochotsk ; and when we consider the dreadful hardships of the journey, we can not wonder that the road was more thickly strewn with the skeletons of fallen horses than the caravan routes through the desert with the bones of fam ished camels. But the Jakut fears neither the icy cold of the bivouac nor tho pangs of hunger, which, in spite of his wolfish voracity, he is able to support with stoical fortitude. He fears' neither the storm on the naked hill, nor the gloom of tho forest, nor the depth of the morass ; and, bidding defiance to every thing else, fears only the invisible power of "Ljeschei," the spirit of the mountain and the wood. The traveller wonders when he sees on an eminence crowned with firs an old tree frora whose branches hang bunches of horse-hair. The Jakut who leads the caravan soon explains the raystery. He dis.mounts, and plucking a few hairs frora the mane of his horse, attaches them -with a great show of respect lo a branch, as an offering to propitiate the favor of Ljeschei on the journey. Even those Jakuts who pass for Christians still pay this mark of respect to the dethroned divinity of their fathers ; and there can be no doubt that they still retain the old belief in Schamanism, and an abject fear of all sorts of evil spirits. While travelling they sing almost perpetually melancholy tunes, correspond ing with the habitual gloom of their national character. The text has more variety and poetry, and generally celebrates the beauties of nature, the stately growth of the pine, the murrauring of the brook, or the grandeur of the mount ain. The singers are mostly improvisatores, and to conciliate the favor of Lje schei, they praise the desert through which they pass as if it were a paradise. Like the impoverished Samoiede or Lapp, the indigent Jakut, who possess es neither cattle nor horses, settles near sorae stream. His only domestic ani mal is his dog, who carries the fish on a light sledge from the river-bank to his hut, or follows him into the woods on his hunting expeditions. With the skins of fur-bearing aniraals he pays hisjassak, and is glad if the surplus allows him to indulge from time to time in the luxury of a pipe of Circassian tobacco. WRANGELL. 333 CHAPTER XX. WRANGELL. His distinguished Services as an Arctic Explorer. — Prom Petersburg to Jakutsk in 1820. — Trade of Jakutsk. — From Jakutsk to Nishne-Kotymsk. — The Bidarany. — Dreadful Climate of Nishne-Ko lymsk. — Summer Plagues. — Vegetation. — Animal Life. — Reindeer-hunting. — Famine.' — Inundations. — The Siberian Dog. — First Journeys over the Ice of the Polar Sea, and Exploration of tbe Coast beyond Cape Shelagskoi in 1821. — Dreadful Dangers and Hardships. — Matiuschkin's Sledge-journey over the Polar Sea in 1822. — Last Adventures on the Polar Sea. — A Run for Life. — Return to St. Petersburg. THE expeditions which had been sent out during the reign of the Erapress Anna for the exploration of the Arctic shores of Eastem Siberia, had per formed their task so b.adly as lo leave them still almost totally unknown. To fill up. this blank in geography, the Eraperor Alexander ordered two new ex peditions to be fitted out in 1820 for the purpose of accurately ascertaining the limits of the^e extreme frontiers of his immense empire. Of the one which, under Lieutenant Anjou, coraraenced its operations from the raouth of the Jana, and coraprised within its range New Siberia and the other islands of the Lachow group, but little has been coraraunicated to the public, all his papers having been accidentally burned ; but the travels of Lieutenant von Wrangell, the coramander of the second expedition, have obtained a world-wide celebrity. Starting frora the mouths of the Kolyma, he not only rectified the errors of tho coast-line of Siberia, from the Indigirka in the west to Koliutschin Island in the east, but more than once ventured in a sledge upon the Polar Ocean, in the hopes of discovering a large country supposed to be situated to the north ward of Kotelnoi and New Siberia. Wrangell left St. Petersburg on March 23, 1820, and experiencing in his journey of 3500 miles repeated alternations of spring and winter, arrived at Irkutsk, where the gardens were in full flower, on May 20. After a month's rest, a short journey brought him to the banks of the Lena, on which he embarked on June 27, to descend to Jakutsk, which he reached on July 27. This smaU town of 4000 inhabitants bears the gloomy stamp of the frigid north, for though it has a few good houses, its dweUings chiefly con sist of the winter yourts of the Jakuts, with turf-covered roofs, doors of skins, and windows of talc or ice. The only " sight '' of this dreary place is the old ruinous ostrog or wooden fort buUt by the Cossacks, the conquerors of the country, in 1647. Jakutsk is the centre of the interior trade of Siberia. To this place are brought, in enormous quantities, furs of aU kinds, walrus-teeth, and mararaoth-tusks, frora distances of raany thousand versts, to an araount of haff a mUlion pounds. The coraraercial sphere of the Jakutsi; merchants is of an immense extent. During a cold of ten and twenty degrees they set out for the Lachow Isles, for 334 THE POLAR WORLD. the fair of Ostrownoje, for Ochotsk, or Kjachta. Jakutsk merchants were the first who ventured in crazy ships across the Sea of Kamchatka, and discovered the island of Kadjiak, eighty degrees of longitude from their home. On September 1 2 Wrangell left Jakutsk, where regular traveUing ends, as frora thence to Kolymsk, and generaUy throughout Northern Siberia, there are no beaten roads. The utmost that can be looked for are foot or horse tracks leading through morasses or tangled forests, and over rocks and mountains. TraveUers proceed on horseback through the hiUy country, and, on reaching the plains, use sledges drawn either by reindeer or dogs. In this manner Wrangell crossed frora the basin of the Lena to that of tho Yana, never experiencing a higher teraperature than -|-2°, and frequently en during a cold of more than —12°, during the journey over the intervening hills, and then turning eastward, traversed the Badarany, a completely unin habited desert, chiefly consisting of swamps. These Badarany never entirely dry up, even after the longest summer-drought. At that time a solid crust is forraed, through which the horses frequently break, but they are preserved frora totally sinking in the mire by the perpetually frozen underground. Noth ing can be more dismal and dreary than the Badarany. As far as the eye reaches, nothing is to be seen but a covering of dingy moss, relieved here and there on some more elevated spots by wretched specimens of dwarf-larches. The winter is the only seasop for traversing this treacherous waste, but woe lo the traveller should he be overtaken by a snoiv-storm, as for miles an 1 miles there is no shelter to be found but that of some ruinous powarni, or post-station. At length, fifty-two days after leaving Jakutsk, Wrangell arrived on No vember 2 at Nishne-Kolymsk, the appointed head-quarters of the expedition, where he was welcomed with a cold of —40°, or 72° below the freezing-point of water. Even in Siberia the climate of this place is ill-reputed for its severity, which is as rauch due to its unfavorable position as to its high latitude (68° N.). The town stands on a low swampy island of the Kolyma, having on the west the barren tundra, and on the north the Arctic Ocean, so that the almost con stant north-west winds have full scope for their violence, and cause frequent snow-storms even in summer. The raean temperature of the whole year is only -f-14°'. The river at Nishne- Kolymsk freezes early in September, but lower down, where the current is less rapid, loaded horses can sometimes cross on the ice as early as August 20, nor does the ice ever melt before June. Although the sun rem.iins fifty-two days above the horizon, the light, ob scured by almost perpetual mists, is accompanied with little heat, and the solar disc, compressed by refraction into an eUiptical form, raay be looked at with the naked eye without inconvenience. In spite of the constant light, the cora mon order of the parts of the day is plainly discernible. When the sun sinks down to the horizon, all nature is mute ; but when, after a few hours, it rises in the skies, every thing awakens, the few Uttle birds break out in feeble twit ter, and the shrivelled flowers venture to open their petals. Although -winter and summer are in reaUty the only seasons, yet the inhab- WRANGELL. 335 itants fancy they have spring wheu about noon the rays of the sun begin lo make themselves felt, which generally lakes place about the middle of March, but this so-called spring has frequent night-frosts of twenty degrees. Their autumn is reckoned from the tirae when the rivers begin to freeze over, that is, from the first days of September, when a cold of thirty degrees is already by no means uncommon. As may easily be supposed in a cliraate like this, the vegetation of summer is scarcely raore than a struggle for existence. In the latter end of May the stunted wiUow-bushes put out little wrinkled leaves, and those banks which slope towards the south becorae clothed with a semi-verdant hue ; in June the temperature at noon attains 72° ; the flowers show themselves, and the berry-bearing plants blossom, when sometimes an icy blast from the sea destroys the bloom. The air is clearest in July, and the temperature is usuaUy mild, but then' a new plague arises for the torment of man. Millions and millions of mosquitoes issue from the swamps of the tun dra, and compel the inhabitants lo seek refuge in the dense and pungent smoke of the " dymokury, ' or large heaps of fallen leaves and darap wood, which are kindled near the dweUings and on the pasture-grounds, as the only means of keeping off those abominable insects. These tormentors, however, are not without use, for they compel the rein deer to migrate from the forests to the sea-shore and the ice, thus exposing them to the attack of the hunters, and they also prevent the horses from stray ing in the plains, and wandering beyond the protection of the smoke. Scarcely is the mosquito plague at an end, when the dense autumn fogs rising from the sea spoil the enjoyment of the last mild hours which precede the nine months' winter. In January the cold increases to — 45° ; breathing then be comes difficult; the wild reindeer, the indigenous inhabitant of the Polar region, withdraws to the thickest part of the forest, and stands there motionless, as if deprived of life. With the 22d November begins a night of thirty-eight days, relieved in some degree by the strong refraction and the white of the snow, as well as by the moon and the aurora. On the 28lh December the flrst pale glimraering of dawn appears, which even at noon does nol obscure the stars. With the re-appear ance of the sun the cold increases, and is raost intense in February and March at the rising of the sun. Even in winter corapletely clear days are very rare, as the cold sea-wind covers the land with mists and fogs. The character of the vegetation corresponds with that of the climate. Moss, stunted grass, dwarfish willow-shrubs, are all that the plaoe produces. The neighboring valleys of the Aniuj, protected by raountains against the sea-wind, have a somewhat richer flora, for here grow berry-bearing plants, the birch, the poplar, absinthe, thyme, and the low-creeping cedar. This poverty, however, of the vegetable world is strongly contrasted with the profusion of animal life over these shores and on the Polar Sea. Reindeer, elks, bears, foxes, sables, and gray squirrels ffll the upland forests, while stone-foxes burrow in the low grounds. Enormous flights of swans, geese, and ducks arrive in spring, and seek deserts where they may moult and build their nests in safety. Eagles, owls, and guUs pursue their prey along the sea-coast ; ptarmigan run in troops 336 THE POLAR WORLD. among the bushes ; little snipes are busy among the brooks. In the morasses the crows gather round the huts of the natives ; and when the sun shines in spring, the traveller raay even sometimes hear the note of the finch, and in au tumn that of the thrush. But the landscape remains dreary and dead ; aU de notes that here the liraits of the habitable earth are passed, and one asks with astonishraent what could induce human beings to take up their abode in so comfortless a region ? In the district of Kolymsk, which surpasses in size many a European king dom, the population, at the time of WrangeU's visit, consisted of 325 Russians, 1034 Jakuts, and 1139 Jukahires of the male sex, of whora 2173 had to pay the jassak, consisting of 803 fox and 28 sable skins, worth 6704 roubles, besides which they were taxed to the amount of 10,847 roubles in money. Thus the Russian double-eagle made, and no doubt still makes, the poor people of Kolymsk pay rather dear for the honor of living under the protection of its talons. The Cossacks, iu virtue of their descent from the original conquerors of the country, enjoy the enviable privilege of being tax free ; they are, however, obliged to render military service when required. They form the small gar rison of Nishne-Kolymsk, and every year twenty-five of them repair to the fair of Ostrownoje, to keep the wild Tchuktchi in check. The Russians are chiefly the descendants of fur-hunters or of exiles ; and though they have adopted the native clothing and mode of life, they are still distinguishable by their more muscular frame. The women, who are somewhat better-looking than the fe male Jakuts and Jukahires, are fond ot music, and their traditional songs dwell on the beauties, of nature — the rustling brook, the flowery raead, the nightingale's note — all things belonging to a world of which they have no idea. The dwellings of the Russians are hardly to be distinguished from the yourts of the rative tribes. They are made of drift-wood, and, as raay easily be im agined, are very small and low. The interstices are carefully stopped up with moss, and the outside is covered with a thick layer of clay. An external mud wall rises to the height of the roof lo keep off the wind. In a hut like this WrangeU spent many a winter month, but when the cold was very intense, he was not able lo lay aside any part of his fur clothing, though sitting close to a large fire. When he wanted lo write he had to keep the inkstand in hot water ; and at night, when the fire was allowed to go out for a short time, his bedclothes were always covered with a thick snow-like rirae. The existence of the people of Kolymsk depends upon fishing and hunting, in which they are assisted by their dogs. These faithful, but cruelly-treated animals, are said to reserable the wolf, having long, pointed, projecting noses, sharp and upright ears, and long bushy tails. Their color is black, brown, reddish-brown, white, and spotted, their howling that of a wolf. In summer they dig holes in the ground for coolness, or lie in the water to escape the mos quitoes ; in winter they burrow in the snow, and lie curled up, with their noses covered with their bushy tails. The preparation of these aniraals for a journey must be carefully attended to ; for a fortnight at least they should be put on a small allowance of hard food, to convert their superfluous fat into firm flesh ; they must also be driven from ten to twenty railes daily, after which they have WRANGELL. 337 been known lo travel a hundred miles a day without being injured by it. A leam consists coramonly of twelve dogs, and it is of importance that they should be accustomed to draw together. The quick and steady going of the team, as well as the safety of the traveller, raainly depends on the docility and sa gacity of the foremost dog or leader. No pains are therefore spared in his edu cation, so that he may understand and obey his master's orders, and prevent the rest from starting off in pursuit of the stone-foxes or other animals that may chance to cross their path. Their usual food is frozen fish, and ten good her rings are said to be a jjiroper daily allowance for each dog while on duty. When not actively employed, they are obliged to content theraselves with offal, and towards spring, when the winter's provisions are generally exhausted, they suffer the keenest hunger. This season is also a hard time for the wandering tribes of the neighbor hood. Then they flock to Nishne-Kolymsk, and lo the other Russian settle ments on the Kolyma, but here also famine stares them in the face. There is, iadeed, a public cora magaziae, but the price of flour is raised by the cost of traasport to such an exorbitant height, as to be completely beyond the reach of the majority of the people. Three such dreadful springs did Wrangell pass at Kolymsk, witnessing scenes of misery never to be forgotten. But when the distress of the people has reached its highest point, relief is generally at hand. Troops of migratory birds come from the south, .and fur nish some food for the dcsp."iiring population. The supply is increased in June, when the ice breaks on the Kolyma, for in spite of the faultiness of the nets and the want of skill of the fishermen, the river is the principal source of plenty during the summer, and supplies, moreover, the chief provisions for the foUow ing wiuter. But with these gifts the Kolyma brings the plague of inundations, so that during the summer of 1822 Wrangell was obliged lo spend a whole week on the flat roof of his hut. The chief resource ofthe Jukahires ofthe River Aniuj is the reindeer chase, the success of which raainly decides whether faraine or sorae degree of comfort is to be their lot during the coming winter. The passage of the reindeer Lakes place twice a year ; in spring, -when the mosquitoes corapel thera to seek the sea-shore, where they feed on the moss of the tundra, and in autumn, when the increasing cold forces them to retire from the coast. The spring migration, which begins about the middle of May, is not very profitable, partly because the animals are meagre, and their furs in bad condition, and partly because it i.s more difficult lo kill them as they pass the frozen rivers. The chief hunting is in August and Septeniber, when the herds, consisting each of sevei-al thou sand deer, return to the forests. Tliey invariably cross the river al a particular spot, where a fiat sandy bank niiikes their landing easier ; and here they press more closely together, under the guidance of the strongest animals of the herd. The" passage takes place after some hesitation, and in a few rainutes the river is covered with swimming reindeer. The hunters, hidden in creeks or behind stones and bushes, now shoot forth in their small boats and wound as many as they can. While they are thus bu.sy, they run some risk of being over turned in the turmoil, for the bucks defend theraselves with their horns, their 338 THE POLAR WORLD. teeth, and their hind legs, whUe the roes generaUy atterapt to spring wilh their fore feet upon the edge of the boat. When the hunter is thus overset, his only chance of safety is to cling to a strong aniraal, which safely brings him to the shore. But the dexterity of the hunters renders such accidents rare. A good hunter will kiU a hundred reindeer and more in half an hour. In the mean time the other boats seize the killed animals, which becorae their property, whUe those that are merely wounded and swira ashore belong to the hunters, who, in the midst of the tumult, where aU their energies are taxed to the ut raost, direct their strokes in such a raanner as only severely to -wound the larger animals. The noise of the horns striking against each other, the waters tinged wilh blood, the cries of the hunters, the snorting of the affrighted aniraals, form a scene not to be described. The people of the Aniuj were already suffering great distress when, on September 12, 1821, the eagerly-expected reindeer herds made their appear ance on the right bank of the river. Never had such a multitude been seen ; they covered the hiUs, and their horns might have been mistaken at a distance for a raoving forest. In a short lirae nurabers of the Siberian tribes had as serabled, ready to destroy thera. But the wary aniraals, alarmed by some cir cumstance or other, took another road, and, leaving the banks of the river, van ished on the mountains. The despair of the people may be imagined ; some laraented aloud and wrung their hands, others threw theraselves upon the ground and scratched up the snow, others stood motionless like statues — a dreadful iraage of the universal misery. The later fishing-season likewise failed in this deplorable year, and many hundreds died in the foUowing winter. While the raen of Kolyrask are busily eraployed during the short summer in hunting, fishing, and hay-making, the women wander over the country, par ticularly in the mountains, to gather edible roots, aromatic herbs, and berries of various kinds, which latter, however, do not every year arrive at maturity. The berry-gathering here, like the vintage elsewhere, is a lirae of merriment. The younger women and girls go together in large parties, passing whole days and nights in the open air. When the berries are coUected, cold water is poured over thera, and they are preserved in a frozen state for a winter treat. Social parties are not unknown at Kolyrask, and are perhaps not less entertain ing than in raore refined coramunities. Floods of weak tea (for the aromatic leaves " which cheer, but nol inebriate," are very dear at Kolymsk) form the staple of the entertainment ; and as sugar is also an expensive article, eveiy guest takes a lump of candy in his mouth, lets the tea which he sips flow by, and then replaces it upon the saucer. It would be considered very unmannerly were he to consurae the whole piece, which thus is able to do duty at raore than one soiree. Next to tea, brandy is a chief requisite of a Kolyrask parly. The busiest lirae at Kolymsk is in February, when the caravan from Ja kutsk arrives on its way to the fair of Ostrownoje. It consists of about twen ty merchants, each of whora leads frora ten to forty surapler horses. This is the time not only for sale and purchase, but also for hearing the last news from the provincial capital Jakutsk, and receiving intelligence six months old from Moscow and St. Petersbura;. WRANGELL. 339 From this short account of Kolymsk Iffe it may weU be imagined what a sensation it must have made in so secluded a place when Wrangell arrived ¦ there in November, and informed the people that he was come to spend the better part of the next three years among them. The winter was passed in preparation for the next spring expeditions, for during the long Arctic night the darkness prevents traveUing, and the snow acquires a peculiar hardness or sharpness frora the extrerae cold, so that then four limes the number of dogs would be needed. But as in sumraer the thaw ing is likewise a hindrance, Wrangell had in reality only about ten weeks every year, frora March till the end of May, for the accoraplishment of his task. As may easUy be supposed, it was no easy matter to make the necessary arrangemeats for an expedition requiring some hundreds of dogs, and provis ions for several weeks ; but such was the energy displayed by Wrangell and his colleagues, that on February 19, 1821, they were able to start ou their first joumey over the ice of the Polar Sea, which they reached ou the 25th. Nine sledges, with the usual team of twelve dogs to each, were provided for the present excursion, six of which were to carry provisions and stores, to be dis tributed in different depots, and then to return. The provisions for the dogs consisted of 2400 fresh herrings, and as much " jukola" as was equivalent lo 8150 dried herrings. The increasing cold and the violence of the wind made traveUing very difficult. To guard the dogs from being frozen, the drivers were obliged to put clothing on their bodies, and a kind of boots on their feet, which greatly impeded their running. At times the frost was so intense that the mercury congpaled while Wrangell was raaking his observations. He thus describes the manner in which he passed the nights on the Polar Sea in his tent : — " Between tea and supper the sledge-drivers went out to attend and feed their dogs, which were always tied up for the night, lest they should be tempt ed away by the scent of some wild animal. Meanwhile, we were engaged in comparing our observations, and in laying down on the map the ground which we had gone over in the course of the day ; the severe cold, and the smoke which usuaUy filled the tent, sometimes made this no easy task. Supper always consisted of a single dish of fish or meal soup, which was boiled for us all in the sarae kettle, out of which it was eaten. Soon after we had finished our meal, the whole party lay do-wn to sleep. On account of the cold we could nol lay aside any part of our travelling-dress, but we regularly changed our boots and stockings every evening, and hung those we had taken off, with our fur caps and gloves, on the tent-poles to dry. This is an essential precaution, particularly in respect to stockings, for with damp clothing there is the great est risk of the part being frozen. We always spread the bear-skins between the frozen ground and ourselves, and the fur coverings over us, and, being well tired, we usually slept very soundly. As long as all the sledge-drivers contin ued with us, we were so crowded that we had to place ourselves like the spokes of a wheel, with our feel towards the fire and our heads against the tent wall. In the morning we generally rose at six, lit the fire, and washed ourselves be fore il with fresh snow ; we then took tea, and immediately afterwards dinner 240 THE POLAR WORLD. (which was similar to the supper of the night before). The tent was then struck, and every thing packed and stowed on the sledges, and at nine we usuaUy took our departure." The chief impediments to journeying on the ice were found to be the hum mocks, often eighty feet high, which lie in ridges at certain distances, paraUel perhaps to the shore. Along the line or lines where the ice is periodically broken, it is forced by pressure and the tossing of a tempestuous sea into those irregular ridges through which Wrangell had sometimes lo raake a way with crowbars for half a mile. The " polinyas," or spaces of open water in the midst of the ice, offered less hindrance, as they might be avoided ; but in this neighborhood, aud sometimes even -where no hole in the ice was visible, layers of salt were raet with, which cut the dogs' feet, and at the same time increased the labor of the draft, the sledges moving over the salt with as rauch difficulty as they would over gravel. In spite of all these hindrances, Wrangell extended his exploration of the coast fifty versts beyond Cape Shelagskoi, where the want of fuel and provis ions compelled him to retum. The depots which he had raade as he ad vanced, were found partly devoured by the stone-foxes and gluttons, so that the party was compelled to .fast during the two last days of the journey. Aft er an absence of three weeks Nishne-Kolymsk appeared like a second Capua to Wrangell, but time being precious he allowed himself but a few days' rest, and started afresh, on Marcii 26, for Cape Shelagskoi, with the intention of pen etrating as far as possible to the north on the ice of the Polar Sea. The car avan consisted of twenty-two sledges, laden with fuel and provisions for thirty days, including food for 240 dogs. So iraposing a train had certainly never been seen before in these desolate regions, for the part of the coast between the Kolyraa and Cape Shelagskoi is wholly uninhabited; on one side the oc casional excursions of the Russians terminate at the Baranow rocks, and on the oilier the Tchuktchi do not cross the larger Baranow River. The interven ing eighty versts of coast are never visited by either party, but considered as neutral ground. On April 1 Wrangell reached the borders of the Polar Sea, and proceeding northward to 71° 31', found the thickness of the ice, which he measured by means of a hole, to be about a foot, very rotten, and full of salt ; the soundings, twelve fathoms, with a bottom of soft green mud. The wind increasing in violence, he heard the sound of the water beneath, and felt the undulatory motion of the thin crust of ice. " Our position," says the bold explorer, " was at least an anxious one ; tho raore so as we could take no step to avoid the irapending danger. I believe few of our party slept, except the dogs, who alone were unconscious of the great probability of the ice being broken up by the force of the waves. Next day, the wind having fallen, I had two of the best sledges erhplied, and placed in thera provisions for twenty-four hours, with the boat and oars, some poles and boards, and proceeded northward to examine the state of the ice ; directing M. von Matiuschkin, in case of danger, to retire with the whole party as far as might be needful, without awaiting my return. After driving through the thick brine with much difficulty for seven vei'sts, we carae to a number of large WRANGELL. 341 fissures, which we passed with some trouble by the aid of the boards which we had brought wilh us. At last the fissures became so numerous and so wide that it was hard to say whether the sea beneath us was really stiU covered by a connected coat of ice, or only by a number of detached fioating fragments, having everywhere two or more feet of water between them. A single gust of wind would have been sufficient to dri^e these fragments against each other, and being already thoroughly saturated with water, they would have sunk in a few minutes, leaving nothing but sea on the spot where we were standing. It was raanffestly useless to atterapt going farther ; we hastened to rejoin our companions, and to seek with them a place of, greater security. Our most northern latitude was 71° 43' at a distance of 215 versts in a straight line from the lesser Baranow rock." After rejoining his companions, and while still on the frozen sea, so thick a snow-storra carae on that those in the hindmost sledge could nol see the leading ones. Unable either to pitch their tent or to light a fire, they were exposed during the night to the whole fury of the storm, with a temperatere of -|-7°, without tea or soup, and with nothing to quench their thirst or satisfy their hunger but a few mouthfuls of snow, a little rye biscuit, and a half-spoilt fish. On April 28 they arrived at Nishne-Kolymsk, after an absence of thirty-six days, during which they had traveUed above 800 miles with the same dogs, men and aniraals having equally suffered frora cold, hunger, and fatigue. Neither discomfort, however, nor danger prevented Wrangell from under taking a third excursion in the following spring. He had great difficulty in procuring the necessary dogs, a disease which raged among them during the winter having carried off more than four-fifths of these useful animals. At length his wants were supplied by the people of the Indigirka, where the sick ness had not extended, and on March 14, 1822, he again set out for the borders of the Polar Sea. During this expedition a large extent of coast was accu rately surveyed by Wrangell, who sent out his worthy assistant Matiuschkin, with two companions, in an unloaded sledge, to see if any farther advance could be made to the north. Having accomplished ten versts, Matiuschkin was stopped by the breaking up of the ice. Enormous masses, raised by the waves into an alraost vertical position, were driven against each other with a dreadful crash, and pressed downward by the force of the billows to re-appear again on the surface covered with the torn-up green mud which here forms the bottom of the sea. It would tire the reader were I to relate all the miseries of their return voyage ; suffice it to say that, worn out with hunger and fatigue, they reached Nishne-Kolymsk on May 5, after an absence of fifty-seven days. Such sufferings and perils might have excused all further attempts to discover the supposed land in the Polar Sea, but nothing daunted by his repeated fail ures, Wrangell deterrained on afourth expedition in 1823, on which he resolved to start from a more easterly point. On reaching the coast, the obstacles were found still greater than on his previous visits to that fearful sea. The weather was tempestuous, the ice thin and broken. It was necessary at limes to cross wide lanes of water on pieces of ice ; at limes the thin ice bent beneath the weight of the sledges, which were then saved only by the sagacity of the dogs, 16 343 THE POLAR WORLD. who, aware of the danger, ran at their greatest speed untU they found a soUd footing. At length, about sixty mUes from shore, they arrived at the edge of an immense break in the ice, extending east and west farther than the eye could reach. "We climbed oue of the loftiest huraraocks," says Wrangell, "whence we obtained an extensive view towards the north, and whence we beheld the wide ocean spread before our gaze. It was a fearful and magnificent, but to us a raelancholy spectacle ! Fragments of ice of enormous size floated on the sur face of the water, and were thrown by the waves with awful violence against the edge of the ice-field on the farther side of the channel before us. The col lisions were so treraendous that large masses were every instant broken awaj', and it was evident that the portion of ice which stiU di-vided the channel from the open ocean would soon be completely destroyed. Had we attempted to ferry ourselves across upon one of the floating pieces of ice, we should not have found firm footing upon our arrival. Even on our own side fresh lines of water were continually forming, and extending in every direction in the field of ice behind us. We could go no farther. With a painful feeling of the impossi bUity of overcoraing the obstacles which nature opposed to us, our last hope vanished of discovering the land, which we yet believed to exist. We saw ourselves compeUed to renounce the object for which we had striven through three years of hardships, toil, and danger. We had done what honor and duty deraanded ; further atterapts would have been absolutely hopeless, and I de cided to return." They turned, but already the track of their advance was scarcely discernible, as new lanes of water had been forraed, and fresh hummocks raised by the sea. To add to their distress, a storm arose, which threatened every raoment to swaUow up the ice island, on which they hoped to cross a wide space of water which separated them frora a firraer ground. " We had been three long hours in this position, and still the raass of ice beneath us held together, when suddenly il was caught by the storm, and hurled against a large field of ice ; the crash was terrific, and the mass beneath us was shattered into fragments. At that dreadful raoraent, when escape seemed impossible, the irapulse of seff-preservation, iraplanted in every living being, saved us. Instinctively we all sprang at once on the sledges, and urged the dogs to their full speed. They flew across the yielding fragments to the field on which we had been stranded, and safely reached a part of it of firmer charac ter, on which were several hummocks, where the dogs iraraediately ceased run ning, conscious, apparently, that the danger was past. We were saved ! We joyfuUy erabraced each other, and united in thanks to God for our preservation from such imminent peril." But their misfortunes did not end here ; they were cut off from the deposit of their pro-visions ; they were 360 versts frora their nearest raagazines, and the food for the dogs was now barely sufficient for thi-ee days. Their joy raay be imagined when, after a few versts' travelling, they fell in -with Matiuschkin and his party, bringing with tbem an abundant supply of provisions of all kinds. To leave nothing undone which could possibly be effected, Wrangell ad- WRANGELL. 343 vanced to the eastward along the coast, past Cape North, seen in Cook's last ? voyage, and proceeded as far as Koliutschin Island, where he found some Tchuk tchi, who had come over from Bering's Straits to trade. With this journey terminated WrangeU's labors on the coasts, or on the sur face of the Polar Sea, and, at the beginning of the following winter, we find him taking a final leave of Nishne-Kolyrask. On January 10, 1824, he arrived at Jakutsk, and a few raonths later at Petersburg. If we consider the diffi culties he had to encounter, and his untiring zeal and courage in the midst of privations and dangers, it is only fair to admit that his name deserves to. be ranked among the most distinguished explorers of the Arctic world. 344 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XXI. THE TUNGUSI. Their Relationship to the Mantchou. — Dreadful Condition of the outcast Nomads. — Character of theTungusi. — Their Outfit for the Chase.— ^Bear-hunting. — Dwellings. — Diet. — A Night's Halt with Tungusi in the Forest. — Ochotsk. THOUGH both belonging to the same stock, the fate of the Tungusi and Mantchou has been very different ; for at the same time when the latter conquered the vast Chinese Erapire, the former, after having spread over the greatest part of East Siberia, and driven before them the Jakuts, the Jukahiri, the Tchuktchi, and many other aboriginal tribes, were in their turn subjugated by the mightier Russians. In the year 1640 the Cossacks first encountered the Tungusi, and in 1644 the first Mantchou emperor mounted the Chinese throne. The same race which here imposes its yoke upon millions of subjects, there falls a prey to a small number of adventurers. However strange the fact, it is, however, easily explained, for the Chinese were worse armed and less disciplined than the Mantchou, while the Tungusi had nothing but bows and arrows to oppose to the Cossack fire-arras ; and history (frora Alexander the Great to Sadowa) teaches us that victory constantly sides wilh the best weapons. In their intellectual development we find the sarae difference as in their fortunes between the Mantchou and the Siberian Tungusi. Two hundred and fifty years ago the former were still nomads, like their northern kinsfolk, and could neither read nor write, and already they have a rich literature, and their language is spoken at the court of Peking ; while the Tungusi, oppressed and sunk in poverty, are still as ignorant as when they first encountered the Cos sacks. According to their occupations, and the various domestic aniraals eraployed by them, they are distinguished by the names of Reindeer, Horse, Dog, For est, and River Tungusi ; but although they are found frora the basins of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Tunguska lo the western shores of the Sea of Ochotsk, and from the Chinese frontiers and the Baikal to the Polar Ocean, their whole nuraber does not araount to more than 30,000, and diminishes from year to year, in consequence of the ravages of the small-pox and other epidem ic disorders transmitted to them by the Russians. Only a few rear horses and cattle, the reindeer being generally their doraestic aniraal ; and the impover ished Tunguse, who has been deprived of his herd by some contagious disor der or the ravages of the wolves, lives as a fisherman on the borders of a river, assisted by his dog, or retires into the forests as a promyschlenik, or hunter. Of the miseries which here await hira, Wrangell relates a melancholy instance. In a solitary hut in one of the dreariest wildernesses imaginable, he found a THE TUNGUSI. 345 Tunguse and his daughter. While the father, with his long snow-shoes, was pursuing a reindeer for several days together, this unfortunate girl remained alone and helpless in the hut — which even in suramer afforded but an imperfect shelter against the rain and wind — exposed to the cold, and frequently to hun ger, and without the least occupation. No wonder that the impoverished Tungusi not seldom sink into cannibalism. Neither the reindeer nor the dogs, nor the wives and children of their more fortunate countryraen, are secure from the attacks and voracity of these outcasts, who, in their turn, are treated like wUd beasts, and destroyed without mercy. A bartering trade is, however, carried on with them, but only at a distance, and by signs ; each party depos iting ils goods, and following every raotion ofthe olher -with a suspicious eye. The Russian Governraent, anxious to relieve the misery of the impoverished nomads, has given orders to settle thera along the river-banks, and to provide them with the necessary fishing implements ; but only extreme wretchedness can induce the Tunguse to relinquish the free life of the forest. His careless temper, his ready wil, and sprightly manner, distinguish him from the other Siberian tribes — the glooray Samoiede, the uncouth Ostiak, the reserved Jakut —but he is said to be full of deceit and raalice. His vanity shows itself iu the quantity of glass beads with which he decorates his dress of reindeer leather, from his small Tartar cap to the lips ofhis shoes. When chasing or travelling on his reindeer through the woods, he of course lays aside most of his finery, and puts on large water-tight boots, or sari, well greased with fat, to keep off the wet of the morass. His hunting apparatus is extreraely simple. A sraall axe, a kettle, a leathern bag containing some dried fish, a dog, a short gun, or merely a bow and a sling, is all he requires for his expeditions into the forest. With the assistance of his long and narrow snow-shoes, he flies over the daz zling plain, and protects his eyes, like the Jakut, with a net made of black horse-hair. He never hesitates to attack the bear single-handed, and generally masters him. The nomad Tunguse naturally requires a movable dwelling. His tent is covered with leather, or large pieces of pliable bark, which are easi ly rolled up and transported frora place lo place. The yourt of the sedentary Tunguse resembles that of the Jakut, and is so small that it can be very quickly and thoroughly warmed by a fire kindled on the stone hearth in the centre. In his food the Tunguse is by no means dainty. One of his favorite dishes consists of the contents of a reindeer's stomach mixed with wild berries, and spread out in thin cakes on the rind of trees, to be dried in the air or in the sun. Those who have settled on the Wilnj and in the neighborhood of Nerlschinsk, likewise consume large quantities of brick tea, which they boil with fal and berries into a thick porridge, and this unwholesome food adds no doubt to the yellowness of their complexion. But few of the Tungusi have been converted to Christianity, the majority being still addicted to Shamanisra. They do not like lo bury their dead, but place theni, in their holiday dresses, in large chests, which they hang up be tween two trees. The hunting apparatus of the deceased is buried beneath the chest. No ceremonies are used on the occasion, except when a Shaman happens to be in the neighborhood, when a reindeer is sacrificed, on whose 246 THE POLAR WORLD. flesh the sorcerer and the relations regale theraselves, while the spirits lo whom the animal is supposed to be offered are obliged to content themselves with the smell of the burnt fat. As among the Saraoiedes or the Ostiaks, woraan is a marketable ware araong the Tungusi. The father gives his daugh ter in raarriage for twenty or a hundred reindeer, or the bridegroom is obliged to earn her hand by a long period of service. In East Siberia the Tungusi divide with the Jakuts the task of conveying goods or travellers through the forests, and afford the stranger frequent op portunities for admiring their agility and good-humor. On halting after a day's journey, the reindeer are unpacked in an instant, the saddles and the goods ranged orderly on the' ground, and the bridles collected and hung on branches of trees. The hungry animals soon disappear in the thicket, where they are left lo provide for theraselves. The raen, who meanwhile have been busy with their axes, drag a larch-tree or two to the place of encampment. The sraaller branches are lopped off and collected to serve as beds or seats upon the snow, while the resinous wood of the larger trunks is soon kindled into a lively fire. The kettle, filled with snow, is suspended frora a strong forked branch placed obliquely in the ground over the fire, and in a few min utes the tea is ready — for the Tungusi proceed every evening according lo the same method, and are consequently as expert as long and invariable practice can make them, t Comfortably seated on his reindeer saddle, the traveller may now arause himself with the dances, which the Tungusi accorapany with an agreeable song ; or if he choose to witness their agility in athletic exercises, it only costs hira a word of encouragement, and a small donation of brandy. Two of the Tungusi hold a rope, and swing it with all their might, so that it does not touch the ground. Meanwhile a third Tunguse skips over the rope, picks up a bow and arrow spaus the bow and shoots the arrow, withoul once touch ing the rope. Some particularly bold and expert Tungusi will dance over a sword which a person lying on his back on the ground is swinging about with the greatest rapidity. Should our traveller be a friend of chess, the Tun gusi are equally at his service, as they are passionately fond of this noblest of games, especially in the Kolymsk district. Like all olher Siberian nomads, they visit at least once a year the various fairs which are held in the small towns scattered here and there over their immense territory — such as Kirensk, Olekminsk, Bargusin, Tschita, and Ochotsk, which, before the opening of the Amoor to trade, was the chief port of East Siberia. . Ochotsk is one of the dreariest places imaginable ; al least no traveller who ever visited it has a word to say in its favor. Not a single tree grows for railes and railes around, and the wretched huts of which the town is composed lie in the midst of a swamp, which in summer is a fruitful source of malaria and pestilence. The River Ochota, at whose mouth Ochotsk is situated, does not break up before the end of May, and the ice-masses continue to pass the town till the 15lh or 20th of June. Soon after begins the most unpleasant time of all the year, or " buss " of the Siberians, characterized by thick fog and a per petual drizzling rain. The weather clears up in July, but as early as August the night-frosts cover the earth with rime. Salmon, of which no less than THE TUNGUSI. 347 fourteen different species live in the Sea of Ochotsk, are the only food which the neighborhood affords ; all other necessaries of life come from Jakutsk, and are of course enormously dear. Meat appears only from time to time on the ta bles of the wealthier merchants, and bread is an article of luxury. No won der that the scurvy ravages every winter a place so 'iU-provisioned, and that at the lime when the first caravan of pack-horses is expected lo cross the Al dan Mountains, the people of Ochotsk, unable to restrain their impatience, go out a long way to meet il. As the forraer trade of the place has now no doubt been transferred to the settlements on the Araoor, it may well be supposed that Ochotsk has lost most of its former inhabitants, who can only be con gratulated on their change of residence. 348 THE POLAR WORLD. BERING'S MONUMENT AT I'ETROPAULOVSK. CHAPTER XXn. GEORGE WILLIAM STELLER. His Birth. — Enters the Russian Service. — Scientific Journey to Kamchatka. — Accompanies Bering on his second Voyage of Discovery. — Lands on the Island of Kaiak. — Shameful Conduct of Bering. — Ship wreck on Bering Island. — Bering's Death. — Return to Kamchatka. — Loss of Property. — Persecutions of the Siberian Authorities. — Frozen to Death at Tjumen. GEORGE WILLIAM STELLER, one of the most distinguished natural ists of the past century, was born at Winsheim, a small town in Fran conia, in the year 1709. After completing his studies al the universities of Wittenberg and Halle, he turned his thoughts to Russia, which, since the re forms of Czar Peter the Great, and the protection which that monarch and his successors afforded to German learning, had become the land of promise for all adventurous spirits. Having been appointed surgeon in the Russian army, which at that time was besieging Danzig, he went with a transport of wounded soldiers, after the sur render of that town, to St. Petersburg, where he arrived in 1734. Here his talents were soon apipreciated ; after a few years he was named a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and sent by Government, in 1738, to exam ine the natural productions of Kamchatka. The ability and zeal with which he fulfilled this mission is proved by the valuable collections which he sent to the Academy, and by his numerous memoirs, which are still read with interest in the present day. In 1741 he accompanied Bering on his second voyage of discovery, the ob ject of which was to determine the distance of America frora Karachatka, and to ascertain the separation or the junction of both continents in a higher GEORGE WILLIAM STELLER. 349 latitude — a question which his first voyage had left undecided. Nothing could be raore agreeable to a man like Steller, than the prospects held out to him by an expedition to unknown regions ; and we can easily imagine the delight with which the naturalist erabarked on board of the " Saint Peter," commanded by Bering in person. Accorapanied by the " Saint Paul," under Tschirigow, they sailed on June 4 frora the Bay of Avatscha. The expedition had cost ten years of preparation, and brought misery and ruin upon raany of the wild Siberian tribes, for all that was necessary for the outfit had lo be conveyed by compulsory labor from the interior of the conti nent over mountains and rivers, through dense forests and pathless wilds, aud il seemed from the very beginning ofthe voyage as if the curses ofthe unfor tunate natives clung to it. Much valuable time had been lost, for the ships ought lo have sailed at least a month earlier, and Bering, who from illness con stantly kept lo his cabin, was by no means a fit comraander for a scientific ex pedition. After a few days a dense fog separated the vessels, which were never to raeet again ; and as the " St. Peter " held her course too rauch to the south, the Aleu tic chain reraained undiscovered, and the first land was only sighted after four weeks in the neighborhood of Bering's Bay. During the whole of this passage Steller had to endure all the vexations Avhich arrogant stupidity could infiict upon aman anxious to do his duty. It was in vain that he repeatedly pointed out the signs which indicated the presence of land not far to the north, in vain that he entreated the commander to steer but one day in that direction. At last, on July 15, the high mountains of America were seen to rise above the horizon, and the vessel anchored on the 19th near to the sraall island of Kaiak. On the following day a boat was sent out to fetch sorae fresh water, but it was wilh the utraost difficulty that Steller could obtain permission lo join the parly. All assistaace was obstmately denied hira, and accompanied by his only servant, a Cossack, he landed on the unknown shore, eager to make the most of the short time allotted him for his researches. He immediately di rected his steps towards the interior, and had scarcely walked a raile when he discovered the hollowed trunk of a tree, in which, a few hours before, the savages had boiled their meat with red-hot stones. He also found several pots filled with esculent herbs, and a wooden instrument for making fire, like those which are used by the inhabitants of Kamchatka. Hence he conjectured that the aborigines of this part of the American coast must be of the same ori gin as the Kamchatkans, and that both countries raust necessarily approach each other towards the north, as the inhabitanls could nol possibly traverse such vast extents of ocean in their rudely-constructed boats. Pursuing his way, Steller now came to a path which led into a dense and shady forest. Before entering, he strictly forbade his Cossack lo act without commands, in case of a hostile encounter. The Cossack had a gun, with a knife and hatchet ; Steller himself only a Jakut poniard, which he had taken with him to dig out plants or stones. After half an hour's walking, they carae to a place strewn with grass. This was immediately removed, and. a roof or plat form discovered, consisting of strips of bark laid upon poles and covered with 350 THE POLAR WORLD. stones. This platforra opened into a cellar containing a large quantity of smoked fishes, and a few bundles of the inner bark of the larch or fir tree, which, in case of necessity, serves as food throughout all Siberia. There were also some arrows, dyed black and smoothed, of a size far superior to those used in Kamchatka. After Steller, in spite of the danger of being surprised by the savages, had accurately examined the contents of the cellar; he sent his Cossack back again to the place where the boatmen were watering. He gave him specimens of the various articles which he had found, ordering him to take them to Cap- lain Bering, and to request that two or three men might be sent to hira for further assistance. In the raean time, though quite alone, he continued his investigations of the strange land, and having reached the summit of a hill, he saw smoke rising frora a forest at sorae distance. Overjoyed at the sight, for he now could hope to raeet wilh the natives and lo complete his knowl edge of the island, he instantly returned to the landing-place with all the eagerness of a raan who has something iraportant lo coraraunicate ; and as the boat was just about to leave, told the sailors to inforra the captain of his discovery, and to beg that the sraall pinnace, with a detachraent of armed men, might be sent out lo him. Meanwhile, exhausted wilh fatigue, he sat down on the beach, where he described in his pocket-book some of the more delicate plants he had collect ed, which he feared might speedily wither, and regaled himself with the ex cellent water. After waiting for about an hour, he at length received an an swer from Bering, telling him to return immediately on board, unless he chose to be left behind ; and we can easily imagine the indignation of the disap pointed naturalist at this shameful coramand. On the morning of July 21, Bering, contrary to his custom, appeared on deck, ordered the anchors to be weighed, and gave directions lo sail back again on the sarae course. The continent he had discovered was not even honored with a single visit, so that Steller conld not help telling the Russians they had raerely corae thus far for the purpose of carrying Araerican water to Asia. Any conscientious coramander would have continued to sail along the unknown shore, or, considering that the season was alreadyfar advanced, would have determined to winter there, and to pursue his discoveries next spring ; but, unfortunately for Bering and his companions, the course he adopted proved as disastrous as it was dishonorable. Three months long the ship was tossed about by contrary winds and storms ; the islands of the Aleutic chain, though frequently seen through the raists, were but seldom visited ; the scurvy broke out among the dispirited, ill-fed crew, their misery increased from day to day, and their joy may be im agined when at length, on November 5, a land was seen which they fii-mly believed to be Karachatka — though in reality it was merely the desert of Bering's Island, situated a hundred miles from that peninsula. Even those who were nearly half dead crept upon deck to enjoy the welcome sight ; every one thanked God, and the ignorant officer, convinced that they were at the entrance of the Bay of Avatscha, even named the several mountains ; but GEORGE WILLIAM STELLER. 251 their mistake soon became apparent when, on rounding a small promontory, some well-known islets were missed. As they had no doubt, however, that the land was really Kamchatka, and the bad weather and the small number of hands fil to do duty rendering it difficult to reach the Gulf of Avatscha, it was resolved to run into the bay that lay before them, and to send notice from thence to Nishne-Kamchalsk of their safe arrival. Steller was araong the first to land, and probably the very first of the parly who discovered the mistake of the excellent navigators to whom the expedition had been intrusted. Sea-otters came swimming lo him from the land, and he well knew that these much-persecuted animals had long since disappeared from the coast of Kamchatka. The number of Arctic foxes, loo, who showed no fear al his approach, and the sea-cows gambolling in the water, were sure signs that the foot of man had not often trodden this shore. Steller was also the first to set the good example of making the best of a bad situation, instead of uselessly bewailing his misfortunes. He began lo erect a hut for the following winter, and forraed an association with several of the crew, who, whatever raight await thera, promised to stand by each other. During the following days the sick were gradually conveyed on shore. Some of them died on board as soon as they were brought into the open air, others in the boat, others as soon as they were landed. " On all sides," says Steller, in his interesting account of this ill-fated voyage, " nothing was to be seen but misery. Before the dead could be buried, they were mangled by the foxes, who even ventured to approach the helpless invalids who were lying without cover on the beach. Sorae of these wretched sufferers bitterly cora plained of the cold, others of hunger and thirst — for raany had their gums so swollen and ulcerated with the scurvy as to be unable lo eat." " On November 13," continues the naturalist, " I went out hunting for the first time wilh Messieurs Plenisner and Beige ; we killed four sea-otters, and did not return before night. We ate their flesh thankfully, and prayed to God that He might continue lo provide us with this excellent food. The costly skins, on the other hand, were of no value in our eyes ; the only ob jects which we now esteemed were knives, needles, thread, ropes, etc., on whioh before we had not bestowed a thought. We all saw that rank, sci ence, and other social distinctions were now of no avail, and could not in any way contribute to our preservation : we therefore resolved, before we were forced to do so by necessity, to set to work al once. We introduced among us five a coramunity of goods, and regulated our housekeeping in such a raan ner as not to be in want before the winier was over. Our three Cossacks were obliged to obey our orders, when we had decided upon something in common ; but we began to treat them with greater politeness, calling thera by their names and surnames, and we soon found that Peter Maximowitsch served us -with more alacrity than formerly Petrucha (a dirainutive of Peter). " Nov. 14. — The whole ship's corapany was formed inlo three parties. The one had to convey the sick and provisions from the ship ; the second brought wood ; the third, consisting of a lame sailor and rayself, remained at home — 353 THE POLAR WORLD. the fornier busy making a sledge, while I acted as cook. As our party was the first to organize a household, I also performed the duty of bringing warm soup to some of our sick, until they had so far recovered as to be able to help themselves. " The barracks being this day ready to receive the sick, many of them were transported under roof; but for want of roora, they lay everywhere on the ground, covered wilh rags and clothes. No one could assist the other, and hothing was heard but lamentations and curses — the whole affording so wretched a sight, as to make even the stoutest heart lose courage. On Noveraber 15 all the sick were al length landed. We took one of them, named Boris Sand, into our hut, and by God's help he recovered within three months. " The following days added to our misery, as the messengers we had sent out brought us the intelligence that we were on a desert island, without any communication with Karachatka. We were also in constant fear that the stormy weather might drive our ship out to sea, and along with it all our provisions, and every hope of ever returning lo our homes. Sometiraes it was irapossible to get to the vessel for several days together, so boisterous was the surge ; and about ten or twelve men, who had hitherto been able lo work, now also fell ill. Want, nakedness, frost, rain, illness, impatience, and de spair, were our daUy companions." Fortunately the stormy sea drove the ship upon the strand, better than it could probably have been done by huraan efforts. Successively raany of the scorbutic pati«nls died, and on December 8 the unfortunate commander of the expedition paid his debt to nature. Titus Bering, by birth a Dane, had served thirty-six years with distino, tion in the Russian navy, but age and infirmities had completely damped his energies, and his death is a warning to all who enter upon undertakings above their strength. In the raean tirae the whole ship's company had established itself for the winter in five subterranean dwellings; the general health was visibly im proving, merely by means of the excellent water, and by the fresh raeat fur nished by sea-otters, seals, and raanatees ; and the only care now was to gain sufficient strength to be able to undertake the work of deliverance in spring. In April the shipwrecked raariners began lo build a smaller ship out of the timbers of the " St. Peter," and, such was the alacrity wilh which all hands set to work, that on August 13 they were able to set out. " When we were all embarked," says Steller, " we first perceived how much we should be inconvenienced for want of roora ; the water-casks, pro visions, and baggage taking up so much space, that our forty-two men (the three ship's officers and myself were somewhat better off in the cabin) could hardly creep between them and tjhe deck. A great quantity of the bedding and clothing had lo be thrown overboard. Meanwhile we saw the foxes sporting about our deserted huts, and greedily devouring remnants of fat and raeat. "On the 14th, in the raorning, we weighed anchor, and steered out ofthe GEORGE WILLIAM STELLER. 353 bay. The weather being beautiful, and the wind favorable, we were all in good spirits, and, as we sailed along the island, pointed out to each other the well-known mountains and valleys which we had frequently visited in quest of game or for the purpose of reconnoitring. Towards evening we were op posite the farthest point ofthe island, and on the 15th, the wind continuing favorable, we steered direct towards the Bay of Avatscha. About midnight, however, we perceived, lo our great dismay, that the vessel began to fill with water from an unknown leak, which, in consequence of the crowded and overloaded state of the vessel, it was extremely difficult to find out. The pumps were soon choked by the shavings left in the hold, and the danger rapidly increased, as the wind was strong and the vessel badly built. The sails were immediately taken in ; some of the men removed the baggage to look for the leak, others kept continually pouring out the water with kettles, while others again cast all superfluous articles overboard. At length, after the lightening ofthe ship, the carpenter succeeded in stopping the leak, and thus we were once more saved from imminent danger. ... On the 17th we sighted Kamchatka, but as the wind was contrary, we did not enter the har bor before the evening of the 27th. " In spite of the joy we all felt at our deliverance, yet the news we heard on our arrival awakened in us a host of conflicting emotions. We had been given up for lost, and all our property bad passed into other hands, and been mostly carried away beyond hope of recovery. Hence joy and sorrow alter nated within a few moments in our minds, though we were all so accustomed to privation and misery, as hardly to feel the extent of our losses." In the year 1744 Steller was ordered to return lo St. Petersburg ; but his candor had made him powerful enemies. Having reached Novgorod, and re joicing in the idea of once more mixing with the civilized world, he was sud denly ordered to appear before the imperial court of justice at Irkutsk, on the charge of having treacherously sold powder to the eneraies of Russia. Thus obliged to return once more into the depths of Siberia, he was at length dis missed by his judges, after waiting a whole year for their verdict. Once more on his way to Sl. Petersburg, he had already reached Moscow, when he was again summoned to appear without delay before the court of Irkutsk. A journey to Siberia is, under all circumstances, an arduous under taking ; what, then, must have been Steller's feelings when, instead of enjoy ing the repose he had so well merited, he saw himself obliged to retrace his steps for the fourth lirae, for the purpose of vindicating his conduct before a rascally tribunal ? On a very cold day his Cossack guards slopped to re fresh themselves with some brandy at an inn by the road-side, and Steller, who remained in the sledge waiting for their return, fell asleep, and was frozen to death. He lies buried near the town of Tjumen, and no monuraent apprises the naturalist, whora the love of knowledge may lead into the Siberian wilds, that his unfortunate predecessor was thus basely requited after years of exertion in the interests of science. 354 THE POLAR WORLD. CHURCH AT PETROPAVLOSK. CHAPTER XXIIL KAMCHATKA. Climate. — Fertility. — Luxuriant Vegetation. — Fish. — Sea-birds. — Kamchatkan Bird-catchers. — The Bay of Avatscha. — Petropaylosk. — The Kamchatkans. — Their phj'sical and moral Qualities. — The Fri- tillaria Sarrana. — The Muchamor. — Bears. — Dogs. ^ I "^HE peninsula of Kamchatka, though numbering no more than 6000 or 7000 -^ inhabitants, on a surface equalling Great Britain in extent, has so raany natural resources that it could easily maintain a far greater number. The cli mate is much more temperate and uniform than that of the interior of Siberia, being neither so excessively cold in winter, nor so intensely hot in summer ; and though the late and early night-frosts, with the frequent fogs and rains, prevent the cultivation of corn, the humid air produces a very luxuriant herba ceous vegetation. Not only along the banks of the rivers and lakes, but in the forest glades, the grass grows to a height of more than twelve feet, and many of the Compositas and Umbelliferse attain a size so Colossal that the Seradium, dulce and the Senecio cannabifolius not seldom overtop the rider on horseback. The pasture-grounds are so excellent that the grass can generally be cut thrice during the short sumraer, and thus a coraparatively sraall extent of land affords the winter supply for all the cattle of a haralet. Though the cold winds pre vent the growth of trees along the coast, the more inland mountain slopes and valleys are clothed with woods richly stocked with sables and squirrels. KAMCHATKA. 355 No country in the world has a greater abundance of exceUent fisheries. In spring the salmon ascend the rivers in such araazing nurabers, that on plunging a dart inlo the stream one is almost sure lo strike a fish ; and Steller affirms that the bears and dogs of Kamchatka catch on the banks more fish with their paws and mouths than man in other countries, with all his cunning devices of net or angle. As the various birds of passage do not all wander at the same time to the north, so also the various kinds of fishes migrate, some sooner, others later, and consequently profusion reigns during the whole of the suraraer. Ermann was astonished at this incalculable abundance of the Karachatkan riv ers, for in one of them, when the water was only six inches deep, he saw multi tudes of Chaekos {Slagocephalus) as long as his arm partly stranded on the banks, partly stiU endeavoring to ascend the shallow stream. As the waters contain such an incredible raultitude of fishes, we can not wonder that the V rocky coasts of the peninsula swarra with sea-fowl, whose breeding and roosting places are as densely peopled as any others in the world. At the entrance of the Avatscha Bay lies a reraarkable labyrinth of rocks, separated from each other by narrow channels of water, like the intricate streets of an old-fashioned city. The flood has everywhere scooped out picturesque cavities and passages in these stupendous raasses of stone, and the slightest wind causes the waves lo beat wilh terrific violence against their feet. Every ledge, platform, and pro jection, every niche, hollow, and crevice is peopled with sea-birds of strange and various forms. In the capture of these birds the Kamchatkans display an intrepidity equal to that of the islanders of St. Kilda or Feroe, and trust solely to their astonishing agility in climbing. Barefooted, without ropes or any other assistance, they venture down the steepest declivities, which are frequent ly only accessible frora the top, as the foaming breakers cut off all access frora below. The left arra clasps a basket, which they fiU with eggs as they advance, whUe the right hand grasps a short stick with an iron hook to drag the birds from the crevices of the rock. When a bird is caught, a dexterous grip wrings its neck, and it is then attached to the girdle of the fowler. In this manner an experi cUmber will kiU in one day from seventy to eighty birds, and gather above a hundred eggs. Thus the population of Karachatka is quite out of proportion to the riches of its pastures and waters. Its scanty inhabitanls are raoreover concentrated on a few spots along the chief rivers and bays, so that alraost the whole penin sula is nothing but an uninhabited wilderness. Before the conquest of the country bj- the Russians it had at least twenty times its present population, but the cruelty of the Cossacks and the ravages of the smaU-pox caused it to raelt away alraost as rapidly as that of Cuba or Hayti after the arrival of the Spaniards. At that time the sable and the sea-otter were considered of far greater importance than raan ; and unfortunately Rus sia has too raany deserts to people, before she can think of repairing past Er rors and sparing inhabitants for this reraotest corner of her vast Asiatic em pire. As the peninsula is too distant frora the highways of the world to attract the tide of eraigration, il is also seldora visited by travellers. The few stran- 356 THE POLAR WORLD. gers, however, who have sailed along the coasts, or made excursions into the in terior of the country, speak with enthusiasm of the boldness of its rocky prom ontories, the magnificence of its bays and mountains, and only regret that during the greater part of the year an Arctic winter veUs the beauties of the landscape under mists and snow. Throughout its whole length Kamchatka is traversed by an Alpine chain rising in sorae of its peaks to a height of 14,000 or 16,500 feel, and numbering no less than 28 active volcanoes along with many others -whose fires are extinct. A land thus undermined with subterranean fires must be possessed of many raineral riches, but as yet no one has ever thoughl of seeking for them or put ting them to use. Owing to the great humidity of the climate and the quantities of rain at tracted by the mountains, Kamchatka abounds in springs. In the lowlands they gush forth in such numbers as to render it very difficult to travel any dis tance on foot or horseback, even in winter, as they prevent the rivers from freezing. No doubt raany a mineral spring — cold, tepid, or warm — that would make the fortune of a Gerraan spa, here flows unnoticed into the sea. Karachatka has many excellent harbors, and the magnificent Bay of Avatscha would alone be able to afford roora to all the navies of the world. Ils steep rocky shores are alraost everywhere clothed with a species of beech {Betula Ermanni), interraingled with luxuriant grasses and herbs, and the higher slopes are generally covered wilh a dense underwood of evergreens and shrubs of de ciduous foliage, whose changes of color in autumn tinge the landscape with yel low, red, and brown tints. But the chief beauty of the Bay of Avatscha is the prospect of the distant mountains, forming a splendid panorama of fantastic peaks and volcanic cones, araong which the Streloshnaja Sopka towers pre-emi nent to the height of 14,000 feet. Close lo this giant, but somewhat nearer to the coast, rises the active volcano of Avatscha, which frequently covers the whole country with ashes. The vast Bay of Avatscha forras several rainor creeks : among others the ha ven of Sl. Peter and Paul, one of the finest natural harbors in the world, where the Russians have established the seat of their government in the sraall town of Petropavlosk, which hardly nurabers 500 inhabitanls, but has acquired some celebrity frora the unsuccessful attack oi the English and French forces in 1854. Mr. Knox thus describes Petropavlosk : " To make a counterfeit Petro pavlosk, lake a log village in the backwoods of a western state in America, and place it near a little harbor, where the ground slopes gently to the water. Arrange most of the houses along a single unpaved street, and drop the rest in a higgledy-piggledy fashion on the sloping hiUside. All buildings must be but one story high, and those of the poorer sort thatched with grass. The better class raay have iron or board roofs painted for preservation. The houses of the officials and the foreign raerchants raay be commodious, and built of hewn tim ber, but the doors of all must be low, and heavily constructed, to exclude the winter cold. Every dweUing must contain a brick stove that presents a side to each of two or three rooras. In winter this stove will raaintain a teraperature of about 68 degrees in all the rooras it is intended to warm." KAMCHATKA. 257 PETROPAVLOSK. Besides some Jakut immigrants, the chief stock of the scanty population of the country consists of the descendants of the primitive Kamchatkans, who, in spite of frequent interraarriages with their conquerors the Cossacks, have still retained many of their ancient manners. They are of a small stature, but broad- shouldered, their cheek-bones are prorainent, their jaws uncoraraonly broad and projecting, their noses sraall, their lips very full, their hair black. The color of the men is dark brown, or soraetiraes yellow ; the women have fairer coraplex ions, which they endeavor to preseiwe by raeans of bears' guts, stuck upon their faces in spring wilh fresh lime, so as not to be burned by the sun. They also paint their cheeks with a sea-weed, which, when rubbed upon them with fat, gives them a beautiful red color. The Kamchatkans are a reraarkably healthy race. Many of thera attain an age of seventy or eighty years, and are able to walk and to work until their IT 258 THE POLAR WORLD. death. Their hair seldom turns gray before their sixtieth year, and even the oldest men have a firm and elastic step. The weight of their body is greater than that of the Jakuts, though the latter live on mUk and flesh, whUe fish is the alraost exclusive food of the Kamchatkans. The round tubercles of the Fritillaria sarrana, a species of lily with a dark purple flower, likewise play an important part in their diet, and serve them instead of bread and meal. " If the fruits of the bread-fruit tree," says Kittlilz — who has seen both plants in the places of their growth — " are pre-eminent among all others, as affording man a perfect substitute for bread, the roots of the Sarrana, which are very similar in taste, rank perhaps iraraediately after them. The coUecting of these tubers in the raeadows is an important sumraer occupation of the woraen, and one which is rather troublesome, as the plant never grows gregariously, so that each root has to be sought and dug out separately with a knife. Fortunately the wonderful activity of the Siberian field-vole facilitates the labor of gather ing the tubers. These remarkable animals burrow extensive winter nests,, with five or six store-houses, whioh they fill with various roots, but chiefly with those of the Sarrana. To find these subterranean treasures, the Kamchatkans use slicks with iron points, which they strike into the earth. The contents of three of these nests are as much as a man can carry on his back. A species of fun gus, called mucharaor, affords a favorite sliraulant. It is dried and eaten raw. Besides its exhilarating effects, it is said to produce, like the Peruvian Coca, a reraarkable increase of strength, -which lasts for a considerable tirae. Fishing and hunting supply all the wants of the Karachatkans, for they have not yet learned to profit in any degree worth raentioning by the luxuriance of their raeadow-lands. They pay their taxes and purchase their foreign luxuries — raeal and tea, tobacco and brandy — wilh furs. The chase of the costly sea- otter (which frora excessive persecution had at one lirae almost become extinct) has latterly improved. Besides the fur aniraals, they also hunt the reindeer, the argali, the wolf, and the bear, whose skins supply them wilh clothing. Bears abound in Kamchatka, as they find a never-failing supply of fishes and berries, and Ermann assures us that they would long since have extirpated the inhabitants, if (most probably on account of the plenty in which they live) they were nol of a more gentle disposition than any others in the world. In spring they descend from the mountains lo the mouths of the rivers, to levy their tribute on the migratory troops of the fishes, frequently eating only the heads. Toward autumn they follow the fishes into the interior of the country as they ascend the streams. The most valuable domestic animal in Karachatka is the dog, who has the usual characters of the Esquimaux race. He lives exclusively on fish, which he catches very dexterously. From spring to auturan he is allowed to roara at lib erty, no one troubling hiraself about hira ; but in October, every proprietor col lects his dogs, binds thera to a post, and lets thera fast for a time, so as to de prive them of their superfluous fat, and to render them more fit for running. Dniing the winter they are fed with dried fish every morning and evening, but whUe traveUing they get nothing to eat, even though they run for hours. Their strength is wonderful. Generally no more than five of them are harnessed to a KAMCHATKA. 259 DOGS PISHrNG. sledge, and will drag \vith ease three full-grown persons, and sixty pounds' weight of luggage. When lightly laden, such a sledge will travel from 30 to 40 versts in a day over bad roads and through the deep snow ; on even roads, from SO to 140. The horse can never be used for sledging, on account of the deep snow, into which it would sink, and of the nuraerous rivers and sources, which are either never frozen, or merely covered wilh a thin sheet of ice, un able to bear the weight of so large an animal. Travelling with dogs is, however, both dangerous aud difficult. Instead of the whip, the Kamchatkans use a crooked stick with iron rings, which, by their jingling, give the leader of the team the necessary signals. When the dogs do not sufficiently exert themselves, the stick is cast among them to rouse them to greater speed ; but then the traveUer must be dexterous enough to 260 THE POLAR WORLD. pick it up again whUe the sledge shoots along. During a snow-storm the dogs keep their master warm, and wiU lie quietly near hira for hours, so that he has merely to prevent the snow from covering him too deeply and suffocating him. The dogs are also excellent weather prophets, for when, while resting, they dig holes in the snow, a storm raay with certainty be expected. The sledge-dogs are trained to their future service at a very early period. Soon after birth they are placed with their mother in a deep pit, so as to see neither raan nor beast, and, after having been weaned, they are again condemn ed to solitary confinement in a pit. After six months they are attached to a sledge with other older dogs, and, being extremely shy, they run as fast as they can. On returning horae, they are again confined in their pit, where they DOGS TOWING BOATS. remain until they are perfectly trained, and able to perform a long joumey. Then, but not before, they are aUowed their sumraer liberty. This severe edu cation corapletely sours their teraper, and they constantly remain glooray, shy, quarrelsome, and suspicious. To return to the Karachatkans : travellers praise their good-nature, their hospitality, and their natural wit. Of a sanguine disposition, they are happy and content in their poverty, and have no cares for the morrow. Being ex tremely indolent, they never work unless when compelled. They readily adopt strange manners, and no doubt education might produce valuable results in so pliable and sharp-witted a race. Unfortunately the Russians and Cossacks who have settled among them do not afford them the best examples. They KAMCHATKA. 361 have long since been converted to the Greek Church, but it is supposed that bap tism has nol fully effaced aU traces of Shamanism. Forraerly they had many gods, the chief of whom was Kutka, the creator of heaven and earth. But far from honoring Kutka, they continually ridiculed hira, and raade hira the con stant butt of their satire. Kutka, however, had a wife, Chachy, who was en dowed with all the intelligence in which her spouse was supposed to be defi cient, and who, as is the case in raany mortal housekeepings, was constantly ex erting her ingenuity in repairing the blunders of her lord and master. 263 THE POLAR WORLD. FRAME-WORK OF TCHUKTCHI HOUSE. CHAPTER XXIV. THE TCHUKTCHL The Land of the Tchuktchi. — Their independent Spirit and commercial Enterprise. — Perpetual Migra tions. — The Fair of Ostrownoje. — Visit in a Tchuktch Polog. — Races. — Tchuktch Bayaderes. — The Tennygk, or Reindeer Tchuktchi. — The Onkilon, or Sedentary Tchuktchi. — Their Mode of Life. AT the extreme north-eastern point of Asia, bounded by the Polar Ocean on one side and the Sea of Bering on the other, lies the land of the Tchuktchi. The few travellers who have ever visited that bleak proraontory describe it as one of the dreariest regions of the earth. The cUmate is dread fuUy cold, as may be expected in a country confined between icy seas. Before July 20th there is no appearance of summer, and winter already sets in about August 20th. The lower grounds shelving to the north are intersected with numerous strearas, which, however, enjoy their libertj' but a short tirae of the year ; the valleys are mostly swampy and filled with small lakes or ponds ; while on the bleak hill-slopes the Vaccinium and the dwarf birch or willow sparingly vegetate under a carpet of mosses and lichens. The eastern, north eastern, and partly also the southern coasts abound with walruses, sea-lions, and seals, while the reindeer, the argaU, the wolf, and the Arctic fox occupy the land. During the short sumraer, geese, swans, ducks, and wading-birds frequent the marshy grounds ; but in winter the snow-owl and the raven alone remain, and constantly follow the path of the nomadic inhabitants. In this desolate nook of the Old World lives the only aboriginal people of North Asia which has known how to maintain its liberty to the present day, and which, proud of its independence, looks down- wilh sovereign conterapt upon its re lations, the Korj aks, who, .without offering any resistance, have yielded to the authority of Russia, THE TCHUKTCHI. 363 The rulers of Siberia have indeed confined the Tchuktchi within narrow limits, but here at least they obey no foreign ruler, and wander, unmolested by the stranger, with their numerous reindeer herds, over the naked tundras. A natural distrust of their powerful neighbors has rendered them long unwil ling to enter into ahy coraraercial intercourse with the Russians, and lo meet them at the fair of Ostrownoje, a small town, situated nol far frora their fron tiers, on a small island of the Aniuj, in 68° N. lat. This remotest trading-place' of the Old World is not so unimportant as might be supposed, from the sterile nature of the country, for the Tchuktchi are not satisfied, like the indolent Lapps or Samoiedes, with the produce of their reindeer herds, but Strive to increase their enjoyraents or their property by an active trade, v Frora the East Cape of Asia, where, crossing Bering's Straits in boats covered with skins, they barter furs and walrus-teeth frora the natives of America, the Tchuktchi come with their goods and tents drawn on TCHUKTCHI CANOE. sledges to the fair of Ostrownoje. Other sledges laden with lichens, the food of the reindeer, follow in their train, as in their wanderings, however circuitous, they not seldora pass through regions so stony and desert as not even to afford these frugal aniraals the slightest repast. Thus regulating their raoveraents by the wants of their herds, they require five or six months for a joumey which, in a direct line, would not be much longer than a thousand versts, and are almost constantly wandering from place lo place, though, as they always carry their dwellings along with them, they at the sarae lime never leave horae. One of these snail-like caravans generally consists of fifty or sixty families, and one fair is scarcely at an end when they set off to make their arrangements for the next. Tobacco is the priraura mobile of the trade which centres in Ostrownoje. Their pipes are of a peculiar character, larger at the stera than the bowl, which holds a very sraaU quantity oftobacco. In sraoking, they swallow the furaes of the tobacco, and often, after six or eight whiffs, fall back corapletely intoxi- 264 THE POLAR WORLD. •-*0 *^ -V-iLJ TCHUKTCHI PIPE. cated for the time. The desire to procure a few of its narcotic leaves induces the American Esquimaux, from the Icy Cape to Bristol Bay, to send their prod uce from hand to hand as far as the Gwosdew Islands in Bering's Straits, where it is bartered for the tobacco of the Tchuktchi, and these agaiu princi pally resort to the fair of Ostrownoje lo purchase tobacco from the Russians. Generally the Tchuktchi receive from the Americans as many skins for half a poud, or eighteen pounds, of tobacco-leaves as they afterwards sell lo the Rus sians for two pouds of tobacco of the same quality. These cost the Russian merchant about 160 roubles at the very utmost, while the skins which he obtains in barter are worth at least 260 at Jakutsk, and are more than double that sum at St. Petersburg. The furs of the Tchuktchi principally consist of black and silver-gray foxes, stone-foxes, gluttons, lynxes, otters, beavers, and a fine species of marten which does not occur in Siberia, and approaches the sable in value. They also bring to the fair bear-skins, walrus-thongs and teeth, sledge-runners of whale-ribs, and ready-made clothes of reindeer skin. The American furs are generally packed in sacks of seal skin, which are made in an ingenious raanner by extracting the bones and flesh through a sraall opening raade in the abdoraen. The Russian traders on their part bring to the fair, besides tobacco, iron ware — particularly kettles and knives — for the Tchuktchi, and tea, sugar, and various stuffs for their countrymen who have settled along the Kolyraa. But Ostrownoje attracts not only Tchuktchi and Russians ; a great num ber of the Siberian tribes frora a vast circuit of 1000 or 1500 versts — Juka hires, Lamutes, Tungusi, Tschuwanzi, Koriaks — also corae flocking in their sledges, drawn partly by dogs, partly by horses, for the purpose of bartering their commodities against the goods of the Tchuktchi. Fancy this barbarous asserably meeting every year during the intense cold and short days of the be ginning of March. Picture lo yourself the fantastic illumination of their red watch-fires blazing under the starry firraaraent, or raingling their ruddy glare with the Aurora flickering through the skies, and add to the strange sight the hollow sound of the Shaman's drum, and the howling of several hundreds of hungry dogs, and you will surely confess that no fair has a raore original char acter than that of Ostrownoje. A government comraissary, assisted by some Cossacks, superintends the fair, and receives the inconsiderable market-tax which the Tchuktchi pay to the Emperor. THE TCHUKTCHL 365 AU preliminaries having been arranged, the orthodox Russians repair to the chapel for the purpose of hearing a solemn mass, after which, the hoisting of a flag on the tower of the ostrog announces the opening of the market. At this welcome sign, the Tchuktchi, corapletely arraed with spears, bows, and arrows, advance with their sledges, and forra a wide seraicircle round the fort, while the Russians, and the other visitors of the fair, ranged opposite to them, await in breathless silence the tolling of the bell, which is to begin the active business of the day. At the very first sound, each trader, grotesquely laden with packages of tobacco, kettles, knives, or whatever else he supposes best able to supply some want, or to strike some fancy of the Tchuktchi, rush es as fast as he can towards the sledges, and in the jumble not seldom knocks down a competitor, or is himself stretched at full length on the snow. But, unmindful of the loss of cap and gloves, which he does not give hiraself tirae to pick up, he starts afresh, to raake up for the delay by redoubled activity. Before he reaches the first Tchuktch, his eloquence breaks forth in an inter minable flow, and in a strange jargon of Russian, Tchuktch, and Jakute, he praises the excellence of his tobacco or the solidity of his kettles. The iraper- turbable gravity of the Tchuktch forras a reraarkable contrast with the greedy eagerness of the Russian trader ; withoul replying to his harangue, he merely shakes his head if the other offers him too little for his goods, and never for an instant loses his self-possession : while the Russian, in his hurry, not sel dom hands over two pouds of tobacco for one, or pockets a red fox instead of a black one. Although the Tchuktch have no scales with thera, il is not easy to deceive them in the weight, for they know exactly by the feeling of the hand whether a quarter of a pound is wanting to the poud. The whole fair seldom lasts longer than three days, and Ostrownoje, which raust have but very few stationary inhabitants indeed (as il is nol even raentioned in statistical ac counts, which cite towns of seventeen souls), is soon after abandoned for many months to its ultra-Siberian solitude. But before we allow the Tchuktchi to retire to their deserts, we may learn something more of their habits by accompanying Mr. Matiuschkin — WrangeU's companion — on a visit to the ladies of one of their first chiefs. " We enter the outer tent, or ' namet,' consisting of tanned reindeer skins supported on a slen-f der frame-work. An opening at the lop lo let out the sraoke, aud a kettle in the centre, announce that anlecharaber and kitchen are here harraoniously blend ed inlo one. But where are the inraates? Most probably in that large sack made of the finest skins of reindeer calves, which occupies, near the kettle, the centre of the 'narael.' To penetrate inlo this ' sanctum sanctorum' of the Tchuktch household, we raise the loose flap which serves as a door, creep on all fours through the opening, cautiously re-fasten the flap by tucking it uuder the floor-skin, and find ourselves in the reception or withdi-awing roora — the ' polog.' A snug box no doubt for a cold cliraate, but rather low, as we can not stand up right in it, and not quite so well ventilated as a sanitary coraraissioner would approve of, as il has positively no opening for light or air. A suffocating smoke raeets us on entering, we rub our eyes, and when they have at length got accustomed to the biting atmosphere, we perceive, by the glooray light of a 266 THE POLAR WORLD. train-oil larap, the worthy family squatting on the floor in a state of alraost coraplete nudity. Without being in the least embarrassed, Madame Letllt and her daughter receive us in their priraitive costurae: but to show us that the Tchuktchi know how to receive company, and to do honor to their guests, they immediately insert strings of glass beads in their greasy hair. Their hospitaU ty equals their politeness ; for, instead of a cold reception, a hot dish of boiled reindeer-flesh, copiously irrigated with rancid train-oil by the experienced hand of the raistress of the household, is soon after smokiog before us. Unfortunate ly our effeminate taste is not up to the haut goM of her culinary art, and while Mr. Leiitt does ample justice to the artistic talent of his .spouse, by rapidly bolt ing down pieces as large as a fist, we are hardly able lo swallow a morsel." During his ^ isit at Ostrownoje, JMatiuschkin had a favorable opportunity of becoming acquainted with the sports of the Tchuktchi, the chieftain, Makomol, having set out prizes for a race. These consisted of a valuable silver fox, a first-rate beaver skin, and two fine walrus-teeth. Nothing can be more ad mirable than the fieetness of the reindeer or the dexterity of their drivers ; and the agility displayed in the foot-race by the Tchuktchi, running at full speed, in their heavy winter dresses, over a distance of fifteen versts, gives a high idea of their muscular powers. After the races, the spectators are treated to a grand choregrapliic display. The Arctic bayaderes, muffled from head to foot iu their stiff skin garments, form a naiTow circle, slowly moving their feet backward and forward, and fiercely gesticulating with their hands, whilst their faces are distorted into a thousand horrible grimaces. The singing that accompanies the ballet has no doubt its charm for native ears, but to strangers it seems no belter than a kind of grunt. The representation is closed by three first-rate artistes executing a particularly favorite dauce. The faces of their countrymen express the same intense admiration with which a European dilet tante foUows the graceful pirouettes of a Taglioni, while the Russian guests see only three greasy monsters alternately rushing towards each other and Starting back, until at length they stop frora sheer exhaustion. As a token of their satisfaction, the Russians regale the fair perforraers with a cup of brandy £tnd a roll of tobacco, and both parties take leave of each other wilh mutual protestations of satisfaction and friendship. ' Though most of the Reindeer or nomadic Tchuktchi have been baptized, yet Wrangell supposes the ceremony lo ha^'e been a mere financial speculation on their part, and is convinced that the power of the Shamans is still as great as etver. An epidemic had carried off a great nuraber of persons, and also whole herds of reindeer. In vain the Sharaans had recourse to their usual conjura tions, the plague continued. They consulted together, and directed that one of tlieir raost respected chiefs, named Kotschen, must be sacrificed, to appease the irritated spirits. Kotschen was willing lo subrait to the sentence, but none could be found to execute it, until his own son, prevailed on by his father's ex hortations, and terrified by his threatened curse, plunged a knife into his heart, and gave his body to the Sharaans. Polygamy is general among the Tchuktchi, and they change their wives as 6ften as they please. StiU, though the women are certainly slaves, they are al- /^ THE TCHUKTCHI. . 367 lowed raore influence, and are subjected to less labor than araong many sav ages. Among other heathenish and detestable customs, is that of killing all deformed children, and all old people as soon as they become unfit for the hardships and fatigues of a nomad life. Two years before WrangeU's arri val at Kolyma there was an instance of this in the case of one of their richest chiefs. Waletka's father becarae infirm and tired of life, and was put to death at his own express desire by some of his nearest relations. Besides the wandering, or Reindeer Tchuktchi, who call themselves Tennygk, there are others, dwelling in fixed habitations along the borders of the sea at Bering's Straits and the Gulf of Anadyr, who differ considerably frora the former in appearance and language. These Onkilon, or stationary Tchuktchi, belong to the wide-spread Esquimaux faraily, and, like raost of their race, sub sist by hunting the whale, the walrus, and the seal. They live iu a state of abject dependence on the nomad Tchuktchi, and are poor, like all fishermen, while some of the Tennygk chieftains possess several thousands of reindeer, and are continually adding to their wealth by trade. Of course there is an active exchange of comraodities between the two ; the Onkilon furnishing thongs of walrus hide, walrus-teeth, train-oil, etc., and receiving reindeer skins, or ready-raade clothes of the sarae material, in return. They live in small settlements or villages spread along the coast ; their huts, raised on frame-works of whale-rib and covered with skins, resemble a large irregular cone reposing on ils side, with the apex directed to the north, and the base shelving abruptly to the south. Here is the small opening, closed .by a flap of loose skin, which serves as a door, while the smoke escapes and the light enters through a round hole in the roof. Al the farther or northern end of this structure is a second low square tent, covered wilh double reindeer skins, the polog, which in winter serves both as the dining and bed roora of the family. The Onkilon catch seals in a kind of net raade of leather straps, which they spread out under the ice, and in which the animal entangles itself with the head or flippers. When the walrus, which is particularly abundant about Koliutschin Island, creeps on shore, they steal upon it unawares, cut off its re treat, and kill it with their spears. Like the Esquimaux, they use dogs to drag their sledges. The number of the Tchuktchi is greater than one raight expect to find in so sterile a country. According to the Russian raissionaries, there were, some years back, 52 ulusses or vUlages of the OnkUon, wilh 1568 tents, and 10,000 inhabitants ; and Wrangell tells us that the Tennygk are at least twice as nu merous, so that the entire population of the land of the Tchuktchi may possi bly amount to 30,000. 268 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XXV. BERING SEA— THE EUSSIAN FUR COMPANY— THE ALEUTS. Bering Sea. — Unalaska. — The Pribilow Islands. — St. Matthew. — St. Laurence. — Bering's Straits.— The Russian Fur Company. — The Aleuts. — Their Character. — Their Skill and Intrepidity in hunting the Sea-otter. — The Sea-bear. — Whale-chasing. — Walrus-slaughter. — The Sea-lion. T> ERING SEA is extreraely interesting in a geographical point of view, as -'-' the teraperature of its coasts and islands exhibits so striking a contrast with that part of the Arctic Ocean which extends between Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Spitzbergen, and affords us the raost convincing proof of the benefits we owe to the Gulf Streara, and to the raild south-westerly winds which sweep across the Atlantic. While through the sea between Iceland and Scotland, a part of the warrath generated in the tropical zone penetrates by raeans of raarine and aerial currents as far as Spitzbergen and the western coast of Nova Zerabla, the Sea of Bering is corapletely deprived of this advan tage. The long chain of raountainous islands which bounds it on the south serves as a barrier against the raild influence of the Paciflc, and instead of warm strearas raixing with its waters, raany considerable rivers and deep bays yearly discharge into it enormous masses of ice. Thus as soon as the naviga tor enters Bering Sea he perceives at once a considerable fall in the terapera ture, and finds himself suddenly transferred from a temperate oceanic region to one of a decidedly Arctic character. In spite, therefore, of their compara tively southerly position (for the Straits of Bering do not even reach the Arc tic Circle, and the Andrianow Islands are ten degrees farther to the south than BERING SEA— THE ALEUTS. 369 the Feroes), those frigid waters are, wilh regard to climate, far less favorably situated than the seas of Spitzbergen. The sarae gradual differences of teraperature and vegetation which we find in Unalaska, the Pribilow Islands, St. Laurence, and the Straits of Be ring, within 10° of latitude, occur in the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Bear Island, and Spitzbergen al distances of almost 20° ; so that in the Sea of Bering the increase of cold on advancing to the north is about twice as rapid as in the waters between North Europe and North Araerica. The long and narrow peninsula of Aliaska, which forras the south-eastern boundary of this inhospitable sea, shows us its infiuenee in a very raarked de gree, for while the cliraate of the northern side of that far-projecting land- tongue has a decidedly Arctic character, its southern coasts fronting the Pa cific enjoy a teraperate cliraate. The mountain-chain which, rising to a height of five or six thousand feel, forms the backbone of the peninsula, serves as the boundary of two distinct worlds, for while the northern slopes are bleak and treeless like Iceland, the southern shores are covered frora the water's edge with magnificent forests. While on the northern side the walrus extends his excursions down lo 56° 30' N. lat., on the southern exposure the humming bird is seen to flit from flower to flower as high as 61°, the most northerly point it is known lo attain. The Feroe Islands (64° N. lat.) have undoubtedly a no very agreeable cli mate lo boast of, but they raay almost be said to enjoy Italian skies when compared with Unalaska (54° N. lat.), the best known ofthe Aleutian chain. The Scandinavian archipelago is frequently obscured with fogs, but here they are perpetual from April lo the middle of July. From this time till the end of Septeraber the weather iraproves, as then the southerly winds drive the foggy region raore to the north, and enable the sun to shine during a few se rene days upon the bleak shores of Unalaska. But soon the Polar air-streams regain the supremacy, and a dismal veil once more shrouds the melancholy isl and. Of Sitka, the chief town of Aliaska, Mr. Whyraper says : " It enjoys the unenviable position of being about the raost rainy place in the world. Rain ceases only when there is a good prospect of snow." Snow generally begins to fall early in October, and snow-storms occur to the very end of May. There are years in which it rains continually during the whole winter. In the Feroes some service-trees are to be seen twelve feet high or more, while nothing like a tree ever grew in Unalaska. The difference between the temperatures of the summer and winter, which in the Feroes is confined to very narrow limits, is much more considerable in Unalaska, though here also the moderating influ ence of the sea makes itself felt. Thus in sumraer the thermometer rarely rises above 66°, but on the other hand in winter it still more rarely falls be low —2°. Of course no corn of any kind can possibly ripen in a climate like this, but the damp and cool temperature favors the growth of herbs. In the moist low lands the stunted willow-bushes are stifled by the luxuriant grasses ; and even on the hills, the vegetation, which is of a decidedly Alpine character, covers the earth up to the line of perpetual snow ; while several social plants, such, 370 THE POLAR WORLD. as the Lupinus nootkeanus and the Rhododendron kamtschadalicum, decorate these dismal regions wilh their brilliant color. The lively green of the mead ows reminds one of the valley of Urseren, so weU known to all Alpine tourists. The mosses and lichens begin already at Unalaska lo assurae that predomi nance in the Flora which characterizes Jibe frigid zone. A few degrees to the north of the Aleutian chain, which extends in a long BERING SEA— THE ALEUTS. 371,; line from the promontory of Aliaska to Kamchatka, are situated the Pribilow Islands, St. George and St. Paul, which are celebrated in the history of the fur- trade, the former as the chief breeding-place of the sea-bear, the latter as that of the sea-lion. Chamisso was struck with their wintry aspect, for here no sheltered valleys and lowlands promote, as at Unalaska, a more vigorous veg etation. The rounded backs of the hills and the scattered rocks are covered with black and gray lichens ; and where the melting snows afford a sufficient moisture, sphagnum, mosses, and a few weeds occupy the marshy ground. The frozen earth has no springs, and yet these desolate islands have a more south erly situation than the Orkneys, where bailey grows to ripeness. Before these islands were discovered by the Russians they had been for ages the un disturbed home of the sea-birds and the large cetacean seals. Under Russian superintendence, some Aleuts have now been settled on both of them. The innumerable herds of sea-lions, which cover the naked shores of St. George as far as the eye can reach, present a strange sight. The guillemots have taken possession of the places unoccupied by their families and fly fearlessly among them, or nestle in the crevices of the wave-worn rock-walls, or between the large boulders which form a bank along the strand. Still farther to the north lies the uninhabited island of St. Matthew (62° N. lat.). A settlement was once atterapted ; but as the animals which had been reckoned upon for the winier supply of food departed, the unfortunate colonists all died of hunger. Fogs are so frequent about the island of St. Laurence that navigators have often passed close by it (65° N. lat.) without seeing it. Chamisso was sur prised at the beauty and the nurabers of its dwarfish flowering herbs, which reminded him of the highlands of Switzerland, while the neighboring St. Laurence Bay, in the land of the Tchuktchi, was the iraage of wintry desola tion. In July the lowlands were covered with snow-fields, and the few plants bore the Alpine character in the most marked degree. Under this inclement sky, the mountains, unprotected by vegetation, rapidly fall into decay. Every winter splits the rocks, and the suraraer torrents carry the fragraents down to their feet. The ground is everywhere covered with blocks of stone, unless where the sphagnura, by the accumulation of its decomposed remains, has formed masses of peat in the swarapy lowlands. On sailing through Bering's Straits, the traveller may see, in clear weather, both the Old and the New World. On both sides rise high mountains, pre cipitously from the water's edge in Asia, but separated frora the sea by a broad alluvial belt on the Araerican side. The sea is deepest on the Asiatic border, where the current, flowing frora the south with considerable rapidity, has also the greatest force. Here also whales may be often seen, and large herds of walruses. In former tiraes the baidar of the Esquiraaux was the only boat ever seen in the straits, and since Seraen Deshnew, who first sailed round the eastern point of Asia, European navigators had but rarely passed them to explore the seas beyond ; but recently this remotest part of the world has become the. scene of an active whale-fishery. 873 THE POLAR WORLD. A BAIDAR. The shores of Bering Sea are naked and bleak, and the numerous volca noes of the Aleutian chain pour out their lava-streams over unknown wilder nesses. But the waters ofthe sea are teeming with life. Gigantic algse, such as are never seen in the torrid zone, forra, round the rocky coasts, vast sub marine forests. A host of fishes, whales, walruses, and seals, fill the sea and its shores, and innumerable sea-birds occupy the cliffs. But these treasures ofthe ocean, which for ages furnished the Aleuts and olher wild tribes with the nieans of existence, have also been the cause of their servitude. Had the sea-otter not existed, the wild children of the soil might possibly still be in possession of their ancient freedom ; and but for the sea-bear and the walrus, the whale and the seal, the banners of the Czar would scarcely have met the flag of England on the continent of Araerica. As the whole fur-trade of the Hudson's Bay Territory is concentrated in the hands of one mighty company, thus also one powerful association enjoys the exclusive comraerce of the eastern possession of Russia. The regions un der the authority of the Russian Fur Corapany* occupy an iraraense space, as they comprise not only all the islands of Bering Sea, but also the American coasts down to 55° N. lat. The extreme points of this vast territory are situ ated at a greater distance from each other than London from Tobolsk, but the importance of its trade bears no proportion to its extent. The corapany, Avhich was founded in the year 1799, under the Eraperor Paul, had, in 1839, thirty-six hunting settleraents on ils own territory (the Kurile Islands, the Aleutic chain, Aliaska, Bristol Bay, Cook's Inlet, Norton Sound, et(3.), besides a chain of agencies from Ochotsk to St. Petersburg. Its chief seat is New Archangel, on Sitka, one of the raany islands of King George Ill's Archipelago, first accurately explored by Vancouver. The mag nificent Bay of Norfolk, at the head of which the small town is situated, greatly reserables a Norwegian Qord, as we here find the sarae steep rock- * Since last year [1867] the Russian Government has sold her American possessions to the United States, but as itis not yet known how far the interests ofthe Russian Fur Company have been affected by the change, I may be allowed to .speak of her in the present tense. BERING SEA— THE ALEUTS. 273 walls bathing their precipitous sides in the eraerald waters, and clothed with dense pine forests wherever a tree can grow. A number of islets scattered over the surface of the bay add lo the beauty of the scene. The furs collected by the company are chiefly those of sea- bears, sea-otters, foxes, beavers, bears, lynxes, American martens, etc., and are partly furnished by the subjects of its own territory (Aleuts, Kadjacks, Ke- naIzes,Tchugatchi, Aliaskans), who are compelled to hunt on ils account, and partly obtained by barter frora the independent tribes of the raainland, or from the Hudson's Bay Company. The greater part is sent to Ochotsk or the Amoor, and frora thence through Siberia to St. Petersburg ; the rest to the Chinese ports, where the skins of the young sea-bear always find a ready market. Of all the aboriginal tribes which inhabit the vast territory of Russian America, the raost worthy of notice is that of the Aleuts. Less fortunate than their independent relatives, the Esquimaux of the north — who in the midst of privations maintain an imperturbable gayety of teraper — these isl anders have been effectually spirit-broken under a foreign yoke. In 1817 the cruel treatment of their masters had reduced them to about a thousand ; since that tirae their nuraber has somewhat increased, the company having at length discovered that man is, after all, the most valuable production of a land, and that if depopulation increased slill further, they would soon have no more hunters lo supply them with furs. Every Aleut is bound, after his eighteenth year, to serve the company three years ; and this forced labor-tax does not seera at first sight immode rate, but if we consider that the islanders, to whom every foreign article is suppUed from the warehouses of the company, are invariably its debtors, we can not doubt that as long as the Aleut is able to hunt, he is obliged to do so for the wages of a slave. The Bishop Ivan Weniarainow, who resided ten years at Unalaska, draws a picture of this people which exhibits evident marks of a long servitude. They never quarrel among each other, and their patience is exeraplary. Nothing can surpass the fortitude with which they endure pain. On the olher hand, they never show excessive joy ; il seems impossible to raise their feelings to the pilch of delight. Even after a long fast, a child never grasps with eagerness the proffered morsel, nor does it on any occasion exhibit the mirth so natural lo ils age. In hunting the marine animals, the Aleuts exhibit a wonderful skill and in trepidity. To catch the sea-otter, they assemble in April or May at an ap pointed spot, in their light skin boats, or baidars, and choose one of their most respected chiefs for the leader of the expedition, which generally nurabers from fifty to a hundred boats. Such hunting-parties are annually organized from the Kurile Islands to Kadjack, and consequently extend their operations over a line of 3000 railes. On the first fine day the expedition sels out and proceeds to a distance of about forty versts frora the coast, when the baidars form into a long line, leaving an interval of about 250 fathoms from boat to boat, as far as a sea-otter diving out of the water can be seen, so that a row of thirty baidars occupies a space of from ten lo twelve versts. When the 18 274 THE POLAR WORLD. number of the boats is greater, the intervals are reduced. Every raan now looks upon the sea with great attention. Nothing escapes the eye of the Aleut ; in the sraallest black spot appearing but one moment over the surface of the waters, he at once recognizes a sea-otter. The baidar which first sees the animal rows rapidly towards the spot where the creature dived, and now the Aleut, holding his oar straight up in the air, reraains motionless on the spot.' Immediately the whole squadron is on the move, and the long, straight line changes into a wide circle, the centre of which is occupied by the baidar with the raised oar. The otter, nol being able to remain long under water, re appears, and the nearest Aleut iraraediately greets hira with an arrow. This first attack is seldom mortal ; very often the missile does not even reach its raark, and the sea-otter instantly disappears. Again the oar rises from the next baidar ; again the circle forras, but this lirae narrower than at first ; the fatigued otter is obliged lo come oftener to the surface, arrows fiy from all sides, and finally the animal, killed by a mortal shot, or exhausted by repeal ed wounds, falls to the share of the archer who has hit it nearest lo the head. If several otters appear at the sarae lirae, the boats forra as many rings, pro vided their number be sufficiently great. The boldest of all hunters, the Aleuts of the Fox Islands, pursue the sea-ot ter also in winter. If, during the summer chase, the rapidity and regularity with which all the raovements are perforraed, and the sure eye and aim of the archers command the spectator's admiration, this winter chase gives him occa sion lo wonder at their courage. During the severest winter-storms the otter shelters himself on the shore of some small uninhabited island or on a solitary rock, and after having carefully ascertained that no enemy is near, coils himself up and falls asleep. While the storm still rages, two Aleuts approach the rock in two single baidars from the leeward. The hunter in the foremost baidar stands upright, a gun or a club in his hand, and waits in this position till a wave brings hira near to the surarait of the rock. He now springs on land, and while his corapanion takes care of the baidar, approaches the sleeping otter and shoots it or kills it wilh his club. With the assistance of his corapanion who has reraained on the water, he springs back into his baidar as soon as the crest ofa wave brings it within his reach. The sea-bear is nearly as valuable as the sea-otter lo the fur corapany, as the woolly skin of the young animal is the only one of the whole seal tribe which is reckoned among the finer peltry. The sea-bears are chiefly killed on the Commodore and Pribilow islands, particularly on St. Paul, where they are hunted by a certain nuraber of Aleuts located there under Russian superin tendence. The chase begins in the latter part of September, on a cold, foggy day, when the wind blows from the side where the animals are assembled on the rocky shore. The boldest huntsmen open the way, then follow the older people and the children, and the chief personage of the band comes last, to be the better able lo direct and survey the moveraents of his raen, who are all arraed with clubs. The raain object is to cut off the herd as quickly as possi ble from the sea. All the grown-up males and females are spared and allowed to escape, but most of the young animals are sentenced to death. Those BERING SEA— THE ALEUTS. 375 which are only four months old (their furs being most highly prized) are doomed without exception; while of the others that have attained an age of one, two, or three years, only the raales are killed. For several days after the massacre, the mothers swira about the island, seeking and loudly wailing for their young. From October 5 St. Paul is gradually deserted by the sea-bears, who then migrate to the south and re-appear towards the end of April, the males arriving first. Each seeks the same spot on the shore which he occupied during the preceding year, and lies down among the large stone blocks with which the flat beach is covered. About the raiddle of May the far raore nuraerous feraales begin lo raake their appearance, and the sea-bear farailies lake full possession of the strand. Each raale is the sultan of a herd of females, varying in number according to his size and strength ; the weaker brethren contenting themselves with half a dozen, while some of the sturdier and fiercer feUows preside over harems 200 strong. Jealousy and intrusion frequently give rise to terrible bat tles. The full-grown raale sea-bear, who is about four or five times larger than the female, grows to the length of eight feet, and owes his name to his shaggy blackish fur, and not to his disposition, which is far from being cruel or savage. Armed with a short .spear, a single Aleut does not hesitate to attack the co lossal whale. Approaching cautiously from behind in his baidar until he reach es the head, he plunges his weapon inlo the animal's flank under the fore fin, and then retreats as fast as his oar can carry him. If the spear has penetrated into the flesh, the whale is doomed ; it dies within the next two or three days, aud the currents and the waves drift the carcass to the next shore. Each spear has its peculiar mark by which the owner is recognized. Somethnes the baidar does not escape in tirae, and the whale, maddened by pain, furiously lashes the water wilh his tail, and throws the baidar high up inlo the air, or sinks it deep into the sea. The whale-fishers are highly esteeraed"Tiraong the Aleuts, and their intrepidity and skiU well deserve the general adrairation. Of course many of tbe whales are lost. In the sumraer of 1831, 118 whales were wounded near Kadjack, of which only forty-three were found. The others may have been wafted far out into the sea to regale the sharks and sea-birds, or driven to more distant shores, whose inhabitants no doubt gladly welcomed their landing. Wrangell informs us that since 1833 the Russians have intro duced the use of the harpoon, and engaged some English harpooners to teach the Aleuts a raore profitable method of whale-catching, but we are not told how the experiment has succeeded. The company, besides purchasing a great quantity of walrus-teeth from the Tchuktchi of the Bering's Straits and Bristol Bay, send every year a detach ment of Aleuts to the north coast of Aliaska, where generally a large number of young walruses, probably driven away by the older ones, who prefer the vi cinity of the polar ice, spend the suramer raonths. The walruses herd on the lowest edge of the coast which is within reach of the spring tides. When the Aleuts prepare lo attack the aniraals, they take leave of each other as if they were going lo face death, being no less afraid of the tusks of the walruses than of the awkwardness of their own corapanions. S76 THE POLAR WORLD. Arraed with lances and heavy axes, they steallhUy approach the walruses, and having disposed their ranks, suddenly faU upon thera with loud shouts, and en deavor to drive thera frora the sea, taking care that none of thera escape into the water, as in that case the rest would irresistibly follow and precipitate the huntsraen along with thera. As soon as the walruses have been driven far enough up the strand, the Aleuts attack thera wilh their lances, striking at thera in places where the hide is not so thick, and then pressing with aU their might against the spear, to render the wound deep and deadly. The slaughter ed animals tumble one over the other and forra large heaps, whilst the hunts raen, uttering furious shouts and intoxicated with carnage, wade through the bloody mire. They then cleave the jaws and extract the tusks, which are the chief objects of the slaughter of several thousand walruses, since neither their flesh nor their fat is raade use of in the colony. The carcasses are left on the shore lo be washed away by the spring tides, which soon efface the raark of the massacre, and in the following year the inexhaustible north sends new victims to the coast. Sir George Simpson, in his " Overland Journey round the World," relates that the bales of fur sent to Kiachla are covered with walrus hide ; it is then made lo protect the tea-chests which find their way to Moscow, and after aU these -wanderings, the far-travelled skin returns again to New Archangel, where, cut into small pieces and stamped wilh the corapany's raark, it serves as a me dium of exchange. The skin of the sea-lion (OtoWa Stelleri) has but little value in the fur- trade, as ils hair is short and coarse, but in many olher respects the unwieldy animal is of considerable use to the Aleut. Its hide serves to cover his bai. dar ; with the entraUs he makes his water-tight kamleika, a wide, long shirt which he puts on over his dress to protect himself against the rain or the spray ; the thick webs of its fiippers furnish excellent soles for his boots, and the bristles of its lip figure as ornaments in his head-dress. ALASKA. 377 FORT ST. MICHAEL. CHAPTER XXVI. ALASKA. Purchase of Alaska by the United States. — The Russian American Telegraph Scheme. — Whjnnper's Trip np the Yukon. — Dogs. — The Start. — ^Extempore Water-filter. — Snow-shoes. — The Frozen Yu kon.— Under-ground Houses. — Life at Nulato. — Cold Weather. — Auroras. — Approach of Summer. — Breaking-up of the Ice. — Fort Yukon. — Furs. — Descent of the Yukon. — Value of Goods. — Arctic and Tropical Life. — Moose-hunting. — Deer-corrals. — Lip Omaments. — Canoes. — Four-post Coffin. — ^The Kenaian Indians.— The Aleuts. — Value of Alaska. TN 1867 the Russian Government sold to the United States all of its posses- -'- sions in America, comprising an area of more than 500,000 square railes, equal in extent to France, Gerraany, and Great Britain, stretching from 54° 40' north latitude to the Arctic Ocean. The sum paid was about seven and a quarter millions of dollars. In this purchase is included Mount St. Elias, the highest peak in North Araerica, rising to a height of more than 18,000 feet, and one of the loftiest single peaks on the globe. The real value of this new acquisition was quite unknown to both buyer and seller. In the southern part, and on the islands, there is considerable vegetation and forests of large trees ; and it is said that there is some mineral wealth. But the greater part of the territory is essentially Arctic. It now bears the designation of the Territory of Alaska, an abbreviation of AUaska, the name of the peninsula stretching into the North Pacific Ocean. Little information has as yet been gained of this region. The most impor tant is the result of a journey up the River Yukon, perforraed in 1866 by Mr. Frederick Whymper, an artist connected with the Telegraph Expedition. This telegraph enterprise was undertaken in the confident expectation that the ca^ 378 THE POLAR WORLD. bles laid directly across the Atlantic would fail, and that telegraphic comraunica tions between London and New York must be raainly by land. The proposed line, starting from the mouth of the Amoor, to which point it was already con structed, should bend around the head of the Sea of Okolsch, thence run east ward and northward through Kamchatka to the 63d degree of north lati tude, then cross the narrow Strait of Bering, and run southward through -what was then Russian America, British Columbia, Washington Territory, and Ore gon, to San Francisco ; thence across the Araerican continent to New York. A dispatch frora London to New York by this route would travel something more than 25,000 miles, while the distance in a straight line across the Atlantic was about 3000 miles. The company undertaking this enterprise had survey ed a considerable part of the distance, and expended some millions of doUars, when it was announced that the Atlantic cable was a success, and the work was abandoned. In the mean while Mr. Whyraper undertook a trip up the great River Yu kon. This is essentiaUy an Arctic river, though its raouth is far southward of the Arctic Circle, It is probably the greatest of the Arctic rivers, and in length and volume of water is exceeded by not more than six rivers of the globe. The party of which Mr, Whyraper was one consisted of six Europeans aud three Indians. In October, 1865, they started frora Unalachleet, on Norton Sound. A trip of 200 miles would bring them to Nulato, a Russian trading- post 700 miles from the mouth of the river, which here runs almost paraUel with the coast. They were to travel on foot over frozen rivers and through deep snow. To convey their supplies they had four sledges, each drawn by five dogs. Such a team will draw about 350 pounds. The dogs of this region are not of a good class. Mr. Whyraper thinks they have in thera quite as rauch of the woff as of the dog. Their usual food is fish ; their regular daily allowance in winter is a dried salraon a day : in suraraer they are expected to fish for theraselves. They will, however, eat alraost any thing, ahd, if they can get enough, will grow fat upon it. They even took kindly to beans, provided they were boiled soft — a thing -which Kane could never induce his Esquimaux dogs to undertake. They set out on the 27th of October at 11 o'clock — that is, just after sun rise — the thermoraeter standing at 30° below freezing-point. Their trip was begun a little too early, for the deep snow had not becorae packed hard, and a bit of thaw would transform il into slush ; and the streams which they had to cross were nol all frozen over. Fortunately, they had a light skin boat, which nol only stood them in good stead now, but served them afterwards for more than a thousand miles of winter travel. Whenever they came to a frozen stream, the Indians would break a hole through the ice to get a draught of water. They always filled up the hole with loose snow, through which they sucked the water. This they said was to filter out the little red worms with which they said the water was infested. The travellers wore snow-shoes ; the use of which, although indispensable in going over the soft snow, is very fatiguing, obliging the wearers to Uft a dozen pounds of snow at every step. Sometimes they had to break a path for the ALASKA. 279 sledges. The men would go on ahead for a space, then return and start on again, thus traversing the distance three times. Oflen they could not accom plish more than ten miles a day. if: At noon on the llth of November, a fortnight after starting, they caught in the distance a glimpse of a faint bluish streak, varying the white monotony 280 THE POLAR WORLD. of the scene. This they knew marked the course of the great river towards which they were tending. Pushing eagerly on, at sunset they broke out of the woods, shot down a steep bank, and stood on an iraraense plain of snoW-covered ice. It was the Yukon, frozen solidly over as far as the eye could reach, except that here and there was a faint streak of open water. Frora bank to bank the distance was raore than a mile, and this they afterwards found was the normal breadth of the river for seven hundred miles below, and a thousand railes above. Not unfrequently it spread out into broad lagoons four or five miles wide. The Yukon is one of the great rivers of the globe. In length and volurae of water it is exceeded only by the Araazon, the Mississippi, and perhaps the Plata. It exceeds the Nile, the Ganges, the Volga, the Araoor, and has affluents to which the Rhine and Rhone are but brooks. It rises far within the British Posses sions, and its head-waters alraost interlock with those of the Mackenzie, which erapties into the Arctic Ocean. A portage of only eighty miles intervenes be tween these rivers at points where each is navigable for boats forty feet long, and drawing two feet of water. Over this portage the Hudson's Bay Company transport upon men's backs the goods for trading wilh the Indians on the Up per Yukon. Mr. Whyraper thinks that a flat-bottomed stern-wheel steamer, like those used on the Upper Mississippi, could ascend the Yukon for eighteen hundred miles, and tap the whole fur-bearing region. But as the river is frozen solid for eight months out of the twelve, the steamer could hardly make more than one trip a year. The travellers stopped two days at the Indian winier village of Coltog. The houses were built raainly under-ground. First, a little shanty is put up, under which a hole like a weU is dug ; thence a branch like a sewer runs sorae yards, along which one must crawl on hands and knees to reach the proper dwelling. UNDER-GROUND HOUSE. which is a square hole in the earth, over which is raised a low dome-shaped roof, with a hole in the top to let out the smoke of the fire, which is built di rectly underneath. When the fire gets low the smoke-hole is covered with a skin, which keeps in not only the heat but the manifold scents engendered by the crowded occupancy. The sUght heat from below raakes the roof a favorite trysting-place for the dogs, and every now and then one coraes turabling down through the sraoke-hole upon the fire below, adding the odor of singed hair to those arising frora stale fish, old skin garments, and other unnamable aboraina- lions. Coltog is a raiher favorable saraple of an Indian winter village in Alaska. From Coltog the travellers proceeded up the river two days' journey to Nu lato, the most northern and most inland of the Russian Company's fur-posts. ALASKA. 281 It stands in latitude 65°, and longitude 158°, upon a level slip of land bounded on two sides by the great river and one of its main branches. Nolwilh.stand- ing the high latitude, trees of considerable size grow there, and during the brief summer the grass is luxuriant, and berries abound. The post is a little fortress, surrounded by a picket, which is closed at night to exclude the Indians, who camp around in large numbers. The house appropriated to the travellers was built of logs, forming one side of the little square. The -windows were of seal- gut instead of glass ; and as there is during the winter only two or three hours of daylight, the light was never any of the best. By caulking the floor with moss, and carpeting it with skins, the raain roora was kept corafortably warra, except near the floor. If one hung a damp garment from the rafters it would steam at the lop, while frozen stiff at the bottora. The temperature al the roof was soraetiraes 65°, while near the floor it was 4°. Water for daily use was hauled on a sledge from the river. To get at it, they were obliged to break through solid ice four feel thick. Nevertheless, the Indians contrive to catch iraraense quantities of fish by constructing a weir of wicket-work, and keeping holes open in the ice. ilul/il^illlu FISH-TRAPS ON THE -yUKON. Winter fairly set in soon after the party had taken up their abode at Nulato. On the 2d of November the thermometer indicated the moderate temperature of 2° above zero. It suddenly feU to 20° below zero, and kept on steadily falling until the 5lh of December, when it sunk to 58° below zero, that is, ninety de grees below the freezing-point of water. This was the coldest day, but there were duriug December and January eleven days when the thermometer sunk below the freezing-point of mercury. It is to be noted that after a certain point the human system seems to take little additional note of the temperature as indicated by the therraoraeter. When the mercury froze, 72° below the fi'eezing-point of water, it did not seem very cold, provided there was no wind ; while one day when the thermometer was 44° higher, we find this note : " A north wind blew, and raade us feel the cold very decidedly. It is wonderful how searching the wind is in this northern climate ; each little seam, slit, or 283 THE POLAR WORLD. tear in your fur or wooUen clothing makes you aware of its existence, and one's nose, ears, and angles generally are the special sufferers." One day when the thermometer stood at 10°, an expedition started off for the coast : and once when it was at 32°, a half-clad Indian came to the post with his chUd, no better clad, bringing some game ; he did not seem to think the day remarkably cold. The shortest day of the winter was December 21, when the sun was au hour and fifty minutes above the horizon. During the winter Mr. Whymper made many capital sketches out-of-doors, while the teraperature was sixty degrees below freezing-point. Among these ALASKA. 383 is a reraarkable aurora boreaUs on the 21st of December. It was nol the con ventional arch, but a graceful, undulating, ever-changing snake of pale electric light ; evanescent colors, pale as those of a lunar rainbow, ever and again flit ting through it, and long streamers and scintillations raoving upward to the bright stars, which shone distinctly through its hazy ethereal forra. The night 284 THE POLAR WORLD. was beautifully calm and clear; cold, but not intensely so, the thermometer standing at -|-16°. So passed the long winter months. Early in April there came signs of sum mer — for in the Arctic regions there is properly no spring or autumn. On the 9lh flies made their appearance. Next day the wUlows were seen budding. But for another fortnight the weather was variable. On the 28th the flrst goose put in his appearance. But for another fortnight the ice in the river re raained unbroken. The first sign of breaking up was on the 12th of May. That day raosquitoes showed theraselves. Next day carae swallows and wild geese in abundance. Still another fortnight, during which a steady streara of broken ice carae down, bearing with it whole trees lorn up from the banks. On the 24th of May the river was tolerably clear of ice. The Russians had already gol ready for a trading-excursion up the Yukon to an Indian trading-place 240 miles above, the farthest point ever visited by them. They had a huge skin boat, fitted with mast and sail, manned by eight men, carrying, besides men and provisions, two tons of goods. The Araericans went with them, though raeaning to go far beyond. They had their own little boat, laden with six or seven hundred pounds of stores of all kinds. The river was still full of ice and drift-wood. A large tree would sometimes pass under the bow of the Russian boat, and fairly lift it out of the water. These skin boats seera to be the best of all for this kind of navigation. They give way withoul harra lo a blow which would break through a bark canoe. One can scarcely conceive the rapidity with which suraraer comes on in these regions. On the 27th of May the river was yel full of ice. Ten days after they had to lie by during the noontide heal, the thermometer standing at 80° in the shade. The Americans reached Fort Yukon on the 9th of June, having, in twenty- nine days, rowed and tracked six hundred miles. A few weeks later, with the current in their favor, they descended the sarae space in seven days. Fort Yu kon lies a little within what was formerly Russian America, and the Hudson's Bay Company paid a small sum for the privilege of its occupancy. Here the Americans remained a month, being hospitably entertained. The fort had quite a civilized look. There were freshly-plastered walls, glazed windows, open fireplaces, magazines, store - houses, and a great fur-room. Camped around were Indians of many tribes, locally designated as "Foolish Polks^" " Wood Folks," "Birch-bark Folks," " Rat Folks," " HUl Folks," and the Uke. Some wore their native costumes ; others were tricked out in the odds and ends of civilized attire. The fur-room was a rare sight. From the beams hung marten-skins by tbe thousand, while the cheaper sorts were lying in huge heaps on the floor. Skins are here the regular currency. The beaver is the unit, estimated at about half a doUar. Two martens count as one beaver, and so on by a recognized scale. Fox-skins are numerous. The most valuable is that of the black fox, worth twenty times more than any other. There is a story that an unlucky employe of the corapany once bought the skin of a white fox, which the Indian seller had cunningly dyed black, paying for it raore pounds than he should have paid shiUings. The overplus was deducted frora his salary. ALASKA. 385 On the Sth of July the travellers started on their return journey, under a salute from their hospitable hosts. They canoed down the river day and night, only stopping two or three times a day to prepare their tea and cook their fish. It was a holiday excursion, the current sweeping them along at the rate of four miles an hour. Once, by aid of rowing, they made forty-five mUes in seven hours. They foUowed the river clear lo its mouth. For the seven hundred mUes below Nulato, near where they had struck the river on their upward joumey, the region is comparatively poor. It lies out of the way of traders ; fish are plenty and cheap enough. Five needles were considered a fair price 386 THE POLAR WORLD. for a thirty-pound salraon; and, says Mr. Whyraper, "tobacco went farther than we had ever known it to do before." On the 23d of July they reached the raouth of the river, whence two days' saUing up the coast brought them to St. Michael's. The whole voyage of 1300 raUes between Fort Yukon and St, Michael's had taken fifteen and a half days. At Sl. Michael's they were told that the telegraphic enterprise had been abandoned, and that all eraployed in it were to return to California. The result of this expedition adds considerably to our knowledge of the ALASKA. 387 Arctic regions. It confirms what has been told us by Richardson, Kane, Hall, and aU other Arctic explorers as lo the superabundance of animal life existing in certain seasons in the northern regions. Strange as it may seera, tropical and semi-tropical countries are almost bare of living creatures. Strain and his parly wandered for weeks through the thick forests of Central America, never seeing an aniraal, and rarely a bird, and the river appeared to be almost destitute of fish. But life abounds in the Arctic regions. The rivers swarra with fish almost begging to be caught. The Kamchatdales have reindeer by the thou sand. Whyraper and his friends, during their brief stay at Nulato, bought the skins of eight hundred white hares with which to cover their blankets ; the- ludians had used the flesh for food. Moose-raeat, varied by beaver, is the standing food of those who have got tired of salraon. The delicacies are a moose's- nose and a beaver's tail. So abundant are the moose on the Yukon that the natives think it hardly worth while to waste powder and shot in kill ing them. When an Indian in his canoe comes upon a moose swimming in the water, he gives chase until the creature is fatigued, and then stabs it to the heart with his knife. They have also an ingenious way of corralling deer. They build a long elliptical inclosure of stakes upon a trail made, by the deer. Between each pair of slakes is a sUp-noose. A herd of deer is driven inlo this inclosure; they try to run out be tween the slakes, get caught by the nooses, and so fall a ready prey lo the guns of the hunters. The native population of Alaska is estiraated at about 60,000. Frora the southern boundary up to Mount St. Elias and on the islands live the Koloschians, estimated at 20,000. They are of middling stature, of copper-colored coraplexion, with round faces, thick lips, and black hair. The men wear various ornaments in their ears and noses ; the women, when young, insert a piece of ivory in a slit made in the under lip, increasing it in size from year to year, until at last the ornaraent gels to be four inches wide, projecting six inches from the side of the face. The baidars or canoes of the Koloschians are dug out of a single tree, and will carry frora twelve to fifty persons. They are usually propelled by paddles, though upon long voy ages they are rigged with two or raore masts and sails of matting or canvas. They, and indeed all of the tribes, do not bury their dead, but deposit their remains in an oblong box raised upon posts, with the canoe and other pos sessions of the deceased over the box. Next northward of the Koloschians come the Kenaians, who stretch almost 388 THE POLAR WORLD, across the continent to Hudson's Bay, Those Uving upon the Yukon caU them Co-yukons, that is. People of the Great River, " Yukon " in their language sig nifying river. They are much feared by the surrounding tribes, and have often POUR-POST COFFIN. given no littie trouble to their Russian raasters. Many of these wear a bone ornament stuck through the septum of the nose. ALASKA. 389 TANANA INDIAN. The Aleuts, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands are, to a considerable extent, of mixed blood, Russian and Koloschian. They have advanced in civilization far beyond any olher of the Esquimaux race. Nol a few of them have received a fair education, and araong the priests of the Greek Church there are not a few, who go through the service of the church in the Greek language, wilh a full understanding of the words of the service. Quite nine-tenths of the whole territory of Alaska is purely Arctic, and is nol only uninhabited but uninhabitable. The other tenth is now sparsely in habited, and there is little reason to suppose that the population wUl ever be greatly beyond ils present nuraber. Except in special cases, the possible popu lation of a country is raeasured by its agricultural capacity. Leaving out of vicTV the extrerae northern parts of Alaska, the best accounts as yet accessible show that al St. Michael's lettuce, parsnips, and turnips can be raised by sowing them in beds. At Fort Yukon potatoes not rauch larger than cherries can be raised. At Sitka potatoes wUl grow a little larger. On sorae of the islands the inhabitants can even venture upon barley. The forest-trees, which flourish in isolated parts, will soon be exhausted, as far as any profltable use of thera is concemed. Fish and furs constitute alraost the sole value of Alaska. The fisheries are araong the most valuable in the world. The furs will soou be ex hausted, unless prompt measures are taken to prevent the capture of fur-bearing animals in the breeding season. 19 290 THE POLAB WORLD. CHAPTER XXVIL THE ESQUIMAUX. ' Their wide Extension. — Climate ofthe Regions they inhabit. — Their physical Appearance. — Their Dress. — Snow Huts. — The Kayak, or the Baidar. — Hunting Apparatus and Weapons. — Enmity be tween the Esquimaux and the Red Indian. — The "Bloody Falls. " — Chase of the Reindeer. — Bird- catching. — Whale-hunting. — ^Various Stratagems employed to catch the Seal. — The "Keep-kuttuk." — Bear-hunting. — Walrus-hunting. — Awaklok and Myouk. — The Esquimaux Dog. — Games and Sports. — Angekoks. — Moral Character. — Self-reliance. — Intelligence. — Iligliuk. — Commercial Ea gerness of the Esquimaux. — Their Voracity. — Seasons of Distress. OF all the uncivilized nations of the globe none range over a wider space than the Esquimaux, whose various tribes extend from Greenland and Labrador, over all the coasts of Arctic America, to the Aleutic chain and the ex treme north-eastern point of Asia. Many are independent, others subject to the Russian, Danish, or British rule. In Baffin's Bay and Lancaster Sound they accost the whale-flsher ; they raeet him in the Icy Sea beyond Bering's Straits ; and while their most southerly tribes dwell as low as the latitude of Vienna, others sojourn as high as the 80th degree of northern latitude, and probably roam even still higher on the still undiscovered coasts beyond — a nearness to the pole no other race is known to reach. The old Scandinavian settlers in Greenland expressed their dislike for them in the contemptuous name of Skraelingers (screamers or wretches) ; the seamen of the Hudson's Bay ships, who trade annually with the natives of Northern Lab rador and the Savage Islands, have long caUed them " Seymos " or " Sucke- mos," names evidently derived from the cries of " Seymo," or " Teyrao," with which they greet the arrival of the ships ; they speak of themselves simply as " Inuit," or men. With few exceptions the whole of the vast region they inhabit lies beyond the extremest liraits of forest growth, in the most desolate and inhospitable countries of the globe. The rough winds of the Polar Sea almost perpetually blow over their bleak domains, and thus only a few plants of the hardest na ture—lichens and mosses, grasses, saxifragas, and wiUows — are able to subsist there, and to afford a scanty supply of food lo a few land animals and birds. Ill indeed would it fare with the Esquimaux, if they were reduced to live upon the niggardly produce of the soU ; but the sea, with its cetaceans and fishes, amply provides for their wants. Thus they are never found al any considera ble distance from the ocean, and they line a considerable part of the coasts of the Arctic seas without ever visiting the interior. It may easUy be supposed that a race whose eastern branches bave for sev eral centuries been under the infiuenee of the Danes and English, whUe in the extrerae west it has long been forced to submit lo Russian tyranny, and whose central and northern tribes rarely come inlo contact wilh Europeans, must THE ESQUIMAUX. 391 show some variety in its manners and raode of life, and that the sarae descrip tion is nol applicable in all points lo the disciples of the Moravian brothers in Labrador or Greenland, to the Greek-Catholic Aleuts, and to the far raore nu merous heathen Esquiraaux of continental Araerica, or of the vast archipelago beyond its northern shores. Upon the whole, however, it is curious to observe how exactly, araidst aU diversity of tirae and place, these people have preserved unaltered their habits and raanners. The broad, fiat face, widest just below the eyes, the forehead generally narrow and tapering upward ; the eyes narrow and more or less oblique ; aU indicate a Mongol or Tartar type, differing greatly from the features of the conterminous Red Indian tribes. Their coraplexion, when relieved from smoke and dirt, also approaches more nearly to white than that of their copper-colored neighbors. Most of the men are raiher under the medium English size, but they can not be said to be a dwarfish race. Thus Simpson saw in Camden Bay three Esquiraaux who raeasured frora five feel ten inches to six feet ; and araong the natives of Sraith Strait, Kane, a rather short man, met with one a foot taUer than hiraself. The feraales, however, are all comparatively short. The Esquimaux are all remarkably broad-shouldered, and though their muscles are nol so firm as those of the European seamen, yet they surpass in bodily strength all the olher natives of America. In both sexes the hands and feet are remarkably small and well-formed. From exercise in hunting the seal and walrus, the rauscles of the arras and back are much devel oped in the men, who are moreover powerful wrestlers. When young, the Es quimaux looks cheerful and good-humored, and the females exhibit, when laugh ing, a sel of very white teeth. Could they be induced to wash their faces, many of these savage beauties would be found to possess a complexion scarcely a shade darker than that of a deep brunette ; but though disinclined to ablu tions, for which the severity of their climate raay serve as an excuse, they are far from neglecting the arts of the toilette. Unlike the Hare Indian and Dog-Rib females, in whom the hard rule of their lords and masters has obliterated every trace of female vanity, the Esquimaux women tastefully plait their straight, black, and glossy hair ; and hence we may infer that greater deference is paid to them by the men. They also generally tattoo their chin, forehead, and cheeks, not, however, as in the South Sea Isl ands, wilh elaborate patterns, but with a few simple lines, which have a not un pleasing effect. From Bering's Straits eastward as far as the Mackenzie, the raales pierce the lower lip near each angle of the mouth, and fill the apertures with labrets of blue or green quartz, or of ivory resembUng buttons. Many also pierce the septum of the nose, and insert a dentalium shell or ivory needle. Like the Red Indians, they are fond of beads, but their raost coraraon ornament consists in strings of teeth of the fox, wolf, or musk-ox — soraetiraes many hundreds in number — which are either attached to the lower part of the jacket, or fastened as a belt round the waist. .Their dress is admirably adapted to the severity of their climate. With their two pair of breeches raade of reindeer or seal skin, the outer one having *he hair outside and the inner one next the body, and their two jackets — of 293 THE POLAR WORLD. which the upper one is provided with a great hood — with their water-tight seal-skin boots, lined with the downy skins of birds, and their enormous gloves, they bid defiance lo the severest cold, and even in the hardest weather pursue their occupations in the open air whenever the moon is in the sky, or during the doubtful meridian twilight. The woraen are perfect in the art of making water-tight shirts, or " karaleikas," of the entrails of the seal or walrus, which in summer serve lo replace their heavy skin jackets. They also sew their boots so tight that not the slightest wet can penetrate, and wilh a neatness of which the best shoemaker in Europe raight be proud. The dress of the two sexes is rauch alike, the outer jacket having a pointed skirt before and behind, but that of the feraales is a little longer. The woraen also wear larger hoods, in which they carry their children ; and soraetiraes (as in Labrador) the inner boot has in front a long, pointed flap, to answer the sarae purpose. The Esquimaux are equally expert in the construction of their huts. As soon as the lengthening days induce the tribes about Cape Bathurst and the mouth of the Mackenzie lo move seaward on the ice to the seal-hunt, a marvel lous system of architecture coraes into use, unknown araong any other Araeri can nations. The fine pure snow has by that time acquired, under the action of the winds and frosts, sufficient coherence lo form an admirable light build ing material, which the Esquiraaux skiUfuUy eraploy for the erection of raost corafortable dome-shaped houses. A circle is first traced on the smooth sur face of the snowj and slabs for raising the walls cut from within, so as to clear a space down lo the ice, which is to forra the fioor of the dwelling, and whose evenness was previously ascertained by probing. The slabs for the dorae are cut frora sorae neighboring spot: The crevices between the slabs are plugged up, and the seams closed, by throwing a few shovelfuls of loose snow over the fabric. Two men generally work together, and when the dome is completed the one within cuts a low door and creeps out. The walls being only three or four inches thick, adrait a very agreeable light, which serves for ordinary pur poses ; if more is required, a window of transparent ice is introduced. The proper thickness of the walls is of some importance ; one of a few inches ex cludes the wind, yet keeps down the darap so as to prevent dripping frora the interior. The furniture of this crystal hut is also formed of snow (the seals, the table, the sleeping-places), and, when covered with skins, is very comfort able. By means of antechambers and porches, with the opening turned lo lee ward, warrath is insured, and social intercourse facilitated by contiguous build ing, doors of coraraunication, and covered passages. By constant practice the Esquiraaux can raise such huts almost as quickly as we could pitch a tent. When M'Clintock for a few nails hired four Esquiraaux lo build a hut for his party, they completed it iu an hour, though it was eight feet in diameter and five and a half feet high. In spite of its fragile materials, this snow-house is durable, for the wind has little effect on ils dome-like form, and it resists the thaw until the sun acquires a very considerable power. Of course a strong fire could not possibly be made within, but such is nol needed by the Esquimaux. The train-oil lamp suffices to dry his wet clothes and boots when he returns from hunting ; and the crowd- THE ESQUIMAUX. 393 ing of the inmates engenders a sufficiently high temperature to keep him warm. Having also a decided predilection for raw flesh and fat, he requires no great expenditure of fuel to cook his dinner. The lower part of his dwell ing being under the surface of the snow, likewise proiuotes its warmth. But of whatever materials the hul of the Esquimaux may be constructed — of snow, as I have just described, or, as is frequently the case, of stones, or earth, or drift-wood — everywhere, from Bering's Straits to Smith Sound, it is equaUy well adapted to the climate and to circumstances. Thus when Dr. Scoresby landed in 1822 on the eastern coast of Greenland, he discovered some deserted Esquimaux huts, which gave proof both of the severity of the cli mate, and of the ingenuity evinced in counteracting its rigors. A horizontal tunnel about fifteen feet long, and so low as to render it necessary lo creep through on hands and feel, opens wilh one end to the south, and leads through the olher into the interior of the hut. This rises but little above the surface of the earth, and, as it is generally overgrown with moss or grass, is scarcely tb be distinguished from the neighboring soil. The floor of the tunnel is fre quently on a level with that of the hut, but often also it is made to slant down ward and upward, so that the colder, and consequently heavier, air without is stUl more effectually kept off frora the warraer air within ; and thus the Esqui maux, without ever having studied physics, raake a practical use of one of ils fundaraental laws. But their most ingenious invention is unquestionably that of the one-seated boat, the " kayak," or the " baidar." A light, long, and nar row frame of wood, or seal or walrus bone, is covered water-tight with seal skin, leaving but one circular hole in the middle. In this the Esquiraaux sits with outstretched legs, and binds a sack (which is forraed of the intestines of the whale, or of the skins of young seals, and fits in the opening) so tightly ronnd his middle, that even in a heavy sea not a drop of water can penetrate into the boat. Striking with his light oar (which is paddled at each extrem ity) alternately to the right and to the left, his. spear or harpoon before hira, and maintaining his equilibrium with all the dexterity of a rope-dancer, he flies like an arrow over the water ; and should a wave upset hira, he knows how to right himseff by the action of the paddle. The " oomiak," or women's boat, likewise consists of a frame-work covered with seal-skins, and is roomy enough to hold ten or twelve people, with benches for the women who row or paddle. The mast supports a triangular sail made of the entrails of seals, and easily distended by the wind. The men would consider it beneath their dignity to row in one of these omnibus boats ; they leave this labor entirely to the women, who, to the tact of a monotonous song, slowly propel the oomiak through the water. Judging of foreign custoras by their own, the Esquiraaux between the Mackenzie and Copperraine rivers raade the strange mistake, as Sir John Rich ardson relates, of supposing that the English sailors whora they saw rowing in company were women. One of them even asked Avhether all white females had beards. The weapons of the Esquimaux, and their various fishing and hunting im plements, likewise show great ingenuity and skiU. Their oars are tastefully inlaid with walrus-teeth ; they have several kinds of spears or darts, adapted to 294 THE POLAR WORLD. the size of the vai-ious aniraals which they hunt ; and their elastic bows, strongly bound wilh strings of seal-gut, drive a six-foot arrow with unerring certainly to a distant raark. To bring down a larger aniraal, the shaft is arraed with a sharp flint or a pointed bone ; ff intended to strike a bird, it is smallei', and blunted. The harpoons and lances used in kiUing whales or seals have long shafls of wood or of the narwhal's tooth, and the barbed point is so constructed that, when the blow takes effect, it is left sticking in the body of the animal, while the shaft attached to it by a string is disengaged frora the socket, and becomes a buoy of wood. Seal-skins, blown up like bladders, are likewise used as buoys for the whale-spears, being adroitly stripped frora the animal so that aU the nat ural apertures are easily made air-light. With equal industry and skill the Esquimaux put to use almost every part of the land and marine animals which they chase. Knives, spear-points, and fish-hooks are made of the horns and bones of the deer. The ribs of the whale are used in roofing huts or in the construction of sledges, where drift-timber is scarce. Strong cord is made from strips of seal-skin hide, and the sinews of musk-oxen and deer furnish bow-strings, or cord to make nets or snares. In default of drift-wood, the bones of the whale are employed for the construction of their sledges, in pieces fitted lo each other with neatness, and firmly sewed together. During the long confineraent to their huts or " igloos " in the dark winter months, the raen execute sorae very fair figures in bone, and in walrus or fossil ivory, besides making fish-hooks, knife-handles, and other instruments neatly of these materials, or of metal or wood. Thus in all these respects the Esquiraaux are as superior to the Red Indians as they are in strength and jiersonal courage ; and yet no Norwegian can more utterly despise the filthy Lapp, and no orthodox Mussulman look down with greater contempt upon a " giaour," than the Loucheux or Cheppewayan upou the Esquiraaux, who in his eyes is no better than a brute, and whom he ap proaches only to kill. In his "Voyage to the Coppermine River" Hearne relates a dreadful instance of this bloodthirsty hatred. The Indians who accompanied him having heard that some Esquimaux had erected their sumraer huts near the mouth of that river, were at once seized with a tiger-like fury. Hearne, the only European of the party, had nol the power to restrain them, and he might as well have at tempted to touch the heart of an ice-bear as lo move the murderous band to pity. As craftily and noiselessly as serpents they drew nigh, and, when the midnight sun verged on the horizon, wilh a dreadful yell they burst on the huts of their unsuspecting victims. Not one of them escaped, and the raonsters de lighted to prolong the raisery of their death-struggle by repeated wounds. An old woman had both her eyes torn out before she received the mortal blow. A young girl fled to Hearne for protection, who used every effort to save her, but in vain. In 1821 some human skulls lying on the spot still bore testimony to this cruel slaughter, and the narae of the " Bloody Falls," given by Hearne to the scene of the massacre, wiU convey its memory to distant ages. No wonder THE ESQUIMAUX 295 that the hate of the Esquiraaux is no less intense, and that they also pursue the Indians, wherever they can, with their spears and arrows, like wild beasts. "Year after year," says Sir John Richardson, "sees the Esquiraaux on the Polar coast of Araerica occupied in a uniforra circle of pursuits. When the rivers open in spring, they proceed to the rapids and falls lo spear the salraon, which at that season come swiraraing stream upward. At the sarae lirae, or earlier in more southern localities, they hunt the reindeer, which drop their young on the coasts and islauds while the snow is only partiaUy melted. Where the open country affords the huntsman no opportunity of approaching his garae unperceived, deep pits are dug in the snowy ravines, and superficially covered with snow-tablets. The wind soon effaces the traces of the huraan hand,, and thus many reindeer are snared." In summer the reindeer are killed partly by driving them from islands or narrow necks of laud inlo the sea, and then spearing them from their kayaks, and partiy by shooting them from behind heaps of stones raised for the purpose- of watching them, and imitating their peculiar beUow or grunt. Among the- various artifices which they eraploy for this purpose, one of the most ingenious^ consists in two men walking directly /rom the deer they wish to kiU, when the- animal almost always follows them. As soon as they arrive at a large- stone,, one of the men hides behind il with his bow, while the other, continuing to. walk on, soon leads the deer within range of his companion's arrovvs. The multitudes of swans, ducks, and geese resorting to the morasses of the northern coasts to breed, likewise aid in sujiplying the Esquimaux withi food during their short but busy summer of two months. For their destruction a very ingenious instrument has been invented. Six or eight small balls made of walrus-tooth and pierced in the middle are separately attached to as many thongs of aniraal sinew, which are tied together at the opposite end. When cast into the air the diverging baUs describe circles — like the spokes of a wheel — and woe to the unfortunate bird that comes within their reach. On the coasts frequented by whales, the month of August is devoted to the pursuit of these animals ; a successful chase insuring a comfortable winier lo a whole coramunity. Their capture requires an association of labor ; hence along the coasts of the Polar Sea the Esquiraaux unite their huts into villages, for whose site a bold point of coast is generally chosen, where the water is deep enough to float a whale. When one of these huge creatures is seen lying on the water, a dozen kay aks or more cautiously paddle up astern of hira, liU a single canoe, preceding the rest, coraes cloSe to hira on one quarter, so as to enable the men to drive the spear into the animal with all the force of both arras. This spear has a long Une of thong and an inflated seal-skin attached to it. The stricken whale immediately dives ; but when he re-appears after sorae tirae, all the canoes again paddle towards him, some warning being given by the seal-skin buoy floating on the surface. Each man being furnished like the flrst, they repeat the blow as often as they find an opportunity, tiU perhaps every line has been thus era ployed. After chasing him in this raanner soraetiraes for half a' day, he is at length so wearied by the resistance of the buoys and exhausted by loss of 396 THE POLAR WORLD. blood as to be obUged to rise more and raore oflen to the surface, and is finaUy kUled and towed ashore. Though in raany parts seals are caught at every season of the year, yet the great hunt takes place in spring, when they play in the open lanes near the coasts, or come out on the ice to bask in the sun. In spite of their wariness, they are no match for the Esquiraaux, who have carefully studied aU their habits from infancy. Sometimes the hunter approaches them by imitating their forms and motions so perfectly that the poor animals are not undeceived until one of thera is struck with his lance ; or else, by means of a white screen pushed forward on a sledge, the hunter comes within range and picks out the best-conditioned of the band. As the season draws near midsummer, the seals are more approachable ; their eyes being so congested by the glare of the sun that they are sometimes nearly blind. In winter they are assaulted while workiug at their breathing-holes or when coming up for respiration. If an Esquimaux has any reason lo suppose that a seal is busy gnawing be neath the ice, he iraraediately attaches himself lo the place, and seldom leaves it, even in the severest frost, till he has succeeded in kiUing the animal. For this purpose he first builds a snow-wall about four feet in height, to shelter him frora the wind, and seating hiraself under the lee of it, deposits his spears, lines, and other implements upon several little forked sticks inserted into the snow, in order to pi-event the sraallest noise being made in moving them when want ed. But the raost curious precaution consists in tying his own knees together with a thong so securely as to prevent any rustling of his clothes, which might otherwise alarm the aniraal. In this situation a man will sit quietly sometimes for hours ;together, attentively listening to any noise made by the seal, and sometimes using the " keep-kuttuk " in order lo ascertain whether the animal is still at work below. This simple little instrument — which affords another striking proof of Esquimaux ingenuity — is raerely a slender rod of bone (as delicate as a fine wire, that the seal may not see il), nicely rounded, and having a point at one end and a knob at the other. It is inserted into the ice, and the knob remaining above the surface, informs the fisherman by its motion whether the seal is eraployed in making his hole; if not, it remains undis turbed, and the attempt is given up in that jDlace. When the hunter supposes the hole to be nearly completed, he cautiously lifts his spear (to which the line has been previously attached), and as soon as the blowing of the seal is distinctly heard — and the ice consequently very thin — he drives it into him with the force of both arms, and then cuts away with his " panna," or well-sharpened knife, the remaining crust of ice, to enable him to repeat the wounds and get him out. The " neituk " {Phoca hispida), being the smaUest seal, is held, while struggling, either simply by hand, or by putting the line round a spear with the point stuck into the ice. For the " oguke " {Phoca barbata), the line is passed round the man's leg or arra ; and for a walrus, round his body, his feel being at the same time firmly set against a hummock of ice, in which position these people can, frora habit, hold against a very heavy strain. A boy of fifteen is equal to the kUling of a " neituk," but it requires a full-grown person to raaster either of the larger aniraals. This sport is not without the danger which adds to the ex- THE ESQUIMAUX. 397 citement of success, particularly if the creature struck by the hunter be a large seal or walrus ; for woe betide hira if he does not instantly plant his feel firmly in the ice, and throw hiraseff in such a position that the strain on the line is as nearly as possible brought into the direction of the length of the spine of his back and axis of his lower lirabs. A transverse pull from one of these power ful animals would double him up across the air-hole, and perhaps break his back ; or if the opening be large, as it often is when the spring is advanced, he would be dragged under water and drowned. As the Polar bear is as great a seal-hunter as the Esquimaux, one of the usual methods employed by the latter to catch these bears is to imitate the mo tions of the seal by lying flat on the ice until the bear approaches sufficiently near to insure a good aim ; but a gun is necessary lo practise this stratagera with success. Seeraan (" Voyage of the Herald ") raentions another ingenious mode of capturing the bear by taking advantage of the well-known voracity of the animal, which generally swaUows its food without much mastication. A thick and strong piece o:^ whalebone, about four inches broad and two feet long, is roUed up into a small corapass, and carefully enveloped in blubber, forraing a round baU. It is then placed in the open air al a low temperature, where it soon becomes hard and frozen. The natives, armed with their knives, bows, and arrows, together with this frozen bait, proceed in quest of the bear. As soon as the animal is seen, one of the natives discharges an arrow at it ; the monster, smarting from this assault, chases the party, then in full retreat, until, meeting with the frozen blubber dropped in his path, he greedily swaUows it, and con tinues the pursuit — doubtless fancying that there must be raore where that came from. The natural heat of the body soon causes the blubber to thaw, when the whalebone, thus freed, springs back, and frightfully lacerates the stomach. The writhing brute falls down in helpless agony, and the Esquimaux, hurrying lo the spot, soon put an end to his sufferings. The Esquimaux of Smith Sound hunt the bear with the assistance of their dogs, which are carefully trained not to engage in contest with the bear, but to retard his flight. While one engrosses his attention ahead, a second attacks him in the rear, always alert, and each protecting the other; and thus it rarely happens that they are seriously injured, or that they fail lo delay the animal un til their masters come up. If there be two hunters, the bear is killed easily ; for one raakes a feint of thrusting a spear al the right side, and as the aniraal turns with his arras towards the threatened attack, the left is unprotected, and receives the death-wound. But if the hunter is alone, he grasps the- lance firra ly in his hands, and provokes the aniraal to pursue him by raoving rapidly across its path, and then running as if lo escape. 'But hardly is its long, un wieldy body extended for the chase, than, with a rapid jurap, the hunter doubles on his track, and runs back towards his first position. The bear is in the aot of turning after hira again, when the lance is plunged into the left side below the shoulder. So dexterously has this thrust to be raade, that an unpractised hunter has often to leave his spear in the side of his prey and run for his life ; but even then, if well-aided by the dogs, a cool, skillful man seldom fails to kiU his adversary. 398 THE POLAR WORLD. While the seal, narwhal, and white whale furnish the staple food of the raore southern Greenlander, the walrus is the chief resource of the Smith Sound Esquiraaux. The manner of hunting this aniraal depends much on the season of the year. In spring, or the breeding-season, when the walrus is in his glory, he is taken in two ways. Soraetiraes he has risen by the side of an iceberg, where the currents have worn away the floe, or through a tide crack, and, enjoying the sunshine too long, finds his retreat cut off by the freezing up of the opening ; for like the seal, the walrus can only work frora below at his breathing-hole. When thus caught, the Esquiraaux, who with keen hunter- craft are scouring the floes, scent him out by their dogs and spear hira. Fre quently the female and her calf, accorapanied by the grim-visaged father, are seen surging, in loving trios, frora crack to crack, and sporting in the openings. While thus on their tour, they invite their vigilant eneraies to the second meth od of capture. This also is by the lance and harpoon ; but it often becomes a regular battle, the raale gallantly fronting the assault, and charging the hunters with furious bravery. In the f aU, when the pack is but partially closed, the walrus are found in numbers, hanging around the neutral region of raixed ice and water, and, as this becoraes solid with the advance of winter, following it more and more lo the south. The Esquimaux at this season approach them over the young ice, and as sail them in cracks and holes with harpoon and line. This fishery, as the sea son grows colder, darker, and more tempestuous, is fearfully hazardous. Kane relates how, during a tirae of faraine, two of his Esquiraaux friends, Awaklok and Myouk, deterrained to seek the walrus on the open ice. They succeeded in killing a large raale, and were returning lo their village, when a north wind broke up the ice, and they found themselves afloat. The irapulse of a Euro pean would have been to seek the land ; but they knew that the drift was al ways raost dangerous on the coast, and urged their dogs towards the nearest iceberg. They reached it after a struggle, and, by great efforts, raade good their landing, with their dogs and the half-butchered carcass of the walrus. It was al the close of the last raoonlight of Deceraber, and a complete darkness settled around them. They tied the dogs down to knobs of ice, to prevent their losing their foothold, and prostrated themselves, to escape being blown off by the violence of the wind. At first the sea broke over them, but they gained a higher level, and built a sort of screen of ice. On the fifth night af lerwards, so far as they could judge, one of Myouk's feet was frozen, and Awaklok lost his great toe by frost bite. But they did not lose courage, and ate their walrus-meal as they floated slowly to the south. It was towards the close of the second moonlight, after a month's iraprisonraent, such as only these iron men conld endure, that they found the berg had grounded. They liberated their dogs as soon as the young ice could bear their weight, and at taching long lines to them, which they cut frora the hide of the dead walrus, they succeeded in hauling theraselves through the water-space which always surrounds an iceberg, and reaching safe ice. They returned to their village like men raised from the dead, to meet a welcome, but to meet famine along with it. THE ESQUIMAUX. 299 In the form of their bodies, their short pricked ears, thick furry coat, and bushy tail, the dogs of the Esquimaux so nearly resemble the wolf of these regions, that when of a light or brindled color, they raay easily at a little dis tance be raistaken for that animal ; but an eye accustomed lo both, perceives that the wolf always keeps his head down and his tail between his legs in run ning, whereas the dogs almost always carry their tails handsoraely curled over the back. Their hair in the winter is from three lo four inches long ; but be sides this nature furnishes them during this rigorous season with a thick un der-coating of close, soft wool, which enables them to brave the most inclement weather. They do not bark, but have a long melancholy howl, like that of the wolf. When drawing a sledge, they have a siraple harness of deer or seal skin going round the neck by one bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over the back, and attached to the sledge as a trace. Though they appear at first sight to be huddled together without regard to regularity, considerable attention is really paid to their arrangement, particular ly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is allowed by a longer trace to precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning to the right or left, the driver usually addresses hiraself, using certain words as the carters do with us. To these a good leader attends with adrairable precision (espec ially if his own name be repeated at the same tirae), looking behind over his shoulder wilh great earnestness, as if listening to the directions of the driver, who sits quite low on the fore part of the sledge, his whip in hand, and his feet overhanging the snow on one side. On rough ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequent ly overturned if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and, by lifting or draw ing it to one side, steer it clear of those obstacles. At all times, indeed, except on a smooth and well-raade road, he is pretty constantly eraployed thus with his feet, and this, together wilh his never-ceasing vociferations and frequent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of these vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. " The whip, ' says Kane, who from assiduous practice al length attained a con siderable proficiency in ils use, " is six yards long, and the handle but sixteen inches — a short lever lo throw out such a length of seal-hide. Learn to do it, however, with a masterly sweep, or else make up your mind to forego driving sledges ; for the dogs are guided solely by the lash, and you must be able lo hit not only any particular dog of a team of twelve, but to accorapany the feat also with a resounding crack. After this you find that, lo get your lash back, involves another difficulty ; for il is apt to entangle itself araong the dogs and lines, or to fasten itseff cunningly round bits of ice, so as to drag you head over heels into the snow. The secret by which this coraplicated set of require ments is fulfilled consists in properly describing an arc from the shoulder with a stiff elbow, giving the jerk to the whip-handle from the hand and wrist alone. The lash traUs behind as you travel, and when thrown forward is allowed to extend itself without an effort to bring it back. You wait patiently, after giv ing the projectile irapulse, until it unwinds its slow length, reaches the end of its tether, and cracks to teU you that it is at its journey's end. Such a crack on 300 THE POLAR WORLD. the ear of fore foot of an unfortunate dog is signalized by a howl quite unmis takable in its import." The raere labor of using this whip is such that the Esquimaux travel in couples, one sledge after the other. The hinder dogs f oUow mechanicaUy, and thus require no whip ; and the drivers change about so as lo rest each other. In the summer, when the absence of snow prevents the use of sledges, the dogs are still made useful, on journeys and hunting excursions, by being em ployed to carry burdens in a kind of saddle-bags laid across their shoulders. A stout dog thus accoutred will accompany his master laden -with a weight of about twenty or twenty-five pounds. The scent of the Esquimaux dog is excellent, and this property is turned to account in finding the seal-holes, which they will discover entirely by the smeU at a very great distance. The track of a single deer upon the snow wiU in like manner set them off at full gaUop al least a quarter of a mile before they arrive at it, and with the same alacrity they pursue the bear or the musk-ox. Indeed, the only aniraal which they are nol eager to chase is the wolf, of which they seera lo have an instinctive dread, giving notice at night of their ap proach to the huts by a loud and continued howl. In spite of their invaluable services, they are treated with great severity by their raasters, who never caress thera, and, indeed, scarcely ever take any no- lice of thera except to punish them. But notwithstanding this rough treatment, the attachment of the dogs to their masters is very great, and this they dis play, after a short absence, by jumping up and licking their faces all over with extreme deUght. It may be supposed that among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux there are raany garaes or sports practised. One of their exhibitions consists in mak ing hideous faces by drawing both lips into the raouth, poking forward the chin, squinting frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and raoving the head from side to side as if the neck had been dislocated. Another performance consists in repeating certain words with a guttural tone resembling ventriloquism, staring at the sarae time in such a raanner as to raake their eyes appear ready to burst out of their sockets with the ex.ertion. Two or more will soraetiraes stand up face to face, and, with great quickness and regularity, respond to each other, keeping such exact tirae that the sound appears to come from one throat instead of several. They are fond of music, both vocal and instrumental, but their singing is not much better than a howl. The Esquiraaux have neither magistrates nor laws, yet they are orderly in their conduct towards each other. The constitution of their society is patri archal, but there is no recognition of mastership except such as raay be claimed by superior prowess. The rule of the head of a family lasts only as long as he has vigor enough to secure success in hunting. When his powers of mind and body are impaired by age, he at once sinks in the social scale, associates with the women, and takes his seat in the oomiak. They rarely quarrel among themselves, and settle their disputes either by boxing, the parties sitting down and striking blows alternately untU one of them gives in, or before a court of honor, where, after the accuser and the accused have richly abused and ridi- THE ESQUIMAUX. 301 culed each other, the case is decided by the priests or " angekoks." These wonder-workers, who enjoy a great reputation as sorcerers, soothsayers, or raed- icine-men, employ venlriloquisra, swaUow knives, extract stones frora A'arious parts of their bodies, and use other deceptions to irapress their dupes with a high opinion of their supernatural powers. Like the raerabers of the learned professions elsewhere, they have a ceriain language or jargon of their own, in which they communicate with each other. The heathen Esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of one Supreme Being, but believe in a number of spirits, wilh whom on certain occasions the angekoks pretend to hold mysterious intercourse. Even in Old Greenland the influence and teach ings of the raissionaries have not entirely obliterated the old superstitions, and the mysteries of the angekok, though not openly recognized near the Danish settlements, stUl hold their secret power over many a native who is professedly a Christian. Captain Hall highly praises the good-nature of the Esquimaux ; but in their behavior to the old and infirm they betray the insensibility, or rather inhu manity, commonly found among savage nations, frequently abandoning them to their fate on their journeys, and allowing thera to perish in the wilderness. Among themselves " Tiglikpok " (he is a thief) is a terra of reproach, but they steal without scruple frora strangers, and are not ashaaied whea detected, nor do they blush when reproved. Parry taxes them with want of gratitude ; and though they have no doubt rendered good services to many of our Arctic navigators, yet sometimes, when they fancied themselves the stronger party, they have not hesitated lo attack or- to murder the strangers, and their good behavior can only be relied upon as long as there is the power of enforc ing it. One of the raost araiable traits of their character is the kindness wilh which they treat their children, whose gentleness and docility are such as to occasion their parents little trouble, and to render severity towards them quite unneces sary. Even from their earliest infancy they possess that quiet disposition, gen tleness of demeanor, and uncommon evenness of temper for whioh, in mature age, they are for the most part distinguished. " They are just as fond of play," says Parry, " as any other young people, and of the sarae kind, only that while an English child draws a cart of wood, an Esquiraaux of the sarae age has a sledge of whalebone ; and for the superb baby-house of the forraer, the latter builds a miniature hut of snow, and begs a lighted wick from her mother's lamp to Uluminate the littie dwelling." When not more than eight years old, the boys are taken by their fathers on their sealing excursions, where they begin lo learn their future business ; and even at that early age they are occasionally intrusted to bring home a sledge and dogs from a distance of several miles over the ice. At the age of eleven we see a boy with his water-tight boots, a spear in his hand, and a sraall coU of Une at his back, accorapanying the raen to the fishery under every cir cumstance ; and frora this tirae his services daily increase in value to the whole tribe. In intelligence and susceptibility of civilization the Esquiraaux are far su. 303 THE POLAR WORLD. perior lo the neighboring Indians. They have such a good idea of the hydrog raphy and bearings of the sea-coasts which they frequent as to draw accurate charts of thera. Thus Parry, in his second voyage, was guided in his opera tions by the sketches of the talented Iligliuk ; and while Beechey was at Kotze bue Sound, the natives constructed a chart of the coast upon the saud, first raarking out the coast-line with a slick, and regulating the distance by the day's journey. The hills and ranges of raountains were next shown by elevations of saud or stone, and the islands represented by heaps of pebbles, their propor tions being duly attended to. AVhen the raountains and islands were erected, the viUages and fishing-stations were marked by a number of slicks placed up right, in imitation of those which are put up on the coast wherever these peo ple fix their abode. In this manner a complete hydrographical plan was di-awn frora Cape Derby lo Cape Krusenstern. The Esquimaux have a, decided predilection for commercial pursuits, and undertake long voyages for the purposes of trade. Thus on the continental line of coast west of the Mackenzie, the Point Barrow Esquiraaux proceed every suraraer, with sledges laden with whale or seal oil, whalebone, walrus- tusks, thongs of walrus hide, and seal-skins, to the Colville River, where they meet the Esquiraaux from Kotzebue Sound, who offer them in exchange arti cles procured from the Tchuktchi in the previous sumraer, such as iron and copper kettles, knives, tobacco, beads, and tin for making pipes. About ten days are spent in bartering, dancing, and revelry, on the fiat ground between the tents of each party, pitched a bow-shot apart. The lime is one of pleasant excitement, and is passed nearly without sleep. About July 20 this friendly meeting is at an end : the Kotzebue Sound Esquimaux ascend the Colville on their way homeward, while those from Point Barrow descend to the sea, lo pursue their voyage eastward to Barter Reef, where they obtain in traffic from the eastern Esquiraaux various skins, stone laraps, English knives, sraall white beads, and, lately, guns and araraunition, which in the year following they ex change for the Kotzebue Sound articles at the ColviUe, along with the produce of their own sea-hunts. In this manner, articles of Russian manufacture, originally purchased at the fair of Ostrownoje by the Tchuktchi, or from the factors of the Russian Fur Corapany on Sledge Island, in Bering's Straits, find their way frora tribe to tribe along the American coast as far as Repulse Bay, and compete araong the tribes of the Mackenzie with articles frora Sheffield or Birrainghara. A hunter's life is always precarious — a constant alternation between abun dance and want ; and though the Esquimaux strikes many a seal, white-fish, or walrus in the course of the year, yet these animals do nol abound at all sear sons, and there are other causes, besides improvidence, which soon exhaust the stores laid by in times of abundance. Active exercise and constant exposure to cold are reraarkable proraoters of atomic change in the human body, and a very large supply of food is absolutely necessary to counterbalance the effects of a rapid organip combustion. As a matter of curiosity. Parry once tried how much an Esquimaux lad would, if freely supplied, consume in the course of a day. The following articles were weighed before being given to him : THE ESQUIMAUX. 303 he was twenty hours in getting through them, and certainly did not consider the quantity extraordinary. lbs. oz. Sea-horse flesh, hard frozen 4 4 " " boiled 4 4 Bread and bread-dust 1 12 Total of solids 10 4 The fluids were in fair proportion, viz., rich gravy soup, IJ pint ; raw spirits, 3 wine-glasses ; strong grog, 1 tumbler ; water, 1 gallon 1 pint.* Kane averages the Esquimaux ration in a season of plenty at eight or ten pounds a day, with soup and water to the extent of haff a gallon, and finds in this excessive consumption — which is rather a necessity of their peculiar life and organization than the result of gluttony — the true explanation of the scarci ty from which they frequently suffer. In times of abundance they hunt in domitably without the loss of a day, and slow away large quantities of meat. An excavation is made either on the mainland — or, what is preferred, on an isl and inaccessible to foxes — and the flesh is stacked inside and covered with heavy stones. One such cache which Kane met on a small island contained the flesh of ten walruses, and he knew of others equally large. But by their an cient custom, all share with aU ; and as they migrate in nurabers as their neces sities prompt, the tax on each particular settlement is not seldom so excessive that even considerable stores are unable lo withstand the drain, and soon raake way for pinching hunger, and even faraine. * Captain Hall, who in his search after the remains of the Franklin expedition has now spent sev eral years among the Esquimaux, has so far acquired their appetite that he is able to consume 9 lbs. of meat a day without any inconvenience. 304 THE POLAR WORLD. Cfl:APTER XXVIII. THE FUR-TEADE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. The Coureur des Bois. — The Voyageur. — The Birch-bark Canoe. — The Canadian Fur-trade in the last Century. — The Hudson's Bay Company. — Bloody Feuds between the North-west Company of Can ada and the Hudson's Bay Company.— Their Amalgamation into a new Company in 1821. — Recon struction ofthe Hudson's Bay Company in 1863. — Forts or Houses. — The Attihawmeg. — Influence of the Company on its savage Dependents. — The Black Bear, or Baribal. — The Brown Bear. — The Grizzly Bear. — The Raccoon. — The American Glutton. — The Pine Marten. — The Pekan, or Wood- shock.— The Chinga.— The Mink. — The Canadian Fish-otter. — The Crossed Fox. — The Black or Silvery Fox. — The Canadian Lynx, or Pishu. — The Ice-hare. — The Beaver. — The Musquash. \ S the desire lo reach India by the shortest road first made the civilized -^-^ world acquainted with the eastern coast of North Araerica, so the exten sion of the fur-trade has been the chief, or rather the only, raotive which origi nally led the footsteps of the white man from the Canadian Lakes and the bor ders of Hudson's Bay into the remote interior of that vast continent. The first European fur-traders in North America were French Canadians — coureurs des bois — a fitting surname for men habituated lo an Indian forest- life. Three or four of these " irregular spirits " agreeing to make an expedi tion into the backwoods would set out in their birch-bark canoe, laden with goods received ou trust from a raerchant, for a voyage of great danger and hardship, it might be of several years, inlo the wilderness. On their return the inerchant who had given thera credit of course received the lion's share of the skins gathered araong the Hurons or the Iroquois ; the small i^ortion left as a recompense for their own labor was soon spent, as sailors spend their hard-earned wages on their arrival in port ; and then they started on some new adventure, until fiually old age, infirraities, or death prevented their' revisiting the forest. The modern " voyageur,^'' who has usurped the place of the old " coureurs^'' is so like them in manners and mode of life, that to know the one is to become acquainted with the other. In short, the voyageur is raerely a coureur subject to strict l.aw and serving for a fixed pay ; while the coureur was a voyageur trading at his own risk and peril, and acknowledging no control when once beyond the pale of European colonization. The camel is frequently caUed the " ship of the desert," and with equal jus tice the birch-bark canoe might be named the " camel of the North American wilds." For if we consider the rivers which, covering the land Uke a net-work, are the only arteries of coramunication ; the frequent rapids and cataracts; the shallow waters flowing over a stony ground whose sharp angles would infalli bly cut to pieces any boat made of wood; and finally the surrounding deserts, where, in case of an accident, the traveller is lefl to his own resources, we must come to the conclusion that in such a country no intercourse could possibly be THE FUR-TRADE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 305 carried on without a boat raade of raaterials at once flexible and tough, and car pable moreover of being easily repaired without the aid of hararaer and nails, of saw and plane. This invaluable material is supplied by the rind of the paper- birch, a tree whose uses in the Hudson's Bay territories are almost as manifold as those of the palm-trees of the tropical zone. Where the skins of animals are rare, the pliant bark, peeled off in large pieces, serves to cover the Indian's tent. Carefully sewn together, and ornamented with the quiUs of the porcupine, it is made into baskets, sacks, dishes, plates, and drinking-cups, and in fact is, in one word, the chief material of which the household articles of the Crees are formed. The wood serves for the manufacture of oars, snow-shoes, and sledges ; and iu spring the sap of the tree furnishes an agreeable beverage, which, by boiUng, may be inspissated into a sweet syrup. Beyond the Arctic Circle the paper-birch is a rare and crooked tree, but il is met with as a shrub as far as 69° N. lat. It grows lo perfection on the northern shores of Lake Superior, near Fort William, where the canoes of the Hudson's Bay Company are chief ly manufactured. A birch-bark canoe is between thirty and forty feet long, and the rinds of which it is built are sewn together with filaments of the root of the Canadian fir. In case of a hole being knocked into it during the journey, it can be patch ed like an old coat, and is then as good as new. As it has a fiat bottom, it does not sink deep into the water ; and the river must be alraost dried up which could not carry such a boat. The cargo is divided iuto bales or parcels of frora 90 to 100 pounds; and although it frequently amounts to more than four tons, yet the canoe itself is so light that the crew can easily transpoit it upon their shoulders. This crew generally consists of eight or ten raen, two of whora must be experienced boatmen, who receive double pay, and are placed one at the helm, the other at the poop. When the wind is fair, a sail is unfurled, and serves to lighten the toil. The Canadian voyageur combines the light-heartedness of the Frenchman with the apathy of the Indian, and his dress is also a mixture of that of the Red-skins and of the European colonists. Frequently he is himself a mixture of Gallic and Indian blood — a so-caUed " bois-brtlle," and in this case doubly light-hearted and unruly. With his woollen blanket as a surcoat, his shirt of striped cotton, his pantaloons of cloth, or his Indian stockings of leather, his moccasins of deer-skin, and his sash of gaudUy-dyed wool, in which his knffe, his tobacco-bag, and various other utensils are stuck, he stands high in his own esteem. His language is a French jargon, richly interlarded with Indian and English words — a jumble fit lo drive a grammarian mad, but which he thinks so euphonious that his longue is scarcely ever at rest. His supply of songs and anecdotes is inexhaustible, and he is always ready for a dance. His politeness is exeraplary : he never calls his corarades otherwise than " raon frfere," and " mon cousin." It is hardly necessary to remark that he is able to handle his boat with the same ease as an expert rider raanages his horse. When after a hard day's work they rest for the night, the axe is iraraediately at work in the nearest forest, and in less than ten rainutes the tent is erected 20 306 THE P.OLAR WORLD. and the kettle simmering on the fire. While the passengers — perhaps some chief trader on a voyage to some distant fort, or a Back or a Richardson on his way to the Polar Ocean^ — are warming or drying themselves, the indefatigable "voyageurs" drag the unloaded canoe ashore, lum it over, and examine it care fully, either to fasten again sorae loose stitches, or to paint over Sorae damaged part with fresh resin. Under the cover of their boat, which they turn against the wind, and with a flaming fire in the foreground, they then bid defiance to the weather. At one o'clock in the morning " L6ve ! 16ve ! Ifeve !" is caUed ; in half an hour the encampraent is broken up, and the boat reladen and launched. At eight in the morning a halt is made for breakfast, for which three-quarters of an hour are allowed. About two in the afternoon half an hour's rest suffices for a cold dinner. Eighteen hours' work and six hours' rest make out the day. The labor is incredible ; yet the " voyageur " not only supports it without a murraur, but with the utraost cheerfulaess. Such a life requires, of course, an iron constitution. In rowing, the arras and breast of the " voyageur " are ex erted to the utraost ; and in shaUow places he drags the boat after hira, wading up lo the knees and thighs in the water. Where he is obliged to force his way against a rapid, the drag-rope raust be pulled over rocks and sturaps of trees, through swamps and thickets ; and at the portages the cargo and the boat have lo be carried over execrable roads to the next navigable water. Then the " voyageur " takes upon his back two packages, each weighing 90 pounds, and attached by a leathern bell running over the forehead, that his hands may be free' to clear the way ; and such portages sometiraes occur ten or eleven times in one day. For these toils of his wandering life he has many compensations, in the keen appetite, the genial sensation of rauscular strength, and the flow of spirits engendered by labor in the pure and bracing air. Surely many would raiher breathe with the " voyageur " the fragrance of the pine forest, or share his rest upon the borders of the stream, than lead the monotonous life of an artisan, pent up in the impure atmosphere of a city. During the first period of the Araerican fur-trade the " coureurs des bois " used to set out on their adventurous expeditions frora the village " La Chine," one of the oldest and most famous settlements in Canada, whose name points to a tirae when the St. Lawrence was still supposed to be the nearest way to China. How far some of them may have penetrated into the interior of the continent is unknown ; but so much is certain, that their regular expeditions extended as far as the Saskatchewan, 2500 raUes beyond the reraotest European settleraents. Several factories or forts protected their interests on the banks of that noble river ; and the French would no doubt have extended their do minion to the Rocky Mountains or lo the Pacific if the conquest of Canada by England, in 1761, had not corapletely revolutionized the fur-trade. The change of dominion laid it prostrate for several years, but our enterprising countrymen soon opened a profitable intercourse with the Indian tribes of the west, as their predecessors had done before them. Now, however, the adventurous " coureur des bois," who had entered the wilds as a semi-independent trader, was obliged to serve in the pay of the British merchant, and to follow him, as his " voya- THE FUR-TRADE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 307 geur," deeper and deeper into the wUderness, until finally they reached on the Athabasca and the Churchill River the Indian hunters who used to sell their skins in the settleraents of the Hudson's Bay Corapany. This corapany was founded in the year 1670 by a body of adventurers and merchants imder the patronage of Prince Rupert, second cousin of Charles II. The charter obtained from the Crown was wonderfully liberal, coraprising not only the grant of the exclusive trade, but also of full territorial possession to all perpetuity of the vast lands within the watershed of Hudson's Bay. The Company al once established sorae forts along the shores of the great inland sea from which it derived its narae, and opened a very lucrative trade with the Indians, so that it never ceased paying rich dividends to the fortunate share holders until towards the close of the last century, when, as I have already men tioned, its prosperity began to be seriously affected by the energetic competi tion of the Canadian fur-traders. In spite of the flourishing state of its affairs, or rather because the monop oly which it enjoyed allowed it lo prosper without exertion, the Company, as long as Canada remained in French hands, had conducted its affairs in a very indolent manner, waiting for the Indians to bring the produce of their chase to the Hudson's Bay settlements, instead of following them into the interior and stimulating thera by offering greater facilities for exchange. For eighty years after its foundation the Corapany possessed no raore than four small forts on the shores of Hudson's Bay ; and only when the encroach ments of the Canadians at length roused it from, its torpor, did it resolve like wise to advance into the interior, and lo establish a fort on the eastern shore of Sturgeon Lake, in the year 1774. Up to this tirae, with the exception of the voyage of discovery which Hearne (1770-71) made under its auspices to the mouth of the Copperraine River, it had done but little for the proraotion of geographical discovery in its vast territory. Meanwhile the Canadian fur-traders had becorae so hateful to the Indians that these savages formed a conspiracy for their total extirpation. Fortunately for the white men, the small-pox broke out about this lime among the Redskins, and swept them away as the fire consumes the parched grass of the" prairies. Their unburied corpses were torn by the wolves and wild dogs, and the survivors were too weak and dispirited to be able to under take any thing against the foreign intruders. The Canadian fur-traders now also saw the necessity of combining their efforts for their rautual benefit, instead of ruining each other by an insane corapetition ; and consequently forraed, in 1783, a society which, under the narae of the North-west Corapany of Canada, at first consisted of sixteen, later of twenty partners or shareholders, sorae of whom lived in Canada, while the others were , scattered among the various stations in the interior. The whole Canadian fur-trade was now greatly de veloped ; for while previously each of the associates had blindly striven to do as much harm as possible to his present partners, and thus indirectly damaged his own interests, they now aU vigorously united to beat the rival Hudson's Bay Company out of the field. The agents of this North-west Company, in defiance of their charter, were indefatigable in exploring the lakes and woods, 308 THE POLAR WORLD. the plains and the mountains, for the purpose of estabUshing new trading-sta tions at all convenient points. The most celebrated of these pioneers of comraerce, Alexander Mackenzie, reached, in the year 1789, the niouth of the great river which bears his name, and saw the while dolphins gambol about in the Arctic Sea. In a second voy age he crossed the Rocky Mountains, and foUowed the course of the Fraser River until it discharges ils waters into the Georgian Gulf opposite lo Van couver's Island. Here he wrote with perishable vermiUon the foUowing in scription on a rock-wall fronting the gulf : — A. Mackenzie arrived frotn Canada by land, 22 July, 1792. The words were soon effaced by wind and weather, but the fame of the ex plorer will last as long as the English language is spoken in Araerica. The energetic North-west Corapany thus ruled over the whole continent from the Canadian Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, and in 1806 it even crossed that barrier and established its forts on the northern tributaries of the Colum bia River. To the north il likewise extended its operations, encroaching more and more upon the privileges of the Hudson's Bay Corapany, which, roused to energy, now also pushed on its posts farther and farther into the interior, and established in 1812 a colony on the Red River to the south of Winipeg Lake, thus driving, as it were, a sharp thorn inlo the side of its rival. But a power like the North-west Corapany, which had no less than 50 agents, 70 interpret ers, and 1120 voyageurs in its pay, and whose chief raanagers used to appear at their annual raeetings at Fort WiUiam, on the banks of Lake Superior, with all the pomp and pride of feudal barons, was not inclined to tolerate this en croachment ; and thus, after many quarrels, a regular war broke out between the two parties, which, after two years' duration, led to the expulsion of the Red River colonists and the raurder of their governor, Scrapie. This event took place in the year 1816, and is but one episode of the bloody feuds which continued lo reign between the two rival corapanies until 1821. At first sight it may seem strange that such acts of violence should lake place between British subjects and on British soil, but then we must consider that at that time European law had little power in the Araerican wilderness. The dissensions of the fur-traders had most deplorable consequences for the Redskins; for both companies, to swell the number of their adherents, lavishly distributed spirituous liquors — a temptation which no Indian can re sist. The whole of the hunting-grounds of the Saskatchewan and Athabasca were but one scene of revelry and bloodshed. Already decimated by the small-pox, the Indians now became the victiras of drunkenness and discord, and it was lo be feared that if the war and its consequent deraoralization con tinued, the most important tribes would soon be utterly swept away. The finances of the beUigerent companies were in an equally deplorable stale ; the produce of the chase diminished from year to year with the in- THE PUR-TRADE OP THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 309 crease of their expenditure ; and thus the Hudson's Bay Corapany, which used to gratify its shareholders with dividends of 50 and 25 per cent., was unable, from 1808 to 1814, to distribute a single shilling among them. At length wis dom prevaUed over passion, and the enemies came to a resolution which, if 310 THE POLAR WORLD. taken from the very beginning, would have saved them both a great deal of treasure and raany crimes. Instead of continuing to swing the tomahawk, they now smoked the calumet, and amalgamated in 1821, under the name of the " Hudson's Bay Corapany," and under the ^ing of the charter. The Brit ish Governraent, as a dowry to the impoverished couple, presented them with a license of exclusive trade throughout the whole of that territory which, under the name of the Hudson's Bay and North-west territories, extends from Lab rador to the Pacific, and from the Red River to the Polar Ocean. This license was terminable in 21 years, but in 1838 it was renewed again for the same pe riod. The good effects of peace and union soon became apparent, for after a few years the Corapany was enabled to pay haff-yeaiiy dividends of five per cent., and the Indians, to whora brandy was now no longer supplied unless as a medicine, enjoyed the advantages of a more sober life. About 1848 the Imperial Government, fearing that Vancouver's Island might be annexed by the United States, resolved to place it under the manage ment of the Hudson's Bay Company. This was accordingly done in 1849. A license of exclusive trade and manageraent was granted for ten years, termina ble therefore in 1859 (the lime of expiration of the similar license over the Indian territory). These were the palmy days of the Hudson's Bay Company. They held Rupert's Land by the royal charter, which was perpetual ; they held Vancou ver's Island and the whole Indian territory to the Pacific by exclusive licenses, terminable in 1859 ; and thus raaintained under their sole sway about 4,000,000 square railes — a realm larger than the whole of Europe. For the ten years ending May 31, 1862, the average net annual profits of the Company amounted lo £81,000 on a paid-up capital of £400,000, but a portion only of this income was distributed as dividend. In 1863 the Company was reconstructed, with a capital of £2,000,000, for the purpose of enlarging its operations — such as opening the southern and raore fruitful districts of the Saskatchewan or the Winipeg to European colonizar tion ; but the northern, and by far the larger portion of the vast domains over which, after the dismemberment of British Columbia and the Stikine territory, it slill holds sway, have too severe a cliraate ever to be cultivated, and, unless their raineral wealth be made available, must ever be what they are now — a fur-bearing region of gloomy pine-forests, naked barren - grounds, lakes, and morasses. Over this vast extent of desert the Corapany has established about 150 trad ing-posts, called " houses^ or "forts," which, however, consist raerely of a few magazines and dwelling-houses, protected by a simple wall, stockade, or palisade sufficiently strong to resist any sudden attack of the Indians. Among the tribes, wilh whom a friendly intercourse has long subsisted, and whose fidelity raay iraplicitly be trusted, no guard is ever kept, and it is only in forts raore recent ly built in remote parts that precautions are taken. These forts are always situated on the borders of a lake or river, both for far cility of transport and for the purpose of catching fish, particularly the species of Coregonus, or white-fish, which, from its importance to aU the natives of THE PUR-TRADE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 311 Rupert's Laud between the great Canada lakes and the Arctic Sea, the Crees call Attihawmeg, or the " reindeer of the waters." In many of the trading- posts it forms the chief food of the white residents ; and it is asserted that though deprived of bread and vegetables, a raan may live upon it for months or 313 THE POLAR WORLD. even years without tiring. According to Sir John Richardson, no fish in any country or sea excels the white-fish in flavor and wholesoraeness, and it is the raost beneficial article of diet to the Red Indians near the Arctic Circle, being obtained with raore certainty than the reindeer, and with less change of abode in suraraer and winter. Each of the principal forts is the seat of a chief factor, or general adminis trator of a district, and of a chief trader, who transacts the business with the Indians. Besides these principal functionaries — out of whom the governor is chosen — ^the Company employed, in 1860, 5 surgeons, 87 clerks, 67 postmasters, 1200 permanent servants, and 500 voyageurs, besides temporary employes of differ ent ranks, so that the total number of persons in its pay was at least 3000. Besides this little array of immediate dependents, the whole male Indian popu lation of its vast territory, amounting lo about 100,000 hunters and trappers, may be considered as actively employed iu the service of the Company. Arm ed vessels, both sailing and steam, are employed on the north-west coast to car ry on the fur-trade wilh the warlike natives of that distant region. More than twenty years ago this trade alone gave employment to about 1000 men, occupy ing 21 permanent establishments, or engaged in navigating five armed sailing vessels and one armed steamer, varying from 100 to 300 tons in burden. The influence of the Corapany over its savage dependents raay justly be caUed beneficial. Both frora raotives of humanity and seff-inlerest, every effort is made to civilize them. No expense is spared to preserve thera from the TBADEB'S CAMP. THE PUR-TRADE OP THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 313 want into which their improvidence too often plunges thera ; and the example of an inflexible straightforwardness serves to gain their confidence. This moral preponderance, and the admiration of the Indian for the superior knowledge and arts of the Europeans, explain how a mere handful of white men, scattered over an enormous territory, not only lead a life of perfect security, but exercise an almost absolute power over a native population outnumbering them al least several hundred tiraes. The Indians have in course of tirae acquired raany new wants, and have thus become more and more dependent on the white traders. The savage hunter is no longer the free, self-dependent man, who, without any foreign assistance, was able to make and manufacture, with his own hands, all the weapons and articles needed for his maintenance. Without English fire arms and fishing-gear, without iron-ware and woollen blankets, he could no long er exist, and the unf ortunate tribe on which the Company should close its stores would soou perish for want. " History," says Professor Hind, " does not fur nish another exaraple of an association of private individuals exerting a power ful influence over so large an extent of the earth's surface, and administering their affairs with such consumraate skill and unwavering devotion to the origi nal objects of their incorporation." The standard of exchange iu all raercantile transactions with the natives is a beaver skin, the relative value of which, as originally established by the traders, differs considerably from the present worth of the articles represented by it ; but the Indians are averse lo change. They receive their principal outfit of clothing and ammunition on credit in the autumn, to be repaid by their winter hunts ; the amount intrusted lo each of the hunters varying with their reputa tions for industry and skill. The furs which, in the course of the year, are accumulated in the various forts or trading-stations, are transported in the short time during which the rivers and lakes are navigable, and in the manner described at the beginning of the chapter, lo York Factory, or Moose Factory, on Hudson's Bay, to Montreal or Vancouver, and shipped from thence mostly lo London. Frora the more distant posts in the interior, the transport often requires several seasons; for traveUing is necessarily very slow when rapids and portages continually inter rupt navigation, and the long winter puts a stop to all intercourse whatever. The goods from Europe, consisting (besides those raentioned above) of printed cotton or silk handkerchiefs, or neck-cloths, of beads, and the universal favorite tobacco, require at least as rauch time to find their way into the distant interior ; and thus the Company is nol seldom obliged lo wait for four, five, or six years before il receives its retums for the articles sent from London. It must, however, be confessed, that il amply repays itself for the tedlousness of delay, for Dr. Armsti-ong was told by the Esquimaux of Cape Bathurst — a tribe in the habit of trading wilh the Indians from the Mackenzie, who are in direct coraraunication with the Hudson's Bay Corapany's agents— that for three silver-fox skins — which sometimes fetch as high a price as twenty-five or thirty guineas apiece at the annual sale of the Company — they had got from the trad ers cooking utensils which might be worth eight shillings and sixpence ! The value of the skins annually iraported into England by the Corapany 314 THE POLAR WORLD. amounts to about £150,000 or £200,000. Besides, many of its furs are bartered for Russian- American peltry, and a large quantity is exported direct to China. .^ ' '.d ^4i .tl .^^^i^:^^'^' 1 A7 "I td'M. After this brief account of one of the most reraarkable mercantile associa tions of any age, sorae remark on the chief fur-bearing animals of the Hudson's THE FUR-TRADE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 315 Bay territory may not be without interest. Among these, the black bear, muskwa, or baribal {Ursus americanus), is one of the most valuable, as his long liair unlike that of the brown or the white bear — is beautifully smooth and glossy. He inhabits the forest regions of North America, but migrates accord ing to the seasons. In spring he seeks his food in the thickets along the banks of the rivers or lakes ; in summer he retreats into the forests ; in winter he either wanders farther to the south, or hollows out a kind of lair beneath the root of an overthrown tree, where, as the cold is more oi- less severe, he either finds a retreat after his excursions, or hibernates buried in the snow. He feeds chiefly on berries, grain, acorns, roots, eggs, and honey ; though, wheu pressed by hunger, he will attack other quadrupeds. He climbs upon trees or rocks with great agility, and, being very watchful, is not easily got at in summer. Sometimes, however, his caution brings about his destruction ; for, frora fear of some possible danger, or at the slightest noise, he rises on his hind legs to look over the bushes under which he lies concealed, and thus offers a mark to the bullet of the hunter. In the winter, when the snow betrays his traces, he is more easily shot, and his skin and flesh are then also in the best condition. In spile of his apparent clumsiness and stolidity, the muskwa is more alert than the brown bear, whom he nearly approaches in size ; he runs so fast that no man can overtake hira, and is an excellent swiraraer and climber. When attacked, he generally retreats as fast as possible into the forest ; but ff escape is im possible, he turns furiously upon his pursuers, and becomes exceedingly danger ous. Dogs alone are incapable of raastering him, as he is always ready lo re ceive them with a stroke of his fore paw ; but they are very useful in driving him up a tree, and thus giving the hunter an opportunity of hitting him in the right spot. When in a stale of captivity, the baribal, in his mild and good- humored disposition, is distinguished from the brown and white bear. His fur is also much more valuable than that of the brown bear. It is not yet fully ascertained whether the American brown bear is identical with that of Europe ; the resemblance, however, is close. In summer he wan ders to the shores of the Polar Sea, and indulges more frequently in animal food than the baribal. He is even said to attack man when pressed by hunger ; but all those whom Sir John Richardson met with ran away as soon as they saw him. As the grizzly bear ( Ursus ferox) is found on the Rocky Mountains ujj to the latitude of 61°, he undoubtedly deserves a place among the sub-arctic ani mals. The skin of this most forraidable of the ursine race, who is about nine feet long, and is said to attain the weight of eight hundred pounds, is but little prized in the fur-trade. He is the undoubted monarch of his native wilds, for even the savage bison flies at his approach. Although the raccoon {Procyon lotor) is more commonly found in Canada and the United States, yet he is also an inhabitant of the Hudson's Bay terri tories, where he is mel with up lo 56° N. lat. This interesting little aniraal, which, like the bears, applies the sole of its foot to the ground in walking, has an average length of two feet from the nose lo the tail, which is about ten inch es long. Its color is grayish-brown, with a dusky line running from the top of 316 THE POLAR WORLD. the head down the middle of the face, and ending below the eyes. The taU is very thickly covered with hair, and is annulaled with several black bars on a yeUowish-white ground. Its face is very like that of the fox, whom it equals in cunning, while its active and playful habits resemble those of the monkey. Its favorite haunts are the woods, near streams or lakes, for one of ils most raarked peculiarities, from which it has received ils specific name of lotor, or the washer, is its habit of plunging its dry food into water before eating it. The raccoon devours almost any thing that comes in his way — ^fruits and grain of aU sorts, birds' nests, mice, grasshoppers, beetles : whUe the waters yield him fishes, crabs, and oysters, which he is very expert in opening. His fur forras no in considerable article of commerce, and is very fashionable in Russia. In 1841, 111,316 raccoon skins were imported into St. Petersburg, and more than half a miUion were stapled in Leipzig, intended, no doubt, for smuggling across the frontier. The fur of the Araerican glutton, or wolverine, is much used for muffs and linings ; yet, from its being a notorious robber of their traps, the animal is as much hated by the Indian hunters as the dog-fish by the northern fisherraen. The Hudspn's Bay territories can not boast of the sable, but the American pine marten {Martes abietum) is not rauch inferior in value, as its dark-brown fur is remarkably fine, thick, and glossy. It frequents the woody districts, where it preys on birds, and all the smaller quadrupeds from the hare to the mouse. Even the squirrel is incapable of escaping the pine marten, and after having vaulted and clirabed frora tree to tree, sinks at last exhausted into its gripe. The pekan, or woodshock {Martes canadensis), the largest of the raarten fam ily, is also the one which most richly supplies the fur-market. It is found over the whole of North America, and generally lives in burrows near the banks of rivers, as it principally feeds on the sraall quadrupeds that frequent the water. Several species of ermine inhabit the Hudson's Bay territories, but their skins are of no great iraportance in the fur-trade. Like many olher species of the raarten family, they eject, when irritated or alarmed, a fluid of a fetid odor ; but in this respect they are far surpassed by the chinga {Mephitis c/iinga), whose secretion has so intolerable a smell that the least quantity suffices to pro duce nausea and a sense of suffocation. This animal is frequently found near Hudson's Bay, whence il extends farther to the north. In spite of the formi dable means of defense with which it has been armed by nature, it is of use to man, for its black and white striped fur (which, as raay easily be supposed, never appears in the European raarket) provides the Indians wilh coverings or tobacco-pouches. Before seizing the chinga, they irritate it with a long switch until il has repeatedly emptied the gland's from which the noxious va por issues ; then suddenly springing upon it, they hold it up by the tail and dispatch it. The mink {Vison americanus), another raember of the weasel family, is one of the most important fur-bearing animals of the Hudson's Bay territories. It resembles the sraall European fish-otter {Vison lutreola), but its skin is far raore valuable — the brown hair with which il is covered being rauch softer and thick- THE FUR-TRADE OP THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORIES. 317 er. As its toes are connected by a small web, il is an excellent swiraraer, and as formidable to the salmon or trout in the water as to the hare on land. The Canadian fish-otter {Lutra canadensis) far surpasses the European spe cies, both in size and in the beauty of its glossy brown skin. It occurs as far northward as 66° or 67° lat., and is generally taken by sinking a steel trap near the mouth of its burrow. It has the habit of sliding or climbing to the top of a ridge of snow in winter, or of a sloping moist bank in suraraer, where, lying on the belly, wilh the fore feet bent backward, it gives itself with the hind legs an impulse which sends it swiftly down the eminence. This school boy sport it continues for a long lime. The red fox {Vulpes fulvus), which is found throughout the Hudson's Bay territories, has like-wise a rauch finer fur than our coraraon fox. It is of a bright ferruginous red on the head, back, and sides ; beneath the chin it is white, while the throat and neck are of a dark gray, and the under parts of the body, toward the tail, are of a very pale red. The crossed fox ( Canis clecussatus), thus named from the black cross on its shoulders, is still more valuable ; its skin — the color of which is a sort of gray, resulting from the mixture of black and white hair — being worth four or five guineas. Peltry still raore costly is furnished by the black or silvery fox {Canis arge^itatus), whose copious and beautiful fur is of a rich and shining black or deep brown color, with the long er or exterior hairs of a silvery white. Unfortunately it is of such rare occur rence that not raore than four or five are annually brought to a trading-post. The Canada lynx, or pishu {Lynx canadensis), is sraaller than the European species, but has a finer fur, those skins being most valued which approach to a pale or whitish color, aud on which the spots are raost distinct. It chiefly feeds on the hare {Lepus americanus), which is not much larger than a rabbit, and is found on the banks of the Mackenzie as far north as 68° or 69°. StiU nearer lo the Pole, the ice-hare {Lepus glacialis) ranges as far as the Parry Islands (75° N. lat.), where it feeds on the arctic wiUow, and other high northern plants. Its favorite resorts are the stony districts, where it easUy finds a refuge ; in winter it burrows in the snow. In summer its back is gray ish white, but as the cold increases, it becomes white, with the exception of the tips of the ears, which remain constantly black. Formerly the beaver {Castor fiber) was the most important of the fur-bear ing animals of the Hudson's Bay territories. In the year 1743, 127,000 beaver skins were exported from Montreal to La Rochelle, and 26,700 by the Hudson's Bay Company to London. Al present, the exportation hardly araounts to one- third of this quantity. As the beaver chiefiy lives on the barks of the willow, the beech, and the poplar, il is nol found beyond the forest region ; but along the banks of the Mackenzie it reaches a very high latitude. The musk-rat, ondatra or musquash {Fiber zibethicus) — which is about the size of a smaU rabbit, and of a reddish-brown color — is caUed by the Indians the younger brolher of the beaver, as it has similar instincts. EssentiaUy a bank-haunting animal, it is never to be seen at any great distance from the water, where it swims and dives with consumraate ease, aided greatly by the webs which connect the hinder toes. It drives a large series of tunnels into 318 THE POLAR WORLD. the bank, branching out in various directions, and having several entrances, aU of which open under the surface of the water. If the aniraal happens to live upon a raarshy and uniformly wet soil, it becomes a buUder, and lives in curi ously-constructed huts, from three to four feet in height, plastered with great neatness in the inside, and strengthened externally with a kind of basket-work of rushes, carefully interlaced together. The judgment of the animal shows itself in the selection of the site, invariably choosing some ground above the reach of inundation, or else raising its hut on an artificial foundation; for, though obliged to reside near flat, submerged banks, where the soft soil is full of nourishing roots, it requires a dry home to rest in. In winter the musquash villages — for the huts are sometimes buUt in such nurabers together as to deserve that narae — are generally covered with thick snow, under which this rodent is able to procure water, or to reach the provis ions laid up in its storehouse. Thus it lives in ease and plenty, for the marten is too averse to the water, and the otter too bulky to penetrate into its tunnels-. But when the snow melts, and the huts of the musquash appear above the ground, the Indian, taking in his hand a large four-barbed spear, steals up to the house, and driving his weapon through the walls, is sure lo pierce the ani mals inside. Holding the spear firmly with one hand, he takes his tomahawk from his belt, dashes the house to pieces, and secures the inmates. Another method employed by the Indians to capture the musquash is to block up the different entrances to their tunnels, and then to intercept the animals as they try to escape. Sometimes the gun is used, but nol very frequently, as the mus quash is so wary that it dives al the least alarra, and darts into one of its holes. The trap, however, is the ordinary raeans of destruction. The soft and glossy fur of the rausquash, though worth no raore than from 6d. lo 9d., is stiU a not inconsiderable article of trade, as no less than half a million skins are annually imported into England for hat-making ; nor is there any fear of the musquash being extirpated, in spite of its raany eneraies, as it raultiplies very fast, and is found near every swarap or lake with grassy banks as far as the confines of the Polar Sea. THE CREE INDIANS, OR EYTHINYUWUK. 319 HUNTING BISON IN THE SNOW. CHAPTER XXIX. THE CREE INDIANS, OR EYTHINYUWUK. The various Tribes ofthe Crees.— Their Conquests and subsequent Defeat.— Their Wars with the Black feet.— Their Character.— Tattooing.— Their Dress.— Fondness for their Children.— The Cree Cradle.— Vapor Baths.— Games— Their religious Ideas.— The Cree Tartarus and Elysium. T^^HE various tribes of the Crees, or Eythinyuwuk, range from the Rocky Mountains and the plains of the Saskatchewan to the swampy shores of Hudson's Bay. Towards the west and north they border on the Tinne, towards the east and south, on the Ojibbeway or Sauteurs, who belong like them to the great family of the Lenni-lenape Indians, and inhabit the lands between Lake Winipeg and Lake Superior. ^ About sixty years since, at the tirae when Napoleon was deluging Europe with blood, the Crees Ukewise played the part of conquerors, and subdued even more extensive, though less valuable domains. Provided with fire-arms, which at that tirae were unknown to their northern and western neighbors, they advanced as far as the Arctic Circle, iraposing tribute on the various tribes of the Tinne. But their triuraphs were not more durable than those of the great European conqueror. The smaU-pox broke out among them and swept them away by thousands. MeanwhUe the Tinne tribes had reraained untouched by this terrible scourge ; and as the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company, advancing farther and farther to the west and north, had likewise made them acquainted with the use of fire arms, they in their turn became the aggressors^ and drove the Crees before them. 320 THE POLAR WORLD. Their former conquerors now partly migrated lo the south, and leaving the forest region, where they had hunted the reindeer and the elk, spread over the prairies of the Saskatchewan, where they now pursued the herds of bison, sometiraes driving them over a precipice, or chasing thera on foot through the snow But in their new abodes they became engaged in constant feuds with their new neighbors the Assiniboins and Blackfeet, who of course resented their intrusion. The romance in which the manners and character of the Indians are por trayed might lead us to attribute to these people a loftiness of soul for which il would be vain to look in the present day, and which without raUch skepticism we may assert they never really possessed. Actions prompted only by the ca price of a barbarous people have been considered as the results of refined sen timent; and savage cunning, seen through the false medium of prejudice, as suraed the nobler proportions of a far-sighted policy. But though the history of the wars of the Indians among themselves. and with the Europeans affords but few instances of heroisni, it abounds in traits of revolting cruelly, and in pictures of indescribable wretchedness. A large party of Blackfeet once made a successful foray in the territory of the Crees. But raeanwhile the latter surprised the carap where the aggressors had left their wives and children ; and thus, when the Blackfeet returned to their tents, they found desolation and death where they looked for a joyful wel come. In their despair they cast away their arms and their booty, and retired to the mountains, where for three days and nights they wailed and mourned. A HEBD OF BISON. THE CREE INDLANS, OR EYTHINYUWUK. 331 DKIVING BISON OVEB A PKECIPICE. In the year 1840 a bloody war bi okt out between the Crees and the Bhck feet, arising as in general from x -^ciy trifling cause. Peace was at length c on eluded, but while the two nations wcit celebrating this fortunate event -with games and races, a Cree stole a r-i.^^e 1 blanket, and a new fight immedi itel} began. Returning home, the Blackfeet met a Cree chieftain, with two of hi-, warriors, and killed them after a shoit altercation. Soon after the Crees sur prised and murdered some of the Black feet, and thus the war raged more furiously than ever. Sir George Simpson, who was travelhng through the country at the tirae, visited the hut of a Cree who had been wounded in the conflict at the peace raeeting. As in his flight he bent over his horse's neck, a baU had struck hira on the right side, and re mained sticking near the articulation of the left shoulder. In this condition he had already lain for three-and-thirty days', his left arm frightfully swollen, and the rest of his body eraaciated to a skeleton. Near the dying savage, whose glassy eye and contracted features spoke of the dreadful pain of which he dis dained to speak, lay his child, reduced to skin and bones, and expressing by a perpetual raeaning the pangs of illness and hunger, while raost to be pitied perhaps of this wretched family was the wife and mother, who seemed to be sinking uuder the double load of care and fatigue. During the night the "medicine-man" was busy beating his magic drum and driving away the evU spirits frora the hul. Although the Crees show great fortitude in enduring hunger aud the other evUs incident to a hunter's life, yet any unusual accident dispirits them al once, and they seldom venture lo meet their eneraies in open warfare, or eveu to sur prise them, unless they have a great advantage in point of numbers. Instances of personal bravery like that of the Esquiraaux are rare indeed among them. Superior in pergonal appearance to the Tinne, they are less honest, and though perhaps not so much given to falsehood as the Tinn^, are more turbulent and more prompt to mvade the rights of their countrymen, as weU as of neighbor ing nations. 21 323 THE POLAR WORLD. Tattooing is alraost universal among them. The women are in general con tent with having one or two lines drawn from the corners of the mouth towards the angles of the lower jaw, but some of the men have their bodies covered with lines and figures. It seems to be considered by most rather as a proof of THB CREE INDIANS, OR EYTHINYUWUK. 333 courage than an ornament, as the operation is both painful and tedious. The lines on the face are formed by dexterously running an awl under the cuticle, and then drawing a cord, dipped in charcoal and water, through the canal thus formed. The punctures on the body are made by needles of various sizes, sel in a frame. A number of hawk-beUs attached tp this frame serve, by their noise, lo cover the groans of the sufferer, and probably for the same reason the process is accompanied with singing. An indelible stain is produced by rubbing a lit tle finely-powdered willow-charcoal inlo the puncture. A half-breed, whose arm was amputated by Sir John Richardson, declared that latooing was not only the more painful operation of the two, but rendered infinitely more difficult to bear by its tedlousness, having lasted, in his case, three days. The Crees are also fond of painting their faces wilh vermilion and charcoal. In general the dress of the male consists of a blanket thrown over the shoulders, a leathern shirt or jacket, and a piece of cloth tied round the middle. The women have in addition a long petticoat, and both sexes wear a kind of wide hose, whioh, reaching from the ankle to the middle of the thigh, are suspended by strings to the girdle. These hose, or " Indian stockings," are coraraonly or namented with beads or ribands, and from their convenience have been univer sally adopted by the white residents, as an essential part of their winter-cloth ing. Their shoes, or rather soft boots (for they lie round the ankle), are made of dressed moose-skins; and during the winter they wrap several pieces of blanket rotmd their feet. They are fond of European articles of dress, such as great-coals, shawls, and calicoes, which, however showy they raay be at first, are soon reduced to a very filthy condition by their custom of greasing the face and hair with soft fat or marrow. This practice they say preserves the skin soft, and protects it from cold in the winter and the mosquitoes in suraraer ; but it ren ders their presence disagreeable to Europeans who may chance to be seated near them in a close tent and near a hot fire. The Cree women are not in general treated harshly by their husbands : a great part of the labor, however, falls to the lot of the wife. She raakes the hut, cooks, dresses the skins, and for the most part carries the heaviest load ; but when she is unable to perform her task, the husband does not consider it beneath his dignity to assist her. The Crees are extremely indulgent to their children. The father never chastises them ; and the mother, though more hasty in her temper, seldom be stows a blow on a troublesorae child. The cradle in use araong thera is well adapted lo their raode of life, and is one of their neatest articles of furniture, being generally ornaraented with beads and bits of scarlet cloth, but il bears a very strong reserablance in its forra to a mummy-case. The infant is placed in this bag, having its lower extreraities wrapped up in soft sphagnura, or bog-moss, and raay be hung up in the lent or to the branch of a tree, without the least danger of turabling out ; or, in a jour ney may be suspended on the mother's back by a band which crosses the fore head so as to leave her hands free. The sphagnura forras a soft elastic bed, which absorbs moisture very readily, and affords such a protection frora the winter cold that its place would be iU supplied by any other material. 324 THE POLAR WORLD. A CKEE VILLAGE. The ordinary wigwaras, skin tents, or " lodges " of the Tinne and Crees are exactly alike in form, being extended on poles set up in a conical manner ; but as a general rule the tents of the latter are more commodious and more fre quently supplied wilh a fresh lining of the spray of the balsam-fir. They also occasionally erect a larger dwelling of lattice-work, covered with birch-bark, in which forty men or more can assemble for feasting, debating, or performing some of their religious cereraonies. The entire nation of the Eythinyuwuk cul tivate oratory raore than their northern neighbors, who express themselves more simply and far less fluently. Vapor baths are in coraraon use with the Crees, and form one of the chief remedies of their medicine-raen. The operator shuts himseU up with his patient in the smaU sweating-house — in which red-hot stones besprinkled with water, and having a few leaves of a species of prunus strewed around thera, produce a darap atmosphere of a stifling heat — and shampoos him, singing all the time a kind of hymn. As long as the raedicine-rnan can hold out, so long raust the patient endure the intense heat of the bath, and then, if the invalid be able to move, they both plunge into the river. If the patient does not recover, he is at least more speedily released from his sufferings by this powerful remedy. The Crees are a vain, fickle, improvident, indolent, and ludicrously boastful race. They are also great gamblers, but, instead of cards or dice, they play with the stones of a species of prunus. The difficulty lies in guessing the num ber of stones which are tossed out of a smaU wooden dish, and the hunters wiU spend whole nights at this destructive sport, staking their most valuable THE CREE INDIANS, OR EYTHINYUWUK. 335 articles. They have, however, a much more raanly arauseraent, termed the "cross," although they do nol engage even in it without depositing consider able slakes. An extensive meadow is chosen for this sport, and the articles staked are tied to a post, or deposited in the custody of two old raen. The cora batants being stripped and painted, and each provided wilh a kind of racket, in shape resembling the letter P, with a handle about two feet long, and a head loosely wrought with net-work, so as to form a shallow bag, range themselves on different sides. A ball being now tossed up in the middle, each party en deavors to drive it to their respective goals, and much dexterity and agility is displayed in the contest. When a nirable runner gets the ball in his cross, he sets off towards the goal with the utmost speed, and is followed by the rest, who endeavor to jostle hira and shake it out, but, if hard pressed, he discharges it wilh a jerk, to be forwarded by his own party or bandied back by their oppo nents until the victory is decided by ils passing the goal. Neither the Esquiraaux nor the Tinn6 have any visible objects of worship, but the Crees carry with thera sraall wooden figures rudely carved, or raerely the tops of a few willow-bushes tied together, as the representatives of a raali cious, or at least capricious being, called Kepoochikann. Their most common petition to this being is for plenty of food, but as they do not trust entirely lo his favor, they endeavor at the sarae time to propitiate the animal, an imagina ry representative of the whole race of larger quadrupeds that are objects of the chase. Though often referring to the Kitche-manito, the " Great Spirit," or " Mas ter of Life," they do not believe that he cares for his creatures, and consequent ly never think of praying to hira. They have no legend about the creation, but they speak of a deluge caused by an attempt of the fish lo drown Woesack-oo- tchacht, a kind of demi-god, with whom they had quarrelled. Having construct ed a raft, this being erabarked wilh his faraily and all kinds of birds and beasts. After the flood had continued for sorae time, he ordered several waterfowl to dive lo the bottom. They were aU drowned ; but a musk-rat, dispatched on the same errand, returned with a mouthful of mud, out of which Woesack- ootchacht, imitating the mode in which the rats construct their houses, forraed a new earth. First a sraall conical hill of mud appeared above the water ; by- and-by, its base gradually spreading out, it becarae an extensive bank, which the rays of the sun at length hardened inlo firra land. Notwithstanding the power that Woesack-ootchacht here displayed, his person is held in very little reverence by the Indians, who do not think it worth while to make any effort to avert his wrath. Like the Tinne, the Crees also have a Tartarus and an Elysiura. The souls of the departed are obUged to scramble with great labor up the sides of a steep mountam, upon attaining the surarait of which they are rewarded with the prospect of an extensive plain abounding in all sorts of game, and interpersed here and there wilh new tents pitched in pleasant situations. WhUe they are absorbed in the contemplation of this delightful scene, they are descried by the inhabitants of the happy land, who, clothed in new skin dresses, approach and welcome, with every demonstration of kindness, those Indians who have led 336 THE POLAR WORLD. good lives, but the bad Indians are told to return from whence they came, and without raore cereraony are hurled down the precipice. As yet Christianity has raade but little progress araong the Indians of Brit ish North America, ils benefits being hitherto confined to the Ojibbeways of Lake Huron, and to a sraall nuraber of the Crees of the Hudson's Bay territory. The well-fed Sauteurs of the Winipeg are as disinclined to be converted as the buffalo-hunters of the prairies. THE TINNfi INDIANS. 337 CHAPTER XXX. THE TINNE INDIANS. The various Tribes of the TinnS ludians. — The Dog-ribs. — Clothing. — The Hare Indians. — Degraded State of the Women. — Practical Socialists. — Character. — Cruelty to the Aged and Infirm. THE Tinne Indians, whose various tribes range from the Lower Mackenzie to the Upper Saskatchewan, and frora New Caledonia to the head of Ches terfield Inlet, occupy a considerable part of the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company. To their race belong the Strongbows of the Rocky Mountains ; the Beaver Indians, between Peace River and the west branch of the Macken zie ; the Red-knives, thus named from the copper knives of which their native ores furnish the raaterials, and who roam between the Great Fish River and the Coppermine ; the Hare Indians, who inhabit the thickly wooded district of the Mackenzie from Slave Lake downward ; the Dog-ribs, who occupy the inland country ou the east from Martin Lake lo the Coppermine ; the Athabascans, who frequent the Elk and Slave Rivers, and raany other tribes of inferior note. The Tinne, in general, have raore regular features than the Esquiraaux, and, taken on the whole, exhibit all the characteristics of the red races dwelling farther south; but their utter disregard of cleanliness and their abject be havior (for when in the company of white people they exhibit the whine and air of inveterate mendicants) give them a wretched appearance. Mackenzie, the first European who became acquainted with the Dog-ribs, describes them as an ugly emaciated tribe, covered wilh dirt and besmeared with grease from head to foot. More than sixty years have passed since Mackenzie's journey, but his account of thera is true lo the present day. The woraen are even uglier and more filthy than the men, for the latter at least paint their unwashed faces and wear trinkets on festive occasions, while the females leave even their hair without any other dressing than wiping their greasy hauds on the matted locks, when they have been rubbing their bodies wilh marrow. The clothing of the men in summer consists of reindeer leather dressed like shammy, which, when newly made, is beautifully white and sofl. " A shirt of this material," says Sir John Richardson, lo whom we are indebted for the best account of the various nations inhabiting the Hudson's Bay territory, " cut evenly below, reaches to the raiddle ; the ends of a piece of cloth secured to a waist-band hang down before and behind ; the hose, or Indian stockings, descend from the top of the thigh lo the ankle, and a pair of raoccasins or shoes of the sarae soft leather with tops which fold round the ankle, coraplete the costume. Wlien the hunter is equipped for the chase he wears, in addition, a stripe of white hare-skin, or of the belly part of a deer-skin, in a bandana round the head, with his lank, black elf-locks streaming frora beneath ; a shot-pouch suspended by an embrdidered belt, a fire-bag or tobacco-pouch tucked into the girdle, and a 338 THE POLAR WORLD. long fowling-piece thrown carelessly across the arm, or balanced on the back of the neck. The several articles here enuraeraled are ornamented at the seams and hems with leather thongs wound round wilh porcupine quiUs, or more or less erabroidered with bead-work, according to the industry of the wife or wives. One of the young men, even of the slovenly Dog-ribs, when newly equipped, aud tripping jauntily over the mossy ground with an elastic step, dis plays his slim and not ungraceful figure to advantage. But .this fine dress once donned is neither laid aside nor cleaned while it lasts, and soon acquires a dingy look, and an odor which betrays its owner at sorae distance. In the carap a greassy blanket of English manufacture is worn over the shoulders by day, and forras with the clothes the bedding by night." In winter they clothe theraselves with moose or reindeer skins, retaining the hair, while a large robe of the sarae raaterial is thrown over the shoulders, and hangs down to the feel in place of the blanket. The woraen's dress reserables the raen's, but the skirt is somewhat longer, and generally accompanied by a petticoat which reaches nearly to the knee. The forra of dress here desciibed is common to the whole Tinne nation, and also lo the Crees, but the raaterial varies with the district. Thus raoose-deer, red-deer, and bison leather are in use araong the raore southern and western tribes, and the Hare Indians make their skirts of the skins of the animal from which they derive their surname. As this, however, is too lender lo be used in the ordinary way, it is torn into narrow strips, twisted slightly, and plaited or worked inlo the required shape. Such is the closeness and fineness of the fur that these hare-skin dresses are exceedingly warm, notwithstanding the closeness of their texture. The Hare Indian and Dog-rib woraen are certainly at the bottora of the scale of humanity in North America. Not that they are treated with cruelty, but that they are looked upon as inferior beings, and in this belief they them selves acquiesce. In early infancy the boy discovers that he may show any amount of arrogance towards his sisters, who, as soon as they can walk, are harnessed to a sledge, while the tiny hunter struts in his snow-shoes after the men and apes' their contempt of the woraen. All the work, except hunting and fishing, falls lo their share ; yet they are in general not discontented with their lot. It would be vain to look araong the Dog-ribs for the stoicisra popularly attributed to the ludians, for they shrink from pain, shed tears readily, and are very timorous ; but all, young and old, enjoy a joke heartily, and when young are lively and cheerful. When bands of their nation meet each other after a long absence, they perforra a kind of dance. A piece of ground is cleared for the purpose, and the dance frequently lasts for two or three days, the parties reUeving each other as they get tired. The two bands coraraence the dance wilh their backs turned to each other, the individuals foHowing one another in Indian file, and holding the bow in the left hand and an arrow in the right. They approach obliquely after raany turns, and when the two bands are closely back to back, they feign to see each other for the first lirae, and the bow is in- stantiy transferred to the right hand and the arrow to the left, signifying that it is not their intention to use them against their friends. Their dancing, which THE TINN:^ INDIANS. 339 they accompany by a chorus of groans, compared by Sir John Richardson to the deep sigh of a pavior as he brings his rammer down upon the pavement, has nol the Ifiast pretensions to grace; their knees and body are half bent, and, from their heavy stamping, they appear as if desirous of sinking into the ground. The Dog-ribs are practical socialists, and their wretched condition results in a great measure frora this cause. All raay avail theraselves of the produce of a hunter's energy or skiU, and do not even leave hira the distribution of his own game. When il becomes known in a carap that deer have been killed, the old men and women of each family sally forth with their sledges and divide the quarry, leaving the owner nothing but the ribs and tongue — aU he can claira of right. Unable to restrain their appetite, all the coraraunity feast in tiraes of abundance, however little raany of the men (and there are not a few idle ones) may have contributed lo the common good. Taught by frequent sufferings, the more active hunters frequently withdraw from the worthless drones, leav ing them at some fishing-station, where, with proper industry, they raay subsist comfortably. Fish-diet is, however, not agreeable to their taste, and as soon as reports of a successful chase arrive, a general raoveraent to the hunting-ground ensues. If ou their march the craving multitude discover a hoard of meat, it is devoured on the spot ; but they are nol always so fortunate. The deer and the hunters raay have gone off, and then they are obliged to retrace their steps, many perishing by the way. The Dog-ribs are not conspicuous for hospitality. When a stranger enters a tent he receives no welcorae and proffer of food, though he raay help hiraself from a piece of meat hanging on the wall or join the repast. Though great liars, they do not steal the white man's property like the Esquiraaux and Crees, and when visiting a fort, they raay be trusted in any of the rooms. As to their religious belief, the raajority of the nation recognize a Great Spirit, while others doubt his existence, assigning as a reason their raiserable condition. They are in great fear of evil spirits, which, as they iraagine, assurae the forras of the bear, wolf, and wolverine, and in the woods, waters, and desert places they fancy they hear them howling in the winds or moaning by the graves of the dead. They never make offerings to the Great Spirit, but deprecate the wrath of an evil being by the promise of a sacrifice, or by scattering a handful of deer-hair or a few feathers. They believe in a state of future happiness or torment. The soul, after death, crosses a broad river in a boat, and thus endeavors to reach the opposite shore, which is adorned with all the beauties of paradise. If laden with crime, the boat sinks under the weight, and the unfortunate soul, im mersed in water, strives in vain to reach the blissful abode frora which il is for ever banished. Formerly when a Tinne warrior died, it was custoraary for the faraily to abandon every article they possessed, and betake theraselves, in a perfectly des titute condition, to the nearest body of their own people or trading-post. The- advice of traders is graduaUy breaking down this absurd practice, which would alone suffice to keep this people in a state of perpetual poverty. In other re spects also, European influence begins lo make itself fell. Since 1846 Roman CathoUc missionaries are at work among the Chepewyans, and have taught many 330 THE POLAR WORLD. of their converts to read and write. The Athabascans had formerly but a smaU breed of dogs, now a stouter race has, in some respects, ameliorated the condi tion of the females, and the introduction of the horse, which has more recently taken place, holds out prospects of a stiU greater iraproveraent. The Tinne are as giddy and thoughtless as children. When accompanied by a white man they wiU perform a long journey carefully, but can not be depended upon to carry letters, however high the reward may be that has been promised them on reaching their destination, as the least whim suffices to make them forget their commission. They are generally content with one wife at a time, and none but the chiefs have more than two. The successful wrestler takes the wife of his weaker countryman, who consoles hiraself for his loss by endeavoring to find one weaker than hiraself. Tender and affectionate parents, the Tinne are totally indifferent to the sor rows, of helpless age. During the stay of Sir George Back at Fort Reliance, an old woraan arrived there on Easter Sunday, clothed in ragged reindeer skins, worn down lo a skeleton, and grasping with both her hands a stick to support her body, bent double by age and want. The story of the poor creature was soon told. She had become a burden to ber faraily ; her forraer services had all been forgotten, and she had been told " that though she still seeraed to live, she was in reality dead, and raust be abandoned to her fate. In the new fort she might find assistance, for the white strangers were powerful medicine-men." This had happened a month before, and all this time she had slowly crept along, appeasing her hunger with the berries she found here and there on the way. When she reached the fort it was too late; she died a few days after her arrival. THE LOUCHEUX, OR KUTCHIN INDIANS. 331 CHAPTER XXXI. THE LOUCHEUX, OR KUTCHIN INDIANS. The Countries they inhabit. — Their Appearance and Dress. — Their Love of Finery. — Condition of the Women. — Strange Customs. — Character. — Feuds with the Esquimaux. — Their suspicious and timo rous Lives. — Pounds for catching Reindeer. — Their Lodges. ON the banks of the Lower Mackenzie, to the west of Great Bear Lake, in the territories drained by the Peel River and by the Upper Yukon, dwell the Loucheux, or Kutchin Indians, whose language is totally different from that of the other North Araerican tribes, and whose custoras and manners also vary considerably from those of all their neighbors, both Red-skins and Esquimaux. They are an athletic and fine-looking people, with regular features and a coraplexion of a lighter copper color than that of the other Red Indians, so that many of their woraen would be reckoned handsorae in any country. The fe males tattoo their chins and use a black pigment when they paint their faces, whUe the men employ both red and black on all occasions of ceremony, and al ways to be ready, each carries a sraall bag wilh red clay and black lead suspend ed lo his neck. Most coraraonly the eyes are encircled with black, a stripe of the same runs down the middle of the nose, and a blotch is daubed on the upper part of each cheek. The forehead is crossed by raany narrow red stripes, and the skin is streaked alternately with red and black. The outer shirt of the Kutchin is raade of the skins of fa-wn reindeer, dress ed with the hair on after the manner of the Hare, Dog-rib, and other Chepe- wyan tribes, but resembles in form the analogous garment of the Esquimaux, being furnished with peaked skirts, though of smaUer size. The men wear these skirts before and behind ; the women have larger back skirts, but none in front. In winter shirts of hare-skin are worn, and the pantaloons of deer-skin have the fur next the skin. None of the neighboring nations pay so much attention to personal cleanli ness, or are so studious in adorning their persons. A broad band of beads is worn across the shoulders and breast of the shirt, and the hinder part of the dress is fringed wilh tassels wound round with dyed porcupine quiUs and strung with the silvery fruit of the oleaster {Eloeagnus argentea) ; a stripe of beads, strung in alternate red and white squares, ornament the seams of the trowsers, and bands of beads encircle the ankles. The poorer sort, or the less fortunate hunters, who are unable to procure these costly trinkets in the same enviable abundance as the rich, strive to wear at least a string of beads, and look do-wn with contemptuous pity upon the still more needy class, which is reduced to adorn itself with porcupine quiUs only. In consequence of this passionate fondness for beads, these ornaraents serve 333 THE POLAR WORLD. as a mediura of exchange araong, the Kutchin, and Sir John Richardson re raarks that no such near approach to raoney has been invented by the nations lo the eastward of the Rocky Mountains. The standard bead, and one of the most value, is a large one of white enamel, manufactured in Italy only, and is wilh difficulty procured in sufficient quantity to satisfy the demand, as beads are more prized than English cloth and blankets. Another article very much in request among the Kutchin is the large ribbed dentalium sheU which is collected in the archipelago between Oregon and Cape Fairweatber, and passes by trade from tribe to tribe until it finds its way at length to the Yukon. With this sheU they adorn their mittens, and even at tach it to their guns, which have been lately introduced, and are in great de mand. All men carry powder and ball, whether they own a gun or not, and obtain for it a share of the game. The tribes on the Yukon tie their hair behind in a cue, or " chignon," and daub it with grease, and the down of geese and ducks, until, by the repeti tion of the process continued frora infancy, it swells lo an enorraous thickness, so that the weight of the accuraulated load of hair, dirt, and ornaraents causes the wearer to stoop forward habitually. The tail-feathers of the eagle and fishing-hawk are stuck into the hair on the back of the head, and are removed only when the owner retires lo sleep, or when he wishes to wave them lo and fro in a dance. The principal men have two or three wives each, while the bad hunters are obliged to reraain bachelors. A good wrestler, however, even though poor, can always obtain a wife. The woraen do all the drudgery in winter except cooking, and do not eat till the husband is satisfied. In suraraer they labor little, except in drying meal or fish for its preservation. The raen alone paddle while the woraen sit as passengers, and husbands even carry their wives to the shore on their arms, that they may not wet their feet — an instance of gallantry almost unparaUeled iu savage life. The Esquimaux woraen row their own " oomiaks," and the Chepe- wyan woraen assist the raen in paddling their canoes. On the whole, the so cial condition of the Kutchin woraen is far superior to that of the Tinne women, but scarcely equal to that of the Esquimaux dames. They do not carry their children in their hoods or boots like the Esquimaux, nor do they stuff them into a bag wilh moss like the Tinn6 and Crees, but they place them in a seat of birch-bark, with a back and sides like those of an arm chair, and a pomrael in front reserabling the peak of a Spanish saddle, by which they hang il frora their back. The child's feet are bandaged to prevent them growing, small feet being thoughl handsorae, and consequently short unshapely feet are characteristic of the people of both sexes. A raore ridiculous or insane custom can hardly be imagined among a nation of hunters. The Kutchin are a Uvely, cheerful people, fond of dancing and singing, in which they excel all olher Indians ; leaping, wrestling, and olher athletic exer cises are likewise favorite amusements. They are inveterate talkers. Every new-comer arriving at a trading-post raakes a long speech, which must not be interrupted. The belief in Shamanisra is stiU in full vigor araong them. THE LOUCHEUX, OR KUTCHIN INDIANS. 333 Though a treacherous people, they have never yet imbrued their hands in European blood, but there are frequent feuds araong their various tribes, by which one-half of the population of the banks of the Yukon has been cut off within the last twenty years. From a constant dread of ambuscade, they do not travel except in large parties ; and thus a perpetual feeling of insecurity embitters their Uves, which are already rendered sufficiently hard by the sever ity of an Arctic cliraate. The agents of the Hudson's Bay Company have en deavored by good advice, and the distribution of large presents, to establish peace, but have only met with partial success. 'Like the Tinne, the Kutchin are in a state of perpetual warfare with the Es quimaux ; and though they always charge the latter with treachery, yet there cau be no doubt that the accusation might, with full justice, be retorted upon themselves. One of the hostile encounters, mentioned by Sir J. Richardson, de serves notice, on account of its reserablance in some particulars to the meeting of Joab and Abner, recorded in the Second Book of Samuel. A party of each of the two nations having met on the banks of a river, the young men of both parties rose up as if for a friendly dance. The streara glides peacefully along, the setting sun gilds the pine forest and sparkles in the waters ; all nature breathes peace. But the Esquimaux having, according to their custom, con cealed their long knives in the sleeves of their deer-skin shirts, suddenly draw them in one of the evolutions of the dance and plunge them into their oppo nents. A general conflict ensues, in which the Kutchin, thanks to their guns, ultimately prove victorious. " Another incident," says Sir John Richardson, " which occurred on the banks of the Yukon in 1845, gives us a farther insight into the suspicious and timorous lives of these people. One night four stran gers from the lower part of the river arrived at tbe tent of an old raan who was sick, and who had with hira only two sons, one of them a mere boy. The new comers entered in a friendly manner, and when the hour of repose came, lay down ; but as they did not sleep, the sons, suspecting from their conduct that they meditated evil, feigned a desire of visiting their moose-deer snares. They intimated their purpose aloud lo their father and went out, taking wilh them their bows and arrows. Instead, however, of continuing their way into the wood, they stole back quietly lo the lent, and listening on the outside, discover ed, as they fancied, from the conversation of the strangers, that their father's life was in danger. Knowing the exact position of the inmates, they thereupon shot their arrows through the skin covering of the tent and killed two of the strange Indians ; and the other two, in endeavoring to make their escape by the dooj, shared the fate of their corapanions. This is spoken of in the tribe as an exceedingly brave action." During the suramer the Yukon Kutchin dry, for their winter use, the white- fish {Coregonus albus), which they catch by planting stakes across the smaUer rivers and narrow parts of the lakes and closing the openings with wicker-bas kets. They take the moose-deer in snares, and towards spring mostly resort to the mountains to hunt reindeer and, lay in a stock of dried venison. On the open pasture-grounds frequented by this animal they construct large pounds. Two rows of posts firmly planted in the ground, and united by the addition of 834 THE POLAR WORLD. strong horizontal bars into a regular fence, extend their arms for nearly the length of a mUe in the form of a Roman V. The extremity of the avenue is closed by stakes with sharp points sloping towards the entrance, on which the reindeer, driven together and hotly pursued by the Indians, may impale them selves in their desperate flight. The structure is erected wilh great labor, as the timber has lo be transported into the open country from a considerable dis tance. Some of these may be a century old, and they are thfe hereditary pos session of the families or tribes by whom they were originally constructed. But in spite of all their contrivances and the use of fire-arras, the Kutchin, whose nurabers on the banks of the Yukon are estiraated at about a thousand men and boys able to hunt, are frequently reduced to great distress. Hence the old and infirm are mercilessly left to their fate when game is scarce, and famine makes itself felt. Atterapts have been vainly raade to better the con dition of the northern Indians by inducing them to tarae the reindeer. Their superstition is one of the obstacles against this useful innovation, for they fear that were they lo raake some of the reindeer their captives, the remainder would immediately leave the country. " And why," they add, " should we follow like slaves a herd of lame aniraals, when the forest and the barren ground provide us with the elk, the wild reindeer, and the rausk-ox, and our rivers and lakes are filled with fishes that cost us nothing but the trouble of catching thera ?" Each family possesses a deer-skin tent or lodge, which in sumraer, when in quest of garae, is rarely erected. The winter encarapment is usually in a grove of spruce-firs ; the ground being cleared of snow, the skins, which are prepared with the hair, are extended over flexible willow poles which take a semicircular forra. This heraispherical shape of lodges is not altogether unknown araong the Chepewyans and Crees, being that generally adapted for their vapor baths, fraraed of wUlow poles, but their dwelling-places are conical, as stiff poles are used for their construction. When the lent is erected the snow is packed on outside to half its height, and it is lined equally high within with the young spray of the spruce-fir, that the bodies of the inraates may not rest against the cold wall. The doorway is fiUed up by a double told of skin, and the apartment has the closeness and warmth but not the elegance of the Esquiraaux snow hut, which it resembles in shape. Though only a very small fire is kept in the centre of the lodge, yet the warmth is as great as in a log-house. The provisions are stored on the outside under fir branches and snow, and further protected from the dogs by sledges being placed on top. ARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 335 CHAPTER XXXII. ARCTIC VOYAGES OP DISCOVERY, PROM THE CABOTS TO BAFFIN. First Scandinavian Discoverer of America. — The Cabots. — WiUoughby and Chancellor (1553-1554). — Stephen Burrough (1556). — Frobisher (1576-1578). — Davis (1585-1587). — Barentz, Cornelis, and Brant (1594). — Wintering of the Dutch Navigators in Nova Zembla (1596-1597). — John Knight (1606).— Murdered by the Esquimaux.— Henry Hudson (1607-1609).— Baffin (1616). LONG before Columbus sailed from the port of Palos (1492) on that ever- memorable voyage which changed the geography of the world, the Scan dinavians had already found the way to North Araerica. From Greenland, which was known to them as early as the ninth century, and which they began to colonize in the year 985, they sailed farther to the west, and gradually extend ed their discoveriesfrom the coasts of Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Newfound land, to those of the present State of Rhode Island, which, from the wild vines they there found growing in abundance, they called the " good Vinland." But a long series of disasters destroyed their Greenland colonies about the end of the fourteenth century, and as Scandinavia itself had at that lime but very little intercourse wilh the raore civilized nations of Southern Europe, it is not lo be wondered at that, despite the discoveries of Giinnbjom and Eric, the Red, the great western continent reraained unknown to the world in general. One of the first consequences of the achieveraents of Columbus was the re discovery of the northern part of America, for the English merchants longed to have a share ofthe coraraerce of India; and as the Pope had assigned the eastern route to the Portuguese and the western one to the Spaniards, they re solved lo ascertain whether a third and shorter way to the Spice Islands, or to the fabulous golden regions of the east, raight not be found by steering to the north-west. In pursuance of these views John and Sebastian Cabot sailed in 1497 from Bristol, al that time our first commercial port, and discovered the whole American coast frora Labrador to Virginia. They failed indeed in the object of their raission, but they laid the first foundations of the future colonial greatness of England. A second voyage, in 1498, by Sebastian Cabot alone, without the corapanion ship of his father, had no iraportant results, but in a third voyage which he undertook in search of a north-west passage, at Henry VIII.'s expense, in 1516 or 1517, il is tolerably certain that that great navigator discovered the two, straits which now bear the names of Davis and Hudson. The French expeditions of Verazzani (1523) and Jacques Cartier (1524), however raeraorable in olher respects, having been as unsuccessful as those of Corlereal (1500) or Gomez (1524) in discovering the desired north--weslern pas sage, Sebastian Cabot, who in 1549 was created Grand Pilot of England, start ed in his old age another idea, which has become almost equally momentous iu 836 THE POLAR WORLD. the history of Arctic discovery — the search for a north-eastern route to China. Accordingly, in the year 1553, a squadron of three small vessels, under the comraand of Sir Hugh WiUoughby, ChanceUor, and Durfoorth, set sail frora Ratcliffe, with the vain hope of reaching India by sailing round North Asia, the forraation and vast extent of which were at that time totally unknown. Off Senjan, an island on the Norwegian coast in lat. 69^°, the ships parted company in a storray night, never to meet again. WUloughby and Durfoorth reached the coast of Nova Zerabla, and ultiraately sought a harbor in Lap land on the west side of the entrance into the White Sea, where the captain- general, officers, and crews of both ships were miserably frozen to death, as some Russian fishermen ascertained in the following spring. How long they sus tained the severity of the weather is not known, but the journals and a will found on board the " Admiral " proved that Sir Hugh WUloughby and most of that ship's corapany were alive in January, 1554. They died the victiras of inexperience ; for had tbey, as Sir John Richardson reraarks, been skilled in hunting and clothing themselves, and taken the precaution moreover of laying in al the beginning of the winter a stock of mossy turf such as the country produces for fuel, and above aU had they secured a few of the very raany seals and belugae which abounded in the sea around them, they might have preserved their lives and passed an endurable winter. ChanceUor -was either raore fortunate or raore skilfful, for after having long been buffeted about by storray weather, he eventually reached St. Nicholas, in the White Sea. Frora thence he proceeded overland to Moscow, and delivered his credentials to the Czar, Ivan Vasilovitch, from whom he obtained many privileges for the corapany of raerchants who had fitted out the expedition. In 1554 he returned to England, and shortly afterwards was sent back to Russia by Quuen Mary for the purpose of negotiating a treaty of coraraerce between the two nations. Having satisfactorily accomplished his mission, he once more set sail from the White Sea, accompanied by a Muscovite arabassador. But this tirae the return voyage was extreraely unfortunate, for Chancellor, after losing two of his vessels off the coast of Norway, was carried by a violent tera pest into the Bay of Pitsligo, in Scotland, where his ship was wrecked. He en deavored to save the ambassador and himself in a boat, but the small pinnace was upset ; and although the Russian safely reached the strand, the English man, after having escaped so many dangers in the Arctic Ocean, was drowned within sight of his native shores. In 1556 the Muscovy Company fitted out the Serchthrift pinnace, under the comraand of Stephen Burrough, for discovery towards the River Obi and farther search for a north-east passage. This small vessel reached the strait between Nova Zembla and Vaigals, caUed by the Russians the Kara Gate, but the enormous masses of ice that carae floating through the channel compelled it to return. In spite of these repeated disappointments, the desire to discover a northern route lo India was too great lo allow an enterprising nation like the EngUsh to abandon the scheme as hopeless. Thus in the day^ of Elizabeth the question of the north-west passage was ARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 337 ao^ain revived, and Martin Frobisher, who had solicited merchants and nobles during fifteen years for means to undertake " the only great thing left undone in the world^'' sailed in the year 1576 wilh three small vessels of 35, 30, and 10 tons, on no less an errand than the circumnavigation of Northern Araerica. The reader may smile at the ignorance which encouraged such efforts, but he can not fail to admire the iron-hearted man who ventured in sueh wretched nutshells to face the Arctic seas. The expedition safely reached the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, and brought horae some glittering stones, the lustre of which was erroneously attributed to gold. This belief so inflamed the zeal for new expeditions to " Meta Incognita," as Frobisher had named the coasts he had discovered, that he found no difficulty in equipping three ships of a rauch larger size, that they might be able to hold more of the anticipated treasure. At the entrance of the straits which stUl bear his name, he was prevented by the gales and drift-ice from forcing a passage to the sea beyond, but having secured about 200 tons of the supposed golden ore, the expedition was considered eminently successful. A large squadron of fifteen vessels was consequently fitted out in 1578 for a third voyage, and commissioned nol only lo bring back an untold amount of treasure, but also to take out materials and men to establish a colony on those desolate shores. But this grand expedition, which sailed with such extravagant hopes, was to end in disappointmeot. One of the largest vessels was crushed by an iceberg at the entrance of the strait, and the others were so beaten about by storras and obstructed by fogs that they were at length glad lo return to England without having done any thing for the advanceraent of geographical knowledge. The utter worthlessness of the glittering stones having meanwhile been discovered, Frobisher relinquished all further atterapts to push his fortunes in the northern regions, and sought new laurels in a sunnier clime. He accompanied Drake to the West Indies, commanded subsequently one of the largest vessels opposed to the Spanish Armada, and ended his heroic life while attacking a sraall French fort in behal£'ofdoor work, and the remaining four divide tbe duty of the ship among thera. Hans musters his re maining energies to conduct the hunt. Petersen is his disheartened, moping assistant. The other two, BonsaU and myself, have all the daily offices of household and hospital. We chop five large sacks of ice, cut six fathoms of eight-inch hawser inlo junks of a foot each, serve out the m^mfevhen we have it, hack at the molasses, and hew out with crowbar and axe th^pbrk and dried apples ; pass up the foul slop and cleansings of our dormitory, and, in a word, cook, scullionize, and attend the sick. Added to this, for five nights running I have kept watch from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., catching such naps as I could in the day without changing ray clothes, but carefully waking every hour to note thermometers." Wilh March came an increase of sufferings. Every man on board was tainted with scurvy, and there were seldom raore than three who could assist in caring for the rest. The greater nuraber were in their bunks, absolutely un able to stir. Had Kane's health given way, the whole party, deprived of its leading spirit, raust inevitably have perished. To abandon the ship was now an absolute necessity, for a third winter in Rensselaer Bay would have been certain death to all ; but before the boats could be transported to the open water, raany preparations had to be raade, and most of the party were still too weak to raove. The interval was eraployed by Kane in an excursion with his faithful Esquimaux to the Great Glacier. At length on May 20, 1866, the entire ship's corapany bade farewell lo the "Advance," and sel out slowly on their horaeward journey. It was in the soft, subdued light of a Sunday evening, June 1 7, that after hauling their boats with much hard labor through the huraraocks, they stood beside the open sea-way. But fifty-six days had still lo pass before they could reach the port of Uper navik. Neither storras nor drift-ice rendered this long boat-journey danger ous, but they had to contend with faraine, when they at length reached the open bay, and found themselves in the full line of the great ice-drift to the At lantic, in boats so unseaworthy as to require constant bailing to keep them afloat. Their strength had decreased to an alarraing degree ; they breathed heavily ; their feet were so swollen that they were obliged lo cut open their canvas boots ; they were utterly unable to sleep, and the rowing and baUing be came hourly raore difficult. It was at this crisis of their fortunes that they saw a large seal floating — as 873 THE POLAR WORLD. is the custora of these aniraals— on a sraall patch of ice, and seeraingly asleep. " TrembUng with anxiety," says Kane, " we prepared to crawl down upon him. ^^^^^ ,^ Petersen, with a large English rifle, was stationed in the bow, and stockings were drawn over the oars as mufflers. As we neared the animal, our excite ment became so intense that the raen could hardly keep stroke. He was not asleep, for he reared his head when we were almost within rifle-shot; and lo this day I can reraeraber the hard, careworn, almost despairing expression of the men's thin faces as they saw him move ; their lives depended on his cap ture. I depressed my hand nervously, as a signal for Petersen lo fire. M'Gary hung upon his oar, and the boat slowly, but noiselessly surging ahead, seemed to me within certain range. Looking at Petersen, I saw that the poor feUow was paralyzed by his anxiety, trying vainly to obtain a rest for his gun against the cut-water of the boat. The seal rose on his fore flippers, gazed al us for a moment with frightened curiosity, and coiled hiraseff for a plunge. At that in stant, simultaneously with the crack of our rifle, he relaxed his long length on the ice, and, etjiKe very brink of the water, his head fell helpless to one side. I would haveflrdered another shot, but no discipline could have controlled the raen. With a wild yeU, each vociferating according to his own irapulse, they urged their boats upon the floes. A crowd of hands seized the seal and bore him up to safer ice. The men seemed haff crazy.. I had not reaUzed how much we were reduced by absolute faraine. They ran over the floe, crying and laughing, and brandishing their knives. It was not five rainutes before every man was sucking his bloody fingers, or mouthing long strips of raw blubber, Nol an ounce of this seal was lost." Within a day or two another seal was shot, and frora that tirae forward they had a fuU supply of food. When Kane, after an absence of thirty raonths, returned on October 11, 1866, to New York, he was enthusiastically received. Well-deserved honors of all sorts awaited him on both sides of the Atlantic ; but his health, originally weak, was corapletely broken by the trials of his journey, and on February 16, 1867, he died al the Havana, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. In him the United States lost one of her noblest sons, a true hero, whose name wiU ever shine among the most faraous navigators of all tiraes and of all nations. In 1860, Dr. Hayes, who had accompanied Kane on his journey, once more saUed frora America for the purpose of completing the survey of Kennedy's Channel, and, if possible, of pushing on to the pole itself. After several narrow escapes from ice-fields and icebergs, his schooner, the " United States, ' was at length compeUed to take up her winter-quarters at Port Foulke, on the Green land coast, about twenty miles in latitude to the south of Rensselaer Harbor. Thanks to an abundant supply of fresh raeat (for the neighborhood abounded with reindeer), and also no doubt lo the inexhaustible fund of good-humor which prevaUed in the ship's corapany, they passed the winter without suffer ing frora the scurvy ; but raost of the dogs On which Dr. Hayes relied for his sledge expeditions in the ensuing spring were destroyed by the same epidemic which bad been so fatal to the teams of Dr. Kane. Fortunately some fresh dogs could be purchased and borrowed of the friendly Esquimaux, and thus, KANE AND HaYES. 378 early in April, 1861, Dr. Hayes left the schooner, lo plunge inlo the icy wilder ness. Having previously ascertained that an advance along the Greenland shore was utterly impossible, he resolved to cross the sound, and to try his fortunes along the coast of GrinneU Land. Of the difficulties which he had to encounter his own words will give the best idea. " By winding to the right and left, and by occasionaUy retracing our steps when we had selected an impracticable route, we managed to get over the first few mUes without rauch embarrassment, but farther on the tract was rough past description. I can compare it to nothing but a promiscuous accuraulation of rocks closely packed together and piled ujo over a vast plain in great heaps and endless ridges, leaving scarcely a foot of level surface. The interstices between these closely accuraulated ice-masses are fiUed up, to some extent, with drifted snow. The reader will readily imagine the rest. He wUl see the sledges winding through the tangled wilderness of broken ice-tables, the men and dogs pulling and pushing up their respective loads. He will see them clambering over the very sumrait of lofty ridges, throu jtthvhich there is no opening, and again descending on the other side, the sledge often plunging over a precipice, soraetiraes capsizing and frequently breaking. Again he will see the party baffled in their atterapt to cross or find a pass, breaking a track with shovel and handspike, or again, unable even with these appliances to accora plish their end, they retreat to seek a better track ; and they may be lucky enough to find a sort of gap or gateway, upon the winding and uneven surface of which they will make a mile or so with coraparative ease. The suow-drffts are sometimes a help, aad sometiraes a hinderance. Their surface is uniforraly hard, but nol always firm lo the foot. The crust frequently gives way, and in a most tiresome and provoking manner. It will not quite bear the weight, and the foot sinks at the very moraent when the other is lifted. But, worse than this, the chasms between the hummocks are frequently bridged over with snow in such a manner as lo leave a considerable space at the bottom quite unfiUed; and at the very raoment when all looks promising, down sinks one man to his mid dle, another to the neck, another is buried out of sight ; the sledge gives way, and to extricate the whole frora this unhappy predicaraent is probably the labor of hours. It would be difficult to iraagine any kind of labor raore disheartening, or which would sooner sap the energies of both raen and animals. The strength gave way gradually ; and wben, as often happened after a long and hard day's work, we could look back frora our eminence and almost fire a rifle-baU into our last snow-hut, il was truly discouraging." No wonder that after thus toiling on for twenty-five days they had not yet reached half-way across the sound, and that they were all broken dowa. But their bold leader was fully determiaed not to abandon his enterprise while stUl the faintest hope of success remained, and, sending the main party back to the schooner, he continued to plunge into the hummocks with three picked compan ions—Jensen, M'Donald, Knorr— and fourteen dogs. After fourteen days of al most superhuman exertion the sound was al length crossed, and now began a scarcely less harassing journey along the coast. On the fifth day Jensen, the strongest man of the party, corapletely broke down, and leaving hira to the 374 THE POLAR WORLD. charge of M'Donald, Dr. Hayes now pushed on with Knorr alone, until, on May 18, he reached the border of a deep bay, where farther progress to the north was slopped by rotten ice and cracks. Right before him, on the opposite side of the frith, rose Mount Parry, the lofty peak first seen by Morton in 1854 from the shores of Washington Land ; and farther on, a noble headland. Cape Union — the most northern known land upon the globe — stood in faint outline against the dark sky of the open sea. Thus Dr. Hayes divides the honor of extreme northern travel with Parry. On July 12 the "United States" was released from her icy tramraels, and Dr. Hayes once raore attempted to reach the opposite coast and continue his discoveries in Grinnell Land, but the schooner was in loo crippled a state to force her way through the pack-ice which lay in her course, and corapelled her commander to return to Boston. Thus ended this remarkable voyage ; but having done so much. Dr. Hayes is eager, and resolved, to do stiU raore. Fully convinced by his own experience that raen may subsist in Smith's Sound independent of support from home, he proposes to establish a seff-sustaining colony at Port Foulke, which may be m.ade the basis of an extended exploration. Without any second party in the field to co-operate with him, and uuder the most adverse circumstances, he, by dint of indomitable perseverance, pushed his discoveries a hundred mUes farther to the north and west than his predecessors ; and it is surely not over-sanguine to ex pect that a party better provided with the means of travel may be able to trav erse the 480 miles al least whioh intervene between Mount Parry and the pole. The open sea which both Morion and himself found beyond Kennedy Channel gives fair proraise of success to a strong vessel that may reach it after having forced the ice-blocked passage of Smith's Sound, or, should this be impractica ble, to a boat transported across the sound and then launched upon its waters. Captain Sherard Osborne, who is likewise a warm partisan of this route, has been endeavoring to interest Government in its favor ; but in the opinion of other scientific authorities an easier passage seems open to the navigator who raay atterapt lo reach the pole by way of Spitzbergen. To the east of this archipelago the Gulf Streara roUs its volurae of comparatively warm water far on to the north-east, and possibly sweeps round the pole itself. It was to the north of Spitzbergen that Parry reached the latitude of 82° 46'; and in 1837 the " Truelove," of HuU,* sailed through a perfectly open sea in 82° 30' N., 16° E., and, had she continued her course, raight possibly have reached the pole as easily as the high latitude which she had already attained. The distinguished geographer. Dr. Augustus Petermann, who warmly advo cates the route between Spitzbergen and Greenland, has, by dint of perseverance, succeeded in collecting among his countrymen the necessary funds for a recon noitring voyage in this direction. Thanks to his exertions. May 24, 1868, wit nessed the departure of a small ship of eighty tons, th^ " Germania," Captain Koldewey, from the port of Bergen, for Shannon Island (75° 14' N. lat.), the highest point on the east coast of Greenland attained by Sabine in 1823. Here the attempt to explore the unknown Arctic seas beyond was to begin ; but, * ' ' Athenaum," Dec. 3, 1853. KANE AND HAYES. 375 meeting with enormous masses of drift-ice on her repeated endeavors to pene trate to the north-east, the " Germania " has been obliged to return, after reach ing the high latitude of 81° 6', and accurately surveying a smaU part of the Greenland coast hitherto but imperfectly explored. An expedition on a more extensive scale is lo renew the attempt in 1869. A third route to the pole is no less strenuously recomraended by M. Gustave Lambert, a French hydrographer, who, having sailed through Bering's Strait in a whaler in 1865, is persuaded that this is the right way to reach the problemat ical open North Sea, which, once attained, promises a free passage to the navi gator. Liberal subscriptions have been raised in Paris for the accomplishment of his plan, and an expedition under his comraand will most probably set out in 1869. Thus, after so many illustrious navigators have vainly endeavored to reach the pole, sanguine projectors are still as eager as ever to attain the goal ; nor is it probable that raan will ever rest in bis efforts untU every attainable region of the Arctic Ocean shaU have been f uUy explored. ,, 376 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XXXV. NEWFOUNDLAND. Its desolate Aspect. — Forests.— Marshes. — Barrens. — Ponds. — Fur-bearing Animals. — Severity of Cli mate.— St. John's.— Discovery of Newfoundland by the Scandinavians. — Sir Humphrey Gilbert.— Rivalry of the English and French.— Iraportance of the Fisheries.— The Banks of Newfoundland.— Mode of Fishing.— Throaters, Headers, Splitters, Salters, and Packers.— Fogs and Storms.— Seal- catching. GENERALLY veiled with mists, Newfoundland appears at first sight gloomy and repulsive. Abrupt cliffs, showing here and there traces of a scanty vegetation, rise sleep and bare from the sea, and for miles and miles the eye sees nothing but brown hills or higher mountains, desolate and wild as they appeared in the eleventh century lo the bold Norwegian navigators who first landed on its desert shore. The waves of the ocean have everywhere cor roded the rocky coast into fantastic pinnacles or excavated deep grottoes in its fianks. In one of these cavities the action of the surge has produced a remark able phenomenon, known under the name of " The Spout." In stormy weather the waves penetrate inlo the hollow and force their way with a dreadful noise from an aperture iu the rock as a gigantic fountain visible at a distance of several miles.* The interior of the country corresponds with the forbidding appearance of the coasts, and offers nothing but a succession of forests, marshes, and barrens. The forests, if they may thus be called, generally grow on the declivities of the hills or on the sides of the vaUeys, wbere the superfluous waters flnd a natural drain. The trees consist for the most part of fir, spruce, birch, pine, and juni per or larch ; and in certain districts the wych-hazel, the mountain-ash, the eld er, the aspen, and sorae others are found. The character of the tiraber varies greatly according lo the nature of the subsoil and the situation. In sorae parts, more especially where the woods have been undisturbed by the axe, trees of fair height and girth may be found; but most of the wood is of stunted growth, consisting chiefly of fir-trees about twenty or thirty feel high, and not raore than three or four inches in diaraeter. These commonly grow so closely together that their twigs and branches interlace from top to bottom, whUe among thera raay be seen innuraerable old and rotten sturaps and branch es, or newly-fallen trees, which, with the young shoots and brushwood, form a tangled and often impenetrable thicket. The trees are often covered with lich ens, and tufts of white dry moss are entangled about the branches. Olher green and softer mosses spread over the ground, concealing alike the twisted roots of the standing trees and the pointed stumps of those which have faUen, * For an account of the similar phenomena of the " Buffadero," on the Mexican coast, and of the " Souffleur," Mauritius, see " The Sea and its Living Wonders," 3d ed. p. 52. NEWFOUNDLAND. 377 the sharp edges or slippery surface of the nuraerous rocks and boulders, and the holes and pitfalls between thera. Every step through these woods is conse quently a raatter of great toil and anxiety. In the heat of sumraer, while the woods are so thick as to shut out every breath of air, they are at the same time too low and too thinly leaved at top to exclude the rays of the sun, the at mosphere being further rendered close and stifling by the smell of the turpen- tiue which exudes from the trees. Inclosed in these gloomy woods, large open tracts, caUed marshes, are found covering the valleys and lower lands, and frequently also at a considerable height above the sea on the undulating backs of the raountains. These tracts are covered to a depth sometimes of several feet with a green, soft, and spongy moss, bound together by straggling .grass and various marsh-plants. The sur face abounds in hillocks and holes, the tops of the hillocks having often dry crisp moss Uke that on the trees. A boulder or small crag of rock occasionally protrudes, covered with red or white lichens, and here and there is a bank on which the moss has becorae dry and yellow. The contrast of these colors with the dark velvety green of the wet moss frequently gives a peculiarly rich appear ance to the marshes, so that when seen from a little distance they might easily be mistaken for luxuriant meadow-grounds, but a closer inspection soon destroys the Ulusion, and shows, instead of nutritious grass and aromatic flowers, nothing but a carpet of useless cryptogamic plants. Except in long-continued droughts or hard frosts, these raarshes are so wet as to be unable to bear the weight of a person walking over them. A march of three miles, sinking at every step into the moss, sometiraes knee-deep, and always as far as the ankle, is, il may well be supposed, toilsome and fatiguing, especially when, as raust always be the case in atterapting to penetrate the country, a heavy load is carried on the ¦ shoulders. This thick coating of raoss is precisely like a great sponge spread over the country, aud becomes al the melting of the snow in tbe spring thor oughly saturated with water, which it long retains, and which every shower of rain coutiaually renews. The " barrens " of Newfoundland are those districts which occupy the sum mits of the hills and ridges, and other elevated and exposed tracts. They are covered with a thin aud scrubby vegetatiou, cousistiag of berry-bearing plants and dwarf bushes of various species, resembling the moorlands of the north of England, and differing only in the kind of vegetation and its scantier quantity. -Bare patches of gravel and boulders and crumbUng fragments of rock are fre- quButly met with upon the barrens, and they are generally altogether destitute of vegetable soil. But only on the barrens is it possible to explore the interior of the country with any kind of ease or expedition. These different tracts are none of them of any great extent ; woods, raarshes, and barrens frequently alter nating with ^ach other in the course of a day's journey. Auother remarkable feature of Newfoundland is the almost incredible num ber of lakes of aU sizes, all of which are indiscriminately caUed ponds. They are scattered over the whole country, not only in the vaUeys but on the higher lands ; and even in the hollows of the suraraits of the ridges and the very tops of the hiUs. They vary in size from pools of flfty yards in diaraeter to lakes up- 878 THE POLAR WORLD. ward of thirty railes long and four or five miles across. The number of those which exceed a couple of miles in extent must on the whole araount to several hundreds, while those of a sraaUer size are absolutely countless. It is supposed that a full third of the surface of the island is covered by fresh water, and this reckoning is rather below than above the raark. In a country so abundantly provided with lakes or ponds, it seems strange lo find no navigable rivers. The undulating surface of the land, with its abrupt hills and deep gullies, is, without all doubt, one cause of this absence of larger streams. Each pond or sraall set of ponds communicates with a valley of its own, down which it sends an insignificant brook, which takes the nearest course to the sea. The chief cause, however, both of the vast abundance of ponds and the comparative scantiness of the brooks, is to be found in the great coating of moss which spreads over the country, and retains the water like a sponge, al lowing it to drain off but slowly aad gradually. The wilds of Newfouudlaad are tenanted by numerous fur-bearing animals, affording a great source of gain to some of the fishermen, who in winter turn furriers. Arctic foxes are here in all their variety. Beavers, once nearly ex tirpated, but now unmolested owing to the low value of their fur, are increasing in numbers. Brown bears are pretty numerous, and Polar bears sometiraes find their way to the northern promontory of tbe island upon the ice which comes drffting down in spring from Davis's Straits. By way of contrast, in hot sum mers the tropical humraing-bird has been known to visit the southern shores of Newfoundland. Reindeer are abundant, but unfortunately their enemies the wolves have likewise increased in number, since the reward given by the Colonial Government for their destruction has ceased to be paid. Although in the same latitude as Central France and the south of Germany, Newfoundland has a long and severe winter, owing to the two vast streams of Arctic water, the Davis's Straits and East Greenland currents, which combine and run by its shores ; and the sumraer, though sometimes intensely hot, is so short and so frequently obscured by fogs that, even were the soil less sterile, ag riculture must necessarily be confined to narrow limits. The little wheat and barley, cultivated on the inside lands far above the sea-shore, is often cut green, and carrots, turnips, potatoes, and cabbages are nearly all the esculent vegeta bles which the land has been proved capable of producing. Hence we can not wonder that the whole island, which is considerably larger than Scotland, has only about 90,000 inhabitants, and even these would have had no inducement to settle on so unpromising a soil if the riches of the sea did not amply compensate for the deficiencies of the land. Fish is the staple produce of Newfoundland, and the bulk of its population consists of poor fish ermen, who have established themselves along the deep bays by which the coast is indented, and catch near the coast vast quantities of cod, which they bring in and cure at their leisure, in order to have it ready for tbe ships wheu they arrive. VVith the outer world they have little communication, and a visit to St. John's, the capital of tbe island, forms an epoch in their solitary lives. This town lies at the head of a wide and secure bay, and consists of a main street fronting the water, from which narrow, dirty lanes and alleys branch out NEWFOUNDLAND. 379 towards the land. The dingy, unpainted houses are built of wood, the Gov ernment edifices only being constructed of brick or stone. The long rows of fish-stages along the shore attract the stranger's attention, but he is stUl more astonished at the countless gin and beer shops, which at once tell hira he is in a place where thirsty sailors and fisherraen forra the mass of the popula tion. In the winter St. John's is comparatively deserted, as it then has no more than about 10,000 inhabitants, but their nuraber is doubled or trebled during the fishing-season. The island of Newfoundland, first seen and visited in the eleventh century by the Norse colonists of Greenland, and then utterly forgotten, was rediscov ered in 1497 or 1498 by John and Sebastian Cabot. The richness of its cod-fisheries soon attracted attention, and fisherraen from Spain,"France, Portugal, and England annuaUy visited its banks. The best har bors along the coast were occupied by the first comers in spring — a circum stance which gave rise to frequent quarrels. To obviate this lawless state of affairs, Sir Humphrey Gilbert was sent out by Queen Elizabeth in 1583 to take possession of the land. He divided the coast about St. John's into districts, and the British settlers willingly agreed to pay a tax to Government in the ex pectation of seeing their interests better protected. The new arrangement had a beneficial effect on the trade of Newfoundland, for in 1616 raore than 250 English vessels visited St. John's, and gradually the whole of the eastern coast of the islaud was occupied by English fishermen. The French on their part colonized the north and south sides of the island, and founded the town of Placentia, once a very considerable place, but now re duced to insignificance. The rivalry of the French was naturally a great source of jealousy to a nation iU-accustoraed lo brook any foreign intrusion into its commercial interests. Thus, after the war of the Spianish succession. Great Britain demanded and obtained by the Treaty of Utrecht the sole possession of Newfoundland; and Louis XIV., anxious for peace on any terms, willingly acceded to this sacrifice, merely reserving for his subjects the right to dry on the shores of the island the fish they had caught on the banks. By the subse quent treaties of Paris the French were restricted to the smaU islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, but not aUowed lo erect fortifications of any kind. Besides the English and the French, the Americans also have the right to fish on the banks of Newfoundland ; for when England acknowledged the in dependence of the United States, a formal article of the treaty of peace secured to the latter the fishing privileges which they had previously enjoyed as col onies. The value of the dry codfish alone exported every year frora Newfoundland is on an average about £400,000, while the total value of the exported produc tions in fish, oU, and skins is upward of £700,000. This, from a population of 80,000 or 90,000, proves that the people of the island ought to be happy and prosperous ; but unfortunately a systera of credit renders the bulk of the fish ermen entirely dependent on the raerchants, and want of education is a further source of evil. Though vast quantities of cod are taken along the shores of Newfoundland, 380 THE POLAR WORLD. yet the most important fishery is carried on on the banks at some distance from the island. The Great Bank lies twenty leagues from the nearest point of land from lat itude 41° to 49°, and extends 300 miles in length and 75 in breadth. To the east of this lies the False Bank ; the next is styled the Green Bank, about 240 miles long and 120 broad ; then Banquero, about the same size, with several other shoals of less note, all abounding with fish, but chiefiy with cod, the great magnet which sets whole fieets in motion. In winter the cod retire to the deeper waters, but they re-appear in March and AprU, when their pursuers hasten to the spot, not only frora the bays and coves of Newfoundland, but from Great Britain, the United States, and France. While fishing, each man bas a space three feet and a haff wide allotted to bim ou deck, so as not to interfere with his neighbor. The lines are from thirty lo forty fathoras long — for the cod generally swiras al that depth. The chief bails used are the squid, a species of cuttle-fish, and the capelin, a sraaU salmon abounding on the North American coasts. The herring and the launce, and a shell-fish called clam, which is found in the belly of the cod, are likewise used. In spring particularly the cod rushes so eagerly upon the b.ait, that iu the course of a single day a good fisherraan is able to haul up four hundred, one after another. This is no easy task, considering the size of the fish, which on an average weighs fourteen pounds, but has been taken four feel three inches loag, and forty-six pounds in weight. When a large fish, too heavy for the line, has been caught, the fisherraan calls on his neighbor, who strikes a hook attached to a long pole into the fish, and then safely hauls it on board. Mindful of the proverb which recommends us aU to strike while the iron is bot, the fishermen continue to catch cod for hours, until so many are heaped on the deck that to make room it becomes necessary to " dress thera down." This is done on long planks raade to rest with both ends on two casks, and thus forraing a narrow table. First, each raan cuts out the tongues of the fish he has caught, as his wages are reckoned by their number, and then the whole crew divide themselves into throaters, headers, splitters, salters, and packers. The throater begins the operatiou of " dressiag " by drawing his knife across the throat of the cod to the bone and ripping open the bowels. He then passes it to the header, who wilh a strong wrench pulls off the head and tears out the entrails, which he casts overboard, passing the fish at the same tirae to the splitter, who with one cut lays it open from head to tail, and almost in the twiukling of an eye wilh another cut takes out the backbone. After separating the sounds, which are placed with the tongues and packed in barrels as a deli cacy, the backbone follows the entrails overboard, while the fish at the same moraent is passed wilh the other hand to the sailer. Such is the amazing quickness of the operations of heading and splitting, that a good workman wiU often decapitate and take out the entrails and backbone of six fish in a minute. Every fisherraan is supposed to know something of each of these operations, and no rivals at cricket ever entered with more ardor into their work than do some athletic champions for the palm of " dressing down " after a " day's catch." GeneraUy the fog is so dense that one ship does not see the other, although NEWFOUNDLAND. 381 both raay be so near that the crews distinctly hear each other's voices. Fre quently one is hardly able to see to the distance of a few feet, and the large drops of the condensed mist fall like rain frora the yards. During calm weather the aspect of the sea is so disraal that il requires all the buoyant spirits of a searaan to resist its depressing influence. For days the calm reraains unbroken, and no sound is heard but that of a fish darting out of the water, or the screech of a sea-bird flitting over the sea. But soraetiraes a storm breaks this awful silence of nature. At such times the fishing-ships, hidden in raists, run the greatest danger of striking against each other, although signal-lanterns and alarm-trumpets are used to give warning. A tremendous wave bursting on the deck often strikes them with such force as lo sink them or dash thera to pieces against the rocky coast. Thus raany a widow and orphan has a mournful tale to relate of the dangers of the cod-fishery on the banks of Newfoundland. In some parts of the coast where the water is sufficiently shallow the cod fish are now caught in sieves or nets. This operation requires more capital to commence with than the mere boat and hooks and lines of the comraon fisher men, and, like all iraproveraents, met at first with much ojjposition, on the plea that it raust interfere with the interests of the poorer class. It is obvious, how ever, that the use of the net is advantageous lo the trade at large, for shoals, or, as they are termed, " schools," of fish may sometimes be seen sweeping along shore, which but for the net would escape altogether. Besides, there seems such an incalculable abundance of the fish that there will always be enough to hook, enough to jig, enough to net, and raore than enough to go away. " One calm July evening," says Mr. Jukes,* " I was in a boat just outside St. John's harbor, when the sea was pretty still, and the fish were ' breaching,' as it is termed. For several raUes around us the calra sea was alive with fish. Tiiey were sporting on the surface of the water, flirting their tails occasionally into the air, and as far as could be seen the water was rippled and broken by their movements. Looking down into its clear depths, codfish under codfish of all sizes appeared swimming about as if in sport. Some boats were fishing, but not a bite could they get, the fish being already gorged with food. Had the ground been shaUow enough to use nets, the harbor might have been filled with fish." Besides the cod-fishery, seal-catching is also carried on with considerable suc cess on the eastem coast, which intercepts many iraraense fields and islands of ice as they raove southward in the spring frora the Arctic Sea. The interior parts of these drifting shoals, with the lakes or openings interspersed, remain unbroken, and on them myriads of seals raay be found. In the raonth of March or April, as soon as the ice-fields descend with the currents frora Davis's Straits, many smaU ships, not only from the harbors of the east coast of Newfoundland, but even frora the distant Scotch ports, particularly Aberdeen, put out to sea, and boldly plunge into aU the openings of the ice-fields to raake war upon the seals. Armed with firelocks and heavy bludgeons, the crews surprise the ani mals on the ice. In this way thousands are kiUed yearly from the north, but their numbers have latterly decreased, and the seal-catchers pay the penalty of their heedless and indiscriminate slaughter. "* " Excursions in Newfoundland." 383 THE POLAR WORLD. CHAPTER XXXVI. GREENLAND. A mysterious Region. — Ancient Scandinavian Colonists. — Their Decline and Fall. — Hans Egede. — His Trials and Success. — Foundation of Godthaab. — Herrenhuth Missionaries. — Lindenow. — The Scores- bys. — Clavering. — The Danish Settlements in Greenland. — The Greenland Esquimaux. — Seal-catch ing. — The White Dolphin. — The Narwhal. — Shark-fishery. — Fiskernasset. — Birds. — Reindeer-hunt ing. — Indigenous Plants. — Drift-wood. — Mineral Kingdom. — Mode of Life of the Greenland Esqui maux. — The Danes in Greenland. — Beautiful Scenery. — Ice Caves. XN many respects Greenland is one of the most reraarkable countries of the -¦- Arctic zone. The whole of the northern coast of continental America from Cape Lisburne to Belle Isle Straits is known ; the borders of Siberia front ing the icy ocean have been thoroughly explored by water and by land ; the distance of Spitzbergen and Nova Zerabla from the pole has long since been determined ; but how far Greenland raay reach to the north we know not — though nearly a thousand years have passed since the Icelander Gunnbjorn (970 A.D.) first saw its high mountain coast, and in spite of aU the attempts made since that lime to circumnavigate it. The interior of the island — or con tinent as it raay perhaps raore justly be called, for it has a surface of at least 750,000 square miles, and is probably larger than Australia — ^is also unknown ; for of this vast extent of territory only the narrow shores of tbe coast-line seemed to be inhabitable, or even accessible to raan. On penetrating into the deeper fjords, aU the valleys are found blocked with glaciers, which, on climb ing the heights, are seen to pass into a raonotonous plateau of ice, or neve, which seems to cover and conceal the whole interior. Thus, from its physical config uration, Greenland may well be called a mysterious region ; and, strange to say, the history of the decline and fall of its first colonists is as little known as its geography. We have seen in a previous chapter that Iceland, so peaceful in the present day, was peopled in the ninth century with a highly turbulent race of jarls and vikings. One of these worthies, called Erik Rauda, or the Red, having twice dyed his hands with blood, was banished by the Althing (982) for a term of years, and resolved to pass the time of his compulsory absence in exploring the land discovered by Gunnbjorn. After spending three years on its western coasts, he relurned to Iceland, and made so favorable a report of the new coun try, which — knowing the advantages of a good name — he called Greenland, that in 986 he induced a large body of colonists to sail with hira and settle there. Other eraigrants foUowed, and in a few years aU the habitable places of South ern Greenland were occupied. The colony, which soon after its foundation adopted the Christian religion, was divided into two districts, or " bygds " (frora the Icelandic " byggia," to GREENLAND. 383 inhabit), by an intervening tract of land named Ubygd, the " uninhabitable " or "uninhabited." The West Bygd reached from lat. 66° down to 62°, and con tained, in its best days, ninety farms and four churches. South of it lay the desert, " Ubygd," of seventy geographical railes, terrainated by the East Bygd, consisting of 190 farras, and having two towns, Gardar and Alba, one cathedral, and eleven churches. The whole population raay probably have araounted to 6000 souls. The country was govemed by Icelandic laws, and the first of its eighteen bishops, Arnold, was elected in 1121, the last being Endride Andrea- son, who was consecrated in 1406. In spite of ils poverty and distance, Green land was obliged lo contribute its mite to the revenues of the Papal chair, for we read in the ancient annalists that in 1326 its tribute, consisting of walrus- teeth, was sold by the Pope's agent, Bertram of Ortolis, to a merchant of Flan ders for the sum of twelve livres and fourteen sous. The time, however, was now fast approaching when the Greenland colony was not only to cease paying tithes and Peter's pence, but to be swept away. During the course of the fourteenth century it was visited by one misfortune after another. The black death, which carried off twenty-five raillions of Euro peans, did not spare its distant fjords (1348-9), the Esquiraaux harassed the survivors with repeated attacks, killing sorae, and carrying away others captive. A hostile fieet, suspected to be English, laid waste the country in 1418; and, finally, the revolutions and wars which broke out in Scandinavia after the death of Queen Margaret of Walderaar caused Greenland to be entirely neglected and forgotten. The last colonists either retreated to Iceland, or were destroyed by the Esquimaux, and raany years elapsed before Greenland was again thought of as a place where Scandinavians had once been living. At length King Frederick II. of Denmark sent out Mogens Heineson, a famous " sea-cock," as the chroni clers style him, to the south-eastern coast of Greenland (1581), to see if men of a Norse origin still dwelt along those ice-bound fjords. Heineson reached the coast, but the great transparency of the air, which in the Polar regions frequent ly causes strange optical delusions, led him into a singular error. After having saUed for many hours in the sarae direction, and still seeing the raountains whieh seemed quite near recede as he advanced, he fancied himself fettered by an in visible power, and thu.s the famous " sea-cock " returned horn,e wilh the reijort that, detained by a magnetic rock, he had not been able to reach the land. In 1 606 King Christian IV. of Denraark sent out a new Greenland expedi tion, consisting of three ships, under the coraraand of Godske Lindenow, and the guidance of Jaraes Hall, an English pilot. This tirae no magnetic rocks in tervened ; but the ships having separated. Hall landed on the west coast, which had already been rediscovered and visited by D.avis, Hudson, Baffin, and other Arctic navigators ; whUe Lindenow, anchoring off Cape Farewell, kidnapped two Esquimaux, who afterwards died of nostalgia in Denmark. But neither Linde now, who the year after again raade his appearance on the western coast of Greenland, nor two later expeditions under Carsten Richardson and Dannell, were able to effect a landing on any part of the eastern coast. It was in sight, but the drift-ice raade it inaccessible. They were equally unsuccessful in finding any traces of the lost colony, which carae at length to be regarded as a raere 384 THE POLAR WORLD. Scandinavian rayth. But while no one else cared about its existence, the ardent Hans Egede (born in Norway, January 31, 1686), pastor of Vaage, in the Lofo ten Islands, still continued to cherish its memory. He had read in the ancient chronicles about the old Christian comraunities in Greenland, and could not be lieve in their total extinction. He felt the deepest concern in the fate of their descendants, and the thought that after so long a separation from the mother- country they must needs be plunged in barbarisra and heathen darkness, left him no rest by night or day. At length he resolved to devote his life to their spiritual welfare, and to becorae the apostle of rediscovered or regenerated Greenland. His zeal and perseverance overcarae a thousand difficulties. Nei ther the public ridicule, nor the coldness of the authorities to whom he vainly applied for assistance, nor the exhortations of his friends, could damp his ardor. At length, after years of fruitless endeavors, after having given up his living and sacrificed his little fortune in the prosecution of his plans, he succeeded in forraing a Greenland Corapany, with a capital of 9000 dollars, and in obtaining an annual stipend from the Danish Missionary Fund of 300 dollars, to which King Frederic IV. added a gift of 200 dollars. With three ships, the Largest of which " The Hope," bad forty colonists on board, Egede, accorapanied by his wife and four children, set sail from the port of Bergen on May 12, 1721, and reached Greenland on July 3, after a long and tedious passage. The winds had driven him to the westem coast, in latitude 64°, and here he resolved at once , to begin his evangelical labors with the Esquiraaux. A wooden chapel was speedily erected, which formed the first nucleus of the still existing settlement of Godthaab. But if the life of worthy Egede had for raany a year been full of trouble be fore he went to Greenland, Irials still raore severe awaited hira during his apos tolical career. He had not raerely the suspicions of the Esquiraaux, the enmity of their medicine-men, the severity of the climate, and not seldom even famine to contend with. His own countrymen, disappointed in their hopes of carrying on a lucrative trade with the Greenlanders, resolved to abandon it altogether, and, after ten laborious years, the Government nol only withdrew all further as sistance from tbe mission, but even ordered the colony to be broken up. AU bis companions, with the exception of a few volunteers who engaged to share his fortunes, now returned to Denmark ; but Egede, though bis health had been so shattered by almost superhuman exertions that he had long since been obliged to leave .all active duties to his son, resolved, like a faithful soldier, lo die at his post. In 1733 his perseverance was at length rewarded by the grateful news that the king, at the entreaty of Count Zinzendorf, the founder of Herrenhuth, had consented to bestow an annual grant of 2000 dollars on the Greenland mis sion, and that three Moravian brothers had arrived to assist him in his work. Thus he could at length (1735) return with a quiet heart to his native country, where he died, universally regretted, in 1758, at the age of seventy-two. It may easily be supposed that, during his long stay in Greenland, he anx iously sought the traces of his lost countryraen, for the desire to help them had first led him to that Arctic country. Nothing in the physiognoray of the Es quimaux or in their language pointed in any way to a European origin, .and GREENLAND. 885 even their traditions said not a word of the old Norse settlers who had once inhabited the land. The ruins of sorae churches, and other buildings scattered here and there along the west coast, alone attested their existence, and forraed a link between the past and the present. Thus if Greenland still had inhabit ants of Scandinavian origin, they raust necessarily be confined to the eastem coast beyond Cape Farewell. But Egede was as little able as his predecessors to penetrate through the ice-bell which, both by land and sea, corapletely sepa rated it from the rest of the world. For many years after his death it reraained unknown and inaccessible; and Lowenorn, who was sent out in 1786-87 to renew the atterapts of Heineson and Lindenow, had no better success. No doubt many a whaler may have ad mired its distant mountain peaks glowing in the evening sun, or may have been driven by the storm against its shores, but the Scoresbys were the first lo de termine accurately the position of part of its well-fenced coast. In the year 1817, Captain Scoresby the elder, deviating from the usual course of the whalers, steered through the western ice, and reached the east coast of Greenland be yond 70°. He could easily have landed ; the coast which had so frequently baffled the atterapts of previous navigators lay invitingly before him, but he could not sacrifice his duly as the comraander of a whaler to curiosity or re nown. And thus, without having set his foot on shore, he sailed back into the open sea. On a later visit, however, he landed in the sound which bears his name. In the year 1822 Scoresby the younger succeeded in more closely ex amining the land. Leaving the usual track of the whalers, he had steered to the west, and threaded his way through the drift-ice until, between 70° 33' and 71° 12' N. lat., the coast of Greenland lay before him. No coast that he had ever seen before had so raajestic a character. The mountains, on which he be stowed the nameof Roscoe, consisted of numberless jagged stones or pyramids, rising in individual peaks to a height of 3000 feet, and a chaos of sharp needles covered their rough declivities. On .Idy 24 he landed on a rocky promontory, which he naraed Cape Lister (70° 30'), and, clirabing its suramit, continued his excursion along its back, which was between three and four hundred feet high. Here and there between the stones, which were eilher naked or thinly clothed with lichens, bloomed Andro meda tetragona, a Saxifraga oppositifolia, a Papaver nudicanle, or a Ranun culus nivalis. At Cape Swainson he again descended to the shore, which here formed a flat strand about 600 feet broad. Sorae deserted Esquiraaux huts soon arrested his attention. Charred drift-wood and a quantity of ashes lay scattered about the hearths, and proved that these dwellings had not been long forsaken. Scarcely a bird was lo be seen on land, but countless auks and divers animated the waters. A great number of winged insects — butterflies, bees, raosquitoes — ^flew or buzzed about, particularly on the hillocks between the stones. On July 25 he once raore landed on Cape Hope, where he again found traces of in habitants. Bones of hares and fragraents of reindeer horns lay scattered about on the ground. The skuU of a dog was planted on a sraall mound of earth, for it is a belief of the Greenland Esquiraaux that the dog, who finds his way everywhere, must uecessarily be the best guide of the innocent children to the 25 386 THE POLAR WORLD. land of souls. The heat, which soon put an end to this excursion, was so great that many of the plants had shed their seeds, and sorae were already complete ly dried up and shriveUed. The part of the coast of East Greenland discovered by Scoresby, and that which was visited the year after by Clavering, lay, however, too far lo the north to afford any clue about the extinct Scandinavian settlements, even supposing thera, as was then still believed, to have been partly situated to the east of Cape FareweU. At length in the year 1829, Captain Graah, who had been sent out by King Frederick VI. of Denraark, succeeded in exploring the south-eastern coast of Greenland, frora its southern extreraity to the latitude of 65° 18', beyond which no colony could ever have existed; and as he nowhere found either the raost insignificant ruins or the least traces of an ancient Christian settleraent in the language and custoras of the natives, it was now fully proved that the east bygd of the old chroniclers was, in reality, situated on the south western coast of Greenland, in the present districts of Julianshaab and Lichte nau, a coast which, in coraparison with the more northern colonies of Frederik- shaab and Fiskernas, distinctly trends to the east. The present Danish settlements, which are confined to the more sheltered fjords of ils western coast, are divided into a north and south inspectorate, the former extending from lat. 67° lo 72°, and comprising the districts of Upernavik, Omenak, Jakobshavn, Chrislianshaab, Egedesminde, and Godhavn, on Disco Island ; while the latter contains the districts of Holsteensborg, Sukkertoppen, Godthaab, Fiskernasset, Frederikshaab, and Julianshaab. In the year 1866 the population of the South Inspectorate consisted of 6128 aboriginal Greenlanders, or Esquiraaux, aud 120 Europeans; that of the North Inspectorate, of 3616 of the forraer, and 128 of the latter ; a very sraall number if we consider that il is scattered over a space of 12° of latitude. In a country like this, such towns as Godhavn, with 160 inhabitants, or Godthaab, the most populous of all, with 330, pass for considerable cities. But, in spite of its scanty population, Greenland is a valuable possession of the Danish crown, or rather of the Danish corapany, which entirely monopolizes the trade, and raanages its affairs so well that the Greenlander receives for his produce only about the sixth part of its price at Copenhagen. According to the average of six years (1850-1855), the total value of the exports from Greenland araounted to 378,688 rix-dollars; that of the importations from Denmark, to 164,215 ; but in the latter sum -was included nol only the price paid to the Greenlanders for their goods, but all the stores and provisions necessary for the agents and servants of the company, the missionaries, and the administration of the colony. The trifiing amount which, after all deductions and charges, the poor Greenlander receives for his seal-skins or his blubber, he generally spends in tobacco, candy-sugar, coffee, and sea-biscuits, for his real wants are araply supplied by his own country, and he has not yet learned to invest his gains raore profitably. Like aU other Esquiraaux, he depends chiefly upon the sea for his subsistence. Of the various species of Phocse found in the Greenland waters the most valuable is the hispid seal {Phoca hispida), both frora its numbers and from its frequenting the fjords during the whole GREENLAND. 387 year; whUe the larger Greenland seal {Phoca groenlandica) is not stationary like the former, but leaves the coast frora March to May, and from July to September. The Gystophora cristata, or hooded seal, remarkable for a globular sac, capable of inflation, on the head of the male, appears in the fjords only from April till June. It is the most pugnacious of aU the seals. In the south ern districts, where the seal-hunting must be chiefly carried on in open water, the Greenlander relies upon his boat, the kayak. When the animal is struck, the barbed point of the harpoon detaches itself, by an ingenious mechanisra, from the shaft, which otherwise would be broken by its violent contortions ; and as the line is attached to a bladder, it can easily be recovered. Among the cetaceans, the white dolphin {Delphinopterus leucas) and the narwhal {Monodon monoceros) are the most valuable to the Greenlanders of the North Inspectorate, from 500 to 600 of these huge aniraals being annually caught. The former makes its appearance a short lime after the breaking up of the ice; and again in autumn ; in summer it seeks the open gea. Sometimes large herds of the wMle dolphins are cut off from the sea by the closing in of the ice in* the neighborhood of the land, so that several hundred may be kUled in the course of a few days. The narwhal is caught only in the Omenak fjord, which it visits regularly in Noveraber. As its chase is both difficult and dan- d^rous, the Greenlanders generally hunt il in company, so that after a narwhal has been struck with the first harpoon or lance, others are ready to follow up the advantage. The larger whales are now seldora caught, but the dead body of a fin-back is not seldora cast ashore, and affords a rich harvest to the neigh borhood. Soraetiraes masses of oil, evidently proceeding frora dead whales, are found floating in the fjords. In 1854 ninety-flve tons of this raatter were coUected near Holsteinburg. The flshes likewise amply contribute to supply the Greenlander's wants. The shark-fishery {Scymnus microcephalus) is of considerable importance. The entrails of seals and other offal are placed in the openings of the ice to at tract these sharks to the spot, where they are caught in various ways, particu larly by torch-light, which brings them to the surface. The fisherraen, watch ing the moment, strike thera with a sharp hook, and then drag them upon the ice. They are also caught with strong iron angles attached to chains. They are captured for the sake of their livers, which yield a good deal of oil. It has very recently been ascertained that a valuable substance resembling spermaceti may be expressed from the carcass which was forraerly wasted, and for this purpose powerful screw presses are now eraployed. About 30,000 of these gluttonous aniraals are caught every year, and the fishery raay be greatly ex tended, as the bottom of the ice-fjords absolutely swarms with them. Their capture is attended with far less trouble and danger than in Iceland, where they are pursued in boats, and in a capricious and tempestuous sea. Improv ing upon the old Esquiraaux raethods of fishing or hunting, the Danish resi dents set nets for the white whale or the seal ; for the forraer, they are attach ed to the shore, and extend off at right angles, so as lo intercept thera in their autumnal southem migration, when they swim close along the rocks to avoid the grampus. When the white whale is stopped by the nel, it often appears ¦ 888 THE POLAR WORLD. at first lo be unconscious of the fact, and continues lo swim against it, and then aUows the boat to approach it from behind. If entangled in the net, it is soon drowned, as, like aU the whale tribe, it is obliged lo come to the surface to breathe. A large quantity of cod are caught in various parts of the South Inspecto rate, particularly at Fiskernasset, which, being less subject to fogs and more exposed to the sea-wind, offers peculiar advantages for the drying of the fish. The capelin {Mallotus villosus), which in May and June visits the coasts of Greenland in great numbers, is eaten both fresh or laid upon the rocks to dry for the winter. The sea-wolf, the lump-fish, the bull-head, the Norway had dock, the salmon-trout, are likewise iraportant articles of food. The hahbut grows to a huge size, and a smaller species {Hippoglossus pinguis) is fished for at the depth of 180 or even 380 fathoms. The banks frequented by this fish are raost valuable lo the neighboring Greenlanders. Many are no doubt still undiscovered, others raay be known by the dead fish floating on the surface, or by the seals diving out of the water with a flat flsh in their raouth. Long-tail ed crabs are easily caught in raany parts, and the coraraon mussel may ]>& gathered almost everywhere at ebb tide. Crowds of birds nestle during the suraraer on the rocky shores, particularly at Upernavik, where the largest breeding-places are found] They are general ly killed with sraall blunted arrows. In the ice-fjord of Jacobshavn the guUs are caught ingeniously by floating traps on which soraething brilliant or re sembling a fish is fixed. The eggs of the sea-birds are gathered in vast num bers, and the feathers and skins of the eider-duck and auk are both exported and used for the lining of boots. Compared with the wealth of the seas, the land is very poor. The chase of the reindeer is, however, important, as its skin affords both a warmer and a softer clothing than that of the seal, and serves moreover as a bed-cover or a sledge-carpel. Reindeer-hunting is a favorite summer occupation of the Green landers, who annually kill from 10,000 to 20,000, and export about one-half of the skins. Only a few cows, sheep, and goats are kept at Julianshaab. For want of hay they are fed with fish during the winter. In South Greenland the potato is cultivated by the European residents as a luxury. The plant never flowers, and even buds are rare. Turnips, cabbages, salad, and spinach like wise grow in South Greenland, but barley sown in the gardens scarcely ever coraes to ear. In summer the windows of the houses are gay with geraniums and fuchsias and other flowers of a more temperate zone. Among the indigenous plants, the berries of the Empetrum nigrum, Vac cinium uliginosum, and Vaccinium vitis idcea furnish the Greenlanders with their only vegetable food. While the coasts exposed to the bleak sea-winds afford scanty traces of vegetation, the valleys and hiU slopes of the more sheltered fjords are green during the suraraer, and justify the name bestowed by Erick on the land of his adoption. Forests are of course out of the question in Greenland, though in some places the birch attains a not inconsiderable size. Thus in a dell at the upper end of Lichtenau Fjord a thicket of these trees, fifteen feet high, surrounds a little lake fed by a waterfaU, the largest GREENLAND. 389 hitherto known in Greenland. More generally, however, the trees, such as the beech, the willow, the elder, etc., merely creep along the ground, where the dense matting of their roots and branches, mingled with bushes of the empe trum, or with mosses, lichens, and fallen leaves, forms a kind of turf which is used as fuel by the Danes. In some measure the sea makes up for the want of limber by casting on the shore a quantity of drift-wood, the origin of which is still a raatter of doubt, some tracing it to the North American rivers, others to those of Siberia. It consists mostly of the uprooted trunks of coniferous trees. Sometimes also large pieces of bark, such as those of which the Indians make their canoes, and sewn together with threads of hair, and drifted into the fjords. The mineral kingdora, though it has within the last few years attracted the attention of speculators, will hardly ever realize their hopes. Several atterapts to work the lead and copper ores at Nanursoak and in the Arksak fjord have miserably failed. The cost of transport is immense, and the difficulty of ob taining the necessary workmen presents an insuperable obstacle to all mining operations in Greenland. Though the Greenlanders have now been for raore than a century under the influence of Christian teachers, yet their mode of life is still much the sarae as that of their relatives the wild Esquimaux on the opposite continent of North America. Like them, they use the " kayak," the " oomiak," and the sledge ; like them, they live in sraall winter huts of stone (the snow-house is unknown to them) or in suramer tents hung with skins, and they are equally iraprovi- dent in tiraes of abundance. Their constant intercourse with Europeans has, however, taught thera the use of raany luxuries unknown to the wild Esqui maux, and they are now great consumers of coffee. They are fond of instruc tion, but the iraraense space over which the population is scattered, and their vagrant life during a great part of the year, are great hinderances to their ira provement. They are also very good-natured, and Uve on the best terras with the Danes who reside among them. The latter, who, with the exception of the Moravian raissionaries, are all in the service of the Corapany, soon get attached to the country, and leave it wilh regret ; sometimes even returning to close their days in Greenland. The climate, though severe, is very healthy, and the lover of sport finds ara ple opportunities for gratifying his favorite passion. In September, or at the beginning of October, the last ships leave for Europe ; and then, till the next April or May — when the first English -whalers appear in the ports of Godhavn or Upernavik — all coramunication with the civilized world is totally cut off. Towards the end of January or the beginning of February, when the days begin rapidly to lengthen, frequent sledge-parlies keep up a constant interchange of visits between the various settlements. This raode of traveUing over the lakes and inclosed fjords is very agreeable in May, as then the sun is pleasantiy warm at noon ; and though he hardly disappears below the horizon, the nights are sufficiently cold to convert the raelted snow into ice hard enough to bear the weight of a sledge. This is the best time for visiting many interesting spots inaccessible at other seasons of the year, and for enjoying many a scene 390 THE POLAR WORLD. unsurpassed in Switzerland itself. Here, as on the Alps, the glacier and the snow-clad peak appear in all their grandeur ; here also, in the valleys, the sum mer brooks flow between well-clothed banks, and the Helvetian lakes are wor thily rivalled by the magnificent fjords of Greenland. In raany parts, the waves, beating against the steep coasts of the islands and fjords, render access difficult, if not irapossible during the suraraer, but in winter or spring they raay easily be visited across the ice. The surf has worn many caves in these precipitous rock-waUs, which are no less remarkable for their picturesque basaltic forms than for the huge masses of ice on their sides, which, in their tints and grouping, far surpass the stalactites of the most re nowned European grottoes. THE -ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 391 CHAPTER XXXVTL THE ANTARCTIC- OCEAN. Comparative View of tha Antarctic and Arctic Eegions. — Inferiority of Climate of the former. — Its Causes. — The New Shetland Islands. — South Gt-orgia. — The Peruvian Stream. — Sea-birds. — The Gi ant Petrel.— The Albatross.— The Penguin.— The Austral Whale. — The Hunchback. — The Fiu-back. — The Grampus. — Battle with a Whale. — The Sea-elephant. — The Southern Sea-bear. — The Sea- leopard. — Antarctic Fishes. nPHE Antarctic regions are far more desolate and barren than the Arctic. -¦- Here we have no energetic hunters, like the Esquimaux, chasing the seal or the walrus ; no herdsmen following, like the Samoiedes or the Lapps, their reindeer to the brink of the icy ocean ; but all is one dreary, uninhabitable waste. While within the Arctic Circle the musk-ox enjoys an abundance of food, and the lemming is still found thriving on the bleakest islands, not a sin gle land quadruped exists beyond 56° of southem latitude. Summer flowers gladden the sight of the Arctic navigator in the raost north ern lands yet reached ; but no plant of any description — not even a moss or a lichen — has been observed beyond Cockburn Island in 64° 12' S. lat. ; and while even in Spitzbergen vegetation ascends the raountain slopes to a height of 3000 feet the snow-line descends lo the water's edge in every land within or near the Antarctic Circle. An open sea, extending towards the northern pole as far as the eye can reach, points out the path to future discovery ; but the Antarctic navigators, wilh one single exception, have invariably seen their progress arrested by barriers of ice, and none have ever penetrated beyond the coraparatively low latitude of 78° 10'. Even in Spitzbergen and East Greenland, Scoresby soraetiraes found the heat of sumraer very great ; but the annals of Antarctic navigation invariably speak of a frigid temperature. In 1773, when Captain Phipps visited Spitzber gen, the thermometer once rose to -|-58-^°] and on July 15, 1820, when the "Hecla" lefl her winter-quarters in Melville Island (74° 47' N.), she enjoyed a warmth of -|-56°. But during the sumraer raonths spent by Sir Jaraes Ross in the Antarctic Polar area, the temperature of the air never once exceeded -f 41° 5'. In Northumberland Sound (76° 42' N.), probably the coldest spot hitherto -visited in the north, the mean of the three suraraer raonths was found to be -1-30° 8', whUe within the Antarctic Circle it only araounted lo -f 27° 3'. The reader raay possibly wonder why th(^ cliraate of the southern polar re gions is so much raore severe than that of the high northern latitudes ; or why coasts and vaUeys, at equal distances from the equator, should in one case be found green with vegetation, and in another raere wastes of snow and ice ; but the predominance of land in the north, and of sea in the south, fully answers 393 THE POLAR WORLD. the question. Within the Arctic Circle we see vast continental masses project ing far to the north, so as to form au almost continuous belt round the icy sea ; while in the southern hemisphere, the continents taper down in a vast ex tent of open ocean. In the north, the plains of Siberia and of the Hudson's Bay territories, warmed by the sunbeams of suraraer, becorae at that season centres of radiating heal, so that in many parts the growth of forests, or even the culture of the cereals, advances as high as 70° of latitude ; while the An tarctic lands are of a comparatively small extent, and isolated in the midst of frigid waters, whose temperature scarcely varies frora -|-29° 2' even in the height of summer. Mostly situated within the Antarctic Circle, and constantly chiUed by cold sea-winds, they act at every season as refrigerators of the atmos phere. In the north, the forraation of icebergs is confined to a few raountainous countries, such as the west coast of Greenland or Spitzbergen ; but the Antarc tic coast-lands generally tower to a considerable height above the level of the sea, and the vast fragments which are constantly detaching theraselves from their glaciers keep up the low temperature of the seas. In the north, the cold currents of the Polar Ocean, with their drift-ice and bergs, have but the two wide gates of the Greenland Sea and Davis's Strait through which they can eraerge to the south, so that their infiuenee is confined within coraparatively narrow limits, while the gelid streams of the Antarctic seas branch out fi-eely on all sides, and convey their floating ice-masses far and wide within the temperate seas. It is only to the west of Newfoundland that single icebergs have ever been known to descend as low as 39° of latitude; but in the southern heraisphere they have been met with in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope (35° S. lat.), near Tristan d'Acunha, opposite to the raouth of the Rio de la Plata, and within a hundred leagues of Tasmania. In the north, final ly, we find the Gulf Stream conveying warmth even to the shores of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla ; while in the opposite regions of the globe, no traces of warm currents have been observed beyond 55° of latitude. Thus the predominance of vast tracts of flat land in the boreal heraisphere, and of an iraraense expanse of ocean in the Antarctic regions, sufficiently ac counts for the festival warrath of the forraer, and the coraparatively low sum mer temjDerature of the latter. It is unnecessary lo describe in detail each of the desolate lands which mod ern navigators have discovered among the Antarctic ice-fields, but it may not be uninteresting to corapare one or two of these dreary wastes with the lands of the north, situated in analogous latitudes. The New Shetland Islands, situated between 61° and 63° of Southern lati tude, were originally discovered by Dirck Gheritz, a Dutch navigator, who, in atterapting to round Cape Horn, was carried by terapesluous weather within sight of their raountainous coasts. Long forgotten, they were re-discovered in 1819 by Mr. Smith, a master in the royal navy — whom a storra had likewise carried thither — and in the foUowing year more accurately examined by Edward Bransfield, whose name survives in the strait which separates thera from D'Ur- viUe's Louis Philippe Land. THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 393 In 1829, the "Chanticleer," Captain Forster, was sent to New Shetland for the purpose of making magnetic and other physical observations, and remained for several raonths at Deception Island, which was selected as a station from ils affording the best harbor in South Shetland. Though these islands are situated al about the same distance frora the pole as the Faroe Islands which boast of nuraerous fiocks of sheep, and where the sea never freezes, yet, when the " Chanticleer " approached Deception Island, on January 5 (a raonth corresponding to our July), so raany icebergs were scatter ed about, that Forster counted at one time no fewer than eighty-one. A gale having arisen, accompanied by a thick fog, great care was needed lo avoid run ning foul of these floating cliffs. After entering the harbor — a work of no slight difficulty, frora the violence of the wind — the fogs Were so frequent that, for the first ten days, neither sun nor stars were seen ; and it was withal so raw and cold, that Lieutenant Kendal, to whom we owe a short narrative of the expe dition, did nol recollect having suffered more at any time in the Arctic regions, even at the lowest range of the thermoraeter. In this desolate land, frozen water becomes an integral portion of the soil ; for this volcanic island is composed chiefly of alternate layers of ashes and ice, as if the snow of each winter, during a series of years, had been prevented frora melting in the following summer, by the ejection of cinders and ashes from sorae part where volcanic action still goes on. Early in March (the Septeraber of tbe north) the freezing over of the cove in whioh the ship was secured gave warning that it was high tirae for her to quit this desolate port. With rauch difficulty and severe labor, frora the fury of the gales, they raanaged lo get away, and we may fully credit Lieutenant Kendal's assertion, that it was a day of rejoicing lo all on board when the shores of Deception faded frora their view. In 1775 Cook, on his second voyage, discovered the large ishand of South Georgia, situated in latitude 54° and 56°, a situation corresponding to that of Scarborough or Durham. But what a difference in the cliraate, for " we saw not a river or stream of water," says the great navigator, " on all the coast of Georgia. The head of the bay, as well as two places on each side, was termi nated by perpendicular icebergs of considerable height. Pieces were continu aUy breaking off and fioating out lo sea, and a great fall happened while we were in the bay, which made a noise like a cannon. The inner parts of the country were not less savage and horrible. The wild rocks raised their lofty summits tiU they were lost in the clouds, and the valley lay covered wilh ever lasting snow. Not a tree was to be seen, not a shrub even big enough to make a toothpick. The only vegetation was a coarse strong-Viladed grass growing in tufts, wild burnel, and a plant like raoss, which sprang from the rocks. The lands, or rather rocks, bordering on the sea-coast were nol covered with snow Uke the inland parts, but all the vegetation we could see on the clear places was the grass above mentioned. ' To find scenes of a similar wintry desolation, we must travel in the north as far as Nova Zembla or Spitzbergen, which are 20° or 24° nearer to the pole ! Thus the infiuenee of the cold Antarctic waters extends far within the tem perate zone. We can trace their chUUng effects in Kerguelen Land (50° S. 394 THE POLAR WORLD. lat.), which when visited by Cook in the height of suraraer was found covered wilh snow, and where only five plants in flower were collected ; in Tierra del Fuego (53° S. lat.), where the raean suraraer teraperature is fully 9|° lower than that of Dublin (53° 21' N. lat.) ; in the Falkland Islands (51° 30'), which, though flat and low aud near Patagonia, have, according to Mr. Darwin, a cliraate simi lar lo that which is experienced at the height of between one and two thousand feet on the mountains of North Wales, with less sunshine and less frost, but more wind and rain ; and finally along the south-west coast of America, where the Peruvian current and the cold sea-winds so considerably depress the snow line, that while in Europe the raost southern glacier which comes down to the sea is met with, accordiug to Von Buch, on the coast of Norway in lat. 67° ; the " Beagle " found a glacier fifteen miles long and in one part seven miles broad descending lo the sea-coast in the gulf of Penas, in a latitude (46° 60') nearly corresponding with that of the Lake of Geneva. " The position of this glacier," says Mr. Darwin, " may be put even in a more striking point of view, for it descends lo the sea-coast within less than 9° from where palms grow ; within 4|-° of a region where the jaguar and puma range over the plains, less than 2^° from arborescent grasses, and (looking to the westward in the same heraisphere) less than 2° frora orchideous parasites, and within a single degree of tree-ferns !" As the influence of the tropical guff streara reaches as far as Spitzbergen, so that of the cold Peruvian streara, which issues from the Antarctic Seas, extends even to the equator, and not seldom re duces the temperature of the -waters about the Galapagos to less than -f- 58^°, so that reef-building corals, which require a minimura warrath of 4-60°, are unable to grow near islands situated directiy uuder the line. Though the Antarctic lands are so bleak and inclement that not a single quadruped is to be found within 60° of latitude, yet they are the resort of in numerable sea-birds which, belonging to the sarae farailies as those of the north, generally form distinct genera or species, for with rare exceptions no bird is found to inhabit both the Arctic and the Antarctic regions. Thus ia the petrel family we find the fulmar {Procellaria glacialis) and the glacial petrel {P. gelida) of the high north represented in the Antarctic Seas by the giant petrel {Procellaria gigantea), which extends ils flight frora Pata gonia to the ice-banks of the south, where the Antarctic and the snowy petrels {P. antarctica et nivea) first appear, cold-loving birds which never leave those dreary waters, and are often seen in vast flocks floating upon the drift-ice. The giant petrel, which has received frora the Spaniards the significant appel lation of " quebranta huesos," or " break-bones," is a more powerful bird than the fulmar. It is larger than a goose, with a strong beak 4^ inches long. Its color is a dirty black, white below, and with white spots on the neck and back. In its habits and raanner of flight it closely resembles the albatross, and, as with the albatross, a spectator may watch it for hours together without seeing on what it feeds. Like the fulmar it feasts upon fishes, or the carcasses of seals and cetaceans, but it also chases other birds. At Port Saint Antonio it was seen by some of the officers of the " Beagle " pursuing a diver, which tried to escape by diving and flying, but was continuaUy struck down, and at last killed by a blow THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 395 on its head. Such is its voracity that it does not even spare its own kind, for a gigantic petrel having been badly wounded by a shot from the "Terror," and falUng at too great a distance for a boat to be sent after it, was iraraediate ly attacked by two others of the sarae kind and torn lo pieces. It is a coraraon bird both in the open sea and in the inland channels of Tierra del Fuego, and the south-west coast of Araerica. The wandering albatross {Diomedea exulans), closely aUied to the petrels, and rivalling the condor in size and strength of wing, may truly be ranked araong the Antarctic birds, as it is seldora seen in a lower latitude than 36°, and in creases in numbers towards the south. Freyssinet saw it most frequently be tween 55° aud 69° S. lat., and it probably knows no other limits than those of the Polar ice. It is found in every meridian of this enormous zone, but the regions of storms — the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn — are its favorite resorts. Here it raay frequently be seen in the full raajesty of its flight. The auks of the northern heraisphere are represented, in the austral regions, by the penguins, who, as Buffon reraarks, are the least bird-like of all birds. Their sraaU wing-sturaps, covered with short rigid scale-like feathers, are alto gether incapable of raising the body in the aii-, but serve as admirable paddles in the water, and on land as fore feet, with whose help they so alertly scale the grassy cliffs that they raight easily be raistaken for quadrupeds. Their feet, like those of the auks, are placed so far back that the body is quite upright when the bird is standing on the ground, a position which renders their gait uncommonly slow and awkward, but greatly facilitates their raoveraents in the water. When at sea and fishing, the penguin coraes to the surface for the pur pose of breathing with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously, that at first sight no one can be sure that it is not a fish leaping for sport. Other sea- birds generally keep a considerable part of their body out of the water while swimming, but this is not the case with the penguin, whose head alone appears above the surface, and thus rowing at the same tirae with its wings and feel, it swiras so quickly that raany fishes would fail to keep up with it. Sir James Ross once saw two penguins paddling away a thousand railes frora the nearest land. Protected agaiast the cold by a thick layer of fat and a warra great-coat of feathers, it reraains for raonths on the high seas, and seeks land only in the summer for the purpose of breeding. At this time it is found in vast numbers on the Falkland Islands, Kerguelen's Land, New Shetland, or wherever in the Antarctic Seas, perhaps even to the pole itself, a convenient coast invitPS its stay. On Possession Island, for instance, a desolate rock, discovered by Sir James Ross in lat. 71° 56', myriads of penguins covered the whole surface of the land, along the ledges of the precipices, and even to the summit of the hills. Undaunted by the presence of beings whom they had never seen before, the birds vigorously attacked the British seamen as they waded through their ranks, and pecked at them with their sharp beaks, a reception which, together with their loud coarse notes, and the insupportable stench of their guano, raade our countrymen but too happy to depart, after having loaded their boat with geological specimens and penguins. There are several species of this singular bird. The largest and rarest {Aptenodytes Forsteri) is generaUy found sin- THE POLAR WORLD. THE ALBATKOSS. THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 397 gly, while th^ sraaller species always associate in vast nurabers. Several were caught in lat. 77° by Sir James Ross and brought on board alive; indeed it was a very difficult and a cruel operation to kill them, until hydrocyanic acid was resorted to, of which a tablespoonful effectually accomplished the purpose in less than a minute. These enormous birds varied in weight frora sixty to seventy-five pounds. They are reraarkably stupid, and allow a man to api- proach thera so near as to strike them on the head with a bludgeon, and some times, if knocked off the ice into the water, they will alraost iraraediately leap upon it again as if eager for a fight, though withoul the smallest means either of offense or defense. They were first discovered during Captain Cook's voyage to the Antarctic regions, but Sir James Ross was fortunate in bringing the first perfect specimens to England, some of which were preserved entire in casks of strong pickle, that the physiologist and comparative anatomist might have an opportunity of thoroughly examining their structure. The principal food of the great penguin consists of various species of crustaceous aniraals, and in its stomach are frequently found from two to ten pounds' weight of pebbles, swal lowed no doubt to promote digestion. "Its capture," says Sir James Ross, " afforded great arauseraent to our people, for when alarraed and endeavoring to escape, it makes its way over deep snow faster than they could follow it: by lying down on its belly and irapeUing itself by its powerful feet, it slides along upon the surface of the snow al a great pace, steadying itself by extending its fin-like wings, which alternately touch the ground on the side opposite to the propelling leg." Though the Antarctic Seas possess neither the narwhal nor the raorse, they abound, perhaps even more than the Arctic waters, in whales, dolphins, and seals, at least in the higher latitudes. The austral smooth-backed whale {Balcena australis) differs from his Green land relative in many respects : the head is coraparatively sraaller, being only about one-fourth of the total length, the mouth is broader, the baleen shorter, the pectoral fins are larger and pointed, and the color is alraost totally black, the white on the lower surface being confined to a sraall part of the abdoraen. The skuU is also differently forraed ; and while the Greenland whale has only thirteen pairs of ribs, the austral sraoolh-back has fifteen. According to Mr. Bennett, the austral smooth-back seldom attains a greater length than fifty feet ; but as it yields on an average from eighty to ninety barrels of oil, its capture amply rewards the whaler's trouble. Though met with in the highest latitudes, and roaming over the whole extent of the Antarc tic Seas, it resorts in spring to the sheltered bays of New Zealand, Australia, Kerguelen's Land, ChUi, the Falkland Islands, Algoa Bay, etc., for the purpose of bringing forth its young. This of course makes its capture easier,' but must at the sarae lirae lead to its extirpation, or drive it to the most inaccessible re gions of the Polar Ocean. Even now the whale-fishery of the southern seas, which twenty or thirty years ago employed hundreds of vessels, has much di minished in importance : it is chiefly carried on by the Americans, the French, and our Australian colonies, which have the advantage of being more conven iently situated than the mother-country. 398 THE POLAR WORLD. In the higher latitudes of the Antarctic zone the hunch-back and fin-back whales abound ; but as the forraer is raeagre and hardly worth the boiling, and the latter, like the rorquals of the north, dives wilh such rapidity that he snaps the harpoon-line or drags the boat along wilh hira into the water, they are sel dora hunted. Hence they will raost likely continue to prosper in their native seas, unless the improved missiles recently introduced in the whale-fishery can be made lo conquer thera. The hunch-back is distinguished by the great length of his pectoral fins, which extend to full eighteen feet, while these organs are comparatively sraall in the fin-back. A kind of broad-nosed whale likewise makes its appearance in the Antarctic Seas, but it is "not yet determined whether all these fin-backed whales of the south are distinct species from those of the Arctic waters, A circumstance which seeras to speak for their identity is that fin-backs are met with in the intervening temperate and tropical seas, so that no limits appear to have been set to their excursions. The sperm whale, or cachalot, though partial to the equinoctial ocean, is also found in the cold Antarctic waters. It was mel wilh by Sir James Ross among the icebergs in 63° 20' S. lat. ; and near Possession Island (71° 50' S. lat.), where the hunch-backs were so abundant that thirty were counted at one time in va rious directions, and during the whole day wherever the eyes turned their blasts were to be seen. A few sperm whales were also distinguished among them by their peculiar manner of blowing or spouting. Among the dolphins of the Antarctic Ocean we find a species of grampus no less forraidable and voracious than that of the northern seas. On January 20, 1840, the Araerican ship "Peacock," whUe cruising in the Antarctic waters, witnessed a conflict between one of thera and a whale. The sea was perfectly sraooth, so that the whole corabat could be distinctly seen. At flrst the whale was perceived at some distance frora the ship lashing the water into foara, and apparently raaking desperate efforts to shake off sorae invisible enemy. On approaching, they found that an enormous grampus had seized it with its jaws. The whale vainly turned and twisted itself in every direction, and its blood tinged the water far around. The grampus had evidently the advantage, and the other whales, of which there were many in sight, instead of assisting their corarade, seemed only intent on their own safety. The grampus had a brown back, a white abdomen, and a large fin on its back. The speed at which the monstrous aniraals shot through the water prevented the Americans from wit nessing the issue of the fight. The classical dolphin of the ancients has been seen near the Cape of Good Hope, and most likely wanders far to the south, as he is proverbial for his arrow-like rapidity, and can easily traverse a couple of hundred mUes in a single day. In the Strait of MageUan and about Cape Horn are frequently seen the Delphinus superciliosus, whose turned-up raouth-cor- ners give his countenance a peculiariy benevolent and friendly expression, belied by his ravenous propensities, and the Delphinus leucoramphus, who, like the bjeluga of the north, has no dorsal fin, and by the Uveliness of his movements emulates the classical dolphin of the Mediterranean. The seal family plays a no less important part in the zoology of the Antarc tic Seas than in that of tbe northern waters. Here we find the monstrous sea- THE ANTARCTIC OCEAN. 399 elephant {Macrorhinus elephantinus), so called not only frora his size attaining a length of twenty-five feel, and a girth at the largest part of the body of from fifteen to eighteen, but also frora the singular structure of his elongated nostrils, which hang down when he is in a state of repose, but sweU out to a proboscis a foot long when he is enraged. This gives the aniraal a very formidable appear ance, which, along with his bellowing and his widely-gaping jaws arraed with tusk-like canines, raight strike terror into the boldest heart. But in reality the sea-elephant is a most defenseless creature, for on land it moves its unwieldy carcass with the utraost difficulty, and a single blow upon the snout with a club suffices lo stretch it lifeless on the ground. It used lo be met with in consid erable numbers on all the flat shores or islands between 35° and 62° S. lat., but as it yields a large quantity of exceUent oil, and as its skin, though merely cov ered with thick short bristles, is of some value from ils great strength and thickness, incessant persecution has greatly thinned its ranks, and in some parts extirpated it. Thus Sir Jaraes Ross relates that the sea-elephant and several other species of seals, which were forraerly in great abundance al Kerguelen's Land, annually drew a nuraber of fishing-vessels to its shores. But at the tirae of his visit (1840), after so many years of slaughter, they had quite deserted the place. The flesh of the sea-elephant is black, and of an oily taste, but Anson and his companions, after having been tossed about for several months on a tempestuous sea and reduced to great distress by scurvy, reUshed it at Juan Fernandez. The tongue is said to be a great deUcacy. As the soft jet-black fur of the young southern sea-bear {Arctocephalus falc- landicus) is no less valuable than that of its northem relative, the eagerness with which it is pursued may easily be imagined. Formerly vast herds of sea- bears used to resort every suramer to the New Shetland Islands, but soon after the rediscovery of the group the American and English sealers made their ap pearance on its desolate shores, and in the short time of four years extirpated the ursine seals, thus destroying by wasteful destruction what might have been a permanent source of profit. The southern sea-lion {Otaria jubata) is a larger aniraal than his northern namesake ; and whUe the latter is furnished only with an erect and curly hair- tuft at the neck, a coraplete mane flows round his breast. The remainder of the tawny body is covered with short sraooth hairs or bristles. The sea-lioness, who is rauch sraaller than her raate, has no raane ; and as she is of a darker color and has a differently shaped head, is frequently raistaken for another species, and called wolf, or lobo, by the inhabitants of the south-western coast of America. The fore flippers of the sea-lion have the appearance of large pieces of black tough leather, showing, instead of nails, slight horny elevations ; the hind fins, which are Ukewise black, have a closer resemblance lo feet, and the five toes are furnished with small naUs. It is a formidable-looking beast, par ticularly when full grown lo a length of ten feet and more. The sea-leopard {Leptonyx Weddelli), which owes ils name to its spotted skin, is peculiar to the southern seas. This large seal is from eight to nine feet long; the hind feet have no nails, and greatly reserable the tail of a fish. The Antarctic seals, dolphins, and petrels chiefly prey upon a genus of fish 400 THE POLAR WORLD. discovered at Kerguelen's Land, and named Nolothenia by Dr. Richardson. These fish, which are of an elongated eel-like shape, conceal theraselves from the persecutions of their eneraies in the sraall cracks and cavities of the pack- ice, and were frequently noticed by Sir Jaraes Ross when driven frora shelter by the ship as it struck and passed over their protecting pieces of ice. They in their turn live upon the sraaller cancri and limacinse, and these again upon creatures of a stUl more dirainutive size, until finally the chain of created beings terrainates in the diatoras,* which are found fiUing these seas with the rainutest forms of organic life. ¦* " The Sea and its Living Wonders," p. 403. ANTARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 401 CHAPTER XXXVIII. ANTARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOYERY. Cook's Discoveries in the Antarctic Ocean. — Bellinghausen. — Weddell. — Biscoe. — Balleny. — Dumont d'Urville. — Wilkes. — Sir James Eoss crosses the Antarctic Circle on New Year's Day, 1841. — Dis covers Victoria Land. — Dangerous Landing on Franklin Island. — ^An Eruption of Mount Erebus. — The Great Ice Barrier. — Providential Escape. — Dreadful Gale.— Collision. — Hazardous Passage be tween two Icebergs. — Termination of the Voyage. BEFORE Cook, no navigator had left Europe with the. clear design of pen etrating into the Antarctic regions. Dirk Gheritz indeed had been driv en by a furious storra far to the south of Cape Horn, and became the involun tary discoverer of the New Shetland Islands in 1600 ; but his voyage was soon forgotten, and in an age when the love of gold or the desire of conquest were the sole promoters of maritime enterprise, no mariner fell inclined to f oUow on his track, and to plunge into a sea where most probably he would find nothing but ice-fields and icebergs to reward his efforts. Nearly two centuries later a more scientific age directed its attention to the unknown regions of the distant south, and Cook sailed forth to probe the secrets of the Antarctic Seas. This dangerous task he executed with an intrepidity unparalleled in the annals of navigation. Beyond 60° of southern latitude, he cruised over a space of more than 100° of longitude, and on January 30, 1774, penetrated as far as 71° of southern latitude, where he was stopped by irapenetrable raasses of ice. Such were the difficulties encountered from dense fogs, snow-storms, intense cold, and every thing that can render navigation dangerous, that iu his opiuiou the lands situated to the southward of his discoveries must forever reraain un known. Again for many a year no one atterapted to enter a field where the most celebrated of modem mariners had found but a few desert islands (South Georgia, Sandwich's Land, Southern Thule) until Smith's casual rediscovery of New South Shetland in 1819 once more turned the current of maritirae ex ploration to the Antarctic Seas. Soon afterwards a Russian expedition under Lazareff and Bellinghausen discovered (January, 1821), in 69° 3' S. lat., the islands Paul the First and Alexander, the raost southern lands that had ever been visited by man. The year after Captain WeddeU, a sealer, penetrated into the icy ocean as far as 74° 15' S. lat., 3° nearer to the pole than had been attained by Cook. The sea lay invitingly open, but as the season was far advanced, and WeddeU apprehended the dangers of the return voyage, he steered again to the north. In 1831 Biscoe discovered Enderby Land, and soon afterwards Graham's Land, to which the gratitude of geographers has since given the discoverer's name. In 1839 Balleny revealed the existence of the group of islands caUed 26 402 THE POLAR WORLD. after him, and of Sabrina Land (69° S. lat.). About the same time three con siderable expeditions, fitted out by the governments of France, the United States, and England, made their appearance in the Antarctic Seas. Dumont d'UrviUe discovered Terre Louis Philippe (63° 31' S. lat.) in Feb ruary, 1838, and Terre AdeUe (66° 67' S. lat.) on January 21, 1840. Almost on the sarae day, Wilkes, the comraander of the United States Exploring Ex pedition, reached an ice-bound coast, which he foUowed for a length of 1500 miles, and which has been caUed WUkes's Land, to comraeraorate the discover er's name. But of aU the explorers of the southern frozen ocean, the palm unquestiona bly belongs to Sir James Ross, who penetrated farther towards the pole than any other navigator before or after, and made the only discoveries of extensive land within the area bounded by the Antarctic Circle. On New Year's Day, 1841, the " Erebus," Captain Jaraes Clark Ross, and the " Terror," comraanded by Francis Crozier, who died with Franklin in the Arctic Sea, crossed the Antarctic Circle, and after sustaining raany severe shocks in breaking through the pack-ice, eraerged on January 9 into a clear sea of great extent; but the fog and snow-showers were so thick that the naviga tors could seldora see more than half a mile before them. On the foUowing day the fog began lo disperse, and on tbe llth, Victoria Land, rising in lofty peaks entirely covered with perennial snow, was seen at a distance of more than one hundred mUes. On steering towards Mount Sabine, the highest mountain of the range, new chains of hills were seen extending to the right and left. After saiUng for a few days to the south along the ice-bound coast, a gale forced the ships to stand out lo sea ; but on the raorning of January 15, the weather becoraing beautifully clear, allowed a full view of a magnificent chain of mountains stretching far away to the southward. Ross was most anxious to find a harbor in which to secure the ships, but every indentation of the coast was found filled with snow drifted frora the mountains, and forming a mass of ice several hundred feet thick. It was thus impossible to enter any of the vaUeys or breaks in the coast where harbors in other lands usually oc cur. Yet these inhospitable shores (72° 73' S. lat.) are situated but one or two degrees nearer to the pola than Hararaerfest, the seat of an active coramerce on the Norwegian coast. Favored by northerly winds and an open sea, the ships reached on January 22 a higher southern latitude (74° 20' S.) than that which had been attained by WeddeU. Pursuing their way to the southward along the edge of tho pack-ice, which now compelled them to keep at a considerable distance from the coast, they carae on the 27th within two or three railes of a sraall island connected by a vast ice-field with the extrerae point of the mainland. Eager to set his foot on the raost southerly soil (76° 8' S.) he had as yet discovered, Ross left the " Erebus," accorapanied by several officers, and, foUowed by Cro zier and a party frora the " Terror," pulled towards the shore. A high south erly swell broke so heavily against the cliffs and on the only piece of beach which they could see as they rowed from oue end of the island to the other, as almost to forbid their landing. AJSTTARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCO^^ERY. 403 By gi-eat skill and manageraent Ross succeeded in juraping on to the rocks. By means of a rope some of the officers landed soraewhat more easily, but not without getting thoroughly wetted, and one of thera nearly lost his life in this difficult affair. The therraoraeter being at 22°, every part of the rocks washed hy the waves was covered with a coating of ice, so that in juraping frora the boat he slipped frora thera into the water between her stern and the alraost perpendicular rock on which his corapanions had landed. But for the prorapt itude of the raen in the boat in instantly pulling off, he must have been crushed between it and the rock. He was taken into the boat withoul having suffered any other injury than being benumbed by the cold. The island, which received the name of Franklin, bore not the smaUest trace of vegetation, not even a lichen or piece of sea-weed growing on the rocks ; but the white petrel and the skua-guU had their nests on the ledges of the cliffs, and seals were seen sporting in the water. The following day was raeraorable for the discovery of the southernraost known land of the globe, a raagnificent mountain chain, to which the narae of Parry was given, in grateful reraembrance of the honor which that iUustrious navigator had conferred on Ross, by calling the most northern land at that tirae known by his name. It is not often that raen are able to reciprocate such compUments as these ! The most conspicuous object of the chain was Mount Erebus (77° 5' S.), an active volcano, of which Ross had the good-fortune to witness a magnificent eruption. The enormous columns of flarae and sraoke rising two thousand feet above the raouth of the crater, which is elevated 12,400 feet above the level of the sea, corabined with the snow-white mountain chain and the deep-blue ocean to form a magnificent scene. An extinct volcano to the eastward of Mount Erebus, and a little inferior in height, being by meas urement 10,900 feet high, was called "Mount Terror." A briUiant raantle of snow swept down the sides of both these giants of the south, and projected a perpendicular icy cliff several railes into the sea. Gladly would Ross have penetrated stiU farther to the south, but all his efforts were baffled by a vast barrier of ice, forming an uninterrupted wall, 450 miles in length, and rising in some parts to a height of 180 feet above the sea-level. While sailing along this barrier, the ships were frequently obliged by the wind and the closely-packed ice to keep at a considerable distance ; but on February 9, having entered the only indentation which they had perceived throughout its whole extent, they had an exceUent opportunity of getting quite close to it, though at no little hazard. This bay was formed by a projecting peninsula of ice, terminated by a cape 170 feet high ; but at the narrow isthraus which connected it with the great barrier it was not raore than fifty feet high, affording Ross the only opportunity he had of seeing its upper surface frora the mast-head. It appeared to be quite smooth, and conveyed to the mind the idea of an iraraense plain of frosted silver. Gigantic icicles depended from every projecting point of its perpendicular cliffs, proving that it sometimes thawed, which otherwise could not have been believed ; for at a season of the year equivalent to August in England, the therraoraeter at noon did not rise above 14°, and the young ice formed so quickly in the sheltered bay as to warn 404 THE POLAR WORLD. thera of the necessity of a speedy retreat. Favored by the breeze, and by dint of great exertion, they ultiraately emerged frora their dangerous position, but scarcely had they escaped when the wind came directly against them, so that had they lingered but half an hour longer near the barrier they would certainly have been frozen up. On February 13 the approach of winter convinced Ross that it was high lirae to relinquish the further examination of the barrier to the eastward ; and as no place of security where it was possible to winter could be found upon any part of the land hitherto discovered, he reluctantly resolved to recross the Antarctic Circle, and postpone aU attempts to reach the pole to the next season. The return voyage was difficult and dangerous. On March 7, the ships, while endeavoring to find a way through the pack-ice in lat. 65°, had a narrow escape from iraminent destruction. The wind having ceased, they found theraselves at the mercy of a heavy easterly swell, which was driving them down upon the pack, in which were counted from the raast-head eighty-four large bergs, and sorae hundreds of smaller size. As they rapidly approached this formidable chain, no opening could be discovered through which the ships could pass ; the waves were beating violently against the bergs, and dashing huge masses of pack-ice against their precipitous faces, now lifting them nearly to their sumrait, then forcing thera again far beneath their water-line, and sometimes rending them in a multitude of brilliant fragments against their projecting points. " Sublime and magnificent," says Ross, " as such a scene must have appeared under different circumstances, to us it was awful, if nol appalling. For eight hours we had been gradually drifting towards what to huraan eyes appeared inevitable destruction ; the high waves and deep roUing of our ships rendered towing with the boats irapossible, and our situation the more painful and em barrassing from our inability lo make any effort to avoid the dreadful calami ty that seeraed to await us We were now within half a mile of the range of bergs. The roar of the surf, which extended each way as far as we could see, and the crashing of the ice, fell upon the ear with fearful distinctness, whilst the frequently averted eye as immediately returned to contemplate -the awful destruction that threatened in one short hour to close the world, and aU its hopes, and joys, and sorrows upon us forever. In this our deep distress ' we called upon the Lord, and He heard our voices out of His temple, and orn ery came before Him.' A gentle air of wind fiUed our sails ; hope again re vived, and the greatest activity prevailed to make the best use of the feeble breeze ; as it graduaUy freshened, our heavy ships began to feel its influence, slowly at first, but more rapidly aflerwards, and before dark we found ourselves far reraoved from every danger." After passing the winter at Hobarton, the capital of Tasmania, Sir James Ross, in the following year, once raore crossed the Antarctic Circle to examine the icy barrier which in his previous voyage had blocked his progress lo the south, and to renew his attempts to pass round or through it. But there were new dangers lo be encountered. On January 17, 1842, a fearful storm came on as the " Erebus " and " Terror " were making their way through the pack-ice, which was this time raet with in a more northern latitude than the year before. ANTARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 405 The sea broke aU the hawsers which held them to a large piece of fioe, and drove them helplessly along into the heavy pack. They were now involved in an ocean of roUing fragraents of ice, which were dashed against them by the waves with so much violence that their masts quivered as if they would fall at every successive blow. The loud crashing noise of the straining and working of the limbers and decks, as they were driven against sorae of the heavier pieces, might well appall the stoutest heart, and thus hour passed away after hour. During this terrible scene the ships were at one lime so close together that when the " Terror " rose to the top of one wave, the " Erebus " was on the top of the wave next lo leeward of her, the deep chasm between thera being fill ed with heavy rolling masses ; and as the ships descended into the hollow be tween the waves, the maintopsail-yard of each could be seen, just level with the crest of the intervening wave, frora the deck of the other. The night, which now began to draw in, rendered their condition, if possible, raore hopeless and helpless than before ; but at raidnight the snow, which had been falling thickly for several hours, cleared away, as the wind suddenly shifted to the westward ; the sweU began to subside, and the shocks which the ships stUl sustained, though strong enough to shatter any vessel less strongly ribbed, were feeble compared with those to which they had been exposed. On the following day, the wind having moderated to a fresh breeze, the crippled ships, whose rudders had been sorely shattered, were securely raoored to a large floe-piece in the now almost motionless pack, where, by dint of unceasing labor, the d.amages were repaired in the course of a week, and the vessels once raore fitted to fight their way to the south. Ou February 22 the great barrier was seen from the mast-head, just before midnight, and the following day, the wind blowing directly on to its cliffs, they approached it within a mile and a half, in lat. 78° 11', the highest ever attained in the southern hemisphere. Frora this point, situated about 5° of longitude farther to the east than the indentation where the ships had so narrowly escaped being frozen fast iu the preceding year, the barrier trended considerably lo the northward of east, so that Ross was obliged to give up all hope of rounding it, and extending his explorations towards the pole, as the season was already con siderably advanced. On his return voyage to the Falklands, where he intended to pass the winter, he had already reached the latitude of 60°, and thought hira self out of danger of meeting with bergs, when, in the afternoon of March 12, the southerly wind changed to a strong north-westerly breeze. In the evening the -wind increased so much, and the snow-showers became so incessant, that he was obliged lo proceed under more moderate sail. Small pieces of ice were also met with, warning him of the presence of bergs, concealed by the thickly- faUing snow, so that before midnight he directed the topsails of the " Erebus " to be close-reefed, and every arrangeraent raade for rounding to until daylight, deeming it too hazardous to run any longer. " Our people," says the gallant explorer, " had hardly corapleted these operations, when a large berg was seen ahead and quite close ; the ship was immediately hauled to the wind on the port tack, with the expectation of being able to weather it ; but just at this rao ment the ' Terror ' was observed running down upon us, under her topsail and 406 THE POLAR WORLD. foresail ; and as it was impossible for her to clear both the berg and the ' Ere bus,' coUision was inevitable. We instantly hove aU aback to diminish the vi olence of the shock ; but the concussion when she struck us was such as to throw almost every one off his feet ; our bowsprit, foretopraast, and other sraaU er spars, were carried away, and the ships hanging together entangled by their rigging, and dashing against each other with fearful violence, were faUing down upon the weather face of the lofty berg under our lee, against which the waves were breaking and foaraing to near the summit of its perpendicular cliffs. Sometiraes the ' Terror ' rose high above us, alraost exposipg her keel to view, and again descended, as we in our turn rose to the lop of the wave, threatening to bury her beneath us, whUst the crashing of the breakmg upper-works and boats increased the horror of the scene. Providentially the ships gradually separated before we drifted down amongst the foaraing breakers, and we had the gratification of seeing the ' Terror ' clear the end of the berg, and of feeling that she was safe. But she left us corapletely disabled ; the wreck of the spars so encumbered the lower yard that we were unable lo make saU so as to get headway on the ship ; nor had we room to wear round, being by this time so close to the berg that the waves, when they struck against it, threw back their spray inlo the ship. The only way left lo us to extricate ourselves from this awful and appalling situation was by resorting to the hazardous ex pedient of a stern board, which nothing could justify during such a gale but to avert the danger which every moment threatened us of being dashed to pieces. The heavy rolling of the vessel, and the probability of the masts giving away each tirae the lower yard-arras struck against the cUffs, which were towering high above our raast-heads, rendered il a service of extreme danger to loose the mainsail ; but no sooner was the order given, than the daring spirit of the British seaman raanifested itself — the men ran up the rigging with as rauch alacrity as on any ordinary occasion ; and, although raore than once driven off the yard, they after a short tirae succeeded in loosing the sail. Araidst the roar of the wind and sea, it was difficult both to hear and to execute the orders that were given, so that it was three-quarters of an hour before we could get the yards braced by, and the raain tack hauled on board sharp aback — an expedient that perhaps had never before been resorted to by seamen in such weather; but it had the desired effect ; the ship gathered stemway, plunging her stern into the sea, and with her lower yard-arms scraping the rugged face of the berg, we in a few minutes reached its western terraination ; the ' under-low,' as it is called, or the reaction of the water frora its vertical cliffs, alone preventing us being driven to atoms against it. No sooner had we cleared il than another was seen directly astern of us, against which we were running; and the diffi culty now was lo get the ship's head turned round and pointed fairly through between the two bergs, the breadth of the intervening space not exceeding three tiraes her own breadth. This, however, we happily accoraplished ; and in a few minutes, after getting before the wind, she dashed through the narrow channel between two perpendicular waUs of ice, and the foaming breakers which stretch ed across it, and the next moment we were in sraooth water under its lee. The 'Terror's' light was immediately seen and answered; she had rounded to, wait- ANTARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 407 ing for us .... , and, as soon as day broke, we had the gratification of learn ing that she had not suffered any serious damage." On December 17 Sir James Ross sailed frora the Falkland Islands, with the intention of foUowing the track of Weddell, as, frora the account of that daring navigator, he had every reason to expect to find a clear sea, which would enable him considerably lo extend the limits of geographical knowledge towards the pole. He was disappointed, for though he discovered some new land (63°- 64° 30'S.lat., 55°-57°W.long.) to the south of D'UrviUe's Terre Louis Phi lippe, yet the pack-ice so blocked his progress that the farthest point he could attain was in lat. 71° 30' S., long. 14° 61' W. On March 1 he recrossed the An tarctic Circle, and on the 28th of the sarae month dropped his anchors at the Cape. Thus ended this most remarkable voyage, so honorable to all engaged in il, for, as Sir John Richardson justly remarks, " the perseverance, daring, and coolness of the coramanding officer, of the other officers, and of the crews of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' was never surpassed, and have been rarely, ff ever, equaUed by searaen of any nation." Since then the " Pagoda," which had been sent out by the Admiralty for the purpose of obser-ving magnetic phenomena in a quarter of the Antarctic Seas that had not been visited by Sir Jaraes Ross, attained the 73d parallel, but no more recent expedition has been fitted out to prosecute his discoveries, and no man after hira has seen Mount Erebus voraiting forth its torrents of fiame, or traced the stupendous barrier which stopped his progress to the pole. 408 THE POLAR WORLD. STEAIT OF MAGELLAN. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. Description ofthe Strait. — Western Entrance. — Point Dungeness. — The Narrows. — Saint Philip's Bay. — Cape Froward. — Grand Scenery. — Port Famine. — The Sedger River. — Darwin's Ascent of Mount Tarn. — The Bachelor River. — English Reach. — Sea Eeach. — South Desolation. — Harbor of Mercy.— Williwaws. — Discovery ofthe Strait by Magellan (October 20, 1521). — Drake. — Sarmiento.— Cav endish. — Schouten and Le Maire. — Byron. — Bougainville. — Wallis and Carteret. — King and Fitz roy. — Settleraent at Punta Arenas. — Increasing Passage through the Strait. — A future Highway of Commerce. nr^HE celebrated strait which bears the name of Magellan is generally pic- -*- tured as the scene of a wild and dreary desolation ; but though its climate is far from being genial, and its skies are oflen veUed wilh mists and rain, yet nature can smile even here. A glance at the map shows us the extreme irregularity of its formation, as it is constantly changing in width and direction ; now swelling almost to the magnitude of a Mediterranean Sea, and then again contracting to a narrow passage; sometiraes taking a rapid turn to the north, and at others as sudden ly deviating to the south. Islands and islets of every forra — sorae raere naked rocks, others clothed with urabrageous woods — are scattered over its surface ; promontories without number, from the Patagonian mainland or the Fuegian archipelago, protrude their bold fronts into its bosom, as if wilh the intention THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 409 of closing it altogether ; and countless bays and havens are scooped into its rocky shores, as if the sea in a thousaud different places had striven to open a new passage to her waters. The westem entrance of this remarkable strait is formed by Queen Cathe rine's Foreland (Cape Virgins) and Point Dungeness, the latter having been thus naraed from its reserablance to the well-known Kentish proraontory al the eastern mouth of the channel. Although it rises at most nine feet above low- water mark, the snow-white breakers which the tides are constantly dashing over its sides render it visible from a great distance. It is generally the resort of a number of sea-lions. When the wind comes blowing from the north-east, the passing mariner — who, from the shallow nature of vthe shore, is obliged to keep at some distance frora the Ness — hears their hoarse bellowing, which har monizes well with the wild and desolate character of the scene. Albatrosses and petrels hover about them, while rows of grave-looking penguins seem to contemplate their doings with philosophic indifference. Beyond these promontories the strait widens into Possession Bay, whicb at Punta Delgada and Cape Orange contracts to a narrow passage. This leads into a wide basin, to which the Spaniards have given the name of Saint Philip's Bay, and which again terminates in a second narrow passage or channel, a formation resembling on a small scale the Sea of Marmora, which, as we aU know, has likewise the semblance of a lake, receiving and discharging its wa ters through the Dardanelles and the Strait of Constantinople. During the rising of the flood, a strong current flows through aU these bays and narrows from the west, so as to aUow ships an easy passage, even against the wind ; but during ebb tide the current turns to the east, so that at this time a ves sel, even when favored by the wind, makes but little progress, or is even obliged to anchor lo avoid losing ground. When MageUan, after sailing round Cape Virgins, penetrated inlo the strait, this circumstance at once convinced that great navigator that he was not in an inclosed bay, but in an open chan nel, which would lead hira into another ocean. Thus far the country on both sides of the strait consists of nearly level plains, like those of Patagonia ; but beyond the second Narrows the land begins to assurae the more bold and pic turesque appearance which is characteristic of Tierra del Fuego. Mountains rise above raountains with deep intervening valleys, aU covered by one thick, dusky raass of forest; while farther lo the east scarcely a bush clothes the naked soil. The trees reach to an elevation of between 1000 and 1500 feet, and are succeeded by a band of peat, with minute Alpine plants, and this again is succeeded by the line of perpetual snow, which, according to Captain King, descends to between 3000 and 4000 feet. The finest scenery about the Strait of MageUan is undoubtedly to the east of Cape Froward, the raost southerly point of the raainland of South Araerica. This promontory, which consists of a steep raass of rock about 800 feet high, abutting frora a mountain chain of about 2000 or 3000 feet in height, forms the boundary between two very different climates, for to the east the weather is finer and more agreeable than to the west, where wind and rain are almost perpetual. 410 THE POLAR WORLD. On the Patagonian plains, the drought and the want of protection against the piercing winds almost entirely irapede vegetation ; but the country between Cape Negro— a littie within the second Narrows — and Cape Froward, or the eastern shore of Brunswick Peninsula, is shielded by its situation against the alraost perpetual storms frora the west, and enjoys, moreover, a sufficiency of rain, and now and then serene weather. As, raoreover, the soU in this central part of the strait consists of disintegrated clay-slate, which is raost favorable to the growth of trees, the forests, frora aU these causes, are finer here than any where else. The country about Port Famine is particularly distinguished for the rich ness of its vegetation ; and both for this reason, and from its central situation, this harbor has become a kind of chief station for the ships that pass through the strait. Several unfortunate atterapts al colonization have been made at Port Famine ; here many a naturalist has tarried, and thus no part of the strait has been oftener described or raore accurately observed. "The anchorage," says Duraont d'Urville, who, in Deceraber, 1837, spent several days al Port Faraine, " is excellent, and landing everywhere easy. A fine rivulet gives us exceUent water, and the neighboring forests raight furnish whole fleets with the necessary fuel. "The cliffs along the shore are UteraUy covered with raussels, limpets, and whelks, which afford a delicious variety of fare to a crew tired of salt beef and peas. Among the plants I noticed wilh pleasure a species of celery, which, witb another herb resembling our corn flower in form and taste, gives promise of an excellent salad. " I made use of ray first leisure lo visit the romantic banks of the Sedger River, which discharges its waters on the western side of the port. At its mouth the swampy strand is completely covered with enormous trees heaped upon the ground. These naked giants, stripped of their branches, afford a re raarkable spectacle : they might be taken for huge bones bleached by time. No doubt they are transported from the neighboring forest by the waters of the river, which, when it overflows its banks, after a deluge of rain, tears along with it the trees it meets wilh in ils course. Arrested by the bar at the mouth of the stream, they are cast out upon ils banks, where they remain when the waters sink to their usual level. " Having crossed the river, I entered the large and flne forest with which it is bordered. The chief tree is the Antarctic beech {Fagus betuloides), which is often from sixty to ninety feet high, and about three feel in diameter. Along with this are two other trees, the winter's bark ( Winteria aromatica), and a species of berberis, with a very solid wood ; but they are much less abundant, and of a much sraaller size. With the exception of raosses, lichens, and other plants of this order, these forests afford but little that is interesting lo the naturalist — no quadrupeds, no reptiles, no land-snails ; a few insects and some birds are the only specimens to be gained after a long search. After collect ing a good supply of mosses and lichens, I returned lo the boat for the pur pose of rowing up the river. Although the current was tolerably rapid, we ad vanced about two miles, admiring the beauty of its urabrageous banks. On ray return I shot two geese that were crossing the river over our heads, and THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 411 whose excellent raeat araply supplied ray table for several days. This, together with the little gobies which were abundantly caught with hand-lines, the large mussels we detached from the rocks, and the celery-salad, gave rae dinners fit for an alderraan. How often since have I regretted the plenty of Port Fam ine !" In the month of I'ebruary (1834), in the height of the Antarctic sumraer, Mr. Darwin ascended Mount Tarn, which is 2600 feet high, and the most ele vated point in the vicinity of Port Famine. " The forest," says our great nat urahst, " commences at the line of high-water raark, and during the first two hours I gave over all hopes of reaching the suramit. So thick was the wood that it was necessary to have constant recourse lo the compass, for every land mark, though iu a mountainous country, was completely shut out. In the deep ravines the death-like scene of desolation exceeded all description; outside it was blowing a gale, but in these hollows not even a breath of wind stirred the leaves of the taUesl trees. So gloomy, cold, and wel was every part, that uot even the fungi, mosses, or ferns could flourish. In the valleys il was scarcely possible to crawl along, they were so completely barricaded by great moulder ing trunks, which had fallen down in every direction. When passing over these natural bridges, one's course was often arrested by sinking knee-deep into the rotten wood ; at other liraes, when attempting lo lean against a tree, one was startled by finding a mass of decayed raatter, ready lo fall at the slightest touch. We at last found ourselves araong the stunted trees, and then soon reached the bare ridge, which conducted us to the suramit. Here was a view characteristic of Tierra del Fuego ; irregular chains of hills, raottled with patches of snow, deep yellowish-green valleys, and arras of the sea intersecting the land in raany directions. The strong -wind was piercingly cold, and the atmosphere raiher hazy, so that we did not stay long on the top of the mount ain. Our descent was not quite so laborious as our ascent; for the weight of the body forced a passage, and all the slips and falls -were in the right di rection." To the west of Cape Froward the strait extends in a north-westerly, almost rectilinear direction, untU it finaUy opens into the Pacific, between Cape Pilla- and Cape Victory. Here a day rarely passes without rain, hail, or snow. Where the dreadful power of the prevailing winds has free play, the raountain sides are naked and bare, but in every sheltered nook the damp climate produces a luxuriant vegetation. The trees, however, do not attain any great height, and at Port GaUant the beech is already decidedly stunted in its growth. This is no doubt caused by the excessive humidity of the soil, which in all lower situations is converted by the continual rains into a deep morass. The trunks and the branches are covered with a thick layer of raoss, and the tree becoraes rotten in its youth. But raany shrubs, herbs, and mosses thrive under the perpetual del uge; the latter particularly, covering large patches of ground with a spongy car pel. It raay easily be iraagined how difficult, or rather irapossible it must be to penetrate into the interior of such a country. Yel even these wild inhospitable regions can boast of many a romantic scene. Thus the English Reach, which extends from Cape Froward to Carlos Island, is bounded on both sides by lofty 413 THE POLAR WORLD. mountains, their cones or jagged peaks covered with eternal snow. Ils south ern bank, formed by Clarence Island, is intersected with bays and channels, two of which, Magdalena Sound and Barbara Channel, lead through a raaze of isl ands into the open sea. Several glaciers descend in a winding course from the upper great expanse of snow to the sea-coast, and many a cascade coraes dash ing down frora rock to rock. Skograan* draws an enthusiastic picture of the beauty of York Roads near the mouth of the small Bachelor River. To the south, behind Carlos Island, mountains rise above mountains, and snow-fields above snow-fields ; to the north lies the jagged colossus, which from its solitary grandeur has been called Bachelor Peak, and at whose foot the crystal river now hides itseff beneath a shady wood, and now rolls its crystal waters through a green lawn, decorated with cluraps of fuchsias. But in sj^ite of its romantic beauty, the want of life gives a melancholy character lo this solitary vale. Be yond Carlos Island in Long Reach, the banks of the strait become yet raore bare and desolate. Vegetation descends lower and lower into the valleys, and eveu here the trees are misshapen and dwarfish. But the mountaiu scenery has stiU aU the raajesty which suow-fields and glaciers of a beryl-like blue irapart to an Alpine landscape. As Sea Reach shows itself, vegetation is alraost totally ex tinct, and on approaching the mouth of the strait, the mountains become lower, their forms are less picturesque, and instead of the stem grandeur which marks the middle part of the strait, low, rounded, barren hills make their appearance, which corapletely justify the narae of South Desolation, which Sir James Nar borough gave to this coast, "because it was so desolate a land to behold." Il may easily be imagined that the prevailing winds beyond Cape Froward are extremely troublesome to ships sailing lo the western mouth of the strait, and that if not entirely beaten back, they can frequently only force the piassage after raany efforts. Fortunately, the deeply indented coasts possess a nuraber of small havens which may serve the mariner as stations during his gradual ad vance. Thus, close to the raouth of the strait, where, between Cape Victory and Cape Pillar, the sea during and after storras is so boisterous that even stearaers require their utraost strength nol to be dashed against the rocks, a se cure port, appropriately caUed " Harbor of Mercy," allows the vessels to watch for raore tranquil weather, and lo seize the first favorable oppiortunity for emerging into the open sea. But even these harbors and bays are subject to peculiar dangers from sudden gusts of wind that corae sweeping down from the mountains, and are known araong the seal-catchers who frequent these danger ous waters under the narae of williwaws, or hurricane squalls. For when the wUd south--west storms come rushing against the mountain-masses of Tierra del Fuego, the compressed air precipitates itself with redoubled violence over the rock-waUs, and then suddenly expanding, flows down the valleys or guUies, tearing up trees by the roots, and hurling rocks into the abyss. Where such a gust of wind touches the surface of the water, the sea surges in mighty waves, and voluraes of spray are whirled away to a vast distance. If a ship comes un der its influence, its safety depends raainly upon the strength of its anchor ropes. Sorae situations are particularly subject to williwaws, and then the total want '* Voyage of the Swedish ship " Eugenie." THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 413 of vegetation and the evident marks of ruin along the mountain slopes warn the mariner to avoid the neighborhood. In Gabriel Channel Captain King saw a spot where the williwaws, bursting over the mountains on the south side, had swept down the declivities, and then rushing against the foot of the opposite hiUs, had dgain dashed uj)ward with such fury as to carry away wilh them every thing that could possibly be attached frora the bare rock. It was a memorable day in the annals of maritime discovery (October 20, 1521) when Magellan reached the eastern entrance of the strait that was to lead him, first of all European navigators, from the broad basin of the Atlantic into the still wider expanse of the Pacific Ocean. It was the day dedicated in the Catholic calendar to St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, and he conse quently named the promontory which first struck his view " Cabo de las Vir- gines." The flood tide, streaming violently to the west, convinced him that he was at the raouth of an open channel, but he had scarcely provisions for three months — a short allowance for venturing into an unknown world, and thus be fore he attempted the passage he convoked a council of all his officers. Some were for an immediate return to Europe, but the majority voted for the con tinuation of the voyage, and Magellan declared that should they even be re duced to eat the leather of their shoes he would persevere to the last, and with God's assistance execute the commands of his imperial master Charles V. He then at once gave orders to enter the strait full sail, and on pain of death for bade any one to say a word more about a retum or the want of provisions. Fortunately the winds were in his favor, for had the usual inclemencies of this stormy region opposed hira, there is no doubt that with such crazy ves sels, and such discontented crews, all his heroism would have failed to insure success. It was the spring of the southern hemisphere, and the strait showed itseff in one of its rare aspects of calm. Many fish were caught, and, as Pi- gafetti, the historian of the voyage, relates, the aromatic winter's bark which served them for fuel " wonderfully refreshed and invigorated their spirits." The fires kindled by the savages on the southern side during the night in duced Magellan to give that part of the country the name of Tierra del Fuego, or Fireland; while from their high stature and bulky frames, he caUed the in habitants of the opposite mainland Patagonians (patagon being the Spanish augmentative of pata, foot). Although several days were lost in exploi-ing some of the nuraerous passages and bays of the straits, its eastern mouth was reached on Noveraber 28, and MageUan saw the wide Pacific expand before him. In 1625 Charles V. sent out a new expedition of six vessels, under Garcia de Loaisa, to circumnavigate the globe. The vice-admiral of the squadron was Sebastian el Cano, who, after the death of MageUan, had brought the iUustri ous navigator's ship safely back to Europe, and as a reward had been ennobled with the globe in his coat of arms, and the motto, " Primus circumdedisti me." Loaisa entered the strait on January 26, 1526, but he was beaten back by storms as far as the River Santa Cruz. On April 8 he once raore atterapted the passage, and emerged into the Pacific on May 25. Simon de Alcazaba,who in 1534 attempted to pass the MageUans with a number of emigrants for Peru, 414 THE POLAR WORLD. was less successful, but in 1639, Alfonso de Camargo, having lost two vessels in the strait, passed it with the third, and reached the port of Callao. Until now the Spanish flag had alone been seen in these remote and solitary waters, but the lirae was come when they were lo open a passage to its most inveterate foes. On August 20, 1579, Francis Drake, coraraissioned by Queen Elizabeth to plunder and destroy the Spanish settleraents on the west coast of Araerica, ran into the strait, and on Deceraber 6 sallied forth into the Pacific. To meet this formidable enemy, the Viceroy of Peru sent out in the same year two ships under Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. His orders were to inter cept Drake's passage through the strait and then to sail on to Spain. Though he failed in the object of his raission, yet Sarmiento displayed in the naviga tion of the intricate and dangerous passages along the south-west coast of Araerica, the courage and skill of a consummate seaman, and he gave the first exact and detaUed account of the land and waters of Fuegia. His voyage, ac cording to the weighty testimony of Captain King, deserves to be noted as one of the raost useful of the age in which it was perforraed. On his arrival in Spain, Sarmiento strongly pointed out the necessity of es tablishing a colony and erecting a fort in the strait (at that tirae the only known passage to the Pacific), so as effectually lo prevent the recurrence of a future hostile expedition like that of Drake. Commissioned by Philip II. lo carry his plans into execution, he founded a colony, to which he gave the name of Ciudad de San Felipe, but a series of disasters entirely destroyed it ; and when, a few years later. Cavendish, who had fitted out three ships at his own expense to imitate the exaraple of Drake, appeared in the strait, he found but three sur vivors of many hundreds, and gave the scene of their misery the appropriate narae of Port Faraine, which it has retained to the present day. After Cavendish and Hawkins (1694), the Dutch navigators De Cordes (1699), Oliver Van Noort (1599), and Spilberg (1615), atterapted, with more or less success, lo sail through the strait with the intention of harassing and plun dering the Spaniards on the coast of the Pacific. Strange to say, no attempt had been made since Magellan to discover a pas sage farther to the south, so universal and firraly established was the belief that Fuegia extended without interruption to the regions of eternal ice, until at length, in 1616, the Dutchmen Schouten and Le Maire discovered the passage round Cape Horn. Two years later Garcia de Nodales sailed through the Strait of Le Maire, and, returning through the MageUans into the Atlantic, was thus the first circumnavigator of Fuegia. In 1669, Sir John Narborough hav ing been sent out by King Charles II. to explore the Magellanic regions, fur nished a good general chart of the strait, and raany plans of the anchorage within it. More than sixty years now elapsed before any expedition of historical renown raade its appearance in the strait. The dangers and hardships which had as sailed the previous navigators discouraged their successors, who all preferred the circuitous way round Cape Horn to the shorter but, as it was at that lime considered, more perilous route through the strait. After this long pause, By ron (December, 1764) and BougainvUle (February, 1765) once more attempted THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 415 the MageUans. The difficulties encountered by them were surpassed by those of Wallis aud Carteret. The former spent nearly four months (frora Decera ber 17, 1766, to April 11, 1767) in a perpetual conflict with stormy weather while slowly creeping through the strait ; and the latter required eighty-four days for his passage frora Port Faraine to Cape PiUar. No wonder that the next circuranavigators, Ltitke, Krusenstern, Kotzebue, preferred sailing round Cape Horn, and that adventurous seal-hunters became for a long tirae the sole visitors of these ill-faraed waters. At length the British Governraent carae to a resolution worthy of England, and resolved to have the Magellanic regions carefully surveyed, and to conquer them, as it were, anew for geographical science. Under the coramand of Captain King, the " Adventure " and the "Beagle" were engaged in this arduous task from 1826 to 1830; but such were the dangers they had to encounter, that Captain Stokes, the second in command, after contending for four months with the storms and currents which frequently threatened to dash his vessel against the cliffs, became so shattered in mind and body, that after his return to Port Famine he committed suicide in a fit of melancholy. From 1831 to 1834 Captain Fitzroy was engaged in completing the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del ^Fuego, and the result of all these labors was a col lection of charts and plans which have rendered navigation in those parts as safe as can be expected in the most tempestuous region of the globe. While formerly the passage round Cape Horn was universally preferred, the more accurate knowledge of the Strait of Magellan, for which navigation is in debted to the labors of King and Fitzroy, has since then turned the scale in favor of the latter. For a trading-vessel, with only the ordinary nuraber of hands on board, the passage through the strait frora east to west is indeed very difficult, and even dangerous ; but in the opposite direction, the almost constant westerly winds render it coraraodious and easy particularly during the suraraer months, in which they are raost prevalent. For sraall vessels — clippers, schooners, cutters — the passage in both directions is, according to the excellent authority of Captain King, rauch to be preferred. Such vessels have far raore reason for fearing the heavy seas about Cape Horn ; they can raore easily cross against the west winds, as their manoeuvres are gen erally very skiUful, and they find iu the Sound itself a great number of anchor- ing-places, which are inaccessible to larger vessels. For stearaers the advantage is entirely on the side of the Strait, and they consequently now invariably prefer this route. Here they find plenty of wood, which enables thera to save their coals ; and raoreover, from Cape Tamar as far as the Gulf of Penas, an easy navigation for about 360 sea raUes through the channels along the west coast of Araerica. As the trade of the Pacific is continually increasing, and the Strait of Magel lan more frequented frora year to year, we can not wonder that the old project of settling a colony on ils shores should have been revived in our days. About the year 1840 the Governraent of Chili established a penal colony at Punta Are nas and Port Famine, which miserably failed in consequence of a mutiny ; but 416 THE POLAR WORLD. in 1853 about one hundred and fifty German emigrants were settled at Punta Arenas, and when the " Novara " visited the strait in 1858, they were found in a thriving condition. Should the project of stationing steam-lugs in the strait, and of erecting lighthouses at Cape Virgins and at the entrance of Smyth Chan nel be executed, the MageUans would become one of the high-roads of com merce, and the dangers which proved so dreadful to the navigators of former days a mere tale of the past. > '3 J^^'LiaR^^- A HIGHWAY OF COMMEECE. PATAG0NL4. AND THE PATAGONIANS. 417 PATAGONIANS. CHAPTER XL. PATAGONIA AND THE PATAGONIANS. Difierence of Climate between East and West Patagonia.— Extraordinary Aridity of East Patagonia. — Zoology. — The Gnanaco.— The Tucutuco. — The Patagonian Agouti. — Vultures. — The Turkey-buz zard. — The Carrancha. — The Chimango. — Darwin's Ostrich. — The Patagonians.— Exaggerated Ac counts of their Stature. — Their Physiognomy and Dress. — Keligious Ideas. — Superstitions. — Astro nomical Knowledge. — Division into Tribes. — The Tent, or Toldo. — Trading Eoutes. — The great Cacique. — Introduction of the Horse. — Industry. — Arauseraents. — Character. "pATAGONIA, the southern extremity of the American continent, is divided -*¦ by the ridge of the Andes into two parts of a totally different character. Its western coast-lands, washed by the cold Antarctic current and exposed to the humid gales of a restless ocean, are almost constantly obscured with clouds and drenched with rain. Dense forests, dripping with moisture, clothe the steep hUl-sides ; and, from the coldness of the suraraer, the snow-line is so low that for 650 mUes northward of Tierra del Fuego almost every arm, of the sea which penetrates to the interior higher chain is terminated by huge glaciers descending to the water's edge. East Patagonia, on the contrary, a vast plain rising in successive terraces from the Atlantic to the foot of the CordiUera, is one of the most arid regions ofthe globe. The extrerae dryness of the prevaUing westerly winds, which have been totally deprived of their huraidity before crossing the Andes, and the weU-rounded shingles which corapose the soil, have entailed the curse of 27 418 THE POLAR WORLD. sterility on the land. Monotonous warra tints of brown, yeUow, or light red everywhere fatigue the eye, which vainly seeks for rest in the dark blue sky, and finds refreshing green only on sorae river-banks. Many broad flat vales transsect the plains, and in these the vegetation is somewhat better. The streams of former ages have no doubt hoUowed them out, for the rivers of the present day are utterly inadequate to the task. On account of the dryness of the atmosphere, the traveller may journey for days in these Patagonian plains without finding a drop of water. Springs are rare, and even when found are generally brackish and unrefreshing. While the " Beagle " was anchoring in the spacious harbor of Port St. Julian, a party one day accorapanied Captain Fitzroy on a long walk round the head of the harbor. They were eleven hours without lasting any water, and sorae of the party were quite exhausted. From the summit of a hiU, to which the appropriate name of " Thirsty Hill " was given, a fine lake was spied, and two of the party pro ceeded, with concerted signals, to show whether it was fresh water. The dis appointment raay be iraagined when the supposed lake was found to be a snow-while expanse of salt, crystallized in great cubes. The extrerae dryness of the air, which imparts so sterile a character to the country, favors the formation of guano deposits on the naked islands along the coast, which are frequented by sea-birds. Protracted droughts are essen tial lo the accumulation of this manure, for repeated showers of rain would wash it into the sea, and for this reason no guano deposits are found on the populous bird-mountains of the north. A similar dryness of the atmosphere favors the deposit at Ichaboe on the African coast, at the Kooria Nooria Is lands in the Indian Oceai^and at the Chincha Islands on the Peruvian coast ; and this kind of cliraate appears also to be particularly agreeable to the sea- birds. , Considering the excessive aridity of Patagonia, it seems surprising that the country should be traversed from west lo east by such considerable rivers as the Rio Negro, the Gallegos, and the Santa Cruz; but all these have their sources in the Andes, and are fed by mountain torrents, which no doubt derive their waters frora the atraospherical precipitations of the Pacific. The zoology of Patagonia is as limited as its flora, and greatly reserables in its .character that of the raountain regions of Chili, or of the Puna or high ta ble-land of the tropical Andes of Peru and Bolivia, the height of which varies from 10,000 lo 14,000 feet above the level of the sea. In all these countries, situated in such different latitudes, the explorer is as tonished to find not only the sarae genera, but even aniraals of the sarae species. The forest-loving race of monkeys is nowhere to be found in treeless Patago nia. None of the quadrumana ventures farther south than 29° lat., but on the borders of the Rio Negro, the northern boundary of Patagonia, some small bats are seen fluttering about in the twilight. The dark-brown yellow-headed Galictis vittata, an aniraal allied to the Civ ets and Genets, is likewise found there, but rauch raore frequently its relation the Zorilla, which ranges frora 30° lat. to the Strait of Magellan, and, like the skunk of the north, has the power of discharging a fluid of an intolerably fetid odor. PATAGONIA AND THE PATAGONIANS. 419 The guanaco is the characteristic quadruped of the plains of Patagonia, where it is no less useful to man than the wild reindeer to the savage hunters of the north. It ranges from the CordiUera of Peru as far south as the islands near Cape Horn, but it appears to be raore frequent on the plains of South Patagonia than anywhere else. It is of greater size than the llama, and re sembles it so much that it was supposed to be the wild variety, until Tschudi, in his " Fauna Peruana," pointed out the specific difference between both. The guanaco is a raore elegant aniraal, with a long, slender neck and fine legs ; ils fleece is shorter and less flue ; its color is brown, the under parts being whitish. It generally lives in sraall herds of frora haff a dozen to thirty in each ; but on the banks of the Santa Cruz Mr. Darwin saw one herd which contained at least five hundred. Though extreraely shy and wary, it is no raatch for the cunning of the savage ; and, before the horse was introduced into Patagonia, man most probably could not have existed in those arid plains without the guanaco. It easily takes lo the water, and this accounts for ils presence on the eastern islands of Fuegia, where il has been followed by the puma, or Ameri can lion, who likewise pursues il on the plateaus of the Cordillera, 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. The BrazUian fox ( Canis Azaroe) is also mel with as far as the strait. It is somewhat sraaller than our fox, but raore robustly built. In Patagonia it preys chiefly upon the sraall rodents, with which the land, in spite of its sterili ty, is perhaps raore richly stocked than any other country in the world. Araong these the tucutuco {Ctenomys magellanica), which raay briefly be described as a gnawer with the habits of a raole, is one of the raost remarkable. It abounds near the strait, where the sandy plain is one vast jprrow of these creatures. This curious animal makes, when beneath the ground, a very peculiar noise, con sisting of a short nasal grunt, monotonously repeated about four times in quick succession, the name tucutuco being given in imitation of the sound. Where the animal is abundant, il may be heard at all times of the day, and sometiraes directly beneath one's feet. The tucutuco is nocturnal in its habits ; its food consists chiefly of roots, the search after which seeras to be the cause of its bur rowing. Among the indigenous quadrupeds of Patagonia we flnd, moreover, a spe cies of agouti {Dasyprocta patagonica), which in some measure represents our hare, but is about twice the size, and has only three toes on its hind feet; the elegant long-eared mara {Dolic/iotis patagonicus), which, unlike raost burrowing animals, wanders, comraonly two or three together, for railes frora its home ; the Didelphis Azaroe, a species of opossum ; and the pichy {Dasypus minutus), a small arraadiUo, which extends as far south as 50° lat. It would be vain to seek araong the Patagonian birds for the splendid plumage of the tropical feathered tribes ; their colors are siraple and raonoto nous, as those of the naked plains which are their horae. Many birds of prey of the warraer regions of America likewise frequent the arid wastes of Pata gonia. When a horse chances to perish frora fatigue or thirst, the turkey-buz zard ( Vultur aura ?) begins to feast upon its carcass, and then the carrancha {Polyborus brasiliensis) and the chimango {Polyborus chimango) pick its bones 430 THE POLAR WORLD. clean. Though these birds, which well supply the place of our carrion-crows, magpies, and ravens, generally feed in common, they are by no means on a friendly footing. When the carrancha is quietly seated on the branch of a tree or on the ground, the chimango often continues for a long time flying backward and forward, up and down, in a seraicircle, trying each time, at the bottom of the curve, to strike its larger relative, -which takes little notice ex cept by bobbing its head. The carrancha, which is common in the dry and open countries, and likewise on the arid shores of the Pacific, is also found in habiting the forests of West Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The chimango is rauch sraaller than the carrancha. Of aU the carrion feeders, it is generally the last which leaves the skeleton of a dead aniraal, and may frequently be seen within the ribs of a horse, like a prisoner behind a grating. It is frequently found on the sea-coast, where it lives on small fishes. The condor raay likewise be reckoned araong the Patagonian birds, as it foUows ils prey, the guanaco, across the Strait of Magellan as far as the eastern lowlands of Tierra del Fuego. In the winter especially, when the cold forces vast numbers of geese and ducks lo quil the Antarctic islands in the higher latitudes, all these birds of prey, to which the crowned falcon ( Circcetes co- ronatus), the three-colored buzzard {Buteo tricolor), the Aguia eagle) Ha- licBtus aguia), and several others must be added, live in luxury. Most of them are likewise migratory birds, and disappear in sumraer, with the defenseless tribes on which they prey. The Magellanic thrush {Tardus magellanicus) leaves in winter the storray banks of the strait, and retires to the milder skies of the Rio Negro, where it meets the tuneful Patagonian warbler {Orpheus patagonicus), the nimble ti^glodyte ( Troglodytes pallida), and the inconstant fly-catcher {Muscicape parvulus). A peculiar species of ostrich, the nandu {Rhea, Darwini), roams over the plains of Southern Patagonia as far as the Strait of Magellan. It is smaUer than the South American ostrich {Rhea americana), which inhabits the country of La Plata as far as a little south of the Rio Negro ; but it is more beautiful, as its white feathers are tipped with black al the extremity, and its black ones in like manner terminate in white. In the same high latitude one is surprised lo meet wilh a meraber of the parrot tribe {Psittacus patagonicus) feeding on the seeds of the winter's bark, and to see huraraing-birds ( Trochilus forficatus) flitting about during the snow- storras in the forests of Tierra del Fuego. The plains of Patagonia are inhabited by a race of Indians supposed lo be gigantic, but- the descriptions of modern travellers have dispeUed the idea. Thus Pigafelli, the companion of Magellan, relates that the Europeans only reach lo the waist of the Patagonians ; Simon de Weert teUs us that they are from ten to eleven feet high ; Byron, who visited them in the last century, reduces them to seven feet, and Captain King finally, who accurately measured them, found the mediura height of the raales about five feet eleven inches. As the Patagonians have most likely not degenerated within the last few centuries, we may infer frora these various accounts that the travellers of the present day are less prone to exaggeration than those of raore ancient times. So much is PATAGONIA AND THE PATAGONIANS. 421 certain, that the Patagonians are a fine athletic race of men, with remarkably broad shoulders and thick muscular Umbs. The head is long, broad, and flat, and the forehead low, with the hair growing within an inch of the eyebrows, which are bare ; the eyes are often placed obliquely, and have but little expres sion ; the forehead and the large lips are prominent, so that if a perpendicular line were drawn between the two, the thick flat nose would hardly reach it, and but seldora project beyond it. In spite of these coarse features the physiogno my of the young girls is by no raeans unpleasant, as it has an amiable, lively ex pression. AU of thera have sraall hands and feet, and D'Orbigny says that they have the finest shapes of all the savages he saw. Though they have a wide mouth and thick lips, this fault is redeemed by their beautiful white teeth, which never fall out even in old age. The color of the Patagonians is rauch darker than that of the Parapas In dians and others farther lo the north, and raost closely reserables that of the mulatto ; a fact totally at variance with the common belief that the darkness of the humau skin increases on approaching the equator. The chief garraent is the manuh'e, a wide, square mantle — eight feel long and nearly as broad — which they wear after the fashion of the ancient Greeks and Romans, with one end hanging down to the earth. It generally consists of guanaco skins neatly sewn together with ostrich sinews. In cold weather the manuh6, which serves also as a blanket, is worn with the hair inside ; the even surface is therefore ornamented- with red drawings. Sometimes they wear boots of horse-leather, like the Gauchos, from whom they have learned to make them ; formerly sandals of guanaco skin were alone in use. Their long black hair is tied behind with a thong of leather or a pigce of ribbon; the women plait and adorn it with a number of ornaments of glass and copper. The face is generally painted red, white, and black, and a Patagonian is never seen -with out the little pouch in which he carries the necessary colors. A reraarkable custom, coraraon lo all the Indian tribes as far as Bolivia, is that of eradicating the hairs of the beard, and the raen raay frequently be seen plucking them out with a pair of pincers. The religious ideas of the Patagonians greatly resemble those of their neigh bors the Aucas and the Puelches. The divine Achekenat Kanet is reverenced as the genius of both good and evil ; but beside this chief deity they have a number of inferior spirits, generally of a malignant nature, which can be held in check only by the arts of their magicians. Like the shamans, or medicine men of the north, these impostors work theraselves into an ecstatic state, in which they predict things to corae, or announce the will of the unseen gods ; but their trade does not seera lo be very lucrative if we may judge from the bad condition of their mantles. They also act as physicians, for all diseases are invariably ascribed to the agency of evil spirits. The Patagonians are quite as superstitious as the Indians of the high north ern latitudes. They seldom cut their hair, but when they do, they cast it into the river or carefully bum il, so that it may not fall into the hands of some raa lignant magician, who might use it to the hurt of ils quondam owner. When, on journeying along a river, they see some trunks of trees descending with the 423 THE POLAR WORLD. current, they take them for evU spirits, and address them with a loud voice. If by chance the trees are swept by less rapidly or are driven round in a whirl pool, they believe that this takes place for the purpose of hearing them. They then raake thera liberal promises, which they faithfully keep. They cast their weapons, their ornaments, sometimes even their horses with bound feet, into the water, fully persuaded that by this sacriflce they have averted the misfor tunes that otherwise would have befaUen thera. Like many olher savage na tions, they beUeve in a future paradise, where they expect lo find again aU that they prized on earth. For this reason they immolate over the graves of their friends aU the aniraals that belonged lo them, and inter wilh thera all they pos sessed. The astronoraical knowledge of the Patagonians is surprising in a people ranking so low in the scale of civilization. Continually migrating over their arid land, they soon fell the necessity of directing their moveraents during the day by the position of the sun, during the night by the stars ; and thus they gradu ally learned to observe the raarch of the constellations, and to note the liraes of their appearance and disappearance, giving them names, so as lo be able to com municate their observations to each other. Their lively fancy traces in the starry firraaraent the picture of the Indian's hunting expedition. The Milky Way is the path on which he follows the ostrich ; the " Three Kings " are the bolas, or balls, with which he strikes the bird whose feet form the Southern Cross ; and the MageUanic clouds are heaps of its feathers that have been col lected by its pursuer. When the Patagonians speak of the direction they intend to follow, from north to south or frora east to west, they always indicate the constellations ; so that in these South Araerican plains, as in those of Chaldea, a sirailar necessity has led man to lay the first foundations of astronomical knowledge. The Patagonians are divided into a number of small migratory tribes, each consisting of, at the utmost, thirty or forty farailies. As they live exclusively by the chase, it is evident that a few days would suffice to destroy or to drive away the garae of a great extent of territory were they to asserable in larger numbers. Not to perish of want, they are thus compelled lo wander from place to place in small companies, and to carry along with them their leathern toldos, or tents. The toldo reposes on a frame of poles stuck into the earth, aud is scarcely higher than six feet in its centre, so that one can hardly imagine how a family of tall Patagonians can live in so small a space. The door is invaria bly to the east, so that early in the raorning the chief of the faraily may sprinkle before ita few drops of water as an offering to the rising sun, for were this sac rifice to be neglected, the evil spirits would InfaUibly wreak their vengeance upon the inmates of the tent. Horse-hides, or guanaco skins coarsely sewn to gether, cover the frame, and afford but a scanty protection against the rain and the much raore frequent wind. At the top, as in the Laplander's hul, an open ing is left to let out the smoke. The hearth is in the middle, and close by lie some earthen vases, and large volute shells which serve as drinking-horns. The inmates lie on skins, or sit in a corner cross-legged, after the Oriential fashion. The excessive filth of these wretched tenements makes their poverty appear stUl PATAGONIA AND THE PATAGONIANS. 433 more squalid than it really is. Thirty or forty toldos form a migratory village, or tolderia. Though the dreadful sraall-pox epidemic frora 1809 to 1812 de stroyed whole tribes of Patagonians, their present nuraber may stiU be estimated at from eight to ten thousand ; a small one, when compared with the size of the country, yet large enough when we consider the sterUe nature of its soil and the vast space of desert needed to feed a sufficient nuraber of guanacos and horses for the wants of even a scanty population. Each tolderia appears lo have its territory Umited by the hunting-grounds of ils neighbors, but coraraercial trans actions take place between the various tribes, and occasion longer journeys. One of the chief trading routes runs along the eastern foot of the Andes from the Strait of Magellan to the Rio Negro, as water is here everywhere found ; another, leading parallel with the coast from the Rio Negro lo Port St. Julian and Port Desire, is only frequented in the rainy season, and even then there aro wide spaces withoul any sweet water, and where it is necessary to travel night and day so as to avoid the danger of dying of thirst. Every year the various Patagonian tribes wander to the sources of the Rio Negro, where they provide theraselves with araucaria seeds, which serve them as food, or wilh apples, which have multiplied on the eastern spurs of the Andes in the sarae astonishing raanner as the peach-trees near the mouths of the La Plata. The apple-tree was introduced by the first Spaniards who inhabited the Chilian Andes soon after the conquest ; and when later the intruders were ex pelled by the victorious Araucanians, the natives found their counti-y enriched by this valuable acquisition. One of the chief bartering rendezvous is the island Cholechel, which is form ed by two arms of the Rio Negro, about eighty leagues frora the raouth of the river. Here the Patagonian exchanges his guanaco skins for the articles which the Puelches, his northern neighbors, either fabricate themselves or procure in a more eai^ manner by steaUng thera frora the while settlers in their neighbor hood. This bartering trade is very aucient, and has always existed excepting in times of war. In this raanner the Patagonians were provided with horses soon after the introduction of this valuable animal into the New World, and thus also articles of Spanish manufacture soon found their way as far as the Strait of MageUan. Al present there seems to be peace araong all the Patagonian tribes, which consider theraselves as brothers, though frequently separated several hundred leagues frora each other. Their systera of government is very simple. The whole nation has a chief, or great cacique, whom they caU carasken, and whose authority is^very liraited. In war he presides in the asserably of the rainor chiefs, and has the supreme command in battle. In peace his sway is confined to his own tribe. He is as poor as his subjects, and, far from enjoying a copious civil list, is obliged to hunt for his subsistence like every other Patagonian ; the only advantage he owes to his exalted station being a somewhat larger share of the products of the chase ; and this he is obliged to distribute araong the more needy of his fol lowers, lo maintain his influence. The dignity of carasken is not always hered itary. To succeed his father, the son raust first prove by his eloquence, his 424 THE POLAR WORLD. courage, and his Uberality that he is worthy to succeed hira ; and if he is found wanting, the Indian most distinguished by his moral and intellectual quaU ties is elected in his place. "The Patagonians are very awkward fishermen; they merely catch what chance throws into their hands, and are unacquainted wilh nets or any other piscatorial artifice. In this respect they are totaUy different from the Fuegians, who derive their chief subsistence frora the sea. They have ever been a nation of hunters, and before the introduction of the horse, they pursued their game on fool, using their bolas with great dexterity for the destruction of the guanaco and tbe ostrich. Their dogs afforded thera a valuable assistance, and since they have becorae accomplished horsemen, their fleet coursers enable them to over take with ease aU the animals of the wilderness. In liraes of scarcity they dig for a sraaU root, which is either eaten fresh or preserved dry. Horse-flesh is their favorite food. The Patagonian toldos and their weapons are very rudely made, but their skin raantles are not untastefuUy ornaraented with rectUinear figures. In their war-dress they have a very hideous appearance, and it would be difficult to im agine a raore diabolical figure than that of a tall Patagonian ready for a fight, his broad face painted scarlet, with black or blue stripes under the eyes, and his coarse features distorted with fury. Their arms are bows and arrows, with points of flint loosely attached with sinews, so as to remain sticking in the wound. They are excellent archers, and use with skill the sling, the javelin, and above aU their formidable bolas, which serve them both for bringing the guanaco to the ground or for breaking the skull of an enemy. When not en gaged in war or in the chase, the men, like most savages, pass their tirae in ab solute idleness, leaving all the household work to the women. Amuseraents they have but few. The use of dice they have learned from the Spaniards. They are said to be a false and deceitful people, but their hospitality and good nature have been frequently extoUed by traveUers. THE FUEGIANS. 435 mf^^^',^ ^ ^ J 'i?%. COAST OF FUEGIA. CHAPTER XLI. THE FUEGIANS. Then- miserable Condition. — Degradation of Body and Mind. — Powers of Mimicry. — Notions of Barter. — Causes of their low State of Cultivation. — Their Food. — Limpets. — Cyttaria Darwini, — Constant Migrations. — The Fuegian Wigwara. — Weapons. — Their probable Origin. — Their Number, and various Tribes. — Constant Feuds. — Cannibalism. — Language. — Adventures of Fuegia Basket, Jem my Button, and York Minster. — Missionary Labors. — Captain Gardiner. — His lamentable End. T^HE wilds of Tierra del Fuego are inhabited by a race of raen generally sup- -¦- posed to occupy the lowest grade in the scale of huraanity. In a far raore rigorous climate, the Esquimaux, their northern antipodes, exhibit skill in their snow huts, their kayaks, their weapons, and their dress ; but the wretched Fue gians are ignorant of every useful art that could better their condition, and contrive scarcely any defense against either rain or wind. But even araong the Fuegians there are various grades of civilization — or rather barbarism. The eastern tribes, which inhabit the extensive plains of King Charles's South Land, seera closely allied to the Patagonians, and are a very different race from the undersized wretches farther westward. A man tle of guanaco skin, wilh the wool outside— the usual Patagonian garment — loosely thrown over their shoulders, and leaving their persons as often exposed as covered, affords thera some protection against the piercing wind. The con dition of the central tribes inhabiting the south-western bays and inlets of this dreary country is much more miserable. Those farther to the west possess seal-skins, but here the raen are satisfled with an otter skin or sorae other cov ering scarcely larger than a pocket-handkerchief. It is laced across the breast by strings, and according as the wind blows il is shifted from side to side. 436 THE POLAR WORLD. But aU have not even this wretched garment, for near WoUaston Island Mr. Darwin saw a canoe with six Fuegians, one of whom was a woman, naked. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down their bodies. In another harbor not far distant, a woman, who was suckling a recently-born child, came one day alongside the vessel, and reraained there out of mere curiosity, whilst the sleet feU and thawed on her naked bosom and on the skin of her naked baby ! These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, and their gestures violent. The Fuegians whora Cook met with in Christmas Sound were equally wretched. Their canoes were made of the bark of trees stretched over a frame work of slicks, and the paddles which served to propel these miserable boats were smaU, and of an equally miserable workmanship. In each canoe sat from five to eight persons ; but instead of greeting the strangers with the joyful shouts of the South Sea Islanders, they rowed along in perfect silence ; and even when quite close to the vessel, they only uttered from time to tirae the word " Pescherah !" After repeated invitations some of these savages came on board, but withoul exhibiting the least sign of astonishraent or curiosity. None were above five feet four inches high ; they had large heads, broad faces, with prorainent cheek-bones, flat noses, sraall and lack-lustre eyes ; and their black hair, smeared with fat, hung in matted locks over their shoulders. Instead of a beard, their chin exhibited a few straggling bristles, and their whole appearance afforded a striking picture of abject misery. Their shoul ders and breasi were broad and strongly built, but the extremities of the body so raeagre and shrivelled that one could hardly realize the fact that they be longed to the upper part. The legs were crooked, the knees disproportionate ly thick. Their sole garment consisted of a small piece of seal-skin, attached to the neck by means of a cord, otherwise they were quite naked ; but even these miserable creatures had made an attempt to decorate their olive-brown skin with sorae stripes of ochre. The woraen were as ugly as the men. Their food consisted of raw, half-putrid seal's flesh, which made them smeU so horribly, that it was irapossible to remain long near thera. Their intelligence was ou a par with the filth of their bodies. The most expressive signs were here of no/ avaU. Gestures which the most dull-headed native of any South Sea islaud im mediately understood, these savages either did not, or would not give them selves the trouble to coraprehend. Of the superiority of the Europeans they appeared lo have no idea, never expressing by the slightest sign any astonish ment at the sight of the ship and the various objects on board. It would how ever be doing the Fuegians injustice lo suppose them all on a level with these wretches. According to Forster, they were most Ukely outcasts from the neighboring tribes. Mr. Darwin, as well as Sir James Ross, describes the Fuegians whom they mel with in the Bay of Good Success and on Hermit Island as exceUent mimics. "As often as we coughed or yawned," says the former, " or made any odd motion, they immediately imitated us. Some of our party began to squint and look awry, but one of the young Fuegians (whose whole face was painted THE FUEGIANS. 437 black, excepting a white band across his eyes) succeeded in making far more hideous grimaces. They could repeat wilh perfect correctness each word in any sentence we addressed thera, and they reraerabered such words for sorae lime. Yet we all know how difficult it is to distinguish apart the sounds in a foreign language." Close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound with the Beagle Channel, where Mr. Darwin and his^ parly spent the night, a smaU family of Fuegians soon joined the strangers round a blazing flre. They seemed well pleased, and all joined in the chorus of the seamen's songs. During the night the news had spread, and early in the moming other Fuegians arrived. Several of these had run so fast that their noses were bleeding, aud their mouths frothed from the rapidity with which they talked ; and with their naked bodies aU bedaubed with black, white, and red, they looked like so many demons. FUEGIAN TRADEK3. These people plainly showed that they had a fair notion of barter. Mr. Dar win gave one man a large nail (a most valuable present) without raaking any signs for a return ; but he immediately picked out two fish, and handed them up on the point of his spear. Here al least we see signs of a mental activity favorably contrasting with the stolid indifference of the Fuegians seen by For ster at Christmas Harbor ; and Mr. Darwin is even of opinion that in general these people rise above the AustraUans in mental power, although their actual acquirements may be less. The reason why the Fuegians are so little advanced iu the arts of life. 428 THE POLAR WORLD. are partly to be sought for in the nature of the land, and partly in their political state. The perfect equality among the individuals in each tribe must retard their civilization ; and until sorae chief shall arise with power sufficient to se cure any acquired advantage, such as the doraesticated aniraals, it seeras scarce ly possible that their condition can iraprove. But the chief causes of their wretchedness are doubtless the barrenness of their country and their constant forced raigrations. With the exception of the eastern part, the habitable land is reduced to the stones on the beach. In search of food they are corapelled to wander frora spot to spot ; and so steep is the coast that they can only raove about in their canoes. Whenever it is low water, winter or suraraer, night or day, they raust rise to pick limpets from the rock ; and the women either dive lo coUect sear eggs, or sit patiently in their boats, and with a baited hair-line, withoul any hook, jerk out little fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcass of a putrid whale discovered, it is a feast ; and such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless berries, chiefly of a dwarf arbutus, or by a globular bright yellow fun gus ( Cyttaria Darwini), which grows in vast numbers on the beech - trees. When young, it is elastic, with a smooth surface ; but, when mature, it shrinks, becomes tougher, and has its entire surface deeply pitted or honey-combed. In this mature stale it is collected in large quantities by the woraen and chil dren, and is eaten uncooked. It has a mucilaginous, slightly sweet taste, wilh a faint smell like that of a mushroora. The necessity of protecting theraselves against the extremity of cold, and of obtaining their food from the sea, or by the chase of the reindeer or the white bear, forces the Esquiraaux to exert all their faculties, and thus they have raised themselves considerably higher in the scale of civUization than the Fue gians, whose mode of life requires far less exertion of the mind. To knock a limpet frora the rock or to collect a fungus does not even call cunning into ex ercise. Living chiefly upon sheU-fish, they are obliged constantly to change their abode, aud thus they hardly bestow any thought on their dweUings, which , are more like the dens of wild beasts than the habitations of human beings. The Fuegian wigwam consists of a few branches stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes. The whole can not be the work of an hour, and it is only used for a few days. Al intervals, however, the inhabitanls of these wretched huts return to the same spot, as is evident frora the piles of old shells, often araounting to several tons in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a distance by the bright green color of certain plants, such as the wild celery and scurvy grass, which invari ably grow on thera. The only articles in the manufacture of which the Fuegians show some signs of ability are a few ornaments and their weapons, which again are far inferior to those of the Esquiraaux. Their bows are sraall and badly shaped, their arrows, which are between two and three feet long, feathered at one end and blunted at the olher. The points are only attached when the arrow is about lo be used, and for this purpose the archer carries them about with him in a leathern pouch. The shaft of their larger spears is about ten feet long. THE FUEGIANS. 429 and equally thick al both ends. At one of the extremities is a fissure, into which a pointed bone wilh a barbed hook is inserted and tightiy bound with a thread. With this weapon they most probably attack the seals ; they also use it to de tach the sheU-fish frora the rocks below the surface of the water. A second spear, longer and lighter than the first, with a barbed point, serves most Ukely as a weapon of war ; and a third one, rauch shorter and coraparatively thin, may perhaps be destined for the birds. The females know how to make A FUEGIAN AND HI3 FOOD. pretty necklaces of colored shells and baskets of grass stalks. Here, as wilh all other races of mankind, we find the germs of improvement, which only require for their development the external impulse of more favorable circum stances. If it be asked whether they feel theraselves as miserable as their wretched appearance would lead us to believe them, it must be replied that most travel lers describe them as a cheerful, good-humored, contented people ; and as Mr. Darwin finely remarks, " Nature, by making habit omnipotent and ita effects 430 THE POLAR WORLD. ; hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian to the cliraate and the productions of his country." The number of these savages is no doubt very smaU, as seldom more than thirty or forty individuals are seen together. The interior of the mountainous islands, which is as little known as the interior of Spitzbergen, is no doubt com pletely uninhabited ; as the coasts alone, with the exception of the eastern and more level part of the country, where the guanaco finds pasture, are able to furnish the means of subsistence. The various tribes, separated from each other by a deserted neutral territory, are nevertheless engaged in constant feuds, as quarrels are perpetually arising about the possession of some limpet- bank or fishing-station. When at war they are cannibals ; and it is equaUy cer tain that when pressed in winter by hunger they kill and devour their old wom en before they kill their dogs, alleging as an excuse that their dogs catch otters, and old women do not. Il has nol been ascertained whether they have any distinct belief in a future life. They sometiraes bury their dead in caves, and soraetiraes in the raountain forests. Each family or tribe has a wizard, or conjuring doctor. Their lan guage, of which there are several distinct dialects, is likewise little known ; it is, however, far inferior to the copious and expressive vocabulary of the Esqui maux. In 1830, while Captain Fitzroy was surveying the coasts of Fuegia, he seized on a party of natives as hostages for the loss of a boat which had been stolen, and sorae of these natives, as well as a child belonging to another tribe, whom he bought for a pearl button, he took with him to England, determining to educate them at his own expense. One of them afterwards died of the small pox ; but a young girl, Fuegia Basket, and two boys, Jeraray Button (thus named from his purchase-money) and York Minster (so cafled from the great rugged mountain of York Minster, near Christmas Sound), were placed in a school at Walthamstow, and raoreover had the honor of being presented to King William and Queen Adelaide. Three years Jemmy and his companions remained in England, at the end of which lime Captain Fitzroy was again sent out to continue the survey, and took with him these three Fuegians, intending lo return thera to the place whence they had come. In this, however, he was disappointed ; but at their own request York and Fuegia were, with Jeraray, deposited at WooUya, a pleasant looking spot in Ponsonby Sound, belonging to Jeraray's tribe. His family, consisting of his raother and three brothers, was absent al the tirae, but they arrived the following raorning. Jeraray rec ognized tbe stentorian voice of one of his brothers al a prodigious distance, but the meeting, as Mr. Darwin, who witnessed the scene, relates, was less interest ing than that between a horse tumed out into a field and an old companion. There was no demonstration of affection ; they simply stared for a short time al each other. Three large wigwams were built for thera, gardens planted, and an abundant supply of every thing landed for their use. Jeraray, who had be come quite a favorite on board; was short and fat, but vain of his personal ap pearance ; he used always to wear gloves, his hair was neatly cut, and he was distressed if his well-polished shoes were dirtied. York was somewhat coarse THE FUEGIANS. 431 and less intelligent, though in some things he could be quick. He becarae at tached to Fuegia, and as both were of the sarae tribe, they becarae man and wife after their return to Tierra del Fuego. She was the raost inteUigent of the three, and quick in learnuig any thing, especially languages. Thus these semi-civilized savages were left among their barbarous country men, with the hope that they might becorae the raeans of iraproving their whole tribe; but when Captain Fitzroy returned to the spot twelve months after, he found the wigwams deserted and the gardens trarapled under foot. Jeraray came paddling up in his canoe, but the dandy who had been left plump, clean, and well-dressed, was now turned into a thin, haggard savage, wilh long, disor dered hair, and naked, except a bit of a blanket round his waist. He could stiU speak English, and said that he had enough to eat, that he was not cold, and that his relations were very good people. He had a wife besides, who was de cidedly the best-looking female in the company. Wilh his usual good feeling, he brought two beautfful otter skins for two of his best friends, and sorae spear heads and arrows raade with his own hands for the captain. He had lost all his property. York Minster had built a large canoe, and with his wife Fuegia had, several raonths since, gone to his owu country, and had taken farewell by an act of consummate viUainy. He persuaded Jemmy and his mother to come with him, and then on the way deserted them by night, stealing every article of their properly. It was the opinion of aU on board that the cunning rogue had planned all this long before, and that wilh this end in view he had desired so earnestly lo remain with Jeraray's tribe rather than be landed on his own coun try. Eight years after an English vessel put into a bay in the MageUans for water, and there was found a woman, withoul doubt Fuegia Basket, who said, " How do ? I have been to Plyraouth and London." York Minster was also seen in 1851. From Captain Snow, comraander of the raission yacht " Allen Gardiner," we have the last accounts of Jeraray Button in 1855. Twenty -three years had not obliterated his knowledge of the English language, but he was as wild and shaggy as his untaught countryraen. In spile of his superior knowl edge, he was treated as a very inferior personage by the raerabers of his tribe ; yet he declared that though he loved England, he loved his country still better ; that nothing should induce hira to leave it, and that he would never allow any , of his children to quit their native soil. Other efforts have been made to civilize the Fuegians. A Spanish vessel having been shipwrecked on the eastern coast in 1767, its crew was hospitably treated by the natives, who even assisted in saving the cargo. Out of gratitude, the Governor of Buenos Ayres sent out some missionaries, who, however, totally failed to make any impression on the savages. A no less unsuccessful attempt was made about the- year 1835 by English mis sionaries ; and the expedition of Captain Gardiner, who, accompanied by a sur geon, a catechist, and four Cornish fisherraen, saUed to Fuegia in 1851, with the intention of converting the natives, proved equally fruitless, and had a far raore tragic end. His measures for securing the necessary supplies of food were so iU calculated that the whole party died of hunger in Spaniards' Harbor, on the southern coast. Captain Morshead, of the " Dido," had received orders on his 433 THB POLAR WORLD. STABVATION BEACH. way to Valparaiso lo visit the scene of the mission, and afford Captain Gardi-^ ner any aid he might require, but, on arriving at the cove, he* found it deserted. After a few days' search the bodies were discovered, and fragraents of a jour nal written by Captain Gardiner gave proof of the sufferings which they had endured before death reUeved them from their misery. The spot has received the name of Starvation Beach. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 433 MIT frT'-i y SURVEYING IN GREENLAND. CHAPTER. XLIL CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. HaU's Expedition. — His early Life. — His reading of Arctic Adventure. — His Resolve. — His Arctic Out fit. — Sets Sail on the " George Henry." — The Voyage. — Kudlago. — Holsteinborg, Greenland. — Pop ulation of Greenland. — Sails for Davis's Strait. — Character of the Innuits. — Wreck of the " Rescue." — Ebierbing and Tookoolito. — Their Visit to England. — Hall's first Exploration. — European and In nuit Life in the Arctic Eegions. — Building an Igloo. — Almost Starved. — Fight for Food with Dogs. — Ebierbing arrives with a Seal. — How he caught it. — A Seal-feast. — The Innuits and Seals. — The Polar Bear. — How he teaches the Innuits to catch Seals. — At a Seal-hole. — Dogs as Seal-hunters. — Dogs and Bears. — Dogs and Eeindeers. — Innuits and Walruses. — More about Igloos. — Innuit Imple ments. — Uses ofthe Reindeer. — Innuit Improvidence. — A Deer-feast. — A frozen Delicacy. — Whale- skin as Food. — Whale-gum. — How to eat Whale Ligament. — Raw Meat. — The Dress of the Innuits. —A pretty Style. — Religious Ideas of the Innuits. — Their kindly Character. — Treatment of the Aged and Infirm. — A Woman abandoned to die. — Hall's Attempt to rescue her. — The Innuit Nomads, wilhout any form of Government. — Their Numbers diminishing. — A Sailor wanders away.^ — HaU's Search for him. — Finds him frozen to death. — The Ship free from Ice. — Preparations to return. — Reset in the Ice-pack. — Another Arctic Winter. — Breaking up of the Ice. — Departure for Home. — Tookoolito and her Child " Butterfly."— Death of " Butterfly."— Arrival at Home.— Results of HaU's Expedition. — Innuit Traditions. — Discovery of Frobisher Relics. — Hall undertakes a second Expedi tion.— His Stateraent of its Object and Prospects.— Last Tidings of Hall. A MONG the most reraarkable expeditions ever undertaken in the Polar world -^-^ is that of Charles Francis Hall, performed during the years 1860, 1861, and 1862. Its primary object was to discover the survivors of Sir John Franklin's party; for at this tirae there was good reason lo believe that out of the 105 who were known to be li-ving on the 25th of April, 1848, sorae were stiU surviving. Towards the main purpose of the undertaking nothing was indeed accomplished. HaU came upon no traces of Franklin and his men ; but he acquired a raore ac curate knowledge of the Esquiraaux — or rather as they caU theraselves, and as we shaU caU them, the Innuits — a word raeaning siraply " men " or " people " — and their mode of Iffe than was ever before, or is likely to be hereafter, gained 28 434 THE POLAR WORLD. HALL AND COMPANIONS, IN INNUIT COSTUME. by any other white raan capable of telling what he saw, and a part of which he was. The reraarkable book in which Mr. Hall describes his expedition* seems not to have corae under the notice of Dr. Hartweg. It is proposed in this chap ter to supplement the account of the Innuits from this work of Mr. HaU. ¦* Arctic Researches, and Life among the Esquimaux. By Charles Francis Hall. New York, 1866. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 435 Up to middle life Hall had resided in the inland city of Cincinnati. He had eao-erly read every thing that he could find on record of the searches made for Franklin. Large ships and sraall ships had been sent out. Brave hearts and stout hands had been enlisted in the search, but with no tangible result beyond ascertaining the spot where the surviving 105 were when they abandoned their ships and took to the shore, hoping to raake their way to their horaes. Only two of these men were proven to have died ; and it was more than probable that of the 105 known to have been living in 1848, some would yet be alive in 1860, for not a few of these raen, if living, would be slUl of raiddle age. HaU had read the story of the sufferings of Kane's party during the long months of the Arctic winter, but he had come to the conclusion that most of these resulted frora the raode of life adopted by thera. The Innuits, he knew, Uved to a good old age through a succession of such -winters, and he believed that a civiUzed man could live where a savage could. This conviction was con firmed by one of Kane's companions, who told hira, " When we lived like the Esquimaux, we immediately recovered, and enjoyed our usual health. If Prov idence had so ordered it that we should cast our lot with the Esquimaux, I have no doubt that, we would have lived quite as long, and in quite as good health as iu the United States or England. White men can live where Esqui maux can, and frequently when and where they can not." So Hall grew into the conviction that some of these lost ones could yet be found ; and he writes, " It seemed to me as if I had been called, if I may so speak, to try and do the work. My heart felt sore at the thought of so great a mystery iu connection with any of our feUow-creatures, especially akin to our selves, yet remaining unsolved." How should he obey this caU? His own means, beyond a stout frame and strong wUl, were of the smaUest. He brqach- ed the project al the West, where it was received with favor. Then he came East, and was raet with like consideration. Funds were raised, and the expe dition which Hall conteraplated was fitted out. This expedition consisted siraply of HaU hiraself. The cash contributed for the outfit was just |980, of which raore than a third was contributed by Henry GrinneU, of New York. In addition to this was about a quarter as rauch in the way of presents. " These," says HaU, " constituted aU the raeans and raa terial I had lo carry out the great undertaking my raind had led rae to erabark in." HaU's Ust of the articles on his outfit for a three years' residence and ex ploration is worthy of record. It shows in what way his $980 in cash was ex pended. " My outfit," he writes, " for the voyage and the whole of ray expedition, consisted of :— a boat, length twenty-eight feet, beara seven feet, depth twenty- nine and one-half inches, drawing eight inches of water when loaded with stores and a crew of six persons; one sledge; one haff-ton of pemraican; two hun dred pounds of Borden's meat biscuit ; twenty pounds pork scrap ; one pound preserved quince ; one pound preserved peaches ; two hundred and fifty pounds powder ; a quantity of ball, shot, and percussion caps ; one rifle, six double-bar- reUed guns ; one Colt's revolver ; beads, needles, etc., for presents ; two dozen pocket-knives; some tin ware ; one axe, two picks, files, etc. ; tobacco and pipes ; 436 THE POLAR WORLD. wearing apparel for seff, and red shirts for natives; stationery and journal- books ; watch, opera-glass, spy-glass ; sextant, pocket sextant, artificial horizon, azimuth compass, common corapass, two pocket compasses ; three ordinary and two seff -registering thermometers. Some navigation-books and several Arctic works, with ray Bible and a few other volumes, formed my library." The boat and fixtures cost one hundred and twenty-five dollars ; meat, biscuit, pemraican, etc., about two hundred and fifty doUars ; astronomical instruments, about one hundred dollars ; guns and accoutrements, about two hundred and twenty-five dollars ; clothing, fifty dollars ; pipes and tobacco, twenty doUars ; travelling ex penses and express payments, seventy-five dollars ; dog-team, bought in Green land, fifty dollars. The other items making up the nine hundred and eighty dollars are aU duly given. It will be seen that the balance lefl for minor, but necessary, expenditures was very small. New London, Connecticut, is the port frora which vessels mainly sail for the Arctic whale-fishery. Here was the place of business. Williaras and Haven largely engaged in that enterprise. They relieved Hall of a great load of anxiety by a brief note, in which they said : " As a testiraony of our person al regard, and the interest we feel in the proposed expedition, we wiU convey it and its required outfit, boats, sledges, provisions, instruraents, etc., free of charge, ou the barque ' George Henry,' to Northuraberland Inlet ; and, when ever desired, we will give the sarae free passage home in any of our vessels." On the 29th of May, 1860, the " George Henry " sel sail, with a crew, officers and men, of twenty-nine souls. Accorapanying as tender was a schooner, which had a history. She was now known as the " Araaret ;" but under the name of the " Rescue ' ' she had won farae in Arctic research, for in her Kane had made his first Arctic voyage. HaU always calls her by her old name, and the ac count of her loss forms a striking episode in his narrative. W« have said that Hall's expedition consisted of himself alone. But wheu he started he had wilh him a companion, -H'ho he hoped would greatly aid him. This was Kudlago, an Innuit, who had acquired some knowledge of our lan guage in Greenland from whalers, had come to the United Slates on a whal ing-vessel, and was now anxious to re turn to Greenland. But he fell sick on tbe voyage, and died on the 1st of July. His last words were, "Do you see the ice ?" for he knew that the appearance of ice at this season would show that he was near his home. He died three hun dred miles at sea, and was committed to the ocean. Hall reading the funeral service. A great iceberg — the slender ~ Qjjg represented on page 48 of this vol ume — was drifting close by, and HaU named it " Kudlago's Monument." On the 7th of July they reached Holsteinborg, the capital of the Danish col- CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 437 ony of Greenland, a town consisting of twenty-four houses. The entire popula tion of Greenland is estimated at about 2450, of whom 2300 are Innuits, and the remainder Europeans. Of the Innuits, 1700 live by sealing, and 400 by fishing ; the others being mainly mechanics and sailors, besides twenty native catechists. Of the Europeans, thirty-one are " First and Second Governors ;" twenty-four missionaries and priests ; thirty-six clerks ; the others raechanics aud saUors. The forty-four native and European raissionaries receive, in all, 13,600 Danish paper doUars, equal to about $8500 in specie. The head-schoolraaster has one hundred and twenty-five paper doUars ; three others receive one hundred dollars each ; three, twenty-five doUars ; two, six dollars. Of these last, one teaches his own two children, who are the only ones in his district. There are also four women, who get a doUar a year each for teaching chUdren their letlers. The six teen Government employes get frora forty to ninety doUars a year, besides pro visions for themselves and their famiUes. Bread is baked for them every fortnight. The currency of the colony is paper, the " six-skiUing " note be ing worth about three cents. Af-^-.m um i'i-bV. y^ GREENLAND CURRENCY. ^ The native Greenlanders are by no nieans deficient in inteUigence. Mr. HaU gives a facsimile of a wood-cut representing a woraan and child drawn and engraved by one of thera who had received no instruction in art, and no educa tion of any sort beyond that of the raajority of his countrymen. The great festival of Greenland is the birthday of the King of Denmark, in which all the population, native and European, who can be asserabled, take part, his Majesty furnishing the cheer. Hall gives a view of this celebration, taken from a draw ing made by a native. The original drawing was full of character. The "Rescue" having rejoined her consort, the " George Henry," from whom she had been separated on the voyage, the captain proposed to set sail for his proposed whaling-ground on the west side of Davis's Strait. They saUed on the 438 THE POLAR WORLD. 24th of July, HaU accompanying. Three days after, they encountered a violent snow-storm, and were beset by icebergs. On the 8lh of August they anchored in a bay in latitude 63° 20', called by the natives Ookoolear, but by Hall named Cornelius Grinnell Bay. Here and hereabouts the whalers went to work, and Hall began his acquaintance wilh the Esquimaux at home. WOMAN AND CHILD. (Drawn and Engraved by an innuit.) CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 439 Among these was Kookerjabin, the widow of Kudlago, and of three others. " The Innuits," writes Hall, " are a happy people. As they crowded our decks. I one day noticed about a dozen women seated, and busily engaged at their work. Two were mending one of the boat's sails, some were chewing seal-skins for 440 THE POLAR WORLD. preparing boot-soles. boot-soles, others were sewing, while one was tending a cross baby. It is rare lo find an Innuit child who is not very quiet, but this little fellow had eaten a piece of raw blubber, which had disordered him. Some of the amusing tricks played by these Esquimaux woraen are especially deserving of notice. The va riety of games performed by a string tied at the ends, similar lo a ' cat's cra dle,' completely throws into the shade our adepts al home. I never before wit nessed such a number of intricate ways in which a simple string could be used. One arrangement represented a deer ; another, a whale; a third, the walrus ; a fourth, the seal ; and so on without end." The short Arctic suraraer soon carae to a close. On the moming of the 26th of September came light winds from the north-west ; by noon it began to snow, the wind increasing to a gale. The whaling-boats aU came in, and prep arations were raade for bad weather. During the night the storra grew hourly fiercer. The " Rescue " dragged her anchor, and was dashed upon the rocks an utter wreck. HaU's little boat, upon -which he had so much relied, was torn from its moorings and lost, " dooming me," says HaU, " lo a wreck of disap pointment in the hopes I had cherished concerning her. The ' George Hen ry ' was also in imminent perU, but outrode the tempest ; but on her next voyage, eighteen months later, was lost al a point hardly a hundred miles dis tant." The " George Henry " was eoon after laid up in winter-quarters, fairly blocked in by ice. HaU in the mean time had raade himself acquainted with the Es- CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 441 quiraaux of the region. Prorainent among these were a couple — husband and wife — whose history is worthy of record. '^L \t i M' One day — it was November 2 — while HaU was writing in his cabin, he heard a low, sweet voice saying, " Good-morning, Sir." Looking up, he saw a comely woman, dressed in very good imitation of civilized costume. He had heard of 443 THE POLAR WORLD. THE GEORGE HENRT LAID UP FOB THE WINTER. her before. Her narae was Tookoolito. She was the wife of Ebierbing, a rather faraous seal-hunter and pilot. Seven years before a British whaler had taken thera to England, where they were received as the lions of the day. They dined with Prince Albert, and were introduced to the Queen. Ebierbing thought that the Queen was " very pretty ;" indeed she bore no very distant likeness to his own wife. Tookoolito thought Prince Albert was a "very kind, good raan." Both agreed that the Queen had " a very fine place." Tookoolito, as many thousands in the United Stales afterwards had occasion to know, spoke English almost perfectly. Her husband was less fluent, but still quite in teUigible. This pair became Hall's constant companions in the Arctic regions; carae with hira upon his return lo the States, reraained there with hira for two years, and went back wilh him upon his second expedition, which now (Septem ber, 1869) is nol corapleted. Early in January Hall resolved lo make an exploring expedition -with the dog-team which he had bought al Holsteinborg. The party consisted of him self, Ebierbing, Tookoolito, and another Esquimaux, named Koodloo. The sledge was drawn by ten dogs — five of -which belonged to Hall, and five to Ebierbing. They relied for food mainly upon the proceeds of their hunt ing, taking with thera only a pound and a half of preserved mutton, three pounds of salt pork, fifteen pounds of sea-bread, three jDounds of pork scraps for soup, and a little coffee, pepper, and raolasses. The trip lasted nearly a month and a half, during which time Hall learned lo live like the Esquiraaux iu their snow cabins, and subsisted mainly upon raw seal flesh. When he re turned lo the ship it was hard for him to accustom himself to the change from the pure atraosphere of a snow-house to the confined air of a sraall cabin. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 443 •9 * STORM-BOUND. Had Kane but known how to pass an Arctic winter, the world would never have had occasion to read one of the most pathetic accounts ever written of suffering. Buddington, the captain of the " George Henry," had learned the les son by dear experience. Five years before, when in command of another ves sel, he had lost thirteen of his raen by scurvy. " But," said he, " I am not now afraid of losing any more men by scurvy while I have command over them. Whenever there are appearances of it on board, I will have every pork and beef barrel — salt provisions of every kind — headed up at once, and every man shall live upon bread and fresh provision, such as whale, walrus, seal, deer, bear, ptar migan, duck, and the like. It is not a little remarkable that persons afflicted with scurvy seera madly inclined to salt provisions, which they know to be in their case absolute poisons. They will go any length to obtain salt pork, even when they have fresh food in abundance." Hall's first night in an igloo raay stand as a sample of many more. We cite, with much abridgment, from his journal : " We encamped at 5 p.m., having found good material for building a snow- house. Ebierbing and Koodloo at once coraraenced sawing out snow-blocks, while I carried thera to a suitable spot for erecting the igloo, which took us one hour to make. As soon as it was completed Tookoolito entered, and com menced placing the stone lamp in its proper position. It was trimraed, and soon a kettle of snow was over it, raaking water for coffee and soup. She then placed several pieces of board, which we had brought with us, on the snow plat form where our beds were to be made. Upon these were placed canvas and deer-skins, and our sleeping accoraraodations were complete. The drying of any thing that has become wet during the day faUs to the lot of the woman. 444 THE POLAR WORLD. c^' ""%l^ INNUIT STONE LAMP. She places them in a net hung over the lamp and attends to them through the night, meanwhile mending all articles of clothing that need repairs. Presently our evening meal was ready. It con sisted of Cincinnati 'crackling' soup, a bit of raw salt pork, haff a biscuit for each, and coffee." A snow-house, built in an hour, is abandoned when the use for it is over. The dogs are suffered to enter, and ap propriate any thing that is left which suits their taste. Nothing comes amiss to them. On the third night Hall had his hair cut by Tookoolito, and the clippings were left on the floor. The dogs swallowed these, among other things. Storray weather soon came on. There was no hunting or sealing, and the party had nothing to eat except some bits of raw, frozen whale's-skin which they found in a cache, which a party from the ship had made a few weeks before. Not far off was an igloo belonging to an Innuit named Ugarng, whora they knew. Hall went to it hoping to flnd some thing lo eat. Ugarng had just come in, having spent two whole days and a night in watching over a seal-hole wilhout success. He had heard the seal blow, and that was all. He bore his disappointment coolly. " Away I go to morrow again," he said. He went next day, remained all night over the seal- hole, and came back with nothing. " This was very bad for the whole of us," says Hall. How bad it was for the poor wife of Ugarng and her children raay be inferred from her own words. They were withoul food or light ; her infant was restless from hunger. She said simply, " Me got no milk, meat aU gone, blubber loo ; nothing lo eat, no heat ; must wait till get seal." Hall was about as near starvation as were the Innuits. All he had to eat was a bit of the " black skin " of a whale, and this he relished ; he could have eaten any thing which would have gone to keep up internal heal, and make bone and flesh. Ebierbing was away hunting. At length Tookoolito managed to extemporize a warm dinner. From the black skin she tried out enough oil to fill the larap and heat sorae snow-water. This was thickened with a couple of ounces left of a quart of raeal which formed a part of the stores with which they sel out. The pair shared the " pudding," and thought it excellent. The cold was severe. Within the dark igloo the thermometer stood at about zero; outside, 25° to 52°below zero. Under these circumstances Hallkept at his journal, silting wrapped in furs lo keep from freezing. So passed ten days. Ebierbing had gone back to the vessel in order to bring back some food. Day by day HaU went to the top of a hiU, straining his eyes over the snowy waste in hope of seeing the approach of the messenger. On the evening of the 24th of Jan uary, fourteen days after their starting upon the expedition, they were reduced to their last ration of food, which was ai piece of black skin two inches long, an inch and a half wide, and three-quarters of an inch thick. At midnight footsteps were heard approaching ; Hall sprang from his bed CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 445 and opened the snow-block door. There was " Jack," an Innuit, who had gone out on a 'hunt, with his spear strung wilh strips of seal-blubber. HaU's favor ite dog had been allowed to sleep in the igloo. The half-starved creature scented the blubber, gave a desperate leap, and grasped a portion of the food, and in spite of all the efforts of Hall and the others swaUowed it. Before the door could be closed aU the other dogs outside were aroused, and fighting for a share. Among them they got nearly the whole. Next morning HaU went out. FIGHTING FOR FOOD. and gazing in the direction from which the approach of Ebierbing was hoped for, saw soraething black moving over the snow. It was Ebierbing wilh dogs and a sledge, loaded with provisions from the ship, and also with a seal which he had caught that morning. A great seal-feast took place at once, which HaU thus describes : " According to Innuit custom, an iraraediate invitation was given by the suc cessful hunter's family for every one to attend a seal-feast. Our igloo was soon crowded. My station was on the dais, or bed-place, so that I could watch what was going on. The first thing done was to consecrate the blubber by sprinkling water over it. Then our host proceeded to separate the blubber and skin from the meat and skeleton of the seal. The body was then opened, and the blood scooped out. The blood is considered very precious. The liver came next, cut into pieces and eaten raw, I getting a share. Then foUowed dis tributing the ribs, for social picking, also eaten raw, I doing ray duty, and be coming quite an Innuit in aU except in the quantity eaten. This I might chal lenge any white man to do. No human stomach but an Innuit's could possibly 446 THE POLAR WORLD. through the SNOW. hold what I saw these men and women devour. When the feast was ended, the company dispersed. Tookoolito then sent around bountiful gifts of seal- blubber for fire-lamps, also some seal-raeat and blood. This is the usual cus tora araong the Innuits. They share each other's success, and bear each oth er's wants. Generally if it is found that one is short of provisions, it may be known that all are so." The raanner in which Ebierbing secured that precious seal is a striking ex araple of Innuit patience. On his way to the ship the dogs discovered a seal- hole. He raarked the spot by raaking a sraall pile of snow close by, and squirt ing a mouthful of tobacco-juice upon il by way of mark. On his retui'n he found the hole, and determined to try to secure the animal. So -wrapping his feet and legs in furs taken from the sledge, he took his position, spear in hand, over the seal-hole. It was buried two feet deep under the snow. He thrust his spear through the snow again and again until he found the little aperture leading through the ice ; then in the dark night he seated himself close by, waiting to hear the blowing of the seal. Towards morning the welcome sound was heard. One well-aimed thrust of the spear secured the prize. Ebierbing was nearly frozen, his nose being frostbitten ; but he suffered more from thirst than from cold. There was indeed snow all around, but in that intense cold the mouth does nol retain sufficient caloric to melt a piece of snow placed in it. His first call when he reached the igloo was for water. To watch aU night at a seal-hole would seem to be a sufficient trial of patience and endurance ; but Hall notes another time when Ebierbing passed two whole days and nights without food by a hole, and then failed to secure the seal. To the Innuit tbe seal is, in the broadest sense, the staff of life. It is to them aU that flocks and herds, grain-fields, forests, coal mines, and petroleum weUs are lo dwellers in raore favored lands. It furnishes to thera food, fuel, and clothing. The seal is the most wary and suspicious of creatures ; to cap ture him demands a patience and dexterity which throws into the shade all the exploits of deer-stalkers and lion-hunters, " Nulchook," for so the Innuits name the seal, has good reason for wariness, for his chief enemy, " Ninoo," the bear. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 447 ;/^'^^\ waiting by a seal-hole. against whom he has to keep constant watch, is a keen hunter. The Innu its acknowledge that " Ninoo " has taught them how to catch " Nulchook," the coraraon seal, and his big cousin " Oookgook," the great seal. Hall, no con temptible sportsman, acknowledges, that he was never able to get within rifle- 448 THE POLAR WORLD. shot of a seal when basking upon the ice ; yet Ninoo catches them with his own paws ; and the Innuits, taught by him, come within the distance of a spear's cast. The way Ninoo goes to work at seal-hunting upon the ice, according to In nuit accounts, is this : He sees far away upon the ice a black spot, which he knows to be a seal resting at the edge of his hole, and taking a succession of " cat naps," hardly ten seconds long, lifting up his head between limes, and nar rowly surveying the whole horizon. Ninoo flings himself upon his side, and creeps along when the seal's head is down. The moment the seal's head is raised the bear stops short, and begins " talking " to the seal. The sound which he utters is quite distinct frora his ordinary voice. The seal is charmed, suspects no harm, and down goes his head for another nap. Forward goes Ninoo, and so on for a long time, until he gets within leaping distance ; then one spring, and it is all over with Nulchook. The Innuits say that if they could only talk to Nulchook as cleverly as Ninoo does, they would catch more seals. The Innuit imitates Ninoo. Hall describes one of these hunts, the main actor being an Innuit named Koojesse : " Koojesse had ' talk' wilh seals, and it was with great interest that I watched hira. He lay down on one side, and crawled by hitches or jerks to wards his victira ; then as the seal raised its head Koojesse would stop, and coraraenced pawing with his right hand and foot, while he uttered his ' seal- talk.' On this the seal would feel a charm, raise and shake its flippers both fore and aft, and roll over on ils side and back as if perfectly delighted ; after LOOKING FOR SEALS. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 449 this it would drop its head to sleep. Then Koojesse would hitch along till the seal's head would pop up again, which usuaUy occurred every few raoraents." In this particular case the seal escaped, for the Innuit had approached loo near, and had thus broken the charm. In the winter, when the seal lives under the ice, its capture requires great 29 450 THE POLAR WORLD. SEAL-HOLE AND IGLOO. skUl and perseverance. She, for sorae how the male seal seems now not to be noticed, has a breathing-hole through the ice, lo which she must come now and then for air. Upon the surface of the solid ice, which is covered with snow, the prospective raother constructs an igloo for her progeny. She scrapes off the snow until she has formed a dome, carrying away the snow down through the hole in the ice. Upon the shelf of ice surrounding the hole the young one is born, and there it is regu larly visited by the mother. None but very keen-scented animals, such as the bear, fox, and dog, can discover such an igloo. The dog sometimes captures a seal. Hall describes such an event: " Ebierbing had one day been out with dogs and sledge where the ice was still firra, when suddenly a seal was noticed ahead. In an instant the dogs were off towards the prey, drawing the sledge after them at a marvellous rate. The seal for a moment acted as if frightened, and kept on the ice a second or two too long, for just as he plunged. Smile, the best seal and bear dOg I ever saw, caught him by the lail and flippers. The seal struggled violently, and so did Smile ; but in a moraent raore the oth er dogs laid hold, and aided in dragging the seal out of his hole, when SmUe took it in charge. The prize was se cured whoUy by the dogs." Dogs seem to hunt the seal only upon their master's account ; but the fox and the bear capture him for them selves. How the fox contrives to get into a seal igloo we are not told ; but as they ma,nage to break open the best packed provision-cases, we may assume that they know how to commit bur glary upon the igloo of a poor seal. If the Innuits are to be believed, the way the bear goes to work is this : When he has scented out the precise position of an igloo he g^oes back a little dis tance, so as to get a good run; and WAITING FOR A BLOW. thcu, glvlug a high Icap, comes down CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 451 DOG AND SEAi. with all his weight upon the roof of the dome, crushes it in, and with his paw seizes the young seal, who was quietly asleep upon the ice-shelf. The cunning bear is not always satisfied wilh the little infant seal, but uses it as a bait to catch its mother. Having caught the young on9, and holding it fast by the hind flippers, the bear scrapes away aU the snow, and lets the young seal paddle about in the water; ils cries draw the mother lo the hole, and within reach of the bear's paw, when one grab is given, and the anxious mother is secured. At all events the Innuits practise this sort of strategy with the seal, and they declare that they have learned it from the bear. The bear is lo the Innuits the embodiraent of all wisdora. They tell sto ries of his sagacity which are hard to believe. Thus they say that when he sees a walrus basking upou the ice at the foot of a high cliff, he raounts to the summit of the cliff, and picking up a big stone flings it down with perfect aim upon the head of the walrus and crushes its thick skuU. If it should happen that the walrus is only stunned, the bear crawls down the cUff, picks up a stone, and with it hammers away at the head of the walrus until the skull is broken. This story of the Innuits needs confirmation, though HaU seems to credit it. The dog is essential to the existence of the Innuits. As they have never domesticated the reindeer, without the dog they could not travel from place to place, which they are obliged to do in order to foUow the raigrations of the seal and walrus, upon which they mainly subsist. Without him they could never find out the holes in the ice through which the seal comes up to breathe in the winter. Their doflrs seem to be much more intelligent and docUe than those of any other of the Polar tribes. When one is found to be more than usually in teUigent he is carefully trained as a seal-dog. When the dog scents a seal- hole, which he does though it is covered deep under the snow, he unerringly foUows the scent to the very spot. ' ' The Innuit proceeds to " prospect " by driving the slender spear through the snow untU he finds the smaU opening in the ice which leads to the main hole. He then withdraws the spear, taking the utmost care not to disturb the snow, and seats himseU close by to await the coraing of the seal.. He- watches for hours, and sometimes for days, before he hears the welcome " blow." At 453 THE POLAR WORLD. SPEARING THROUGH THE SNOW. the second or third puff, he knows that the nose of the seal is at the bottom of the breathing-hole, perhaps two yards below the spot where he is standing. The spear must be thrust with perfect accuracy ; for an error of a quarter of an inch on eilher side would miss the hole, and the spear-point would strike the CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 453 solid ice, and the seal would be away in an instant. If the blow is well-aimed and at the right instant, it pierces the head of the unseen seal, who instantly dives and rims out the eight or ten fathoms of line which, fastened to the har poon, is tied around the waist of the Innuit. The snow is then dug away, the breathing-hole enlarged, so as to permit the seal to be drawn through. 4|^4*«^'' DOGS AND BEAR. The dogs also lake special delight in hunting the bear. When a team scent a bear it is irapossible lo restrain them. Once when Hall was on a journey a bear with her cub was seen on the ice at the foot of a high raountain. When within two hundred yards, the leading dog was cut loose, and he raade straight for the bear ; one by one the others were set free from the sledge, and all were in hot pursuit. One dog set upon the cub, and finaUy separated it frora its mother ; another caught the dara ; and both rolled down a precipice, up which the bear scrambled again and escaped, for it was so steep that the dogs could not follow. All the dogs, eleven in number, now set upon the cub. Hall com ing up, the young brute made at hira ; he ran it through with his spear. He expected that the Innuits would applaud his courage and dexterity ; but they shook their heads and said nothing at the tirae. They soon showed the utraost determination to leave the neighborhood, and explained by saying that the old bear would corae back at night, smeU the blood of the cub, and becorae en raged, and Mil them all. The Innuits avoid kiUing a young bear untU they have dispatched the old one, for they say that knowing the death of her young makes her a hundred times more terrible. Although the liver of the seal is 454 THE POLAR WORLD. BARBEKARK AND THE REINDEER. held to be a great delicacy, the Innuits never eat that or the head of the bear ; nor, if they can prevent it, will they suffer their dogs to do so. The Innuit dogs also sometimes hunt the reindeer. HaU's dogs one day gave chase to a deer, and one of thera, Barbekark, sprung al its throat, and bit through skin, windpipe, jugular, and tongue, taking out the piece as clearly as though it had been cut with a knife. Barbekark was brought to the United Stales by Mr. Hall, and died there. His stuffed skin showed him lo be a noble beast of unusual size. The walrus enters largely inlo the supplies of the Innuits. They manifest much courage and skill in harpooning these ungainly beasts. The hunter goes out arraed with a lance and a peculiar harpoon made for that purpose. A long hide-rope is attached lo the head of the harpoon, and coil ed around the neck of the hunter, who crawls along un til he comes within striking distance of the walrus, who lies basking upon the ice. The walrus dives at once ; the hun ter sUps the coil off frora his neck, and fastens the end of it to a spear driven into the ice ; thus tethering the aniraal. As soon as the walrus coraes up he is dispatched wilh a long HEAD OP REINDEER. CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 455 SPEARING THB WALRUS. lance. Should the Innuit faU lo sUp off the coU in time, he would infaUibly be drawn into the water;'and almost certainly lose his life ; but as HaU records no instance of such a catastrophe, we infer that these rarely happen. The Innuits show remarkable ingenuity in avaUing themselves of every fa- 456 THE POLAR WORLD. cility afforded by their inhospitable country. Of their igloos or snow-houses we have already spoken. In half an hour a couple of men wiU build one of these, which answers very well for a temporary shelter. When one is to be built for a longer residence, raore care is taken in the construction. A site is chosen where the snow is hard — if possible, over a running streara, so that they CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 457 WALRUS SKULL AND TUSKS. can obtain water withoul the la bor of melting the ice. A circle is marked out for the ground plan. Blocks of snow are cut wilh a large knife or saw. These blocks are three feet long, eight een inches wide, and six inches thick, shaped rounding, so that each block forms the segment of a circle of the proposed diameter of the igloo. The blocks are slight ly tapered off onr the inner side, and are laid spirally, one man \ building from within, while the other brings the blocks from without. The courses grow smaller and sraaller as the dome rises, until there is only a narrow open circle, into which a block of snow is dropped by way of keystone, binding the whole dorae firmly together. The man within now carefully examines every part, and if there are any open ings left they are stopped up with snow. A hole for a door is then cut ; and through this are passed the snow-blocks to build the divan, which forms the seats and bed. A tunnel-like passage is then dug and covered over. This is so low and narrow that one must crawl on all fours to pass through it. The outer door of the passage consists of a block^of ice or hard snow fitting closely to the opening and turning upon a sort of pivot. The usual diameter of a family igloo is twelve or sixteen feet, and its height about eight. It will accommodate ten or a dozen people. When newly built, an igloo is one ot the most beautiful structures conceiv able. The blocks are more transparent than the clearest alabaster and whiter than the purest raarble, but they soon becorae defaced by the sraoke and the filth of all kinds which rapidly accumulates. Apart frora the divan, alraost the only article of furniture is the stone larap, which serves the purpose both of lamp and fhrnace. It reminds one of an implement coraraon araong civUized people, and known as an " Etna." The Innuits show great dexterity in the construction of their irapleraents and in the fabrication of their clothing. Their canoes have been the admira tion of every voyager in the Arctic regions, and they are wonderfully dexterous in the management of them. Their sledges have the runners made of bits of bone ingeniously lied together wilh the sinews of the deer. When they wish them to run very smoothly they shoe thera wilh ice, by simply squirting from their mouths a thin streara of water upon the runner, where it congeals in an instant. The " oodloo," or woraan's knife, is shaped like our coramon meat-chopper. It is made of bone, merely edged wilh iron ; but in the hands of an Innuit woman it takes the place of the knife, hatchet, scraper, and shears of the woman's knife. 458 THE POLAR WORLD. INNUIT IMPLEMENTS. her civUized sisters. The different kinds of spears and harpoons used in captur ing the seal, walrus, and whale are admirably adapted for their pijrpose. We doubt whether we could improve upon the design, and, wilh all our facilities in the way of material, very much in the way of execution. The Innuits have clearly given their whole rainds lo the fabrication of these weapons. They have the bow and arrow, and are quite clever in its eraployraent ; but for them it is of little use except in the shooting of birds, for a seal or walrus would not even feel an arrow shot from the strongest bow. Although the Innuits have never domesticated the reindeer, it yet plays a great part in their economy. Their clothing and bedding is composed almost whoUy of deer-skin, which is one of the best non-conductors of heat' kno-wn. Even when the thermometer marks 70 degrees below the freezing-point, they never use but one for bedding ; and Mr. HaU says that he has slept under a CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 459 dozen of the best woollen blankets and been alraost frozen, while a single slender skin kept hira abundantly warra. During the summer the deer furnishes a great part of the food of the people. The grass and raosses upon which the deer live are very abundant. Nowhere, except on the prairies of the West, had Hall ever seen such luxuriant pasturage, and the deer in August were so plenti ful that they were kiUed raerely for the sake of their hides and taUow, which is a great luxury, fully equal, in Hall's opinion, to the finest butler. If the Innuits would only store up their provisions in the season of plenty, they need never suffer frora faraine ; but they never do this, and the consequence is that frora Noveraber till May they are almost always on the verge of starvation, while during the rest of the year they revel in plenty. As a pendant lo Mr. Hall's account of a seal-feast, we give his description of a reindeer-feast. The date is December, the season of scarcity. " Four months before, they had raore deer-raeat than they could eat — and the quantity that an Innuit and his dog can consume is something almost incredible. But one day a man came in frora a hunting excursion bearing with him a portion of the car casses of two deer, froz'en as hard as a rock. A general invitation for a feast was of course given out ; and the entire population, about thirty in all, rushed in. Sampson, the giver of the feast, acted as master of ceremonies. He first made the ladies on the bed give away, so as lo clear a space whereon he might do the carving. Then he placed a huge seal-skin on this spot, by way of table cloth, upon which the frozen carcass was laid. This he began to carve with a hatchet. Slabs of its side were chopped and peeled off ; chips of ice fiew here and there into the faces of the guests at each stroke of the axe. As fast as the fragments of venison roUed off, other men look the pieces, and by means of a saw and seal-knives reduced them to a size adapted for handling. Then Samp son distributed these bits, one to each, tUl every miU had its grist to grind. Thus for haff au hour Sampson carved ; then his hatchet-handle broke off close up lo the head. Another axe was sent for, and meanwhile, with the haff of a saw, the two saddles were divided into the proper number of pieces, ready for distribution. The carcass was then once more attacked, and the shell was broken, split, and sawed to pieces. In it was the ' kernel,' to which all looked with anxious eyes ; this was at last divided into as many pieces as there were pieces of saddle, and then one of each was given to every guest. I received my share with gratitude, and, with a piece in each hand, began eating. I bit off a mouthful of the saddle-piece ; it was good. I took a morsel of the other ; it was delightful : its flavor was a kind of sorrel acid ; it had an ambrosial taste ; it fairly melted in my mouth. When nearly through, I had the curiosity to crowd my way to a light to see what this delicious frozen food was, for where I sat I was shaded by large forms between rae and the firelight. I looked at it, rolled it over, and looked again. Behold, it was the contents of a reindeer's paunch ! On this discovery I stopped feasting for that night." Mr. Hall passes judgraent upon various other articles of Innuit food. Seal's blood, smoking hot, is exceUent. The skin of the whale, three-quarters of an inch thick, looking like India-rubber, even when raw, is good eating ; but when boUed and soused in vinegar, is most exceUent. The " gura " of the whale, that 460 THE POLAR WORLD. is, the substance in which whalebone is sel, is a special Innuit delicacy ; it looks like cocoa-nut meat, and tastes like unripe chestnuts. HaU could not fully ap preciate this ; but he adds savingly, " If the struggle was for life, and its pres ervation depended upon the act, I would undoubtedly eat whale's gum until I gol something better to ray liking." Once a substance which looked Uke a choice bit frora a turkey's breast was handed to hira. He thoughl he had stumbled upon a delicacy, but after vainly trying to masticate il for half an hour, he found it as solid as when he began. This substance was the ligament lying between the vertebrae of the whale. He had made a mistake in the way of disposing of it. The Innuit mode is to take a huge piece into the raouth, lubricate it thoroughly, and then boll it whole, as the boa-constrictor swaUows a deer. Hall thinks weU of the Innuit practice of eating their raeat raw, in a sanitary point of view ; but he never quite liked il. He never fully carae up to the opinion of Mansfield Parkyns, the Abyssinian traveller, who assures us that no raan knows what a good beef-steak is until he has eaten it raw, before it has had tirae lo get cold. The costume of the Innuits is admirably adapted lo the climate. The win ter dress, coraraencing with the feet, is thus composed : Long stockings of rein deer skin, with the hairy side next to the person ; socks of eider-duck skin, wilh the feathers on both sides, aud of seal-skin wilh the hair outside ; boots, the legs of reindeer skin with the hair outside, the soles of seal-skin. The jacket is of reindeer skin, fitting rather loosely ; those of the women have long tails reaching almost to the ground. The ornamentation of the feraale dress de pends on the means and taste of the wearer. One "very pretty style,' men tioned by Mr. HaU, had a fringe of colored beads across the neck, bowls of Britannic-metal lea-spoons down the front flap, and a double row of copper cents, surraounted by a sraall bell, down the tail, which was bordered by a beading of leaden shot. The jacket has no opening before or behind, but is slipped on over the head. The woraen's jacket has a hood which serves a variety of purposes, araong others, that of carrying the children. The breeches reach below the knee, and are fastened by a string drawn about the waist. Finger-rings and a head-band of bright brass, coraplete the fashionable cos tume. The religious ideas of the Innuits are very vague. They believe that there- is one Supreme Being who created the earth, sea, and stars ; and also a second ary divinity, his daughter, who created all things having life, whether animal or vegetable. She is the tutelary deity of the Innuits. They believe in a heav en and a hell, but have no very well defined ideas about thera. According lo Tookoolito, heaven was upward ; il is light there aU the lirae, and there are no ice or storras. Hell is downward ; no sun there, but storras and snows all the while ; it is cold, and there is a great deal of ice there. Any one who has been killed by accident goes straight to heaven. They have a kind of priests, or rather conjurers, called Angekos, whose business is to charm away sickness, and secure good hunting-seasons, wilh an abundance of seals, walrus, and deer, and an early disappearance of the ice.. When his services are called for, he is always, like a wise man, careful to get his pay in advance, and it is generaUy CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 461 FINDING THE DEAD. understood that the success of his incantations depends greatly upon the amount of his fee. Upon the whole, the Innuits must be regarded as an amiable and kindly people. They are exceedingly tender parents, and not unaffeclionate husbands and wives. The main exception to their general kindness is their treatment of the aged and infirm. When one, especially a woman, is hopelessly sick or in firm, she is nol unfrequently abandoned. Mr. HaU relates several incidents of this kind which carae within his o-wn knowledge. In one case the husband, when he found that his wife was hopelessly sick of consninption, abandoned her, and took another while the poor creature was slill alive. The deserted woman lingered several weeks, supplied with food by the neighbors. In anoth er case a sick woman, in the depth of winter, was left behind in an igloo, with a small quantity of provisions. HaU, learning of this, made an attempt to go to her rescue. But in the mean time a heavy snow-storm had come on, and the igloo was entirely buried, so that no traces of it could be found. A few days after, HaU, accorapanied by Ebierbing, made another attempt. The spot was finaUy found, though tbe snow lay level above the ice-hut, the position of 463 THE POLAR WORLD. which could be ascertained only by exploring with their spears. They broke through the roof, and, looking down, saw the woman frozen as soUd as a mar ble statue. She had been dead for days, and the indications showed that she had perished from cold very soon after being abandoned. There were suppUes of whale-skin for food, and blubber lo keep up the fire, but she was too feeble to rise from the bed and replenish the lamp. The Innuits of the present day are a purely nomadic race, roaming from place to place, foUowing the seal, walrus, and deer. But their wanderings ap pear to be confined to the region of the coast, never extending far into the in terior. Their dwellings are therefore constructed for mere temporary occupa tion, being snow-huts {igloos) for winter, and tents {tupics) for suramer. But INNUIT SUMMER VILLAGE. there are indications in the forra of trenches and excavations which show that they formerly led a more settled life, and constructed more perraanent habita tions. Their nurabers have been gradually diminishing ever since they have come inlo contact with the whites. How this comes lo pass is a mystery. There is nothing to show that the climate has become more rigorous, or that the animals which constitute their food have gro-wn scarcer or less easy of cap ture. The Indians of America have been destroyed by the occupation of their hunting-grounds, by whisky, and the smaU-pox, introduced by the whites. The natives of the South Sea Islands have been eaten up by nameless diseases, con tracted frora their licentious white visitors. There is scarcely a trace of either drunkenness or licentiousness among the Innuits. Consumption is the great m CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 463 destroyer among them ; but we can see no reason why this should be more prevalent now than it was generations ago. It seems that in former times there were chiefs among the Innuits, but at;. the present time there is no trace of any thing like government among them. In each community there is usually some one who, from age, personal prowess.- 464 THE POLAR WORLD. OVER THE IDE. as a hunter, or native shrewdness, is looked up to with respect, and his opinions are regarded with deference ; but he has no sort of authority except that which each persou voluntarily concedes lo hira. We left Mr. Hall near the close of January, 1861, when he was just return ing to the ship after his first overland expedition. We do not propose to fol low him through the course of his personal narrative, although it abounds with striking incidents and details of hardship and peril. Thus, one day in March, John Brown, one of the ship's crew, in company with two Innuits, started off from an igloo a few railes distant to rejoin the ship. Soraehow he got sepa rated from his companions, but the next morning he had not arrived. The night had been intensely cold, the thermoraeter marking 57 degrees below freezing- point. A party of a dozen set off in the attempt to find him. In two hours they carae upon the tracks of tbe wanderer, but only Hall and four others could hold out ; the others, one by one, fell back. They kept on, foUowing the tracks, which now began to grow faint, being partly filled up with snow. For a tirae the tracks went straight for the ship ; then they began to waver, now in one direction, and then in another, showing that the man had lost his way. They followed the tracks, in the intense cold, 60 degrees below freezing-point. They were tormented by thirst, which they attempted to aUay by the use of ice. The first fragment which Hall put inlo his mouth froze it fast. He managed to reduce the temperature of the ice by holding the fragments in his mittened hand, so that he could place them in his mouth. After six hours. Hall's companions said they could go no farther and must return ; for they had brought along no snow-knife, with which they could build an igloo for the night; and ii a storm should spring up, they must all be inevitably lost. Hall went on alone. One of the crew naraed Johnston soon overtook him, saying, "Brown was my shipmate, and I loved him. I will go on wilh you. If I were to go back now, I shaU always regret it." They foUowed the tracks, which now be gan to run in circles, interlocking one another. There were twelve of these CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 465 THE FROZEN SAILOR. within less than two miles. Every little while they carae upon places where the wanderer had lain down to rest. At five o'clock, nine hours after setting out, they were overtaken by Captain Buddington, with two sailors and two In nuits, accompanied by a dog-team. They all pressed On with renewed vigor, and in a few minutes came upon poor Brown, frozen dead. They could not con vey the corpse to the ship, fully ten miles away, and so buried him in the snow upon the spot where he was found. It was the middle of July before the ship was released from her icy prison. The whalers went to work, and Hall made several iraportant expeditions by land and water, living nearly all the while wilh the Innuits. Towards the middle of October the captain began to prepare for returning home. But he was a few days too late. The ship was beset in the ice-pack, with no hope of escape. There was nothing left but to make up their minds lo spend another winter in the ice. We must pass wholly over the incidents and adventures of this second win ter. It is the old tale of suffering and privation. On the 12lh of January the thermometer fell to 72 degrees below the freezing point. One of the men who had left to visit an Innuit encarapment came back, saying that he thought he had frozen his toe. Upon pulling off his boots both feet were found to be frozen stiff, and as hard as ice. The usual attempts to save the raerabers were made in vain ; raortlfication began, and, to save the man's life, the captain was obliged to amputate portions of both his feet. This year, 1862, the ice held on unusually late ; but on the 8th of August it 30 4G6 THE POLAR WORLD. -B^as found that the pack had broken up. The way home was apparentiy open ; and aU hands were suramoned on board. The vessel spread her canvas and sailed off, the Innuits sun-ounding her in their canoes, and shouting fareweU. Tookoolito and Ebierbing resolved to accorapany Hall to the States, taking wilh thera Tukelikela (" Butterfly "), their infant, a year old. The child died a few raonths after their arrival in the States, and lies buried in the graveyard at Groton, Connecticut. " I never saw," says Hall, " a more aniraated, sweeWem- pered, and engaging chUd." For days the mother was deUrious; then she longed lo die, that she might be with her lost Butterfly. Upon his grave were laid, according to the custora of his people, aU his childish playthings. They were sacred to the dead. The mother went to tbe grave one day, and found that one article, a gayly-painted Uttie lin pail, had been taken away. She was inconsolable. " Poor Uttie Butterfly," she said, " how he wUl miss his beauti ful paU !" The homeward voyage was speedy and prosperous. On the 13th of Septem ber the "George Henry" dropped anchor al New London, -whence she had sailed two years and three and a haff months before. The net results of HaU's expedition were these : Many new discoveries were made in Arctic geography ; much inforraation was gathered in relation to the inhabitants ; and experience acquired of iraraense value to all future Arctic ex plorers. Mr. Hall also raade a very interesting discovery in regard lo the fate of the expedition of Martin Frobisher, undertaken alraost three centuries ago. He found a tradition among the natives that many years ago white men in ships had visited a place still called " White Man's Island." Hall corapared these tra ditions with the accounts extant in books respecting this voyage, and was struck with their remarkable coincidence. He visited the place designated as the white man's encampraent, and found raany things which had evidently been left by Europeans. Araong these was a heap of coal araounting to several tons, a large fragment of iron, and som.e bricks. Every thing was covered over with moss whose thick growth showed that they raust have reraained there undis turbed for ages. The bearing of this upon the possibility of revealing the whole mystery of the fate of Franklin is evident. If the Innuits have preserved tolerably accu rate traditions of what took place three centuries ago, it is not to be doubted that they still have information of what took place within a single generation. It is now past hoping that any merabers of Franklin's expedition are yet living ; but there must be Innuits who can tell how and where they died. To further this investigation H.all resolved upon a second expedition. He spent nearly two years in preparing his book for publication, and in makiag prep arations for this enterprise. Abundant facilities were now placed al his dis posal; and on the 30th of July, 1864, he again set sail. In the preface to his book, written on board the vessel, he says : "I am persuaded that among the Innuits maybe sought, by one corapetent, with every chance of coraplete success, the sad history of Sir John Franklin's men. To make myself competent for this more interesting and important re search, I patiently acquired the language and familiarized myself with the habits CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 467 of the Esquimaux. I now return to their country able to speak with thera, to live among them, to support my life in the same manner that they do theirs ; to migrate with them from place to place, and to traverse and patiently explore all the region in which il is reasonable to suppose Franklin's crew travelled and perished. I shall be accompanied by the two intelligent Esquimaux, Ebierbing and Tookoolito, who, having accompanied me on ray return from my first expedition, and after reraaining with rae for two years, now go back with me on this second voyage. I enter upon this undertaking with the liveliest hope of success. I shall not, like previous explorers, set my foot on shore for a few days or weeks, or, like others, journey araong men whose language to me is unintelligible. I shall live for two or three years among the Esquimaux, and gain their confidence ; and I have the advantage of understanding their lan guage, and of maldng all my wishes known to them." This second expedition of Hall, instead of the two or three years which he had anticipated, occupied more than five years, during a great part of which he was shut out frora all communication with the world. Up to 1867, he wrote as opportunity afforded to his fast friend and warm supporter, Henry Grinnell; but his letters gave only faint indications of what he hoped to accomplish. He had expected to return in 1868, but in that year no whaling vessels came back from the Arctic seas, and he was doomed to another year in that region. Late in 1869 he returned, and was received with plaudits not less warm than those which had welcomed Kane, fifteen years before. Con gress in a few raonths passed a bill raaking adequate appropriations for a national expedition to the Arctic regions, to be placed under the direction of HaU. On the day following Christmas, 1870, 1 met Hall in New York. He was little changed in appearance from the aspect which he had borne five years before, as shown upon page 434 of this volume. He was busily engaged in preparations for his new voyage, and was in high spirits. " I have demonstra ted in my own person," he said, " that white raen can live, with no extraor dinary sufferings, for years in the depths of the Arctic regions. I have lived there for years, and can teach my associates how to do so. Upon this new expedition I shall be amply provided with all means for a thorough explora tion. I sball have with rae a scientific observer, a naturalist fully qualified to report upon every thing in his department, and an artist and photographer, who will be able lo depict every thing relating lo the Arctic regions. Thus abundantly supplied, and aided by my own experience of raore than ten years, I think that I shall be able lo accomplish something worthy of the raeans placed al my disposal." About the lime when these pages meet the eye of the reader. Hall will have set out on his third expedition. We bid hira, by anticipation, " Hail. and farewell." Livingstone says that he found it easier lo perform his African journeys than write the account of them. Soraething like this raay be the case with Hall ; at all events, so fully has he been occupied in fitting out his third expe dition that he has not found lirae lo prepare the narrative of the one whicb 468 THE POLAR WORLD. he has just corapleted. But his journals and drawings are preserved, and wUl undoubtedly see the light. Of their value, as they stand, I have raeans of knowing soraething ; and trust that he may return safely, and be able to re vise them for publication. In a few weeks he will havc set out on his third voyage. From the capacity which he has manifested in two expeditions, occu pying together more than ten years, and frora the abundant resources now at his disposal, there is every reason to hope that he will be able to solve the reraaining problems relating to the Arctic regions. If there be, as there is good reason to suppose, an open sea surrounding the North Pole ; and if that sea is accessible to man, by land or by water, we can hardly doubt that Hall, certainly the first of while men, and most likely first of all men, will raake his way to it. Until such tirae as he shall have returned frora his present voyage, we bid him hail and farewell. And also, copying his own last drawing made during his first expedition, we bid farewell lo the Innuits — that interesting people whom he is the first fairly to introduce to the world ; since he was the first white man who ever lived wilh them, faring sumraer and winter as they fared, and experiencing with thera the pleasures and the sorrows of their hyperbo rean life. fABEWELL OF THE INNUITS. THE TEOPIOAL WOELD. THE TEOPICAL WOELD. WATERSPOUT. CHAPTER L THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE OF THE TROpiCAL WORLD. Characteristics of tbe Polar and Tropical Worlds-Geographical and Climatic Limits of the /ones-Distribution of Land and Water-Climatic Importance of the Ocean-Currents of tlie Ocean-The Gulf Stream-Influence ofthe Gulf Stream upon the Climate of Europe- Ihe Sargasso Sea-Columbus and the Gulf Stream-The Pacific and Indian Currents- Heat and Force-Relative Positions of Hot and Cold Currents-Currents of the Air-The irade Winds-Atmospheric Currents and Climate-The Calm Belt near the Equator- Kamfall of Diflferent Regions-Rainy and Dry Seasons within the Tropics-The Monsoons —Winds as Regulators of Rains— Annual Rainfall— Whirlwinds-Their Rotary Motion- Tropical Islands- Volcanic Islands-Coralline Islands-Atolls and Reefs-Influence ofthe Ocean upon Life in the Tropical Islands. TpROM a wide survey of the Polar Worid, we now turn to the tropical regions, J- where nature assumes aspects of an entirely different character. In the Polar World there is a constant struggle between all sorts of life and cold. As we approach the poles, cold gains more and more the mastery ; life nearly ceases upon the land, 472 THE TROPICAL WORLD. and exists mainly in the waters which sweep around the ice-bound shores. In the Tropical World, of which we are now to speak, tho intense rays of the vertical sun call into being an exuberance of animal and vegetable life unknown to other regions. Here, in the outset, it is well to define, as nearly as may be done, the geographical limits of the zones or belts of the earth, and esspecially of that with which we are now most immediately concerned, which we designate as Tropical, as distinguished from the Temperate Zones which lie upon each side of it, and the Polar, which Ue on eacb side stUl farther beyond, to the north and the south. As used by geographers, the Tropical Zone includes that belt of the earth's sur face extending 23^° on each side of the equator, bounded on the nortb by an imaginary line called the Tropic of Cancer, on the south by tbe Tropic of Capricorn. These mark tbe points from which tbe sun appears to make a turn (Greek Tjjim/i, trope, whence tbe name) toward tbe equator, from its utmost declination toward the north and south. It is only between these points that tbe sun ever appears directly overhead ; north of these it is always seen to the south, and south of them to the nortb. This forms the Torrid Zone, or belt of extreme heat. But as tbe prevailing forms of vegetable and animal life which characterize this zone extend considerably further in both directions, we shall use the word Tropical in a somewhat wider sense, and by tbe Tropical World shall designate all that part of the earth's surface between tbe equator and the thirtieth parallel of latitude on each side, forming a single belt of 60° in width. Perhaps tbe best single characteristic of this zone is, that within it alone tbe various species of the palm tree have their home. The Polar Worlil, as we have used the phrase, designates the zones at the north and south wbere the cold is so excessive as to prevent tbe growth of grains and esculent plants suited to tbe use of man. Tbe parallels of 60°, nortb and souths are the approximate boundaries of these zones, although the actual limit is sometimes above and sometimes below this. Tbus in Europe and on the western coast of America, the polar limit is as high as 65°; while on the eastern coast of America, as in Labrador, it sinks as low as 50°. The Temperate 'Zones comprise the surface of the globe between the parallels of 30° and 60° north and south latitude. These great climatic divisions shade into each other ; but it may be said in general terms that each occupies a space of 60° of latitude, as follows : The Polar Zones, 90° to 60° north and south. The Temperate Zones, 60° to 30° north and south. The Tropical Zones from the equator to 30° north and south. Tbe whole of Europe, more than nine-tenths of Asia, a narrow strip of Africa, and all of North America except Mexico, and a small portion of Texas and Florida, lie north of tbe tropical limit. Patagonia, the bare southern extremity of Africa, half of Australia, and the almost unknown land around the southern pole, witb a few islands, are all the land south of the tropics. Tbe Tropical World comprises Mexico, Central America, nearly the whole of South America and Africa, and nearly all the great islands of tbe globe, including the West India Islands, Polynesia, tbe islands of the Indian Ocean, and half of Australia. The ocean covers three-fourths of the surface of the globe. Of tbe land, three- quarters is in the northern hemisphere, and one-quarter in the southern. The Arctic PROPORTIONS OF LAND AND WATER. 473 and North Temperate Zones are not very unequally divided between land and water. The ocean covers four-fifths of the Tropical Zone, and rolls in an almost unbroken mass over the southern temperate and Antarctic regions. This great preponderance of water over land between the tropics is one of the most important facts in physical geography. Were tbe proportions reversed, sterility would be the rule all over the globe, for without water there can be no vegetable or animal life. All the water that wells up in fountains, or flows in brooks and rivers, comes frora tbe ocean, whenco it is raised by evaporation and borne along tbe viewless channels of tbe air to be pre cipitated in the form of rain and snow, sometimes thousands of mUes from the spot where it commenced its aerial journey. It is computed that nearly^ 200,000 cubic miles of water are annuaUy raiaed from tbo ocean in tho form of vapor. Three- quarters of this is raised within tbe tropics, and a great part falls beyond them. If the extent of the tropical ocean were diminished by half, there is hardly a part of the Temperate Zone which would not be parched by perpetual drought, and hardly a river whose bed would not become a dry ravine. The hidden springs of the Amazon, Mississippi, and the Danube lie in the Pacific. The water whicb fills the great lakes of Nortb America, and thundering down the cataract of Niagara finds its way through tbe St. Lawrence Eiver into the ocean almost on the verge of the polar world, only a few weeks before, perhaps, laved the coral reefs of the tropical seas. Moreover, if any considerable part of the tropical ocean were converted into land, the beat of the Torrid Zone would become so greatly enhanced that no animal life, such as now exists, could endure it ; and as the vegetation of a climate is adapted to the prevailing temperature, the trees and plants which now flourish would become extinct. Water in being converted into a gaseous form by the process of evaporation absorbs heat from surrounding objects, or, as we say, produces cold. Tbus the burning rays of a vertical sun pouring down upon tbe ocean in a measure quench themselves. Tbe same rays which falling upon the ocean never raise the water beyond a grateful temperature, falling upon the land produce an intolerable heat. To step on a sum mer's day from the cool water upon tbe sandy beach is like treading upon a plate of heated metal. The conformation of the land within the tropics likewise goes far to counterbalance or mitigate the excessive heat of a vertical sun. Tbe most casual glance over a map shows that the land here is mostly insular, laved on all sides by tbe surrounding waters, or stretches in a narrow length between two oceans, thus multiplying the surface over which the sea is enabled to exert its cooling influence. The great extent of the tropical seas is also the primary cause of those mighty ocean currents which sweep from the equatorial to tbe polar regions. Cool as is the water of the tropics when compared with the land, it is yet warm wben compared with the other parts of the ocean. Tbe water thus heated becomes specifically lighter tban that of colder regions, is lifted up, and, in obedience to tbe law of gravitation, runs off in both directions toward the poles. There having become cooled, tho salt waters are heavier than the comparatively fresh ones of the polar regions, and, sinking beneath thera, return in an under current to their starting-place. This great equatorial current, or rather series of currents, is tbe marvel of physical geography. Let us follow that of tbe Atlantic in its long career. Starting on the Une of the equator, it flows north-westward along the coast of South America, enters the 474 THE TROPICAL WORLD. Caribbean Sea and tbe Gulf of Mexico, from which it derives the name of tbe Gulf Stream. It passes out through the Straits of Bemini, between Florida and Cuba, a great river 32 miles wide, 2,200 feet deep, flowing at the rate of four mUes an hour. Its volume is a thousand times greater than that of tbe Amazon or the Mississippi, and its banks of cold water are more clearly defined tban are those of either of these rivers st flood. So clear is tho line of demarkation between the warm water of the river and its cool liquid hanks, that a ship sailing along may be half in ono and half in the otber ; and a bucket of water dipped from one side will he twenty degrees cooler tban one from the other. Skirting the coast at a distance of about 100 miles, its width is increased and its velocity diminished. Striking the projecting banks of Newfound land, its course is deflected alraost due east, until it arrives at mid-ocean. Here it spreads out like a fan, skirting the shores of Spain, France and Great Britain. It then divides, one branch sweeping around the west coast of Iceland, the other approaching tbe shores of Norway, and its temporary influence is perceptible in the ameliorated climate of Spitzbergen. ¦It is owing to this great ocean river that the temperature of tbe western shores of Europe is so much higher than that of the eastern shore of America in tbe same lati tudes. Maury estimates that the amount of heat which the Gulf Stream diffuses over the nortbern Atlantic in a winter's day is sufficient to raise the whole atmosphere which covers France and Great Britain from the freezing point to sumraer beat. The olives of Spain, tho vines of France, the wheat-fields of England, and the green esspanse of tho Emerald Isle, are the gifts of tho tropical seas, dispensed through tbe Gulf Stream. Near tbe Azores another branch of tho Gulf Stream encounters the return flow firom tbe Arctic Ocean, bends around, and skirting the coast of Africa, returns to its starting-placo in tbe Gulf of Guinea, leaving in its great bend near the Azores an expanse of almost motionless waters larger tban the whole of France. This ia known as the Sargasso Sea, from tbe surface being covered with a seaweed called the Sar- gassum natans. So thick is the covering of weeds that at a little distance it seems soUd enough to walk upon. Another curious species of seaweed, tbe Macrocrystis pyrifera, is found in this grassy sea. Tbe stem, not thicker tban a man's finger, is from 1,000 to 1,500 foot long, branching upward in filaments like pack-thread. Most of these weeds probably grow on tbe spot ; but many are borne along by tbe Gulf Stream, for everything that floats from other parts of the Atlantic tend to its eastern side. The discovery of the bodies of strange aniraals and unknown trees and plants flung ashore at the Azores suggested to Colurabus the idea that there was land lying beyond the western ocean ; so that to tho Gulf Stream we are indebted for the dis covery of the New World. Bottles have been thrown overboard at various points in the Gulf Stream, containing tho date and position of the ship. Many of these have been picked up. From these it appears that the stream takes eight months to flow from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of Europe, and the broader and slower current takes a year to travel from the Bay Cf Biscay back to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Stream, though tbe best known, and in many respects the most remark able of tbe great equatorial currents, is by no means tbe largest. Tbe great current of tbe Pacific and Indian Oceans may be regarded as one mighty stream flowing from east to west. It crosses the Pacific in a sheet nearly 3,500 miles broad, spreading OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC CURRENTS. 475 over alraost half of the distance from pole to pole. Another great current originates in tbo Indian Ocean, flows into the China Sea through the Straits of Malacca, thence into the Nortb Pacific between the coast of Asia and tho Philippine Islands; thence crosses the ocean to the north-westward, modifying the climate of Oregon and Alaska. All tbe heated water thus poured from tbe tropical ocean, and all raised from it by evaporation and transported through aerial channels to foed tho rivers of tho teraperate and polar regions, must find its way back by counter currents. Heat, according to the dictum of modern science, may be reduced to force. The force of tbe sun's rays poured upon the tropical oceans is suflicient to raise thousands of yards into tho air five hundred cubic miles of water every day, and to put and keep in motion the mighty currents which swoop back and forth from tbe equator to the poles. Tbe study of the course, direction, and elevation of those currents has as yet only begun. We know that sometimes, as on the eastern coast of America, the currents of warm and cold water run side by side in opposite directions ; soraetiraes a warm current is on tbo surface, and sometimes below it. In the Gulf Stream the warm current is above, the cold below ; while on the coast of Japan a cold current from the Sea of Okhotsk runs on tho surface, giving rise to a fishery not inferior in magnitudo to that caused on the hanks of Newfoundland by tbe cold current from BaiBn's Bay. Enough, however, is now known of oceanic currents to warrant tho assumption that they are mainly governed by the great law of gravitation. The lighter water flows upon the surface, tbe heavier flows underneath. But tbe specific gravity of ocean water depends upon two things, tbe temperature and tho amount of salts contained. The heated water from tho tropics is rendered lighter than that which surrounds it of the same saltness, and so floats on tbo surface ; but tho cold currents from tho polos are less saline, and consequently lighter than tbo tropical waters of the samo temperature. When these two opposing currents meet there is a struggle ; but at length the one which is really specifically heavier sinks, while tho lighter rises. So facile is the movement of fluids among eacb other, that a difference in gravity whicb we can hardly detect with our nicest instruments may be abundantly sufficient to decide which of two opposing currents sball run above and which below. The air has currents as well as tho ocean, and these have much to do in modifying the climate of the Tropical World. Earified by the intense boat of a vertical sun, the air within the tropics rises in perpendicular columns high above tbe surface of the earth, and thence flows ofi' toward tbe poles ; while, to fill up the void, cold air cur rents come rushing in from tbe Arctic and Antarctic regions ; but tho rotation of the earth gradually diverts tbe direction of those cold currents, and changes tbem into the trade winds which regularly blow over tbe greater part of tbe tropical ocean from east to west, and materially contribute to the health and comfort of the navigator whom they waft over the equatorial waters. These atmospheric currents in another way still more powerfully influence tbe climate and productions of tbe Tropical World ; for upon them, in conjunction witb the character and direction of the great mountain ranges, depends tbe supply of water upon the surface of the globe, and thus determine tbe fertiUty or barrenness of tbe soil. It may be laid down as a rule that wherever within tbo tropics there is an abundant supply of moisture, vegetation grows in rank luxuriance ; and wherever this is wanting, tbe land is a desert ; and wherever, as in the llanos of Southern America, 476 THE TROPICAL WORLD. there is a regular alternation of long periods of rain and drought, there is at different seasons a wonderful interchange between apparent desolation and a profusion of vege table and animal life. The aspects of these regions will be more fully described hereafter. The great mountain ranges run mainly north and south. The great atmospheric currents at the surface of the earth in tropical regions blow mainly from east to west. The moisture in these winds is condensed wben they strike tbe cold mountains, and descends in tbe form of rain or snow. Hence, in general, tbe eastern sides of tropical mountains are better watered tban tbe western slopes. We have spoken of tbe trade winds as extending over the whole breadth of the Tropical World. But to this there is a notable exception. Near tho equator, but a little to the north of it, tbe two currents from tho Arctic and Antarctic regions moot and neutralize each other, producing a belt of calms, which sailors call the "Dol drums," of about six degrees in breadth. Here it rains almost every day during the year, for tbe ascending currents of heated air loaded with moisture become suddenly cooled in the higher regions, and are forced to give up the water which they have Ufted from the ocean. Towards noon dense clouds form in the sky, and dissolve in torrents of rain. Towards evening the vapors disperse, and the sun sets in a cloudless horizon. Tbe quantity of rain which here falls during the year is enormous. In the United States tbe annual rainfall is from 25 to 70 inches; in Europe from 15 to 104; in the Atlantic doldrums it reaches 225. So copious is the rainfall at times that fresh water has been dipped up from tho surface of the tropical seas. Proceeding north or south from the belt of calras, we come to a region characterized by two rainy and two dry seasons. The rainy seasons take place while the sun is passing tbe zenith, and more or less neutralizing tho influence of the trade winds. In Jamaica, for example, the first rainy season begins in April, the second in October; tbe first dry season in June, tbe second in Decembe?-. Towards the verge of the tropics follow the zones characterized by a single rainy and a single dry season ; the rains lasting from tbe vernal to the autumnal equinox. Tbe two rainy seasons whieh characterize tbe middle zone between eacb tropic and the equator have a tendency to merge into one rainy season of six months' duration on advancing toward tbe tropics, and into a perpetual rainy season on approaching the equator. As tbe sun goes nortb or south he opens the flood-gates of tbe heavens, and closes thom behind him as he passes to tbe other hemisphere ; while he keeps tbem continually open wbere he is always vertical. But this general state of things, which would bo the normal condition of the tropical regions if their surface was an unbroken sheet of water, and no disturbing forces existed, is liable to great modifications. Thus in the monsoon region, extending from tbe eastern coast of Africa to the northern part of Australia, and from tbe tropic of Capricorn to the Himalayas and China, it is not tho sun directly, but tbe winds that regulate tbo periodical rains. Thus in India and the Malayan peninsula tbe western coasts are watered during the south-west mon soon, which prevaUs from April to October ; and the eastern coasts durino- the north east monsoon, frora October to AprU. For example, tho south-west wind condenses its vapor on the western side of tbe Ghauts, tbe north east on the eastern, so that violent rains fall daily on tbe coast of Coromandel, while it is the reverse on that of Malabar, and vice versa. In the southern hemisphere the rainy season corresponds with RAINS AND HURRICANES. 477 the north-western monsoon, tbe dry season with the south-eastern. In South Africa and Australia winter is the rainy season. In South America, in the same latitudes, sumraer is the rainy season on the eastern side of the Cordilleras, and winter on the western side. At sea, it rains almost daily within the calm belt, rarely within that of the trade winds. On the land within the tropics tbe rainfall is in many regions enormous. The average annual fall in the most favored parts of tbe temperate zone is about 40 inches ; in tbe tropics it exceeds 100. In some portions it is vastly greater. On the western Ghauts the mean annual quantity is 300 inches. On the Himalayas, Mr. Yule measured 264 inches in the single month of August, of which 150 inches fell in five successive days. Hooker and Thomson measured bere 500 inches iu seven months; and during a terrific shower 30 inches fell in four hours, and Castlenau measured the same quantity during a single storm on the Amazon. Tornados and hurricanes rage in the Tropical World witb a frequency, extent and violence unknown in other cliraates. They sometimes move with a direct velocity of 45 miles an hour ; but the violence and destructiveness of a whirlwind depend less upon the velocity with which tbe whole storm moves than upon the speed with which the wind whirls around and in upon the center. The great Bahama hurricane of 1866 moved forward at tho rate of 30 miles an hour; but the velocity of its whirling motion was from 80 to 100, and for short intervals frora 100 to 120 mjles an hour. The diameter of the great storms of the tropical Atlantic is often frora 600 to 1,000 miles ; those of tho Indian Ocean 1,000 to 1,500. These, however, move but slowly. The smaller storms are usually more rapid than the larger ones. The revolving motion accounts for the sudden and violent changes observed during O DO hurricanes. In consequence of this rotation, the wind blows in opposite directions on each side of tbe axis of tbe storm ; the violence increases from the circumference inward ; but at the center the air is in repose. Hence, when the body of the storm passes over a place, the wind begins to blow moderately, and increases to a hurricane as the center of the whirlwind approaches ; then in a moment a dead calra succeeds, suddenly foUowed by a renewal of the storm in all its violence, but now blowing in a direction opposite to that which it had before. From this rotary motion it follows that the directioa of the wind at any moment is no indication of the direction which the body of the storm is pursuing. The progressive motion may continue for days in one direction, while the wind acconiplishos many gyrations from every point of tbe compass. During a part of tbe course of a storm the wind blows in just tbe opposite direction from that which the hurricane is taking, just as when a carriage-wheel, sad every point of its circumference, is really moving forward, during a part of eacb revolution any point in the circumference is at the samo time moving back witb a still greater velocity. We have already referred to the insular character of a considerable portion of the Tropical World. Nine tenths of the islands which dot the ocean lie within the tropics. These islands are divided into two great classes. The one class ia of volcanic origin, upheaved from the depths of the ocean; or, rather, tbey are peaks of lofty raduntaina whose sides and base lie deep in the water. There are two opposite theories to account for tbe existence and present appearance of these islands. According to one theory, a continent once occupied a large part of the Pacific Ocean within tbe tropics, 478 THE TROPICAL WORLD. a great portion of whicb has sunk beneath the waters, and these islands are but the peaks and table-lands of that lost continent. The other theory is that these islands have been for unknown agos, and now aro, slowly being Ufted up from the depths below. Both theories rest upon so wide an induction of facts that both must be accepted as true ; or rather as parts of the one great truth, that the crust of tbe earth whicb we are wont to consider so firm and stable is now, as it always bas boon, rising and falling, as truly as the surface of tho water rises and falls by the attraction of the sun and moon ; only that these periodic changes aro measured by ages instead of by hours. Who shall say that in the higher knowledge which we shall gain during tbe ages of tbe future wo may not attain to tbe understanding that tbe rise and sinking of con tinents is like that of tho tides governed by law, and that wo may not be able to express in figures, whicb will then be quite finite to us, though now seeraing infinite, tbe years that have elapsed since wheu " in tbe beginning heaven and earth rose out of chaos ?" Volcanic islands are found in all oceans. Iceland has its Heckla, Sicily its Etna, Hawaii its Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, Niphon its Fusiyama. From Sumatra, Java, and Sumbawa, Ternate and Tidore, Borneo, Celebes, and Gilolo, close by the equator, thence northward and north-westward to tbe Kurile Islands, bard by the frozen coast of Kamchatka, is one great belt of volcanic islands, spreading out like a fan through Polynesia. But in the tropical seas, and there alone, are coralline islands, built up, grain by grain, by minute living beings. The siraplest form of those coral islands is a ring enclosing a portion of tbe oeean. Sometimes this ring is barely two miles in diameter ; sometimes it reaches a hundred miles, rising only a half-score of feet above tho level of tbe water, and owing to the convexity of tbe surface of tho ocean invisible from the deck of a ship at a distance of a mile or two, unless they happen to be covered with tall palras or pandanus. The roar of tbe surf dashing upon their windward side is often beard long before the island itself comes into view. On the outer side this ring, or atoll, slopes gradually for a hundred yards or more, to a depth of twenty-five fathoms, and thon plunges sheer down into tbe waters witb a descent more rapid than tho cone of any volcano. At a distance of five hundred yards no bottom has been reached with a sounding line of a mile and a half in length. All below tbe surface of the water to the depth of 100 feet is alive, all above and below this section dead, for the coral insect can live only within this range. These atolls assume every form and condition. Sometimes tbey are solitary specks in the waste of waters. Oftener they occur in groups. The Caroline Archipelago has sixty groups extending over a space of a thousand square miles. Sometimes a group of atolls becomes partially joined into one, the irregular ring encircling an island-studded lagoon, witb openings through which a ship may enter. Sometimes these coral formations take tbe form of long roofs bordering an extensive coast. Such a reef runs parallel to tho coast of Malabar for nearly five hundred miles. It consists of a series of atoUs arranged in a double row, separated by a sea whose depths no line has sounded ; yet from outer to inner edge of the double row is a space of but fifty miles. Sucb a broken coral reef often girdles a volcanic island. Tahiti, the largest of tbe Society group, is a fine example of this kind. The island rises in mountains 7,000 feet higb, with only a narrow plam along the shore. Tbe lagoon which encora- TROPICAL ISLANDS. %79 passes it like a great moat is thirty fathoms deep, and is shut out from the ocean by a coral band at a distance of from half a mUe to three miles. But there are coral reefs of far greater magnitude. Tbe grandest is that extending aloni» the north-east coast of Australia. Kising from an unfathoraed ocean, it extends for a thousand mUes along the coast, with a breadth of from two hundred yards to a mile, and at an average distaace of twenty or thirty miles, though sometimes double that space. This long, narrow lagoon is never less than ten fathoms deep, and often six times as much, so that the " Great Eastern," the hugost vessel that ever floated, if it once passed through one of the openings in tbe reef, might sail as though in a tran quil harbor for a thousand miles in sight of land on either side, without its keel for an instant reaching half way to tbe bottom. The direct influence of tbe ocean upon tho islands of tho Tropical World is great in every respect. It gives an almost temperate climate to low lands lying under the equator, and thus modifies their fauna and flora, in accordance with known laws of nature. But tbe ocean and air in thoir currents also determine the vegetable, animal, and human life of the islands of tho Tropical World iu an accidental manner. Time was when tbe volcanic islands of the tropics wore masses of naked rock, the coralline islands patches of barren sand. The elements disintegrated the surface of the rock and ground tbe coral into soil. Some day a fruit, perhaps a cocoa or bread fruit, drifted along by currents, touched tho island, or a bird swept far out to sea baying in its crop an undigested seed, rested its weary wing upon solid land. The chance-planted fruit or seed took root, and grew, and produced its kind, and iu time tho waste island was clothed with verdure. Other birds found a horae in the new foresta, huilt tbeir nests, and raised tbeir young, so that tho islands became populous with the winged tribes. Animals, of course, could only rarely cross tbe waste of waters. Hence the comparative paucity of this form of life in islands remote from tbe main land Swine were almost tho only quadrupeds which tbe early European navi gators found in Polynesia ; and thoy were doubtless brought there by human means. Mankind reached tbo islands in a like accidental manner. Perhaps a canoe from the Malayan shores drifted upon the Fiji Islands, and its rowers became tho progenitors of the black cannibals ; or a junk from China or Japan was cast away upon Tahiti or Hawaii. These wanderers, cut off from intercourse witb the rest of tho world, developed their barbarism or semi-civilization in tbeir own way, under tbe influence of altered conditions, climate and productions. The story of the "Bounty," and the first settlement of Pitcairn's Island, too well known to require more than a passing aUusion, shows that such a canoe or junk voyage is altogether possible, and bow widely in the course of a single generation a group of isolated individuals deviate from their original stock. 480 THE TROPICAL WORLD. CHAPTER II. TABLE LANDS AND PLATEAUS OF THE TROPICAL WORLD. Influence of Elevation upon Climate —The Puna of Peru: Squier's Description of the Puna— The Siii-dclie or Veta — View from La Portada — Effects of the Soroche — The Sarumpe — The Veruga Water — Efl^ects of the Veta on Animals — Vegetation of the Puna — The Llama— The Huanacu — The Alpaca — The Vicuna — Hunting the Vicuna — The Hunts of the Ancient Incas — Enemies ofthe Vicuna — Other Native Animals — The Ox, Horse, Mule anil Sheep — Waterfowl — Warra Valleys — Rapid Change of Climate According to Eleva tion. — Ijike Titicaca: The Sacred Island of Titicaca — Manco Capac, the First Inca — Hig Journey from Lake Titicaca to Cuzco — Fact and Myth respecting Manco Capac — Extent of the Inca Empire — Inca Civilization originated in the I'una, near Lake Titicaca — The Siicrcd Hock on the Island — Kuins and Relics on the Island — The Hacienda on the Island — Tlie Kve of St. John — The Bath of the Incas — Other Sacred Islands — Ruins at Tihu anico — Some raore ancient than the Incas — Immense Monolithic Gateways and Hewn Stones — Inca Civilization — The Great iMilitary Roads — System of Posts and Post-Stations. — The Valey oJ Quito: Ajiproach to the Valley from the Paciflc Coast — A Tropical Region — Climbing the Cordillera — Scenes by the Way — Quito — Climate ofthe Valley — --Vstronomical Site — I'rees. Fruits, Vegetables, and Flowers — Animals — Birds — Insects, Reptiles, and Fish — 1 lie Population of the Valley — Indians — Half-Breeds — Whites — Courtesy of the People — A Polite Message — Scenery of the Valley — Volcanoes— Imbabura — Destruction of Oiovalo — Cayamba — Guamani — Antisana — Sincholagua — Cotopaxi — The Inca's Head— Tunguragua — Altar— Sangai — Its Perpetual Eruption — Chimborazo — Caraguarizo — lUinza — Corazon — Pichincha — Its immense Crater — Descent into the Crater — Eruptions of Picliinclia. — The Table-Land of Bogoli: Voyage up the Magdalena — Ascent to the Plateau — Bogotil and the Bogot.-lnos — Traveling at Bogota. — Tahle-Dind of Mexico : Its E.xtent — The Tierra Calienta — The Tierra Templada — The Tierra Fria — The Valley of Anahuac — Tlie Volcanoes of Orizaba, Popocatapetl, Iztacihuatl, and Toluca. — The Sikkim Slope: Appro;icli and Ascent — Dorjiling — The Sikkim Peaks — Altitude of Kinchin-junga — Fiight of the Condor. "TXyiTIIIN the geographical limits of the Tropical World is found every variety ,V V of climate upon the globe. There are groat mountain ranges which even at the equator rise above the limits of perpetual snow. Thoir summits, untrodden by man and unvisited by any other form of animal life, must be more desolate tban the extremest polar regions to which explorers have been able to penetrate. Of living creatures the strong-w-nged condor only has reached so high. Then, below these, yet rising far into the air, are broad plateaus whose desolate character reminds one of the tundras of Siberia and tho wastes stretching across the American continent from Hudson's Bay to Behring's Straits. Ono of tho most notable of those lofty tropical plateaus is that extending between the parallel mountain chains of the Cordilleras in South America. It is known as tbe Puna or Altos of Peru. Iu the popular language of the region a part of it ia called THE PUNA OF PERU. 481 the Despobhdo, or "Uninhabited." It extends through a great part of the length of Peiu and Bolivia, at a bight of from ten to fourteen thousand feet above tbe level of the sea. " It is," says Squier, " that cold and rugged region which forms the bioad summit of the CordiUera. It has the aspect of an irregular plain, and is diver- '*«^* ' THE PUNA OP PERU. sified with mountain ridges and snowy volcanic peaks, imposing in their proportions, notwithstanding that they rise from a level of 14,000 feet above the sea." Squier, in a few graphic sentences, describes tbe varying aspects of nature as one climbs up the ascent of the Puna: " Pacla is a poor but picturesque little vUlage, with a small, white church gleaming out against tbe dull brown of the bare mountain side. It is 9,700 feet above the sea. There were some scant fields of maize and lucern around it, and the lower slopes of the mountains were thinly sprinkled with stems of the columnar cactus." StUl ascending, "our mules began to pant under the influence of the soroche or rarification of tbe air, but which the drivers insisted was frora tbe veta, or influence due to the vetas or veins of metal in the earth. At La Portada, 12,600 feet above the level of the sea, and 1,000 feet higher than the Hospice of the Grand St. Bernard, I witnessed a scene more wild and desolate than I have beheld in crossing the Alps by the routes of tbe Simplon, the Grand St. Bernard, or the St. Gothard. There is neither tree nor shrub ; tbe frosty soil cherishes no grass, and the very lichens find scant hold on the bare rocks. The aguardiente, or native rum, which I had pur chased for making a fire for preparing ray coffee, refused to burn, and extinguished the lighted match thrust into it, as if it were water. > I was obliged to abstract some 31 482 THE TROPICAL WORLD. refined alcohol from my photographic stores to supply its place." At the pass of GuayUUos, 14,750 feet above tbe level of the sea, "one of our companions fell from his saddle under the effects of the soroche. On lifting him from the ground we found him nearly senseless, with blood trickling from his mouth, ears, nostrUs, and the corners of his eyes. Copious vomitings followed, and we administered tho usual restoratives with good effect. In doing this I drew off my gloves, and was surprised to find my hands swollen and covered with blood, which appeared as if it had oozed frora a thousand minute punctures." Otber travelers give similar accounts of the cliraate of the Puna Cold winds from the icy Cordilleras, whose summits often rise 8,000 feet above the plateau, sweep over their surface, and during eight months of the year they are daily visited by fear ful storms. In a few hours the change of tbe temperature often amounts to forty or fifty degrees, and the sudden fall is rendered still more disagreeable to the traveler by the biting winds which irritate the hands and face. The lips suffer especially, break ing out into deep rents whicb heal with difficulty. The eyes also suflfer intensely. Tbe rapid changes from a cloudy sky to the briUiancy of a snow-field, glistening in tbe sun, produces an affection whicb tbe natives call the sarumpe. So intolerable is the burning and stinging that even the stoical Indian, when attacked, will fling him self on the ground uttering cries of anguish and despair. Chronic ophthalmia, sup puration of the eyelids, and total blindness, are frequent consequences of the sarumpe, against which tbe traveler over the highlands endeavors to guard himself by wearing green spectacles or a dark veU. The first symptoms of the veta or soroche usually appear at an elevation of some 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. Tbey frequently manifest themselves in those who ride, but are greatly aggravated when the traveler ascends on foot. The giddiness and nausea are accompanied with an insupportable sense of lassitude, difficulty of breathing, and violent palpitation of the heart, followed by spitting of blood and a bloody diarrhoea. This last affliction is, however, to a considerable extent occasioned by tbe noxious character of the water. " All tbe water of tbe Despoblado,'' says Squier, "even that which does not display any evidence of foreign or mineral sub stances in solution, is more or less purgative, and often productive of very bad eff'ects. In many parts the thirsty traveler discovers springs as bright and limpid as those of our New England hUls ; yet when ho dismounts to drink, his muleteer will rush for ward in affright, witb the warning cry, ' Beware, es agua de Veruga!'' The Veruga water is said to produce a terrible disease called by the same narae, which manifests itself outwardly in both men and aniraals in great bleeding boils and carbupcles, which occasion rauch distress, and often result in death." The veta shows itself aLso in animals unaccustomed to mountain traveling. They proceed raore and more slowly, frequently stop, trembling all over, and fall to tho ground. If not aUowed to rest they inevitably die. Tbe natives are accustomed to slit the nostrils of thoir mules and horses in order to allow a greater influx of air. Mules and asses are less affected by tho v.eta than horses ; but it is fatal to cats, who are unable to live at the bight of more than 13,000 feet. Another consequence of the diminished pressure of the air is that water boUs at so low a temperature that meat, vegetables and eggs can not be boiled sufficiently to be edible, and whoever wishes a warra meal in the Puna must havo it baked or roasted. THE LLAMA, ALPACA, AND VICUNA. 483 Agriculture is of course confined within the narrowest limits. In sorae parts barley wiU grow ; but it never ripens, and is cut green for forage. The only cultivated vege table is the mata, the tuberous roots of which resemble tbe potato, and forra a great part of the food of the inhabitants. It grows best at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet. Vegetation is scanty. Here and there is a solitary dwarfed quinua, or wild olive, or patch covered wilh reddish brown ratania shrubs, which, with the droppings of the llamas and vicunas, constitute tbo sole fuel of tbe region. Tbe whole land scape presents a scene of bare rock, or of steppe-liko expanses covered with dun meagre herbage. The profusion of flowers which appear in many Alpine regions is here utterly wanting. The animal kingdora is more amply represented on this bleak table-land. But its native members are almost wholly confined to the camelida family, of which there are four well-marked species, — tho llama, the alp.ica, the vicuna, and the huanacu, — who find nourishment in tbe grassy patches. Before tbe advent of the Europeans these llamas constituted the only beasts of burden, and even now they are largely employed for that purpose. To tho ancient Peruvians tbey were what the camel is to tbe Arabs. Their flesh and milk served as food, their skins for a mantle, and frora tbeir wool a coarse cloth was manufactured ; and they formed tbe only means except human labor of transporting burdens from one place to another. Even now, when to a great extent superseded by tho stronger borse and mule, there are regions where they are indis pensable. The silver mines are often approached only by precipices so abrupt that even the hoof of the sure-footed raule would find no foot-hold. The ordinary load of a llama is a hundred pounds ; but as tbey never feed after sunset, they raust be allowed to graze on the way, so that they can travel only ten or fifteen miles a day. The llama is the only aniraal ever doraesticated by the aborigines of America. The llama is about the size of the deer, but bears a strong resemblance to tbe camel, having the same formation of toes and stomach, and the same callosities upon tbe breast and knees, but tho unsightly hump is wanting. The microscope reveals that the resemblance extends even to the globules of tbe blood, which are elliptical in the camelides and some species of doer, but circular in all other quadrupeds. The huanacu was long supposed to be only tbe wild variety of tbe llama ; but naturalists now point out specific differences. The huanacu is larger ; its wool is shorter and coarser ; it presents no variety of color. They are very shy, and live in small troops of frora five to seven. When caught young they may be tamed, but still show traces of tbeir wild nature, and can hardly ever be trained to carry burdens. The alpaca is smaller than the llama, and bears some resemblance to tbe sheep ; but its neck is longer, and it has a more elegantly forraed head. Its wool is long, fine, of a silky lustre, varying in color from almost white to black. The wool is oppecially valuable since it can be woven witb common wool, silk, or cotton, and within a few years has become an article of considerable commercial value. Attempts, none of whioh have as yet proved successful, bave been made to introduce the alpaca into other countries. Tbey are kept in large herds grazing all tho year round upon tbe bleak table-lands, and are only driven to tho pens to be shorn. The vicuiia is of a more graceful shape than the llama ; its wool is shorter and more curly, and of such extreme fineness as to be very valuable. It inhabits the most secluded valleys, and during tbe rainy season climbs far up tbe sides of the Cor- 484 THE TROPICAL WORLD. dilleras, but never ventures upon tbe bare summits, for its hoofs are tender. The cry of the vicuna is a shrill whistle, so loud that it may be heard at a long distance. Like the camel and llama, it has tbe habit of spitefully ejecting a mass of saliva and half- dio-estod food in tbe face of those who come within reacb. In tbe case of tbe vicuiia this is peculiarly offensive, has a disgusting smell, and stains the skin of a dark green color, which can bo eflfaced only with difficulty. Tbe annual bunt of the vicuna, which takes place in April or May, is the great event in life of tbe Indians of tho Puna. Tbey collect in bands from all the viUages, bearing bundles of poles and ropes, and set out for the lofty summits whither tho aniraals have retired. Witb the poles and ropes a circular enclosure, called a chacu, is formed, often several hundred paces wide. The hunters form a ring, sometimes miles in circuraference, and gradually drive tbe animals into tho chacu. The vicunas are shy and do not venture to leap over the cords, and are easUy dispatched by the hunters. If, however, a huanacu happens to be driven into tho enclosure, he bounds over the cord, and is followed by the herd of vicunas in a mass, just as a flock of sheep will follow a leader. Tbe flesh of tbe vicuna is rank and unsavory. Squier says that it is just preferable as an alternative to starvation. But when it has been dried and pounded, and disguised by an abundance of the hot red popper, its taste is not altogether unpleasant to one who bas learned to Uke that fiery condiment. Tho nuraber caught in one of those hunts is often considerable. At one in which Von Tschudi took part there were 122 killed, and the produce of tbeir skins was appropriated to building a new altar in tbe village church. In tbe tiraes of tbe Incas tbe vicuna chase in tbe Puna was conducted upon a far more magnificent scale. Every year a great hunt was hold. Twenty-five or thirty tbousand of tbo Indians wore assembled, who drove all tbe animals within a circuit of many leagues into an enormous enclosure. As tbe circle narrowed, the linos of the hunters were doubled and trebled. All the pernicious animals were killed, but only a liraited number of tbo deor, buanacus, and vicunas, for those wise rulers were too provident to take the lives of these creatures merely for sport. The battue, apart from the destruction of noxious animals, was rather a royal spectacle than a hunt. Excepting man, tbe vicuna has few enemies capable of penetrating its lofty strong holds. A sneaking puma now and then creeps up from tbe regions below ; or a condor swoops down from above and pounces upon the young. But tbe numbers of the vicunas has undergone no diminution from age to age. Now, however, that tbeir wool has become an article of commerce, we may anticipate their gradual extermination ; for, unlike the alpacas, thoy are incapable of domestication, and man tho arch-destroyer wages fatal war upon all animals which he can not domesticate. Their only alternative " is death or subjection. Several animals of the deer tribe are also indigenous to the Puna. Among these is tbe stag-like tarush, whose horns consist of but two branches. Tbe half wild Puna dogs are especially annoying to the traveler, for thoy have a peculiar antipathy to the white race; and it is often dangerous for a European to approach an Indian hut guarded by these spiteful creatures, who, like tbo bull-dog, do not hesitate to attack enemies far stronger than themselves. The bisacha, allied to the chinchilla, which it reserables in the quality of its fur, is often seen perched in front of its burrow, to whioh it retreats on the approach of danger. THE SACRED LAKE TITICACA. 485 To the aboriginal animals of the Puna bave been added, since tbe Spanish conquest, the ox, the horse, the mule, and the sheep. These do not inhabit the bleak Despo blado, though the horse and the raule, under the guidance of man, traverse as beasts of burden its bleakest wastes and most rugged passes. The herds of oxen and sheep aro, during tbe wot season, driven far up into tho Altos, often to tbe bight of 15,000 feet; but when the cold frosty nights of tbo dry season arrive, they aro diivon down to tho valleys which furrow tho table-land. Here there are haciendas, or estates, tha owners of whicb possess 60,000 sheep and 500 cows. These herds seldom see tbe face of man, and bavo relapsed into a half savage state, rendering traveling dangerous in many parts of tbe Puna. Von Tschudi, whose journeyings in this region are more extensive than those of any other European, was moro than once compelled to save bis life from the attacks of a wild bull by a well-aimed shot frora bis rifle. The frequent showers and snow-falls of the Puna give rise to nuraerous swamps and lao-oons whicb afford nourishment to an abundance of birds. There is tbe huacha o goose, witb a snow-white body and dark green wings shining witb metallic lustre ; tbe licli, a species of plover ; the long-logged ibis and flamingo ; and the gigantic coot, whioh, unable to fly in tbe air, dives iu the cold waters, and builds its nest on the bare stones which rise above the surface. The frosts of winter and a perpetual spring are nowhere found in closer proximity than in these Peruvian highlands ; for deep valleys furrow tbo windy Puna, and when tbe traveler, benumbed by tbo cold blasts of tbe mountain plains, descends into those sheltered gorges, he finds himself transported alraost at once from tho rigors of a polar climate to a terrestrial paradise. They are so high that the rays of the tropical sun are not felt ; and protected by their abrupt rocky walls from the keen blasts of tbe mountains, these pleasant valleys enjoy all the advantages of a mild and genial sky. Rich corn-fields and groen lucerne meadows would almost persuade tbe European traveler that he bad been by magic transported to his own home, were it not that tho sight of agaves and cactuses upon the rocky sides by day, and new constellations by night, remind him that he is in another homisphore. There are regions here wbere the traveler raay in tho morning leave tbe snow-covered Puna hut in which bo bas shivered over night, and before sunset pluck pine-apples and bananas on the cultivated margin of a tropical forest, and repose under the feathery loaves of gigantic palras. But in this vast highland region there is nothing which possesses so deep a human interest as Lake Titicaca, for in it is embosomed tbe sacred island, to which tho Incas traced their origin, and which to this day is to tbeir descendants all that Jerusalem and Mecca are to Hebrews, Christians, and Mohammedans. The lake lies at an elevation of 12,864 feet above the soa, less than 3,000 feet lower than tbe summit of Mont Blanc, and higher tban any point in Europe except tbe ten loftiest peaks of tbe Alps. It is 120 miles long and 50 or 60 wide. It never freezes over, though ice forras near its shores. It exercises a very important influence on tbe climate of tbe cold and desolate region in which it is situated, for during tho winter months tbe tem perature of the waters is ten or twelve degrees above that of tbe atmosphere. Wherever the shores are low thoy afford pasturage for herds of cattle ; and multitudes of water fowl find shelter among the reeds and rushes. On the little islands barley, peas and maize ripen, although they are not prolific. The largest of the islands is the sacred Islaud of Titicaca, bold, bare, and rocky. -188 THE TROPICAL WORLD. six miles long and three or four wide. Here, according to tradition, Manco Capac, and Mama Oella, at once his sister and wifo, both cbildren of the sun and commissioned by that luminary, started on their errand to civilize tbe barbarous tribes that occupied the country. Manco Capac was directed to travel northward until he reached a spot where his golden staff should sink into tbe ground of its own accord; and there be was to fix tbe seat of his empire. He traveled slowly along the western shore of the lake, through the broad bleak Puna lands, crossing the wator-sbed which separates the streams which find tbeir outlet through tho La Plata frora those whith form tbe raighty Araazon, whoso mouths lie 2,500 miles apart in a straight line. Striking tho river VUcanota, an affluent of the Ucayali, one of the main branches of the Amazon, he descended its valley, until, after a journey of three hundred miles, his golden staff sank into the ground upon tbe spot where the city of Cuzco now stands. Here he fixed bis seat, and here arose the City of the Sun, the capital of the Inca empire, which in time spread over a length of 37° of latitude, and in breadth from tbe eastern base of tho Andes westward to where the Pacific beats against the deeply planted feet of the Cordillera. So runs the legend ; but there is much mythical matter incorporated into the tra ditions re.specting Manco Capac. We find this counterpart in the Fohi of tbe Chinese, the Buddha of the Hindus, the Osiris of Egypt, the Odin of Scandinavia, the Jatza- coal of Mexico, tbe Votan of Central America. Still there can be no doubt that he is a real historical character, to whom, however, have been attributed many of the achievements of those who preceded him, and perhaps of some who followed him. Tbe time when he lived is altogether uncertain. Some, studying tho quippus or knotted cords, which aro the only records of ancient Peruvian history, place his advent back to within five centuries after tbe deluge. But tbo best authorities give the date approximately at about four centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards under Pizarro, or about 1000 A. D., tbe period when all Christendom was hurling itself in the crusades upon tho Holy Land. The rule of Manco Capac was at first Umited to the region close by Cuzco ; but under bis successors the Inca dominion, by alliances and conquests, spread far and wide. The greatest of tho Inca monarchs was Huayna Capac, who in 1475 led bis forces as far northward as Quito, a distance of 1,200 miles from Cuzco. He made Quito his residence. At bis death tbe erapire was divided between his two sons, Huascar, who reigned at Cuzco. and Atahuallpa at Quito. Civil war ensued, Huascar was defeated and slain, and Atahuallpa reraained sole Inca. During the war Pizarro, coasting down from the Isthmus of Darien, landed at Tumbez, conquered Atahuallpa, and overthrew the Inca civilization. This civilization, in some respects one of the most remarkable which the world has ever seen, had its origin in the lofty table-land of the Puna, which we aro now con sidering ; and far and wide as the roign of tbe [noas subsequently extended, tbey and tbeir subjects always retained their reverence for the little rocky islet in Lake Titicaca, where it had its origin. At the northern end of the island is a frayed and water-worn mass of rod sandstone, about 225 feet long and 25 feet high. This is the sacred rock of Manco Capac, the most holy spot in all Peru.' Upon it, as was believed, no bird would alight, no animal venture, and Upon which no human being not of the royal blood dared set his foot. From this rock the sun first rose to dispel the primal vapors THE SACRED ISLAND OF TITICACA. 487 and illuminate the world. It was, so saya the legend, plated all over with i J^.A and silver, and, except upon the most soleran occasions, covered with a vail of ,»icth of costly materials and gorgeous color. Tho gold and silver plating and tbe ^oigeous coverin" have long ago disappeared, and what is now soon is a bare rock, oi tho crest of the island, whioh rises 2,000 feet above the waters of the lake. Yet i.ven now, when the Indian guides come within sight of it, they raise their hats, bow .cverontly, muttering words of mystic import, which they themselves, most likely, '..nly partly comprehend. In front of the rock is a lovel artificial terrace 372 feet lug and 125 feet broad, supported by a low stone wall. According to tradition, tLts soil which once covered this terrace was conveyed upon the backs of men from tbe iistant vaUeys of the Amazon, so that it might nourish a vegetation denied by the I ird ungrateful soil of the island. Everywhere on the holy island are the ruins of Inca structures, and the sites of tbe most sacred spots are still shown. Here is the sheltered bay where the Incas landed when they came to visit the spot consecrated to tbe sun. Half way up tho ascent are the "foot-prints" of the great Inca Tupanqui, marking tbe spot where ho stood when, catching his first view of tbe hallowed rock, be removed tho imperial covering from his head in token of adoration of tho divinity whoso sbrino rose before bira. These so-called foot-prints look not unlike tho impressions of a gigantic foot, thirty-six inches long and of corresponding breadth. They aro formed in outline by hard ferruginoas veins around which the softer rock has been worn away, leaving them in relief The sacred island of tbe Incas is now tho property of a resident of Puna, a city on the shore of tho lake containing 7,000 inhabitants. It is thc loftiest spot on tho globe which is the site of any considerable town. It stands 12,870 foot above the lovel of the sea. Tho mining town of Potosi is indeed 500 feet higher, and thero aro among the Andes post stations and farms much higher. The station of Rumibuasi, in tbe Puna, tho loftiest permanently inhabited spot in tbe New World, is 15,542 feet high — only 242 feet below the summit of Mont Blanc ; and tho gold mino of Thok Jalung in Thibet is 18,330 foet above the soa. The proprietor of tbe sacred island has a hacienda close by tbe " Bath of the Incas." " It consists," says Squier, " of three small buildings, occupying as many sides of a court. One is a kitchen and dormitory, another a kind of granary or storehouse, and in tbo third is an apartraent reserved for the proprietor wben be visits tho island. The room is neatly whitewashed, the floor matted, and there are two real chairs from Connecticut, and a table that may be touched without falling in pieces. The night was bitterly cold," continues Squier, "and we had no covering except our saddle-cloths, having declined some sheep-skins which the alcalde would have taken from tho poor people of the establishment. A sheep Fkin, or the skin ofa vicuiia, spread on tbe mud floor of his but, is tbo only bed of the Indian frora one year's end to tbo other. It is always filthy, and frequently full of vermin. Before going to bed we went out into the frosty, starry night, and were surprised to see fires blazing on the topmost peaks of tbo island, on the crest of Coati, and on the headland of Copobanca. Others, many of tbem hardly discernible in the distance, were also burning on the peninsula of Tiquina, and on the bluff Bolivian shores of the lake, their red light shimmering like golden lancos over the water. Our first impression was that some mysterious signalling was going on, con- 488 THE TROPICAL WORLD. nected perhaps with our visit. We ascertained, however, that this was the Eve of. St. John, which is celebrated in this way throughout tbe Sierra. On that night fires blaze on tho hill-tops in all tbe inhabited districts of Peru and Bolivia, from tbe desert of Atacaraa to the Equator." Thus have the rites of Christianity superseded tbe old worship of tbe Incas. i t I POUNTAIN OF THE INCAS. The Fountain of tbe Incas is situated in a sheltered nook, surrounded with terraces upon whioh grow patches of maize with ears not longer than one's finger. The bath itself is a pool forty feet long, ton wide, and five deep, built of worked stones. Into this pour four jets of water, as large as a man's arm, from openings cut in tho stones behind. " Tho water comes through subterranean passages frora sources now un known, and never dirainishes. in volurae. It flows to-day as freely as wben tho Incas resorted bore and cut tbe steep hill-sides into terraces, bringing tbo earth all tbe way from tho Valley of Yucay, or ' Vale of Imperial Delights,' four hundred miles distant. Over tbo walls droop the tendrils of vines ; and> what with the odors and tbo tinkle and patter of tbe water, one might imagine hiraself in the court of the Albarabra." Besides tho sacred island of Titicaca, there are eight smaller ones in the lake. Soto was the Isle of Penitence, where tbe Incas were wont to resort for fasting and hurailia tion. Coati was sacred to the moon, tbe wife and sister of the sun, and on it is tbe palace of the Virgins of the Sun, one of tbe most remarkable and best preserved remains of aboriginal architecture on the continent of America. At Tihuanico, on the border of the lake, are immense ruins which clearly antedate the tirae of the Incas. They were ruins when tbe Spaniards made their appearance; and the natives could give no account of thom. Tbey supposed that they wero built THE VALLEY OF QUITO. 489 by divine architects in a single night. Cieza de Leon, one of the companions of Pizarro, .writes of thera : "What most surprised me was that the enorraous gateways were formed on other great masses of stone, some of which wore thirty feet long, fifteen wide, and six thick. I can not conceive witb what tools or instruments those stones were bown out, for thoy must have been vastly larger tban we now see them. It is supposed that sorae of these structures were built long before the dominion of tbe Incas ; and I bavo hoard the Indians affirm that those sovereigns constructed tbeir great buUding at Cuzco after tbe plans of the walls of Tihuanico." Tbe most remark able thing in these ruins are tbe great doorways of a single block of stone. The largest of these is ten feet high and thirteen broad, tbe opening cut through it being six foet four inches high, and three feet two inches wide. Ths whole neighborhood is strewn witb iraraense blocks of stone elaborately wrought, equalling if not surpassing in size any known to exist in Egypt, India, or any other part of tbe world. Sorae of these are thirty feet long, eighteen broad, and six thick. All these gigantic remains of a past civilization are found in tbe lofty table-land of tho Puna. When these como to be fully described and illustrated, it will be seen that here, in a cUmate so cold that hardly a vegetable will grow which man can uso for food, were planted tho seeds of a civilization as remarkable as any whicb ever existed. More wonderful, perhaps, tban these groat architectural works wore tho great military roads constructed by tbe Incas. One reached from Cuzco down to tbe ocean. Tbe otber stretched frora the capital, along tbe very crest of the Cordilleras, and down their ravines, to Quito, 1,200 railes distant. The length of these great roads, including branches, was not less than 3,000 mOes. Modern travelers compare thera witb tbe best in the world. They were from 18 to 25 foot broad, paved witb immense blocks of stone, sometiraes covered with asphaltum. In ascending steep mountains, broad steps wero cut in tbe rock ; ravines wore filled with heavy embankments flanked with parapets, and, wherever the climate permitted, lined with shade trees and shrubs, with houses at regular distances for the accommodation of travelers, and especially serving as post stations. For thero was a regular postal service by which tbe Incas could send messages from one extremity of their dorainions to the other. This service was per formed by runners ; for, as has been said, tho Peruvians had no beasts of burden stronger or swifter tban the llama. Those messengers were trained to great speed. On approaching a station tbey gave a loud shout to warn the next courier of tbeir approach, so that be might be ready to take the message or parcel without delay. In thia manner it is said that dispatches were sent at the rate of 150 miles a day, a speed unequaled until within our own times, wben tho railway and tbe telegraph have brought tho ends of tbe world alraost together. Lying lower tban the desolate Puna, but more than twice as high as tbe loftiest summits of Great Britain, and higher by half than the topraost peaks in North America east of tho Rocky Mountains, is a series of valleys and table lands which form a marked feature in the Tropical World. The principal of these, going northward from the equator, aro those of Quito in Equador, Bogota in Columbia, and Mexico. The valley of Quito, with a breadth of thirty miles, is two hundred miles in length from north to south, tbe equator running upon its nortbern border. It is in reality a great table-land occupying the sumrait of the CordUleras, only overtopped and sur- 490 THE TROPICAL WORLD. rounded by a series of peaks the most picturesque, and, after the highest peaks of the Himalayas, among the loftiest on tbe globe. The valley is 10,000 feet above the level \, of the sea, which, by the rule of allowing 300 feet in elevation to be equivalent to a degree of lati tude, would give a cUmate ap proximating to that of Florida and Georgia; but this is much modified by other circumstances, especially by the snow-clad peaks which surround it, and by the more abundant rainfall. This lofty valley is approach able by the great Inca road of which we have spoken, leading across the crest of the Cordilleras. But for generations probably no man has ever thus reached it. Some day it will be visited from the east by steaming up the Amazon to the foot of the Andes, and ascending the mountains. At present it is approached from Guayaquil on tbe Pacific. We will accompany Mr. Orton,* an American traveler, who in 1867- 8, at tbe head of a scientific expe dition, made tbe journey thither; and thence, descending the Araa zon, crossed the entire continent almost on tbe lino of the equator. Landing at Guayaquil, the seaport of Ecuador, we embark on a little stearaer which carries us seventy miles up the turbid river Guayas. Tbe Bucadorian govern ment, however, does not patronize tho steamer, but sends the mails up tho river in a canoe. Tbe river runs first through an almost impenetrable jungle; then come vast plantations of c^coa and coffee ; then follow groves of oranges, lemons, plantains and mango. Leaving tho boat, we hire mules with which to make tbe ascent of tbe Andean Cordilleras.t We plunge at once by a narrow path into a dense forest. *The Andes and the Amazon, by Jaraes Orton, Professor in Vassar College, Pough keepsie, N. Y. t Cordillera, literally a long ridge, is usually applied to a longitudinal subdivision of the Andes, as the east and west Cordilleras, enclosing the valley of Quito. A Sierra is a jagged spur of the mountains. ASCEKDING THE ANDES. ASCENDING THE ANDES. 491 Superb bananas, with glossy leaves eight feet long, slender bamboos, and lofty palms overarch the way. Soon we begin to climb the mountain sides. The path — the present royal road to Quito— grows steeper, running sometimes through a gully so narrow that tbe traveler must throw up his legs to save thom from being crushed. Before night we have reached an altitude where tbe air is sensibly cold. We stop near a rude hut; but there is roora for only a part of us within ; the others sloop out side on the ground, upon beds which we have brought with us. But we bave reached a comparatively passable road. As tbe sun goes down we have a view which amply repays us for our weary travel. Wo are on the summit of a sierra 8,000 feet high. Still above us is a wild chaos of mountains, their sides broken into ravines. Looking westward, the mountains turable down to verdurous hUls, which in tbe distance melt into plains, dipping into the groat Pacific. Upward rise the lofty peaks, over all of which towers Chiraborazo, its pure white dome piercing the unclouded azure. The road now slopes gently down the side of the Sierra, climbs again still higher, and brings us at evening to tbe sleepy little town of Guaranda. Tbe people seem to have nothing to do but to oat potato soup, and keep themselves warm by wrapping themselves in their ponchos and basking in the sun. Tho place is of note in one respect, for it is the capital of the region which produces the chincbona, whenco comes quinine. Tbe trees grow at elevations of from 2,000 to 9,000 feet, tho richest species occupying racist situations in the highest alti tudes. Close by we are shown the spot whore Church painted ono of the views for his magnificent composition, " The Heart of the Andes." Still ascending, we find ourselves in a wilderness of crags and treeless mountains, clothed with long, coarse grass. Tbe sumrait of the pass, known as the arenal, is a sandy plain of a league in length, at an elevation of more than 14,000 feet. In the afternoon it is swept by cold winds, and often by violent snow-storms. It is said that some of tbe Spanish soldiers were frozen to death here. Then again we begin to descend along a gray, barren waste. Not a tree or a huraan habitation is in sight. Icy rivulets and mule-trains are tbe only moving objects. We pass the night in a dirty, mud hovel, the halting-place for all the caravans between the capital and its sea port. For food wo have the invariable potato soup, to which have been added cheese and eggs. It is well that the potatoes are small, for water boils at this altitude before it is fairly hot. Descending in all 6,000 feet from tbe suramit of the pass, we come to Ambato, a town of 15,000 inhabitants, beautifully situated in a deep ravine. It has also an inn — the first since leaving Guayaquil. Once more upward, through vast deposits of rocks and puraice dust, thrown out by tbe volcano of Cotopaxi, and we gain the last summit which we are to surmount. Fifteen hundred feet below us, and seemingly at our very feet, lies Quito, nestled in its lovely valley, sentinelled on eacb side by the lofty peaks of Pichincha and Antisana, while behind us tower Chimborazo and Tunguragua. Pichincha, tbe lowest of these four jeaks. is 7,000 feet above tbe plain; Chimborazo, the highest, is 12,000; and it is almost 10,000 feet more before the level of the sea is reached. The climate of the valley of Quito is the most absolutely perfect of any on earth. The thermometer never rises above 70° or sinks below 45°; its mean is 60°, the temperature of a mild spring day in New York. There is no cold winter and no hot summer; it is always spring and autumn; but each day furnishes a change just 492 THE TROPICAL WORLD. sufficient to give a pleasing variety. The coldest hour is at sunrise ; tbe warmest two, or tbree hours after noon. Nobody talks about the weather, for it ia always pleasant; conversation begins with a blessing, and ends with a benediction. In healthfulness it is unequaled. Consumption is unknown. One will hear more coughing during a Sunday service in a New England church than in aU Quito for a six-month. The intermittent fevers so prevalent on the coast are rare. Asthma, induced measurably by tbe rarity of tho atmosphere, and typhoid fevers, are the prevalent diseases. In Quito, with 40,000 inhabitants, there are but three drug-stores. StUl, owing to indolence, filth, and bad diet, comparatively few natives attain old ago. With proper habits of living, there is probably no spot on earth where tbe death-rate would be so low. Tbe atmosphere is of unsurpassed transparency. Humboldt, with tbe naked eye, saw the poncho of a horseman at a distance of eight miles. The sky is of a deep blue, and tho stars shine witb great briUiancy; the dark openings between tbem have been compared by Humboldt to " tubes through which we look into the remotest depths of space." An a(|equate observatory at Quito would, perhaps, make more additions to astronomical science tban anywhere else on tho globe ; for, in addition to tbe constant purity of tbo atraosphere, it is situated on the very line of the equator, so that the constellations of both bomispboros aro visible. Low in tbe north the " pointers" of the Great Bear are visible, while low in tbe south the Southern Cross can bo discernedi Contrary to what ono would expect, tbe valley of Quito is almost destitute of trees. There is not sucb a thing as a forest from one end to the otber ; tbe trees stand singly or in small clumps. The aliso, a species of birch, is tbe most common tree ; the walnut is tbe best timber ; oaks and pinos are not found. Tbe variety of fruits is good. There are alligator-pears, guavas, granadillas, oranges, lemons, plums and quinces. Peaches and pears are found, but of poor flavor. Tho favorite fruit is the chiriraoya, which grows on a tree fifteen feet high ; tbe ripe fruit sometimes weighing sixteen pounds. Markham calls it " a spiritualized strawberry." Our comraon garden vegetables, such as onions, beets, carrots, turnips, cabbages, and toraatoes, flourish. The potato is indigenous here, but is inferior to ours, which have improved by trans planting. The Spaniards carried tbe potato to Spain from Quito, three-quarters of a century before Raleigh introduced it into England frora Virginia. Flowers are numerous and in groat variety. Animal life presents few species and few individuals in eacb. There is strictly no beast of prey, no largo native quadruped, and few of the smaller tribes. The orni thology of the valley is limited ; it is only when we descend into the valley of the Amazon that we find tbe feathered tribes in their glory. The condor and tho hum ming-bird, the extremes in size of tbe feathered tribes, are tbe most noticeable among the mountains. Butterflies abound of all colors from emerald green to snowy white. Mosquitoes and flies hardly exist ; but fleas and otber " sraall deer " find congenial pasturage in the filthy garments and unkempt hair of the Indians. Serpents are so unfrequent, that in three months the merabers of tbe Araerican expedition saw only a single snake ; and there aro not frogs enough in the valley to furnish a rospectablo chorus of brek-ke-kex-hoax. There is in all the valley only a single species of fish, small and of a black color. Multitudes of these have been thrown up during volcanic eruptions from the bowels of the earth. THE VOLCANOES OF ECUADOR. 493 Of the population of the entire valley Indians constitute a great majority. Though reduced to absolute serfdom, and sunk deep in degradation, they still retain a memory of the days of Incarial greatness. This is particularly tbe case with the inhabitants of the mountains. Mr. Orton noticed that some of those who descended to tbe plain wore a black poncho underneath their bright-colored one, and was told that thoy wore in mourning for the last Inca. In Quito itself there are about 8,000 of Spanish descent; perhaps 10,000 of pure Indian blood; the reraaining 22,000 being Gholos, the off spring of whites and Indians, tbe Indian blood largely predorainating. These alraost exclusively carry on what of industry exists. They are tbe artisans, tradesraen, and soldiers. The whites constitute the governing class. Tbey have fair natural capacity, but lack education, industry, and energy. Tbey are, however, courteous and refined in manners and deportment. Their courtesy, even in the most common intercourse, is carried to a point whicb we can hardly appreciate. Mr. Hassaurek, the late American minister to Ecuador, gives tbe following as a specimen of a message sent by one fair Quitonian to another: "Go," she says to her servant, "to tho Senorita So-and-So, and toll hor that she is ray heart and tbo dear little friend of my soul ; tell her that I am dying for not having seen ber, and ask ber why she does not come to see me ; tell her that I havo been waiting for her more than a week, and that I send hor my best respects and considerations ; and ask her bow she is, and bow her husband is, and how ber children aro, and whether thoy are all woll in tbe family. And tell ber that she is my little love, and ask ber whether she will be kind enough to send me that pattern which she promised mo tho other day." Before bidding adieu to tbe lofty tropical valley, let us take one glance at the grand scenery which environs it. There aro fifty-one volcanic peaks in the Andean chain, twenty of which girdle tbo valley of Quito, three being active, five dormant, and twelve extinct. Looking toward tbo eastern Cordillera, tbe first raountain to tbe nortb is Imbabura, 18,000 feet high. At its foot stood tbe city of Otovalo, destroyed in the great earthquake of August, 1868 ; bere alone out of 10,000 inhabitants 6,000 per ished. Tbo first shock, which came without hardly a premonitory sign, lasted but one minute ; at tho end of that minuto not a house or a wall a yard high remained stand ing. Next, exactly on the equator, comes square-topped Cayamba, 19,500 foot high, and in full view from the plaza of Quito. Ten mUes south is tbe bare Guamani range, over which, at a bight of 15,000 feet, the traveler must pass before he begins to descend into the valley of the Amazon. Its culminating peak, Sara-Urcu, threw out ashes as late as 1856. Thon comes Antisana, 19,000 feet high, clothed in snow for 3,000 feet. It is now dormant ; but the lava streams down its side show how tremendous was ita former activity. One of these streams is ten miles long and five hundred foet deep. Its last oruptibn occurred in 1590 ; but smoke issued from it in 1802. Next coraes ragged Sincholagua, 16,500 feet high; and then Cotopaxi, " the shining," moro than 2,000 feet higher, the loftiest of active volcanoes, though its groat eruptions occur only at intervals of a century ; but deep rumbUngs, and a constant cloud of smoke issuing from its crater, down whicb no man has looked, show that it is only sleeping. Its last great eruption occurred in 1803. Far down its south side lies a huge porphyritic rock, called tbe Inca's Head, which tradition avers to have once been the summit of tbe volcano, torn off" and burled down on the very day when Atahuallpa was murdered by Pizarro. Sixty miles further south rises the perfect 494 THE TROPICAL WORLD. cone of Tunguragua, 16,500 feet high. A cataract on it springs from the very edge of the porpetuarsnow, coraing down 1,500 feet in three leaps. Its last eruption, which lasted seven years, began in 1773. Close by, 17,500 feet high, rises Altar, called by tho Indians Capac- Orcu, " The Chief." They say that it once overtopped Chiraborazo ; but that, after an eruption which lasted eight years, the lofty walls of its crater fell in. Twenty miles further ia Sangai, 17,000 feet high, the most active volcano on the globe. Without a moment's intermission it has for three hundred years poured forth a stream of fire, water, mud, and ashes. Its ashes are almost always falling at GuayaquU, a hundred miles distant ; and its explosions, generally occurring every hour or two, are often beard in that city. It sometimes rouses itself to unwonted activity. In 1849 Wisse counted 267 explosions in an hour,— more than two in every tbree seconds. Wo bavo thus far followed tbe eastem Cordillera southward. We now turn to the western range, which runs parallel to it, at a distance of from thirty to sixty miles, and go northward back to Quito. First and foremost, but not " sole monarch of the vale," comes Chiraborazo, "the Snowy Mountain," 21,470 feet high. Ages ago its now silent summit glowed with volcanic fires. Its sides are seamed with huge rents and dark chasms, in some of which Vesuvius could be bidden away out of sight. Next, and separated from it only by a narrow valley, is Caraguarizo, 19,000 feet high, called by the Indians "the wifo of Chiraborazo." A century and three-quarters ago tho top of this raountain fell in, and torrents of mud containing raultitudes of tho little fishes of which we have spoken poured out. Journeying onward, passing peaks scarcely lower than these, some of thera extinct volcanoes, sucb as Illinza, 17,000 feet high, and heart-shaped Corazon, wo roach Pichincha, "the Boiling Mountain," 16,000 foet high, whose sraoking crater lies only five miles distant from Quito. It is tho only Eucadorean volcano which has not a cone shaped crater. Such an one it doubtless once had ; but some convulsion of nature far beyond the reach of history or tradition, has hollowed out from its now flattened surarait an enorraous funnel-shaped basin 2,500 foet deep, three-quarters of a mUe in diameter at tbo top, and 1,500 feet at the bottom. It is the deepest crater on the globe. That of Kileaua is but 600 feet deep, Orizaba 500, Etna 300, Hecla 100. The brink of tbe crater of Pichincha was first reached by the French Academicians in 1742. Sixty years later Humboldt reached the edge, but pronounced its bottom " inaccessible on account of ita great depth and precipitous descent." The crater was first entered in 1844 by Morena, now President of Ecuador, and Wisse, a French engineer. Mr. Orton and his associates, after one unsuccessful attempt, succeeded in accomplishing the perilous descent in October, 1867. Scrarabling down tho steep sides, sometimes of rocks covered with snow, soraetiraes a raass of loose, treacherous sand ; now leaping a chasra, now letting themselves down from cliff to cliff, threatened by huge rocks which perpetually loosed themselves and went bounding past thera, in two and a half hours they reached the bottom of the crater. It was found to consist of a deeply furrowed plain, strewn witb ragged rocks, with here and there a patch of vegetation, and half a dozen species of flowers. In tbe center was an irregular heap of stones 260 foot high, and 800 in diameter. In its top and sides were seventy vents, sending forth steam, smoke, and sulphurous gas. The central vent, or chim ney, gives forth a noise like that of a bubbling cauldron. THE TABLE LAND OF BOGOTA. 495 There have been five eruptions of Pichincha since the Spanish conquest, the last being in 1660. That of 1566 covered Quito three feet deep with ashes and stones, while boiling water and bitumen poured forth in torrents. In 1867 tbe column of smoke did not rise above tbe crest of the crater; but on the 19th of March, 1868, violent rumblings were heard in Quito, followed three days afterward by great colurans of vapor. Since the great earthquake of August, 1868, the mountain has continued to send forth columns of smoke, and so much fine sand that it was not possible to reach the crater. It may be that the volcano ia preparing to rouse itself from its slumber of two centuries. The Quitonians, however, congratulate themselves that the edge of the crater is considerably lower on the side facing the city ; so that sbould an erup tion occur, the volcano will pour its fiery contents away from tbem into the wilds of the Esmeralda. We leave the valley of Quito, whose mighty surrounding volcanoes present one of the most striking aspects of nature within tbe Tropical World. The next great table-land is that of Bogotd. Its elevation is 8,700 feet above tbe sea, — 1,300 feet less than that of Quito; but although barely five degrees frora the equator, the climate is much colder. To reach the table-land, we ascend tho great river Magdalena for tbree hundred and fifty miles, through a low country covered with tropical vegetation; then, leaving the stream, we set our faces toward the raountain range upon whose surarait lies tbe table-land, fifty miles away, between us and it inter vening several sharp ridges, which might easily be skirted. But tbe road, with a thorough contempt for all engineering devices, runs straight over thera. In tbo course ofa single day we twice ascend a mountain 3,(i00 feet high, only to descend as far on the opposite side, giving us in tbo space of twenty miles an unnecessary ascent of a mile, and an equal descent. At length we corae to the outer rira of the great plain of Bogota, rising sheer up like a wall before us ; up this the path winds by sharp turns and zigzags like a circular staircase. Pile the Catskills upon tbe summit of Mount Washington, and then level off-upon tbe surarait a marshy plateau half as large as tho Stato of Connecticut, and heap around it mountains some thousands of feet higher, and we have tbe great plain of Bogota, which the inhabitants believe to be the most delightful spot on earth. The temperature of the plain is so low that it produces only a little wheat, grass, barley, and a few esculent roots. The greater part of it is owned in vast estates by a few rich land-holders, who have tbe reputation of being excessively stupid. Tbe people ofthe city call them Orejones, "Big-Ears." The markets of Bogota aro sup plied mainly from the warm country below. An Indian and his wife will toil up tbe steep path bearing enormous loads of fish or plantains, trudge across tho weary breadth of the marshy plain, occupying thrco days in tho journey, and think themselves lucky if thoy find a purchaser for their load. Sometimes those patient bearers will be seen descending the mountains which tower above the city, loaded with plantains, oranges, and other tropical productions. These could not have grown upon tbo mountains, but have been brought over their summits from tbe warmer regions lying far down on the opposite slopes. Bogotiinos sometimes descend to tbe plains to thaw out. The favoiite place for pleasurable resort is tbe village of Fusagasuga, which lies far down on the slope. To reach it one must -fust climb up a thousand feet higher than the 496 THE TROPICAL W^ORLD. plain, and then descend throe times as far. There are two modes of traveling : mule- ,back and man back. It requires some preparation for such a pleasure-trip. As it is always eold and usually rainy, the traveler has bis face well bundled up to protect it. Hia hat baa a covering of oiled silk ; his poncho, or cloak, which must serve also as a blanket by night, ia fastened to bis saddle-bow, when not upon his shoulders ; and a pair of leather overalls is drawn over hia lower garraenta. Behind hira coraea a mule driven by a peon, bearing a huge bundle reaembling an enormous feather bed. This is called a vaca, " cow," but no cow's bide would be sufficient to hold it. Besides the usual baggage of a traveler, it contains a mattress, which the pleasure-seeker must carry witb him or do without. Women usually, and men not unfrequently, travel by silla, A rude bamboo chair is fastened to the back of a man by two belts— one crossing over tbe chest and another passing over the forehead. Tbe rider, seated with his back to bis bearer, is completely helpless. A story is told, and the scene of it pointed out near Bogota, where a Spaniard wearing huge spurs mounted his siUero, whom he goaded as though be were a mule. The sUlero, by a sudden jerk, pitched his rider sheer down a precipice, then took to tbe woods and was never caught. The plateau of Bogota ia, upon the whole, a most uninteresting region. It is most noteworthy on account oi its showing how elevation and local circumstances affect the climate of tbe tropical regions. Lying just north of the equator, in a latitude indeed in whicb, rather than under the equator, tbe hottest regions of tbe earth are found, it rerainds one not a Uttle of the interior of Kamchatka and Alaska, which almost touch the Arctic Circle. If the table-land of Quito ia tbo raost lovely, that of Mexico is by extent and variety tbe most remarkable of tbe lofty tropical plateaus. Commencing at tho Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in latitude 16°, it stretches with varied breadth to the limits of the Tropical Zone. With tbe exception of a narrow strip along tbe shores of tho oceans, it occupies in Mexico tho whole breadth of tbe continent. It rises almost by steps into broad, well-defined terraces sloping upwards, each presenting the climate and productions of different portions of tbe Temperate Zone. Its highest level is traversed' by moun tain ranges, sometimes rising iuto lofty peaks ; but ita general surface is almost as level as the ocean. A road from tbe city of Mexico northward for more than a thousand miles would run over a dead level, hardly varying from an altitude of 7,500 feet. There is not upon tbe globe a great region which nature has more assiduously striven to render a fit habitation for civilized man tban the greater part of Mexico. There is no one in which man has so persistently set himself at work to counteract the designs of nature. Lot us, starting frora Vera Cruz, make tbe journey to and across these table-lands. The Gulf bordered by a broad zone of lowlands, called the tierra calienta, or " hot lands," which has tho normal hot climate of tbe tropics. Parched and sandy plains dotted with mimosas and prickly plants alternate with savannas overshadowed by grovea of palms, and. glowing witb tbe exuberant splendor of equinoctial vegetation. The branches of tbe stately forest trees are festooned witb vines and creepers, whose flowers present tbe most brilliant hues ; while tbe thick undergrowth of prickly aloes, matted witb the wild rose and honeysuckle, often forms an impenetrable thicket. In this wildernesa of sweet-scented buds and flowers flutter clouds of butterflies of SIKKIM PLAIN AND PEAKS. 497 resplendent hues, and birds of gorgeous plumage. Many of these birds bave notes of exquisite melody. But the malaria engendered by the decomposition of- the rank vegetation and the dank soil renders the region one of tbe most insalubrious upon tbe globe, and almost uninhabitable by man from the vernal to the autumnal equinox. Here ia the birthplace of the dreaded vomito, or yellow fever. Passing this fatal belt, after twenty leagues tbe traveler finds himself ascending into a purer atmosphere. The vegetation changes at every league. One by ono the vanUla, tbe indigo plant, tho sugar cane, and the plantain disappear; until at the hight of 4,000 feet tbe unchanging green of the rich foliage of tbe liquidamber indi cates that tbe traveler has reached tbe elevation where the clouds and mists settle in their passage from the Gulf, and maintain a perpetual moisture. Here are tbe confines of tbe tierra templada, or temperate region, whore tbe ever green oaks remind him of the forests of Central Europe. Tbe features of tbe scenery become imposing. The ascending road sweeps along tbe base of mighty mountains, now snow-clad, but bearing traces of former volcanic fires. Tbe flanks of the raoun tains are rent with huge harancas or ravines, down whose steep sides he can look for more than a thousand feet. Cactuses, euphorbia, dracsena, and a multitude of other plants oling to the rocky walls ; while at the bottom of tho gorgo, to which he might apparently almost leap, stand huge laurels and fig-trees. Upward still, he passes fields waving with yellow wheat and broad-leaved maize, witb plantations of the agave, from which the Mexicans prepare, aa tbey did in tbo days of the Montezumas, thoir national beverage of pulque. At an elevation of 8,000 foot, the forests of sombre pine announce that the tierra fria, or " cold region," the last of the three great terraces, has been reached. Here in the valley of Anahuac, yet at an elevation of 7,500 feet, reata tbe city of Mexico, the famous capital of tbe Montezumas, with its shallow lakes, and surrounded by elliptical plains, enclosed by frowning ridges of basaltic and porpbyrite rocks. On the south-eastern side rises the snow-crowned cone of Orizaba, whose ever blazing summit, shining like a star through the darkness of night, gained for it its Aztec name of Citlaltepetl, "the Mountain of the Star;" farther west rise Popocatepetl, Iztaci huatl, and Toluca, altogether forming a magnificent volcanic circuit, only equaled by that which girdles the valley of Quito. If tho traveler chooses to climb tbe aides of these volcanoes, in a few days' journey he will have passed through every variety of cUmate and every zone of production, from tho fiercest tropical heat to the confines of perpetual winter ; from the towering palm to the Uohen which hardly lifts its head above tbe sterUe rock. Sikkim, on the southern side of the Himalayas, may be considered a vast sloping plain, rising in a gradual ascent from the foot of the chain to the base of the peaks, the highest on the globe. Frora the shores of the Bay of Bengal is a level plain of a hundred miles in breadth to the foot of the Himelayas. Thence the land rises gently 7,000 feet in eighty mUes. Here is the British sanitarium of DorjUing, where the European debUitated by the burning climate of the lowlands may breathe air as cool and refreshing as those of his native land. Eighty mUes further brings him 9,000 feet higher to the limits of perpetual snow. Then arise more steeply, 12,000 feet higher, the lofty summits, rather than peaks, of the Himalayas, looking down upon 82 498 THE TROPICAL WORLD. the magnificently wooded region below. Tbe highest of these Sikkim peaks is Kin chin-junga — tbe third, but until recently believed to be the first, in hight upon the globe. It faUs but a hundred feet below the Dipsang or Karkakorum peak, and about eight hundred below Gaurisanker, whicb tbe British have re-named Mount Everest. Kinchin-junga rises to tho altitude of 28,172 feet. Not only is its summit untrodden by man or boast, but nothing that breathes has ever mounted so high into the air. The condor, who in his flight looks down upon the dorae of Chimborazo, never mounts to within thousands of feet of the hight of Kinchin-junga.* * Humboldt's statement that the condor flies higher than Chimborazo (21,420 feet) has been questioned. But Orton has seen numbers of them hovering at least a thousand feet above Pichincha (16,000 feet), and does not doubt that they fly much higher. Muller, in his ascentof Orizaba, saw falcons flying fully 18,000 feet high ; and it is aflrmed that wild geese fly over the peak of Kunchan-ghow (22,000 feet). There can be little doubt that the condor attains an eleva tion greater than any other bird, and that no other creature ever voluntarily ascends so high. SAVANNAS AND DESERTS. 499 CHAPTER III. SAVANNAS AND DESERTS OF THB TROPICAL WORLD. Water and Life — Characteristics of the Savannas. — The Llanos: Tlie Dry Season — ^Eflfects upon Vegetable Life — Efiects upon Animal Life — Approach of the Rainy Season — Revival of Vegetable and Animal Life — Vast Migrations of Animals. — The Pampas: Horses and Cattle in the New World — Efiects of their Introduction upon the Character of the Popu lation — The Mauritia Palm — Living in the Tree-tops — The Grand Chaco — Its Indian Inhabitants — The Guachos — The Lasso and Bolas. — The Plains of Southern Africa: Thorny Bushes— Excessive Droughts — A Great Hunting Ground — Species of Game — Vegetation — Watery Tubers — Esculent Gourds — Possibility of WeUs — Water-Pits in the Kalahari — Mode af Pumping Up the Water — Livingstone's Theory of Water-Making Ants — More Probable Explanation — Inhabitants of Southern Africa. — The Lake Region of Equatorial Africa: Little Known — Explorations of Livingstone and Burton — Speke's Journey — His Notices of the Country — Moderate and Equable Temperature — The Inhabitants — Ciiarac- terjstics of a Real Desert. — The Atacama of Peru; Its Arid Character — The Mule the Ship of this Desert. — The Australian Desert : Its Utter Desolation. — Sturt's Exploration — Leichardt — Lost Rivers. — The Sahara : Extent and General Characteristics — The Capital of Fezzan — Perilous Adventure of Barth — ^Plains and Hills — Oases — Luxuriant Vegetation of the Oases — Contrasts of Light and Shade — The Khamsin or Simoom — Animals and Reptiles — The Ostrich and its Chase — Fluctuations of Animal and Vegetable Life accord ing to the Seasons. rT"^HE presence or absence of water in the Tropical World exerts an influence upon -L all forms of animal and vegetable life not loss important tban the teraperature. Wherever water is absolutely wanting the country is given over to barrenness. Wherever water is perpetual .and abundant, the soil is clothed with lofty forests and a profusion of lush vegetation. Midway between tbese extremes are vast tracts dry at one season and wet at another. Those regions, which we may call savannas, erabrace the pampas of the Argentine Republic and tbe llanos of Venezuela and New Granada, and a considerable portion of Southern Africa. They are in general to bo character-' ized as vast plains, never of more than moderate elevation, covered witb grass and shrubs ; but, except on the banks of the rivers, destitute of extensive forests, the trees standing singly or in small clumps. There can be no more striking contrast than that presented at different seasons of the year by the great llanos of Venezuela. When the rainy season is over and tbe sun for weeks blazes in an unclouded sky, pouring his vertical rays upon the thirsty plains, tbe calcined grass-plains present tbe aspect of an interminable, monotonous waste. Like tbe ocean tbey stretch out till in tbe distance hazy and quivering with heat, their boundary blends upon the horizon witb the sky in an indistinct line. The water pools which nourished the scattered clumps of the Mauritia palm disappear one by one. The tall, dry reeds which indicate the spot which had been a swamp, bear 500 THE TROPICAL WORLD. high up their stalks tbe encrusted mud which marks the hight of ooze and slime of the rainy season. The grass bas long since withered, and stands a mass of dry stems, feady at tbe touch of fire to break out into a conflagration which outstrips tbe speed of the swiftest borse. Animal life seems to have become extinct. The deer, the aguti, and¬the peccary, taught by instinct, have migrated to less arid regions, followed by their natural ene mies the Indian, the puma, and the jaguar. Tbe vast herds of wild horses and cattle which roamed over the savanna perish in countless numbers, or rush about bellowing, and neighing, and snuffing the thirsty air, seeking to scent out the neighborhood of some pool where a little moisture has survived the general drought. Buried far down in the stiff clay of the dried-up pools, the alligator and huge water snake lie torpid in a long suramer sleep, as tbe bear slumbers through the dreary Arctic winter, At length, when all nature seems to have expired or to be expiring for want of water, welcome signs announce the approach of the rainy season. Tbe blue, cloudless sky begins to assume a leaden hue ; tbe atmosphere becomes obscured by condensing vapors ; the stars which shone with a mild planetary lustre now twinkle faintly even in tbe zenith, while tbe bright Southern Cross, low down in the horizon, ia hardly dis cernible, and tbe phosphoric gleam of tbe Magellanic clouds expires. Banks of vapor rise in mountainous forras on the horizon, increasing in density, and mounting higher and higher, until at length they burst into rains which pour down in torrents. Scarcely have tbe showers had time to moisten the thirsty latid, when a change comes over the face of nature. The dull, tawny surface of the savanna ia transforraed as if by magic into an expanse of vivid green, enameled with flowers of every hue. The mimosas ex pand tbeir delicate foliage, and tbe Mauritia palm, " the tree of life," puts forth its feathery fronds. Animal life awakens from its long torpor. On the borders of the swamps the moistened clay heaves, and slowly bursts asunder, and from the tomb in which he lay embedded, rises tbe form of some huge alligator or water-snake. The newly formed pools swarm with water-fowl. The herds of horses and oxen rejoice in the thick grasses, under whose covert not unfrequently crouches tbe jaguar waiting for his prey. On the very same spot where a few weeks before tbe borse anxiously snuffed the air, half-mad with thirst, he is now obliged to lead an almost araphibious life. The mares retreat witb their foals to tbe higher banks, whicb riso Uke islands from a lagoon, and swim about in quest of tbe grasses which lift their heads above the waters. Not un- frequentiy thoy become tbe prey of aUigators that strike them down with tbeir scaly tails, and seize thera with their enorraous jaws. "This sight," says Humboldt, " involuntarily reminds the reflecting observer of tbe great pliability with which na ture has endowed several species of plants and aniraals. Along with the fruits of Cores, tbe horse and tbe ox have followed man over tbe whole earth from tho Ganges to the Plata, and from the coast of Africa to the mountain plain of Antisana, over looking the VaUey of Quito. Here, the nortbern birch-tree, and there the tropical date-palm, protects the tired ox from the heat of the sun. The same species of animal which in eastern Europe contends with bears and wolves, is attacked in another zone by the tiger and the crocodile." It is scarcely three centuries since tbe horse and tbe ox were first introduced into America by tbe Spaniards. The latter has flourished to such a degree that it is not ANIMAL LIFE ON THE PAMPAS. 501 improbable that in the pampaa and lianas of South America there are more cattle than in all the rest of the globe. Strain, who rode across the pampas, was told that in a single year ten milUons of hides wore exported from Buenos Ayres. Knowing that the census of 1840 gave but fifteen millions in the United States, this statement seemed incredible. But when day after day he saw from every sUght swell herd after herd, blackening the whole expanse, untU they became mere specks in the distance, and re- 'r^f4..;rf' CATTLE-HUNTIKG ON THB PAMPAS. fleeted that the mUUons upon miUions which he saw were but fractions of those spread for hundreds of thousands of square miles, he could give credit to the statement. The annual slaughter of millions seeras to have no sensible effect in diminishing the numbers of the survivors. These herds belong mainly to wealthy estancieros. Tbe extent of some of these estancias and the number of the herds is almost incredible. The estate of San Jose, belonging to Urquiza, late President of the Argentine Confedera tion, covered an area of several hundred square miles, and upon it he had 2,000 horses, 40,000 head of cattle, and 70,000 sheep, and this ia but one out of his many estatea.* * Page's La Plata, 52, 59. 502 THE TROPICAL WORLD. The introduction of the horae and tbe ox has wrought an entire change in the char acter of tbe Indians of tbe great plains of Nortb and South America. When the Spaniards first visited the llanos and pampas they found thera alraost destitute of inhabitants, for tbe Indians were whoUy unacquainted with agriculture. They could exist only in the spots where grew the Mauritia palm. This tree grows to the hight of a hundred feet, its slender trunk surmounted by a magnificent tuft of great fan- shaped fronds, utider which grow in large clusters scaly fruit, resembling pine cones. Like the banana they differ in taste according to the stage of ripeness ; and the trunk affords a nutritious pith like sago, whicb when dried forms a large part of tbe food of tbe natives. Frora its sap they prepared an intoxicating drink; its leaves covered their huts; frora the fibres of tbe petiole tbey manufactured threads and cordage, and the sheaths at their base served for sandals. The Mauritia grew abundantly near tbe mouth of the Orinoco ; and among its branches tho Guaranas dwelt Uke monkeys, high above the reach of the great inundations. They built platforms; floored with its leaves, from trunk to trunk, a patch of moist clay serving for a fire-place. The early voyagers were by nigbt astonished at the light of their fires, gleaming like beacons up among the dark foliage. The Grand Chaco, lying along tbe Paraguay and Parana rivers, is one of tbe most remarkable of tbe pampa regions. It covers an area of 200,000 square miles, nearly equal to France, and is nominally partitioned araong tbe neighboring governments ; but is really in the possession of hordes of Indians, who acknowledge no allegiance except to their own caciques. Neither time nor intercourse with the whites has miti gated thoir deep feeling of hostility against the whites for the wrongs inflicted upon their race. The horse, the gift of the Spaniards, has put tbem upon an equality with their enemies, and given tbem tbe means of making continual predatory inroads. Wben pursued by a military force they scatter and are lost in tbe depths of the forest. Tbey are admirable horsemen, using neither saddle or bridle, but control their animals by a rude rein of raw-hide passing around tho lower jaw, and secured by a thong of tbe sarae material. The guachos, or herdsmen, inhabiting the pampas are of Spanish descent, hut have relapsed into an almost savage state. The wild life of a guacbo begins from infancy. As soon as he can walk he has a little lasso made of twine, witb whioh he amuses himself in catching tbe chickens and dogs. By tbe tirae he is four yeara old he is put upon horseback, which be soon learna to consider the only place for a man, thinking it degrading to walk for any considerable distance. He early acquires skill in tbe use of tho lasso and bolas. With tbe former he will capture tbe wildest bull or staUion, throwing from horseback the noose with unerring aim over the horns, or around a leg of tbe animal. He is equally dextrous in the use of tho bolas. This conaiats of tbree balls, about three inches in diameter, joined together in a common center by thongs a yard long. Holding one ball in bis hand, the guacbo whirls tbe otber around his head, and then flings the whole at bis victim. The instant ono thong strikes tbe leg of an animal, all wind themselves around, eacb by its own independent motion, and the more the victim struggles the more inextricably does he become entangled. The so-called deserts of Southern Africa, including the great Kalahari, are savannas rather than deserts. This region has of late years been thoroughly described by THE GREAT KALAHARI. 508 travelers, most of them allured thither in pursuit of game. It may be considered as bounded by tbe parallels of 20° and 30° south of the equator, and from 17° to 30° of longitude, covering an area of 1,000 mUes by 700. The great Kalahari occupies its center. The physical aspects of so vast a region of course vary. Taking its outside 504 THE TROPICAL WORLD. rim, it may in general be described as a series of broad plains intercepted by rugged mountains of no great bight. Tbese plains during the wet season abound with juicy herbage, which disappears, fairly burned off, in the dry season, leaving the ground parched and dusty. Soraetiraes there are immense tracts overgrown with low, thorny bushes, standing so closely together that the traveler must chop his way through them step by step. Tbe moat common of those bushes ia called by the coloniats the " wait- a-bit," for its short hook-like thorns present a standing invitation to the passer to wait a bit at every foot of his advance. Andersson mentions once coming upon a consider able forest of thornless trees. "I do not think," he says, " that I was ever ao sur prised in my life. I hesitated to trust my senses. Even tbe dull faces of my native attendants seemed for a few seconds to relax from tbeir usual heavy, unintelligent cast, and to express joy at the novel scene." Tbe brief wet season, when the rain faUs in torrents, is succeeded by months of absolute drought, when water is found only at long intervals in solitary fountains and stagnant pools. The books of travelers in this region present a continual record of sufferings endured by man and beast ftom lack of water. But uninviting as thia region otherwise is, it is the paradise of the sportsman. In other regions of the globe he is limited to a few species of the larger game. On our western prairies he ia confined to bison ; in India he must satisfy himself with tigers and wild hogs ; in Ceylon ho may bag tuskloss elephants and buffalos ; in Siberia he bas only bears and wolves. But Southern Africa is a vast zoological garden. Giraffes raise tbeir long necks above the stunted acacia trees, stooping to crop tbeir topmost twiga. Gigantic boars, and tbeir still bigger cousins the unwieldy hippopotami and rhinoceroses, abound. Leopards and hyenas find abundant prey in numerous species of antelopes, and in turn afford rich sport to the hunter. Lions are everywhere, from tbe sneaking brute who crawls stealthily upon his ignoble prey, to the ferocious " man- eater," in whom the taste of human flesh has awakened a new faculty which induces hira to despise all meaner food, and to leap boldly into the camp of tho hunter in search of a human victim. Elephants wander about singly, or in pairs and groups, or troop in vast herds to tbe lonely pools wbere they can quench their thirst. " They walk about as thick as cattle," said a native to Andersson, who had occasion to verify tho statement; and Barth once counted two hundred elephants in a single hord on tbe banks of Lake Tschad. Besides these, there are ostriches, zebras, quaggas, and an almost innumerable variety of the deer tribe, sucb as oryxes, koodoos, inyalaa, gnus, elands, springbocks, gemsbocks, hartebeests, leches, pallahs, and others whose very names have as yet found no place in books of natural history. Such a superfluity of animal life presupposes no inconsiderable amount of vegetation even in tbese arid regions ; for all animals directly or indirectly subsist upon vegetable food. The Uon devours the deer; but he could find no deer to devour unless tbe deer could find grass and leaves to eat. Nature has also gifted these animals with an instinct which leads them to wander far and wide for food, and to divine where it is likely to be found. In so wide a pasture-ground all parts wiU not be parched at once ; and beasts of prey follow in tbe tracks of their victiras. Moreover, there are species of plants peculiar to those regions which go far to modify the apparent sterility, and store up food and even water beneath what appears to be dry aand. Such a plant ia the lerosbiia, whose low stalk ia hardly larger than a crow's quill ; but it sends its WATER-PLANTS AND WATER. 505 roots deep down into the soil, whicb, at the depth of a foot or two, expand into a tuber of the size of a small melon, which ia a mass of watery cellular tissue, like a young turnip. The mokuri, a low creeper, expands under ground into a cluster of tubers, some of them aa large as a man's head. The clusters spread out in a circle of a yard in diameter. When a native suapecta the existence of such a cluster, he pounds with stones around until a hollow sound tella him that he has found tbe spot. Many of the animals have sharp hoofs, and instinct points out to them the sites of these watery tubers, to reach which thoy dig away the sand, as the reindeer digs tho snow which conceals tbe moss which is bis food. Tbo kengwe, a kind of gourd, a favorite witb raan and boast, sometiraes covers immense tracts. Macabe once crossed tho desert, in a favorable season, and found thom so numerous that his cattle lived on thera for tbree weeks, during which tbey bad no water, and when this waa reached tbey seemed quite indifferent to it. • Another gourd, the naraa, covers many of tbe low sand-hills. Its fruit, tbe size of a turnip, is on tbe outside of a greenish yellow, within of a deep orange, and for three months in the year constitutes tbe chief food of raan and beast in the neighborhood of Walfisch Bay. Its seeds, something like an almond in looks and taste, are carefully gathered, dried, and preserved for food when the fruits have Judging from the geological character of this African semi-desert, there can be little doubt that water might be found by deep boring almost everywhere ; for as tbe rain- faU is great during tbe wet season, and as hardly any of it finds an outlet through rivers, much of it must aink into the aaudy soil until it is arrested by beds of clay or underlying rock, and by digging down to these the water would be reached. Wherever and whenever water hore exists, there is fertility ; and it may be that the time will come when these now arid plains will be honey-combed with artesian wells, and thereby transformed into a garden. Wben that tirae coraes, farewell to elephants and lions, to deor and antelopes. Wells, or rather pits, of slight depth, but which contain water throughout the year, except when two years of drought happen together, aro not un frequently found in tbe Kalahari. These pits are bidden with the utmost care. Some- timea tbe natives fill them up with loose sand, and build a fire over tbe spot; tbo ashes would naturally be taken as an indication that bere at least no water was to be found beneath the surface. Tbey are careful to establish tbeir huts at a considerable distance from their hidden mine of liquid treasure. Wben they wish for water, the women set out from the village, carrying their water vessels, whicb consist of ostrich- shells, with a little hole in the end. A rood of nearly a yard in length, witb a bunch of grass fastened to tbe end, is sunk down through the aand, whicb ia then ramraed closely around. By sucking through tho reed a vacuura is made in tho sponge-like bunch of grass ; into this the water flows and passes through tbe reed into the mouth, whence it is squirted into tbe shells. This natural pump is really very efficacious for the shallow depth at which it is used. Livingstone relates another circumstance which seems conclusive as to tbe fact that water exists in tbe Kalahari, at no very great distance below tbe surface of the ground. During two successive seasons of extreme drought, in neither of which tho rainfall exceeded five inches, and every thing was parched, and the ground so hot that beetles placed upon the surface died in a few seconds, as though they had been placed on a heated plate of iron, a certain species of ants, who form long and deep galleriea, were 506 THE TROPICAL WORLD. always as active and merry aa ever ; and upon opening tbeir chambers the walls were invariably moist. In reply to the question, whence those insects derived tbeir water, Livingstone suggests that tbey have tbe power by vital force of combining tbe oxygen of tho air witb the hydrogen of tbeir food, and so making water. He instances, in support of this theory, other insects which be found in Angola, wbere a colony of in sects on tbe branch of a tree would distill several pinta of water in a single night ; and he satisfied himself, by cutting off tbe branch, and so stopping the flow of sap, that this water was not derived from tbe juices of tbe tree. But in this case tbe atmosphere was surcharged with moisture ; while in tbe Kalahari it was so dry that the best hygrometric tests at his disposal failed to detect moisture in tbe air. A needle exposed for months in the open air did not rust ; there was no dew on the ground, and a mix ture of silpburic acid and water parted witb all its water to tho air, instead of imbib ing more from it, as it usually does. We know of no facts to confirm Livingstone's theory of this insect manufacture of water. Our theory is that the ants went down far enough to find water in tbe soil. Paradoxical as it may seem, tho extraordinary boat — 132° to 134° at a depth of three inches — and the absolute dryness of tbe air, would diminish the distance before moisture was reached ; for the surface would soon be baked so as to be as hard as sandstone, tbus precluding evaporation frora any con siderable depth, by forming a solid crust through which no water could escape. He dug wells deep into tho bed of tbe dried-up river near by, but found no water. We imagine that if be had followed Solomon's injunction to " go to the ant and be wise," and dug down close by ono of their habitations, ho would have corao to racist sand at no great depth; and this moisture would, by natural laws, have flowed into his well. The human inhabitants of this wide African soraidosert are of very varied character. A large portion of them, Caffres, Becbuanas, and tbe like, belong to tbo lowest grade of huraanity, perhaps a little above tbe aborigines of Australia, and some tribes in Borneo, whicb, could we admit of any connecting link between men and monkeys, we would designate as semi-human. There aro other tribes, such as the Balakabari, which rise far higher in tho scale of being ; and are, we judge, quite susceptible of civiliza tion. They bavo garden patches which they cultivate witb groat caro, and rear small herds of goats, although they are often in the dry season obliged to dip up for them water absolutely in spoonfuls. Tbey are also keen traders in tbeir small way, barter ing tbo skins of animals for spears, knives, tobacco, and dogs. Tbese tribes merge almost imperceptibly into tbe Makalaka and Makftlolo, whom Livingstone found in the more favorable region to tbe Nortb, around Lake Ngarai. There ia also in Africa another vast region which belongs apparently to tbe savannas rather than to what we consider tbe proper tropical regions. For want of a better terra we may designate it aa the "Lake Region," for in it lie great lakes, inferior only to those of Nortb Araerica, whoso very existence was until within a few years unknown to tho civUized world. Geographically it is purely equatorial, for it lies within five degrees of the equator on either side ; and its elevation is not sucb as of itself suffi cient to greatly modify its climate ; but other circumstances give it an aspect wholly unexpected. In general it may be deacribed as a plateau of 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the ocean, with little outcropping bills of granite, and many fertilizing springs THE LAKE REGION OF AFRICA. 507 in the valleys. This region has been, if we may use tbe term, only pricked into by travelers. Burton just touched upon its borders, Livingstone, in bis second expe dition, did tbe same, and it is bore that ho bas been for five yeara lost to the civilized world, save for vague and sometiraes contradictory accounts that have reached ua. If the most recent reports are to be trusted, there is good reason to hope that he will yet retiirn, and then we sball learn something of this as yet almost unknown region. As yet Speke and Banning are tbe only ones who have brought back any thing like an account of thia vaat region, and their journey of 1,500 miles, although it occupied nearly thirty months, from Zanzibar on the Indian Ocean to Khartoum, whore tbe two main branches of tho Nile unite, at a distance of 1,500 railes frora tho groat river of Egypt, was alraost on a single line. Speke died in the belief that be bad solved the mystery of tbe Nile, by the discovery of tho origin of its main branch in Lake Victoria N'yanza, hardly a mile from tbe equator ; but tbe subsequent explorations of Baker render it almost certain that Speke discovered only one, and that by no means the largest of the sources of the river, which, as far as wo know, is tho sole outlet of tbe waters of a region larger than that drained by St. Lawrence. From all that we now know, this great region is one admirably adapted for tbo abode of civilized man. Here and thero in Speke's Journal occur passages like tbe following ; " The bill-sides and tops are woll covered witb bush and sraall trees, araong which the baraboo is raost conspicuous, while tbe bottoras, having a soil still richer and deeper, produce fine large fig-trees of exceeding beauty, the huge calabash, and a variety of otber trees." Again : '' Our day's raarch has been novel and very amusing. Tbe bUly country surrounding us brought back to recollection many happy days which I had once spent witb the Tartars in tbe Thibetan Valley of tbe Indus ; only this was more picturesque ; for though both countries are wild and thinly inhabited, this was greened over witb grass, and dotted here and there on tbe higher slopes with thick bushes of acacias, the haunts of the rhinoceros, both white and black ; while iu tbe flat of the vaUeys herds of hartebeest and fine cattle roamed about like tho kiyang and tame yiik of Thibet." Again: "We descended into tbe close valley of tbe Uthenga, bound in by steep hills hanging over us more than a thousand feet high, as prettily clothed as tbe mountains of Scotland ; while in tbe valley there were not only magnificent trees of extraordinary hight, but also a surprising amount of the richest cultivation, among which the banana raay be said to prevail." At Kara- gue, on Lake N'yanza, 5,100 feet above the lovel of tbe ocean, Speke kept a record of tbe thermometer for six months, from Noveraber to April. Tbe lowest point was 65°, in AprU, the highest 70°, in November, for the mean teraperature of a day. Tho highest absolute point at any bour of tbe day was 85°. As, strictly speaking, there is no summer and winter at tbe equator, ono six months of tbe year will be the same as tbe other ; the mean temperature of the whole year is put down at 68°. Hero and there Speke came upon an isolated tribe living in almost pastoral quiet ness ; but they were under perpetual apprehensions of attacks from their fierce neigh bors ; for, as a general rule, the life of these tribes is one of perpetual war. Tho main object of predatory inroads is to procure slaves. These slaves are bartered from tribe to tribe, the survivors ultimately faUing into the hands of the Portuguese slave- traders on the coast. 508 THE TROPICAL WORLD. From the savannas and aemi-deaerts of the Tropical World, we now tum to the great deserts themselves, which constitute a striking feature in that portion of tbe globe which is now under review. A desert, in the strict sense in which we use the term, is an extensive region wherein there is no regular raiufaU, and in whicb, more over, there exists no other means of irrigation. It is a land doomed to irreraediable sterility ; for, as we have again and again pointed out, water is the great requisite to life. We have taken Southern Africa, and even the Kalahari, out of the category of deserts, because during a part of tbe year rain faUs there, and therefore vegetable life, and by consequence, aniraal life, may exist, and often does exist in great profusion. Tbe Valley of tbe Nile, including aU Egypt, is rainless, and would be a desert, wore it not that the lower course of tbe river, supplied from rainy regions, overflows its banks, and for the rest of tbe year it is irrigated by waters raised by human labor from the abounding river. Egypt is the " gift of tbe Nile," and is redeemed frora barrenness by being, as described by the groat Hebrew lawgiver, a land "watered by the foot." In America tbe only great tropical desert is that of Atacama, the " sand-coast of Peru." It is a long, narrow strip of land lying between the paraUels of 3° and 21° south latitude, bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and on tbe east by tbe Cor dilleras. Its length is 1,600 miles, its breadth from 15 to 60 railes. It is traversed by spurs from the mighty mountain range, which sometimes sink into tbe level of the plain, and sometimes jut out in steep promontories into the ocean. Hore and there, at wide intervals, a brook fed from the snowy Andes, makes a brief course across tbe narrow plain, forming a narrow strip of verdure only sufficient to break the general monotony. The few inhabitants carefully husband tho last drop of water from these scanty streams to irrigate their arid fields. Here the mule takes tho place of tbe Afri can camel as the "ship of tbe desert." Tbe horse can not support thirst for more tban forty-eight hours without becoming so weak as to be scarcely able to carry its rider ; yet if urged by his master he wUl stagger on until he falls dead in his tracks. Tho mule, more obstinate, as we say, but in fact more wise, when he feels himself verging upon the limits vof endurance, stops short, and no urgency of whip or spur will force him to move, until he baa reated. Yet notwithstanding tbe great power of endurance of tbe mules, many of tbem succurab to tbe fatigue of the journey, and tbe roads across the Atacama are marked by their skulls and bones, as the caravan routes across Sahara are whitened by the skeletons of camels. Perhaps the most absolute desert tract on the face of the globe ia that which occu pies the interior of the great island, or, as it may not improperly bo styled, continent, of Australia. The island has an area of something more than three millions of square miles, nearly equal in extent to Europe. For a great part of its circumference it is bounded by a continuous range of mountains or highlands, nowhere rising to a great hight, and for long distances consisting of plateaus or table-lands. There is, however, a continuous range of water-shod, which is never broken through, and which never recedes to any great distance from tbe coast. The habitable portions of Australia are limited to tbe slopes of the mountains and the narrow space between them and the coast, in all not exceeding a width of tbree hundred miles. The interior, as far as is known, or as can be inferred from physical geography, is an immense depressed plain, more hopelessly barren and uninhabitable than tbe great desert of Sahara. THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN DESERT. 509 ' The interior of this desert bas probably never been traversed by the foot of man or beast; and only three or four exploring expeditions have penetrated far into its depths. In 1844 Sturt made his way some four hundred miles beyond the habitable regions, which brought bim near the geographical center of tbe island. This space he found to be occupied by an immense plain covered with ridges of drifting sand, often rising to a hight of eighty or a hundred feet, and stretching away in either direction beyond the range of vision. Here and there grew a few solitary tufts of grass, nourished by infrequent showers. Permanent water there was none, and the sand was heated to such a degree that a match dropped upon it became ignited at once. Tbe thermometer on one occasion rose to 153° in tbe coolest place to be found. In tbe midst of this sterile tract was a desert of still deeper gloora, which waa traced for a diatance of eighty milea in ono direction, and thirty-five in another. Ita surface was paved by a solid bed of dark iron-stone, upon whicb the horses' hoofs rung as upon a metallic floor, without making the slightest indentation. There was not a trace of water or vegetation. Leichardt, a German naturalist, succeeded in penetrating from tbe settle ments on tbe eastern coast, through tbe unexplored interior of the island, to its northern side. But his course led him only along tbe skirts of the great desert ; yet even bore he was more than once saved from perishing by following the flight of a bird winging its way to some solitary sink or water-bole. In 1846 he set out on a new journey, . intending to pass from the east through the desert to the colony on the western shore. This journey was expected to occupy two and a half years. Eighteen months after be set out, a letter was received from him written on tbe extreme verge of habitation. After that ho disappeared, and it was not until years after that it was discovered that he bad been murdered by his native guides. When it was ascertained that no rivers from the interior reached the sea-coast, whUe considerable streams poured from the bills towards tbe interior, it was supposed that there must bo a great central lake. Sturt followed the Victoria, the most consider able of these rivers, which poured a considerable current into tbe interior; but the farther he followed it tbe less becarae the streara, which at length dwindled into a succession of water-holes, and was finally lost araong the barren sands. It is probable that tbe samo is tbe case with all the streams running into tbe interior; and that all their water ia exhausted by evaporation long before the center of the island is reached. But the great desert of the Tropical World is the African Sahara, occupying tbe central portion of the northern half of tbe continent from the latitude 17° to that of 29°, although^ in many parts fruitful districts penetrate its bounds like peninsulas jutting into tbe sea. No European traveler has followed its southern limits from east to west; and of its interior little is known, except along tbe caravan routes traced across it for centuries. One scarcely strikes the northern border of the Sahara before he finda himself in a region beset with porila. The first portion, after leaving Tripoli, following tho caravan route, known as the Hamada, is an elevated plateau, six days' journey wide, barren and stony, except here and there where there is a patch of verdure upon which tbe patient camel browses with delight. Here ia foumi^ a little bird called tbe asfir, whicb Uvea wholly upon the vermin which it picks frbm the feet of the camels. Thon comes a broad, sandy, tree less plain, crossed by shifting sand-ridges so stoop that tbe traveler is often obUged to 510 THE TROPICAL WORLD. flatten thera down in order to enable bis caraels to. proceed. Upon the verge of this stands Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, a clay-built town in a sand-pit, shut in on all sides by barren ridges. Near by, in an occasional favored spot, grow a few porae granates, figs, and peaches. Onions are tbe principal vegetables, and tho only milk to bo obtained is a little furnished by goats. Yet tbe traveler into tbe desert will look back to it almost as to a paradise. Barth came near losing his life almost on tho edge of the desert. Taking with him only a few dry biscuits and dates, he left his caravan one day alone to ascend a steep hill, the sumrait of whicb the natives supposed to be inhabited by demons. Tbe mountain seemed to recede before him as he advanced ; but before noon he gained the sumrait. Tho fierce desert sun glared down, and the broad, sandy waste lay spread out before him. Looking around, ho could discern no trace of the caravan. He dared only sip a few drops of his small stock of water, and could only swallow a morsel of his dry biscuit. He then plunged wildly down tbe mountain side in the supposed direction of tbe caravan. Parched with intolerable thirst, he swallowed all his water at a draught; but the relief was only moraentary. He grew bewildered, and lost bis course. Again and again be fiicd his pistols, listening eagerly for an answering shot; but tbe stillness of tbe desert was unbroken. Day began to decline, and he threw hiraself in despair upon tbe hot sand. Ouce he thought be caught a glirapse of the long line of tbe caravan, but it was only an illusion of tbe imagination. There were a few trees around, but be bad not strength to light a fire, which might bave served aa a signal to his friends. He was utterly broken down and exhausted. Darkness fell around, and then he saw far across tbe plain tbe light of a fire. It must mark the encampment of bis comrades. He fired his pistols, but received no reply. The dis tance was too great for tbe sound to traverse. Still tbe steady fire gleamed, marking tbe position of tbe friends whom he might never again behold. Tbe long, sleepless night wore away, and the sun rose hotter and hotter in the east. He had barely strength to move so as to keep his head within tbe scanty shade of tbe leafless tree under which he lay. Tbe torments of thirst became unendurable. He bit bis arm, and sucked the blood which flowed from tbe wound. Then be fell into a delirious trance, from which he did not awake till tbo sun bad sunk behind tbe hills. As he cast a despairing look through tho gathering gloom over the pitiless waste, he heard tbe cry of a camel. No music ever sounded so sweetly. Raising himself a little, be saw, not far off, a man mounted on a camel, looking eagerly around. It was one of his escort, who had come upon hia tracks in the sand, and was following upon bis , trace. Barth cried out feebly for water. Tbe man hoard bim, and, after bathing bia bead, gave him a draught. So swollen was bis throat that he could hardly swallow. He was thon put upon the camel and borne to the caravan. The natives scarcely believed that he could bo alive ; for tbey say that no man can live in tbe desert with out water for more than twelve hours. Save with his own blood, Barth had not moistened hia parched lips for eight-and-twenty hours. Until within the last years, the Sahara waa supposed to be a low plain, partly situ ated even below the level of tbe ocean ; but tho journeys of Barth, Overweg, and Vogel, bave proved it, on the contrary, to be a high table-land, rising 1,000 or 2,000 feet above tbe sea. Nor is it the uniform sand-plain which former descriptions led one to imagine ; for it is frequently traversed by chains of hUls, aa deaolate and wild THE DESERT OF SAHARA. 511 as the expanse from which they emerge. But the plains also bave a different char acter in varioua parta : sometimes over a vast extent of country tbo ground is strewed with blocks of stone or small boulders, no leaa fatiguing to the traveler tban tbe looae drift sand, which, particularly in its western part (most likely in consequence of tbe prevailing east winds), covers the dreary waste of the Sahara. Often also the plain ia rent by deep chasras, or hollowed into vast basins. In the forraer, particularly on the northern Umits of the desert, the rain descending from tbe gulleys of the Atlas, sometimes forms streams, whicb are soon swallowed up by the thirsty sands, or dried by the burning sunbeams. The deeper basina of tbe Sahara are frequently of great extent, and sometimes con tain valuable deposits of salt. Wherever perennial springs rise frora the earth, or wherever it has been possible to collect water in artificial wells, green oases, often many days' journey apart from each other, break the monotony of the desert. They might be corapared witb the charming islands that stud tbe vast soUtudes of tho South Sea ; but they do not appear, like them, as elevations over surrounding plains of sea, but as depressions, where animals and plants find a sufficient supply of water, and a protection, not loss necessary, against tho terrific blasts of tho desert. A wonderful luxuriance of vegetation characterizes these oases of the wilderness. Under and between the date-palms, that are planted about six paces apart, grow apricot and peach trees, pomegranates and oranges, tho benneb, so indispensable to oriental beauty ; and even tbe apple-tree, tbe pride of European orchards. The vine twines from one date-palm to another, and every spot susceptible of culture bears grain, par ticularly dourrah or barley, and also clover and tobacco. With prudent econoray the vUlages aro built on the borders of tbo oases on tbe unfruitful soil, so that not a foot of ground susceptible of culture may be lost. Tbe vast tracts of sterile sand, wbere not even the smallest plants take root, and which might be called the "desert of tbe desert," present tbe greatest conceivable contrast to its green oases. With tbe vegetable world tbo aniraal kingdora likewise disappears, and for days the traveler pursues bis journey without meeting witb a single quadruped, bird, or inaect. Nowhere are tbe transitions of light and shade raore ab rupt than in the desert, for nowhere is tbe atmosphere moro thoroughly free of all vapors. The sun pours a dazzling light on the ground, so that every object stands forth with wonderful clearness, while all that remains in tbe shade is sharply defined, and appears Uke a dark spot in the surrounding glare. The stUlness of these wastes ia sometimes awfully interrupted by the loud voice of the khamsin or simoom. The crystal transparency of tbe sky is veiled with a hazy dim ness. The wind rises and blows in interraittent gusts, like the laborious breathing of a feverish patient. Gradually tbe convulsions of tbe storra grow more violent and frequent ; and although the sun is unable to pierce the thick dust-clouds, and the shadow of the traveler is scarcely visible on tbe ground, yet so suffocating is tbe heat, that it seems to him as if the fiercest rays of the sun were scorching his brain. Tbe dun atmosphere gradually changes to a leaden blackness ; the wind becomes constant ; and even the camels streteh themselves upon the ground and turn their backs to the whirl ing sand-storm. At night the darkness is complete ; no light or fire burns in tbe tents, which are hardly able to resist tbe gusts of tbe simoom. Silence reigns throughout the whole caravan, yet no one sleeps ; the bark of the jackal or the howl of the hyena 512 THE TROPICAL WORLD. alone sounds dismally from time to time through the loud roaring of the storm. The sultry breath of the desert is felt far beyond its bounds. It blows over Italy, where it is known as the sirocco, and crosses even the Alps, where, under the narae of the Fonwind, it rapidly melts tbe snow of tbe higher valleys, and causes dangerous inun dations. Tbe dust of tbe deaort, whirled high into the air, frequently falls upon the decks of vessels crossing the Atlantic, far from the coast of Africa, and flies in clouds over the Red Sea — a greeting from Nubia to Arabia. Wben we consider the scanty vegetation of tbe Sahara, we can not wonder that animal life is but sparingly scattered over it. The lion, whom our poets so frequently namo the " king of the desert," only ahowa himaelf on ita borders ; and on aaking the noraados of tho interior whether it is ever seen in their parts, they gravely answer that in Europe lions may perhaps feed on shrubs or drink the air, but that in Africa they cannot exist without flesh and water, and therefore avoid the sandy desert. In fact, they never leave the wooded mountains of the Atlas, or tbe fruitful plains of the Sou dan, to wander far away into the Sahara, where snakes and scorpions are the only dangerous animals to be met with. Tbe snakes, which belong to the genus Cerastes, which is distinguished by two small horns upon the head, have a deadly bite, and are remarkable for tbeir almost total abstinence from water. When a caravan, on first entering tho desert, meets with one of tbese venomous reptiles, it is not killed, " for it ia of good omen to leave evil behind ; " but farther on the snakes are mercilessly destroyed wherever they are seen. Among tho animals which inhabit those parts of the desert which are covered witb prickly ahruba, we find hares and rabbits, hyenas and jackals, tbe hedgehog and the porcupine. Several lizards inhabit tbe desert ; araong others, a large gray monitor, and a small white skink, with very short legs, called zelgague by the Arabs. Its movements are so rapid that it seems to swim on tbe sand like a fish in tbe water, and when one fancies he has caught it, it suddenly dives under tbe surface. Its traces, however, betray its retreat, and it is easily ex tracted from its hole, — a trouble which, iu spite of the meagre booty, is not consid ered too groat when provisions are scarce. Tbe ostrich, which is proverbially said to drink only every five days wben there is water, and to be able to endure thirst for a much longer period when there is none, and the gazelle, which even tbo greyhound finds it difficult to catch, venture deeper into the desert. The chase of the gazelle is a favorite amusement of tho Saharians. On see ing a herd at a distance tbey approach as cautiously as possible ; and wben about a mile distant, they unleash tbeir greyhounds, who dart off witb tbe rapidity of arrows, and are excited, by loud cries, to their utmost speed. Yet they only reach tho flying herd after a long chase ; and now the scene acquires the interest of a drama. Tbe best greyhound .selects tbe finest gazelle for his prey, whicb uses all its cunning to avoid its pursuer, springing to tbe right, to tbe loft, now forwards, then backwards, sometimes • eveu right over the greyhound's bead ; but all tbese zigzag evolutions faU to save it from its indefatigable eneray. When seized it utters a piteous scream, the signal of tho greyhound's triumph, who kiUs it witb one bite in tbe neck. According to the seasons animal life fluctuates in tbe Sahara from nortb to south. In winter and spring, when heavy rains, falling on its northern borders, provide wide districts, thoroughly parched by the summer heat, with the water and pasturage needed for the herds, the nomadic tribes wander farther into the desert with their camela, horses, THE DESERT OF SAHARA. 513 sheep, and goats, and retreat again to the coast lands as tbe sun gains power. At this time of tbe year the wild aniraals — the lion, the gazoUe, and tbe antelope — also wan der farther to the south, whicb at that time provides them, each according to its taste, with tbo nourishment which the dry summer is unable to bestow ; while tbe ostrich, who during tbe summer ranged farther to tbe nortb, then retreats to tbo south ; for hot and sandy plains are tho paradise in whioh this singular bird delights to roam. In the southern part of tbe Sahara the tropical rains, whose liraits extend to 19° nortb latitude, and in some parta still farther to tbe nortb, produce similar periodical changes in the character of the desert. Under their influence the sandy plains are soon covered with grasses and shrubs. In the dry season, on tbe contrary, tho green carpet disappears, and the country then changes into an arid waste, covered with stubbles and tufts of mimosas. Thia beneficial change, however, does not take plaoe every year ; for the tropical rains frequently fail to appear on their northern boundaries, and thus disappoint tbe hopes of tbe thirsty desert. 514 THE TROPICAL WORLD. isff^r^'rvS^i^^S^' IGAEIPE, OE CANOE-PATH ON IHE AMAZON. CHAPTER IV. TROPICAL FORESTS.— VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. Characteristics of the Tropical Forests — Variety of Trees and Plants — Aspect During the Rainy Season — Beauty After the Rainy Season — A Morning Concert — Repose at Noon — Awakening at Evening — Nocturnal Voices of the Forest. — The Amazon: Course of the River— Size of its Basin — The Tide at its Mouth — Rising of the River — Igaripes, or Canoe- Paths — Inundations of the Amazon — Vast Variety of its Vegetation — Fishes — Agassiz's Specimens — Alligators and Turtles — Turtle-Hunting — Insects — Ants — Butterflies — Spiders — Lizards — Frogs and Toads — Snakes — Paucity of Mammalia — The Jaguar — Scantiness of Human Population — Indian Tribes — Mundurcu Tattooing — Travelers' Accounts of the Tribes— Men with Tails— Orion's Summary of their Character— His Own Experience Favorable — He finds them Honest and Peaceable — Agassiz's Notices ofthe Indians — Their FamiUarity with Animals and Plants — Whites — Negroes — Mixed Breeds — Agassiz and ' Orton on the Capacity of Amazonia. HAVING passed in review tbe lofty plateaus, the broad savannas, and the burning deserts, which forra striking though exceptional features of the Tropical World, we proceed to the forests, which constitute tbe most distinctive feature of tho regions which lie bordering tbe equator. Reserving for a separate chap ter some of tbe most notable trees specially characteristic of the tropics, we propose to ASPECTS OF TROPICAL FORESTS. 515 take a survey o. tbe general aspects of tbo great forests, and especially of that which covers, with scarcely an interruption, tbe valley of tho Araazon, in whose alraost unin habited depths the whole habitable part of Europe might be hidden away. The peculiar charms of the tropical primitive forest are enhanced by the mystery of its impenetrable thickets; for however lovely its lofty vaults and over changing forras of leaf or blossora may be, fancy paints scenes still more beautiful beyond, where the eye cannot penetrate, and where, as yet, no wanderer has ever strayed. In tbe bound less forests of tropical Araerica, the jaguar soraetiraes loses hiraself in such impenetrable thickets that, unable to hunt upon tbe ground, be lives for a long tirae on the trees, a terror to the raonkeya. Hero the padres of the mission-stations, whioh are not raany milea apart in a direct line, often require more than a day'a navigation to visit each otber, following the windings of sraall rivulets in tbeir courses, as tbe forest renders communication by land impossible. The matted bush-ropes, climbing along the trunks and branches, extend like tbe rigging of a ship from one tree to another, and blossom at such a giddy hight that it is frequently as impossible to reach these flowers as it is to distinguish to which of thp many interlacing stems tbey may belong. Nor is it possible to drag down one of tbese inaccessible creepers ; for, owing to tbeir strength and toughness, it would be easier to pull down tbe tree to which it attaches itself than to force the liana from its bold. No botanist ever entered a priraitive forest without envying tbo bird to whom no blossora is inaccessible ; who, high above the loftiest trees, looks down upon the sea of verdure, and enjoys prospects whose beauty can hardly be imagined by man. A majestic uniformity is tbe character of our woods, which often consist but of one species of tree, while in the tropical forests an immense variety of families strive for existence, and even in a small space one neighbor scarcely ever resembles the other. Within the apace of half a mile square, Agassiz counted one hundred and seventeen different kinda of wood, many of tbem fitted for tbe finest cabinet work. Even at a distance this difference becomoa apparent in tbe irregular outlines of the forest, as bere an airy dome-shaped crown, there a pointed pyramid, rises above the broad flat masses of green, in ever varying succession. On approaching, tbe differences of color are added to the irregularities of form ; for while our forests are deprived of tbe ornaraent of flowers, many tropical trees bave large blossoms, mixing in thick bunches with the leaves, and often entirely overpowering the verdure of tho foliage by tbeir gaudy tints. Tbus splendid white, yellow, or red colored crowns are mingled witb those of darker or more bumble bue. At length when, on entering tbe forest, the single leaves become distinguishable, even the last traces of harmony disappear. Here tbey are delicately feathered, there lobed ; here narrow, there broad ; here pointed, there obtuse ; bere lustrous and fleshy, as if in tho full luxuriance of youth, there dark and arid, as if decayed with age. In many the inferior surface is covered witb hair ; and as the wind plays with tbe foliage, it appears now silvery, now dark green, now of a lively, now of a melancholy, bue. Thus tbe foliage exhibits an endless variety of form and color; and where plants of the same speciea unite in a sraall group, tbey are mostly shoots from the roots of an old stem. Wbere so many thousand forms of equal pretensions vie for the posaossion of the soil, none is able to expand ita crown or extend its branches at full liberty. Hence there is a universal tendency upwards ; for it is only by overtopping its neighbors that each tree can hope to attain the region of free- 516 THE TROPICAL WORLD. dora and of light; and hence also tho crowns borne aloft on those high columnar trunks are coraparatively sraaU. In the deep lowlands tho forest assumes a severe and gloomy character: dense crowns of foUage form lofty vaults almost impenetrable to the light of day ; no under wood thrivea on tbe swampy ground ; no parasite puts forth its delicate blossoms where tbe mighty trees stand in interminable confusion ; and only mushrooms sprout abundantly from tho humid soil. Nothing can equal the gloom of these forests during the rainy season. Thick fogs obscure tbe damp and sultry air, and clouds of mos quitoes whirl about in the mist. The trees drip with moisture ; the flowers expand their petals only during the few dry hours of the day, and every animal aeeka shelter in tho thicket. No bird , no butterfly comes forth ; the snorting of tbe capybaras, and tbe monotonous croaking of frogs and toads, are tbe only sounds that break tbe dull sUence; except wben tbe roar of tbe jaguar, or tbe bowlings of the atentor-monkej , issue like notes of distress from tho depth of the melancholy woods. After the wet season tbe woods appear in tbeir full beauty. Before the first showers, tbe long continued drought bad withered their leaves, and dried up many of the more tender parasites ; during its continuance tbe torrents of rain despoiled them of all ornament; but wben tho clouds disperse and the animals come forth from their retreats to stretch tbeir stiffened limbs in tbe warm sunshine, then also the vegetable world awakens to new life ; and where, a few days before, the eye met only witb green in every variety of shade, it now revels in the luxuriance of beautiful flowers, which embalm the air with exquisite fragrance. Tbese fairy bowers are enlivened by birds of splendid plumage, particularly in the early morning, wben the luscious green of the high palm-fronds or tbe burning yellow of tbe lofty leopoldinias, touched by the first rays of the sun, suddenly shines forth. Then hundreds of gaudy parrots fly across the river ; numberless colibris dart like winged gems through tbe air ; whole herds of cotingas flutter among the blossoms ; ducks of brilliant pluraage cackle on tbo branches of submerged trees ; on the highest tree-tops tbe toucan yelps bis loud pia-po-ko ! while, peeping from bis nest, tbe oriole endeavors to iraitate tbe sound ; and tbe scarlet ibis flies in troops to tbe coast, whUe tbe white egrette flutters along before tbe boat, rests, and then again rises for a new career. In general the morning hours are loudest in tbe primitive forest ; for tbe animals that delight in daylight, though not more numerous than the nocturnal speciea, have generally a louder voice. Their full concert, however, doea not begin 'iraraediately after aunriae ; for they are raostly ao chUled by the colder night, that tbey need to be warmed for some tirae before awakening to tbo complete use of tbeir faculties. First, single tones ring from tbe high tree-crown, and gradually thousands of voices join in various modulation, — now approaching, now melting into distance. Pre-eminent in loudness is tbe roar of the howling monkeys, though without being able fully to stifle the discordant cries and chattering of tbe noisy parrots. But the sun rapidly ascends towards tbe zenith, and one musician after tbe other grows mute and seeks the cool forest shade, untU finally the whole morning concert ceases to be heard. As tbe beat grows more intense, tbe stUlness of tbe forest is only interrupted at in tervals by single animal voices. The deepest silence reigns at noon, when the sun becomes too powerful even for the cbildren of tbe torrid zone ; and many creatures, THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. 517 particularly birds, sink into a profound sleep. Then all tbe warm-blooded animals seek tho shade, and only tbe cold reptiles, — alligators, lizards, salamanders, — stretch themselves upon the glowing rocks in the bed of tbe forest-streams, or on sunny slopes, and, with raised head and distended jaws, seem to inhale with delight tbe sultry air. As evening approaches, tho noise of tbe morning begins to re-awaken. Witb loud criea the parrots return from their distant feeding-grounds to tbe trees on which tbey are accustomed to rest at nigbt ; and, as the monkeys saluted tbe rising sun, so chat tering or bowling, they watch him sinking in the west. With twilight a new vyorld of animals, — whicb, as long as tbe day lasted, remained concealed in tho recesses of the forest, — awakens frora ita mid-day torpor, and prepares to enjoy its nightly revels. Then bats of hideous size wing tbeir noiseloaa flight through the wood, chaaing tbe giant hawk-motha and beetles, which have also waited for the evening hour, while the felidse quit tbeir lairs, ready to spring on tbe red stag near some solitary pool, or on the unwieldy tapir, who, having slept during tbe heat of tbe day, seeks, aa soon as evening approaches, tbe low-banked river, wbere be lovea to wallow in tbe mud. Then also tho shy opossum quits his nest- in hollow trees, or under sorae arch-like vaulted root, to search for insects or fruits, and tbe cautious agouti sallies from the bush. In onr forests scarcely a single tone is heard after sunset ; but in the tropical zone many loud voices celebrate the night, where, for houra after tbe sun bas disappeared, the cicadas, toads, frogs, owls, and goatsuckers chirrup, cry, croak, howl, and wail. The quietest hours are from midnight until about tbree in tbe morning. Complete silence, however, occurs only during very short intervals ; for there is always some cause or other that prompts sorae aniraal to break tbe stillness. Sometimes tbe din grows so loud, that one might fancy a legion of evil spirits were celebrating their orgies in the darkness of tbe forest. Humboldt supposes the first cause of tbese tu mults to be a conflict among animals, which, arising by chance, gradually swells to larger dimensions. Tbe jaguar pursues a horde of pecaris or tapirs which break wildly through the bushes. Terrified by tbe noise, tbe monkeys bowl, awakening par rots and toucans from their slumber; and tbus the din spreads through the wood. A long time passes before tbe forest returns to its stillness. Towards the approach of day tbe owls, tbe goatsuckers, tbe toads, tbe frogs, bowl, groan, and croak for the last time ; and as soon as the first beams of morning purple the sky, the shrill notes of the cicadas mix with their expiring cries. The valley of tbe Amazon is the great forest of tbe globe. This mighty river, rising in the small mountain lake of Lauricocha, only sixty mUes frora the Pacific, runs clear across tbe breadth of tbe continent, almost on the line of tho Equator, and empties into tbe Atlantic. Its whole length is 2,740 miles, following its windings, or 2,050 in a straight line. From north to south ita tributaries stretch 1,750 miles. At a distance of 2,000 miles above its mouth it has a breadth of a mile and a half, after wards it spreads to ten miles, then expands until it presents to tbe Atlantic a front of one hundred and eighty miles. Tbe lake which is tbe source of tbe main stream lies just below the liraits of perpetual snow. For tbe first five hundred mUes the stream flows through a deep valley, before reaching the level of tbe great plain. Tbe region drained by the Amazon dwarfs that of any other river. The Mississippi drains an area of a million and a quarter square miles, the Amazon almost twice as 518 THE TROPICAL WORLD. much, a space equal to two-thirds of aU Europe. Into this basin tbe United States might be packed without touching its boundaries. It would hold the basins of the Mississippi, tbo Nile, the Danube, and tbo Hoang-Ho. Dangerous sand-banks guard tho giant's threshold ; and no less perUous to tbe nav igator is the faraous Pororocca, or tbe rapid rising of the spring-tide at the shallow mouths of tbe chief streara and sorae of ita orabrancbmonta, — a phenomenon which, though taking place at tbe mouth of many other rivora, sucb aa tbe Hooghly, the Indus, tbe Dordogne, and the Seine, nowhere assumes such dimensions as hore, where tbe colossal wave frequently rises suddenly along tbo whole width of the stream to a bight of twelve or fifteen feet, and then collapses with a roar so dreadful that it is heard at tbe distance of more tban six miles. Then tbe advancing flood-wave glides almost imperceptibly over the deeper parta of tbe river bed, but again rises angrily as soon as a more shallow bottom arrests its triumphant career. The territory drained by tbe Amazon is so vast that, at tbe sources of its nortbern and southern tributaries, the rainy season takes place at opposite times of tbe year. So wonderful is tbo length of the stream that, whUe at tbe foot of tbe Andes it begins to rise early in January, tho Solimoens swells only in February ; and below the Eio Negro the Amazon doea not attain its full hight before tbe end of March. Tbe swelling of tbe river is colossal as itself. In tbe Solimoens and farther weatward the water rises above forty feet ; and Von Martius even saw trees whose trunks bore marks of the previous inundation fifty feet above tbe bight of the stream during the dry season. Then for miles and railes tbe swelling giant inundates his low banka, and, majestic at all times, becomes terrible in his grandeur when rolling his angry torrents through tbe wilderness. The largest forest-trees tremble under the pressure of the waters, and trunks, uprooted and carried away by the stream, bear witness to its power. Fishes and aUigators now swim where a short while ago tbe jaguar lay in wait for tbe tapir, and only a few birds, perching on the highest tree-tops, remain to witness tho tumult which disturbs tbe silence of the woods. Meanwhile tbe waters stimulate vegetation ; numberless blossoms break forth from the luxuriant foliage ; and while the turbid waters still play round tbe trunks of the submerged trees, tbe gayest flowers enamel their green crowns, and convert tbe inun dated forest into an enchanted garden. When at length the river retires within its usual limits, new islands bave been forraed in its bed, while others have been swept away ; and in many places the banks, undermined by tbe floods, threaten to crush the passing boat by their fall, — a misfortune which not soldorn happens, particularly when high trees come falling headlong down with the banks into the river. Countless lagunes stretch along the course of tbe Amazon and its tributaries. These lagunes, called by the natives igaripes, or canoe-paths, are a characteristic feature of the river. One may paddle from Santarem a thousand miles up tbe Araazon, and never, unless be chooses, enter tbe river itself. Most of tbese lagunes communicate witb tbe larger currents by channels, whicb, however, are generally dried up before the rainy season sets in. The magical beauty of tropical vegetation reveals itself in all its glory to tbe traveler who steers his boat through tbe solitudes of these aquatic mazes. Here the forest forms a canopy over bis head; there it opens, allowing the sunshine to disclose tbe secreta of the wildernesa ; whUe on either side the eye pene trates through beautiful vistas into the depths of the woods. Sometimes, on a higher THE FORESTS OF AMAZONIA. 519 spot of ground, a clump of trees forms an island worthy of Eden. A chaos of bush- ropes and creepers flings ita garlands of gay flowers over the forest, and fiUa tbe air witb tbe sweetest odor. Numerous birds, partly rivaling in beauty of color the passi- floras and bignonias of tbese hanging gardens, animate the banks of the lagune, while gaudy macaws perch on the loftiest trees ; and, aa if to remind one that death is not banished from this scene of Paradise, a dark-robed vulture screeohea through the woods, or an alligator rests, like a black log of wood or a sombre rock, on the tranquil waters. Well he knows that food will not be wanting ; for river tortoises and large fish are fond of retiring to these lagunes. The inundations of the Amazon, which often extend many miles inland, essentially modify the character of the bordering forest ; for it it only beyond their verge that the enormous fig and laurel trees appear in all tbeir grandeur. As bere tho underwood is less dense and more dwarfish, it is easy to measure the colossal trunk,?, and to adraire their proportions, often towering to a hight of 120 feet, and raeasuring fifteen feet in diameter above tbe projecting roots. Enormous mushrooms spring from the deoayed leaves, and numberless parasites rest upon tbe trunks and branches. The littoral for est, on the contrary, is of more bumble growth. Tbe trunks, branchless in thoir lower part, clothed witb a thinner and a smoother bark, and covered with a coat of mud according to the bight of tbe previous inundation, stand close together, and form above a mass of interlacing branches. These are tbe sites of tbo cacao-tree and of tbe prickly sarsaparilla, which is bere gathered in large quantities for the druggists of Europe. Leafless bush-ropes wind in grotesque festoons among the trees, between whose trunks a dense underwood shoots up, to perish by tbe next overflowing of tbe stream. In stead of the larger parasites, mosses and jungermannias weave their carpota over the drooping branches. But few aniraals besides tho numerous water-birds inhabit this damp forest zone, in which, as it is almost superfluous to add, no plantation has been formed by man. Tbe many windings of the water channola which traverse tbe littoral woods are so overgrown witb bushes, that the boat can only witb difficulty be pushed onwards through these retreats, whose silence is only broken by the splashing of a fish or the snorting of a crocodile. The many islands of the delta of the Amazon are every-- where encircled by mangroves ; but sailing stream upwards, tho monotonous green of these monarcbs of the shore is gradually replaced by flowers and foliage, which, in every variety of form and color, for hundreda and bundreda of miles characterize the banks of the river. During the dry season prickly astricarias, large musacese, enorraous bamboo-like grasses, white plumed ingas, and scarlet poivreas, are most frequently seen araong tbe numberless plants growing along tbe bank of tbe stream, or projecting over its margin; while above tbe shrubbery of the littoral forest numberless palms tower, like stately columns, to the hight of a hundred feet ; others of a lower stature are remarkable for the size of tbeir trunks, on which tbe foot stalks of tbe fallen loaves serve as supports for Iems -and other parasites. On the trees which often lie floating on the river, though still attached by tbeir roots to tbe bank on which they had flourished, petrels or scarlet ibises frequently perch ; and aa a boat approaches, hideous bats, disturbed in their boles, fly out of the mouldering trunks. It stands to reason that in a length of more than 3,000 railes the species of planta 520 THE TROPICAL WORLD. must frequently change; yet tbe low banks of the Amazon, and of its vassals, as soon as tbey bave emerged from the mountains where they rise, have everywhere a similar character. " No spot on the globe," says Orton, " contains so much vegetable matter as tbe vaUey of the Amazon. From tbe grassy steppes of Venezuela to tbo treeless pampas of Buenos Ayrea expands a soa of verdure, in which wo may draw a circle of eleven hundred miles iu diameter, whicb shaU include au ever green unbroken forest. There is a most bewildering diversity of grand and beautiful trees ; a wild, uncon quered race of vegetable giants, draped, festooned, corded, matted, and ribboned with climbing and creeping plants, woody and succulent in endless variety. The exuber ance of nature displayed in tbese million square acres of tangled, impenetrable forest, offers a bar to civilization nearly aa groat aa its sterUity in tbe African deserts. The moment you land, (and it ia often difficult to get a footing on the bank,) you are con fronted by a wall of vegetation. A macbeta ia a neceasary predeceasor, for you must literally cut your way at every step." The mass of tho forests on the banks consists of palms, of which there are about thirty species, leguminous or pod-bearing trees, broad-leaved bananas, and giant grasses. Among the trees which might-be useful are the palo de sangre and the moria-pinima, or "tortoise-shell tree," the most beautiful ornamental wood in the world. Enough of this is annually wasted to veneer all the palaces of tbe civilized world. ' Tbe groat river is a crowded aquarium. Agassiz brought back more tban 80,000 specimens of fishes, whicb are yet to be classified and arranged. Alligators abound beyond all example elsewhere. "It is scarcely exaggerating," remarks Bates, "to aay that the waters of the Araazon are as well stocked with large alligators in the dry season as a ditch in England is in suramer witb tadpoles." Turtles are the most iraportant product at present of the Amazon. Tbe bunting of its eggs ia tbe great business of tbe inhabitants. They are used chiefly for the purpose of extracting tbeir oil, which ia uaed for illumination. It is calculated that fifty millions of eggs are annually destroyed. Tbe Amazonian forests are apparently almost bare of animal life. But this barren ness is moro apparent tban real ; for so wide is the field that myriads exist, but they are widely scattered and very shy. Insects are rare in the dense forests, being mostly confined to the open country along tho banka of the rivera and lagoons. The most numeroua faraily ia that of ants. Terraites abound. Thoir special duty is to hasten the decomposition of decaying vegetation ; but tbey work theu way into houses and trunks. They have a special fondness for paper; so that, according to Humboldt, "it is rare to find papers in tropical America older than fifty years." Butterflies swarm in numbers and gorgeousness of coloring elsewhere unknown. Within half an hour's walk from Par4 700 species have been collected, while aU Europe furnishes but 390 species, and the British islands only 66. Of spiders there are 8,000 species, more tban tbree times as many as exist in England. Tbe largest of tbese, the Mygale Blondii, is five inches long. Lizards are met everywhere, in houses, roads, and forests. They run with such speed that it ia almost impossible to catch them. Frogs and toads are the chief rausicians of the Amazonian forest. They are of all sizes, from an inch to a foot in diameter. This latter size ia attained by a toad of a dull gray color, studded all over witb enormous warts, who has a good right to his narae, Bufo gigas. Of snakes thero is no lack. There are in South America 150 species, half as many as are THE ANIMALS OF AMAZONIA. 521 found in tbe East Indies. The serpentine family is led by the enormous boa, wbUe the rear is brought up by the Amphisbaenas, or " double-headers," who crawl one end foremost as well as the otber, so that it is no easy matter to make head or tail of tbem. The greater part of tbe South Araerican species are not venoraous. Amazonia is remarkably poor in terrestrial mammals, and tbe species are of small size. Tbe elephants and rhinoceroses of the Old World are represented by a single species of tbe tapir, and this is rare and shy. Tbe lion tribe finds its only representa tive in the puma. Tbe jaguar, representing tbe tiger and leopard, is tbe fiercest and most powerful beast of prey of the New World. He is marked something like the leopard ; but his spots are angular instead of rounded, and have a central dot. In size it exceeds the leopard. Humboldt, indeed, saw a jaguar whose length surpassed that of any of tbe tigers of India whose skins he had seen in the collections of Europe. There are but three species of deer, all small. A peccari, a wild dog, opossums, ant- eaters, armadUloos, capybaras, pacas, agoutis, and monkeys, conclude the list of Ama zonia. Monkeya are the most numerous, about forty species inhabiting tbe valley. Man makes an insignificant figure in tbe vast solitudes of tbe Araazon. There is but one human being to every four square miles. Put tbem down at equal distances apart, and each one would be two miles from his nearest neighbor. From what we know and can infer, there is no part of tbo globe in itself capable of supporting a more dense population, It is safe to say that a third of tbe present population of tbe globe could find food in these now almost unpeopled wastes. The most zealous disciple of Malthus may dismiss his fears that tbe world will, within any reasonable number of centuries, become so over-peopled that population will outrun means of sustenance. There are said to be several hundred Indian tribes in Amazonia, each having a dif ferent language unintelligible to all others. Tbe most nuraerous aro tbo Mundaraucus, who number about 10,000. Tbey are far from being savages, are friendly to the whites, and are industrious, making considerable journeys to sell sarsaparilla, India rubber, and tonqua beans. They are noted for tbe elaborate manner in whicb tbey are tattooed. Agassiz figures two of these Indians who came from a long distance. The woman had tbe upper part of the faoe clear, — except that a black line was drawn across the noge and from tho outer corner of the eyes to the ears, presenting precisely the appearance of a pair of spectacles. The chin was tattooed in a pattern of net work. The upper part of tho breast was wrought in open work, beaded by two straight lines around the shoulders, as if to represent a laco finish. Tbe man was far more fully ornamented. Tbe whole face waa tattooed in bluish black, looking like a fine who mask, tbe jaws and chin having a broad pattern. Tbe neck, breast, and arms were wrought all over in a broad pattern witb belts, lozenges, and squares, looking very like the netted shirts soraetiraes worn by laborers witb us. To make a full suit of tattoo costa more time than to produce any otber article of dress worn by human beings— a Cashmere shawl or tbe feathered cloak of a Polynesian noble not excepted. Ten full years are required, for so painful is the operation that only a bit can be made at a time ; but wben once made tho garraent lasts a life-time. Of the character of the numerous tribes little is positively known. The few notices of travelers are vague, often contradictory, and not seldom wholly incredible. Thus Castiennau gravely assures us that on the banks ofthe Teffe " dwell tbe Canamas and Uginas ; the former dwarfs, the latter having tails a palm and a half long — a hybrid 522 THE TROPICAL WORLD. from an Indian and a monkey." Orton sums up their general characteristics as fol lows : " Skin of a brown color, with a yellowish tinge, often nearly of the tint of mahogany ; thick, straight, black hair ; black, horizontal eyes ; low forehead, some what compensated by its breadth ; beardless ; of middle hight, but thick -set ; broad, muscular chest ; smaU bands and feet ; incurious, unambitious, impassive, undemon strative ; with a dull imagination and little superstition ; with no definUe idea of a Supreme Being, few tribes having a mme for God, though one for the Demon ; with no belief in a future state ; and, excepting civility, with virtues all negative. Yet a littie whUe," be says, " and tbe race will become as extinct as tbe Dodo. He has not the supple organization of the European, enabling him to accommodate himself to diverse conditions." And yet in tbe very same paragraph he saya : " Tbe South American Indian seems to have a natural aptitude for tbe arts of civiUzed life not found in the red man of our continent." He makes brief mention of thirty or more of the tribes. Some are described as cannibals. Others are mentioned in quite dif ferent terms. Thus tbe Maubes are " an agricultural tribe, well-formed, and of a mild disposition." The Uaupes "have permanent abodes in the shape of a parallel ogram, with a semicircle at each end of a size to contain several families. One of tbem was 115 feet long by 75 broad, and about 30 foot high. Tbe walls are bullet proof." Tbe Passes and Juris are " peaceable and industrious, and bave always been friendly to tbe whites." The Tuciinas are " an extensive tribe, leading a settied agri cultural Ufe, each horde having a chief and a ' medicine-man,' or priest of tbeir super stitions." The CucSmas aro "shrewd hard-working canoemen, notorious for the singular desire for acquiring property." And so on. Mr. Orton's personal acquaintance with the Indians was rather limited ; yet his brief notices of them give a favorable idea of tbeir character. For a month and a half par ties of tbem served him as peons and boatmen. The first party, consisting of twenty, undertook to carry hia luggage a distance of thirteen days' journey through tbe dense forest. " Not a transportation corapany in tbe United States," be aaya, " ever kept its engagement more faithfully tban did tbese twenty peons, and this too though we paid thera in advance, according to tbe custom of tbe country." His canoe-raon " were always in good humor, and during the whole voyage of a month we did not see the slightest approach to a quarrel. At no time did we have the least fear of treachery or violence. Wben ' it rained they invariably took off their ponchos ; but in all our in tercourse witb tbese wild men we never noticed tbe slightest breach of modesty. They Strictly maintained a decent arrangement of sucb apparel as tbey possessed." Tbe almost incidental notices given by Agassiz in his " Journey in Brazil " certainly place the Indians of tbe Araazon in a light far more favorable both for character and intelligence tban that in which tbey are usually represented. That the men are disin clined to labor is true ; but this they share with mon all over tho globe. " Tbe women are said, on tho contrary, to bo very industrious ; and those whora we have bad an opportunity of seeing justify this reputation. Tbe wife of Laudigiri is always busy at some household work or otber, — grating mandioca, drying farinba, packing tobacco, cooking, or sweeping. Her children are active and obedient, the older ones making themselves useful in bringing water, washing mandioca, or in taking caro of the younger ones. She can hardly be called pretty, but she bas a pleasant smUe and a remarkably sweet voice, with a kind of childlike intonation which is very winning." THE INHABITANTS OP AMAZONIA. 523 Of another pair he says : " Our host and hostess do what they can to make us com fortable, and tbe children aa well aa tbe parents show that natural courtesy which has struck us so much among tbese Indians. My books and writing seem to interest tbem much, and while I was reading the father and mother came up, and after watching me for a few minutes in silence tbe father asked me if I had any leaves from an old book, or even a part of a newspaper to leave with him when I went away. He said he bad once known how to read a little, and he seemed to think if he had something to practice , upon he might recover the lost art. Thon be added that one of his boys was very bright, and be was sure that he could learn if bo had tbe means of sending bim to school." Again of a stUl different group : " Tho farailiarity of tbese cbildren of tbe forest witI' the natural objects about thera — plants, birds, insects, fishes, etc. — is remarkably.. They frequently ask to see tbe drawings, and on turning over a pile containing several hundred colored sketches of fishes, they scarcely make a raistake, even the children giving the name instantly." And again : " A large nuraber of the trees forming these forests are atUl unknown to science ; and yet tbe Indians, those practical botan ists and zoologists, are woll acquainted not only with their external appearance, but also with their various properties. So intimate is tbeir practical knowledge of tbe natural objects about tbem, that I believe it would greatly contribute to tbe progress of science if a systematic record were made of all tbe information thua scattered through tho land ; and an encyclopasdia of the woods, as ifc were, taken down from the tribes which inhabit tbem. I think it would be no bad way of collecting to go from settlement to settlement, sending tbe Indians out to gather all tbe planta they know, to dry and label tbem with the naraes applied to thera in the locality, and writing out under tbe beads of these names all that may tbus be ascertained of their medicinal and otherwise useful properties, as well as their botanical character." These notices certainly go far to throw discredit upon tbe sweeping descriptions given by other travelers of the savage character of tbe natives of Amazonia. The other inhabitants of the Amazon are Whites, Negroes, and Mixed Breeds. Excepting a few English, French, Gerraan, and Portuguese emigrants, who come to the country temporarily and witb a purpose to return homo when they have acquired a fortune, few of tbe so-called Whites are of pure Caucasian descent, the emigration having for many years been almost wholly of the male sex. Indeed it is considered in rather bad taste to boast of purity of descent. All travelers speak in warra terras of the courtesy of tbo Brazilians ; and although they are generally inclined to indo lence, yet of late years especially not a few of tbem have shown no inconsiderable energy and enterprise. Certainly the Empire of BrazU is by far tbe most promising of all the South American nations. It is the only one which is not in an almost chronic revolutionary condition. In tbe valley of the Amazon negroes are confined to the lower portion ; yet they have imparted a decided tinge to tbe character of tbe population. Tbe mixed races comprise a very considerable part of the inhabitants. Fully five-and-twenty different classes of these are enumerated, each with its own distinctive narae. Mamelucos, or White and Indian, are the most common ; Mulattoes, are White and Negro ; Cafuzos or Zambos are Indian and Negro ; Curibooos are Cafuzo and Indian ; Xibaros are Cafuzo and Negro ; and so on through different degrees of intermixture. Von Tschudi gives the following summation of the character of the mixed races : " As a general rule 524 THE TROPICAL WORLD. it may be said that they unite in themselves all the faults without any of the virtues of tbeir progenitors. Aa men they are generally inferior to the pure racea, and as mem bers of society tbey are the worst class of citizens." Orton quotes this, but makes decided qualifications to the generalization. " Tbey display," be says, "considerable talent and enterprise ; a proof that mental degeneracy does not necessarily result from tbe mixture of white with Indian blood. Our observations do not support tbe opinion that the result of amalgamation is ' a vague compound lacking character and expres sion.' The moral part is perhaps deteriorated ; but in tact and enterprise tbey often exceed their progenitors." We have already, in Chapter IL, quoted his statement that in Quito, where he had tbe best opportunity of becoming acquainted with them " Tbey are the soldiers, artisans, and tradesmen who keep up the only signs of Ufe in Quito." Agassiz tbus sums up some of the leading capacities of the basin of the Amazon : " Its woods alone have an almost priceless value. Nowhere in tbe world is there finer timber either for solid construction or for works of ornaraent. Tbe rivers which flow past these magnificent forests seem meant to serve firat as a water-power for the saw- mUls which ought to be estabUshed on their borders, and then as a means of transpor tation for material so provided. Yet all the lumber used is brought from Maine. Set ting aside the woods aa timber, what shall I say of the mass of fruits, resins, oils, color ing matter, textile fabrics which they yield ? What surprised me raost was to find that a great part of this region was favorable to tbe raising of cattie. An empire might esteem itself rich in any one of the sources of industry which abound in this valley; and yet tbe greater part of its vast growth rots on tho ground, and goes to form a Uttle more river-mud, or to stain tbe waters on the shores of which its manifold products die and decompose. Although the rivers abound in delicious fish, large use is made of salt cod imported from other countries ; and bread and butter are brought from the United States and England." Orton says of tbe Valley of tbe Amazon : " It possesses the most agreeable and enjoyable cUmate in the worid, witb a brUliant atmosphere only equaled by that of Quito, and witb no changes of seasons. Life may be maintained with as littie labor as in tbe Garden of Eden. Perhaps no country in tbe world is capable of yielding so large a return for agriculture. Nature, evidently designing this land as tbe home of a great nation, has heaped up her bounties of every description : fruits of richest flavors, -woods of tbe finest grain, dyes of gayest colors, drugs of rarest virtues, and left no ekocco or earthquake to disturb its people." TROPICAL VEGETATION. 525 CHAPTER V. CHARACTERISTIC FORMS OF TROPICAL VEGETATION. General Features of Tropical Forests — Number of Species of Plants — The Baobab — Its Gigan tic Size — Age of the Great Trees — Dragon-Trees — The Great Dragon-Tree of Orotava — The Sycamore— The Banyan— The Sacred Bo-Tree— The Oldest Historical Tree— The Teak— The Satin-wood— The Sandal Tree— The Ceiba— The Mahogany Tree— The Mora — The Guadua — Bamboos — The Aloe — The Agave — The Cactus — The Screw Pine — Mimosas — Lianas — Climbing Trees — Epiphytes — Water Plants — Buttressed Trees-^Trees with Fantastic Roots — Mangroves — Marsh Forests — Palms — The Cocoa Palm — The Sago Palm— The Saguer Palra— The Areca Palra— The Palmyra Palm— The Talipot Palm— Ratans — The Date Palm — Oil Palms — Variety of Size, Forra, Foliage and Fruit — ^Future Commercial Value of the Palra. "TXT^HEREVER in tbo tropical regions periodical rains saturate tbe earth, vege- Y V table life expands in a wonderful variety of forras. In tbe higher latitudes of the frozen north, a rapidly evanescent summer produces but few and rare flowers in sheltered situations, soon again to disappear under the winter's snow ; in the temperate zones, the number, beauty and variety of plants increase with the warmth of a genial sky ; but it is only where tbe vertical rays of an equatorial sun awaken and foster life on humid grounds that over-youtbful Flora appears in the full exuberance of ber creative power. It is only there we find the majestic palms, the elegant mimosas, tbe large-leafed bananas, and so many other beautiful forms of vegetation alien to more eold and variable climes. While our trees are but sparingly clad witb scanty lichens and mosses, they are there covered with stately bromeliaa and wondrous orchids. Sweet- smeUing vanUlaa and passifloras wind round the giants of the forest, and large flowers break forth frora tbeir rough bark, or even frora tbeir very roots. " The tropical trees," says Humboldt, " aro endowed witb richer juices, ornamented with a fresher green, and decked with larger and more lustrous leaves tban those of the more northerly regions. Social plants, which render European vegetation so monotonous, are but rarely found within the tropics. Trees, nearly twice aa high as our oaka, there glow with blossoms large and magnificent as those of our liliea. On the shady banks of tbe Magdalena river, in South America, grows a climbing Aristolochia, whose flower, of a circuraference of four feet, the cbildren, while play ing, sometimes wear aa a helmet; and in tho Indian Archipelago tho blossom of the Rafflesia measures three feet in diameter, and weighs more than fourteen pounds." The number of known planta ia earimated at about 200,000, and tbe greater part of this vast multitude of species, belongs to tbe torrid zone. But if we consider how very imperfectly these sunny regions bave aa yet been explored, — that in South America 526 THE TROPICAL WORLD. enormous forest lands and river basins have never yet been visited by a naturalist, that tbe vegetation of tbe greater part of Central Africa ia stiU completely hidden in POEEST ON THE PANAMA HAILSOAD. mystery, — that no botanist has ever yet penetrated into the interior of Madagascar, Borneo, New Guinea, South-western China, and Ultra-Gangetic India,— and that, THE BAOBAB. ^ 527 moreover, many of the countries visited by travelers have been but very superficially and hastily examined, — we may well doubt whether even one-fourth part of tbe tropical plants is actually known to science. What a vast field for future naturalists 1 What prospects for tbe trade and industry of future generations I After tbese general remarks on tho variety and exuberance of tropical vegetation, I sball now briefly review those plants whicb, by thoir enorraous size, thoir singularity of forra, or tbeir frequency in tbe landscape, chiefly characterize the various regions of the torrid zone in different parts of tbe globe. Tbe African Baobab, or " monkey-bread tree," (Adansonia digitata,) may justly be called the elephant of tbe vegetable world. Near the village Gumer, in Fassokl, Eussegger saw a baobab thirty feet in diaraeter and ninety-five in circumference ; the horizontally outstretched branches were so largo that tbe negroes could comfortably sleep upon tbem. Tho Venetian traveler Cadamosto (1454) found, near the mouths of the Senegal, baobabs measuring moro tban a hundred feet in circumference. As these vegetable giants are generally hollow, thoy are frequently made uso of as dwell ings or stables. Livingstone mentions ono in which twenty or thirty raen could lie down and sleep, as in a hut. As tbe baobab begins to decay in tbe part where tho trunk divides into the larger branches, and the process of destruction thence continues downwards, tbe hollow space fills, during tho rainy season, witb water, which keeps a long time, from its being protected against tbe rays of tbe sun. Tbe baobab thus forma a vegetable cistern. The hight of tho baobab doea not correapond to ita bulk, as it seldora exceeds sixty feet. As it is of very rapid growth, it acquires a diameter of three or four feet and its full altitude in about thirty years, and then continues to grow in circumference. Tbe larger beam-like branches, alraost as thick at their extremity as at thoir origin, are abruptly rounded, and then send forth smaller branches, witb large, light groen, pal mated leaves. Tbe bark is smooth and greyish. The oval fruits, which aro of the size of large cucumbers, and brownish yellow when ripe, hang from long twisted spongy stalks, and contain a white farinaceous substance, of an agreeable acidulated taste, enveloping tho dark brown seeds. They are a favorite food of tbe monkeys, whence the tree has derived one of ita names. Frora the depth of tbe incrustations formed on the marks which the Portuguese navigators of the fifteenth century used to cut in tbo large baobabs whioh thoy found growing on tho African coast, and by coraparing tbe relative dimensions of several trunks of a known age, Adanson concluded that a baobab of thirty feet in diameter must have lived at least 5,000 years ; but a moro careful investigation of tbe rapid growth of tbe spongy wood has reduced the ago of the giant tree to more moderate limits, and proved that, oven in coraparative youth, it attains tbe hoary aspect of extreme senUity. The baobab belongs to tbo same famUy as the mallow or the hollyhock. It rangea over a wide extent of Africa, particularly in parts wbere tbe summer rains fall in abundance, as in Sonegambia, in Soudan, and in Nubia. Livingstone admired its colossal proportions on the banka of tbe Zouga and tbo Zambesi; under a great baobab near thia river lio the reraains of his wife, who bore hira company during bis journeyings; and William Peters found it on tbe eastern coast, near 26° south latitude. It forms a conspicuous feature in the landscape at Manaar in Ceylon. Tennent found one of the largest, measuring upwards of thirty feet in circumference; 528 THE TROPICAL WORLD. and another at Putten, since destroyed by the digging of a weU under part of its roots, which, though but seventy feet high, was forty-six feet in girth. ""i/i, Dracaenas, or "dragon-trees," are found growing on the west coast of Africa and in the Cape Colony, in Bourbon and in China ; but it ia only in tbe Canary Islands, in Madeira, and Porto Santo, that tbey attain such gigantic dimensions as to entitle thera to rank among the vegetable wonders of the world. Near Orotava, in Tene- DRAGON-TREE— SYCAMORE— BANYAN. 529 riffe, still flourishes the venerable dragon-tree, which was already reverenced for ita ace by tbe extirpated nation of the Guanches, tbe aboriginal inhabitants of tho island, and which tbe adventurous Bethencourts, the conquerors of the Canaries, found hardly less colossal and cavernous in 1402 than Humboldt, who visited it in 1799. Above the roots, the illustrious traveler measured a circumference of forty-five feet ; and ac cording to Sir George Staunton, the trunk has stiU a diameter of four yards, at an elevation of ten feet above the ground. The whole hight of the tree is not much above sixty-five feet. Tbe trunk divides into numerous upright branches, terminating in tufts of evergreen leaves, resembling those of the pine-apple. Next to the baobab and the dracaena, tbe Sycamore {Ficus syeomorus) holds a con spicuous rank among the giant trees of Africa. It attains a hight of only forty or fifty feet, but iu the course of many centuries its trunk sweUs to a colossal size, and its vast crown covers a large space of ground with an impenetrable shade. Its leaves are about four inches long and as many broad, and its figs have an excellent. flavor. In Egypt it ia alraost the only grove-forming tree ; and most of the mummy coffins are made of its incorruptible wood. No baobab rears its monstrous trunk on the banks of the Ganges ; no dragon-tree of patriarchal age bere reminds the wanderer of centuries long past ; but the beautiful and stately Banyan {Ficus indica) gives him but little reason to regret their absence. Bach tree is in itself a grove, and some of them are of an astonishing size, as they are continuaUy increasing, and, contrary to most other animal and vegetable productions, seem to be exempted from decay ; for every branch from the main body throws out its own roots, at first in small tender fibers, several yards from the ground, whicb contin ually grow thicker, until, by a gradual descent, they reach its surface, where, striking in, they increase to a large trunk and become a parent-tree, throwing out now branches from the top. Tbese in time suspend their roots, and, receiving nourishment from the earth, swell into trunks and send forth other branches, thus continuing in a state of progression so long as the first parent of tbem all supplies her sustenance. The Hindoos are peculiarly fond of this tree ; tbey consider ita long duration, its outstretch ing arms and overshadowing beneficence, as emblems of the Deity ; tbey plant it near their temples ; and in those villages where there is no structure for pubUc worship they place an image under a banyan, and there perform a morning and evening sacrifice. Many of these beautiful trees have acquired an historic celebrity ; and the faraous " Cubbeer-burr," on tbe banks of the Norbuddab, thus called by the Hindoos in mem ory of a favorite saint, is supposed to be the same as that described by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, as being able to shelter an army under its far-spread ing shade. High floods haVe at various times swept away a considerable part of this extraordinary tree, but what still remains is near 2,000 feet in circumference, meas ured round the principal stems ; the overhanging branches not yet struck down cover a much larger space ; and under it grow a number of custard-apple and other fruit trees. Tbe large trunks of this single colossus araount to a greater number than tbe days of the year, and the smaller ones exceed 3,000, each constantly sending forth branches and hanging roota, to form other trunks and become the parents of a future progeny. In the march of an army it has been known to shelter 7,000 mon. Such is the banyan — more wonderful, and infinitely more beautiful and majestic, than all the temples and palaces which the pride of the Moguls has ever reared ! 84 530 THE TROPICAL WORLD. The nearly related Pippul of India, or Bo-tree {Ficus religiosa), whicb differs from the banyan by sending down no roots frora its branches, is reverenced by the Bud dhists as the sacred plant, under whose shade Gotama, the founder of their religion, reclined when he underwent his divine transfiguration. Its heart-shaped leaves, which like those of the aspen, appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, are supposed to tremble in recollection of tbe mysterious scene of which they were the witnesses. Tbe sacred Pippul at Anarajapoora, the fallen capital of the ancient kings of Ceylon, is probably the oldest historical tree in the world ; aa it was planted 288 years before Chriat, and hence ia now 2,150 years old. Tbe enormous age of tbe bao babs of Senegal, and of the wondrous sequoias of California, can only bo conjectured; but tbe antiquity of tbe Bo-tree ia matter of record, aa its preservation has been an object of solicitude to successive dynasties ; and tbe story of ita fortunes has been preserved in a series of continuous chronicles amongst the most authentic that have been handed down by mankind. Tbe olives in tbe garden of Gethsemane were full-grown when tho Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem, and tbe cypress of Somma in Lombardy is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Caesar. Yet the Bo-tree is older tban tbe oldest of tbese by a century, and would almost seem to verify the prophecy pro nounced wben it was planted, that it would " flourish and be green forever." The degree of sanctity with which this extraordinary tree has boon invested in tbe imagi nation of tbe Buddhists, may be compared to tbe feeling of veneration with whioh Christians would regard the attested wood of tbe cross. At the present day tbe aspect of tbo tree suggests the idea of extreme antiquity : the branches which havo rambled at tbeir will far beyond tbe outline of its inclosure, the rude pillars of masonry that have been carried out to support tbem, tbe retaining walls which shore up tbe parent stem, the time-worn steps by which tbe place is approached, and the grotesque carvings that decorate tbe stone-work and friezes, all impart tbo conviction that the tree which tbey encompasa has been watched over witb abiding solicitude, and regarded witb an excess of veneration that could never attach to an object of dubious authenticity. Although far inferior to these wonders of the vegetable world in amplitude of growth, yet tbe Teak tree, or Indian oak ( Tectona grandis), far surpasses tbem in value, as the ship-worm in tbo water, and the termite on land, equally refrain from attacking its close- grained strongly-scented wood ; and no timber equals it for ship-building purposes. It grows wild over a groat part of British India ; in tbe mountainous districts along tbo Malabar coast, in Guzerat, tbe valley of the Norbuddab, in Tenasserim and Pegu. In Java also tbe teak forests, both those of natural growth and those that have been planted by the Dutch, aro carefully adrainistered. Thia tree, which requires a century to attain its full diaraeter of four feet, loses its leaves in the dry season, when the grass and undergrowth of shrubbery is burnt, as tbe heat which is developed does the trees no injury. Tbe ashes afford an excellent manure, and the fire makes crevices and rents in the soil, through whicb tbe fertilizing rain can afterwards more easily penetrate to tbe roota. In Java the teak tree attaina only a hight of eighty feet, inferior to its loftier Hindostanic stature. Among the nuraerous tiraber-trees of Ceylon, the Satinwood ( Chloroxyhn Swie- tenia) is by far tbe first, in point of size and durability. All tbe foresta around Bat- ticaloa and Trincomaloe, and as far nortb as Jaffna, are thickly act with thia valuable tree, under whoso ample shade tho traveler rides for days together. It grows to tbe SANDAL— CEIBA— MAHOGANY— MORA. 531 bight of a hundred feet, with a rugged, gray bark, small, white flowers, and poUshed leaves, with a somewhat unpleasant odor. Owing to the difficulty of carrying its heavy beams, the natives cut it only near the banks of the rivers, down which it is floated to the coast, whence large quantities are exported to every part of the colony. Tbe richly colored and feathery pieces are used for cabinet-work, and the more ordinary logs for budding purposes, every house in the eastern .province being floored and tim bered with satin-wood. *\ The Sandal-tree, which furnishes the sweet-scented, fine-grained wood, so highly prized by the Chinese, and so much used in small cabinets, escritoires, and similar articles, because no insect can exist within its influence, also deserves to be noticed as one of the most valuable productions of the Malabar coast. It chiefly grows on rocky hills, and, if permitted, would attain a tolerable size, but, from its great value, is gen erally out down at an early stage. On low land aud a richer soil it degenerates, and is in aU respects less esteemed. A variety of the same tree, but furnishing a wood of inferior quality, grows on many of the South Sea Islands ; but in many parts the excessive avidity of the traders has almost caused its total extirpation. The sandal is a beautiful tree ; the branches regular and tapering; tbe leaf like that of the willow, but shorter and delicately soft. The blossoms hang in bunches of small flowers, either red or white, according to tbe color of the wood. ^ On turning our attention to America we find that Nature, delighting in infinite vari eties of development, and disdaining a servile copy of what she bad elsewhere formed, covers tbe earth with new and no less remarkable forms of vegetation. Thus, while in Africa the baobab attracts tbe traveler's attention by ita coloaaal aize and peculiarity of growth, the gigantic Ceiba {Bombax ceiba), belonging to tbe same faraily of plants, raises his astonishment in tbe forests of Yucatan. Like the baobab, this noble tree rises only to a moderate hight of sixty feet, but its trunk swells to such dimensions that fif teen men are hardly able to span it, while a thousand may easily screen theraselves nnder its canopy frora the scorching sun. Tbe loaves fall off in January ; and then at the end of every branch bunches of large, glossy, purple-red flowers make their appear ance, affording, as one may woll imagine, a magnificent sight. In Guiana the savages take refuge upon tbe ceiba trees during tbe inundations. The seeds have an agree able taste, and are frequently eaten, as well as tbe young and mucilaginous leaves. In British Honduras, in tbe neighborhood of Balize, and along the Motagua river, the Mahogany tree {^Swietenia mahagoni) is found scattered in tbe foresta, attracting the woodman'a attention from a distance by ita light-colored foliage. Such are ita dimensions, and sueh is the value of pecuUarly fine specimens, that in October, 1823, a tree was felled which weighed more tban seven tons, and cost, when landed at Liver pool, above £375 ; here it was sold for £525, and the expense of sawing araounted to £750 more ; so that fbe wood of this single tree, before passing into the bands of the cabinet-maker, was worth as much as a moderately sized farm. The African mahogany wood is furnished by the near related Khaya senegalensis, which likevrise towers to the hight of a hundred feet, and has been transplanted to tbe Antilles. " Heedless and bankrupt in all curiosity must he be," says Waterton, " who can journey through the forests of Guiana without stopping to take a view of tbe towering Mora. Its topmost branch, when naked with age, or dried by accident, is the favorite resort of tbe toucan. Many a time has this singular bird felt tbe shot faintly strike 532 THE TROPICAL WORLD. bim from tbe gun of the fowler beneath, and owed bis life to the distance betwixt them. Tbe wUd fig tree, as large as a common English apple tree, often rears itself from one of tho thick branches at the top of the mora; and when its fruit is ripOj to it tbo birds resort for nourishment. It was to an indigested seed passing through the body of this bird, which had perched on the mora, that tbe fig tree first owed its elevated station there. The sap of the mora raised it into full bearing ; but now, in its turn, it is doomed to contribute a portion of its own sap and juices towards the growth of different species of vinos, the seeds of which also the birds deposited on its branches. Tbese soon vegetate and bear fruit in great quantities; so what witb their usurpation of the resources of tbo fig tree, and the fig tree of tbe mora, the mora, unable to support a charge which Nature never, intended it should, languishes and dies under its burden; and then the fig tree and its usurping progeny of vines, receiving no more succor frora their late foster-parent, droop and perish in thoir turn." Our stateliest oaks would look like pigmies near this "chieftain of tbe forests," who raises bis dark green cupola over all tbe neighboring trees, and deceives the traveler, who fancies that a verdant hill is rising before hira. Its wood is much firmer than that of tbe fir. The graceful tapering forra of tbe Graminece, or grasses, belongs to every zone; but it is only in tbe warmer regions of the globe that we find tbe colossal Bambusaceee, rivaUng in grandeur tbe loftiest trees of tbe primeval forest. Such is the rapidity of their growth, that in tbe Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh, a bamboo was observed to increase six inches a day in a teraperature of from 65° to 70°. The Bambusa gigantea of Burmah has boon known to grow eighteen inches in twenty-four hours ; and as tbe Bambusa Tulda in Bengal attains its full hight of seventy feet in a single month, its average increase can not be loss than an inch per hour. In New Grenada and Ecuador tbe Guadua, one of these giant grasses, ranks next to the sugar-cane and maize as tbe plant most indispensable to man. It forms dense jungles, not only in the lower regions of the country, but in the valleys of tbo Andes, 5,000 feet above tbe level of the sea. The culms attain a thickness of six inches, the single joints are twenty inches long, and tbe leaves are of indescribable beauty. A whole hut can be built and thatched with the guadua, while the single joints are extensively used as water vessels and drinking cups. India, South China, and tbe Eastern Archipelago are the seats of the real bamboos, whicb grow in a variety of genera and species, as well on the banks of lakes and rivers in low marshy grounds, as in tbe more elevated mountainous regions. Tbey chiefly form tbe irapenetrable jungles, tbe seat of the tiger and the python. Sometimes a hundred culms spring from a single root, not seldom as thick as a man, and towering to a bight of eighty or a hundred feet. Fancy the grace of our meadow grasses, united with the lordly growth of the Italian poplar, and you will have a faint idea of tbe beauty of a clump of bamboos. Tbe variety of purposes to which these colossal reeds can be applied almost rivals tbe multifarious uses of tbe cocoa-nut palm itself. Splitting the culm in its whole length into very thin pieces, tho industrious Chinese then twiat them together into strong ropes, for tracking tbeir vessels on tbeir numerous rivers and canals. Tbe saUs of tbeir junks, as well as tbeir cables and rigging, are made of bamboo ; and in the southern province of Sechuen, not only nearly every house ia built solely of this ALOES— AGAVES— SCREW- PINE— CACTUSES. 533 strong cane, but almost every article of furniture which it contains — mats, screens, chairs, tables, bedsteads, bedding — is of tbe same material. From tbe young shoots tbey also fabricate their fine writing paper. In Mysore and Orizza tbe seeds of several species are eaten witb boney ; and in Sikkim the grain of tbe Praong, a small bam boo, is boiled, or made into cakes, or iuto beer. In Java, tbo prickly bamboo, whose wood is of such flinty hardness that sparks are emitted on ita being struck with an axe, and whose formidable thorns project frora every node, is used to form impenetrable hedges. The Aloes form the strongest contrast to tbe airy lightness of tbe grasses, by tho stately repose and strength of their thick, fleshy, and inflexible leaves. Tbey gener ally stand solitary in tbe parched plains, and irapart a peculiarly austere or melancholy character to the landscape. Tho real aloes are chiefly African, but tho American yuccas and agaves bave a similar physiognomical character. Tbe Agave Americana, the usual ornament of our hot-houses, bears on a short aud massive stera a tuft of fleshy leaves, sometimes no less tban ton feet long, fifteen inches wide, and eight inches thick. After many years a flower-stalk twenty feet high shoots forth in a few weeks from the heart of tbe plant, expanding like a rich candelabrum, and clustered with several thousands of greenish yellow aroraatic flowers. But a rapid decline succeeds this briUiant efflorescence, for it is soon followed by the death of the exhauated plant. In Mexico, where the agave is indigonoua, and whence it bas found its way to Spain and Italy, it is reckoned one of tbe most valuable productions of Nature. At the time wben the flower-stalk is beginning to sprout, tbe heart of tbe plant is cut out, and the juice, whioh otherwise would have nourished the blossora, collects in the hol low. About throe pounds exude daily, during a period of two or three months. Thus a single agave, or raaguey, gives about a hundred and fifty bottles. But tho use of tbe agave is not confined to the production of a vinous liquor, as the tough fibrea of its leaves furnish an excellent material for the strongest ropes, or the forma tion of coarse cloth. Long before the conquest of tbo country by Cortez, the abo rigines applied tbe agave to a great variety of purposes. From it they made their paper (pieces of which of various thickness are still found covered with curious hiero glyphic writing), tbeir threads, tbeir needles (from its sharp points), and many arti cles of clothing and cordage. The Pandanus odoratissimus, or Sweet smelling Screw-pine, whose fruits, when perfectly mature, resemble large richly-colored pine-apples, plays an important part in the household economy of the coral-islanders of the South Soa Tbo inhabitants of the Mulgrave Archipelago, wbere tho cocoa-nut ia rare, Uve alraost exclusively on tbe juicy pulp, and the pleasant kernels of the fruit. Tbe dried leaves serve to thatcb their cottages, or aro made use of as a material for mats and raiment. Tbe wood is hard and durable. They string together tho beautiful red and yellow colored nuts for ornamenta, and wear tbe flowera as garlands. Wben the tree is in full blossom, tbe air around is irapregnated with delicious aroraas. The grotesque forras of the Cactuses possess the stiff rigidity of tbe aloes. Their fleshy steras, covered with a gray-green coriaceous rind, generally exhibit bunches of hair and thorns instead of leaves. Tbe angular colurans of tbo Corel, or torch cac tuses, rise to tbe hight of sixty feet, — generally branchless, sometimes strangely rami fied, as candelabras, whUe others creep like ropes upon the ground, or hang, snake- 534 THE TROPICAL WORLD. like, from the trees, on which they are parasitically rooted. Tbe Opuntias are unsym- metrically constructed of thick, flat joints (^ringing one from , tbe otber, while the melon-shaped Echinocacti and Mammillarise, longitudinallj^^^-ibbed or covered with warts, remain attached to the soU. The diraensions of these monstrous plants are ex ceedingly variable. One of tbe Mexican echinocacti {E. Visnaga) measures four feet in hight, tbree in diameter, and weighs about two hundred pounds ; while tbe dwarf-cactus {E. nana) is so sraall that, loosely rooted in tbe sand, it frequently re mains sticking between the toes of the doga that pass over it. The splendid purple flowers of the cactuses form a strange contrast to the deformity of their stems, and the spectator stands astonished at the glowing life that springs forth from so unpromising a stock. These strange compounds of ugliness and beauty are in many respects useful to raan. The pulp of the melocacti, which remains juicy during tbe driest season of tbe year, is one of tbe vegetable sources of the wilderness, and refreshes the traveler after he has carefully removed the.tte™S' Almost all of them bear an agreeable acid fruit, which, under the name of the Indian fig, is consumed in large quantities in tbe West Indies and Mexico. The light and incorruptible wood is admirably adapted for the construction of oars and many other implements. The farmer fences hia garden witb tbe prickly opuntias ; but the services which they render, as the plants on which the valuable cochineal insect feeds and multiplies, are far moro important. The cactuses prefer the most arid situation, naked plains, or slopes, where they are fiiUy exposed to the burning rays of tbe sun, and impart a peculiar physiognoray to a great part of tropical America. None of the plants belonging to this family existed in the Old World previously to the discovery of America ; but some species have since thon rapidly spread over the warmer regions of our hemisphere. The Nopal {Cactus opuntia) skirts the Mediterranean along with the American agave, and from the coasts has even penetrated far into the interior of Africa, everywhere main taining its ground, and CMispicuously figuring among the primitive vegetation of tbe land. Although chiefly tropical, the cactuses have a perpendicular range, which but few other families enjoy. From tbe low sand-coasts of Peru and Bolivia they ascend through vales and ravines to the highest ridges of the Andes. What a contrast between these deformities and the delicately feathered Mimosas, unrivaled among the loveliest children of Flora in the .matchless elegance of their foliage ! Our acacias give but a faint idea of tbe beauty which tbese plants attain under the fostering rays of a tropical sun. In most species tbe brancboa extend hori- zontaUy, or umbreUa-shaped, somewhat like those of the Italian pine, and the deep- blue sky shining through tbe light green foliage, whose delicacy rivals the finest em broidery, has an extreraely picturesque effect. Endowed with a wonderful sensibility, raany of the mimosas seera, as it were, to have outstepped tbe bounds of vegetable life, and to rival in acuteness of feeling tbe coral polyps and tbe sea-anemones of the submarine gardens. The Porliera hygrometrica foretells serene or rainy weather by the opening or closing of its leaves. Large tracts of country in BrazU are almost entirely covered with sensitive plants. The tramp of a horse sets the nearest ones in motion, and, as if by magic, tbe contraction of tbe small gray-green leaflets spreads in quivering circles over the field, making one almost believe, with Darwin and Dutro- chet, that plants have feeling. Among the most remarkable forms of tropical vegetation, the creeping plants, bush- LIANAS— CLIMBING-TREES— EPIPHYTES— ORCHIDS. 535 ropes, or Lianas, that contribute ao largely to the impenetrabiUty of the forests, hold a conspicuous rank. Often three or four busbropes, like strands in a cable, join tree to tree, and branch to branch ; others, descending from on high, take root aa soon as tbeir extremity touches the ground, and appear like shrouds and stays supporting tbe mainmast of a line-of-battle ship; while others, send out parallel, oblique, horizontal, and perpendicular shoots in all directions. Frequently trees above a hundred feet high, uprooted by tbe storm, are stopped in their fall by these amazing cables of Na ture, and are thus enabled to send forth vigorous shoots, though far frora their perpen dicular, with their trunks inclined to every degree from tbe meridian to the horizon. Tbeir heads remain firmly supported by tbe busbropes ; many of tbeir roots soon refix themselves in the earth, and frequently a strong shoot will sprout out perpendicularly from near tbe root of tbe reclined trunk, -and in tirae become a stately tree. No less pliable tban tough, tbe lianas of the western hemisphere are used by tbo Brazilians as cordage to fasten tbe rafters of their houses, in the same manner as the equally flexible ratans are employed throughout the East Indian world. Tbe enormous Climbing Trees, that stifle the life of tbe mightiest gianta of the foroat, offer a still more wonderful spectacle. At first, these emblems of ingratitude grow straight upwards like any feeble shrub, but as soon as they have found a support in other trees, tbey begin to extend over tbeir surface ; for, while tbe stems of other plants generally assume a cylindrical form, these climbers have the peculiarity of di vesting theraselves of their rind wben brojigbt into contact with an extraneous body, and of spreading over it, until they at length enclose it in a tubular mass. Wben, during this process, the powers of the original root are weakened, tho trunk sends forth new props to reatore tbe equilibrium ; and thua this tough and hardy race con tinually acquires fresh strength for tbe ruin of its neighbors. Several species of the fig-trees aro peculiarly remarkable for this distinctive prop erty, and from tho facility with which tbeir seeds take root where there is a sufficiency of moisture to permit of germination, are formidable assailants of ancient monuments. Sir Emerson Tennent mentions ono which bad fixed itself on the walls of a ruined edifice at Polanarrua, and formed one of the raost remarkable objects of tbe place, its roots streaming downwards over the walls as if their wood bad once been fluid, and following every sinuosity of the building and terraces till tbey reached the earth. On the borders of the Rio Guama, the celebrated botanist, Von Martius, saw whole groups of Macauba palras encased by fig-trees that forraed thick tubes round tho shafts of the palms, whose noble crowns rose high above them ; and a similar apoctacle occura in India and Ceylon, when the Tamila look with increased veneration on their sacred pippul thua united in marriage with the palmyra. After the incarcerated trunk bas been stifled and destroyed, the grotesque form of the parasite, tubular, cork-screw like, or otherwise fantastically contorted, and frequently admitting the light through inter stices like loopholes in a turret, continues to maintain an independent existence among the straight-atemmed trees of the forest, — the iraage of an eccentric genius in tho midst of a group of steady citizens. Like the mosses and lichens of our woods. Epiphytes of endless variety and alraost inconceivable size and luxuriance {ferns, bromelias, tillandsias, orchids, and pothos) cover in tbe tropical zone the trunks and branches of tbe forest trees, forraing banging gardens, far more splendid than those of a-feeient Babylon. While tho Orchids are 536 THE TROPICAL WORLD. distinguished by the eccentric forms and splendid coloring of their flowers, sometimes resembling winged insects or birds, the Pothos family attracts attention by tbe beauty of their large, thick-veined, generally arrow-shaped, digitated, or elongated leaves, and form a beautiful contrast to tbe stiff bromeUasor the hairy tUlandsias that conjointly adorn the knotty stems and branches of the ancient trees. In size of loaf, the Pothos family ia surpaased by the large tropical water plants, tbe Nymphseas and Nolumbias, among which tbe Victoria regia, discovered in 1837 by Robert Schomburgk in tbe river Berbice, enjoys tbe greatest celebrity. The round, light-green leaves of this queen of water-plants measure no less tban six feet in diam eter, and are surrounded by an elevated rim several inches high, and exhibiting the pale carmine-red of tbe under surface. Tbe odorous white bloaaoms, deepening into roseate huea, are compoaed of several hundred petals ; and, measuring no less than fourteen inches in dianieter, rival the colossal proportions of tbe leaves. Tbe trunk of several tropical trees offers the remarkable peculiarity of bulging out in tbe middle like a barrel. In tho Brazilian forests, the Pao Barrigudo arrests the attention of every traveler by its odd ventricose ahape, nearly half aa broad in the centre as long, and gradually tapering towards tbe bottom and tbe top, whence spring a few thin and scanty branches. ' In otber trees which, struggling upwards to air and light, attain a prodigious alti tude, or from their enormous girth and the colossal expansion of their branches require steadying from beneath, we find buttresses projecting like rays from all sides of the trunk. Thoy are frequently from six to twelve inches thick, and project from five to fifteen feet, and, as they ascend, gradually sink into the bole and disappear at the bight of from ten to twenty feet frora the ground. By tbe firm resistance which they offer below, the trees are effectually protected from the leverage of tbe crown, by which they would otherwise be uprooted. Some of those buttresses are so smooth and flat as almost to reaerable sawn planks ; as, for instance, in the Bombax ceiba, one of the moat remarkable examples of this wonderful device of Nature. In other cases we find tbe roots fantastically spreading and reveling in a variety of grotesque shapes, such as we nowhere find in tbe less exuberant vegetation of Europe. Tbus, in the India rubber tree {Ficus elastiea), masses of tbe roots appear above ground, extending on all sides frora the base, and writhing over the surface in serpen tine undulations, so that the Indian villagers give it the name of tbe snake-tree. Sir Emerson Tennent mentions an avenue of these trees leading to the botanical garden of Peradenia, in Ceylon, tbe roots of which meet from either side of the road, and have so covered the surface, as to form a wooden frame-work, the interstices of which retain tho materials that form tbe roadway. Tbese tangled roots sometiraes trail to sucb an extent, that tbey have been found upwards of 140 foet in length, whUst the tree itself was not thirty feet high. Tbe thorns and spines witb which many European plants are armed, give but a faint idea of the size whioh these defensive weapons attain in the tropical zone. The cactuses, tbe acacias, and many of the palm trees, bristle with sharp-pointed shafts, affording ample protection against the attacks of hungry animals, and might appropri ately be called vegetable hedge-bogs, or porcupines. The Toddalia aculeata, a climb ing plant, very comraon in the hill-jungles of Ceylon, is thickly studded witb knobs, about half an inch high, and frora the extreraity of each a thorn protrudes, as large THORNY PLANTS— MANGROVES. 537 and sharp as the biU of a sparrow-hawk. The black twigs of tbe buffalo-thorn {Acacia latronum), a low shrub, abounding in northern Ceylon,, are beset at every joint by a pair of thorns set opposite eacb otber, like tho horns of an ox, aa aharp aa a needle, from two to tbree inchea in length, and thicker at the baae tban the atom they grow on; and tbo Acacia tomentosa, another member of tbe same numerous genus, baa thorns so large as to be called the jungle-nail by Europeans, and the elephant-thorn by the natives. In some of these thorny planta, the spinea grow, not singly, but iu branching clusters, each point presenting a spike as sharp as a lancet; and where these shrubs abound, tbey render the forest absolutely impassable, oven to animals of the greatest size and strength. The formidable thorny plants of the torrid zone, which are often made use of by man to protect bia fielda and plantations against wild beasts and robbers, bave sometimes even been made to serve as a bulwark against hostile invasions. Tbus Sir Emerson Tennent inforras us, that during tbe existence of the Kandyan kingdom, before its conquest by the British, tho frontier forests were so thickened and defended by dense plantations of thorny plants, as to form a natural fortification impregnable to tho feeble tribes on tbe other side ; and at each pass which led to tbe level country, movable gates, formed of the same thorny beams, wore sus pended as an ample security against tbe incuraiona of tho naked and timid lowlanders. In tbe tropical zone, wherever tbe reflux of tbe tide exposes a broad belt of alluvial soil, the shores of the sea, particularly along the estuaries of rivers or in the shallow lagoons, are generally found fringed with a dense vegetation of Mangroves. For no plants are more adrairably adapted for securing a footing on tbe unstable brink of tbe ocean, — none are better forraed to lead an amphibious life. Tbe growth of these salt water loving trees is equally peculiar and picturesque. The seeds germinate on the branches, and, increasing to a considerable length, finally fall down into the raud, where they stick, with their sharp point buried, and soon take root. Tbe fruits of many plants aro furnished with wings, that the winds may carry thera far away and propagate tbem from land to land ; others, enveloped in hard, water-proof shells, float on the surface of the sea, and are wafted by tbe currents to distant coasts; but here we have a plant, the seeds of which wore destined to reraain fixed on an uncertain soil, close to tbe parent-plant, and surely this end could not havo boon attained in a more beautiful manner ! Aa the young mangrove growa upwards, pendulous roota issue from tbe trunk and low branches, and ultiraately atrike into tho muddy ground, where tbey incroaae to tbe thickness of a man's log; so that tbe whole has tho appear ance of a complicated series of loops and arches, from five to ten feet high, supporting the body of the tree like so many artificial stakes. Their influence in promoting the growth of land is very great, and in course of time they advance over tbe shallow bor ders of the ocean. Thoir matted roots stem the flow of the waters, and, retaining tbe earthy particles that sink to the bottom between them, gradually raise the level of the soil. As tbe new formation progresses, thousands of seeds begin to germinate upon its muddy foundation, thousands of cables descend, still farther to consolidate it ; and thus foot by foot, year after year, the mangroves extend tbeir empire and encroach upon tbe maritime domains. A whole world of interesting discoveries would here, no doubt, reward tbe natural ist's attention ; but tbe mangroves know well how to guard their secrets, and to repel the curiosity of man. Sbould he attempt to invade tbeir domains, clouds of blood- 538 THE TROPICAL WORLD. thirsty insects would instantly make bim repent of his temerity ; for the plague of the raosquitoes is nowhere more dreadful tban in these thickets. And supposing his scientific zeal intense enough to bid defiance to tbe torture of their stings, and to scorn the attacks of every other visible foe — insect or serpent, crocodUe or beast of prey — that may be lurking among the raangroves, yet the reflection may woll bid him pause, that poisonous, vapours, pregnant with cholera or yellow fever, are constantly rising from that muddy soU. Even in the temperate regions of Europe the emanations from marshy grounds are pregnant with disease, but the malaria ascending from the sultry morasses of the torrid zone is absolutely deadly. Tbus there cannot possibly be a better natural bulwark for a land than to be bolted with mangroves ; and if Borneo, Madagascar, Celebes, and many otber tropical islands and coasts, have to the present day remained free from the European yoke, tbey are principally indebted for their independence to the miasms and tangles of a mangrove girdle, bidding defiance alike to the sharp edge of the axe or tbe destructive agency of flre. Next to tbe mangroves, the Bruguieras, tbo Avicennias, the Sonneratias, and various species of palms, auch aa the Nipa fruticans and the Pheenix pcdudosa, a dwarf date- tree, which literally covera the islands of tbe Sundorbunds, at tbe delta of tbe Ganges, form conspicuous features in tbe marsh-forests of the torrid zone. The magnificent Avicennia tomentosa, which, witb a more majestic growth than the rhizopbora, raises its crown to the bight of seventy feet, and is said to flourish throughout the whole range of tbe tropics as far as tbe flood extends, mixes with the mangroves, standing like tbem on overarching roots. Tbe Sonneratias {acida, alba) grows along the marshy banks of tbe large rivers of India, tbe Moluccas, and Now Guinea; tbeir roots spread far and wide through tbe soft mud, and at various distances send up, like tho avicennias, extraordinarily long spindle-shaped excrescences four or five feet above the surface. Those curious formations spring very narrow from the root, expand as they rise, and then become gradually attenuated, occasionally forking, but never throwing out shoots or leaves, or in any way resembling tbe parent root. For lining insect- boxes and making setting-boards thoy are unequalled, as the finest pin passes in easily and smoothly, and is bold so firmly and tightly that there is no risk of the insects becoming disengaged. In fact Nature, while forming, them, seems to have bad the entomologist in view, and to bave studied how to gratify hia wishes. But of all trees none are so distinctively characteristic of tho Tropical World aa the different species of the Palm. They assurae every variety of form, but all are beauti ful. We shall undertake to mention only a few of those which are of special utility to man. The graceful Acanthus gave the imaginative Greeks the first idea of the Corinthian capital; but the shady canopy of the Cocoa-nut tree would form a still more beautiful architectural ornaraent of architecture, were it possible for art to imitate its feathery fronds and carve tbeir delicate tracery in stone. No cathedral has a pil lared aisle so magnificent as the famous Avenue of Palras in the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. The tall steras rise to tbo higbt of eighty feet, and thoir overarching branches interlace, forraing a roof whose beauty huraan hands can never imitate. Essentially littoral, this noble palm requires an atmosphere damp with tbe spray and moisture of the sea to acquire its full statelinesa of growth ; and while along the bleak sborea of tbe Nortbern Ocean the trees are generally bent landward by the rough sea breeze, and send forth no brf nohes to face its violence, the cocoa, on the THE COCOA-PALM AND ITS USES. 539 contrary, loves to bend over the roUing surf, and to drop its fruits into the tidal wave. Wafted by tbe winds and currents over the sea, tbe nuts float along without losing their germinating power, like other seeds which migrate through tbe air; and thus'] during tbe lapse of centuries, tbe cocoa-palm bas spread its wide doraain from coast to coast throughout tbe whole extent of the tropical zone. It waves its graceful fronds over the emerald islands of tbe Pacific, fringes the West Indian shores, and frora tbe Philippines to Madagascar crowns the atoUs, or girds tbe sea-board of the Indian Ocean. But nowhere is it met with in sucb abundance as on the coasts of Cey lon, wbere for miles and miles one con tinuous grove of palms, preeminent for beauty, encircles the " Eden of the east ern wave." Multiplied by plantations and fostered witb assiduous care, the total number in the island cannot be less than twenty millions of full-grown trees; and such is ita luxuriance in those favored dis tricts, wbere it meeta with a rare combina tion of every advantage essential to its growth, a sandy and pervioua soil, a free and genial air, unobstructed solar heat, and abundance of water, that, when in full bearing, it will annually yield as much as a ton's weight of nuts — an example of fruitfulness almost unrivalled even in the torrid zone. No otber tree in the world, no other plant cultivated by man, contributes in so many ways to his wants and comforts as this inestimable palra. Besides furnish ing tbeir chief food to many tribes on the coast within the torrid zone, the nut con tains a valuable oil, which burns without smoke or smell, and serves, wheu fresh, for culinary purposes. The fibrous rind or busk of tbe nut fur nishes the coir of commerce, a scarce less important article of trade tban the oU itself. It is prepared by being soaked for some months in water, for the purpose of decomposing the interstitial pith, after which it is beaten to pieces until the fibres have completely separated, and ultimately dried in tbe sun. Ropes made of coir, though not so neat in appearance as hempen cords, are superior in lightness, and exceed them in durability, particularly if wetted frequently by salt water. From their elasticity and strength thoy are exceedingly valuable for cables. Besides cordage of every calibre, beds, cushions, carpets, brushes, and nets are manufactured frora the filaments of the cocoa-nut husk, while tho hard shell ia fashioned into drinking-cups, spoons, beads, bottles, and knife-handles. From the - — c~ -I---" AVENUE OP PALMS — KIO DB JANEIRO. 510 THE TROPICAL WORLD. apathos of tbe unopened flowers a delicious " toddy " ia drawn, which, drunk at sun rise before fermentation has taken place, acts aa a cooUng, gentie aperient, but in a few hours chano-os into an intoxicating wine, and may be distilled into arrack. The strong tough foot-atalks of the fronds, whicb attain a length of from eighteen to twenty feet, are uaed for fences, for yokea, for carrying burdens on tbe shoulders, for fishing-rods ; tbe leaflets serve for rooffing, for mats, for baskets, for cattle-fodder ; and tbeir mid ribs form good brooms for tbe docks of ships. Cooked or stewed, the cabbage or cluster of unexpanded leaves is an excellent vegetable, though rarely used, as it neces sarily involves tbe destruction of tbe tree ; and even tbe tough web or network, which sustains tbe foot-stalks of tbe leaves, may be stripped off in large pieces and used for straining. After tbe cocoa-nut free bas ceased to bear, its wood serves for many val uable purposes — for tbe building of ships, bungalows, and huts, for furniture and farming implements of every description ; and, as it adraits of a fine polish, and its reddish ground color ia beautifully veined with dark linos, it is frequently iraported into England under the name of porcupine-wood. When we consider the many bene fits conferred upon mankind by this inestimable tree, we cannot wonder at tbe anima tion with whicb the islander of tbe Indian Ocean recounts its "hundred uses," or at the superstition which makes bim believe that by aorae myaterious syrapathy it pines wben beyond the reach of tho human voice. In every zone we find nations in a low degree of civilization living almost exclu sively upon a single animal or plant. The Laplander has his reindeer, tho Esquimau his seal, the Sandwich Islander his taro-root ; and thua alao we find tbe nativea of a groat part of the Indian Archipelago living almost exclusively upon the pith of the Sago palm. Of this tree, whicb is of sucb great importance to the indolent Malay, as it almost entirely relieves bim of tbe necessity of labor, we shall speak hereafter, in connection with its use as furnishing nutrition to man. Tbe Saguer or Gomuti, tbe ugliest of palms, but almost rivaling tbo cocoa-nut tree by the raultiplicity of its uses, is likewise a native of tbe Indian Archipelago. Oa seeing its rough and swarthy rind, and tbe dull dark-green color of its fronds, the stranger wonders bow it is allowed to stand, but when he has tasted ita delicioua wine he is astonished not to see it cultivated in greater nurabers. Although the outer cov ering of the fruit has venoraous qualities, and is used by the Malays to poison springs, the nuts' have a deUoate flavor, and the wounded apathe yields an excellent toddy, whicb, like that of tbe cocoa-nut and the palmyra palra, changes by fermentation into an intoxicating wine, and on being thickened by boiling furnishes a kind of black sugar, much used by tbe natives of Java and tbe adjacent isles. The reticulum or fibrous net at tbe base of tbe petioles of tbe leaves conatitutos tbe gumatty, a aubstance admirably adapted to tbe manufacture of cables, and extensively used for cordage of every de scription. The gumatty is black as jet, tbe hairs extremely strong, and reaembling coir, except that they are longer and finer. The amall, bard twiga found mixed up with this material are employed aa pens, besides forming the shafts of tbe sumpits, or little poisoned arrows of the Malays, and underneath tbe reticulura' is a soft silky ma terial, uaed as tinder by the Chinese, and applied as oakum in caulking the seams of ships, while from tbe interior of tbe trunk a kind of sago is prepared. Tbe Areca pahn {Areca Catechu) bears a great resemblance to the cocoa-nut tree, but is of a still more graceful form, rising to the hight of forty or fifty feet, without THE ARECA, PALMYRA, AND TALIPOT PALMS— RATANS. 541 any inequality on its thin poUshed stem, which is dark-green towards the top, and sus tains a crown of feathery foUage, in the midst of whicb are clustered the astringent nuts, for whose sake it is carefully tended. In the gardens of Ceylon the areca palm is invariably planted near the wells and water-courses, and the betel plant, which imme morial custom has associated to its use, is frequently seen twining round its trunk. The Palmyra palm, the sacred Talgaha of the Brahminical Tamils of Ceylon, ex tends from the confines of Arabia to tho Moluccas, and is found in every region of Hindostan from the Indus to Siam, tbe cocoa and the date tree being probably the only palms that enjoy a still wider geographical range. In northern Ceylon, and particularly in tbe peniusula of JaflFna, it forras extensive forests ; and such is ita iraportance in the Southern Dekkan and along the Coromandel coast, that ita fruits afford a compen sating resource to seven millions of Hindoos on every occasion of famine or failure of tbe rice crop. Unlike tho cocoa-nut palm, which gracefully bends under its ponderous crown, the palmyra rises vertically to its full hight of seventy or eighty feet, and pre sents a truly majestic sight wben laden witb its huge clusters of fruits, each the size of an ostrich's egg, and of a rich brown tint, fading into bright golden at ita base. The Palmyra rivals tbe cocoa-nut and the gomuti by its many uses, and Hindoo poets celebrate tbe numerous blessings it confers upon mankind. The Talipot of the Singalese rises to tbe bight of one hundred feet, and expands into a crown of enormoua fan-like loaves, eacb of which wben laid upon tbe ground will form a semicircle of sixteen feet in diameter, and cover an area of nearly two hundred superficial feet. Tbese gigantic foliaceous expansions are eraployed by tbe Singalese for many purposes. Tbey form excellent fans, urabrellas, or portable tents, one leaf being sufficient to shelter seven or eight persons ; but tbeir moat interesting use is for tbo manufacture of a kind of paper, so durable as to resist for many agea the ravages of tirae. Tbe leaves are taken whilst still tender, cut into atripa, boiled in spring water, dried, and finaUy smoothed and poliahed, so as to enable them to be written on with a style, the furrow made by the pressure of the sharp point being ren dered viaible by the application of charcoal ground with a fragrant oil. The leaves of the palmyra similarly prepared are used for ordinary purposes ; but the raost valuable books and documents are written to-day, as they have been for ages past, on olas or strips of tbe talipot. Tbe Ratans, a most singular genus of creeping palms, luxuriate in tbe forests of tropical Asia. Sometimes their slender stems, armed with dreadful spines at every joint, climb to the summit of the highest tree ; sometiraes they run along the ground ; and while it is irapossible to find out their roots among tbe intricate tangles of the matted underwood, their palm-like topes expand in the sunshine, the emblems of successful parasitism. They frequently render the forest so impervious, that the dis tinguished naturalist Junghuhn, while exploring the woods of Java, was obliged to be accompanied by a vanguard of eight men, one half of whom were busy cutting the ratans with their hatchets, while the others removed the stems. Tbese rope-like plants frequently grow to the incredible length of four or even six hundred feet, often con sisting of a couple of hundred joints two or three feet long, and bearing at every knot a feathery leaf, armed with thorns ou its lower surface. Tennent mentions having seen a specimen two hundred and fifty feet long and an inch in diameter, without a single irregularity, and no appearance of foliage other than the bunch of feathery leaves 542 THE TROPICAL WORLD. at the extremity. Though often extremely disagreeable to tbe traveler, yet the ratans are far from being useless. The natives of Java and the other islands of the Eastern Archipelagtf^ut "fee cane into fine slips, which they plait into beautiful mats, manu- fajsture mto" strong ^andnlieat baskets, or twist into cordage; and tbey are also exten- . Sively exported to Eur6pe;*>bere they are chiefly employed for the making of chan- bottoraa. ^ . v . On turning from Asia.to the adjoining continent of Africa, we find a new world of palms, several of which are no less valuable than the cocoa-nut or the palmyra, either as affording food, or enriching by their produce the commerce of the world. Tbe Date-tree, sung from time immemorial by the poets of the East, is as indispena- able as the camel to tbe inhabitants of the wastes of North Africa and Arabia, and, next to the " ship of tbe desert„" the devout Mussulman esteems it the chief gift of Allah. Few palms have a wider range, for it extends from the Persian Gulf to the borders of the Atiantic, and flourishes from the twelfth to the thirty-seventh degree of nortbern latitude. Groves of dates adorn the coasts of Valencia in Spain ; near Genoa ita plantations afford leaves for the celebration of Palm Sunday ; and in the gardens of southern France a date tree sometimes mixes among the oranges and ohves. But it never bears fruit on these northern limits of its empire, and thrives best in the oases on tbe borders of the sandy desert. Here it is cultivated with the greatest care, and irrigated every morning ; for, though it will grow on an arid soil, it absolutely requires water to be fruitful. It is not to be wondered at that the tribes of tbe desert so highly value a tree which, by enabling a family to live on tbe produce of a small spot of ground, extends as it were the bounds of the green islands of the desert, and rarely disappoints the industry that has been bestowed on its culture. It ia considered criminal to fell it while still in its vigor, and both tbe Bible and tbe Koran forbid tbe warriors of tbe true God to apply the axe to the date trees of an enemy. Thus various forms of palms flourish along the banks of tbe Nile, but in general Africa has a less number of tbese trees to boast of tban either Asia or America. On tbe other hand, neither India nor Brazil have palms of such vaat commercial impor tance as the Cocos butyracea, and tbe Elms guineensis, the oil-teeming fruit trees of tropical West Africa. Tbe productiveness of tbe Elaeis may be inferred from its bear ing clusters of from 600 to 800 nuts, larger tban a pigeon's egg, and so fiiU of oil that it may be pressed out with the fingers. Besides the hight of tbe shaft, tbe position of tbe leaves serves chiefly to impart a more or less majestic character to the palms : those witb drooping leaves being far less stately tban those whose fronds shoot more or less upwards to the skies. Nothing can exceed tbe elegance of the Jagua palm, which along with the splendid Cucurito adorns the granite rocks in the cataracts of the Orinoco at Atures and Maypures. Tbe fronds, which are but few in number, rise almost perpendicularly sixteen feet high, from the top of tbe lofty columnar shaft, and their feathery leaflets of a thin and grass-like texture play Ughtly round the tall leaf-stalks, slowly bending in the breeze. The physiognomy of the palms depends also upon the various character of tbeir efflorescence. The spathe is seldom vertical, with erect fruits; generally it hangs downwards, sometimes smooth, frequently armed with large thorns. In the palms with a feathery foliage, the leaf -stalks rise either immediately from the brown rugged ligneous trunk (cocoa-nut, date), or, as in the beautiful Palma Real of DIFFERENT SPECIES OF PALMS. 543 the Havana, from a smooth, slender, and grass-green shaft, placed like an additional column upon the dark-colored trunk. In the fan-palma, the crown frequently rests upon a layer of dried leaves, which impart a severe character to the tree. The form of the trunk also varies greatly, sometimes almost entirely disappearing, as in Chamcerops humilis; sometimes, as in the Calami, assuming a bush-rope appear ance, smooth or rugged, unarmed or bristling with spines. In the American Yriarteas, 544 THE TROPICAL WORLD. the trunk, as in the mangroves, and many of the screw-pines, rests upon a number of roots rising above tbe ground. Thus tbe T. exorrhiza, which grows on the banks of tbe Amazon to tbe bight of a hundred feet, frequently stands upon a dozen or more supports, embracing a circumference of twenty feet, and the trunk begins only six or eight feet from the ground. The Triartea ventricosa is still more curious, as the spindle-shaped trunk, which at the top and at tbe bottom is scarce a foot thick, swells in tbe middle to a threefold diameter, and, from its convenient form, is frequently used by tbe Indians for the construction of their canoes. The form and color of the fruits is also extremely various. What a difference between the large coco de mer and the date — between tbe egg shaped fruita of the Mauritia, whose scaly dark rind gives them the appearance of fir-cones, and the gold and purple peaches of the Pirijao, hanging in colossal clusters of sixty or eighty from tbe suramit of the majestie trunk. Notwithstanding the fecundity of the palms, gen erally but few individuals of eacb species are found growing wild, partly in conse quence of tbe frequent abortive developraent of the fruits, but chiefly on account of the large number of animals — ^from the grub to the monkey — that are constantly feed ing upon them. When we consider tbe enormous range of territory over which the palm-trees extend, and how very few of their many hundred species have hitherto been multipHed and improved by cultivation, we can not doubt that many benefits are yet to be expected from tbem, and that they will at some day rank high in the commercial annals of the world. RICE AND ITS CULTIVATION. 545 CHAPTER VI. THE CHIEF NUTRITIVE PLANTS OF THB TROPICAL WORLD. Eice — Aspects of Rice-Fields at Diflferent Seasons — The Rice-Fields of Ceylon — Ladang and Sawa Eice — Eice in South Carolina — The Rice-Bird — Paddy — Maize — When first brought to Europe — Appearance of the Plant — Its Enormous Productiveness — Freedom from Dis ease — Wide Extent of its Cultivation — Benjamin Franklin's Account of Maize — Millet — The Bread-Fruit — Its Taste — Modes of Cooking — The Banana and Plantain — Their Great Productiveness — The Sago Palra — Manufacture of Sago — Sago Bread — Cheap Living — A Siesta and Starvation — The Cassava — Yams — The Sweet Potato — Arrow Root — The Taro Root — Tropical Fruits — The Chirimoya — The Litchi — The Mangosteen — The Mango — The Durion — Its Taste and Smell — Large Fruit on Tall Trees. OF all the cereals there is none that affords food to so many huraan beinga as the Rice-Plant, (Oryza saliva,) upon whose grains from time immemorial the- countiess miUions of South-eastern Asia have chiefly subsisted. It forms tbe staple, one might almost say tbe only food, of a third of the inhabitants of the globe. The failure of the rice crop for a single season in India or China causes a famine compared with which the potato famine of Ireland was nothing. From ita primitive seat in. India, the rice-plant bas gradually spread not only over the whole Tropical World, but far beyond its bounds; for it thrives alike in the swamps of South Carolina and upon the plains bordering the Danube and the Po. Along the low river banks, in the delta-lands whicb the rains of the tropics annually change into a boundless lake, or where, by artificial embankments, tbe waters of the mountain streams have been col leeted into tanks for irrigation, the rice-plant attains its utmost luxuriance of growth, and but rarely deceives the hopes of tbe husbandman. The aspect of the lowland rice-fields of India and its isles is very different at various seasons of tbe year. Where, in Java, for instance, you seo to-day long-legged herons gravely stalking over tbe inundated plain partitioned by sraall dykes, or a yoke of indolent buffaloes slowly wading through the mud, you wUl three or four months later be charmed by tbe view of a gracefully undulating wheat-field. Cords, to which scare crows are attached, traverse the field in every direction, and converge to a small watch-house, erected on high poles. Here the attentive viUager sits, like a spider in the center of ita web, and, by pulling the corda, puts them from time to time into motion, whenever the wind is unwilling to undertake the offlce. Then the grotesque and noisy figures begin to rustle and to caper, and whole flocks of tbe neat little rice- bird or Java sparrow rise on tbe wing, and hurry off with all the baste of guUty fright. After another month has elapsed, and the waters have long since evaporated or been withdrawn, tbe harvest takes place, and the rice-fielda are enUvened by a motiey crowd, for all tbe villagers, old and young, are busy reaping the golden ears. 35 548 THE TROPICAL WORLD. The rice-fields offer a peculiariy charming picture when, as in the mountain vaUeys of Ceylon, tbey rise in terraces along tbe alopes. " Selecting," says Sir Emerson Tennent, "an angular recess where two bills converge, the Kandyana construct a series of terraces, raised stage above stage, and retiring as tbey ascend along the slope of tbe acclivity, up which they are carried as high as the soU extends. Each terrace is furnished witb a low ledge in front, behind whioh the requisite depth of water is retained during the germination of tbe seed, and what is superfluous is perraitted to trickle down to tho one below it. In order to carry on this pecuUar cultivation the streams are led along tbo level of the biUa, often from a diatance of raany miles, with a skill and perseverance for which the natives of these mountains have attained a great renown. Many of the tanks, though partially in ruins, cover an area from ten to fifteen miles in circumferenoe. Tbey aro now generally broken and decayed; the waters, whicb would fertUize a province, are allowed to waste themselves in the sands; and hundreds of square miles, capable of furnishing food for all the inhabitants of Ceylon, are abandoned to solitude and malaria ; whUst rice for the support of the non- agricultural population is annually imported from tbe opposite ooast of India." Eice does not invariably require tbe marsh or tbe irrigated terrace for its growth, as there is a variety which thrives on tbe slopes of hills, where it is not continuously watered. In the mountain regions of Sumatra, rains fall at almost every season of tbe year, though dry weather is more frequent from April to July. In August, the rainy days are as tbree to one, and this ia tbe time generally choaen for the sowing of the Ladang, or mountain rice. After tbe harvest, tbe field ia sown a second time with maize ; it then lies fallow for a few years, and is soon covered with a thick vege tation of wUd shrubbery, generally with glagah, a species of grass whioh attains a hight of twelve feet. Wben the field is again to be cultivated, fire ia resorted to, to destroy the dense jungle, in whicb the tiger bas made his lair, or where the rhinoceros grazes. At nigbt, these fires, aacending the slopea of the mountains, present a fine sight ; during the day time, tbey cover the land with a dun mist. The rapidity with which the dry culms of tho glagah take fire ia not seldom dangerous to tbe traveler when his path leads him across the slope of a hill at whose foot tbe grass-field begins to burn, for tbe rustling fire-columns aacond with tbe swiftness of the wind, and soon wrap the side of tbe mountain in a sheet of flame. The ashes of the glagah afford the richest manure', so that tbese fields are only surpasaed in fertility by tbe virgin soil of the cleared forest, a laborious work, which is seldom undertaken in this thinly-populated country. Sawa is tbe general Malay name for artificially-irrigated rice-fields. In the Indian Archipelago, the sawa, or marsh-rice, is at first thickly sown in small beds, and trans planted after a fortnight into tbe fields, tbe soil of which has been softened by water. As the plant grows, copious irrigations supply it with the necessary moisture ; but as maturity approaches, the field is laid dry, and about two months later the ears assume the rich golden color so pleasing to tbe husbandman. Each field could easily be made to produce two annual harvests ; but, wben not compelled to labor, the tropical peasant never thinks of taxing his industry beyond the supply of hia immediate wants. The swaraps of South Carolina, both those which are occasioned by the periodical visits of tbe tides, and those which are caused by the overflowing of the rivers, are admirably adapted to the production of rice ; yet the culture of the valuable cereal on RICE— MAIZE. 547 this congenial soil is of comparatively modern date. About the beginning of tbe last century, a brigantine from tbe island of Madagascar happened to put in at Carolina, having a little seed-rice left, which tbe captain gave to a gentleman of the name of Woodward. From part of this, tbe latter bad a very good crop, but was ignorant for some years how to clean it. It was soon dispersed over the colony, and, by frequent experiments and observations, the planters ultimately raised the culture to its present perfection. By the introduction of this water-loving cereal, various swamps which previously had only afibrded food to frogs and water-birds, have boon changed into the most fruitful fields, so that South Carolina not merely supplied tbe whole of the United States with all tbe rice tbey require, but also annually exported more than a hundred thousand large casks to tbe various markets of Europe. Besides the devastations which the atmosphere of the rice-fields causes among his laborers, the planter frequently suffers heavy losses in consequence of the depredations of the rice-bunting (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), a species of ortolan, known familiarly by the name of bobolink. This bird is about six or seven inches long ; its head and the under part of its body are black, tbe upper part is a mixture of black, white, and yellow, and the legs arc red. It migrates over tbe continent of America frora Labra dor to Mexico, and over the Great Antilles, appearing in the southern extremity of the States ahout tbe end of March. During the tbree weeks to which its un welcome visit to the rice-fields is usually limited, it grows so fat upon the milky grains of its favorite cereal, that its flesh becomes equal in flavor to that of tbe Euro pean ortolan. As long as tbe female is sitting, tbe song of the male continues with little interruption : it is singular and pleasant, consisting of a jingling medley of short, variable notes, oonfused, rapid and continuous. Large quantities of rice are supplied to Europe from Brazil, Java, Bengal, and of late years from Arracan and Pegu. Moat of tbe Arracan rice is exported in the unsbelled state, or as paddy, and cleaned in Europe, whore tbe operation ean be more effectually and cheaply performed than in the country of production. The loss by waste is also found to be less on tbe transport of paddy tban of shelled rice. Maize is no less important to the rapidly growing nations of Araerica than the rice- plant to the followers of Buddh or of Brama; and when hereafter tbe banks of tbe Mississippi, of the Amazon, and of the Orinoco, shall be covered by as dense a popu lation as tbe plains of Bengal, tbe nuraber of maize eaters will probably be greater than that of the consumers of any other species of grain. Even now it is second in this respect only to rice. The time wben tbe cereals of the old world — wheat, rye, barley — were first trans planted from tbeir unknown Asiatic homes to otber parts of tbe world is hidden in legendary obscurity ; but the epoch when maize waa for the first time seen and tasted by Europeans Ues before us in the broad daylight of authentic history. For, when Columbus discovered Cuba, in the year 1492, he found maize cultivated by the Indians, and was equally pleased with the taste of the roasted grains and astonished at their size. In tbe following year, when he made bis triumphant entry into Barcelona, and presented his royal patrons — Ferdinand and Isabella — witb specimens of tbe various productions of the New World, tbe maize spikes he laid down before tbeir throne, though but little noticed, were iu reality of far greater importance thau the heaps of gold which were so falsely deemed to be the richest prizes of his grand 548 THE TROPICAL WORLD. discovery. In this manner maize, whicb is found growing wUd from tbe Kooky Mountains to Paraguay, and had been cultivated from time immemorial, as well in the Antilles as in the dominions of tbe Mexican Aztecs and of the Peruvian Incas, was first conveyed from the New World to Spain, whence its cultivation gradually extended over tbe tropical and temperate zone of tbe eastern hemisphere. Round the whole basin of tbe Mediterranean, maize has found a new home, and its grain now nourishes tbe Lombard and tbe Hungarian, as it does tbe Egyptian fellah or the Syrian peasant. While other cereals only produce a pleasing effect when covering extenaive fielda, but are individually too inaignificant to claim attention, the maize plant almost reminds the spectator of tho lofty Bambusacese of the tropical world. Dark green, lustrous leaves spring alternately from every joint of this cereal, streaming like pennants in the wind. Tbe top produces a bunch of male flowers of various colors, which is called tbe tassel. Each plant likewise bears one or more spikes or ears, the usual number being three, though aa many as seven have been seen occasionally on one stalk. These ears proceed from tho stem, at varioua distancea from the ground, and are closely enveloped by several thin leaves, forming a sheath, or hush. They consist of a cylindrical substance of the nature of pith, which is called the cob, and over the entire surface of which the seeds are ranged and fixed, in eight or more straight rows. Each of tbese has generally as many as thirty or more seeds, and each seed weighs at least as muoh aa five or six grains of wheat or barley. Surely a cereal like this deserves beyond all others to symbolize abundance, and, bad it been known to the Greeks, it would beyond all doubt have figured conspicuously in the teeming hom of Araalthea. WhUe tbe British farmer is satisfied with an increase of twenty for one, the pro ductiveness of maize, under tbe circumstances most favorable to its growth, is sucb as almost to surpass belief. In tbe low and sultry districts of Mexico, it is quite a com mon thing, in situations wbere artificial irrigation is practised, to gather from 350 to 400 measures of grain for every one measure that baa been sown ; and some particu larly favored spots have even been known to yield the incredible increase of 800. In other situations, where reliance is placed only ou the natural supply of moisture to tbe soil from the periodical rains, such an abundant supply is not expected ; but even then, and in the least fertile spots, it ia rare for the cultivator to realize less than from forty to sixty bushels for each one sown. The productivenesa of maize diminishes in the more temperate climate of the United States; but even there it yields double tbe in crease of wheat ; and sucb ia the quantity annually grown that, in spite of its low price, the value of the maize harvest more tban twice surpasses that of all the other cereals, Another great advantage attending the cultivation of maize is, that of all the cereals it is tbe least subject to disease. Blight, mUdew, or rust are unknown to it. It is never liable to be beaten down by rain, or by the moat violent storms of wind, and in climates and seasons which are favorable to ita growth, the only enemiea which the maize farmer has to dread are insects in tbe early stages, and birds in the later periods, of ita cultivation. In mountainous countries, and tbe farther it advances beyond the tropics, maize — a child of the sun — naturally suffers from the ungenial influence of a cold and wet summer, which not only prevents the ripening of the grain, but also develops a poisonous ergot in its ears, simUar to that which an inclement sky is apt to engender in rye. FRANKLIN'S DESCRIPTION OF MAIZE. 549 When we consider that the zone of cultivation of the maize plant extends without interruption from 49° north latitude to 40° south latitude, it is not to be wondered at that there are nuraerous varieties, from the gigantic Tlaouili of the Mexicans, which absolutely requires a hot sun, and bears oars ten inchea in length and five or aix inches in circumference, and the amall variety with ears four or five inches long, which in ordinary seasons will' ripen its grain, even under the variable and weeping sky of England, and which, with ears not larger than one's finger, was found by SqUier growing on the sacred island of Titicaca, at an altitude of 12,800 feet above the level of the sea. The various uses to which the maize plant and grain may be appUed cannot be bettor enumerated than in tbe words of the celebrated Dr. Franklin. " It is remarked in North America that the English farmers, when they firat arrived there, finding a aoil and climate proper for the husbandry thoy have been accustomed to, and particularly suitable for raising wheat, they despise and neglect the culture of maize or Indian corn ; but, observing the advantage it affords their neighbors, tbe older inhabitants, tbey by degrees get more and more into tbe practice of raising it, and tbe face of the country shows from time to time that the culture of that grain goes on visibly augmenting. Tbe inducements are the many different ways in which it may be prepared so as to afford a wholesome and pleasing nourishraent, to men and other animals. First, the family can begin to make uso of it before tbe time of full harvest ; for the tender green ears, stripped of their leaves and roasted by a quick fire till the grain is brown, and eaten with a little salt or butter, are a delicacy. Secondly, when the grain is riper and harder, the ears boiled in their leaves and eaten with butter are also good and agreeable food. The tender green grain dried may be kept all the year, and, mixed with green kidney beans, also dried, make at any time a pleasing dish, being first soaked some hours in water and then boiled. When the grain is ripe and bard there are also several ways of using it. One ia to soak it all night in a lessive or lye, and then pound it in a large wooden mortar with a wooden pestle ; the skin of each grain is by that means skinned off, and tbe farinaceous part left whole, whicb, being boiled, swells into a white, soft pulp, and, eaten witb milk or with butter and sugar, is delicious. Tbe dry grain is also sometimes ground loosely so as to be broken into pieces of the size of rice, and, being winnowed to separate tbe bran, it is then boUed and eaten with turkeys or other fowls as rice. Ground into a finer meal, they make of it by boiUng a hasty-pudding or bouilli, to be eaten with milk or with butter and sugar, that resemblea what the Italians call polenta. They make of tbe same meal with water and salt a hasty-cake, whicb, being stuck against a hoe or otber flat iron, is placed erect before the fire, and so baked, to be used as bread. They also parch it in this manner : An iron pot is filled with sand, and set on the fire till the sand is very bot. Two or three pounds of tbe grain are then thrown in, and woll mixed with the sand by stirring. Each grain bursts and throws out a white substance of twice its bigness. The sand ia separated by a wire sieve, and returned into tbe pot to be again heated, and repeat the operation with fresh grain. That which is parched is pounded to a powder in a mortar. This being sifted will keep long for use. An Indian will travel far and subsist long on a sraall bag of it, taking only six or eight ounces of it per day mixed with water. The flour of maize mixed with that of wheat makes excellent bread, sweeter and more agreeable tban that of wheat alone.^ To 550 THE TROPICAL WORLD. feed horses it is good to soak the grain twelve hours : they mash it easier with their teeth, and it yields thera more nourishment. The leaves stripped off the stalks after the grain is ripe, tied up in bundles when dry, are exceUent forage for horses, cows, etc. Tbe stalks, pressed like sugar-cane, yield a sweet juice, which, being fermented and distUlod, yields an excellent spirit; boiled without fermentation it affords an excellent syrup. In Mexico fields are sown with it thickly, that multitudes of smaU stalks may arise, which, being cut from time to tirae, like asparagus, are served in desserts, their thin sweet juice being extracted in the mouth by chewing them. The meal wetted is excellent food for young chickens and the old grain for grown fowls." In Europe, as weU as in the United States, tbe quantity or maize grown far exceeds that of wheat or any other grain ; but so Uttle is the value of this noblest of cereals known in Great Britain, that even during the famine in Ireland it was with the utmost difficulty that tbe starving peasants could be induced to use tbe meal sent over to them from America. This waa doubtiess in a great measure owing to tbeir unacquaintanee witb tbe proper manner of cooking it. A delegation of colored " maramies " from Virginia, skilled in tbe mysteries of "pone" aud "hoe-cake," would have been of inestimable service. In light sandy soUs, under the scorching rays of tbe sun, and in situations wbere sufficient moisture cannot be obtained for the production of rice, numerous varieties of Millet {Sorghum vulgare) are successfully cultivated in many tropical countries — in India, Arabia, the West Indies, in Central Africa, and in Nubia, where it is grown almost to tbe exclusion of every other esculent plant. Though the seeds are by much tho sraallest of any of the cereal plants, tbe number borne upon each stalk is so great as to counterbalance this disadvantage, and to render tbe cultivation of millet as pro ductive as that of any other grain. Tho Breadfruit tree (Artocarpus incisa) is the great gift of Providence to the fairest isles of Polynesia. No fruit or forest tree in the north of Europe, with the exception of tbo oak or linden, is its equal in regularity of growth and comeUness of shape ; it far surpasses tbe wild chestnut, which somewhat resembles it in appearance. Its large oblong leaves, frequently a foot and a half long, are deeply lobed like those of tbe fig tree, which they reserable not only in color and consistence, but also in exuding a milky juice when broken. About the tirae wben tbe sun, advancing towards tbe Tropic of Capricorn, announcea to the Tahitians that suraraer is approach ing, it begins to produce new leaves and young fruits, which commence ripening in October, and may be plucked about eight months long in luxuriant succesaion. The fruit is about the size and shape of a new-born infant's head; and the surface is reticu lated, not much unlike a truffle ; it ia covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as tbe handle of a small knife. Tbe eatable part lies between tbe skin and the core ; it is as white as snow, and soraewhat of tbe consistence of new bread ; it must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four parts ; its taste, according to some, is insipid, with a slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with boiled and mealy potatoes. But Wallace, who mot with it in tbe island of Amboyna, speaks of it in very different terms. He says : " Here I enjoyed a luxury I bave never met with either before or since — the true bread-fruit. It is baked entire in tbe hot embers, and the inside scooped out with a spoon. I corapared it to Yorkshire pudding; others thought it waa like mashed BREAD FRUIT— BANANA— PLANTAIN. 551 potatoes and milk. It is generally about tbe size of a melon, a litde fibrous toward the center, but everywhere else quite smooth and puddingy, soraething between yeast- dumplings and hatter-pudding. We sometimes made curry or stew of it, or fried it in slices ; but it is in no way so good as siraply baked. With meat and gravy it is a vegetable superior to any I know either in temperate or tropical countries. With sugar, milk, butter, or treacle, it is a delicious pudding, having a very slight and delicate hut characteristic flavor, which, Uke that of good bread and potatoes, one' never gets tired of." When tbe season draws to an end, the last fruits are gathered just before they are perfectly ripe, and, being laid in heaps, are closely covered with leaves. In this state they undergo a fermentation and become disagreeably sweet ; the core is then taken out entire, which is done by gently pulling out the stalk, and the rest of tbe fruit is thrown into a bole, which is dug for that purpose, generally in the house, and' neatly Uned in tbe bottom and sides with grass ; the whole is then covered witb leaves, and heavy stones laid upon them; in this state it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, after which it will suffer no change for many months. It is taken out of tbe hole as it is wanted for use, and, being made into balls, it is wrapped up in leaves and baked : after it is dressed it will keep five or six weeks. It is eaten both cold and hot, and tbe natives seldom make a meal without it, though to Europeans the taste is as disagreeable as that of a pickled olive generally is, the first time it is eaten. The fruit itself is in season eight months iu the year, and the Mahei or sour paste formed in the manner above described fills up the remaining cycle of the year. To procure this principle article of their food costs the fortunate South Sea Islanders no more trouble than plucking and preparing it in the manner above described ; for, though tbe tree which produces it does not grow spontaneously, yet, if a man plants but ten of them in his lifetime, which he may do in about an hour, he will, as Cook remarks, " as completely fulfil bis duty to his own and future generations, as the native cf^our less genial climate by plowing in the cold of winter and reaping iu the summer's heat as often as the seaaona return." Though it has a far extended range over tbe islands and coasts of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, yet its importance as an article of food is chiefly confined to the Tahitian, Friendly, Samoan, Fiji, and Marquesan groups, while in most parts of the Indian Archipelago it is either -neglected or only used for fuel. Tbe wonderful luxuriance of tropical vegetation is perhaps nowhere more conspicu ous and surprising tban in tbe magnificent Musacece, the Banana {Musa sapientum), and the Plantain {Musa paradisiaca), whose fruits most probably nourished mankind long before the gifts of Ceres became known. A succulent shaft or stem, rising to the higbt of fifteen or twenty feet, and frequently two feet in diameter, is formed of the sheath-like leaf-stalks rolled one over tbe other, and terminating in enorraous Ught green and glossy blades, ten feet long and two feet broad, of so delicate a tissue that the slightest wind suffices to tear tbem transversely as far as the middle rib. A stout foot-stalk, arising from the center of the leaves, and reclining over one side of the trunk, supports numerous clusters of flowers, and subsequently a great weight of several hundred fruits about the size and shape of full grown cucumbers. On seeing the stately plant, one might suppose that many years had been required for its ;v^y> 552 THE TROPICAL WORLD. growth; and yet only eight or ten months were necessary for its full development. Each abaft produces its fruit but once, when it withers and dies ; but new shoots spring forth from the root, and before tbe year bas elapsed unfold theraselves witb the same luxuriance. Thus, without any other labor than now and then weeding the field, fruit follows upon fruit and harvest upon harvest. A single bunch of bananas often weighs from sixty to seventy pounds, and Humboldt has calculated that thirty- three pounds of wheat and ninety-nine pounds of potatoes require the same space of ground to grow upon as will produce 4,000 pounds of bananas. This prodigaUty of nature, seeraingly so favorable to the humau race, is, however, attended witb great disadvantages; for where the Ufe of man is rendered too easy, his best powers reraain dorraant, and he alraost sinks to the level of tbe plant which affords him subsistence without labor. Exertion awakens our faculties as ifc increases our enjoyments, and well may we rejoice that wheat and maize, and not the banana, ripen in our fields. As the seeds of the cultivated plantain and banana never, or very rarely, ripen, tbey can only bo propagated by suckers. "In both hemispheres," says Humboldt, " as far as tradition or history reaches, we find plantains cultivated in the tropical zone. It is as certain that African slaves have introduced, in tho eourse of centuries, varieties of tbe banana into America, as that before the discovery of Columbus the pisang was cultivated by the aboriginal Indians." MANDFACTURE OP SAGO. The Sago-Palm may fairly dispute with the plantain tbe honor of producing upon a given space the greatest amount of human food. It grows all over the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, the moat productive diatrict being in Ceram, whence large quantities are exported. The tree, says Mr. Wallace,* is a palm thicker and larger than the cocoa-nut tree, although rarely so tall, and having immense pinnate spiny leaves, which completely cover the trunk until it is several years old. When it is * Malayan Archipelago, 382-385. MANUFACTURE OF SAGO. 553 about ten or fifteen years old it sends up an immense terminal spike of flowers, after which it dies. For making sago tbe tree must be used just before it is going to flower. It is cut down close to tbe ground, which, large aa the tree is, costs no great labor, for tbe woody shell is only half an inch thick ; the rest is all pith. The leaves and leaf stalks are cleared away, and a broad strip of bark taken off the upper side of tbe trunk, laying bare the pithy matter, whicb is of a rusty color near tbe bottom, but higher up of a pure white, about as hard aa a mealy apple, with woody fibres running through ifc, about a quarter of an inch apart. This pith is broken up into a coarse powder by a heavy wooden club or pounder, having a piece of hard quartz imbedded into the end. By moans of this, strips of tbe pith are cut away, which fall down into the cyUnder formed by tbe tough bark, until tho whole trunk is cleared out, leaving a skin of not more tban half an inch in thickness. This material is carried to tbe washing machine, which answers the purpose of a grist-mill for preparing the flour. This washing raachine is composed wholly frora the tree itself. The great sheathing bases of the leaves make exeellent troughs ; and their ribs, as thick as a man's arm, and lighter and tougher than a bamboo, furnish the supporting props ; while the fibrous covering of the leaf-stalks forms the strainer. Water is poured on tbe mass of pith, whioh is kneaded and pressed against the strainer until the starch ia all washed out, when the fibrous refuse is thrown away. The water, charged witb the starch, passes into another deep trough, where tbe sediment is quickly deposited, tbe water running off. This mass of starch ia made up into packages of thirty pounds, covered with sago leaves. This constitutes tbe "raw sago," and will keep for years. Boiled witb water, it forms a thick glutinous mass, whioh is eatoU witb salt, limes, or Chili peppers. More frequently it is used for making bread. Tbe raw sago ia broken up, dried in the sun, and powdered into a coarse meal. The oven is a square clay pan, divided into compartments six or eight inches square, and three-quarters of an inch thick. This is heated over a clear fire of embers, filled with tbe flour, and covered with a piece of sago bark. In five rainutes tbe bread, or rather batch of cakes, is baked. When hot tbey are very palatable with butter ; and tbe addition of a little sugar and grated cocoanut forms quite a delicacy. Tbey are soft, and not unlike our " Johnny- cakes" made of maize flour, but have a slight charaotoristic flavor whicb is wanting in the prepared sago. When not wanted for immediate use, tbe cakes are dried in the sun for several days ; tbey wUl then keep for years. They are bard, rough, and dry; but the natives do not mind that, and it is a common sight to see cbildren gnawing away at them, as our cbildren do at a crust of bread. Dipped in water and toasted, they become almost as good aa when fresh ; soaked and boiled, they make a good pudding. We see no reason why these sago biscuit sbould not form a welcome addition to ship-stores in tropical regions. A good-sized tree will afford 900 pounds of raw sago. This will make 600 pounds of bread. Two cakes, weighing three to tho pound, aro as much as a man can well eat at a meal ; five are considered a full day's allowance. One tree wiU therefore supply a man with food for a whole year. Two men will easily finish a tree in five days; so that a man may in ten days raise and make his flour for a year. If he chooses to bake bis year's supply of bread at once, another ten days is quite enough; so that tbe labor of twenty days will give him food for a year. This is on the sup- 554 THE TROPICAL WORLD. poaition that he happens to own sago trees. If be does not, he can buy one standing for two dollars. As the price of a man's labor in this region is estiraated at ten cents a day, tbe cost of food ready cooked for a man is four dollars a year. Yet, unaccount able as it seems to us, the natives, with these great natural flour-barrela, (only that each contains three of our barrels,) standing around them, suffer from hunger. Agassiz notices tbe same thing on the Amazon. If tbe people of any country really prefer to go hungry rather than spend tbree weeks of the year in weeding a plantain- field, or preparing sago, there seems no good reason why any one should interfere with their way of enjoying themselves. By all means let them take theu siesta and starve afterwards. A SIESTA ON IHE AMAZON.. Life and death are strangely blended in the Cifp^^^Oor Mandioca root {latropha manihot). The juice a rapidly destructive poiaonAhe me^ a nutritious and agreeable food, which, in tropical Araerica, and chiefly in Brazil, forms a great part of the people's sustenance. The higbt to which tbe cassava attains varies from four to six feet. It rises by a slender, woody, knotted stalk, furnished with alternate palmated leaves, and springs from a tough branched woody root, tbe slender collateral fibres of whicb swell into those farinaceous, paranip-like masses, for whicb alone tbe plant is cultivated. It requires a dry soil, and is not found at a greater elevation tban 2,000 feet above tbe level of the sea. It ia propagated by cuttings, which very quickly take root, and in about eight months from the time of their being planted tbe tubers wiU generally be in a fit state to be collected ; they may, however, be left in tbe ground for many months without sustaining any injury. Tbe usual mode of preparing the cassava is to grind tbe roots after pealing off tbe dark-oolored rind, to draw out the poisonous juice, and finally to bake the meal into thin cakes on a bot iron hearth. CASSAVA— YAM— SWEET POTATO— ARROWROOT. 555 Fortunately the deleterious principle is so volatile as to be entirely dissipated by exposure to heat; for when the root has been cut into small pieces, and exposed during some hours to the direct rays of the sun, cattle may be fed on it with perfect safety. If the recently extracted juice be drunk by cattle or poultry, the animals soon die in convulsions ; but if this same liquid is boiled witb meat and seasoned, it forms a wholesome and nutritious soup. The latropha janipha, or Sweet Cassava, though very similar to the Manihot or bitter variety, and wholly innocuous, is far less extensively cultivated. A palatable and wholesome bread is made of both kinda ; and although its taste may be thought somewhat harsh by persons accustomed to soft fer mented bread made from wheaten flour, yet those who have been acoustomed to its use are so fond of it, that Creole famiUes who bave gone to live in Europe frequently have it sent to thera from tbe West Indies. The kind of starch so well known under the name of tapioca is prepared from tbe farina of cassava roots. A large quantity is exported frora Brazil to Europe, and may well be considered as a more useful produc tion than all the diaraonds of Minas Geraes. The Tam roots, which are so frequently mentioned in narratives of travel through the tropical regions, are the produce of two clirabing plants — the Dioscorea sativa and Alata — with tender stems of from eighteen to twenty feet in length, and sraooth, sharp- pointed leaves on long foot-stalks, frora tho base of which arise spikes of small flowers. The roots of tbe Dioscorea sativa are flat and palmated, about a foot in breadth, white within and externally of a dark brown color, almost approaching to black ; those of the D. alata are still larger, being frequently about tbree foot long, and weighing about thirty pounds. Both kinda are cultivated like the common potato, which tbey resemble in taste, though of a closer texture. When dug out of tbe earth, tbe roots are placed in the sun to dry, and are thon put into sand or casks, wbere, if guarded from moisture, they may be preserved for a long time without being in any way injured in their quality. The Dioscorese aro natives of South Asia, and are supposed to have been thence transplanted to the West Indies, as they have never been found growing wild in any part of America; while in tbe island of Ceylon, and on the coast of Malabar, tb,ey flourish in tbe woods with spontaneous and luxuriant growth. Tbey are now very extensively cultivated in Africa, Asia, and America, as their large and nutritious roots amply reward the labor of tbe husbandman. The Spanish or Sweet Potato, ( Convolvulus batatas,) commonly cultivated in tbe tropical climates both of the Eastem and tbe Western hemispheres, is an herbaceous perennial, which sends out many trailing stalka, extending six or eight feet every way, and putting forth at each joint, roots whicb in a genial climate grow to be very large tubers, so that from a single plant forty or fifty large roots are produced. Tbe leaves are angular, and stand on long petioles, the flowers are purple. Tbe batata is propa gated by laying down tho young shoots in tbo spring ; indeed in its native climate it multipUes almost spontaneously, for if the branches of roots that have been puUed up are suffered to remain on tbe ground, and a sbower of rain faUs soon after, tbeir vege tation will recoramence. From Us abundant growth, it is surprising that in Brazil the mandioo should be cultivated in preference as food for tbe negro, the batata being raised more aa a luxury for the planter's table. Arrowroot is chiefly obtained from two different plants — the Marantha arundina cea and tbe Tacca pinnatifida. The former, a native of South America, is an herbar 556 THE TROPICAL WORLD. ceous perennial and is propagated by parting tbe roots. It rises to the height of two or tbree feet, has broad, pointed leaves, and is crowned by a spike of small, white flow- era It is much cultivated, both for domestic liae and for exportation in the West In dica, and in some parts of Hindostan. Tbe arrowroot is obtained by first pounding the long, stalky roots in a large, wooden mortar, and pouring a quantity of water over them. After the whole bas been agitated for some time, tho starch, separated from the fibres, collects at the bottom of the vessel, and having been cleansed by repeated washings is dried in the sun. The Tacca pinnatifida, Ukewise an herbaceous plant with pinnated leaves, an um- beUiform blossora, and large potato-Uke roots, is scattered over most of tbe South Sea Islands. It is not cultivated in the Hawaiian group, but found growing wild in abundance in tbe more elevated districts, where it is satisfied with the most meagre soU, and sprouts forth among tbe lava blocks of those volcanic islands. Arrowroot is prepared from it in tbe same manner as from tbe West Indian Marantha, but, as the improvident Polynesians only think of digging it out of the earth, and never give them selves tbe trouble of replanting the small and useless tubers, its quantity has very much diminished. Tbe Caladium esculentum, an aquatic plant, furnishes the large Taro roots which forra the chief food of the Sandwiob Islanders, and are extensively cultivated in many other groups of the South Seas. It growa like rice on a marshy ground, the large, arrow-shaped leaves rise on high foot-stalks, immediately springing from tbe root, and are likewise very agreeable to the taste, but are more seldom eaten, as thoy are used for propagation. Severed from tbe root, they merely require to be planted in the mud to produce after six months a new harvest of roots. Tbe growth is so abundant that 1,500 persona can live upon the produce of a single square mile. The South Sea Islanders make a thick paste out of the root, which, under the name of poe, forms tbeir Staple diet. It may easily be imagined that the tropical sun, which distills so many costly juices and fiery spices in indescribable multiplicity and abundance, must also produce a variety of fruits. But man bas as yet done but little to improve by care and art tbese gifts of nature, and, with rare exceptions, the delicious flavor for which our native fruits are indebted to centuries of cultivation, is found wanting in those of the torrid zone. Yet there are exceptiona to the rule, and among others the Peruvian Chirimoya (Anona tripetala) is vaunted by travelers in such terms of admiration that it can hardly be inferior to, and probably surpasses, the most exquisite fruita of European ' growth. Hanke calls it in one of his letters a masterpiece of nature, and Tschudi says that its taste is quite incoraparable. It grows to perfection at Huanuco, where it at tains a weight of from fourteen to sixteen pounds. The fruit is generally heart-shaped, witb tbe broad base attached to tbe branch. Tbe rind is green, covered with small tu bercles and scales, and encloses a snow-white, juicy pulp, with many black kernels. Both the fruit and the bloaaoms exhale a delightful odor. The tree is about twenty feet high, and bas a broad, dull-green crown. Tbe Litchi (Nephelium litchi,) a small insignificant tree, with lanceolate leaves, and small greenish-white flowers, is a native of China and Cochin-China, but its culti vation has spread over the East and the West Indies. The plum-like, scarlet fruit is generally eaten by the Chinese with their tea, but it is also dried in ovens and exported. THE LITCHI— MANGOSTEEN— MANGO— DURION. 557 In order to obtain the fruit in perfection, for the uae of the Imperial Court, tbe trees, as soon as they blossom, are conveyed from Canton to Pekin on rafts, at a very great trouble and expense, so that the plum may just be ripe on their arrival in the northern capital. The beautiful Mangosteen ( Garcinia mangostana,) a native of the Moluccas, and thence transplanted to Java, Siam, tbe Philippines, and Ceylon, resembles at a dis tance tbe citron tree, and boara large flowers like rosea. Tbe dark-brown capaular fruit, about the size of a small apple, is dosoribed as of unequalled flavor — ^juicy and aromatic, Uke a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, grapes, and oranges. It is said that the patient who has lost an appetite for every thing else still relishes the mango steen, and that the case ia perfectly hopeleaa when ho refuses even this. The stately Mango, (Mangifera indica,) is frequently represented on the silk tissues of tbe Hindoos, who venerate, under tbe ugly forra of tbe ape Huniman, the transformed hero who first robbed tbe gardens of a Ceylonese giant of ita sweet fruit, and presented tbeir forefathers with this inestiraable gift. The mango bears beautiful girandoles of flowers, followed by large plum-like fruits, of which, however, but four or five ripen on eacb branch. In Borneo and the otber islands of the Malayan Archipelago grows the Durion, a fruit utterly unknown in Europe and America, whioh alone of all vegetable productions possesses the opposite qualities of extreme offensiveness to one sense, and of tho highest gratefulness to the other sense most closely allied to it. Ita smell ia like that of rotten onions, while its taste is such that those who have once partaken of it prefer it to all other fruit. Wallace* tbus describes tho fruit : " The durion grows on a large and lofty forest tree, somewhat resembUng an elra in its general character, but with a more smooth and scaly bark. The fruit is round, or slightly oval, about the size of a large cocoa-nut, of a green color, and covered all over with short, stout spinea, the basea of which touch each other, and are consequently somewhat hexagonal, while tbe points are very strong and sharp. It is so completely armed that, if the stalk is broken off, it is a difficult matter to lift one from the ground. Tbe outer rind is so thick and tough, that from whatever hight it may fall it is never broken. Frora the base to the apex five very faint lines may be traced, over whioh tbe spines arch a Uttle ; these are the sutures of tho earpels, and show wbere the fruit may be divided witb a heavy knife and a strong hand. Tbe five cells are white within, and are each filled with an oval mass of cream-colored pulp, irabedded in which are two or three seeds about the size of chestnuts. The pulp is the eatable part, and its consistonoe and flavor are indescribable. A rich, butter-like custard, highly flavored witb almonds, gives the best general idea of ifc ; but intermingled with it come wafts of flavor that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, brown sherry, and other incongruities. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in tbe pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, nor sweet, nor juicy; yet one feels the want of none of these qualities, for ifc is perfecfc as it is. It produces no nausea, or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat durions is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. " Wben the fruit is ripe it faUs of itself, and the only way to eat durions in perfec- * Malay Archipelago, 85. 558 THE TROPICAL WORLD. tion is to get them aa they faU, and the smell is then less overpowering. In a good fruit season large quantities are preserved salted, and kept the year round, when it acqijires a most disgusting odor to Europeans, but tbe natives appreciate it highly as a relish with their rice. It would not, perhaps, be correct to say that the durion is the best of all fruits, because it cau not supply tbe place of tbe sub-acid juicy kinds, such as tbe orange, grape, mango, and mangosteen, whose refreshing and cooling qualities are so wholesome and grateful; but as producing a food of the most exquisite flavor it is unsurpassed. If I bad to fix on two only as representing the perfection of the two classes, I should certainly choose the durion and the orange as the king and queen of fruits. " Tbe durion is, however, sometimes dangerous. When the fruit begins to ripen it falls daily and almost hourly, and accidents not unfrequently happen to persons walk ing or working under the trees. When it strikes a man in the fall, it produces a dreadful wound, tbe strong spines tearing open tbe flesh, while the blow itself is very heavy. Poets and moralists, judging frora the European trees and fruits, have said that small fruits alone grow on lofty trees, so that their fall should be harraless to man, while tbe larger ones trail on tbe ground. But thia generalization would be much modified by an acquaintance with tropical treea and fruita. Three of the largest, most solid and heavy fruits that exist — the cocoa-nut, the Brazil-nut, and the durion — grow on lofty forest trees, from which they faU as soon as they are ripe, and often wound or kill the inhabitants. From this we may learn, mortifying as it is to our vanity, that trees and fruits, as well as many species of the animal kingdom, do not appear to be organized with exclusive reference to tbe use and convenience of man." When tbe durion is brought into a house, its odor is so offensive that many persons can not bring themselves to taste it. This was the case with Mr. Wallace for a long time. Try his best to eat it, and the nose put in its absolute veto. But one day he happened when out of doors to find a ripe fruit, and eating it there, he thenceforward became a confirmed durion-eater. CONDIMENTS PRODUCED IN THE TROPICAL WORLD. 559 CHAPTER VII. SUGAR— COFFEE— CHOCOLATE— COCA— SPICES. Sugar: Its Importance — The Home of the Sugar-Cane — Ancient Theories about Sugar — The Introduction of the Cane into Europe and America — Characteristics of the Plant — Mode of Cultivation. — Coffee: Its Horae — Introduction into Egypt and Europe, and elsewhere—. Present Coffee Countries — Coffee Culture in Brazil — Agassiz's Description of a Coffee Estate — The West Indies and Ceylon — The Coffee-Plant — Methods of Preparing the Berries —The Enemies of the Plant- The Golunda— The Coffee Bug— The Coffee Moth.— Cocao, or Chocolate : Its Culture and Preparation. — Coca : Description of the Plant — Mode of its Use — Its Effects — Indian superstitions connected with it. — Cinnamon : Known to the Ancients — Cinnamon in Ceylon — Mode of Culture and Preparation — General Account of thie Spice — Nutmegs and Cloves — ^Enormities of the Dutch Monopoly — Pepper — ^Pimento — Ginger. THERE is a class of products of whioh, although not strictly articles of food, enter largely into human consumption either as furniabing beverages, or as con diments to give flavor to food, or as luxuries. With the exception of tea, whioh belongs to the temperate zone, tbese belong almost exclusively to tbe Tropical World ; and they rank among the most important articles of coramerce. We sball enumerate the principal of these, viz. : Sugar, Coffee, Cacao, Coca, VanUla, Cinnamon, Nut megs, Cloves, Pepper, and Pimento. Next after the great cereals, which have been described, sugar wiU rank as the most valuable product of the vegetable kingdora. It is produced in greater or less quantities from the juices of most fruits and vegetables, and the sap of many kinds of trees. We shall, however, speak only of that derived frora the sugar-cane, a plant so exclusively tropical that its cultivation increases greatly in cost tbe moment we enter the confines of the teraperate zones. Even in tbe great sugar region of Louisiana, with all the advantages of capital aided by science, the production of sugar is only rendered profitable by tbe imposition of protective duties upon that of foreign countries. The original home of this plant — for which, doubtless, tbe lively fancy of tbe ancient Greeks, had they been better aoquainted with it, would have invented a peculiar god, as for the vine or the cereals — is most likely to be sought for in South eastern Asia, wbere the Chinese seem to have been the firat people that learnt tbe art to multiply it by culture, and to extract the sugar from its juice. From China its cultivation spread westwards to India and Arabia, at a time unknown to history ; and the conquests of Alexander tho Great first made Europe acquainted with the sweet- juiced cane, whUe sugar itself had long before been imported by the Phoenicians as a rare production of the Eastern world. At a later period, both the plant and its produce are mentioned by several classical authors. They were, however, ignorant' 660 THE TROPICAL WORLD. of the manner of its production, and set forth many fanciful theories upon the subject. Accordinc to some it was a kind of honey, which formed itself without the assistance of bees. Others thought it, like the manna in the wUderness, a sbower from heaven which fell upon tbe leaves of blessed seed. Others, more nearly correct, believed it to be a concretion of the juices, formed by tbe plant itself in the manner of a gum. During tbe dark ages which foUowed the fall of tbe Roman Empire, all previous knowledge of tbe Oriental sugar-plant became lost, until the Crusades, and, still more, the revival of comraerce in Venice and Genoa reopened the ancient intercourse between the Eastern and tbe Western world. From Egypt, wbere the cultivation of the sugar cane had, meanwhile, been introduced, it now extended to tbe Morea, to Rhodes, and Malta; and at tbe beginning of tbe twelfth century we find it growing in Italy, on the sultry plains at tbe foot of Mount Etna. After the discovery of Madeira by the Portu guese, in tbe year 1419, the first colonists added the vine of Cyprus and the SiciUan sugar-cane to the indigenous productions of that lovely island ; and both succeeded so woll, as to become after a few years the objects of a Uvely trade witb the mother country. Yet, in spite of this extension of its culture, tbe importance of sugar aa an article of international trade continued to be very liraited, until tho discovery of tropical America by Columbus opened a new world to comraerce. As early as the year 1506 tbe sugar cane was transplanted from tbe Canary Islands to Hispaniola, where its culture, favored by tbe fertility of a virgin soil and tbe heat of a tropical sun, was soon found to be so profitable, that it became the chief occupation of the European settlers, and tbe principal source of their wealth. The Portuguese, in their turn, conveyed the cane to Brazil ; frora Hispaniola it spread over tbe other West Indian Islands ; thence wandered to the Spanish main, and followed Pedrarias and Pizarro to tbe shores of the Pacific. Towards the middle of tbe last century, tbe Chinese or Oriental Sugar-cane bad thus multiplied to an amazing extent over both hemispheres, when the introduction of the Tahitian variety, whioh was found to attain a statelier growth, to eontain more sugar, and to ripen in a shorter time, began to dispossess it of its old domains. This new and superior plant is now universally cultivated in all the sugar-growing European colonies ; and if Cook's voyages had produced no otber benefit tban making tbe world acquainted with the Tahitian Sugar-cane, tbey would for this alone deserve to be reck oned by the political economist among the most successful and important ever per formed by man. Tbe sugar-cane beara a great resemblance to tbe common rood, but tbe blossom is different. It bas a knotty stalk, like most grasses, frequently rising to the height of fourteen feet, and produces at each joint a long, pointed, and sharply serrated leaf or blade. The joints in one stalk are from forty to sixty in number, and tbe stalks rising from one root are sometimes very numerous. As tbe plant grows up, the lower leaves fall off. A field of canes, when agitated by a light breeze, affords one of the most pleasing sights, particularly when, towards tbe period of their maturity, the golden plants appear crowned witb plumes of silvery feathers, delicately fringed with a lilac dye. The cane has this peculiarity, that each joint while contributing its share to the general growth and nutriment, is at the samo time, by a separate system of vessels and chambers, providing for its own development. Tbus every joint ia in a manner a distinct plant ; and if placed in the ground will send up a perfect cane. This is THE SUGAR CANE. AND SUGAR. 561 indeed the only manner in which it is now propagated. There is not and probably has not been for agea, a single plant raised from the seed. In Louisiana, a third of the crop is required for seed. In Cuba, much less is required, aa tbe cane requires planting only every ten or twelve yeane ; while in Louisiana it must be renewed every two or three years. To this is mainly due tbe advantage as a sugar country of Cuba over Louisiana. As tbe cane is a rank, succulent plant, it requires a strong, deep soil to bring it to perfection, and generally grows best in a low, moist situation. On the eastern, well- watered slopes of tbe Andes, however, it still thrives at a height of 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. In preparing a field for planting with the cuttings of cane — for the cultivator nowhere resorts to the sowing of seed, which in America at least, has never been known to vegetate — the ground ia marked out in rowa, three or four feet apart, and in theae linea boles are dug, from eight to twelve inches deep, and with an interval of two feet between the holes. In these the cuttings are inserted, which invariably consist of the top joints of tbe plant, because they are less rich in saccharine juice tban the lower parts of the cane, while their power of vegetation is equally strong. While tho shoots are growing and progressing to ripeness, great care must be taken to irrigate and weed the field. The canes annually yield fresh shoots, or rattoons, but as they have a tendency to deteriorate — at least in size — it is custoraary in all well-man aged estates to renew every year one sixth part of tbe plantation. The manufacture of sugar has been greatly improved by the introduction of steam- power, which thoroughly presses out all the juice of the canes on their being passed but once between tbe three iron rollers which tbe crushing-machine sets in motion. The sap ia collected in a cistern, and must be immediately heated, to prevent its becoming acid — an effect which frequently commences in leaa than an hour from tbe time of ita being expressed. A certain quantity of lime ia added to promote the sepa ration of the feoulent matters contained in the juice, and tbese being removed, the cane liquor is then subjected to a very rapid boiling, to evaporate tbe watery partieles and bring the syrup to such a consistency that it will granulate on cooling. In order to separate the granulated or crystallized sugar from the molasses, which are incapable of crystallization and even attract the moisture of the air, it is placed in a large square iron and air-tight case, divided into two compartments by a sieve-like bottom of wire with narrow meshes. Tbe sugar ia placed in the upper compartment, and tbe lower one communicates with two air-pumps, which are set in motion by the same engine which crushes the canes. On the air being exhausted in this lower com partment, the liquid molasses come pouring in to fill up the void, while the crystallized mass remains almost thoroughly purified at the top. This used formerly to be a very tedious operation : the sugar was placed in large casks whose bottoms were pierced with holes, and though left to drain for at least eight days, it stUl retained a quantity of molasses, while by the new process the cleansing is most effectually performed in a couple of hours, and the sugar, whieh has of course a much better appearance, can immediately be packed in hogaheads and cases ready for shipment. Our space wiU not permit us to give a fiiU description of the entire process of culti vating tbe cane and manufacturing sugar. In Harper's Magazine for November, 1853, and February, 1865, wUl be found ftdly illustrated articles describing these processes as carried on in Louisiana aud Cuba. 36 562 THE TROPICAL WORLD. Tbe mountain regions of Enarea and Caffa, situated to the south of Abyssinia, aro most probably tbe countries where the Coffee-Tree was first planted by nature, as it bas here not only been cultivated from time immemorial, but is everywhere found growing wild in tbe forests. Here also the art of preparing a beverage from its berries seems to have been first discovered. Arabic authors inform us that about four hundred years ago Gemaledie, a learned mufti of Aden, having become aoquainted witb its virtues on a journey to the opposite shore of Africa, recommended it on bis return to tbe dervises of his convent as an excellent means for keeping awake during their devotional exercises. The example of these boly raen brought coffee into vogue, and its use spreading from tribe to tribe, and from town to town, finally reached Mecca about the end of the fifteenth century. There fanaticism endeavored to oppose its progress, and in 1511 a council of theologians condemned it as being contrary to the law of Mahomet, on account of its intoxicating like wine. The Sultan of Egypt, however, who happened to bo a groat coffee-drinker himself, convoked a new asserably of the learned, who de clared its use to be not only innocent, but healthy ; and thus coffee advanced rapidly from the Eed Sea and the Nile to Syria, and from Asia Minor to Constantinople, wbere the first coffee-house waa opened in 1554, and soon called forth a number of rival establishments. But bere also the zealots began to murmur at tbo mosques being neglected for the attractions of the ungodly coffee divans, and declaimed against it from the Koran, whioh positively says that coal is not of the number of thinga created by God for good. Accordingly tbe mufti ordered the coffee-housea to bo closed ; but his successor declaring coffee not to be coal, unless when over-roasted, they were allowed to re-open, and ever since tbe most pious mussulman drinks his coffee without any scruples of conscience. The coraraercial intercourse witb the Levant^ could not fail to make Europe aoquainted with this new source of enjoyment. In 1052, Pasqua, a Greek, opened the first coffee house in London, and twenty years later the first French cafes were established in Paris and Marseilles. As tbe demand for coffee continually increased, tbo small province of Yemen, the only country which at that time supplied tbe market, could no longer produce a sufii- cienfc quantity, and the high price of tbe article naturally prompted tbe European governments to introduce tho cultivation of so valuable a plant into their colonies. The islands of Mauritius and Bourbon took tbe lead in 1718, and Batavia followed in 1723. Sorae years before, a few plants bad been sent to Amsterdam, one of whieh found its way to Marly, wbere it was multiplied by seeds. Captain Descloux, a French naval officer, took sorae of these young coffee-plants witb bim to Martinique, desirous of adding a new source of wealth to tbe resources of the colony. Tho passage was very tedious and stormy ; water began to fail, and all tbe gods seemed to conspire against the introduction of tbo coffee-tree into tbe new world. But Desoleux patiently endured the extremity of thirst that his tender shoots might not droop for want of water, and succeeded in safely bringing over one single plant, tbe parent stock whence all the vast coffee-plantations of the West Indies and Brazil are said to have derivetl their origin. On examining tbe present state of coffee-production throughout tbe world, we find that it bas undergone great revolutions within the last thirty years, as some of the countries that were forraerly prominent in thia respect now occupy but an inferior COFFEE AND COFFEE COUNTRIES. , 563 rank, whUe in others tbe cultivation of coffee has rapidly attained gigantic proportions. Thus Brazil, whioh at tbe beginning of the century was hardly known in the coffee market, now furnishes nearly as much as all tbe rest of the world besides. Its expor tation, which in 1820 amounted to 97,500 sacks, rose to a million in 1840, and attained in 1855 the enormous quantity of 2,392,100 sacks, or more than 350 millions of pounds I Java ranks next to Brazil among the coffee-producing countries, for though slavery does not exist in this splendid colony, yet the Dutch have introduced a system which answers the purpose fully as well. Every Javanese peasant is obliged to work sixty- six days out of the year for government ; and tbe residents or administrators of the various districts distribute this compulsory labor among tbe several plantations, which are all iu the banda of private individuals. Tbus tbe latter are provided with tbe necessary hands at a very cheap rate ; but on the other hand they are compelled to sell their whole produce to tbe Handels Maatschappy, or Dutch East India Company, at a price fixed by the governraent, which of course takes care to secure the lion's share of the profit. Within the last forty years the progress of coffee cultivation in Ceylon has been no less remarkable tban its rapid extension in Java or Brazil. Though tbe plant was found growing in tbe island by tbe Portuguese, and is even supposed by some to be indigenous, yet it was only after tbe subjugation of the ancient kingdom of Kandy by the English in 1815, and the opening of roads in the bill country, that it began to be cultivated on a more extensive scale ; so that in an incredibly short time the mountain ranges in tbe contre of the island becarae covered with plantations, and rows of coffee- frees began to bloom upon tbe solitary hills around tbe very base of Adam's Peak. Brazil is, however, tbe great coffee country of the world. According to Agassiz* ¦' more than half the coffee consumed in tho world is of Brazilian growth. And yet the coffee of Brazil has little reputation, and is even greatly underrated, simply because a great deal of tbe best produce of the Brazilian plantations is sold under tbe name of Java or Mocba, or as tbe coffee of Martinique or Bourbon. Martinique produces only 600 sacks of coffee annually ; Guadaloupe, whose coffee is sold under tbe name of tbe neighboring island, yields 6,000 sacks, not enough to provide the market of Rio de Janeiro for twenty-four hours ; and tbe Isle of Bourbon hardly more. A great part of the coffee whicb is bought under tbese names, or under that of Java coffee is Bra zilian ; while tbe so-called Mocha coffee is often nothing but the small round beans of the Brazilian plant, found at tbe summit of tbe branches, and very carefully selected." "If," continues Agassiz, " tbe provinces adjacent to Rio de Janeiro offer naturaUy tbe most favorable soil for the production of coffee, it raust not be forgotten that coffee is planted witb advantage in tbe shade of tbe Araazonian forest, and even yields two annual crops wherever pains are taken to plant it. In tbe province of CoarS,, wbere the coffee is of superior quality, it is not planted on tbe plains or in tbe low grounds, or in tbe shadow of the forest, as in tbe valley of tbe Amazon, but on tbe slopes of the hiUs and on the mountain bights, at an elevation of from 1,500 to 2,000 feet and more above the sea, in tbe Serras of Aratanha and Baturit^ and in tbe Serra Grande." "A thriving coffee plantation," says Agassiz elsewbere,t "is a very pretty sight; the rounded regular outline of tbe shrubs gives a tufted look to the hill-sides on which * Joiirney in Brazil, 506, 507. t Journey in Brazil, 71, 113, 114. 564 THE TROPICAL WORLD. they grow, and tbeir gUttering foUage contrasts strikingly with their bright berries. One often passes, however, coffee plantations which look ragged and thin ; and in this case the trees are either suffering from the peculiar insect so injurious to them, (a kind of tinea,) or have run out and become exhausted. Tbe ordinary roads on the coffee plantations are carried straight up the side of the hUls, between the lines of tbe shrubs, gullied by every rain, and offering besides so steep an ascent that even with eight or ten oxen it is often impossible to drive tbe clumsy, old-fashioned cart up tbe slope, and tbe negroes are obUged to bring a great part of the harvest down on tbeir heads. Tbey are often seen bringing enormous bundles on tbeir heads down almost vertical slopes." Agassiz, however, describes one plantation whicb he visited which appears to be a model : " On Senbor Lage's estate all these old roads are abandoned, except where tbey are planted here and there with alleys of orange-trees for tbe benefit of the negroea ; and he bas substituted for tbem winding roads in tbe sides of tbe hill, with a very gradual ascent, so that light carts dragged by a single mule can transport all tbe harvest from the sumrait of the plantation to the drying-ground. It waa the harvesting season, and the sight was a very pretty one. The negroes, men and women, were scattered about the plantations, witb broad shallow trays, made of plaited grass or bamboo, over their shoulders, and supported at tbeir waists. Into these they were gathering tbe coffee, some of tbe berries being brilliantly red, some already beginning to dry and turn brown ; while bere and there was a green one not yet quite ripe but soon to ripen in tbe scorching sun. Little black children were sitting on the ground, and gathering what fell under the bushes, singing at their work a monotonous but rather pretty snatch of song, in whioh some took the first and others tbe second, making a not inharmonious music. As their baskets were filled they carae to the administrator to receive a little metal ticket on which tho amount of tbeir work was marked. A task is allotted to eacb one — so much to a full-grown man, so much to a woman with young cbildren, so much to a child — and eacb one is paid for whatever he may do over and above it. Tbe requisition is a very moderate one, so that tho industrious have an opportunity of making a little money independently. At night tbey all present tbeir tickets, and are paid on tbe spot for any extra work. From the harvesting-ground we followed the carta down to tbe place where tbeir burden is deposited. On thoir return from tbe plantation tbe negroes divide the day's harvest, and dispose it in little mounds on tbe drying-ground, which ia paved in a dazzUng white cement, from tbe glare of which the eye turns wearily away, longing for a green spot on which to rest. When pretty equaUy dried, the coffee is spread out in thin even layera over tbe whole enclosure, where it is baked in the sun for tho last time. It is then bulled by a very simple machine, in uae on almost all tbe fazendas, and the process is complete. "The coffee plantations cover all tbe hill-sides for mUes around. The seed is planted in nurseries especially prepared, where it undergoes its first year's growth. It is then transplanted to its permanent home, and begins to bear in about tbree years, the first crop being a very light one. Frora that tirae forward, under good care and with favorable soil, it will continue to bear, and even to yield two crops or more annually for thirty years in succession. At that time the shrubs and the soil are alike exhausted, and acoording to the custom of the country tbe fazendeiro cuts down a new forest and begins a new plantation, completely abandoning his old one, without a COFFEE CULTURE IN BRAZIL AND ELSEWHERE. 565 thought of redeeming or fertilizing the exhausted land. One of tbe long-sighted reforras undertaken by our host, however, is tbe manuring of all tho old deserted plan tations on hia eatate. He bas already a number of vigorous young plantations which proraise to be as good as if a virgin forest had been sacrificed to produce tbem. He wishes not only to preserve tbe wood on his own estate, and to show that agriculture need not be pursued at the expense of taste and beauty, but also to reraind bis coun trymen that, extensive as their forests are, they will not last forever ; and that ifc wUl be necessary to eraigrate before long to find new coffee' grounds, if tbe old ones are to be considered worthless." In tbo West Indies tbe culture of coffee has greatly diminished. Hayti, which before the revolution of 1791 exported to France 76,000,000 pounds, now produces less tban half that quantity. Tho British West Indies, which in 1827 exported nearly 30,000,000 pounds, now produce but 4,000,000. Cuba, the product of whicb in 1833 was 40,000,000 pounds, now produces less tban half as much. This ia, however, owing to tbe fact, that it ia found that under their system of slave-labor tbe cultivation of sugar, for which tbe climate is so favorable, bas been found more profitable tban that of coffee. In Ceylon tho production of coffee has increased enorraously within the present generation. It rose from less tban 2,000,000 pounds in 1833 to more tban 67,000,000 pounds in 1857 ; since which time ifc has still further increased. Wben left to tbe free growth of nature, tbe coffee-tree attaina a higbt of from fifteen to twenty feet; in tbe plantations, however, the tops are generally cut off in order to promote tbe growth of tbe lower branches, and to facilitate the gathering of tbe crop. Its leaves are opposite, evergreen, and not unlike those of the bay tree ; its blossoms are white, sitting on short footstalks, and resembling tbe flower of tbe jasmine. Tbe fruit which succeeds is a green berry, ripening into red, of tbe size and form of a large cherry, and having a pale, insipid, and somewhat glutinous pulp, enclosing two hard and oval seeds or beans, whicb are too well known to require any further description. The tree is in full bearing from its fourth or fifth year, and continues during a long series of seasons to furnish an annual produce of about a pound and a half of beans. Tbe seeds are known to be ripe wben the berries assume a dark red color, and if not then gathered, wUl drop from tbe trees. The planters in Arabia do not pluck the fruit, but plaoe cloths for its reception beneath the trees, which they shake, and tbe ripened berries drop readily. These are afterwards spread upon mats, and exposed to tbe sun until perfectly dry, when the husk is broken witb large heavy rollers made either of wood or of stone. The coffee, thus cleared of its husk, is again dried thoroughly in the sun, that it may not be liable to heat wben packed for shipment. This method may, in some measure, account for the superior quality of the Arabian coffee ; but in the large plantations of Brazil, Java, Ceylon, and otber European colonies, it is necessary to follow a more expeditious plan, to pluck tbe berries from the trees as soon as they ripen, and immediately to pass them through a pulping mill, consisting of a horizontal fluted roller turned by a crank, and acting against a movable breast-board, so placed as to prevent tbe passage of whole berries between itself and the roller. The pulp is then separated from the seeds by washing tbem, and the latter are spread out in the sun to dry ; after which tbe membranous skin, or parchment, which immediately covers the beans, is removed by means of heavy roUers or stamping. 566 THE TROPICAL WORLD. To be cultivated to advantage, tbe coffee-tree requires a climate wbere tbe mean teraperature of the year amounts to at least 68°, and where the thermoraeter never faUs below 55°. It is by nature a forest tree requiring shade and moisture, and tbus ifc is necessary to screen it from the scorching rays of tbe sun by planting rows of um brageous trees at certain intervals throughout tbe field. Tbese also serve to protect it from tbe sharp winds which would injure tbe blossoms. It cannot bear either excessive heat or a long-continued drought ; and wbere rain does not fall in sufficient quantity, artificial irrigation must supply it witb the neceaaary moisture. From aU these circumstances it is evident that the best situations for the growth of coffee are not the sultry alluvial plains of tbe tropical and sub-tropical lands, but the mountain slopes to an elevation of 4,500 feet. Like every otber plant cultivated by man, the coffee-tree is exposed to the ravages of many enemiea. Wild cats, monkeys, and squirrels prey upon the ripening berries, and hosts of caterpiUars feed upon the leaves. Since 1847 the Ceylon plantations have been several times invaded by swarms of tbe golunda, a species of rat which inhabits the forests, making its nest among tbe roots of the trees, and, like the lem mings of Norway and Lapland, migrating in vast numbers wben tbe seeds of the nlUoo-sbrub, its ordinary food, are exhausted. " In order to reacb the buds and blossoms of tbe coffee, tbe golunda eats such slender branches aa would not austain its weight, and feeds as tbey fall to the ground ; and so delicate and sharp are its incisors, that tbe twigs thus destroyed are detached by as clean a cut aa if severed with a knife. Tbe Malabar cooUes are so fond of its flesh that they evince a preference for those districts in whioh the coffee plantations arc subject to its incursions, frying the rats in oil or converting tbem into curry." Another great plague is the Lecanium coffees, known to planters as tbe coffee bug, but in reality a species of coccus, which establishes itself on young shoots and buds, covering tbem with a noisome incrustation of scales, from the influence of which the fruit shrivels and drops off. A great part of tbe crop ia sometimes lost, and on many trees not a single berry forms from the invasion of this pest, which was first observed in 1843 on an estate at Lapalla Galla, and thence spreading eaatward through other plantations, finally reached all the other estates in tho island. No cheap and effectual remedy has as yet been found to stay its ravages, and the only hope is that, as other blights bave been known to do, it may wear itself out, and vanish aa mysteriously as it came. Mrs. Agassiz* gives an interesting description of tbe larva of tbe Brazilian coffee moth : " For sorae tirae Mr. Agassiz has been trying to get living specimens of tbe insect so injurious to tbe coffee-tree, the larva of a little moth akin to those which destroy the vineyards of Europe. At last he succeeded in obtaining some, and among tbem was one just spinning his cocoon on tbe leaf. We watched bim for a long time witb the lens as he wove his filmy tent. He had arched the threads upwards in tbe center, so as to leave a little hollow space into which be could withdraw. This tiny vault seemed to be completed at tbe moment we saw bira, and he was drawing threads for ward and fastening tbem at a short distance beyond, thus lashing his bouse to tbe leaf, as it were. The exquisite accuracy of tbe work waa amazing. He waa apinning tbe thread witb his mouth, and with every new stitch he turned, his body backward, * Journey in Brazil, 118. THE COFFEE MOTH— CACAO— VANILLA. 567 attached his thread to the same spot, then drew it forward and fastened it exactly on a line witb tbe last, with a precision and rapidity that machinery could hardly iraitate. It is a curious question how far this perfection of workmanship in many of the lower aniraals is simply identical witb their organization, and therefore to be considered as a function as inevitable in its action as digestion or respiration, rather than as an instinct. In this case tbe body of tbe Uttle animal was bis measure. It was amazing to see him lay down his threads with such accuracy, till one remembered that he could not make them longer or shorter; for, atarting from the center of his house, and stretching his body to its full length, they must always reach the same point. The sarae is true of the so-oaUed ' mathematics ' of the bee. Tbe bees stand as close as they can together in their hive, for the economy of space ; and eacb ono deposits his wax around him, his own forra and size being tbe mould for tbe cells, tbe regularity of which wben completed excites so much wonder and admiration. The ' mathematical ' secret of tbe bee is to be found in his structure, not in his instinct. But in tbo industrial work of some of tbo lower animals — tbe ant, for instance, — there is a power of adaptation whicb is not susceptible of tbe sarae explanation. Their social organization, too intelli gent, it seems, to be tbe work of any reasoning powers of their own, yet does not appear to be directly connected witb their structure. While we were watching our litde insect, a breath stirred tbe leaf, and be instantly contracted himself and drew back under bis roof; but presently came out again and returned to his work." " Theobroraa," — food for gods, — the Greek narae given by Linnseus to tbe Cacao or Chocolate tree, sufficiently proves bow highly he valued tbe flavor of its seeds. Indigenous in Mexico, it had long been in extensive cultivation before tbe arrival of the Spaniards, who found the beverage whicb tho Indians prepared from its beans so agreeable, that tbey reckoned it among tbe most pleasing fruits of tbeir conquest. Frora Mexico they transplanted it into tbeir other dependencies, so that in America its present range of cultivation extends from 20° Nortb latitude to Guayaquil and Babia. It has even been introduced into Africa and Asia, in return for tbe many useful trees that bave been imported frora tbe old into the new world. The cacao tree seldom rises above tbe height of twenty foet, its leaves are large, oblong, and pointed. The flowers, whicb are of a pale red color, spring from the large branches, and even from tbe trunk and roots. Tbe fruits are large, oval, pointed pods, about five or six inches long, and containing in five compartments frora twenty to forty seeds — tbe well known cacao of coraraerce — enveloped in a white, pithy substance. Tbe trees are raised from seed, generally in places screened from the wind. As they are incapable of bearing the scorching rays of tbe sun, particularly wben young, bananas, maize, manioc, and otber broad-leaved plants are sown between their rows, under whose shade they enjoy tbe damp and sultry heat which is indispensable to their growth, for the Theobroma Cacao is essentially tropical, and requires a warmer climate tban tbe coffee-tree or tbe sugar-cane. Two years after having been sown, tbe plant attaina a height of tbree feet, and sends forth many brancboa, of which, however, but four or five are allowed to remain. The first fruits appear in tbe third year, but the tree does not come into full bearing before it is six or seven years old, and from that time forward it continues to yield abundant crops of beans during more tban twenty years. At first tbe tender plants must be carefully protected from weeds and 568 THE TROPICAL WORLD. insects, but in after years they demand but little attention and labor, so that one negro suffices for keeping a thousand trees in order and collecting tbeir produce. According to Herndon,* the annual produce of a thousand full-grown trees, in the plantations along the lower banks of the monarch of streams, amounts to fifty arrobes, that sell in Peru from two and a half to three milrees the arrobe ; and Wagner informs us that in Costa Rica a tbousand treea yield about 1,250 pounds, worth twenty doUars the hundred weight. The beans when firat collected from the tree are poaseased of an acrimony, whieh requires a slight fermentation to change into the aromatic principle, to which they are indebted for their agreeable flavor. For this purpose they are thrown into pits, wbere they remain three or four days covered with a light layer of sand, care being taken to stir them from time to time. Tbey are then taken out, cleaned, and laid out upon mats to dry in tbe sun. The management of the beans requires some caution, for if the fermentation ia allowed to continue too long, they acquire a mouldy taste and smeU, which they only lose on being roasted. When thoroughly dried (which is known by their hollow sound wben shaken, and by the husk easUy separating from tbe seed wben pressed) , they are packed in sacks or cases, and sent as soon as possible to the market, a rapid sale being extremely desirable, as it is very difficult to preserve tbem from insects, more particularly from the cockroaches. Cacao is chiefly used under the form of chocolate. The beans are roasted, finely ground, ao aa to convert them into a per- feotly amooth paste, and improved in flavor by tbe addition of spices, such as the sweet- scented vanilla, a short notice of which will not be out of place. Like our parasitical ivy, the Vanilla aromatica, a native of torrid America, climbs the summits of the highest foreat-treea, or creepa along the moiat rock crevices on tbe banks of rivulets. The stalk, which is about as thick as a finger, bears at each joint a lanceolate and ribbed leaf, twelve inches long and three inches broad. Tbe large flowers, which fill the forest with their delicious odors, are white intermixed with stripes of red and yellow, and are succeeded by long and slender pods containing many seeds imbedded in a thick oily and balsaraic pulp. These pods seldom ripen in the wild state, for the dainty monkey knows no greater delicacy, and his agiUty in cUmbing almost always enables him to anticipate man. At present the vanilla is cultivated not only in Mexico, wbere tbe villages Papantla and Misantla annually produce about 19,000 pounds or two milUons of pods (worth at Vera Cruz a shilling tbe pod), but in Java, wbere the industrious Dutch have acclimatized it since 1819. It is planted under shady trees on a damp ground, and grows luxuriantly ; but as a tbousand blos soms on an average produce but one pod, it must always remain a rare and costly spice. Had the ancients known vanilla they would, no doubt, have deemed it more worthy to be the food of the Olympic gods tban their fabled ambrosia. Although but little known beyond tbe confines of its native country. Coca (to be carefully distinguished frora Cocoa and Cacao) , is beyond all doubt one of the most remarkable productions of tbe tropical zone, and deserves the more to be noticed as tbe time is, perhaps, not far distant, when it will assume a conspicuous rank in the markets of the world. * Valley of the Amazons. COCA— ITS USES AND ABUSES. 569 The sultry vaUeys on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes are the seat of tbe Erythroxylon Coca, which like the coffee-tree hears a lustrous green foliage, and white blossoms ripening into small, scarlet berries. These, however, are not used, but the leaves, which when brittle enough to break on being bent, are stripped from the plant, dried in tbe sun, and closely packed in sacks. The naked shrub soon gets covered witb new foliage, and after three or four months its leaves are ready for a second plucking, though in some of the higher mountain-valleys ifc cau only be stripped once a year. Every eight or ten years the plantations require to be renewed, aa the leaves of tbe old shrubs are less juicy, and consequently of inferior quaUty. Like the coffee-tree, the coca shrub thrives only in a damp situation, under shelter from the sun ; and for this reason maize, whioh rapidly shoots up, is generally sown between the rows of the young plants. At a later period, wben tbey no longer need this protection, care must be taken to weed the plantation, and to loosen the soil every two or tbree months. The local conaumption of coca ia immense, aa the Peruvian Indian reckons its habitual use among tbe prime necessaries of life, and is never seen without his leathern pouch or chuspa, filled with a provision of the leaves, and containing besides a sraall box of powdered unslaked Ume. At least tbree times a day be rests from his work to chew his indispensable coca. Carefully taking a few leaves out of tbe bag, and removing their midribs, he first masticates them into tbe shape of a small ball, which is called an actittico ; then repeatedly inserting a thin piece of moistened wood like a toothpick into the box of unslaked lime, he introduces tbe powder which remains attached to it into the aeullico untU tbe latter has acquired tbe requisite flavor. The saliva, which is abundantly secreted while chewing the pungent mixture, is mostly swallowed along with tbe green juice of the plant. When tbe aculUco is exhausted, another is irarae diately prepared, for one seldom suffices. Tbe corroaive sharpneas of the unslaked lime requires some caution, and an unskilled coca-chewer runs tbe risk of burning his Ups, as, for instance, tbe celebrated traveler Tschudi, who, by the advice of bis muleteer, wbUe crossing tbe high mountain-passes of the Andes, attempted to make an acuUico, and instead of strengthening himself as be expected, merely added excru ciating pain to tbe fatigues of tbe journey. The taste of coca is slightly bitter and aromatic, like that of bad green tea, but tbe addition of lime or of the sharp ashes of the quinoa, renders it less disagreeable to the European palate. It is a remarkable fact that the Indians who regularly use coca require but little food, and wben the dose is augmented are able to undergo the greatest fatigues, without tasting almost anything else. Poppig aacribea thia astonishing increase of endurance to a momentary excitement, whioh must necessarily be succeeded by a corresponding collapse, and therefore considers the use of coca absolutely hurtful. Tschudi, however, is of opinion that its moderate consumption far from being injurious, ia, on the con trary, extremely wholeaome, and citea the examplea of several Indians who, never allowing a day to pasa without chewing their coca, attained the truly patriarchal age of one hundred and thirty years. Tbe ordinary food of tbese people consists almost exclusively of roasted raaize or barley, which is eaten dry without any other addition : and the obstinate obstructions caused by these mealy aliments are obviated by the tonic effects of the coca, which thus removes the cause of many maladies. It may be remarked, that a simUar reason is assigned for the custom of areka and betel chewing 570 THE TROPICAL WORLD. in Southern Asia. As an instance of the wonderful strengthening properties of the coca, Tschudi mentions tbe case of an Indian called Hatun Huamang or tbe " Great Vulture," whom he employed during five consecutive days and nights in making the most laborious excavations, and who never ate anything all the tirae, or slept more than two hours a nigbt. But every three hours be chewed about half an ounce of tbe leaves, and constantiy kept bis acuUico in bis mouth. When the work was finished, this Indian accompanied Tschudi during a ride of twenty-three leagues, over the high mountain- plains, constantly running alongside of tbe nimbly-pacing mule, and never resting but for the purpose of preparing an acuUico. When they separated, tbe " Great Vulture " told Tschudi that he would wUlingly do tbe same work over again, provided only he bad a plentiful allowance of coca. He was sixty-two years old, according to the testi mony of the vUlage priest, and bad never been ill all his life. Tschudi often found that coca is tbe best preservative against tbe asthmatic symp toms which are produced by the rapid ascension of high mountains. While hunting in the Puna, at an elevation of 14,000 feefc above the level of tbe soa, be always drank a strong infusion of coca before starting, and was then able to climb among tbe rooks, and to pursue his garae, without any greater difficulty in breathing than would have been the case upon tbe coast. Even after drinking a very strong infusion, he never experienced any symptoms of cerebral excitement, but a feeling of satiety, and though be took nothing else at tbo time, bis appetite returned only after a longer interval tban usual. If tbe moderate use of coca is thus beneficial in many respects, its abuse is attended witb tbe same deplorable consequences as those which are observed in the oriental opium-eaters and smokers, or in our own incorrigible drunkards. The confirmed coca- chewer, or coquero, is known at once by bis uncertain step, bis sallow complexion, his hollow, lack-lustre black-rimmed eyes, deeply sunk in the bead, bis trembling lips, his incoherent speech, and hia stolid apathy. His character is irresolute, suspicious, and false ; in the prime of life be has all tbo appearances of senility, and in later years sinks into complete idiocy. Avoiding the society of man, be seeks tbe dark forest, or sorae solitary ruin, and there, for days together, indulges in his pernicious habit. While under the influence of coca, his excited fancy riots in tbe strangest visions, now revelling in pictures of ideal beauty, and then haunted by dreadful apparitions. Secure from intrusion, be crouches in an obscure corner, bis eyes immovably fixed upon one spot ; and tho almost automatic motion of the hand raising the coca to tbe mouth, and its mechanical chewing, are tbe only signs of consciousness which he exhibits. Sometiraes a deep groan escapes frora bis breast, most likely wben tbe dismal solitude around him inspires bis iraagination with some terrific vision, which be is aa little able to banish as voluntarily to dismiss his dreams of ideal felicity. How tbe coquero finally awakens from his trance, Tschudi was never able to ascertain, though most likely the complete exhaustion of his supply at length forces him to return to his miserable but. No historical record informs us when the use of tbe coca was introduced, or who first discovered tbe hidden virtues of its leaves. When Pizarro destroyed tbe empire of Atahualpa he found that it played an important part in the religious rites of the Incas, and that it was used in all public ceremonies, either for fumigation or as an offering to the gods. Tbe priests chewed coca while performing their rites, and the USES AND ABUSES OF COCA— CINNAMON. 571 favor of tbe invisible powers waa only to be obtained by a present of tbese highly valued loaves. No work begun without coca could come to a happy termination, and divine honors were paid to the shrub itself. After a period of more tban tbree centuries, Christianity has not yet been able to eradicate these deeply rooted superstitious feeUngs, and everywhere tbe traveler still meets with traces of the ancient belief in its mysterious powers. To the present day, the miners of Cerro de Pasco throw chewed coca against tbe bard veins of the ore, and affirm that they can then be more easily worked, — a custom transraitted to them from their forefathers, who were fully persuaded that the Coyas, or subterranean divinities, rendered tbe mountains impenetrable unless previously propitiated by an offering of coca. Even now tbe Indians put coca into tbe mouths of tbeir dead, to insure them a welcome on their passage to another world; and whenever tbey find one of their ancestral mummies, tbey never fail to offer it some of the leaves. During the first period after tbe conquest of Peru, the Spaniards endeavored to extirpate by all possible means the use of coca, from its being so closely interwoven witb tbe Indian superstitions ; but the proprietors of the mines soon became aware bow necessary it waa for tbe successful prosecution of their undertakings ; the planters also found after a time that the Indians would not work without it. Private interest prevailed, as it always does in tbe long run, over religious zeal and despotic interdic tions, and in tbe last century we even find a Jesuit, Don Antonio Julian, regretting that the use of coca bad not been introduced into Europe instead of tea or coffee. When we consider ita remarkable properties, it ia indeed aatonishing that it baa so long remained unnoticed. Wero it concealed in tbe interior of Africa, or extremely difficult to procure, this neglect could be more easily accounted for; but hundreds of vessels annually frequent tbe harbors of Peru and Bolivia, wbere it may be obtained in large quantities, and yet it has only been rarely and in small quantities iraported into Europe, and, as far as I can learn, never into the United States. Although the Cinnamon tree, that beautiful laurel, whose bark furnishes the most exquisite of all the spices of the East, is indigenous in the forests of Ceylon ; yet as no author previous to the fourteenth century mentions its aroraatic rind among the pro ductions of tbe island, there ia every reaaon to believe that tbe cinnamon, which in the earlier agea waa imported into Europe through Arabia, was obtained first from Africa, and afterwards frora India. Cinnamon figures largely among the ingredients used by tbe Hebrews for tbe boly anointing oil and sacred perfumes. Some, indeed, but with no good reason, have supposed that the substance so designated was the gum of a species of the- aloe, and aver that cinnamon itself was unknown to the Hebrews, Greeks and Eomans. That the Portuguese, who had been mainly attracted to tiie East by tbe farae of ita spices, were nearly twenty years in India before they took steps to obtain a footing at Colorabo, proves that there can bave been nothing very remarkable in tbe quality of the spice at tbe beginning of tbe sixteenth century, and that the high reputation of tbe Ceylon cinnamon ia comparatively modern, and attributable to tbe attention beatowed upon its preparation for market by tbe Portu guese, and afterwards on its cultivation by tbe Dutch. Long after tbe appearance of Europeans in Ceylon, cinnamon waa only found in tbe foreata of the interior, where it was cut and brought away by the Chalias, an eraigrant tribe, which, in consideration 572 THE TROPICAL WORLD. of its location in viUages, was bound to go into the woods to cut and deliver, at certain prices, a given quantity of cinnamon properly peeled and ready for exportation. This system remained unchanged so long as Portugal was master of tbe country ; but the forests in whicb tbe spice was found being exposed to constant incuraiona from the Kandyans, who sought every opportunity to obstruct and harass tbe Chalias and peelers, tbe Dutch were compelled to form enclosed plantations of tbeir own within range of tbeir fortresses. Tbe native chieftains, fearful of losing the profits derived from the labor of tbe Cbaliaa, who were attached aa serfs to their domains, and whose work they let out to the Dutch, were at first extremely opposed to this innovation, and endeavored to persuade tbe Hollanders that tbe cinnamon would degenerate as soon as it was artificially planted. The withering of many of the young trees seemed to justify tbe assertion ; but on a closer examination it was found that boUing water bad been poured upon the roots. A law was now passed declaring tbo wilful injury of a cinna mon plant a crime punishable witb death, and by thia severity the project was saved. The extent of the trade during the time of tbo Dutch may be inferred from the fact, that tbe five principal cinnamon-gardens around Nejombo, Colombo, Barberyn, Galle, and Maduro were each from fifteen to twenty mUes in circumference. Although they were only firat planted in the year 1770, yet before 1796, wben Colombo was taken by the English, their annual produce araounted to more tban 400,000 lbs. of cinnamon, aa much as the demands of the market required. The profits' must have boon enormoua, for cinnamon was then at least ten times dearer than at present, the trade being exclusively in tbe bands of tbe Dutch East Indian Company, which, in order to keep up tho price, restricted tbe production to a certain quantity, and watched over its monopoly with the most jealous tyranny. No one was allowed to plant cinna mon or to peel it, and tbe selUng or importing of a single stick was punished as a capital offence. When the English took possession of the island, the monopoly was ceded to the East India Company for an annual sum of £60,000 until 1823, when tbe colonial governraent undertook tbe administration of tbe cinnamon-gardens for ita own account. In 1831 tbe produce sank to £16,000 aterling, and in tbe following year tbe ancient monopoly was abandoned; the government ceased to be the sole exporters of cinnamon, and thenceforward tbe merchants of Colombo and Galle were permitted to take a share in tbe trade, on paying to tbe crown an export duty of three sbillings a pound. Thia was afterwards reduced to one shilling, and ultimately totally abolished ; as not alone India and Java, but alao Martinique, Guiana, and Mauritiua, wbere tbe cinnamon tree had been introduced, were found capable of producing tbe spice ; and tbe cheap substitute of Cassia, a still more forraidable competitor, was arriving in Europe in large quantities from South China and the Trans-Gangetic peninsula. In Java alone the export of cinnamon, which in the year 1835 amounted only to 2,200 lbs., increased so rapidly that in 1845 it had already risen to 134,000 lbs., and as it cau there be more cheaply produced, and the Dutch government was wise enough to limit the export duty to one half-penny a pound, an unrestricted free trade was evidently the only. means for preventing Ceylon from being entirely supplanted in tbe markets of the world. Under these circumstances, the Singhalese cinnamon bas lost its ancient excellence, less care has been given of late years to the production of the finest qualities for tbe European raarket, and tbe coarser and less valuable shoots bave been CINNAMON GARDENS OF CEYLON. 573 cut and peeled in larger proportions than formerly. Hence tbe gross quantity exported from Ceylon in 1857 (887,959 lbs.) was nearly double that of 1841. Tbe cinnamon gardens, whose beauty and luxuriance has been so often vaunted by travelers, have partly been sold, partly leased to private individuals ; and though less than a century has elapsed since they were formed by the Dutch, they are already becoming a wUderness. Those which surround Colombo on tbe land side exhibit the effects of a quarter of a century of neglect, and produce a feeling of disappointment and melancholy. Tbe beautiful shrubs which furnish thia apice have been left to the wild growth of nature, and in some places are entirely supplanted by an under growth of jungle, while in others a thick cover of climbing plants conceals them under heaps of verdure and blossom. It would, however, be erroneous to sup pose that the cinnamon-gardens bave been universally doomed to the same neglect, and many beautiful gardens atill exist. Tbe aspect of a well-conditioned cinnamon- garden is rather monotonous ; for, though the trees when left to tbeir full growth attain a hight of forty or fifty feet, and a thickness of from eighteen to twenty inches, yet, as tbe best spice is furnished by the shoots that spring from tbe roots after the chief stem bas been reraoved, they are kept as a kind of coppice, and not allowed to rise higher than ten feet. Tbe shrubs planted in regular rows, four or five feet apart, consist of four or five shoots whose slender stems, very much reaembling thoae of the hazel tree, are leafed from top to bottom. The leaf when first developed is partly of a bright red, and partly of a pale yellow ; it soon, however, assumes a green bue, and wben at its full growth is on tho upper surface of a dark olive color, and on the under side of a lighter green ; it somewhat resembles that of the bay, but is longer and narrower. The flowers bloora in January, and grow on foot-stalks rising frora tbe axillae of the leaves and tbe extremities of the branches, clustering in bunches, which resemble in size and shape those of tbe lilac, but tbey are white with a brownish tinge in the center. Though their smell has been frequently extolled as very fragrant, yet it is weak, and by no means agreeable, resembling that of animal alburainous liquids. The flowers are foUowed by one-seeded berries, of the shape of an acorn, but not so large as a common pea. The plants are propagated by seeds or saplings. In two years tbe shoots are fit for cutting, being then about half an inch thick ; but as the shoots are continually cut as soon as they have obtained the proper size, a full-grown trunk never forms, so that the more or less voluminous root-stalk is tbe only criterion of age. Tbe peeling of the rind takea place twice a year, from May to June, and in November, aa at that time, in consequence of the heavier rains, and tbe increase of sap, it can be more easUy detached from tbe wood. Tbe epidermis having been scraped off, tbe bark is placed on mats to dry in tbe sun, when it curls up, and acquires a darker tint. The smaller pieces are then put inside tbe larger, and the whole closes together into the tubular form, in whioh it is sold in tbe shops. Tbe finer sort is as thin as parchment, light brown, and extreraely aroraatic. From the American " Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature " we abridge an admirable accountof this plant: "Cinnamon was probably an article of coraraerce in ancient Babylon. The Hebrews received it through tbe Midianites and Nabatbseans, who brought it from tbe Arabian Gulf. It seems that tbe Arabians at an early period bad commercial intercourse with Ceylon and Continental India. Tbe term itself occurs in 574 THE TROPICAL WORLD. many Greek authors. Herodotus, writing 400 years before tbe Christian era, describes Arabia as the last inhabited country toward the south, and the only region which producea frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and ledanum. He states that the Arabians, however, were ignorant of tbe particular spot where cinnamon grew. It was not till tho time of Dioscorides, Galen, and tbe circumnavigation of tbe Erythraean Sea (B. C. 200,) that we get any definite information. Galen says that cinnamon and cassia are so much alike that it is not an easy matter to distinguish one from the other. Cinnamon of tbe best quality is imported at tbe present day from Ceylon and the Malabar coast. It comes in bales and chests, tbe bundles weighing about a pound eacb. The pieces consist of slender compound quills about tbree feet long, each enclosing several smaller quills. These aro thin, smooth, and of a brownish color; of a warra, sweetish, and agreeable taste, and fragrant odor ; but several kinds are known in modern markets, as they were in ancient times. Tbe best kinds of cinnamon are obtained frora twigs and shoots ; those of less tban half an inch, or more than three inchea in diameter, are not peeled. When tbe bark is partially dry the smaller quills are introduced into the larger ones, and in this way congeries of quills are formed, often measuring forty inches in length. The quills are then thoroughly dried in the sun, and made into bundles with pieces of split bamboo twigs. " An oil of cinnamon is prepared by macerating tbe coarser pieces of tbe bark, after being reduced to a coarse powder, in sea-water for two days, and then distilling it. A fatty substance is also obtained by bruising and boiling the ripened fruit, when an oily substance floats on tbe surface, which on cooling concretes into a whitish, rather bard, fatty matter. As tho oil burns witb a delightful fragrance, tbe kings of Kandy used to burn it in their audience chambers when receiving foreign arabassadors. The wood also is pervaded witb tbe same grateful perfume, and walking-sticks and small articles of furniture made frora it are highly prized. " Cassia bark is witb difficulty distinguished from Cinnamon, except by experts. During the palmy Dutch daya there were professional tasters who were able to dis criminate between half a score of different qualities of cinnamon ; and tbey were required when on duty to Uve wholly on rice, bread, and fruits, so aa not to impair tbe koonneaa of their gustatory sensibilities. They, of course, were quite able to dis tinguish between cinnamon and cassia; tbe more readily because tbe latter left a bitter taste in the mouth. Chemistry distinguishes them still more readily ; for a decoction of cassia, wben treated with a tincture of iodine, gives a blue color, whioh cinnamon doea not. At tbe present day, cinnamon bas to a great extent lost its favor as a con diment. Tbe principal consumers of it are the cbocolate-makera of France, Spain, Italy and Mexico. The Germana, Turks and Russians prefer cassia, on account of its stronger flavor. Not very long since a large quantity of cinnamon, worth a dollar a pound, was aent by mistake to Conatantinople, where it could not be sold even at the price of cassia, worth only a seventh as much, which was in great demand." Nutmegs and Cloves, tbe costly productions of tbe remotest isles of the Indian Ocean, were known in Europe for centuries before tbe countries wbere tbey grow had ever been heard of. Arabian . navigators brought tbem to Egypt, where tbey were purchased by the Venetians and sold at an enormous profit to the nations of tbe west. But, as is well known, the commercial grandeur of tbe city of the Lagunes was CINNAMON— NUTMEGS— CLOVES. 575 suddenly eclipsed after Vasco de Gama discovered tbe new maritime road to tbe East Indies, round the Cape of Good Hope (1498); and wben, a few years later, tbe countrymen of tbe great navigator conquered tbe Moluccas (1511), they for a short time monopolized the whole spice trade much more tban their predecessors had over done before. But here also as in Ceylon tbe Portuguese were soou obliged to yield to a stronger rival ; for the Dutch now appeared upon tbe scene, and by dint of enter prise and courage soon made tbemselves masters of tbo Indian Ocean. In 1605 tbey drove tbe Portuguese from Amboyna, and before 1621 had elapsed, the whole of the Moluccas were in tbeir possession. Five-and-twenty years later, Ceylon also fell into their hands, and tbus they became the sole purveyors of Europe with cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs. Unfortunately, the scandalous manner in which they misused tbeir power throws a dark shade over tbeir exploits. For the better to secure tbe monopoly of the spice trade, tbey declared war against nature itself, allowed tbe trees to grow only in particular places, and extirpated them everywhere else. Tbus the planting of the nutmeg tree was confined to tbe small islands of Banda, Lontboir, and Pulo Aij, and that of the clove to Amboyna. Wherever the trees were seen to grow in a wild state, they were unsparingly rooted out, and the remainder of the Moluccas were occu pied and subjugated for no otber reason. The natives wero treated with unmerciful cruelty, and blood flowed in torrents to keep up the prices of cloves and nutmegs at an usurious bight. When these spices accumulated in too large a quantity for the market, they were thrown into tho sea or destroyed by fire. Thus M. Beauraare, a French traveler, relates that on June 10, 1760, he beheld near the Admiralty at Amsterdara a blazing pile of tbese aroraatios, valued at four millions of floriils, and an equal quantity was to be burnt tho next day. The air was perfumed witb tbeir delicious fragrance, tbe essential oils freed frora their confinement distilled over, mixing in one spicy stream, which flowed at tbe foet of the spectators; but no one was suffered to collect any of this, or, on pain of heavy punish ment, to rescue the smaUest quantity of the spice from tbe flames. But the reign of monopoly has ceased even in tbe remote Moluccas, and tbeir ports are now, at length, thrown open to tbe commerce of all nations ; for tbe apice treea having been transplanted into countries beyond the control of the Dutch, the ancient system could not possibly be maintained any longer. The clove tree belongs to the far-spread family of tbe myrtles ; the small lanceolate evergreen leaves resemble those of the laurel, tbe flowers growing in bunches at the extremity of tbe branches. When tbey first appear, which is at tbe beginning of tbe rainy season, tbey are in the form of elongated greenish buds, from the extremity of which tbe corolla is expanded, which is of a delicate peach-blossom color. When the corolla begins to fade, tbe calyx turns yellow, and then red ; the calycea with their embryo-seed are in this stage of their growth beaten from the tree, and, after being dried in tbe sun, are known as the cloves of commerce. If the fruit be allowed to remain on tbe tree after arriving at this period, tbe calyx gradually swells, the seed enlarges, and the pungent properties of the clove are in great part dissipated. The whole tree is highly aromatic, and tbe foot-stalks of tbe leaves have nearly tbe same pungent quality as tbe calyx of tbe flowers. Clove trees as an avenue to a residence are perhaps unrivalled; their noble bight, tbe beauty of tbeir form, the luxuriance of tbeir foliage, and, above all, tbe spicy fragrance with which they perfurae the air. 576 THE TROPICAL WORLD. produce, on driving through a long line of them, a degree of exquisite pleasure only to be enjoyed in the clear, light atraosphere of these latitudes. Cloves contain a very large proportion of essential oil, which combined with a pecu liar resin gives tbem their pungent aroma. It seems, however, to require a combina tion of favorable circumstances of climate and soU for tbe fiiU development of tbeir virtues; for, though the tree ia found in the larger islands of Eastern Asia, and in Cochin China, it has there little or no flavor, and tbe Moluccas seem to be tbe only place where tbe clove coraes to perfection without being cultivated. Though it is at present planted in Zanzibar, Cayenne, Bourbon, Trinidad, and otber places, yet Amboyna still furnishes the best quality and the largest quantity, exporting annually about a million of pounds. In spite of the endeavors of tbe Dutch to confine tbe Nutmeg tree to the narrow precincts of Banda, it has likewise extended its range not only over Sumatra, Mau ritius, Bourbon, and Ceylon, but oven over the western heraisphere. It is of a more majestic growth than the clove, as it attains a bight of fifty feet, and the leaves, of a fine green on the upper surface, and gray beneath, are more handsome in tbe outline, and broader in proportion to the length. When the trees are about nine years old, tbey begin to bear. They are dioecious, having male or barren flowers upon one tree, and female or fertile upon another. The flowers of both are small, white, bell-shaped, without any calyx ; tbe embryo-fruit appearing at the bottora of tbe female flowers in tbe form of a lifcfcle reddish knob. When ripe, it resembles in appearance and size a small peach, and then tbe outer rind, which is about half an inch thick, bursts at the side, and discloses a shining black nut, whicb seems the darker frora tbe contrast of tho leafy network of a fine red color witb which it is enveloped. The latter forms tbe Mace of commerce, and having been laid to dry in tbo shade for a short time, is packed in bags and pressed together very tightly. Tbe shell of tho nut is larger and harder than that of tbe filbert, and could not, in tbe state in which it is gathered, be broken without injuring tbe nut. On that account the nuts are successively dried in the sun and then by fire-beat, till tbe kernel shrinks so much as to rattle in tbe shell, which ia then easily broken. After this the nuts are three tiraes soaked in sea-water and lirae ; they are then laid in a heap, wbere they heat and get rid of their super fluous moisture by evaporation. This process is pursued to preserve the substance and flavor of the nut, as well as to destroy ita vegetative power. The kernel con tains both a fixed oU, which is obtained by pressure, a pound generally yielding tbree ounces, and a transparent volatile oil, which may be obtained by distillation in tbe proportion of one thirty-second part of the weight of nutmeg used. Tbe outer rinds are likewise not without use to tbe natives. They are laid in large heaps, and ab lowed to putrefy, when they get covered with a blackish mushroom, which is esteemed as a great delicacy. Pepper, although not so costly as cloves or cinnamon, is of a much greater com mercial value, as its consumption ia at leaat a hundred times greater. It growa on a beautiful vine, whicb, incapable of aupporting itself, twines round ^oles prepared for it ; or, as is more coramon in the Travancore plantations, the pepper vines are planted near mango and other trees of straight high stems. As tbese are stripped of PEPPER— PIMENTO— GINGER. 577 the lower branches, tbe vine embraces the trunk, covering it witb elegant festoons and rich bunches of fruit in the style of the Italian vineyards. Tbe leaf of tbe popper plant is large, resembling that of tbe ivy, and of a bright green ; the blossoms appear in June, soon after the commencement of the rains ; they are small, of a greenish white, and are followed by the pungent berries, whicb bang in largo bunches, resera bling in shape those of grapes, but the fruit grows distinct on little stalks like cur rants. This valuable spice grows chiefly on tbe Malabar coast, in Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Singapore; its cultivation has also been introduced in Cayenne and tbe West Indies. Tbe black and white sorts of pepper are both tbe produce of tbe same plant. The best white peppers are supposed to be tbe finest berries which have dropped from the tree, and, lying under it, beeome somewhat bleached by exposure to weather ; tbe greater part of tbe white pepper used as a condiment is, however, the black merely steeped in water, and deoortioated, by which means tbe pungency and real value of the spice are diminished ; but having a fairer and more uniform appearance when thus prepared, it fetches a higher price. Jamaica is the chief seat of tbe magnificent myrtle {Myrtus pimenta), which fur nishes the Pimento — coraraonly called, by way of erainence, " Spice," or "Allspice" — of commerce. This beautiful tree grows to the height of about thirty feet, witb a smooth, brown trunk, and shining green leaves resembling those of the bay. In July and August a profusion of white flowers, filling tbe air witb tbeir delicious odors, forms a very pleasing contrast to tbe dark foliage of its wide-spreading branches. It grows spontaneously in many parts of tbe island, particularly on tbe northern side, in high spots near tbe coast. When a new plantation is to be forraed, no regular planting or sowing takes place, for, as Edwards observes, " the pimento tree is purely a child of nature, and seems to mock all the labors of man in his endeavors to extend or iraprove its growth ; not one atterapt in fifty to propagate the young plants, or to raise them frora the seeds in parts of tbe country where it is not found growing spon taneously, having succeeded. For this reason, a piece of land is chosen, either in tbe neighborhood of a plantatation already formed, or in a part of the woodland wbere the pimento-myrtles are scattered in a native state. Tbe land ia then cleared of all wood but theae trees, which are left standing, and tbe felled tiraber ia allowed to re main, wbere it falls to decay, and perishes. In tbe course of a year, young pimento plants are found springing up on all parts of the land, produced, it is supposed, in consequence of the ripe berries having been scattered there by tbe birds, while the prostrate trees protect and shade tbe tender seedlings. At the end of two years tbe land is thoroughly cleared, and none but the most vigorous plants, which oome to maturity in about seven years, are left standing. " Tho berries aro carefully picked while yet green, since, wben suffered to ripen, they lose their pungency. One person on tbe tree gathers the small branches, and three others, usuaUy women and cbildren, find full employment in picking tbe berries frora tbem. Tbe produce is then expcsed to the sun for about a week, wben tbe berries lose tbeir green bue and become of a reddish brown. When perfectly dry, tbey are in a fit state for exportation. In favor able seasons, which, however, seldom occur above once in five years, the pimento crop is enormous, a single tree having been known to yield one hundred weight of tbe dried spice. From its combining tbe flavor and properties of many of the oriental 37 578 THE TROPICAL WORLD. aromatics, pimento bas derived its popular name of allspice, and, from its being cheaper than black pepper, its consumption is very great. Though but a lowly root, Ginger almost vies iu commercial importance with the aromatic rind of the cinnamon-laurel, or the pungent fruit of the nutmeg-rayrtle. The plant whicb produces this valuable condiment belongs to tbe tropical family of tbe Scitamineae, or spice-lilies, which also reckons among its members the Cardoraum and tbe Curcuma. Its jointed tubers creep and increase under ground, and from eacb of tbem springs up an annual stera about two feefc and a half high, wifch narrow and lanceolate leaves. The flowering stalk rises directly from tbe root, ending in an oblong, scaly spike ; from each of these scales a single white and blue flower is pro duced. Ginger ia imported into this country, under the form of dried roota and as a preserve. We receive it both from the East and West Indies, but that from the latter is much superior in quality to tbe former. KOEBEK CBAB— MALAY AECHIPELAGO. TROPICAL INSECTS. 581 AMMALS OF THE TROPICAL WORLD. CHAPTER VIII. INSECTS. Multitude of Tropical Insects — Beetles — Dragon Plies—Leaf Moths — The Leaf Butterfly — Fire Flies. — Insect Plagues: Mosquitoes — Chigoes, or Jiggers — The Pilaria Medinensis — The Bete Rouge— Ticks— Land-Leeches— The Tsetse Ply— The Tsalt-Salya Locusts- Cockroaches — Enemies ofthe Cockroach. — Useful Insects: The Silk- Worm — The Cochineal Insect — The Gum-Lac Insect — Edible and Ornamental Beetles. HAVING tbus passed in rapid survey over the characteristic forms of the Vege table World of tbe Tropics, we now proceed to tbe Aniraal Kingdora, com mencing with Inaecta, and proceeding to Reptilea, Birds and Beasts. On advancing from the temperate regions to tbe pole, we find that insect life gradually diminishes in the same ratio as vegetable life declines. The reverse takes place on advancing towards tbe equator ; for, as tbe sun rises more and more to the zenith, we find the insects gradually increasing witb tbe multiplicity of plants, and at length attaining tbe greatest variety of form, and tbe highest development of number, in those tropical lands where moisture combines with beat in covering tbo ground with % dense and everlasting vegetation. Tbus while not a single species of beetle is found on Melville Island, Greenland boasts of 11 ; Lapland of 813; Sweden of 2,083. In the milder climate of England their number increases to 2,263 ; in France it rises to 4,200 ; and tbe hothouse teraperature of Brazil, from Rio Janeiro to Babia, fosters no less than 7,500 specific forms of beetle life. In Borneo Mr. Wallace collected 2,000 distinct species of beeties within the space of a single square mUe ; some of them of forms to the oddity of which no parallel can be found elsewhere. Thus, also, whUe the whole of Europe and Siberia hardly possess more than 250 butterflies, tho ex plored parts of Brazil, which are very inferior in extent, have already furnished the naturahst witb no less than 600 species, and no doubt contain many more. In the countries whicb, frora tbe never failing abundance of food, and constant warmth, are most favorable to the multiplication of insects, these creatures may naturally be expected to attain the greatest size. Thus the European rhinoceros beetie. though an inch and a quarter long, ia far surpassed by the Megasominac of torrid America. Tbe colosaal Herculea beetle attains a length of five or even six inches, and is distinguished, like tbe other species of the genus, by tbe singular horn- shaped pmcesses rising from tbe bead and thorax, which give it a very grotesque and even formidable appearance. Though but little is yet known of its economy, it most likely subsists upon putreseent wood, and evidently leads a tree life, like the other 582 THE TROPICAL WORLD. members of the family — tbe Elephant, the Neptune, the Typhon, the Hector, the Mars — whose very names indicate that they are giants in the insect world. These beetles excavate burrows in the earth, wbere tbey conceal tbemselves during the day, or Uve in the decomposed trunks of trees, and are generally of a dark, rich brown, or chestnut color. On the approach of night they run about the footpaths in woods, or fly around tbe trees to a great higbt with a loud humming noise. Resembling the large herbivorous quadrupeds by their comparative size and horn-like processes, they are still further like them in tbeir harmless nature, and tbus deserve in raore than one respect to be called the elephants among tbe inseet tribes. Tbe Goliatbs of the coast of Guinea are nearly as large as the American giant beetles, and surpass tbem in brilliancy of coloring. Some years ago tbese huge beetles, which live exclusively on tbe juice of trees, were very rare, and brought extravagant prices. Thus, Mr. Swainson mentions £80 having been offered and refused for a single specimen, tbe proprietor demanding £50. The South American Inca beetles greatly resemble tbe African Goliatbs, equalling tbem in size and beauty. Many of tbe tropical dragon-flies, grasahoppera, butterflies, and moths, are of no loss colosaal diraensions in tbeir several orders than the gianta among the beetlea. The Libellula lucretia, a South American dragon-fly, measures five inches and a half in length ; tbe giant Pbasma is a span long ; and tbo cinnamon-eating Atlas-moth of Ceylon often reaches the dimensions of nearly a foot in the stretch of its superior wings. In the tropical zone, wbere the prodigality of life multiplies the enemiea which every creature baa to encounter, we may naturally expect to find tbe inaecta extremely well provided with both passive and active means of defence. Many so closely resemble in color the soil or object on which they are generally found, as to escape even tbe eye of a hungry enemy. The wings of several Brazilian moths appear like withered leaves that bave been gnawed round tbeir margins by insects; and when- these moths are disturbed, instead of flying away, they fall upon the ground like tbe leaf which they reserable, so that it is difficult, if not irapossible, on such occasions to know what they really are. Tbe iUusion is still more complete wben the likeness of form is joined to that of color, as in the walking leaf and walking-stick insects. Some, of an enormous length, look so exactly like slender dead twiga covered with bark, that their inaect nature can only be discovered by mere accident. Upon being bandied they feign death, and their legs are often knobbed, like the withered buds of trees. Some reserable living twigs, and are green; others such as are decayed, and are therefore colored brown. The wings of many put on tbe resemblance of dry and crumpled leaves, while those of others are vivid green, in exact accordance with the plants they respectively inhabit. Mr. WaUace describes tbe Kallima paralekta, a large beautifully colored butterfly wben flying, but which, when alighted, can not be distinguished frora a dead leaf, except upon the closest scrutiny. He had often seen it flying, but had never been able to capture one. At last actually saw one alight close by where he was standing; but it disappeared as if by magie. At last be detected it; and having secured it, was able to perceive how it was able to hide itself, when in plain view. The upper end of the wings terminates in a fine point, while tbe lower wings are lengthened out into a short thick taU; between these points runs a dark Une like the midrib of a leaf, THE LEAF BUTTERFLY— THE SOOTHSAYER. 583 with marks on each side resembling leaf-veins. When the wings aro olosely pressed together, the whole outiine is exactly like that of a half-shrivelled leaf, whicb it then resembles in color. The tail of the hind wings forms a perfect stalk, and rests upon the twig, while the insect is supported by the middle pair of legs, whicb are hardly to be distinguished from the twigs around. The head is drawn back between the wings, at whose base is a notch to let it in. Knowing all this, one must look closely at the picture which he gives in order to distinguish the alighted butterfly from a leaf. THE LEAF BUTTEKFLT. Another singular insect is the Mantis, or "Soothsayer," notable for its apparently feeble structure and voracious appetite. It is of slow movement, yet flies constitute a great part of its food. It steals cautiously upon its prey, and, wben near enough, flings out its long fore-legs and grasps its prey. These legs are curiously constructed ; the tibia can be shut upon the sharp edge of the thigh, like a pair of shears, witb which it can cut any slender substance, and even give a decidedly unpleasant nip upon the finger of tbe naturalist who incautiously seizes it. The Mantis, by the attitude it assumes when lurking for its prey or advancing upon it — which is done by the support of the four posterior legs only, whilst the head and 584 THE TROPICAL WORLD. prothorax are raised perpendicularly from the body, and tbe exterior legs are folded in front — greatiy resembles a person praying. Hence, in France it ia called Le Pr§- cheur, or Le Prie Dieu; the Turk says it points to Mecca; and several African tribes pay it religious observances. In reality, however, its ferocity is great; and the stronger, preying on tbe weaker of tbeir own species, unmercifully cut tbem to pieces. Thus, two Mantes whioh Sir E. Tennent enclosed in a box were both found dead a few hours after, severed limb from limb in tbeir deadly fight. Within tbe space of a week, Burmeister saw a Mantis devour daily some dozens of flies, and occasionally large grasshoppers and young frogs, consuming, now and then, lizards three times its own length, as well as many large fat caterpillars. Hence it may be judged what ravages tbese strangely forraed creatures must cause among all weaker beings whieh incautiously approach thera, and that, far frora being the saints, tbey are, in reality, the tigers of the inseet world. Though tbe great majority of luminous animals are marine, frequently lighting up the breaking wave witb millions of moving atoms, or spreading over the beaoh like a sheet of fire, yet several insects are also endowed witb tbe same wonderful property. Our own fire-flies afford a charming spectacle. But this brilliancy is far surpassed by that of tbe phosphorescent beetlea of tbe torrid zone. Thua tbe Cocujaa of South America glows witb such intensity, that if eight or ten of them are put into a vial tbe light wUl be sufficientiy good to admit of writing by it. In Cuba is a magnificent fire-fly, which ladies often enclose in gauze nets, and wear as ornamenta in the ball room. Wben the Spaniarda firat visited Mexico, tho wandering sparks of fire-flies were once mistaken for an army approaching with matchlocks ; and in tbe West Indies tbe English, under Cavendish and Dudley, seeing an innumerable body of tbese insects, fancied that tbe Spaniards were advancing upon them in force, and fled to tbe vessels from which they had just landed. The insect tribes bold a kind of universal empire over the earth and its inhabit ants, for nothing that possesses, or bas possessed, life is secure from tbeir attacks. To secure himself from their attacks, man must wage a perpetual warfare, and main tain an ever-wakeful vigilance, for, though destroyed by thousands, new legions ever make tbeir appearance, and to repose after a victory is equivalent to a defeat. In our temperate zone, where a higher cultivation of the ground tends to keep down the number of the lower animals, their perseoutions, though frequently annoying, may still be borne with patience ; but in the tropical regions, wbere man ia generally either too indolent or not sufficiently numerous to set bounds to their increase, tbe insects constitute one of the great plagues of Ufe. We wUl first speak of sorae of these insect plagues : Along the low river-banks, and everywhere on bot and swampy grounds, the blood thirsty mosquitoes appear periodically in countless multitudes, the dread of all who live in warm cUmates. Scarcely bas the sun descended below tbo horizon, when these- inseots arise from the morass to disturb the rest of raan and to render existence a tor ment. Not satisfied with piercing the flesh witb tbeir sharp proboscis, which at the same time forras a kind of syphon through which tbe blood flows, tbese malignant gnats, of which there are many species, inject a poison into tbe wound, which causes inflammation, and prolongs the pain. MOSQUITOES— JIGGERS. 585 In Angola, Livingstone found the banks of tbe river Souza infested by legions of tbe most ferocious moaquitoes he ever met with during the course of his long travels. The torment which they inflicted was, be says, " at least equal to a nail through the heel of one's boot, or tbe toothache." Edwards, on bis voyage up the Amazon, was no less tormented by tbese troublesome pests. " Nets were of no avail, even if the oppressive heat would have allowed tbem ; for those whioh could not creep through the meshes would in some other way find entrance in spite of every precaution. Thick breeches they laughed at, and tbe interior of the cabin seemed a bee-hive. This would not do, so we tried the deck, but fresh swarms continually poured over us. THE MOSQUITO — NATURAL SIZE, AND MAGNIFIED. and all night long we were foaraing with vexation and rage." During bis sojourn in the Peruvian forests, Tschudi lay for several days almost motionless, with a swollen bead and limbs, in consequence of tbe bite of these intolerable flies ; and although by degrees tbe skin became more accustoraed to the nuisauce, and swelling no longer fol lowed, yet their sting never failed to cause great pain. During tbree months of tbe year they infest the province of Maynas to such a degree, that even the stoical Indians utter loud complaints, and tbe dogs endeavor to escape tbem by burying themselves in the sand. The Chegoe, Pique, or Jigger of the West Indies {Pulex penetrans), is another great torment of the hot countries of America. It looka exactly like a small flea, and 686 THE TROPICAL WORLD. a stranger would take it for one. However, in about four and twenty houra he would have aevoral broad hints that he had made a mistake in his ideas of the animal. It attacks different parta of the body, but chiefly the feet, betwixt the toe-nails and the fleab. There it buries itself and causes an itching, which at firat is not unpleasant, but after a few days gradually increases to a violent pain. At the same time a small white tumor, about the size of a pea, and with a dark spot in tbe centre, riaes under the skin. The tumor is tbe rapidly growing nest of tbe cbegoe, tbe spot the Uttle plague itself. And now it is high time to think of its extirpation, an operation in which the negro women are very expert. Gently reraoving with a pin the skin from the little round white ball or nest, precisely as we should peel an orange, and pressing tbe flesh all round, tbey generally succeed in squeezing it out without breaking, and then fill the cavity with snuff or tobacco, to guard against tbe possibility of a fresh colony being formed by sorae of tbe eggs remaining in the wound. New comers are particularly subject to tbese creatures. " Every evening," says Waterton, " before sundown, it was part of my toilet to examine my feet and see that tbey were clear of chegoes. Now and then a neat would escape the scrutiny, and then I had to smart for it a day or two after." If tbe prompt extraction of tbe chegoe's nests is neglected, tbe worm-like larvae creep out, continue tbe mining operations of tbeir parent, and produce a violent inflammation, whicb may end in tbe mortification of a limb. It not unfrequently happens that negroes from sheer idleneaa or negligence in tbe first iu stance bave been lamed for life and become loathsome to the sight. In such a state, these miserable objects are incurable, and death only puts an end to their sufferings. A still more dangerous plague, peculiar to tbe coast of Guinea and the interior of tropical Africa, to Arabia, and the adjacent countries, is the Filaria medinensis of Linnaeus. This dreadful worm coraes to the herbage in the morning dew, from whence it pierces the skin, and enters tbe feet of such as walk without shoes, causing the most painful irritations, succeeded by violent inflammation and fever. The natives extract it with tbe greateat caution by twisting a piece of silk round one extremity of the body and withdrawing it very gently. Wben we consider that this insidious worm is frequently twelve feet long, although not thicker tban a horse-hair, we can readily iraagine the difficulty of the operation. If, unfortunately, tbe animal sbould break, tbe part reraaining under tbe skin grows witb redoubled vigor, and frequently occa sions a fatal inflamraatlon. Among the plagues of Guiana and the West Indies is a Uttle insect in the grass and on the shrubs, which tbe French call BUe-rouge. It is of a beautiful scarlet color, and so minute that you must bring your eye close to it before you oan perceive it. It abounds most in the rainy season. Its bite causes an intolerable itching, which, acoording to Schomburgk, who writes from personal experience, drives by day the perspiration of anguish from every pore, apd at nigbt makes one's hammock resemble tbe gridiron on which Saint Lawrence was roasted. The best way to get rid of the plague is to rub tbe part affected with lemon-juice or rum. "You must be careful not to scratch it," says Waterton. " If you do so and break tbe skin, you expose your self to a sore. The first year I was in Guiana the bSte-roUge and my own want of knowledge, and, I may add, the little attention I paid to it, created an ulcer above tbe ankle which annoyed me for six months." The blood-sucking Ticks are also to be classed among tbe intolerable nuisances of LAND-LEECHES— THE TSETSE. 587 many tropical regions. A large American species called Garapata {Ixodes sanguisuga) fixes on the legs of travelers, and gradually buries its whole head in the akin, which the body, diagustingly distended witb blood, ia unable to follow. On being violently removed, tbe forraer reraains in the wound, and often produces painful sores. The Indians returning in tbe evening from the forest or from their field labor generally bring some of tbese creatures along with thera, swollen to tbe size of hazel-nuts. Tbese ticks seem to have no predileetion for any particular animal, but indiscrimi nately fasten on all, not even sparing the toad or tbe lizard. Though countless hosts of ticks infest the Ceylonese jungle, though musquitoes without number swarm over the lower country, yet tbe Land-Leeches whieh beset tbe traveler in the rising grounds are a still raore detested plague. In size they are about an inch in length, and as fine aa a coraraon knitting-needle, but capable of distention till tbey equal a quill in thickness and attain a length of nearly two inches. Their structure ia so flexible that they can insinuate tbemselves through tbe raeshes of the finest stocking, not only seizing on the feet and ankles, but ascending to the back and throat, and fastening on the tenderest parts of the body. Tbe coffee planters who live among these pests are obliged, in order to exclude tbem, to envelop their legs in "leech-gaiters," made of closely woven cloth. "In moving, they have the power of planting one extremity on the earth and raising tbe other perpendicularly to watch for tbeir victim. Sucb is their vigilanee and instinct that, on the approach of a passer-by to a spot which they infest, they may be seen amongst the grass and fallen leaves, on the edge of a native path, poised erect, and preparing for tbeir attack on man and horse. On descrying their prey, they advance rapidly by semiciroular strides, fixing one end firmly and arching the other forwards, till by auccessive advancea they oan lay hold of the traveler's foot, wben tbey disengage themselves from tbe ground and ascend his dress in search of an aperture to enter. In these encounters the individuals in the rear of a party of travelers in tbe jungle invariably fare worst, as tbe leeches, once warned of tbeir approach, congregate with singular celerity. Tbeir size is so insignificant, and tbe wound tbey make so skilfully punctured, that both are certainly imperceptible, and the firat intimation of tbeir onslaught is the trickling of the blood, or a chill feeling of tbe leeob wben it begins to bang heavUy on tbe skin from being distended by its repast. Horsea are driven wUd by them, and atamp the ground in fury to shake thom from their fetlocks, to which thoy hang in bloody tassels. The bare legs of the palankin-bearers and coolies are a favorite resort, and their bands being too much engaged to be spared to pull tbem off, the leeches hang like bunches of grapes round their ankles ; and I have seen the blood literally flowing over tbe edge of a European's shoe from their innuraerable bites. In healthy constitutions tbe wounds, if not irritated, generally heal, occasioning no other inconvenience tban a slight inflammation and itching; but in those with a bad state of body, the punctures, if rubbed, are Uable to degenerate into ulcers, which may lead to tbe loss of limb or of Ufe. During the march of the troops in tho mountains, when tbe Kandyans were in rebellion, in 1818, tbe soldiers, and especially the Madras Sepoys, witb tbe pioneers and coolies, suffered so severely from this cause that numbers of tbem perished." Among tbe many noxious inseots destructive to tbe property of man, there is, perhaps, none more reraarkable than the South African Tsetse-fly ( Glossina morsi- tans), whose peculiar buzz, when once heard, can never be forgotten by the traveler 588 THE TROPICAL WORLD. whose means of locomotion are domestic aniraals ; for ifc is well known that the bite of this poisonous insect is certain death to tho ox, horse, and dog. Fortunately it is limited to particular districts, frequently infesting one bank of a river while the other contains not a single specimen, or else traveling in South Africa would be utterly impossible, and we sbould now know no more of Lake Ngarai or the Zambesi than we did thirty years since. In one journey Livingstone lost no leaa than forty-three fine oxen by the bite of tbe taotse. A party of Englishmen once attempted to reach Libebe, but they had only proceeded seven or eight daya' journey to the north of the Ngami, when both horses and cattle were bitten by the fly, and tbe party were in consequence compeUed to make a hasty retreat. One of tbe number was thua deprived of as many as thirty-six horses, excellent hunters, and all sustained heavy losses in cattle. A most remarkable feature in tbe bite of the tsets^ is its perfect harmlessness in man and wUd animals, and even calves, so long as tbey continue to suck the cow. Tbe mule, ass, and goat enjoy likewise tbe same immunity, and many large tribes on the Zambesi ean keep no domestic animals except tbe latter, in consequence of the scourge existing in tbeir country. Dr. Livingstone's cbildren wore frequently bitten, yet suffered no harm ; and he saw around him nurabers of zebras, buffaloes, pigs, pallahs and otber antelopes, feeding quietly in tbe very habitat of tbe tsetse, yet as undisturbed by its bite as oxen are when they first receive tbe fatal poison, which acts in the following manner : After a few days the eyes and nose begin to run, tbe coat stares as if tbe animal were cold, a swelling appears under the jaw, and, though the animal continues to graze, emaciation commenoea, accompanied with a peculiar flao- cidity of tbe musolea ; and this proceeds unchecked until, perhaps months afterwards, purging comes on, and the animal, no longer able to graze, perishes in a state of extreme exhaustion. Those which are in good condition often perish, soon after the wound is inflicted, with staggering and blindness, as if tbe brain were affected by it. Sudden changes of temperature, produced by falls of rain, seem to hasten the progress of the complaint, but in general tbe emaciation goes on uninterruptedly for months ; and, do what one raay, the poor animals perish miserably, as there is no cure yet known for tbe disease. Tbe Abyssinian Tsalt-salya, or Zimb, described by Bruce, seeras identical with the tsets^, or produces at least sirailar ayraptoras. At tbe season wben this plague makes its appearance, all tbe inhabitants along tbe sea-coast, from Melinde to Cape Gardafui, and to tbe south of the Red Sea, are obliged to retire witb tbeir cattle to the sandy plains to preserve them from destruction. The French traveler, D'Escayrac, tells us of a fly in Soudan which leaves the ox uninjured, but destroys the dromedary. On account of this plague tbe camel is con fined to tbe northern boundary of the Soudan, while the oxen graze in safety through out the whole country. This fly bas caused more migrations among the Arabs of the Soudan than all their wars ; and in the dry season it eveu drives tbe elephant from Lake Tsad by flying into its ears. Though Locusts not seldom extend tbeir ravages to the steppes of southern Russia, though they have been known to burst like a cloud of desolation over Transylvania and Hungary, and stray stragglers now and then even find their way to England, yet theu- chief habitat and birthplace ia tbe torrid zone. Tbey wander forth in countless LOCUSTS-COCKROACHES. 589 multitudes, and at very irregular periods ; but how it comes that they are multiplied to sucb an excess in particular years, and not in others, bas never yet been ascertained, and perhaps never wUl be. Tbey are armed with two pairs of strong mandibles ; their stomach is of extraordinary capacity and power ; tbey make prodigious leaps by means of their muscular and long bind legs ; and tbeir wings even carry them far across tbe sea. On viewing a single locust, one can hardly conceive how they can cause sucb devastations, but we cease to wonder on bearing of tbeir numbers. From 1778 to 1780 the whole empire of Morocco was so laid waste by swarms of these insects, that a dreadful famine ensued. Mr. Barrow, in his travels, states that in the southern parts of Africa the whole surface of the ground might literally be said to be covered with tbem for an area of nearly 2,000 square miles. When driven into the sea by a north-west wind, tbey formed upon the shore, for fifty railes, a bank three or four feet high ; and when tbe wind was southeast, the stench was sucb as to be smelt at the distance of 150 miles. Major Moore observed at Poonab an atmy of locusts, which devastated tbe whole country of tbe Mahrattas, and most likely came from Arabia. Their columns extended in a width of 500 miles, and wero so dense as to darken the light of tbe sun. It was a red species (not tbe common Gryllus migra- torius), whose bloody color added to tbe terror of their appearance. In Central Africa, Anderson met with vast numbers of tbe larvae of tbe locust commonly called by the Boers " Voet-gangers," or pedestrians. In some placea tbey might be seen packed in layers several inehes in thickness, and rayriada were crushed and mairaed by the wagon and cattle. Towards nightfall they crawled on the bushes and shrubs, raany of which, owing to their weight and numbers, were either bowed down or broken short off. They were of a reddish color, with dark markings ; and as they bung tbus suspended, tbey looked like clusters of rich fruit. Tbese larvae are justly dreaded by the colonists, as nothing seems capable of staying tbeir progress. Even rivers forra no barrier to tbeir march, aa the drowning multitudea afford tbe survivors a temporary bridge ; endeavors to diminish their numbers would appear Uke attempting to drain tbe ocean by a pump. On traveling on, next morning, tbe locust itself was enoountered, and in such masses as literally to darken tbe air. Tbe wagon, or any otber equally conspicuoua object, could not be diatinguiabed at the distance of one hundred paces. The noise of tbeir wings was not unlike that caused by a gale of wind whistling through tbe sbrouda of a ship at anchor. During tbeir flight num bers were constantly alighting — an action which bas not inaptly been corapared to tbe falling of large snow-flakes. It is, however, not until the approach of night that tbe locusts encamp. Woe to tbe apot tbey select as a resting-place ! The sun sets on a landscape green wifch all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation; it rises in the morning over a region naked as tbe waste of the Sahara. We are not wholly unacquainted with Cockroaches. The tropical plague of tho cockroaobes bas been introdueed into tbe temperate zone; but, fortunately, tbe giant of the family, tbe Blatta gigantea, a native of many of the warmer parta of Asia, Africa, and South America, is a stranger to our land; and tbe following truthful description of this disgusting insect at home givea us every reason to be thankful for its absence: — " Tbey plunder and erode all kinds of victuals, dressed and undressed, and damage all sorts of clothes, eapecially auch aa are touched with powder, pomatum, and similar substances ; everything made of leather ; books, paper, and various other 690 THE TROPICAL WORLD. articles, which if tbey do not destroy, at least tbey soU, as they frequently deposit a drop of their excreraent wbere they settle, and, some way or other, by that means damage what they cannot devour. Tbey fly into the flame of candles, and sometimes into tbe dishes; are very fond of ink and of oil, into which they are apt to fall and perish, in which case they soon turn most offenaively putrid^-so that a man might as well sit over the cadaverous body of a large aniraal as write with the ink in which they have died. They often fly into persons' faces or bosoms, and their legs being armed with sharp spines, the pricking excites a sudden horror not easily described. In old houses they swarm by myriads, making every part filthy beyond description wherever tbey harbor, which in the daytime is in dark corners, behind clothes, in trnuks, boxes, and, in short, every place where they can lie concealed. In old timber and deal houaea, when the faraily is retired at nigbt to sleep, this inaect, among other diaagreeable properties, has tbe power of making a noise which very much resembles a pretty sraart knocking witb the knuckle upou the wainscoting. Tbe Malta gigantea in the West Indies is, therefore, frequently known by the name of the 'Drummer.' Three or four of these noisy creatures will sometimes be impelled to answer one another, and cause such a drumming noise that none but those who are very good sleepers ean rest for them. What is moat disagrgeable, those who have not gauze curtains are sometimes attacked by tbem in their sleep ; tbe sick and dying have their extremities attacked ; and tbe ends of the toes and fingers of the dead are frequently stripped both of the skin and flesh." According to Tschudi, the Cucaracha and Chilicabra — two large species of tbe cockroach — infest Peru in such nurabers as almost to reduce tbe inhabitants to despair. Greedy, bold, cunning, tbey force tbeir way into every hut, devour the stores, destroy tbe clothes, intrude into the beds and dishes, and defy every means that is resorted to for their destruction. Fortunately, tbey are held in check by many formidable enemies, particularly by a small ant, and a pretty little bird {Troglodytes audax) belonging to tbe wagtail family, which has some difficulty in mastering the larger cockroaches. It first of all bites off their bead, and then devours their body, with the exception of their membranaceous wings. After having finished his repast, the bird hops upon tbe nearest bush, and there begins hia aong of triumph. Many other inaect plaguea might be added to the liat, but those I have already enumerated suffice to reconcile us to our misty climate, and to diminish our longing for tbe palm groves of tbe torrid zone. After having described the miseries which the tropical insects inflict upon man^ how tbey suck his blood, destroy hia rest, exterminate his cattie, devour the fruits of his fields and orchards, ransack bis chests and wardrobes, feast pn his provisions, and plague and worry him wherever they can — I turn to the more agreeable task of re counting tbeir services, and relating tbe benefits for which he is indebted to them. Among the insects which are of direct use to us, the silk-worm (Bomhyx mori) is by far the raost important. Originally a native of tropical or sub-tropical China, wbere the art of making use of its filaments seems to have been discovered at a very early period, it ia now reared in countleas numbers far and wide over tbe western world, so as to forra a most important feature in the industrial resources of Europe. Thousands of skilful workmen are eraployed in spinning and weaving its lustrous THE SILK-WORM— THE COCHINEAL INSECT. 591 threads, and thousands upon thousands, enjoying the fruits of their labors, now clothe themselves, at a moderate price, in silken tissues which but a few centuries back were the exclusive luxury of the richest and noblest of tbe land. Besides the silk-worm, we find many other moths in tbe tropical zone whose cocoons might advantageously be spun, and only require to be better known to becorae con siderable articles of coraraerce. The tusseh-worm (Bomhyx mylitta) of Hindostan, which lives upon the leaves of the Rhamnus jujuba, furniabes a dark-colored, coarse, but durable silk ; while the Arandi {B. cynthia), which feoda upon the foliage of the castor-oU plant (Ricinus communis), spins remarkably soft threads, which serve the Hindoos to weave tissues of uncommon strength. In America there are also many indigenous moths whose filaments might be rendered serviceable to man, and which seem destined to great future importance, wben trade, quitting her usual routine, shall have learnt to pry more closely into tbe resources of Nature. WhUe the Cocci, or plant-bugs, are in our country deservedly detested as a nuisance, destroying the beauty of many of our garden plants by tbeir blighting presenee; while, in 1843, the Coccus of the orange treea proved so destructive in the Azores that tbe island of Fayal, which annually exported 12,000 chests of fruit, lost its entire produce from this cause alone, two tropical members of tbe family, as if to make up for the mis deeds of theu relations, furnish ua — the one with the moat splendid of all scarlet dyes, and the other with gum-lac, a substance of hardly inferior value. Our gardeners spare no trouble to protect their hot and greenhouse plants from the invasion of the Coccus hesperidum ; but the Mexican baciendero purposely lays out his Nopal plantations that tbey may be preyed upon by the Coccus cacti, and rejoices when be sees tbe leaves of bia opuntiaa thickly strewn with this valuable parasite. The female, who from her form and habits might not unaptly be called tbe tortoise of the insect world, is much larger thau the winged male, and of a dark-brown color, with two Ught spots on tbe back, covered with white powder. She uses her little legs only during her first youth, but soon she sucks herself fast, and henceforward reraains immovably attached to tbe spot she has chosen, while her raate continues to lead a wan dering life. While thus fixed like an oyster, she swells or grows to such a size that she looks more like a seed or berry tban an insect ; and her legs, antennae, and pro boscis, concealed by the expanding body, can hardly be distinguished by the naked eye. Great eare is taken to kill the insects before the young escape from tbe eggs, as they have then the greatest weight, and are most impregnated with coloring matter. They are detached by a blunt knife dipped in boiling water to kill tbem, and then dried in tbe sun, when they have tbe appearance of small, dry, shriveled berries, of a deep-brown purple or mulberry color, with a white matter between tbe wrinkles. Tbe collecting takes place tbree times a year in the plantations, wbere tbe insect, improved by human care, is nearly twice as large as the wUd coccus, which in Mexico is gath ered six times in tbe same period. Although the collecting of the cochineal is exceed ingly tedious — about 70,000 insects going to a single pound — yet, considering the high price of tbe article, its rearing would be very lucrative, if both the insect and the plant it feeds upon were not liable to the ravages of many diseases, and the attacks of numerous enemies. The conquest of Mexico by Cortez first made the Spaniarda ac quainted with cochineal. They soon learnt to value it as one of the most important products of their new empire ; and in order to secure its monopoly, prohibited, under 592 THE TROPICAL WORLD. pain of death, tbe exportation of the insect, and of tbe equally indigenous Nopal, or Cactus cochinellifer. Cochineal is nOw produced in the Canary Islands, Java, and Brazil ; but Mexico still furnishes tbe greater part produced. The Coccus which produces lac, or gum-lac, is a native of India, and thrives and multiplies best on several species of the fig-tree. A cheap method having been dis covered within the last years of separating the coloring matter which it contains from the resinous part, it has greatly increased in comraercial importance. In the tropical zone we find that not only many birds and several four-footed ani mals live chiefly, or even exclusively, on insects, but that tbey are even consumed in large quantities, or eaten as delicacies, by man himself. The locust-swarms are web comed with delight by the Arab of tbe Sahara and the South African Bushman. After being partially roasted, tbey are either eaten freah, or dried in hot ashes and stored away. Tbe natives reduce tbem also to powder or meal, which, eaten with a little salt, is palatable even to Europeans ; so that Livingstone, who, during hia reaidence among tbe Bakwaina, was often obliged to put up witb a dish of locusts, says be should much prefer thera to shrimps, though he would avoid both if possible. They evidently contain a great deal of nourishment, as the Bushmen thrive wonderfully on tbem, and hail tbeir appearance as a season of plenty and good living. The food of John tbe Baptist was locusts and wild boney. Several of tbe large African caterpillars are edible, and considered as a great deli cacy by the natives. On tbe leaves of the Mopane tree, in tbe Bushman country, the small larvae of a winged insect, a species of Psylla, appear covered over with a sweet gummy substance, which ia collected by the people in great quantities, and used as food. Another species in New Holland, found on tbe leaves of the Eucalyptus, emits a similar secretion, whicb, along witb its insect originator, is scraped off the leaves and eaten by tbe aborigines as a saccharine dainty. The chirping Cicadce, or frog-hoppers, which Aristotle mentions as delicious food, though maccaroni has long supplanted tbem iu the estimation both of the modern Greeks and of the Italians, are still in high repute araong the American Indians. With tbe exception of one species ( Cicada Anglica), these insects, equally remark able for the rapidity of their flight and their faculty of emitting a loud noise, are un known in temperate zones. Several of the exotic speciea, when their wings are ex panded, measure six inches in extrerae length — a size superior to that of many of the humming-birds. Tbe Goliath beetles of the coast of Guinea are roasted and eaten by the natives, who doubtless, like many other savages, not knowing the value of that whicb tbey are eating, often make a bonne bouche of what an entomologist would most eagerly desire to preserve. Tbe Chinese, who allow nothing edible to go to waste, after unraveling tbe cocoon of tbe sUk-worm, make a dish of tbe pupae, which the Europeans reject with scom; and the grubs of several inseots which thrive and increase in the Sago-tree, tbo Areca, and tbe Cocoa, are considered aa great delicacies ; and many similar examples might be cited. Several of tbe more brUliant tropical beetles are made use of as ornaments, not only by the savage tribea, but among nations which are able to command tbo costliest gems of tbe East. Tbe golden elytra of the Sternocera chrysis and Sternocera stemicomis serve to enrich tbe embroidery of the Indian zenana, while the joints of tbe legs are ORNAMENTAL INSECTS. 593 strung on silken threads, and form bracelets of singular brilliancy. The ladies in Brazil wear necklaces coraposed of the azure green and golden wings of lustrous GbrysoraoUdae and GurcuUonidae, particularly of tbe Diamond beetle {Entimus nobilis) ; and in Jamaica, the elyfra of the Buprestis gigas are set in ear-rings, whose gold-green brUUancy rivals the rare and costly Ghrysopras in beauty. The House-building Insects, Ants, Termites, Spiders, etc., form so notable a feature of tbe Insect World of the Tropics, that they deserve a chapter by themselves. 88 594 THE TROPICAL WORLD. CHAPTER IX. ANTS— TERMITES— ANT-EATERS— SPIDERS— SCORPIONS. Ants: Vast Numbers of Ants in the Tropical World — Pain caused by their Bites — The Ponera Clavata— The Black Fire-Ant- The Dimiya of Ceylon— The Red Ant of Angola— The Vivagua of the West Indies — The Umbrella Ant — Household Plagues — Troubles of Natu ralists — The Ranger Ants — Tlie Bashikouay of Western Africa — House-Building Ants — Slaveholding Ants — Aphides, or Plant-Lice — Insect Cow-Keepers. — Termites : Their Ravages among Books and Furmture — Their Citadels — Domestic Economy — Defensive Warfare — American Termites — The Enemies of the Termites — How to Catch, Cook, and Eat them — The Marching Termite. — Ant-Eaters : The Great Ant-Bear — His Mode of Hunting — Mode of Defense — Anatomical Structure — Lesser Ant-Bears — Manides and Pan golins — The Aard-Vark — Armadillos — The Porcupine Ant-Eater. — Spiders ; Their Physical Structure — Their Webs — Means of Protection — Mode of Catching their Prey — Maternal Instinct — Their Enemies — Uses of Spiders. — Scorpions : Their Aspects and Habits — Their Venom. THE family of Ants is undoubtedly tbe moat numeroua of any in tbe whole circle of winged insects, aa its colonies are not confined to one particular region, but are thickly planted over the greatest part of tbe habitable world. There is witb us scarcely a field that does not contain mUlions ; we cannot rest upon a bank without reclining upon tbe walls of their cities ; their chief quarters, however, are established in tbe torrid zone, wbere tbey raay truly be said to hold a despotic sway over the forest and the savanna, over tbe thicket and tbe field. It is hardly possible to pene trate into a tropical wood without being reminded, by their stings and bites, that tbey consider tbe visit as an intrusion, while they themselves unceremoniously invade the dwellings of man, and lay ruinous contributiona on hia stores. Tbe inconceivable number of their species defies the memory of tho naturalist, to whom raany are even atill entirely unknown. -Frora alraost microscopical size to an inch in length, of all colors and shades between yellow, red, brown, and black, of tbe most various habits and stations, tbe ants of a single tropical land would furnish study for years to a zealous entomologist. Every faraily of planta has its peculiar species, and many trees are even the exclusive dwelling-place of some ant nowhere else to be found. In the scathes of leaves, in the corollas of flowers, in buds and blossoms, over and under the earth, in and out of doors, one meets these ubiquitous littie creatures, which are un doubtedly one of tbe great plagues of tbe torrid zone. WhUe tbo ants of tbe teraperate zones cause a disagreeable burning on the skin, by tho secretion of a corrosive acid pecuUar to the race, the sting or bite of many tropical species causes tbo most excruciating tortures. "I bave no words," says Schomburgk, " to describe tbe pain inflicted upon me by the mandibles of the Ponera clavata, a Jf5< ANTS AND THEIR BITES. 595 large, and, fortunately, not very common ant, whose long black body is beset witb single hau-s. Like an electric shock the pain instantly shot through my whole body, and soon after acquired tbe greatest intensity in the breast, and over and under the arm-pits. After a few minutes I felt almost completely paralyzed, so that I could only with the greatest difficulty, and under tbe raoat excruciating tortures, totter towards the plantation, which, however, it was impossible for me to reach. I was found sense less on the ground, and the following day a violent wound fever ensued." The Trip- laris Americana, a South American tree, about sixty or eighty feet high, the branches of which are completely hollow and transversely partitioned at regular intervals, Uke the stems of tbe bamboo, ia the retreat of one of the most terocious ants. Woe to tbe naturalist who, ignorant of the fact, endeavors to break off a shoot of the Triplaris, or only knocks against tbe tree, for thousands will instantly issue from small round lateral openings in tbe plant, and fall upon him witb inconceivable fury. Tbe touch of a bot iron is not more painful than their bite, and the inflammation and pain last for several days after. The black fire-ant of Guiana, though very small, is capable of inflicting excessive pain. "These insects," says Stedman, "live in sueh amazing multitudes together, that their hillocks have sometiraes obstructed our passage by their size, over which, if one chances to pass, the feet and legs are instantly covered with innuraerable hosts of these creatures, which seize tbe skin with such violence in theu- pincers, that they wiU sooner suffer the head to be parted from tbe body than let go their bold. Tbe burning pain which tbey occasion cannot, in my opinion, proceed from the sharpness of the pincers only, but raust be owing to sorae venomous fluid, which they infuae, or whicb the wound imbibea from tbem. I can aver that I have seen thera make a whole company hop about aa if they bad been acalded witb boiling water." Of tbe moro than aeventy apeciea of ants which occur in Ceylon alone. Sir E. Ten nent describes the Dimiya, or great red ant, as the most formidable. " Like all their race, these ants are in perpetual motion, forraing linos on the ground, along which they pass in continual procession to and from the trees on which they reside. They are the most irritable of tbe whole order in Ceylon, biting with such intense ferocity as to render it, difficult for the unclad native to collect the fruit from the mango-trees, which tbe red ants especially frequent. Tbey drop from tbe brancboa upon travelers in tbe jungle, attacking tbem with venom and fury, and inflicting intolerable pain both upon animals and man. On examining the structure of the head through a micro scope, I found that the mandibles, instead of meeting in contact, are so hooked as to cross each other at the points, wbUst the inner line is sharply serrated throughout its entire length, tbus occasioning the intense pain of their bite, as compared with that of the ordinary ant." " Having, while in Angola, accidentally stepped upou a nest of red ants," says Livingstone, " not an instant seemed to elapse before a simultaneous attack was made on various unprotected parts, up tbe trousers from below, and on my nock and breast above. The bites of tbese furies were like sparks of fire, and there was no retreat. It is really astonishing how such small bodies can contain so large an amount of ill- nature. They not only bite, but twist themselves round after the mandibles are in serted, to produce laceration and pain raore tban would be effected by the single wound." But however formidable the weapons of the ants may be, yet the injuries they in- 596 THE TROPICAL WORLD. flict upon the property of man, pouring over hia plantations like a flood, and sweeping away the fruits of his labors, are of a much more lasting and serious nature tban tbeir painful bite or venomous sting. In tbe West Indies, tbe brown-black Viviagua, about one-third of an inch long, and witb a prickly thorax, ia the greatest enemy of the coffee plantations. In one day it wUl rob a fuU-grown tree of aU its leaves. It digs deep subterranean passages of eon- siderable dimensions and irregular forma, with a great number of band-high galleriea branching out from the aides, and does even more harm to the coffee-plants by its mining operations, than by robbing them of theu- foUage. Attacked in tbeir roota, they faU into what may be caUed a consumptive state, bear no fruit, and die after a few months' Ungering. Tbe complete extirpation of tbe nest, and keeping up for some time a strong fire in the excavation, is tbe only means to subdue tbe evil, which leads to incalculable losses, wben, through negUgenee, tbe Viviagua has once been allowed to multiply its numbers. Otber species are no less destructive to the sugar plantations, either by settUng in the interior of the stalks (like tbe Formica analis), or by undermining tbe roots (like the Formica saceharivora), so that the plant becomes sickly and dies. About eighty years ago tbe island of Grenada was overrun by hosts of tbese devastating in sects. Many household animals died from their attacks, and they effectually cleared the land of rats, mice, and reptUes. Streams of running water failed to interrupt their progress, and fire was vainly used to stop them, for millions rushed into the flames, and served aa a bridge for tbe myriads that followed. All tbe means employed to save tbe sugar plantations frora their fury proved ineffectual, until in tbe year 1780 the plague was swept away at onee by a dreadful tornado, accorapanied by a deluge of rain. Tbe Atta cephalotes, a species of ant distinguished by its large bead, ia the most formidable enemy of the banana and cassava fields. It lies in the ground and multi plies amazingly ; in a very short time it will strip off tbe leaves of an entire field, and carry tbem to its subterranean abodes. Even where their nest is a mile distant from a plantation, these arch-depredators know how to find it, and soon form a highway, about half a foot broad, on which they keep up tbe moat active communicationa witb the object of their attack. In masterly order, side by side, one army is seen to move onwards towards the field, while tbe otber is returning to tbe nest. In tbe last column eacb indi vidual carriea a round piece of leaf, about tbe size of a sixpence, horizontally over its head — a circumstance from which the insect bas also been named tbe Umbrella Ant. If the distance is too great, a party meets tbe weary carriers half way, and relieves tbem of their load. Although innumerable ants may thus be moving along, yet none of them will ever be seen to be in the other's way ; and all goea on witb the regularity of clock-work. A third party ia no less actively employed on tbe scene of destruction, cutting out circular pieces of the leaves, which, as soon as they drop upon tbe ground, are immediately seized by the attentive and indefatigable carriers. Neither fire nor water can prevent thera from proceeding with their work. Though thousands may be killed, yet in less tban an hour all the bodies will bave been removed. Should the highway be closed by an insurmountable obstacle, another is soon laid out, and after a few hours the operations, momentarily disturbed, resume tbeir forraer activity. The ants themselves, particularly the winged females, are considered a great deUcacy by HOUSE ANTS— TRIALS OF NATURALISTS. 597 tbe Indians, who eat the abdoraen, either raw or roasted. The taste is said to be agreeably saccharine. Not satisfied with devouring his harvests, tbe tropical ants, as I bave already men tioned, leave raan no rest even within doors, and trespass upon hia household comforts in a tbousand various ways. In Mainas, a province on tbe Upper Amazon, Professor Poppig counted no less tban seven different speciea of ants araong tbe tormenting inmates of bis hut. Tbe diminutive red Amacbe was particularly fond of sweets. Favored by its smaUness, it penetrates through the imperceptible openings of a cork, and the traveler was often obliged to throw away tbe syrup which in that humid and sultry country replaces the use of crystallized sugar, from its having been changed into an ant-comfit. This troublesome lover of aweeta lives under tbe corner-posts of the hut, so that it is quite irapossible to dislodge hira. Tbe number of the Puca ticse, a red ant, of the ordinary size, wasatill greater; the trunks and papers wore swarming with it, in spite of every precaution, so that it was quite incomprehensible how it found jneans to overcome aU the obstacles that had been devised against it. "The only possible way," says Stedman, "of keeping tbe ants from the refined ;ugar is by hanging tbe loaf to the ceiUng by a naU, and making a ring of dry chalk around it, very thick, whioh crumbles down the moment tbe ants attempt to pass it. I imagined that placing my sugar-boxes in the middle of a tub, and on stone surrounded by deep water, would have kept back thia formidable enemy ; but to no purpose : whole armioa of the lighter aort, to my astonishraent, marched over tbe surface, and but very few of them were drowned. Tbe main body constantly scaled the rock, and, in spite of all my efforts, made their entry through the keyholes, after which, the only way to clear tbe garrison ia, to expose it to a hot sun, whicb tbe invaders can not bear, and aU march off in a few minutes.'' The devastations of the house-ants are peculiarly hateful to tbe naturahst, whose collections, often gathered with so muoh danger and trouble, they pitilessly destroy. Schomburgk suspended boxes with insects from the ceiling by threads strongly rubbed over with araenic soap ; but when, on tbe following morning, he wished to examine bia treasures, instead of bis rare and beautiful specimens be found nothing but a set of infamous red ants, who, crawling down tbe threads, had found means to invade the boxes and utterly to destroy their valuable contents. Wallace givea a feeling description of the ants of Dorey, one of the islands of tbe Indian Ocean: "One small black kind was excessively abundant. Almost every shrub and tree was more or less infested with it, and its large papery nests were everywhere to be seen. Tbey iraraediately took posseasion of my house, building a large nest in tbe roof, and forming papery tunnels down almost every poat. They swarmed on my table as I was at work setting out my insecta, carrying tbem off from under my very nose, and even tearing tbem off from tbe cards on whicb they wore gummed, if I left them for an instant. Tbey crawled continually over my bands and face, got into my hair, and roamed at wUl over my whole body, not producing much inconvenience tUl they began to bite, whicb tbey would do on meeting with any obstruction to tbeir passage, and witb a sharpness which made mo jump again, and rush to undress and turn out tbo offender. Tbey visited my bed also, so that nigbt brought no relief from tbeir persecutions ; and I verily beUeve that during my three and a half months' residence at Dorey I was never for a single hour free from them. 598 THE TROPICAL WORLD. They were not nearly so voracious as many other kinds, but their numbers and ubiquity rendered it necessary to be constantiy on guard against thom." In countless multitudes the Ranger ants break forth frora the primeval forest, marching through the country in compact order, like a well-drUled army. Every creature they moot in tbeir way falls a victim to their dreadful onalaugbt. On the west coast of Africa is found a formidable species of tbe Ranger ant, there named the Bashikouay, of which Paul du Chaillu* furnishes a description, whicb we give, some what abridged : " But more potent tban snakes, lions, leopards, or gorillas, is a species of ant caUed tbe Bashikouay. It is the dread not only of man, but of every living thing from the elephant down to the smallest insect. A half inch is about the average length of one of tbese ants, though sorae are found of twice that length. Individually they are bold ; tbe bull-dog bas not more pluck and tenacity of grip. But their great power Ues in the iraraense armies into which they organize themselves, and tbe military order which they preserve." Wben on the march, they often go in a column two inches broad and miles in length. Du Chaillu once saw such a column formed in close order, which occupied twelve hours, from sunrise to sunset, in passing tbe spot from whioh he watched thera ; and as tbey marched by nigbt aa well as by day, be did not know how long the column had been passing before. he saw it. All along tho line were larger ants, evidently officers, standing outside tbe column until their squads had passed, wben tbey moved on and joined tbem. How many millions upon mUlions there were in this army he did not venture to estimate. When on tbe march such a column comes to a small stream, tbey fling across it a living bridge. Choosing a place wbere the branch of a tree reaches nearly from one bank to the otber, only somewhat lower down, the second of the pontoneers, as we may fairly call them, with his fore- claws grasps the hind-claws of tbe one in front, and lowers bim over. A third does the same by tbe second ; and so on until tbe line is long enough to reach tbe desired point. Line after line is tbus formed until a suspension bridge is constructed wide enough for the whole army to pasa over. Imagine tbe strength of muscle which these creatures must possess to enable tbem to maintain tbeir hold for houra. Tbe marching column throwa itself into line of battle witb wonderful precision. Wben it sweopa over a country nothing can stay ita progreaa. Du Chaillu was once plodding through the forest in search of game. Suddenly he was startled by a strange sound. It was caused by a rush of wild beasts. He thought he caught a glimpse of a gorilla ; be was sure that be beard tbe heavy tread of elephants ; and this was followed by a heavy crash as though a herd of tbese great creatures were rushing through tbe forest. Soon the air grew thick with insecta. WhUe wondering what this might mean, he felt the tormenta of innumerable bites, and in an instant be was almost covered by ants. He had encountered tbe skirmishers of a Bashikouay army. He set off at his utraost speed in the direction whicb the otber fugitives had taken. Luckily his speed was greater than that of tbe ants, and as soon as he thought hiraself safe he stripped off bis clothing. It fairly swarmed with ants who bad buried tbemselves in tbe garments, striking their pincers clear through into the flesh beneath. Tbey never let go their grip until tbey have taken out the flesh. PuU at one tUl his body is separated from the head, and tbe jaws still keep thek hold. He * Wild Life under the Equator. THE BASHIKOUAY— HOUSE-BUILDING ANTS. 599 had just resumed bis garments wben tbe main army came up, and he again took to flight, never stopping until he had crossed a stream and taken refuge in a swamp beyond. The Bashikouay can not bear the heat of the sun, and hence tbey are only found in regiona oovered by forests. If while on a march they come to an open place, tbey die a tunnel three or four feet under ground, through which they pass to the jungles on the opposite side. Wben they enter a village tbe inhabitants run for tbeir lives. In an incredibly short space of time every but is cleared of verrain. and tbe only trace left of tbe invaders is tbe bones of rats and mice, and tbe horny wing-eases of insects. Nothing that breathes comes amiss to them. An antelope which had been shot by Du ChaUlu waa picked to tbe bones in a few hours. The carcass of an elephant would be cleared away as quickly as by a kraal of natives. They sometimes come upon a huge snake, lying torpid and gorged with food. In this case all ia soon over witb his serpentine majesty. But rats, mice, roaches, contipodea, acorpions, apiders, and such small pests, are tbe special prey of the Bashikouay. A swarm of tbem will kill a rat in two minutes, and devour bim in about the same space of tirae. Upon tbe whole, they are a blessing to the huraan race in Western Africa, by keeping down tbe vermin, which would otherwise render tbe whole country uninhabitable. Tbey will not touch vegetable raatter. One raight almost suppose that the author of tbe Book of Revelations had tbe Bashikouay in bis mind when be speaks of tbe swarras of " lo custs " whicb rose frora tbe bottomless pit at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, to whom " it was commanded that tbey should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree ; " but whose " torraent was as tbe torraent of a scorpion when he striketh a man." Certain it is that tbe description fits the Bashi kouay, whife it is altogether inapplicable to tbe creature which we call tbe " locust," whose only food is green things, and who have no tormenting bite. The wonderful societies of the ants, their strength and perseverance, tbeir unwearied industry, their astonishing intelligence, are so well known, and have been so often and so admirably described, that it would be trespassing on tbe patience of my readers were I to enter into any lengthened details on the subject.- And yet, tbe observations of naturalists have chiefly been confined to the European species, while the econoray of the infinitely more numerous tropical ants, confined to countries or places hardly ever visited, or even unknown to civilized man, remains an inexbauatible field for future inquiry. The study of their various buildings alone, from the little we know of tbem, would occupy a zealous entomologist for years. Here we bave an American species that forms its globular nest of the size of a large Dutch cheese, of small twigs artistically interlaced ; here another, whicb constructs its dwelling of dried excrements, attaching it to a thick branch ; while a third ( Formica bispinosa) uses tbe cotton of tbe Bom- baceae for its buUding material, and through tbe chemical agency of its pungent secre tion converts it into a spongy substance. On the west coast of Borneo, Mr. Adams noticed two kinds of ants' nests — one species of tbe size of a man's hand, adhering to tbe trunk of trees, reserabling, when cut through, a section of tbe lungs ; the other was composed of small withered bits of sticks and leaves, heaped up in the axils of branches, somewhat in the form of flat- 600 THE TROPICAL WORLD. tened cyUnders and compressed cones. A thu-d species, stiU more ingenious, con structs its domicile out of a large leaf, bending the two halves by the weight of united mUlions tUl tbe opposite margins meet at tbe under surface of tbe mid-rib, where they are secured by a gummy matter. Tbe stores and larvae are conveyed into the nest so made by regular beaten tracks along the trunk and branches of the tree. On tbe large plains near Lake DUolo, wbere water stands so long annuaUy as to allow tbe lotus and otber aqueous plants to come to maturity, Livingstone had occa sion to admh-e tbe wonderful sagacity of the ants, whom be declares to be wiser fiban some men, as tbey learn by experience. When all the ant horizon is submerged a foot deep, tbey manage to exist by ascending to little houses, built of black tenacious loam, on stalks of grass, and placed higher tban the line of inundation. This must bave been tbe result of experience, for if they had waited till the water actually invaded their habitations on tbe ground, they would not have been able to procure materials for their higher quarters, unless they dived down to tbe bottom for every mouthful of clay. Some of tbese upper chambers are about tbe size of a bean, and othera as large as a man's thumb. Two species of continental Europe, the Formica rubescens and sanguinea, are remarkable or infamous for their slave-making expeditions. Unable or unwilling to work themselves, tbey make war upon others for the sole purpose of procuring bonds men, who UteraUy and truly labor for them, and perform all the daily domeatic duties of the community. Tbe Aphides, or plant-Uce, eject a sweet, honey-like fluid, whicb may be correctly termed their mUk, and which is so grateful to the ants, that they attend on tbe honey- flies for tbe aole purpoae of gathering it, and literally milk tbem aa we do our cows, forcing them to yield the fluid, by alternately patting tbem vrith tbeir antennae. But tbe most extraordinary part of tbese proceedings is, that tbe ants not only consider the Aphides as their property, but actually appropriate to tbemselves a certain number, whieh they enclose in a tube of earth or other materials near their nest, so that they may be always at band to supply tbe nouriahment which tbey may desire. The yellow ant, tbe moat remarkable "cow-keeper" among our indigenous speciea, pays great attention to its herds, plentifully supplying them with proper food, and tending tbeir young with the same tenderness which it exhibits towards its own. With the same provident care a large black ant of India constructs its nest at the root of tbe plant upon which its favorite species of aphis resides. The ants of tropical America, where no Aphides are found, derive tbeir boney from another family of insects, the numerous and grotesquely-formed Membracidae, whicb are raost abundant in the regions of Bra zil. Acoording to Mr Swainson, many of tbese littie Merabraoidae live in families of twenty or thirty, aU clustered together on tbe panicles of grasses, and on tbe tops of otber plants, like tbe European plant-lice. Those are regularly visited by parties of a little black ant, which may be seen going and coraing to their beads, and attending them with tbe same care which tbe European ants bestow on the Aphides. To render tbe similarity with cattle still more complete, tbe Membracidae possess horns growing out of tbeir heads, or are otherwise arraed, while their large abrupt heads remind th«, entomologist of tbe bull or cow. The Mexican honey ants {Myrmecocystus Mexica- nus) are, if possible, still more remarkable, for here we see an animal rearing others of tbe same species for the purpose of food. Some of tbese ants are mainly distin- SLAVE-HOLDING ANTS— TERMITES. 601 guished by an enormous swelling of tbe abdomen, which is converted into a maas like honey, and being unable, in their unwieldy oondition, to seek food tbemselves, are fed by tbe laborers, until they are doomed to die for tbe benefit of the community. Whether this vast distension is the result of an intestinal rupture, caused by an excessive in dulgence of the appetite, or whether they are purposely selected, confined, and over fed, or wounded for the purpose, has not yet been ascertained. The Termites, or white ants, as tbey are commonly called, though they iu reality belong to a totally different order of insects, are spread in countless numbers over aU tbe warmer regions of the earth, emulating on the dry land tbe bore-worra in the sea; for when they bave once penetrated into a building, no timber except ebony and iron- wood, whicb are too bard, or such aa ia strongly irapregnated with camphor and aromatic oUs, which they diaUke, is capable of resisting their attacks. Tbeir favorite food is wood, and so great are tbeir multitudes, so admirable their tools, that in a few days they devour the timber work of a spacious apartment. Outwardly, the beams and rafters may seem untouched, while their core is completely consuraed, for these destructive miners work in tbe dark, and seldom attack tbe outside until they have previously concealed tbemselves and their operations by a coat of clay. Scarcely any organic substance remains free from their attacks ; and forcing their resistless way into trunks, chests, and wardrobes, they will often devour in one night all tbe shoes, boots, clothes, and papers tbey may contain. It is principally owing to their destructions, says Humboldt, that it is so rare to find papers in tropical America of an older date than fifty or sixty years. Smeathman relates that a party of tbem onee took a fancy to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for tbe sake of tbe wine, almost tbe whole of which they let out, but of the staves, which, however, may not bave proved less tasteful from having imbibed some of the costly liquor. On surveying a room which had been locked up during an absence of a few weeks, Forbes observed a number of advanced works in various directions towarda some prints and drawings in English frames ; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered witb dust. On attempting to vripe it off, he was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as he left thera, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back boards and tbe greater part of tbe paper, aud left the glasses upheld by the incrusta tion or covered way whicb thoy had formed during their depredations. On the smaU island of Goree, near Cape Verde, tbe famous naturalist, Adanson, lived in a straw hut, whicb, though quite new at the time he took up his residence in it, became transparent in many places before tbe month was out. This might have been endured, but the vUlainous termites ravaged bia trunk, destroyed bis books, penetrated into his bed, and at last attacked the naturalist hiraself. Neither sweet nor salt water, neither vinegar nor corrosive liquids, were able to drive thera away, and so Adanson thought it best to abandon the premises, and to look out for another lodging. One nigbt, in BrazU, Von Martius was awakened by a disagreeable feeling of cold across hia body. Groping in tbe dark, he found a cool greasy mass crawUng right over tbe bed, and on a light being brought, aaw to bia aatonishment that his rest had been disturbed by an innumerable host of white ants. The room having been unin- 602 THE TROPICAL WORLD. habited for some time, tbey bad formed a clay nest in one of the corners, communi cating with siraUar constructions under tbe roof, and the whole colony was now busy migrating. They formed a column about a foot and a half broad, and their multi tudes poured along in one continuous streara, regardless of the fate of thousands of their companions, whora tbe naturalist scalded to death with boiling water. Their march ceased only with the dawn of day, and several baskets were filled with the bodies of tbe slain. But if tbe greedy termite destroys like the bore-worm many a useful work of man, its ravages are perhaps more tban compensated by ita services in removing decayed vegetable subatancoa from the face of tbe earth, and thua contributing to tbe purity of tbe air and the beauty of tbe landscape. If the forests of tbe tropical world, where thousands of gigantic treea succumb to tbe slow ravages of tirae, or are suddenly pros trated by lightning or tbe hurricane, still appear in all the verdure of perpetual youth, it is chiefly to the unremitting labors of the termites that they are indebted for their freshness. Though belonging to a different order of tbe insect world, tbe economy of the termites is very similar to that of the real ants. Tbey also form communities, divided into distinct orders — laborers (larvce), soldiers (neuters), perfect insecta; and they also erect buildings, but of a far more astonishing structure. Several of their species erect high, dome-like edifices, rising frora tbe plain, so that at firat aight tbey might be miataken for the bamleta of the negroes ; others build on treea, often at a considerable bight above the ground. Tbese sylvan abodes are frequently the size of a hogshead, and are more generally found iu the new world. The clay-built citadels or domes of the Termes bellicosus, a eommon species on the west coast of Africa, attain a bight of twelve feet, and are constructed with such strength that the traveler often ascends tbem to have an uninterrupted view of the grassy plain around. Only the under part of tbe mound is inhabited by the termites, tbe upper portion serving principally as a defence from tbe weather, and to keep up in tbe lower part tbe warmth and moisture necessary to the hatching of the eggs and cherishing of the young ones. In the Center, and almost on a level witb tbe ground, is placed tbe sanctuary of the whole community — the large cell, wbere tbe queen resides with her consort, and which she is doomed never to quit again, after having been once enclosed in it, since tbe portals soon prove too narrow for her rapidly increasing bulk. Encircling tbe regal apartment extends a labyrinth of countless chambers, in which a numerous army of attendants and soldiers is constantly in wait ing. Tbe apace between these chambers and tbe external wall of the citadel ia filled with otber cella, partly deatined for tbe eggs and young larvae, partly for store-rooms. The subterranean paaaagea which lead from the mound are hardly leaa remarkable than the building itself. Perfectly cylindrical, and lined with a ceraent of clay, similar to that of which tbe bill is forraed, they sometimes measure a foot in diameter. They run in a sloping direction, under the bottom of the bill, to a depth of tbree or four feet, and then ramifying horizontally into numerous branches, ultimately riae near to tbe surface at a conaiderable diatance. At their entrance into tbe interior of the hill, they are connected with a great number of smaller galleries, which ascend the inside of the outer shell in a spiral manner, and winding round the whole building to the top, intersect each other at different bights, opening either immediately into tbe dome THE TERMITES AT HOME. 608 in various places, and into tbe lower half of the building, or communicating with every part of it by other smaller circular passages. Tho necessity for the vast size of tbe main galleries underground, evidently arises from tbe circumstance of their being tbe great thoroughfare for the inhabitants, by which they fetch their clay, wood, water, or provisions, and tbeir gradual ascent is requisite, as the termites cau only with great difficulty climb perpendicularly. It may be imagined that sucb works require au enormous population for their con struction ; and, indeed, the manner in which an infant colony of termites is formed and grows, until becoming, in its turn, tbe parent of new migrations, is not tbe least wonderful part of this wonderful insect's history. At tbe end of the dry season, aa 604 THE TROPICAL WORLD. soon as tbe first rains have fallen, the male and female perfect termites, each about the size of two soldiers, or thirty laborers, and furnished with four long, narrow wings, folded ou each other, emerge from thoir retreats in myriads. After a few hours their fragile wings fall off, and on tbe following mormng tbey are discovered covering tbe surface of the earth and waters, where their enemies — buds, reptiles, ants — cause so sweeping a havoc that scarce one pair out of many thousands escapes destruction. If by chance the laborers, who are always busy prolonging theu- gaUeries, happen to meet with one of tbese fortunate couples, they immediately, impelled by tbeir instinct, elect them sovereigns of a new community, and, conveying them to a place of safety, begin to build them a small chamber of clay, theu- palace and their prison — for beyond its walls they never again emerge. Soon after the male dies, but, far from pining and wasting over the loss of her consort, the female increases so wonderfully in bulk that she ultimately weighs as much as 30,000 laborers, and attains a length of three inches, with a proportional width. This increase of size naturally requirea a cor responding enlargement of the cell, which is constantly widened by tbe indefatigable workers. Having reached ber full size, the queen now begins to lay her eggs, and as their extrusion goea on uninterruptedly, nigbt and day, at the rate of fifty or sixty in a minute, for about two years, their total number may probably amount to more than fifty millions. Thia incesaant extrusion of eggs necessarily calls for tbe attention of a largo number of tbe workers in the royal chamber, to take tbem as tbey come forth, and carry them to the nurseries, in which, wben hatched, they are provided with food, and carefully attended till tbey are able to shift for themselves, and become in tbeir tui-n useful to tbe community. In widening their buildings according to the necessities of their growing population, from tbe size of small sugar-loaves to that of domes which might be mistaken for tbe hovels of Indians or negroes, as well as in repairing their damages, the termite workers display an unceasing and wonderful activity ; while the soldiers, or neuters, which are in tbe proportion of about one to every hundred laborers, and are at once distinguished by tbe enormous size of tbeir heads, arraed with long and sharp jaws, are no lesa re markable for their courage and energy. When any one is bold enough to attack tbeir nest and make a breach in its walls, tbe laborers, who are incapable of fight ing, immediately retire, upon which a soldier makes his appearance, obviously for the purpose of reconnoitering, and then also withdraws to give tbe alarm. Two or three others next appear, scrambling as fast as they can one after the otber ; to tbese succeed a large body, who rush forth with aa much speed as the breach will permit, their numbers continually increasing during the attack. These little heroes present an astonishing, and at tbe sarae time a most amusing spectacle. In tbeir haste they frequently miss their bold, and tumble down tbe sides of tbeir hill ; tbey soon, bow- ever, recover tbemselves, and being blind, bite everything they run against. If the attack proceeds, tbe bustle increases to a tenfold degree, and their fury is raised to its highest pitch. Woe to him whose hands or legs come within tbeir reach, for they wUl make their fanged jaws meet at the very first stroke, drawing tbeir own weight in blood, and never quitting tbeir hold, even though they are pulled limb from limb. The courage of tbe bull-dog is as nothing compared to the fierce obstinacy of the termite- soldier. So soon as the injury has ceased, and no further interruption is given, the soldiers retire, and then you will see the laborers hastening in various directions towards WARS OF THE TERMITES— THEIR ENEMIES. 605 tbe breach, each carrying in hia mouth a load of tempered mortar half as big as him self, which be lays on tbe edge of tbe orifice, and immediately hastens back for raore. Not tbe space of the tenth part of an inch is left without laborers working upon it at tbe same moment ; crowds are constantly hurrying to and fro ; yet, araid all this activ ity, tbe greatest order reigns — no one impedes the other, but each seems to thread tbe mazes of tbe multitude without trouble or inconvenience. By the united labors of such an infinite host the ruined wall soon rises again ; and Mr. Smeathman bas ascer tained that in a single nigbt they will restore a gallery of three or four yards in length. In numbers and architectural industry the American Termites are not inferior to those of tbe old world. In tbe savannas of Guiana tbeir sugar-loaf or mushroora- sbaped, pyramidal or columnar hills are everywhere to be seen, impenetrable to tbe rain, and strong enough to resist even a tropical tornado. In many parts of tbe Bra zilian campos or savannas the termite-hills, which are there generally of a more flat tened form, are so numerous that one is almost sure to meet with one of them at tbe distance of every ten or twenty paces. Tbe great ant bear digs deep holes into tbeir sides, wbere afterwards small owls build tbeir nests. Similar termite structures, of a dark-brown color, and a round form, are attached to tbe thick branches of the trees, and you will scarcely meet witb a single specimen of tbe tall candelabra-formed cac tuses {Cerei), so common on those high grass-plains, that is not loaded with their weight. In spite of their working in the dark, in spite of their subterranean tunnels, their strongholds, and the fecundity of their queens, tbe termites, even wben their swarms do not expose themselves to tbe dangers already raentioned, are subject to the attacks of innumerable foes. One of their most ferocious enemies is a species of black ant, which, on tbe principle of setting one thief to catch another, is used by tbe negroes of Mauritiua for tbeir deatruction. Wben tbey perceive that the covered waya of the termites are approaching a buUding, they drop a train of syrup as far aa tbe naarest encampment of tbe boatile army. Some of tbe black ants, attracted by tbe smell and taste of their favorite food, follow its traces and soon find out the termite habitations. Immediately part of them return to announce the welcome intelligence, and after a few hours a black army, in endless columns, is seen to advance against the white-ant strong hold. With irresistible fury (for tbe poor termites are no match for their poisonous sting and mighty mandibles), they rush into the galleries, and only retreat after the extirpation of the colony. Mr. Baxter once saw an army of black ants returning from one of tbese expeditions. Each little warrior bore a slaughtered termite in bis mandibles, rejoicing no doubt in the prospect of a comfortable meal, or a quiet dinner party at home. Even man is a great consumer of termites, and they are esteemed a delicacy by negroes and Indians, both in tbe old and in the new world. In some parts of the East Indies tbe natives have an ingenious way of emptying a termite bUl, by making two boles in it, one to tbe windward and the otber to the leeward, placing at tbe latter opening a pot rubbed with an aromatic herb to receive the insects, wben driven out of tbeir nest by a fire of stinking materials made at tbe former breach. Tbus tbey catch great quantities, of which they make, with flour, a variety of pastry. In South Africa the general way of catching thera is to dig into the ant-hill, and wben tbe builders come forth to repair the damage, to brush them off quickly into the vessel, as the ant-eater does into his mouth. They are then parched 606 THE TROPICAL WORLD. in iron pots over a gentle fire, stirring thera about as is done in roasting coffee, and eaten by handfuls, without sauce or any other addition, as we do corafits. According to Sraeathman, they resemble in taste sugared cream, or sweet almond paste, and are, at the same time, so nutritious, that tbe Hindoos use thera as a restorative for debU itated patients. While most termites live and work entirely under covered galleries, the Marching Termite (T. viarum) exposes itself to tbe day. Mr. Smeathman on one occasion, while passing through a dense forest, suddenly heard a loud hiss like that of a ser pent ; another followed, and struck bim with alarra ; but a moment's reflection led him to conclude that tbese sounds proceeded from white ants, although he could not see any of their huts around. On following this noise, however, he was struck witb surprise and pleasure at perceiving an army of these creatures emerging frora a bole in the ground, and marching witb tbe utmost swiftness. Having proceeded about a yard, this iraraense host divided into two colurans, chiefly coraposed of laborers, about fifteen abreast, following each otber in cloae order, and going straight forward. Here and there was seen a soldier, at a distance of a foot or two from the columns ; many otber soldiers were to be seen, standing atill or paasing about, as if upon tbe look-out lest some enemy sbould suddenly surprise their unwarlike comrades. But the most extraordinary and amusing part of the scene was exhibited by sorae other soldiers, who having mounted some plants, ten or fifteen inches from tbe ground, hung over tbe army marching below, and by striking their jaws upon tbe leaves at certain intervals, produced tbe, noise above mentioned ; to this signal tbe whole army immediately re turned a biss, and increased their pace. The soldiers at tbese signal-stations sat quite still during tbese intervals of silence, except now and then making a slight tum of the head, and seemed as solicitous to keep tbeir posts as regular sentinels. After marching separately for twelve or fifteen paces, the two columns of this army again united, and then descended into tbe earth by two or tbree holes. Mr. Smeathman watched them for more than an hour, without perceiving any increase or dirainution of tbeir numbers. Here, although quite out of plaoe in a scientific point of view, we may introduce a few paragraphs respecting a class of animals known as Ant-eaters, and the modes in whieh tbey manage to secure their prey. The great Ant-bear is undoubtedly one of the moat extraordinary denizena of the wilda of South America ; for that a powerful animal, measuring above six feet from tbe snout to tbe end of tbe tail, should live exclusively on ants, seems scarcely less remarkable tban that tbe whale nourishes his enormous body vrith minute pteropods and medusae. Tho vast raouth of the leviathan of the seas has been most admirably adapted to bis peculiar food, and it was not in vain that Nature gave such colossal dimensions to his bead, as it was necessary to find room for a gigantic straining apparatus, in which, on rejecting the engulphed water, thousanda upon thousands of his tiny prey might remain entangled ; but tbe ant-bear bas been no less wonderfully armed for tbe cap ture of the minute animals on which be feeds; and if, on considering tbe use for which it waa ordained, we become reconciled to the seeming disproportion of the whale's jaws, the small and elongated snout-like bead of tbe ant-bear will also appear THE ANT-BEAR. 607 less uncouthly formed wben we reflect that it is in exact accordance with the wants of the aniraal. For here no deep cavity was required for tbe reception of two rows of powerful teeth, as in most other quadrupeds, but a convenient furrow for a long and extensile tongue — tbe use of which will immediately become apparent on follow ing tbe animal into tbe Brazilian campos, wbere tbe wonderful cities of the white ant are dispersed over the plaina in auch incalculable numbers. Approaching one of these structures, tbe ant-bear strikes a bole through its wall of clay witb his powerful crooked claws, and as tbe ants issue forth by thousands to resent the insult, stretches out bis tongue for tbeir reception. Their furious legions, eager for revenge, irarae diately rush upon it, and, vainly endeavoring to pierce its thick skin with tbeir mandibles, reraain sticking in tbe glutinous liquid with which it is lubricated from two very large glands situated below its root. When suffieiently charged with prey, tbe ant-bear suddenly withdraws bis tongue and swallows all the insects. Without swiftness to enable bim to escape from bis enemies, for raan is superior to him in speed; without teeth, the possession of which would assist bim in self-defence; without the power of burrowing in the ground, by which he might conceal himself from his pursuers ; without a cave to retire to, tbe ant-bear stiU ranges through tbe wilderness in perfect safety, and fears neither tbe boa nor tbe jaguar, for he has full reliance on hia powerful fore-lega and their tremendoua clawa. Scboraburgk bad an opportunity of witneaaing a young ant-bear make use of tbese formidable weapons. On tbe enemy's approach it assumed the defensive, but in auch a manner as to make the boldest aggressor pause; for, resting on ita left fore-foot, it struck out so desper ately witb ita right paw as. would undoubtedly bave torn off tbo fleah of any one that came in contact with its clawa. Attacked from behind, it turned round witb tbe rapidity of lightning, and on being assailed from several quarters at once, throw itself on its back, and, desperately figbting with both its fore-legs, uttered at tbe aame time an angry growl of defiance. In fact, the ant-bear is so formidable an opponent that he is said not unfrequently to vanquish even tbe jaguar, the lord of tbe American forests, for tbe latter ia often found awimming in hia blood, with ripped up bowela, a wound which, of all tbe beaata of the wilderneas, tbe claws of the ant-bear are alone able to inflict. On seizing an animal witb tbese powerful weapons, bo bugs it close to bis body, and keeps it there till it dies through pressure or hunger. Nor does the ant-bear, in the meantime, suffer much from want of aliment, as it is a well-known fact that he can reraain longer without food tban perhaps any other quadruped, so that there ia very little chance indeed of a weaker animal's escaping frora bia clutcbea. Peaceable and harmless, tbe ant-bear when unprovoked never thinks of attacking any other creature ; and as bis interests and pursuits do not interfere witb those of tbe more formidable denizens of tbe wilderness, he would, without doubt, attain a good old age, and be allowed to die in peace, if, unfortunately for him, bis delicate flesh did not provoke the attacks of the large carnivora and man. To be sure, tbe Indian fears bis claws, and never ventures to approach tbe wounded ant-bear until be bas breathed bis last; nor can be be hunted with dogs, as his skin is of a texture that perfectly resists a bite, and his binder parta are effectually protected by thick and shaggy hair; yet, armed with tbe dreadful wourali poison, the Indian knows how to paralyze in a few minutes his muscular powers, and to stretch him dead upon tbe earth. A perfecfc forest vagabond, the ant-bear bas no den to retire to, nor any fixed 608 THE TROPICAL WORLD. abode ; hia immense taU is large enough to cover his whole body, and serves him as a tent during the night, or as a waterproof mantle against tbe rains of the wet season, so that he might boast, like Diogenea, of carrying all he required about him. The peculiar poaition of hia pawa, when be walks or stands, is worthy of notice. He goes entfrely on tbe outer side of bis fore-feet, whicb are quite bent inwards, the claws collected into a point and going under tbe foot. In this position he ia quite at ease, whUe bia long claws are disposed of in a manner to render them harmless to him, and are prevented from becoming dull and worn, which would inevitably be the case did their points come in actual contact witb tbe ground, for they have not that retrac- tUe power which is given to animals of the feline race, enabUng thera to preserve the sharpness of their clawa on the moat flinty path. In conaequence of its resting perpet ually on the ground, tbe whole outer side of the foot is not only deprived of hair, but bard and callous, while, on the contrary, the inner side of tbe bottora of the foot is soft and hairy. Besides the great ant-bear, there are two other species of American ant-eaters, one nearly tbe size of a fox, and the smallest not much larger than a rat. Being provided with prehensUe tails, they are essentially arboreal, while the great ant-bear, incapable of climbing, always remains on the ground, where, thanks to the abundance of bis prey, be is always sure of obtaining a sufficient supply of food with very Uttle troubloi The Manides, Pangolins, or scaly Ant-eaters of South Africa and Asia, resemble their kindred of Araerica in having a very long extenaile tongue, furnished vrith a glutinous mucus for securing their insect food, and in being destitute of teeth, but differ wholly from them in having tbe body, limbs, and tail covered with a panoply of large imbricated scales, overlapping each other like those of tbe lizard tribes, and also in being able to roll themselves up when in danger, by whicb tbeir trenchant scales become ereot, and present a formidable defensive armor, ao that even the tiger would vainly attempt to overcome the Indian pangolin. Tbe manides are inoffensive animals, living wholly on ants and termites, and chiefly inhabit the most obscure parts of the forest, burrowing in tbe ground to a great depth, for which purpose, as also for ex tracting their food from ant-bills and decaying wood, tbeir feet are armed with power ful claws, which they double up in walking, like the ant-bear of Brazil. Besides several species of manides, Africa possessea a peculiar class of ant-eaters in the Orycteropi, which are found from the Cape to Senegambia and Abyssinia, all over the sultry plains wbere their food abounds. Their legs are short, and provided vritb claws fit for burrowing in tbe earth, whicb they can do witb great rapidity ; and wben onee the head and fore-feet bave penetrated into tbe ground, tbeir hold is so tenacious that even tbe strongest man is ineapable of dragging tbem from their hole. The Orycteropi, or earth-hogs (Aard-varlcs) as they are called by the boors, from their habit of burrowing and their fancied resemblance to small short-legged pigs, have an elongated head, though less tapering than that of tbe American myrraecopbagi, and are provided with peculiarly formed teeth, with a flat crown and undivided root, which is pierced with a multitude of little holes, like those of a ratan-cane when cut transversely, while the ant-bears have no teeth at all. Their way of feeding is tbe same, and to enable them to retain tbeir nimble-footed prey, tbeir tongue is likewise lubricated with a glutinous Uquid. Their flesh is considered very wholesome and pal atable, and at the Cape they are frequently hunted both by tbe colonists and the Hot- THE AARD-VARK— THE ARMADILLO. 609 tentots. There are several species, all very much reaembling each other : their stout body measures about five feet from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, the latter being nearly half the length of the body. THE AAKD-VARE. The American Armadillos have many points in common witb tbe myrraecopbagi, manides, and orycteropi. Tbey bave neither fore nor canine teeth, but a number of conical grinders, and are distinguished by having the upper part of their bodies do- fended by a complete suit of armor, divided into joints or banda, folding one over tbe other like tbe parts of a lobster'a tail, so as to aecommodate theraaelves to all tbe mo tions of the animal. In life this shell is very limber, so that tho armadillo is able to go at full stretch, or to roll himself up into a ball as occasion may require. These animala are very comraon both in the forests and in tbe open plains of South America, where they burrow in tbe sand-holes like rabbits. The armadillo ia seldom seen abroad during tbe day, and when surprised he is sure to be near the mouth of his hole; but after sunset he sallies forth in search of roots, grain, worms, insects, and other small animals, and wben disturbed, coils himself up in his invulnerable armor like tbe bedge-hog, or squats close to tbe ground, or, if he has time enough, escapes by digging into the earth, a work which be performs witb masterly dexterity. " As it often takes a considerable tirae to dig him out of his hole," says Mr. Waterton, " it would be a long and laborious busineaa to attack each hole indiscriminately, without knowing 610 THE TROPICAL WORLD. whether tbe animal were there or not. To prevent disappointment, the Indians care fiiUy examine the mouth of the hole, and put a short stick down it. Now if, on intro ducing the stick, a number of mosqultos come out, tbe Indiana know to a certainty that tbe armadillo ia in ifc ; whenever there are no moaquitos in the hole, there is no armadillo. The Indian having satisfied hiraself that the armadillo is there by the moa quitos which come out, he immediately cuts a long and slender stick, and introduces it into the hole ; he carefully observes the line tbe stick takes, and then sinks a pit in tbe sand to catch the end of it ; this done, he puts it further into tbe hole, and digs another pit, and so on, till at last he comes up with the armadillo, which had been making itself a passage in tbe sand till it had exhausted all ita atrength through pure exertion. I have been sometiraes tbree quarters ' of a day in digging out one arma dillo, and obliged to sink half a dozen pita, seven feet deep, before I got up to it. The Indians and negroes are very fond of the flesh, but I considered it strong and rank. On laying hold of tbe armadillo, you must be cautious not to come in contact witb his feet ; they are armed witb sharp claws, and with them be will inflict a severe wound in self-defence ; wben not molested, he is very harmless and innocent." But even tbe giant armadillo is a pigmy when compared to tbe extinct mail-clad animals, whicb at times of unknown antiquity peopled the plains of South America. Mr. Darwin saw, in tbe posseaaion of a clergyman near Montevideo, tbe fragraent of a tail of one of theae monsters of tho past, from which he conjectured that it must have been from six to ton feet long ; and the glyptodon, of whieh tbe British College of Surgeons possesses an admirable specimen, and which, like the armadillos of the present day, was covered witb a tesselatod bony armor, was equal in size to the rhi noceros ! How formidable must bave been tbe enemies whioh made it necessary for an animal like this to move about with harness on its back ! Tbe curious Echidna, or Porcupine Ant-eater {Echidna hystrix) of Australia is a striking instance of thoae beautiful gradations so frequently observed in the animal kingdom, by which creatures of various tribes or genera are blended, as it were, or linked together, and of tbe wonderful diversity which Nature has introduced into the forms of creatures destined to a similar mode of Ufe. It bas the general appearance and external coating of tbe porcupine, with the mouth and peculiar generic characters of tbe ant-eaters. It is about a foot in length, and burrows witb wonderful facility by means of its short muscular fore-feet and ita sharp-pointed claws. When attacked, it rolls itself into a ball like tbe hedgehog, erecting tbe short, strong, and very sharp spines with which the upper parts of tbe body and tail are thickly coated. Australia is likewise the native country of another ant-eating animal, tbe marsupial Myrmecobius fasoiatus. It is formed like a squirrel, and ia of tbe size of tbe rat; ita brown-red fur, with six or seven light yellow transverse bands over tbe baek, gives it an elegant ap pearance. It was discovered about thirty years ago in tbe neighborhood of Swan River. Here, as connected with the Ant family by tbeir house-buUding character, and by tbeir irritating bite, we may introduce the Spiders. An inseet, half of whose body is generally fixed to the otberby a mere thread, whose soft skin is unable to resist the least pressure, and whose limba are so loosely attached to tbe body as to be torn off by the slightest degree of force, would seem utterly incapable of protecting its own life and securing that of its progeny. Such, SPIDERS AND THEIR WEBS. 611 however, is the physical condition of spiders, who would long since have been extir pated, if nature bad not provided them with the power of secreting two liquids, tbe one a venom ejected by their mandibles, the other of a glutinous nature, transuded by papillae at the end of their abdomen. These two liquids amply supply tbe want of aU other weapons of attack or defence, and enable tbem to hold their own against a host of enemies. With the former they instantly paralyze insects much stronger and much more formidable in appearance tban themselves ; while witb tbe latter tbey spin those threads which serve tbem in so many ways, to weave tbeir wonderful webs, to traverse tbe air, to mount vertically, to drop uninjured, to construct tbe bard cocoona intended to protect their eggs against tbeir nuraberless enemiea, or to produce tbe soft down which is to preserve them frora the cold. Preying on other insect tribes, whioh they attack with the ferocity of tbe tiger, or await in their snares with tbe patient artifice of tbe lynx, tbe spiders raay naturally be expected to be most numerous in the torrid zone, where nature bas provided them with the greatest abundanoe of food. There also, where so many- beetles, flies, and moths attain a size unknown in temperate regions, we find tbe spiders growing to sim ilar gigantic diraensions, and forming webs proportioned to tbe bulk of the victims which tbey are intended to ensnare. By means of tbeir monstrous webs many giant-spiders of tbe tropical zone are en abled to entangle not only tbe largest butterflies and moths, but even small birds. Tremeyer tells us that there are spiders in Mexioo whicb extend such strong nets across the pathways, that tbey strike off the hat of tbe passer by ; and at Goree and in Senegal several apiders spin threads so strong as to be able to bear a weight of sev eral ounces, and which no doubt would be made use of for twine, if tbe negroes did not already possess vegetable fibres in abundance fit for the purpose. In tbe for ests of Java, Sir George Staunton saw spider-webs of ao strong a texture that it re quired a sharp knife to cut one's way through them ; and many other similar examples might be mentioned. Tbese large spiders so temptingly suspended in mid-air in tbe forest-glades, seem very much exposed to the attacks of birds, but in many cases it has pleased nature to invest tbem with large angular spines sticking out of their bodies in every kind of fashion. Sorae are so protected by tbese long prickles that then: bodies resemble a miniature " obevaux-de-frise," and could not by any possibility be swaUowed by a bird without producing a very unpleasant sensation in bia throat. One very remarkable species ( Gasteracantha arcuata) has two enormous recurved conical spines, proceeding upwards from the posterior part of the body, and several times longer tban tbe entire spider. Other araneae, to whom these means of defence have been denied, are enabled by their color to escape the attacks of many enemies, or to deceive tbe vigilance of many of their victims. Thus, those that spend their Uvea among tbe flowera and foliage of the treea are, in general, delicately and beautifully marked with green, orange, black, and yellow, while those which frequent gloomy places are clothed witb a dark-colored and dingy garb, in accordance with theu: habits. In tbe forests about Calderas, in the Philippine Arobipelago, Mr. Adams saw handsomely colored species of theridia crouch ing among tbe foliage of tbe trees : while numbers of the same genus of a black color were running actively about among the dry dead leaves that atrewed tbe ground, lookmg, at a Uttle distance, Uke odd-shaped ants, and no doubt deceiving many an 612 THE TROPICAL WORLD. antagonist by this appearance. One species, which knew it was being watched, placed itself upon a diseased leaf, wbere it remained quite stationary until after tbe departure of tbe naturalist, who, bad be not seen the sidelong movement of the cunning Uttie creature in tbe first instance, would not bave been able to distinguish its body from the surface of tbe leaf. While, in this ease, dulness of color served as a defence, the vividly-colored spiders that live among tbe foliage and flowers no doubt attract many flies and insects by reason of tbeir gaudily-tinted bodies. An exception to the general rule is, however, found in those very large and powerful species, which, if not rendered somewhat conspicuous to the sight of otber inseots, might do too muoh damage to tbe tribes which they keep in check. Most of these, therefore, have tbe thorax and abdo men margined witb a light color that contrasts strongly with that of their bodies, and, in many cases, gives tiraely warning of tbeir approach. Tbe spidera of teraperate zones have generally a very repulsive appearance, while many ofthe tropical species are most splendidly ornamented, or rather illuminated, many of them by the vividness of tbeir colors resembling tbe gaudy missals painted by monks in the Middle Ages. Thus, among tbe epeiraa of tbe Philippian isles, are found white figures on a red ground; red, yellow, and black, in alternate streaks; orange raarbled witb brown, light green with white ocelli, yellow witb light brown festoons, or asb-oolored and chestnut bodies with oreseents, horse-shoes, Chinese characters, and grotesque hiero- glypbics of every description. Unfortunately, tbese colors, lustrous and metallic as the feathers of the bumming bird, are, unlike tbe bright colors of the beetle, totally dependent on tbe life of the insect which they beautify, so that it is impossible to preserve them. While most spiders obtain their food either by patiently waiting in ambush or by catching it witb a bound, tbe enormous mygales, or trap-door spiders, run about with great speed, in and out, behind and around every object, searching for what tbey may devour, and from tbeir size and rapid motions exciting the horror of every stranger. Their body, which soraetiraes attaina a length of tbree inches, while their legs embrace a circle of half a foot in diameter, is covered all over witb brown, reddish brown, or , black hair, which gives tbem a funereal appearance, whUe tbeir long feelers armed with sharp books proclaim at once what formidable antagonists they must be to every insect that coraes within tbeir reacb. Though some species are found in Southern Europe, in ChUi, or at tbe Cape, yet they are chiefly inhabitants of tho torrid zone, both in tbe Old and tbe New World. Some of tbem weave cells between the leaves, in tbe hollows of trees or rocks, while others dig deep tubular holes in tbe earth, which tbey cover over with a lid, or rather with a door formed of particles of earth eemented by silken fibres, and closely resembling tbe surrounding ground. This door or valve is united by a silken hinge to tbe entrance at its upper side, and is so balanced that, wben pushed up, it shuts again by its own weight; nay, what is still more admirable, on tbe interior side opposite to tbe binge a series of little holea may be perceived, into which tbe mygale introducea ita claws to keep it abut, sbould any enemy endeavor to open it by force. The interior of tbe nest, whieh is sometimes nine inches deep, is lined witb a double coat of tapestry, tbe one nearest the wall, which is of a coarser tissue, being covered with a pure white silken substance like paper. All species of spiders aro gifted witb tbe same maternal instinct, and resort to various methods for tbe purpose of securing tbeir cocoona. The Theridion, wben a seizure of tbe precious btirden ia threatened, tumbles together with it to the ground, ENEMIES OP THE SPIDER— USES OF THE SPIDER. 613 and remaina motionless, while the Thorinsa covers it with its body, and wheu robbed of it, wanders about disconsolate. In a forest of the Sooloo Islands, Mr. Adams found tbe ground literally overrun with a amall black agile speciea of Lycoaa, many of which had a white flattened globose cocoon affixed to the ends of tbeir abdomen. It was most amusing to watch tbe care witb which these jealous mothers protected the cradles of tbeir little ones, allowing themselves to fall into the hands of the enemy rather tban be robbed of the silken nests that contained tbem. If tbe spiders are at war witb all otber insects, and contribute to keep them within bounds by the destruction tbey cause among their ranks, tbey in their turn bave to suffer from the attacks of many enemies. Several species of monkeys, squirrels, liz ards, tortoises, frogs, and toads catch and devour tbem wherever they can. In Java and Sumatra, we even find several birds belonging to the order of sparrows that bave been named Arachnotherm, from tbeir living almost exclusively on spiders. Armed with a prodigiously long recurved and slender beak, tbey know bow to pursue them and drag tbem forth frora the most obscure recesses. It is amongst the insects tbemselves, however, that tbe spiders bave to fear their raost numerous and formidable enemies. Independently of those which they find in their own class, tbe centipedes seize tbem beyond the possibility of escape ; while several species of pbilantbus, pompilius, and spbex, more savage and poisonous tban themselves, wUl rush upon spidera eight tiraes tbeir size and weight, and benurabing them witb a sting, bear tbem off to tbeir nesta, to aerve as food for their larvse. But tbe insects which in appearance are the tiniest and most delicate, are perhaps those whioh most cruelly wound tbe spiders, by attacking tbem in their eggs, which tbey watch over with such affection, as to be ever ready for tbem to make tbe sacrifice of tbeir own lives. The Pimpla Arachnitor pierces witb its invisible gimlet the tender skin of tbe spider's egg, and, without tearing it, introduces its own eggs into tbe Uquid. The pimpla's egg soon comes to maturity, and tbe larva devours tbe substance of that of the spider, from whence a winged insect bursts forth — a phenomenon which made some naturalists, too hasty to judge from appearances, believe that spiders were able to procreate four-winged flies. Notwithstanding tbe disgust or horror which they generally inspire, tbo spiders are, with very rare exceptions, by no means injurious to man. However proraptly tbeir venom may aot upon insects, even that of tbe largest species of Northern Europe pro duces, on coming into contact with our skin, no pain or inflammation equalling in virulence that of tbe wasp, the bee, the gnat, or otber insects of a still smaller size. The giant spidera of a aunnier aky, armed witb more formidable weapons, naturally produce a more painful sting ; but even bere the effects have been much exaggerated, and the wonderful stories about the Sicilian tarantula's bite, which we read of in Brydone and other authors, are nothing but fables raised upon a very Sslender foundation of truth. Azara mentions that several of bis negroes having been bitten by the large Avicular , mygale {M. avicalaria) of South America, a slight ephemeral fever was the only result. If thus, araong tbe many species of spiders, hardly a single one may be said to be formidable to man, tbe indirect services which tbey render bim — by diminishing tbe number of noxious insects, or keeping in check the legions of gnats whieh irritate and annoy him by their attacks — are far from inconsiderable. Nor are tbey entirely with out direct use. Several savage nations eat spiders, and the inhabitants of New Cale- 614 THE TROPICAL WORLD. donia reckon a large species of Epeira amongst tbe choicest delicacies of the land. Even in Europe some people enjoy a spider, and the famous astronomer Lalande was far from being singular in this respect. Tbey are said to taste Uke filberts, and the proper way to eat tbem is to take off the legs, and to swallow the abdomen, after having washed and rubbed it with butter. The property of spiders' webs to stop an hemorrhage or tbe bleeding of a wound is a well-known fact, and they have also been recoramended as an anti-febrifuge. In several countries where tbe insects cause great ravages, the services of the spiders are duly appreciated. Thus in tbe West Indies, a large and formidable trap-door spider, which would make a European start back with horror, is looked upon with pleasure by tbe islanders of tbe torrid zone, who respect it as a sacred animal, by no means to be disturbed or harmed, as ifc delivers them from tbe eockroachea, which otherwise would overrun tbeir dwellings. Those who do not possess these spiders take good care to purchase and transport them into their houses, expecting from tbem similar services to those we derive frora a good domestic cat. When we consider tbe large size of many of the tropical spiders, and the strength of tbeir threads, it seems probable that tbeir cocoons might be put to some use. We are told by Azara, in bis " Travels to Paraguay," that a spider exists in that country tbe silk of whose spherical cocoons, raeasuring an inch in diameter, is spun on account of its permanent orange color. The eyes and noses of tbe woraen eraployed in unravelling tbe cocoons are said to water considerably, though without tbeir perceiving any pungent smell, or feeling any other inconvenience. This spider is, perhaps, the same as that which, according to M. de Bomare, is known in tbe interior of South Araerica under tbe narae of tbe silk-spider. Its cocoon is of tbe size of a pigeon's egg, tbe silk is soft, and can be easily carded. Atterapts bave also been made in Europe to utilize tbe threads of the large indigenous spidera. About the beginning of the last eentury, M. Bon, a Frenchman, who seems to have been tbe first that ever put the idea into practice, collected a sufficient quantity to make sorae stockings and gloves, which be presented to tbe king, Louis XIV., and to the Acaderay of Sciences in Paris. His discovery caused some sensation at tbe time, and bis dissertation on tbe subject was translated into all European language's, and at a later period even into the Chinese, by order of the Emperor Kien-Long. Tbe eelebrated Reaumur, however, who was coraraissioned by the Academy to report on M. Bon's discovery, pointed out how difficult it would be to put it to any extensive use, as it would require no less than 55,296 of the Epeira diadema to produce a single pound of silk ; and bow were all these to be provided with flies ? If the extreme fineness of the spider's threads is an obstacle to their being spun and woven, this property, united with tbeir metallic brilliancy, renders tbem an excel lent material for tbe construction of the micrometers used for astronomical purposes : tbe finest silver thread which it ia possible to spin having a diameter of -g^^-j- of an inch, while spiders' threads raeasure only -r-o^nr or even ^-oVt- Trougbton, an eminent English instruraent maker, first thought of substituting them for the sUver-threads then in use, and tbey were found to answer so weU that since that time they have been constantly employed. Tbe Scorpions, which even in Europe are reckoned among the most maUgnant in sects, are truly terrific in the torrid zone, where they frequently attain a length of SCORPIONS. 615 six or seven inches. Closely allied to the spiders, their aspect is still more repul sive. Were one of the largest scorpions menacingly to creep up against you, with extended claws and its long articulated sharply-pointed tail projecting over its head, I think, despite the strength of your nerves, you would start back, justly concluding that a creature of such an aspect must necessarily come with the worst intentions. The poison of the scorpion ia discharged like that of the snake. Near the tip of tbe crooked sting, namely, which terminates the tail, we find two or tbree very small fora mina, through which, on pressure, tbe venom of the gland with which they are con nected immediately issues forth. By raeans of thia weapon, even the small European scorpions are able to kUl a dog, whUe the tropical giants of the race infiict wounds that become fatal to man himself. The sting of several South American scorpions produces fever, numbness of tbe limbs, turaors on the tongue, weakness of the sight, and other nervous syraptoras, lasting twenty-four or forty-eight hours ; but the African scorpions seem to be still more formidable. Mr. Swainson informs us that tbe only means of saving tbe lives of English soldiers who were stung by those of Egypt, was tbe amputation of the wounded limb ; and Professor Ehrenberg, who, while making his researches on tbe Natural History of tbe Red Sea, was stung five times by the Androctonus quinquestriatus, icad funestus, says be oan well believe, from tbe dreadful pains he suffered, that the poison of these scorpions may become fatal to women- and children. A servant of Mr. Ruasegger, while emptying a trunk, was stung in the breast by a large scorpion, which had concealed itself among tbe Unen. For hours the pain was dreadful, shooting from time to time through tbe whole nervous systera, and almost depriving tbe patient of consciousness. A cold perspiration covered bis brow, and it was only after tbe internal and external application of amraonia, one of the chief remedies for sustaining the sinking fiame of Ufe, that he at length felt some relief, though be had still to suffer several daya from a strong fever. The scorpions live mostly on tbe ground, in gloomy recesses, and even in the nooks and corners, of dwelling-houses, so that, in countries wbere tbey are known to abound, it is necessary to be very cautious in removing stones, pieces of wood, &c. Of a jerocious, cruel disposition, they are not only tbe foes of all other animals, but carry on a war of extermination among themselves, and are even said to kill and devour their own progeny, without pity, as soon as tbey are born ; thus rendering good service to tbe comraunity at large. Maupertuis once inclosed a hundred scorpions — a select jnd delightful party — in a box. Iraraediately a furious battle ensued — one against ilU, all against one — and in an hour's time scarcely one of tbe combatants survived the conflict. The poison of tbe scorpion is lodged in its tail, but that of tbe centipede is in its jaws. These are likewise araong tbe pests of tropical cliraates ; for, although several are found in Europe, yet, from their small size, they are harmless to man. Those of India and South America, on the otber hand, are enormous, frequently six or seven inches long, and their sting is no less painful and virulent tban that of tbe dreaded scorpion itself. 616 THE TROPICAL WORLD. CHAPTER X. SEKPENTS—LIZARDS— FROGS AND TOADS. Serpents: Rarity of Venomous Serpents — Habits and External Characteristics of Serpents — The Labarri — The Trigonocephalus — Antidotes to the Poison of Serpents— Sucking out the Venom — The Poison-Fangs — The Bush-Master — The Echidna Ocellata— Rattlesnakes — Their Enemy the Hog — The Cobra de Capello — The Haje — The Cerastes — Boas and Pythons — The Boa-constrictor — The Water Boa — ^Fascination by Snakes — Henderson's Argument against It — Thorpe's Reasons in its Favor — Du Chaillu on the Subject — ^Enemies of Serpents — The Secretary Bird — The Adjutant Bird— The Mongoos — Serpents Eating Serpents — The Locomotion of Serpents — Anatomy of their Jaws — A Serpentine Meal — Pet Serpents — Tree Snakes — Water Snakes — Stories of Enormous Snakes — Du Chaillu's Big Snake — Wallace's Bigger One. — Lizards: The Geckoe — Anatomy of its Feet — Their Wide Distribution — The Anolis — Its Combativeness — The Chameleon — Its Habits, Change of Color, and Characteristics — The Iguana — The Teju — Water Lizards — ^Flying Dragons — The Basilisk. — Frogs and Toads : The Pipa Frog — Tree Frogs — Wallace's Flying Frog — The Bahia Toad— The Giant Toad— The Musical Toad. ON penetrating for tbe first time into a tropical forest, the traveler is moved by many conflicting eraotions. This luxuriance of vegetation, this abundanoe of blossoms, unite in raising the soul to the fullest enjoyment of the moment; and yet tbe heart is, at the samo time, chilled with vague fears, that raix like a discordant sound with the harmonies of this sylvan world. For in tbe hollows of tbo tangled roots and in the dense underwood of the forest a brood of noxious reptiles loves to conceal itself, and who knows whether a snake, armed with poisonous fangs, may not dart forth from tbe rustling foUage. Gradually, however, these reflections wear away, and time and experience convince one that tbe snakes in the tropical woods are hardly more to be feared than in our own forests. These reptilea are, indeed, far from being of so frequent occurrence as is generally believed ; and on meeting with a snake, there is every probabUity of its belonging to some harmless species, which show themselves much more frequently by day, and are by far more numerous. Even in India and Ceylon, where serpents are said to abound, tbey make their appearanoe so cautiously that the surpriae of long residents is invariably expreaaed at tbe rarity with which they are to be seen. Dr. Russell, who particularly studied the serpents of India, found that, out of forty-three species whicb he himself examined, not more than seven were found to possess poisonous fangs; and Davy, whose attention was carefully directed to the snakes of Ceylon, came to the conclusion that but four out of the twenty species he could collect were venomous, and that of these only two were capable of inflicting a wound likely to be fatal to man. Sir B. Tennent, who frequently performed journeys of two to five hundred mUes through tbe jungle without seeing a single snake,- never beard, during his long resi- VENOMOUS SNAKES— THEIR RARITY. 617 dence in Ceylon, of the death of a European which was caused by the bite of one of these reptUes ; and in almost every instanoe accidents to tbe natives happened at nigbt, wben tbe aniraal, having been surprised or trodden on, bad inflicted tbe wound in self-defence. Tbus, to avoid danger, tbe Singhalese, wben obliged to leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the noise of whicb, as tbey strike it on the ground, is sufficient to warn tbe snakes to leave tbeir path. During hia five years' travels through the whole breadth of tropical America, from the Atlantic to tbe Pacific, M. de Castelnau, although ever on the search, collected no more than ninety- one serpents, of which only twenty-one were poisonous. Tbe habits of tbe venomous snakes, and tbe external characters by which they are distinguished from tbe harmless species, likewise tend to diminish tbe danger to be apprehended from tbem. Tbus, tbeir bead is generally flat, broad, lanceolate ; tbey have an aperture or slit on each cheek, behind tbe nostrils, and an elongated vertioal pupil like many otber nocturnal aniraals. They are also generally slower and more indolent in their motions, and tbus are more easily avoided. No venomous snake will ever be found on a tree ; and on quietly approaching ono in the forest or in tbe savanna, it will most likely creep away without disputing tbe path, as it is not very anxious uselessly to squander the venom whicb nature gave it as tbe only means for procuring itself food. " There is not muoh danger in roving araongst snakes," says Waterton, who, from spending many a month in tropical wilds, may justly bo called an excellent authority, " provided only that you bave self coraraand. You must never approach thera abruptly; if so, you are sure to pay for your rashness; because the idea of self- defence is predoralnant in every animal, and thus the snake, to defend himself from what he considera an attack upon him, makea tbe intruder feel tbe deadly effect of bia envenomed fangs. The labarri snake is very poisonous, yet I have often approached within two yards of bim without fCar. I took care to advance very softly and gently, without moving my arma, and he always allowed me to have a fine view of hira, without showing tbe least inclination to make a spring at me. He would appear to keep his eye fixed on me, as though suspicious, but that was all. Sometimes I have taken a stick ten feet long and placed it on the labarri's back ; be would then glide away, without offering resistance. However, when I put the end of tbe stick abruptly to hia bead, he immediately opened bia mouth, flow at it, and bit it." But although accidents from venomous anakes are coraparatively rare, yet the consequences are dreadful when they do take place, and tbe sight of a cobra or a trigonocephalus pre paring for its fatal spring may well appall the stoutest heart. Prince MaximiUan of Nou Wied, having wounded a tapir, waa foUowing the tracea of bis game along witb his Indian hunter, wben suddenly his companion uttered a loud scream. He had come too near a labarri snake, and tbe dense thicket prevented bis escape, Fortunately tbe first glance of the distinguished naturalist fell upon the rep tile, which with extended jaws and projecting fangs was ready to dart upon the Indian, but at the same moment, struck by a ball from the prince's rifle, lay writhing on tbe ground. Tbe Indian, though otherwise a strong-nerved man, was so paralyzed by fear that ifc was some time before he could recover his self-possession — a proof, among others, that it is superfluous to attribute a fascinating power to the venomous snakes, as the effects of terror are quite sufficient to explain why smaUer animals, unable to flee the 618 THE TROPICAL WORLD. impending danger, become tbeir unresisting viotims, and even seem, as it were, wan tonly to rush upon destruction. But upon this subject we sball have more to say. A poor Indian girl that accompanied Scboraburgk on bis travels through the forests of Guiana was less fortunate than the Prince of Nou Wied's companion. She was bitten by a trigonocephalus, and it was dreadful to see bow soon the powers of life began to ebb under tbe fatal effects of the poison. Tbe wound was immediately sucked, and spirits of ammonia, the u.sual remedy, profusely applied both externally and inwardly, but all in vain. In less tban three minutes, a convulsive trembling shook the whole body, the face assumed a cadaverous aspect, dreadful pains raged in tbe heart, in tbe back, less in the wound itself ; tbe dissolved blood flowed from tho ears and nose, or was spasmodically ejected by tbe stomach ; the pulse rose to 120-130 in tbe minute ; tbe paralysis which first benumbed the bitten foot spread farther and farther, and in less tban eight minutes tbe unfortunate girl was no longer to be recog nized. Tbe same day tbe foot swelled to shapeless dimensions, and , she lay senseless untU, after an agony of sixty-three houra, death relieved ber frora her sufferings. A great many antidotes have been reoommended against serpentine poison, but their very number proves tbeir ineffioaey. It is a well known fact that serpentine poison may be swallowed witb impunity ; it shows its effects only on mixing directly witb tbe blood. A tight ligature above the wound, along with sucking, burning, or cutting it out, are thua very rational remedies for preventing tbe rapid propagation of the venom. Suction is, however, not always unattended with danger to tbe person who undertakes the friendly offlce. Tbus Scboraburgk relates tbe raisfortunes of a poor Indian, whose son bad been bitten in tbe obeek. Tbo father instantly sucked tbe wound, but a hollow tooth oonveyed tbe poison into his own body. His cheek swelled under exeruciating pains, and without being able to save bis son, his own healtb and vigor were forever lost; for such are tbe dreadful consequences of this poison, that they incurably trouble the fountains of life. The wound generally breaks open every year, emitting a very offen sive odor, and causes dreadful pains at every change of tbe weather. Although aU tbe venomoua snakes produce morbid symptoms nearly similar, yet the atrength of the poison varies acoording to the species of tbe serpent, and to the circumstances under which it is emitted. It is said to he most virulent during very hot weather, or when the animal is about to oast its skin. Tbe effects are naturally more powerful and rapid wben a larger quantity of poison flows into tbe wound, and a anake with exhausted supplies from repeated bitinga will evidently atrike less fatally than another whose glands are inflated with poison after a long repose. Before describing some of the most oonspicuous of tbe venomous serpents, a few words on tbe simple but admirable mechanisra of their delicate but needle-like fangs will not be out of place. Towards tbe point of tbe fang, which is invariably situated in the upper jaw, there is a littie oblong aperture on the convex side of it, and through this there ia a communication down tbe fang to tbe root, at which lies a little bag con taining the poison. Thua, wben tbe point of the fang ia preased, tbe root of the fang also presses against the bag and sends up a portion of tbe poison it contained. The fangs being extremely movable, can be voluntarily depressed or elevated ; and as from their brittieness they are very liable to break, nature, to provide for a loss that would be fatal, has added behind each of tbem smaller or subsidiary fangs ready to take their place in case of accident. THE BUSHMASTER— RATTLESNAKE— COBRA. 619 Unrivalled in tbe display of every lovely color of the rainbow, and unmatched in the effects of his deadly poison, the Bushmaster or Counacutohi {Lachesis rhombeata) glides on, sole monarch of tbe forests of Guiana or Brazil, as both raan and beast fly before him. In size he surpasses most other venomoua apeoies, as he sometimes grows to the length of fourteen feet. Generally concealed among the fallen loaves of tbe forest, he Uvea on sraall birds, reptiles, and mammalians, whom be is able to pursue with surprising activity. Fortunately, tbe busbraaster is a rare serpent, frequenting only the deepest shades of the thicket, where in tbe day-tirao be generally lies coiled upon the ground. Still rarer, though if possible yet more formidable, is a small brown viper {Echidna ocellata), whioh infests the Peruvian forests. Its bite is said to be able to kill a strong man vrithin two or tbree rainutes. Tbe Indian, when bitten by ifc, does not even attempt an antidote against the poison, but stoically bids adieu to his comrades, and lays hiraself down to die. The Ul famed, vride extended race of the rattlesnakes, which ranges from South Brazil to Canada, belongs exclusively to tbe new world. They prefer the more ele vated, dry, and stony regions, where tbey lie coiled up in tbe thorny bushes, and only attack such animals as come too near tbeir lair. Tbeir bite ia aaid to be able to kill a horse or an ox in ten or twelve minutea ; but, fortunately, tbey are afraid of man, and wiU not venture to attack hira unless provoked. When roused to anger they are, how ever, very forraidable, as their fangs penetrate through the strongest boot. One of the most remarkable features of their organization is a kind of rattle terminating tbe tail, and consisting of a number of pieoes inserted into eaoh otber, all alike in shape and size, hollow, and of a thin, elastic, brittle substance, like that of which tbe scales are externally formed. Wben provoked, tbe strong and rapid vibratory motions iraparted to the rattle produce a sound which bas been compared to that of knife-grinding, but it is never loud enough to be heard at any distance, and becomes almost inaudible in rainy weather. Naturalists distinguish at least a dozen different speciea of rattlesnakea, tbe com monest of which are the Boaquira (Crotalus horridus), which frequents the warmest regions of South America, and tbe Durissua ( O. durissus), which bas chosen tbe United States for its principal home. The chief enemy of this serpent is the hog, whom it dreads so much that on seeing one it immediately loses all its courage, and instantiy takes to flight. But the hog, who smells it from afar, draws nearer and nearer, his bristles erected witb excitement, seizes it by the neck, and devours it with great com placency, though without touching tbe head. As tbe bog is the invariable companion of tbe settier in tbe backwoods, tbe rattlesnake everywhere disappears before tbo ad vance of man, and it is to be hoped that a century or two hence it wiU be ranked among the extinct animals. The American Indians often regale on the rattlesnake. Wben they find it asleep, tbey put a smaU forked stick over its neck, which tbey keep im movably fixed to the ground, giving the snake a piece of leather to bite, and this they pull back several times with great force, until they perceive that tbe poiaon-fangs are torn out. They then cut off the head, skin the body, and cook it as we do eels. The flesh ia said to be white and excellent. None of tbe American snakes inhabit the Old World, but in the East Indies and Ceylon other no less dangerous species appear upon the seene, among which tbe celebrated Cobra de Capello ia one of tbe most deadly. A few years since, a cobra 620 THE TROPICAL WORLD. in tbe British Zoological Gardens destroyed its keeper. In a fit of drunkenness, the man, against express orders, took the reptile out of its cage, and placing its head inside his waistcoat, allowed it to glide round his body. When ifc bad emerged from under bis clothes on the otber side, apparently in good humor, tbe keeper squeezed its tail, when it struck bim between bis eyes. In twenty rainutes his consciousness was gone, and in less tban three hours he was dead. As long as tbe cobra is in a quiet mood, its nook is nowhere thicker than its bead or other parts ; but as soon as it is excited, it raises verticaUy the anterior part of its trunk, dilates tbe hood on each side of the neck, which is curiously marked in the center in black and white, like a pair of spectacles, and then swells out to double its former proportions, and advances against tbe aggressor by tbe undulating motion of tbe tail. It is not only met with in tbe cultivated grounds and plantations, but will creep into the houses and insinuate itself among the furniture. This is the snake so frequently exhibited by tbe Indian jugglers, who contrive by some unknown method to tame tbem so far that tbey wiU perform certain movements in cadence, and dance to tbe sound of music, with whicb the cobra seems muoh delighted, keeping time by a graceful motion of the head, erecting about half its length from the ground and following the few simple notes of tbo conjuror's flute witb gentle curves like tbe undulating lines of a Swan's neck. Tbe Egyptian Haje {Naja Haje), a near relation of the Indian cobra, is most likely tbo asp of ancient authors, which the celebrated Cleopatra chose as tbe instruraent of ber death, to avoid figuring in tbe triumph of Augustus. Like tbe cobra, it inflates its neck when in a state of excitement, and aa it raises its head on being approached, as if watchful for ita aafety, it was venerated by tbe ancient Egyptians as a symbol of divinity, and as the faithful guardian of their fields. Divine honors bave, however, much more frequently been paid to the' venomous snakes frora tbe terror tbey inspire, tban from far-fetched notions of beneficence. Tbe Cerastes, or horned-viper, one of tbo most deadly serpents of tbe African deserts, is frequently exhibited by Egyptian jugglers, who handle and irritate it with impunity : they are supposed to render them selves invulnerable by the chewing of a certain root, but most likely, aa in the case of tbe cobra-charmers, their secret consists in their courage and perfect knowledge of tbe animal's nature. Although the Boas and Pythons are unprovided witb venomous fangs, yet, from tbeir enormous size, they may well be ranked among tbe deadly snakes; for, as Waterton justly remarks, "it comes to nearly the same thing in tbe end whether the victira dies by poison frora the fangs, which corrupts his blood and makes it stink horribly, or whether his body be crushed to mumray and swallowed by a Python.'' Tbe kingly Jiboya (Boa-constrictor) inhabits the dry and sultry localities of tbe Bra zilian forests, where he generally conceals himself in crevices and hollows in parts but little frequented by man, and sometimes attains a length of thirty feet. To catch his prey he ascenda tbe trees, and lurks, hidden in the foUage, for tbe unfortunate agutis, pacas, and capybaras, whom tbeir unluoky star may lead within his reacb. When full-grown he seizes tbe passing deer ; but in spite of bis large size be is but little feared by tbe natives, as a single blow of a cudgel suffices to kill him. Prince Maximilian of Neu Wied tella us that the experienced hunter laughs when asked whether the Jiboya attacks and devours man. Tbe Sucuriaba, Anaconda, or Water Boa {Eunectes murinus), as it is variously SERPENT FASCINATION. 621 named, attains still larger dimensions than the constrictor, as aorae are aaid to have been found of a length of forty feet. It inhabita the large rivera, lakea, and raarshy grounds of tropical Araerica, and passes most of its time in tbe water, now reposing on a sand-bank, witb only its bead above tbe surface of the stream, now rapidly swim ming like an eel, or abandoning itself to tbe current of the river. Often, also, it suna itself on the sandy margin of tbe streara, or patiently awaits its prey, sfcrefcched oufc upon some rock or fallen tree. With sharp eye it observes all that swims in tbe waters as well as all that flies over thera, or all that coraes to tbe banks to quench its thirst ; neither fish nor aquatic bird is secure from the swiftness of its attack, and woe to the capybara that cornea within the grasp of its folds. Such is its voracity, that Firmin found in the stomach of an Anaconda a large sloth, an Iguana nearly four feet long, and a tolerably-sized Ant-boar, all tbree nearly in tbe samo state as wben they were .swallowed — a proof that their capture bad taken place within a short time. As is commonly tbe case with reptiles, tbe water-boa is very tenaoious of life, and though tbe bead may be nearly severed from the trunk, the entrails taken out of tbe body, and tbe skin detached, it will still move about for a considerable time. Tbe boas principally inhabit America, although some species aro likewise met with in Asia. But the more formidable pythons are confined to the hot regions of tho Old World. They are said to enlace even tbe tiger or tbe lion in their fatal embrace ; and to judge by their size and strength, this assertion aeems by no raeans improbable. The alleged power of fascination iu snakes is now abandoned by most naturalists ; and all the authenticated facts in relation to it seem to bo capable of being otherwise explained. Dr. Henderson, a very close American observer, relates* some incidents bearing on this question. " Sorae field hands, " he says, " while at work in the field, kiUed a rattlesnake of such unusual size that they were induced to bring it to the house that the famUy might see it. Its bead was chopped off and left in tbe field. The snake was laid under some shade trees, upon the branches of whicb a pair of mockingbirds bad built thoir nest. The birds soon discovered tbe snake, and at once sounded tbeir notes of alarm and distress. Tbey commenced approaching, and finally came in iraraediate eontaot with the snake. In abort, tbey exhibited all the phenomena of the fasoinated in perfection, except that tbey did not jump into the snake's mouth, which, fortunately for tbem, was a mile distant. I bave frequently heard it asserted that tbe snake, after fascinating tbe bird, opens its mouth and the bird jumps into it. To test tbe truth of this, I caught a black adder, and tying one end of a piece of twine around hia neck, I made tbe otber end faat to some shrubbery in which a pair of mocking-birds bad made their nests. Tho snake was soon dis covered by tbe birds, and in a short time tbey were as much fascinated as birds ever become. Tbey approached the reptile with feathers reversed, uttering their notes of alarm, and were a dozen times in contact witb bira. On the other hand, tbe snake seemed only bent on escaping, and bad neither time nor inclination to exert his faraed power of fascination. It was exerted, however, to its fullest extent, as far as the birds were concerned. At length the snake, in bis efforts to escape, brought bis body so far through the loop of twine around his neck that he was suffocated. This raade no difference, and tbe birds continued to be as much fascinated after as before bis death. They were several times driven away, but would as often return. In tbese instances ^^ * Harper's Magazine, April, 1856. 622 THE TROPICAL WORLD. what becomes of tbe alleged wonderful power of the serpent's eye ? Two birds were apparently charmed at one and the same time by a single snake, and that a dead one. The real fact is, that the so-called fascination ia seen in perfection only during the period of incubation, and while tbe birds are rearing their young. There is a marked difference between tbe actions of the birds during this period and at other times. Now, animals of every species either eat or are eaten by otber species; and each race has its own peculiar modes of attack, defence, and escape. The snake knows that otber aniraals hold him in great terror ; but that birds will approach him if he remains perfeotly still. Wben be perceives that tbe birds bave seen him, he remains perfectly still. The birds know that their young will approach the snake and fall a prey to him. If it be in tbe breeding season, parental instinct or affection impels them to attack the enemy, and so it often sacrifices its own life to save that of its offspring. Parental solicitude overcomes its natural tlraidity. Indeed the birds on these occasions seem to lose their senses altogether, precisely as a human parent might do under similar circumstances." RATTLESNAKE CHARMING A BABBIT. StUl, however, we must admit that tbe subject of snake fascination is in a measure an open question. Mr. T. B. Thorpe, another close observer of tbe habits of tbe animal world, is fully convinced of tbe existence of this power, and cites many inei- SERPENT FASCINATION. 623 dents in proof of bia theory, accorapanying tbem with drawings of tbe reptile in flagrante delictu,* He shows one snake in the attitude, as be believes, of charraing a wild-cat ; and another wben charraing a rabbit. In this latter illustration the rabbit certainly looks as though he was fascinated. He beUeves also that tbey have this power over man, and adduces several instances in corroboration. And even further, he believes that this power exists in tbe dead reptile. He suras up bis conclusions thus : " The food of tbe rattlesnake is in a great measure composed of small animals or birds superior to it in fleetness, and it bas no power to seize its prey except wben it is coiled up, and consequently incapable of giving ohase. In addition, tbe reptile, while attempting to seize ita prey, emita a strong odor, which no doubt has a stupefying effect upon its victim. Now, as tbe rattlesnake never steals upon any object, and is perfectly incapable of seizing its food except wben it is coiled up and stationary, how would it ever obtain subsistence if nature had not given it the power to attract ita prey within its deadly reacb? Although it is disputed by most naturalists that snakes have the power of fascination, yet to me it seems as if nothing relating to tbeir natural history is more fully substantiated. People living in crowded citioa who receive from abroad ' specimens ' preserved in alcohol and bottled, or write dissertations from examination of the ' stuffed skin,' must be assured, from what tbey see before thera, that tbe power of fascination ia a fable; and aa doubting is a safe forin of unbelief, it is freely expreaaed. The rattleanak^, nevertheless, bas certainly an eye of command as had Napoleon ; and the power of the reptile's gaze is not only acknowledged by the humbler class of aniraals, but man, with all his superior powers, has' felt a thrill of helplessness pass through hia soul as be beheld that mysterious eye glaring full upon him. Approaoh a rattlesnake, and witb the first convenienfc thing dash out hia brains; but dare not to make a close examination of tbe death-dealing object before you. If its spiral motions once find a response in tbe music tune-raarkings of your own mind ; if you look into those strange orbs that seem to bo the openings into another world; if that forked tongue plays into your presence until you find it as vivid as the lightning's flash ; and, meanwhile, tbe bum of those rattles begins to con- fiise your absorbed senses, you will be conscious of some terrible danger ; that you stand upon some dread precipice ; that your blood is starting back frora your heart ; and you oan only break through tbe charm witb an effort that requires the whole of your resolution," Paul du CbaUlu also — no mean authority on tbe subject — firmly believes in this power of fascination ; and gives an instance in point :t "I sball never forget that one day, as I lay ill under that big tree, I spied an enormoua anake folded among tbe branches of another tree not far from me. My attention bad been drawn to that tree by the eries of a squirrel. The snake was charming the poor little squirrel. How nice the squirrel was; bow beautiful his little taU; how black and bright seemed his little eyes. His little feet were moving onward toward tbe snake ; bia little tail waa up, and he obippored aa be advanced toward certain death. Tbe snake was still as death ; not one of his folds could bave been seen moving. How black and shiny the ugly creature was, and what a contrast with the green leaves of tbe trees. Part of bis body was coiled on tbe Umb of the tree. How fixedly he looked on tbe squirrel. His head was triangular, and be belonged to that family of snakes that spend the * Harper's Magazine, March, 1855. ' t Wild Life Under the Equator, 161. 624 THE TROPICAL WORLD. greatest portion of their lives on treea. Nearer and nearer the squirrel came ; louder and louder were his cbipperings; he tried to run away, but could not. At last he came within a foot of tbe snake. There was a pause ; then suddenly, Uke a flash of Ughtning, tbe snake sprang. Tbe poor little squirrel was in the folds of tbe ugly reptile, and I soon saw bia body graduaUy disappearing into its inflated mouth, and tbe broken silence of tbe forest resuraed its sway." Hero I leave tbe vexed question of serpentine fascination, witb the expression of my own opinion that, while much can be said on both sides, yet, upon the whole, tbe nays bave it. CHABMING THE SQtrlKKEL. The various serpent tribes are exposed to tbe attacks of many enemiea, who fortu nately keep tbeir nurabers within salutary bounds, and avenge tbe death of the oount- less insects, worms; toads, frogs, and lizards, that fall a prey to tbeir strength or their venom. Several species of rapacious and aquatic birds live upon snakes, the Araerican ostrich thins their ranks wherever be can, and tbe African " Secretary" ia renowned for bia prowess in serpentine warfare. " The battle waa obstinate," aays Le Vaillant, describing one of tbese conflicts, " and conducted witb equal address on both sides. The serpent, feeling tbe inferiority of bis strength, in his attempt to flee, and regam bis hole, employed that cunning which ia ascribed to bim, while tbe bird, guessing hia design, suddenly stopped bim, and eut off bis retreat by placing herself before him at a single leap. On whatever side tbe reptile endeavored to make its escape, bis enemy was still found before hira. Then, uniting at once bravery and cunning, he erected hiraself boldly to intimidate the bird, and biasing dreadfully, displayed his menacing throat, inflamed eyes, and a head swollen with rage and venom. Sometimes this threatening appearance produced a momentary suspension of hostilities, but the bird soon returned .to tbe charge, and covering her body with one of her wings as a buck- SO:,IE SERPENT-DESTROYERS. 625 ler, struck her enemy witb the homy protuberances upon tbe other, which, like little clubs, served the more effectually to knock him down as he raised hiraself to the blow ; at last be staggered and fell, tbe conqueror then despatched bira, and with one stroke of her bill laid open his skull." The secretary-eagle has now been sueoessfuUy acclimatized in the West Indies, wbere be renders hiraself useful by the destruction of the venoraous snakes with which the plantations are infested. Gravely, " witb measured step and slow," like a German philosopher cogitating over tbe nature of tbe absolute, but, as we shall presently see, much more profitably engaged, tbe " Adjutant " wanders araong tbe reeds on the banks of the muddy Ganges. Tbe aspect of this colossal bird, measuring six feet in higbt and nearly fifteen from tip to tip of tbe wings, is far from being comely, as bis enormous bill, his naked bead and neck, except a few straggling curled hairs, his large craw banging down tbe forepart of tbe neck like a pouch, and his long, naked legs, are ocrtainly no features of beauty. Suddenly be stops, dips bis bill among the aquatic plants, and immediately raises it again triumphantly into tbe air, for a long snake, despairingly twisting and wriggling, strives vainly to escape from tbe formidable pincers which hold it fast. Tho bird throws baek bis head, and the reptile appears notably dimin ished in size ; a few more gulps, and it has entirely disappeared. And now the sedate bird continues bia atately promenade with the self satisfied mien of a merchant who has just made a successful speculation, and is engaged in tbe agreeable calculation of his gains. But lo ! again tbe monstrous bill descends, and tbe same scene is again repeated. The good aervioea of tbe Giant Heron in clearing tbe land of noxious rep tiles, and tho havoc he is able to make among tbeir ranks, may be judged of by tbe simple fact, that on opening tbe body of one of thera, a land-tortoise ten inches long and a large black cat were found entire within it, the former in tbe pouch, as a kind of stock in trade, the latter in tbe stomach, all ready for immediate consumption. Trusting to his agility and tbe certainty of his eye, tbe Indian Ichneumon or Mon goos attacks without hesitation the most venomous serpents. Tbe cobra, which drives even tbo leopard to flight, rises before tbe little creature with swelling head and fury in its eye ; but swift as thought, tbe ichneumon, avoiding the death-stroke of the pro jecting fangs, leaps upon its back, and fastening bis sharp teeth in tbe bead, soon despatches the helpless reptile. The serpents sometimes even feed upon their own brethren. Thus a rat-snake in the Zoological Gardens was once seen to devour a common Coluber natrix, but not having taken tho measure of bia victim, be could not dispose of tbe last four inchea of hia tail, which atuck out rather jauntily from tbe side of bis mouth, witb very much the look of a cigar. After a quarter of an hour tbe tail began to exhibit a retrograde motion, and tbe swallowed snake was disgorged, nothing the worse for bis living sep ulchre with tbe exception of the wound made by bis partner wben be first seized bira. A python in the aame collection, who had lived for years on friendly terms with a brother nearly as large as himself, was found one morning sole tenant of his den. As the eage was seeure, the keeper was puzzled to know bow tbe serpent bad escaped. At last it was observed that the remaining inmate had swollen reraarkably during the night, wben tbe truth carae out. It waa, however, tbe last meal of the fratricide, for in some months he died. When we consider that the snakes have neither legs, wings, nor fins, and are indeed 40 626 THE TROPICAL WORLD. deprived of all tbe usual, means of locomotion, tbe rapidity of their progress is not a little surprising. On examining tbe anatomical structure of their body, however, it will be remarked that while we have only twelve pair of ribs united in front by the breast-bone and cartilage, the snake has often more than three hundred, unconnected in front, and consequently much more free in their motions, a faculty whioh ia still in creased by the groat mobility of the spondyli of tbe backbone. Between tbe ribs and tbe broad transverse scales or plates which exist on the belly of all sucb serpents as move rapidly, we find numerous muaoles connecting tbem one with another, and thus, amply provided witb a whole system of strong pulleys and points of attachment, the reptile, bringing up tbe tail towards the head, by bending tbe body into one or more curves, and then again resting upon tbe tail and extending tbe body, glides swiftly along, not only upon even ground, but even aometimes frora branch to branch, as the sraallest bold suffices for its stretching out its body a foot's length into the air, and thus reaching another sallying point for further progress. Tbe anatoray of tbe serpent's jawa ia no less reraarkable tban the mechanism of its moveraents. In spite of their proverbial wisdom, snakes would not be able to exist unless tbey were able to swallow large aniraal masses at a titne. For, however rapid their motions may be, those of tbeir prey are in general still more active, and tbus tbey are obliged to wait in ambush till a fortunato chance provides them with a copious meal. The victim ia often much more bulky than the serpent itself; but still, without tearing it to pieces, ifc ia able to engulpb it in bia swelling maw. For tbe two halves of ita lower jaw do not coalesce like ours into one solid mass, but are merely connected in front by a loose ligament, so that each part can be moved separately. The bones of the upper jaw and palate are also loosely attached or articulated one with the other, and thus tbe whole mouth is capable of great distension. By this mechanism, aided by the nuraerous sharp tooth, whioh are so many little hooks with the point curved backwards, each side of the jaws and mouth being able to aot as it were inde pendently of tho otber, alternately hooks itself fast to the morsel, or advancea to fasten itself farther on in a sirailar manner, and thua the reptile draws itself over its prey, somewhat in the same way as we draw a stocking over our leg, after having first, by breaking tbe bones, fashioned it into a convenient mass, and rendered its passage more easy by lubricating ifc with its saliva. Slowly tbe huge lump disappears behind the jaws, descends lower and lower beneath the scales, which seem ready to burst asunder with distension, and then tbe satisfied monater coila himaelf up once more to digest bis meal in quiet. The time required for this purpoae variea of courae according to the size of tbe morsel; but often weeks, or even months, will pass before a boa awakens frora tbe lethargic repose in which — the image of disgusting gluttony — he Ues plunged after a superabundant raeal. A huge python in tbe Zoological Gardens fasted tbe almost incredible time of twenty two months, having probably prepared himself for his abstinence by a splendid gorge ; and Dumeril raentions a rattiesnake in the Jardin des Plantes which likewise took no nourishraent during twenty-one months, but then, as if to make up for lost tirae, swallowed tbree bares within five days. Tbe reptiles in the British Zoological Gardens are offered food once a week, but even then their appetites are frequently not yet awakened, though great care ia taken never to spoU their stomachs by excess. Though generally the objects of abhorrence and fear, yet serpents soraetiraes render MAGNITUDE OF SNAKES. 627 themselves useful or agreeable to raan. Thua tbe rat-anake of Ceylon ( Coryphodon Blumenbachii), in consideration of its services in destroying verrain, is often kept as a household pot, and ao doraesticated by the natives as to feed at their table. The beau- tiful coral snake {Flaps corallinus) is fondled by tbe BrazUian ladies, but tbe domes tication of the dreaded cobras as protectors in tbe place of dogs, is still raore reraark able. Tbey glide about tbe bouse, going in and out at pleasure, a terror to thieves, but never attempting to barm the inmates. The Tree-anakes offer many beautiful examplea of tbe adaptation of color to tbe animal'a purauits, which we have already bad occaaion to admire in our brief review of tbe tropical insect world. They are frequently of an agreeable groen or bluish hue, so as hardly to be dlatinguiabable from tbe foliage araong which tbey seek tbeir prey, or where tbey theraselves are liable to be seized upon by tbeir enernies. Tbey are often able vertically to ascend tbe sraootbest trunks and brancboa, in search of squirrels and lizards, or to rifle the nests of birds. The Water-snakes which infest sorae parta of tbe tropical seas, though far from equalling in size tbe vast proportions of tbe fabulous sea-serpent, are very formidable from their venoraous bite. They bave tbe back part of the body and tail very much compressed 'and raised vertically, so as to serve thera as a paddle with which they rapidly cleave tbe waters. Of enormous snakes, whose dimensions exoeed all credibility, tbe old writers are full. One can there find tbem of any length he pleases, a few yards moro or less being of no oonsequence. Thus tbe famous serpent which in Africa stopped tbe march of the Roman army of Atilius Regulus, is said to bave been one hundred and twenty feet in length. A reoent traveler in Ceylon, while acknowledging that thirty feet was tho utmost for which he was prepared to voueb personally, was, as be says, credibly assured that one had been lately killed which raeasured forty-five feefc in length, with a circura ference of six feefc ; and be was told of another, killed in India not long ago, which attained the respectable length of sixty feet. But passing over tbese quito suspicious narratives, we find accounts of serpents quite long enough to satisfy any reasonable desire. Equatorial Africa appears to be a favorite abode for tbe serpentine famUy ; and if any of monstrous size exist there, tbey could hardly escape tbe keen eyes of Paul du ChaiUu. He tbus describes the death of tbe largest one of which we notice any mention in bis books:* "After resting a little while we continued our course till we reached the top of a very high mountain, whence I could see all tbe country round. I was sitting under a very large tree, when suddenly looking up, I saw an immense serpent coiled upon tbe branch of a tree just above me. I rushed out, and taking good aim witb ray gun, I shot ray black friend in the bead. He let go bis bold, tum bled down witb great force, and after writhing convulsively for a time, he lay before me dead. He raeasured thirteen feet in length, and his ugly fangs proved that be was venomous. My raen cut off the bead of the snake, and divided the body into as many parts as there were people. Then tbey lighted a fire, and roasted and ate it on the spot. They offered rae a piece, but though I was very hungry, I declined. Wben the snake was eaten, I was the only individual in tbe company that had an empty stomach." * Stories of the Gorilla Country, 59. 628 THE TROPICAL WORLD. But Wallace goes beyond Du Chaillu in bis accounts of the actual size of serpents existing in the almost unexplored Malayan islands. He aays :* " One day my boy Aii came home with a story of a big snake. He waa walking through some high grass, and stepped on something which he took for a small fallen tree ; but it felt cold and yielding to his feefc, and far to tbe right and left there was a waving and rustiing of the herbage. He jumped back in affright, and prepared to shoot ; but could not get a good view of tbe creature, and it passed away, he said, like a tree being dragged through the grass. As he had several times already shot large snakes, which be de clared were aU as nothing corapared witb this, I ara inclined to believe it must have really been a monster. Sucb creatures are rather plentiful bere, for a man close by showed me on his thigh tbe marks wbere he bad been seized by one close to his house. * Malay Archipelago, 392. LIZARDS— GECKOES— ANOLIS. 629 It was big enough to take tbe man's thigh in his mouth, and he would probably bave been killed and devoured by it, bad not bis cries brought out his neighbors who destroyed it witb tbeir choppers. As far as I could make out, it was about twenty feet long; but All's was probably much larger." The Tropical World may well be called tbe head-quarters of tbe lizard race, as nowhere else do tbese reptiles appear in sucb multitudes or in sucb diversified forras of genera and species. The stranger is astonished by tbeir nurabers as soon as he sets foot on a tropical shore ; for on all sides, on the sands and in tbe forests, on soft banks and hard rocks, on trees and on the ground, lizards of every variety of size, forra, and color, are seen darting, climbing, crawling, and rustling. The Geckoes, ono of tbe family, may be fairly claimed as belonging to doraestic animals, since they take up their abode in tbe dwellings of man, wbere tbey make themselves useful by tbe destruction of spiders, flies, and otber noxious or disagreeable insects, which they almost always swallow whole, their throat being as broad as the opening of their jaws. During tbe daytirae tbey generally reraain concealed in sorae dark crevice or chink, but towards evening tbey may be seen running along the steepest walls witb marvelous rapidity, in keen pursuit of their prey, frequently standing still, nodding with their bead, and uttering shrill tones, most likely by smacking their tongue against the palate. Tbeir flattened flexible body seems to mould itself into tho hol lows, in whioh tbey often remain motionless for hours, and their generally dull color harmonizes so woll witb tbeir resting-places, as to render tbem hardly distinguishable ; a circumstance whicb answers the double purpose of masking their presence from tbe prey for which they lie in wait, and from tbe eneraies that might be inclined to feast upon tbem. Araong tbese, some of tbe smaller birds of prey — hawks and owls — are the most conspicuous, not to mention man, the arch-persecutor of almost every animal large enough to attract his notice. How comes it that tbese nocturnal lizards, seeraingly in defiance of tbe laws of gravitation, are thus able to adhere to our ceUinga or any otber overhanging surfaees ? An inspection of the soles of tbeir broad feet will soon solve tbe enigma, for all tbeir toes are considerably dilated on their margins, and divided beneath into a number of transverse lameUae, parallel to each otber, and generally without any longitudinal fur row. From these a fluid exudes which serves to attach the animal to tbe surface. Tbey are also generally provided with sharp and crooked claws, retractile and movable, like those of a cat, and which render tbem good service in clirabing tbe trees. In spite of their harmless nature, tbe Geckoes — tbeir real utility being forgotten over imaginary grievances — nowhere enjoy a good reputation, probably in consequence of tbeir ugliness and tbe wUd expression of their large eyes. They are accused of tainting with a virulent secretion every object they touch, and of provoking an erup tion on the akin raerely by running over it — a popular prejudice which naturally causea many a poor inoffensive Gecko's death. They abound all over the torrid zone, even in the remote islands of the Pacific, sucb as Tahiti and Vanikoro. Dumeril enumer ates fifty-five different species; only two of which are indigenous in Southern Europe, while India monopolizes no less tban thirteen for her share. The graceful Anolis are peculiar to America. By the structure of their feet, pro vided with long unequal toes, they are related to the Geckoes, but are distinguished 630 THE TROPICAL WORLD. from tbem by a more slender form of body, by tbeir extremely long thin tail, and a large nook-pouch, which dilates under tbe influenoe of exoitement. These small and nirable creatures, tbe largest species seldora exceeding eigbfc inches in lengfch, are as touchy as fighting cocks. On approaching them, tbey instantly blow up tbeir poueh, open widely tbeir dirainutive jawa, and spring upon tbe aggressor, striving to bite him with tbeir teeth, which, however, are too small to do much barm. Among each other they live in a perpetual state of warfare. As soon as one Anolis sees another, ho makes a rapid advance, while bis adversary awaits bira with all the courage of a gal lant knight. Before beginning the conflict, they raake all sorts of raenacing gestures, convulsively nodding tbeir beads, puffing up their pouches, untU finally tbey close in desperate struggle. If tbey are of equal strength, the battle remaina for aorae time undecided. At length tbe vanquished Anolis turns and runs away, but be may think himself fortunate if be escapes witb tbe loss of his tail. Many of tbem are thus deprived of this ornamental appendage, which they voluntarily leave behind to avoid a still greater disaster, and then they become timid, raelancholy, and fond of retire ment, aa if ashamed of being seen, only regaining their spirits when, by a wonderful power of reproduction, tbe amputated tail bas been replaced by another. Like many other lizards, tbe Anolis possesses the faculty of changing color when under the influence of exciteraent; but of all animals, whether terrestrial or marine, none is more famous or remarkable in this respect tban the Chameleon, It frequently happens that raan, not satisfied with the wonders which nature everywhere exposes to his view, adds to their raarvels others of his own invention, and tbus many a fable bas been told about the Chameleon. It bas been said, for instance, thatrit could emulate all the colors of the rainbow ; but the more accurate observations of modern natural ists have shown that the whole change, which takes place raosfc frequently wben the Charaeleon is exposed to full sunshine or under the influence of emotion, consists in its ordinary bluish-ash color turning to a green or yellowish bue, with irregular spots ofa duU red. Like many other reptUes, tbe Chameleon has the power of inflating its lungs and retaining the air for a long time, so as one moraent to appear as fat and well fed as an alderman, and tbe next as loan and bony as a hungry disciple of the muses. These alternating expansions and collapses seera to bave a great influence on tbe change of color ; which, however, according to Milne Edwards, is principally owing to the skin of the animal consisting of two differently colored layers, placed one above the other, and changing their relative positions under tbe influenoe of exoitement. In our nortbern regions tbe captive Chameleon cuts but a sorry figure ; but in bis own sunny regions, which extends frora southern Sp.ain and Sicily to the Cape, and eastwards from Arabia and Hindostan to Australia, it is said to be by no means deficient in beauty, in spite of ita strangely-formed keel-like head, its enorraously pro- jeeting eyes, and its granulated skin. Its raanner of hunting for tbe little winged inseots that form its principal food is very peculiar. Although the movements of its head are very limited, on account of the shortness of its neck, this deficiency is amply supplied by the wide range of its vision, each eye being able to raove about in all direotions Independently of tbo other. Thus, while one of tbem attentively gazes upon the heavens, the otber minutely examines the ground, or while one of them rolb in its orbit, the other remains fixed ; nay, their mobility is so groat, that without even THE CHAMELEON— IGUANAS— THE TEJU. 631 moving its stiff bead, this wonderful lizard, Uke Janus, tbe double-faoed god of anolonfc Rome, can see at the same tirae all that goes on before and behind it. Wben an in sect comes flying along, the chameleon, perdbed on a branob, and half concealed between tbe foUage, follows it in all its movements by means of his powerful telesoopes, until tbe proper moment for action appears. Then, quiek aa thought, be darts forth, even to a distance of five or six inches, bis long fleshy glutinous tongue, which is moreover furnished with a dilated and somewhat tubular tip, and driving it back with the sarae lightning-like velocity, engulfs bis prey. This independenoe of the eyes is owing to the imperfoot sympathy which subsists between the two lobes of the brain and tbe two sets of nerves which ramify throughout the opposite sides of its frame. Henee also one side of tbe body may be asleep while the otber is vigilant, one may be green while the otber ia ash-blue, and it is even said that the Chameleon is utterly unable to swim, because tbe museles of both sides are incapable of acting in conoerfc. Destined for a life upon trees, be is provided witb organs beautifully adapted for supporting himself on tbe flexible branehes ; for besides tbe cylindrical tall nearly as long as his body which be coils round tbe boughs, bis five toes are united two and tbree by a common skin, so as to form, as it were, a pair of pincers or a kind of band, admirably suited for a holdfast. Among tbe Iguanas, a huge lizard tribe, cbaraoterized by a keel like back and tail, and a large full-toothed throat-pouch, the common or great Araerican Guana {Iguana tuberculata) deserves particular notice, as its white flesh ia considered a great delicacy in Brazil and the Weat Indies. Notwithstanding its large size, for it not seldom attains a length of four or five feet, and tbe formidable appearance of its serrated baek, it is in reality by no means of a warlike disposition, and so stupid that, instead of endeavoring to save itself by a timely flight, it raerely stares with its large eyes, and Inflates its pouch, while tbe noose is passing round its neck to drag it forth from its hole. The Bahama Islands abound with Guanas, whieh form a great part of the subsistence of tbe inhabitants. They are caught by dogs, trained for the purpose, in the hollow rocks and trees whore tbey nestle, and are either earried alive for sale to Carolina, or kept for horae consuraption. Tbey feed wholly on vegetables and fruit, particularly on a kind of fungus, growing at tbe roots of trees, and on tbe fruits of tbe different kinds of ananas, whence their flesh most likely acquires its delicate flavor. Tbe famous South Amerioan monitory lizard or Teju, {Tejus monitor,) Is one of tbe largest and most beautiful of tho whole race, as he measures no less tban five foot from the snout to the tip of tbe tail, which is nearly twice as long as tho body, while bis black color, variegated with bright yellow bands and spofcs, produces an agreeable and pleasing effect. The head is sraall, tbe snout gradually tapers, the lirabs are slender, and the tail, which is laterally compressed, gradually dooreasos towards the extremity. Tho Teju lives in oavities and hollows, frequently under tbo roots of trees. Wben pursued, be runs rapidly straight forward to his burrow ; but when his retreat is inter cepted, he defends himaelf valiantly, and provea a by no means contemptible an tagonist, as be is able to bite through a thick boot, and a stroke with his strong and muscular tail will completely disable a dog. Though tbe Monitor generally lives on land, be is an excellent swimmer, and catches many a fish in its native element. His chief food, however, consiata in varioua fruits, rats, mice, birds, and he also devours a large number of tbe eggs and young of the aUigator. 632 THE TROPICAL WORLD. The large Water-lizards {Hydrosauri) frequent tbe low river banks or tbe margins of springs, and although they may be seen baaking on rocks or on tbe dead trunk of some proatrato tree in tho beat of tbe sun, yet tbey appear moro partial to the damp weeda and undergrowth In tbe neighborhood of water. Tbeir gait baa aomowbat more of tbe awkward lateral motion of tbe crocodile, tban of the lively action of the smaller saurians. Wben attacked, tbey lash violently with tbeir taU, swaying it sideways with great force like the cayman. Tbese modern types of tbe Mososaurus and Iguanodon have a graceful habit of extending the neck, and raising the bead to look about them, and as you follow tbem leisurely over the rocks, or through the jungle, they frequently stop, turn their beads round, and take a deliberate survey of the intruder. Tbey are by no means vicious, though tbey bite severely when provoked, acting, however, al ways on the defensive. On examining their stomachs, crabs, locusts, beetles, the remains of jumping fish, tbe scales of snakes, and bones of frogs and other amaU animals are discovered. Like that of tbe Iguanas, their flesh is delicate eating, re sembling that of a very young sucking-pig. The formidable narae of Flying Dragons bas been given to a genus of small lizards, remarkable for the expansible cutaneous processes witb which the sides are furnished, and by whose means tbey are enabled to spring with more facility frora branch to branch, and even to support themselves for some time in tbe air, like tbe bat or flying- squirrel. The tiny painted Dragon of tho East, the Flying Lizard of tbe woods, is fond of clinging with ita winga to tbe smooth trunks of trees, and there remaining immovable, basking in the sun. Wben disturbed, it leaps and shuffles away in an awkward manner. One Mr. Adams had in his posseasion, rerainded bim of a bat when placed on the ground. Sometlraea tbe strange creature would feign death, and re main perfectly motionless, drooping ita head, and doubling its limba, until it fancied tbe danger over, then cautiously raising its crouching form, it would look stealthily around, and bo off in a moment. Tbe dragon conaumea fliea in a slow and deliberate raanner, swallowing thera gradually ; its various species belong exclusively to India and tho islands of tbe Eastern Archipelago. Who bas not heard of the fatal glance of the Basilisk, whicb, according to poetical fancy obliged all otber poisonous aniraals to keep at a respectful distance. The truth ia, that the lizards that bear thia dreaded name, which baa been given them from the fanciful resemblance of their pointed occipital crest to a regal crown, are quite as harmless and inoffensive aa the flying dragon. Tbey are chiefly inhabitants of South America, wbere they generally lead a sylvan life, ieeding on insects. A few words on Frogs and Toads sball close this rather miseellaneoua chapter. Of tbe former there is none more famous tban tbe hideous Pipa Surinamensis, whieh considerably exceeds in size the comraon toad, and whose deformity is often aggra vated by a phenoraenon unexampled in tbe rest of tbe animal world, namely, the young in various stages of exclusion, proceeding from cells dispersed over tbe back of the parent. It was for a long tirae supposed that the ova of this extraordinary reptile were produced in the dorsal cells without having been first excluded in the form of spawn ; but it ia now thoroughly aacortained that tbe female Pipa deposits her eggs or spawn at the brink of some stagnant water, and that the male collects or amasses the heap of ova, and deposits them with great care on the back of the female, FROGS AND TOADS. 683 where, after impregnation, they are preaaed into tbe cellules, which are at that period open for their reception, and afterwards close over them ; thus retaining them till tbe period of tbeir second birth, which happena in aomowbat less than three months, wben they emerge from tbe back of tbe parent in tbeir complete state. This species inhabits tbe obscure nooka of bouses in Cayenne and Surinam, avoiding tbe light of day as if conscious of its unrivaled hideousness. A Brazilian tree-frog {Hyla crepitans), which adheres to the large leaves, not raerely with its widened toes, but with its constantly viscid body, bas a voice whicb sounds like tbe cracking of a large piece of wood, and generally proceeds from many throats at a time. On wandering through the forests of Brazil, Prince Maximilian of Neu Wied was often surprised by this singular concert issuing frora the dark abadea of the forest. A Surinam tree-frog {Hyla micans) baa the singular property of seoreting a luminous slime, so as to look in tbe dark like a yellowish will-o'-the-wisp. Its voice is most disagreeable, and is said at tiraes completely to overpower tbe orchestra of the theatre in Paramaribo, thus emulating the stentorian achievements of the Virginian bull-frog. Wallace describes a Flying Frog, of which be discovered a single specimen in tbe Island of Borneo. It was brought to him by a Chinese workman, who declared that he had seen it coming down in a slanting direction frora the top of a high tree as it flew. Its toes were long, and fully webbed to the very extreraities, so that wben expanded tbey offered a surface much larger than the body. As the toes had dilated discs for adhesion, showing the creature to be a true tree-frog, it ia difficult to imagine that this iraraense membrane of the toes, occupying in all twelve square inches, could be for the purpose of swimming only, which rendered tbe Chinaman's account cred ible. Wallace believes this to be tbe firat Inatance known of a flying frog. The pic ture which he givea of this creature is very reraarkable. One can get a fair idea of it by imagining an ordinary frog, witb a large expanded fan attached to each of tbe four limbs. Mr. Darwin thua deaoribes a remarkable speciea of toad he noticed at Bahia. " Amongst tbe Batrachian reptiles, I found only one little toad, which was most sin gular from its color. If we imagine, first, that it had been steeped in tbo blackest ink, and then, wben dry, allowed to crawl over a board freshly painted witb tbe bright est vermiUon, so as to color the sides of its feet and parts of its stomach, a good idea of its appearance will be gained. If it is an unnamed species, surely it ought to be called diabolicus, for it is a fit toad to preach in tbe ear of Eve. Instead of being nocturnal in its habits as other toads are, and living in damp and obscure recesses, it crawls during the heat of tbe day about tbe dry sand bUlocks and arid plains, wbere not a single drop of water ean be found. It must necessarily depend on the dew for its moisture, and this probably is absorbed by tbe skin, for it is known that these rep tiles possess great powers of cutaneous absorption. At Maldonado I found one in a situation nearly as dry aa at Babia Bianca, and, thinking to give It a great treat, car ried it to a pool of water ; not only was the little animal unable to swira, but I think without help would soon bave been drowned." The giant-toad {Bufo gigas, agua), frequents the BrazUian campos in sucb nurabers that in the evening or after a sbower of rain, wben tbey corae forth from their hiding- places to regale on the damp and murky atmosphere, the earth seems literally to swarm 634 THE TROPICAL WORLD. with them. They are double tbe size of our coraraon toad, and are even said to attain, with their outstretched bind legs, a foot's length, with a proportionate girth. Covered with unsightiy warts, and of a dull gray color, their aspect is repulsive, and wben excited, tbey eject a liquid which is very much feared by the natives. Their voice is loud and disagreeable, while Guinea possesses, in tbe Breviceps gibbosus, a small toad which is said to sin" delightfully, " charming the swaraps witb their melodious notes." There ia a very remarkable burrowing crustacean called tbe Robber Crab, (Page 580,) Birgus latro. The Robber Crab inhabits tbe islands of tbe Indian Oeean, and ia one of those Crustacea which are able to exist for a long tirae without visiting the water, tho gills being kept moist by means of a reservoir on eacb side of the cephalo- thorax, in whicb tbe organs of respiration lie. Only once in twenty-four hours does this reraarkable crab visit the ocean, and in all probability enters the water for the purpose of receiving tbe supply whicb preserves the gills in working order. While walking, it presents a curious aspect, being lifted nearly a foot above the ground on its two central pairs of legs; and If it be intercepted in its retreat, it brandishes its formidable weapons, elattering thom loudly, and always keeping its face towards the eneray. Tbe food of tbe Robber Crab is of a very peculiar nature, consisting chiefly, if not entirely, of the cocoa-nut. According to Mr. Darwin, the crab seizes upon the fallen cocoa-nuts, and with ita enormoua pincers tears away the outer covering, reducing it to a mass of raveled threads. Wben tbe crab bas freed the nut from the husk, it introduces tbe small end of a claw into one of tbe little boles which are found at one end of tbo cocoa nut, and by turning tbe claw backward and forward, aa if it were a brad-awl, tbe crab contrives to scoop out the soft aubatanoe of tbe nut. According to the observations of Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, tbe well-known missionaries to tbe South Seas, tho Robber Crab has another method of getting at the cocoa-nut, and displays an instinctive knowledge of political econoray which is very remarkable. " Tbese animals live under the cocoa-nut trees, and subsist upon the fruit which they fiad upon tbo ground. Witb their powerful front clawa they tear off tbe fibrous husk ; afterward, inserting one of tbe sharp points of tbe same into a hole at the end of the nut, they beat it with violence against a stone until it cracks ; the shell is then easily pulled to pieces, and tbe precious fruit within devoured at leisure." We are Inforraed that if the long and delicate antennae of these robust creatures be touched witb oil, they inatantly die. They are not found on any of these islands except tbe amall coral ones, of which tbey are tbe principii ooeupanta. Tbe people bere account tbem " delicious food." Mr. Darwin mentions that, in tbo Seyehellea and elsewhere, there is a species which is in tbe habit of husking the nuts on the ground and then tapping one of tbe eyes with its great claw, in order to reach tbe kernel. Its congener bere ascends the cocoa- nut trees, end having thrown down tbe nuts, busks tbem on tbe ground; this opera tion performed, again ascends with tbe nuts, wblob be throws down, generaUy break ing them at the first attempt, but if not successful, repeating ifc till the object is attained. " The female differs from tbe male in having three flippers, well furnished with strong borers, on the right side of the sac." Wben full grown, this crab is more than two feet in length, and as may be seen by the illustration, is stoutly made in proportion to its length. The color of the creature is very pale brown, witb a decided tinge of yellow. ALLIGATORS AND CROCODILES. 635 CHAPTER XI. ALLIGATORS— CROCODILES-TORTOISES AND TURTLES. AUigators and Crocodiles: Their Habits — Caymen, Gavials and Crocodiles — Mode of Seizing their I'rey — Size of Alligators — Alligators on the Amazon — Alligator and Crane — Man- Eating AUigators — Their Contests — Tenacity of Life — Laying their Eggs — Tenderness for their Young — Their Enemies — Torpidity in the Dry Season — "Playing 'Possum." — Tor toises and Turdes: The Galapago Islands — The Elephantine Tortoise — Rate of Traveling — Marsh Tortoises — Manufacture of Tortoise Oil — Turtles on the Amazon — Sea-Turtles — Their Enemies — Modes of Capturing Turtles— The Green Turtle — The Hawksbill Turtle — Barbarous Modes of Removing the Shell, and Selling the Meat — The Coriaceous Turtle. THERE was a tirae, long before man appeared upon the scene, when huge croco diles swarraed in tbe rivera of tbo temperate zone. But the day when the ferocious, bone-barnessed Saurians lorded it in tbese streams bas passed, never to return ; tbe diminished warmth of what are now the temperate regions of tbe globe having long since confined them to the large rivers and lagunes of tbe torrid zone. The scourge and terror of all that lives in tbe waters which thoy frequent, tbey may witb full justice be called the very images of depravity, as perhaps no aniraals in existence bear In tbeir countenance more decided marks of cruelty and malice. Tbo depressed head, so significant ofa low cerebral development; tbe vast maw, garnished with formidable rows of conical teeth, entirely made for snatch and swallow ; the elongated mud-colored body, with ita long lizard-like tail, reating on short legs, starap them with a peculiar frigbtfulness, and proclaim tbe baseness of their instincts. The short-snouted, broad-headed Alligators, or Caymen, belong to the New World; the Gavials, distinguished by their straight, long, and narrow jaw, are exclusively Indian; while the oblong beaded Crocodiles are not only found In Afrioa and Asia, but like wise Infest the swamps and rivers of Araerica. All tbese aniraals, however, though different, in forra and narae, havo everywhere similar habits and raanners ; so that, in general, what is remarked of tho one may be applied to tho others. Awkward and slow in their moveraents on tbe land, tbey are very active in tbe water, darting along with great rapidity by means of tbeir strong muscular tall and their webbed hind feet. Tbey sometimes bask In tbe sunbeams on tbe banks of the rivers, but oftener float on tho surface, where, eonooiillng their bead and foot, tbey appear like the rough trunk of a tree, both in shape and color, and tbus are enabled the more easily to dooeive and catch tbeir prey. In America, many a slow-paced Capybara, or Water pig. coming in the dusk of evening to slake its thirst in the lagune, has been suddenly seized by this insidious foe; and tbe Gangetic Gavlal is said to make even tbe tiger bis prey. When tbe latter quits the thick cover of the jungle to drink at the streara, the Gavial, concealed under water, steals along the 636 THE TROPICAL WORLD. bank, and, suddenly emerging, furiously attacks the tiger, who never declines the combat ; and though in tbe struggle tbe Gavlal frequently loses his eyes and receives dreadful wounds on tbe bead, be at length drags bis adversary into tbe water, and there devours bira. On tbe American streams, tbe stillness of tbe night is often interrupted by tbe clacking of tbe alligator's teeth, and the lashing of bis tail upon the waters. The singular and awful sound of his voice can also readily be distinguished from that of all tho other beasts of tbe wilderness. It is like a suppressed sigh, bursting forth all of a sudden, and so loud as to be beard above a mile off. First, ono emits this horrible noise ; then another answers him ; and far and wide tbe repetition of the sound proclaims that tbe alligators are awake. As in tbe case of snakes, tbe size to which alligators and crocodiles attain is grossly exaggerated. Thorpe was gravely assured by a gentleman, " not given to big stories," that he once saw an alligator whose jaws opened at least five feet; and another gentle man, and a Congressman to boot, persisted that be once shot in the Bay of Pascagoula an alligator twenty-one feet long. But a planter of a scientific turn of mind, residing in tbe noted alligator region of tbe Red River In Arkansas for years, made a standing offer of a hundred doUars for an alligator dead or alive, of more than twelve feet in length. It is probable that since tbe introduction of steamers upon tbe Mississippi, and its lower tributaries, that tbe alligator finds so many enemies that he is cut off before reaching his full stature ; for Audubon expressly affirras that he saw one who he judged to be some centuries old, who measured seventeen feet in length. In bia time tbese monsters must have had a jolly time of it in the Red River, where he often saw hundreds of them at once, tbe sraaller ones riding on the backs of tbe larger, and all of them groaning and beUowing like so many mad bulls ready for a fight, and so ut terly indifferent to the presence of man that, unless shot at, tbey would take no notice of a boat at a few yards' distance. South America ia yet a secure bome of the alligator, where undisturbed by man he attains bis full size. Orton in ascending the river Guayas on tbe western coast, says that* " tbe chief representative of animal life ia tbe lazy, ugly alligator. Large numbera of tbese monsters may be seen on the mud-bank basking in tbe bot sun, or asleep witb tbeir mouths wide open. But upon tbe Amazon tbey bear tbo palm for ugliness, size, and strength. In tbe suraraer tbe main river swarms with them ; in the wet season tbey retreat to tbe interior lakes and forests. About Obidoa where many of tbe pools dry up in tbe fine months, the alligator buries itself in the mud, . and sleeps tUl the rainy season returns. It ia scarcely exaggerating to say that tbe watera of tbe Solimoens are as well stocked with large alligators in tbe dry season as a ditch with us is witb tadpoles in the summer. There are tbree or four species in tbe Amazon. The largest, tbe Jucare-uassu of tbe natives, attains a length of twenty feet. Sluggish on land, the alligator is very agile in its native element. It never attacks man when on bia guard, but is cunning enough to know when it may do this with safety. It lays its eggs, about twenty, at some distance from the river bank, covering them with sticks. They are about four inches long, of an eUiptical ahape, witb a rough calcareoua shell. Negro venders sell tbem cooked in tbe streets of Para." *The Andes and the Amazon, 35, 296 ALLIGATOR'S MODE OF SEIZING ITS PREY. 687 Thorpe gives an account of tbe alligator's method of securing his prey :* " The taU of the alligator ia bia most efficient weapon of defense and attack. If one can keep out of its way, comparatively little barm may be expected. If any animal that ho seeks for his prey is standing upon tbe edge of tbe water, tbe reptile will take ita bearing and awim noiselessly toward tbe shore, occasionally bringing an eye to the surface for reconnoissance, then suddenly rising within striking distance will whirl round his tail with lightning rapidity, and generally bring tbe victira into bis jaws. I was fishing on one occasion upon the Bayou Sara, a wUd, desolate stream, and on the opposite bank I noticed a tall crane which for half an bour bad been standing perfectly still and balf-leg deep in tbe water, either reflecting upon tbe mutability of ornithological affairs, or watching for minnows. My attention was also arrested by tbe apparent phenomenon of a limb of a tree taking upon itself motion, and cautiously moving down tbe bank of tbe bayou toward tbe crane. The alligator — for such it was — by a strange sidelong motion, gradually reached bis prey, but seemed in no haste to seize it. For a long while he appeared to be sleeping on the bank ; wben suddenly ho contracted himself into a half circle around tbe bird, opened bis jaws, and drove tbe bird into tbem with a terrible certainty, and then witb a nimble spring disappeared beneath the muddy current." ALLIGATOR AND CEANE. The statement of Orton, that alligators rarely attaek man, is hardly borne out by otber authorities. Indeed it is said that as in tbe case of the lion, when tbey bave once tasted human flesh tbey prefer it to that of any otber animal. During Hum boldt's stay at Angostura, a monstrous Cayman seized an Indian by tbe leg while be was busy pushing bis boat ashore in a shallow lagune, and immediately dragged him down into tbe deeper water. The cries of the unfortunate victira soon attracted a large number of spectators, who witnessed tbe astonishing courage with which be * Harper's Magazine, December, 1854. 638 THE TROPICAL WORLD. searched in his pocket for a knife. Not finding the weapon, he then seized the reptUe by tbe head, and pressed his fingers into its eyes — a method which saved Mungo Park's negro frora a sirailar fate. In this case, however, tbe monster did not let go hia hold, but disappearing under tbe surface with the Indian, eame up again witb him as soon as be was drowned, and dragged the body to a neighboring island. " One Sunday evening," says Waterton, " as I was walking with Don Felipe de Yriarte, Gov ernor of Angostura, on tbe bank of tbe Orinoco — ' Stop bere a minute or two,' said be to mo, ' while I recount a sad accident. One fino evening, last year, as tbe people of Angostura were sauntering up and down in tbe Alameda, I was within twenty yards of this plaoe, when I saw a large Cayman rush out of the river, seize a man, and carry bim down, before anybody had it in bis power to assist bira. Tbe screams of the poor fellow were terrible, as tbe Cayraan was running off witb hira. He plunged into tbe river with his prey ; we instantly lost sight of bim, and never saw or beard bim more.' " Humboldt also relates that, during tbe Inundations ofthe Orinoco, alli gators will sometimes make tbeir appearance in tbe very streets of Angostura, wbere they have been known to attack and drag away a human prey. Even among each otber, tbese ferocious aniraals frequently engage in deadly con flict. Thus Schomburgk once saw a prodigiously large Cayman seize one of a smaller species by the middle of tbe body, so that tbe bead and tall projected on both sides of its muzzle. Now both of thera disappeared under tbe surface, so that only the agitated waters of the otherwise calm river announced tbe death-struggle going on beneath ; and then again the monsters reappeared, wildly beating tbe surface ; so that it was hardly possible to distinguish here a tall, or there a monstrous head, in the seething whirlpool. At length, however, tbe tumult subsided, and the large Cayman was seen leisurely swimming to a sand-bank, wbere he immediately began to feed upon bis prey. The same traveler relates an intereating exaraple of the Cayraan's tenacity of life. One of thera having been wounded with a strong harpoon, was dragged upon a sand bank. Here tbe rays of the sun seemed to infuse new life into tbe monster, for, awaking from bia deathlike torpidity, be suddenly snapped about bim with such rage that Scboraburgk and bis assistants thought it prudent to retreat to a safer distance. Seizing a long pole, the bravest of the Indians now wont towards tbe Cayman, who awaited tbe attack witb wide-extended jaws, and plunged tbe stake deep into his maw — a morsel which tbe brute did not seera to relish. Meanwhile two other Indians approached him frora behind, and kept striking bira with thick clubs upon the extrem ity of the tail. At every blow upon this sensitive part, tbe monster bounded in the air and extended bis frightful jaws, which were eacb time Iraraediately regaled with a fresh thrust of the pole. After a long and furious battle, the Cayraan, who raeasured twelve feet in length, was at last slain. Another reraarkable instance of tbe vitality of tbo common crocodile is mentioned by Sir E. Tennent. A gentleraan at Galle having caught on a baited hook an unusually large one, it was disembowelled by his coolies, tbe aperture in the stomach being left expanded by a stick placed across it. On returning, in the afternoon, with a view to secure tbe head, tbey found that tbe creature had crawled for some distance, and made its escape into tbe water. Like tbe sea-turtles, tbe crocodiles generally deposit tbeir eggs, which are about tbe size of those of a goose, and covered with a calcareous shell, in boles made in the ENEMIES OF THE ALLIGATOR. 639 sand, leaving tbem to be hatched by tbe warm rays of tbe tropical sun. In some parts of America, however, tbey have been observed to resort to a more ingenious method, denoting a degree of provident instinct which could hardly have been expected in a cold blooded reptile. Raising a sraall hillock on the banka of the river, and hollowing it out in tbe middle, tbey collect a quantity of leavea and otber vegetable matters, in which tbey deposit tbeir eggs. These are covered witb tbe le ivea, and are hatched by tbo beat extricated during tbeir putrefaction, along witb that of the atmosphere. The feraale Cayraan continues for sorae time after their birth to watoh over ber young with great care. One day, aa Scboraburgk, accompanied by an Indian, was busy fishing on tbe banks of the Essequibo, he suddenly beard in tbe water a strange noise, resembling tho mewing of young cats. With eager curiosity he climbed along tbe trunk of a tree overhanging the river, about three feet above tbe water, and saw beneath bim a brood of young alligators, about a foot and a half long. On bis seizing and lifting one of them out of tbe water, tbe mother, a creature of prodigioiis size, sud denly emerged with an appalling roar, making desperate efforts to reach her wriggling and screeching offspring, and increasing in rage every time Schomburgk tantalized her by holding it out to her. Having been wounded with an arrow, she retired for a few momenta, and then again returned with redoubled fury, laabing the waters into foam by the repeated strokes of ber tail. Scboraburgk now cautiously retreated, as in case of i. fall into the water below, be would have had but little reason to expect a friendly re ception, the raonster pertinaciously following bira to tbe bank, but not deeraing it ad visable to land, aa here it seemed to feel its helplessness. The scales of the captured young one wore quite soft and pliable, as it was only a few days old, but it already bad the peculiar musk-like smell which characterizes the full-grown reptile. The young of tbe crocodilea bave no less numeroua enemies tban those of the snakes. Many an egg ia destroyed in the hot sand by sraall carnivora, or birds, before it can bo hatched ; and as soon as the young creep out of tbe broken shell, and instinctively move to tbe waters, the Ichneumon — a kind of weasel, to whom, on this account, the ancient Egyptians paid divine homage — or tbe long-legged Heron gobble np many of them, so that tbeir span of life is short indeed. In tbe water they are not only tbe prey of various sharp-toothed fishes, but even of the males of tbeir own spe cies, while the females do all they can to protect them. Even the full-grown crocodile, in spite of ita bony harness, is not exempt from attack. Thus, in the river of Tabasco, a tortoise of tbe genus Cinyxis, after having been swallowed by the alligator, and, thanks to its shelly case, arriving unharmed in its storaach, is said to have eaten its way out again witb its sharp beak, thus putting tbe monster to a most excruciating death. Even man not only kills the hideous reptilea in self-defenoe, or for tbe sake of sport, but for the purpose of regaling upon their flesh. In the Siamese markets and bazaars, crocodiles, large and sraall, raay be seen banging in tbe butchers' stalls, instead of mutton or lamb ; and Captain Stokes, who more than once supped off alligators steaks, informs us that the meat is by no means bad, and has a white appearance like veal. I bave already mentioned, in the chapter on tbe Llanos, that in many tropical coun tries the aridity of the dry season produces a similar torpidity in reptile life to that whicb is caused by tbe cold of winter in the higher latitudes. In Ceylon, wben the water-courses begin to fail and the tanks becorae exhausted, tbe marsh-crocodiles are 640 THE TROPICAL WORLD. sometiraes encountered wandering in search of water in tbe jungle ; but generally, during tbe extreme drought, tbey bury theraselves in the sand wbere tbey remain in a state of torpor, tiU released by tbe recurrence of tbe rains. Sir Emerson Tennent, whilst riding across tbe parched bod of a tank, was shown the recess, still bearing tbe form and impress of tbe crocodUe, out of which tbo aniraal had been seen to emerge the day before. A story was also related to him of an officer who, having pitched his tent in a sirailar position, had been disturbed during tbe night by feeling a raovement of the earth below bis bed. from which, on tbe following day, a crocodUe emerged, making its appearance frora beneath tbe matting. Like raany other of the lower aniraals, the crocodUe, wben surprised, endeavors to save itself by feigning death. Sir Emerson Tennent relates an arausing anecdote of one that was found sleeting several hundred yards from tbe water. " The terror of the poor wretch was extreme wben be awoke and found himself discovered and completely surrounded. He was a hideous creature, upwards of ton feet long, and evidently of nrodigious strength, bad be been in a condition to exert it ; but consterna tion completely paralyzed him. He started to his feet, and turned round in a circle, hissing and clacking bis bony jaws, witb his ugly green eye intently fixed upon us. On being struck, be lay perfectly quiet and apparently dead. Presently he looked round eunnlngly, and made a rush towards the water ; but on a second blow be lay again motionless, and feigning death. We tried to rouse bim, but without effect; pulled bis tail, slapped his back, struck bis hard scales, and teased bira in every way, but all in vain. Nothing would induee him to move, till, accidentally, my son, a boy of twelve years old, tickled hira gently under the arm, and in an instant be drew it close to bis side, and turned to avoid a repetition of the experiraent. Again be was touched under tbe otber arra, and tbe same eraotion was exhibited, the great monster twisting about like an infant to avoid being tickled." In tbe South Sea, exposed to tbe vertioal beams of tbe equatorial sun, lies a large group of uninhabited Lslanda. on whoae sterile shores you would look in vain for the palma, bananaa, or bread-fruit trees of more favored lands, as rain falls only npon the bights, and never descends to call forth plenty on tbe arid coasts. And yet this desolate group offers many points of interest to tbe naturalist, for the Galapagos or Tortoise Islands represent, as it were, a little world in tbemselves, a peculiar creation of animals and plants, reminding us, more strongly tban tbe productions of any other land, of an earlier epoch of planetary life. Here are no less tban twenty-six different species of land-birds, which, with ono single exeeption, are found nowhere else. Tbeir plumage is homely, like tbe flora of tbeir native country; thoir taraeness so great that tbey may be killed with a stick. A sea-mew, likewise peculiar to this group, mixes its shriek witb the hoarse-resounding surge ; lizards, existing in no other country, swarm about the shore ; and the gigantic land-tortoise ( Testudo indica, elephantina) , although now spread over many other countries, is supposed by Mr. Darwin to bave bad its original seat in tbe Galapagos, whore it was formerly found in such vast numbers as to have given tbe group its Spanish name. If the seafarer visits theae treeleaa shores, which as yet produce nothing else worth gathering, it is chiefly for tbe purpose of catching a few of tbese huge animals, whicb, in spite of frequent persecutions, still amply reward a, short sojourn with a rich supply of fresh TURTLES ON THE AMAZON. 641 meat. Their capture costs nothing but the trouble, for man has not yet drawn the boundary marks of property over the tenantiess land. Tbe elephantine tortoise inhabits as weU the low and sterile country, where it feeds on the fleshy leaves of the cactus, aa tbe mountainous regiona wbere tbe moist trade-wind caUs forth a richer vegetation of ferns, grasses, and various trees. On this meagre food, which seems hardly sufficient for a goat, it thrives so well that tbree men are often scarcely able to lift it, and it not seldom furnishes more than 200 pounds of excellent meat. Tbe tortoises, when moving towards any definite point, travel by nigbt and day, and arrive at tbeir journey's end much sooner than would be expected. The inhabit ants, from observations on raarked individuals, consider that they can move a distance of about eight miles in two or three days. One large tortoise, which I watched, I found walked at tbe rate of sixty yards, in ten minutes, that is, tbree hundred and sixty in tbe bour, or four miles a day, allowing also a little time for it to eat on the road. Tbe flesh of this animal is largely employed, both fresh and salted, and a beau tifully clear oU is prepared from tbe fat. When a tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see inside its body, whether tbe fat under tbe dor sal plate is thick. If it is not, the animal is Uberated, and it is said to recover soon fi'om this strange operation. The marsh tortoises, oir Emydce, have their chief seat in tropical America and tbe Indian Archipelago, wbere an abundance of swaraps, lagoona, lakes, pools, and gently- flowing rivers favors the increase of their nurabers. Tbey play an important part in the domestic econoray of tbe Indians along the great streams of the New World, the deep rolling Orinoco or the thousand-armed Amazon. During tbe dry season, all the neighboring tribea are buay collecting the countless eggs whicb tbe cold-blooded creatures confide to the life-awakening powers of tbe heated sands : partly for their own consumption, and partly for tbe manufacture of oil. According to Herndon* from five to six thousand jars of mantega, or torfcoiso-oil are annually gathered on the banks of the Maranon. Each animal furnishes on an average eighty eggs, and forty tortoises are reckoned for each jar, which contains forty-five pounds, and is worth about aix shU lings on the apot. The manufacturing proceas, whicb is carried on in a most primitive manner, exhales an insupportable stenoh. The eggs, naraely, are thrown into a boat, and trodden to pieces witb the feet. The shoUs having been removed, the rest is left for several daya to putrefy in the sun. The oil which collects on the surface of tbe de composing mass is then skimmed off, and boiled in large kettles. Tbe neighboring strand swarms with carrion vultures, and the smeU of the offal attracts a number of aUigators, all hoping to come in for their share of the feast. "Turtles," says Orton.f "are perhaps the most important product of tbe Amazon. The largest and most abundant species is tbe Tortaruga grande. It measures, wben full grown, nearly tbree feet in length and two in breadth. Every house has a little pond in the back yard to bold a stock of turtles iu the wet season. It furnishes the best meat on tbe Upper Amazon. We found it very tender, palatable, and wholesorae : those who are obliged to Uve on it for years, however, say that it is very cloying. Every part of the creature is turned to account. The entrails are made into soup ; sausages are made of tbe stomach ; steaks are cut from the breast, and the rest is roasted in tbe sheU. The turtle lays its eggs, generally between midnight and dawn, on the central ?Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon. tThe Andes and the Amazon, 2j7. 41 642 THE TROPICAL WORLD. and highest part of the islets in the river, or about a hundred feet from the shore. The Indians say it wiU lay only wbere itself was hatched out. With its hind flippers it digs a hole two or tbree feet deep, and deposits in it from eighty to one hundred and sixty eggs. These are covered with sand, and tbe next comer makes another deposit on tbe top, and so on untU tbe pit ia full. The Indians are very expert in finding the nests. Guided approximately by tbe tracks of tbe turtle, tbey thrust a stick into the sand, and whenever it goes down easily tbey commence digging with their hands, and invariably strike eggs. The turtles are caught for the table as they return to the river after laying their eggs. To secure them it suffices to turn tbem over on their backs. The turtles certainly bave a hard time of it. Alligators and large fishes swallow the young ones by hundreds ; jaguars pounce upon tbe full grown ones as they crawl over the plains, and vultures and ibises attend the feast. But man is their most formidable foe. Tbo destruction of turtie life on tbe Amazon is incredible. It is calculated that fifty millions of eggs are annually destroyed. Thousands of those that escape capture in tbe egg are collected as soon as batched, and devoured ; tbe reraains of the yolk In their entrails being considered a great delicacy. An unknown number of full-grown turtles are eaten by tbe natives on the banks, while every steamer, schooner and canoe that descends the Amazon is laden with turtles for the tables of Mangos, Santarem, aud Pari. Wben we consider also that all the mature turtles that are taken are females, we wonder that tbe race is not well-nigh extinct. They are in fact rapidly decreasing in numbers. A largo turtle which twenty years ago could be bought for fifty cents, now commands tbree dollars. One would suppose that tbe males being unmolested, would far outnumber tbe other sex ; but tbey are in fact immensely less numerous than the females." The marsh-tortoises may be said to form tbe connecting link between tbe eminently aquatic marine, and river cbelonians and tbe land-tortoises, as the formation of their feet, armed with sharp claws or crooked nails, and furnished with a kind of flexible web, connecting tbeir distinct and movable toes, allows tbem both to advance much quicker on the dry land than the latter, and to swira rapidly either on the surface or In the depth of tbe waters. Acoording to tbe more or less terrestrial habits of tbe vari ous species, tbe feet are more or less webbed, for in those that habitually remain on the banks of the lagoons, the connecting membrane is confined to tbe basis of tbe toes, while in others, that but rarely corae on shore, it sometimes reaches to tbe extremity of the claws, another beautiful example of tbe foresight of tbe Almighty in adapting organic structure to tbe wants of His creatures. Tbe marsh-tortoises, being endowed with more rapid power of locomotion, are not vegetarians like tbe land-tortoises, but chiefly live on mollusks, fishes, frogs, toads, and annelides. Although the eggs are palatable, tbe flesh is generally too coarse even for the craving appetite of au Indian. Sea turtles differ in many respects from those of tbe rivers. During the Brazilian summer (December, January, February), colossal turtles are seen everywhere swim ming about along the toast, raising their thick round beads above tbe water, and wait ing for tbe approach of nigbt to land. Tbe neighboring Indians are tbeir bitterest enemies, kiUing tbem whenever tbey can. Tbus tbese dreary aand coasta, bounded on one side by the ocean and on the otber by gloomy primeval forests, offer on all sides pictures of destruction, for the bones and shells of slaughtered turtles everywhere be strew tbe ground. Two parallel grooves indicate the path of the turtle after landing ; MODES OF CATCHING TURTLES. 643 they are tbe marks of the four large and long fin-shaped feet or paddles, and between them may be seen a broad furrow wbere the heavy body trailed along the ground. On following these traces about thirty or forty yards shore-upwards, the huge animal may be found sitting in a flat excavation formed by its circular raovements, and in which one- half of its body is imbedded. It allows itself to be handled on all sides without making tbe least attempt to move away, being probably taught by instinct how useless all endeavors to escape would be. A blowing or snorting like that of a goose wben any one approaches its neat, at tbe same time inflating its neek a little, are tbe sole signs of defence which it exhibita. Similar scenes take plaoe during tbe dry season, throughout tbe whole of the tropical zone, on every sandy, unfrequented ooast : for tbe same instinct which prompts the salraon to swira stream-upwards, tbe cod to seek eleva ted submarine banks, or tbe penguin to leave tbe high seas and settle for tbe sura mer on some dreary rock, attracts alao tbe turtlea from distances of fifty or sixty leagues to tbe shores of desert islands or solitary bays. The enemies of tho marine cheloniana are no lesa numerous than those of tbe terres trial or fluviatile species. While tbe full-grown turtles, as soon as tbey leave tbe water, aro exposed to tbe attacks of many ravenous boasts, from the wild dog to tbe tiger or jaguar, storks, borons, and other strand or sea-birda devour thouaands upon thousands of the young before they roach tbe ocean, where sharks and otber- greedy fishes stUl further thin their ranks, so that but very few escape from tbe general massa cre, and tbe whole race can only maintain itself by its great fecundity. Of all tho foes of tbe turtle tribe there is, however, none more formidable than man, as even on the most lonely islands the aeafaror Ues in wait, eager to relieve tbe monotony of hia coarse fare by an abundant supply of their luscious flesh. On tbe Isle of Ascension, tbe head-quarters of the finest turtle In the world, all the move ments of the poor creatures are carefully watched, and when, after having deposited their eggs in the sand, tbey waddle again towards the soa, their retreat is often inter cepted, for two stout men running up to the unfortunate turtle after tbe completion of her task, one seizes a fore-flipper and dexterously shoves it under her belly, to serve as a purchase ; whilst tbe other, avoiding a stroke which might lame bim, canta ber over on her back, whore she Ilea helpleaa. From fifteen to thirty are tbus turned in a night. In tbe baya, wben the surf or heavy rollers prevent the boats being beached to take on board the turtlea when caught, they are hauled out to tbem by ropes. The way by which the turtles are most commonly taken at tbe Bahama Islands is by striking tbem witb a smaU iron peg of two inchea long, put in a socket at the end of a staff of twelve feet long. Two men usually set out for this work in a canoe, one to row and gently steer tbe boat, while the other atands at the end of it with bis weapon. Tbe turtlea are sometimea diacovered by their swiraraing with their head and back out of tbe water, but tbey are more often seen lying at tbe bottom, a fathom or more deep. If a turtle perceives be is discovered, he starts up to make his escape ; the men in tbe boat, pursuing him, endeavor to keep sight of him, which tbey often lose and recover again by the turtle putting bia nose out of tbe water to breathe. On Keeling Island, Mr. Darwin witnessed another highly Interesting method of catching turtle : " The channel was exceedingly intricate, winding through fields of delicately-branched corals. We saw several turties, and two boats were then em ployed in catching them. Tbe method is rather curious : the water is so clear and 644 THE TROPICAL WORLD. shallow that, although at first a turtle quickly dives out of sight, yet in a canoe, or boat under saU, the pursuers, after no very long chase, come up to it. A man, stand ing ready in tbe bows, at this moment dashes through the water upon the turtie's back ; then clinging with both hands by the shell of the neck, be is carried away till tbe animal becomes exhausted and is secured. It was quite an interesting chase to see the two boats tbus doubling about, and the men dashing into the water trying to seize their prey." The Green turtle ( Chelonia midas), which has been known to attain a length of seven feet, and a weight of 900 lbs., is raost prized for its flesh ; but tho HawksbUl ( Chelonia imbricata), which hardly reaches one-third of tbe size, is of far greater com mercial value, tbe platea of its shell being stronger, thicker, and clearer than those of any other species. It is caught all over tbe tropical seas, but principally near the Moluccas, tbe West Indian and tbe Fiji Islands, where it is preserved in pens by the chiefs, who have a barbarous way of reraoving the valuable part of tbe shell from the living aniraal. A burning brand is held close to the outer shell, until it curls up and separates a little from that beneath. Into tbe gap thus formed a smaU wooden wedge is then inserted, by which tbe whole is easily removed frora the back. Wben stripped, the animal is again put Into the pen, where it bas full time for tbe growth of a new shell — for though the operation appears to give great pain, it is not fatal. A similar cruel method of removing tbe tortoise's shell by heat is resorted to In Ceylon ; but tho mode in whicb tho flesh of tbe edible turtle is sold pieoemeal, while it is still alive, by tbe fisherraen of that island, is still more repulsive, and a disgrace to the Colonial Government, which allows it to be openly practised. " Tbe creatures," says Sir Eraerson Tennent, " are to be seen in the market-place undergoing this fright ful mutilation, tbe plastron and its integuments having been previously removed, and tbe animal thrown on its back, so as to display all tbe motions of the heart, viscera, and lungs. A broad knife, from twelve to eighteen inches in length, ia first inserted at the left side, and tbe woraen, who are generally tbe operators, introduce one hand to scoop out tbe blood, which oozes slowly. The blade is next passed round till the lower shell is detached and placed to one side, and the internal organs exposed In full action. Each customer, aa he applies, is served with any part selected, whioh Is cut off aa ordered, and sold by weight. Eacb of tbe fins is tbus successively removed, with portions of tbe fat and flesh, tbe turtle showing by ita contortions that eacb aot of severance is productive of agony. In this state it lies for hours writhing In the sun, tbe heart and head being usually tbe last pieces selected ; and tiU the latter is cut off, the snapping of tbe mouth, and tbe opening and closing of the eyes, show that life Is still inherent, even wben tbe shell has been nearly divested of its eontents." The Coriaceous turtle {Sphargis coriacea), of a more elongated form tban tbe other species, and whose outer covering, marked along its whole length by seven distinct, prominent, and tuberculated ridges, is not of a horny substance, but resembles strong leather, grows to the greatest size of all the raarine cbelonians, some having been taken above eight feet in length, and weighing no loss tban 1,600 lbs., ao that even the crocodUe can hardly be corapared to it in bulk. While the land-tortoises can scarcely be said to bave a voice, merely hissing or blowing when irritated or seized, the coria ceous turtle, when taken in a net or seriously wounded, utters loud shrieks or cries which may be heard at a considerable distance. BIRDS OF THE TROPICAL WORLD. 645 CHAPTER XII. BIRD-LIFE IN THE TROPICAL WORLD. DifiBculties of the Subject—Wide Range of Birds— The Toucan— Humming-Birds-Cotingas —The Campanero, or Bell-Bird— The Realejo, or Organ-Bird— The Manakins— The Cock of the Rock— The Troopials — The Baltimore Oriole— The Cassiques— The Mocking-Bird — The Toropishu — The Tunqui — Goat-Suckers — The Cilgero — Flamingos — The Ibis — Spoon-Bills— Birds of the New and the Old World— Sun-Birds— Honey-Eaters— The Ooel lated Turkey — The Lyre-Bird— Birds of Paradise— Fables respecting them— Their Char acter and Habits — Their Dancing-Parties — Mode of Shooting and Snaring them — The AustraUan Bower-Bird — The Brush-Turkey — The Adjutant — The Copper-Smith — The Indian Baya — The Tailor-Bird — The Grosbeak — The Korw^— Parrots — The Brazilian Love-Parrot — Their Powers of Mimicry — Cockatoos — Macaws — The Ara— Paroquets — The Ostrich — His Swiftness of Foot — Modes of Capturing it — Stratagems to Save its Young — Its Enemies — Its Young — Resemblance to the Camel — Its Powers of Digestion — Uses of its Eggs — The Eheas — The Cassowary — The Emu. USEFUL in many respects to man, no class of animals are more agreeable to bira than that of birds, whether they are considered for the beauty of tbeir plumage, the graoe of tbeir movements, tbe melody of tbeir voice, or tbe ingenuity with which tbey construct tbeir nests. Tbeir study forms one of tbe most attractive departments in tbe range of natural history. But it is also one of the moat difficult, especially in regions which are covered with dense and matted foresta. Thua it is by no means surprising that so many secrets yet veil the life of tropical birds, and com paratively little is known of tbeir habits and modes of existence. We can hope only to present a few of tho salient features of bird-life in the tropics, reserving for another chapter the birds of prey. Many families of birds bave a wide range over tbe whole earth. Falcons hover over tbe Siberian fir-woods as over tbe palm-forests of the Amazon. In every zone are found woodpeckers, owls, and marljns; while thrushes enliven with their song both tbe shades of tbe beech-woods and tbe twilight of the cocoa-nut groves. In tho north and in tbe south, fly-oatohors carry destruction among tbe numerous insect tribes ; in every latitude, crows cleanse tbe fields of verrain ; and swallows, pigeons, ducks, gulls, petrels, divers, and plovers frequent tbe fields and lakea, the banka and ahorea, in all parts of tbe world. Tbus the class of birds shows us a great similarity in the distribution of its various forms all over the earth ; and we find tbe same resemblance extending also to their modo of Ufe, their manners, and tbeir voice. Tbe woodpeckers make everywhere the forest resound witb the same clear note, and the birds of prey possess in every cUme the same rough screech so consonant to their habits, whUe a soft cooing everywhere characterizes tbe pigeon-tribes. But, notwithstanding this general uniformity and thia 646 THE TROPICAL WORLD. wide range of raany famUies of birds, eacb zone has at the same time its peculiar orni thological features, that blend harmoniously with tbe surrounding world of plants and animala, and, taking a prominent part in tbe aapect of nature, at once attract the atten tion of tbe stranger. In this respect, as in so many others, tbe warmer regions of the globe bave a great advantage over those of the temperate and glacial zones ; and here, wbere warmth and moisture call forth an exuberant vegetation, tbey produce an equal multiplicity of animal forms, among which many birds rival the most gorgeous flowers by tbe splendor of their plumage. On turning to eaoh continent in particular, we again find each endowed with Its pecuUar genera of birds, and thus, though tropical Araerica has many of its feathered tribes in common with the torrid zone of the Old World, it enjoys the exclusive pos session of the Toucans, Colibris, Crotophagi, Jacaraars, Anis, Dendrocolaptos, Mana kins, and Tangaras ; while tbe Calaos, the Souimangas, tbe Birds of Paradise, and many others, are confined to the eastern hemisphere. A complete review of all these various forms of the feathered creation would fill volumes. My narrow liraits neces sarUy confine me to a brief account of those tribes which are either tbe most remark able, or the most widely different from tbe birds whioh we are accustomed to see in the temperate zones. By their enormoua bill, which might seera rather adapted to a bird of oatriob-like dimensions tban to one not much larger tban a crow, tbe toucans are distinguished from all tbe otber feathered races of America. The use of this enormous beak puzzles naturalists. "How astonishing aro tbe freaks of nature," writes Sydney Smith. "To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the woods of Cayenne, with a bill a yard long, making a noise like a puppy-dog, and laying eggs in boUow trees ? The toucan, to be sure, might retort, ' To what purpose are certain foolish, prating members of ParUament created, pestering tbe House with their ignorance and folly, and impeding tbo business of tbe country ? ' There is no end to such questions ; so we wUl not enter into the metaphysics of the toucan." The bill, though certainly much less than a yard long, is big enough to give tbe bird a very awkward appearanoe ; but the beauty of its col oring soon reconciles the eye to its disproportionate size : for the brightest red, varie gated witb black and yellow stripes on tbe upper mandible, and a stripe of the liveliest sky-blue on tbe lower, contribute to adorn the bill of tbe Bouradi, aa one of the three toucan apeoies of Guiana is called by the Indians. Unfortunately, these brilUant tints fade after death. Tho plumage of this strange bird rivals the beak in beauty of coloring, and the feathers are frequently used as ornaments by tbe Brazilian ladles, as well as by the Indian tribes that roam through tbe vast forests of South America. The toucans are generally seen in small flocks or troops, and from this it might bo supposed they were gregarious ; " but upon a closer examination," says Waterton, " you will find it baa only been a dinner-party whioh breaks up and disperses towards roosting-time." While tbus assembled, discord never ceases to reign, for there is hardly a more quarrel some and imperious bird tban the toucan. A bird with so strange a beak must natu rally be expected to feed and drink ina strange raanner. Wben tbe toucan bas seized a morsel, he throws it into tbe air and lets it fall into his throat ; when drinking, he dips tbe point of bis mandibles into the water, fills tbem by a powerful inspiration, and then throws back tbe bead by starts. The tongue is also of a very singular form, being narrow and elongated, auu laterally barbed like a feather. The toucans are very TOUCANS— HUMMING-BIRDS— BELL-BIRDS. 647 noisy buds. In rainy weather their clamor ia heard at all hours of tbe day, and in fair weather at morning and evening. Tbe sound which tbo Bouradi makes is like tbe clear yelping of a puppy dog, and you fancy he says " pia-po-o-co," and tbus tbe South American Spaniards call bim Piapoco. To paint the Humming-bird witb colors worthy of ita beauty, would be a task as difficult as to fix on canvas the glowing tints of tbe rainbow, or tbe glories of tbe setting aun. The Indians of the Araazon call ifc " a living sun-beara." Unrivalled in tbe metallic brilliancy of its plumage, it raay truly be called the bird of paradise ; and had it existed in tbe Old World it would no doubt bave clairaed tbe title instead of the splendid bird whioh has now the honor to bear it. See witb what lightning speed it darts from flower to flower ; now hovering for an instant before you, as if to give you an opportunity, of admiring its surpassing beauty, and now again vanishing witb tbe ra pidity of thought. -But do not fancy that these winged jewels of the air, buzzing like bees round tbe blossoms loss gorgeous than tbemselves, live entirely on the honey- dew coUeoted within their petals ; for on opening the stomach of one of tbem, dead insects are almost always found there, which its long and slender beak, and cloven ex tensile tongue, like that of tbe woodpecker, enable it to catch at the very bottom of the tubular corollas. The torrid zone is the chief seat of tbe humming-birds, but in summer they wander far beyond its bounds, and follow tbe aun in his annual declensions to the poles. Tbus, in the nortb, thoy appear aa flying visitors on the borders of tbe Canadian lakes, and on tho southern coast of the peninsula of Alaska ; while in the southern bemlspbere they roam as far as Patagonia, and even as Tierra del Fuego ; visiting in the northern hemisphere tbe confines of tbe walrus, and reaching in the south the regions of tbe penguins and tbe lion-seal ; advancing towards tbe higher latitudes with the advance of summer, and again retreating at tbe approach of autumn. All attempts to trans port them alive to Europe bave hitherto been fruitless. Latham relates that a young man cut off tbe branch on which a humming-bird waa breeding, and took it on board the ship which conveyed hira to England. The raother soon grew tame, and took tbe biscuit and honey, that waa offered her ; she also continued to brood during the pas sage, but died as soon as the young crept out of tbe shell. Tbese came alive to Eng land, and vritbstood during two months tbe uncongenial climate. Next to tbe huraraing-birds the Cotingas display the gayest plumage. Tbey are, however, not often seen, for they lead a aolitary Ufe in tbe moist and shadowy forests, where they feed on the various seeds and fruits of the woods. One species is attired in buming scarlet, others in purple and blue, but tbey are all so splendidly adorned that it would be difficult to say which of them deserved the prize for beauty. Most of the Cotingas bave no song ; tbe nearly related snow-white Campanero or Bell-Bird, however, amply makea up for tbe deficient voice of his cousins, by tbe singularity and sweetness of his note. He ia about the size of a jay. On bia forehead rises a singu lar spiral tube nearly three inches long. It is jet black, dotted all over with sraaU white feathers. It has a communication witb the palate, and wben filled with air looks like a spire, when empty it becomes pendulous. " His note is loud and clear, Uke the sound of a beU, and may be beard at tbe distance of tbree miles," says Waterton. "Tbree miles 1 " exclaims Sydney Smith, dubiously ; " this littie bird being more pow erful tban tbe belfry of a cathedral ringing for a new dean ! It is impossible to con- 648 THE TROPICAL WORLD. tradict a gentleman who has been in Cayenne ; but we are determined as soon as a Campanero is brought to Bngland, to raake bira toll in a public place, and bave the distance measured." "In tbe midst of these extenaive wUda," continuea Waterton, "generally on tbe dried top of an aged mora, alraoat out of gun-reach, you will see tbe Campanero. No sound or song from any of the winged inhabitants of the forest causes such astonishment as his toll. Witb many of tbe feathered race be paya the coramon tribute of a song to early morn, and even wben the meridian sun has shut in silence tbe mouths of almost tbe whole of animated nature, tbe Carapanero still cheers tho forest ; you hear his toll, and then a pause for a minute ; then another toll, and then a pause again, and then a toll and again a pause. Theu he is silent for aix or eight minutes, and then another toll, and ao on. He ia never seen to feed witb tbe other Cotingas, nor is it known in what part of Guiana he makes his nest." But tbe most remarkable songster of tbe Amazonian forest is tbe Realejo, or Organ-Bird. Its notes are as musical as tbe flageolet. It is the only songster which makes any impression on the natives. In the deep foresta, which tbey never quit for tbe open plains, reside tbe Manakins {Pipra,) pretty little birds, whose largest species scarcely attain the dimensions of the sparrow, while tbe smallest are hardly equal to tbe wren. The plumage of the full- grown male is always black, enlivened by brilliant colora, that of tbe female and of tbe young birds greenish. Their flight is rapid but short, and they generally rooat on tbe middle branches of tbe trees. In tbe raorning they unite in little troops, and seek tbeir food, which consists of insects, and sraall fruit, uttering at the sarae time their weak but melodious notes. As the day advances tbey separate and seek tbe deepest forest-shades, where they live in solitude and silence. Tho famous orange-colored Cock of tbe Rock of Guiana (Rupicola aurantia,) which owes its name to its comb-like crest, is nearly related to the manakins. It is a great rarity, even in its own country, and as it dwells in the most secluded forests, is but sel dom seen by travelers. Scboraburgk relates the following wonderful story of the bird, which, if not proceeding from so trustworthy a source, might almost be considered fab ulous. " A troop of tbese beautiful birds was celebrating ita dancea on the smooth surface of a rock ; about a score of tbem were seated on tbe branches as spectators, while one of tbe male birds, with proud self-confidence, and spreading taU and wings, was dancing on the rock. He scratched the ground or leaped vertically into tbo air, continuing those saltatory movements until he was tired, wben another male took bis place. Tbe females, meanwhile, looked on attentively, and applauded tbe performance of tbe dancers with laudatory cries. As the feathers are highly prized, the Indians lay in wait with tbeir blow-pipes near the places where the Rupicolas are known to dance. When once the ball has begun, the birds are so absorbed by their amusement, that tbe hunter has full tirae to shoot down several of the spectators with hia poisoned arrows, before tbe rest take tbe alarra." On penetrating into tbe wilds of Guiana, tbe pretty songsters called Troopials, pour forth a variety of sweet and plaintive notes. Reaembling tbe starling by tbeir habits, they unite in troops, and live on inaects, berries, and seeds. The Variegated Troopial ( Oriolus varius) displays a wonderful instinct in the construction of his nest, which he generally builds on fruit-trees ; but when circumstances force bira to select a tree whose branches bave far less solidity, aa, for instance, the weeping-wUlow, his instinct almost TROOPIALS— ORIOLES— CASSIQUES— THE MOCKING-BIRD. 649 rises to a higher intelligence. First, he binds together, by means of bits of straw, the small and flexible branches of the willow, and thus forms a kind of conical basket ia which he places bis nest, and instead of the usual hemispherical form, he gives it a more elongated shape, and makes it of a looser tissue, so as to render it more elastic and bet ter able to conform to the moveraents of the branches wben agitated by tbe wind. The neat little black and orange Baltimore Oriole {Icterus Baltimore) constructs a still more marvellous nest on tbe tulip trees, on whose leaves and flowers he seeks the caterpUlars and beetles whicb constitute his principal food. Wben the time comes for preparing ifc, tbe male picks up a filament of tbe Tillandsia usneoides and attaches it by its two extremities to two neighboring branches. Soon after, the female comes, inspects his work, and places another fibre across that of her companion,. Thus by their alternate labors a net is forraed, whicb soon assumes tbe shape of a nest, and as it advances towards its completion, tbe affection of the tender couple seems to increase. The tissue is so loose as to allow tbe air to pass through its meshes, and as the parents know that tbe excessive heat of suramer would incommode their young, tbey suspend their nest so as to catch the cooler breeze of tbe north-east when breeding in Louisi ana; while in more temperate regions, such as Pennsylvania and New York, they always give it a southern exposure, and take care to line it with wool or cotton. Tbeir movements are uncommonly graceful ; tbeir song is sweet ; they migrate in winter towards more southerly regions, Mexico or BrazU, and return after tbe equinox to tbe United States. The Cassiques, which are nearly related to the troopials or orioles, are no less remark able for tbeir architectural skill. Tbey suspend their large pendulous nests, which are often above four feet long, at tbe extremities of branches of palm trees, as far as pos sible from all enemies that might by climbing reacb the brood, often choosing, for still further protection, trees on which tbe wasps or maribondas bave already built thoir nests, as theae are adversaries whose sharp stinga no tiger-cat or reptile would desire to faoe. The nest of the Cassicus cristatus is artificially woven of lichens, bark-fibrea, and the filaments of tbe tillandsias, while that of the Tupuba {Cassicus ruber), which is always suspended over the water, consists of dry grasses, and bas a slanting opening in the side, so that no rain can penetrate it. On passing under a tree, which often contains hundreds of eassique nests, one cannot help stopping to adraire thera, as they wave to and fro, tbe sport of every storm and breeze, and yet so well constructed as rarely to be injured by tbe wind. Often numbera of one species raay be seen weaving their nests on one side of a tree, while numbers of another species are busy forming theirs on the opposite side of the same plant ; and what ia, perhaps, even still more wonderful than their architectural skill, though such near neighbors, tbe females are never observed to quarrel ! The Cassicus persicus, a small black and yellow bird, somewhat larger tban tbe starling, has been naraed the Mocking-Bird, from his wonderful imitative powera. He courts tbe society of man, and generally takes his station on a tree close to his bouse, where for hours together he pours forth a succesaion of ever-varying notes. If a toucan be yelping in tbe neighborhood, he immediately drops his own aweet song, and answers him in equal strain. Then he will amuse his audience with tbe cries of tbe different species of tbe woodpecker, and wben the sheep bleat be will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again, and if a puppy dog or a guinea fowl interrupt 650 THE TROPICAL WORLD. him, he takes them off admirably, and by hia different gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys the sport. WUd and strange are the voices of many of the American forest-birds. In the Peruvian woods the black Toropishu ( Cephalopterus ornatus) makes tbe thicket re sound with his hoarse cry, resembling the distant lowing of a bull ; and in tbe same regions the fiery-red and black-winged Tunqui {Rupicola Peruviana) sends forth a note, which might readily be mistaken for the grunting of a hog, and strangely con trasts with tbe brUlIancy of bis plumage. But of all tbe startling cries that issue from the depths of the forest, none is more remarkable than the Goatsucker's lament able wail. " Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow," says Waterton, " begin with a high loud note, and pronounce ha, ha, ba, ba, ba ! each note lower and lower till the last is scarcely beard, pausing a moment or two between every note, and you will bave some idea of tbe mourning of the largest goatsucker in Demarara. Four other apeciea of goatsucker articulate sorae words so distinctly, that they bave received thoir names from tbe sentences tbey utter, and absolutely bewilder tbe stranger on bis arrival in these parts- Tbe most common one sits down close by your door, and flies or alights three or four yards before you, as you walk, along tbe road, crying, " Who are you, who-who-who- who are you? " Another bids you, " Work away, work- work-work away." A third cries mournfully, " Willy come go, Willy- Willy -Willy come go." And high up in tbe country, a fourth tells you to, " Wbip-poor-Will, wblp-whip-wblp poor- WiU." WhUe the goatsucker makea tbe foroat resound with his funereal tones, other birds of tbe forest pour forth the sweetest notes. Dressed in a sober cinnamon brown robe, witb blackish olive-colored head and neek, the Organist (Troglodytes leucophrys) en livens the solitude of the Peruvian forests. The astoniabed wanderer stops to listen to tbe strain, and forgets the impending storbi. Tbe Cilgero, a no less delightful song ster, frequents tbe mountain regions of Cuba, and tbe beauty of bis notes may be inferred frora tbe extravagant price of several hundred dollars, which tbe rich Hav- anese are ready to pay for a captive bird. The same beauty of plumage which characterizes so many of the American forest- birds, adorns, likewise,' the feathered tribes of the swamp and tbe morass, of tbe river and tbe lake. Nothing can exceed in beauty a troop of deep red Flamingos (Phceni- copterus ruber) on tbe green margin of a stream. Raised on enormous stilts, and with an equally disproportionate length of neck, the flamingoa would be reckoned araong the moat uncouth birds, if tbeir splendid robe did not entitie tbem to rank among the moat beautiful. They always live in troops, and range themselves, whether fishing or resting, like soldiers, in long linea. One of the nuraber acts as sentinel, and on the approach of danger givea a warning screara, like the sound of a trurapet, wben, instantly, tbe whole troop, expanding their flaming vrings, rise loudly clamoring into the air. Tbese strange-formed birds buUd in tbe swaraps high conical nests of mud, in tho shape of a hillock with a cavity at top, in which the female generally lays two white eggs of the size of those of a goose, but more elongated. The rude construc tion is sufficiently high to admit of ber sitting on it conveniently, or rather riding, as tbe legs are placed on each side at full length. Their mode of feeding is no less remarkable. Twisting their neck in such a manner that the upper part of their bUl is applied to tbe ground, tbey at tbe same tirae disturb the mud with one of tbeir webbed feet, tbus raising up from the water insects and spawn, on which they chiefly subsist. TROPICAL BIRDS OF BOTH HEMISPHERES. 651 The Rose-colored Flamingo, with red wings and black quUls, adorns tbe creeks and rivers of tropical Africa and Asia, and in warra suraraers extends bis migrations as far northwards as Strasburg on the Rhine. The sight of a troop of flamingos approach ing on the wing, and describing a great fiery triangle in the air, is singularly majestic. When about to descend, tbeir flight becomes slower, tbey hover for a moment, then tbeir evolutions trace a conical spire, and, finally alighting, tbey iraraediately arrange tbemselves in long array, place their sentinels, and begin their fishing operations. Tbe scarlet American Ibis, witb black-tipped wings, though inferior In size to bis celebrated cousin, the sacred bird of the Egyptians, far surpasses him in beauty. Six feet high, stately as a grenadier of tbe guards, tbe Araerican Jabiru stalks along tbe banks of tbe morasses. His plumage ia white, but bis neck and head are black, like bis long legs ; his conical, sharp, and powerful black bUl, is a little recurved, while that of tbe stork, to whom he is closely related, is straight. He destroys an incred ible number of reptUes and fishes, and, being very shy, is difficult to kill. Two sira ilar species, respectively inhabit Western Africa and Australasia. Tbe roseate American Spoon-bUl is particularly remarkable for his curioua large beak, dilating at tbe top into a broad spoon or spatula, which, though not possessed of great power, renders him excellent service in disturbing tbe mud and seizing the little reptiles and worms he delights to feed on. Tbe Jacana possesses enormously long and slender toes, armed witb equally long spine-like claws. While pacing tbe ground tbey seem aa inconvenient as the snow-shoes of a Laplander, and yet nothing can be more suitable for a bird des tined to stalk over the floating leaves of tbe Nelumbos and Nympbaeas, and to seek for water inseots on this unstable foundation. The jacana ia found all over tropical America, and is also called the " Surgeon," frora the nail of his hinder toe being sharp and pointed like a lancet. All tbese strange and wondrous birds, and numberless others, whose mere enumer ation would be fatiguing to tbe reader, justify tbe ornithological reputation of the woods and swamps of tropical America. And indeed the feathered races nowhere find a richer field for their development than here, where the vegetable world revels in luxuriant growth ; and myriads of insects, peopling the forest, tbe field, and the water, furnish each kind according to its wants with an inexhaustible supply of food. The circum stance that man but thinly inhabits tbese wilds, is another reason whioh favors tbe mul tipUcation of the feathered tribes ; for, in Europe also, birds would no doubt be far more nuraerous, if tbe farmer, the sportsman, and so many otber enemies were not continually thinning their ranks. To these elements of destruction they are far lesa exposed in tropical America, and being comparatively but Uttle disturbed, tbey reign, as it were, over tbe forest and tbe open field, over tbe mountain and tbe plain, over tbe river and tbe lake. Although in the torrid zone we hardly ever meet with a single aboriginal spooios of plant or animal common to both hemispheres, yet the analogy of climate everywhere produces analogous organic forms, and wben on surveying tbe feathered tribes of America, we are struck by any bird remarkable for its singularity of shape or mode of life, we may expect to find its representative in Asia, Africa, or Australia. Thus tbe enormous beak of the toucan is emulated or surpassed by that of the Indian Calao, or Rhinoceros Hornbill, whose twelve-inch long, curved, and sharp-pointed bill ia, moreover, surmounted with an immense appendage, in tbe form of a reverted born, tbe uso of 652 THE TROPICAL WORLD. which belongs as yet to the secrets of nature. WhUe tbe toucans are distinguished by a gaudy pluraage, the calaos are alraost entirely decked with a robe black as that of tbe raven, and enhancing the beautiful red and orange colors of their colossal beak. Generally congregating In sraall troops Uke tbe toucans, tbey inhabit tbe dense forests, where they live chiefly on fruits, seeds, and insects, which they also swallow whole, throwing them up into the air and catching tbem as they fall. The clapping together of tbeir mandibles causes a loud and peculiar noise, whicb towards evening interrupts the sUence of tbe forest. Tbe flight of a bird burdened vritb sucb a load must naturally be short : they bop upon tbeir thick clurasy feet, and generally rooat upon the higbeat trees. Tbe brilliant Sun-blrda or Suiraangas {Cinnyris,) belonging to the order of the Cer- tbiaa or creepera, are tbe colibris of the old world, equally ethereal, gay, and sprightly in tbeir raotions, flitting briskly frora flower to flower, and assuraing a tbousand lively and agreeable attitudes. Aa the sunbeams glitter on tbeir bodies, tbey sparkle like so many gems. As tbey hover about the honey-laden blossoms, they vibrate rapidly their tiny pinions, producing in tbe air a slight whirring sound, but not so loud as tbe bum ming noise produced by the wings of the colibris. Thrusting tbeir slender beaks into the deep-oupped flowers, they probe them with their brush-like tongues for insects and neotar. Some are emerald green, sorae vivid violet, others yellow with a crirason wing, and rivaUing the colibris by tbe metaUic lustre of tbeir pluraage, they aurpasa thom by their musical powera, for whUe tbe latter can only hum, the sun-birds accorapany their movements with an agreeable chirp. The nearly-related Melithreptes, or Honey-eaters of tbe South Sea Islands, distin guished by a very long curved beak, and a tongue split into two slender filaments, fur nish the chief ornaments of the Polynesian kings and chieftains. Thus the famous royal mantle of Tam^hameba the Great is corapletely covered witb tbe golden plumage of the Melithreptes pacificus, and as this not very comraon brown-colored bird bas only three or four yellow feathers in each wing, it may easily be conceived that tbe most costly brocades of Lyons are far from equalling in value thia aplendid robe of state, which is no lesa tban ten feet long and aeven^ feet broad. Even tbe small diadems made of tbe feathers of this bird, whioh are worn by tbe ladies of rank in the Sandwiob Islands, are worth several hundred dollars. Idols or mantles of tbe Polynesians, deco rated with tbe scarlet feathers of the Melithreptes vestiarius are frequently met witb in ethnographical rauseums. While the superb Ocellated Turkey of Honduras (Meleagris ocellata) displays wifch all the pride of a peacock, the eye-like marks of bis tail and upper-coverts, tbe no less beautifully spotted Argus, a bird nearly related to tbe gold and silver pheasants which bave been introduced from China into tbe European aviaries, conceals his splendor In tbe dense forests of Java and Sumatra. Tho wings of this magnificent creature, whose pluraage is equally remarkable for variety and elegance, consist of very large feathers, nearly three feet long, tbe outer webs being adorned witb a row of large eyes, arranged parallel to tbe abaft ; the tail ia compoaed of twelve feathers, the two middle onoa being about four feet in lengfch, tbe next scarcely two, and gradually shortening to tbe outer ones. Its voice is plaintive and not harsh, as in tbe Indian peacock, which Alexander tbe Great is said to have first introduced into Europe, though its feathers bad raany centuries before been imported by tbe Pbceniciana. Tbe Peacock ia still found wild in many parts of Asia and Africa, but more particularly in the fertile plains THE LYRE-BIRD— BIRDS OF PARADISE. 653 of India. Another speciea, nearly sirailar in aize and proportions, but distinguished by a muoh longer crest, inhabits the Javanese forests. Though of less dazzling splendor than this peacock's tail, that of tbe Menura, or Lyre-bird, is unrivaUed for its elegance. Fancy two large, broad, black and brown- striped feathers, curved in tbe form of a Grecian lyre, and between both, other feath ers whose widely-distanced silken barbs envelope and surmount them with a light and airy gauze. No painter could possibly have imagined anything to equal this master piece of nature, which its shy possessor conceals in the wild bushes of Australia. The lyre-bird is constantly engaged in traversing the brush from mountain top to the bottom of tbe gullies, whose steep and rugged sides present no obstacle to its long legs and powerful muscular thighs. When running quickly through the brush, it carries the tail horizontally, that being tbe only position in which it could be borne at such tiraes. Besides its loud, full cry, which may be beard at a great distance, it has an inward and varied song, the lower notes of which can only be heard wben you have stealthily approached to vrithin a few yards of the bird when it ia singing. Its habits appear to be solitary, seldora more tban a pair being seen together. It constructs a large nest, forraed on tbe outside of sticks and twigs, like that of a magpie, and Uned with the inner bark of trees aud fibrous roots. But of all tbe tropical birds there are none so absolutely distinctive of tbe equatorial regions as the Birds of Paradise, whioh are found only in some of tbe islands of tbe Malay Archipelago. Until about 1868 really nothing was known to Europeans respecting these birds, which in gorgeousness of coloring and elegance of form and plumage surpass all others. Stuffed skina of these birds, curiously prepared, have long been found in European museums, and from tbese the strangest descriptions bave been given, which still find place in booka upon Natural History. Wben tbe early navigators reached tbe Moluccas in search of cloves and nutmegs, they were presented with dried skina of a kind of bird so beautiful as to exoite even their wonder and admiration. Malay traders called them "God's Birds," and the Portuguese re-named them " Birds of the Sun." A learned Dutchman, who wrote in Latin, gave tbem the name which they now bear. These skins were always without feet or wings, and it was said, and currently beUeved, that no one bad ever seen one of tbem alive ; that they lived only in tbe air, and, being destitute of feet, never alighted ; but as they were equally without wings, bow tbey managed to keep afloat in tbe air was a mystery of which no solution was attempted. It was not till generations had passed that it was discovered that the natives, in preparing the skins, cut off their very serviceable legs and wings, and so arranged what was left aa to give the greatest possible promi nence to their flowing tail-plumage. One fable was thus displaced ; but everything else remained unknown. In 1862 Mr. Alfred Eussell WaUace, au EngUsh naturalist, set himself seriously at work to investigate the Natural History of the Malay Islands ; and to his work,* pubUshed in 1868, whioh we bave already bad frequent occasion to cite, we are indebted for about aU that ia really known reapecting the Birda of Paradise ; and this cost him flve successive voyages, each occupying in preparation and execution nearly a year. He describes and iUustrates eighteen different species. In all of these, it muafc be borne in mind that the briUiant colors and remarkable plumage belong to tbe * The Malay Archipelago. 654 THE TROPICAL WORLD. males ; the females being throughout very plain looking peraonages. " The Birds of Paradise," he says, "are a group of moderate-sized birda, allied in structure and habits to crows and starlings; but tbey are characterized by extraordinary develop- menta of plumage which are unequaled by any other family of birds. In several NATIVES OF AKtr SHOOTING THE GBEAT BIKD OP PAEADISE. species large tuffcs of delicate, bright-colored feathers spring from eacb side of the body beneath the wings, forming trains, fans, or shields ; and the middle feathers of the taU are often elongated into wires, twisted into tbe moat fantastic shapes, or adorned with the most brilliant metallic tints. In another set of species these accessory plumes BIRDS OF PARADISE— THE BOWER-BIRD. 655 spring from the head, tbe back, or the shoulders ; while the intensity of color and of metaUic lustre displayed by theu plumage ia not to be equaled by any other birds, except perhaps by tbe Humming-birds, and Is not surpassed even by these." Of the eighteen species described by Mr. Wallace, perhaps the most remarkable is the great Bird of Paradise {Paradisea apoda) which measures seventeen or eighteen inches from tbe beak to tbe tip of tbe taU. The body, wings, and tail are brown, deepening on tbe breast to purple. Tbe bead is yellow, the throat of emerald green. From eaoh side of the body, beneath the wings, springs a dense tuft of long delicate plumes, sometimea two feet iu length, of the most intense golden-orange color, very glossy, but changing towards tbe tips into a pale brown. This tuft of plumage can be elevated and spread out at pleasure, so as alraost to conceal tbo body of the bird. They moult in January and February ; and are in full plumage in May. At this time the males assemble early in tbe morning to exhibit themselvea in a singular raan ner whicb tbe nativea call tbeir " Saccleli " or dancing-partiea. Tbe baU-room ia a huge tree, whose wide branches afford them abundant space for display. On orie of tbese trees a score of males wUl asaemble, raise tbeir wings, and keep tbem in constant vibration; flying now and then from branch to branch, so that the whole tree is alive with their waving plumes. Wben at tbe utmost point of excitement, tbe wings are raised over the head, tbe pluraea expanded until they forra two magnificent fana, over shadowing tbe whole body, whUe the yellow head and green throat form a foundation and support for the golden glory which waves above. Wben aeon in thia attitude the Bud of Paradiae really deserves its name, and must be ranked as one of tbe most beautiful of Uving things. This habit enables the nativea of Aru to obtain apeclraena with more ease. As soon as they find that tbe birds have fixed upon a tree on which to asserable, tbey build a Uttle shelter of palm-leavea in a convenient place among the branches, and the hunter ensconces himself in it before daylight, armed with bis bow and a number of arrows terminating in a round knob. A boy walta at the foot of tbe tree, and when the birds come at sunrise, and a sufficient number bave assembled, and bave begun to dance, the hunter shoots with bis blunt arrow so strongly as to stun the bird, which dropa down and is secured without its plumage being injured by a drop of blood. Tbe rest take no notice, and fall one after another till some of them take tbe alarm. Another species, tbe Red Bird of Paradise, found in some parts of New Guinea, is caught in a very ingenious manner. There is a large tree bearing a red fruit of which these birda are especially fond. The hunters fasten this fruit on a stout forked stick, and provide tbemselves witb a fine strong eord. Tbey then find out some tree in the forest upon whicb these birds are accustoraed to perch ; and climbing up it, fasten tbe stick to a branch, and arrange the cord in a noose so ingeniously that wben tbe bird comes to eat, its legs are caught ; and by pulling tbe end of tbe cord, which hangs to the ground, it comes down free from the branob, and brings down tbe bird. ^ Some times when this favorite food ia abundant elsewhere, the hunter sits from morning to night under his tree, and often for two or three whole days in succession, without get ting even a bite ; whUe at other times, if very lucky, he may get two or three birds a day. The ornithological wonders of AustraUa are inferior to those of no other part of the world. Can anything, for mstance, be more extraordinary than the constructions of 656 THE TROPICAL WORLD. the Bower-birds, which are built not for the useful purpose of containing tbe young, but purely as a playing place or an assembly room? " Tbe structures of the spotted bower-bird," says Mr. Gould, " are in many instances three feet in length. They are outwardly built of twigs, and beautifully lined with taU grasses, so disposed that their heads nearly meet ; the decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania of smaU mammalia, and other birds. Evident and beautiful indications of de sign are manifest throughout the whole of the bower and decorations formed by this species, particularly in the manner in which tbe stones are placed within the bower, apparently to keep the grasses witb which it is Uned fixed firmly in tbeir places. These stones diverge from tbe mouth of tbe run on each side, so aa to form a little path, while the immense collection of decorative materiala, bonea, sheUs, &o., are placed in a heap before the entrance of the avenue, this arrangement being the aame at both ends. I frequently found these structures at a considerable distance from tbe rivers, from tbe borders of which they alone could bave procured tbe shells and small round pebbly stones ; their collection and transportation must, therefore, bo a task of great labor and difficulty. As tbese birds feed almost entfrely upon seeds and fruits, ithe shells and bones oan not bave been collected for any other purpose tban omament ; beaides, it is only those that bave been bleached perfectly white in the sun, or such as have been roasted by tbe natives, and by this means whitened, that attract tbeir atten tion." For what purpose tbese curious bowers are made is not yet, perhaps, fully understood ; they are certainly not used as a nest, but as a place of reaort, where the assembled birds run through and about tbe bower in a playful manner, and that so frequently that it is seldom entirely deserted. Tbe proceedings of tbese birds have not been sufficiently watched to render it certain whether tbe runs are frequented throughout the whole year or not, but it is highly probable that they are merely re sorted to as a rendezvous or playing ground at tbe pairing time, and during tbe period of incubation. The Talegalla or Brush-turkey Is no less interesting. In appearance it is very Uke the common black turkey, but is not quite so large : the extraordinary manner in which its eggs are hatched constitutes its singularity. It collects together a great heap of de caying vegetables as the place of deposit of its eggs, tbus making a hot-bed, arising from tbe decomposition of the eoUected matter, by the beat of which tbe young are batched. This mound varies in quantity frora two to four cart loads, and is of a per fectly pyramidical form : it is not, however, the work of a single pair of birds, but is tho result of the united labor of many, and the aame site appears to be resorted to for several years in succession. "Tbe raode," says Mr. Gould, "in whicb tbe raaterials composing these mounds are accumulated is equally singular, tbe bird never using its bill, but always grasping a quantity in its foot, throwing it backwards to one common center, and tbus clearing the surface of tbe groimd to a considerable distance so com pletely that scarcely a leaf or blade of grass is left." The heap being aocumulated and time allowed for a sufficient beat to be engendered, the eggs, each measuring not less than four inches in length — an enormoua size, considering tbe bulk of the bird — are deposited, not side by side, as is ordinarily the case, but planted at tbe distance of nine or twelve inches frora eacb other, and buried at nearly an arm's depth perfectly upright, with tbe large end upwards; tbey are covered up as tbey are laid, and allowed to remain untU batched. After six weeks of burial, the eggs, in succession THE BRUSH-TURKEY— THE ADJUTANT— BIRD-CRIES. 657 and without any warning, give up tbeir chicks — not feeble, but fuU-fledged and strong, so that at night tbey scrape holes for themselves, and lying down therein are covered over by tbe old birds and tbus remain until morning. Tbe extraordinary strength of the newly-batched birds is accounted for by the size of the shell, since in so large a space it ia reasonable to suppose that the young ones would be much more developed than is usually found in eggs of smaller dimensions. It is not to be wondered at that in the tropical world, where lizards, snakes, and frogs attain such extraordinary dimensions, the cranes or stork tribes, whicb chiefly live upon these reptiles, sbould also grow to a more colossal size tban their European representatives. Tbus, while torrid Araerica boasts of tbe Jabiru, Africa and India possess tbe still larger Argala, or Adjutant, whose feeding exploits and ugliness have already been mentioned in tbe chapter on snakes. His beak, measuring sixteen inches In circumference at tbe base, corresponds witb bis appetite. He ia soon rendered fa miliar with man, and when fish or otber food ia thrown to him, be catches it very nim bly and immediately swaUows it entire. A young bird of this kind, about five feet in bight, was brought up tame and presented to a chief on tbe coast of Guinea, wbere Mr. Smeathman lived. It regularly attended the ball at dinner-time, placing itself behind its master's chair, frequently before any of the guests entered. Tbe servants were obUged to watch it carefully, and to defend tbe provisions by beating it off with sticks ; still it would frequently snatch off something from tbe table, and one day pur loined a whole boiled fowl, which it swallowed in an instant. It used to fly about tbe island, and roost very high among the silk-cotton trees ; from this station, at tbe dis tance of two or tbree miles, it eould see wben the dinner was carried across tbe court, when, darting down, it would arrive early enough to enter with sorae of those who carried in tbe dishes. Sometiraes it would stand in tbe room for half an bour after dinner, turning its head alternately as if taking a deep interest in the conversation. These birds are found in companies, and wben seen at a distance near tbe mouths of rivers, advancing towards an observer, it is said that they may be easily mistaken for canoes on tbe surface of a smooth sea ; and wben on the sand-banks, for men and women picking up sbell-fisb on tbe beach. The tropical forests of tbe eastern hemisphere resound with bird-cries no less appall ing, wild, or strange tban those of tbe western world. In the close jungles of Ceylon one oocasionally bears tbe call of the Copper-amitb (Megalasara Indica,) whose din resembles tbe blows of a sraith hammering a caldron, or tbe strokes of tbe great orange-colored Woodpecker (Brachypterus aurardius,) as it beats the deeaying trees in search of insects ; but of all the yells that fancy can imagine there ia none to equal that of the Singhalese Devil-bird, or Gualaraa. " Its ordinary cry," says Mr. Mit ford, "is a magnificent clear about like that of a human being, and which can be heard at a great distance, and bas a fine effect in the silence of tbe closing night. It has another cry like that of a hen just caught ; but the sounds which bave earned for it its bad name, and whieh I bave beard but once to perfeotion, are indescribable ; tbe most appalling that can be imagined, and scarcely to be beard without shuddering. I can only compare it to a boy in torture, whose screams are being stopped by being strangled. On bearing this dreadful note the terrified Singhalese hurries from tbe spot, for sbould be chance to see tbe bird of ill omen be is sure that bis death is nigh. A servant of ~Mr. Baker's, who had tbe misfortune of seeing the dreaded gualaraa, 42 658 THE TROPICAL WORLD. from that moment took no food, and thus feU a victira to his superstitious despair. This horror of the natives explains the circumstance that it is not yet perfectly ascer tained whether tbe devil-bird is an owl (Syrnium) or a night-hawk. Tbe wonderful pendulous nests of tbe American Cassiques are equalled, if not surpassed, by those of tbe Indian Baya. These birda are found in most parts of Hindostan ; in shape they resemble the sparrow, as alao in the brown feathers of the back and wings ; the head and breast are of a bright yellow, and in the rays of a tropical sun have a splendid appearance wben flying by thousands in the same grove. Tbey make a chirping noise, but bave no song ; tbey associate in large communities, and cover clumps of palrayras, acacias, and date-trees with their nests. These are forraed in a very ingenious manner by long grass woven together in tbe shape of a bottle, and suspended by so slender a thread to the end of a flexible branch that even tbe squirrel dare not venture his body on so fragUe a support, however his mouth may water at the eggs and prey within. These nests contain several apartraents, appro priated to different purposes : in one the hen performs the offlce of incubation; another, consisting of a little thatched roof, and covering a perch without a bottom, is occupied by the male, who cheers the female witb bis chirping note. The Tailor bird of Hindostan {Sylvia sutoria) is equally curious in the structure of its nest, and far superior in the elegance and variety of its plumage, which in the male glows with the varied tints of the colibri. Tbe little artist first selects a plant witb large leaves, and then gathers cotton from the shrub, spins ifc to a thread by means of its long bill and slender feet, and then, as with a needle, sews the leaves neatly together to conceal its nest. On turning to the wilds of Afrioa, the Grosbeak affords us a no less wonderful example of nest-building; for here we find, not one single pair, but hundreds Uving under tbe same roof, perfectly resembling that of a thatched bouse, and vrith a project ing ridge, so that it ia impoaalble for any reptile to approach the entrancea concealed below. " Tbeir industry," says Paterson, " seems almost equal to that of tbe bee. Throughout the day they appear to be busily employed in carrying a fine species of grass, which is the principal material they employ for the purpose of erecting this extraordinary work, as weU as for additions and repairs. Though my short stay in the eountry was not sufflcient to satisfy rae, by ocular proof, that they added to their nest as thoy annually increased in numbers, still frora the many trees whicb I have soon borne down by the weight, and others which I bave observed with tbeir boughs completely covered over, it would appear that this really was the case. Wben the tree which is the support of this aerial city is obliged to give way to the increase of weight, it is obvious they are no longer protected, and are under the necessity of rebuUding in other trees. One of these deserted nests I had the curiosity to break down, so as to inform myself of its internal structure, and I found it equaUy ingenious with that of tbe external. There are many entrances, each of which forras a separate street with nests on both sides, at about two inches distant from eacb otber." Though far less ingenious, yet the nest of the Korwe (TocliMS erythrorynchus) is too curious to be passed over in silence. The female having entered her breeding- place, in one of the natural cavities of the mopane tree, a speciea of bauhinia, the male plasters up tbe entrance, leaving only a narrow slit by which to feed his mate, and which exactly suits the form of his beak. Tbe female makes a nest of her own HOUSE-BUILDING BIRDS. 659 feathers, lays her eggs, hatches them, and remains witb the young till they are fully fledged. During aU this time, whicb is stated to be two or tbree months, the male continues to feed her and the young family. Tbe prisoner generally becoraes quite fat, and is esteeraed a very dainty morsel by the natives, while the poor alave of a husband gets so lean and weak, that on the sudden lowering of the temperature, which sometimes happens after a fall of rain, he is benumbed, falls down, and dies. All pensile buds are remarkable for the eccentricity of shape and design which marka theu neats ; though they agree in one point, that they dangle at tbe end of twigs, and dance about merrily at every breeze. Some are long, others short ; some bave tbe enfrance at the side, others at the bottom, others near tbe top. Sorae are bung like bamraoeks from one twig to another ; others are suspended to tbe extremity of tbe twig itself; while others buUt in palms, which have no true branches, and no twiga at all, are fastened to the extremities of the leaves. Some are made of fine fibres, and others of the coarsest straws. Sorae are so looae iu their texture that the eggs can be plainly seen through them ; while others are so strong and thick, that one might suppose them to be constructed by a professional tbatchor. The illustration on the following page presents a group of nests of several species of the African Weavers. In the right-hand upper corner are tbe curious nests of tbe Mahali Weaver {PUopasser mahali) accompanied by the birda themselves. Although the bird measures only six inches in length its nest is of considerable size, and is formed of quite stout substances. In shape it is not unUke an ordinary Florence flask, only three times the size, with the neck shortened and widened. Its surface, however, is rough, the large straws of which it is composed pointing downwards to the entrance of the nest, which is at the bottom. Next below are tbree rows of tbe nests of the Spotted-back Weavers {Ploceus spilonatus), which are represented as at tacked by monkeys, some of whom, assailed by the birds, are getting well-ducked for then- pains. Still below, rather in the baokground, are two nesta of the Ploceus Ca- pensis, woven into palm-leaves. Below this, in the left corner, ia a neat of the Yellow- Weaver {Ploceus ocularius), shaped somewhat like a chemist's retort, with tbe bulb uppermost, or more nearly like a huge old-fashioned pistol, hanging butt upward. The nest is made of grass about as large as a small twine, interwoven with great skill. This ia only partly shown. At the right corner is a nest of the Taba Weaver {Euplec- tes taha), a pretty Uttle bird, which is no great favorite with tbe African farraers, for it is very nuraerous, especiaUy in cultivated regions, and has no scruples about helping itself to the produce of the gardens, whose owners are obliged to keep up a keen watch if they expect to secure a fair share of the crops. Lastly, in tbe bottora centre, is the nest of tbe Yellow-capped Weaver {Ploceus icterocephalus). This nest is re markable for tbe extreme neatness and compactness of its structure. The body of the nest is of seed-stems so closely interwoven that it cau be handled, or even kicked like a foot-baU, without being destroyed. The interior is lined with layers of flat leaves, kept in place by tbeir own elasticity, whicb afford a smooth, soft resting-place for the eggs and young birds. Parrots have so many points of reserablance to monkeys in then- tastes and habits, that notwithstanding their different appearance, one might almost be tempted to call them near relations. ' As tbe monkey never sets foot on tbe ground if he can help it, but springs from branch to branch of trees, so the parrot is rarely seen walking. His 660 THE TROPICAL WORLD. AtRICAN WEAVLKS PARROTS— MONKEYS. 661 flight ia rapid, but of short duration ; so that evidently neither the groun nor tbe air was destined for bis habitual abode. In clirabing, however, he shows an uncoraraon expertness and agility, unlike that of any otber quadruped or bird, aa tbe organ be chiefly uaea for tbe purpose ia his beak. He first aeizes with bia powerful mandibles the branoh be intends to ascend, and then raises hia body one foot after the otber ¦ or if be happena to have a aweet nut in bis bill which he ia anxloua to preaerve, he presses his lower mandible firmly upon tbe branch, and raises himself by the contraction of the muscles of his neck. On descending, he first bends bia bead, laya the back of bis beak upon tbe branob, and while the extended neck aupports the weight of tbe body, brings down one foot after tbe other. While accidentally walking on even ground, he also frequently uses his upper mandible as a kind of crutch, by fixing its point or its back upon tho ground ; for the formation of his toes is such, that he can walk but very slowly, and consequently requires tbe aid of that singular support. But if tbe toes of tbe parrot are but Ul adapted for walking, they render bira valuable services in seizing or grasping bis food. Tbey even form a kind of band, with which, like tbe monkey, he conveys tbe morsel to bia beak. Thia easily cracks tbe hardest nutshells, after which the broad and fleshy tongue adroitly extracts tbe kernel. In bis free state tbe parrot lives only upon nuts and seeds ; wben captive, however, he becomes omnivorous, like man his maater, oata bread and meat, sugar and pastry, and is very fond of wine, which bas a most exhilarating effect on hia apirits. Like most monkeys, the parrots are extremely social. At break of day they generally riae in large banda, and witb loud acreama fly away to seek their breakfast. After having feasted together, tbey retire to tbe shady parta of tbe foroat as soon as tbe beat begins to be oppressive, and a few hours before tbe setting of tbe sun reappear in large troops. If the monkeys are distinguished by a strong affection for their young, tbe parrots may well be cited as models of connubial love, for when once a pair has been united, its attachment remains unaltered unto death. Far more tban tbe turtle-dove, the little passerine parrot (Psittacus passerinus) of Brazil, or the Psittacus pullarius,oi\ove- parrot of Guinea, deserves to be celebrated by poets as tbe erablera of conjugal affec tion. Never seen but in eacb other's corapany, each delights to imitate tbe actions of the other, feeding, sleeping, bathing together ; and when one dies, tbe otber soon fol lows its partner. A gentleman who bad lost one of a pair of these in-separables, at tempted to preserve tbe other by hanging up a looking-glass in its cage. At first tbe joy of tbe poor bird waa boundless, as he fancied hia raate restored to bis careaaes ; but soon perceiving tbe deception, be pined away and died. Another point of reserablance between the parrots and raonkeys Is their talent for mimicry ; but while the latter, favored by tbe sirailarity of their organization to that of man, strive to copy bis gestures and actions, the former endeavor to imitate his voice and to repeat his words, an atterapt facilitated by the extreme mobility of tbeir tongue and upper mandible, no less than by tbe peculiar construction of tbeir larynx or windpipe. Tbe talent of speech has not been given to all the parrots alike. Tbe beautiful American Aras, for instance, are in this respect remarkably stupid, whUe tho purple Lory of the East Indies, and tbe gray African parrot (Psittacus erithacus,) are remarkable for tbeir linguistic attainraents. They are often able to retain whole songs and sentences, and to repeat thera with astonishing exactness. Tbus Le Vaillant mentions a gray parrot be saw at tbe Cape, who was able to repeat the whole of tbe 662 THE TROPICAL WORLD. Lord's Prayer in Dutch, throwing himself at the same tirae on his back, and folding the toes of both his feet. The gray parrot not only iraltates the voice of man, but bas also a strong desire to do so, which be manifests by bis attention in listening, and by tbe continuous efforts he makes to repeat the phrases he has heard. He seems to im pose upon himself a daily task, whioh oven occupies him during aleep, as he speaks in his dreams. His memory is aatonishing, so that a cardinal once gave a hundred gold crowns for one of these birds that correctly repeated a long prayer ; .and M. de la Borde told Buffon he had seen one that was fully able to perform the duties of a ship's chaplain. All parrots are more or le.sa suaceptlble of education, and, particularly when caught young, grow very much attached to the maater that feeds thera. Those that are sent to Europe are generally taken from tbe nest, and thus never have experienced the sweets of freedom ; but they aro also frequently caught full grown. The South American Indians know bow to strike them with amall arrows, whose points are blunted with cotton, so aa to stun without killing thera ; or else, under the trees on whicb tbey perch, they light a fire of strong-sraelling weeds, whose vapors cause them to drop to the ground. Those captives are frequently extremely stubborn ; but blowing the fumes of tobacco into their face until they fall asleep is an infallible remedy to cure thera of their obstinacy, this operation being so little to their taste that it need hardly ever be repeated twice. Parrots are known to attain a very great age. One that was brought to Florence in 1633, and belonged to tbe Grand Duchess of Tuacany, died In 1743, having tbus lived more than a century in exile. Although preeminently tropical, like the colibris, several parrots range far within the temperate zone, as they are found in tbe Southern bomispbere at tbe Straits of Magellan and on the Macquarie Islands, and in tbe Northern, in Ohio and Kentucky, where the Carolina parrot is often seen in great nurabers during the summer. Tbo Cockatoos are distinguished from the other parrots by a crest or tuft of elegant feathers on the head, whicb they can raise and depress at pleasure. Tbey inhabit tho East Indies and AustraUa, and have generally a white or roseate plumage. Their chief resorts are dense and huraid forests, and they frequently cause great devasta- tiona in tho rice plantations, often pouncing to the number of six or eight hundred upon a single field, and destroying even more than they devour, as they seem to be possessed of the mania to break and tear everything tbeir beak can lay hold of. They walk less awkwardly than most other parrots. The great white cockatoo ( Cacatua cristata), who is able to erect his beautiful yeUow crest to tbe bight of five inches, as a cook does his comb, is the speciea moat frequently seen in Europe. Thia bird is balf-doraesticated in several parta of India, as it buUds its nest under tbe roofs of houses, and this tameness results from its inteUigence, which seems superior to that of otber parrots. It listens attentively, but vainly strives to repeat what is said. As Australia, the land of anomalies in natural history, poasesses a black swan, it also gives birth to a splendid black cockatoo ( Cacatua Banhsii), the finest and the rarest of the whole genus. Tbo magnificent Macaws, or Aras, of South America are distinguished by having tbeir cheeks destitute of feathers, and theii- taU feathers long. Tbeir size and splendid plumage render them fit ornaments of princely gardens, but their loud and piercing screams w^^d pr©?e a great annoyance to sie ramateat of humbler dweUings. " Supe- MACAWS— PAROQUETS— OSTRICHES. 663 rior in size and beauty to every parrot of South Araerica," says Waterton, " the Ara {Macrocercus macao) will force you to take your eyes frora the rest of animated na ture, and gaze at hira : bis commanding strength ; the flaming scarlet of his body ; tbe lovely variety of red, yellow, blue, and green, in bis wings ; the extraordinary length of bis scarlet and blue tail, seem all to form and deraand for him the title of Emperor of all the parrots." The Paroquets, or Parakeets, are smaller tban the common parrots, and have longer taUs. There are numerous species, some distinguished by a very long pointed tail, and collar-like mark round the neck, whioh inhabit tbe Asiatic continent and islands ; and others, natives of Australia, which are distinguished by their color being gor geously variegated and peouliarly mottled on tbe back, by their tail feathers not being pointed, and by their being furnished witb elongated tarsi adapted for running on the ground. To the former belongs the beautiful ring paroquet, which is supposed to have been tbe first bird of tbe parrot kind known to the ancient Greeks, having been brought from tbe island of Ceylon, after tbe Indian expeditions of Alexander the Great ; to tbe latter, tbe elegant green parakeet, which in the hot seasons congregates about tbe pools in almost incredible numbers. Though capable of a rapid and even flight, and frequently at great altitudes, it is generally found running over tbe ground, and treading ita way among the graaaea to feed on the seeds. It can easily be domes ticated, and a more elegant or beautiful pet can scarcely be conceived. It is a strange fact that the parrots, that will eat nux vomica without danger, expire in convulsions after having tasted parsley, another proof of the truth of the saying that what is poison for one creature is food for another. In tbe African plains and wildernesses, wbere tbe lion seeks his prey, wbere tbe pachyderms make the earth tremble under their weighty strides, wbere tbe giraffe plucks the high branches of tbe acacia, and the herds of tbe antelope bound along : there also dwells the Ostrich, the king of birds, if size alone give right to so proud a titie ; for neither the condor nor the albatross can be corapared in this respect to the ostrich, who raises his head seven or eight feet above tbo ground, and attains a weight of from two to three hundred pounds. Hia sraall and weak wings are incapable of carrying hira through the air, but tbeir flapping raaterially assists tbe action of bis legs, and serves to increase bis swiftness wben, flying over tbe plain, he " scorns the horse and its rider." Hia feet appear hardly to touch tbe ground, and the length between each stride is not unfrequently from twelve to fourteen feet, so that for a tirae he might even outstrip a locomotive ruabing along at full apeed. Not only by hia apeed is tbe ostrich able to baffle many an enemy, tbe strength of his legs also serves hira as an excellent means of defence ; and many a panther or wild dog coming within reach of his foot has had reason to repent of ita temerity. But in spite of the rapidity of his flight, during which be frequently flings large atones back wards with his foot, and in spite of bis strength, be is frequently obUged to succumb to man, who knows how to hunt him in various ways. Unsuspicious of evil, and enjoying the fuU Uberty of the desert, a troop of ostriches wanders through the plain, the monotony of whicb is only relieved here and there by a clump of palms, a patch of candelabrarsbaped tree-euphorbias, or a vast and solitary baobab. Some leisurely feed on the sprouts of tbe acacias, tbe bard dry leaves of tbe mimosas, or tbe prickly naras, whose deep orange-colored pulp forms one of tbeir favorite repasts ; others 664 THE TROPICAL WORLD. agitate their winga and ventilate the delicate plumage, tbe possession of whicb ia soon to prove so fatal to them. No otber bird is seen in their company — for no other bird leads a life like theirs ; but tbe zebra and the antelope are fond of aasoclating with the ostrich, desirous perhaps of benefiting by the sharpness of bis eye, whicb is capable of discerning danger at tbe utraost verge of tbe horizon. But in spite of its vigUance, mlafortunos are already gathering round tbe troop, for tbe Bedouin bas spied tbem out, and enclrclea tbem with a ring of hia fleetest couraera. In vain the ostrich seeks to escape. One rider drives hira along to tbe next, tbe circle gradually grows nar rower and narrower, and, finally, tbe exhausted bird sinks upon tbe ground, and receives tbe death-blow witb stoical resignation. But tbe exertion of a long protracted chase is not always necessary to catch the ostrich ; for before tbe rainy season, when tbe heat ia at its higbt, he is frequently found upon the aand with outatretched wings and opon beak, and allows himself to be caught after a short pursuit by a single horse man, or even by a swift-footed Bushman. To surprise the cautioua seal the Nortbern Esquimaux puts on a skin of the animal, and imitating its motions mixes among the unsuspicious herd ; and, in South Afrioa, we find the Bushman resort to a similar stratagem to outwit the oatrieb. He forms a kind of saddle-shaped cushion, and covers it over with feathers, so as to resemble tbe bird. Tbe bead and nook of an ostrich are stuffed, and a small rod introduced. Pre paring for the ohase, be whitens bis black lega with any substance he can procure, places the saddle on bia shoulders, takes tbe bottom part of the neck in his right hand, and his bow and poisoned arrows in bis left. Under this mask he miralos the ostrich to perfection, picks away at tbe verdure, turns his head as if keeping a sharp look-out, shakes bis feathers, now walks, and then trots, till bo gets within bow-shot, and when the flock runs, from one receiving an arrow, be runa too. Sometimes, however, it happena that some wary old bird auapects tbe cheat, and endeavors to get near the intruder, who then tries to get out of the way, and to prevent the bird from catching hia scent, which would at once break tbe spell. Sbould one of tbe birds happen to get too near in pursuit, bo bas only to run to windward, or throw off his saddle, to avoid a stroke from a wing whicb would lay bira prostrate. The Bushman frequently has recourse to a much simpler plan. Having discovered the nest of an ostrich, he removes the eggs as the first fruits of conquest, and then, concealing hiraself in tbe erapty cavity, patiently waits for tbe return of tbe bird, which he generally dispatches with one of those poisoned arrows which make incred ible havoc among tbe wild herds of tbe bush or tbe savannah. According to Dr. Liv ingstone, tbe venom most generally employed is the milky juice of the tree-euphorbia, whioh is particularly hurtful to tbe equine race. Wben it is mixed with tbo water of a pond, a whole herd of zebras will fall dead frora the effects of tbe poison before they bave raoved away two miles ; while on oxen and men it acts as a drastic purga tive only. This substance is used all over tbe country, though in some places the venom of serpents and a certain bulb, Amaryllis toxicaria, are added, in order to increase tbe virulence. A slender reed only slightly barbed with bone or iron, but irabued witb this poison, Is sufflcient to destroy tbe most powerful animal. Thus we find tbe African savage subdues the beasts of the field by similar means to those whioh are used by the wild nations on the banks of the Orinoco or tbe Amazon. The ostrich generally passses for a very stupid animal, yet to protect its young it HABITS OF THE OSTRICH. 665 baa recourse to various cunning stratagems. Thua Anderason and Galton, while trav ersing a barren plain, once bit upon a male and female ostrich, with a brood of young onea about tbe aize of ordinary barn-door fowls. This was a sight tbey had long been looking for, having been requested by Professor Owen to procure a few cranluras of the young ostrich, in order to settle certain anatomical questions ; so forthwith dis mounting from their oxen, tbey gave chase, which proved of no ordinary interest. Says Andersson : " Tbe moment tbe parent birds became aware of our intention, they set off 'at full speed, tbe female leading tbe way, the young following in her wake, and the male, though at sorae little distance, bringing up the rear of the family party. It was very touching to observe tbe anxiety tbe old birds evinced for the safety of their progeny. Finding that we were quickly gaining upon thera, tbe male at once slackened bis pace, and diverged somewhat frora his course ; but, seeing that we were not to be diverted from our purpose, be again increased bis speed, and with winga drooping, ao aa almost to touch the ground, be hovered round us, now in wide circles, and then decreasing the circumference till be came almost within pistol-shot, When he abruptly threw hiraself on tbe ground and struggled desperately to regain bis lega, as it appeared, like a bird that had been badly wounded. Having previoualy fired at hira, I really thought be was disabled, and raade quickly towarda hira. But thia was only a ruse on bis part ; for on my nearer approach he slowly rose, and began to run in an opposite direction to that of the female, who by this time was considerably ahead with ber charge. After about an hour's severe chase, we seoured nine of tbe brood ; and though it consisted bf about double that nuraber, we found it neceaaary to be con tented with what we bad bagged." While breeding, tbe ostrich likewise resorts to various artifices to remove intruders frora its rude nest, which is a mere cavity scooped out a few inchea deep in the sand and about a yard in diameter. Thus Thunberg relates that riding past a plaoe wbere a hen-ostrich sat on ber nest, the bird sprang up and pursued bira, in order to draw off hia attention from ber young ones or ber eggs. Every time tbe traveler turned his borse toward her, she retreated ten or twelve paces, but aa aeon as be rode on, pursued him again. Is it not truly wonderful bow parental affection at tbe approach of danger seems to rouse tbe intelUgence of an animal to higher exertions, and to raise it above its usual sphere ! The instinct of tbe ostrich in providing food for its young is no less remarkable, for it is now proved that this bird, far from leaving its eggs, like a cold-blooded reptile, to be vivified by tbe sun, as was formerly supposed, not only batches tbem with the greatest care, but even reserves a certain portion of eggs to provide the young with nourishment when tbey firat burst into life : a wonderful provision, wben we consider bow difficult it would be for tbe brood to find any otber adequate food in its sterile haunts. In Senegal, wbere tbe beat is extrerae, tbe ostrich, it is aaid, sits at night only upon those eggs which are to be rendered fertile, but in extra-tropical Africa, where tbe sun has less power, tbe mother remains constant in her attentions to tbe eggs both day and night. Tbe number of eggs which tbe ostrich usually sits upon is ten ; but the Hottentots, who are very fond of tbem, upon discovering a nest, seize fitting opportunities to remove one or two at a time ; this induces tbe bird to deposit more, and in thia manner she has been known, like the domesfcio hen, to lay between forty and fifty in a season. 666 THE TROPICAL WORLD. But tbe ostrich has other enemies besides the savage or the hungry traveler to fear for its young brood. Thus tbe natives about tbo Orange River assert that, when the birds have left thoir nest in the middle of the day in search of food, a white vulture may be seen soaring in mid air, witb a stone between his talons. Having carefully surveyed tbe ground below bim, he suddenly lets fall the stone, and then follows it in rapid descent. On running to tbe spot you wiU find a nest of probably a score of eggs, some of them broken by the vuUure who used this ingenious device for procuring him self a dainty meal. Alraost as soon as tbe chicks of the ostrich (whicb are about the size of pullets) have escaped from the shell, they are able to walk about and to follow tbe mother, on whom tbey are dependent for a long time. And here again we find a wonderful pro vision of nature in providing the young of tbe ostrich with a color and a covering ad mirably suited to the localities they frequent. Tbe color is a kind of pepper-and-salt, agreeing well witb the sand and gravel of the plains, which they are in the habit of traversing, so that you have the greatest diffloulfcy in discerning the chicks even when crouching under your very eyes. The covering is neither down nor feathers, but a kind of prickly stubble, which no doubt ia an excellent protection against injury from the gravel and the stunted vegetation amongst whicb tbey dweU. The ostrich resemblea in many respects tbe quadrupeds, and particularly tbe camel, so that it may almost be said to fill up tbe chasm whioh separates the mammalia from the birds, and to form a connecting link between tbem. We indeed hesitated in this work whether to place the ostrich among birds or aniraals. Both the ostrich and the dromedary have warty excrescences on the breast upon which they lean wbUst repos ing, an alraost sirailarly forraed foot, tbe same muscular neck ; and wben we consider that tbey both feed upon the raost stunted herbage, and are capable of aupporting thirat for an incredibly long time, being, in fact, both equally well forraed for liring on the arid plaina, it is certainly not to be wondered at that the anolenta gave the ostrich a narae betokening this similitude {Struthiocamelus,) and that the fancy of the Arabs ascribes its original parentage to a bird and to a dromedary. It is difficult to ascertain what the tastes of the ostrich may bo while roaming the desert, but when in captivity no other bird or animal shows lesa nicety in the choice of its food, gobbling down with avidity stones, pieces of wood and iron, spoons, knives, and otber articles of equally light digestion that may be presented to it. Thus it has always been far-famed for tbe wonderful powera of ita atomach, and many amusing an ecdotes are told of its voracity. A batch of these birds having once been brought to a small town for tbe inspection of the curious, a respectable matron, anxious to obtain a sight of the strange creatures, hastily shut up her bouae, and, key in band, hurried to the spot where tbey were kept. Scarcely had she arrived, when one of thera gravely stalked up, as if to thank ber for bor visit, and suddenly bending its long nook, to ber horror, snatched the key out of ber band, and swallowed it in a trice ; so that the in dignant old lady — thua shut out of her own house — vowed that if all tbe beasts of Africa were to pass her door, she would not so much as open it to look at them. "Nothing," says Methuen, speaking of a domesticated ostrich, "disturbed its diges tion — dyspepsia (happy thing) waa undreampt of in its philosophy. One day a Mus covy-duck brought a promising race of ducklings into the world, and with maternal pride conducted thom forth into tbe yard. Up with soleran and measured stride walked the THE OSTRICH— THE EMU— THE CASSOWARY. 667 ostrich, and, wearing tbe most mild and benignant cast of face, awallowed them all, one after the other, like so many oysters, regarding the indignant hissings and bristling plumage of the hapless mother witb stoical indifference." Baron Aucapltaine relates that he every evening used to regale a tame ostrich with a newspaper, which tbe bird completely swallowed, thus literally stuffing itaolf with all tbe knowledge of tbe day. The coatly white plumes of the ostrich, whioh are chiefly obtained frora tbe wings, , form a considerable article of commerce, having been prized in aU ages for tbo ele gance of tbeir long, waving, loose, and flexible barbs. Tbe thinner the quill and the longer and more wavy the plume, tbe more it is prized. From seventy to ninety feathers go to tbe pound ; but a single bird seldom furnishes more than a dozen, as many of tbem are spoilt by trailing or some otber accident. In tbe Tell, or the cultivated coast districts of Algeria, tbo ostrich is often domesti cated, particularly on account of its eggs, which weigh tbree pounds, and are equiva lent to twenty-four of the comraon fowl's eggs. It might be supposed that one of these giant eggs would be too much for the most vigorous appetite, yet Andersson saw two natives despateh five of tbem in tbe course of an afternoon, beaidea a copious al lowance of flour and fat. According to the taste of this Swedish Nimrod, tbey afford an excellent repast ; while Dr. Livingstone tells us they have a strong, disagreeable flavor, which only tbe keen appetite of tbe desert can reconcile one to. But as there is no accounting for tastes, the Romans seemed to have prized it ; and Firmus, one of their pseudo-eraperora, most likely desirous of emulating the gormandizing powers of the bird on which he fed, is said to bave devoured a whole ostrieh at one sitting. Even tbe egg-shell has its value, and is an excellent vessel for holding Uquida of any kind. The Bushmen have hardly any other household utensil. By covering it with a light network it may be carried slung across the saddle. Grass and wood serve aa substitutes for corks. Though not possessing tbe true camel-bird, America has the large Rheas, which from tbeir size and sirailar habits bave been styled tbe ostrichea of tbe New World, though differing in many essential charaoters. One species, tbe Rhea Darwinii, in habits Patagonia, while tho Erau or Nandu (Rhea Americana) is found throughout the whole eastern part of South America, from Buenos Ayrea to the Orinoco, wherever open plaina, pampaa, campos, or savannas, invite it to take up its residence. The nandu is not near so tall as tbe true ostrich, scarcely rising above four feet, and is of a uniform gray color except on the back, whicb baa a brown tint. Tbe back and rump are fiirnisbed witb long feathers, but not of tbe same rich and costly kind as those which adorn the African ostrich. Its feoble wings merely serve to accelerate its flight, serving it as oars or sails, particularly wben running with the wind. It is not easily caught, as it not only runs very fast, bufc in zigzag lines, ao that the horae, rendered giddy by ao many evolutions, at length drops down with its rider. The galeated Cassowary, ( Casuarius galeatus), thus called from its head being sur mounted by a kind of horny helmet, is a native of Java and the adjacent isles. The skin of tbe bead and upper part of the neck is naked, of a deep blue and fiery red tint, with pendant caruncles simUar to those of the turkey-cock. It ia muoh inferior in size to the ostrieh, and its vrings are reduced to so rudimentary a state, consisting merely of five long bristies, without any plumes, that they are eveu unable to assist it in running. AU its feathers are of tbe same kind, being entirely designed for cover- 668 THE TROPICAL WORLD. ing, and resemble at a little distance a coat of coarse or banging hair. It feeds on fruits, eggs of birda, and tender herbage, and is said to be as voracious aa tbe ostrich. Tbe cassowary is a very swift runner ; striking out alternately with one of its robust powerful legs, it projects its body violently forward vrith a bounding motion far sur passing the speed of tbe horse. Tbe Australian Emu {Dromaius Novce Hollandice) is allied to the cassowary, though differing in many external characters. Both the helmet, and tbe long pens or quills observable in the wings of the latter, are here wanting ; its neck and legs are longer, its feathers, for tbe most part gray and brown mixed, are not so filiform, and its beak alao ia differently shaped. In size it more nearly approaches the ostrich, rising to a higbt of seven feet, and from ita great muscular power is able to run so quickly as to distance the swiftest greyhound. Incessant perseoutions have driven it far away from tbe colonized parts of the country ; but it has still a vast range in tbe wilds of tbe interior. It Uvea on fruits, egga, and even small animals, which it swal lows entire. THE CLIMBERS OF THE TROPICAL WORLD. 669 CHAPTER XIII. THE CLIMBERS: BATS, SLOTHS, AND SIMLS;. Bats: Their Wonderful Organization — The Fox-Bat — Eaten by the Malays — Vampire Bats — Their Blood-sucking Propensities — The Horseshoe Bat — The Nycteribia — The Flying Squurel — The Galeopithecus — The Anomalurus. — The Sloth: Pitiful Description given of Him — His beautiful Orgamzation for his peculiar Mode of Life — His rapid Movements in the Trees — His Means of Defense — His Tenacity of Life — The Unau — The Ai — Gigantic Primeval Sloths. — Monkeys: Good Chmbers, but bad Walkers — Imperfectly known to the Ancients — Similitudes and Differences between Man and Apes — The Chim panzee — The Gorilla — Du Chaillu's First Encounter with a Gorilla — The Gorilla and her Young — The Orang-Utan, or Mias — Wallace's Accounts bf Shooting the Orang — Their Tenacity of Life — Size of the Orang — The Orang as a Combatant — The Orang fighting the Crocodile and Python — Habits of the Orang — Wallace's Young Pet Orang — The Gibbons — Monkeys of the Old and New Worlds — The Semnopitheci — The Proboscis Monkey — The Sacred Ape of the Hindus — The Cercopitheci — The Magots — The Cyno- cephaU, or Baboons — The Maimon — The Great Baboon of Senegal — The Derryas — The Loris — Monkeys of the New World — Monkeys Distinguished by their Tails and Teeth — The Wourali Poison — The Indian Blow-Pipe — Mildness of American Monkeys — The Howling Monkeys — The Spider-Monkeys — The Fox-tail Monkeys — The Saimaris — Noc turnal Monkeys — The Domesticated Nocturnals — The Squirrel-Monkey. 'TT7"E are accustomed to consider all animals as embraced in one of three great V V divisions : Beasts, or those that walk upon tbe earth ; Birds, or those that fly In tbe air ; Fishes, those that swim in tbe water. But closer investigation shows us that this division is wholly inaccurate. There are walkers upon earth, as tbe ostrich, which are not beasts; swimmers in the water," as the whale, which are not fishes ; and flyers in the air, like the bat, which are not birds. Then there are others whose home is neither upon the earth, in tbe air, nor in the water. Though some are able to fly a little in the air, others to walk a littie on the ground, tbeir home is upon the branches of trees, their occupation is clirabing. We will, regardless of other pecuUarities, designate them as climbers ; and will in this chapter group together a few species which are notably characteristic of the Tropical World ; comraencing witb those whieh, like the bat, most nearly resemble birds, and ending witb those which, like tbe monkey tribe, most nearly resemble man. When tbe sun has diaappeared below tbe horizon, and nigbt falla on tbe landscape, which a little while ago was bathed in light, then from boUow trees, and creviced rocks, and ruined buildings, a strange and dismal race coraes forth. Silently hovering through tbe glades of tbe woods, or sklraraing along tbe surface of the streams, it catches tbe crepusoular or nocturnal moths, and serves like tbe swallow by day to check the exuberant multipUcation of tbe insect tribes. But while man loves tbe 670 THE TROPICAL WORLD. swallow, and suffers hira to build bis nest under the eaves of his dwelUng, be abhors tbe bat, which like an evU spirit avoids the light of day, and seems to feel happy only in darkness. The painter givea to bia angels the white pinions of the swan, while bis demons are made to bear tbe black wings of the bat. And yet most species of tbe bat are most inoffensive creatures ; whUe a closer inspection of tbeir wonderful organization proves thera to be far more deserving of ad miration tban of repugnance. Can anything be better adapted to ita wanta than the deUcate raembrane, which, extending over the long, sUra fingers, can be spread and folded like an umbrella, so as to form a wing when the animal wishes to fly, and to collapse into a small space when it is at rest ? How shght the bones, how Ught the body, bow beautifully forraed for flight ! Admire also the tiny unwebbed thumb, which serves the bat to hook itself fast while resting, or to cUp oflf tbe winga of the flies or moths, which it never devours witb tbe rest of tbe body. But the exquisite acuteness of tbe senses of smell, feeUng, and hearing in the bat is still more wonder ful than its delicate flying apparatus. Naturalists, more curious tban humane, have blinded bats, and seen, to their aatoniabment, that they continued to fly about, as If still possessed of tbe power of vision. Tbey always knew how to avoid branches sus pended in the room in which tbey were flitting, and eveu flew betwixt threads bung perpendicularly frora tbe celling, though tbese were so near eacb other, that they were obliged to contract tbeir wings in order to pass through them. To explain these wonderful phenomena, Spall anzani and other naturalists of tbe last century beUeved tbe bata to be endowed with a sixth sense ; but Carlyle found that, on closing tbe ears of the blinded creatures, they lose their wonderful power, and hit against the sides of the roora, without being at all aware of tbeir situation. How they are able to distin guish nigbt frora day wben shut up in a dark box, is a fact still unexplained. As long as the sun stands above tbe horizon, tbey will remain perfectly quiet, but as soon as twIUgbt begins to darken the earth, a strange piping and chirping and scratching is beard within the Ughtless dungeon, and scarcely has the lid been raised, when the prisonera rapidly escape. Though the temperate regiona possess many bats, yet tbey are most numerous and various in the woody regions of tbe tropical zone, wbere the vast numbers of the insect tribea and foreat fruita afford tbem a never-failing supply of food. There also they attain a size unknown in our latitudes, so that both from their dimensions and their physiognomy, many of the larger speoies have obtained tbe name of flying-dogs or flying-foxes. On approaching a Javanese village, you will sometimes see a stately tree, frora whose branches hundreds of large black fruits seem to be suspended. A strong smeU of ammonia and a piping noise soon, however, convince you of your mistake, and a closer inspection proves thera to be a large troop of Kalongs or Fox-bats {Pteropus) attached bead downwards to the tree, where tbey rest or sleep during the day time, and whicb thoy generally quit at sunset, though sorae of them differ so much from the usual habits of the family as to fly about in the broad light of day. It is said that it must have boon a very hungry man who firat ate au oyster ; and we are not told that the omnivorous Chinese bave yet got as far as to include bats among then edibles ; but Mr. WaUace * assures us that the natives of Batcbian, one * Malay Archipelago, 341. FLYING-FOXES— BATS— VAMPIRES. 671 of the Malay islands, " consider tbe great ugly flying-foxes an especial delicacy. At about tbe beginning of the year tbey come in largo flocks to eat fruit, and congregate during the day on some small islands in the bay, banging by thousands on tbe trees, especially on dead ones. Tbey can then be easily caught or knocked down with sticks, and are brought bome by basketfuls. Tbey require to be carefully prepared, as tbe skin and fur bas a powerful foxy odor ; but they are generally cooked with abundance of spices and condiments, and are really very good eating, something like hare." The phyUostomldse, a speoies of bat distinguished by having the orifices of the nos tril placed in a kind of membranous scutcheon, surmounted by a leaf-like expansion, like the bead of a lance, and supposed to extend in an extraordinary degree tbe senae of smelling, are exclusively confined to the western continent. Tbese pbyllostomldae are remarkable for their blood-sucking propensities, and under tbe name of Vampires have brought the whole race of the large tropical bats into evil repute. Prince MaximUiau of Neu Wied often saw by moonshine, or in the twUight, the Guandiru {Phyllostoma hastatum), a bat five inches long, and measuring twenty-three inches witb outstretched wings, hover about hia horses and mules while grazing after their day's journey. Tbe animals did not seem incommoded by its presence, but on the following morning, be generally found them covered with blood from tbe shoulders to the hoofs. Tbe muscular under-lip of tbe phyllostoma can be completely folded together in tbe shape of a sucking-tube, whicb, after tbe sharp canine teeth have pen etrated tbe skin, continues to pump forth the blood. Even man himaelf is liable to the attacks of the larger phyllostoraidae. " Some years ago," saya Mr. Waterton, " I was in Demarara witb a Scotch gentle man, by name Tarbet. We bung our hammocka in tbe thatched loft of a planter's house. Next morning I heard this gentleman muttering in his hammock, and now and then letting fall an imprecation or two, just about the time he ought to have been saying his morning prayers. ' What is the matter, Sir ? ' said I, softly : ' is anything amiss ? ' ' What's the matter ? ' answered he surlily ; ' why, the varapires have been sucking me to death.' As soon as there was light enough, I went to his hammock, and saw it mupb stained with blood. ' There,' said he, thrusting bis foot out of the hammock, ' see how tbese infernal imps bave been drawing my Ufe's blood.' On exara ining his foot, I found the varapire had tapped his great toe : there waa a wound somewhat less than that made by a leech ; tbe blood was stUl oozing from it. I con jectured he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of blood. WhUst examining it, I think I put bim into a worse humor by remarking that an European surgeon would not have been so generous as to have blooded bim without making a charge. He looked up in my face, but did not say a word ; I saw he was of opinion that I had better have spared this piece of Ul-timed levity." Captain Stedman, while in Surinam, was attacked in a simUar way. " On waking," he says, " about four o'clock one morning in my hararaock, I was extremely alarraed at finding myself weltering in congealed blood, yet without feeling any pain whatever. Haring started up, I ran for tbe surgeon, with a fire-brand in one band, and all over be smeared with gore. The mystery, however, was soon solved, for I then found I had been bitten by tbe vampire or spectre of Guiana." Otber instances of the same kind are mentioned by Tschudi, Schomburgk, Azara (who was phlebotomized no less than four times by the vampire,) and other naturalists of equal repute, so that there is no 672 THE TROPICAL WORLD. reaaon to doubt tbe fact. Tbe general food of the phyllostoraidae consists, however, in vespertine and nocturnal moths, and Waterton is of opinion that they also partake of vegetable food. Tbe Vampire {Phyllostoma spectrum,) in general, measures about twenty-six inchea from wing to wing extended, so that his dimensions are not equal to those of tbe oriental kalong. Like tbe flying foxes, he raay soraetiraes be seen in the forest banging In clusters, bead downwards, frora the branch of a tree. Sorae of the phyllostoraidae have a tongue once as long again as tbe bead, and armed at tbe extrem ity witb recurved bristles, like that of the wood-pecker, no doubt a very serviceable instrument for extracting insects from tbe narrow hollows and crevices of trees and rocks. The Rblnolopbi or Horse-shoe Bats of the old continent, bave alao a more or less complicated nasal appendage, or foliaceous merabrane at tbe end of tbe nose, but dif fering in its conformation, from that of the phyllostoraidae. Tbey are inaectivoroua, like moat of tbeir order, and none of tbem seem to indulge in tbe blood-aucking propen sities of the large American vampires. They chiefly inhabit the tropical regions of Afrioa and Asia, and more particularly the Indian archipelago, but tbe Bhinobphus unihastatus ranges in Europe as far as England. Numerous genera and species of tropical bats, diatinguished from each otber by the formation of their teeth, lips, noatrlls, beads, wings, and tails, have already been classified by naturaliata ; but many, no doubt, still live unknown in their gloomy retreats, for who Is able to follow thera into the obscure nooks of the foreat, or in intri cate caverns, and accurately to observe them during their nocturnal rambles ? It may give an idea of their vast numbers throughout tbe torrid zone, wben we bear that in Ceylon alone about sixteen species have been identified, and of tbese two varieties are peculiar to tbe island. Unlike the sombre bats of tbe northern climates, tbe colors of some of tbem are as brilliant as the pluraage of a bird, bright yellow, deep orange, or of a rich ferruginous brown, tbus contradicting tbe general belief which attires noc turnal aniraals in vestures as dark as their pursuits. The torrid zone, which produces tbe largest bats, also gives birth to tbe tiniest repre sentatives of tbe order, such as tbe minute Singhalese variety, (Scotophilus Coroman- delicus,) which is not much larger tban tbe humble-bee, and of a gloaay black color. "It is so familiar and gentle," says Sir J. B. Tennent, "that it wiU alight on the cloth during dinner, and manifests so little alarm that it seldom makea any effort to escape before a wine-glass can be inverted to secure it." The fur of this pretty littie creature, like that of many otber bats, is frequently found infested with a raost slngulaj- inaeet. Unlike most parasitea, which are either extremely aluggish in tbeir movements, or even condemned to utter immobility, the velocity of the Nycteribia is truly mar vellous ; and, aa its joints are so flexible as to yield in every direction, it tumbles through tbe fur of tbe bat, rotating like a wheel on the extremities of its spokes, or like tbe clown in a pantorairae, hurling hiraself forward on bands and feet alternately. To assist its raountebank movements, eaoh foot is armed with two sharp hooks, with elastic pads opposed to them, so that the hair can not only be rapidly seized and firmly clasped, but as quickly disengaged as tbe creature whirls away In its headlong career. But tbe strangest peculiarity of the Nycteribia is tbe faculty which it possesses of throwing back or inverting its head so completely, that the under side becoming upper most, tbe mouth, tbe eyes, and the antennae are completely hid between its shoulders, FLYING ANIMALS— THE SLOTH. 673 and then again projecting it forward by a sudden jerk of its long, flexible neck, By means of this wonderful organization, tbe nimble parasite feels completely at bome in the furry coat which has been assigned to it as a pasture ground, and whisks along as easUy through tbe hairy thicket as tbe monkey through the bush-ropes of tbe forest. Though incapable of a prolonged flight Uke the bats, several other tropical quadrupeds have been provided with extensions of the skin, which give tbem the power of supporting tbemselves for some time in the air, and of making prodigious leaps. Tbus, by means of an expansile furry membrane reaching from the fore-feet to tbe bind, tbe Flying Squirrels {Pteromys) bound, or rather swiftly sail, to tbe distance of twenty fathoms or more, and thus pasa from one tree to another, alwaya directing their flight ob liquely downwarda. Tbey very rarely descend to tbe ground, and wben taken or placed on it, run or spring somewhat awkwardly witb their tail elevated, beginning to climb with great activity aa aoon as they reach a tree. Tbe Galeopitheci are in like manner enabled to take long aweeping leaps from tree to tree, by means of an extension of their skin between tbe anterior and posterior limbs on eacb side, and between the posterior limbs, including also tbe tail. Tbese extraordinary animals are natives of the islands of the Indian arobipelago. Tbey in habit lofty treea in dark wooda, to which they cling witb all four extremities. During the day time, tbey auspend themselves like bata from the branches, witb tbeir heads downwards, but at night they rouse themselves and raake an active search for food, which consists of fruits, inaecta, eggs, and birds. Tbey are inoffensive, but on at tempting to seize tbem, tbey inflict a sharp scratch witb their trenchant nails. The Anomaluri of tbe west coast of Africa, which bave only been known to tbe world since 1842, and possess a most reraarkable tail, covered on the lower surface of Its base with imbricated horny scales, resemble tbe galeopitheci by the wing-like ex pansion of tbeir skin, and no doubt tbe investigations of travelers will bring to light other animals endowed with simUar parachutes. "The piteous aapect, tbe sorrowful gestures, tbe lamentable cry of tbe Sloth all combine to excite commiseration. WbUe other animals assemble in herds, or roam in pairs through the boundless forest," so writes an eminent naturalist, " the sloth leads a lonely life in those immeasurable solitudes, where the slowness of bia movements exposes him to every attack. Harmlesa and frugal, like a pious anchorite, a -few coarse leaves are all he aaks for bis support. On comparing bira with otber animals, you would say that bis deformed organization was a strange mixture of deficiency and superabundance. He bas no cutting teeth, and though possessed of four stomachs' he stiU wants the long intestines of ruminating animals. His feet are without soles' nor can be move bis toes separately. His hair Is coarse and wiry, and its dull color reminds one of grass withered by tbe blaata of aurly winter. His legs appear de formed by tbe manner in which they are attached to tbe body, and bis claws seem disproportionately long. Surely a creature so wretched and ill-formed stands last on the list of aU the four-footed animals, and may justly accuse Nature of step-motherly neglect!" Wben seeing a captured sloth painfiilly creeping along on even ground, sighing and moaning, and scarcely advancing a few steps after hours of awkward toil, tbe observer might well be disposed to acquiesce in tbe foregoing remarks, and to fancy he had 43 674 THE TROPICAL WORLD. discovered a flaw among the general beauty of tbe Creator's works ; but let him view tbe animal in the situation for which it was ordained, and be wUl soon retract his hasty judgment, and discover it to be no less perfect in its kind, and no less adrairably fitted for its sphere of existence, than the raost highly organized of the mammalian tribes. For the sloth, in bis wUd state, spends his whole life in the trees, and never once touches tbe earth but through force or by accident. Like the monkey, be has been formed for an exclusively sylvan life, high above the ground, in tbe green canopy of the woods ; but while tbe nimble siralae constantly live upon the branches, tbe sloth Is dooraed to spend bis whole life under tbem. He moves, be rests, be sleepa auspended from tbe boughs of trees, a wonderfully strange way of life, for which no other four-footed animal of tbe Old or the New World has been deatined. And now examine bis organization with reference to thia peculiar mode of exist ence, and all bis seeming defioiencles and deformities will appear moat admirably adapted to his wants, for those strong, muscular, preposterously long fore-feet, while the binder extreraities are coraparatively short and weak, these slender toes armed witb enorraous claws, are evidently as well auited for clasping the rugged branch as the enormous hind legs of tbe kangaroo for bounding over the arid plain. Indeed, in every case, we sball find the fundamental type or idea of tbe four extremities belong ing to tbe vertebrated animals most admirably modified according to tbeir wants : here shortened, there prolonged ; bere armed witb claws, there terminating In a hoof; here coalescing to a tail, there assuming the shape of a fin ; here clothed with feathers to cleave the air, there raised to the perfection of the human hand, the wonderful instru ment of a still more wonderful intelligence ; and who, seeing all this, can possibly believe that the world ia ruled by chance, and not by an all-pervading and almighty power ? Thua tbe sloth, so helpless when removed from his native haunts, is far from exhibiting tbe same torpidity in his movements when seen in the place for which Na ture fitted him. " One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo," says Mr. Waterton, " I saw a large sloth on tbe ground upon tbe bank ; how he bad got there nobody could tell ; the Indian said be bad never surprised a sloth in such a situation before : he would hardly bave come there to drink, for both above and below tbe place tbe branches of the treea touched the water, and afforded him an easy and safe access to it. Be this aa it may, though the trees were not above twenty yards from bim, he could not . make his way through the sand tirae enough to escape before we landed. As soon as we came up to him, he threw hiraself upon his back, and defended himself in gallant style with hia fore-legs. ' Come, poor fellow ! ' said I to him, ' if thou hast got into a hobble to-day, thou shalt not suffer for it ; I'll take no advantage of thee in misfortune ; the forest is large enough both for thee and rae to rove in. Go thy ways up above, and enjoy thyself in these endless wilds ; it is more tban probable thou wilt never have another interview witb man. So fare thee well.' On saying this I took up a long stick which was lying there, held it for bim to hook on, and then conveyed him to a high and stately mora. He ascended with wonderful rapidity, and in about a minute be was almost at tbe top of the tree. He now went off in a side direction, and caught hold of the branch of a neighboring tree ; be then proceeded towards tbe heart of the forest. I stood looking on, lost in amazement at bis singular mode of progress. I followed bim with my eye till the intervening branches closed in betwixt us, and then HABITS OF THE SLOTH— MEGATHERIUMS— MYLODONS. 675 lost sight forever of tbe sloth. I waa going to add that I never saw a sloth take to his heels in such earnest, but tbe expression will not do, for the sloth bas no heels." The Indians, to whora no one wUl deny tbe credit of being acute obaervers of aniraal life, say that tbe aloth wanders principally wben the wind blows. In oalm weather be remains still, probably not liking to cling to tbe brittle extremity of the branches, lest tbey should break under his weight in passing frora one tree to another ; but as soon as the breeze rises, the branches of tbe neighboring trees becorae interwoven, and then he seizes hold of thera and pursues his journey in safety. There ia seldora an entire day of calm in tbe forests of Guiana. The trade-wind generally sets in about ten o'clock in the morning, and since tbe sloth, as we bave just seen, is able to travel at a good round pace wben he has branches to cling to, there ia nothing to prevent him making a conaiderable way before tho sun sinks and tbe wind goes down. During night, and while reposing in tbe day-time, tbe sloth constantly remains suspended by his feet, for his anatomy is such that be can feel comfortable iu no other position. In this manner he wiU rest for hours together, expressing his satisfaction by a kind of purring, and from tirae to tirae bis dismal voice may be heard resounding through tbe forest, and awakening at a distance a similar melancholy cry. The color of tbe sloth's hair so strongly resembles the bue of the moss which grows on tbe trees, that tbe European finds it very difficult to make bira out wben he Is at rest, and even the falcon-eyed Indian, accustoraed frora his earliest infancy to note the slightest signs of forest life, is hardly able to distinguish bira frora tbe branches to which be clings. This no doubt serves hira as a protection against the attacks of many enemies ; but, far from being helpless, bis powerful claws and tbe peculiarly enduring strength of his long arms, make very efficient weapons of defence against the large tree- snakes that may be tempted to make a meal of bim. The sloth possesses a remarkable tenacity of life, and withstands the dreadful effects of the wourali poison of the Macushi Indians longer than any other aniraal. Schom burgk slightly scratched a sloth in tbe upper lip, and rubbed a minimum of tbe venom in the wound, whicb did not even emit a drop of blood ; he then carried the aniraal to a tree, which it began to clirab, but after having reached a hight of about twelve feet, it suddenly stopped, and swinging its head about from side to side, as if uncertain which way to go, tried to continue its ascent, which, however, it was unable to accom plish. First it let go one of its fore-feet, then tbe otber, and remained attached with its bind legs to tbe tree until, these also losing their power, it fell to tbe ground, where, without any of the convulsive motions or tbo oppressive breathing whicb gener ally mark tbe effect of the wourali, it expired in the thirteenth minute after tbe poison had been administered. The sloths attain a length of about two feet and a half, and form two genera — the Unaus, with two-toed fore-feet, and three-toed binder extreraities, and tbe Ais, with tbree toes on eacb foot. The former bave forty-eight ribs, the latter only thirty-two. Their way of living is the same, and their range is limited to tbe forests of Guiana and the BrazUs. They bring forth and suckle tbeir young like ordinary quadrupeda, and the young sloth, from tbe moraent of its birth, adheres to the body of its parent tUl it aequues sufficient size and strength to shift for itself. Slotb-like aniraals of colossal diraensions — Megatheriuras, Mylodons— extinct long before man appeared upon the soone, inhabited tbe foresta of South America during 676 THE TROPICAL WORLD. tbe tertiary ages of tbe world. Frora tbe dentition of tbe raylodon, it may be con cluded that, like the sloth of tbe present day, this monstrous aniraal fed on tbe leaves or slender terrainal twigs of trees ; but wbUe the former, frora tbe comparatively light weight of his body, ia enabled to run along the under side of tbe boughs tUl be bas reached a commodious feeding-place, the elephantine bulk of tbe mylodon evidently rendered all climbing utterly impossible. First scratching away the soil from tbe roots of tbe tree on whose foUage he intended to feast, be next graaped it with bis long fore legs, and rooking it to and fro, to right and left, soon brought it to the ground, for " extraordinary must bave been the strength and proportions of that tree," saya Profeaaor Owen, "which in such an embrace could long withstand the efforts of its ponderous assailant" In tbe midst of tropical vegetation, tbe Simiae, or Monkey and Ape tribes, lead a free forest life, for which tbey might well be envied. The green canopy of tbe woods protects them at every season of tbe year from tbe burning rays of a vertical sun, flowers of tbe most delicious fragrance embalm the air tbey breathe, and an endless supply of fruits and nuts never allowa tbem to know want, for sbould tbe atores near at hand be exhausted, an easy migration to some other district soon reatorea tbem to abundance. Witb an agility far surpassing that witb which the sailor ascends the rigging, and climbs even to tbe giddy top of tbe highest mast, tbey leap from bush- rope to bush-rope, and from bough to bough, mocking tbe tiger-eat and tbe boa, whicb are unable to follow them in their rapid evolutions. Formed to live on trees, and not upon tbe ground, tbey are aa excellent climbers as they are bad pedestrians. Both tbeir fore and bind feet are shaped as bands, generally witb four fingers and a thumb, so that they can seize or grasp a bough -with all alike. Buffon erroneously remarks of the chimpanzee, that be always walks erect, even wben carrying a weight ; but this ape, as well as the other anthropomorphous simiae. proves by tbe slowness and awkwardness of hia movements, wben by chance be walks upon even ground, that this position is by no means natural to bim, or congenial to bis organization. Man alone, of all creatures, posseaaea an upright walk ; the ape, on the contrary, always stoops, and not to lose his equilibrium when walking, is obliged to place his bands upon the back of bia bead, or on bia loina. Thua, in bia native wilds, he rarely baa recourae to thia inconvenient mode of progression, and when forced by some chance or otber to quit the trees, he leans while walking upon tbe finger-knuckles of his anterior extremities, a position which in fact very much reserables walking on all-fours. It is, indeed, only necessary to compare tbe long, robust, and muscular arms of tbe chimpanzee witb bis weaker and shorter hind-feet, to be at once convinced that be was never intended for walking. But see witb what rapidity, witb what power and graoe be moves from branch to branch, his hind-legs serving him only as holdfasts, wbUe his chief strength is in his arms. The tree is, without all doubt, for him what the earth is for us, tbe air for tbe bird, or tbe water for the fish. We cannot wonder at tbe ancients having known but few species of the simise, as these animals chiefly belong to tbe torrid zone, with which tbe Greeks and Romans were so imperfectly acquainted. It is only since a wide extent of tbe tropical regions bas been opened by trade or conquest to European research, that raany of tbe mys teries of monkey-existence bave been brought to light from tbe darkness of tbe pri- MONKEYS— DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND MEN. 677 meval forest, and particularly within the last twenty years, naturalists and travelers bave devoted so much attention to this interesting faraily, that while in the year 1840 only 128 species were known, their numbers had increased in 1852 to no less than 310, a stately list, to which, since then, many more bave been added, and which even now is far from being closed. Tbe simiae of tbe Old World are all distinguished by tbe common character of a narrow septum or partition of the nose like that of man, and by the same number of teeth, each jaw being provided with ten grinders, two canine teeth, and four incisors, as in the huraan raoe. The large apes, or tailless monkeys, resemble us besides in many otber respects, as well in tbeir external appearance as in their anatomical structure ; and form, as it were, tbe caricature of man, both by their gestures and by glimpses of a higher intel ligence. Creatures so remarkably endowed have naturaUy at all tiraes attracted a great share of attention, for if even the lowest links in the chain of animated beings lay claira to our Interest, how muoh more must this not be the case witb beinga whose faculties seem almost to raise tbem to tbe rank of our relations. Tbe question how far this almUarity extends has naturally given rise to many acute investigations and been differ ently answered, according as naturalists were more, or lesa incUned to depreaa man to the level of the ape, or to widen the gulf between tbem. Tbe former, pointing to tbe brutality of the loweat savagea, would vriUingly make ua beUeve that we are nothing but an improved edition of tbe Uran, wbUe tbe latter complacently cite in favor of their opinion, tbe incommenaurable distance which exists between even tbe most de graded specimens of humanity and tbe most perfect quadrumana. Man alone is capable of continually progressive improvement ; in him alone each generation inherits the ac quirements of ita fathers and transmits the growing treasure to its sons, while tbe ape, like all other aniraals, constantly reraains at the same point. The lowest savage knows how to make fire ; the ape, though he may bave seen tbe operation performed a tbou sand times, and have enjoyed the genial warmth of the glowing embers, wUl never learn the simple art. His hairy skin is a sufficient proof of bis low intellect, an infallible sign that, as he never would be able to provide himself with an artificial clothing. Nature waa obliged to protect bim against tbe inclemencies of the cold nights and the pouring rain. As man advancea in age, his mind acquirea a greater depth and a wider range. In the ape, on the contrary, signs of a Uveller inteUigence are only exhibited during youth, and as tbe animal waxes in years, ita physiognomy ac quires a more brutal expression ; its forehead recedes, ita jawa project, and instead of expanding to a higher perfection, ita mental facultiea are evidently clouded by a pre mature decUne. Both in Africa and Asia, we find large anthropomorphous apes, but while tbe chim panzee and tbe gorilla exclusively belong to the African wilds, the orang and the gib bons are confined to the torrid regions of South Asia. The Chimpanzee (Simia troglodytes) attains a bight of about five feet, but seems much smaller from bia stooping attitude. He inhabits the dense foresta on the west ooast of Africa, particularly near the river Gaboon, and as bia travels are facilitated by his fatherland not being too far distant from Europe, there is hardly a Zoological Garden of any note that does not exhibit a chimpanzee among its lions. One of the 678 THE TROPICAL WORLD. finest specimens ever seen was kept a few years since in tbe Jardin des Plantes in Paris, wbere tbe mild climate, agreeable diet (he drank his pint of Bordeaux daUy), and lively society of the Frenoh maintained him in wonderful healtb and spirits. Tbe body of ihe chimpanzee is covered with long hau- on the head, shoulders, and ¦ back, but much thinner on tbe breast and belly. The arms and legs are not so dis proportionate as thoae of the orang, tbe fore-fingera not quite touching the kneea when tbe animal standa upright. The upper part of tbe bead is very flat, witb a retiring forehead, and a prominent bony ridge over tbe eye-brows, the mouth ia wide, the ears large, tbe noae flat, and tbe face of a blackish-brown color. From this short notice it wUl be aeon at onee that while the Chimpanzee baa not the least claira to beauty, be is yet far frora equaUing the hideous deformity of the Gorilla, whom M. Du CbaUlu, tbe first white man who ever saw the creature aUve, bas so prominently introduced to public notice. This savage animal, which is covered with black hair like tbe chimpanzee, and resembles it in the proportion of its body and limbs, though its form is much more robust, unites a most ferocious and undaunted temper with an herculean bodily strength, and is said to hold undisputed dominion of tbe bill-foresta in tbe interior of Lower Guinea, forcing even tbe panther to ignominious flight. To kiU a goriUa is considered by tbe negroes as a raost courageous exploit ; and Dr. Savage, an American missionary on the coast of Guinea, who. In a memoir published at Boston in tbe year 1847, was tbe first to point out tbe generic differences between this formidable ape and tbe obimpanzee, tells ua that a alave having shot a male and female gorilla, whose skeletons afterwards came into bia possession, was iraraediately set at liberty and proclairaed tbe prince of hunters. Du ChaUlu's description* of his first encounter witb an adult gorilla, which entirely agrees witb the accounts given to Dr. Savage by the nativea of the mode of attack of thia monstrous creature, shows that this distinction was by no means unmerited, and that it requires all the coolness and determination of an accomplished sportsman to face an animal of sucb appalling ferocity and power. " The underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an iraraense male gorilla. He had gone through tbe jungle on his all-fours, but wben he saw our party he erected himself, and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and waa a sight I think I sball never forget. Nearly six feefc high (he proved four inches shorter,) witb immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely glaring, large, deep-gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision ; thus stood before us the king of the African forest. He was not afraid of ua. He stood there and beat bis breast witb hia huge fiata, till it resounded like an iraraense basa-drum, which ia their mode of offering defiance, meantime giving vent to roar after roar. The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in tbese African woods. It begins witb a sharp bark like an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll which literally and closely resemblea tbe roll of distant thunder along tbe sky, for which I have been sometimes tempted to take it when I did not see the animal. So deep is it that it seeras to proceed less from tbe mouth and throat tban from the deep chest and vast paunch. His eye began to flash deeper fire as we stood motionless on tbe defensive, and the crest of abort hair which atands on his forehead began to twitch rapidly up and * Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, 98. THE GORILLA. 679 down, whUe bis powerful fangs were shown as be again sent forth a thunderous roar. And now truly he reminded me of nothing but some hellish dream-creature ; a being of that hideous order, half-man, half-beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the infernal regions; He advanced a few steps, then stopped to utter that hideous roar again, advanced again, and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. And here, just as he began another of hia roars, beating hia breaat in rage, we fired and killed bira. With a groan whioh had soraething terribly human in ifc, and yet was full of brutishness, he fell forward on his face. The body shook convulsively for a few minutea, the limba moved about In a struggling way, and then all waa quiet — death had done its work, and I bad leisure to examine tbe huge body. It proved to be five feet eight inches high, and tbe muscular development of the arms and breast showed what iramense strength be bad possessed." Du Chaillu's account of tbe gorilla was at first received witb incredulity by some prominent British naturalists ; tbey could not believe that it was left for a young American to bring to light a creature so far exceeding in aize and ferocity anything of the kind before known. But fortunately he had brought bome with him a nuraber of skeletons, skulls, and stuffed skins of the creatures ; and among thera, as it hap pened, was tbe skin of the very one whose death is desoribed above. This skin measured about five feet eight inches as it stood stuffed. Had tbe lower Umbs of the animal been aa long in proportion to its hight as those of a raan, the whole bight would have considerably exceeded six feet ; while the muscular developmenta were enormoua. If one will imagine a boxing-glove furnished with huge fingera and claws, he will get a fair idea of the paw. This collection after having been inspected by thousands in America, was shipped to London, and the impugners of Du Chaillu came to signal grief. Many of these specimens were purchased for the British Mu seum, where tbey now are. Du Chaillu, in another work,* gives some account of tbe gorilla at home, and In tbe bosom of his family : " Now and then I could see tbe foot- prints of gorUlas that had wandered, like myself, through the woods, but tbese foot-prints were several days old. I came to a place where pine-apple plants were abundant, and where tbe gorillas had evidently feasted on tbe leaves, for thousands of them bad been plucked out, and only tbe white part eaten. Here and there a young pine-apple bad been partially eaten away, one or two bites taken, and the fruit then thrown aside. I had to be very careful in walking, for fear of making a noise, for the foreat not being dense, gorillas could have seen me at a long distance. After awhile I came to a place wbere a large male gorUla bad been. Tbe foot-prints were of enormous size, and he must have been a monstrous fel low. I could see by the foot-prints of the monster that he had been on all-fours, and suddenly bad raised himself to an erect posture; while tbe bending of a branch about eight or nine feet high, just above tbe marka, showed that tbe animal had supported himself by it. I left the place, and continued my ramble ; when in the far distance I spied a gorilla. It was a feraale, and she did not see me. I hid myself behind a tree, and -patched 11 her movements unseen. She was seated on tbe ground before a cluster of pine-apples, quietly eating one. She soon throw it away, and plucked some of the leaves. She grinned now and then, probably from the pleasure tbe food gave ber ; when suddenly, to my utter astonishment, a littie gorilla, about two and a * Wild Life under the Equator, 78. 680 THE TROPICAL WORLD. half feet in bight, came running to ita mother, who gave a kind of chuckle that very much reserabled tbe ' click ' of the Buabmen of Southern Africa. I began to be terribly excited. I must kUl the mother, and try to capture tbe young one. Unfortu nately there were many intervening trees, and she was about a hundred yards off. How could tbe bullet from my rifle reach ber ? I had just left my place of concealment, when she perceived me. She uttered a piercing cry, and disappeared, with her young one following bor." FEMALE GORILLA AND TOCNG. Du Chaillu, iu his varioua expeditions, which occupied in all twelve yeara, brought away thirty-one gorilla skins and skeletons, captured more than a dozen young ones, and altogether saw more than three hundred of tbe animals. We give from bis book last cited one more picture of the domestic life of tbe gorUla : " Tbe bog was like one of the worst kind we have in America in tbe overflowed and woody land of tbe Western country ; only here were creepers, thorny bushes, hanging lianas, and grass that cuts like a razor. We entered the swamp, and came to a dry spot, when we spied a female gorilla and ber young baby. The baby was very sraall, and a very dear little baby it was to its mother, for she appeared to look at it with great fondness. I was spell-bound, and could not raige my gun to fire ; there was soraething too huraan in that raother and ber offspring. It bung by ber breast ; but unlike our babies, who have to be entirely supported, its littie hands clutched its mother's shoulder and helped to support itself. The little fellow gave a shrill and plaintive cry, and crawled from its mother's arras to ber breast to be fed ; and tbe mother lowered ber bead and looked at her child, while with its little fingers it pressed her breast so that the milk should coine more freely. On a sudden the mother gave a tremendous cry, and before I knew it she bad disappeared in tbe forest." As tbe gorilla is wholly confined to a belt in equatorial Africa, so tbe great Orang outang (Simia satyrus) or Mias, as it is called by the natives, ia only found in Borneo THE ORANG-OUTANG, OR MIAS. 681 and Sumatra. To Mr. Wallace we are indebted for by far tbe most reliable account of this great ape, which untU Du CbalUu's discovery of tbe gorilla was supposed to be the largest of the speoies. We give, much abridged, portions of hia account : "I was out collecting insects, not more than a quarter of a mile from the bouse, when I heard a rustUng in a tree near, and looking up saw a large red-haired aniraal moving slowly along, hanging from tbe branches by ita arma. It passed on from tree to tree tUl it was lost in tbe jungle. About a fortnight afterward I beard that one was feeding in a tree in the swamp, and taking my gun I waa fortunate enough to find It. Aa soon as I approached, it tried to conceal itself among tbe foliage ; but I got a shot at it, and tbe second barrel caused it to fall down almost dead, the two balls having entered the body. Thia was a male, about half-grown, being scarcely three FEMALE ORANG-OUTANG. feet high. Soon after I shot another about tbe aame aize. I gave it two shots, one of whicb lodged in the body, the other broke its arm. Two Dyaks ran up to it, and eacb seized bold of a hand. But although one arm was broken, and it was only half- grown, it waa too atrong for them, drawing thera up towards its mouth notwithstanding all their efforts so that they were obliged to let go. It now began climbing the tree, and I shot it through the heart. A week after, I fired at one on a high >tree. On seeing me it began bowling in a strange voice like a cough, and seemed in a great rage, breaking off branches with its banda, and throwing thera down, and then made off over tbe tree-topa. A week after I found another, which behaved in a siraUar manner. I shot at it five times, and it reraained dead on the top of the tree, sup ported in a fork, whence it was brought down by some Dyaks *ho climbed up for it. Thia was the first fuU-grown specimen I had obtained ; but it was a female, and not nearly so large or remarkable aa the full-grown malea. It was, however, three feet aix inches high, and ita arms stretched out to a width of six feet six inches. I preaerved the skin of this animal, from which tbe above picture, from a photograph, waa taken. "Ten days after, I succeeded in shooting a full grown male. My assistant told 682 THE TROPICAL WORLD. me that a great mias was feeding in tbe woods. Accorapanied by two Dyaks, we hurried to tbe place. I beard a sUght rustiing sound overhead, but could see nothing. Then I again beard the rustUng, but louder, and perceived a great red hairy body and a huge black face gazing down from a great hight, as if wanting to know what was making siicb a disturbance below. I fired, and be made off, so that I could not then teU whether I had hit him. We foUowed and I got four more shots at him, but be was always more or lesa protected by a huge branch on which he was walking. Once, while loading, I bad a splendid view of him, raoving along tbe limb in a semi-erect posture, and showing bim to be an animal of tbe largest size. At length be got to one of tbe loftieat trees of the forest, and we could see one log hanging down useless, having been broken by a ball. He now fixed himselfin a fork, and seemed disinclined to move. I therefore fired again, wben be moved off, and was obUged to get on some lower trees, on tbe branches of one of which be fixed himself in such a position that be could not fall, and lay all in a heap, as if dead or dying. I sent for axes, and the tree was soon cut through ; but it was so held up by jungle-ropes and climbers to tbe adjoining treea that it only fell in a sloping position. The mias did not move, and I began to fear that after all we sbould not get bira, as it was near evening, and half a dozen more trees would bave to be cut down before the one he was on would fall. As a last resource, we all began pulling at the creepers, which shook the tree very much, and be carae down witb a crash and a thud like the faU of a giant. And a giant he was, his head and body being full as large as a man's. His bight, measuring fairly from the top of tbe head to tbe heel, was four feet two inches. Tbe body just below tbe arms was three feet two inches round, and was quije as long as a man's, the legs being exoeedingly long in proportion. On examination we found he bad been terribly wounded. Both legs were broken, one hip-joint and the root of the spine corapletely shattered, and two bullets were found flattened on his neck and jaws ; yet he was still alive when he fell. Another individual of about the same size was afterwards twice shot, causing him to loose his bold of the branch and fall flat on his face half buried in tbe swamp, where be lay for some minutes groaning and panting. Suddenly he raised himself up nearly erect, and catching hold of a sraall tree, began to ascend it. Another shot through the back caused bim to fall down dead. A flattened buUet was found in bis tongue, having entered the lower part of tbe abdomen, and completely traversed tbe body, fracturing the first cervical vertebra. Yet it was after receiving this fearful wound that be had risen and began climbing with considerable faculty." Tbese two orangs are the largest of which we have any reliable accounts ; although there are doubtful stories in various books of individuals much larger — as high as five feet two inches. How easy it is to be deceived in estimating, without actual measure ment, the higbt of theae animals, is shown in tbe case of a Sumatran orang, whose skin is now in the Calcutta museura. Tbe captain and crew who killed hira declared that he looked taller than the tallest man, and they supposed him to be at least seven feet high ; but when he was killed and lay upon the ground, they found that he was only about six feet. The skin shows that he was really less than four feet. Mr. Wallace admits that tbe largest orangs are muCh less tban tbe gorilla. " I have myself," he says, " examined seventeen freshly-killed orangs, all of whicb were care fully measured ; and also obtained skeletons of two killed by others. Of these sixteen HABITS OF THE ORANG-OUTANG. 683 were adults, nine being males and seven females. Tbe large adult males only varied from four feet one inch to four feet two inches in hight, measured fairly to the heel, so as to give the higbt of tbe animal as if it stood perfectly erect. Tbe extent of the outstretched arms was from seven feet two inches to seven feet eight inches ; and the width of tbe face from ten to thirteen and a half inches. The largest orang measured by Temminck was four feet high. Of twenty-five specimens coUected by Schlegel and Muller, the largest measured four feet one inch ; and the largest skeleton in the Calcutta museum was four feet one and a half inch. My specimens were all from the north-west coast of Borneo, those of the Dutch from tbe south and west coasts ; and no specimen has yet reached Europe exceeding tbese diraensions, although the total number of skina and skeletons must exceed a hundred." The orang is a formidable opponent. "One day," says Wallace, "some Dyaks saw a large orang feeding by the river side. On being alarmed be fled to the jungle, and a number of men arraed with spears and choppers ran out to intercept bim. Tbe man in front tried to run his spear through tbe animal's body ; but the orang seized it in bis bands, and in an instant got hold of tbe man's arm, which he seized in bis mouth, making the teeth meet in the flesh above the elbow, which he tore and lacerated in a dreadful manner. Had not the othera been cloae behind, the man must have been more seriously injured, if not killed, for be was quite powerless ; but tbey soon destroyed the creature witb tbeir spears and choppers. Tbe man remained 111 for a long tirae, and never fully recovered the use of hia arra. Tbe Dyaka declare that tbe orang ia attacked by only two creaturea. One old chief, of whom I inquired, said to me, ' No animal is strong enough to hurt tbe mias, and tbe only creature he ever fights with is the crocodile. Wben he goes to seek food by the river, the crocodile sometimes tries to seize him ; but the mias gets upon him and beata him with bia banda and feet, and tears bira and kills bira. I once saw such a fight, and believe that the mias is alwaya tbe victor.' Another chief told me, 'The mias baa no enemies; no animala dare attack it but the crocodile and tbe python. He alwaya kills the croco dile by main strength, standing upon it, pulling open ita jawa, and ripping up its throat. If a, python attacks a mias, he seizes it with his hands, and then bites it, and soon kUls it. The mias is very strong ; there is no animal in tbe jungle so strong as he.' " The habits of the orang, as described by Wallace are somewhat peculiar: "In making his way through the forest, he walks deliberately along some of tbe larger brancboa, in tbe semi-erect attitude which tbe great length of bis arma and tbe shortness of bis legs cause bim naturally to aasurae ; and the disproportion between these lirabs is increased by hia walking on hia knuckles, and not on the palm of hia hand, aa we should do. He seems alwaya to cbooae those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree, on approaching whicb ho stretcbea out his long arms, and seizing tbe opposing boughs grasps thera together with both hands, and then deliberately swings across to tbe next branch, on whicb be walks along as before. He never juraps or springs, or appears to hurry himself, and yet manages to get along almost as fast aa a person can run through the foreat beneath. He makea a nest in which to sleep, by breaking off boughs and laying tbem across eacb other. The natives say that he makea a new one eacb night, but I think this hardly probable, or tbeir remains would be much more abundant. The Dyaks say that when it is very wet, he covers himself 684 THE TROPICAL WORLD. over with large leaves or ferns, which bas perhaps led to the story of his making a but in the trees. He does not leave bis bed tiU tbe sun bas weU risen, and baa dried the dew upon tbe leaves. He feeds all through the middle of tbe day, but seldom returns to the same tree two days in succession. They do not seem rauch alarmed at man, as they often stared down upon me for several minutes, and then only moved away slowly to an adjoining tree. I never saw two full-grown animala together ; but both males and females are sometunes accompanied by half-grown young onea, while at otber times three or four young ones were seen in company. Their food consists almost wholly of fruit, with occasionaUy leaves, buds, and young shoots. They seem to prefer unripe fruita, some of which are very sour, others intensely bitter. In otber cases they eat only the small seeds of a large fruit, and they almost alwaya waste and destroy more than tbey eat. The durion* is an especial favorite, and quantities of this delicious fruit are destroyed whenever it growa surrounded by foreat, but tbey will not cross clearings to get at tbem. It seems wonderful bow tbe animal can tear open this fruit, the outer covering of which is so thick and tough, and closely covered witb strong conical spines. They probably bite off a, few of these at first, and then, making a small hole, tear open tbe fruit witb their powerful fingers. The orang rarely descends to the ground except wben, pressed by hunger, it seeks for succulent shoots by the river-side, or in very dry weather, has to search for water, which it generaUy finds in tbe hollows of leaves. Once only I saw two half-grown orangs on the ground in a dry hollow. They were playing together, standing erect, and grasping each other by the arms. It may be safely stated, however, that the orang never walks ereot, unless when using its hands to support itself by branches overhead, or wben attacked. Representations of its walking with a stick are entirely imaginary." Mr. Wallace once caught a very young orang, not more than a foot long, which proved a very amusing pet, quite unlike a young goriUa whioh Du ChaiUu attempted to tame. " While carrying it bome," he says, " it got his fingers in my beard, and grasped ao tightly that I had great difficulty in getting free, for tbe fingers are habit ually bent inward at the last joint, so aa to form complete booka. I had no milk to give it, and was obliged to feed it with rice-water from a bottle with a quill in the cork, which after a few trials it learned to suck very well. Wben I put my finger in its mouth, it sucked witb great vigor, drawing in its cheeks witb all its might, and only after persevering a long tirae would it give up in disgust, and set up a scream, very like that of a baby in similar circumstances. Wben bandied or nursed, it was very quiet and contented, but wben laid down by itself would invariably cry. I found it necessary to wash it every day, and it aoon began to like the operation, and when it waa dirty would begin crying, and not leave off until I carried it to tbe spout, when it immediately became quiet, though it would wince a little at tbe first rush of tbe cold water, and make ridiculously wry faces wbUe the stream was running over its bead. It enjoyed tbe wiping and rubbing dry amazingly, and when I brushed its hair seemed to be perfectly happy. After the first week I found I could feed it better witb a spoon, and gave it a little more varied and more solid food. WoU-soaked bis cuit, mixed with a little egg and sugar, and sometimes sweet potatoes were readily eaten. It would lick its lips, draw in its cheeks, and tum up its eyes with an expres sion of the most supreme satisfaction wben it bad a mouthful particularly to its taste ; * Concerning thie fruit see ante, 557. A PET ORANG-OUTANG— THE GIBBONS. 685 but wben its food was not sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful about with its tongue for a moment, as if trying to extract what flavor there was, and then push it all out between its lips. If the aame food was continued, it would set up a scream, and kick about violently exactly like a baby in a paasion. After I had had the little miaa about three weeks I obtained a young monkey whicb, though small was very active, and could feed itself. I placed it in the same box with the miaa, and they soon became excellent friends, neither exhibiting tbe least fear of the otber. Tbe little monkey would sit upon tbe other's stomach, or even on its face, without tbe least regard for its feelings. While I was feeding the mias, tbe monkey would sit by, picking up aU that was spilt, and as soon as I bad finished would pick off what was left sticking to the miaa'a lips, and then pull open its mouth to see if any waa left inside ; afterwards lying down on tbe poor creature's stomach as on a comfortable cushion. The Uttle helpless mias would submit to all tbese insults with tbe most exem plary patience, only too glad to have soraething warm near it, whicb it could clasp affectionately in its arms. After five weeks it cut its two upper front teeth ; but in all this time it had not grown tbe least bit, remaining both in size and weight tbe same as when I first procured it. This waa no doubt owing to the want of milk or other equally nourishing food. At length It waa taken serioualy Ul, tbe symptoms being exactly those of intermittent fever, accorapanied by watery swellings on tbe feet and head. It lost all appetite for its food, and after lingering a week, a most pitiable object, it died, having been In my posseaaion nearly tbree montba. I much regretted the loss of my little pet, which I bad at one time looked forward to bringing up to years of maturity, and taking bome to England. It had afforded me daUy amusement by its curious ways and tbe inimitably ludicrous expression of its little countenance. Its weight was three pounds nine ounces, ita bight fourteen inches, and the spread of its arma twenty-three inches." We have dwelt at some length upon the Gorilla and the Orang-outang, because tbey are tbe largest of tbe monkey tribea ; and because until within a few years very little has been positively known of tbem ; and it is believed that no living speciraen of either baa ever been seen away from their native homes. We shall pass rapidly over a few of tbe most remarkable of tbe monkey tribes. The series of tbe large anthropomorphous apes closes witb tbe Gibbons. Tbeir arms, whicb reacb to the ankle joints wben the animal is standing erect, are longer than those of the uran ; their brain, and consequently tbeir InteUigence, is less devel oped ; and moreover, like all tbe following simiae of the Old World, tbey possess cal losities on each side of the tail. Their size is inferior to that of tbe orang, and tbeir body is covered with thicker hair, gray, brown, black, or white — according to tbe species — but never parti-colored, as is tbe ease with many of the long-tailed monkeys. To the gibbons belong the black Siamang of Sumatra — who, assembled in large troops, haU tbe first blush of early morn, and bid fareweU to tbe setting sun with dreadful clamors — the black, white-bearded Lar of Siam and Malacca, and tbe Wou- Wou {Hylobates leuciscus) who, banging suspended by his long arms, and swinging to and fro in the air, allows one to approach within fifty yards, and then, suddenly drop ping upon a lower branch, climbs again leisurely to tbe top of the free. He is a quiet, solitary creature of a melancholy peaceful nature, pursuing a harmless life, feeding npon fruita in tbe vast untrodden recesses of tbe forest ; and his peculiar noise is in 686 THE TROPICAL WORLD. harmony with tbe sombre stillness of these dim regiona, commencing Uke the gurgling of water wben a bottie is being filled, and ending with a long, loud wailing cry, whioh resounds throughout the leafy solitude to a great diatance, and is sometimes responded to from tbe depths of tbe forest by another note as wild and melancholy. We sball see that the Araerican monkeys are totally different frora those of tbe Old World ; but also in tbe eastern hemisphere, each part of the world baa ita peculiar faraiUes and genera of simiae. Thus, besldea the orang-outang and tbe gibbon, Asia exclusively possesses the semnopitheci and tbe macaques, whUe Africa, besides the chimpanzee and the gorUla, enjoys tbe undivided honor of giving birth to tbe famUIes of tbe cercopitheci, mangabeys, colobi, magots, and baboons. The Semnopitheci are characterized by a short face, rounded ears, a slender body, short thumbs, and a strong muscular taU, terminated by a close tuft of hair, and surpassing in length that of aU the other quadrumana of tbe Old World. To this genus belongs tbe celebrated Pro boscis Monkey (Semnopithecus nasicus) of Borneo, who is distinguished from aU other siralae by tbe possession of a prominent nasal organ, which lends a highly ludi crous expression to tbe melancholy aspect of bis physiognomy. When excited and angry, the female resembles some tanned and peevish bag, snarling and shrewish. When tbey sleep, they squat on their hams, and bow tbeir beads upon the breast. Wben disturbed, they utter a short impatient cry, between a sneeze and a scream, like that of a spoilt and passionate chUd. Wben tbey erait tbeir peculiar wheezing or hiss ing sound, tbey avert and wrinkle the nose, and open tbe mouth wide. In tbe male, tbe nose is a curved, tubular trunk, large, pendulous, and fleshy ; but in the female it is smaller, recurved, and not flesh-like. Under the ugly forra of tbe Huniman (Semnopithecus entellus), the Hindoos ven erate the transforraed hero who abstracted the sweet fruit of the mango from the garden of a giant in Ceylon, and enriched India with the coatly gift. Aa a puriiahment for thia offense be waa condemned to the stake, and ever since his bands and face have remained black. Out of gratitude for bis past services, the Hindoos allow him the free use of tbeir gardens, and take great care to protect him frora sacrUegious Euro peans. While tbe French naturahst Duvaucel was at Cbandernagore, a guard of pious Brahralns was busy scaring away tbe sacred aniraals witb cymbals and drums, lest the stranger, to whom tbey very justly attributed evU intentions, might be tempted to add their skins to bis collection. The semnopitkeci are scattered over Asia in so great a multiplicity of forms, that Ceylon alone possesses four different species, each of which has appropriated to itself a different diatrict of tbe wooded country, and seldora encroaches on the domain of ita neighbors. Wben observed in their native wilds, a party of twenty or thirty of the Wanderoos of the low country, tbe species best known in Europe {Preshytes cephalop terus), is generally busily engaged in the search for berries and buds. Tbey are sel dom to be seen on tbe ground, and thon only when they have descended to recover seeds or fruit that bave fallen at the foot of their favorite treea. In their alarm, wben disturbed, tbeir leaps are prodigious, but generally speaking tbeir progress is made not so much by leaping as by swinging frora branch to branch, using their powerful arraa alternately, and when baffled by distance, flinging themselves obliquely so as to catch the lower bough of an opposite tree ; tbe moraentum acquired by their descent being sufficient to cause a rebound, that carries tbem again upwards till tbey can grasp SEMNOPITHECI— CYNOPITHECI—CYNOCEPHALL 687 a higher branch, and tbus continue tbeir headlong flight. In these periloua achieve ments wonder is excited leas by the surpaaaing agility of those Uttle creatures, frequently encumbered as they are by their young, which cling to tbem in their career, than by tbe quickness of their eye and the unerring accuracy witb which tbey seem to calcu late almost tbe angle at which a descent would enable them to cover a given distance, and tbe recoil to elevate theraselves agaiu to a higher altitude. The African Colobi greatly resemble the Asiatic Semnopitheci, but djSer by the remarkable circumatance of having no thumb on tbe hands of their anterior extremities. The Cercopitheci Ukowiae posaeas a large tail, whicb is, however, not more or lesa pendulous, as in the semnopitheci, but generally carried erect over the back. They have also a longer face, and tbeir cheeks are furniahed witb pouches, in which, like the pelican or the hamster, they are capable of stowing part of their food. The tribes of tbe mangabeys, macaques, magots, and cynopitheci form the links between tbe cercopitheci and tbe baboons. Their shape is less slender tban that of tbe former, tbeir frontal bone is more developed, particularly above tbe eye-brows, and their face is longer. Tbey are all of thera provided witb cboek-poucbes. Several of the macaques have a very short tail, and the magots, or Barbary apea, and the cyno- plthecua of tbe PhUippine lalands, have none, thus reserabling tbe large anthropo morphous apes, but vridely differing from tbem in otber respects. The Magot is the only European species, and seems exclusively confined in that part of the world to the rook of Gibraltar, though some authors affirra that it is found in other parta of Anda lusia, and even in the province of Grenada. The Cynocephali (Baboons and Mandrills) show at once by their Greek name that a dog-like snout gives them a more bestial expression tban belongs to tbe rest of tbe monkey tribes, and that of aU the simiae of the Old World tbey are most widely dis tant from raan. In size tbey are only surpassed by tbe gorilla and the orang ; and if in the latter the physiognomy becomes more brutal in its expression with advancing age, this degradation is much greater in tbe baboons. Tbeir canine teeth in particular acquire a greater aharpnoss tban those of almost every other carnivorous animal, so that tbese malignant and cruel animals, armed with such powerful weapons, may well be reekoned among tbe moat forraidable of tbe wild beaats of Africa. Aa if to render them complete plcturea of depravity, their mannera also are so sbaraelessly filthy that the curiosity they excite soon changes into horror and disgust. Tbe short-taUed mandrills inhabit tbe west coast of Africa. Tbe Maimon is tbe most remarkable of tbe whole genus for brilliancy and variety of color ; its furrowed cheeks are magnificently striped with violet, blue, purple, and scarlet, so as more to resemble an artificial tattooing than a natural carnation. As tbe creature increases in age, the nose also becomes blood-red. On the loins the skin Is almost bare, and of a violet-blue color, gradually altering into a bright blood-red, which is raore conspicuous on tbe hinder parts, where it surrounds the tail, whicb is generally carried erect. Tho real baboons are distinguished from the mandrlUs by a long taU, terminated by a tuft of hair. The great baboon of Senegal ( Cynocephalus sphinx) is by no raeans devoid of inteUigence, and learns many tricks when taught from early youth. His temper, however, is brutal and choleric, though less so tban that of the Chacma ( Cyno cephalus porcarius), or pig-faoed baboon, which is found in the vicinity of Cape Town, among others on the celebrated Table Mountain. It frequentiy commits great devasta- 688 THE TROPICAL WORLD. tiona in tbe fields. Young cbacraas are oflen kept as domestic animals, performing tbe offlces of a mastiff, whom they greatly surpass in strength. Thus tbey immedi ately announce by their growUng tbe approach of a stranger, and are even employed for a variety of useful purposes which no dog would be able to perform. Here one is trained to blow tbe bellows of a sraith ; there another to guide a team of oxen. When a stream is to be crossed, tbe chacma immediately jumps upon tbe back of one of the oxen, and remains sitting till he has no longer to fear tbe wet, whicb he loves aa little as tbe cat. In Abyflsinia, Nubia, and South Arabia we find tbe Derryaa (C. hamadryas), which enjoyed divine honors among tbe ancient Egyptians. The general color of the hair ia a mixture of light-gray and cinnamon, and in tbe male that of the bead and neck forma a long mane, falUng back over tbe shoulders. The face ia extremely long, naked, and of a dirty flesh-color. This ugly monkey was revered aa tbe aymbol of Thoth, tbe divine father of literature and tbe judge of man after death. Formerly temples were erected to bis honor, and numerous priests miniatered to bis wanta ; but now, by a sad change of baboon fortune, be is shot without ceremony, and his akin pulled over hia ears to be stuffed and exhibited in profane museums. In tbe forests of tropical Africa and Asia we find a remarkable group of animals, which, though quadrumanous like tbe monkeys, essentiaUy differs from them by pos sessing long curved claws on the index, or also ou tbe middle finger of tbe binder extremities ; by a sharp, projecting muzzle, and by a different dentition. Tbe Loris, remarkable for tbe slowness of their gait and their large glaring eyes, are exclusively natives of tbe East Indies ; the Galagos, which unite the organization of tbe monkeys vrith the graceful sprightliness of tbe squirrels, are solely confined to Africa, wbere they are chiefly found in tbe gum-forests of Senegal ; the Tarsii, tbus named from tbeir elongated tarsu, giving to tbeir binder limbs a disproportionate length, are re stricted to part of tbe Indian archipelago ; but tbe large island of Madagascar, where, strange to say, not a single monkey ia found, is tbe chief seat of tbe family, being the exclusive dwelUng-placo of the short-tailed Indri, (whom, from his black, thick fur and anthropomorphous shape, one would be inclined to reckon among the gibbons), and of tbe long-taUed Lemurs or Makis. All tbese gentle and harmless animala are arboreal in tbeir habits, avoid tbe glaring light of day under the dense covert of tbe forest, and awaken to a more active existence aa aoon as nigbt descends upon tbe earth. Then tbe loris, who during the day have slept clinging to a branch, prowl among the forest boughs in quest of food. Nothing can escape tbe scrutiny of their large, glaring eyes; and wben they have marked their victim, they cautiously and noiselessly approach till it is within their grasp. Tbe Galagos have at night all the activity of birda, hopping from bough to bough on tbeir hind limbs only. Tbey watch the insects flitting among the leaves, Usten to tbe fluttering of the moth as it darts through tbe air, lie in wait for it, and spring witb tbe rapidity of an arrow, seldom missing tbeir prize, whicb is caught by tbe hands. They make neata in tbe branches of treea, and cover a bed with grass and leaves for their little ones. The tarsii leap about two feet at a spring, and feed chiefly on lizards, holding tbeir prey In tbeir fore-bands, while they rest on their haunches. The monkeys of the New World differ still more widely from those of tbe Old than the copper-colored Indian from the woolly negro. One sees at once on coraparing MONKEYS OF THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD. 689 them that whole oceans roll between them, that they have not migrated from one hemisphere to another, but belong to two different phases of creation. While the nasal partition of tbe Old World simiae is narrow as in man, it is broad without excep tion in all the Araerican raonkeys, so that the nostrils are widely separated and open sideways. The dental apparatus is also different, for whUe the monkeys of tbe eaatern hemisphere have thirty-two teeth, those of the western world generally possess thirty- six. The tailless monkeys or apes, and the short-taUed baboons, with a dog-like pro jecting snout and formidable fangs, are peculiar to tbe eastern bomispbere, and it is only there that we find almost voiceless simiae, while the American quadrumana are all of them tailed, short-snouted, and generally endowed witb stentorian powers. Finally, it would be as useless to look among the western monkeys for choek-pouchea and sessile callosities, as among those of the Old World for prehensile tails. In the boundless forests of tropical South America, the monkeys form by far the greater part of tbe mammalian inhabitants, for each apeciea, though often confined within narrow limits, generally consists of a large number of individuals. Tbe various arboreal fruita which the savage population of these immeasurable wilds is unable to turn to advantage, fall chiefly to their share ; many of them also live upon insecta. They are never seen in the open campos and savannas, as tbey never touch the ground unless compelled by tbe greatest necessity. The trees of tbe forest furnish them with all the food tbey require in inexhaustible a,bundanoe. For their perpetual wanderings from branob to branch, nature has bountifully endowed many of tbem not only with robust and muscular limbs, and large banda, whose moist palras facilitate the seizure of a bough, but in many cases also with a prehensile tail, which raay deservedly be called a fifth hand, and is hardly less wonderful in its structure than tbe proboscis of the elephant. Covered witb short hair, and completely bare underneath towards the end, this admirable organ rolls round the boughs as though it were a supple finger, and is at the same time so muscular, that tbe monkey frequently swings with it from a branch Uke the pendulum of a clock. Scarce has he grasped a bough with bis long arras, when iraraediately coiling bis fifth hand round tbe branch, he springs on to the next, and secure from a fall, hurries so rapidly through the crowns of the highest treea that the sportsman's ball baa scarce time to reacb him in his flight. When tbe Miriki (Ateles hypoxanthtis), the largest of tbe Brazilian monkeys, sitting or stretched out at full length, suns himself on a high branch, bis tail suffices to support bira in bis aerial resting-place, and even wben mortally wounded, be remains a long time suspended by it, untU Ufe being quite extinct, his heavy body, whizzing through the air, and breaking many a bough as it descends, faUs with a loud crash to the ground. The famous wourali poison is alone capable of instantly annihilating his muscular powers, and of sparing the wounded animal a long and painful agony. Slow and witb noiseless step, so as scarcely to dis turb tbe fallen leaves beneath his feet, the wily Indian approaches. His weapons are strange and peculiar, and of so slight an appearance as to form a wondrous coutrast to their terrific power. A colossal species of bamboo {Arundinaria Schomburgkii), whose perfectly cyUndrical culm often rises to tbe bight of fifteen feet frora tbe root before it forms its first knot, furnishes bira with his blow-pipe, and the slender arrows which be sends forth with unerring certainty of aira are made of tbe leaf-stalks of a species of palm-tree {Maximiliana regia), hard and brittle, and sharp-pointed as a 44 690 THE TROPICAL WORLD. needle. One would hardly suppoae tbese fragUe missiles oapable of inflicting the slightest wound at any distance, and yet thoy strike more surely and effectually than the rifleman's bullet, for their point is dipped In the deadly juice of tbe Strychnos Urari, whose venomous powers are not inferior to those of the dreaded buabmaater or the fatal cobra. The savage tribea of tbe South Araerican wooda know how to polaon their arrowa witb tbe juices of varioua plants, but none equals thia in virulence and certainty of execution, and yearly tbe Indiana of tbe Orinoco, tbe Rio Negro, and even of tbe Amazon, wander to the Camuku Mountalna to purchase by barter tbe renowned Urarl or Wourali poison of tbe Maousis. How tbey made tbe discovery of its powers is unknown ; at all events the corablnatlon of ao many means for the attainment of tbe end in view — tbe preparation of tbe poison, the blow-pipe, tbe arrows — denotes a high degree of ingenuity, and shows at once tbe infinite superiority of the savage over tbe monkey. In a less concentrated or diluted form tbe wourali poison merely benumbs or stuns tbe faeultles without killing, and is tbus made use of by the Indians wben they wish to catch an old monkey alive and tarae bim for sale. On bis falling to tbe ground tbey iraraediately suck tbe wound, and wrapping hira up in a straight- jacket of palm leaves, dose him for a few days witb sugar-cane juice, or a strong solu tion of saltpetre. This method generaUy answers tbe purpose, but should his stubborn teraper not yet be subdued, they hang him up in smoke. Then after a short time bis rage gives way, and his wild eye, assuming a plaintive expreaslon, humbly sues for deliverance. His bonds are now loosened, and even the most unmanageable monkey seems henceforward totally to forget that he ever roamed at liberty in the boundless • .'oods. In general, however, tbe American simiae are distinguished by a muoh milder dis position than those of the eastern hemisphere, and retain at an advanced age tbe play ful manners of their youth. They are comraonly more easy to tarae, and learn many little tricks which are taught with muoh greater difficulty to their restless Asiatic or African cousins. Their weakness, their short canine teeth, their good temper, render tbem harmless play-fellows, and tbus tbey are generally preferred in Europe to the Old World monkeys, though they are not so Uvely, and constantly bave a more or less dejected mien, aa if they still regretted the primitive freedom of the foreat. Tbe Amerioan monkeya may be conveniently divided into two large groupa ; with or without a prehensile tail. To the first great subdivision belong the HowUng Monkeys or Aluates {Mycetes), the Spider Monkeys (Ateles), tbe Sajous, and several other intermediate genera. The Aluates are chiefly reraarkable for tbeir stentorian powers, which no other animal can equal or approach. When the nocturnal howl of the large red Aluate (Mycetes ursinus) burata forth from tbe woods, you would suppose that all tho beasts of the forest were collecting for the work of carnage. Now it is the tremendous roar of tbe jaguar as be springs on bis prey ; now it ohanges to hia terrible and deep-toned growlinga as be is pressed on all sidea by superior force ; and now you bear his last dying moan, beneath a mortal wound. Some naturaUsts have supposed that these awful sounds can only proceed frora a number of the red monkeys bowling in concert, but one of tbem alone is equal to tbe task. In dark and cloudy weather, and just before a squall of rain, the aluate often bowls in the day-time ; and on advancing VARIOUS MONKEY-TRIBES. 691 cautiously to the high and tufted tree wbere be ia aitting, oue raay then bave a won derful opportunity of seeing tbe large lurap in his throat, the sounding-board which gives such volume to his voice, move up and down as he exerts bis stentorian lungs. Poppig compares tbe bcrwling of tbe aluate to tbe noise of ungreased cart wheels, but very much stronger, and affirras that it may be heard at the distance of a league. Like tbe African Colobi, tbe Ateles, or Spider Monkeys, have no thumb on their fore-hands ; their voice is a soft and flute-like whistling, reserabling the piping of a bird. It is said that wben a mother burthened witb ber young hesitates to take too wide a \e:a.^, paterfamilias seizes tbe branob she intends to reach, and awinga himaelf to and fro with it, until his companion ia able to attain it by a spring. But wben a young monkey that is already sufficiently strong is fearful, the mother, to give him courage, repeats the manoeuvre aevoral timea before bim. Tbe spider monkeys live in more or less nuraerous troops, and chiefly subsist on inseots, though wben near tbe sea they will also come down upon the beach and feed on mollusks, particularly on oysters, whose shells tbey are said to crack with a stone. Tbo second group of American monkeys, consisting of those with a non-prebenaile taU, comprises the sakis, the saimiris, the oulstitis, etc. Tbe Sakis, or Fox-tailed Monkeys, are distinguished by their bushy tail, which, however, In some species, is very short. Tbey usually live in tbe outskirts of forests, in small societies of ten or twelve. Upon tbe slightest provocation, they display a morose and savage temper, and, like the bowling monkeys, utter loud ories before sunrise and after sunset. The elegant ease of their movements, their soft fur, tbe large size of tbeir brilliant eyes, and tbeir little round face, entitle tbe Saimiris to be called the most graceful of monkeys. Humboldt, who frequently observed them in tropical America, teUs us that they are extremely affectionate, and that wben offended, their eyes immediately swim in tears. On speaking to them for sorae time, they listen with great attention, and soon lay tbeir tiny band upon the speaker's mouth, as if to catch the words as they pass through his lips. Tbey recognize tbe objects represented in an engraving even when not colored, and endeavored to seize the pictured fruits or insects. Tho latter, and particularly spiders, which they catch most dexterously with their lips or handa, seem to be tbeir favorite food. The weak little creatures are very fond of being carried about by larger monkeys, and cling fast to their back. At first tbe animal to which they thus attach themselves endeavors to got rid of its burden ; but finding it impossible, it soon becomes reconcUed to its fate, and after a short time an intimate affection arises between tbem, so that wben tbe sairairi is busy chasing insects, his friend, before leaving the spot, first gives him notice by a gentle cry. A sImUar dependent and affectionate intercourse is not rare araong otber speciea of monkeys. The habits of tbe Nyctopithecl, or nocturnal monkeys, bear a great resemblance to those of tbe bats or flying foxes. Tbe shy and quiet little animals sleep by day con cealed in tbe dense thickets of the forest. Their eye and motions are completely feline. Those which Von Martius observed in bis coUection, crept by day into a corner of tbe cage, but after sunset their agility made up for their diurnal torpor. In Guiana, Schomburgk met witb tbe Nyctipithecus irivirgatus aa a domeatic animal. " A very neat little raonkey, ahy of light as the owl or tbe bat. A small round head, extremely large yeUow eyes, shining in tbe dark stronger than those of the cat, and tiny short ears, give it a peculiarly coralcal appearance. When disturbed 692 THE TROPICAL WORLD. in its diurnal sleep and dragged forth to tbe light, its helpless raovements excite com passion ; it gropes about as if blind, and lays hold of the first object that comes within its reacb, often pressing its face against it to escape the intolerable glare. The darkest comer of the but ia ita soat of predUection, wbere it lies during day in a per fect asphyxia, from which it oan only bo roused by blows. But soon after sunset it leaves its retreat, and then it Is irapossible to soe a more lively, active, and merry creature. From hararaock it springs to hammock, generally licking tbe faces of the sleepers, and from tbe floor to tbe rafters of the roof, overturning all that is not sufficiently fastened to resist its curiosity." Its voice is remarkably strong, and, ac cording to Humboldt, is said to reserable the jaguar's roar, for which reason it is called the Tiger Monkey in the missions along the Orinoco. It lives chiefly on nocturnal insects, thinning tbeir ranks like tbe bat, but is also said to prey upon small birds like tbe owl. The Oulstitis, or Squirrel Monkeys, are distinguished from all the other American quadrumana by tbe claws with whicb all tbeir fingers except the thumbs of tbeir bands aro provided, and which render tbem excellent service in climbing. They bave a very aoft fur, and are extremely light and graceful in their movementa, aa well as elegant in their forma. The young are often not bigger than a mouse, and even a full grown ouistiti is hardly larger than a squirrel, whom it resembles both in its raode of life, and by its restless aetivity, as its little head ia never quiet. They uae tbeir taU, which in many species is handsomely raarked by transverse bara, as a protection against the cold, to which tbey are acutely sensitive. Tbeir numerous species are dis persed over all tbo forests of tropical America, wbere tbey live as well upon fruits and nuts as upon inaects and eggs; and when they can catch a little bird, tbey suck its brain witb all the satisfaction of an epicure. They are easily tamed, but very sus picious and Irritable. Audouin made sorae interesting observations on a pair of tame oulstitis, which prove their inteUigence to be far superior to that of the squirrels, to whom tbey are so often corapared. One of thera having one day, while regaling on a bunch of grapes, squirted sorae of the juice into its eye, never faUed from that time to close its eyes while eating of tbe fruit. In a drawing they recognized not only their own likeness, but that of otber animals. Tbus tbe sight of a cat, and what Is stIU more remarkable, that of a wasp, frightened them very much, whUe at tbe aspect of any otber insect, sucb as a cricket or a cockchafer, they at once rushed upon the engraving, as if anxious to make a meal of tbe object that deluded them with the semblance of life. BEASTS AND BIRDS OF PREY. 693 CHAPTER XIV. TROPICAL BEASTS AND BIRDS OF PREY. Variety of Carnivorous Creatures. — Birds of Prey: The Condor — His Marvelous Flight — His Cowardice — Modes of Capturing them — The Turkey-Buzzard, or Carrion Vulture — The King of the Vultures — The Urubu — Capable of Domestication — The Harpy Eagle — The Sociable Vulture — The Bacha — The Fishing Eagle — The Musical Sparrow-Hawk — The Secretary Eagle. — Beasts of Prey : The Lion — Fictitious Character ascribed to him — Mode of Seizing his Prey — Lions and Giraffe — Lion and Hottentot — Andersson and a Lion — ^Livingstone's narrow Escape — Lion-Hunting in the Atlas — By the Bushmen — Cap turing their Young — ^Former and present Range of the Lion — Lion and Rhinoceros — Livingstone's Estimate of the Lion — The Tiger — Their Ravages in Java — Wide Range of the Tiger — Tiger-Hunting in India — Escape from a Tiger — Animals announcing the Ap proach of a Tiger — Turtle-hunting Tigers — The Panther and Leopard — The Cheetah — The Hyena — The Spotted and Brown Hyenas — The Felidse of New World— The Jaguar — Hunting the Jaguar — The Cougar, or Puma — The Ocelot — The Jaguarandi — The Tiger-Cat. ALMOST all birda and a considerable proportion of aniraals are carnivorous, and notwithstanding tbeir differences in size, may be strictly designated as Birda and Beasts of Prey. Tbe fox and weasel are as strictly beaats of prey aa the lion and the tiger ; the aparrow and robin, although seeds and fruit forra part of tbeir food, are as truly birds of prey as the eagle and the vulture. A sparrow will, indeed, in tbe courae. of a single day, probably destroy more individual living creatures than an eagle wiU in his whole life-time ; a fox in a year more tban a lion in the half century which he is supposed to live. We shall here, however, confine ourselves wholly to the larger species of birds and beasts of prey, commencing with the forraer. The flight of tbe Condor is truly wonderful. From tbe mountain-plains of the Andes, the royal bird, aoaring aloft, appeara only like a small black speck on tbe sky, and a few hours afterwards he descends to tbe coast and mixes his loud screech with the roar of the surf. No living creature rises voluntarily so high, none traverses in so short a time all tbe climatea of tbe globe. He rests at night in the crevices of tbe rocks, or on some jutting ledge ; but as soon as the firat raya of tbe sun light tbe summits of tbe mountains, while the darkness of nigbt still reata upon the deeper vaUeya, he stretches forth his neck, shakes bis head as if fully to rouse himself, stoops over- tbe brink of the abyss, and flapping his wings, dives into tbe aerial ocean. At first his flight is by no means strong ; he sinks as if borne down by bis weight, but soon be ascends, and sweeps through the rarified atmoapbere without any perceptible vibratory motion of the winga. " Near Lima," says Mr. Darwin, " I watched several eondora for nearly half an hour without onee taking off my eyea. Tbey moved in large curves, sweeping in circles, descending aud ascending without once flapping. 694 THE TROPICAL WORLD. Aa they glided close over my head, I intently watched from an oblique position the outlines of tbe separate and terminal feathera of the wing; if there had been the least vibratory movement tbese would bave blended together, but they were seen dis tinct against tbe blue sky. Tbe head and neck wore moved frequently and apparently with force, and it appeared that the extended wings formed the fulcrum on which tbe movements of tbe neck, body, and tail acted. If the bird wished to descend, the wings were for a moment collapsed, and then, wben again expanded with an altered inclination, the momentum gained by the rapid descent seeraed to urge the bird up wards with tbe even and steady raovement of a paper kite." According to Humboldt and D'Orbigny, the condor is a contemptible coward, whom tbe stick of a cbUd ia able to put to flight. Far from venturing to attack any full- grown, larger animal — tbe llama, tbe ox, or even man, as former travelers asserted — be feeds, like other vultures, only upon dead carcasses, or on new-born lambs and calves, whom he tears frora the side of their raothers. He tbus does so much daraage to the herds, that tbe shepherds pursue and kill bira whenever they-can. As even a bullet frequently glances off frora bis thick feathery coat, the natives never use fire arms for bis destruction, but make use of various traps, of the sling, or of tbe bolas, which tbey are able to throw with sucb marvelous dexterity. In the Peruvian province of Abacay, an Indian provided witb cords conceals himself under a fresh cow's skin, to whioh some pieces of flesh are left attached. Tbe condors soon pounce upon the prey, but while they are feasting he fastens tbeir legs to the skin. This being accom plished, be suddenly comes forth, and the alarraed birds vainly flap tbeir wings, for other Indians hurry towards tbem, throw .their mantles or their lassos over tbem, and carry tbe condors to tbeir village, wbere tbey are reserved for tbe next bull-fight. For a full week before this spectacle is to take place, the bird geta nothing to eat, and ia then bound upon tbe back of a bull which has previously been scarified with lances. The bellowing of tbe poor animal, lacerated by the famished vulture, and vainly endeavoring to cast off ita tormentor, arausea what may well be called tbe "awinish multitude." In the province of Huarochirin there is a large natural funnel-shaped excavation, about sixty feet deep, with a diaraeter of about eighty feet at the top. A dead mule is placed on tbe brink of the precipice. The tugging of tbe condors at tbe dead carcass causea it to fall into the bole ; they follow it witb greedy baste, and having gorged theraselves witb food, are unable again to rise from the narrow bottom of the funnel. Tschudi saw the Indians kiU at once, witb sticks, twenty-eight of the birds which bad been thus entrapped. In a somewhat similar manner condors are caught in Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, as far aa their range extenda, and are frequently brought to Valparaiao and Callao, where they are sold for a few dollars to the foreign ships, and thence conveyed to Europe. The condor, though a very large bird, about four feet long, and measuring at least three yards from tip to tip of his extended wings, is far from attaining the dimensions assigned to him by tbe earlier writers and naturalists, who, emulating Sindbad the Sailor, in bis account of the roc, described hira as a giant whose bulk darkened the air. For tunately the works of nature do not require the exaggerations of fiction to be rendered interesting, and the marvels of organic nature which scientific inquiries reveal are far more wonderful tban any which romancers may invent. While tbe condor is considered an enemy to man, tbe Gallinazos, Turkey-buzzards, VULTURES— BUZZARDS. 695 or comraon American Carrion Vultures ( Vultur aura, V. urubu), are very serviceable to bim, by consuming the animal offals which, if left to putrefaction, would produce a pestilence. Thus tbey generally, in tropical America, enjoy the protection of tbe law, a heavy fine, amounting in sorae towns to $300, being imposed upon the offender who wantonly kills one of these scavengers. It ia consequently not to be wondered at that, like domestic birda, tbey congregate in flocks in the streets of Lima, and sleep upon tbe roofs of the housea. In 1808, Waterton saw tbe vultures in Angostura aa tame aa barn-fowls ; a person who had never seen one would bave taken thera for turkeys. They were very useful to the citizens ; had it not been for thera, tbe refuse of tbe slaughter-houses would have caused an intolerable nuisance. The Aura ia dark- brown black, with a red and naked bead and neck, covered witb wrinkles and warts ; the Urubu is very similar, only tbe bead and neck are gray-black, but equally wrinkled and ugly. The latter ranges over South America in countless numbera, aa D'Orbigny witnessed on a visit to a hacienda on the river Plata, where 12,000 oxen had boon killed for salting. During this wholesale massacre, which lasted several months, the bones and entrails were oast along tbe banks of tbe stream, where at least 10,000 urubus had congregated to enjoy the banquet. It is a remarkable fact that, though hundreds of gallinazos may be feeding upon a carcaae, they immediately retire when tbe King of tbe Vulturea {Sarcoramphus papa) makea bia appearance, who yet ia not larger than tbemselves. Perching on the neighboring treea, tbey wait till bis majesty — a beautiful bird, with head and neck gaudily colored with scarlet, orange, blue, brown and white — has sufficiently gorged himself, and then pounce down witb increased voracity upon tbeir disgusting meal. According to Humboldt, they are intimidated by the greater boldness of the sarcoramphus. The true reason of their homage, how ever, seeras to be tbe fear tbey entertain for tbe more powerful beak of the " king," who, from a similar motive, gives way to the still mightier condor. The Indians of Guiana sometimes arause themselves with catching ono of the urubus by means of a pieee of meat attached to a book, and decking him with a variety of strange feathers, whieh tbey attach to bim with soft wax. Tbus travestied, they turn bim out again araong his corarades, who, to their great delight, fly in terror from the nondescript ; and it is only after wind and weather bave stripped bira of bis finery that tbe outlaw is once more admitted Into urubu society. When full of food this vul ture, like the otber members of his tribe, oertalnly appears an indolent bird. He will stand for hours together on the branch of a tree, or on tbe top of a house, with bis wings drooping, or after rain, spreading them to catch tbe rays of tbe sun. But when in quest of prey, be may be seen soaring aloft on pinions which never fiutter, and which at the sarae time carry bim'with a rapidity equal to that of the golden eagle. Scarcely bas he espied a piece of carrion below, wben, folding bis broad wings, be descends witb such speed as to produce a whistUng sound, resembUng that of an arrow cleaving tbe air. The gallinazos when taken young can be ao eaaily tamed that tbey will follow tbe person who feeds tbem for many miles. Relying on tbeir inviolability, tbe gallinazos, like chartered libertines, are uncommonly bold, and during tbe distributions of meat to the Indians, which regularly take place every fortnight in the South Araerican Missions, tbey not seldora corae in for their share by dint of impudence. In Concep- cion de Mojos, an Indian told M. D'Orbigny, who was present on oae of those occasions, 696 THE TROPICAL WORLD. that he would soon bave the opportunity of seeing a most notorious thief, well known by his lame leg ; and tbe bird, making bis appearance soon after, completely justified bis reputation. The traveler was also informed that thia urubu knew perfectiy well the days of distribution in the different missiona; and eight daya later, while witness ing a simUar scene at Magdalena, twenty leagues distant, he heard tbe Indians exelaim, and looking up saw bis lame acquaintance of Concepcion hurrying to tbe spot, with tbe anxious mien of one that is afraid of missing a meal. The padres in both missions assured him that the vulture never failed to make his appearance at tbe stated time ; a remarkable instance of memory, or highly developed instinct in a bird. " If you dissect a vulture," saya Waterton, " that has just been feeding on carrion, you must expect that your olfactory nerves will be somewhat offended with the rank effluvia from bis craw, just as they would be were you to dissect a citizen after tbe lord-mayor's dinner. If, on tbe contrary, the vulture be erapty at tbe time you commence tbe oper ation, there will be no offensive sjnoU, but a strong scent of musk." The Harpy Eagle ( Thrasa'etus harpyia) is one of tbe finest of all the rapacious birds. The enormous development of his beak and legs, and hia conaequent strength and power in mastering his prey, correspond witb bis bold and noble bearing, and the fierce lustre of hia eye. Hia whole aspect ia that of formidably organized power, and even tbe crest adds much to bis terrific appearance. " Among many singular birda and curiosities," aaya Mr. Edwarda, in hia " Voyage up tbe Amazon," " that were brought to ua, waa a young harpy eagle, a most ferocious looking character, with a harpy's crest and a beak and talons in correspondence. He was turned loose into the garden, and before long gave us a saraple of hjs powers. With erected crest and flashing eyes, uttering a frightful shriek, be pounced upon a young ibis, and quicker than thought had torn his reeking liver frora his body. The whole animal world there was wUd with fear." Tbe harpy attains a greater size tban the common eagle. He chiefly resides in the damp lowlands of tropical America, wbere Prince Maxirailian of Neu Wied raet with bim only in tbe dense forests, perched on the high branches. The monkey, vaulting by means of his tail from tree to tree, mocks the pursuit of the tiger-cat and boa, but woe to bim if the harpy spies bira out, for, seizing him with lightning-like rapidity, he cleaves bis skull with one single stroke of hia beak. Fear seems to be totally unknown to this noble bird, and be defends himself to tbe last moraent. D'Orbigny relates that one day, while descending a Bolivian river in a boat witb some Indians, tbey severely wounded a harpy with tbeir arrows, so that it fell frora the branob on which it had been struck. Stepping out of tbe canoe, the savages now rushed to the spot wbere tbe bird lay, knocked it on the head, and tearing out tbe feathers of its wings, brought it for dead to tbe boat. Yet tbe harpy awakened from bis trance, and furi ously attacked his persecutors. Throwing himself upon D'Orbigny, be pierced bia hand through and through witb tbe only talon that had been left unhurt, whUe the mangled remains of tbe otber tore his arm, which at tbe same time be lacerated with his beak. Two men were hardly able to release tbe naturahst from tbe attacks of the ferocious bird. On turning from tbe New to the Old World, we find otber but not less interesting predatory birds sweep through the higher regions of the air in quest of prey. The gigantic oricou, or Sociable Vulture ( Vultur auricularis), inhabita the greater part of VULTURES— FALCONS— EAGLES. 697 Africa, and builds his nest in the fissures of rocks on the peaks of inaccessible moun tains. In size ho equals tbe condor, measuring upwards of ten feet across the wings expanded, and bis flight is not lesa bold ; leaving bis lofty cavern at dawn, be rises higher and higher, till be is lost to sight ; but, though beyond tbe sphere of human vision, the telescopic eye of the bird ia at work. The moraent any animal sinks to tbe earth in death, tbe unseen vulture detects ifc. Does the hunter bring down some large quadruped beyond his powers to reraove, and leave it to obtain assistance ? — on bis return, however speedy, he finds it surrounded by a band of vuEures, wbere not one was to be seen a quarter of an hour before. Le Vaillant having once kUled three zebras, hastened to his camp, at about a league's distance, to fetch a wagon ; but on returning he found nothing but tbe bones, at which hundreds of orlcous were busy picking'. Another time having kiUed a gazeUe, be left the carcase on tbe sand, and retired into the bushes to observe what would happen. First carae crows, who witb loud croakinga wheeled round tbe dead aniraal ; then, after a few minutes, kites and buzzards appeared, and finally be saw tho orlcous descending in spiral lines frora an enormous bight. Tbey alighted upon the gazelle, and soon hundreds of birds of prey were assembled. Tbus the smaU robbers had first pointed out tbe way to those of middle size, who in their turn roused tbe attention of tbe bandits of a higher order ; and none of them came too abort, for after the powerful orlcous had dismembered tbe carcase, some very good morsels remained for the buzzards, and tbe bonea furnished excellent pickings for tbe crows. Tbe Bacha {Falco bacha) inhabita India and Africa, where be aits for daya on tbe peak of precipltoua cliffa, on the look out ioj rock-rabbita {Hyrax capensis). Theae poor animala, who bave good reason to be on tbeir guard, venture only with the great est caution to peep out of their oaves and crevices in which, thoy take up their abode, and to which tbey owe their Dutch name of "kllpdachs." Meanwhile tbe bacha re mains immovable, as if be were part of tbe rock on which ho perches, his head muffled up in bis shoulders, but watching witb a sharp eye every movement of bis prey, until, , finally, some unfortunate kllpdachs venturing forth, he darts upon bim Uke a thunder bolt. If this rapid attack proves unsuccessful, the bacha slinks away, ashamed, like a lion that has missed his spring, and seeks some new observatory, for be is well aware that no rock-rabbit in the neighborhood will venture to stroll out during the remainder of tbe day. But if he succeeds in seizing tbe kllpdachs before it has time to leap away, he carries it to a rocky ledge, and slowly tears it to pieoes. Tbe terrible ories of the animal appear to sound like music in his ears, as if be were not only satisfying his hunger but rejoicing in the torments of an enemy. This scene of cruelty spreads terror far and wide, and for a long time no klipdacbs wUl be seen where tbe bacha has held his bloody repast. The Fishing Eagle of AMoa. {Halicetus vocifer), first noticed by Le Vaillant, may be seen hovering about tbe coasts and river-mouths of that vast continent. He is never found in tbe interior of the country, as the African streams are but thinly stocked with fish, which forra bis principal food. Elastic and buoyant, this agUe dweller in the air mounts to soaring heights, scanning with sharp and piercing eye the motions of hia prey below. Energetic in hia movements, impetuous in his appetites, he pounces with the velocity of a meteor on the object of bis wishes, and with a wild and savage joy tears it to pieces. His whole sense of existence is tbe procuring of food, and for 698 THE TROPICAL WORLD. this be is ever on the alert, ever ready to combat, to ravage, and destroy. He gen erally devours his prey on the nearest rook, and lovea to return to tbe same spot where tbe bones of gazeUea and lizards may be seen lying about, a proof that hia appetite is not solely confined to the finny tribea. When tbese birds are sitting, tbey call and answer eacb other with a variously-toned shriek, whioh they utter uuder curious move ments of tbe head and nook. WbUe all other predatory birds croak or shriek, the musical Sparrow-Hawk of Africa (Melierca musicus) pours forth his morning and evening notea to entertain his mate wbUe she Is performing the duties of incubation. Every song laata a minute, and then tbe hunter may approach, but during the pause he is obliged to remain perfectly quiet, aa then tbe bird hears the least noise and iraraediately flies away. Tbe prowess of the Secretary-eagle {Serpentarius cristatus) attacking tbe most venomous serpents bas already been mentioned in the chapter on those noxious rep tiles. Tbe long legs of this useful bird, which owes ita name of " Secretary " to tbe crest on the back of its head, reminding one of the pen stuck behind the ear, according to the custom of writing clerks, might give one reason to reckon it, at first sight, among the cranes or storks, but ita curved beak and internal organization prove it to belong to the falcon tribe. Its feet being incapable of grasping, it koopa constantly on tbe ground in sandy and open placea, and runa wifch such speed as to be able to overtake the most agile reptiles. Tbe destruction it causes in tbeir ranks must be great indeed, for Le Vaillant mentions that having killed one of these birds be found in its crop eleven rather large lizards, tbree serpents of an arm's length, and eleven small tor toises, besides a number of locusts, beetles, and otber inseots. The majestic forra, the noble bearing, the stately stride, tbe fine proportions, the piercing eye, and the dreadful roar of tbe Lion, striking terror into tbe heart of every otber aniraal, all corabine to mark bim witb the starap of royalty. All nerve, all muscle, bis enormous strength shows itself in tbe tremendous bound witb whicb he rushes upon his prey, in tbe rapid motions of hia tail, one atroke of which ia able to fell the strongest man to the ground, and in the expressive wrinkling of his brow. No wonder that, ever inclmed to judge from outward appearances, and to attribute to ex ternal beauty analogous qualities of mind, man bas endowed tbe lion witb a nobUity of character which he in reality does not possess. For modern travelers, who bave bad occasion to observe bim in his native wilds, far from awarding him the praise of chivalrous generosity and noble daring, rather deaoribe him aa a mean aplrited robber, prowling about at night time in order to surpriae a weaker prey. The lion is distinguished from all otber members of tbe feline tribe by tbe uniform color of his tawny skin, by tbo black tuft at tbe end of bia tail, and particularly by the long and sometimea blackish mane, which he is able to bristle wben under the influence of passion, and whioh contributes so much to tbe beauty of the male, while it is wanting in the lioness, who is very inferior in size and comeliness to her stately mate. His chief food consists of tbe flesh of tbe larger herbivorous aniraals, very few of which be is unable to master, and tbe swift-fopted antelope bas no greater eneray than he. Conoealed in the high rushes on tbe river's bank, he lies in ambush for the timorous herd, which at night-fall approaches the water to quench its thirst. Slowly and cau tiously the children of the waste advance ; they listen witb ears ereot, they atrain then- THE LION AND HIS PREY. 699 eyes to penetrate the thicket's gloom, but nothing suspioioua appears or moves along the bank. Long and deeply they quaff the delicious draught ; but suddenly with a giant spring, like Ughtning bursting from a cloud, tbe Uon bounds upon tbe unsuspect ing revellers, and the leader of tbe herd lies prostrate at his feet, while his companions fly into the desert. LIONS PULLING DOWN A GIKAFFE. Andersson is one of the very few who bave ever had an opportunity of seeing the lion seizing his prey in broad dayUght. Late one evening he bad badly wounded a lieu ; and on tbe following morning set out with bia attendants, following the bloody tracks of the animal. " Presently," he writes, " we came upon the ' spoor ' of a whole troop of lions, as also that of a solitary giraffe. So many tracks confused us, and while endeavoring to pick out from the rest those of tbe wounded lion, I observed my native attendants suddenly rush forward, and tbe next instant tbe jungle re-echoed with the shouts of triumph. Thinking they had discovered the lion we were in pur suit of, I also hurried forward ; but iraagine my surprise wben emerging into an open- mg in tbe jungle I saw, not a dead lion, as I expected, but five living lions — two males and three females — two of whom were in the act of pulling down a splendid giraffe, the other three watching close at hand, and with devouring looka, the deadly 700 THE TROPICAL WORLD. strife. The scene waa of so imposing a nature that for the moraent I forgot I carried a gun. The natives, however, in anticipation of a glorious gorge, dashed madly for ward, and witb tbe most piercing shrieks and yells corapelled tbe lions to a hasty retreat. Wben I reached the giraffe, now stretched at fuU length on tbe sand, it made a few ineffectual atterapts to raise its neck ; its body heaved and quivered for a mo ment, and the next instant the poor animal was dead. It bad received several deep gashes about the flanks and chest, caused by the claws and teeth of its fierce assail ants. The strong and tough muscles of the neck were alao bitten through. All thought of pursuing tbe wounded lion was now out of the question. The natives remained gorging on tbe carcass of tbe giraffe until it was devoured. A day or two afterward, however, I had tbe good fortune to fall in with my royal antagonist, and finished bim without difficulty." During the day-time the lion seldom attacks man, and sometiraes even when meet ing a traveler he is said to pass bim by unnoticed ; but when the abadea of evening descend, bis mood undergoes a change. After sunset it is dangerous to venture into tbe woody and wUd regions of Mount Atlas, for there the lion lies in wait, and there one finds bim stretched across tbe narrow path. It is then that dramatic scenes of absorbing interest not unfrequently take place. Wben, so say tbe Bedouins, a single man tbus raeeting witb a lion is possessed of an undaunted heart, he advances towards tbe monster brandishing bis aword or flouriahlng bia rifle high in tbe air, and, taking good care not to strike or to aboot, contents himself with pouring forth a torrent of abuse : " Ob, thou mean-spirited thief! thou pitiful waylayer ! thou son of one that never ventured to say no ! think'st thou I fear thee ? Knoweat thou whose son I am ? Arise, and let me pass !" The lion waits till tbe man approaches quite near to him; then be retires, but soon stretches himself once more across the path ; and thus by many a repeated trial puts tbe courage of tbe wanderer to the test. All tbe time tbe movements of tbe Uou are attended with a dreadful noise, he breaks numberless branches with his tail, be roars, be growls ; like tbe cat with tbe mouse, be plays with tbe object of bis repeated and singular attacks, keeping bira perpetually auspended between hope and fear. If the man engaged in this combat keeps up bia courage, — if, as tbe Arabs express tbemselves, " he holds fast his soul," then the brute at last quits hira and seeks some other prey. But if the lion perceives that be has to do with an opponent whose courage falters, whose voice trembles, who does not venture to utter a menace, then to terrify him still more be redoublea the deacribed manoeuvres. He approaches bis victim, pushes him from tbe path, then leavea bira and approachea again, and enjoys tbe agony of tbe wretch, until at last be tears bira to pieces. Tbe lion is said to have a particular liking for tbe flesh of the Hottentots, and it is surprising with what obstinacy be will follow one of tbese unfortunate savages. Thus Mr. Barrow relates tbe adventure of a Namaqua Hottentot, who, endeavoring to drive his master's cattle into a pool of water enclosed between two ridgea of rocks, espied a huge lion couching in the midst of the pool. Terrified at the unexpected sight of such a beast, that seemed to have his eyes fixed upou bira, be instantly took to bis heels. In doing this be bad presence of mind enough to run through the herd, eoncluding that if the lion sbould pursue be would take up with tbe first beast that presented itself. In this, however, be was mistaken. The lion broke through tbe herd, making directly after the Hottentot, who, on turning round and perceiving that the monster ENCOUNTERS WITH LIONS. 701 had singled bim out. breathless and half dead with fear, scrambled up one of the tree- aloes. In the trunk of which a few steps had luckily been cut out to corae at some birds' nests that tbe branches contained. At tbe same moment the lion made a spring at him, but missing bis aira, fell upon the ground. In surly silence he walked round the tree, casting at tiraes a dreadful look towards the poor Hottentot, who screened himself frora bis sight behind tbe branches. Having remained silent and motionless for a length of time, he at length ventured to peep, hoping that tbe lion bad taken his departure, when, to bis great terror and astonishment, bis eyes met those of tbe animal, which, as tbe poor fellow afterwards expressed himself, flashed fire at bira. In short, tbe lion laid himself down at tbe foot of tbe tree, and did not remove frora tbe place for twenty-four hours. At the end of this tirae, beooming parched with thirat, he went to a spring at sorae distance in order to drink. The Hottentot now, with trepidation, ventured to descend, and scarapered off horae, which was not raore tban a mile distant, as fast as his feet could carry bim. On account as well of tbe devastations which be causes among the herds as of tbe pleasure of the chase, the lion is pursued and killed in Nortb and in South Africa wherever be appears : a state of war which, as may well be supposed, is not without danger for tbe aggressive party. Tbus Andersson once fired upon a black-raaned lion, one of tbe largest be ever encountered in Africa. Roused to fury by tbe slight ' wound be bad received, the brute rapidly wheeled, rushed upon bira with a dreadful roar, and at the distance of a few paces, couched as if about to spring, having his bead imbedded, so to aay, between hia fore pawa. Drawing a large bunting-knife, and slipping it over tbe wrist of bis right hand, Andersson dropped on one knee, and tbus prepared, awaited tbe onset of tbe lion. It was an awful moment of suspense, and his situation was critical in tbe extreme. Still bia preaence of mind, (a moat indis pensable quality in a South African hunter,) never for a moraent forsook him ; indeed, he felt that nothing but tbe most perfect coolness and absolute self-oommand would be of any avail. He would now have become tbe assailant ; but as, owing to the inter vening bushes and clouds of dust raised by tbe lion's lashing bia tall against the ground, he waa unable to see bis bead, whUe to aim at any other part would have been madness, he refrained from firing. Whilst intently watehing every motion of tbe lion, the animal suddenly made a prodigious bound ; but whether it waa owing to his not perceiving his intended victira, who was partially conoealed in tbe long grass, and instinctively threw bis body on one side, or to miscalculating the distance, be went clear over him, and alighted on tbe ground three or four paces beyond. Quick as thought Andersson now seized bis advantage, and wbeeling round on his knee, dis charged his second barrel ; and as tbe lion's broadside was then towarda hira, lodged a ball in his shoulder, whicb it completely smashed. The infuriated aniraal now raade a second and more determined rush ; but, owing to bis disabled state, was happily avoided, though only within a hair's breadth, and giving up the conteat, he retreated into a neighboring wood, where bia carcass was found a few daya after. Dr. Livingstone once had a stUl more narrow escape, for be was actuaUy under tbe paws of a lion, whose fury be bad roused by firing two bullets at bim. " I was upou a littie bight ; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. GrowUng horribly close to my ear, be shook me as a terrier-dog does a rat. Tbe shock produced a stupor, similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse 702 THE TROPICAL WORLD. after the first shake of the cat. It caused a sort of drowsiness in which there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see aU tbe operation, but feel not the knife. Thiis singular condition was not the result of any mental process ; tbe shake annihUated fear, and aUowed no sense of horror In looking round at tbe beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals klUed by tbe carnivora ; and if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death. Turning round to reUeve myself of tbe weight, as be bad one paw on tbe back of my head, I saw his eyes direeted to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him at a distance of ten or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels; tbe lion iraraediately left me, and attacking Mebalw^, bit bis thigh. Another man attempted to spear tbe lion whUe be was biting Mebalw^. He left Mebalw^ and caught this man by the shoulder ; but at that moment the buUets be had received took effect, and he fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been bis paroxysm of dying rage. A wound from this animal's tooth resembles a gun-shot wound ; it is generally followed by a great deal of sloughing and discharge, and pains are felt in tbe part periodically ever afterwards. I had on a tartan jacket on tbe occasion, and I beUeve that it wiped off all the virus from the teeth that pierced tbe flesh, for my two corapanions in thia affray have both suffered frora tbe peculiar pains, while I bave escaped witb only tbe inconvenience of a false joint in my limb. The man whoae shoulder waa wounded ahowed me bis wound actually burst forth afresh on the same month of the following year." In the Atlas, tbe lion ia bunted in various waya. Wben be prowls about the neighborhood of a Bedouin encampment, bis presence is announced by various signs. At nigbt bis dreadful roar resounds; now an ox, now a foal is missing frora tbe herd; at length even a member of the tribe disappears. Terror spreads among all tbe tents, tbe women tremble for tbeir children, everywhere coraplaints are heard. The warriors decree tbe death of the obnoxious neighbor, and congregate on borse and on foot at tbe appointed hour and plaoe. Tbe thicket in which tbe lion conceals himself during tbe day-tirae has already been diacovered, and the troop advancea, the horseraen bring ing up tbe rear. About fifty paces from the bush they halt, and draw up in three rows, the second readv to assist tbe first in case of need, tbe third an invincible reserve of excellent marksmen. Then commences a strange and animated scene. Tbe first row abusing tbe lion, and at tbe samo time sending a few balls into his covert to induce him to rome out, utters loud exclaraations of defiance. "Where is be who fancies himself so brave, and ventures not to show hiraself before raen ? Surely it Is not tbe lion, but a cowardly thief, a son of Soheitan, on whom may Allah's curse restl" At length, the roused lion breaks forth. A momentary silence ensues. The lion roars, rolls flaming eyea, retreats a few paces, stretcbea himaelf upon the ground, rises, smashea tbe brancboa with his tail. The front row gives fire, the lion springs forward, if untouched, and generally falls under tbe balls of the second row, which iraraediately advances towards bim. This moment, so critical for tbe lion, whose fury is fully ex cited, does not end the combat till he is hit in tbe bead or in tbe heart. Often his hide has been pierced by a dozen balls before the mortal wound is given, so that sometiraes in case of a prolonged contest several of the hunters are either killed or wounded. Tbe horseraen remain as pasaive apectators of tbe fray so long as tbe lion LION-HUNTING. 703 keeps upon hilly ground ; but wben driven into the plain, their part begins, and a new combat of a no less original and draraatic character coraraences ; as every rider, accord ing to his zeal or courage, apura bis horse upon the raonster, fires upon him at a short distance, then rapidly wheels as soon as tbe shot Is made, and reloads again, to prepare for a new onset. The lion, attacked on all sides and covered with wounds, fronts everywhere tbe eneray, springs forward, retreats, returns, and only falls after a glorious resistance, which must necessarily end: in his defeat and death, as be ia no match for a troop of well-mounted Arabs. After he baa spent hia power on a few monstrous springs, even an ordinary horse easily overtakes hira. One raust bave been the wit ness of sucb a fight, says Dumas, to forra an idea of its liveliness. Every rider utters loud imprecations, tbe white mantles that give so spectral an appearanoe to their dusky owners, fly in the air like " streamers long and gay," the carbines glisten, tbe shots resound, the lion roars ; pursuit and flight alternate in rapid successiou Yet in spite of the tumult accidents are rare, and tbe horseraen have generally nothing to fear but a fall from their steed, which might bring tbem under the claws of their enemy, or, what Is oftener tbe case, tbe ball of an Incautious comrade. Tho Arabs have noticed that the day after the lion has carried away an aniraal, be generally remains In a state of drowsy inactivity. Incapable of moving from his lair. Wben tbo neighborhood, whicb usually resounds with hia evening roar, remaina quiet, thero ia every reason to believe that tbe animal is gorged with his gluttonous repast. Then some huntsman, more courageous tban hia comradea, follows his trail into the thicket, levels his gun at tbe lethargic monster, and sends a ball Into his head. Some times even, a hunter, relying on the deadly certainty of his aim, and desirous of acquir ing farae by a display of ohivalrous courage, rides forth alone into tbe thicket, on a moonlight night, challenges tho lion witb repeated shouts and imprecations, and lays him prostrate before be can make his fatal bound. Dr. Livingstone informs us that the Bushmen likewise avail tbemselves of the tor pidity consequent upon a full meal, to surprise tbe lion in bis slumbers : but their mode of attack is very different from that practiced by tbe fiery Arabs of Nortbern Africa. One discbarges a poisoned arrow from the distance of only a few feet, while his companion simultaneously throws bia akin-cloak over the beast's bead. Tbe sudden surprise makes him lose bis presence of mind, and he bounds away in tbe greatest confusio.n and terror. Tbe poison which tbey use is tbe entraUs of a caterpIUar named N'gwa, half an inch long. Thoy squeeze out tbese, and plaoe tbem all around tbe bottom of tbe barb, and allow tbe poison to dry in the sun. " They are very careful in cleaning tbeir nails after working with it, aa a small portion introduced into a scratch acts like morbid matter in dissection wounds. Tbe agony is so great that the person cuts himself, calls for his mother's breast, as if be were returned in idea to hia chUd hood again, or flies from human habitations a raging maniac. The effects on the lion are equally terrible. He ia beard moaning in distress, and becoraes furious, biting tbe trees and ground in rage." The Arabs of tbe Atlas consider it much less dangerous to hunt the lion himself than to rob hira of bis young. Daily about tbree or four o'clock in tbe afternoon, the parent lions roara about, most Ukely to espy aorae future prey. Tbey are seen upon a rising ground surveying tbe encampment, the smoke arising from the tents, the places where the cattle are preserved, and soon after retire with a deep growl. During 704 THE TROPICAL WORLD. this absence from their den, tbe Bedouins cautiously approach to seize the young, taking good care to gag thera, as their cries would infallibly attracfc tbe parent lion. After a razzia like this, tbe whole neighborhood increases its vigilanee, aa for tbe next seven or eight days the fury of the lion knows no bounds. In ancient tiraes, the lion was an inhabitant of south-eaatern Europe. Herodotua relates that troops of lions carae down tbe Macedonian mountains, to aeize upon tbe baggage camels of Xerxea' army, and even under Alexander the Great, the animal, though rare, was not yet completely extirpated. In Aala alao, wbere the lion ia at present confined to Meaopotamia, the northern coast of the Peraian Gulf, and the nortb-weatern part of Hindostan, he formerly roamed over far more extensive domains. Tbe Asiatic lion differs from the African, by a raore compressed form of tbe body, a shorter mane, which aometimes ia almoat entirely wanting, and a much larger tuft of hair at tbe end of the tail. Africa ia tbe chief seat of the lion, tbe part of tbe world wbere be appeara to perfection with all the attributea of hia peculiar strength and beauty. There be is found in tbe wilds of tbe Atlas as in the high mountain-lands of Abyssinia, from the Cape to Senegal, and frora Mozambique to Congo ; and more tban one speciea of the royal animal, not yet accurately distinguished by tbe natural ists, roaras over this vast expanse. Tbe lion is frequently brought to Europe and America, and forms one of the chief objects of attraction in zoological gardens. Wben taken young, he easily accustoms hiraself to captivity, and even propagates within bis prison bounds, but the cubs born in our climate generally die young. That the lion is at tiraes bold and ferocious enough is abundantly testified by all tbe hunters who within the last few years have narrated tbeir adventures, in Southern Africa, but all of thera also give equal testimony to bis usual cowardice, when not pressed by hunger. Livingstone, indeed, has a most republican contempt for the so- called " royal beast," although he bears on his person proofs that he is not to be wholly despised. According to him tbe lion is nothing better tban an overgrown hulking cat, not a match In fair fight for tbe buffalo, and alwaya careful to give a wide berth to tbe rhinoceroa. Andersson relates tbe only instance which bas come within our obser vation wbere a lion assailed a rhinoceros. He had wounded a rhinoceros, and, be writes, "while following up the trail of the animal, we carae to a spot wbere one or two lions, taking advantage of his crippled condition, bad evidently attacked hira, and after a desperate struggle bad been compelled to beat a precipitate retreat. Thia is tbe only instanoe I know of lions daring to attack rhinoceroses, though I have seen it stated in print, that not only wiU they assail, but oan master the horned monster." His picture of this scene is given on page 503 of this volurae. According to Livingstone, if a traveler encounters a lion by daylight, he turns tail and sneaks out of sight like a scared greyhound. All tbe talk about bis raajestic roar is sheer twaddle. It takes a keen ear to distinguish the voice of tbe lion from that of the sUly ostrich. Wben tbe lion growa old, he leads a miserable life. Unable to maater tho larger game, be prowls about tbe villages in hopes to pick up a stray goat. A woman or a child does not come amiss. Wben tbe natives bear one prowling about tbe villages, tbey say, " His teeth are worn ; be will soon kUl men," and thereupon turn out and put an end to bira ; " and this," says Livingstone, " is tbe only founda tion for the coraraon belief that when the lion bas once tasted human flesh be will eat nothing else." Wben an aged lion Uvea far frora huraan habitations so that he can not THE LION AT HOME— THB TIGER. 705 g^t goats or cbildren, he is often reduced to sucb straits as to be obliged to make bis meals of mice and such small prey. "Upon the whole," concludea Livingstone, "in the dark, or at all hours wben breeding, tbe lion is an ugly enough customer ; but if a man will stay at home by night, and not go out of his way to attack bim, be runs less risk in Africa of being devoured by a lion, than he does in our cities of being run over by an omnibus." The Uon reigns in Africa, but tbe Tiger is lord and master of tbe Indian jungles. A splendid animal — elegantly striped witb black on a white and golden ground ; graceful in every movement, but of a raost sanguinary and cruel nature. The length ened body resting on short legs wants the proud bearing of tbe lion, while tbe naked head, the wildly rolUng eye, tbe scarlet tongue constantly lolling from tbe jaws, and the whole expression of tbe tiger's physiognomy indicate an insatiable thirst of blood, a pitiless ferocity, which be wreaks indiscriminately on every living thing that comes within bis grasp. In tbe bamboo jungle on the banks of pools and rivers, be waits for the approaching herd ; there he seeks his prey, or rather multiplies bis murders, for be often leaves tbe carcase of the axis or tbe nylghau still writhing in tbe agony of death to throw himself upon new victiras, whose bodies be rends with bis claws, and then plunges hia head into tbe gaping wound to absorb with deep and luxurious draughts the blood whose fountains he has just laid open. Nothing can be more delightful tban the aspect of a Javanese savannah, to whioh clumps of noble trees, planted by Nature's hand, irapart a park-like character ; yet even during the day-time, tbe traveler rarely ventures to cross tbese beautiful wildg without being accompanied by a numerous retinue. In Italy armed guards are neces sary to scare the bandit ; bere the tiger calls for similar precautions. The horses fre quently stand still, trembling all over, wben their road loads tbem along sorae denser patch of tbe jungle, rising like an island frora the grassy plain, for their acute scent informs tbem that a tiger lies concealed in the thicket, but a few paces from their path. It is a remarkable fact that the peacock and tbe tiger are so frequently seen together. The voice of the bird is seldom heard during tbe day-time, but as soon as the shades of evening begin to veil the landscape, his loud and diaagreeable screama awaken tbe echoes, announcing, as the Javanese say, that the tiger is setting forth on hia raur derous excursions. Then the traveler carefully bolts tbe door of his hut, and the sol itary Javanese retreats to bis paUsaded dwelUng, for tbe tyrant of tbe wUderness is abroad. At nigbt his dreadful roar is heard, sometimes accompanied by the peacock's discordant voice. Even in the viUages, thinly scattered among the grass or alang- vrilds of Java, there is no security against hia attacka, in aplte of tbe atrong fences with which they are encloaed, and tbe watch fires carefully kept burning between these and tbe huts. India, South China, Suraatra, and Java, are tbe chief seats of tbe tiger, who is un known both in Ceylon and Borneo, while to tbe nortb he ranges as far as Manchuria and tbe Upper Obi, and Yennisel, (65° — 56° N. lat.) A species of tiger identical witb that of Bengal is common in tbe neighborhood of Lake Aral, near Sussac (45° N. lat.), and Tennant mentions that be is found among tbe snowa of Mount Ararat in Armenia. Aa Hindoatan is separated from theae nortbern tiger haunts by tbe great mountain chains of Kuen-Lun (35° N.), and of Mouztagh (42° N. lat.), each cov ered with perpetual snows, mere summer excursions are quite out of tbe question, an' 45 706 THE TROPICAL WORLD. it is evident that tbe animal is able to Uve in a much more rigorous cliraate tban is commonly imagined. Even in India tbe tiger is by no means confined to tbe sultry jungle, for we learn from Mr. Hodgson's account of tbe maramalia of Nepaul, that in the Himalaya be is soraetiraes found at tbe very edge of the perpetual snow. Tiger-bunting is a chief pleasure of tbe Indian rajahs and zemindars, who, anxious that their favorite amusement may suffer no diminution, forbid any one else to chase on tbeir domains, however much tbeir poor vassals may bave to suffer in consequence. But tbe deUgbfc tbey take in tiger shooting never leads the cautious Nimrods so far as to endanger their precious persons. On some trees of the jungle a scaffolding is pre pared, at a ludicrous higbt for bis highness, who, at the appointed hour, makea his appearance with all the pomp of a petty Asiatic despot. The beating now begins, and is executed by a troop of raiserable peasants, who raost unwillingly subrait to this forced and unpaid labor, which is the raore dangerous for tbem as tbey are dispersed in a long line, instead of forming a troop, the only way to secure thera against tbe attacks of the tiger. Tbus tbey advance witb a dreadful noise of drums, horns, and pistol-firing, driving tbe wild beasts of tbe jungle towards tbe scaffolding of their lord and master. At first tbe tigers, startled from tbeir slumbers, retreat before them, but generally on approaching the scaffolding they guess the danger that awaits them, and turn witb a formidable growl upon tbe drivers. Soraetiraes, however, they summon resolution to rush with a few tremendous bounds through tbe perilous pass, and their flight is but rarely impeded by tbe Ill-aimed shots of tbe ambuscade. Nevertheless, great compliments are paid to tbe noble sportsraan for his ability and courage, and nobody aaya a word about the poor low-born wretchea, that may have been killed and mutilated by the infuriated brutes. Colonel Rice, an English hunter, managed bis tiger-shooting excuraiona on a very different plan. Provided with excellent double-barrelled rifles, and accompanied by a troop of well-armed, well-paid drivers, and a number of courageous dogs, be boldly entered the jungle to rouse the tiger frora bis lair. In front of the party generally marched the sblkarree or chief driver, who, attentively reconnoitering tbe traces of the aniraal, pointed out tbe direction that waa to be followed. On bis right and left hand walked tbe English sportsmen, fully prepared for action, and behind tbem tbe most trustworthy of their followers, with loaded rifles ready for an exchange with those that bad been discharged. Then followed tbe music, consisting of four or five tambourines, a great drum, cymbals, horns, a bell, and tbe repeated firing of pistoia, and convoyed by men arraed witb swords and long halberds. A few alingamen made up tbe rear, who were conatantly throwing stones into tbe jungle over tbe beads of tbe foremost of the party, and even more effectually than tbe noise of tbe music drove tbe tiger from bis retreat. From time to time one of tbe men clirabed upon tbe sumrait of a tree to observe tbe movements of tbe grass. Tbe whole troop constantly forraed a close body. The tiger in cold blood never dares to attack a corapany that announces itself in so turbulent a manner. If be ventures it is only with half a heart ; be besitatea, stops at a short distance, and gives a hunter time to salute him witb a bullet. While strictly following an order of march like tbe one described, tbe drivers run little risk, even in tbe tbiokeat jungle ; but tbe difficulty ia to keep tbem together, as the least success immediately terapts tbem to disperse. On one of these hunting expeditions Ensign Elliott, a friend of the Colonel's, had PERILS OF TIGER-HUNTING, 707 an almost miraculous escape. Accompanied by about forty drivers, they had entered a jungle, which did not seem to proraise rauoh sport, and had mounted with tbeir rifles upon some small trees to await the issue of tbe explorations, wben suddenly tbeir people roused a beautiful tiger, who advanced slowly towards tbem. They remained perfectly sUent, but one of tbeir foUowers, posted upon another tree and fearing tbey might be surprised by the animal, called out to them to be upon tbeir guard. This was enough to make tbe tiger change his direction, so that they had scarcely time to send a bullet after hira. His loud roar announced that he was wounded, but the dis tance was already too great to adrait of his being effectually bit a second time, so that the impatient sportamen now pursued him with more eagerness than caution. At the head of their troop, tbey marched through tbe jungle, following the bloody traU of the animal, until at length tbey emerged into an open country, when all further traces were lost. In vain some of their people climbed upon tbe highest trees ; nothing was to be perceived either in tbe bushes or in the high grass. Meanwhile the Englishmen slowly walked on, about twenty paces in advance, attentively gazing upon tbe ground, wben suddenly witb a terrific roar the tiger bounded upon Colonel Bice from a hollow, concealed beneath tbe herbage. Tbe gallant sportsraan had scarcely time to fire both his barrels at tbe bead of the monster, who, diverted from tbe attack by this warm reception, now made an enorraous spring at Ensign Elliott before be bad time to aim. AU this was tbe work of a raoraent, for, on turning towards tbe tiger, tbe Colonel saw his unfortunate friend prostrate under tbe pawa of tbe furloua brute. Iraraediately the abikarree wifch adrairable coolneas banded bira a freably loaded rifle. He dis charged one of tbe barrels without effect, but was then obliged to pause, as tbe tiger had seized his friend by tbe arra, and was dragging bim towards the hole from whence he had sprung forth. Thus it was absolutely necessary that tbe noxt shot sbould hit the animal in tbe brain, as any other wound not iraraediately fatal would only bave increased its fury. Closely following tbe tiger, and watehing all his movementa with the most Intense attention, the Colonel, after having airaed several tiraes, at length fired and hit tbe temple of tbe tiger, who fell over bis victira a lifeless corpse. Fortunately, the Ensign was not mortally wounded, tbe stroke of tbe tiger's paw, which had been aimed at bia head, having been parried by hia rifle. Tbe blow, however, had been so furious aa to flatten tbe trigger, and thua he escaped witb a terrible wound in tbe arm. Tbe tiger is particularly fond of dense wUlovv or bamboo bushes on swarapy ground, as be there finda the cool ahades he requirea for bis rest during the heat of the day, after bia nocturnal excuraions. It ia then very difficult to detect bim, but tbe otber Inhabitants of the jungle, particularly tbe peacock and tbe monkey, betray his pres enee. Tbe screara of tbe former is an inf^UIble sign that the tiger is rising frora his lair; and the raonkeys, who during tbe nigbt are so frequently surprised by tbe panther or tbe boa, never allow tbeir watchfulness to be at fault during tbe day. Tbey are never deceived in the aniraal, wbi^ch alinka into tbe thicket. If it is a doer or a wild boar, tbey remain perfectly quiet ; but if it is a tiger or a panther, they utter a cry, destined to warn tbeir comrades of tbe approach of danger. Wben, on examining a jungle, the traveler sees a monkey quietly seated ou tbe branches, he may be perfectly sure that no dangerous animal is lurking in the thicket. During tbe night tbe cry of tbe jackal frequently announces the tiger's presence. When one of tbese vUe aniraals is no longer able to hunt from age, or when he has been expelled 708 THE TROPICAL WORLD. from his troop, he ia said to become tbe provider of tbe tiger, who, after having aatlated himaelf on the spoil, leaves tho remains to his famished scout. Tbe tiger, who on the declivities of tbe Himalaya tears to pieces tbe swift-footed antelope, lacerates on the desert sand coasts of Java tbe tardy tortoise, wben at night fall it leaves tbe sea to lay ita eggs in tbo drift-sand at tbe foot of the dunes. Hun dreds of tortoise skeletons lie scattered about the strand, raany of tbem five feet long and three feet broad ; some bleached by time, others stiU fresh and bleeding. High in tbe air a nuraber of birds of prey wheel about, scared by tbe traveler's approach. Here is the place wbere tbe turtles are attacked by the wild dogs. In packs of from twenty to fifty, the growling rabble assails the poor sea aniraal at every accessible point, gnaws and tugs at tbe feet and at tbe head, and succeeds by united efforts in turning tbe huge creature upon its back. Then the abdominal scales are torn off, and the ravenous dogs bold a bloody meal on tbe flesh, intestines, and eggs of tbeir defenoo- less prey. Sometimes, however, the turtle escapes tbeir rage, and dragging its lacer ating tormentors along with it, succeeds in regaining tbe friendly sea. Nor do the dogs always enjoy an undisturbed repaat, often during tbe night, tbe lord of the wil derness, tbe royal tiger, bursts out of the forest, pauses for a moment, casts a glance over tbe strand, approaches slowly, and then witb one bound, accompanied by a ter rific roar, springs araong the dogs, scattering the bowling band like chaff before the wind. And now is tbe tiger's turn to feast ; but even be, though rarely, is soraetiraes disturbed by man. Thus on this lonely, melancholy coast, wild dogs and tigers wage an unequal war witb the inhabitants of tbe ocean. After the tiger and tbe lion, the Panther and the Leopard are the mightiest felidse of tbe Old World. Although differently spotted — the ocelli or rounded marks on the panther being larger and more distinctly formed — tbey are probably only varieties of one and the same species, aa many intermediate individuala bave been observed. Both aniraals are widely diffused through the tropical regions of the Old World, being na tives of Afrioa, Persia, China, India, and many of the Indian islands ; so that they have a much more extensive range than either tbe tiger or tbe lion. The manner in which they seize their prey, lurking near the sidea of wooda, and darting forward with a audden spring, reserables that of tbe tiger, and the chase of the panther is said to bo more dangerous than that of the lion, as it easily climbs tbe trees and pursues its eneray upon the branches. The Cheetah, or hunting leopard {Gueparda jubata, guttata), which inhabits the greater part of both Asia and Africa, exhibits in its forra and habits a mixture of the feline and canine tribes. Reserabling tbe panther by its spotted skin, it is more ele vated on its legs and less flattened on tbe fore part of its bead. Ita brain is more ample, and Its claws touch the ground while walking, like those of tbe dog, which it resembles stUl further by its mild and docile nature. In India and Persia, where the cheetahs aro employed in tbe chase, they are carried chained and hoodwinked to the field in low cars. Wben tbe hunters come within view of a herd of antelopes, the cheetah is liberated, and tbe game is pointed out to bim : be doea not, however, im mediately dash forward in pursuit, but steals along cautiously till be bas nearly ap proached tbe herd unseen, when witb a few rapid and vigorous bounds, be darts on the tiraid garae and strangles it almost instantaneously. Should he, however, fail in HY-aSNAS— THE AMERICAN FELID^. 709 his first efforts and miss his prey, be attempts no pursuit, but returns to the call of his master, evidently disappointed, and generally almost breathless. WhUe the sanguinary felld» may justly be called the eagles, the carrion-feeding Hyaenas are the vultures, among the four-footed animala. Averse to tbe light of day, like tbe owl and tbe bat, tbey conceal tbemselves in dark caverns, ruina, or burrowa, aa long aa the sun stands above the horizon ; but at night-fall they come forth from their gloomy retreats with a lamentable bowl or a satanic laugh, to seek their disgust ing food on the fields, in churchyards, or on tbe borders of the sea. Frora tbe pro digious strength of their jaws and their teeth, they are not only able to masticate ten dons, but to crush cartilages and bones ; so that carcases almoat entirely deprived of flesh' still provide thera with a plentiful banquet. Though their nocturnal habita and savage aspect have rendered thera an objeet of hatred and disgust to raan, they seem destined to fill up an important station in tbe econoray of nature, by cleansing .the earth of the reraains of dead animals, which might otherwise infect the atmosphere with pestilential effluvia. The striped hyaena is a native of Aaiatic Turkey, Syria, and Nortb Africa, aa far as the Senegal, while the spotted hyaena ranges over South Africa, frora the Cape to Abyssinia. Both species attain the size of tbe wolf, and have similar habits. As tbe shark follows the ship, or tbe crow the caravan, they are said to hover about the march of armies, as if taught by instinct that they bave to expect tbe richest feast from tbe insanity of man. Tbe moonlight falling on the dark cypresses and snow-white tombs of the Oriental churches not seldom shines upon hungry hyaenas, busily employed in tearing the newly-buried corpses frora their graves. A reraarkable peculiarity of the spotted hyaena is that when he first begins to run he appeara larae, so that one might almost fancy one of bia lega was broken ; but after a time this halting diaappears, and he prooeeda on his courae very awiftly. The brown hyaena, which is found in South Africa, from the Cape to Mozambique and Senegambia, and has a more shaggy fur than tbe preceding species, bas very dif ferent habits. He is particularly fond of the crustaceae which tbe ebbing flood leaves behind upon tbe beach, or which the storm casts ashore in great quantities, and exclu sively inhabits the coasts, where he is known under the name of tbe sea-shore wolf. Hia traces aro everywhere to be raet with on the strand, and night after nigbt he prowls along tbe margin of tbe water, examining tbe refuse of the retreating ocean. The same radical differences which draw so wide a line of demarcation between tbe simiae of the Old and tbe New World are found also to distinguish tbe feline races of both hemispheres, so that it would be as vain to aearob in tbe Amerioan foreata and savannas for tbe Numidian lion, or tbe striped tiger, as on the banks of the Ganges or the Senegal for tbe tawny puma or tbe spotted jaguar. While in the African plains the swift-footed spring-bok, or the koodoo, unrivaled araong tbe antelopes for his bold and widely-spreading boms, falls under the irapetuous bound of the panther — or while the tiger and tbe buffalo engage in mortal oombat in tbe Indian jungle — tbe blood thirsty Jaguar, concealed in tbe high grass of the American llanos, Uoa in wait for tbe wild horse or tbe paaaing steer. Tbe arrival of tbe Spaniarda in the New World, ao destructive to most of tbe Indian tribes with whom they came in contact, was beneficial at least to the large felidse of tropical America, for tbey first introduced the horse and 710 THE TROPICAL WORLD. the ox into the western hemisphere, where these useful animals, finding a new and congenial home in the boundless savannas and pampas, which extend almost uninter ruptedly from the Apure to Patagonia, bave multiplied to an incredible extent. Since then tbe jaguar no longer considers the deer of tbe woods, tbe graceful agouti, or tbe slow capybara aa his chief prey, but rejoicea in tbe blood of tbe steed or ox, and is much more comraonly met with in tbe herd-teeming aavannaa than in the comparatively meagre hunting-grounds of the forest. Of all the carnivora of tbe New World, perhaps with the sole exception of the grizzly and tbe polar bears, the tyrants of the North Amerioan solitudes, tbe jaguar is the most formidable, resembling the panther by bis spotted skin, but almost equaling the Bengal tiger in size and power. He roams about at all times of tbe day, swims over broad rivers, and even in the water proves a most dangerous foe, for when driven to extremities be frequently turns against the boat, and forces bis assailants to seek tbeir safety by jumping overboard. Many an Indian, while wandering through thinly populated diatricts, where awampy thickets alternate with opon graas plains, bas been torn to pieces by tbe jaguar, and in many a lonely plantation the inhabitants hardly venture to leave tbeir enclosures after sunset, for fear of bis attacks. During Tschudi's sojourn in Northern Peru, a jaguar penetrated into tbe but of an Englishman who had settled in those parts, and dragging a boy of ten years out of bis hammock, tore bira to pieces and devoured bira. Far from being afraid of raan, thia feroeloua animal aprings upon bim when alone, and when pressed by hunger will even venture during the day-time into the mountain villages to seek ita prey. The diatinguiabed traveler whom I have juat quoted mentiona tbe caae of an Indian in tbe province of Vito, who bearing during the nigbt bia only pig most piteously squealing, rose to see what was tbe matter, and found that a jaguar had seized it by tbe bead, and was about to carry it away. Eager to rescue hia property, he sprang forward, and seizing tbe pig by the hind legs, disputed its- possession with the beast of prey, that with eyea gleaming through the darknesa, and a feroeloua growl, kept tugging at ita bead. This atrange struggle between tbe undaunted Indian and tbe jaguar laated for aorae time, until the women coming out of tbe but with lighted torches put to flight the monster, which slowly retreated into the foreat. The same traveler relates that in some parts the jaguars had increased to sucb a degree, and proved so destructive to the inha^jitants, that the latter were obliged to emigrate, and settle in less dangerous districts. Tbus, the village of Mayunmaroa, near the road from Huanta to Anco, had been long since abandoned, and the neighborhood was stUl considered so dangerous that few Indians ventured to travel through it alone. Tbe chase of tbese formidable animals requires great caution, yet keen sportsmen will venture, single-handed, to seek the jaguar in his lair, armed with a blow-pipe and poisoned arrowa, or merely with a long and powerful lance. The praiae which is due to the bold adventurers for their courage is, however, too often tarnished by their cruelty. Thus, a famous jaguar hunter once showed Poppig a large cavity under the tangled roots of a giant bombax-tree, where be had some time baek disoovered a female jaguar with her young. Dexterously rolling down a large stone, he closed tbe entrance, and then with fiendish delight slowly smoked tbe animals to death, by apply ing fire from time to time to tbeir dungeon. Having lost one half of his scalp in a previous conflict with a jaguar, be pleaded bis sufferings as an excuse for bia barbarity. THE JAGUAR— THE COUGAR- WILD- CATS. 711 To attack these creatures witb a lance, a sure arm, a cool, determined courage, and great bodily strength and dexterity are required ; but even these qualities do not always ensure success if tbe hunter is unacquainted witb the artifices of tbe animal. The jaguar generally waits for tbe attack in a sitting posture, turning one aide towards tbe asaaUant, and, as if unconcerned, moves his long tail to and fro. The hunter, carefully observing tbe eye of bis adversary, repeatedly menaces bim witb slight thrusts of bis lance, which a gentle stroke of the paw playfully wards off; then seizing a favorable moraent, he suddenly steps forward and plunges bis weapon into his aide. If the thrust be well aimed, a second is not neceaaary, for proasing with bis full weight on the lance, tbe huntsman enlarges and deepens tbe mortal wound. But if tbe stroke is parried or glances off, tbe jaguar, roused to fury, bounds on his aggressor, whose only hope now lies in tbe short knife which be carries in his girdle. Those who are less inclined to desperate conflicts destroy tbe jaguar by poisoned pieces of meat, or else tbey lay pitfalls for him, when they kill him without running any personal risk. The Cougar, or the Puma, as be is called by the Indiana, is far inferior to the jaguar in courage, and conaequently far leaa dangeroua to man. On account of bis browniab-red color and great size, being the largest fells of tbe New World, he has also been named the American Uon, but he baa neither tbe raane nor tbe noble bearing of tbe "king of aniraala." In spite of bia strength be ia of so cowardly a disposition that he invariably takes to flight at tbe approach of raan, and consequently inspires no fear on being met witb in tbe wilderness ; while even tho boldest hunter instinctively starts back, when, winding through tbe forest, be suddenly sees tbe sparkling eye of the jaguar intently fixed upon him. The puma bas a rauoh wider range than the jaguar, for while tbe latter reaches in South America only to tbe forty-fifth degree of latitude, and does not rove northwards beyond Sonora and New Mexico, the former roams from tbe Straits of Magellan to tbe Canadian lakes. The jaguar seldom ascends the mountains to a greater bight than 3,000 feet, while in tbe warmer lateral valleys of tbe Andes (Jie puma frequently lies in ambush for tbe viouiias at an elevation of 10,000 feet above tbe level of tbe sea. He can climb trees' witb great facility, aacend ing even vertical trunks, and, like the lynx, wUl watch the opportunity of springing on such animals as happen to pass beneath. No less cruel tban cowardly, be wUl destroy without necessity forty or fifty sheep when the occasion offers, and content him self vrith licking tbe blood of his victima. Wben caught young, he is easily tamed, and, like the common cat, shows bis fondness at being caressed by tbe same kind of gentle purrings. Tschudi informs us that the Indians of tbe nortbern provinces fre quently bring pumas to Lima, to show them for money. They either lead tbem by a rope, or carry them in a sack upon tbeir back, untU the sight-seers bave asserabled in sufficient number. Besides tbe puma or the jaguar, tropical America possesses the beautifully varie gated Ocelot {Felis pardalis) ; tbe OscoUo {Felis dogaster); the spotiess, black-gray Jaguarundi {F. jaguarundi), which is not much larger than tbe European wild-cat; tbe long-tailed, striped, and spotted Margay, or Tiger-cat, and several other felidae. AU these smaUor species hardly ever become dangerous to man, but they cause the death of raany an acouchi and cavy ; and, with prodigious leaps, the affrighted monkey flies from their approach into the deepest recesses of tbe forest. 712 1 THE TROPICAL WORLD. CHAPTER XV. THE ELEPHANT, RHINOCEROS, HIPPOPOTAMUS, CAMEL, ZEBRA. The Great Tropical Pachydermati. — TTie Elephant: Difference between the tame and wild Elephant^His Instinctive Timidity— Acuteness of His Senses— His Sagacity in Climbing Hills— His wonderful Trunk — His Tusks— Elephant Herds— The Rogue, or Solitary Ele- phant^The Asiatic and African Species— The African Elephant tamed in Ancient Times- Present Range of the African Elephant — Native Modes of Hunting the African Elephant— The Elephant and the Rifle- Perils of Elephant-Himters- ElephantHunting in Abyssmia— The Asiatic Elephant— Elephant-Hunting in Ceylon— The Panickeas, or Native Elephant- Hunters — Elephantine Head-Work — Obstinate Brutes. — The Rhinoceros : — Range and Char acter of the Rhinoceros — Two Species, the Black and the White — Size of the Rhinoceros — Acuteness of its Senses— Its winged Attendant — Its parental Affection — Its noatumal Habits — ^Modes of Hunting the Rhinoceros — The One-Horned or Indian Rhinoceros — The Two-Horned Rhinoceros of the Malay Archipelago — Rhinoceros-Paths in Java. — The Hip popotamus : — Is the Hippopotamus the Behemoth of Job ¦? — Habits of the Hippopotamus — Its uncouth Aspect — Rogue Hippopotami — InteUigence of the Hippopotamus — Uses of its Skin and Tfeeth — Mode of Killing the Hippopotamus. — The Camd : Its Adaptation to the Tropical Sand-Wastes — Its Physical Organization adapted to its Mode of Life — Its Foot and its Stomach — Its Desert Home — The Camel and the Arab — The Two-Humped and One-Humped Camels — The Camel au immemorial Serf— Its Aspect and Temper. — The Giraffe: Beauty of the Giraffe — Its Means of Defense — Its special Organization — The Lion and the Giraffe — The Giraffe known to the Ancients. — Zebra and Quaggas: Theu: Abundance in Southern Africa — Distinction Between the Quagga and the Zebra — Capacity for Domestication — Their Union for Defense — The Gnu, the Quagga, and the Zebra — The Zebra the Tiger-Horse of the Ancients — The African Boar — The Malayan Babirusa. Finis. AMONG the animals belonging to the Tropical World there are none more dis tinctive than tbe great Pachydermati, the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, and tbe Hippopotamus. To tbese huge beasts, tbe largest that walk the earth, we propose tc devote a chapter ; supplementing ifc with a few pages concerning the Giraffe, tbe Camel, and a few otber animals of large size, exclusively tropical. Firat and foremoat we wUl speak of the Elephant : A tamed elephant, as we see him in menageries, compelled to go through his round of tricks for tbe amuaement of everybody who will pay the required quarter of a dol lar, is apparently a stupid beast. He aeems a very mountain of fleab, covered with a loose and ill-fitting skin. His great, clumsy lega look like thoae of a gouty alderman ; be writhes his huge trunk about with an air of hopeless imbecUity ; all bis energies seem to be concentrated upon the feat of eonveying to bia mouth the apples and nuts held out to him by gaping urchins. A very different animal ia the aame elephant in hia native haunta. There he ia tbe keeneat wariest, and most cunning of beasts. The little sharp eye is alight witb intelligence ; tbe ponderous ears are alive to the THE ELEPHANT. 713 faintest sound; the long swaying trunk, merely as an organ of smell, has an acute ness unmatched by tbe keenest dog that ever tracked game. He has, moreover, a courage, and when irritated, a ferocity, surpassed by no other animal ; ao that one needs to be a bold and wary hunter who assails him in bis native haunts. Yet, when unmolested by man, who is his chief, and alraost only eneray, the elephant is the iraage of strength and good-nature, loving the shady forest and the secluded lake. Disliking tbe glare of the midday sun, he spends the day in tbe thickest woods, devoting tbe nigbt to excursions and to the luxury of the bath, his great and innocent deUgbt. Though tbe earth trembles under bis strides, yet like the whale, he is tiraid ; but this tlraidity is accounted for by his sraall range of vision. Anything unusual strikes bira witb terror, and the raost trivial objecta and incidenta, frora being iraper- fectly discerned, excite bis suspicions. An instinctive consciousness that hia superior bulk exposea hira to danger from sources that raight bo harmless in the case of lighter animals is probably the reason why the elephant displays a reraarkable reluctanoe to faee the slightest artificial obstruction on bis pasaage. Even wben enraged by a wound, he will hesitate to charge his assailant across an intervening hedge, suspecting it may conceal a snare or pitfall, but will hurry along Ifc to seek for an opening. Un Uke tbo borse, he never geta accustomed to tbe report of fire-arms, and thus be never plays an active part in battle, but serves In a carapaign only as a coramon beast of burden, or for the transport of heavy artillery. To make up for his reatrlcted vision, bis neck being so forraed as to render hira incapable of directing tbe range of his eye much above tbe level of bis head, he ia endowed witb a remarkable power of sraell, and a deUoate sense of bearing, which serve to apprise bira of tho approach of danger. Although, frora their huge bulk, the elephants might be supposed to prefer a level eountry, yet, in Asia at least, the regions where they raosfc abound are all billy and mountainous. In Ceylon, particularly, there is not a range so high as to be Inacces sible to thera, and so sure-footed are tbey, that provided there be solidity to sustain their weight, tbey will clirab rooks and traverse ledges, where even a raule dare not venture. Hooker adraired tbe judicious winding of tbe elephant's path in tbe Hima layas, and Tennent describes tbe sagacity which he displays in laying out roads, or descending abrupt banks, aa almost incredible. His first manoeuvre ia to kneel down cloae to the edge of tbe declivity, placing bis chest to tbe ground, one fore-leg is then cautiously passed a short way down tbe slope, and if there is no natural protection to afford a firm footing, he speedily forms one by stamping into tbe soil, if moist, or kick ing out a footing, if dry. This point gained, the other fore-leg la brought down in the same way, and performs tbe same work, a little in advance of tbe firat, which ia thus at liberty to move lower still. Thon first one and then tbe second of tbe hind- legs is carefully drawn over the side, and tbe hind-feet in turn occupy tbe resting- places previously used and left by tbe fore ones. The course, however, in such pre cipitous ground is not straight from top to bottom, but slopes along tbe face of the bank, descending till the animal gains the level below. This an elephant has done at an angle of forty-five degrees, carrying a houdab, its occupant, his attendant, and in much less time tban it takes to describe tbe operation. Tbe stomach of the elephant, like that of the carael or the Uaraa, is provided with a cavity, serving most probably as a reservoir for water against the emergencies of thirst ; but the most remarkable feature in the organization of the " Leviathan of tbe 714 THE TROPICAL WORLD. Land" is his wonderful trunk, which, uniting the flexibility of the serpent with a giant's power, almost rivals the human hand by its manifold uses and exquisite deli cacy of touch. Nearly eight feet in length and stout in proportion to tbe massive size of tbe whole animal, this miracle of nature, at tbe volition of the elephant wiU uproot trees or gather grass ; raise a piece of artillery or pick up a comfit ; kiU a man or brush off a fly. It conveys tbe food to tbe mouth, and pumps up the enormous draughts of water, whicb, by its reourvature, are turned into and driven down the capacious throat, or showered over tbe body. Its length supplies tbe place of a long neck, which would have been incompatible with tbe support of tbe large bead and weighty tusks. A glance at the bead of tbe elephant will show tbe thickness and strength of the trunk at its insertion ; and the masay arched bonea of tbe face and thick muscular neck are adrairably adapted for supporting and working this incom parable instrument, which ia at the same time the elephant's most formidable instru ment of defense, for, first prostrating any minor assailant by means of his trunk, he then crushes hira by the pressure of bia enorraous weight. Tbe use of tbe elephant's tusks is less clearly defined. Though they are frequently described as warding off tbe attacks of tbe tiger and rhinoceros, often seeuring the victory by one blow, whicb transfixes tbe assailant to tbe earth, it is perfectly obvious, both frora their alraost vertical position and tbe difficulty of raising tbe bead above tbe level of tbe shoulder, that tbey were never designed for weapons of attack. No doubt tbey may prove of great assistance in digging up roots, but that tbey are far from indispensable, is proved by their being but rarely seen in tbe feraales, and by their alraost constant absence in tbe Ceylon elephant, where they are generally found reduced to mere stunted processes. Elephants live in herds, usually consisting of from ten to twenty individuals, and each herd ia a family, not brought together by accident or attachment, but owning a comraon lineage and relationship. In tbe forest several herds will browse in elose contiguity, and in tbeir expeditions in search of water they may form a body of possi bly one or two hundred, but on the slightest disturbance, each distinct herd hastens to re-form within its own particular circle, and to take measures on its own behalf for retreat or defense. Generally the most vigorous . and courageous of tbe herd assumes the leadership : bis orders are observed with tbe most implicit obedience, and the de votion and loyalty evinced by his followers are very remarkable. In Ceylon this is more readily seen in tbe ease of a " tusker " than any otber, because in a berdhe is gen erally tbe object of the keenest pursuit by the hunters. On such occasions the ele phants do their utmost to protect hira from danger ; when driven to extremity, tbey place their leader in tbe centre, and crowd so eagerly in front of him that the sports men havo to shoot a nuraber which they raight otherwise have spared. When individuals bave been expelled frora a herd, or by some accident or other have lost their former associates, tbey are not permitted to attach tbemselves to any otber family, and ever after wander about tbe woods as outcasts from their kind. Rendered morose and savage from rage and solitude, the rogu,e elephanta become vicioua and predatory ; and so sullen is their diapoaition, that although two may be iu the same vicinity, there ia no known inatance of their aasoclating, or of a rogue being seen in company with another elephant. These rogue elephants seem to belong, however, wholly to the Asiatic variety ; at least, we find no special mention of them by African ASIATIC AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS. 715 hunters. Mr. S. G. Baker, now Sir Samuel Baker, since noted for his exploration of tbe source of the Nile, waa long ago a noted elephant-hunter in Ceylon, and bis book "Tbe Rifle and tbe Hound in Ceylon " abounds with incidents of adventure and dar ing in shooting tbese rogues. " Deprived," he says," of the ameliorating influence of female society, the old rogue becomes doubly vicious. He appears to be in bad humor witb tbe world generally, and with himself in particular, spending the greatest part of his time when not feeding, in pacing back and forth, with his tail cocked in tbe air, ready for a rush upon any one that approaches bis haunts." Their pluck is equal to their cunning. Wben tbey travel in tbe day-tirae, they alwaya go with tbe wind, and, nothing can follow on tbeir track without tbeir knowledge. Wben tbe rogue is pur sued in the open forest or on tbe naked plain he usually retreats ; but the chances are ten to one that he is merely enticing the hunter to follow him into some favorite haunt among the dense jungle, from whicb be will charge at sorae unexpected moment. Tbe elephant inhabits both Asia and Africa, bufc each of tbese two parts of tbe world bas its peculiar species. Tbe African elephant is distinguished by tbe lozenge-shaped prominenoes of ivory and enamel ou the surface of his grinders, whicb in tbe Indian elephant are narrow, tranverse bars of uniforra breadth ; his skull bas a more rounded form, and is deficient in tbe double lateral bump conspicuous in the former; and he has only fifty-four vertebrae, while the Indian has sixty-one. On tbe other hand, be possesses twenty-one ribs, while the latter bas only nineteen. His tusks are also much larger, and bis body Is of much greater bulk, as tbe female attains tbe stature of the full-grown Indian male. Tbe ear is at least tbree times tbe size, being not seldora above four feet long, and broad, so that Dr. Livingstone raentions having seen a negro, who under cover of one of tbese prodigious flaps effectually screened himself from tbe rain. All these differences of character appeared so great to M. Cuvier as to induce him to consider tbe African elephant as a peculiar genus. Ancient medals representing large-eared elephanta drawing chariots, are concluaive of the fact that tbe Romana knew how to catch and tame tbe African elephant. He was even considered more docile than the Asiatic, and was taught various feats, aa walking on ropea and dancing. The elephanta with which Hannibal croaaed tbe Alps, as well as those which Pyrrbua led into Italy, must undoubtedly have been African. At present be is only killed for hia ivory, his bide, hia flesh, or from the mere wanton ness of destruction. The Cape colonists, to whom his services might be of great im portance, bave never made the attempt to tame him, nor has one of this species ever been exhibited in England ; but tbe big-eared, large-tuaked African elephant Is the one best known in American menageries. Tbe African elephant baa a very wide range, from Caffraria to Nubia, and frora the Zambesi to Cape Verde, and the impenetrable deserts of tbe Sahara alone prevent him from wandering to the shores of the Mediterranean. Although in South Afrioa the persecutions of the natives, and of bis still more formidable enemies the colonists and English huntsmen, have considerably thinned his- numbers, and driven him farther and farther to the north, yet in the interior of the country he is stiU met with in prodigious numbers. Dr. Barth frequently saw large herds winding through tbe open plains, and swimming in majestic lines through the rivers, vrith elevated trunks, or bathing in the shaUow lakes for coolness or protection against insects. Livingstone gives us many interesting accounts of tbe different modes of South 716 THE TROPICAL WORLD. African elephant-hunting. The natives of tbe south bank of the Zambesi erect stages on high trees overhanging tbe paths by which the elephants come, and then use a large spear with a handle nearly as thick as a man's wrist, and four or five feet long. When tbe unfortunate animal comes beneath, they throw the spear, and if it enters between the ribs above, aa the blade ia at leaat twenty inchea long by two broad, the motion of the handle, aa it ia aided by knocking against the trees, makes frightful gashes within, and soon causes death. Tbey kill tbem also by raeans of a spear inserted in a beam of wood, which being suspended on the branch of a tree by a cord attached to a latch, fastened in tbe path and intended to be struck by the animal's foot, leads to tbe fall of the beam, and tbe spear being poisoned causea death in a few hours. The Bush men selecfc full-moon nights for the chase, on account of the coolness, and choose the moment succeeding a charge, when the elephant is out of breath, to run in and give bira a stab with their long-bladed speara. The huge creature is often bristUng with missile weapons like a porcupine, and though singly none of tbe wounds may be mortal, yet tbeir number overpowers bira by loss of blood. On the sloping banks of the Zouga tbe Bayelye dig deep pitfalls to entrap tbe animala as they come to drink ; but though tbese traps are constructed witb all tbe care of savage ingenuity, old elephants have been known to precede tbe herd and whisk off their coverings all tbe way down to the water ; or, giving proof of a still more astonishing sagacity, to have actually Ufted the young out of tbe pits into which they had incautiously stumbled. A much more formidable enemy of this noble animal tban tbe spears or pitfalls of tbe African barbarians is tbe rifle, particularly in tbe hands of a European marksman ; for while the Griquas, Boers, and Becbuanas generally stand at tbe distance of a hun dred yards or more, and of course spend all the force of tbeir bullets on the air, the English hunters, relying on their steadiness of aim, approach to within thirty yards of tbe animal, wbere tbey are sure not to waste tbeir powder. It requirea no little nerve to brave tbe charge of tbe elephant, tbe scream or trumpeting of tbe brute, when infuriated, being more like what tbe shriek of a steam-whistle would be to a man standing on tbe'.dan^erous part of a raUroad, than any otber earthly sound ; a borse unused to it will sometimes stand shivering instead of taking bis rider out of danger, or fall paralyzed by fear, and thus expose bim to be trodden into a mummy, or, dash ing against a tree, crack his skull against a branch. Even the most experienced hunters bave many dangers to encounter while facing their gigantic adversary. Thus, on tbe banks of tbe Zouga in 1850, Mr. Oswell bad one of the most extraordinary escapea from a wounded elephant perbapa ever recorded in tbe annals of tbe chase. Pursuing the brute into tbe dense thick thorny bushes met with on the margin of that river, and to which the elephant usually flees for safety, he followed through a narrow pathway by lifting up some of tbe branches, and forcing his way through tbe rest ; but wben he had just got over this difficulty, he saw the elephant, whose tail he had but got glimpses of before, now ruabing full speed towards hira. There was then no tirae to lift up the branches, so he tried to force his horse through tbem. He could not effect a passage, and as there was but an instant between tbe attempt and failure, tbe hunter tried to dismount ; but in doing this, one foot was caught by a branob, and tbe spur drawn along tbe animal's flank ; this made bim spring away, and throw the rider to tbe ground with his face to the elephant, which, being in full chaae, stiU went on. Mr. Oswell saw the huge fore foot about to ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN ABYSSINIA AND INDIA. 717 descend on bis legs, parted tbem, and drew in his breath, as if to resist the pressure of the otbor^foot, whicb be expected would next descend on his body. His relief may be imagined, when he saw the whole length of the under part of the enormoua brute pasa over him, leaving bim perfectly unhurt. In Abyssinia tbe elephant is hunted in an original manner. Tbe men, who make this their chief occupation, dwell constantly in tbe woods, and live entirely upon tbe flesh of tbe animals tbey kill. They are exceedingly agile and dextrous, both on horseback and on foot ; indispensable qualities, partly inherited and partly acquired by constant practice. Corapletely naked, to render their moveraents more easy, and to prevent tbeir being laid bold of by the trees and bushes ; two of tbese bold huntsmen get on horseback ; one of them bestrides tbe back of the steed — a short stick in one hand, the reins in the other — while behind hira sits his corapanion, arraed witb a sharp broad-sword. As soon aa tbey perceive a grazing elephant, they instantly ride up to bim, or oroaa bira in all directions if he flies, uttering at the same time a torrent of abuse, for tbe purpose, aa they fancy, of raiaing bis anger. Witb outatretched trunk the elephant attempts to aeize the noiay intrudera, and following the perfectly trained horse, which, springing frora side to side, leads hira along in vain pursuit, neglects flight into the woods, bis sole chance of safety, for while his whole attention is fixed on tbe rapid movements of tbe horse, tbe awordaraan, who bas sprung unperceived frora ita baek, approaches stealthily from behind, and with one stroke of hia weapon, severa tbe tendon just above the heel. Tbe diaabled monater falls shrieking to tbe ground, and incapable of advancing a step, is soon dispatched. Tbe whole flesh is then cut off his bones into thongs, and bung like festoons upon tbe branches of trees till perfectly dry, when it is taken down and laid by for the rainy season. The Asiatic elephant inhabits Hindostan, tbe Chin-Indian peninsula, Sumatra, Bor neo, and Ceylon. In tbe latter island especially, he was formerly found in incredible numbers, so that thirty years ago, an English sportsman killed no less than 104 ele phants in tbree days. Major Rogers shot upwards of 1,400 ; Captain Galloway bas the credit of slaying more tban half that nuraber ; Major Skinner almost as many, and less persevering aapiranta follow at humbler diatanoes. A reward of a few sbillinga a bead, offered by the government for taking elephanta, was claimed for 3,500 de stroyed in part of the nortbern provinces alone, in lesa than tbree years prior to 1848, and between 1851 and 1856 a similar reward was paid for 2,000 in the southern provinces. In consequence of this wholesale slaughter, it cannot be wondered at that the Ceylon elephant has entirely disappeared from districts in which he was formerly numeroua, and that the peasantry in some parts of the island bave even auspended tbe aneient practice of keeping watchers and fires by night to drive away tbe elephants from tbe growing crops. Tbe opening of roads, and tbe clearing of the mountain- forests of Candy for the cultivation of coffee, have forced tbe aniraals to retire to tbe low country, wbere again they bave been followed by large parties of European sportsmen ; and tbe Singhalese themselves being more freely provided with arras than in former times, bave assisted In tbe work of exterralnatlon. The praetico in Ceylon is to aim invariably at the bead ; and, generally speaking, a single ball planted in tbe forehead ends the existence of the noble creatures instantaneously. In India and Ceylon, elephants have been caught and tamed from time iraraemorial, and when we corapare tbeir colossal strength with the physical weakness of man, it 718 TUE TROPICAL WORLD. surely must be considered a signal triumph of bis inteUigence and courage, that he is able to bend such gigantic creatures to his wUl. Tbe professional elephant-catchers of Ceylon, or Panickeas, as tbey are called, are particularly reraarkable for tbeir daring and adroitness. Their abiUty in tracing tbeir huge game, rivaUng that of the Ameri can Indian in foUowing tbe enemy's trail, has almost the certainty of instinct, and hence their services are eagerly sought by the European sportsraen who go down into tbeir country in search of game. So keen is tbeir glance, that almost at the top of tbeir speed, like bounds running breaat-higb, they will follow tbe courae of an elephant over glades covered witb stunted grass, where tbe eye of a stranger would faU to dis cover a trace of its passage, and on through forests strewn with dry leaves, where it seeras impossible to perceive a footstep. Here tbey are guided by a bent or broken twig, or by a leaf dropped from the animal's mouth on which they can detect the pressure of a tooth. If at fault, tbey fetch a circuit like a setter, tiU Ughting on some fresh raarks, tbey go ahead again witb renewed vigor. So delicate is tbe sense of sraell in tbe elephant, and so indispensable is it' to go against tbe wind in approach ing hira, that tbe Panickeas on those occasions when tbe wind is so still that its direc tion cannot be otherwise discerned, wUl suspend tbe film of a goaaamer to determine it, and ahape their course accordingly. On overtaking tbe game, tbeir courage is as conspicuoHS as tbeir sagacity. If they have confidence in tbe sportsman for whom tbey are finding, tbey will advance to tbe very heel of tbe elephant, slap hira on tbe quarter, and then convert his timidity into anger, till he turns upon his tormentor, and exposes bis heavy front to receive the bullet which is awaiting him. So fearless and confident are thoy, that two men with out aid or attendants will boldly attempt to capture tbe largest-sized elephant. Their only weapon is a flexible rope made of buffalo's bide, with which it is their object to secure one of tbe hind-logs. This they effect either by following in his footsteps wben in motion, or by stealing close up to hira when at rest, and, availing theraselves of tbe propensity of tbe elephant at such moments to swing bis feet backwards and forwards, they contrive to slip a noose over his hind-leg. At otber times, this is achieved by spreading the nooae on tbe ground, partially concealed by roots and leaves, beneath a tree on which one of tbe party is stationed, whose business it is to lift it suddenly by means of a cord, raising it on tbe elephant's leg at tbe moment wben bis corapanion has succeeded in provoking hira to place bis foot within tbe circle, tbe otber end having been previously made fast to tbe stem of the tree. Sbould tbe noosing be effected in open ground, and no tree of sufficient strength at band round which to wind the rope, one of tbe Moors, allowing himself to be pursued by the enraged elephant, entices him towards the nearest grove, when hia companion, dexterously laying hold of the rope as It trails along tbe ground, sud denly coils it round a suitable stem, and brings tbe fugitive to a stand still. On find ing himself thua arrested, the natural impulse of tbe captive is to turn on tbe man who is making fast tbe rope, a raoveraent which it is the duty of bis colleague to pre vent by running up close to tbe elephant's head, and provoking him to confront him by irritating gesticulations and incessant shouts of dah! dah! a monosyllable, the sound of which the elephant peouliarly dislikes. Meanwhile tbe first assailant having secured one noose, coraes up from behind with another, witb which, amidst the vain rage and struggles of the victim, he entraps a fore-leg, the rope being as before se- CAPTURE OF ELEPHANTS. 719 cured to another tree in front, and tbe whole four feet having been thus entangled, tbe capture is completed. A shelter ia then run up with branches to protect him from tbe sun, and tbe hunters proceed to build a wigwara for themselves in front of their prisoner, kindling their fires for cooking, and making all tbe necessary arrangements for remaining day and night on tbe spot, to await the process of subduing and taming his rage. Picketed to the ground Uke GuUiver by tbe LilUputians, tbe elephant soon ceases to struggle, and what with the exhaustion of ineffectual resistance, the constant annoy ance of smoke, and the liberal supply of food and water with which he is indulged, a few weeks generally suffice to subdue his spirit, when his keepers at length venture to remove him to their own village, or to the seaside for shipment to India. No part of tbe hunter's performances exhibita greater akiU and audacity tban this first forced march of the recently captured elephant. As be ia still too morose to subrait to be ridden, and it would be equally impossible to lead or drive bira by force, the ingenuity of tbe captors is displayed in alternately irritating and eluding his attacks, but always so attracting bis attention, as to allure hira along in the direction in which tbey want him to go. My limits forbid me entering upon a detailed account of tbe great elephant-bunts of India and Ceylon, wbere whole herds are driven into an inclosure and entrapped in one vast decoy. This may truly be called the sublirae of sport, for nowhere is ifc conducted on a grander scale, or ao replete witb thrilling eraotions. Tbe keddah or corral, as the enclosure ia called, ia conatructed in ihe depth of tbe forests, several hundred paces long, and half aa broad, and of a strength coraraensurate to the power of tbe animals it is intended to secure. Slowly and cautiously the doomed herds are driven onwards from a vast circuit by thousands of beaters in narrowing circles to tbe fatal gate, whicb is instantly closed behind tbem, and then the hunters, rushing with wild clamor and blazing torches to the stockade, complete the terror of the bewildered animals. Trumpeting and screaming with rage and fear, tbey rush round tbe corral at a rapid pace, but all tbeir atterapts to force tbe powerful fence are vain, for wherever they assail tbe palisade, they are raet with glaring flambeaus and bristling spears, and on whichever side tbey approach, tbey are repulsed witb shouts and discharge of mus ketry. For upwards of an hour their frantic efforts are continued with unabated en ergy, till at length, stupified, exhausted, and subdued by apprehension and amaze ment, tbey form tbemselves into a circle, and stand motionless under tbo dark shade of tbe treea in tbe middle of the corral. The artist, on the page 470 of this volume, has given a picture of a herd of captured elephants thus " tied up." To secure the entrapped animals, the assistance of tarae elephants or decoys is neces sary, who, by occupying tbeir attention and masking tbe movements of tbe nooser, give him an opportunity of slipping one by one a rope round their feet until their capture is completed. Tbe quiekness of eye displayed by tbe men in watching tbe slightest move ment of an elephant, and their expertness in flinging the noose over its foot, and at taching it firmly before the aniraal can tear it off with its trunk, are no less admirable than tbe rare sagacity of the decoys, who display the most perfect conception of the object to be attained, aud tbe raeans of accompUsbIng it. Tbus Sir 'Emerson Tennent saw more than once, during a great elephant bunt which he witnessed in 1847, that when-one of tbe wild elephants was extending his trunk, and would have intercepted 720 THE TROPICAL WORLD. the rope about to be placed over his leg, tbe decoy, by a sudden motion of her own trunk, pushed his aside and prevented hira ; and on one occasion, when successive ef forts bad failed to put tbe noose over the leg of an elephant who was already secured by one foot, but who wisely put tbe otber to tbe ground as often as ifc was attempted to pass tbe noose under it, be saw the decoy watch ber opportunity, and when his foot was again raised, suddenly push in ber own leg beneath it, and hold it up till the noose was attached and drawn tight. Apart frora the services which from tbeir prodigious strength tbe tame elephants are alone capable of rendering, in dragging out and securing the captives, it is perfectly obvious that, without tbeir sagacious cooperation, the utmost prowess and dexterity of the hunters would not avail them to enter the enclosure un supported, or to ensnare and to lead out a single captive. It must not be supposed, however, that every elephant thus corraled is secured. Sometimes onewUl, by the use of a little " Head-work," try to get free from the cords which have bound bis legs. His buttings and pitchings are a sight to behold. At other times an " obstinate brute " will lie down, refuse to take food, and in a short time die AN OBSTINATE BRUTE. without any perceptible disease. Tbe natives say that be dies of a broken heart, and that tbe animal thus lost is likely to be the very finest of tbe whole herd. It may easily be imagined that tbe passage from a life of unfettered liberty in the cool and sequestered forest to one of obedience and labor, must necessarily put tbe health of tbe animal to a severe trial. Official records prove that more than half of tbe elephants employed in tbe public departments of tbe Ceylon government die in one year's servitude, and even wben fully trained and inured into captivity, the work ing elephant is always a delieate animal, subject to a great variety of diseases, and consequently often incapacitated from labor. Tbus, in spite of bia colossal strength, which can not even be eraployed to its full extent, as it ia difficult to pack bim with out chafing tbe akin, and wagona of correaponding dimension to hia muscular powers THE RHINOCEROS. 72i would utterly ruin the best constructed roada, it ia very doubtful whether his services are in proportion to bia cost, and Sir Emerson Tennent is of opinion that two vigorous dray horses would, at less expense, do more effectual work than any elephant. Most likely from a comparative calculation of this kind, tbe strength of the elephant estab Ushments in Ceylon has been graduaUy diminished of late years, so that tbe govern ment stud, which formerly consisted of upwards of sixty elephants, is at present re duced to less than one-quarter of that number. A LITTLE HEAD WORK. The Rhinoceros has about the same range as the elephant, but is found also in tbe island of Java, wbere tbe latter is unknown. Although not possessed of the ferocity of carnivorous animals, the rhinoceros is completely wild and untaraable ; the iraage of a gigantic bog, without intelligence, feeling or docility ; and if in bodily size and colossal strength it, of all otber land aniraals, moat nearly approachea tbe elephant, it is infinitely bis inferior in point of sagacity. The latter, with his beautiful, good- natured, intelligent eye, awakens the sympathy of man ; while the rhinoceros might figure as tbe very symbol of brutal violence and stupidity. It was forraerly supposed that Africa had but one rhinoceros, but tbe researches of modern travelers bave discovered no leas than four different species, two white and two black, eacb of tbem with two boms. Tbe black speciea are tbe Borelo of tbe Becbuanaa, and tbe Keitloa, which ia longer, with a larger neek and almost equal horns. In both species tbe upper lip projects over tbe lower, and is capable of being extended like that of tbe giraffe, tbus enabling tbe animal to pull down the branches on whose foliage be intends to feast. Both tbe Borelo and the Keitloa are extreraely iU-natured, and, witb tbe exception of tbe buffalo, tbe most dangerous of all tbe wild animals of South Africa. Tbe white species are the Monobo {R. simus.) and tbe Kobaaba (R, Oswellis,) which is distinguished by one of its horns attaining tbe prodigious length of four feet. Although the black and white rhinoceros are raembers of tbe same family, tbeir mode of living and disposition are totally different. The food of tbe forraer consists almost entirely of roots, whicb tbey dig up with then larger born, or of the branches 46 722 THE TROPICAL WORLD. and .sprouts of tbe thorny acacia, whUe the latter exclusively live on grasses. Per haps in consequence of their milder and more succulent food, they are of a timid unsuspecting nature, which renders tbem an easy prey, so that they are fast melting away before the onward march of tbe European trader ; while the black species, from their great ferocity and wariness, maintain thoir plaee much longer than their more timid relations. Tbe different nature of the black and white rhinoceros shows itself even In tbeir flesh, for while that of tbe forraer, living chiefly on arid branches, has a sharp and bitter taste, and but little recommends itself by ita meagerness and tough ness — the animal, Uke tbe generality of ill-natured creatures, being never found with an ounce of fat on its bones — that of the latter is juicy and well-flavored, a delicacy both for the white man and tbe negro. Tbe shape of tbe rhinoceros is unwieldy and raassive ; its vast paunch bangs down nearly to the ground ; its short logs are of coluranar strength, and bave three toes on eacb foot ; the mis-shapen head bas long and erect ears, and ludicrously small eyes ; the skin, which is completely naked, with tbe exception of sorae coarse bristles at tbe extremity of tbe tail, and tbe upper end of tbe ears, is comparatively smooth in the African species, but extremely rough in tbe Asiatic, hanging in large folds about the aniraal like a mantle ; so that, summing up all those characteristica, tbe rhinoceroa has no reason to complain of injustice, if we style it tbe very incarnation of ugliness. From the snout to the tip of tbe tail, the African rhinoceros attains a length of from 15 to 16 feet, a girth of from 10 to 12, a weight of frora 4,000 to 5,000 pounds ; but in spite of ita ponderous and clurasy proportions, it is able to speed Uko lightning, par ticularly wben pursued. It then seeks the nearest wood, and dashes witb all its might through the thicket. The trees that are dead or dry are broken down as with a cannon shot, and fall behind ifc and on its sides in all direotions ; others that are more ¦pliable, greener, or full of sap are bent back by its weight and tbe velocity of its nlotions, and restore themselves like a groen branch to their natural position, after the animal has passed. They often sweep the incautious pursuer and bis borse from the ground, and dash tbem in pieces against tbe surrounding trees. Tbe rhinoceros is endowed with an extraordinary acuteness of smell and hearing ; be listens with attention to tbe sounds of tho desert, and is able to scent from a great distance tbe approach of man ; but as tbe range of hia small and deep-set eyes is im peded by his unwieldy horns, he can only aeo what is immediately before him, so that if one be to tbo leeward of him, it Is not difficult to approach within a few paces. The Kobaaba, however, frora Its horn being projected downwards, ao aa not to obatruct the line of vision, is able to be much more wary than the other species. To raake up for tbe imperfection of sight, the rhinoceros Is frequently accorapanied by a bird (Buphaga africana) which seems to be attached to it like the doraestic dog to man, and warns tbe beast of approaching danger by ita cry. It is called Kala, by the Becbuanaa, and when theae people address a superior, tbey call bira " My Rhinoceros " by way of corapliraent, as if thoy were the birds ready to do hira service. The black rhinoceroses are of a glooray, raelancholy temper, and not seldom fall into paroxysms of rage without any evident cause. Seeing tbe creatures in tbeir wild haunts, cropping tbe bushes, or quietly moving through the plains, you might take tbem for tbe most inoffensive, good-natured aniraals of all Africa, but when roused to passion there is nothing raore terrific on earth. All tbe beasts of tbe wilderness are HUNTING THE RHINOCEROS 723 afraid of tbe uncouth Borelo. Tbe lion ailently retirea from its path, and even tbe elephant is glad to get out of tbe way. Yet thia brutal and stupidly hoggiab animal is distinguiahed by ita parental love, and the tenderneas which it beatows on ita young is returned witb equal affeetion. European hunters bave often witnesaed that when tbe mother dlea, the calf remaina two full days near tbe body. Although not gregarious, and most generally solitary or grazing in pairs, yet fre quently as many aa a dozen rhinooeroaea are seen pasturing and browsing together. As Is tbe case with many otber inhabitants of tbe tropical wilderness, the huge beast awakens to a more active life after sunset. It then hastens to tbe lake or river to slake its thirst or to wallow in tbe mud, thus covering its hide with a thick coat of clay, against tbe attacks of flies ; or to relieve itself from the itching of their stings, it rubs itself against some tree, and testifies ita inward satisfaction by a deep-drawn grunt. During the night, it rambles over a great extent of country, but soon after sunrise seeks repose and shelter against tbe heat under the shade of a mimosa, or the projecting ledge of a rook, wbere it spends the greater part of the day in sleep, either stretched at full length or in a standing position. Thus seen frora a distanee, it might easily be mistaken for a huge block of stone. The rhinoceros is bunted In various manners. One of tbe most approved plans ia to stalk tbe animal, either when feeding or reposing. If the sportsman keep well under tbe wind, and there be the least cover, he bas no difficulty In approaching tbe beast within easy range, wben, if the ball be well directed, itis killed on the §pot. But by far tbe most convenient way of destroying the animal Is to shoot it frora a cover or a screen, wben it coraes to tbe pool to slake its thirst. Occasionally it is also taken in pitfalls. Contrary to common belief, a leaden ball (though spelter is preferable) wUl easily find its way through tbe hide of the African rhinoceros, but ifc is necessary to be within thirty or forty paces of tbe brute, and desirable to bave a double charge of powder. Tbe most deadly part to aim at is just behind the shoulder; a ball through tbe center of tbe lobes of the lungs is • certain to cause almost Instantaneous death. A shot in tbe head never or rarely proves fatal, as the brain, whioh, in pro portion to tbe bulk of the animal, doea not attain the three-hundredth part of tbe aize of the human cerebrum, ia protected, besides ita smaUness, by a prodigious case of bone, bide, and horn. However severely wounded tbe rhinoceros may be, he seldom bleeds externally. This is attributable in part, no doubt, to tbe great thickness of the bide and its elasticity, which occasions tbe hole caused by the bullet nearly to close up, as also from the bide not being firmly attached to tbe body, but constantly moving. If tbe animal bleed at all, it is from tbe mouth and nostrils, whicb is a pretty sure sign that it is mortally hurt, and will soon drop down dead. It ia remarkable that tbe rhinoceroa, when hit by a fatal bullet, doea not fall upon one side, but generally sinks on its knees, and tbus breathes ita last. From what bas been related of the fury of tbe rhinoceros, its pursuit raust evidently be attended witb considerable danger, and thus the annals of tbo wild sporta of Southern Africa are full of hair breadth eacapea from its terrific charge. Tbe rhinoceroa is bunted for its flesh, its hide (which is manufactured Into the best and hardest leather that can be imagined), and ita borna, which, being capable of a high polish, fetch at the Cape a higher price tban ordinary elephant ivory. It is extensively used in the manufacture of sword-handles, drinking-cups, ramrods for rifles, and a variety of other 724 THE TROPICAL WORLD. purposes. Among Oriental prineea, gobleta made of rhinoceros-horn are in high esteera, as tbey are supposed to have the virtue of detecting poison by causing the deadly liquid to ferment tUl it flows over the rim, or, as some say, to split the cup. The number of rhinoce 'oses destroyed annually in South Africa is very considerable. Captain Harris, who ouoo saw two-and-twenty together, shot four of them one after the other to clear bis way. Messrs. Oswell and Vardon killed in one year no less than eighty-nine ; and in one journey, Andersson shot, single-handed, nearly two-thirds of this number. It is thus not to be wondered at that tbe rhinoceros, which formerly ranged aa far as tbe Cape, is now but seldom found to tbe south of the tropic. The progress of African discovery bodes no good to bira or to tbe hippopotamus. Tbe single-horned Indian rhinoceros was already known to tbe ancients, and not unfrequently doomed to bleed in tbe Roraan araphitheatres. One which waa sent to King Eraanuel of Portugal in the year 1513, and presented by him to the Pope, had tbe honor to be pictured in a wood cut by no less an artist than Albrecht Diirer himself. Latterly, rhinoceroses have much more frequently been sent to Europe, particularly tbe Asiatic species, and all tbe chief zoological gardens possess specimena of the un wieldy creature. In its native haunts, the Indian rhinoceros leads a tranquil, indolent life, wallowing on tbe marshy border of lakes and rivers, and occasionally bathing itself in their waters. Its movements are usually slow, and it carries its bead low like tho hog, plowing up tbe ground witb its horn, and making ita way by sheer force through the jungle. Though naturally of a quiet and inoffensive disposition, it is very furious and dangerous wben provoked or attacked, charging with resistless impetuosity, and trampling down or ripping up witb its born any animal which opposes it. Besides tbe single-horned apeciea which inhabita tbe Indian peninaula, Java, and Borneo, Sumatra poaaeaaes a rhinoceroa witb a double horn, whicb is, however, diatin guished from tbe analogous African species by tbe large folds of its skin, and its smaller size. It is even asserted that there exists in the same island a hornless spe cies, and another with three boms. There surely can be no better proof of tbe diffi culties which Natural History has to contend witb in tbe wilder regions of tbe tropioal zone, and of tbe vast field still open to future zoologists, tban that, in spite of all in vestigations and travels, we do not yet even know with certainty all the species of so large a brute as tbe rhinoceros. In Java, this huge pachyderm is met with in the jungles of tbe low country, but its chief haunts are tbe higher forest-lands, which contain many sraall lakes and pools, whose banks are covered witb high grasses. Here and there, also, the woods are in terspersed witb dry pasture-grounds, and even in tbe interior of the forests, nuraerous species of graraineae are found increasing in number as they rise above the level of tbe sea. In tbese soUtudes, which are seldom visited by man, the rhinoceros finds all that ifc requires for food and enjoyment. As it is uncommonly shy, the traveler rarely meets it, but aometimes, while threading his way through the tbioket, be raay chance to surprise wild steers and rbinoceroaea grazing on tbe brink of a pool, or quietly lying in tbe morass. The grooved paths of tbe rhinoceros, deeply wom into the solid rock, and tbus affording proof of tbeir immemorial antiquity, are found even on tbe summits of mountains above the level of tbe sea. They are frequently used for tbe destruction of the animal, for in the steeper places, where, on climbing up or down, it ia obliged THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 725 to stretch out its body, so that the abdomen nearly reaches tbe ground, tbe Javanese fix large scythe-like knives into the rock, which tbey cover with moss and herbage, tbus forcing the poor rhinoceros to commit an involuntary suicide, and teaching him, though too late to profit by bis experience, how difficult it is to escape the cunning of man, even on the mountain peak. " Behold now Behemoth, which I made with thee ; he eateth grass as an ox ; his bones are as strong pieces of brass ; his bones are like bars of iron ; be Ueth under the shady trees in tbe covert of the reed and fens. The shady trees cover bim with their shadow ; tbe wUlows of tbe brook corapass hira about. Behold be drinketh up a river ; be trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into bis mouth." Thus, in tbe book of Job, we find the Hippopotamus portrayed with few words bufc incoraparable power. How tame after this noble picture must any lengthened description appear ! * According to tbe inspired poet, tbe hippopotamus seems anciently to bave inhabited the waters of the Jordan, but now it is nowhere to be found in Asia ; and even in Africa the liraits of ita domain are perpetually contracting before tbe perseoutions of man. It has entirely disappeared frora Egypt and the rivera of tbe Cape Colony, wbere Le Vaillant found it in numbers during tbe last century. In many respects a valuable prize ; of easy destruction, in spite, or rather on account of its size, which betrays it to the attacks of its enemies ; a dangerous neighbor to plantations, ifc is con demned to retreat before tbe waves of advancing civilization, and would long since have been extirpated in all Africa, if the lakes and rivers of tbe interior of that vast den of barbarism were as busily plowed over as ours by boats and ships, or their banks as thickly strewn with towns and villages. For tbe hippopotamus is not able, like so many other beasts of the wilderness, to hide itself in the gloom of irapenetrable forests, or to plunge into tbe sandy desert, fraversed by the Bedouin on bis dromedary; it requires tbe neighborhood of the stream, the erapire of which it divides witb its araphibious neighbor tbe crocodile. Occasionally during tbe day it is to be seen basking on the shore amid ooze and mud, but throughout tbe night tbe unwieldy monster may be beard snorting and blowing during its aquatic gambols ; it then saUies forth from its reed-grown coverts to graze by the light of the moon, never, however, venturing to any distance from tbe river, the stronghold to which it betakes itself on the smallest alarra. In point of ugliness the hippopotaraus, or river-horse, as it has also very inappropri ately been naraed, might compete witb tbe rhinoceros itself. Its shapeless carcass rests upon short and disproportioned lega, and, with its vast belly alraoat traUing upon the ground, it may not inaptly be likened to an overgrown "prize-pig." Ita imraensely large bead has each jaw armed witb two formidable tusks, those in tbe lower, which are always the largest, attaining at timea two feet in length ; and the inside of tbe mouth is said to resemble a mass of butcher's meat. Tbe eyes, which are placed in prominenoes like tbe garret windows of a Dutch house, the nostrils, and ears, are all on the same plane, on the upper level of the head, so that the unwieldy monster, * It should be noted, however, that it is not altogether certain that the Hippopotaraus is really the Behemoth of Job. Dr. Thomson, than whom there can hardly be better authority, in his admirable work " The Land and the Book," argues plausibly that Behemoth is the Syrian Buffalo. 728 THE TROPICAL WORLD. when immersed in its favorite element, is able to draw breath, and to use tbree senses at once for hours together, without exposing more tban its snout. The hide, which is upwards of an inch and a half in thickness, and of a pinkish brown color, clouded and freckled with a darker tint, is destitute of covering, excepting a few scattered hairs on the muzzle, the edges of the ears and tail. Though generally mild and inoffensive, it is not to be wondered at that a creature like this, which when full grown attains a length of eleven or twelve feet, and nearly the sarae colossal girth, affords a truly appalling spectacle when enraged, and that a nervous person may well lose his presence of mind when suddenly brought into contact witb the gaping monster. As among the sperm-whales, sea-bears, elephants, and other animals, elderly males are sometimes expelled from tbe herd, and, for want of company, become soured in their temper, and so misanthropic as to attack every boat that comes near them. The herd is never dangerous except wben a canoe passes into tbe midst of it wben all are asleep, and some of them may strike it in terror. To avoid this, it is generally recoraraended to travel by day near the bank, and by night in the middle of the stream. The " solitaires," or "rogue-hippopotami," frequent certain localities well known to the in habitants of the banks, and, like the outcast elephants, are extremely dangerous. Dr. Livingstone, passing a canoe which bad been smashed to pieces by a blow from the hind foot of one of them, waa inforraed by bis men that, in caae of a similar assault being made on bis boat, the proper way waa to dive to tbe bottom of the river, and bold on there for a few seconda, because tbe hippopotamus, after breaking a canoe, always looks for the people on tbe surface, and if be sees none, soon movea off. He saw some frightful gashes made on tbe legs of tbe people who, having bad tbe misfor tune to be attacked, were unable to dive. One of these " bachelors " one day actually came out of his lair, and, putting bis bead down, ran witb very considerable speed after the missionary and his party ; and another time they were nearly overturned by a hippopotamus striking tbe oanoo witb its forehead. Tbe butt was so violent as to tUt one of tbe boatmen out into tbe river, while tbe rest sprang to tbe shore, which was only about ten yards off; the beast looking all the time at tbe canoe, as if to ascertain what mischief it had done. In rivers where It is seldom disturbed, such as the Zarabesi, tbe hippopotaraus puts up its bead openly to blow, and follows tbe traveler with an inquisitive glanoe, as if asking bira, like tbe " moping owl " in Grey's Elegy, why be came to molest its " ancient solitary reign ? " but in other rivers, such as those of Londa, where ifc is muoh in dan ger of being shot, tbe hippopotamus takes good care to conceal its nose araong water- plants, and breathe so quietly that one would not dream of its existence in the river, except by footprints on the banks. Notwithstanding its stupid look — its prominent eyes and naked snout giving it more the appearance of a gigantic boiled calf's bead than anything else — the huge creature is by no raeans deficient in intelUgence, knows how to avoid pitfalls, and has so good a memory that, wben it bas once heard a ball whiz about its ears, it never after ceases to be cautious and " wide awake " at tbe approach of danger. Being vulnerable only behind the ear, however, or in tbe eye, it requires the perfeotion of rifle-practice to be hit ; and once in the water, is still more difficult to kill. It dives and swims with all the ease of a walrus or a sea-elephant, its huge body being rendered buoyant by an abundance of fat. , Its flesh is said to be delicious, resembling the finest young pork, and ia considered HUNTING THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 727 as great a delicacy in Africa asa bear's paw or a bison's bump in tbe prairies of Nortb America. The thick and almost inflexiblo bide may be dragged from the ribs in strips, like tbe planks frora a ship's side. Tbese serve for the manufacture of. a superior de scription of sjambok, the elastic whip with which tbe Cape boer governs bia team of twelve oxen or more, whUe proceeding on a journey. In Northern Africa it is used tc obastise refractory droraedaries or servants ; and among the coUootion brought by Du Chaillu from Equatorial Africa were several whips of hippopotamus-bide, which any one who bas bad opportunity of examination would pronounce to be among the raost effective instruraents of flagellation ; and tbe ancient Egyptians employed it largely in the manufacture of shields, helmets, and javelins. But the moat valuable part of the hippopotamua ia ita teeth (canine and incisors), which are considered greatly superior to elephant ivory, and when perfect and weighty, will fetch as rauch aa one guinea per pound, being chiefly used for artificial teeth, since it does not readily turn yellow. Many a belle, whose fascinating " ivories " are tbe wonder of ber admirers. Is in debted for tbem to tbe ugly river-horse. All tbese qualities and uses to which the hippopotamus may be applied are naturally so many prices set upon its bead ; and the ravages it occasions in the fields are another raotive for its destruction. On the White Nile the peasantry burn a number of fires, to keep the huge animal away from their plantations, wbere every footstep ploughs deep furrows into the marshy ground, to the great injury of the harvest. At the same time, tbey take care to keep up a prodigious clamor of horns and drums, to scare away the ruinous brute, which, as may well be imagined, is by no raeans so great a favorite with thera as with tbe visitors of tbe Zoologi cal Gardens. They have besides another, and, where it takes effect far more efflcaoious method of freeing themselves from tbe depredations of this aniraal. Tbey reraark tbe places it most frequents, and there lay a large quantity of pease. Wben it eoraes on shore hungry and voracious, it falls to eating what is nearest, and fills its vast stomach with the pease, whieh soon occasion an insupportable thirst. Tbe river being close at band, it Immediately drinks whole buckets of water, as if it were Intent upon swallowing up not raerely tbe little Jordan, but tbe whole Nile itself, which, by swelling tbe pease, cause it to blow up, like an overloaded mortar. The natives on the Teoge, and other rivers that empty themselves into Lake Ngami, kill tbe hippopotamus with iron harpoons, attached to long lines ending with a float. A huge reed raft, capable of carrying both tbe hunters and their canoes, with all that is needful for the prosecution of tbe chase, is pushed frora the shore, and afterwards abandoned to tbe sla-eam, which propels the unwieldy mass gently and noiselessly for ward. Long before the hippopotami can be seen, they raake known tbeir presenee by awful snorts and grunts, whilst splashing and blowing in tho water. On approach ing the herd- for tbe gregarloua animal likes to live in troops of frora twenty-five to thirty — the raost skillful and intrepid of the hunters atands prepared witb the harpoons, whilst the rest raake ready to launch the canoea ahould tho attack prove successful. The bustle and noise caused by tbese preparations graduaUy subside. At length not even a whisper is beard, and in breathless silence tbe hunters wait for the deeiaive conflict. Tbe snorting and plunging becorae every raoraent more distinct; a bend in the streara still hides tbe animals frora view ; but now the point is passed, and monstrous figures, that might be mistaken for shapeless cliffs, did not ever and anon 728 THE TROPICAL WORLD. one or tbe other of them plunge and reappear, are seen dispersed over the troubled waters. On glides the raft, its crew worked up to the highest pitch of excitement, and at length reaches tbe herd, which, perfectly unconscious of danger, continue to enjoy tbeir sports. Presently one of tbe aniraals ia in immediate contact wifch the raft. Now is tbe critical moment ; the foremost harpooner raises himself to his full height to give the greater force to tbe blow, and the next instant tbe iron descends with uner ring accuracy, and is buried deep in the body of tbe bellowing hippopotamus. The wounded animal plunges violently and dives to the bottom, but all its efforts to escape are as ineffeotual as those of the seal wheu pierced with tbe barbed iron of the Greenlander. As soon as it is struck, one or more of tbe raen launch a canoe frora tbe raft, and hastening to the shore witb the harpoon line, take a round tum witb it about a tree, so that the aniraal raay either be brought up at once, or sbould there be too great a strain on the line, " played," like a trout or salmon by tbe fisherman. Sometimes both line and buoy are cast into the water, and all tbe canoes being launched frora off tbe raft, chase is given to the poor brute, who whenever he coraes to tbe surface is saluted with a sbower of javelins. A long trail of blood marks his progress, bis flight becomes slower and slower, bia breathing more oppressive, until at last, his strength ebbing away through fifty wounds, he fioats dead on tbe surface. But as tbe whale will sometiraes turn upon his assailants, so also the hippopotamus not seldom makes a dash at his persecutors, and either with his tusks, or witb a blow from bis bead, sta ves. in or capsizes tbe canoe. Sometimes even, not satisfied with wreaking his vengeance on the craft, be seizes one or other of tbe crew, and with a single grasp of his jaws, either terribly mutilates the poor wretch or even cuts bis body fairly in two. Tbe natives of Southem Africa also resort to the ingenious plan of destroying the hippopotaraus by raeans of a downfall, consisting of a log of wood with stones attached to it to increase its weight, and a harpoon affixed to its lower end. This formidable weapon depends frora tbe branch of an overhanging tree by means of a line, which is then made to cross horizontally the pathway whicb the hippopotamus Is in tbe habit of frequenting during tbe nigbt, at a short distance from the ground. When the animal comes in contact witb tbe line, whicb is secured on either side of the path by a small peg, it snaps at once, or ia disengaged by means of a trigger. The liberated down fall instantly deacenda witb tbe rapidity of lightning, and the harpoon ia driven deep into the back of the raonster, who, bellowing witb pain, plunges into tbe river, where he soon after dies in excruciating torments. A few tropical animals, for which we have heretofore found no appropriate plaoe, yet reraain to be considered. Foreraost of these is the Camel. In many respects, the vast sandy deserts of Asia and Africa remind one of tbe ocean. There is tbe same boundless horizon, the same unstable surface, now riaing, now falling with the play of tbe winds; the aame majestic monotony, tbe same optical illusions, for as the thirsty mariner sees phantom palm-groves rise frora tbe ocean, thua also tbe sand-waste trans forms itself, before the panting caravan, Into tbe semblance of a refreshing lake. Here we see islands, verdant oases of tbe sea — there, oases, green islands of tbe desert ; here, sand-billows — there, water waves, separating widely different worlds of plants THE CAMEL. 729 and animals ; here, the ship, tbe camel of tbe ocean — there, tbe dromedary, the ship of tbe desert. But for tbe camel, tbe desert itself would ever have reraained irapassable and un known to man. On it alone depends the existence of the nomadic tribes of the Orient, the whole commercial intercourse of North Africa and South-west Asia, and no wonder that tbe Bedouin prizes it, along with the fruit-teeming date-palra, as the raost precious gift of Allah. Otber animals bave been formed for the forest, the water, tbe savan na ; to be tbe guide, tbe carrier, tbe companion, tbe purveyor of all man's wants in tbe desert, is tbe camel's deatiny. Wonderfully baa he been shaped for this peculiar life ; formed to endure privations and fatigues under whicb all but be would sink. On examining tbe camel's foot, it will at once be seen how well it is adapted for walking on a loose soU, as the full length of its two toes ia provided with a broad, expanded, and elaatic sole. Thua the camel treada aecurely and lightly over the unstable sands, while be would either slip or sink on a muddy ground. He can support hunger longer than any other mamraiferoua aniraal, and is satisfied with tbe meanest food. Frugal, like bis lord the wiry Bedouin, the grinding power of his teeth and his cartilaginous palate enable him to derive nutriment from tbe coarsest shrubs, from thorny ralraosas and acacias, or even frora tbe stony date-kernels, which his master throws to bim after having eaten the sweet flesh in which they are irabedded. For many days be can subsist without drinking, as tbe pouch-like cavities of his storaach — a peculiarity which distinguishes hira from all otber quadrupeds, perhaps, witb tbo sole exeeption of the elephant — form a natural cistern or reservoir, whose contents can be forced upwards by muscular contraction to meet tbe exigencies of the journey. It is frequently believed that this liquid remains constantiy limpid and pal atable, and tbat in cases of extreme necessity camels are slaughtered to preserve the lives of the thirsty caravan ; but according to Russegger these aocounts are fabulous, as, particularly after a long abstinence frora drinking, tho dromedary's supply is nothing but a most nauseous mixture of putrid water and balfdigested food, from which even Tantalus would turn away disgusted. But the " ship of tbe desert " is not only pro vided vritb water for tbe voyage, but also with liberal stores of fat, which are chiefly accumulated in tbe bump ; so tbat this prominence, which gives it so deforraed an ap pearanoe, is in reaUty of the highest utUIty — for should food be scarce, and this is almoat alwaya the case wbUe journeying through tbe desert, internal absorption raakes up in some measure for tbe deficiency, and enables tbe famished camel to brave for some time longer tbe fatigues of the naked waste. Yet all raortal endurance has its lunits, and even the camel, though so well provided against hunger and thirst, must frequently succumb to tho excess of his privations, and tbe bleached skeletons of tbe much enduring aniraal strewed along the road mark at once tbe path of tbe caravan and tbe dreadful sufferings of a desert-journey. But even these horrid wastes, where the glowing Khamsin whirls the sands in suffo cating eddies, bave beauties of their own. Particularly when tbe full moon shines iu tbe dark blue sky, bespangled witb constellations of a brilliancy unknown to the northem firmament, when tbe mountains throw tbeir dark shades far away over the yellow sands, and tbe picturesque effect of the scene ia enhanced by tbe aapect of tbe tents, the watch-fires, and tbe reposing animals; then we may well conceive how the' wandering Bedouin loves tbe desert no less than the mariner lovea the ocean, or tbe 730 THE TROPICAL WORLD. Swiss peasant bis snow-clad mountains ; and how it inflames the imagination of the oriental poets to raany a song, solacing tbe tedlousness of tbe encampraent, and banded on frora one generation to another. To the carael the vagrant Arab owes his immemorial Uberty and independence; wben attacked, be places at once tbe desert between tbe enemy and himself. Thus be has ever been indoraitable, and wben in other parts of tbe world we find that the fatal possession of an aniraal — tbe sable, the sea-otter — bas entailed tbe curse of slavery upon whole nations, the dromedary in Arabia appeara as tbe instrument of lasting freedom. Many a conquering borde bas been stopped in its career by tbe desert, and whUe tbe false glory of tbe scourges of mankind tbat bave so often thrown the East into bondage passed like a shadow, one century after another looka down frora the bights of Sinai upon the free and unfettered sons of lahmael. But tho Arab too often tarnishes bis liberty by crime, and degrades tbe "ship of the desert " to be tho accomplice of a robber. The Bedouin, anxious to pursue this base profession, inures himself, frora an early age, to every fatigue, banishes sleep, patiently endures thirst, hunger and heat ; and in tbo same manner accustoms bis dromedary to every privation. A few days after tbe animal'a birth be folds its legs under its body, forces ifc to kneel, and loads ifc with a weight which is gradually increased as it Increases iu strength. Instead of allowing ifc to seek its food whenever it pleases, or completely satisfy its thirst, he accustoms it to perform longer and longer journeys without eating or drinking, trains it to equal tbe horse in swiftness, as it sur passes hira in strength — and when perfectly assured of its fleetness and endurance, loads it witb the necessary provisions, rides away upon its back, waylays tbe traveler, plunders tbe secluded dwelling, and wben pursued and forced to save his booty by a speedy flight, then shows what be and bis droraedary can perforra. Hurrying on day and nigbt, alraost without repose, or eating or drinking, be travels two hundred leagues in a week, and during this whole time bis dromedary is allowed but one hour's rest a day, and a handful of meal for food. On this raeagre diet tbe unwearied aniraal often speeds on seven or eigbfc days without finding any water ; and wben by chance a pool or a spring lies on his way, be sraolls it at a djstance of half a league, his burning thirst imparts new vigor to bis speed, and be then drinks at onee both for the past and tbe future, as bis journeys often last several weeks, and bis privations endure as long as his journeys. * While tbe Baotrian Carael, witb a double hurap, ranges frora Turkestan to China, tbe single-hump carael or Dromedary, originally Arabian, bas spread in opposite directions towards tbe East Indies, tbe Mediterranean, and tbe Niger, and is used in Syria, Egypt, Persia, and Barbary, as the commonest beast of burden. It serves tbo robber, but it serves also tbe peaceful merchant, or the pilgrim, as be wandera to Meeoa to perform hia devotions at the prophet's tomb. In long array, winding like a snake, the caravan traverses tbe desert. Each dromedary is loaded, according to its strength, with from six hundred to a tbousand pounds, and knows so well tbe limit of its endurance, tbat ifc suffers no overweight, and will not stir before it be removed. Thus, witb slow and measured pace, the caravan proceeds at tbe rate of ten or twelve leagues a day, often requiring many a week before attaining tbe end of its journey. When wo consider tbo deformity of the camel, we cannot doubt tbat its nature bas suffered considerable changes from the thraldom and unceasing labors of more than THE CAMEL— THE GIRAFFE. 731 one millenium. Ita servitude is of older date, more complete, and more irksome, tban tbat of any other domestic animal : of older date, as it inhabits the countries which history points out to us as the cradle of mankind ; more coraplete, as all otber doraestic animals still have their wild types roaming about In unrestrained liberty, while the whole camel race is doomed to slavery ; more irksome, finally, as it is never kept for luxury or state like so many horses, or for tbe table like tbo ox, the pig, or tbe sheep, but is merely used as a beast of transport, which its master does not even give himself the trouble to attaeh to a cart, but whose body is loaded like a living wagon, and frequently even remains burdened during sleep. Thus the camel bears all tbe marks of serfdom. Large naked callosities of horny hardness cover the lower part of the breast and the joints of the legs ; and although they are never wanting, yet tbey themselves give proof tbat they aro not natural, but tbat they bave been produced by an exoess of misery and ill-treatment, as they are frequently found filled with a puru lent raatter. Tbe hardsbipa of long servitude, which bave thua gradually deforraed tbe origin ally, perbapa, not ungraceful carael, have no doubt also soured ita temper, and ren dered ita character as unamiable as its appearance ia repulsive. " It is an abominably ugly necessary animal," says Mr. Russell; "ungainly, morose, quarrelsome, witb tee-totalling propensities ; unaoeountably capricloua in its friendships and enraitiea ; delighting to produce with its throat, its jaws, its tongue, and its stomaob, tbe raost abominable grunts and growls. Stupidly bowing to the yoke, it willingly submits to tbe most atrocious cruelties, and bites innocent, well-meaning persons, ready to take its part. Wben its leader tears its nostril, it will do no more than grunt ; but, ten against one, it will spit at you if you offer it a piece of bread. For days it will march along, its nose close to the tail of the beast that precedes it, without ever making tbo least attempt to break frora tbe chain ; and yet It will snort furiously at tbe poor European who amicably pats its ragged hide." The camel seems to have been rather harshly dealt with in this description ; at any rate, it may plead for its excuse tbat it would be too much to expect a mild and amiable temper in a toil-worn slave. Which of all four^ooted aniraals raises its head to the raost towering bight ? Is it the eolossal elephant or tbe " ship of tbe desert ? " No doubt the former reaches many a lofty branch with its flexible proboscis, and tbe eye of tbe long-neeked camel sweeps over a vast extent of desert ; but the Giraffe erabracea a still wider horizon, and plucks tbe leavea of the mokaala at a still greater bight. A strange and most surprising animal, almost all neck and leg, seventeen feet high against a length of only seven from tbe breast to the beginning of the taU, its comparatively small and slanting body resting on long stilts, its diminutive head fixed at the summit of a col umn ; and yet In spite of these apparent disproportions, which seem rather to belong to the world of chimeras tban to the realities of nature, of so elegant and pleasing an appearance, that it owes ita Arabic name, Xirapha, to tbe graceful ease of its move ments. Tbe beauty of the giraffe is enhanced by ita magnificently spotted skin, and by ita soft and gentle eyea, which eclipse thoae of the far-famed gazelle of tbe East, and, by their lateral projection, take in a wider range of the horizon than is subject to tbe vision of any other quadruped, so as even to be able to anticipate a threatened attack in the rear from tbe stealthy lipn or any other foe of the desert. 732 THE TROPICAL WORLD. The long, black taU, invariably curled above tbe back, no doubt renders it good service against raany a stinging insect ; and the straight horns, or rather excrescences of tbe frontal bone, sraall aa tbey are, and muffled with skin and hair, are by no means the insignificant weapons tbey have been supposed to be. " We have seen them wielded by tbe males against eacb other witb fearful and reckless force," says Maun der, " and we know tbat they are tbe natural arms of tbe giraffe most dreaded by the keeper of tbe present living giraffes in the Zoological Gardens, because they are most commonly and suddenly put in use. The giraffe does not butt by depressing and sud denly elevating tbe head, like the deer, ox, or sheep, but strikes tbe callous obtuse extremity of tho horns against tbe object of his attack with a sidelong sweep of the neck. One blow tbus directed at full swing against the head of an unlucky attendant would be fatal. The female once drove her horns in sport through an inch board." Tbe projecting upper lip of tbe giraffe is reraarkably flexible, and its elongated pre hensile tip, perforraing in miniature the part of tbe elephant's proboscis, is of material assistance in browsing upon tbo foliage and young shoots of the prickly aoaola, which constitute tbe animal's chief food. Witb feet terminating in a divided hoof, and a ruminant like our ox, tbe giraffe has four stomacha, and an enormous intestinal length of 288 feet : a formation whicb bears testiraony to tbe vast and prolonged powers of digestion necessary to extract nutrition frora its bard and meagre diet. Ranging throughout the wide plains of Central Africa, from Caffraria to Nubia, tbe giraffe, though a gregarloua animal, generally roama about only in small herds. It is, indeed, by no means comraon even at its head-quarters, and Captain Harris, who trav ersed tbe desert as far as the Tropic of Capricorn, seldom found giraffes without having followed their trail, and never saw more than five-and-thlrty in a day. Not withstanding the rapidity with wbicb tbe cameleopard strides along, tbe fore and hind leg on the same side moving together, Instead of diagonally as in most other quadru peds, yet a full gallop quite dissipates its power ; and the hunters, being aware of this, always try to press the giraffes at once to it, knowing that tbey bave but a abort space to run before the animals are in thoir power. In doing this the old sportsmen are careful not to go too obse to the giraffe's tail ; for this aniraal, says Dr. Living stone, " can swing bis bind foot round in a way which would leave little to choose between a kick with it and a clap from tbe arm of a windmill." After man, tbe giraffe's chief eneray ia tbe lion, who often waits for it in tbe thick brakes on tbe margin of tbe rivers or tbe pools, and darts upon it with a murderous spring while it is slaking its thirst. Andersson, as we have already narrated,* once saw five lions, two of whora were in tbe act of pulling down a splendid giraffe, while tbo other three were watching close at band the issue of the deadly strife ; and Captain Harris relates tbat, wbUe be was encamped on the banks of a small streara, a ca meleopard waa kUled by a lion whilst in the act of drinking, at no great distance from tbe wagons. It waa a noisy affair; but an inspection of the scene on which it occurred proved tbat tbe giant strength of the victim had been paralyzed in an instant. Some times the giraffe saves itself from tbe attacks of its arch-enemy by a timely fiight ; but wben hemraed in, it offers a desperate resistanoe, and in spite of its naturally gentle and peaceable disposition, gives such desperate kicks with its fore-feet as to keep its antagonist at a respectful distance, and finally to compel bim to retreat. *Ante, p. 699. GIRAFFES— ZEBRAS— QUAGGAS. 733 The Greeks and Roraans were well acquainted with the giraffe ; and Aristotle, de scribing it under the name of hippardion, or panther-horse, probably knew it better tban Buffet), who never saw more of ifc tban a stuffed skin. Pliny relates tbat Julius CiBsar (45 b. c.) first exhibited it to tbe Romans in tho ampbitbeatre, and frora tbat time it often played a conspicuoua part in tbe bloody spectacles with which the railitary despots of the declining empire used to entertain tbe rabble of Rome. Even during tbe middle ages giraffes were sometimes seen in Europe. The sultan of Egypt pre sented tbe German emperor, Frederick IL, witb a oaraeleopard ; and Lorenzo de Medicis was honored with a similar gift. But since tbat time tbree full centuries elapsed be fore a single giraffe was ever transported aoross tbe Mediterranean ; and wben at length tbe wily old tyrant Mehemet AU, who knew how to flatter tbe French while grinding bis poor Fellahs, sent one of tbem to the Jardin des Plantes in 1827, it raiaed no less a sensation than if it had been tbe unicorn itself. Thenceforth, tbe spell being broken, many giraffes bave been imported into Europe and America. There are many analo gies between tbe giraffe and tbe ostrich ; both long-logged, long-necked, fit for cropping the tall mimosas, or scouring rapidly tbe plain ; both, finally, defending tbemselves by striking tbeir feet forwards, the one against tbe jackal or hyaena, the otber against the assaults of the formidable lion. As if to make up for the hideous deformity of tbe rhinoceros and hippopotamua, tbe African wilda excluaively give birth to the beautifully-striped Zebras, the most gor geously attired raerabers of tbe equine race. Tbe tawny-colored Quagga, irregularly banded and raarked witb dark brown stripes, whicb, stronger on tbe bead and neck, gradually become fainter, until lost behind the shoulders, bas its high crest surraounted by a standing mane, banded alternately brown and white. It used formerly to be found in great numbers within the limits of the Cape Colony, and still roams in vast herds in the open plains farther to the north. Thus, in the desert of tbe Meritsane, Major Harris, after crossing a park of magnificent camel-thorn trees, soon perceived largo herds of quaggas and brindled gnus, which con tinued to join each other, until the whole plain seemed alive. Tbe clatter of their hoofs was perfectly astounding, and could be compared to nothing but to tbe din of a tremendous charge of cavalry or tbe rushing of a mighty tempest. Tbe accuraulated nurabers could not be estimated at less than 15,000, a great extent of country being actually chequered black and white witb tbeir congregated massea. The Douw, or BurcheU's Zebra, differa little frora tbe coramon quagga in point of shape or size ; but while the latter is faintly striped only on tbe bead and nook, tbe former is adorned over every part of the body with broad black bands, beautifully contrasting with a pale yellow ground. Major Harris, who had raany opportunites of seeing this fine species in a state of nature, remarks, tbat, "Beautifully clad by the hand of nature, possessing much of the graceful syraraetry of tbe horae, witb great bonea and muaoular power, united to easy and stylish action, thus combining comeli ness of figure with solidity of forra, this speoies, if subjugated and domesticated, would assuredly make tbe beat pony in the world." Although it adralta of being tamed to a certain extent with tbe greateat facility — a half-domesticated specimen, with a jockey on ita brindled back, being occaaionally exposed in Cape Town for sale — it bas hitherto contrived to evade the yoke of servitude. The senses of sight, hearing and smell, are 734 THE TROPICAL WORLD. extremely delieate. Tbe slightest noise or motion, no less than the appearance of any object that is unfamiliar, at once rivets tbeir gaze, and causes tbem to stop and listen with the utraost attention ; any taint in tbe air equally attracting tbeir olfactory organs. " Instinct having taught tbese beautiful animals tbat in union consists their strength, tbey combine in a compact body wben menaced by an attack, either frora man or beast ; and, if overtaken by tbe foe, thoy unite for mutual defence, with their heads together in a close circular band, presenting their heels to tbe enemy, and dealing out kicks in equal force and abundance. Beset on all sides, or partially crippled, they rear on their hinder legs, fly at tbeir adversary witb jaws distended, and use both teeth and heels with the greatest freedom." The Gnu and the eommon quagga, delighting in the same situation, not unfrequently herd together ; but BurcheU's Zebra is seldom seen unaccompanied by troops of tbe brindled Gnu, an animal differing very materially frora its brothers of the same genus, from which, though scaroely less ungainly, ifc is readily distinguishable at a great dis tance by its black mano and tail, more elevated withers, and clumsier action. Whilst the douw and the quagga roam over tbe plains, tbe zebra inhabits mountain- bus regions only. The beauty of ita light symraetrical forra ia enhanced by the narrow black bands with which the whole of the white-colored body ia covered. Buffon and Daubenton wished to seo this elegant creature accllraatlzed in Europe, wbicb would procure us a beast of burden stronger tban the ass, and more beautiful in its naked ness tban the horse, even wben adorned witb tbe richest trappings. A king of Portu gal used frequently to drive about with four zebras ; and, about the year 1761, two of these animals tbat were kept in tbe park of Versailles bad been so far tamed as to allow theraselves to be mounted. In spite of the proverbial obstinacy of the zebra, there are thus no insuperable obstacles to its domestication, and a course of training, contin ued through several generations, would raost likely subdue its reluctant nature as com pletely as that of tbe original wild horse and ass. The zebra is supposed to be the real hippotigris, or tiger-horse of tbo ancients ; and this is the more probable, as be ranges much farther to tbe north than tbe quagga or the douw, and approaohes tbo regions of Africa comprised within the Roman erapire. Historians inforra us tbat in the year 202 after Christ, Plautius, a governor or prefect of Egypt sent several centurions to tbe island of tbe Erytbrasan Sea to fetch horses which "looked like tigers." The zebra seeks tbe wildest and most secluded spots, so that it is extremely difficult of approach. The herds graze on tbe steep hill-side, with a sentinel posted on sorae adjacent crag ready to sound tbe alarra in case nf any suspicious approach to their feeding quarters ; and no sooner Is the alarra given than away tbey scaraper with pricked ears, and whisking their ears aloft, to places where few, if any, would venture to pursue tbem. We bave styled tbe hippopotamus and the rbinoccros " gigantic hogs," and such tbey are to all seeming. But in Southern Africa tbe real hog itself reaches a size and strength, of which we, who know only bis tame, lazy kindred, can hardly forra a con ception. Thus Andersson incidentally raentions tbese aniraals. " Wild boars," he says, " were rather nuraerous, and afforded us excellent coursing. The speed of tbese animals is surprisingly great. On open ground, when fairly afoot, I found the dogs no raatch for thera. Tbey fight desperately ; and I bave seen wUd boars individually THE WILD BOAR. 735 keep off most effectually half a dozen fierce assaUants. I have also seen them, when hotly pursued, attack and severely wound their pursuers." But of all the bog-tribe one of the most remarkable is tbe Babirusa, or " pig-deer," I it Is called by tbe Malays, from its long and slender lega and curved tusks, which 736 THE TROPICAL WORLD. resemble norns. " This extraordinary animal," says Wallace, " resembles a pig in its general appearanoe ; but it does not dig with its snout, as it feeds on fallen fruits. The tuaks of tbe lower jaw are very long and sharp ; but tbe upper ones, instead of growing downward in the usual way, are completely reversed, growing upward out of bony sockets, through tbe skin on each side of tbe snout, curving backward to near tbe eyes, and in old animals often reaching eight or ten inches in length." As far as we know, no living speoimen of this extraordinary creature has ever reached Europe or America ; but its skulls, and drawings therefrom, are found in our museums. The uses of its curious tusks, like those of the elephant, are a problem which naturallats have yet to solve. Here wo bring to a close the results of our researches into some of the character istic forms of Aniraal and Vegetable Life, as manifested in the Polar and Tropical Worlds. INDEX, Adelie, Terre, discovery of, 402. Agouti, the, of Patagonia, 419. Agriculture, state of, in Iceland, 79. Aigun, treaty of, 196. Air, remarkable moisture of the, in Taimurland, 225. , its perpetual motion in the Arctic zones, 225. Akurig, eider-ducks of, 81. Albasin, the Russian fort of, built, 195. , destroyed by the Chinese, but rebuilt, 196. Albatross, wandering, of the Antarctic seas, 395. Alcyonians on the coasts of Greenland, 59. Aleutian Islands, causes which led to the discovery of the, 201. , extent of tbe, 270. Aleuts, their wretched condition under their mas ters, 273. , their skill and intrepidity in hunting, 273- 276. Alexander, Cape, discovery of, 365. Island, discovery of, 401. Algerine pirates, ravages of, in Iceland, 95 ; and in the Westman Islands, 119. Alaska, discovery of, 202. , climate of the, 269. , mountains and forests of, 269. , purchase of, by tho Americans, 277. , telegraph through, 278. , travelling in, 278-289. , natives of, 278-289. , climate of, 284. , food in, 287. Almannagja, description of the, 73. Altai Mountains, crossed bj- the Cossacks, 195. Alten, copper mines of, 128. Alten^ord, vegetation of the borders of the, 128. America, North, treeless zone of, 18-22. . character of the Coniferae of, 23, 24. , range of the caribou, or reindeer, of, 36-39. , the musk-ox of, 41. , the white dolphin in the rivers of, 61. , the black dolphin of, 61. , walruses of the shores of, 64. , history of the fur-trade of, 307 et seq. , first discoverers and settlers of, 335. America, North, destruction of the Greenland colo nies, 335. , subsequent discoveries, 335 et seq. , attempts to discover the north-western pas sage to India, 342 et seq. America, Russian, its transfer to the United States, 272, note. Amoor, river, discovery of the, by the Russians, who relinquish it to the Chinese, 195, 196. — , the countrv annexed by Russia, 196. ' 47 Anakerdluk, in North Greenland, buried forest of, 29. Angekoks, or priests of the Esquimaux, 301. Animals, comparatively small number of, in the Arctic regions, 25. , the forests the head-quarters of many, 41. of the Arctic Seas, 59. of the coasts of Spitzbergen, 134. , fur-bearing, of Siberia, 209. , the, of Taimurland, 227. of Nishne-Kolymsk, 235. — of Newfoundland, 378. , no land, in the Antarctic region, 394. of Patagonia, 418. Aniuj, vegetation ofthe valley ofthe, 235. , chief resource of the people of the, 237. Anjou, Lieut., his Arctic explorations, 233. Archangel, foundation of, 192. , New, site of the town of, 272. , fur-trade of, 273. , medium of exchange at, 276. Archers, the Ostiaks as, 187. Arctic regions, rivers of the, 17. , limits of the, 18. , the forests of the, 18-23. , their treeless wastes, or Tundra, 18. , in summer and winter, 19. , their extent and boundaries, 21. , animal life in the, 25. , influence of the sea and winds on the severity of the winter of the, 27. , the lowest temperatures felt by man, 27, 28. , how man becomes accustomed to the rigors cf the winter of the, 28. , proofs of a former railder climate in the north ern regions of the globe, 29. , beauties of Nature In the, 31-33. , land quadrupeds and birds of the, 34. , the seas of the, 49. compared with the Antarctic regions, 391. Arctic voyages of discovery, history of, 335 et seq. Are Thorgilson, his Icelandic works, 94. Argali (0km argali) of Siberia, 41. Arrows of the Ostiaks, 187, 188. Ascidians on the coasts of Greenland, 59. Ash, the, in the Arctic regions, 24. Asia, treeless zone of, 18-22. Athabascan Indians, hunting-grounds of the, 327. Atlassoff, the Cossack, his treatment of the natives of Kamchatka, 198. Atmosphere, transparency of the, in the Polar re gions, 54, 55. , phenomena of, reflection and refraction, and their probable causes, 55. Auk, the giant, its rarity at present in Iceland, 85. Aurora borealis, 33. , splendor of the, in the Arctic regions, 33. 738 INDEX. Aurora borealis, terror of the Lapps at the, 157. , at Nulato, 281. Austin, Captain, his search for Franklin, 357. Avalanches of ice in Spitzbergen, 135. Awaklok and Myouk, their imprisonment on an iceberg, 298. Awatscha Bay, sea-birds of, 255. , its magnificence and extent, 256. B. Baatt Khan, his subjection of Russia, 191. Bachelor river, the, 412. Back (Mr., afterwards Sir George), his Arctic voy ages, 346, 347, 349. . , his search for Captain Eoss, 354. . , his discovery of Great Fish Eiver, 355. , voyage in 1835, 355. Back's river, discovery of, 355. Badarany, desert of swamps, the, 234. Baer, Herr von, his scientiflc journey to Nova Zembla, 151. Baffin, his voyages of discovery, 343. Baffin's Bay, probable influence of the northerly winds on tlie depression of the temperature of, 27. Baffin's Bay, walruses of the coasts of, 64. , discovery of, 343. Balleny, his discoveries in the Antarctic ocean, 401. Islands, discovery of, 401. Banks's Land, proofs of a former milder tempera ture in, 29. Bards, or Scalds, of Iceland, 94. Barentz, William, visit of, to Spitzbergen, 138. ¦ , his voyages of discoverv, 339. -. his winter in Nova Zembla, 340. ¦ , his death, 342. Barley, cultivation of, in Norway, 124. Barren grounds, barrens, or tundri, Arctic belt of the, 18. ¦ , causes of their barrenness, 18. , their appearance in winter and in summer, 19, ¦ , indistinct and irregular boundaries of the, 21. , those of Newfoundland, 377. Barrow Point, traffic of, 302. Barter Eeef, traffic of, 302. Bear, black, muskwa (JJrsus americanus), value of the fur of the, 315. j description of him, 315, 318. , brown, of North America, 315. , value of the skins of the young brown bear, 211. , grizzly, of the Eocky Mountains {Ursus fe- roT), 315. , bis skin, 315. ¦ , the polar, his mode of hunting, 65, 446, 448. , his favorite food and mode of seizing it, 65, 447, 450, 451. , "anecdote of one, 65. ¦ , instances of his sagacitj-, 65. , parental care of the she-bear, 65. , her winter nursery, 65, 66. ¦ , her internal store of food for her hvbernation, 66. ¦ , immense strength of claws and teeth. 66, 67. ¦ , liis unwelcome visits to Iceland, 81. ¦ of Spitzbergen, 137. ¦ of Nova Zembla, 149. , Lapp mode of hunting the, 164^166. , Esquimaux methods of hunting the, 163. Bear of Newfoundland, 378. , abundance of, in Kamchatka, 258. . , sea-, value ofthe skins of the, in China, 374. . , chase of the, in the Pribilow Islands, 274. families and battles, 274, 275. , the Austral sea-, 399. , hunted bj' dogs, 453. Bear Island, or Cherie Island, account of, 143. , climate of, 144. . , walruses of, 144. , boat- voyages of Norwegian sailors from, 145. , discovery of, 340. . , surveyed by the Eussians, 200. Beaver {Castor Jiher), its skin the standard of ex- ¦ change with the Canadian Indians, 313. , former enormous trade in the fur of the, 317. of Newfoundland, 378. Beaver Indians, their hunting-grounds, 327. Bee, sand {Andrena), of Nova Zembla, 154. Beech, Antarctic {Fagus betuloides), 410. Beechey, Captain, his voyage to Bering's Straits, 350. Beerenberg mountain, 146. Bering, Titus, never passed through the straits bear ing his name, 197. , his second vo3'agc, 201. , his second voyage of discovery, 248, 249. , his bad conduct, 250. , his death, 252. Bering Island, Bering and Steller on, 251. Sea, description of the, 268. , barren lands at, 22. . , seals and walruses of, 63, 64. , its climate, 269. , character of the shores of the, 270. , animals of tbe, 271. Bering's Straits, view of the Old and New worlds in the, 271. , Captain Beechey's voyage to, 350. Belcher, Sir Edward, his search for Franklin, 359. Bellinghausen, his discoveiy of the islands Paul the First and Alexander, 401. Bellot, Lieut., his gallant search for Franklin, 359. , his death and monument, 362. Beluga, .or white dolphin {Delphinus leucas), de scription of the, 61. , doriiain of the, 61. Beluga Bay, visit of Von Baer's party to, 151. Bennet, Stephen, his visit to Bear Island, 143, 144. Berry-gathering in Nishne-Kolymsk, 238. Bilberries of the Arctic regions, 24. Billings, voyage of, on the coast of Siberia, 201. Birch, paper, value of the, in North America, 304. Birch-trees in the Arctic regions, 24. Birds, flights of wild, in summer months, in the Tundra, 19. ¦ — — , tlieir migrations to and from high latitudes, 43, 44, 67. , the polar singing-bird, the snow-bunting, 43. , raptorial, of tbe Arctic regions, 43. ¦ , enormous numbers of, along the Arctic shores, 67. , Icelandic, 81. of the coast of Norway, 124. of Spitzbergen, 133, 134, 137. of Nova Zembla, 154. , a bird bazar, 154. , abundance of sea-fowl on the coast of Kam- chatUa, 255. , Esquimaux mode of bird-catching, 295. ¦ , abundance of, on tlie coast of Greenland, S88. INDEX. 739 Birds of the coasts of the Antarctic sea, 394. of Patagonia, 419. Birkarls, their final subjugation of the Lapps, 156. Biscoe, his discovery of Enderby Land, and of Gra ham Land, 401. Black death, ravages of the, in the North, 383. Blackfeet Indians, their wars with the Tinne and Crees, 319, 320. Bloody Falls, on the Coppermine river, 294. Boats of the Esquimaux, 293. , the birch-bark canoes of North America, 304. Bogberries of the Arctic regions, 24. Booth, Sir Felix, his Arctic expedition, 251. Bougainville, his voyage through the Strait of Ma gellan, 414. Brandt, the Danish forester, his journey with Von Middendorff, 220. Brandy, fondness of the Samoiedes for, 171-173. drunk at Kolymsk, 238. Brant Ysbrantzoon, his voyages of discovery, 339. Bread of the poor Icelanders, 79. Bredal, Eric, his education of Lapps in Christianitj-, 156. Bridges, swing, of Iceland, 111. Browne, T. Eoss, 74, 95, 104, 115. Buchan, Captain, his .\rctic voyage, 344. Bunting, its migrations to and from the north, 43. , the Lapland {Centrophanes Lappmiicus), lati tudes inhabited by the, 43, 44. Bunting, the snow, the polar singing-bird, 44. Bunting, its nest and food, 44. . — - of Iceland, 81. of Spitzbergen,'137. Burglars, treatment of, in Eussia, 206. Burrough, Stephen, his voyage to discover the north-eastern passage, 336. Bnsa, Jelisaei, his ascent of the rivers Lena and Ol^kma, 195. , his discovery ofthe Tana, 195. , his residence among the Jukahirs, 195. Butter made frnm the reindeer mills, 36. Butterflies in Taimurland, 227. Byron, Commodore, his voyage through the Strait of Magellan, 414. Cabot, John and Sebastian, their re-discovery of parts of North America, 335. , their re-discovery of Newfoundland, 379. Canada, enterprise of the French settlers in, 306. ¦ , results of the English conquest of, 306. , histoiy of the fur-trade of, 307. Cano, Sebastian el, his voyage round the globe, 413. Canoes, birch-bark, of North America, 304, 305. Cape, North, description of the, 129, 130. Caribou, or reindeer of North America, range of the, 36. Carrancha, the, of Patagonia, 419, 420. Cartier, Jacques, his voyages, 335. CaryophyllEe, the, of the treeless zone, 21. Cascades of Iceland, 78. Castor and Pollux river, discovery of, 356. Castre'n, Matthias Alexander, account of him and of his journey.s, 168-178. Catherine's Foreland, Queen, 409. Cattle, value of, to the Icelands, 80. Cavendish, his voyages, 414. Chancellor, his discovery of the passage from Eng land to the White Sea, 192. Chancellor, his voyage to discover the north-eastern route to China, 336. , his visit to Moscow, and subsequent fate, 336. Charles. IX., King of Sweden, his kindness to the Lapps, 156. Chatanga river, scanty population ofthe, 220. , Middendorff's journey to the, 220, 221. Chatangsk, Middendorff's journey to, 221. Cheese made from reindeer milk, 36. Cherie Island, account of, 144. Chess-players of the Tungusi, 246. Chickweed, the, on the Mary Minturn river, 20. Chimengo, the, of Patagonia, 419. China, Gastrin's journey over the mountains into, 177. Chinese take the Eussian fort of Albasin, 195 ; and make the treaty of Nertschinsk with the Eus sians, 196. , the treat}' broken by the Eussians, who com pel the Chinese to give them the Amoor, 196. Chinga {Mephitis chinga), its foetid secretion, 316. Christian IV., King of Denmark, his treatment of the Lapp priests and sorcerers, 156. , his expedition to Greenland, 383. Christianity, introduction of, into Iceland, 92. Churches of the Icelanders, 104. Clavering, bis voj'age to Greenland, 386. Clemy of the Lapps, their poverty and self-denial, 157. , their .«ermons, 157. , those of Iceland all blacksmiths, 101, note, 106. , their poverty, 106. Coal, does not exist in Iceland, 88. of Spitzbergen, 137. in Coal Bay, 145. Coal Bay, 145. Cochlearia fenestrata, the only esculent plant in Spitzbergen, 136, 142. Cod and cod-fishing ofthe coast of Iceland, 86, 87. , the, called stockfish, 87. , t-he cod-fishery of Norway, 125-130. , wretched state of the fishermen, 127. , exports of, to various countries, 129. . ., cod-fishery of Greenland, 388. , value of the cod-fishery of Newfoundland, 379, 380. , mode of fishing and curing the cod, 380. , dangers of the fisherj', 381. , immense numbers of, 381. Cod-liver oil of Tromso, 128. Collinson, Captain, his search for Franklin, 359, 361. Commodore Islands, chase of the sea-bear on the, 274. Condor, the, of Patagonia, 420. ConiferaB, Arctic forests almost confined to the, 24. -, difterence between the European and Asiatic and American species, 24. Constitution, Cape, discovery of, 369. Cook, his attempt to discover the northwest pas sage, 344. Cook, Captain, his discover}- of South Georgia, 393. , his Antarctic voyages, 401. Copper mines near Drontheim, 124. of Alten, 128. of Eaipass, 128. Coppermine river, Dr. Eichardson's voyage to the 349. Cornelius Ryp, his voyages of discover}', 340, 341. Cornelius Corneliszoon, his voyages of discovery, 339. 740 INDEX. CornicularisB, carpets of, and the treeless zone, 21. Cortereal, his voyages of discovery, 325. Ciis.sacks, Don, their depredations, 192. , tlieir conquest of Siberia for the Czar, 193. ¦ , their privileges and duties in Ni.-ihne-Ko- lyiii,*, 236. Coureur des bois, the, of North America, 304. Cranberries of the Arctic regions, 24. Cree Indians, uses of the paper-birch-tree to the, 305. , range of the various tribes of, 319. , their conquests of the Tinne, but subsequent defeat, 319, 320. , their wars with the Blackfeet, 320, 321 . , their character, 321. , their customs, habits, and dress, 321, 322, 323. , their wives and families, 323. , their cradles, 323. , their wigwams, or tents, 324. , their medicine-men and vapor-baths, 324. , their games and sports, 324, 325. , their wooden figures for worship, 325. , their malicious or capricious spirit, called Kepoochican, 325. , their notion of the Great Spirit and of the Deluge, 325. , their Tartai-us and Elysium, 325. • , prospects ofChristianity amongst them, 326. Cross, the game of, of the Cree Indians, 325. Crowe, Mr., his copper mines at Alten, 128. Crozier, Captain, his last voyage, 356. , the last heard of him, 364. , his Antarctic voyages, 402. CruciterEC, the, of the treeless zone, 20. Crustaceans, immense numbers of, on the coast of Greenland, 59. Cumberland Strait, Davis's discovery of, 337, 338. Currents, magnificent system of, and their effects on the accumulation of ice, 56, 57. D. Dances of the Tchuktchi, 266. Darwin, Jlr., his ascent of Mount Tarn, 411. Davis, John, his voyages to discover an Arctic pas sage to India, 337. ¦ , his visit to Labrador, 338. ¦ , his subsequent life, 338. Davis's Straits, probable influence of the northerly winds on the depression of the temperature of, 27. , Sebastian Cabot's discovery of, 335. Dead, reverence paid to the, by the Samoiedes, 181. Dease, Peter Warren, his land Arctic expedition, 355. Death, black, its ravages in Iceland, 95. Deception Island, account of, 393. Deer, red {Cervus elephas), its habitat and uses to man, 40. Deer of Vogelsang and Treurenberg Bay, 137. Deluge, Cree legend of the, 325. Demidoff, foundation of the family of, 219. , their enormous wealth, 219. Deschnew, Semen, his the first and last voyage through Bering's Strait, 197. Desolation, South, 412. Detti-foss, an Icelandic cascade, Mr. Gould's de- sci'iption of the, 78. Disco bay, icebergs formed in, 49. Divers, their migrations to and from the north, 42. Dog-rib Indians, hunting-grounds of the, 327. , their character, dress, and customs, 327, 329. , their want of hospitality, 329. , their honesty, 329. , their notions of a future life, 329. Dog, the reindeer of the Lapps, 161. , WrangeU's dog-sledges on the Polar sea, 239. , Icelandic, 80. , the, of the people of Kolymsk, 236. , the Kamchatkan, and dog-sledges, 258, 259. . their mode of foretelling storms, 259. , mode of training sledge-dogs, 259. , trained bv Esquimaux to attack the bear, 297. , description of the, and dog-sledges of the Es- imaux, 299. qu, Dr. Kane's Newfoundland and Esquimaux, 367. , epidemic amongst tbe Esquimaux, 372. Dolgorouky, Prince, his exile to Siberia, 205. Dolphin, white, or beluga, of Nova Zembla, 155. , Greenland fishery of the, 387. Dolphins of the Polar seas, 61, 398. , the beluga, or white dolphin, 61. , the hlack dolphin, " ca'ing " whale, or grind, 61. , the ore, or grampus, 62. -' of Spitzbergen, 137. Drake, Sir Francis, his voyage through the Strait of Magellan, 414. Drifanda Foss, an Icelandic cascade, 114. Drontheim, the red deer near, 40. , description of, 124. Ducks, wild, of the Arctic regions, 19. , their migrations to and from the north, 42. of Iceland, 81, 84. Dudinka, Castren's visit to, 176. Dungeness, Point, 409. Durfoorth, his voyage and death, 336. D'Urville, Dumont, his discoveries in the Antarctic ocean, 402. Dutch, their expeditions to discover an Arctic pas sage to India, 339. E. Eagle, the sea- {flalicetus albicilla), of the north, 44. , his food, 44. , white-tailed, of Iceland, 85. ¦ , value of the skins of the, 85. , the, on tbe coast of Norway, 125. , in tbe Tundra in summer, 19. Ebierbing, 441, 466. Egede, Hans, his voyage to Greenland, 384. Egg-vare of the coast of Norway, 124. Egilson, Olaf, the Westman clergj'man, his slavery in Algiers, 118. Eider-duck, its migrations to and from the north, 43. of Iceland, 81. , breeding of, 83. , Mr. Shepherd's visit to one of its head-quar ters, 83. Elder, the, in the Arctic regions, 24. Elephant, sea-, of tbe Antarctic ocean, 399. Elk, or moose deer, of the forests of the north, 38. , Csesar's account of it, 39. , its food and present habitat, 40. INDEX. 741 Elk, its mode of defending itself, 40. Enara, Lake of, the Fisher Lapps of, 166. . , description of the, 169. Enderby Land, discovery of, 401. English pirates, ravages of, in Iceland, 95. Erebus, mount, eruption of, 403. Eric the Red, his visit to Greenland, 382. Ermine {Mustela erminea) beauty and importance of the fur of the, 210. , those of the Hudson's Bay Territory, 316. Esk, volcano, 146. Esquiraaux {see also Innuits), their wide extension, 290. , their own name of Innuit, 290. , character of the regions they inhabit, 290. , their physical character, habits, and man ners, 290, 291. women, 291. , their dress and snow-huts, 291, 292. , their boat, the kayak or baidar, 293. , their weapons, and fishing and hunting im plements, 293, 294. , enmity between them and the Red Indians, 294. , their chase of the reindeer, and bird-catching, 295. , their whale and seal hunts, 295, 296. , their "keep kuttuk," 296. , their bear and walrus hunts, 296, 298. , their dogs and dog-sledges, 299. , their games and sports, 300. , constitution of their society, 300. ¦ , their angekoks, or priests, 300, 301. , their moral character, self-reliance, and in telligence, 301, 302. , their maps, and predilection for commercial pursuits, 302. , their voracity, and seasons of abundance and disti-ess, 302, 303. , their depots of food, 302, 303. , their wars with the Kutchin Indians, 333. , thsir attack of Franklin's boats, 349. , their hunting expeditions with Dr. Kane's party, 370. , their ravages on the Greenland coast, 383. Europe, treeless zone of, 18-24. Evil Spirit ofthe woods ofthe Laplanders, 157. Exiles, Siberian, 204, 205. , annual number of, 206. Eyjafialla, eruption of, in 1821, 96. Eystein, King, his benevolence, 126. Faeeoe Islands, chase of the black dolphin, or " ca'ing" whale, in the, 61. Falkland Islands, climate of, 394. Famine, Port, rich vegetation of, 410, 414. Festuca ofthe Arctic regions, 20. Finback whales of Spitzbergen, 137. Finches in the Tundra in summer, 19. Finmark, trade and fisheries of the coast of, 129. Finnur Johnson, the Icelander, his "Ecclesiastical History of Iceland," 98. Fir, different species of, in Europe, Asia, and Amer ica, 24. Fish, and fishing season of Iceland, 86. , abundance of, in Kamchatka, 2o5. of Newfoundland, 379. of Greenland, 387. Fish river, Great, Back's discovery of, 356. Fisher Lapps, account of the, 166. Fiskernasset, cod-fishery of, 388. Fitzroy, Captain, his surveys of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 415. Fjall Lappars, or Mountain Lapps, account of the, 159. Flatey, eider-ducks of, 81, 82. Flat-fish, abundance of, on the coasts of Iceland, 87. Floki, the Viking, his visit to Iceland, 90. Flora of Spitzbergen, 136. Flowers of the Arctic regions, 20. of the island of St. Lawrence, 271. of Taimurland, 226. of Unalaschka, 269. Fogs of the Arctic seas in summer, 54. near the island of St. Lawrence, 270 . off Newfoundland, 380. Food, amount of, required by mau in the Arctic re gions, 28. Forest regions, Arctic, 18. , extent of the, 22. , character of the trees of the, 24. , distinctive character of the forests, 25. , characters of the Arctic forests ofthe Miocene period, 28, 29. , legions of gnats in the, 25. , changes being effected by the agency of man, 25. Forests, the, head-quarters of many of the Arctic fauna, 41. , more in than aSot-ethe earth in Nova Zembla, 153. of Newfoundland, 376. Fori^et-me-not found in Nova Zembla, 153. Forster, Captain, his expedition to the Antarctic sea, 393. Fossils, Arctic, in New Siberia, 203. Foulke, Port, Dr. Hayes's winter at, 372. Fox, the Arctic {Canis lagopus), its mode of protect ing itself from the most intense cold, 42. Fox, the Arctic, its food and enemies, 42. of Spitzbergen, 137. in Nova Zembla, 154. found in Taimurland, 227. of Newfoundland, 378. , black, of Siberia, value ofthe fur ofthe, 211. , the Brazilian {Canis A zara), of Patagonia, 419. , red {Vulpes fulvus), the, 211, 317. , value of the fur of the, 317. Fox Islands, discovery of the, 201. France, right of the people of, to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, 379. Franklin, Lieut, (afterwards Sir John), his first Arctic voyage, 344. . , his first land journey, 346. , his second land journey to the shores of the Polar sea, 349. , loss of his first wife, 350. -, his last voyage, 356. , searching expeditions sent for him, 356. , his fate and that of his companions, 362-364. Franklin Island, discovery of, 403. Fraser river, voyage of Mackenzie down the, 308. Frederick II., King of Denmark, his expedition to Greenland, 383. Frederick IV., his foundation of the Finmark mis sion, 156. Friedrich, the Saxon bishop, introduces Christiani ty into Iceland, 92. 742 INDEX. Fritillaria Sarrana, used as food in Kamchatka, 258. Frobisher, Martin, his endeavors to discover an Arctic passage to India, 337. , discovery of relics of, 466. , his subsequent career, 337. Froward, Cape, scenery of, 410. Erozen sailor, 464. Fruits of the Arctic regions, 24. Fuego, Tierra del, climate of, 393. , origin of the name, 413. , Captain Fitzroy's survey of, 415. , account of the Fuegians, 425. , degradation of the Fuegians, 425, 426. , their powers as mimics, 426. , their notions of trade, 427. , causes of their low state of civilization, 427. , their food, 428. , their dress, huts, arms, and ornaments, 428, 429. , their cannibalism, 430. , their language, 430. , Captain Fitzroy's three Fuegians, 430, 431. , missionary labors, 431. , Captain Gardiner, 431. Fuel, kinds of, used in Iceland, 89. Fur, account of the Russian Fur Company, and its operations, 272. , account of the fur-trade of the Hudson's Bay Company, 304 et seq. , trade in, at the fair of Obdorsk, 189. of Siberia, 208. , importance ofthe trade in, 212. of the Tchuktchi, 264. G. Gabriel Channel, williwaws of, 412. Gadflies which attack the reindeer, 38. Galictis vittata, the, of Patagonia, 418. Gambling of the Cree Indians, 324. Gardar, the northern pirate, his the flrst circum navigation of Iceland, 90. Gardar's Holm, or Gadar's Island, Iceland so called, 90. Gardiner, Captain, his mission to Fuegia, and mel ancholy end, 431. Gawrilow, produce bf the gold mine of, 218. Geese, wild, of the Arctic regions, 19. , snow, their migrations to and from the north, 43. of Iceland, 81. "George Henry," the ship, 436. George, St., climate of the island of, 270. , sea-lions and guillemots of, 271. Georgia, South, discovery of, 393. Germany, the elk or moose-deer of, in the time of Csesar, 39. Ge}'sir, the Great, description of the, 71. Gheritz, Dirck, his discovery of the New Shetland Islands, 392. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, takes possession of New foundland, 379. Ginklofi, or children's disease, in the Westman Islands, 118. Gissur, his work on his voyages to the East, 94. ¦ , the Icelander, his learning and travels, 98. Gjas, or chasms, in Iceland, 76, 77. Glacier, the great, in the Gulf of Penas, 394. Glaciers, enormous dimensions of the, of the polar regions, 50. Glaciers of Magdalena Bay, 135 ; ice cliffs and ava lanches of, 135. of the Beerenberg mountain, 146. Glottoff, Stephen, his discovery of Kadiak, 202. Gloves, reindeer, of Tornea, 37. Glutton, or wolverine, strength and fierceness of the, 37. Glutton, its attack of the reindeer, 37, 38. , its voracity, 38. , found in Taimurland, 227. , those of North America, 316. , value and uses of the fur of the, 316. Gnats, legions of, iu the forests and swamps, 26, Goda-foss, the, an Icelandic cascade, 78. Gold diggings of Eastern Siberia, 208. , description of the gold-fields, 214. Gomez, his voyages of discovery, 335. Goose, bean {Anser segetum), of Nova Zembla, 155. Goose, Brent, its migrations to and from the north, 43. , its rapid flight, 43. Graah, Captain, his explorations of the coast of Greenland, 386. Graham Land, discovery of, 401. Grampus, or ore {Delphinus orca), description of the, 62. , his ferocity and mode of ploughing the seas, 62. of Nova Zembla, 155. ¦ of the Antarctic Ocean, 398. , conflict of one with a whale, 398. Grasses, tufted, ofthe Arctic regions, 20. of the treeless zone, 21. , paramount importance of the grasses in Ice land, 79. of Taimurland, 226. Greenland, vast ice-fields of, 27. , proofs of a former milder climate in, 29. , enormous dimensions of the glaciers of, 50. , the, whale, 60. , transparency of the water on the coast of, 59. -, abundance of animal life in the seas of, 60. , walruses ofthe coasts ofthe north of, 64. , Kane's sledge journey along the coast of, 367. , unknown extent of, 382. , ancient Scandinavian colonists of, 382. , the name of, given to it, 382. , introduction ofChristianity in, 382. , decline and fall of the country, 383. , subsequent explorations of, 383. , Hans Egede, the pastor, his voyage to, 384. , foundation of Godthaab in, 384. , arrival of HeiTenhuth missionaries in, 384. , explorations of the coast of, 385. , present Danish settlements of, 386. , scanty population of, 386. , mode of life of the people of, 386, 387, 389. , fisheries of, 388. , poorness of the land in, 388. , quantities of drift-wood at, 388. , minerals of, 389. , Christianity in, 389. , climate, mountains, and flords of, 389. , ice-caves of the coast of, 390. , the capital of, 437. Greenlanders, their discovery of, and colonies in America, 335. , destruction of their colonies, 335. , their habits, 437. Greiffenfeld, his imprisonment in Munkholm, 124. Grinds. See Dolphins, black. INDEX. 743 Grinnell Land, vegetation of, 20. , Dr. Hayes's discoveries in, 372-374. Guanaco, the, of Patagonia, 419. Guano, circumstances which favor the deposit of, 418. Guillemot, on the Pribilow Islands, 271. Gulf Stream, influence of, on the south and west coasts of Iceland, 79 ; and on the climate of Norway, 121. Gull, Boss's, distance north at which it has been seen, 67. Gull, ivory, in Taimurland, 227. Gustavus I., King of Sweden, his kind treatment of the Lapps, 156. Gustavus Adolphus, his foundation of a school for the Lapps, 156. H. Haddocks, abundance of, on the coast of Iceland, 87. Hakon, King of Noi-way, his annexation of Iceland, 95. Hall, Charles Francis, his Arctic expedition, 433- 467. , James, his voyage to Greenland, 383. Hammerfest, description of the town of, 129. , traffic of, 129. ¦ , the people of, 129. , cargoes of walruses and seals brought from Spitzbergen, 143. Hare, the fur ofthe, of Siberia, 212. , ice {Lepus glacialis), 317. found in Taimurland, 227, Hare Indians, hunting-gi-ounds of the, 327. , their women, 328. Harold Haafager, or the Fair-haired, his establish ment of an absolute monarchy in Norway, £0. , exodus caused by his tyranny, 91. Harp-seal of the Polar seas, 62. Hatherton, Cape, discovery of, 365. Haven, Lieut, de, his search for Franklin, 357, 358. Hawks in the Tundra, in summer, 19. Hayes, Dr., his sledge journey over Kennedy Chan nel, 368. , his Arctic voyage in 1860, 372-374. , his opinion as to what may be done in the Arctic regions, 374. Hecla, eruptions of, since the colonization of Ice land, 95-97. "Hecla" and "Fury" Straits, discovery of, 348. Heemskerk, his voyages of discovery, 340. Heineson, Mogens, the "sea-cock," his voyage to wards Greenland, 383. Hepburn, John, the sailor, his overland journev, 346. Herald Island, discovery of, 360. Heimaey, or Home Island, description of, 116. Herring, the fishery ofthe coast of Norway, 125. , food for the rorqual, or fin-whales, 61. , abundance of the, on the coasts of Iceland, 87. Hesperis, the, on the Mary Minturn river, 20. Hildringen, agriculture of, 124. Hobson, Lieut., bis search for Franklin, 362, 364. Holme, the, of Norway, 124! Hood; Eobert, his Arctic journey, 346. , murdered, 347. Horn, Cape, discovery of the passage round, 414. Horse, the, in Iceland, 80. of the Jakuts, 230-232. Hrafnagja, 75. Hudson, Henry, visit of, to Spitzbergen, 138. , his the first attempt to sail across the North Pole, 342. , bis subsequent voyages and discoveries, 342. , his melancholy end, 343. Hudson's Bay, barren lands of, 22. , characters of the Conifers of, 24. "^ , walruses of the coasts of, 64. , discovery of, 312. Hudson's Bay Company, account of the fur-trade of the, 304^ , the old coureur des bois and the modern voy ageur of, 304, 305. , history ofthe, 307. , formation ofa rival compan}', and subsequent amalgamation of the two, 307-310. , palmy days ofthe, 310. , its reconstruction in 1863, 310. , its trading-posts, and their management, 310, 311. , its efforts to civilize the native tribes, 312. , the standard of exchange, the beaver.skin, 313. , extent ofthe fur-trade of, 313. , account of the fur-bearing animals of the Territor}-, 313, 314. Hudson river, discovery of the, 342. Hudson's Straits, Sebastian Cabot's discovery of, 335. Humboldt Glacier, the Great, 50. , Kane's description ofthe, 367. Humming-bird on the peninsula of Aliaska, 269. in Newfoundland, 378. of Patagonia, 420. Huts of the Esquimaux, 293. of the Icelanders, 102. Hvalo, island of, 129. Hvita river, in Iceland, 78. I. ICK, vast fields of, in the plateaus of Spitzbergen, Greenland, and Nova Zembla, 27. , floating masses of, in the Polar seas, 45. , enormous extent of the Polar glaciers, 49, 50. , causes which prevent the accumulation of Polar ice, 55, 56. , a bad conductor of heat, 57. , ice-fields of Iceland, 69. , glaciers, ice-clift's, and avalanches of Spitz bergen, 135, 136. , impediments offered by the hummocks to travellers on the Polar sea, 240. , icebergs of the Antarctic sea, 392. , ice-caves of Greenland, 390. , the great ice-barrier of the Antarctic Ocean, 403. , pack-ice of the Antarctic Ocean, 404, 405. Icebergs, 46. — , forms and size of, 48. , origin of, 48 . , localities in which most of the icebergs ofthe North Atlantic are formed, 49. , Dr. Hayes's description of, in a midnight sun, 50. , how distinguished at night and in fogs, 52. , dangers of collisions with, 52. , protection to ships afforded by, 53. , dangers of anchoring to, 53. 744 INDEX. Icebergs, "calving" of, 54. , crumbling of, 54. Ice-blink, description of the phenomenon of, 54. , its advantages to the Arctic navigator, 54. Ice-fields, 46. , hummocks on, 46. , collision of, 48. -, dangers caused by, to ships, 48. Ice-grotto of Surts-hellir, 77. Iceland, volcanic origin of, 68. , the country in -winter and in summer, 68, 79. , sterile portions of the island, 69. , its immense ice-fields, 69. , its lava-streams, 69, 77. , the burning mountains of Krisuvik, 69. , the mud-caldrons and hot springs, 70. , the Great Geysir, 71. , the Strokkr, 72. , crystal pools, 73. , the Almannagja, 73, 74. , the Surts-hellir, or caves of Surtur, 77. , rivers and cascades of, 78. -, influence of the ocean currents on the cli mate, 78. , mean annual temperature, 79. , absence of trees in, 79. , vegetation and condition of agriculture, 79. , indigenous land quadrupeds, 80. , cattle ofthe Icelanders, 80. , beverages, 80. , mode of shearing sheep, 80. , characteristics and number of horses,-80. , the reindeer, 80, 81. , the polar bear, 81. , the eider-duck, 81, 88. , the giant auk, 85, 86. , Icelandic fish and fishing season, 86, 87. , hospitality of the people, 87. , minerals of the country, 88. , fuel used by the Icelanders, 88. , history of, 89. , Naddodr's discovery of the Ice Land, 89 ; which he named Snowland, 90. , circumnavigated by the pirate Gadar, and called by him Gardar's holm, 90. , visited by the viking Floki, and called by him Iceland, 90. , foundation of Reykjavik by Ingolfr and Leif, 90. , exodus from Norway to, 91. , introduction of the Norwegian language and customs, 91. , dode of laws of UfBiot the Wise, 91. , the ancient Althing at Thingvalla, 91, 92. , introduction of Christianity into the island, 92. , the golden age of Icelandic literature, 94. , history of, annexation of the island to Nor way, 95. , its subsequent misfortunes, 95. , volcanic eruptions, 95. , misery caused by the curse of monopoly, 97. , hope for the future of the islanders, 97. , account of the Icelanders of the present day, 98. , Skalkott, the former capital of the island, 98. , the present capital, Reykjavik, 100. , state of trade in, 100. , the merchant and the peasant, 101. , temperate habits ofthe people, 101. , condition of agriculture, 102. Iceland, a harvest home, 102. , -winter life, 102, 108, 109. , huts of the Icelanders, 102, 103. , churches, 104. , clergymen all blacksmiths, 101 ; note, 106 ; their poverty, 106-108. , the Iceland poet, John Thorlaksen, 107. , education of the clergy and children, 108, 109. , industry and thirst fer knowledge of the peo ple, 109 ; their language, 109. , the library of Reykjavik, 109. , the Icelandic Literary Society, 110. ¦ , Icelandic newspapers, 110. , health of tbe people, 110. , difficulties and expense of travelling, 110-113. moss, eaten and exported by the Icelanders, 79. moss, food for the deer of Spitzbergen, 137. , in the treeless zone, 21. Idols of the Samoiedes, 180. Igloolik, island of, 348. Iligliuk, the Esquimaux, her intelligence and pas sion for music, 348. Indians, Red, their enmity with the Esquimaux, 294. , their decimation by smallpox and drunken ness, 308. , efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company to civ ilize them, 312, 313. , the beaver skin their standard of exchange with the Company, 313. Inglefield, Captain, his search for Franklin, 359. , his discoveries, 365. Ingolfr, the Norwegian yarl, his visit to Iceland, and foundation of Reykjavik, 90. Innuits, the, see also Esquimaux, 433, 467. , their, character, 439, 461. , amusement of, 440. , their dwellings, 443, 457, 462. , distress in winter, 444. , seal, feasts of, 445. , mode of capturing' seals, 446, 448, 452. , their dogs, 445, 450, 454. , their opinion of the bear, 451. , mode of hunting the walrus, 454. , their implements, 456. , mode of constructing an igloo, 457. , their use of the reindeer, 458. , their clothing, 460. , reindeer feasts, 459. , food and mode of eating, 460. , their religious ideas, 460. , treatment of the sick, 461. , gradual extinction, 462. Insects of Taimurland, 227. Irish colonists on the Westman Islands, 115. Irkutsk, extreme cold of, 208. . WrangeU's visit to, 233. , summer flowers of, 233. Iron mines near Drontheim, 124. Isabella, Cape, discovery of, 365. Ishemsk, Gastrin's visit to, 174. , the Isprawnik of, and his wife, 174, 176. Islands within the Arctic Circle, barren grounds of the, 18. Isleif, the oldest chronicler of the North, 98. Issakow, of Kem, rounds the north-eastern extrem ity of Nova Zembla, 150. Italmenes, cruelty of their conquerors, the Eus sians, 198. Ivan Wasiljewitsch I., first Czar of Russia, his de feat of the Tartars, 191. INDEX. 745 Ivan Wasiljewitsch I., subdues the Great Novgo rod, 191. , becomes head of the Greek orthodox Church and the first Czar, 192. , Chancellor's visit to him at Moscow, 336. Ivan Wasiljewitsch II., his conquest of Kasan, 192. , his surname of the Terrible, 192. Ivory, fossil, in the islands of New Siberia, 202. Iwalo river, in Lapland, Gastrin's joumey on the, 169. Jakowlew famUy, 219. , their enormous wealth in gold mines, 219. Jakuts, the, confirmed by the Czar in their posses sions, 199. , their snares and traps, 213. , their energy and cunning, 228. • , their language, origin, character, and person al appearance, 228. , their summer and winter huts, 229. , their horses, 230. , their powers of endurance and sharpness of vision, 230. , their manufactures and articles of dress, 231. , their gluttony, 231. , the universal carriers to the east of the Lena, 231. , their superstitions, 232. , their offerings of horsehair to the spirit of the mountains, 232. , their songs, 232. , wretched condition of the river, 252. Jakutsk, mean temperature of, in summer and win ter, 27. , extreme cold of, 208. , gloomy appearance ofthe town, 233. , trade of, 233. Jan Meyen, description of, 146. Jelly, made from the horns and claws of the rein deer, 37. Jelly-fish {Pleurobrachia pileus) in the sea of Kara, 151. Jenissei river, Castren's joumey to the, 176. Jeniseisk, Gastrin's visit to, 177. ¦ , the ostrog of, founded, 195. Jyrfalcon {Falco gyrfalco), its head-quarters in Ice land, 85. , former trade in the, 85. Jilibeambaeitje, or Num, the Supreme Being of the Samoiedes, 179. "John, Gentleman," the English pirate, 118. John's, St., capital of Newfoundland, 378. Jokuls, or ice-mountains of Iceland, 68. Jokulsa i Axarfirdi river, in Iceland, 78. Jokulsa river, in Iceland, 78. Jones's Sound, discovery of the entrance to, 343. Jukahires, chief resource of those of the Aniuj, 237. , Jelissei Busa's residence among the, 195. K. Kadiak, island of, discovery of the, 202. Kaiak, island of, landing of Stella on the, 249. "Kalewala," Castren's Swedish translation of the, 170. Kamchatka, subjugation of, by the Russians, 198. , cruelty of the conquerors, 198. Kamchatka, Steller's scientific journey to, 248. , its climate and fertility, 254. , abundance of fish in the rivers, 255. ¦ , bird-catchers of, 255. ¦ , population, 255. , mountain chain and volcanoes, 256. , climate and mineral springs, 256. , harbors and population, 256. , healthiness of the people, 257. , their food, 258. , their animals, 258, 260. , character of the people, 260, 261. Kane, Dr., his Arctic voyages, 365. , his account of his first winter in Rensselaer Bay, 365. , his description of the Polar night, 366. , his sledge journey along the coast of Green land, 367. , his illness on the voyage and recovery, 368. , resolves to winter a second time in Rensselaer Bay, 369. , departure and return of part of his crew, 369, 370. , sufferings of his party, 371. , abandonment of his ship, and boat journey to Upernavik, 371. , his return to New York, and death, 372. Kara Gate, reached by Stephen Burrough, 336. Kara, Sea of, 147. , expeditions to the, 147. Kasan, Eussian conquest of, 192. Kellett, Captain, his search for Franklin, 359. Kendall, Lieut., his voyage to the Coppermine river, 349. , his account of Deception Island, 393. Kennedy, William, his search for Franklin, 358. , his sledge journey with Bellot, 359. Kennedy Channel, Dr. Hayes's sledge journey across, 368. , his voyage across, 373. Kerguelen Land, climate of, 393. Khipsack, destruction of the empire of the Khans of, 191. King, Captain, his survey of the Magellan Strait, 415. King William's Island, coast of, traced by Mr. Thomas Simpson, 356. Klofa jokul, extent of the, 69. Knight, John, his melancholy Arctic voyage, 341. , murdered by the Esquimaux, 342. Koldewey, Captain, his journey towards the North Pole, 374. Kolwa, Castren's visit to, 174. Kolyma river, inundations of the, 237. Kolymsk, NLshnei, foundation of the town of, 197. ., WrangeU's visit to, 234. , situation and climate of, 234. , vegetable and animal life, 235. , population of tbe district, 236. , dwellings of the Eussian residents, 236. , mode of life of the natives, 236, 237. , their dogs, 236, 237. , berry-gathering in the district, 238. , famine of the people, 238. , social parties at, 238. Koriaks, the, confirmed by the Czar in their pos sessions, 199. Koronnoie Filippowskoi, Von Middendorff's journey to, 221. Kostin Schar, visit of Von Baer to, 152. , storm in, 152. 74() INDEX. Kotlugja, eruptions of, since the colonization of Iceland, 95, 97. Krasnojarsk, Castren's visit to, 175, 176. , extravagance of the gold aristocracy of, 218. Krenitzin, his discovery of the peninsula of Aljaska, 202. Kresdowosdwishensk, produce of the gold mine of, 218. Krisuvik, burning mountains of, 69. Krotow, Lieutenant, lost off Nova Zembla, 147. Kutchin Indians, their dwelling-place, 331. , their personal appearance and dress, 331. , their medium of exchange, 331. , their women and children, 332. , their amusements, 332. , their wars with the Esquimaux, 333. , their suspicious and timorous lives, 333. , their mode of pounding the moose-deer, 333. , their frequent distress, 334. , their huts, 334. Kutchum Khan, bis conquest of Sibei:ia, 192. . , defeated by Yermak the robber, at Tobolik, 193, 194. , his revenge, 194. L. Labkadoe, barren lands of, 22. , effect of the icy seas and cold currents on the climate of, 22. , discovered and colonized by Greenlanders, 335. Lachow Islands, discovery of the, 202. Lagarfliot river, in Iceland, 78. Lakes of Newfoundland, 377. Lambert, M. Gustave, his opinion as to the route to the Pole, 375. Lancaster Sound, discovery of the entrance to, 343. Lapps, their history and conversion to Christianity, 156. , poverty and self-denial of their clergy, 157. , their ancient gods and present superstitions, 156, 157. jEvil Spirit of the woods, 157. , sorcery and witchcraft, 158. , their personal appearance, 158. Lappars, the Fjall, or Mountain Lapps, 159. , their dwellings, 159. , their reindeer pens, 160. , their summer and winter encampments, 161. , their sledges and skates, 161. , natural beauties of their country, 162. , their love of home, 162. , their mode of hunting the bear and the wolf, 163, 164. , the wealthy, and their mode of living 164. , their annual visits to the fairs, 165. , their drunkenness, 165. , their worship of mammon, treasnre hoard ing, 165. , their fondness for brandy and tobacco, 165. , their affectionate disposition, 166. • , the Skogslappars, or Forest Lapps, 166. , the Fisher, 166. Laptew, Lieut. Cheriton, his explorations of the coasts of Taimurland, 200. , his explorations to tbe east of the Lena. 200. Larch, the, of Siberia, 24. , of the Hudson's Ba}' Territory, 24. Lawrence, St., climate and vegetation of the island of. 271 Lava streams of Iceland, 69, 77. , streams of, thrown out by the great eruption of Skaptar Jokul, 95-97. Laxaa, or Salmon river, abundance of fish caught in the, 87. Leif, the Norwegian jarl, his visit to Iceland, 90. , murdered by his Irish slaves, 91. Lemming, its habitat and food, 42. , exaggerations of Olaus Magnus and Pontop pidan respecting the, 42. , its enemies, and accidents to which it is lia ble, 42. of New Siberia, 27. of Nova Zembla, 154. Lena river, ascended by the Cossacks, 195. , importance of the, 17. , barren grounds near the, 22. , WrangeU's journey down the, 233. Leprosy, or " likthra, "of Iceland, 110. Lichens, gray, ofthe "barren grounds," 18. , food for the reindeer, 27. , the Lichen rangifi-rinus, the food of the rein deer, 36. of Nova Zembla, 153. of the Pribilow Islands, 271. Liddon, Lieut. M., his Arctic voyages, 345. Lindenow, Godske, his voyage to Greenland, 383. Lion, sea- {Otaria Stelleri), value of the skin of the, 276. , the sea-, of the Antarctic Ocean, 399. Lister, Cape, discovery of, 385. Lithuania, the elk of, 39. Loaisa, Garcia de, his voyage round the globe, 413. Lofoten Islands, the, 125. , cod-fishery ofthe, 125, 126. Looming objecirs in the Arctic regions, 55. Loschkin, tbe walrus-hunter, his voyage on the coast of Nova Zembla, 147. Liistadius, the Lapp priest, his self-denial and pov erty, 157. Loucheux. See Kutchin Indians. Louis-Philippe Terre, discovery of, 402. Lovunnen, puffins of, 125. Lowenorn, his voyage to Greenland, 385. Liitke, Admiral, his endeavors to penetrate along the coast of Nova Zembla, 147. Lychnis, purple, of the Arctic regions, 20. Lynx, Canada, or pishu {Lynx Canadensis), 317. -^ — , value ofthe fur ofthe, 212, 317. Lyon, Captain, his unsuccessful voyage, 348. M. Mackenzie, Alexander, his voyages of discovery in North America, 308. Mackenzie river, importance of the, 17. , forests and barren lands near the, 22. , influence of the southerly winds on the tem perature of the valley of the, 27. , discovery of the, 308. Maesnikow, Nikita, his' gold-fields in Eaatern Sibo ria, 214, 217, 218. Magdalena Bay, description of, 133. MageUan, Strait of, 408. , description of the, 408. , entrances to, 409. , opening into the Pacific, 411. , discovery of .the, by Magellan, 413. , Sir J. Narborough's chart, 414. , Captains King and Fitzroy's surveys of, 415. INDEX. 747 Magero, island of, 129. Magicians of the Samoiedes, 180, 181. Malewinsky, Lieutenant, his gold mine of Olginsk, 218. Maelstrom, the, 126. Mammoth, fossU remains of the, in New Siberia, 202. Man, his difficulty in establishing a footing in the Arctic regions, 17. ¦ , how he is able to stand the rigors of an Arc tic winter, 28. Maps ofthe Esquimaux, 302. Mariinsk, station of, built by the Eussians, 196. , gold mine of, 217. Marshes of Newfoundland, 377. Marten, pine {Martes abietum), the, 316. , value of the fur of the, 316. Mary Minturn river, flowers of, 20. Matiuschkin, his sledge journey over the Polar Sea, 241. Matoschkin Schar, visits to, 147-152. Matthew, St., island of, inhospitable character of the, 271. Matthew's Straits, visited by Eosmysslow, Pach tussow, and Herr von Baer, 147-152. McClintock, Lieut, (now Sir Leopold), his search for Franklin, 360. , his voyage in the " Fox," and discovery of the fate of Franklin and his companions, 362-364. McClure, Captain, his search for Franklin, 359-361. , his discovery of the north-west passage, 360. Mecham, Lieut. , his search for Franklin, 360. Mediterranean, dried codfish sent to the, 129. Medusse, enormous numbers of, in the Polar world, 59. , in the seas off Spitzbergen, 133. Melville Bay, enormous glaciers of, 49, 50. Melville Island, discovery of, 345. Mentschikoff, Prince, his exile and death in Siberia, 205. , his son restored to the honors of his house, 205. Mercy Bay, discovery of, 361. Mercy, harbor of, 412. Middendorff, Von, his adventures in Taimurland, 220. , his visit to the Chatanga river, 221. , his journey down the Taimur river to the Polar Sea, 221-223. , his return journey and illness, 223-225. , gratitude of the Samoiedes, 224. , his observations on the climate and natural productions of Taimurland, 225. Midnight, silence of, in Spitzbergen, 135. Milk of the reindeer, 36. Minerals of Iceland, 88. Mink {Vison Americanus), value of the fur of the, 316. Misery, Mount, 145. MoUusca, smaU, of the Polar Seas, 59. Moonlight nights in the Arctic regions, 32, 33. Morse. See Walrus. Morton, one of Dr. Kane's crew, his illness, 368. , his discovery of Washington Land, 369. Mosquitoes of Nishne-Kolymsk, 235. Mosses, dingy, ofthe " barren grounds," 18. . of Nova Zembla, 153. of the Pribilow Islands, 270, 271. Mourawieff, Count Nicholas, his annexation of the Amoor, 196. Mouse, field, of Spitzbergen, 137. Muchamor, the fungus, used as food by the Kam chatkans, 258. Mud-springs, boiling, of Iceland, 70. Munich, Marshal, his exile to Siberia, 205. , his return and subsequent life, 206. Munk; Jens, his voyages, 343. Munkholm, castle of, 124. Murderers, treatment of, in Eussia, 206. Muscovy Company, its endeavors to discover a north-east passage to India, 836. Musk-ox {Ovibos moschatus), description of the, 40. — — , its former and present habitat, 40, 41. Musquash, musk-rat, or ondatra {Fiber zibethicus-), 317. . , viUages, 318. , modes of catching the animal, 318. , value of the fur ofthe, 318. Mussels on the coast of Greenland, 59. Myvatn, ducks of the, 84. N. Naddodr, the Norwegian pirate, his discovery of Iceland, 89. Namar, or boiling mud-springs of Iceland, 70. Narborough, Sir John, his chart of the Strait of Magellan, 414. Narwhal, or sea-unicorn, domain of the, 60. , its tusk, 61. , Greenland fishery of the, 387. Narvm, Gastrin's visit to, 175. Necromanc}' of the Samoiedes, 180. Nertschinsk, treaty of, 196. , criminals at the mines of, 206. Ness, Castrdn's visit to the Samoiede village of, 172. Newfoundland, discovered and colonized by Green landers, 335. , its desolate appearance, 376. , its forests, marshes, and barrens, 376, 377. , its lakes and ponds, 377, 378. , its fur-bearing animals, 378. , its reindeer and wolves, 378. , its climate and inhabitants, .-.78. , its capital, St. John's, 378, 379. , history of the island, 379. , taken iiossession of by the English, 379. , right of the French and Americans to fish on the banks of, 379. , the French town of Placentia, 379. . , the whole island ceded to England, 379. , importance of the cod-fisheries, 379. , the great banks of, 380. , account of the mode of fishing, 380. , fogs and storms, 380, 381. , seal-catching, 381. Newspapers of Iceland, 110. Night ofa Polar winter, Kane's description of, 366. Nicola}'evsk, station of, built by the Eussians, 196. Noiba, gold-diggings on the, 216. Norfolk Bay, position and fur-trade of, 272. North-eastern route to India and China, Sebastian Cabot's idea of, 335. , attempts to discover it, 335-337. North Pole, the first attempt to sail across the, 342. , the plan first suggested by Thorne, 342. , Scoresby's near approach to the, 314. , Parry's boat and sledge journey towards the, 350. , Dr. Hayes's opinion as to the practicabUity of reaching the, across Kennedy Channel. 374. 748 INDEX. North Pole, opinions of other scientific authorities as to the best way to reach, 374. North-west passage to India, attempts to discover the, 342, 343. ¦ , M'Clure's discovery of the, 360. Company of Canada, formation and trade of the, 307. < , its wars with the Hudson's Bay Company, and final amalgamation, 808-310. Northumberland Sound, temperature of, 28. Notothenia, the, of the Antarctic seas, 400. Norway, the lemming of the Dovrefjeld, in, 42. , an absolute monarchy e.->tablished by Harold Haarfager in, 90. , causes of the mild climate of the coast of, 121. , condition of the soU, and of the cultivators of it, 121-123. , constitution of, and education of the people, 121. ¦ , population of, 121. , coast scenery of, 123. , Drontheim and its industry, 124. ,' birds of the coast of, 124, 125. ¦ , the herring and cod fisheries of, 125-128. Nova Zembla, investigations of the shores of, 147. ¦ , circumnavigated by Pachtussow, 147, 148. ¦ , meteorological observations of Ziwolka, 150. ¦ , the climate of, 151. ¦ , Von Baer's scientific journey, 151. ¦ , scientific results of his journey, 152, 153. ¦ , vegetation of, 153. . , solitude and silence of, 154. , rarity of insects in, 154. _ ¦ , lemmings and foxes of, 1 54. ¦ , birds of, 154. • , other animals of, 154, 155. , wintering of the Dutch under Barentz at, 340. Novgorod, the Great, subdued by the Czar Ivan I., 191. Nowodsikoff, Michael, his discoveries, 201. Nudibranchiata, enormous numbers of, in the Polar seas, 59. NuUipores on the coast of Greenland. 59. Nun, or Jilibeambaertje, the Supreme Being of the Samoiedes, 179. 0. Obdorsk, Castren's visit to, 174. , description of the town, 188. , the fair at, 189. Obi river, importance of, 17. ¦ -, barren grounds near the, 22. , its importance to the Ostiaks, 185. , Gastrin's journey to the, 174. , misery caused by the overflow of the, 175. , inhabitants of the banks of the, 175. Ochota river, the, 246. Ochotsk, sea of, reached hy a party of Cossacks, 195. , description of the town, 246. Olaf Truggeson, King of Norway, sends a mission ary to Iceland, 93, 94. Olginsk, gold mine of, 218. Olonez, number of bears killed for their skins every year in, 212. Ommaney, Captain, his search for Franklin, 357. , his discovery of Franklin's first winter-quar ters, 357. Onkilon, or sedentary Tchuktchi, 267. , their mode of life, 267. Oraefa Jokul, height of, 69. , eruptions of, since the colonization of Iceland, 95. Orange Island, visited by Barentz, 339. Ore. See Grampus. Osborne, Captain Sherard, his opinion as to the method of reaching the North Pole, 374. Ostiaks, their fishing-grounds on the Obi, 175. , their summer huts and mode of life, 185, 186. , their poverty, 186. , their winter huts, 186. , their attachment to their ancient customs, 186, 187. , their clans, and princes, or chieftains, 187. , their exceUence as archers, 187. , their personal appearance, and customs, 188. , annual tribute levied by Yermak, the robber, on them, 194. , confirmed by the Czar in the possession of their lands, 199. Ostrich, Darwin's, of Patagonia, 420. Ostrownoje, town and fair of, 263-265. Otter, the sea-, or kalan {Enhydris lutris), value of the fur of the, 211,212. , description of, 211. , chase of the, in Kamchatka, 258. hunting of the Aleuts, 273. Otter, the fish- {Lutra Canadensis), 317. , fur of the, 317. Owl, its favorite food, 4.3. , its winter in the highest latitudes, 43. Ox, the, in Iceland, 80. Oyster, most northerly limit where found, 126. Pachtussow, his circumnavigation of the southern island of Nova Zembla, 148. , his second voyage and death, 149, 150. Pack-ice, 46. , its tendency to separate in calm weather, 54. Paikoff, his discovery of the Fox Islands, 201. Parrots of Patagonia, 420. Parry, Lieut. W. E. (afterwards Admiral Sir), his Arctic voyages, 344. , his second voyage, 348. , his third voyage, 349. , abandonment of the ' ' Fury," 349. , his boat and sledge journey towards the Pole, 350. , his subsequent career, 351. Parry, Mount, discovery of, 369. , Dr. Hayes's journey to, 373, 374. , Mountains, discovery of the, 403. Pasina river, scanty population of the, 220. Patagonia, Captain Fitzroy's survey of, 415. , the people of, 417, 420. , difference of climate between the east and west, 417. , aridity of the east of, 417, 418. , large rivers of, 418. , animals of, 418, 419. , introduction of the horse, 424. , fashions of the Patagonians, 421. , their religious ideas, 421. , their superstitions and astronomical knowl edge, 422. , their division into tribes, 422. , their huts, 422. , their trading routes, 423. INDEX. 749 Patagonians, their S}'stem of govemment, and great cacique, 423. , their arms, amusements, and character, 424. Paul, St., climate of the island, 271. , chase of the sea-bear on tlie, 313. Paul the First, discovery of the Island of, 274. Pekan, or woodshock {Martes Canadensis), fur of the, 316. Penas, gulf of, glacier at the, 394. Penguin, the, of the Antarctic seas, 395. , its food, 397. Penny, Master, his search for Franklin, 357, 358. Peruvian current, influence of the, 394. Petermann, Dr. Augustus, his view of the route to the Pole, 374. Petrel, the giant {Procellaria gigantea), of the An tarctic seas, 394. Petropavlosk, its population, 257. , unsuccessful attack of theEnglish and French on, 256. Petschora river, 149. Philip's ba}', 409. Phipps, Captain (afterwards Lord Mulgrave), his voyage to discover the north-west passage, 344. Pipit {Anthus pratensis), the, of Iceland, 81. Plachina, Gastrin's residence and study at, 176. Plover island, discovery of, 360. Plovers of Iceland, 81. Poland, the elk of, 39, 40. Pole, North, probable condition of the land (if any) at the, 27. Popow, Fedor, his discovery of the gold fields of Eastern Siberia, 214. Population of Norway, 122. Potato, cultivation of, in Norway, 124. Pribilow Islands, climate of, 271. ¦ , sea-lions and guillemots of, 271. , chase of the sea-bear, 274. Prontschischtschew, his fruitless endeavors to dou ble the capes of Taimurland, 200. , death of him and his wife, 20. Prussia, East, the elk of, 39, 40. Ptarmigan {/Mgnpus albus), its residence in the Iiigh. est latitudes in winter, 43. of Spitzbergen, 137. , its summer visits to Taimurland, 227. in the Tundra in summer, 19. Pteropods, food for the Greenland whale, 60. Puffins of Lovunnen island, 125. , mode of catching them. 125. Punta Arenas, colony of Germans at, 416. Pustosersk, visit of Gastrin to, 171, 173. Pym, Lieut., his sledge journey of search for Frank lin, 360. R. Racoon {Procyon lotor), 315, 378. , value and trade io the skins ofthe, 316. Rae, Dr., his search for Sir John Richardson, 357. ¦ , his discoveries in the Arctic .seas, 357. -, his discovery of the fate of Franklin and his crew, 362. Raipass, copper mines at, 128. Ranunculus, snow {Ranunculus nivalis), of Nova .Zembla, 153. Eat, musk-. See Musquash. Ravens of Iceland, 84. , in Scandinavian mythology, 84, 85. , superstitions of the Icelanders respecting the, 85. I Razor-bill, its nests on the most northern rocks, 67. Red-knife Indians, their hunting-grounds, 327. Red-pole, the, of Spitzbergen, 137. Red river colony, desti-uction of the, 308. Red sharks of Iceland, 81. Reindeer, its summer and winter quarters in the Arctic regions, 19. , food found by the, in Spitzbergen, 27. , its importance to tnan in the northern regions, 34. , its formation and adaptation to the circum stances in which it is placed, 34. , clattering sound of its feet, 34. , its antlers, 34. , its young, 35. , its milk, 36. , its food and olfactory powers, 36. , the caribou of North America, 36. , its geographical range in the Old and New Worid, 36. , its love ofa cold climate, 36. , its services to man, 37. , its enemies, and di.-orders to which it is lia ble, 37, 38. , a nuisance in Iceland, 81. of Spitzbergen, 137. . , the, pens of the Lapps, 160. , milking the, 160. , the, sledges of the Lapps, 161. , attempt made to acclimatize the, in Scotland, 162. ¦ •, ravages of wolves in herds of, 164. , rich Lapp owners of herds of, 164. , Lapp mode of kiUing the, 164. , its two annual migrations, 237. . . hunts of the Jukahires of the Aniuj, 237, 238. races of the Tchuktchi, 266. hunting of the Esquimaux, 295. . the Kutchin Indian mode of pounding the, 333. , chase of the, in Greenland, 388. Rensselaer bay, temperature of, in mid-winter, 19, 20. , Kane's winters at, 365, 369. Resanow, Jakin, his gold-fields, 214. " Rescue," wi-eci< of the, 440. Reykjahlid^ boiling mud-caldrons of, 70. Reykjavik, mean annual temperature of, 78. , the present capital of Iceland, 91. , account of, 99, 100. , the annual fair of, 100. , salary of the bishop of, 106. , schools and library of, 108, 109. , the Icelandic Literary Society, 110. Rhinoceros remains found on the coast of North em Siberia, 203. Richardson, Dr. (afterwards Sir John), his Arctic land voyages, 346, 349. , dreadful sufferings ofthe part}', 346, 347. , his search for Sir John Franklin, 356. Elvers discharging their waters into the Polar ocean, 17. of Iceland, 78. Eocky Mountains, the wild sheep of the, 41. Roebuck, near Lake Baikal, 40. Rorquals, or fin-whales, habitat and size of the, 60. . , their food, 60. Rosmysslow, his investigations of the shores of Nova Zembla, 147. Ross, Capt. (afterwards Sir John), Arctic voyages of, 344. 759 INDEX. Eoss, Sir John, his second journey, 351. , his five years in the Arctic Ocean, 351-354. , his return home and honors, 354. , Sir James, bis Arctic voyages, 351. , his search for Franklin, 357. , his discoveries in the Antarctic Ocean, 402. , collision between his ships, the "Erebus" and " Terror," 405, 406. ., his danger between two icebergs, 406. Eum, effects of, on an Iceland clergyman, 101. Eupert's Land, held by the Hudson's Bay Company, 310. Eussia, character of the coniferse of, 23, 24. , the elk of the woods of the northern parts of, 40. , conquest of, by the Tartars under Baaty Khan, 191. , liberated from the Tartar yoke by Ivan I., 191. ., advances of, in Siberia, 195. ., annexes the country of the Amoor, 196. , condition of the natives under the yoke of, 197, 198. . , exiles from, to Siberia, 204^206. , value of the skins annually imported by, 212, 213. , life and dwellings in Nishne-Koh'nisk, 236. , first treaty of commerce between England and, 336. , Company, patent granted to the, to fish off Greenland, 138. Russian Fur Company, account of the, and its trade, 272. S. Sabine, Mount, discovery of, 402. Sable, value of the, to the Cossack conquerors of Siberia, 195. , importance and beauty of the fur of the, 209. , hunting, 210. ^ Sabrina Land, discovery of, 401, 402. Sagamen, or historians, of Iceland, 94. Sajan Mountains, Castren's journey over the, 177. Salmon, Alpine {Salinn alftinus), immense numbers of, in Nova Zembla, 155. Salmon, shoals of, in the rivers of the Arctic regions, 19. , abundance of, in Iceland, 87. , of the Sea of Ochotsk, 246, 247. , abundance of, in Kamchatka, 255. Samoiedes, European, Gastrin's journev among the, 170. , their drunkenness, 171. . , their impatience of confinement, 171-173. , their barbarism, 179. , their Supreme Being, Num, or Jilibeambaert je, 179. , their recourse to incantations, 180. , their idols, 180, 181. , their reverence paid to the dead, 181. , their mode of taking an oath, 182. , their personal appearance and habits, 182. • -, their wealth in reindeer, 183, 184. , their entire number in Europe and Asia, 184. , their traditions of ancient heroes, 184. ¦ -, confirmed by the Czar in their posse sions, 199. , the companions of Von Middendorff on his journey, 221, 225. Simund Erode, his Icelandic works, 94. Sand-bee {Andrena) of Nova Zembla, 154. Sand-reed bread used in Iceland, 79. Sarmiento, Pedro, his voyage, 414. Sawina river, 148. Saxifragas, the, ot the treeless zone, 20. Scalds, or bards, of Iceland, 94. Scandinavia, character of the coniferse of, 22. Schalaurow, his journeys on the coast of Siberia, 201. Scharostin, his residence at Spitzbergen, 142. Schelagskoi, Cape, rounded by Count Michael Stad uchin, 197. . , reached by Schalaurow, 201. Scoresby, Dr., his visit to Spitzbergen, 132. , Captain, his near approach to the North Pole, 344. , his voyage to Greenland, 385, 386. Scotia, Nova, discovered and colonized by Green landers, 335. Scurvy in Spitzbergen, 140-142. , preservative against, 141, • , Lapp mode of preventing the, 166. Sea, influence of the, on the severity of the Arctic winter, 27. Sea, Antarctic, compared with the Arctic regions, 391. ¦ , absence of vegetation in tbe, 391. , causes of the inferiority of the Antarctic cli mate, 391, 392. , immensity of the icebergs of the, 392. , the Peruvian current, 394. . , birds of the coasts, 394. • , cetaceans, 397-399. , Austral fishes, 400. , voyages of discovery, 401. , storms and pack-ice, 404 it seq. Seas, Arctic, dangers peculiar to the, 45. . , floating masses of ice, 45, 46. , ice-blink, 54. , summer fogs, 54. , clearness of the atmosphere and apparent n ar- ness of objects, 55. , phenomena of reflection and refraction of the atmosphere, 55. , causes which prevent the accumulation of Polar ice, 55-57. , the animals cf the, 40, 43, 44, 59. ¦ , Eussian discoveries off the Siberian coast, 201 et seq. , Von Middendorff's journey down the Taimur river to the Polar sea, 221. , WrangeU's nights on tbe Polar sea, 239. , his observations on the Polar sea, 240. ¦ , Matiuschkin's sledge journey, 241. ¦ , voyages of the English and Dutch, 335 et seq. Sea-bear of Bering's sea, 62. Sea-eagles of the coast.of Norway, 125. Sea-elephant of the Antarctic Ocean, 398, 399. Sea-gulls of the coast of Norwa}', 124, 125. Sea-lion of Bering sea, 62. of the Pribilow Islands, 271. Seal-fishing at Spitzbergen, 142. of Nova Zembla, 155. ¦ hunts of the Esquimaux, 295, 296. catching at Newfoundland, 381. hunting on the coasts of Greenland, 384, 446. Seals, the, of the Polar seas, 62. , their uses to man, 62, 446. , the Antarctic, 399, 400. , their igloos, 449. INDEX. 751 Sea-otter, value of the skin and former numbers of the, 201, 202. Sedger river, romantic scenery of Ihe, 410. Semple, Governor, murder of, 803. Sertularians on the coasts of Greenland, 59. Service-trees in the Arctic regions, 24. Shark, basking, on the northern coasts of Iceland, 87. , its uses to the islanders, 87. , oil manufactured from its liver, 87. , the northern {Scymnus microcephalus), abund ance of, off Spitzbergen, 137. , fishery of, on the coast of Greenland, 387. Sheep, wild {Ovis montana), of the Rocky Mount ains, description of the, 41. , the, of Iceland, and tlieir enemies, 80. , mode of sheep-shearing, 80. Shetland Islands, New, account of the, 392, 393. Shrimps off Spitzbergen, 133. Siberia, extent of the treeless zone of, 22. , character of the coniferse of, 23, 24. , the elk of, 39. , the roebuck and red deer of, 40. , the argali, or wild sheep of, 41. , the white dolphin in the rivers of, 61. , conquest of, by the Cossacks, for the Rus sians, 193, 194. , final conquest of, by the Russians, and foun dation of Tobolsk, 195 et seq. , condition ofthe natives of, under the dominion of Russia, 197, 198. , scientific expeditions sent to, 200 et sr-q. , its past ages, 203. , its extent and capabilities, 204. , the exiles sent there, 204-206. , their condition there, 206. , condition of tbe West Siberian peasants, 207, 208. , resources of the country, 208. , extremes of heat and cold, 208. , , fur-bearing animals, 209 etseq, , the gold-fields of Eastern, and the miners, 214- 216. , value of the produce of some of the mine", 217, 218. , entire value ofthe produce of gold in 1856 and 1860, 218. . , luxury and extravagance caused by the wealthy gold speculators, 218, 219. , the gold of the Ural. 219. , New, lemmings of, 27. , discovery of the islands of, 201, 202. , fossil ivoiy of. 202. Sibir, the capital of the Tartars in Siberia. 192. , taken by Yermak, the robber, for the Czar, 194. Simpson, Mr. Thomas, his Arctic land voyag", 355. , his discoveries, 356. , assassinated, 356. Sirowatsky, his discovery of the Arobipelago of New Siberia, 203. SkaJholt, the ancient capital of Iceland, account of, 98. , its present condition, 99. , its meadow lands and scener}', 99. Skaptar jokul, 69 , the great eruption of, in 1783, 95. Skates of Lapps, 161. Skeidara, Jlr. Holland's journey across the, 111, 112. Skjalfandafljot river in Iceland, 78. Skogslappar, or Forest Lapps, account of the, 166. Sledges of the Lapps, 161. , the sacred sledge, Hahengau, of the Samoi edes, 180. Smith's Sound, temperature of, 27. , icebergs formed in, 48. , discovery of the entrance to, 343, 365. " Smoke, valley of," in Iceland, 70. Snorri Sturleson, the Herodotus of the North, ac count of him and his " Heimskringla," 94, 95. Snow-buntings ofthe "barren grounds," 18. Snow, its protection of the vegetation of the Arctic regions, 19. , warmth caused by, 19. , no land yet found covered to the water's edge with eternal snow, 27. , amount ofthe fall of, in Taimurland, 225, 226. ¦ , probable diminution of tbe fall of, advancing towards the pole, 226. , its protection against cold, 226. Socialism among the Dog-rib Indians, 329. Solfataras of Iceland and Sicily compared, 88. Solovetskoi, convent of, 180. Sorcery of the Laplanders, 158. , of the Samoiedes, 180. Spain, salted cod-fish imported into, 129. Spasy, produce of the gold mine of, 218. Spirits, invisible, of the Samo'iedes, 180, 181. Spitzbergen, flowers of, 20. , vast fields of ice in the plateau of, 27. , food of the reindeer of, 27. . proofs of a former milder climate in, 29, 30. , birds of, 43, 44. , apparent nearness of objects at, in clear weather, 54. , the walrus of the coast of, 64. , description of the archipelago of, 131, 132. , the west coast, 132. , Scoresby's ascent of a mountain, and excur sion along the coast, 132, 133. , Magdalena bay, 133-136. , ice-cliffs and avalanches of ice, 135. , scientific exploring expeditions sent to, 136. , flora and fauna of, 136, 137. , fisheries of, 139. , coal and drift-wood of, 137, 138. , history of, 138. , attempts made to colonize it, 139 -141. , Russian hunters' mode of wintering at, 142. , walrus and seal-fishing at, 142. , discovery of, 340. Spout, the, of Newfoundland, 376. Springs, hot, of Iceland, 70. , the Geysir, 71. , the Strokkr, 72. Spruce fir of the Hudson's Bay territor}', 24. Squirrel, value of the fur of the, 212. Stadolski Island, visit of Pachtussow to, 148. Staduchin, Count Michael, his foundation of the town of Nishnei-Kolymsk, 196, 197. navigates tbe sea eastward of Cape Schelag skoi, 197. Stawinen river, 148. Steller, G. W., notice of him, 248. , his scientific journey to Kamchatka, 248. , ill-treated by Bering, 250. , his sufferings on Bering's Island, 251. , death of his commander, Bering, 252. , his return to Kamchatka, 252. , persecuted by the Silierian authorities, 253. , his death, 253. Stockfish of Iceland, 87. 752 Storms on the White Sea, 169. of the Tundras, 172, 173. of the Arctic zone, 225, 226. off Newfoundland, 381. in the Antarctic ocean, 404, 405. , the williwaws, or hurricane squalls, of the Strait of Magellan, 412. „ Strogonoff, foundation ofthe Eussian family ot, i» , 193. Strokkr, description of the, 72. . Strongbow Indians of the Rocky Mountams, the, 327. Sukkertoppen, seen by Davis, 337. Sulphur of Iceland, 88. 1^ compared with that of Sicily, »»- Summer,the perpetual daylight of, 36. . . fogs of, 54. in Taimurland, 225. Sun, the midnight, effect of, on icebergs, 50-52. Sunset, magnificence of a, 32. Surgut, (;astren's visit to, 175. Surts-hellir, or caves of Surtur, description of, 77. Suslik, the, of Siberia, 212. , value of its fur, 212. Svatoinoss, Cape, fossil ivory at. 202. Sviatoi-noss, doubled by the Russians, 200. Swans of Iceland, 81, 84. Tabin, the imaginary Cape, of the Dutch naviga tors. 339. Tadioes, or sorcerers of the Samo'iedes, 180. , their dress and incantations, 180. Tagilsk, Nishne, the gold-producing town of, 219. Taiga, melancholv character of the, 230. , gold-fields of the, 213. Taimur Lake, visited by Lieut. Laptew, 200. , storm on the, 223. Taimur river, visited by Lieut. Laptew, 200. , Von Middendorffs journey to the, 221-223. Taimurland, endeavors of Prontschischtschew to double the capes of, 200 , MiddendorfFs adventures in, 220, 221. , his observations on the climate and natural productions of, 225. , amount of the fall of snow in, 225, 226. Tana river, discovery of the, by Jelissei Busa, 195. Tarn Mount, Darwin's ascent of, 411. Tartars, their subjection of the Eussians, 191. driven out by Ivan I., 191. ¦ ¦ permanently overthrown by Ivan II. , 192. Tattooing, Cree Indian mode of, 323. Tebendoma, the, visited by Jelissei Busa, 195. Tchuktchi, barren grounds in the land of the, 21, 22. , the land of tbe. 262. , pipes of, 264. , their short summer, 262. , tticir independence and commercial enterprise, 263. ladies, Matiuschkin's visit to some, 265. , amusements of the people, 266. , the wandering and sedentai-j', 267. , their mode of life, 267. , population of the land of the, 267. Tea-parties at Nishne-Kolymsk, 238. Temperature of Rensselaer bay in mid-winter, 19, 20. . , effect of the sea on, of the Arctic regions, 27. INDEX. -_ he vrici^ on, 27. I Temperature, influence of ' ^^^^io regions 29 . . former milder, of tne ^j^^^^ges m the Arctic ; probable causes of t" I climate, 29. . ^ jnan, 28. ,, the lowest e'^«'^^" -bear extraordinary low, . how man is enabled to u j , _J^of Iceland at different places, 78. Tennyson's Monument, Dr. Kane's description of, 367. Terror, Mount, 403. Terski Lapps, Gastrin's attempted journey to the, 170. Thangbrand, Christian missionary to Iceland, 93, 94. ThingvaUa, plain of, 76. . , site of the ancient Icelandic Althing at, 91, 92. , pastor of, 104. , church of, 105. Thingvalla Lake, in Iceland, 92. Thiorsa river, in Iceland, 78. Thorlaksen, Jon, tbe poet of Iceland, account of him and his works, 107. Thorne, Robert, his suggestion for sailing across the North Pole, 342. Thorwald the traveller, the first Christian Icelander, his career, 92, 93. Tides, effect of the, in preventing the accumulation of Polar ice, 57. Tinne Indians, defeated by the Crees, 319. ¦ , their retaliation, 320. , their wars with the Blackfeet, 320. , their wigwams, or tents, 324. • , various tribes ofthe, and their range, 327. , their appearance, manners, and customs, 327- 329. , improvements in their condition, 329, 330. , their wives and children, 330. , their cruelty to the aged, 330. Tjumen, the first settlement of Russians in Siberia. 195. , Steller's grave at, 253. Tobacco, fondness of the Lapps for, 165, 167. , eagerness of the wild tribes of the North for, 264. Tobolsk, battle of, 193, 195. , foundation ofthe city of, 195. , condition of the southern part, 207, 208. Tolstoi Ness, Gastrin's visit to, 177. Tolstych, Adrian, his discoveries, 201. Tomsk, criminals of, 206, 207. Tornea, reindeer gloves of, 37. Torsteinson Jon, the martvr of the Westman Isl ands, 118. Tookoolito, 442 ^gg Train-oil of Tromsoi 128. *='" Iceland, 110 111 Treeless zone oPTT ' '^-^"i •'¦ii- Treurenber A=; j"""P^' Asia, and America, 18-22. TroUadynefa e ' n^' ''^' ^^'¦ Iceland, 95. ''""ns of, since the colonization of Tronso, cod-fisiierv anA , description of th *^°*-'i™r oil of, 128. Tschirigow, his vovatj.^ ,„T" ™^ '^land, 128. Tucutuco {Ctenomys Ma n - 419. ¦^'Vella-. Tundri, or barren grounds of of the European Samoi, •"":«), the, of Patagonia, *« Arctic regions, 18, 171. INDEX. 753 Tundri, storms of the Tundras, 172. Tung-owei-, or hot spring at Reikholt, in Iceland, 70. Tungusi, the, their relationship to the Mantchou, 244. , their conquests and final subjugation by the Russians, 244. , their intellectual development, 244. , their tribes and population, 244. , their wretchedness, 244. , their manners and customs, 245. Tunguska river, gold-fields of the Upper, 214. Turkey-buzzard, the, of Patagonia, 419. Turuchansk, Castren's visits to, 176, 177. Tyndall glacier, enormous size of, 50. U. Uffliot the Wise, his first code of laws in Iceland, 91. Unalaschka, climate of, 269. , vegetation of, 269, 270. , people of, 273. Union, Cape, Dr. Hayes's sledge voyage to, 373, 374. United States, right of, to fish on tbe banks of New foundland, 379. Ural Mountains, Castren's passage of the, 174. , first discoveiy of gold in the, 214. , quantity of gold found in the, 219. Ustsylmsk, Castren's visit to, and ill-treatment at, 173, 174. Utzjoki, the pastor of, 169. Uusa river. Gastrin's journey up the, 174. Vaage, cod-fisheiy of, 126. , ancient importance of, 126. Vancouver's Island, placed under the management of the Hudson's ]3ay Company, 310. Vapor baths of the Cree Indians, 324. Vare. the, of Norway, 1-24. Vegetation, protection afforded by snow to, 19. , distinctive characters of the Arctic forests, 22-24. of the " barren grounds," 18, 21, 22. , length of time necrssary for the formation of even small stems of trees in the Arctic regions, 25. , harmless character of the Arctic plants, 25. , no land yet discovered in which it is entirely subdued by winter, 27. , former, of the northern regions of the globe, 29. of Spitzbergen, 136. of Nova Zembla, 152. of Taimurland, 226. of Kamchatka, 254. of the Bay of Awatscha, 256. of the Pribilow Islands, 271. of Newfoundland, 376. of Greenland, 388. — : — , absence of, in the Antarctic regions, 391. of Port Famine, 410. Verchnei Ostrog, in Kamchatka, built, 198. Vsrazzani, his voyages, 335. Vestfjord, cod-fishery of the, 126. Victoria Land, discovery of, 402. Videy, eider-ducks of, 81, 82. 48 Vigr, eider-ducks of, 83. , Mr. Shepherd's visit to, 83, 84. Vikings, their courage and discoveries, 89. Virgins, Cape, 409. Vogelsang, deer of, 137. Volcanic eruptions in Iceland since its colonization, 95. Volcanoes giving birth to Iceland, 68. , those now existing there, 69. , the Esk, on Jan Meyen, 146. ¦ , of Kamchatka, 255. , eruption of Mount Erebus, 403. Vole, field {Arvicola ceconomus), indigenous to Ice land, 80. ¦Voyageur, the, of North America, 304. , his life and character, 304, 305. W. Walrus, or morse {Trichechus rosmarus), descrip. tion of the, 62-64. • , its affectionate temper, 64. , its parental love, 64. , its chief resorts and food, 64. fishing at Spitzbergen, 144. hunted on Bear Island, 144. of Nova Zembla, 155. hunting on the coast of Aliaska, 275. , pieces of skin of, a medium of exchange, 276. • , Esquimaux mode of hunting it, 298. Washington Land, discovery of, 369. , Dr. Ha}'es's journey to, .S73. Wassiljew-, his visit to the Lena, 195. Waygatz, island of, the sacred island of the Samo.- edes, 180. Weasel, the Siberian ( -fiverra Siberica), the fur of, 211. WeddeU, Captain, his Antarctic voyages, 401. Welden, his visit to Bear Island, 144. Wellington Channel, temperature of, 28. , discovery of, 346. Wenjamin, the Archimandrite, 170. Western, Thomas, preaches Christianity to the Lapps, 156. Westman Islands, description of the, 114. , difficulty of access of the, 114. , how they became colonized, 115. , Heimaey, or Home Island, 116. ¦ , food and trade of the people, 117. , population and mortality of the children, 118. , tbeir suft'erings from pirates, 118, 119. Weymouth, his voyage to Hudson's Bay, 341. Whale, the Greenland {Balasna 7nysticetus), or smooth-back, 60. off Nova Zembla, 155. , the white, or beluga, 61. , the "ca'ing," 62. , a stranded, at Spitzbergen, 133. , the fin-back, 59, 60. of Spitzbergen, 137. off Nova Zembla, 155. , smooth-backed, of the Antarctic seas, 397. , sperm, of the Antarctic Ocean, 398. Whalers, their dangers, in tho Arctic seas, 48. , depressing effect of the summer fogs, 54. , their operations in the Polar seas, 59. , whale chases of the Aleuts, 275. , whale-hunts of the Esquimaux, 295. , abundance of wbalesin the Antarctic seas, 397. , battle between a whale and a grampus, 398. 754 INDEX. Whale Sound, enormous glaciers of, 50. White-fish, or Coregonus, of North America, 310, 311. White Sea, Castren's journey to the, 170. , Chancellor's discovery of the passage from England to the, 192. , an English expedition in the, 336. Whymper, Frederick, travels in Alaska, 277- 289. Wilkes, Captain, his discoveries in the Antarc tic Ocean, 402. Wilkes's Land, discovery of, 402. Williwaws ofthe Strait of Magellan, 412. WiUoughby, Sir Hugh, his voyage aud death, 336. Willow, polar {Salix polaris), of Nova Zembla, 153. , dwarf, of the treeless zone, 21. , dwarf, on the shores of the rivers and lakes, 24. Wind-hole Strait of the Dutch navigators, 339. Winds, effects of the cold sea-winds on vegeta tion, 22. , influence of the, on an Arctic climate, 27. Winter Harbor, Parry's winter in, 345. Winteria Aromatica, the, 410. Witchcraft and witches of the Laplanders, 158, Wolf, its attack of the reindeer, 37, 88. , Lapp mode of hunting the, 1(54. , in Newfoundland, 378. 'Wolverine. (See Glutton.) , fur of the, 316. Wood, length of time necessary for the forma tion of, in the Arctic regions, 25. Woman, dying, abandoned, 462. WrangeU, Lieut, von, his services as an Arctic -^,t" jofrney to the shores of the Polar sea, 234. „„„ , his winters at Kolymsk, 238 his night on the Polar sea, 239. ; his danger, and return to St. Petersburg, Wrestiingfor a wife among the Tinn^ I^i^ifns, 830 ; and among the Kutchm Indians, 332. Yenisei river, importance of, 17. Yermak Timodajeff, the Cossack robber, 192. ^ his conquest of Siberia and death, 194. ', his monument in Tobolsk, 194, 195. York roads, beauty of, 412. Yukon river, 278-289. , ice in, 283. Yukon, fort, 284. Z. Zembla, Nova, vast ice-fields of, 27. , mean temperature of, in summer and winter, 27. , the narwhal of the seas of, 60. , the walruses of the coasts of, 64. Zinzendorf, Count, his interest in Greenland, 884. Ziwolka, the Russian steersman, his voyages, 149, 150. , his meteorological observations, 150. THE TEOPIOAL WOELD. Akane^. (See Spiders.) Aard-vark, or earth-hog, 608. Abyssinia, elephant-hunting' in, 717. Acacias, 537. Adjutant bird, 625, 657. Africa, Savannas of, 508; hunting in, 504; lake region of, 506 ; insects of, 588, 598 ; serpents of. 627; monkeys of, 677; lions of, 700; elephants of, 715; rhinoceroses of, 721; hip popotamus of, 725 ; camel of, 729 ; giraffe of, 731; zebras and quaggas of, 738. Alligators, of the old and new world, 635; their prey, 635 ; size of, 636 ; crane caught by, 637 ; men caught by, 638 ; tenacity of Jife, 638; their young, 639; their enemies, 639 ; torpidity in the dry season, 500, 639 ; feign death, 640; fights with the orang outang, 688. Agassiz Louis : His collection of fishes, 520 ; account of natives of the Arnazon, 521, 522 ; estimate of the productions of Amazonia, 524 ; description of Brazilian coffee-planta- tions, 564 ; of the coffee-moth, 566. Agave-plant, the, 583. Alpaca, the, 483. -Altos of Peru. {See Puna.) ¦Aluates, or howling monkeys, 690. Amache, ant, 597. Amazon, River and Valley of, 517; extent of, 018; lagoons, 518; inundations, 519; vege tation of, 519; flshes of, 520; animal life of, &-U; natives of, 621; siesta on, 554; aUiga- tors in, 636 ; turtles of, 641. Amphisbsenas, 521 -Anaconda, or water-boa, 620 Xtm: T^,\f%l °^' 50*' 665, 667, 700, Andes, the ascent of 490 ""zonlll- ^^"^^''^ --«y of. in different 712 giraffes, 731 - hl^"^; ^50 ; elephants, ' anacu 483; aguar 710^.°?°'^"".^'' ^^^' ''"¦ . J s d-r, /io, leopard, 708; lion, INDEX. 755 698; puma, 710; quagga, 731; rhinoceros, 721; sloth, 678; tiger, 705; vicuna, 488; wild-cats, 711; zebras, 738. Anomaluri, the, 673. Ant-bears, 606 ; ant-bear and jaguar, 607. Ant-hills, 602. Ants : Their numbers, 594 ; pain of their bite, 595; destructive of plants, 596; household pests, 597 ; the bashikouay, 598 ; house building ants, 599'; slave-holding ants, 600. Apes. (See Monkeys.) Aphides, or plant-lice, furnish honey for ants, 600. Arabia, coffee culture in, 565. Arabs, mode of hunting the lion, 702. Aras, or macaws, 662. Argala, or adjutant-bird, 625, 657. ArmadUlos, 609; extinct species, 610. Arrow-root, the, 555. Am, how natives of, shoot hirds of paradise, 654. Atacama, Peruvian Desert, 508. Ateles, or spider-monkeys, 690. Atlas, Mount, Lion-hunting in, 70O. Atmosphere, the : currents of, 475. Atolls, or coral islands, 478. Atta cephalotes, ant destructive of the banana, 596. Australia, coral reef of, 479; desert of, 508; birds of, 655; bower-bird of, 656; the tale galla, 656 ; the emu of, 668. B. Babirusa, the 786. Baboons. (See Monkeys.) Bacha, or African falcon, the, 697. Bamboos, uses of, 582. Banana, and plantain, 551. Banyan, or Indian fig-tree, 529. Baobab, the giant tree, 527 ; Mrs. Livingstone's grave under, 528. Barth, Henry, Notes of, 504, 510, 715. Bashikouay ant, the, 598. Basilisk, the, 632. Bat, the, 669 ; character and habits, 670 ; the kalong, 670; eaten in Java, 670; the vam pire, 671 ; horse-shoe bats, 672 ; small bat of Ceylon, 672. Beetles, abundance of in the tropical world, 581 ; used for ornaraent, 592. Behemoth ; is he the hippopotamus or the buf falo? 725. Bell-bird, or campanero, 647. Bete-rouge, the, 587. Birds: tbe condor, 480, 498, 693; the asfir, 509; the ostrich, 512, 668; the secretary, 624 ; the adjutant, 625 ; general view of bird- life, 645; the toucan, 646; the humming bird, 647 ; cotingas, 647 ; the campanero, 647 ; manakins, 648 ; cock of the rock, 648 ; troopials, 648 ; orioles, 649; cassiques, 619; the mocking-bird, 649 ; the toropishu, 650 ; the tunqui, 650 ; goatsuckers, 650 ; the or- , gan-bird, 650 ; the cilgero, 650 ; the flamingo, 650; the ibis, 651; the jabiru, 651; the ja cana, 651 ; the rhinoceros hornbill, 651 ; sun-birds, 652 ; honey-eaters, 652 ; ocel lated turkey, 652 ; the lyre-bird, 653 ; birds of paradise, 653; the bower-bird, 656; the talegalla, 656; the coEpersmith 657; the devil-bird, 657; the tailor-bird, 658; the grosbeak, 658; the korwd, 658; weaving birds, 659; parrots, 659; cockatoos, 662; macaws, 662; paroquets, 668; the ostrich, 663 ; rheas, (567 ; the cassowary, 667 ; the emu, 668; the condor, his character and flight, 693 ; mode of capturing, 694 ; the car rion vulture, 695 ; the harpy eagle, 696 ; the sociable vulture, 696 ; the bacha, 697 ; the fishing eagle, 697; the sparrow-hawk, 698; the secretary eagle, 698. Boars, wild, chase of, 785. Boas, 6-20; the boa constrictor, 620; water boas, 500, 620. Bogota, table land of, 495. Bolas, the, 502. Bon, M., his spider-thread stockings, 614. Borelo, or black rhinoceros, the, 721. Bo-tree, or Pippul, 580. Bower-bird, the, 656. Brazil, Agassiz's estimate of its future, 523 ; coffee-culture in, 563; ants of, 601 ; toads of, 638. Bread-fruit, 550. Bufogigas, or great toad of Brazil, 633. Buildings of ants, 602. Busbropes, or lianas, 515, 585. Butterflies, 582. Butterfly, the leaf, 583. C. Cacao, or chocolate, 567. Cactuses, 588. Camel, the, 728; ships of the land, 728 ; forma tion of its foot, 729; its food, 729; its water- pouch, 729 ; its hump, and the uses of it, 729; its desert home, 729; the camel audits master, 730; training for robbery, 730; en durance of thirst, 730; distinction between the camel and the dromedary, 730 ; caravan journeys, 731 ; changes from servitude, 731 ; effects upon its temper, 781 ; excuses for its ill-temper, 781. Cameleopard. (See Giraffe.) Campanero, or bell-bird, 647. Cassava, or Mandioca, 554. Cassia. (See Cinnamon.) Cassiques, 649. Cassowary, the, 667. Cattle and horses in America, 500. Caymen. (See Alligators.) Ceiba-tree, tbe, 531. Cerastes, the, 620. Ceylon, Game in, 505; parasitic and thorny plants of, 586; Cinnamon culture, 573; ants of, 595; serpents of, 616; alligators of, 640; turtles of, 644 ; birds of, 657 ; monkeys otj 686; elephants, of, 713; taming elephants, 717; Panickeas, or elephant-catchers, 718; their mode of capturing the elephant, 718 ; elephant establishments of the government, 721. Chacma, or pig-faced baboon, 687. Chaco, the grand, of Paraguay, 502. Chameleon, the, 630. Charming, by serpents, 621. Chegoes or jiggers, 585, Cheetah , or hunting leopard, the, 708. Cbelonians, or tortoises, 642. Chimpanzee, the, 677. 756 INDEX. Chirimoya, the, 492, 556. Chocolate, 567. Church, F. A., his painting of the Heart of the Andes 491. Cicadse, the, 592. Cilgero, the. 650. Cinnamon, 571 ; the Dutch monopoly of, 572; amount produced, 572; historical notices of, 573 ; present consumption of, 574. Climbers, the, 669; the bat, 669; the fiying squirrel, 678 ; the galeopitheci, 678 ; the anomaluri, 673; the sloth, 673; monkeys, 676. Climbing plants, 535. Cloves, 574, 576. Cobra de Capello, the, 619. Coca, the leaves of, 568 ; effects of their use, 569. Cochineal insect, the, 591. Cockatoos, 662. Cock of the rock, 648. Cockroaches, 589. Cocoa, Cacao,andCoca,notto be confounded,568. Cocoa palm, the, 538. Coffee, 562; home of the plant, 562; coffee countries, 563, 565; cofiee plantations in Brazil, 564; gathering the berries, 565; enemies of the plant, 566. Coffee-bug, the, 566. Coffee- moth, Mrs. Agassiz's description of, 566. Colobi, the, 091. Columbus, and the Gulf-stream, 474. Condor, tbe, 480, 498 ; his character and flight, 693 ; mode of capturing, 694. Coppersmith, bird, the, 657. Coqueros, or coca-chewers, 570. Coral, reefs and islands, 478, 479 Cordilleras, the, 490. Cotingas, 647. Cougar, or puma, the, 711. Crab, robber, the, 580. Crane, caught by alligator, 637. Crocodiles. (See Alligators.) Cubbeer-burr, a famous tree, 529. Currents of the ocean, 473 ; the equatorial cur rent, 474; the Gulf Stream, 474. Cynocephali, raonkeys, the, 687. D. Dancing parties of birds of paradise, 655. Deryas, sacred monkey of Egypt, the, 688. Desplobado, the, 480, 482, 485. Deserts (See also Savannas.) Of Atacama, 508 ; of Australia, 5i'8 ; the Sahara, 509 Devil-bird of Ceylon, 657. Dioscorea, or yam-plants, 555. Doldrums, or equatorial calm belts, 476. Dorey, ants of, 697. Douw, or BurcheU's zebra, 734. Dragon trees, 528 Dromedary, the. (See Camel) Du Chaillu, Paul: Account ofthe bashikouay ant, 598 ; of squirrel charmed by serpent 624; kills large snake, 627; kills a goriUa! 678; female gorilla and young, 679 ; number of gorillas seen by him, 680; whips of hippo potamus-skin, 727. Durion, the, 557 ; favorite food of the orane- outang, 684. ^ Dutch, their monopoly of spices, 572, 575. Dyaks, of Borneo, 681 ; contest with the orang outang, 684. E. Eagle, the harpy, 696 ; the fishing, 698 ; the secretary, 698. Ecuador, characteristics of, 490. Edible insects, 592; edible spiders, 614. Elevation, its influence upon climate, 480, 485. Elephant, the, 712; difference between the tamed and wild, 712 ; timidity of the ele phant, 713 ; his power of climbing, 718 ; his water-stomach, 718 ; his trunk, and its uses, 713 ; his tusks, and their possible uses, 714 ; elephant herds, 504, 714 ; tuskers, 714 ; rogue , elephants, 714; distinction between African and Asiatic elephants, 715; elephants known to the ancients, 715; range ofthe African elephant, 715; how they are hunted by the natives, 716 ; by Europeans, 716 ; in Abys- ¦ synia, 716 ; the Asiatic elephant, 717 ; their abundance in Ceylon, 717 ; mode of cap turing them, 718 ; behavior of the captured animals, 719; great elephant-hunts, 719; elephant-corral, 719 ; tied up, 470, 719; tame elephants assisting to capture wild ones, 719 ; decoy-elephants, 720; an obstinate brute, 720; a little head-work, 720; dying of a broken heart, 720 ; the elephant in captivity, 720; v.alue of their labor, 720. Elliott, Ensign, adventure with a tiger, 707. Erau, the, 667. Emydse, or marsh-tortoises, 641. Enormous snakes, stories of, 627. Epiphytic plants, 586. F. Fangs, poison, of serpents, 618. Fascination of serpents, 621. Fire-ant of Guiana, 595. Fire-flies, 584. Fishing eagle, the, 698. Flamingo, the, 650. Flies, noxious, 587. Flying frog, Wallace's, 633. Flying lizards, 632. Flying squirrels, 673. Forests of the Tropical World, 514. Formica. (See Ants.) Fox-bat, or kalong, the, 670. Franklin, Dr., Account of Indian corn, 549. Frogs and toads : Gigantic of the Amazon, 520 ; the pipa, 682; Brazilian tree-frog, 633 ; Wal lace's flying firog, 638; singular toad at Bahia, 633 ; the bufo gigas, 684. Fruits and Plants of the Tropical World ; the chirimoya, 492, 556 ; the leroshua, 504 ; the mokuri, the kengwe, the naras, 505; the date, 542; the litchi, 556; the mangosteen, 557 ; the mango, 557 ; the durion, 557. G. Galagos, semi-monkeys, the, 688. Galapagos, or Tortoise Islands, 640 Galeopitheci, the, 673. Gallinazos, or carrion vultures, 695 Gavials. (See Alligatcrrs.) Geckoes, the, 629. ' Gibbons, monkeys, the, 685. Ginger, 578. INDEX. 757 Giraffe, the, 504 ; pulled down by lions, 699 ; its aspect, 781 ; its weapons of defence, 732; its anatomical structure, 732 ; ohase of the giraffe, 732 ; encounters with lions, 699, 782; Aristotle and Buffon on the giraffe, 788 ; giraffes in Europe and America, 738 ; analo gies between the ostrich and the giraffe, 733. Glagah grass, tlie, 546. Gnu, the, 734. God's birds, name for hirds of paradise, 653. Goliath beetle, the, 582. GoriUa, the, 678; Du Chaillu's adventures among, 678 ; female and young, 679. Gourds, esculent, of the kalahari, 505. Graminea, or grasses, 532. Grosbeak, tbe, 658. Guachos of South America, 502. Gum-lac insect, 592. H. Haje, serpent, the, 620. Harpy eagle, the, 696. Henderson, A. M., ou the fascination of ser pents, 621. Himalayas, mountains of, 497. Hippopotamus, the, 725 ; is it the behemoth of Job'! 725; its ancient and present habitat, 725; its mode of life, 725; its unpleasing aspect, 725 ; its inoffensive character, 726 ; the rogue hippopotamus, 726; intelligence ofthe hippopotamus, 726; whips of its hide, 727 ; its ivory, 727 ; modes of destroying, 727 ; spearing the hippopotamus, 728 ; the downfall, 728. Historical tree, the oldest, 530. Hog, the, destructive to the rattlesnake, 619. Honey-eaters, 652. HornbiU, the rhinoceros, 651. Horse, the, introduced into America, 500; in fluence upon the natives, 502. House-building ants. 599. Humming-birds, 647. Huanacu, the, 488. Humboldt, A. Von: Notes of, 498, 517, 525, 652. 601, 638, 091, 694. Huniman, the sacred monkey of India, 686. Hunting, of the vicuna, 484 ; of the gazelle, 512; ofthe ostrich, 512, 664; of the Hon, 700 ; by the cheetah, 708 ; of the rhinoceros, 723 ; of the hippopotamus, 727 ; of the wild boar, 735. Hurricanes, velocity of, 477. Hyaena, the, 709 ; different species of, 709. Hydrosauri, or water-lizards, 682. Ibis, the, 651. Igaripes, or canoe paths of the Amazon, 618. Iguanas, 631. Incas of Peru, 486; origin of their civilization, 487 ; present aspect of their sacred island, 487 ; fountain of the Incas, 488 ; their great mil itary roads. 489. Indians, of Ecuador, 493 ; of southern Africa, 506 ; of the Amazon, 521 ; of the Malay isl ands, 552. Insects, abundanoe of within the tropics, 581 ; beetles, 581; goliath, 582; leaf-butterfly, 582, mantis or soothsayer. 583 ; fire-flies, 584 ; mosquitoes, 585; jiggers, 585; the bete- rouge, 586 ; ticks, 587 ; land-leeches, 587 ; the tsetse, 587 ; Isalt-Salya, or zimb, 588 ; locusts, 588 ; cockroaches, 589 ; Ae silk worm, 590; the cochineal insect, 591; the gum-lac insect, 592; edible inseots, 592; or namental insects, 593 ; aphides, or plant-lice, 600. (See also Ants, Termites, and Spiders,) India-rubber tree, the, 536. Inundations, of the Amazon, 519. Islands : mostly tropical, 477 ; volcanic, 478 ; coralline, 478; volcanic, 479; how peopled, 479. J. Jabiru, the, 651. Jacana, the, 651. Jaguar, the, 710; his ravages, 710; modes of hunting, 710. Java, coffee of, 563 ; Dutch monopoly of spices in, 575 ; bats in, 670. Jigger, or chegoe, the, 585. K. Kala, the rhinoceros-bud, 722. Kalahari, South African Savanna, 508; vege tation of, 505 ; water in, 505; insects of, 506 ; water-finding ants, 506 ; inhabitants of, 506. Kalong, or fox-bat, the, 670. Keitloa, or black rhinoceros, the, 721. Kengwe, an African plant, 5C5. Khamsin, or simoom, the 511. 729. Kobaaba, or white rhinoceros, the 722. Korwe, the, 658. L. Laearki snake, the 617. Ladang, or mountain rice, 546. Lake Region of Africa, 506. Land and Water, Proportions Of, 473. Lasso, the, 601. Leeches, Land of, Ceylon, 587. Leichardt, Mr., explorations in Australia, 509. Lemurs, semi-monkeys, 688. Leopard, the, 708; the cheetah, or hunting leopard, 708. Leroshua, an African plant, 504. Liana, the, 483. Llanos, of Venezuela, the. 499; in the dry season, 500 ; in the wet season, 500. Lianas. (See Bushropes.) Life and cold, struggles between, 471. Lion, the, 504 ; lion and rhinoceros, 504, 704 ; general characteristics ofthe lion, 698; mode of seizing his prey, 699; lions and giraffe, 699 ; lion and man, 700 ; hunting the lion on Mount Atlas, 700, 702; man-eating lions, 700, 704; adventure of Hottentot with, 701; of Ander«»on with, 701 ; of Livingstone with, 702; hunted by the Arabs, 702; by the Bushmen, 703; ancient range of, 704; pres ent range of, 704 ; Livingstone's opinion of, 704. Litchi, the, 556. Livingstone, David : Notes of, 505, 527, 585, 758 INDEX. Livingstone, David: Notes of, 588, 695, 600, 667, 7U3, 704, 715, 726, 782. Livingstone, Mrs., Grave of. 528. Lizards, 629; the geckoe, 629 ; the anolis, 630; the chameleon, 630 ; the iguana, 631 ; the teja, 631 ; hydrosauri, or water lizards, 632 ; flying-lizards, 632 ; the basiUsk, 632. Locusts, 589. Loris, semi-monkeys, 688. Love-Parrot, the, 661. Lyre-bird, the, 653. M. Maca-ws. 662. Mace, 576. Magdalena river, voyage up, 495. Mahogany tree, the, 531. Maize, or Indian Corn, 547; its productive ness, 648 ; Franklin's account of, 549. Malay Archipelago, the, productions and ani mals of. (See Wallace.) Manakins, birds, 648. Mama Delia, legends of, 486. Manco Capac, legends of, 486. Mandrils, monkeys, the, 687. Mandioca, or Cassava, 554. Mango, the, 557. Mangosteen, the, 557. Manides, ant-eaters, 608. Mantis, or soothsayer, the, 583. Marching termite, the, 606. Mata. a plant of the Pana, 483. Megatherium, the, 675. MembracidEe, aphides, 600. Mexico, table-land of, 496. Mias. or orang-outang, 680. MiUet. 550. Mimosas, 534. Mocking-bird, the, 649. Mokuri, an African plant, 505. Monitor, Uzard, 631. Monkeys, their habits and characteristics, 676 ; place in the scale of being, 677 ; distinguished from the human race, 677 ; the chimpanzee, 677 ; the gorilla, 678 ; the orang-outang, or mias, 680 ; the gibbons, 685 ; the semno pitheci, 686; the huniman, 686; the cyno cephali, baboons and mandrils. 687 ; diflfer ence between monkeys of the two hemi spheres, 688; abundance of monkeys in South America, 689 ; miriki, 689 ; howling monkeys, 690 ; spider-monkeys, 691 ; fox tail monkeys. 691 ; the Saimiris, 691 ; noc turnal monkeys, 691; domesticated mon keys, 692; squirrel monkeys. 692. Monoho, or white rhinoceros, the 721. Monsoons, the, 476. Mora-tree, the, 581. Mosquito, the, 686. Mountains: as influencing climate, 476. Mule, the ship of the desert of Atacama, 508. Mundaaracus, of Amazonia, 521. Mylodon, the, 675. N. Naras, an African plant, 505. Nests of weaving birds. 658. Nocturnal monkeys. 691. Nutmegs, 574 ; Dutch monopoly of, 575. Nutritive Plants ofthe Tropical World (Chap ter VI. See also Fruits and Plants.) Rice, 546; Maize, 547; Millet, 550; bread-fi:uit, 560; banana and plantain, 551; the sago- palm, 552 ; cassava, or mandioca, 554; yams, 556; sweet potato, 555; arrow-root, 555; taro-root. 556. Nycteribia bats, 672. Nyclopitheci, or nocturnal monkeys, 691. O. Ocean and Atmosphere, the, 471. Ocean, the. extent of, 472 ; influence upon cli raate, 478 ; laws governing them, 475. Okhotsk Sea, currents of, 475. Orang-outang, or mias. 680; Wallace's account of, 681 ; portrait of female, 681 ; strength and tenacity of life, 682; size of the largest. 682 ; a formidable opponent, 688 ; fights with the alligator and python. 688 ; its habits and food. 683 ; Wallace's pet orang, 684. Orchids, 535. Orejones, of Bogota, 495. Organ-bird, the, 650. •< Orioles, 648. Ornaraental insects, 592. Oricou, or sociable vulture, 696. Orotava, great dragon-tree of. 528. Orton, James : Notes from, 490, 498, 494, 498, 520, 522. 524. 636. 641. Orycteropi, ant-eaters, 608. Ostrich, the : Hunting of, 512, 664 ; 'the ostrich at home, 668 ; its enemies, 664, 660 ; its in stincts, 605; care for its young. 665; con necting Unk between birds and quadrupeds, 666 ; its omniverous appetite, 666 ; va'iue of its feathers and eggs, 667. Ox. the, introduced into Araerica, 500 ; their vast increase, 501. Pachteermati of ihe tropical world, 712. P&ddy, or native rice, 547. Palm-trees : The mauritia, 499 ; on the Ama zon, 469, 519; general characteristics, 538, 642 ; avenue of, at Rio Janeiro, 539 ; multi plied uses of. 539; the saguer, and areca, 640 ; the palrayra and talipot, 541 ; the date- palra, 542 ; oil-palms, 642 ; palras on the Amazon, 543; the sago-palra, 552; future commercial value of the palm, 544. Pampas, of South America, 499. (See also Savannas and Llanos.) Horses and cattle in, 602. Panama railroad, forest on. 526. Pandanus. or screw-pine. 538. Pangolins, ant-eaters, 608. Panickeas, elephant-catchers of Ceylon. 718. Paradise, birds of, 658; early stories about, 653 ; WaUace's account of. 653 ; shooting of, by natives of Aru, 654 ; the great bird of paradise, 655 ; snaring the red bird of para dise, 655. Parasitic plants, 585. Paroquets, 663. Parrots, 659. Peons, in South America, 522. Pepper, 676. INDEX. 759 Peru, ancient civilization of, 486. Pichincha, volcano, descent into, 494. Pimento, 577. Pippul, or Bo-tree, 680. Pique, or jigger, 585. Plantain and banana, 551. Plant-lice, aphides, furnish honey to ants, 600. Plants, nutritive. (See Fraite and Trees.) Rice, 545; maize, 547; millet, 550; sugar-cane, 659 ; coffee. 562 ; cacao, or chocolate, 667 ; vanilla. 668 ; coca, 568 ; cinnamon and cas sia. 571 ; nutmegs and cloves, 574. Ponera clavata, ant, 594. Porocococa, on the Amazon, 518. Potato, the sweet, 555. Prey, beasts and 'birds of. 693. Puma, or cougar. Araerican lion, the. 710. Puna, the, or table-land of Peru : its extent and character, 481 ; diseases of, 482 ; lile in, 482; vegetation of, 488; animals of, 484; climate of, 485. (See also Titicaca.) Python, the, 620 -, contests with the orang outang, 688. Q. Quagga. (See !Zet}ra.) Quinua, a plant of the Puna. 483. Quito, table-land of: its elevation, 489 ; ways of access, 490; approach from the Pacific coast, 491 ; the climate and productions, 492 ; its fauna and fiora, 492 ; the people, 493 ; its surrounding volcanos, 494. R. Rabbit, fascinated by serpent, 623. Rains and rain-fall. 476 ; at sea, 477 ; in various places, 477, 513. Ratans, 541. Rattlesnakes, 619; power of fascination, 021. Realejo, or organ-bird, the, 650. Red ant of Ceylon 595. Reefs, 478. Rheas, or American ostriches, 067. Khinoceros, the, 721 ; species of, 721 ; differ ence between the white and the black, 721 ; general characteristics, 722 ; acuteness of its smell and hearing. 722 ; imperfection of its vision, 722; its bird attendant. 722; bad temper of the black species. 722 ; fondness for its offspring, 728 ; its nocturnal habits, 723 ; hunting the rhinoceros, 723 ; its vitality, 723 ; value of its ivory, 728 ; rhinoceros paths, 724 ; the Indian rhinoceros, 724. Eice, species and culture of, 545 ; rice lands of the United States, 546 ; enemies of the rice- plant, 547. Rice-bird, the, 547. Eice. Colonel, adventure with a tiger, 760. Roads of the Incas of Peru, 489. Rogue elephants, 714; rogue hippopotami, 726. Saceli, dancing parties of birds, 655. Sacred island in Lake Titicaca, 485, 488. Sago, mode of manufacturing, 552 ; productive ness of the tree, 558. Sahara, Desert of, 509; Earth's adventure in, 510 ; oases in, 511 ; khamsin, or pestilential wind, 511 ; aniraals and birds of, 512; seasons of, 518. Saimiris, monkey, 691. Sakis, the, 691. Sandal-tree, the, 531. Sargasso Sea, the, 474. Sarumpe a disease on the Puna, 482. Satinwood-tree, 530. Savannas and Deserts (Chapter HI.) The Llanos of Venezuela, 4!'9 ; the Pampas, 500 ; the Kalahari, 602 ; Lake Region of Africa, 506. Sawa, or marsh rice, 546. Scorpions, 614 ; their aspect, 615; their venom, 615. Seasons, the : Changes of, in different hemis pheres, 476. Sea-weeds in the Sargasso Sea, 474. Secretary eagle, the, 624. 698. Semi-monkeys, lemurs, loris, etc.. 688. Semnopitheci, monkeys, the, 686. Serpents : Rarity of venomous species, 616 ; danger from, 617; antidotes to their poison, 618; mechanisra of their poison-fangs, 618; the bushmaster, 619 ; rattlesnakes, 619 ; ex tirpated by hogs, 619; the cobra, 620; the haje, 620; boas and pythons, 620; fascina-, tion of serpents, 621 ; catching their prey, 624 ; their bird enemies, 624 ; eating each other, 625 ; anatomical structure, 625 ; the formation of their jaws, 626 ; protracted fast ings. 626; useful serpents, 627 ; tree-snakes and water-snakes, 627 ; enormous serpents, 627; large snake killed by Du Chaillu, 627; larger one mentioned by Wallace, 628. Serpent-destroyers. 619, 624. Sikkim. the table-land of, 497. Silk-worm, the, 690. Silla, traveling by, 496. Simoom, the, 511, 729. Sjambok, whip of rhinoceros-hide, 727. Slave-hunting ants. 600. Sloth, the. 673; helplessness on the ground, 674 ; activity on trees, 674 ; tenacity of life, 676; gigantic fossil sloths, 676. Snakes. (See Serpents.) Soothsayer, or mantes, 583. Soroche, a disease on the Puna, 482. Sparrow-hawk, the, 698. Speke. John H., Account of the Lake Region of Africa, 507. Spices. 559; cinnamon, 571; nutmegs and cloves. 574; pepper, 5'76; pimento, 577 ; gin ger, 678. Spiders : Numerous on the Amazon. 620 ; gen eral characteristics of, 610; their venom, 611; their webs, 611; neutral-colored spi ders, 611; bright-colored spiders, 612; modes of life. 6l2; spider-eating birds. 618; insect enemies of the spider, 613 ; small effecfts of the bites of spiders, 613; edible spiders, 614; possible industrial uses of their filaments, 614. Spider-monkeys, 691. Spider-webs, their fineness, 614. Spoonbills, 661. Squier, E. G. : Notes frora, 481, 484, 487. Squirrel, charmed by serpent, 624; the flying- squirrel, 673. 760 INDEX. Squirrel-monkeys, 692. Sturt, Mr.. Explorations in AustraUa, 509. Sugar, manufacture of, 561. Sugar-cane, the, 559; its introduction into America, 560; characteristics of the plant, 561. Sun-birds, 652. Sycamore, the, 529. T. Table Lands, of Peru, 480 ; of Quito, 489 ; Bogota, 495; of Mexico, 496; of the Hima layas, 497. Tailor-bird, the, 658. Talegalla, or brush-turkey, the, 656. Tapir, the, 521. Tarantula, spider, exaggerated accounts of its venom, 614. Taro-root, the, 556. Tatooed Indians on the Amazon, 621. Teak-tree, the, 580. . Teju lizard, the, 631. Tennent, Sir Emerson; Notes of, 527, 535,616, 638.640,644,672, 713, 721. Termites, or white ants: Their habits and food, 601 ; destructiveness to books and fur niture, 601 ; their uses, 602, their communi ties, 602; their buildings, 602 ; their indus try, 603; their railitary operations, 604; American termites, 605; mode of capture, 605; marching termites, 606. Theobroraa, or chocolate, 567. Thorny plants, 504, 536. Ticks, 586. Thorpe, T. B., on the fascination of serpents, 622; on the size of alligators, 686. Tierras, climatic regions of Mexico, 496. Tiger, the, 705 ; appearance and habits, 706 ; his ferocity, 705 ; his present and former range, 704 ; tiger-hunting by natives of India, 706 ; by English residents, 706; perilous adven ture, 706; peacocks and monkeys warning against the tiger, 707 ; preying upqn tor toises, 708. Titicaca, the sacred lake and island of Peru : elevation of the lake, 485 ; the sacred island, 486. Toads. (See Frogs.) Toropishu, the, 650. Tortoises. (See Turtles.) Toucan, the, 646. Trade winds, the, 476. ¦ Trees and Plants of the Tropical World : Mau ritia palm, 4U9 ; the wait-a-bit thorn, 604 ; baobab, 527 ; dragon trees, 528 ; the s.yca- more, 5-29 ; banyan, 529 ; pippul, or bo-tree, 680; the teak-tree. 630; satinwood, 530; sandal-wood, 631; ceiba, 631; raahogany, 631; raora, 581; bamboos (see under head); agave, 533 ; pandanus, 533 ; cactuses. 584 ; mimosas, 634; lianas, 586; acacias, 587; raangroves, 538 ; palms (see under head) ; rat ans, 541 ; bread-fruit. 660 ; cinnamon, 572. Trigonocephalus snake, the, 618. Troopials, 648. Tropical "World, the : Ocean and Atraosphere of, 471-479. (Chapter I.)— Table-Lands and Plateaus of, 480-498. (Chapter II.)— Savan nas and Deserts of, 499-518. (Chapter HI.) Forests of, 514-524. (Chapter IV.)— Charac teristic forms of Vegetation, 525-544. (Chap ter V.)— Nutritive Plants of, 545-558. (Chap ter VI.)— Condiments and Spices, 559-578- ( Chapter VII.)— Insects of, 581-598. (Chap ter VHI.)— Ants, Spiders, and Scorpions, 594-615. (Chapter IX.)— Serpents, Lizards, Frogs and Toads, 616-684. (Chapter X.)— Alligators. Crocodiles, and Turtles, 635-644. Chapter XI.)^Bird Life, 645-668. (Chapter XII.)— The cumbers, 669-692. (Chapter XIII.)— Beasts and Birds of Prey, 693-711. (Chapter XIV.)— The Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotaraus, Camel, and Zebra, 712-786. (Chapter XV.) Tschudi, von. Notes from, 484, 485, 569, 585, 590. 694, 710. 711. Tsets(5-fly. the, 587. Tunqui, the 660. Turkey, the, oceUated, 652 ; the brush-turkey, 656. Turkey-buzzard, the, 694. Turtles, 640; their chief habitats, 641; slow travelers, 641 ; hunting their eggs on the Amazon, 641; Marsh-tortoises, 641; sea- turtles, 642; enemies of the turtle, 643; modes of taking, 643 ; barbarous treatment of, 644 ; vocal turtles, 644. U. Uritbu, or carrion vulture, 695. Urquiza, General, his vast estates, 501. Umbrella ant, the, 596. V. Vanilla, 568. Vampires, 671. Vegetation, Tropical, characteristic Forms of, 525. Veruga, poisoned water of the Puna, 482. Veta, a disease in the Puna, 482. Victoria regia, the, 586. Vicuna, the, 488 ; hunts of, 484. Vivagua-ant, the. 596. Volcanos : of Ecuador. 494 ; of Mexico, 497. Vulture, the carrion, 695; the sociable, 696. W. Wallace, Alfred R. : Account of the bread fruit, 550; the manufacture of sago, 552; description of the durion, 557 ; of tbe leaf- butterfly, 582 ; ants in Dorey. 597 ; describes huge snake. 628 ; of a flying frog. 688 ; of birds of paradise, 658 ; of edible bats, 670 ; of the orang-outang, 681; his pet orang, 684 ; notice of the babirusa, 736. -Water: Proportion of to land, 472; relations to fertUity. 475, 499, 525; obtaining in the Kalahari, 505. Waterton. William : Notes of, 617, 687, 646, 650, 672, 674. Weaving-birds, and their nests, 669. Webs of spiders, 611. West Indies, sugar in, 561; coffee in, 563. Whirlwinds, 477. White Ants. (See Termites.) Wild-Cats, different species of, 711. Winds, as regulators of rain, 476. INDEX. 761 Woods, ornamental of the Amazon, 524. Wourali poison, the, 690. Y. Yam, the, 555. Yriarteas, palms, the, 543. Z. Zebra, the, 733 ; its appearance, 733 ; capacity for domestication, 788 ; habits, 733 ; ancient notices of, 734. Zimb-fly, the, 588. Zones of the Earth, Limits of, 472. 3 9002 00708 6417