Travels in South America

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John Jones, 1824 - 180 páginas

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Página 26 - ... which are accustomed to lie at anchor on the banks. The wind was blowing a smacking breeze, and we were going at a great rate through the water. Suddenly the watch gave the alarm of 'a sail ahead!
Página 25 - At sea everything that breaks the monotony of the surrounding expanse attracts attention. It proved to be the mast of a ship that must have been completely wrecked ; for there were the remains of handkerchiefs by which some of the crew had fastened themselves to this spar to prevent their being washed off by the waves. There was no trace by which the name of the ship could be ascertained. The wreck had evidently drifted about for many months ; clusters of shellfish had fastened about it, and long...
Página 41 - By their wild cries, and the length of their reeds, they prevent the horses from running away and reaching the bank of the pool. The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by the repeated discharge of their electric batteries.
Página 41 - The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the mud, and excites them to combat. These yellowish and livid eels, resembling large aquatic serpents, swim on the surface of the water, and crowd under the bellies of the horses and mules. A contest between animals of so different an organization furnishes a very striking spectacle.
Página 27 - The blast that bore it to our ears swept us out of all further hearing. I shall never forget that cry ! It was some time before we could put the ship about, she was under such headway. We returned, as nearly as we could guess, to the place where the smack had anchored.
Página 93 - eminence, they stop, and having placed their fore feet close together, as in a posture of stopping themselves, they also put their hind feet together, but a little forwards, as if going to lie down. In this 'attitude, having, as it were, taken a 'survey of the road, they slide down with the swiftness of a 'meteor. All the rider has to do, is to. keep himself fast in the saddle, without 'checking his beast, for the least motion is sufficient to...
Página 166 - Their manner of travelling is thus: the foremost walks to the extremity of a bough, from which it bounds to the extremity of one belonging to the next tree, often at a most astonishing distance, and with such wonderful activity and precision that it never once misses its aim: the others one by one, and even...
Página 176 - ... pea, causing no further pain than a disagreeable itching. In process of time, its operation appears in the form of a small bladder, in which are deposited thousands of eggs, or nits, and which, if it breaks, produce so many young chigoes...
Página 175 - Knowing, by instinct, that the person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet, where, while the creature continues fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps one cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small indeed, that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently not painful ; yet through this orifice he continues...
Página 26 - I kept lights at the mast-head, and a constant watch forward to look out for fishing smacks, which are accustomed to lie at anchor on the banks. The wind was blowing a smacking breeze, and we were going at a great rate through the water. Suddenly...

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