United States or Malaysia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
His powerful tail came "flap" against the nearest, and it was pitched several yards, where, after a kick or two, it lay upon its side as dead as a herring, a door-nail, or even Julius Cæsar take your choice. The chiguires that escaped past the crocodile, the next instant plunged into the river, and disappeared under the water.
His powerful tail came "flap" against the nearest, and it was pitched several yards, where, after a kick or two, it lay upon its side as dead as a herring, a door-nail, or even Julius Caesar take your choice. The chiguires that escaped past the crocodile, the next instant plunged into the river, and disappeared under the water.
Now would appear a flock of capivaras or chiguires, as they are also called the largest of rodent animals, basking upon some sunny bank, raising their great rabbit-like heads, and gazing curiously at the passing periagua. Perhaps before the travellers had lost sight of them, the whole gang would be seen suddenly starting from their attitudes of repose, and in desperate rush making for the water.
But for all that, the poor chiguires would not be certain of safety; for even in the water they might encounter another enemy, equally formidable and cruel, in the gigantic jacare the crocodile of the Amazonian waters.
They saw that the crocodile had knocked one of them over; but the eyes of Guapo and Don Pablo were directed upon a different place the point at which the chiguires had sallied out of the underwood. These knew that the animals had not issued forth in their natural way, as if they were going to the stream to drink, or in search of food. No quite different.
The chiguires were not the only gregarious animals observed by our travellers in their ascent of the Napo. Others of a very different order appeared in the peccaries, or wild pigs of the montana. These are true pachyderms, and in reality pigs; though naturalists have seen fit to separate them from the genus Sus, and constitute for them a genus of their own.
The chiguires are found in such numbers on the banks of the rivers Santo Domingo, Apure, and Arauca, in the marshes and in the inundated savannahs* of the Llanos, that the pasturages suffer from them. They feed also upon fish; and we saw with surprise, that, when scared by the approach of a boat, the animal in diving remains eight or ten minutes under water.
It was not more than 3.2 feet* in a second, which gives 2.56 feet for the mean velocity. The velocity is the simultaneous effect of the slope of the ground, and the accumulation of the waters by the swelling of the upper parts of the river. We were again surrounded by chiguires, which swim like dogs, raising their heads and necks above the water.
They saw that the crocodile had knocked one of them over; but the eyes of Guapo and Don Pablo were directed upon a different place the point at which the chiguires had sallied out of the underwood. These knew that the animals had not issued forth in their natural way, as if they were going to the stream to drink, or in search of food. No quite different.
This gave them altogether a lighter appearance than hogs, and yet they did not run as fast, although when first noticed they appeared to be doing their best. Our travellers knew them at once, for they were animals that are common upon the rivers in all the warm parts of South America. They were "capivaras," or "chiguires," as they are also called.
Word Of The Day