Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

nS NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
and more numerous ;
compact
blue stone. . . .
they are chiefly quartz
and a
Coasting along a low shore, our men spied a
small white alligator basking in the sun by the
'
killed him with their lances. His
margin, and
stomach was distended by some food he had taken,
and on piercing it, a snake's tail protruded. I laid
hold on it and drew out the snake, which was
closely coiled up ;
it was still alive (!), though so
much crushed below the head as to be unable
to move away. It was a terrestrial species, not
venomous yellow with black spots
The body thick, passing abruptly
on the back.
into a short
slender tail full 3 feet long, and its destroyer no
more. Thus we go on preying on each other to
the end of the chapter. This poor snake, while
watching for frogs among the moist stones and
roots,
little dreamt he was about to serve for an
alligator's meal ;
nor
the alligator, while devouring
it, that he himself would soon be eaten up by
Indians.
May 1 6 (Saturday].- .
. . The
aspect of the
river is unchanged, save that there is more rarely
any low shore. We have passed some strong currents
to-day, but the water is fortunately low. Beaches
are now covered with large pebbles, and where we
breakfasted it was like a mosaic pavement, stones
of so many colours formed our seats and table.
May 17 (Sunday}. Near 8 o'clock A.M. we spied
a tapir a little ahead, making his way up-stream.
On perceiving our approach he took to shore,
where from a narrow margin rose a steep barranco,
which he was unable to ascend he therefore ;
again