paper, for nearly a foot on each side of the line where the bell-wires
had run, was blackened. The metal had been fused, and although the
room was about fifteen feet high, the globules, dropping on the chairs
and furniture, had drilled in them a chain of minute holes. A part of
the wall was shattered, as if by gunpowder, and the fragments had been
blown off with force sufficient to dent the wall on the opposite side
of the room. The frame of a looking-glass was blackened, and the
gilding must have been volatilized, for a smelling-bottle, which stood
on the chimney-piece, was coated with bright metallic particles, which
adhered as firmly as if they had been enamelled.
[1] Hearne's Journey, p. 383.
[2] Maclaren, art. "America," Encyclop. Brittann.
[3] Azara says, "Je crois que la quantite annuelle des pluies est, dans
toutes ces contrees, plus considerable qu'en Espagne."--Vol. i. p. 36.
[4] In South America I collected altogether twenty-seven species of
mice, and thirteen more are known from the works of Azara and other
authors. Those collected by myself have been named and described by
Mr. Waterhouse at the meetings of the Zoological Society. I must be
allowed to take this opportunity of returning my cordial thanks to Mr.
Waterhouse, and to the other gentleman attached to that Society, for
their kind and most liberal assistance on all occasions.
[5] In the stomach and duodenum of a capybara which I opened I found a
very large quantity of a thin yellowish fluid, in which scarcely a
fibre could be distinguished. Mr. Owen informs me that a part of the
oesophagus is so constructed that nothing much larger than a crowquill
can be passed down. Certainly the broad teeth and strong jaws of this
animal are well fitted to grind into pulp the aquatic plants on which
it feeds.
[6] At the R. Negro, in Northern Patagonia, there is an animal of the
same habits, and probably a closely allied species, but which I never
saw. Its noise is different from that of the Maldonado kind; it is
repeated only twice instead of three or four times, and is more
distinct and sonorous; when heard from a distance it so closely
resembles the sound made in cutting down a small tree with an axe, that
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