ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS.
[64] p. 260.—“Characteristic names in Arabic and Persian.”
More than twenty different terms might be cited as used by Arabs in speaking of steppes, (tanufah), to denote deserts without water, entirely bare, covered with siliceous sand, or interspersed with spots affording some pasture: (sahara, kafr, mikfar, tih, and mehme.) Sahl, is a low plain; dakkah, a desolate elevated plain. In Persian, “beyaban” signifies the arid sandy desert,—as do the Mogul “gobi,” and the Chinese “han-hai,” and “scha-mo.” “Yaila” is a steppe covered rather with grasses or herbage than with herbaceous plants; so are also the Mogul “küdah,” and the Turkish “tala,” or “tschol,” and the Chinese “huang.” “Deshti-reft” is an elevated plain devoid of vegetation. (Humboldt, Relation hist. T. ii. p. 158.)
[65] p. 260.—“In the old Castilian idiom.”
Pico, picacho, mogote, cucurucho, espigon, loma tendida, mesa, panecillo, farallon, tablon, peña, peñon, peñasco, peñoleria, roca partida, laxa, cerro, sierra, serrania, cordillera, monte, montaña, montañuela, cadena de montes, los altos, malpais, reventazon, bufa, &c.
[66] p. 263.—“Where the map had exhibited Montes de Cacao.”
On the range of hills which had been converted into the lofty Andes de Cuchao, see my Rel. hist. T. iii. p. 238.
[67] p. 268.—“Hermesia.”
The genus Hermesia, the Sauso, has been described by Bonpland, and figured in our Plantes equinoxiales, T. i. p. 162, tab. xlvi.
[68] p. 269.—“The fresh-water dolphin.”
These are not sea-dolphins, ascending the rivers for a great distance, as is done by some species of Pleuronectes (flat fish, which always have both eyes on one side of the body); for example, the Limande (Pleuronectes Limanda), which comes up the Loire to Orleans. Some sea forms of fish, as dolphins and skates, are repeated in the great rivers of both continents. The fresh-water dolphin of the Apure and the Orinoco differs specifically from the Delphinus gangeticus, as well as from all sea-dolphins. See my Rel. hist. T. ii. pp. 223, 239, 406–413.
[69] p. 270.—“The striped nocturnal monkey.”
This is the Douroucouli, or Cusi-cusi of the Cassiquiare, described by me as Simia trivirgata in my Recueil d’Observations de Zoologie et d’Anatomie comparée, T. i. p. 306–311, tab. xxviii., the plate being taken from a drawing made by myself from the living animal. We subsequently saw this nocturnal monkey living in the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. (See the work above cited, T. ii. p. 340.) Spix also found this remarkable little animal on the Amazons river, and called it Nyctipithecus vociferans.
Potsdam, June 1849.