p. [6]—“The Cordilleras of Cochabamba and the Brazilian mountains approximate to one another by means of separate transverse chains.”
The immense space between the eastern coasts of South America and the eastern declivity of the chain of the Andes is contracted by two mountain masses, which partially separate from one another the three valleys or plains of the Lower Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata. The more northern mountain mass, called the group of the Parime, is opposite to the Andes of Cundinamarca, which, after extending far towards the east, assume the form of one elevated mountain, between the parallels of 66° and 68° west longitude. It is connected by the narrow mountain ridge of Pacaraima with the granitic hills of French Guiana, as I have clearly indicated in the map of Columbia which I drew up from my own astronomical observations. The Caribs, in their long expeditions from the missions of Carony to the plains of Rio Branco, and even to the Brazilian frontier, are obliged to traverse the crests of Pacaraima and Quimiropaca. The second group of mountains, which separates the valley of the Amazon from that of La Plata, is the Brazilian, which approximates to the promontory of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the province of Chiquitos, west of the Parecis hills. As neither the group of the Parime, which gives rise to the cataracts of the Orinoco, nor the Brazilian group, is directly connected with the chain of the Andes, the plains of Venezuela and those of Patagonia are directly connected with one another.[[CW]]
[15]. p. 6—“Herds of wild dogs.”
In the Pampas of Buenos Ayres the traveller meets with European dogs, which have become wild. They live gregariously in holes and excavations, in which they conceal their young. When the horde becomes too numerous, several families go forth, and form new settlements elsewhere. The European dog barks as loudly after it has become wild, as does the indigenous American hairy species. Garcilaso asserts that, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the Peruvians had a race of dogs called Perros gozques; and he calls the indigenous dog Allco. In order to distinguish this animal from the European variety, it is called in the Quichua language Runa-allco, Indian dog, or dog of the natives. The hairy Runa-allco appears to be a mere variety of the shepherd’s dog. It is, however, smaller, has long yellow-ochry coloured hair, is marked with white and brown spots, and has erect and pointed ears. It barks continually, but seldom bites the natives, however it may attack the whites. When the Inca Pachacutec, in his religious wars, conquered the Indians of Xauxa and Huanca (the present valley of Huancaya and Jauja), and compelled them by force to submit to the worship of the sun, he found that dogs were made the objects of their adoration, and that the priests used the skulls of these animals as wind instruments. It would also appear that the flesh of this canine divinity was eaten by the believers.[[CX]] The veneration of dogs in the valley of the Huancaya is probably the reason why the skulls, and even whole mummies, of these animals are sometimes found in the Huacas, or Peruvian graves of the most ancient period. Von Tschudi, the author of an admirable treatise on the Fauna Peruana, has examined these skulls, and believes them to belong to a peculiar species, which he calls Canis ingæ, and which is different from the European dog. The Huancas are still, in derision, called “dog-eaters” by the inhabitants of other provinces. Among the natives of the Rocky Mountains of North America, cooked dog’s flesh is placed before the stranger guest, as a feast of honour. Captain Frémont was present at such a dog-feast in the neighbourhood of Fort Laramie, which is one of the stations of the Hudson’s Bay Company for trading in skins and peltries with the Sioux Indians.[[CY]]
The Peruvian dogs were made to play a singular part during eclipses of the moon, being beaten as long as the darkness continued. The Mexican Techichi, a variety of the common dog, which was called in Anahuac Chichi, was the only completely dumb dog. The literal signification of the word Techichi is “stone-dog,” from the Aztec, tetl, a stone. This dog was eaten according to the ancient Chinese custom, and the Spaniards found this food so indispensable before the introduction of horned cattle, that the race was gradually almost entirely extirpated.[[CZ]] Buffon confounds the Techichi with the Koupara of Guiana,[[DA]] which is, however, identical with the Procyon or Ursus cancrivorus, the Raton crabier, or the crab-eating Aguara-guaza of the coasts of Patagonia.[[DB]] Linnæus, on the other hand, confounds the dumb dog with the Mexican Itzcuintepotzotli, a canine species which has not hitherto been perfectly described, and which is said to be characterised by a short tail, a very small head, and a large hump on the back. The name signifies a hump-backed dog, and is derived from the Aztec itzcuintli, another word for dog, and tepotzotli, humped or a humpback. I was much struck in America, especially in Quito and Peru, with the great number of black hairless dogs. They are termed Chiens turcs by Buffon, and are the Canis ægyptius of Linnæus. This species is common amongst the Indians, who, however, generally despise them, and treat them ill. All European dogs multiply rapidly in South America; and if no species are to be met with equal to those of Europe, it is partly owing to want of care, and partly to the circumstance that the finest varieties (as the elegant greyhound and the Danish tiger breed) have never been introduced.
Von Tschudi makes the singular remark, that on the Cordilleras, at elevations of more than 12,000 feet, delicate breeds of dogs and the European domestic cat are exposed to a particular kind of mortal disease. “Innumerable attempts have been made to keep cats as domestic animals in the town of Cerro de Pasco (lying at an elevation of 14,100 feet above the sea’s level); but such endeavours have invariably been frustrated, as both cats and dogs have died in convulsions at the end of a few days. The cats, after being attacked by convulsive fits, attempt to climb the walls, but soon fall to the ground exhausted and motionless. I frequently observed instances in Yauli of this chorea-like disease; and it seems to arise from insufficient atmospheric pressure.” In the Spanish colonies, the hairless dog, which is called Perro chinesco, or chino, is supposed to be of Chinese origin, and to have been brought from Canton, or from Manila. According to Klaproth, the race has been very common in the Chinese Empire from the earliest ages of its culture. Among the animals indigenous to Mexico, there was a very large, totally hairless, and dog-like wolf, named Xoloitzcuintli, from the Mexican xolo or xolotl, a servant or slave.[[DC]]
The result of Tschudi’s observations regarding the American indigenous races of dogs are as follows:—There are two varieties almost specifically different—1. The Canis caraibicus of Lesson, totally hairless, with the exception of a small tuft of white hair on the forehead and at the tip of the tail; of a slate-gray colour, and without voice. This variety was found by Columbus in the Antilles, by Cortes in Mexico, and by Pizarro in Peru (where it suffers from the cold of the Cordilleras); and it is still very frequently met with in the warmer districts of Peru, under the name of Perros chinos. 2. The Canis ingæ, which belongs to the barking species, and has a pointed nose and pointed ears; it is now used for watching sheep and cattle; it exhibits many variations of colour, induced by being crossed with European breeds. The Canis ingæ follows man up the heights of the Cordilleras. In the old Peruvian graves, the skeleton of this dog is sometimes found resting at the feet of the human mummy, presenting an emblem of fidelity frequently employed by the mediæval sculptors.[[DD]] European dogs, that had become wild, were found in the island of St. Domingo, and in Cuba, in the early periods of the Spanish conquest.[[DE]] In the savannahs between the Meta, Arauca, and Apure, dumb dogs (perros mudos) were used as food as late as the sixteenth century. The natives called them Majos or Auries, says Alonzo de Herrera, who undertook an expedition to the Orinoco, in 1535. The highly intelligent traveller Gisecke found this variety of non-barking dogs in Greenland. The dogs of the Esquimaux live entirely in the open air, scraping for themselves at night holes in the snow, and howling like wolves, in concert with one of the troop, who sits in the middle, and takes the lead in the chorus. The Mexican dogs were castrated, in order that their flesh might become more fat and delicate. On the borders of the province of Durango, and further north, near the Slave Lake, the natives load the larger dogs with their buffalo-skin tents, (at all events they did so formerly,) when, on the change of seasons, they seek a different place of abode. These various details may all be regarded as characteristic of the mode of life led by the nations of Eastern Asia.[[DF]]
[16]. p. 7—“Like the greater part of the Desert of Sahara, the Llanos lie within the Torrid Zone.”
Significant denominations, particularly such as refer to the form of the earth’s surface, and which arose at a period when there was only very uncertain information respecting different regions and their hypsometric relations, have led to various and long-continued geographical errors. The ancient Ptolemaic denomination of the “Greater and Lesser Atlas”[[DG]] has exercised the injurious influence here indicated. There is no doubt that the snow-covered western summits of the Atlas of Morocco may be regarded as the Great Atlas of Ptolemy; but where is the limit of the Little Atlas? Are we still to maintain the division into two Atlas chains (which the conservative tendency of geographers has retained for 1700 years) in the territory of Algiers, and even between Tunis and Tlemse? Are we to seek a Greater and a Lesser Atlas between the coast and the parallel chains of the interior? All travellers familiar with geognostic views, who have visited Algeria since it has been in the possession of the French, contest the meaning conveyed by the generally adopted nomenclature. Among the parallel chains, that of Jurjura is generally supposed to be the highest of those which have been measured; but the well-informed Fournel (who was long Ingénieur en chef des Mines de l’Algérie) affirms that the mountain range of Aurès, near Batnah, which even at the end of March was found covered with snow, has a greater elevation. Fournel contests the existence of a Little and a Great Atlas, as I do that of a Little and a Great Altai[[DH]]. There is but one Atlas, formerly called Dyris by the Mauritanians, “a name that must be applied to the foldings (rides, suites de crêtes), which form the division between the waters flowing to the Mediterranean and towards the lowland of the Sahara.” The lofty Atlas chain of Morocco inclines from north-east to south-west, and not, like the Eastern Mauritanian portion of the Atlas, from east to west. It rises into summits which, according to Renou, attain an elevation of 11,400 feet, exceeding, therefore, the height of Etna[[DI]]. A singularly formed highland, of an almost square shape (Sahab el-Marga), is situated in 33° north lat., and is bounded to the south by high elevations. From thence the Atlas declines in height in a westerly direction towards the sea, about a degree south of Mogador. This south-western portion bears the name of Idrar-N-Deren.
The northern boundaries of the extended low region of the Sahara in Mauritania, as well as its southern limits towards the fertile Sudan, have hitherto been but imperfectly investigated. If we take the parallels of 16½° and 32½° north lat. as the outer limits, we obtain for the Desert, including its oases, an area of more than 1,896,000 square miles; or between nine and ten times the extent of Germany, and almost three times that of the Mediterranean, exclusive of the Black Sea. The best and most recent intelligence, for which we are indebted to the French observers, Colonel Daumas, and MM. Fournel, Renou, and Carette, shows us that the Desert of Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that the number and the population of the fertile Oases is very much greater than had been imagined from the awfully desert character of the country between Insalah and Timbuctoo, and the road from Mourzouk, in Fezzan, to Bilma, Tirtuma, and Lake Tschad. It is now generally affirmed that the sand covers only the smaller portion of the lowlands. A similar opinion had been previously advanced by my Siberian travelling companion, the acute observer Ehrenberg, from what he had himself seen[[DJ]]. Of larger wild animals, only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be met with.