[173] Amazonia is divided into four distinct zoological districts: those of Ecuador, Peru, Guiana, and Brazil; the limits being the Amazon, Madeira, and Negro. The species found on one side of these rivers are seldom found on the other.
[174] The honey-bee of Europe was introduced into South America in 1845.
[175] Review of Waterton's Wanderings in South America.
[176] Large rats abound on the Marnañon, but they are not American.
[177] The Tupi word for dog is yaguara, and for wolf, yagua-men, or old dog.
[178] Rütimeyer has found a fossil howler in the Swiss Jura—middle cocene.
[179] "I think I discover in the Americans (said Humboldt) the descendants of a rare which, early separated from the rest of mankind, has followed up for a series of years a peculiar road in the unfolding of its intellectual faculties and its tendency toward civilization." The South American Indian seems to have a natural aptitude for the arts of civilized life not found in the red men of our continent.
[180] We do not infer, however, from this fact alone, that the race is exotic, for the Negroes of Central Africa multiply very slowly.
[181] Authors compute in South America from 280 to 700 languages (Abbé Royo said 2000), of which four fifths are composed of idioms radically distinct.
[182] Near the sources of this river Castlenau locates the Canamas and Uginas; the former dwarfs, the latter having tails a palm and a half long—a hybrid from an Indian and Barigudo monkey.