But even
during this period the stars shone with unequaled purity. The immense
plain seemed to stretch into the infinite like a sea, and at the
extremity of the axis, which measures more than two hundred thousand
millions of leagues, there appeared on the north the single diamond
of the pole star, on the south the four brilliants of the Southern
Cross.
The trees on the left bank and on the island of Jahuma stood up in
sharp black outline. There were recognizable in the undecided
_silhouettes_ the trunks, or rather columns, of _"copahus,"_ which
spread out in umbrellas, groups of _"sandis,"_ from which is
extracted the thick and sugared milk, intoxicating as wine itself,
and _"vignaticos"_ eighty feet high, whose summits shake at the
passage of the lightest currents of air. "What a magnificent sermon
are these forests of the Amazon!" has been justly said. Yes; and we
might add, "What a magnificent hymn there is in the nights of the
tropics!"
The birds were giving forth their last evening notes--_"bentivis,"_
who hang their nests on the bank-side reeds; _"niambus,"_ a kind of
partridge, whose song is composed of four notes, in perfect accord;
_"kamichis,"_ with their plaintive melody; kingfishers, whose call
responds like a signal to the last cry of their congeners;
_"canindes,"_ with their sonorous trumpets; and red macaws, who fold
their wings in the foliage of the _"jaquetibas,"_ when night comes on
to dim their glowing colors.
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