OCR Text |
Show 186 CATARACTS OF TIIE ORINOCO. race deceased. It was one of those clear and cool nights so frequent in the tropics. The moon, encircled with colored rings, stood high in the zenith, illuminating the margin of the mist, which lay with well-defined, cloud-like outlines on the surface of the foaming river. Countless insects poured their red phosphoric light on the herbcovered ground, which glowed with living fire, as if the starry canopy of heaven had sunk down upon the turf. Climbing Bignonias, fragrant Vanillas, and yellow-flowering Banisterias, adorned the entrance of the cave j and the summits of the palms rustled above the graves. Thus perish the generations of men! Thus do the name and the traces of nations fade and disappear! Yet when each blossom of man's intellect withers-when in the storms of time the memorials of his art moulder and decay-an ever new life springs forth from the bosom of the earth j maternal Nature unfolds unceasingly her germs, her flowers, and her fruits j regardless though man with his passions and his crimes treads under foot her ripening harvest. |