Most of us, if possessed of imaginative faculties, have been impressed in our youth by the thought of those vast virgin forests of South America, inhabited, as we often used to think, only by huge boa-constrictors and anacondas which lived to an immense age and continued to grow throughout their lifetime; and even in later years, when experience at first or second hand has taught us that the supposed silent forest of the tropics is generally noisy with the chattering of monkeys and birds or the perpetual hum and chirp of insects, and is often far from a desirable place on account of these last, the glamour of the vastness and fertility of these great untrodden temples of nature remains with us.

More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, and, indeed, comes within the forest area of South America; what botanical treasures and zoological curiosities may yet be discovered, when some explorer is found to succeed Humboldt and Schomburgk, are not to be guessed at, and it is not our purpose to give a scientific account of what has been done towards classifying and enumerating the many plants and animals already known to live in Venezuela, but to briefly describe what is most interesting and important to the general reader who may be interested in the country as a whole.

Richest in quantity, and probably in variety, of vegetable life is the little-known land of Guayana, with its vast forests, hot climate, and heavy rainfall. Within it the plants range from the alpine shrubs and reindeer moss of some of the higher plateaux and hills to the bamboos and orchids of the river banks. The simile which compares the tropical forest to those darkened lofty cathedrals of Europe has been often used, and is, perhaps, somewhat trite, but its aptness is incontrovertible. The huge timber-trees grow fairly close together, and their spreading tops, fifty, eighty, or a hundred feet from the ground, with the abundant hanging lianes and flowering creepers, keep all but a feeble light from the ground, whence it comes that the under-growth is usually sparse or absent, and progress on foot is comparatively easy. Sometimes, however, there are stretches of bejucal, full of tangled ground creepers, and it may take a day to cut a path for one mile through such growth as this.

Of all the forest giants of Guayana, Schomburgk considered the mora the most magnificent; the average diameter of the trunk is about three feet, and it seldom branches at less than forty feet from the ground. The dark-red, fine-grained wood is said to be excellent for shipbuilding purposes. Mahogany or caoba, the palo de arco, whose wood is very like mahogany in colour, and a big tree called in Venezuela rosewood, which it resembles, are among the timber trees of the region known to us in Europe. The huge ceibas, with their buttress-like roots, have a soft, easily worked wood, excellent for the dug-out canoes of the Indians, and the equally large mucurutu or cannon-ball tree furnishes a beautiful but hard and fine-grained timber. Unfortunately, the very fertility of the soil becomes a drawback in the exploitation of these timber resources, for all trees grow with equal freedom, and the particular kind for which the lumber-man is searching may only be found at rare intervals; on a large scale, when all the valuable woods are utilised, this difficulty would, to some extent, disappear.

There are two fruit-trees whose products are well known in European markets, and though these grow all over Guayana, they are particularly abundant in certain regions. The Brazil nut was first described by Humboldt, but since his time it has become a common article of merchandise in Europe; the tree which bears it is itself large, and the fruit, with its fifteen or twenty nuts, is tremendously heavy, and generally breaks in falling from the tree when ripe, not infrequently cracking the shells inside, when the birds and monkeys are able to enjoy the oily kernel; otherwise the exterior usually proves too hard. The other fruit we have referred to is the sarrapia, or tonka-bean, not so well known to the general public of to-day as formerly, though extensively used in perfumery. The trees grow in greatest abundance and excellence, according to André, in the Caura and Cuchivero valleys. The gums and resins of Guayana include the balatá, copaiba-balsam, and rubber-producing trees, the latter chiefly varieties of Hevea, while cinchona or quinine with innumerable creepers and trees possessed of medicinal or toxic properties are found everywhere. The 2,450 species of plants referred to by Schomburgk have since been added to, and it is obvious that in such an assembly there must be many of value, as yet undiscovered and unused.

The vegetation of the higher exposed peaks and plateaux is quite different from that of the forests, and here Schomburgk found such an alpine, or rather Arctic, form as reindeer-moss, associated with semi-tropical rock-orchids and aloes.

The forest plants and trees of Guayana also flourish in the Delta region and in the forests bordering the Llanos of Maturín, but the vegetation of northern Venezuela is generally very different from that of the south.

The great green or brown plain of the Llanos is often beautified by small golden, white, and pink flowers, and sedges and irises make up much of the small vegetation. Here and there the beautiful “royal” palm, with its banded stem and graceful crown, the moriche, or one of the other kinds, forms clumps to break the monotony, and along the small streams are patches of chaparro bushes, cashew-nuts, locusts, and so forth. The banks of the rivers often support denser groves of ceibas, crotons, guamos, &c.; the last-named bears a pod covered with short, velvety hair, within which, around the beans (about the size of our broad beans), is a cool, juicy, very refreshing pulp, not unlike that of the young cocoa-pod. Along the banks of the streams in front of the trees are masses of reeds and semi-aquatic grasses, which effectually conceal the higher vegetation from a traveller in a canoe at water-level.

As might be expected, when we enter the region of the Cordilleras, we find very different types of vegetation in the various zones. The tierra caliente has generally a heavy rainfall, and then supports thick forest, but along the coast there are barren stretches with only cactus, acacia, croton, and similar plants, picturesque, but hardly beautiful. The mangroves and their associated forms line the shore in a belt of varying width, but behind follow, according to the climate and soil, lowland forests or plains and hills covered with cactus of all shapes and sizes, some being so large that the woody stems are used locally in building.

In the tierra caliente we have the plantations of cacao, sugar, bananas, plantains, maize, and cassava, which produce the staple foods of the inhabitants, and the highly profitable coconuts, if not cultivated, are at least encouraged and exploited. In addition, there are the many valuable products of the forests, chief of which are the dye-woods and tanning barks, including logwood, dividive, mangrove, indigo, and many others. A good deal of valuable timber grows in parts of the forest, the chief woods exported being mahogany and “cedar.”

As we rise into the cooler regions, we find, naturally, a mixture of the hot-country plants and those of the mountains; particularly is this so in the case of cultivated kinds. One may see in the same valley, within a short distance of one another, bananas, potatoes, sugar-cane, wheat, yuca or cassava, peas, maize, cotton, cocoa, and coffee, all flourishing, and a single orchard may contain guavas and apples, peaches and oranges, papayas and quinces, not to mention many other fruits; the garden adjoining will have a mixture of roses, carnations, violets, and dahlias with bougainvilleas, dragon’s blood, magnolias, and other tropical flowers. Strawberries, mint, bulrushes, nasturtiums, and other of our garden plants have been successfully naturalised in these mountain regions within 10° of the equator.

The higher part of the tierra templada exhibits the greatest variety of plants peculiar to this zone. As one travels along the mountain roads, in addition to new kinds of palms, one sees screw-pines and beautiful tree-ferns, splendid white rock-orchids and purple parasitic varieties, red and white rhododendrons and heaths, cranberries, blackberries, ivy, passion-flowers, yews, quinine-trees, aloes of all kinds, small bamboos, silver-ferns, and all manner of beautiful flowering shrubs and plants, for it is here and not in the hotter tropical regions that we have the greatest variety of colour and the most beautiful floral scenery.

Nor is the tierra fria of the Cordilleras without its beauty and interest to the botanist. The small woods of the temperate zone gradually die out, and towards the snow-line we have the alpine grasses, heaths, and lichens of the páramos, amongst which are scattered those peculiar white or yellow, thick-leaved, aloe-shaped plants which, strangely enough, have lumps of resin clinging to their roots, and seem in this respect to supply the place of the pines and firs which are not found in Venezuela.

There is at least one animal found in the forests of Guayana which is familiar even to the untravelled Cockney, namely, the prehensile-tailed capuchin monkey or sapajou, of which several species are known in Venezuela, while they are the most common tame kind brought to Europe. Humboldt’s woolly monkey, which is nearly allied, is dark grey, the capuchin being generally reddish; its flesh is said to be excellent eating for those who feel no qualms at nearing the verge of cannibalism. Many other kinds are found in the forests, including the black thumbless spider-monkeys, but the variegated spider-monkey, of which the first specimen brought alive to England came from the Upper Caura in 1870, is a gorgeous beast, with black back, white cheeks, a band of bright reddish-yellow across the forehead, and yellow under-surface to body and limbs. The banded douroucouli also occurs in southern Venezuela, and Mr. Bates has described how, on the banks of the Amazon, a person passing by a tree in which a number of them are concealed may be startled by the apparition of a number of little striped faces crowding a hole in the trunk. Their ears are very small. The graceful little squirrel-monkeys, with dark fur shot with gold, the titi, reddish-black, with a white spot on the chest, the white-headed and other sakis, and the abundant and very noisy howlers are all denizens of the Guayana forests. Nor must we omit to mention the pretty little marmosets, which are often kept as pets.

Bats, and their objectionable cousins, the vampires, are abundant in Venezuela, but the true blood-sucking vampire does not seem to be very common.

There are, of course, no tigers or lions, properly so called, in the New World, but the names have been usurped by similar beasts, the jaguar and the puma. The tan-coloured fur of the former, with its large rosette-like spots, is very beautiful, and quite equals that of the tiger in large specimens, while for agility it more than rivals its Asiatic relative, being credited with climbing trees and living there in times of severe flood, to the great danger and annoyance of the usual inhabitants, the monkeys. The tawny puma is also said to chase the monkeys in the tree-tops, even in ordinary times. The other large cats of Venezuela include the ocelot, jaguarondi, and margay, and there is the one fox-like “Azara’s” dog.

The peculiar-looking “spectacled bear” is found up in the Andes, and the kinkajou represents the raccoon tribe, while the weasels include the tayra and grison, and their relative, the handsome but most objectionable skunk, occasionally pollutes the atmosphere with his presence. The big Brazilian otter, with chocolate-brown fur, is found in the rivers of the Llanos.

Amongst the hoofed animals, the red Brazilian and Ecuador brockets represent the deer, and there are two species of vaquira or peccary, in addition to the now acclimatised European pig. Horses and donkeys live in a semi-wild state on the Llanos, though their nearest relative native to the country is the tapir or danta, a very different beast in appearance.

The nailless manati of the Orinoco mouth is fairly common, and higher up the river there is a fresh-water dolphin: the author observed a fish-like beast in the Lake of Maracaibo, which may be the same species, though out in the salt water of the Caribbean the common dolphin is found, as well as the cachalot, and another species of whale is said to have been seen there.

The rodents include a number of species of great scientific interest, but for the ordinary individual one rat or shrew is much like another, and the squirrels, mice, rabbits, hedgehogs, and allied animals are very similar to those of Europe. One of the mice has flattened spines mingled with the fur, and the coypu or perro de agua has a very harsh coat, though it is rather like a beaver in appearance and habits, while some near relatives of smaller size have the same peculiar flattened spines on the back. The peculiar Brazilian tree-porcupine is a Guayana species. The gracefully formed aguti or acure is common in the Venezuelan forests, and its near relative, the aguchi, is found there with the lappa or paca, the flesh of which is excellent eating. The big “water-hog,” chiguire or capybara, familiar to Zoo visitors, occurs in Guayana and elsewhere.

There are several sloths common in the low-lying parts of the Guayana forests and similar regions of northern Venezuela, and the great-maned ant-eater or “ant-bear,” with the lesser ant-eater, is as often seen in Venezuela as in any part of South America, while Guayana is the centre of the small district in which the peculiar two-toed ant-eater is found. The cachicamos or armadillos are much esteemed as food in the forest districts.

The marsupials are represented by the rabipelados or opossums and the perrito de agua or water-opossum.

The birds, being more commonly seen, are perhaps of greater interest than the mammals, and certainly many of the Venezuelan birds are beautiful, though, as frequently happens, what they gain in plumage they lose in song, and few have even a pleasant note.

Beautifully coloured jays, the peculiar cassiques, with their hanging nests, starlings, and the many violet, scarlet, and other tanagers, with some very pretty members of the finch tribe, are all fairly abundant in Venezuela. Greenlets, some of the allied waxwings, and thrushes of various kinds, with the equally familiar wrens, are particularly abundant, nor does the cosmopolitan swallow absent himself from this part of the world. The numerous family of the American flycatchers has fifty representatives in Venezuela, and the allied ant-birds constitute one of the exceptions to the rule, in possessing a pleasant warbling note. The chatterers include some of the most notable birds of Venezuela, and we may specially notice the strange-looking umbrella-bird which extends into the Amazon territory, known from its note as the fife-bird; the variegated bell-bird, which makes a noise like the ringing of a bell; the gay manikins, whose colour include blue, crimson, orange, and yellow, mingled with sober blacks, browns, and greens; the nearly allied cock-of-the-rock is one of the most beautiful birds of Guayana, orange-red being the principal colour in its plumage, while its helmet-like crest adds to its grandeur; the hen is a uniform reddish-brown. The wood-hewers are more of interest from their habits than the beauty of their plumage.

The beautiful green jacamars, the puff-birds, and the bright-coloured woodpeckers are found all over Venezuela in the forests, but their relatives the toucans are among the most peculiar of the feathered tribe. With their enormous beaks and gaudy plumage they are easily recognised when seen, and can make a terrible din if a number of them collected together are disturbed, the individual cry being short and unmelodious. Several cuckoos are found in Venezuela, some having more or less dull plumage and being rare, while others with brighter feathers are gregarious. With the trogons, however, we come to the near relatives of the beautiful quezal, all medium-sized birds, with the characteristic metallic blue or green back and yellow or red breasts. The tiny, though equally beautiful, humming-birds are common sights in the forest, but a sharp eye is needed to detect them in their rapid flight through the dim light; some of the Venezuelan forms are large, however, notably the king humming-bird of Guayana; and the crested coquettes, though smaller, are still large enough to make their golden-green plumage conspicuous. The birds which perhaps most force themselves, not by sight but by sound, upon the notice of travellers are the night-jars; the “who are you?” is as well known in Trinidad as in Venezuela. The great wood night-jar of Guayana has a very peculiar mournful cry, particularly uncanny when heard in the moonlight. The kingfisher-like motmots have one representative in Venezuela, but the other member of the group, which includes all the preceding birds, constitute a family by itself. This is the oil-bird or guacharo, famous from Humboldt’s description of the cave of Caripe in which they were first found. The young birds are covered with thick masses of yellow fat, for which they are killed in large numbers by the local peasantry. They live in caves wherever they are found and only come out to feed at dusk.

Other birds which are sure to be observed even by the least ornithological traveller are the parrots and macaws which fly in flocks from tree to tree of the forest, uttering their discordant cries. The macaws have blue and red or yellow plumage, but the parrots and parraquets are all wholly or mainly of a green hue. The several owls are naturally seldom seen, and, in the author’s experience, rarely heard.

There are no less than thirty-two species of falcons or eagles known from Venezuela, and of these many are particularly handsome, such as the swallow-tailed kite and the harpy eagle of Guayana. Their loathsome carrion-eating cousins, the vultures, have four representatives.

In the rivers and caños of the lowlands there are abundant water-birds, and the identified species include a darter, two pelicans, several herons or garzas, the indiscriminate slaughter of which in the breeding season for egret plumes has been one of the disgraces of Venezuela, as well as storks and ibises. Among the most beautiful birds of these districts are the rosy white or scarlet flamingoes, huge flocks of which are sometimes seen rising from the water’s edge at the approach of a boat or canoe. There are also seven Venezuelan species of duck.

The various pigeons and doves possess no very notable characteristics, and one or two of the American quails are found in the Andes. Other game-birds include the fine-crested curassows of Guayana, the nearly allied guans, and the pheasant-like hoatzin. There are several rails, and the finfeet are represented. The sun bittern is very common on the Orinoco. There are members of the following groups: the trumpeters (tamed in Brazil to protect poultry), plovers, terns, petrels, grebes, and, lastly, seven species of the flightless tinamous.

Descending lower in the scale, we come to the animals which are, or used to be, most often associated in the mind with the forests of South America. The snakes are very numerous, but only a minority are poisonous. Of the latter the beautiful but deadly coral-snake is not very common, but a rattlesnake and the formidable “bushmaster” are often seen. Of the non-poisonous variety the water-loving boas and tigres or anacondas are mainly confined to the Delta and the banks of the Guayana rivers. The cazadora (one of the colubers) and the Brazilian wood-snake or sipo, with its beautiful coloration, are common; the blind or velvet snake is often found in the enclosures of dwellings.

One of the lizards, the amphisbæna, is known in the country as the double-headed snake, and is popularly supposed to be poisonous, but there are many species of the pretty and more typical forms, especially in the dry regions, while the edible iguana is common in the forests. There are eleven species of crocodiles, of which the caiman infests all the larger rivers and caños. The Chelonidæ include only two land tortoises, but there are several turtles in the seas and rivers, and representatives of this family from the Gulf of Paria often figure on the menus of City companies.

There are some six genera of frogs and toads to represent the Amphibians, and the evening croaking of the various species of the former on the Llanos is very characteristic of those regions; one, in particular, emits a sound like a human shout, and a number of them give the impression of a crowd at a football match.

Fish abound in rivers, lakes, and seas, but, considering their number, remarkably little is known about them. Some are regarded as poisonous, and others are certainly dangerous, such as the small but ferocious caribe of the Llano rivers, which is particularly feared by bathers, as an attack from a shoal results in numbers of severe, often fatal, wounds. The temblador or electric eel is very abundant in the western Llanos, and is as dangerous in its way as the caribe.

The insects are too numerous for more than casual reference, but it may be noted that the mosquito of the Spaniards is a small and very annoying sandfly; the mosquito as we know it is, and always has been, called zancudo de noche by the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Venezuela. The gorgeous butterflies and the emerald lights of the fireflies are in a measure a compensation for the discomforts caused by their relatives, but of the less attractive forms, the most interesting are the hunting ants, which swarm through houses at times devouring all refuse, and the parasol ants, which make with the leaves they carry hot-beds, as it were, for the fungus upon which they feed.

One of the most unpleasant of the lower forms of life in the forests is the araña mono or big spider of Guayana, which sometimes measures more than six inches across; it is found in the remote parts of the forest, and its bites cause severe fever. The better-known tarantula, though less dangerous, can inflict severe bites. The extremely poisonous scorpions and the garrapatas or ticks must be seen or felt to be appreciated.

We may leave the lower forms of life to more technical works, but the amusing “calling-crab” deserves special mention. With his one enormous paw of pincers the male if disturbed will sit upon the mud or sand and apparently challenge all the world to “come on” in a most amusing fashion.

A host of interesting birds, beasts, and plants have already been found in Venezuela, and it still presents an almost virgin field for the botanist and zoologist, to whom the technical literature given in the bibliography will prove of more use than this necessarily brief sketch.