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.
On the jangada every one was at his post, in the attitude of repose.
The pilot alone, standing in the bow, showed his tall stature, scarcely defined in the earlier shadows.

The watch, with his long pole on his shoulder, reminded one of an encampment of Tartar horsemen.