Passing from the Mammoth cave in North America, let us next notice the
great cavern of Guacharo in South America, as described in the narrative
of Humboldt, which is abridged in the account that follows.
“In a country where the people are fond of the marvelous, a cavern that
gives birth to a river, and which is inhabited by thousands of nocturnal
birds, the fat of which is used to dress the food of the inhabitants, is
a ceaseless topic of conversation and discussion. Scarcely has a
stranger arrived at Cumana, when he is told of the stone of Araya for
the eyes; of the laborer of Arenas who suckled his child; and of the
cavern of Guacharo, which is said to be several leagues in length; till
he is tired of hearing of them.
“The Cueva del Guacharo is pierced in the vertical profile of a rock.
The entrance is toward the south, and forms a vault eighty feet broad,
and seventy-two feet high. The rock, that surmounts the grotto, is
covered with trees of gigantic hight. The mammee-tree, and the genipa
with large and shining leaves, raise their branches vertically toward
the sky; while those of the courbaril and the erythrina form, as they
extend themselves, a thick vault of verdure. Plants of the family of
pothos with succulent stems, oxalises, and orchideæ of a singular
structure, rise in the driest cliffs of the rocks; while creeping
plants, waving in the winds, are interwoven in festoons before the
opening of the cavern. We distinguished in these festoons a bignonia of
a violet blue, the purple dolichos, and for the first time that
magnificent olandra, the orange flower of which has a fleshy tube more
than four inches long. The entrances of grottos, like the view of
cascades, derive their principal charm from the situation, more or less
majestic, in which they are placed, and which in some sort determines
the character of the landscape. What a contrast between the Cueva of
Caripe, and those caverns of the north crowned with oaks and gloomy
larch-trees!
“But this luxury of vegetation embellishes not only the outside of the
vault, it appears even in the vestibule of the grotto. One sees with
astonishment plantain-leaved heliconias eighteen feet high, the praga
palm-tree, and arborescent arums, follow the banks of the river even to
those subterranean places. The vegetation continues in the cave of
Caripe, as in the deep crevices of the Andes, half excluded from the
light of day; and does not disappear, till, advancing into the interior,
we reach thirty or forty paces from the entrance. We measured the way by
means of a cord; and we went on about four hundred and thirty feet,
without being obliged to light our torches.
“Daylight penetrates into this region, because the grotto forms but one
single channel, which keeps the same direction from south-east to
north-west. Where the light begins to fail, are heard from afar the
hoarse sounds of the nocturnal birds, sounds which the natives think
belong exclusively to those subterraneous places. The guacharo is of the
size of our fowls, has the mouth of the goatsuckers and procnias, and
the port of those vultures, the crooked beak of which is surrounded with
stiff silky hairs. It forms a new genus, very different from the
goatsucker by the force of its voice, by the considerable strength of
its beak, containing a double tooth, and by its feet without the
membranes that unite the anterior phalanxes of the claws. In its manners
it has analogies both to the goatsuckers and the alpine crow. The
plumage of the guacharo is of a dark bluish-gray, mixed with small
streaks and specks of black. It is difficult to form an idea of the
horrible noise occasioned by thousands of these birds in the dark part
of the cavern, and which can only be compared to the croaking of our
crows, which, in the pine forests of the north, live in society, and
construct their nests upon trees, the tops of which touch each other.
The shrill and piercing cries of the guacharoes strike upon the vaults
of the rocks, and are repeated by the echo in the depth of the cavern.
The Indians showed us the nests of these birds, by fixing torches to the
end of a long pole. These nests were fifty or sixty feet high above our
heads, in holes in the shape of funnels, with which the roof of the
grotto is pierced like a sieve. The noise increased as we advanced, and
the birds were affrighted by the light of the torches of copal. When
this noise ceased around us, we heard at a distance the plaintive cries
of the birds roosting in other ramifications of the cavern. It seemed as
if these bands answered each other alternately.
“The Indians enter into the Cueva del Guacharo once a year, near
midsummer, armed with poles, by means of which they destroy the greater
part of the nests. At this season several thousands of birds are killed;
and the old ones, to defend their brood, hover around the heads of the
savage Indians, uttering terrible cries, which would appall any heart
but that of man in an untutored state.
“We followed, as we continued our progress through the cavern, the banks
of the small river which issued from it, and is from twenty-eight to
thirty feet wide. We walked on the banks, as far as the hills formed of
calcareous incrustations permitted us. When the torrent wound among very
high masses of stalactites, we were often obliged to descend into its
bed, which is only two feet in depth. We learned with surprise, that
this subterraneous rivulet is the origin of the river Caripe, which, at
a few leagues’ distance, after having joined the small river of Santa
Maria, is navigable for canoes. It enters into the river Areo under the
name of Canno de Terezen. We found on the banks of the subterraneous
rivulet a great quantity of palm-tree wood, the remains of trunks, on
which the Indians climb to reach the nests hanging to the roofs of the
cavern. The rings, formed by the vestiges of the old footstalks of the
leaves, furnish as it were the footsteps of a ladder perpendicularly
placed.
“The grotto of Caripe preserves the same direction, the same breadth,
and its primitive hight of sixty or seventy feet, to the distance of
fourteen hundred and fifty-eight feet, accurately measured. I have never
seen a cavern in either continent, of so uniform and regular a
construction. We had great difficulty in persuading the Indians to pass
beyond the outer part of the grotto, the only part which they annually
visit to collect the fat. The whole authority of the priests was
necessary, to induce them to advance as far as the spot where the soil
rises abruptly at an inclination of sixty degrees, and where the torrent
forms a small subterraneous cascade.[3] The natives connect mystic ideas
with this cave, inhabited by nocturnal birds; they believe, that the
souls of their ancestors sojourn in the deep recesses of the cavern.
‘Man,’ say they, ‘should avoid places which are enlightened neither by
the sun nor by the moon.’ To go and join the guacharoes, is to rejoin
their fathers, is to die. The magicians and the poisoners perform their
nocturnal tricks at the entrance of the cavern, to conjure the chief of
the evil spirits.
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Footnote 3:
We find this phenomenon of a subterranean cascade, but on a much
larger scale, in England, at Yordas cave, near Kingsdale, in
Yorkshire.
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“At the point where the river forms the subterraneous cascade, a hill
covered with vegetation, which is opposite the opening of the grotto,
presents itself in a very picturesque manner. It appears at the
extremity of a straight passage, two hundred and forty toises in length.
The stalactites, which descend from the vault, and which resemble
columns suspended in the air, display themselves on a back-ground of
verdure. The opening of the cavern appeared singularly contracted, when
we saw it about the middle of the day, illumined by the vivid light
reflected at once from the sky, the plants, and the rocks. The distant
light of day formed somewhat of a magical contrast with the darkness
that surrounded us in those vast caverns. We climbed, not without some
difficulty, the small hill, whence the subterraneous rivulet descends.
We saw that the grotto was perceptibly contracted, retaining only forty
feet in its hight; and that it continued stretching to the northeast,
without deviating from its primitive direction, which is parallel to
that of the great valley of Caripe.
“The missionaries, with all their authority, could not prevail on the
Indians to penetrate farther into the cavern. As the vault grew lower,
the cries of the guacharoes became more shrill. We were obliged to yield
to the pusillanimity of our guides, and trace back our steps. We
followed the course of the torrent to go out of the cavern. Before our
eyes were dazzled with the light of day, we saw without the grotto, the
water of the river sparkling amid the foliage of the trees that
concealed it. It was like a picture placed in the distance, and to which
the mouth of the cavern served as a frame. Having at length reached the
entrance, and seated ourselves on the bank of the rivulet, we rested
after our fatigues. We were glad to be beyond the hoarse cries of the
birds, and to leave a place where darkness does not offer even the
charms of silence and tranquillity.”