The Shasta courier., 1864-01-02
The Condor.

Already have we alluded to the lofty fight
of the condor, which may truly be said to
constitute the great living wonder of the Cor
dileras. For reasons hitherto undiscovered
this immense and powerful bird is never found
beyond the equator toward the north, though
southwards it extends its empire through
clouds and storms to the Strait Of Magellan.
No exact estimate can reformed of the height
to which the condor ascends into the air, but
it unquestionably floats aloft far beyond the
highest projections of the globe, where, ac-
cording to generally received opinions, the
act of breathing is impossible, at least to man.
But such ideas are gradually giving way be-
fore the light of experience. Men have as
cended in balloons full six miles above the
level of the sea, and, when strong and robust
found their lungs very little affected. Again,
in mountainous regions, English travellers
have attained to elevations at which the air
was previously supposed to be too subtle for
respiration. We must, therefore, attribute
to other causes the painful sensations felt by
explorers in the Andes. At whatever con-
clusion We may arrive on this point with re-
spect to man, it is certain that tho condor
flds it practicable to breathe miles above the
apex of Chin mborazo, since, to keen sighted
observer looking upward from the level Of per-
petual snow, it has scared into the ether, till
after looking for while like a dark speck,
it has disappeared and been lost altogether
in the blue of the armament.
II the condor could write, what glowing
and brilliant descrintions might it not give of
the landscapes spread out before it at such
moments when the diameter its horizon
must have exceeded thousand miles, How
long it remains thus buried in the heavens
must depend partly on its power of abstin-
ence, which is SO great that it is said in cap
tivity to live fo ty days without food, though
in a state of liberty its voraciousness is be-
lieyed to exceed that of all other animals, not
excepting even the vulture. In point of taste,
also, 1t is anything but choice, preferring To
fresh meat such carrion as is found to be in O
state of extreme decomposition Through
out the South American States, from the eoua-
tor to the utmost limits of Chill, the hus
bandmen carry on an internecine war with
this bird, which preys eagerly on their focks
and their children, and is merclessly shot or
knocked on the head whenever an opportun-
ty offers.
Were it not, however for its greediness the
condor would seldom become the farmer $
prey. l. might pounce upon young vcuna
or llama, 1t might carry off lamb or lby.
to its inaccessible eyrie in the Cordilleras.
without afording the marksman the chance
OF shot, so swift is its wing. so sudden and
instantaneous Its swoop. But thoroughly
enslaved by It's appetite, it becomes, when
there Is a feast before it, less alive to conse-
quences than an alderman Scarcely look
ing to the right hand or to the left, it tears
and gorges as long as there is a square quar-
ter of an inch in its stomach untitled and
when it has dined it is SO heavy that it is ut
terly unable to monnt until it has taken a
pretty long run to gather air into its wings.
Aware of the stupendous gluttony, the farm
ers kill an OK, and surround the carcase with
small enclosure of lofty palisades The
condors soon scent the bait, and descend in
flights into the trap, where they tug and
scream, aud swallow, till they are judged to
be in a state ripe for death or for slavery.