midnight
We landed one night on a sand-bank , when , finding no tree , we stuck some long poles in the ground , to which we fastened our hammocks , with blazing fires around . It was a beautiful moonlight night , calm and serene . We observed numerous alligators with their heads above the surface ; others were stretched along the opposite shore , with their eyes turned towards the fire , which seemed to attract them as it does fish and other inhabitants of the water . The first part of the evening passed away quietly enough , but an hour before midnight so terrific a noise arose in the neighbouring forest that we in vain tried to sleep . It appeared as if all the wild beasts of the continent had collected together in an endeavour to out-howl each other . We could not distinguish one from the other ; but the Indians , by listening attentively , caught the voices of those which sounded for an instant at intervals while the rest ceased . Among the strange cries were those of the sapajous , the moans of the alouati monkeys , the howlings of jaguars and pumas , the shrieks and grunts of peccaries , the calls of the curassow , the paraka , and other fowls .