122 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



minhocao one can hardly refuse to believe that some such 

 animal does really exist, although not quite so large as the 

 country folk would have us to believe. 



"About eight years ago a minhocao appeared in the 

 neighbourhood of Lages. Francisco de Amaral Varella, 

 when about ten kilometres distant from that town, saw 

 lying on the bank of the Rio das Caveiras a strange animal 

 of gigantic size, nearly one metre in thickness, not very long, 

 and with a snout like a pig, but whether it had legs or not 

 he could not tell. He did not dare to seize it alone, and 

 whilst calling his neighbours to his assistance, it vanished, 

 not without leaving palpable marks behind it in the shape 

 of a trench as it disappeared under the earth. A week 

 later a similar trench, perhaps constructed by the same 

 animal, was seen on the opposite side of Lages, about six 

 kilometres distant from the former, and the traces were 

 followed, which led ultimately under the roots of a large 

 pine tree, and were lost in the marshy land. Herr F. 

 Kelling, from whom this information was obtained, was at 

 that time living as a merchant in Lages, and saw himself 

 the trenches made by the minhocao. Herr E. Odebrecht, 

 while surveying a line of road from Itajahy into the high- 

 lands of the province of Santa Caterina, several years ago, 

 crossed a broad marshy plain traversed by an arm of the 

 river Marombas. His progress here was much impeded by 

 devious winding trenches which followed the course of the 

 stream, and occasionally lost themselves in it. At the time 

 Herr Odebrecht could not understand the origin of these 

 peculiar trenches, but is now inclined to believe that they 

 were the work of the minhocao. 



" About fourteen years ago, in the month of January, 

 Antonio Jose Branco, having been absent with his whole 

 family eight days from his house, which was situated on 

 one of the tributaries of the Rio clos Cachorros, ten kilo- 

 metres from Curitibanos, on returning home found the road 

 undermined, heaps of earth being thrown up, and large 

 trenches made. These trenches commenced at the source 



