Feb. 21, 1878] 



NATURE 



325 



A NEW UNDERGROUND MONSTER 



A RECENT communication from Fritz Miiller, of 

 Itajahy, in Southern Brazil, to the Zoologische 

 Garten contains a wonderful account of the supposed 

 existence of a gigantic earthworm in the highlands of the 

 southern provinces of Brazil, where it is known as the 

 " Minhocao." The stories told of this supposed animal, 

 says Fritz Miiller, sound for the most part so incredible, 

 that one is tempted to consider them as fabulous. Who 

 could repress a smile at hearing men speak of a worm 

 some fifty yards in length, and five in breadth, covered 

 with bones as with a coat of armour, uprooting mighty 

 pine trees as if they were blades of grass, diverting the 

 courses of streams into fresh channels, and turning dry 

 land into a bottomless morass ? And yet after carefully 

 considering the different accounts given of the "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 whotn 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 aline of road from Ita- 

 jahy into the highlands 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 Josd Branco, having been absent with his whole 

 family eight days from his house, which was situated on 

 one of the tributaries of the Rio dos 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 of a brook, and followed its windings ; terminating 

 ultimately in a morass after a course of from 700 to 1,000 

 metres. The breadth of the trenches was said to be about 

 three metres. Since that period the brook has flowed in 

 the trench made by the " Minhocao." The path of the 

 animal lay generally beneath the surface of the earth 

 under the bed of the stream ; several pine trees had been 

 rooted up by its passage. One of the trees from which 

 the Minhocao in passing had torn off the bark and part 

 of the wood, was said to be still standing and visible last 

 year. Hundreds of people from Curitibanos and other 

 places had come to see the devastation caused by the 

 Minhocao, and supposed the animal to be still living in 

 the marshy pool, the waters of which appeared at certain 

 times to be suddenly and strangely troubled. Indeed on 

 still nights a rumbling sound like distant thunder and a 

 slight movement of the earth was sensible in the neigh- 

 bouring dwellings. This story was told to Herr Miiller by 

 two eye-witnesses, Jos^, son of old Branco, and a step- 



son, who formerly lived in the same house. Herr Miiller 

 remarks that the appearance of the Minhocao is always 

 supposed to presage a period of rainy weather. 



In the neighbourhood of the Rio dos Papagaios, 

 in the province of Parank, one evening in 1849 after 

 a long course of rainy weather, a sound was heard in 

 the house of a certain Joao de Deos, as if rain were 

 again falling in a wood hard by, but on looking out, 

 the heavens were seen to be bright with stars. On the 

 following morning it was discovered that a large piece of 

 land on the further side of a small hill had been entirely 

 undermined, and was traversed by deep trenches which 

 led towards a bare open plateau covered with stones, or 

 what is called in this district a " legeado." At this spot 

 large heaps of clay turned up out of the earth marked the 

 onward course of the animal from the legeado into the 

 bed of a stream running into the Papagaios. Three years 

 after this place was visited by Senhor Lebino Jose dos 

 Santos, a wealthy proprietor, now resident near Curiti- 

 banos. He saw the ground still upturned, the mounds of 

 clay on the rocky plateau, and the remains of the moved 

 earth in the rocky bed of the brook quite plainly, and 

 came to the conclusion that it must have been the work 

 of two animals, the size of which must have been from two 

 to three metres in breadth. 



In the same neighbourhood, according to Senhor 

 Lebino, a Minhocao had been seen several times before. 

 A black woman going to draw water from a pool near a 

 house one morning, according to her usual practice, found 

 the whole pool destroyed, and saw a short distance off an 

 animal which she described as being as> big as a house 

 moving off alortg the ground. The people whom she 

 summoned to see the monster were too late, and found 

 only traces of the animal, which had apparently plunged 

 over a neighbouring cliff into deep water. In the same 

 district a young man saw a huge pine suddenly over- 

 turned, when there was no wind and no one to cut it. 

 On hastening up to discover the cause, he found the 

 surrounding earth in movement, and an enormous worm- 

 like black animal in the middle of it, about twenty-five 

 metres long, and with two horns on its head. 



In the province of Sao Paulo, as Senhor Lebino also 

 states, not far from Ypanema, is a spot that is still 

 called Charquinho, that is. Little Marsh, as it formerly 

 was, but some years ago a Minhocao made a trench 

 through the marsh into the Ypanema River, and so con- 

 verted it into the bed of a stream. 



In the year 1849, Senhor Lebino was on a journey near 

 Arapehy, in the State of Uruguay. There he was told 

 that there was a dead Minhocao to be seen a few miles 

 off, which had got wedged into a narrow cleft of a rock, 

 and so perished. Its skin was said to be as thick as the 

 bark of a pine-tree, aiid formed of hard scales like those 

 of an armadillo. 



From all these stories it would appear conclusive 

 that in the high district where the Uruguay and the 

 Parank have their sources, excavations, and long trenches 

 are met with, which are undoubtedly the work of some 

 living animal. Generally, if not always, they appear after 

 continued rainy weather, and seem to start from marshes 

 or river-beds, and to enter them again. The accounts 

 as to the size and appearance of the creature are very 

 uncertain. It might be suspected to be a gigantic fish 

 allied X.Q Lepidosircn and Ceratodus ; the "swine's snout," 

 would show some resemblance to Ceratodus, while the 

 horns on the body rather point to the front limbs of Lepi- 

 dosiren, if these particulars can be at all depended upon. 

 In any case, concludes Herr Miiller, it would be worth 

 while to make further investigations about the Minhocao, 

 and, if possible, to capture it for a zoological garden ! 



To conclude this remarkable story, we may venture to 

 suggest whether, if any such animal really exist, which, 

 upon the testimony produced by Fritz Miiiler, appears 

 very probable, it may not rather be a relic of the race of 



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