34 BATS AND HORSES. [chap. 



common in the ditches of England : in the same lal 

 the only shell belonged to a genus generally found in 

 estuaries. 



Leaving the coast for a time, we again entered the forest. 

 The trees were very lofty, and remarkable, compared with 

 those of Europe, from the whiteness of their trunks. I see, 

 by my note-book, "wonderful and beautiful flowering 

 parasites " invariably struck me as the most novel object 

 in these grand scenes. Travelling onwards we passed 

 through tracts of pasturage, much injured by the enormous 

 conical ants' nests, which were nearly twelve feet high. 

 They gave to the plain exactly the appearance of the mud 

 volcanoes at Jorullo, as figured by Humboldt. We arrived 

 at Engenhodo after it was dark, having been ten hours on 

 horseback. I never ceased, during the whole journey, to be 

 surprised at the amount of labour which the horses were 

 capable of enduring ; they appeared also to recover from any 

 injury much sooner than those of our English breeci. 

 The Vampire bat is often the cause of much trouble, 

 by biting the horses on their withers. The injury is 

 generally not so much owing to the loss of blood, as to 

 the inflammation which the pressure of the saddle after- 

 wards produces. The whole circumstance has lately been 

 doubted in England ; I was therefore fortunate in being 

 present when one {Desmodus (Torbignyi, Wat.) was actually 

 caught on a horse's back. We were bivouacking late one 

 evening near Coquimbo, in Chile, when my servant, 

 noticing that one of the horses was very restive, went to 

 see what was the matter, and fancying he could distinguish 

 something, suddenly put his hand on the beast's withers, 

 and secured the vampire. In the morning the spot where 

 the bite had been inflicted was easily distinguished from 

 being slightly swollen and bloody. The third day after- 

 wards we rode the horse without any ill efi'ects. 



April i-Tfth. — After three days' travelling we arrived at 

 Soclgo, the estate of Senhdr Manuel Figuireda, a relation 

 of one of our party. The house was simple, and, though 

 like a barn in form, was well suited to the climate. In 

 the sitting-room gilded chairs and sofas were oddly con- 

 trasted with the whitewashed walls, thatched roof, and 

 windows without glass. The house, together with the 

 granaries, the stables, and workshops for the blacks, who 

 had been taught various trades, formed a rude kind of 

 quadrangle ; in the centre of which a large pile of coffee 



