se was ¥ 



38 A ROUGH ROAD. [chap. 



foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise 

 produced. On the third day we took a different line, and 

 passed through the gay little village of Madre de Deds. 

 This is one of the principal lines of road in Brazil ; yet it 

 was in so bad a state that no wheel vehicle, excepting the 

 clumsy bullock- waggon, could pass along. In our whole 

 journey we did not cross a single bridge built of stone ; and 

 those made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of 

 repair, that it was necessary to go on one side to avoid 

 them. All distances are inaccurately known. The road is 

 often marked by crosses, in the place of milestones, to 

 signify where human blood has been spilled. On the 

 evening of the 23rd we arrived at Rio, having finished our 

 pleasant little excursion. 



I 



li 



During the remainder of my stay at Rio, I resided in 

 cottage at Botofogo Bay. It was impossible to wish for 

 anything more delightful than thus to spend some weeks 

 in so magnificent a country. In England any person fond 

 of natural history enjoys In his walks a great advantagi 

 by always having something to attract his attentio 

 but in these fertile climates, teeming with life, t 

 attractions are so numerous, that he is scarcely able to 

 walk at all. 



The few observations which I was enabled to make were 

 almost exclusively confined to the invertebrate animals. 

 The existence of a division of the genus Planaria, which 

 inhabits the dry land, interested me much. These animals 

 are of so simple a structure, that Cuvier has arranged them 

 with the intestinal worms, though never found within the 

 bodies of other animals. Numerous species inhabit both 

 salt and fresh water ; but those to which I allude were 

 found, even in the drier parts of the forest, beneath logs of 

 rotten wood, on which I believe they feed. In general form 

 they resemble little slugs, but are very much narrower in 

 proportion, and several of the species are beautifully coloured 

 with longitudinal stripes. Their structure is very simple : 

 near the middle of the under or crawling surface there are 

 two small transverse slits, from the anterior one of which a 

 funnel-shaped and highly irritable mouth can be protruded. 

 For some time after the rest of the animal was completely 

 dead from the effects of salt water or any other cause, this 

 organ still retained its vitality. 



I found no less than twelve different species of terrestrial 



