1832.] ARRIVAL AT SOCEGO. 21 



less salt than in the sea, a species of hydrophilus, very similar to a 

 water-beetle common in the ditches of England : in the same lake 

 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. Travel- 

 ling 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 

 volcanos 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 breed. 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 inflam- 

 mation which the pressure of the saddle afterwards produces. The 

 whole circumstance has lately been doubted in England ; I was there- 

 fore fortunate in being present when one (Desmodus d'orbignyi, 

 Wat.) was actually caught on a horse's back. We were bivouack- 

 ing late one evening near Coquinibo, 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 t 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 afterwards we rode the horse, without any 

 ill effects. 



April 13th. After three days' travelling we arrived at Socego, 

 the estate of Senhor 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 contrasted 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 was drying. These 



