170 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



ing the Sepotuba and camping beside it, below a series of 

 falls, or rather rapids. The country was level. It was a 

 great natural pasture, covered with a very open forest of 

 low, twisted trees, bearing a superficial likeness to the 

 cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. It is as well fitted 

 for stock-raising as Oklahoma; and there is also much 

 fine agricultural land, while the river will ultimately yield 

 electric power. It is a fine country for settlement. The 

 heat is great at noon; but the nights are not uncomfort- 

 able. We were supposed to be in the middle of the rainy 

 season, but hitherto most of the days had been fine, varied 

 with showers. The astonishing thing was the absence of 

 mosquitoes. Insect pests that work by day can be stood, 

 and especially by settlers, because they are far less serious 

 foes in the clearings than in the woods. The mosquitoes 

 and other night foes ofi^er the really serious and unpleasant 

 problem, because they break one's rest. Hitherto, during 

 our travels up the Paraguay and its tributaries, in this 

 level, marshy tropical region of western Brazil, we had 

 practically not been bothered by mosquitoes at all, in our 

 home camps. Out in the woods they were at times a 

 serious nuisance, and Cherrie and Miller had been sub- 

 jected to real torment by them during some of their special 

 expeditions; but there were practically none on the ranches 

 and in our camps in the open fields by the river, even 

 when marshes were close by. I was puzzled — and de- 

 lighted — by their absence. Settlers need not be deterred 

 from coming to this region by the fear of insect foes. 



This does not mean that there are not such foes. Out- 

 side of the clearings, and of the beaten tracks of travel, 

 they teem. There are ticks, poisonous ants, wasps — of 



