38 THE NAUTILUS. 



For two days we were the guests of the raih'oad and government 

 officials and were royally treated. The train made frequent stops at 

 stations and wherever there seemed any prospects of finding things 

 zoological. Before we reached our destination we had scared the 

 natives by our collection of lizards, toads and snakes, and I had 

 been able to get a few specimens of land shells, to which I have 

 been able to add extensively since. I am unable to determine any- 

 thing with definiteness, but to date I have collected over a quart of 

 living and dead shells apparently representing Helix, Zonites, Buli- 

 mus, Bulimulus, Bulirainus, Tomigerus and Stenogyra. In Ceard 

 the number of all except the last was very small, but back of Natal 

 I have found the other genera represented in considerable numbers. 



In Natal we were again the guests of the railroad and government 

 officials for a run of 86 kilometers to Baixa Verde, located in the 

 " Campos " country, the great rolling comparatively barren plains 

 of the interior of the State. On the way we passed a single lime- 

 stone cut furnishing a fine lot of fossils and also representatives of at 

 least three species of living shells. The low, brushy timber through 

 which we ran was largely made up of the Mangabeira, the rubber 

 tree of Southeastern and Eastern Brazil, which at a distance re- 

 minds one of a small weeping willow. This, in season, furnishes 

 employment for a considerable number of men, and yields sufficient 

 rubber to show considerable export. For the rest. Cactus, Acacia 

 and similar growths take one back in imagination to the lower parts 

 of Arizona and New Mexico. 



Later we were furnished a custom-house steamer for a run of 20 

 miles down the coast to the little town of Piraugy. Here we dropped 

 into a typical tropical settlement, very primitive and poor, but most 

 interesting. This region is noted for its native pillow lace, and 

 here it was for sale very cheap, so that most of our party invested 

 small sums. We estimated the time spent in making some of it 

 and found the women selling the results of their labor for from two 

 to four cents a day. 



I interested the native boys in collecting, and on the shore rocks 

 we got at least one species of Chiton, a small Area like solidissima 

 and a small variety of things not yet determined. On a reef about 

 a mile out I added a few things, but my impression formed here and 

 at Ceard, is that the conchological fauna is extremely poor both in 

 number of species and of specimens. I spent an hour dredging at 



