218 ACROSS NHAMBIQUARA LAND [chap, vii 



piums by my companions were somewhat like our 

 northern black flies. They gorged themselves with 

 blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but 

 they left an itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a 

 protection, but are not very comfortable in stifling hot 

 weather. It is impossible to sleep without mosquito- 

 bars. When settlers of the right type come into a new 

 land they speedily learn to take the measures necessary 

 to minimize the annoyance caused by all these pests. 

 Those that are winged have plenty of kinsfolk in so 

 much of the northern continent as has not yet been 

 subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South 

 American ants have, thank Heaven, no representatives in 

 North America. At the camp of the piums a column of 

 the carnivorous foraging ants made its appearance before 

 nightfall, and for a time we feared it might put us out 

 of our tents, for it went straight through camp, between 

 the kitchen-tent and our own sleeping-tents. However, 

 the column turned neither to the right nor the left, 

 streaming uninterruptedly past for several hours, and 

 doing no damage except to the legs of any incautious 

 man who walked near it. 



On the afternoon of February 15 we reached Campos 

 Novos. This place was utterly unlike the country we 

 had been traversing. It was a large basin, several miles 

 across, traversed by several brooks. The brooks ran in 

 deep, swampy valleys, occupied by a matted growth of 

 tall tropical forest. Between them the ground rose in 

 bold hills, bare of forest and covered with grass, on 

 which our jaded animals fed eagerly. On one of these 

 rounded hills a number of buildings were ranged in 

 a quadrangle, for the pasturage at this spot is so good 

 that it is permanently occupied. There were milch 

 cows, and we got delicious fresh milk ; and there were 



