/ START ON CAMP LIFE. 87 



me, 279, and during the night I got rid of thirty-five more. 

 I had been too tired to sponge with diluted carbolic acid ; 

 but, as a rule, by taking proper precautions I never have to 

 pick off more than fifty from my body, though my flannel 

 shirt is always red in patches, with masses of the wretches 

 round the waist and under the arms. 



September 13.— I went off after a toucan before break- 

 fast, but could not get within shot. The position of this 

 camp is far wilder than the other ; it is on a rapidly sloping 

 grass-covered down or campo, which forms one side of a 

 little cul-de-sac valley, extending to the Rio Camapuao. 

 There is a stream which flows from a spring just below the 

 camp, and across the stream a dense forest, whence proceed 

 the chatter of monkeys, the screech of parrots, and harsh, 

 discordant caw-caw of the toucan ; we also hear the soft 

 note of ciriema, and many other birds. Parrot flesh is now 

 added to our larder. 



Vicente found three nests of different species of honey 

 bees in the trunks of trees to-day ; the honey was delicious, 

 and smelt like new-mown hay. 



September 14. — At four o'clock this morning we had 

 another exciting visitor ; this time it was an onga, or 

 ounce, supposed to be more dangerous and braver than 

 the lobo, or wolf. He, alas ! also got away before I 

 could see him ; but one of the men told me he was the 

 '" onga sussuardna." There is another species found in the 

 neighbourhood, the " onga pintada." * 



* Captain Burton says, "Doubtless in the early days of colonization, when 

 hese large cats knew nothing of the gun, they were dangerous enough ; at 

 present their courage seems to have cooled, and the Matador d'Onyas— 

 tueur d'onces — once so celebrated in Brazil, finds his occupation gone. Many 

 travellers have seen nothing of this king of cats, except the places where it 

 sharpens its claws. I have had experience of one live specimen, and that, too, 

 by night. The people still fear them, especially at night, and have many 



