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CHAP. XIV. 



ANTS. — SNAKES, AND OTHER REPTILES. RIVER OF 



IGUARACU. BUILDING A HOUSE. SEVERAL SPE- 

 CIES OF TIMBER TREES. — THE PINHAM, MUTAMBA, 

 AND GAMELEIRA TREES. THE WHALE. 



HAVE said that the lands of the Engenho 

 Velho were much infested by the red ants ; 

 but indeed scarcely any part of the island of 

 Itamaraca is free from these most noxious in- 

 sects. They are of a dusky red colour, and 

 vary from one quarter of an inch to one inch in 

 length. Their bite is painful, and they will 

 sometimes fix themselves so firmly with their 

 antennae, as to leave the points of them in the 

 wound which they have made. Their food is 

 entirely vegetable. I found them extremely 

 troublesome during the continuance of the rains. 

 They would often make their way between the 

 bricks of the floor of my house, and pick up 

 any particles of flour or any grains of maize 

 which might chance to be strewed upon it. On 

 one occasion, two large bags of maize of equal 

 size were placed in the room at night ; but in 

 the morning one of them was considerably lower 

 than the other j for this I could not account 



