1883. ] The Naturalist Brazilian Expedition. 709 
not yet been introduced, but Mr. B. ordered out a queer little 
box-like trolly, with a bony nag for locomotive; we seated our- 
selves in the box, six of us in all; B. touched the nag with his 
whip and the beast laid back his ears and started off in fine style. 
The day was a perfect one; the heat tempered by a cool south- 
west wind which here blows during a good part of the year. As 
soon as we had passed the village hedges we emerged into open 
prairie, beautiful rolling lands stretching back to higher hills on 
the south and west. The prairie was quite smooth and cleap, the 
grass mingled only with low herbs or dwarf bushes; flowers were 
abundant, and among them we recognized such old friends as the 
scarlet and purple verbenas. Low tracts between the ridges were 
covered with a ranker growth; some portions were flooded, and 
here great flocks of water-birds had gathered, snowy white her- 
ons with an occasional black-winged stork or roseate spoonbill. 
A kind of rail, called here Caracare, was very common, often 
standing in pairs by the roadside and flying off with harsh cries 
when we came up; this species is generally seen on dry ground, 
though structurally it is a wader; an allied form (Parra) has im- 
mensely elongated toes to enable it to walk over the floating 
_ leaves of water plants. 
A dozen thatched huts are scattered about the mine, which is 
marked only by the shaft-tower and engine-house. Here we were - 
fortified with a preliminary lunch, and duly rigged in the very ill- 
fitting costumes which are usual on such occasions. My wife, 
with a miner’s hood over her head, looked much like a very dirty 
friar; our tame marmoset monkey, Billy, sat on her shoulder, but 
crawled under the hood and clung to her hair in distnay as we 
dived into the blackness. The shaft is a perpendicular one, fifty- 
seven meters deep ; the coal-bed varying in thickness from one 
and a half to two meters, dips very slightly to the north-north- 
west. The coal resembles Cardiff coal in appearance, but is more 
shaly, and contains a good deal of pyrites. Of its quality I 
shall speak farther on. 
Most of the miners employed here are English or Irish, but 
there are a few Germans and Brazilians. They are paid one 
milreis (about forty-four cents) per carload for the coal, three 
loads being equivalent to a ton. At this rate a good miner 
will earn about 100 milreis, or $44 per month. Including the 
engineer, firemen, carpenter, blacksmith, &c., about forty men are 
