NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



S25 



when it meets the high rocks beyond the river U'na becomes bold, 

 stretches to the Eastward, and forms the point of Buzios, called in the 

 English Charts Cowries Point. Near the mouth of the U'na lies the 

 small secure bay of Armazem, affording a refuge to vessels baffled in 

 their attempts to double the Cape, and when the wind blows hard from 

 the East. The entrance is between two small rocky islands, called, from 

 their different appearance, the beautiful and the ugly. The anchorage 

 lies to the Eastward of the entrance. 



On a broad sandy plain, North of St. John, which is covered with 

 coarse herbage, and lies between the beach and the mountains, we met 

 with a Brazilian Porcupine, and attempted to drive it before us. The 

 animal is naturally slow, and to urge it to greater speed, and prevent 

 its escape among the shrubs, I made use of my hat, a Leghorn one, lined 

 with leather at the back part of the brim. Being released from the office 

 of driver by some boys, who willingly undertook it, and about to put 

 on my hat, I was surprised to find several of the animal's quills sticking 

 in it, which had penetrated tiie leather as well as the straw. This 

 circumstance induced me to think that they are discharged with consider- 

 able force; and this opinion was confirmed by my hearing one of the 

 boys cry out that he was wounded in the leg ; a misfortune to which his 

 companions evidently thought themselves liable, and which rendered 

 them cautious. It is probable that the hat might be very near, if not 

 actually touching, the Porcupine, when the quills struck the brim, and 

 that, at a greater distance, th^ might have fallen to the ground. Yet the 

 wound which the boy received showed that they could take effect at the 

 distance of several, if not of many inches. The quills were nearly an 

 inch long, had a hard, sharp, brown point ; the other end hollow, of a 

 pale straw, inclining to flesh colour, and the intermediate space had 

 9.1ternate rings of bright yellow and brown. These points appeared 

 perfectly smooth and pohshed; but tlieir effect on dogs, which seize 

 the animal in hunting, indicates that they are really barbed, for they work 

 into the tongues and gums of the poor howling creatures, and cannot be 

 extracted without violence. The little wounded boy crying and 



