I 



Ch. VII. SOUTH AMERICA. 6^ 



the entrance, while the two claws are employed in its 

 defence, the gripe of which is attended with the fame 

 fymptoms as the fting of a fcorpion. In both cafes 

 the patient is carefully kept from drinking any water, 

 which has been known to bring on convulfions ; and 

 thefe always prove fatal. 



The inhabitants relate, that when this creature grows 

 too large for making its way into the fheli, which was 

 its retreat, it retires, to the fea-coaft, in order to find 

 there a larger, where killing the wilk, whofe fliell bell 

 fuits him, he takes pofTeffion of it, which is indeed the 

 fame method it took to obtain its firfi habitation. This 

 laft circum fiance, and the defire of feeing the form of 

 fuch a creature, induced Don George Juan and myfelf 

 to defire the inhabitants to procure us fome ; and upon 

 examination, we found all the above-mentioned par- 

 ticulars were really true ; except the bite, v/hich we did 

 not choofe to experience. 



There are feveral other forts of infedls remaining, 

 which, though fmaller, yet afford equal reafon for ad- 

 miration to a curious examiner:, particularly the infi- 

 nite variety of maripofas, or butterflies, which, though 

 differing vifibly in figure, colours, and decorations, 

 we are at a lofs to determine which is the moft beauti- 

 ful. 



If thefe are fo entertaining to the fight, there are 

 others no lefs troublefome •, fo that it would be more 

 eligible to difpenfe with the pleafure of feeing the 

 former, than to be continually tortured by the latter; 

 as the mofchetos, of which large clouds may be feen, 

 efpecially among the favanahs and manglares, or plan- 

 tations of mangrove trees, fo that the one, as afford- 

 ing the herbage on which they feed, and the other, as 

 the places where they produce their young, are ren- 

 dered impaffable. 



There are four principal fpecies of this infed: : the 

 firft called zancudos, which are the largefl"; the fecond 

 the niofchecos, differing little or nothiDg from thofe 



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