Prince MaximiUari's 



distances, in quest of any animal that has died, and in a place 

 where they had not been seen before. On this account, they are 

 never molested, and they are found ahke numerous in the open 

 country and in the forests. The country near the lake appears to 

 be rather sterile, on account of the sand and marshes. All such 

 tracts as are dry, «ither contain pastures with short grass, upon 

 which cattle is feeding, or consists of mountains diversified with 

 forests and rocks. The people rear many horses, which are but in- 

 different, ^nd mostly small. There were also goats covered with 

 short shining reddish hair, and with black spots. Not far from the 

 lake, rs the little villa de Sta. Maria de Marica, the chief place of 

 the Freguesia, consisting of houses not exceeding one story, and 

 a church, \nth regular but unpaved streets. The houses have no 

 glass windows, but merely apertures, which, as in all the Brazils, 

 are shut up with a wooden raiüng. The villagers grow in the 

 vicinity, the mandiocca, beans, maize, with a little coffee, and 

 several plantations of the sugar-cane. This last, as tliey say, 

 grows high in fruitful spots, but in the sandy districts, does not 

 reach above the height of six spans. 



In our progress, we recognised among the copse, the trompet- 

 flowers (bignonia) with most beautiful blossoms, also some 

 strangely formed fruits. The botanist will find here that the 

 number of plantce leguminosce is by far most abundant in the 

 Brazils. Notwithstanding the numerous Jhzendas about here, 

 the country bears yet a wild aspect : it appears to form a broad 

 Valley, encompassed with high mountains, and with a hilly 

 ground, from which trees of the most beautiful description, in- 

 tersected by copse wood, are rising. Near the tops of those trees 

 we perceive on the branches, large dark lumps, the nests of a very 

 small species of the termita, called cupi or cupim. Ants and 

 other similar insects prove very destructive to the cultivated 

 grounds in the Brazils. They are found in such numbers, and of 

 so many different species, that an entomologist might fill a large 

 volume with a description of those i'n sects alone* One of the 

 larger species is nearly an inch long, and has a disproportionate 

 large body. In some districts, as in Minas Geraes, they are 

 broiled and eat, being there named janachura. Another very 

 small and red species is very troublesome and noxious, not only 

 eating many of our insects, particularly butterflies, but penetrar 

 ting in large numbers into the houses, where they quickly eat up 

 every thing which is edible, and especially sweet things. To 

 guard against them, the only expedient is to put the feet of the 

 tables into large platters filled with water, or to cover them with 

 tar ; but they are sometimes known to overcome even such impe- 

 diments. Some species construct upon the walls of the rooms, 

 from a sort of clay, covered ways, with many ramifications and 



