1848.] WALK TO THE RICE-MILLS. 23 
swarmed with small red ants, who had already separated 
the wings from near a dozen insects, and were dragging 
them in different directions about the box ; others were 
at the process of dismemberment, while some had buried 
themselves in the plumpest bodies, where they were en- 
joying a delicious repast. I had great difficulty in 
making them quit their prey, and gained some useful 
experience at the expense of half a successful day’s cap- 
tures, including some of the splendid Epicalias which I 
so much prized. 
On the morning of the 23rd of June we started early 
to walk to the rice-mills at Magoary, which we had been 
invited to visit by the proprietor, Mr. Upton, and the 
manager, Mr. Leavens, both American gentlemen. At 
about two miles from the city we entered the virgin 
forest, which the increased height of the trees and the 
deeper shade had some time told us we were approach- 
ing. Its striking characteristics were, the great number 
and variety of the forest-trees, their trunks rising fre- 
quently for sixty or eighty feet without a branch, and 
perfectly straight ; the huge creepers, which climb about 
them, sometimes stretching obliquely from their summits 
like the stays of a mast, sometimes winding around their 
trunks like immense serpents waiting for their prey. 
Here, two or three together, twisting spirally round each 
other, form a complete living cable, as if to bind securely 
these monarchs of the forest; there, they form tangled 
festoons, and, covered themselves with smaller creepers 
and parasitic plants, hide the parent stem from sight. 
Among the trees the various kinds that have buttresses 
projecting around their base are the most striking and 
