Chap. VIT. WASPS— THEIR SENSE OF HEARING. HI 
the ground, however, I could see that a considerable por- 
tion of the trunks had already been consumed, and my 
guide assured me that more than a month ago he had seen 
these trunks on fire. According to this rate of progress, a 
quarter of a year must have been necessary to accomplish 
the total combustion of one of these trunks. Whether the 
statement of my guide was exact, of course, I am unable 
to tell. 
I passed the night at the Hacienda de la Sebadilla, 
situated near the road at about equal distances from the 
lake and the ocean. In the evening 1 met an Englishman 
of my acquaintance, who superintended a body of Indians 
at work on the road, and invited me to pass the night with 
him at the hacienda where he had his quarters, promising 
to accompany me to Kivas the next morning. 
We started very early and followed the cut through 
the bush. On the trees near the road I saw numerous 
large wasps' nests of an irregular oval form. My guide 
told me that it was not good to speak loud in the vicinity 
of these nests, as the wasps become easily irritated by a 
noise and would attack me. I gave little credit to his 
statement. But soon after, when I had remained behind 
for a few hundred paces, and the extraordinary dimensions 
of one of these nests, which could not have less than four 
or five feet in diameter, induced me to call my companion 
to look at it, the insects suddenly rushed forth and sur- 
rounded me. I put spurs to my horse and fled with all 
the speed of which it was capable. My companion, whom 
I passed, followed in the same manner, while the infuriated 
insects were all the time upon us, many of them getting 
into our hair and darting their stings wherever they could 
find access to our skin. I trembled for the consequences, 
as the stings were burning like fire, but the pain was of 
