Leaving Varzea de vaca about seven o’clock on the following morning, and travelling about two leagues, we halted at a fazenda called Angicas; I intended to proceed further without stopping, but as it was raining very heavily I remained here till the afternoon, when the weather having cleared up, we went on two leagues further to San Gonsalvo, which we reached about sunset. The country between Varzea da vaca and Angicas is flat and sandy, being one of those tracts called Taboleiras; in some places it is covered with a low shrubby vegetation, while in others are seen numerous large kinds of _Cactus_. Among the many beautiful plants met with on this journey, was one particularly worthy of notice: it is a species of _Echites_,[8] growing abundantly on the open sandy places; it is not more than six inches high, with subulate leaves and pink-coloured blossoms not unlike those of _Phlox subulata_; it is called by the inhabitants of the Sertão, Cauhy, and the tuberous root, which is the size and colour of a large black turnip-radish, is eaten by them when cooked, and is said to be very palatable; in the raw state it tastes not unlike a turnip. This root is also a favourite food of the peccary (_Dycoteles torquatus_, Cuv.), which is very expert at digging them up with its snout, the sand being in many places full of the holes they had made for that purpose. About half a league beyond Angicas, a small lake is seen, which forms the boundary between the provinces of Ceará and Piauhy. There are two houses at San Gonsalvo both belonging to cattle farmers, father and son; at the end of the last rains they possessed conjointly about three hundred head of cattle, but the severe drought that occurred previous to the setting in of the present rainy season, had left them only about forty, all the remainder having perished from the want of water and grass.