flood, and being in an inert state, it had not been able to extricate itself from the fork before the waters fell. It was dragged out to the open country by two horses, and was found to measure thirty-seven feet in length; on opening it, the bones of a horse, in a somewhat broken condition, and the flesh in a half digested state, were found within it, the bones of the head were uninjured; from these circumstances we concluded that the boa had devoured the horse entire. In all kinds of snakes, the capacity for swallowing is prodigious. I have often seen one not thicker than my thumb, swallow a frog nearly as large as my fist; and I once killed a rattle-snake, about four feet long, and of no great thickness, which had swallowed not less than three large frogs, one of which swelled out its sides to nearly twice the thickness of the other parts; it was still alive, and hopped away after it was liberated. I have also seen a very slender snake that frequents the roofs of houses, swallow an entire bat three times its own thickness. If such be the case with these smaller kinds, it is not to be wondered at that one thirty-seven feet long should be able to swallow a horse, particularly when it is known that, previously to doing so, it breaks the bones of the animal by coiling itself round it, and afterwards lubricates it with a slimy matter which it has the power of secreting in its mouth. At other times we went into the forest that skirts the base of the Serra, in which the larger trees consist of a kind of _Mimosa_ called Angica. On their branches were to be seen numbers of a beautiful little Marmoset monkey, attracted thither by a gum which this tree secretes, and of which they are very fond. Among the trees of these forests were also seen some of the large howling monkeys (_Mycetes barbatus_, Spix), which are known in Brazil by the names of Barbudo and Guariba; they possess immense muscular power in their long prehensile tails, and even after being shot, and quite dead, they hang suspended by them from the branches. They generally appear in bands, making a disagreeable howling noise, particularly at an early hour in the morning. A little ring-tailed monkey (_Ateles paniscus_) is still more abundant, and is more persecuted by the fazendeiro, on account of the depredations it commits in his plantations. The cane and Indian corn-fields are those which they most frequently visit, whence they always carry off their plunder to the woods. An old negro assured me he had often seen one of these animals carry with it not less than three spikes of Indian corn, one in its mouth, another secured by one of its arms, and a third held by its prehensile tail; I confess, however, that before placing implicit faith in this tale, I must be a witness to the fact. The moist and marshy campos produce various kinds of palm trees, which bear large clusters of small nuts, greatly resembling miniature cocoa-nuts. When ripe, these are covered