On the following morning, after having proceeded about half a league, we reached the Rio Carynhenha, which forms the boundary line between the province of Pernambuco, through the south-west corner of which we had for a few days been passing, and that of Minas Geräes, so that on crossing it we at length entered the latter province. After travelling a further distance of two leagues, we halted to breakfast under a wide-spreading Piki tree, on the margin of a Buriti swamp. The first part of our day’s journey was through an open campo country, the greater part of which had been lately burned; but the latter half was through a hilly and thinly-wooded tract. The day being cloudy, and the wind blowing freshly from the S.E., made us all complain much of the cold. In the afternoon it was my intention to reach the next house, said to be three leagues from that we had passed in the morning, but after travelling till dark without seeing it, we encamped for the night near some bushes on the banks of a small river; and as there were no trees here from which to suspend our hammocks, we contented ourselves with sleeping on hides spread on the ground. In passing through a wooded campo (Taboleira coberta) we came upon a large ant-eater (_Myrmecophaga jubata_), which Mr. Walker followed with the intention of shooting, but his gun missed fire: we all pursued it on foot with sticks, as none of our guns happened to be loaded. I was the first to come up with it, and being well aware of the harmless nature of its mouth, I seized it by its long snout, by which I tried to hold it, when it immediately rose upon its hind legs, and clasping me round the middle with its powerful fore paws, completely brought me to a stand; one of the men now coming up, struck it a blow on the head with a thick stick, which brought it for an instant to the ground. Notwithstanding it was frequently stunned by the blows it received, it always raised itself again and ran off. At last, I recollected the small pistols which I always carried in my jacket pocket, loaded with ball, when by the first shot through the breast it fell dead. It was a very large animal, measuring about six feet without including the tail, which together with the long hair by which it is covered, measured full four feet more. It ran very slowly, owing to the peculiar organization of its fore feet, two of the claws of which are very large and doubled up when it walks or runs, causing one side of the foot to rest on the ground. The proper, or rather principal use of these powerful claws, is to assist in obtaining the white-ant, the food on which he lives. The large clay nests of these insects are very common in those upland campos; and when the ant-bear wants a meal, he attacks one of these hillocks with his fore claws, tears out a portion of the side, and pushes in his long slender tongue, which is covered with a viscid saliva, to which myriads of the ants adhere, and