they appeared to be very tame; they are smaller than those which frequent the lakes of the north of Brazil. The fazenda of Passagem, at which we stopped, belongs to a person who resides in San Romão, whose acquaintance I made during my stay there; the vaqueiro in charge of it, had orders not only to entertain us for the night, but to guide us to the next fazenda, which is three leagues distant. It was my design to leave early on the following morning, but my mortification was extreme on finding that my riding horse again was not forthcoming with the others. As the country around the house was covered with a thick Catinga forest, abounding in many places with a small kind of Bamboo, of the leaves of which the horses are remarkably fond, we concluded he would be found grazing somewhere near at hand, but all the forenoon was in vain spent in search of him; the vaqueiro, who was a most obliging man, and well acquainted with the country, then mounted his horse, in quest of the lost animal, but he returned in the evening, without having been able to find the slightest trace of him. All the following day was again spent in a useless search, and, as the pasturage at this place was very bad, we went on in the evening, for the sake of other animals, to Geräes Velhas, the fazenda to which the vaqueiro had orders to conduct us. He remained here with us all night, and next morning, I sent one of my men back with him, to have a last search for the missing horse, being unwilling to proceed without him, as he was one of the best belonging to my troop; but on the following day, the man returned without having obtained the slightest intelligence of the lost animal. I entertained no doubt that the thief who had been disappointed on the former occasion, had now followed us, and at last made sure of his booty. The country between Passagem and Geräes Velhas consists principally of a flat Taboleira, which for the most part is covered with a tall grass, a species of _Andropogon_, from six to twelve feet high. For the next four days after leaving Geräes Velhas, our route was through a very thinly inhabited country, consisting sometimes of low Catinga forests, at others, of Taboleiras cobertas, and not unfrequently of woodless grassy hills, on which that species of _Callopisma_, called Boca do Sapo, and the beautiful _Chresta pycnocephala_, grew profusely, both of which were then in full flower. In passing through bushy grassy tracts in the Sertão, the ears of the traveller are greeted, from early dawn till night, by the loud cries of a large gallinaceous bird, called by the inhabitants, Seriema; they generally go in pairs, and by keeping among the long grass, they are seldom seen; like the Ostrich of the country (Emu), they run with great quickness. St. Hilaire compares their cry to that of the turkey, but I find in my Journal, that I have frequently remarked it to be like the yelping of a whelp. They build