rich and fertile in the valleys. On the hills it is little better than
sand. The rains seem to have carried away and swept into the valleys every
particle which Nature intended to have formed a mould.

Four-footed animals are scarce considering how very thinly these forests
are inhabited by men.

Several species of the animal commonly called tiger, though in reality it
approaches nearer to the leopard, are found here, and two of their
diminutives, named tiger-cats. The tapir, the lobba and deer afford
excellent food, and chiefly frequent the swamps and low ground near the
sides of the river and creeks.

In stating that four-footed animals are scarce, the peccari must be
excepted. Three or four hundred of them herd together and traverse the
wilds in all directions in quest of roots and fallen seeds. The Indians
mostly shoot them with poisoned arrows. When wounded they run about one
hundred and fifty paces; they then drop, and make wholesome food.

The red monkey, erroneously called the baboon, is heard oftener than it is
seen, while the common brown monkey, the bisa, and sacawinki rove from tree
to tree, and amuse the stranger as he journeys on.

A species of the polecat, and another of the fox, are destructive to the
Indian's poultry, while the opossum, the guana and salempenta afford him a
delicious morsel.

The small ant-bear, and the large one, remarkable for his long, broad,
bushy tail, are sometimes seen on the tops of the wood-ants' nests; the
armadillos bore in the sand-hills, like rabbits in a warren; and the