West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1878-04-13
A Gigantic Varmint Worse than the
Sea Serpent.


A Gigantic Varmint Worse than the
Sea Serpent.
New York SUM-
A recent bit OF news from South
America has attracted unwonted atten-
ion on the part of the biologists TO the
highlands of Southern Brazil. There is
reason TO believe that gigantic animal
of subterranean habits, as yet unknown
TO naturalists, exists in the region where
the great rivers Paraguay and Parana
take their rise. 1t is variously de-
scribed, but all accounts represent IL as a
very large, trench-digging creature. not
less than three feet in thickness. The
inhabitants call il the Minhocao, and
believe II TO be an enormous scale-cov-
cred earth worm some fifty yards long,
which plows up the ground after the
fashion OF giant mole, overturDing
full-grown trees in it's path.
Stories of such an animal would be
worthy of little attention if they came
from Il single unknown traveller. As il
is, however, they are communicated 10
the scientific world by an accomplished
German naturalist, Fritz Muller, long n
resident in Brazil, who has carefully
collected and weighed the evidence as TO
the asserted existence of this under
ground monster. Native testimony GER
tainly makes out pretty strong proba-
bility that some such creature exists.
Herr Muller has never seen the animal
himself; but from his summary of the
native accounts furnished to the Zootoqi-
cal Garden, a German journal of natural
history, IT appears to have been seen on
at least three occasions. Ii is found
only near rivers TO one observer who
saw 1t lying on the bank of stream, it
seemed an animal Of gigantic size, nearly
one meter in thickness, not very long.
and with a snout like pig, but whether
IT had legs or not he could not tell.
Before he could procure assistance To
attack it, the strange creature had
buried itself in a trench of its own max
ing In another instance a Minhocao
seems 10 have undermined and drawn
on large pool. A negro woman who
went thither for water, found that the
water was all gone, but saw an animal in
the vicinity, 4" as big as house." NOV
ing rapidly away. This was in the Bra
lillian province Of Parana, where some
time afterward young man had a still
more remarkable adventure. He saw n
pine tree fall suddenly and without any
apparent cause. fastening to the SPOT
" he found the surrounding earth in
movement, and an enormous worm-like
black animal in the middle of it, about
twenty-five meters long with horns on
it's head"
Apart from these views of the animal
itself, there is proof of the existence of
tTench-like excavations i'm the south
Brazilian highlands, the formation of
which must be attributed to living
creatures. Nature, the English scientific
journal from which we have quoted the
foregoing descriptions, accepts the evi-
dence as conclusive on this point. What,
then, are the true characteristics of the
animal? The width of the trenches
leaves little doubt that il is large
small beast would hardly make gallery
underground, twelve feet wide and over
hall mile long, such as was discovered
In the valley of the river COhorros. 1t
IS also tolerably certain that the Min
hocao likes 10 10 live in damp places.
Beyond this, the evidence relating TO
the animal affords great scope TO the
imagination.
The idea thrown out by Nature that
this sO-called subterranean serpent NAV
be last descendant of the Glyptodonts
has led TO a search Of the leading au-
thorities az TO that remarkable genus OF
mammals. The GlyptOdon, said Prof.
Huxley, is essentially a large armadillo,
though IT departs in some respects not
only from all armadillos, but from all
other mammalia, and even stands
alone among the vetebrata. Seven spe-
cies of Glyptodonts are mentioned by
Andrew Murray, in his large quarto
work on the geographical distribution
OF animals; Of these, four occur i'm
Buenos Ayres, and three in the Brazil
ian bone caves. Until now, the entire
genus has been regarded rs extinct and
the remains from which these species
are described occur as fossils in the post
tertiary formations of South America.
a picture Of GlyptOdon (G. cLqUiDes)
may be found at page 6l2 Of NicholsOn's
Manual of Zoology "They differ from
living armadillos," says the author Of
that work, in having no bands 10 their
armOr, so that they must have been un-
able TO roll themselves up. II is rare at
the present day 10 meet with any arna-
dillO over two or three feet i'm length
but the length Of the Glyptodon CLAW
ipes from the tip Of the snout 10 the end
OF the tail was more than nine feet"
Taking all these facts together. do
they not indicate the present existence
Of a wonderful land varmint" in the
shape Of gigantic armadillo2