Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-07-18
What One Sees in Brazil.

Wdrerlev.
What One Sees in Brazil.
Ernest Morris, in letter to the New
York World, describing things seen IN
the valley of the Amazon, says:
The houses are of rough mud walls,
full of chinks, in which cockroaches
swarm, by myriads. There are three
kinds, one q. large active fellow who
runs and flies with equal facility and
rapidity. He is omnivorous and omni-
present, and not a trunk, box or has
ket escapes his invasions. He is found
of every size, from that Of small pin
head to two inches or more in length,
and for every one killed a dozen seem
to start into its place. Various species
of cockroaches are preyed upon by huge
spiders which live in the wall or in the
thatch of palm. From tip to tip they
are often four inches in diameter, and
ut night come out of their holes in
search of food. They are harmless if
not agreeable company.
Then there are the large tarantulas,
great, evil,looking, hairy monsters
large enough and strong enough to cap
ture small birds. They make their
domicilo in the palm roof, and seldom
descend to the lower regions. They
too are harmless, but the hairs sting
very severely, and they are not pleas
ant cotenants. To these may Ee added
an infinite variety of smaller species.
Next we have small scorpion, about an
inch long, brown, with C al of fire in
his tail. the sting of which is very pain
full. What possibilities of insect life an
old palm tree might develop no one can
venture to say. l have described the
most obtrusive tenants. Bats by night
fly around the room, and my evening
amusement is catching them in long
handled nets, proceeding requiring
no little skill. OF rats l had plenty at
first, but diet of arsenic and bananas
proved to be too much for them, and
the whole colony immigrated to neigh
enough to refuse gift of the white
powder.
Wasps Of many kinds abound, and as
write, see the nests of four different
species. The most curious is species
allied to our mud wasps, which build
little circular nests in every available
place. Apropos of these wasps, when
the steamer Villa Bella went ashore in
Lago Grande, in the space of few
months these insects filled up with fine
mud all the holes in the machinery and
caused infinite trouble when at last the
steamer was tloated. A bunch of ripe
bananas will occasionally attract a
swarm of small black bees, but as most
of the brazilian species do not sting
they give no trouble. House flies are
very few. just enough to remind one Of
home. Mosquitoes in some localities
are plenty when the water in the river
is falling, and they abound in low
flooded forests. They are, however,
worse than in New Jersey, but by shut
ting up the house half an hour before
/, dark you will not be troubled by them.
For the last we have left the univer-
sal plague of tropical Countrywide
ants. Their name is legion, and they
are of every shape, size, color aud
habit. In one of my journals have
described more than one hundred and
fifty different species. They swarm
everywhere, and are more annoying
than the united forces of all the insects
l have mentioned. From May to Sep
TENDER not an article of food can be left
exposed; foraging parties are always on
the alert, and in a few minutes long
file reaches from the nest to the object
of attack. If the sugar bowl is not set
III plate OF soapsuds, it soon contains
more ants than sugar. A butterfly or
beetle left on table for few moments,
becomes mass of animated life. The
most destructive ant in Brazil is the
saiuba, which has been described by all
travellers. 1t does not enter the houses,
but does its work of mischief in the
garden. 1t will strip trees of their
foliage in a single night. its favorite
tree being the orange. The copine, a
small, Misunderstanding ant, attacks
wood. and few months are sufficient
to make skeleton out of piece of fur
niture. Pine wood it seems to prefer
to the native woods, and a frame house
brought from the United States to
Brazil would soon be destroyed. Abroad
III the woods there are many more
species. If you would enjoy the per
fume of some brilliant flower, behold
an ant stands ready with wide open jaws
to give your nose an unpleasant well
come. If You reach for gay tilland-
sea or climb for rich orchid, a nest of
ants will crop on you in myriads, and
they sting like Goals of fire. In fact,
go where you will you meet ants. You
live, sleep and eat with them-yes, aud
even eat them The large saiuba is
eaten by the Indians and tastes like
cloves. Whether you like them or not,
you eat quantity of the red ants in
food without knowing it, and in fact
you get SO accustomed to the compan-
ionship that in measure the annoy
ance ceases. This is the other. if not
the bright side of tropical life. The
pleasures, though, tar outweigh the
pains. The beauties are so great, the
evils so small comparatively, that life
IN the tropics seems to me far more de-
sirable than life in the inhospitable eli
mate of the United States.
The discovery of the electric pencil
bids fair to have an important effect on
several industries According to the