Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-08-30

river. 1t had begun raining in the night
and the heavy downpour continued through
out the forenoon. In the morning we halt
ed at big cattle ranch to get fresh milk and
beef There were various houses, sheds and
corrals near the rivers edge, and 50 or 90
mich COWS were gathered in one corral
Spurred plover, or lapwngs, stroled famil-
iarly among the hens. Paraquets and red
headed tanagers lit in the trees over our
heads.
The Itinerant Store Boat.
kind of primitive houseboat was
moored at the bank, woman was cooking
breakfast over little stove at one end The
crew were ashore. The boat was one of
those which are really stores, and which
travel up and down these rivers, laden with
what the natives most need and stopping
wherever there is a ranch They are the
only stores which many of the country
dwelers see from years end to years end
They float down stream, and up stream are
poled by their crew, or now and then get a
tow from steamer This one had house
with a tin roof, others bear houses with
matched roofs, or with roofs made of hides
The river wound through vast marshes
broken by belts of woodland
Always the two naturalists had some
thing of interest to tell of their past expert
ence, suggested by some bird or beast we
came across. Black and golden orioles,
slightly crested of two different species,
were found along the river; they nest in
colonies, and often we passed such colonies,
the long pendulous nests hanging from the
boughs of trees directly over the water
Cherrie told us OF finding such a colony
built round big wasp nest, several feet in
diameter. These wasps are venomous and
irritable, and few foes would dare venture
near birds nests that were under such for
mdable shelter; but the birds themselves
were entirely unafraid, and obviously were
not i'll any danger of disagreement with
their dangerous protectors. We saw dark
ibis flying across the bow of the boat, utter
ing his deep, two-syllabled note. Miller told
how on the Orinoco these ibises plumber the
nests OF the big river turtles. They are very
skilful in finding where the female turtle has
laid her eggs, scratch them out of the sand,
break the shells, and suck the contents
1t was astonishing to find SO few mos
qutoes on these marshes. They do not in
any way compare as pests with the mos
quitoes on the lower Mississippi, the New
Jersey coast the Red River of the North or
the Kootenay.
Back in the forest near Corumba the nat
uralists had found them verysbad indeed.
Cherrie had spent two or three days on
mountain top which was bare of forest; he
had thought there would be few mosquitoes,
but the long grass harbored them (they
often swarm in long grass bush, even where
there is no water) and at night they were
such torment that as soon as the sun set
he had to go to bed under his mosquito net
ting. Yet ON the vast marshes they were
not seriously troublesome, in most places. |
was informed that they were not in any way
bother on the grassy uplands, the high
country north of Cuyaba, which from thence
stretches eastward to, the coastal region
1t is at any rate certain that this inland
region of Brazil, including the state of Mat
to Crosse, which we were traversing, is a
healthy region, excellent1y adapted to set