Evening star., 1939-05-20

Species-please come and identify
them, doctor!" DR.. Mann, a world
authority on ants, who began COL
lecting them in the Solomon Islands
as a Harvard student on a scholar
ship, strolled over-not too near, !
recalled later.
Just stand where you are, Will
liam," he said, land presently you
will identify them for yourself"
Presently did. The ladies in the
party thought 1 was practicing the
tango-not too gracefully, with a
hop, skip and jump, instead of a
glide. 1 retired into some foliage of
happy density and got out of my
trousers as rapidly As possible. They
were only little ants "chicos," the
Buenos Aires college boys called
them-but what they lacked in size
they made up in numbers Their
stings, fortunately, were more
alarming than harmful.
After recovering my trousers and
my poise, I emerged from the foli-
age much wiser in practical ento-
mology.
Stopped at Fur Farm.
The launch Ceres, on which we
are cruising as guests of the Ar
gentine Department of Agriculture
had pulled in alongside a citrus and
nutria farm on the Delta del
Parana.
The nutria is big native rodent
which, crossed with larger species
from, the north, produces a choco-
late-colored fur once worn by such
fastidlous dressers as Chinese man
darins and war lords, and now priced
by ladies of fashion in Europe and
the United States. The nutria looks
like 50-pound rat with a fiat, pen
sive countenance and walrus
WhiskerS.
The water rodents are bred in
pens which contain a canal. An
elaborate system of stud books is
kept to improve the stock and fur
quality. The nutrias are vegetarians
but fierce fighters. Their long teeth
can chop through a riding boot in a
flash. The individual breeding pens
usually contain one male and -four
or five sisters from the same litter
because sisters never quarrel, OF
chide each others children, in the
best nutria families. They are death
on strangers, however.
The coarse outer hair is removed
from the pelts and used in the man
ufacture of felt hats. The inner fur,
almost a half-inch thick, is COM
parable to fine seal-dense, soft and
luxurious to the touch. Il had rather
touch pelt than nutria-perhaps
the fire ants have me intimidated)
Floating School Buses.
Back on the canal, as the launch
continued her cruise, we passed
many landings where children, in
their white school uniforms, waited
for a floating "bus" to take them to
their classrooms upon a Saturday.
THE chicos will be tardy," re-
marked an Argentine
Apparently they were. We later
passed the bus" A red-faced driver
was trying to start the outboard mo-
tor. AS we swung around a bend he
was still trying. Yes, the "chicos
probably were late for school today
very late
hope they won't be late for
church in the morning-a floating
church, complete with its tall
steeple and a crucifiX mounted on
the forward mast. The church ship
was named the Cristo Rey-or King
Christ. Later we passed a wedding
party. Their launch was a power
of flowers and the Argentines in at
tendance were quite gay-probab]y
with the wine of the land. which
flows freely on festive occasions.
The grocer butcher in his motor
boat hung his meat deliveries on
trees beside the landing stages
There are no roads or railways OF,
the delta, which is covered with riv-
ers, canals and irrigation bitches.
The foWer-grown huts Of the poor
were made of reeds and clay
thatched with grass and mounted
on stills above the high-water line
Each house had its outdoor bake
oven of mud, its dogs, children and
chickens
Also a landing for its long Spanish
bateau in a small canal cut through
the thick black loan and covered
by a thatched she'd
Banks Lined With Trees.
The banks were lined with palms
pines, millions of tall Lombardv
poplars, citrus trees, eucalyptus
sycamores, the native sauce. which
resembles our willows, and weeping
willows.
A Spanish college student asked
about the latter trees:
I'm the States what do you cal
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