CHAPTER 2.. Commence Journey Up San Juan River.--Palms and Wild Canes.

Commence journey up San Juan river.--Palms and wild canes. --Plantations.--The Colorado river.--Proposed improvement of the river.--Progress of the Delta.--Mosquitoes.--Disagreeable night. --Fine morning.--Vegetation of the banks.--Seripiqui river. --Mot-mots.--Foraging ants: their method of hunting.--Ant-thrushes. --They attack the nests of other ants.--Birds' nests, how preserved from them.--Reasoning powers in ants.--Parallel between the mammalia and the hymenoptera.--Utopia.