---
title: The evaporation over the forest
slug: dummy-essay-12
date: 2025-03-12
updated: 2025-03-12
kind: essay
description: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor.
lead_figure: lead
---
Source: Charles Darwin, *The Voyage of the Beagle* (1839), Chapter II — public domain
(Project Gutenberg eBook #944). Reused here only to exercise the piece template's
components; it is not a real dataset piece.
## Excursion north of Cape Frio
APRIL 4th to July 5th, 1832.--A few days after our arrival I became acquainted with an
Englishman who was going to visit his estate, situated rather more than a hundred miles
from the capital, to the northward of Cape Frio. I gladly accepted his kind offer of
allowing me to accompany him.
April 8th.--Our party amounted to seven. The first stage was very interesting. The day
was powerfully hot, and as we passed through the woods, everything was motionless,
excepting the large and brilliant butterflies, which lazily fluttered about. We arrived
by midday at Ithacaia; this small village is situated on a plain, and round the central
house are the huts of the negroes. As the moon rose early, we determined to start the
same evening for our sleeping-place at the Lagoa Marica.
April 9th.--We left our miserable sleeping-place before sunrise. The road passed through
a narrow sandy plain, lying between the sea and the interior salt lagoons. We dined at
Mandetiba; the thermometer in the shade being 84 degs. As the venda[^1] here was a very
good one, and I have the pleasant, but rare remembrance, of an excellent dinner, I will be
grateful and presently describe it, as the type of its class. These houses are often
large, and are built of thick upright posts, with boughs interwoven, and afterwards
plastered. Yet the host of this venda, being asked if he knew anything of a whip which one
of the party had lost, gruffly answered, "How should I know? why did you not take care of
it?--I suppose the dogs have eaten it."
> "How should I know? why did you not take care of it?--I suppose the dogs have eaten it."
Malaysia and Korea HS 8542 (semiconductor) export values, USD billion, 2010–2025. Source: placeholder CSV.
Year
Malaysia (USD bn)
Korea (USD bn)
2010
22.8
37.9
2011
27.2
39.7
2012
26.1
41.3
2013
27.8
47.1
2014
31.0
51.5
2015
27.2
52.2
2016
26.6
52.3
2017
33.0
86.1
2018
45.8
109.8
2019
44.8
79.1
2020
49.3
82.9
2021
59.6
109.3
2022
78.6
112.8
2023
74.7
86.1
2024
76.6
120.2
2025
145.6
142.8
Malaysia and Korea semiconductor exports (HS 8542), USD billion, 2010–2025. Source: placeholder CSV.
## Lagoons, shells, and the vampire bat
Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through an intricate wilderness of lakes; in some
of which were fresh, in others salt water shells. M. Gay[^2] has stated that he found in
the neighbourhood of Rio, shells of the marine genera solen and mytilus, and fresh water
ampullariae, living together in brackish water.
Leaving the coast for a time, we again entered the forest. The trees were very lofty, and
remarkable, compared with those of Europe, from the whiteness of their trunks. The
**Vampire bat** is often the cause of much trouble, by biting the horses on their withers. The injury
is generally not so much owing to the loss of blood, as to the inflammation which the
pressure of the saddle afterwards produces. We were bivouacking late one evening near
Coquimbo, in Chile, when my servant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive,
went to see what was the matter, and fancying he could distinguish something, suddenly put
his hand on the beast's withers, and secured the vampire.
## Socego
April 13th.--After three days' travelling we arrived at Socego, the estate of Senhor
Manuel Figuireda, a relation of one of our party. The house was simple, and, though like a
barn in form, was well suited to the climate. The chief produce of this part of the
country is coffee. Each tree is supposed to yield annually, on an average, two pounds; but
some give as much as eight.
As soon as any stranger is seen arriving, a large bell is set tolling, and generally some
small cannon are fired. One morning I walked out an hour before daylight to admire the
solemn stillness of the scene; at last, the silence was broken by the morning hymn, raised
on high by the whole body of the blacks; and in this manner their daily work is generally
begun.
[^1]: A roadside inn providing food and lodging to travellers in rural Brazil.
[^2]: Claude Gay (1800–1873), French-Chilean naturalist who surveyed South American flora and fauna.
[^3]: Darwin's own catalogue of terrestrial Planariae, collected across several Southern Hemisphere localities during the voyage.
