RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 51 
thrown over the other shoulder, hanging almost to tho 
feet behind. She no doubt was of the colored gentry. 
Just beyond her sat a black woman on the curbstone, 
almost without clothing, her glossy skin shining in the 
sun, and her naked child asleep across her knees. Or 
take this as another picture : an old wall several feet wide, 
covered with vines, overhung with thick foliage, the top 
of which seems to be a stand for the venders of fruits, 
vegetables, &c. Here lies at full length a powerful negro 
looking over into the street, his jetty arms crossed on a 
huge basket of crimson flowers, oranges and bananas, 
against which he half rests, seemingly too indolent to lift 
a finger even to attract a purchaser. 
April 25th. Nature seems to welcome our arrival, not 
only by her most genial, but also by her exceptional moods. 
There has been to-day an eclipse of the sun, total at 
Cape Frio, sixty miles from here, almost total here. We 
saw it from the deck of the ship, not having yet taken 
up our quarters in town. The effect was as strange as 
it was beautiful. There was a something weird, uncanny 
in the pallor and chill which came over the landscape ; 
it was not in the least like a common twilight, but had 
a ghastly, phantom-like element in it. Mr. Agassiz passed 
the morning at the palace where the Emperor had invited 
him to witness the eclipse from his observatory. The clouds 
are poor courtiers, however, and unfortunately a mist hung 
over San Christovao, obscuring the phenomenon at the 
moment of its greatest interest. Our post of observation 
was better for this special occasion than the Imperial 
observatory, and yet, though the general scene was per- 
haps more effective in the harbor than on the shore, Mr. 
Agassiz had an opportunity of making some interesting 
