RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 63 
however, I resumed uiy seat, trying to look as if it were 
my habit to mount horses on the tops of high mountains 
and slide down to the bottom. This is really no inaccurate 
description of our descent for the first ten minutes, after 
which we regained the more level path at the little station 
called " the Paineiras." We are told to-day that parties 
usually leave their horses at this station and ascend the 
/ 
rest of the way on foot, the road beyond that being so 
steep that it is considered unsafe for riding. However, 
we reached the plain without accident, and I look back 
upon yesterday's ride with some complacency as a first 
lesson in mountain travelling.* 
May 20th. On Friday, the 12th of May, we left Rio on 
our first excursion of any length. A day or two after our 
arrival Mr. Agassi z had received an invitation from the 
President of the Union and Industry Company to go with 
some of his party over their road from Petropolis to* Juiz 
de Fora, in the Province of Minas Geraes, a road celebrated 
not only for the beauty of its scenery, but also for its own 
excellence. A word as to the circumstances under which it 
has been built may not be amiss here ; and it must be 
confessed, that, if the Brazilians are, as they are said to 
be, slow in their progress, the improvements they do un- 
dertake are carried out with great thoroughness. It is 
true that the construction of the road has been intrusted 
to French engineers, but the leading man in its projec- 
tion and ultimate completion has been a Brazilian, Senhor 
* Leuzinger's admirable photographs of the scenery about the Corcovado, 
as well as from Petropolis, the Organ Mountains, and the neighborhood of 
"Rio generally, may now be had in the print-shops of Boston and New York. 
I am the more desirous to make this fact known as I am indebted to Mr. 
Leuzinger for very generous assistance in the illustration of scientific ob- 
jects. L. A. 
