1832.] ' KIO DE JANEIRO. 19 



CHAPTER II. 



Ivio de Janeiro — Excursion north of Cape Frio — Great Evaporation — Slavery 

 — Botofogo Bay — Terrestrial Planaritc — Clouds on theCorcovado — Heavy 

 Eain — Musical Frogs — Phosphorescent Insects — Elater, springing powers 

 of — Blue Haze — Noise made by a Butterfly — Entomology — Airts — Wasp 

 killing a Spider — Parasitical Spider — Artifices of an E^jeira — Gregarious 

 Spider — Spider -with an unsymmetrical Web. 



mo DE JANEIRO. 



April 4th to July 6th, 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 Sth. — Our party amounted to seven. The first stage 

 was very interesting. Tiie day was powerfully hot, and as we 

 passed through the woods, every thing was motionless, excepting 

 the large and brilliant butterflies, which lazily fluttered about. 

 The view seen when crossino; the hills behind Praia Grande was 

 most beautiful ; the colours were intense, and the prevailing tint 

 a dark blue ; the sky and the calm waters of tlie bay vied with 

 each other in splendour. After passing through some cultivated 

 country, we entered a forest, which in the grandeur of all its 

 parls could not be exceeded. We arrived by midday at Itha- 

 caia ; this ?mall village is situated on a plain, and round the 

 central house are the huts of the negroes. These, from their 

 regular form and position, reminded me of the drawings of the 

 Hottentot habitations in Southern Africa. As the moon rose 

 early, we determined to start the same evening for our sleeping- 

 place at the Lagoa Marica. As it was growing dark we passed 

 under one of the massive, bare, and steep hills of granite which 

 r,re so common in this country. This spot is notorious from 

 having been, for a long time, the residence of some runaway 

 slaves, who, by cultivating a little giound near the top, con 



