Martins and Sjnx^s Reise in Brasilien, 181 



of finding a very minute Gymnostomum, hitherto undescribed. 

 I remained alone for the rest of the winter, except when my 

 man occasionally visited me with meat ; and I found the time 

 hang very heavy, as I had no books, and nothing could be 

 done in the way of collecting specimens of natural history/' 



" The force of nature could no farther go. 

 To make the third she joined the other two,'* 



Art. III. Reise in Brasilien. By Dr. C. F. P. von Martius and 

 Dr. J. B. von Spix. Munich. 4to. Vol. I., 1823 ; Vol. II., 

 1828; Vol. III., 1831. 



Having received from Munich the third and last volume 

 of the Travels of Dr. von Martius and the late Dr. von Spix in 

 Brazil, whither these learned persons were sent by the Bava- 

 rian government, we extract from it the following picturesque 

 description of the atmospheric changes daily observable in the 

 northern quarter of the Brazilian empire, and of the effects 

 of those changes on the vegetable and animal worlds. This 

 description of a single day answers for almost every day 

 throughout the greater part of the year ; for the various phe- 

 nomena, so minutely and graphically portrayed, recur with a 

 wonderful uniformity. Dr. von Martius, wishing to com- 

 municate to his friends some idea of the impression which 

 these phenomena made on him, has inserted in the present 

 volume a leaf from his journal, dated August 16. 1819, in 

 which he noted down, as they occurred, his observations on 

 the extraordinary scene before him. The point from which 

 the observations were made is a country-house, called " the 

 Rossinha," within about a mile of the town of Santa Maria 

 de Belem do Gram Para. This Saint Mary of Bethlehem is 

 situated in a plain on the eastern bank of the Grand Para, at 

 the distance of 16 German miles from the sea. The river 

 Para appears on the map to be a continuation of the Tocatius ; 

 but at a point where it communicates with the waters of the 

 Amazons through the canal of Tagepuru, and receives several 

 small streams, it becomes widely expanded, and changes its 

 name with its magnitude. Opposite to Belem, the Rio das 

 Amazonas and the Rio do Para form between them an island 

 called Marajo. The travellers resided at Belem, or Para, as 

 the town is sometimes called, during two different periods 

 of the year : first in July and August ; and, on the second 

 occasion, in April, May, and June. At the turn of the sea- 

 son, which takes place in that region in October and Novem- 

 ber, they were not in Belem, and, therefore, had no personal 



N 3 



