54 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



mediately under the mountains to the foot of the Cor- 

 covado, where it becomes too steep for carriages, the farther 

 ascent being made on mules or horses. But it was too late 

 for us, the peak of the Corcovado was already bathed in 

 the setting sun. AVe wandered a little way up the ro- 

 mantic path, gathered a few flowers, and then drove back 

 to the city, stopping on our return to ramble for half an hour 

 in the " Passeio Publico." This is a pretty public garden 

 on the bay, not large but tastefully laid out, its great 

 charm being a broad promenade built up from the water's 

 edge with very solid masonry, against which the waves 

 break with a refreshing coolness. To-morrow we are in- 

 vited by Major Ellison, chief engineer of the Dom Pedro 

 Railroad, to go out to the terminus of the road, some hun- 

 dred miles through the heart of the Serra do Mar. 



April 21th. Perhaps in all our journeyings through 

 Brazil we shall not have a day more impressive to us all 

 than this one ; we shall, no doubt, see wilder scenery, 

 but the first time that one looks upon nature, under an 

 entirely new aspect, has a charm that can hardly be re- 

 peated. The first view of high mountains, the first glimpse 

 of the broad ocean, the first sight of a tropical vegetation 

 in all its fulness, are epochs in one's life. This wonderful 

 South American forest is so matted together and inter- 

 twined with gigantic parasites that it seems more like a 

 solid, compact mass of green than like the leafy screen, 

 vibrating with every breeze and transparent to the sun, 

 which represents the forest in the temperate zone. Many 

 of the trees in the region we passed through to-day seemed 

 in the embrace of immense serpents, so large were the 

 stems of the parasites winding about them ; orchids of 

 various kinds and large size grew upon their trunks ; and 



