Rio de Janeiro 61 



in boarding a steam-launch, which quickly put us 

 ashore. A tram-car conveyed us to the terminal station 

 of the electric railway, which ascends the slopes of the 

 mountain and by which my destination could be most 

 speedily reached. The cars are open, permitting the 

 passengers to see everything. After a little delay we 

 were off. The road rises rapidly. In half a minute 

 we were flying along on a level with the roof of the 

 great opera-house and many of the most imposing 

 edifices of the lower city. Then we sped over the arches 

 of the old aqueduct built by the Jesuit Fathers more 

 than one hundred years ago. Under us were busy 

 streets and flat-roofed houses which fill a narrow but 

 densely populated valley. The tops of four or five 

 lordly palms rise to the level of the tracks, and we were 

 almost near enough to touch their feathery fronds 

 waving in the sunlight. Having crossed the aqueduct, 

 the road ascends the hillside and winds upward, past 

 beautiful villas embowered in gardens, rich in flowers. 

 The poinsettia flaunts its crimson bracts over the walls ; 

 bougainvilleas in sheeted masses of purple blossoms, 

 more splendid than the robes of an emperor, cover 

 arched gateways; a score of species of palms, conspicu- 

 ous among them the royal palm, raise their stately 

 columns, fifty, seventy, and one hundred feet into the 

 warm air; the perfume of blooming orange-groves 

 invades the senses. The road winds to the right and 

 to the left, at each turn disclosing a new outlook over 

 the harbor, the tree-clad hills, the mountains encircling 

 the horizon. Every view is a picture of transcendent 

 loveliness. Higher and higher we rise. At last we 

 plunge under the shadow of great trees loaded with 

 orchids and freighted with pendant lianes. We are 

 in the midst of the tropical forest. We look down into 



