RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 47 



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Mountains lift their singular needle-like points, while 

 within the entrance rises the bare bleak rock so well 

 known as the Sugar Loaf (Pao de Assucar~). Were it not 

 for the gateway behind us, through which we still have a 

 glimpse of the open ocean, and for the shipping lying 

 here at anchor, leaving the port or entering it, we might 

 easily believe that we were floating on some great quiet 

 sheet of inland water. 



We reached our anchorage at eleven o'clock, but were 

 in no haste to leave the ocean home where we have been 

 so happy and so comfortable for three weeks past ; and 

 as the captain had kindly invited us to stay on board till 

 our permanent arrangements were made, we remained on 

 deck, greatly entertained by all the stir and confusion 

 attending our arrival. Some of our young people took 

 one of the many boats which crowded at once around 

 our steamer, and went directly to the city ; but we were 

 satisfied with the impressions of the day, and not sorry 

 to leave them undisturbed. As night came on, sunset 

 lit up the mountains and the harbor. In this latitude, 

 however, the glory of the twilight is soon over, and as 

 darkness fell upon the city it began to glitter with innu- 

 merable lights along the shore and on the hillsides. 

 The city of Rio de Janeiro spreads in a kind of crescent 

 shape around the western side of the bay, its environs 

 stretching out to a considerable distance along the beaches, 

 and running up on to the hills behind also. On account 

 of this disposition of the houses, covering a wide area 

 and scattered upon the water's edge, instead of being 

 compact and concentrated, the appearance of the city at 

 night is exceedingly pretty. It has a kind of scenic effect. 

 The lights run up on the hill-slopes, a little cluster crown- 



