A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



rounded by circular walls that have the look of a fortress, and 

 behind it is a bay. We have reached Bahia (Plate 4). The steamer 

 has at first to describe a great curve, so that it seems as though she 

 meant to pass the bay, but then, suddenly, she turns sharply to 

 starboard, and on our right the city unfolds itself, consisting of 

 Upper and Lower Bahia. Funicular railways lead from the lower to 

 the upper city, and the houses are overtopped by churches. Like a 

 blue lake the bay stretches far to the south, divided from the open 

 sea by a hilly island. 



The steamer comes to a standstill. The sky is veiled by a grey 

 mist. Motor-boats put out from the shore, bringing the police and 

 officials of the steamship company, and a whole fleet of canoes 

 comes sailing up to us. Their sails are hauled down, and we see 

 that they are full of rosy mangoes, green avocat pears, oranges, and 

 other fruits. Brown-skinned men hold up monkeys and parrots, and 

 also, I regret to say, boxes of the skins of humming-birds. 



Over the sea, in the meanwhile, the sky begins to clear; the mist 

 dissolves into white diaphanous clouds ; the slanting rays of the sun 

 pour down upon sea and coast. The city yonder takes plastic shape 

 as we look ; above the house-fronts rises a forest of towers and steeples ; 

 to the right gleams the dome of the Benedictine abbey, with the 

 two towers of its west front, like uplifted forefingers. Beneath it the 

 houses descend to the lower city like a stairway of coloured cliffs 

 interrupted by funicular railways and slanting streets. As one drives 

 up to the city it gradually loses itself in the green hillside, above 

 which the royal palms lift their bushy heads against the sky. In 

 the middle of the picture an ancient fort rears itself bodily above 

 the white and green of the city, casting an orange reflection on the 

 blue water. 



The blue of the bay glows even more resplendent. As the wind 

 breathes upon its surface it changes to a vivid ultramarine, while 

 smooth streaks of a lighter blue traverse the darker colour, now close 

 inshore, now farther out to sea. The surface of the water is like 

 silk and satin. Above the city the horizon is flooded with green, 

 while rounded cumuli, touched with rosy light, tower up into the 

 heavens. 



Now the sun sinks, and all at once light flashes from a thousand 

 windows ; the green of the hillside changes to a sinister, poisonous 

 yellow. The boats surrounding the steamer speed away from it, 

 ploughing long black furrows in the water. Like the voice of a 

 monster, the siren gives the signal that the vessel is about to sail. 



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