Ecccursion to Petropolis. i6i 



is said to have justified the proceeding by proving that the 

 officer had allowed himself to be bribed. 



On the same day we made an excursion to the Serra da 

 Estrella and Petropolis, a place which has of late excited so 

 much attention in the public journals, since the question 

 of German emigration to Brazil, with its accompaniments 

 of agitations by the Brazilian recruiting agents, began to 

 assume its present remarkable proportions. Though the dis- 

 tance from Rio to Petropolis may be accomplished in four 

 hours, yet three different vehicles are required : — in the first 

 place, a steamer from Rio to the railway-station on the opposite 

 side of the bay, then the railway to Fragosa, and lastly, a 

 carriage to the final destination over an excellent road which 

 runs through the mountains to Petropolis. 



This fine work, which* was opened in 1848, is unfor- 

 tunately the only one of its kind in the whole empire,* as are 



* Tliis road is to be continued from Petropolis as far as Paraliyba ; and in vari- 

 ous other dii-ections also the building of roads foi* commercial traffic is being 

 fostered by Government. The Brazilian Government are at the same time 

 turning their attention to improving the existing means of transport by importing 

 dromedaries for use. As it withstands variation of temperature, and tlirives on 

 almost any kind of noiu'ishment, the dromedary is certam to do well, especially in 

 the northern proviaces, and will prove exceeduigly serviceable in the transport of 

 the products of that section of the country. The great heat and di-ought which pre- 

 vail in Maranhao, Piauliy, Matto Grosso, and that direction generally, is eminently 

 suitable to the di-omedary, which does not thrive in hot damj^ weather. It is 

 calculated that a dromedary, which can carry an average -weight of 700 pounds, 

 (being six times what a horse, and foiu' times what a mule will carry on liis back), 

 costs, in his oym country, from i'12 to ^10 ; and after paying cost of transport tp 

 Brazil, will be worth i'48. With the introduction of the " sliip of the desert," that 

 of the date-palm must go hand in hand, as that fruit constitutes the chief food 

 of the dromedary, and -wUl probably simultaneously effect a great cliange in tlie 

 articles of consumption hy the lower orders. . 



M 



