BRAZIL. 



Ox\ running into the channel of Saint Catharine, 

 you fancy yourself, on the first sight, transported 

 into the empire of still unsubdued nature. The 

 verdant luxuriantly-wooded mountains, which rise 

 in unbroken lines from the shores of the island and 

 of the continent, belong to her alone, and you 

 scarcely observe at their foot the labours of man, 

 who is yet a stranger there. In the interior, 

 higher mountains, some of which take the forms of 

 cupolas or cones, and a ridge of mountains on the 

 continent, which are said to be slightly covered 

 with snow in the winter months, bound the pros- 

 pect towards the south. 



The islands of TenerifFe and St. Catharine lie in 

 the same latitude, one in the southern, and the 

 other in the northern hemisphere. Yet how diffe- 

 rent is the appearance of nature in the two. There 

 the rocky soil is only partially and scantily clothed 

 with verdure, and foreign species of plants merely 

 intermixed with those of Europe. Here a new 

 creation surrounds^ the admiring European, in 

 whose crowded luxuriance all is surprising and 

 gigantic, 



B 3 



