NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



mentioned a few particulars that had struck him as 

 singular. He found the civil population of Cuyaba 

 solicitous in their adherence to European fashions in 

 dress, and, as a special note of respectability, the men 

 always appearing in what are vulgarly called chimney- 

 pot hats. The current coin in all but small transac- 

 tions consisted in English sovereigns, but he was 

 unable to explain how these have reached a region 

 which can have so few commercial relations with this 

 country. He departed on the following morning, 

 while I resolved to spend a day in visiting the neigh- 

 bourhood of the city. 



Although San Paulo lies exactly on the southern 

 tropic, the winter climate is positively cool, and at 

 sunrise on July 6 the thermometer stood at 58° Fahr. 

 On a rough estimate from a single barometric obser- 

 vation it stands about 2400 feet above the sea. Its 

 appearance was altogether unlike that of all the towns 

 seen in Spanish America. The somewhat wearisome 

 monotony of regular square blocks gave place to the- 

 irregular arrangement of some of the provincial towns 

 in England, several streets running out into the 

 country and ending in detached villas. The general 

 impression was that of comfort and prosperity. Several 

 well-appointed private carriages were seen in the 

 streets, and the shops were as good as one commonly 

 sees in a European town of the same class. 



I was much interested by the short country excur- 

 sion, which occupied most of the day, and by an 

 aspect of vegetation entirely new to me. The plants, 

 with scarcely an exception, belonged to genera pre- 

 vailing in tropical America, many of them now seen 



