14 RIO DE JANEIRO. [CHAP. 11. 



CHAPTER I J. 



RIO DE JANEIRO. 



Rio de Janeiro Excursion North of Cape Frio Great Evaporation 

 Slavery Botofoga Bay Terrestrial Planarise Clouds on the Cor- 

 covado Heavy Rain Musical Frogs Phosphorescent Insects Elater, 

 Springing Powers of Blue Haze Noise made by a Butterfly Ento- 

 mology Ants Wasp killing a Spider Parasitical Spider Artifices of 

 an Epeira Gregarious Spider Spider with an Unsymmetrical Web. 



April &,th to July $th, 1832, A few days after our arrival I became 

 acquainted with an Englishman who was going to visit his estate, 

 situated rather more than a hundred miles from the capital, to the 

 northward of Cape Frio. I gladly accepted his kind offer of allowing 

 me to accompany him. 



April 8t/i. Our party amounted to seven. The first stage was very 

 interesting. The day was powerfully hot, and as we passed through 

 the woods everything was motionless, excepting the large and 

 brilliant butterflies, which lazily fluttered about. The view seen when 

 crossing the hills behind Praia Grande was most beautiful ; the colours 

 were intense, and the prevailing tint a dark blue ; the sky and the 

 calm waters of the bay vied with each other in splendour. After passing 

 through some cultivated country, we entered a forest, which in the 

 grandeur of all its parts could not be exceeded. We arrived by mid- 

 day at Ithacaia ; this small village is situated on a plain, and round the 

 central house are the huts of the negroes. These, from their regular 

 form and position, reminded me of the drawings of the Hottentot 

 habitations in Southern Africa. As the moon rose early, we determined 

 to start the same evening for our sleeping-place at the Lagoa Marica. 

 As it was growing dark we passed under one of the massive, bare, and 

 steep hills of granite which are so common in this country. This spot 

 is notorious from having been, for a long time, the residence of some 

 runaway slaves, who, by cultivating a little ground near the top, con- 

 trived to eke out a subsistence. At length they were discovered, and a 

 party of soldiers being sent, the whole were seized with the exception 

 of one old woman, who, sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed 

 herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain. In a Roman 

 matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom ; in a 

 poor negress it is mere brutal obstinacy. We continued riding for some 

 hours. For the few last miles the road was intricate, and it passed 

 through a desert waste of marshes and lagoons. The scene by the 

 dimmed light of the moon was most desolate. A few fireflies flitted by 

 us ; and the solitary snipe, as it rose, uttered its plaintive cry. The 

 distant and sullen roar of the sea scarcely broke the stillness of the 

 night. 



April gth. We left our miserable sleeping-place before sunrise. 

 The road passed through a narrow sandy plain, lying between the sea 



