754 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



rainy season was impending, the fair weather 

 was uninterrupted. The way lay for the most 

 part through an agricultural district of corn, 

 wheat, and vineyards. In this strange land, 

 where seasons are reversed, and autumn has 

 changed places with spring, the work of har- 

 vest and vintage was just going on. The 

 road was full of picturesque scenes : troops of 

 mules might be met, a hundred at a time, 

 laden with corn - sacks ; the queer, primitive 

 carts of the country creaked along, carrying 

 huge wine-jars filled with the fresh new juice 

 of the grape ; the road was gay with country 

 people in their holiday dresses ; the women, 

 who wore their bright shawls like a kind of 

 mantle, were sometimes on foot and sometimes 

 pinioned behind the men, who were invariably 

 on horseback, and whose brilliant ponchos and 

 fine riding added to the impression of life and 

 color. Rivers and streams were frequent ; and 

 as there were no bridges, the scenes at the 

 fords, sometimes crossed on rafts, sometimes 

 on flat boats, worked by ropes, were exciting 

 and picturesque. For rustic interiors along 

 the road side, there were the huts of the work- 

 ing people, rough trellises of tree -trunks in- 

 terwoven with branches ; green as arbors while 

 fresh, a coarse thatch when dry. There was 



