Chap. IV. AVOODS AROUND BAIAO. 127 



sight, a classical library in a mud-plastered and palm- 

 thatched hut on the banks of the Tocantins. 



The prospect from the village was magnificent, over 

 the green wooded islands, far away to the grey line of 

 forest on the opposite shore of the Tocantins. We 

 were now well out of the low alluvial country of the 

 Amazons proper, and the climate was evidently much 

 drier than it is near Para. They had had no rain here for 

 many weeks, and the atmosphere was hazy around the 

 horizon ; so much so that the sun, before setting, glared 

 like a blood-red globe. At Para this never happens ; 

 the stars and sun are as clear and sharply defined when 

 they peep above the distant tree-tops as they are at the 

 zenith. This beautiful transparency of the air arises, 

 doubtless, from the equal distribution through it of in- 

 visible vapour. I shall ever remember, in one of my 

 voyages along the Para river, the grand spectacle that 

 was once presented at sunrise. Our vessel was a large 

 schooner, and we were bounding along before a spanking 

 breeze which tossed the waters into foam, when the day 

 dawned. So clear was the air, that the lower rim of 

 the full moon remained sharply defined until it touched 

 the western horizon, whilst, at the same time, the sun 

 rose in the east. The two great orbs were visible at the 

 same time, and the passage from the moonlit night to day 

 was so gentle, that it seemed to be only the brightening 

 of dull weather. The woods around Baia5 were of 

 second growth, the ground having been formerly culti- 

 vated. A great number of coffee and cotton trees grew 

 amongst the thickets. A fine woodland pathway extends 

 for miles over the high, undulating bank, leading from 



