26 KIO DE JANEIRO. 



hours, we obtained fowls, rice, and. farlnlia. It not 

 unfrequently happened that we were obliged to 

 kill, with stones, the poultry for our own supper. 

 When, thoroughly exhausted by fatigue and hun- 

 ger, we timorously hinted that we should be glad 

 of our meal, the pompous, and (though true) most 

 unsatlsfactoiy answer was, " It will be ready when 

 it Is ready." If we had dared to remonstrate any 

 farther, we should have been told to proceed on 

 our journey, as being too Impertinent. The hosts 

 are most ungracious and disagreeable in their man- 

 ners ; their houses and their persons are often 

 filthily dirty ; the want of the accommodation of 

 forks, knives, and spoons is common ; and I am 

 sure no cottage or hovel in England could be found 

 in a state so utterly destitute of every comfort. 

 At Campos Novos, however, we fared sumptuous- 

 ly ; having i-ice and fowls, biscuit, wine, and spirits, 

 for dinner ; coffee in the evening, and fish with 

 coffee for breakfast. All this, with good food for 

 the horses, only cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet the 

 host of this venda, being asked if he knew anything 

 of a whip which one of the party had lost, gruffly 

 answered, " How should I know 1 why did you not 

 take care of it 1 — I suppose the dogs have eaten it." 

 Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through 

 an intricate wilderness of lakes, in some of which 

 were fresh, in others salt water shells. Of the 

 former kind, I found a Limnse in gi'eat numbers in 

 a lake, into which the inhabitants assured me that 

 the sea enters once a year, and sometimes oftener, 

 and makes the water quite salt. I have no doubt 

 many interesting facts, in relation to marine and 

 fresh water animals, might be observed in this 

 chain of lagoons, which skirt the coast of Brazil. 

 M. Gay* has stated that he found in the nelghbour- 

 * Annales des Sciences Naturelles for 1833. 



