1 82 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OUR LIFE AT RIO DE JANEIRO. 



Carson's Hotel. 



May 30, 1884. This hotel is so full that, to avoid being at 

 the top of the house, I have taken possession of the only 

 garden room which is unoccupied. This annexe consists 

 of a row of a dozen rooms running back from the hotel at 

 right angles and at the side of the garden. In front of 

 them is a verandah, which keeps off both heat and rain 

 and I much prefer these rooms to those in the hotel, for 

 they are so quiet and, opening on to the garden, the eye 

 rests on a large well-kept green plot formed of a kind of 

 knot-grass (spergula), which here takes the place of turf. 

 This plot is surrounded by lofty palms, while the garden 

 is replete with fan and other palms, cycads, orchids, plan- 

 tains, dracaena, crotons, and other richly variegated plants. 

 Beyond these is a regular English kitchen garden, and 

 behind all rises the lofty hill Morro da Nova Cintra 

 (8 1 3 ft.), dotted half-way up with houses. 



Before breakfast I walked down a fine street opposite 

 the hotel to the embankment, or Praia do Flamengo, which 

 skirts the bay. On one side of the broad road is a low 

 wall washed by the water ; on the other, a row of lofty 

 houses, gay, picturesque, and bright as are all the newer 



