LAST DAYS IN BRAZIL. 213 



we saw the picturesque town, over which hung a streaky 

 band of smoky haze, and beyond, rising into the sky, the 

 bold outline of the Tijuca range. We soon neared the 

 Ilha do Governador, and were passing among numerous 

 islands ; some, mere heaps of stones or boulders, or even 

 solitary rocks just peeping above the water ; others with 

 a little grass and a few shrubs, and yet others with luxu- 

 riant vegetation, reaching to the water's edge. Some of the 

 islands possessed one or two houses or cottages. The 

 Ilha do Governador, twenty miles in circumference, is very 

 prettily undulated, thickly covered with vegetation, with 

 numerous picturesque bays, and, I believe, a tolerable 

 population. On nearing Maua, where we disembarked, 

 the water was just like oil, and the waves produced by the 

 passage of the steamer were most remarkable, being a 

 series of very regular undulations with absolutely not 

 a ripple, there not being the least breath of wind. The 

 view looking back towards Rio was very beautiful the 

 curiously undulating water in the foreground ; the Ilha do 

 Governador, with its deep green vegetation, in the middle 

 distance; and beyond, rising clear into the cloudless sky, 

 the pyramid of the Sugar-loaf; and a great part of the 

 Corcovado and Tijuca ranges, the former appearing very 

 insignificant. Turning on one's heel, we find we are 

 rapidly approaching a wonderfully green, crescent-shaped 

 shore, scrub clad to the water, without a sign of any 

 habitation, and apparently no place for landing. In 

 a few minutes we see a stage built out into the bay ; and, 

 leaving the steamer, after an hour and five minutes' run, 

 we find ourselves on a platform, where waits the train 

 that is to convey us to Petropolis. This railway, of a 

 metre gauge, was the first constructed in the empire ; but 

 for many years it extended only to the Raiz da Serra 



