214 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



(foot of the hill), whence, to reach Petropolis, it was neces- 

 sary to drive by diligence up a well-made, broad, zigzag 

 coach-road. The train was composed of one first and one 

 second class carriage, which rapidly became tolerably full. 

 The seats and backs are of closely interlaced bamboo, the 

 backs are reversible, and, being only about two feet six 

 inches apart, do not afford much room. Five persons sit 

 on each seat, and each carriage holds sixty people. Leav- 

 ing the platform, we proceed over low ground through a 

 flat, sandy, bush-and-thicket covered country of luxuriant 

 shrubs, entangled and entwined by thorns and creepers, 

 the monochromous vegetation being relieved by an occa- 

 sional bright spike of flowers. At 5 p.m., on reaching the 

 second station, our engine, which had been in front, was 

 changed for one with a central cog-wheel, placed at the 

 rear of the train, and then we began rapidly to ascend 

 by a grade of sometimes one in five or so, and so quickly 

 that I could see the needle of my aneroid falling. We 

 passed through the grandest mountain scenery, huge per- 

 pendicular masses of rocks, covered with trees on the top, 

 rising from the dense virgin forest which covered the hilly 

 sides of the valley. After a quarter of an hour's ascent, we 

 had a superb prospect. We could see along the flat scrub 

 to Maud ; at our feet a straight white line, showing the 

 road we had just traversed, surrounded by hillocky woods ; 

 then the bay, the Ilha do Governador, the mountains 

 round Rio, the entrance to the bay, and the broad Atlantic 

 beyond, some thirty miles away. At 5.30 we crossed the 

 Grotto Fundo, which, as its name implies, is a gorge of 

 a tremendous depth, spanned by a viaduct constructed in 

 a similar manner to that which I described on the Cor- 

 covado railway. Here we are in the most impressive 

 scenery there is on this line, in the midst of a grand amphi- 



