226 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



a small but beautifully kept garden, brilliant with plants 

 and flowers ; and ascending some steps, we arrived at the 

 five tanks, into which flow the cold and crystal waters of 

 the Rio Carioca. This river, rising in the forest between 

 the hills of Tijuca and Peineiras, passes thence into a small 

 building at the entrance to the aqueduct. The cool air, 

 the rushing water, the music of the waterfalls, and the 

 lovely flowers were indeed delightful after a two-mile walk 

 under a cloudless sky, in the midday sun ; though the road, 

 broad and well kept, was mostly under the shade of the 

 forest. " It is excessively poetic and enchanting to see the 

 waters of this renowned stream rippling through the lofty 

 forest, dashing into the reservoirs, and thence rushing into 

 the aqueduct." 



The earliest inhabitants sought for the waters of the 

 Rio Carioca, which enjoyed a great reputation among the 

 natives, for the supply of the population. The first canals 

 for conducting the river into the city were made in 1657 ; 

 the magnificent aqueduct, as it now exists, was completed 

 in 1750. It is some eight miles in length, and passes over 

 the Rua do Riachuelo on a row of two series of arches, one 

 above the other, with forty-two spans, at a height of about 

 a hundred feet above the street, extending from the Morro 

 Sta. Theresa to the Morro de St. Antonio. With the ex- 

 ception of the substitution by the City Improvements Co., 

 a few years ago, of one large and lofty arch instead of 

 the double tier, where the aqueduct crosses the street, no 

 alteration and scarcely any repairs have been necessary 

 during the 154 years that it has existed. The aqueduct 

 terminates in the Largo da Carioca, the square which is 

 the principal starting-point for the tram-cars to Larangeiras, 

 Botafogo, and the Jardim Botanico. Here there is an ex- 

 tensive fountain built of granite, the largest in the city; but, 



