THE TllOPICAL ZONE. 227 



evening) we would on no account have missed hearing the 

 strange mixture of not very musical sounds which now 

 begin to fill the forest ; " pre-eminent above all the others is 

 that emitted by the blacksmith frog ; every sound which he 

 produces rings on the ear like the clang of a hammer upon 

 an anvil,, while the tones uttered by his congeners strikingly 

 resemble the lowing of cattle at a distance. Besides these, 

 the hooting of an owl, the shrill sound of the cicada, and 

 the chirping of grasshoppers, form a continuous concert of 

 inharmonious tones, while the air is lighted up by the fitful 

 flashes of numerous fire-flies."* 



In our various rambles in the beautiful neighbourhood of 

 Eio de Janeiro, the conviction is often forced upon us, that 

 a life might be spent in becoming acquainted with all the 

 inexhaustible variety in which Nature is here clad, and which 

 has supplied our gardens and hothouses with so many beau- 

 tiful exotics. Some of these occasionally take us by surprise, 

 when here we first catch sight of them in their own native 

 land, made far more beautiful than we had ever thought 

 them before, by all the wildness which surrounds them. 

 How totally different is the sensation with which, as we 

 stroll by the sea-shore, we first behold the deep blue blos- 



* Gardner's ' Travels in Brazil.' 



