26 The Andes and the Amazon. 



diamonds, and far more brilliant than koh-i-noors, swept 

 the pavement with their long trains ; martial music floated 

 on the gentle breeze from the barracks or some festive hall, 

 and a thousand gas-lights along the levee and in the city, 

 doubling their number by reflection from the river, beto- 

 kened wealth and civilization. 



We landed in the morning to find our vision a dissolving 

 view in the light of the rising sun. The princely mansions 

 turned out to be hollow squares of wood-work, plastered 

 within and without, and roofed with red tiles. Even the 

 "squares" were only distant approximations; not a right 

 angle could we find in our hotel. All the edifices are 

 built (very properly in this climate) to admit air instead 

 of excluding- it, and the architects have wonderfully suc- 

 ceeded ; but with the air is wafted many an odor not so 

 pleasing as the spicy breezes fi'om Ceylon's isle. The ca- 

 thedral is of elegant design. Its photograph is more im- 

 posing than l^otre Dame, and a Latin inscription tells us 

 that it is the Gate of Heaven. But a near approach re- 

 veals a shabby structure, and the pewless interior is made 

 hideous by paintings and images which certainly must be 

 caricatures. A few genuine works of art imported from 

 Italy alone relieve the mind of the visitor. Excepting a 

 few houses on the Malecon, and not excepting the cathe- 

 dral, the majority of the buildings have a tumble-down ap- 

 pearance, which is not altogether due to the frequent earth- 

 quakes which have troubled this city ; while the habitations 

 in the outskirts are exceedingly primitive, floored and wall- 

 ed with split cane and thatched with leaves, the first story 

 occupied by domestic animals and the second by their own- 

 ers. The city is quite regularly laid out, the main streets 



on the sugar-cane. On the Upper Amazon vre found the P. clarus, P. pellu- 

 cens, and P. tuherculatus. At Bahia, on. the opposite coast, Darwin found 

 P. lu7ninosus, the most common luminous insect. 



