194 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



vening between the city and the Atlantic. Most of the streets are also badly 

 paved and worse drained ; hence in recent years Ptio has suffered much from 

 epidemics, especially yellow fever, which would appear to have even become 

 endemic. Water, however, flows abundantly in all quarters, being supplied in the 

 proportion of about 40 gallons daily per head of the population. Eio no longer 

 depends as formerly on the Carioca springs alone, which rise in the hills north of 

 Corcovado, and the water from which is conveyed by conduits and a fine aqueduct 

 to the central districts. In the surrounding forests, which have become State 

 property, reservoirs have been constructed at intervals along the course of several 

 underground channels. Such is that of Pedregulho near S. Christovao, which is 

 fed by the Rio de Ouro 30 miles to the north, and which has a capacity of about 

 9,000,000 gallons. 



Rio is far from a monumental city. The churches are copies of copies in the 

 usual Jesuit style, while with few exceptions the recent public buildings resemble 

 huge barracks. On the other hand few cities are adorned with more beautiful 

 avenues, such as those of la Tijuca, and the triple avenue of lofty palms [Oreodoxa 

 okracea) in the Botanical Gardens. These palms have a perfectly smooth, slender 

 stem about 80 feet high, terminating in a mass of leaves each averaging 10 or 12 

 feet in length. 



Although there are no special industries, Rio has to some extent become a 

 manufacturing city, with numerous cotton-spinning and weaving mills, foundries, 

 furniture, cabinet, and shipbuilding works. Several docks and repairing basins 

 have been excavated in the live rock of the Saude hills and in Cobras Island near 

 the marine arsenal. Coffee, the staple of the export trade, was shipped to the 

 value of £8,000,000 in 1892, the total exports amounting to about £15,000,000, 

 and the imports to over £16,000,000. In the general movement of the foreign 

 exchanges Great Britain takes the first place, the United States, France, and 

 Germany following in the order named. The traffic with the interior is almost 

 exclusively carried on by means of the two chief lines of railway, one running to 

 S. Paulo, the other to Minas Geraes. The local circulation is amply provided for 

 by numerous tramways, worked either by mules or by electricity, while the com- 

 munications with Nictheroy and the various towns and ports around the bay are 

 kept up by means of steam ferries. These have preserved their English name of 

 *' ferry," while the omnibuses are still known by the name of " bonds," from the 

 bonds originally issued by the English company which introduced this system of 

 locomotion. 



Rio, which has been capital of Brazil since 1763, is the seat of the chief 

 museums and learned institutions of the republic. Amongst these is the School 

 of Medicine, one of the first in the New World, in connection with the vast 

 Misericordia Hospital. This sumptuous establishment, which accommodates 1,200 

 patients, and which appears to be admirably conducted, stands on the spot where 

 Magellan landed in 1520 on his voyage round the globe. Other important estab- 

 lishments are the Polytechnic School, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Conserva- 

 toire of Music, the Blind and Deaf and Dumb Asylums, the School of Navigation, 



