206 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



CHAPTER 11. 



EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO.- 



We withstood the temptations of the beautiful na- 

 tural scenery, which displayed itself before our 

 windows, in all the splendour of the south, only till 

 we had provided for the most urgent wants of our 

 domestic arrangements. It was particularly the 

 neighbouring mountains, clothed with thick ver- 

 dure, that attracted us, and thither we accordingly 

 undertook our first excursion. The way led still 

 within the suburbs over that marshy level, which 

 at new and full moon is covered by the high tide 

 of the bay, and receives, besides the mud fi'om the 

 sea, all the filth of the city, such as dead animals, 

 &c., and is therefore frequented by thousands of 

 the carrion vulture, or urubus (^Fultur Aura, L,.). 

 However disagreeable the look, and however un- 

 wholesome the exhalations from this plain may be, 

 which, instead of high dykes and sluices, is pro- 

 vided only with shallow ditches to drain it, yet we 

 stopped some time in it, our attention being en- 

 gaged by many interesting objects. Wherever the 

 sea-water had covered the ground, we found it 



