232 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



white herons * sitting, gay-coloured halcyons watch- 

 ing for fish t, and within the thicket divers water- 

 fowl t running about or swimming. Unluckily it is 

 impossible to catch any of these animals as soon as 

 they retire far into the thickets, because it would be 

 vain to attempt to penetrate through the closebushes, 

 or when the ebb leaves the ground visible, to venture 

 upon it, on account of the depth of the swamp. 

 We followed the Inhumerim about a mile up the 

 country, till we reached the village Porto de Es- 

 trella, the low ill-built houses, or rather huts, of 

 which form an irregular street at the confluence of 

 the small Saracuiiina with the Inhumerim. 



Porto de Estrella is the common harbour be- 

 tween Rio de Janeiro, and the province of Minas 

 ©eraes. Long trains of mules laden with chests 

 and packages arrive here from the interior, or 

 return to it. The European, accustomed to the 

 conveyance of considerable burdens in waggons, is 

 astonished at the sight of so many cargoes divided 

 into small parcels, which are abandoned to the dis- 

 cretion of the beasts, or of an unskilful driver, 

 daily loaded and unloaded several times, either in 

 the open air, or in exposed sheds, scarcely protected 

 against the rain and the weather, and often carried 

 in this manner several hundred miles. When we 



* Ardea alba, candidissima, egretta. 

 -}■ Alcedo torquata, bicolor, Amazona. 



J Parajacana; Gallinula martinicensis ; Scolopax paludosa 

 Gallini\la affinis, nob.; Tringa Cinclus; Vanellus cayennensisi 



