28 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



Mr. Hargreaves most kindly invited us to dinner, and 

 we spent a very delightful evening. He showed me a 

 number of geological specimens of rocks taken from cut- 

 tings and tunnels on a line he is constructing to Ouro 

 Preto, the capital of the Province. Some of the specimens 

 were very fine, e.g. a beautiful rose-coloured marble, used 

 for walls, which would be worth a good deal if it could be 

 taken to Rio and shipped ; some hsematite, very pure ; 

 some splendid quartz crystals — the Brazilian crystal so 

 extensively used for spectacles ; and two fine cubes of iron 

 pyrites, very perfect. He tells me that rattlesnakes are 

 very numerous, some as much as four feet long ; but they 

 are not at all dangerous if permanganate of potash be 

 injected hypodermically immediately after the bite is 

 received, as then in two hours you are all right. Armadil- 

 loes are also plentiful, but only small ones, the larger ones 

 being found more in the north of the province. There are 

 besides pumas (the Brazilian lion), but very small ones ; * 

 and likewise plenty of hornets, which can sting a horse or 

 a man to death easily ; so we m.ust be cautious. 



Estagdo Paraopeba. 



July 2. — Our luggage arrived at Queluz at 9 a.m., only 

 eighteen hours after ourselves, having been twenty-one 

 hours coming nineteen miles, at the modest cost of eighty 

 milreis (about £6 loj.). 



This morning it was very cold and windy, with a thick 

 mist; however, it cleared off when the sun was up, and 

 turned out a beautiful day, not too hot, with plenty of 

 clouds about, but no rain. We shall, in fact, have no rain 

 to speak of for about three months, the rainy season here 



* During the whole time I was out I never fell in with any rattlesnakes, 

 and never even heard o{ any "pumas," though I was told of " onjas." 



