1 82 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OUR LIFE AT RIO DE JANEIRO. 



Carson's Hotel. 

 May 30, 1884. — This hotel is so full that, to avoid being at 

 the top of the house, I have taken possession of the only 

 garden room which is unoccupied. This annexe consists 

 of a row of a dozen rooms running back from the hotel at 

 right angles and at the side of the garden. In front of 

 them is a verandah, which keeps off both heat and rain — 

 and I much prefer these rooms to those in the hotel, for 

 they are so quiet — and, opening on to the garden, the eye 

 rests on a large well-kept green plot formed of a kind of 

 knot-grass isperguld), which here takes the place of turf. 

 This plot is surrounded by lofty palms, while the garden 

 is replete with fan and other palms, cycads, orchids, plan- 

 tains, dracaena, crotons, and other richly variegated plants. 

 Beyond these is a regular English kitchen garden, and 

 behind all rises the lofty hill Morro da Nova Cintra 

 (813 ft), dotted half-way up with houses. 



Before breakfast I walked down a fine street opposite 

 the hotel to the embankment, or Praia do Flamengo, which 

 skirts the bay. On one side of the broad road is a low 

 wall washed by the water ; on the other, a row of lofty 

 houses, gay, picturesque, and bright — as are all the newer 



