Natural-History Collectors. 3723 



thanking and blessing you. Be pleased to convey these sentiments 

 to those who have, through you, afforded me this consolation and 

 assistance. 



" I am, with sincere respect, 



" Yours most devotedly, 



" Nees von Esenbeck." 



" To Edward Newman, Esq., 

 " &c, &c, &c." 



Proceedings of Natural- History Collectors in Foreign Countries. 



Mr. N. Plant.*—" San Leopoldo, long. 51° W., lat. 30<? S., June, 

 1852. — Finding that nothing was to be collected from the sandy and 

 treeless neighbourhood of the city of Rio Grande, I embarked on board 

 a boat which was going up the Lagoa dos Patos to the city of Porto 

 Alegre. The sail up the lake was both tedious and devoid of interest 

 for the first day ; but after sunrise the next morning we entered the 

 broad river Guayba, and could see both the banks clothed with vivid 

 green. On the north shore there rolled away into the distance a 

 country of rounded grassy hills ; but on the south side was a broad 

 belt of shifting sand-hummocks, and beyond these a hilly country with 

 scattered trees. I reached the city at the end of December, and after 

 a short stay went upwards to this German colonists' village of San 

 Leopoldo, where I remained till April. It was here that I made the 

 greater part of the collection which has been sent to Mr. Stevens. 



" San Leopoldo lies on the north shore of the little river Sinos (the 

 Bells). It consists of three rows of houses, stretching from the river 

 about 800 yards ; the inhabitants are nearly all Germans, and very 

 few speak Portuguese. Soon after entering this river large trees make 

 their appearance, and a line of wood extends along either bank : beau- 

 tiful creepers with variegated flowers hang gracefully from the branch- 

 es of the trees down to the water's edge; and a dead silence prevails, 

 only broken at intervals by the plunge of a capybara into the gently 

 flowing stream, or the wild song of the boatmen. 



"At San Leopoldo I staid at the house of a kind-hearted English- 

 man, who taught me how to manage the half-wild horses upon whose 

 backs much of the lives of the native Brazilians seems to be spent. No 



* Communicated by his brother, Mr. John Plant. 



