24 



RIO DE JANEIRO. 



April, 1832. 



horses, only cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet the host of this 

 venda, being asked if he knew anything of a whip which one 

 of the party had lost, gruffly answered, " How should I know ? 

 why did you not take care of it ? — I suppose the dogs have 

 eat it.'' 



Leaving Mandetiba, we continued to pass through an in- 

 tricate wilderness of lakes ; in some of which were fresh, in 

 others salt water shells. Of the former kind I found a Lim- 

 neea in great numbers in a lake, into which, the inhabitants 

 assured me, the sea annually, and sometimes oftener, entered, 

 and made the water quite salt. I have no doubt many inte- 

 resting facts, in relation to marine and fresh water animals, 

 might be observed in this chain of lagoons, which skirt the 

 coast of Brazil. M. Gay* has stated that he found in the 

 neighbourhood of Rio, shells of the marine genera solen 

 and mytilus, and fresh water ampullariae, living together in 

 brackish water. I also frequently observed in the lagoon 

 near the Botanic Garden, where the water is only a little less 

 salt than in the sea, a species of hydrophilus, very similar to 

 a species common in the ditches of England : in the same 

 lake the only shell belonged to a genus generally found in 

 estuaries. 



Leaving the coast for a time, we again entered the forest. 

 The trees were very lofty, and remarkable, compared to those 

 of Europe, from the whiteness of their trunks. I see by my 

 note-book, wonderful and beautiful, flowering parasites,'^ 

 invariably struck me as the most novel object in these grand 

 scenes. Travelling onwards we passed through tracts of 

 pasturage, much injured by the enormous conical ants' nests, 

 which were nearly twelve feet high. They gave to the plain 

 exactly the appearance of the mud volcanoes at JoruUo, as 

 figured by Humboldt. We arrived at Engenhodo after it 

 was dark, having been ten hours on horseback. I never 

 ceased, during the whole journey, to be surprised at the 

 amount of labour which the horses were capable of enduring ; 



* Aiinales des Sciences Naturelles for 1833. 



