206 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



CHAPTER 11. \ 



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EXCURSIONS IN THE ENVIRONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



We withstood the temptations of the beautiful na- 

 tural scenery, which displayed itself before our 

 windows, in all the splendour of the south, only till 

 we had provided for the most urgent wants of our i 

 domestic arrangements. It was particularly the ' 

 neighbouring mountains, clothed with thick ver- \ 

 dure, that attracted us, and thither we accordingly | 

 undertook our first excursion. The way led still ' 

 within the suburbs over that marshy level, which | 

 at new and full moon is covered by the high tide ; 

 of the bay, and receives, besides the mud from the 

 sea, all the filth of the city, such as dead animals, \ 

 &c., and is therefore fi'equented by thousands of \ 

 the carrion vulture, or urubus (Vultur Aura, 1^,), 1 

 However disagreeable the look, and however un- 

 wholesome the exhalations from this plain may be, 

 which, instead of high dykes and sluices, is pro- ; 

 vided only with shallow ditches to drain it, yet we | 

 stopped some time in it, our attention being en- \ 

 gaged by many interesting objects. Wherever the \ 

 sea-water had covered the ground, we found it | 



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