LEAVE MANAOS. 



343 



and also of refreshing our memory of scenes which we shall 

 probably never see again, and among which we have had 

 a pleasant home for nearly three months. The woods are 

 much more full of flowers than they were when I first 

 became acquainted with their many pleasant paths. Pas- 

 sion-flowers are especially abundant. There is one kind 

 which has a delicious perfume, not unlike Cape Jessamine. 

 It hides itself away in the shade, but its fragrance betrays 

 it ; and if you put aside the branches of the trees, you are 

 sure to find its large white-and-purple flowers, and dark, 

 thick-leaved vine, climbing up some neighboring trunk. 

 Another, which seems rather to court than avoid observa- 

 tion, is of a bright red ; and its crimson stars are often 

 seen set, as it were, in the thick foliage of the forest. 

 But, much as I enjoy the verdure here, I appreciate, more 

 than ever before, the marked passage of the seasons in our 

 Northern hemisphere. In this unchanging, green world, 

 which never alters from century to century, except by a 

 little more or less moisture, a little more or less heat, I 

 think with the deepest gratitude of winter and spring, 

 summer and autumn. The circle of nature seems incom- 

 plete, and even the rigors of our climate are remembered 

 with affection in this continual vapor-bath. It is literally 

 true that you cannot move ten steps without being drenched 

 in perspiration. However, this character of the heat pre- 

 vents it from being scorching; and we have no reason to 

 change our first impression, that, on the whole, the climate 

 is much less oppressive than we expected to find it, and the 

 nights are invariably cool. 



At the end of this week we resume our voyage on board 

 the " Ibicuhy," going slowly down to Para, stopping at several 

 points on the way. Our first station will be at Villa Bel- 



