TO THE RIVER ESPIRITO SANTO. 



155 



rode through large marshes filled with beautiful violet-flowering rhci ia 

 bushes ; and over line wooded hills full of airi and other cocoa-palms, 

 many species of which afforded endless occupation to our curiosity ; 

 after which we came to an extensive plot of uba, or fan-like reed, near 

 the Perro Cao, and then crossed the little river by a wooden bridge. 

 We followed the sea-beach to Ponta da Fruta, where several houses 

 in a copse form a scattered village, the inhabitants of which, descen- 

 dants of Portuguese negroes, received us well. They gain a scanty 

 subsistence from their plantations and fishing. Not far from Ponta 

 da Fruta you see on a distant mountain the convent of Nossa Senhora 

 da Penha, near Villa de Espirito Santo, to which you have still five 

 leagues to travel. Woods, meadows, and bushes, and large reedy 

 pools, succeed each other. Numerous white and other herons wade 

 in them, and many new and fine plants attract the notice of the 

 stranger. In the grass, on the sandy bank of a lagoa, I found the 

 green dpo serpent*, which has its name from its slender pliant figure. 

 It is of a dark olive-green, yellow below, grows to the length of five 

 or six feet, and though it is perfectly harmless, is killed by the Bra- 

 zilians whenever they find it, because they have an antipathy to 

 all serpents. I found here the skeleton of a very large individual of 

 this species. 



Near the little river Jucu, over which there is a long decayed bridge 

 which must be passed with caution, we found upon the coast a 

 village of fishermen ; we then rode through a fine ancient forest, and 

 at length reached Villa do Espirito Santo, upon the river of the same 

 name. 



* Coluber hicarinatus, probably a new species: the chief characteristic of which is a row 

 of keel-shaped scales on each side of the back. 



