NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



marshes, where it must be sought, we Avere furnished with horses, accus- 

 tomed to the ground, which failed not to give us notice, when the 

 softness of the bottom was such as to threaten danger. 



As this district derives much of its support from the produce of the 

 water, canoas are abundant, and the people skilful in the management 

 of them. We had a large one, and four good hands to attend us, and 

 frequently employed them, both for fishing and exploring the different 

 parts of a bay which seemed deserving of our researches. It is bounded 

 on one side by the main land, on the other by a Restinga, or sand-bank, 

 which the sea has formed as a barrier to itself. This bank consists of 

 white sand, is twenty feet above the level of the sea, four hundred yards 

 broad, on an average, and twenty miles long. In most parts, especially 

 near the middle, it is quite bare ; in others it is covered with various 

 creeping plants, which keep the soil together ; it exhibits on its summit 

 a little brushwood, and, at its Northern extremity, some Mangue. 

 Towards the sea it is steep, and the surf breaks against it with violence ; 

 toward the bay it is level and smooth. This latter portion of it abounds 

 with shell-fish and sand larks ; the herbage shelters many armadillos ; and 

 deer, with other animals of chace, occasionally present themselves to the 

 sportsman. 



Marambaya is at the Western end of this sandy tract, a single bold 

 mountain, about seven hundred feet high, and ten miles in circum- 

 ference at its base. It contains a church and some good springs. The 

 inhabitants subsist by fishing, and the produce of the few fields which 

 they cultivate, without having much to spare. We coasted the South- 

 eastern side of the bay, until we reached its Northern point, and found 

 the water gradually declining in depth as we proceeded. There it is 

 nearly filled up with soft mud, which hereafter will probably become 

 soHd ground, and join the Restinga to the continent ; while the streams, 

 which here flow into the bay, are compelled to pass under the rocks of 

 Guaratiba, the place of birds, and to keep open there a passage to the 

 sea. In crossing from one side to the other, in front of a broad wood 

 of Mangue, we had nearly met with a fatal accident ; a sudden gust of 



