$60 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



hear of the great effects produced by our mechanical contrivances for 

 assisting or superseding manual labour. 



Nature here does much to cheer a country, little improved by human 

 skill. The number of small birds, like the linnet and canary, is very 

 great. This, indeed, is probably owing to one species of improvement ; 

 for I have uniformly observed, that in proportion as any tract is cleared 

 of wood, birds of prey become less numerous, while the smaller kinds 

 increase and multiply, amply repaying their little pillage by their melody 

 of song. Naturalists have often accused them of silence or complained of 

 their harshness of voice ; as well might such Philosophers have expected 

 music from the crow, the kite, and the owl, as from the Anou, the Parrot, 

 and Tesoura. Birds of prey, and of the water, scream, but 1 think they no 

 where sing. The various tints also, of a Brazilian forest added greatly to 

 our pleasure, for they extend from a light yellow green, to one bordering 

 on blue, and these are mingled again with red, brown, and a gradation of 

 deeper shades, down almost to black. That which here goes by the name 

 of the silver tree, is of a brilliant white, the head of the mangoa is 

 brown ; and many produce very splendid flowers. The Brazil wood, 

 for instance, puts forth large ones of a purple hue, and I have seen the 

 whole vast mountain of Tengua clothed in yellow, from the multitude 

 of its Liburnuras. The broad-spreading arms of the larger trees are 

 sometimes so covered with parasitic plants, chiefly, I think, of the 

 smaller kinds of aloe, as, in the flowering season, to form gay parterres 

 in the air. 



On leaving Pirasenunga, and proceeding four or five miles by the 

 banks of a river bearing its name, gradually diminishing into a very 

 narrow stream, we found the country full of attractions, and of people 

 who had been drawn thither by qualities superior to natural beauty. — 

 Crossing to the West, about four miles farther, we fell in with the 

 Iguapemirim, navigable in dry weather for canoas alone, but in freshes 

 bearing down balsas and logs of timber. It runs to the South-East to 

 meet the Iguapezu, yet bears a portion of its waters to the bay, and 



