482 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



reis in the Brazilian Lottery. He described it as a considerable village, 

 thirty-three miles North- West of St. John, situated on an eminence 

 destitute of water, except that at its foot flows the Llambary, a stream 

 which contributes to form the great river Francisco. The name of this 

 stream presents one of the few traces which remain of the Llama, once 

 having inhabited Brazil ; but my friend was unable to recollect that he 

 had ever heard of that animal being seen in his neighbourhood. 



From our leaving the road we found only slight horse tracks, until 

 arriving near to our resting place. At the distance of two leagues from 

 the Rio dos Mortes, we crossed the Carainde, by an ill-constructed 

 bridge of logs. This stream flows Westward, through a woody dell, 

 and occasionally brings down a large quantity of water. Beyond it, the 

 country becomes more stony, and assumes a strong resemblance to the 

 Yorkshire Moors. The stunted and doddrell trees, which, though 

 appearing in patches only, were numerous, were all around putting on 

 their summer dress ; for here they lose their leaves together at a certain 

 season, and give the country an appearance of a Northern winter. 

 Many beautiful kinds of heath were already in flower. Entering upon 

 a more fertile country, divided by live hedgerows into large sections,, 

 and passing through a coppice, we reached the house of Captain Joati 

 Ribeiro, — a gentleman of the same name as my host of Sepitiva, but 

 not of the same family. We had seen in the wood some smoke ascending, 

 the only mark of a human habitation, except the few huts before men- 

 tioned, which we had observed after leaving the suburbs of St. John, a 

 distance of fifteen miles; and we had met no more than two persons 

 upon the road. 



Our course was hardly less unenlivened by the appearance of birds 

 or beasts than by that of men. The unfavourable weather had driven 

 the former into the woods, the latter had taken refuge in their lairs. 

 We noticed thousands of Armadillo burrows, but saw not one of the 

 animals inhabiting them. Among the few birds, which we shot, was 

 one resembling in shape the Kingfisher; its bill and legs were black, its 

 feathers a fine light blue, excepting those of the head and neck, which 



