Travels in the Brazils. 



*9 



covered with brush-wood, where, in the cool shade, were seen clear 

 ponds of water ; a nunfber of birds enlivened this place. The 

 rust-coloured singing wagtail, with pointed tail-feathers, {Virojide, 

 Azara Voyages, torn. III. p. 461,) was building its nest in the 

 reeds, and often flew past us with the materials. Behind this 

 place, we were delighted with a wood or forest ; high, thin, white 

 stemmed mimosa, cecropia, cocoa, and other trees, were so thickly 

 interwoven with creeping plants, that the whole appeared to be an 

 impenetrable maze. In the tops of the trees, beamed like fire, 

 the flowers of the creeping bignonia bellas, (so called by Mr. Sel- 

 low, after the Marchioness of Bellas, who first discovered tliis 

 plant,) and the ornamental flowers ; below wei-e various kinds of 

 colibus and butterflies. At length we came to parts where the 

 wood had been cleared away for cultivation. The immense burnt 

 stems stood like ruins of colonnades, yet in some parts connected 

 by withered ropes of creeping plants. When we arrived here, we 

 heard a loud creeking, occasioned by the noise of the carts which 

 are used Jn the Farendas. A heavy, massy, wooden disc, with 

 two small round apertures, forms the wheel, which turns grating 

 round the axle-tree, and produces a loud disgusting noise through 

 the whole country. The oxen which draw these carts are of a co- 

 lossal size, and of a most beautiful breed ; their horns are very long 

 and strong ; these are driven by a negro slave, with a long stick 

 in his hand. 



We now approached a chain of mountains, which bears the name 

 of Serra de Irma. This wilderness exceeded every thing which 

 my imagination had hitherto formed of grand scenery. We enter- 

 ed a low country, in which much clear water ran through the 

 rocky ground, or formed stagnant ponds in it ; a little farther ap- 

 peared an immense wood. Palms, and various kinds of trees were 

 so interwoven with creeping plants, that the eye could not pe- 

 netrate through this thick green wall. Everywhere, even upon 

 small low trees grew a number of fungous plants, epidmdrum, 

 cactus, bromelia, ^c. which mostly bear such flowers, that whoever 

 sees them for the first time, must feel himself delighted. I men- 

 jtion only one species of brwuelia, with a coral-red flower stalk, 

 whose leaves have beautiful violet-blue points, and the heliconiay 

 a species of the bananna, similar to the spelitzia, with deep-flower 

 cups, and white flowers. In these dark shades, near the cool rock- 

 springs, a sudden coldness and shivering surprise the heated tra- 

 veller. The rocks are covered with a thousand kinds of fungous 

 and cryptogamous plants ; particularly the most beautiful ferns 

 ijilix) hanging in a picturesque manner, like feathered ribands, 

 from the trees. A deep red horizontal mushroom adorns the dry 

 stems ; the backs of the sounder trees are covered with beautiful 

 round spots, of a carmine colour ; and from the colossal height of 

 the trees in the Brasil ian woods, we often missed the finest birds, 



