74 RIO DE JANEIRO. 
very beautifully spotted, seems to be the ruler and the 
scourge of these little floating worlds, devouring and tearing 
in pieces with his claws the soft and gelatinous worms, even 
after the plant is drawn out of its element. 
We were fortunate enough to pass the Line without ex- 
periencing any of those baffling calms and harassing squalls, 
which occur so frequently in this part of the globe, and on the 
29th of the above-mentioned month we came in sight of i^hat 
point of the coast of South America which is called Cape 
Erio ; and having doubled this high promontory in the course 
of the night, we entered, on the following day, the magnifi- 
cent harbour of Rio de Janeiro. 
Although I shall endeavour to sketch a general outline of 
the features of this part of the Brazilian coast, yet I am fully 
aware that any description which I can employ will convey 
but an inadequate idea of the grandeur and beauty of the 
country to those who have not had an opportunity of seeing 
it. The first remarkable object that catches the attention, 
after passing Cape IVio, is a gap or rent in the verdant ridge 
of mountains Avhich skirts the sea-coast. This chasm appears, 
from a distance, like a narrow portal between two cheeks of 
solid stone, which being perfectly naked are the more re- 
markable, as every other prominent part of the ridge of 
mountains is clothed with luxuriant vegetation. On ap- 
proaching this chasm, Avhich is in fact the entrance into the 
srand harbour of Rio de Janeiro, the cheek on the left or 
western side is discovered to be a single solid stone of a coni- 
cal shape 01", in nautical language, a sugar-loaf, entirely de- 
7 
