RIO DE JANEIRO. 75 
lached, not quite perpendicular, but leaning a little towards 
the entrance. We took an opportunity, during our stay at 
Rio, of ascertaining its height by means of a line measured 
on a little sandy beach which skirts its base on the side 
next to the harbour, and the angles which it extended 
from the extremities of this line. From tlie result of our 
operations it appeared that this solid mass of hard sparkling 
granite is 680 feet high above the surface out of wliich it rises. 
Th^ eastern or opposite cheek of the chasm is a naked moun- 
tain, composed of the same material, but with this difference 
in point of form that it has an easy and regular slope from 
the waters edge to the summit, which is about the same 
height as that of the cone. The whole of this side is occu- 
pied by forts, lines, and batteries, for an account of which I 
must refer the reader to the two plates in the following 
chapter. 
A little island strongly fortified, just witliin the entrance, 
contracts the passage to the width of about three-fourths of a 
mile. Having cleared this channel, one of the most magnir- 
ficent scenes in nature bursts upon the enraptured eye. Let 
any one imagine to himself an immense sheet of water running 
back into the heart of a beautiful country, to the distance of 
about thirty miles, Avhere it is bounded by a skreen of lofty 
mountains, always majestic, whether their rugged and shape- 
less summits are tinged with azure and purple, or buried in 
the clouds — Let him imagine this sheet of water gradually 
to expand, from the narrow portal through which it com- 
municates with the sea, to the width of twelve or fourteen 
miles, to be every where studded with innumerable little 
L 2 
