12 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. \June, 
some evergreen tree. On almost every road- side, thicket, 
or waste, the cofFee-tree is seen growing, and generally 
with flower or fruit, and often both; yet such is the 
scarcity of labour or indolence of the people, that none 
is gathered but a little for private consumption, while 
the city is almost entirely supplied with cofiee grown in 
other parts of Brazil. 
Turning our attention to the world of animal life, 
what first attract notice are the lizards. They abound 
everywhere. In the city they are seen running along the 
walls and palings, sunning themselves on logs of wood, 
or creeping up to the eaves of the lower houses. In 
every garden, road, and dry sandy situation they are 
scampering out of the way as we walk along. Now they 
crawl round the trunk of a tree, watching us as we pass, 
and keeping carefully out of sight, just as a squirrel will 
do under similar circumstances ; now they walk up a 
smooth wall or paling as composedly and securely as if 
they had the plain earth beneath them. Some are of a 
dark coppery colour, some with backs of the most bril- 
liant silky green and blue, and others marked with deli- 
cate shades and lines of yellow and brown. On this 
sandy soil, and beneath this bright sunshine, they seem 
to enjoy every moment of their existence, basking in the 
hot sun with the most indolent satisfaction, then scamper- 
ing off as if every ray had lent vivacity and vigour to 
their chilly constitutions. Bar different from the little 
lizards with us, which cannot raise their body from the 
ground, and drag their long tails like an encumbrance 
after them, these denizens of a happier clime carry their 
tails stuck out in the air, and gallop away on their 
