1848.] 
APPEA.RANCE OF PARA. 
5 
only in time that the various peculiarities, the costume 
of the people, the strange forms of vegetation, and the 
novelty of the animal world, will present themselves so 
as to form a connected and definite impression on the 
mind. Thus it is that travellers who crowd into one 
description all the wonders and novelties which it took 
them weeks and months to observe, must produce an 
erroneous impression on the reader, and cause him, when 
he visits the spot, to experience much disappointment. 
As one instance of what is meant, it may be mentioned 
that during the first week of our residence at Para, though 
constantly in the forest in the neighbourhood of the city, 
I did not see a single humming-bird, parrot, or monkey. 
And yet, as I afterwards found, humming-birds, parrots, 
and monkeys are plentiful enough in the neighbourhood of 
Para ; but they require looking for, and a certain amount 
of acquaintance with them is necessary in order to dis- 
cover their haunts, and some practice is required to see 
them in the thick forest, even when you hear them close 
by you. - 
But still Para has quite enough to redeem it from the 
imputations we may be supposed to have cast upon it. 
Every day showed us something fresh to admire, some 
new wonder we had been taught to expect as the in- 
variable accompaniment of a luxuriant country within a 
degree of the equator. “ Even now, while writing by the 
last glimmer of twilight, the vampire bat is fluttering 
about the room, hovering among the timbers of the roof 
(for there are no ceilings), and now and then whizzing 
past my ears with a most spectral noise.” The city it- 
self has been laid out on a most extensive plan ; many 
