Mr Swainson’s Sketch of a Journey through Brazil, 371 
The face and productions of the inland parts differ most essential- 
ly from those of the coast. Water in these dreary tracts is at all 
times scarce, and the excessive drought that had prevailed fre- 
quently exposed us to great privations, and even danger ; some- 
times our only resource was the water found in crevices and 
hollows of rocks, rendered putrid by decomposed vegetables. 
At length we reached the village of Penedu, in the beginning of 
August. The botanical subjects collected on this journey were 
numerous and interesting, particularly among the parasitic plants 
and cryptogamia, which, with the birds, insects, &c. were most- 
ly new. The drought in the interior rendered it impossible to 
proceed by that route to St Salvador, and I accordingly embark- 
ed for that place in a canoe, and arrived in eight days. Here 
I found the two Prussian naturalists, Messrs Sellow and Freye- 
-ries, who had come overland from Rio de Janeiro with the 
Prince of Neuwied, and had remained in the city from ill health, 
and also to arrange their collections. I left them, however, 
soon, and made nearly a complete tour of the bay, and again set 
out for the Sertem or inland country, where I continued, var^ung 
my residence, until the month of March following, having in 
this space made immense collections in every branch of natural 
history, particularly in the ornithology of the interior, which i 
differs both in species and novelty from those procured by the 
Prussian travellers on the coast. 
I have considered it much more essential, in the observations 
I have made in this country, to survey Nature as a whole, 
than simply in its minute parts; by studying her operations 
in the natural habits and affinities of each particular class or 
tribe of animals and vegetables. The formation of systems and 
of genera, and the minute discrimination of species, belong to 
the naturalist when seated in his closet ; but the habits and 
modes of life which characterise each in a state of nature, are 
highly interesting, and the accurate observation of them must be 
conducive to the exaltation and expansion of the human mind. 
In the month of April I embarked for Rio de Janeiro, 
more for the sake of comparing the southern with the equi- 
noctial regions of Brazil, than of increasing my collections in 
a part already well explored. I found the summer nearly ter- 
minated, but the heat far above that of 'Pernambuco, though 
