painfully clear sky, which once seen must long remain imprinted in the mind's eye.

*

Rua Farani 12, Botafogo.

June 2.-We moved up here to-day, and I am really delighted with the house. It is at the end of a street, some three hundred yards long, placed at right angles to the Bay of Botafogo, and is on the side of a hill, Morro da Boa Vista (485 feet), one of the ridges of the Corcovado. This house used to be an hotel,† is of one story, and approached from the street by three flights of steps. There are two terraces on each side of the building, with gardens and fountains on each terrace, orange trees and kitchen gardens on the lower, huge palm trees and exotic shrubs and flowers on the higher, which is on the same level as the house. On the latter are also grottos and seats of the true Pompeian fashion; while above them and behind the house rises the hill, covered with glorious virgin forest, wherein pretty marmosets play about, and the garden is always full of lovely butterflies, some of which (Ageronia Feronia) have a marvellous protective colouring, which one would not dream of until one sees them raising and flattening their wings in the sunshine on the huge lichencovered trunks of the grand palm trees. In front of the house are two immense mango trees, their branches one mass of lichens, especially one hanging species (Ramalina implecta), sometimes two or three feet long, of a green-grey colour. It is a curious fact that though the mango trees are so plentiful and of an excessively large growth in Rio de Janeiro, they produce very little fruit.

* The word means "thrown into the fire," and alludes to the fearful autos da fé, when the poor natives, on refusing to be converted to the Roman Catholic religion, were committed by the priests to the flames.

+ It is now (January, 1886) once more an hotel.

Now a word about the house. On entering we find ourselves in a gallery, some seventy feet long by twenty wide and fourteen high, with a bedroom at each end. The drawing-room is a fine apartment out of the gallery, with no light except from the six external windows of the said gallery, so it is always cool. On each side of it are passages, off which are several good bedrooms, bathroom with shower bath, etc. On the right side is a wing containing more bedrooms, a splendid dining-room, some seventy feet by thirty, opening on to a lovely garden, and also the apartments of the owners of the mansion. The house is certainly most comfortable and airy, and has everything needful for the greatest luxury and personal ease, which is so important in this climate.

After dinner I went down the street and sat on the low wall which surrounds this part of the bay. The view was enchanting. From this point the bay appears to be a lake, as the Morro da Viuva seems to touch the base of the Sugar-loaf; whereas these hills, the one about 200 feet and the other 1283 feet, are the sentries at the entrance, which is half a mile wide. The vast pyramid of the Sugar-loaf stands out magnificently; to the right appear the white outlines of the Military College and the Lunatic Asylum; the row of star-like gas-lamps, extending three-quarters of a circle, were reflected in the scarcely rippled waters, and I. watched the fishermen at their work. With bare feet, a large stone on their heads, and a net gathered up in their left hand, they wade up to their waist, and, when they see a likely spot, throw the stone a dozen feet in front, following it up by skilfully casting their net so as to enclose as large an area as possible, and on drawing the net in they generally catch, at least, one good fish. This process they repeat with great perseverance, sometimes in vain, until

they have a tolerable supply of the finny inhabitants of the bay, who are incautious enough to come close in to shore; and while I watched them I was surprised at their success. There are, of course, many others who fish from boats in the bay, and also go outside on the Atlantic; but they are an independent set of men, very different to our own toiling fishermen, and sometimes the supply of fish runs short in the town because the men have not gone out, owing to bad weather.

Speaking of fish reminds me that I must mention the pedlars, whose name is legion. Some of them sell fish and prawns-"Peixe!" (fish) and "Camarões!" (prawns) are two of the most frequent street-cries-others have fruit and vegetables. These pedlars always carry a long bamboo over their shoulder, from each end of which is suspended a full basket, and the weight of the vegetables is often so great that it is a wonder how the bearer can trudge along as quickly as he does. There are also hawkers of stuffs, articles of clothing, ornaments, etc., which are generally contained in a series of gaily painted tin trunks, strapped on the hawker's back. These all carry two pieces of wood fastened together by a leathern strap, and, as they walk along, they are continuously clapped together. Many of the fish pedlars are Chinamen, the remains of a batch of some hundreds who were imported several years ago; they have abandoned the pigtail and Eastern dress, and wear their straight black hair very unkempt, with the ordinary dress of Western civilization.

The yellow fever is now quite gone for the winter, though this summer, in February, it was very bad; there

Since my return I have read some most interesting details of the hardships borne by the fishers on the North Sea, in Mr. R. M. Ballantyne's very pleasant work, "The Young Trawler."