RIO DE JANEIRO.


One word about Rio de Janeiro. Rio, as it is generally called, is
perhaps one of the most lovely spots in the world. The beautiful natural
bay and harbour are unequalled throughout the whole universe. Still,
like the Bosphorus, the finest effect is made by Rio de Janeiro when
looked at from the water. In the days of which I write yellow fever was
unknown; now that fearful disease kills its thousands, aye, tens of
thousands, yearly. The climate, though hot at times, is very good; in
the summer the mornings are hot to a frying heat, but the sea breeze
comes in regularly as clockwork, and when it blows everything is cool
and nice. Life is indeed a lazy existence; there is no outdoor amusement
of any kind to be had in the neighbourhood. As to shooting, there are
only a few snipe to be found here and there, and while looking for these
you must beware of snakes and other venomous reptiles, which abound
both in the country and in town. I remember a terrible fright a large
picnic party, at which I assisted, was thrown into while lunching in the
garden of a villa, almost in the town of Rio, by a lady jumping up from
her seat with a deadly whip-snake hanging on her dress. I once myself
sat on an adder who put his fangs through the woollen stuff of my
inexpressibles and could not escape. The same thing happened with the
lady's dress; in that case also we caught the snake, as it could not
disentangle its fangs.

In the country near Rio there are great snakes called the anaconda, a
sort of boa-constrictor on a large scale. Once, while walking in the
woods with some friends, we found a little Indian boy dead on the
ground, one of these big snakes lying within a foot or so of him, also
dead; the snake had a poisoned arrow in his brain, which evidently had