reverent, and most refreshing. There were only two communicants—the good old father of John Baptist, to whom I am very much attached, and one other man. At 6 a.m. there was a procession, headed by a beautiful statue of our Lord, followed by the Host borne by Padre Antonio, the parish priest, in a white and gold cope, under a baldequin. In front of the procession went a boy ringing a bell, and every one in the street knelt as the Host passed. My guests were then, after a short sleep, all up, and making ready to depart. I had prepared my oxen and fatlings for a high breakfast; however, they would not wait for it, but insisted on my breakfasting with them. Then came all the horses and mules, and also a lot of their friends, male and female, who were to ride in the same direction, and I had to receive them and talk to them. Such a motley crowd you never saw; there was scarce standing room, even in my large apartment. Finally, after many embraces and congratulations, thanks, etc., a cavalcade of some thirty riders, attended by slaves and mules bearing luggage, departed from my mansion. And once more, at 9 a.m., I was left

alone and in quietness.

On the whole, despite much inconvenience, the experience of the last few days is not unmixed with pleasant reminiscences, and I dare say I shall look back upon it with pleasure.

By way of emphasizing my note on a previous page, I may state that all my guests took an affectionate farewell of my Hebe, and called her "comadre."

I spent nearly the whole day with the chief engineer of the fourth section, who came in two days since with his left wrist broken by an accident, and his right arm disabled.

All the numerous visitors who came to the town for the festa—and they must have numbered about three

thousand-left in the course of Easter Sunday and Monday, when the cidade resumed its ordinary appearance.

April 17.-This evening on my way home I met four niggers carrying the body of a man in a shallow coffin only some six inches deep. He was dressed in a very good suit of clothes and a new pair of patent leather boots; his face was covered by a handkerchief. The niggers were laughing, as if going to a picnic.

After dinner, Joscelino's eldest boy brought me a large leaf, from the under side of which hung four of the most gorgeous chrysalides I ever saw. They were about the size of the pupæ of the Large White (Pieris Brassica), but appeared as if covered with plates of silver or burnished steel. On the morning of the 21st, four days later, while I was dressing, I saw the chrysalides changing colour and becoming dappled red, yellow, and brown. An hour later the butterflies all emerged, and turned out to be Mechanitis polymnia, which is very abundant here. All the brilliant lustre was then gone from the pupæ cases, which were transparent and colourless.

We have had another disturbance at the post-office, in consequence of our chief having written to Rio de Janeiro about certain irregularities, at which the authorities. here, who go on the let-things-take-their-chance plan, are very irate. Several of the townsfolk are delighted, as they have long been inconvenienced by the carelessness that rules in this town; but being Conservatives, while the powers that be are Liberal, they were afraid of moving in the matter, as it would be put down to party spite.

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I told you some time ago that Padre Pinto wished to me about the railway, after having treated us with scant courtesy when I passed his fazenda several times. He is a poor miserable cripple, his left side being paralyzed,

so that he can hardly drag himself about, and the malady seems gradually extending to the other side. He is always in pain, has the most awfully cadaverous face, with sad eyes, which glare at you from cavernous orbits; he cannot sit still a moment, but twists and contorts his face with the most frightful grimaces, groans, and cries out, "Oh, my back; oh, my stomach, Santa Maria," etc. He has the greatest objection to the railway, saying it will entirely destroy his pig-breeding (criação de porcos). I tried to reason the matter out with him, but he would not be convinced, and insisted that the railway must be moved to the other side of the valley, which is, he says, much the better situation for it. As a matter of fact, however, that would be the most inconvenient route imaginable. However, I said I would see what could be done about altering the position of the line somewhat. I also spoke about the matter to the fiscal engineer, who has lately been here again. On Sunday I visited Padre Pinto, and told him that I had done all I could, and had arranged with the fiscal engineer to see what alterations could be made in construction, in case of my not being here. The poor padre. was greatly affected, and wept, and on my leaving sent over his nephew with two bottles of vinho virgem for me. He now wishes me to go in every day once or twice to take coffee, and is becoming quite a nuisance by his well-meant kindness.

April 20.-This evening all the remaining members of the staff came up to my house, and Bithell stayed on after the others were gone. About midnight we heard a party of serenaders outside; they have been about for the last two or three evenings, and last night the fiscal engineer was with them. To-night their party included the Public Prosecutor and two or three others. They came

in here and played and sang to the guitar till nearly I a.m.; so I had enough of them. They exhausted my store of liquor.

The appearance of the sky on a moonless night is so different here to what it is in the northern hemisphere; the stars are very sparsely scattered about, in comparison. The principal constellations are in the neighbourhood of the Milky Way, and that is thinner than ours. In the midst of it is the Southern Cross, near which, to the south-east, is a remarkable blackness that is incomprehensible to me. I admire the Magellanic Clouds very much, and should like to see them through a telescope. There is also the beautiful a and ẞ Centauri, and a little way off Canopus of Argo-navis, second only in brightness to the Dogstar himself.

May 4.-"Mez de Maria," the month of Mary, has begun, and now every evening there is a service in the church in honour of Our Lady. Several friends have told me I ought to go and see it, but I have not been yet. Today, however, being Sunday, I went to church in the morning, and was appalled at the sight that met my eyes. The altar was all covered with white, all the various ornaments and images were removed from the lofty retable, which was also draped with white, and at the top was a tall statue of the Virgin entirely in white, with a wreath of fresh flowers on her head. I hear that at the daily evening service this wreath is renewed by a little girl. Round the figure's waist is a broad blue ribbon, which hangs down over the altar, and this ribbon was devoutly kissed by many on leaving the church. After the Gospel, Padre Antonio preached a good little sermon on purity; but at the close of the service was sung the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other prayers to her.

May 7-Yesterday, after nearly four months' close office work, when my daily walk has been up and down the village twice a day, I went out with Large prospecting on horseback, and the work was very interesting. The scheme of our railway is to start from the head waters of the Rio Paraopeba, and, following the shortest route by way of its several tributary streams, to reach the head waters of the Rio Para. In doing this we cross four divides: the first two are between Paraopeba station and Brumado, one near São Caetano, the other at the Serra do Cortume already described; the other two are on the second section, the first of which separates the Rio da Cachoeira from the Rio Cayuába, and the second is the division between the waters of the tributaries of the rivers Paraopeba and Para. All these divides are from 3000 feet to 3200 feet above sea level. The location of the line between this town and the Cayuába needed some alteration, and so we had to look it up. Oh, what a relief it was after four months of office work to get on horseback and canter over downs, or even crawl along tracks through a dense forest! But I also had the delight of seeing some new insects, besides the tantalization of being obliged to pass them by uncaptured. One splendid opalesque white Morpho (M. Laertes) flew across our path.

From the observations we made I plotted an improved line of sections to-day, which appeared most satisfactory.

One change which has resulted from my thus having to go out, though only for a few days, is what I have long desired. For some time I have been nauseated by my hideous black cook and her extreme filth. I cannot weary you with details; one item will suffice. Imagine going into the kitchen for some trifle or other, and seeing your cook preparing your dinner, and whiling away the spare moments