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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

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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."

have been no cases now for some time. Far more people die of "molestias pulmonares" (chest diseases) in Rio than of yellow fever. This is easily ascertained, as it is the custom in the papers to insert always the cause of death in the notices of the fact. The weather is delightful, and I luxuriate in the warmth of the evenings after the cold of Minas; but I think the chief fault that I have to find with the tropics is the absence of twilight and the early hour of sunset. The following is a table of sunrise and sunset in Rio de Janeiro, which may be of interest :

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This evening we heard the important political news of the fall of the present (Republican) Ministry of Lafayette. They have grossly mismanaged their home affairs, and have been tottering for some time. I believe the last straw which drove them out was their illegal act of the confiscation of all the convent property, valued at about £2,000,000. More than ten years ago there was a law passed to enable the Government, within ten years, to take over all the convent property, allowing the present members, owners, etc., apolicies and their full incomes for their lives, after which the whole was to revert to the Government. This law was a dead letter, and had fallen through. Suddenly,

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