soft, fLower-perfumed air ; and gazing at tlie stars
twinkling in tlieir crystal dome of the deepest blue,
and their travesties in a galaxy of fire-tlies glittering
and dancing over the flowers in the garden beneath
us. I t Avas late Avhen we tossed ourselves down to
take a short sleep, for îa v o o’clock Avas the hour fixed
to he in the saddle in the morning. We rode out of
the toAvn in the star-light, Mr. Wilson, Captain
Maclear, and myself, with a native guide on a fast
mule. TYe were u o a v obliged to tru s t entirely to the
instinct of onr horses, for if a path Avere visible in
the day-light there Avas certainly none in the dark,
and we scrambled for a couple of hours rig h t up the
side of the ridge. M'hen we reached the top we
came out upon flat open ground Avitli a little
cultiA'ation, hounded in front of us by the dark line
of dense forest. The night was almost absolutely
silent, only u o a v and then a peculiar shrill cry of
some night-bird reached us from the Avoods. As aa'o
got into the skirt of the forest the morning broke,
but the réveil in a Brazilian forest is Avonderfully
difterent from the slow creeping on of the dawn of
a summer morning at home, to the music of the
thrushes answering one another’s full rich notes from
neighbouring thorn-trees. Suddenly a yellow light
spreads upwards in the east, the stars quickly fade,
and the dark fringes of the forest and the tall palms
shoAv ont hlack against the yellow sky, and almost
before one has time to observe the change the sun
has risen straight and fierce, and the whole landscajie
is bathed in the full light of day. But the morning
is for yet another hour cool and fresh, and the scene
is indescribahlv heanliful. The AVOods, so ahsolutelv t/ J