the night.

One of the most disagreeable things in Rio Janeiro is the total
absence of sewers. In a heavy shower, every street becomes a
regular stream, which it is impossible to pass on foot; in order to
traverse them, it is requisite to be carried over by negroes. At
such times, all intercourse generally ceases, the streets are
deserted, parties are put off, and even the payment of bills of
exchange deferred. It is very seldom that people will hire a
carriage, for it is an absurd custom here, to pay as much for a
short drive, as if the carriage were required for the whole day; in
both cases the charge is six milreis (13s.) The carriages are half-
covered ones, with seats for two, and are drawn by a pair of mules,
on one of which the driver rides. Carriages and horses like the
English are very seldom to be met with.

As regards the arts and sciences, I may mention the Academy of Fine
Arts, the Museum, Theatre, etc. In the Academy of Fine Arts is
something of everything, and not much of anything--a few figures and
busts, most in plaster, a few architectural plans and pencil
drawings, and a collection of very old oil paintings. It really
seemed to me as if some private picture gallery had been carefully
weeded of all the rubbish in it, which had then been put here out of
the way. Most of the oil paintings are so injured, that it is
scarcely possible to make out what they are intended to represent,
which, after all, is no great loss. The only thing respectable
about them is their venerable antiquity. A startling contrast is
produced by the copies of them made by the students. If the colours
in the old pictures are faded, in the modern ones they blaze with a
superfluity of vividness; red, yellow, green, etc., are there in all
their force; such a thing as mixing, softening, or blending them,
has evidently never been thought of. Even at the present moment, I
really am at a loss to determine whether the worthy students
intended to found a new school for colouring, or whether they merely
desired to make up in the copies for the damage time had done the
originals.

There were as many blacks and mulattoes among the students as
whites, but the number of them altogether was inconsiderable.

Music, especially singing and the pianoforte, is almost in a more
degraded position than painting. In every family the young ladies
play and sing; but of tact, style, arrangement, time, etc., the
innocent creatures have not