chiefly
at this time consisting of a kind of sprat and an anchovy with a broad
lateral silvery band. Baskets of land crabs covered with black slimy mud,
of handsome Lupeae, and the large well-flavoured prawns, called
Cameroons, are scattered about, and even small sharks (Zygaenae, etc.)
and cuttlefish are exposed for sale.

The streets, which, with few exceptions, are very narrow, are paved with
large rough stones--they have usually a gutter in the centre, and
occasionally a narrow pavement on each side. For building purposes,
unhewn granite is chiefly used, the walls being afterwards smoothed over
with a layer of plaster, whitewashed, and margined with yellow or blue.
The two principal streets are the Rua Direita, the widest in the city,
and the principal scene of commercial transactions, and the narrow Rua do
Ouvidor, filled with shops, many of which equal in the richness and
variety of their goods the most splendid establishments of European
capitals. Of these the most tempting, and the most dangerous to enter
with a well-filled purse, is the famous feather-flower manufactory of
Mme. Finot, where the gorgeous plumage of humming birds and others of the
feathered tribe is fabricated into wreaths and bouquets of all kinds.
Although the absence of sewerage is everywhere apparent, the town is well
supplied with water from numerous large fountains, filled by pipes from
an aqueduct five or six miles in length, communicating with the Corcovado
mountain. One is struck with the comparative absence of wheeled vehicles
in the streets of Rio. Now and then a clumsy caleche is driven past by a
negro postillion, in blue livery and jackboots, riding a second horse
yoked outside the shafts, and omnibuses drawn by four or six mules, are
not infrequently met with, and seem to be much patronised.

Many of the walks in the neighbourhood of the city are exceedingly
beautiful; one of the pleasantest leads along the line of the aqueduct.
Here the botanist fresh from Europe, will find subjects of interest at
every step, and the entomologist may revel to his heart's content among
gaudily coloured Heliconiae, Hesperiae, and Erycinae, or watch the larger
butterflies of the restricted genus Papilio, slowly winging their lazy
flight among the trees just beyond the reach of his insect net. A common
butterfly here (Peridromia amphinome) has the singular habit of
frequenting the trunks and limbs of the trees where it rests with
expanded wings, and