the centre of which are a
garden and some large trees. It is more like a boarding-house,
however, than an hotel, as there is a fixed daily charge for visitors,
who have to be provided with a letter of introduction! The situation
and gardens are good; it contains among other luxuries a
drawing-room, with a delightful swimming-bath for ladies, and another
for gentlemen. A mountain stream is turned into two large square
reservoirs, where you can disport yourself under the shade of bananas
and palm trees, while orange trees, daturas, poinsettias, and other
plants, in full bloom, drop their fragrant flowers into the crystal
water. There is also a nice little bathing-house, with a douche
outside; and the general arrangements seem really perfect. The views
from the walks around the hotel and in the forest above are beautiful,
as, indeed, they are from every eminence in the neighbourhood of Rio.

During the morning, the weather cleared sufficiently for us to go down
to 'The Boulders,' huge masses of rock, either of the glacial period,
or else thrown out from some mighty volcano into the valley beneath.
Here they form great caverns and caves, overhung with creepers, and so
blocked up at the entrance, that it is difficult to find the way into
them. The effect of the alternate darkness and light, amid twisted
creepers, some like gigantic snakes, others neatly coiled in true
man-of-war fashion, is very striking and fantastic. Every crevice is
full of ferns and orchids and curious plants, while moths and
butterflies flit about in every direction. Imagine, if you can,
scarlet butterflies gaily spotted, yellow butterflies with orange
edgings, butterflies with dark blue velvety-looking upper wings, the
under surface studded with bright owl-like peacock eyes, grey Atlas
moths, and, crowning beauty of all, metallic blue butterflies, which
are positively dazzling, even when seen in a shop, dead. Imagine what
they must be like, as they dart hither and thither, reflecting the
bright sunshine from their wings, or enveloped in the sombre shade of
a forest. Most of them measure from two to ten inches in length from
wing to wing, and many others flit about, equally remarkable for their
beauty, though not so large. Swallow-tails, of various colours, with
tails almost as long, in proportion to their bodies, as those of their
feathered namesakes; god-parents and 'eighty-eights,' with the
figures 88 plainly marked on the reverse side of their rich