MRS. WILTON.  “And the next country in our course is Guiana, washed by the Atlantic.  This country is subject to annual inundations.  All the rivers overflow their banks; forests, trees, shrubs, and parasitical plants seem to float on the water, and the sea tinged with yellow clay, adds its billows to the fresh-water streams.  Quadrupeds are forced to take refuge on the highest trees:  large lizards, agoutis, and pecaries[12] quit their watery dens and remain on the branches.  Aquatic birds spring upon the trees to avoid the cayman[13] and serpents that infest the temporary lakes.  The fish forsake their ordinary food, and live on the fruits and berries of the shrubs through which they swim,—­the crab is found upon trees, and the oyster multiplies in the forest.  The Indian, who surveys from his canoe this new chaos, this confusion of earth and sea, suspends his hammock on an elevated branch, and sleeps without fear in the midst of so great danger.”

[Footnote 12:  Animals similar to the wild boar of Europe, but very small.]

[Footnote 13:  Cayman:  a species of alligator.]

GRANDY.  “Emma will have more than she can accomplish to-night, if she wishes to enter all the bays around South America, for no country in the world is so famous for its enormous gulfs.”

MR. WILTON.  “Yes; we must make a division for another meeting.  To-night we will sail down to Cape Horn, and sojourn there until the 21st of this month.  We could not choose a more favorable time than March for our visit.”

EMMA.  “Very well, then, we will merely mention some of these bays, viz.:—­Pinzon, Maripani, Gurupy, Turiassu, Cuma, Paraiba, All Saints, Camanu, and St. Salvador Bay, near Rio de Janeiro.”

MR. WILTON.  “Well, Emma, you have certainly manoeuvred well to bring us over the equator without the usual visitation of Neptune and Amphitrite, and we must all thank you for landing us, without a ducking, in the principal town of Brazil.  So now we will walk about and see the lions.”

GEORGE.  “We can go and fill our pockets, papa; for it is said that through the whole of this country, at the depth of twenty-four feet from the surface, there is a thin vein of gold, the particles of which are carried by the springs and heavy rains into the neighboring rivers, from the sands of which they are gathered by negroes employed for that purpose.  There, too, we might happen to find some diamonds”

CHARLES.  “You would find it not so easy to collect gold and diamonds as you imagine, and I expect you would come back poorer than you went.”

MRS. WILTON.  “Rio de Janeiro possesses one of the finest harbors known, having at its entrance a bar, at the extremes of which rise two rocks.  This bay is twenty-four leagues in length, and eight in width, and has in it many islands; some are cultivated and possess sugar-works.  The most celebrated of them is named De Cobra, off which island ships cast anchor.  On the opposite side of this city, a natural wall of rocks, called Los Organos, extends itself as far as the sea, and forms a perfect line of defence independently of the neighboring fortresses.”