of body, and four feet seven inches between tips of horns. Age, nine years.

Mr. Preller states that the means of transportation are very inferior, though gradually improving, as several bridges have been constructed over the rivers, which, from streamlets easily waded in the summer, become, during the winter months, or after heavy rains, most violent torrents, and quite impracticable for the passage of cattle or wagons, causing often a delay of many days. The roads, he says, have no claim whatever to the name, and are merely the tracks made by the ox-carts and hoofs of passing cattle driven in to the saladeros for slaughter. If the transport, which remains to be seen, can be made by railway, the cattle will then be brought to market in fewer hours than days now actually necessary; and in good condition, instead of worn and diminished in number through casualties on the road, caused by drought, insufficient nourishment, and passage of flooded rivers, to say nothing of the tribe of drivers and horses indispensable for the safe driving.

In regard to fruit-culture in Brazil, I would state that neither olives, figs, nor lemons are grown for commercial purposes. Figs are grown, and are occasionally seen fresh in the market. The lemons are small, and have a green skin. Grape-culture appears as yet to be in its infancy, though German and other colonists are giving increased attention to it. Grapes are successfully grown in the interior at an elevation of two thousand feet, as well as on the warmer lowland of the coast. The best results are obtained on sloping ground with gravelly soil. At Rio, Isabella grapes of domestic growth retail at twenty to forty cents a pound. Oranges grow in all parts of the empire, but it is only in the vicinity of Rio and Bahia

that really good ones are produced. Large quantities are consumed in the country, and a few million are exported in bulk to the neighboring countries, Uruguay and the Argentine Republic.

As Pernambuco is distinguished for its good pineapples, so is Rahia—about midway between that port and Rio-distinguished for its large, sweet, and delicious oranges, the favorite variety being the Umbigo, which is without seeds. It begins to ripen about May and lasts till September. I succeeded in bringing some of these oranges in a good condition from Bahia to the United States. Sweet and excellent oranges are also produced extensively in the vicinity of Rio, though there is a tendency to crowd them on the market before they are fully ripe. The old Brazilians say that oranges are not fit to eat till the month of August. The more common kind is the Siletta, which when ripe has a sweet and delicate flavor not much inferior to the finest Florida oranges. It also has the size and form of a good Florida orange. When ripe the skin has a tinge of green mixed with yellow. These Silettas, when they first appear in the market, say in the month of April, are retailed at eight cents each, while during the month of June or July they can be had at a cent each. This variety is the orange of commerce, and of which, as I have said, large quantities are exported in bulk to the River Plate countries. The price paid for them at the orchard in June, say at Villa Nova, an easy day's carriage from Rio, partly by water, is two dollars per thousand.

Another variety, and which is much used for the table, is the Tangerina; it is smaller than the Siletta, has an orange-yellow skin that breaks easily in peeling, and an aromatic odor; it contains many seeds, and has some

what of a strawberry flavor and color. It ripens at the same time as the Siletta. Another good variety is the Natal, which is particularly valuable for its ripening about the time of Christmas.

There is not much information of value to communicate in respect of cultivation. There is none of that enthusiasm in orange-growing in Brazil that there is in Florida. One sees orange-trees in almost every garden, but many of them bear only natural and worthless fruit. Generally orange-orchards which yield fruit for the market are situated on low and somewhat sandy land, the selection being influenced by the facilities of water transportation. The young trees are planted in the months of April and May, though sometimes they are planted in March; also in February, if the latter month be rainy. In the following August the trees are budded, provided, as is usually the case, they have got a good start. The trees are planted about fifteen feet apart; begin to bear in five or six years, yielding twenty to thirty oranges each, and then continue to increase for ten years after, when they are in full bearing and produce from two to three hundred oranges per tree. They continue fruitful thirty years or more, according to cultivation. In the most favorable circumstances a tree will produce one thousand oranges in a year. Trees fully grown are pruned a little twice a year.

The oranges are gathered by knocking them from the limbs with a pole, so that a piece of the twig two or three inches in length adheres to them, and are allowed to lie on the ground a few hours to dry before being picked up. One man will knock off and gather about three thousand oranges per day, at wages of one milreis per day, and his meals. It costs about sixty to eighty dollars a year for

the labor to cultivate and take care of one thousand trees. Different crops are sometimes raised between the trees when they are young. Oranges are liable to attack and injury by a large black ant, which eats the leaves, and which is destroyed by pouring bisulphide of carbon into the ants' nest in the ground; also by a black bee, about the size of a common fly, and which is destroyed by burning its nest. Brazilian oranges will stand a voyage of about twenty days. They are exported to some extent from the northern ports of Brazil to the United States.

Rio buys many good apples and pears from the River Plate countries. For some years a large ship-load of Baldwin apples has arrived at Rio from Boston, either in December or January, which have generally been retailed at eight cents apiece.

Of small fruits there are scarcely any in the Rio market. Strawberries could be cultivated, but they are sold as yet only by the saucerful. There are neither blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, nor currants. However, a small blackberry and a species of raspberry are found growing wild on the highlands about Rio, and doubtless they could be cultivated.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE AMAZON VALLEY.

BRAZIL possesses, in the Amazon, the greatest river system in the world. Marked improvements have been made in the last twenty years in the means of travel up and down its waters. The point of starting for up river is the city of Pará, situated on the Pará River, and which is generally regarded as one of the outlets of the Amazon. I visited that city on the American steamer Advance, in July, 1885. It looks low from the water, yet has a fair elevation, and many of its streets are well paved and have a modern appearance. The passengers, ladies as well as men, all laid in a stock of "Panama" hats, which there can be bought for about fifty cents each. In going up from the ocean the Pará River, after getting within a few miles of the city, resembles the Missouri in its broadest part, both in the light color of the water and the low, wooded banks.

The Amazon Steam Navigation Company receives a subsidy from the Brazilian Government of two hundred thousand dollars a year, and runs screw and other steamers regularly from Pará to distant ports on the upper Amazon and its principal tributaries. The traveler or merchant can in about ten days from the time he leaves the United