Rio has one of the most enviable positions in the world. The only other site occupied by a city of any magnitude that can compare to it is that of Sydney, in New South Wales. But Rio harbour has perhaps superior claims to loveliness than that of Sydney by reason of the endless mountain peaks that encompass its vast waters. The innumerable islands that rise up out of the rippled surface are richly clad with all the varieties of a tropical vegetation. The views are endless, each seeming to challenge comparison with any rival. Language almost fails to describe the beauty of the scenery. The infinite variety of the shapes and contours of its bays and islands as seen from the summit of Corcovada is an ever fruitful source of charm. Ships are but mere dots upon its surface when viewed from the distant heights of the surrounding hills, battleships but tiny specks and smaller craft invisible to the naked eye. The harbour is one of the largest and safest in the world, with an entrance nearly a mile in width. This entrance lies between a rugged mountain chain that encircles all the bay and two forts, the São Joã and the Sante Cruz, guard the passage into these bewitching waters. All around are the eternal hills, grotesque and strangely shaped, and covered with the lively greens of tropical verdure. No artist’s eye is required to appreciate the concentrated splendour under the changing lights and shadows, the marvellous panorama is veritably superb, and the islets in the great bay might well be those imagined by Tennyson, “Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea.” The landscapes could only possibly be properly delineated by a panorama on a gigantic scale, but even the most perfect would fail to excite the mind in any degree approximating to the actuality. The subtle aspects of exotic [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO RIO HARBOUR.]