this class are being built to continue the coastal trade right up the Amazon to Manaos. From 1894 the rebuilding of the destroyed island has gone steadily on. Each year additions have been made, and the great rock which covered the larger part has been cut through to form a dry dock. The material removed was utilised to extend the shore and circumference of this island, and its contiguous neighbour, Santa Cruz, which Sen. Lage purchased in 1902. Large and spacious stores have been erected, with machine shops, bonded warehouses, foundries, boiler-makers’ shop, electric power station, and shipbuilding yard, houses for the employees, and all the buildings necessary for a growing shipbuilding and repairing yard. The island of Santa Cruz is a little paradise, and is now connected with the industrial Vianna by an imposing bridge. It has been laid out as a large park, and upon it are beautiful houses which its owner has built for the members of his family. These houses are in the American colonial style, luxuriously appointed, and lacking in no comfort which the furnishing world can supply. From the windows and balconies magnificent views of the expansive bay are obtained, while the surrounding grounds are filled with many varieties of exotic shrubs and trees. Flowers, fruit, and kitchen gardens flourish on Santa Cruz in ordered beauty, and from every spot upon the island vistas and views of astonishing loveliness meet the eye. Nature and art combine to make an entrancing island, unsurpassed by any, even in this silvery bay so famous for the beauty of its shores. Birds, native and foreign, of many brilliant hues, flit unmolested through its trees and along its shores; their confidence in the protecting care lavished upon them holds them to a spot where they find perfect freedom and plentiful provision for all their needs. Upon gravelled paths, on lawns of softest green, water and grain are daily spread for their repast by thoughtful hands. So tame are many of these birds that they respond to the call of their master’s voice, and even fly in through the open windows and perch on chairs and tables. In the early morning the mingled song of myriad songsters heralds the dawn. In the shade of leafy mango trees the woodpigeon coos his tender notes. The air is alive with melody. The whir of wings, and the rustling of the dew-drenched grass as the tame deer bounds along, vary the sounds. The warm light of the new-risen sun tinges all objects with the mellowest hues. The greens are softer in the morning light; the thousand distant isles and hills lie veiled in the melting mists; the colonial architecture of the dwellings on the island imparts an air of homely comfort to the scene--an air that most tropical scenery generally lacks. The trailing and climbing flowers that hang from the balconies and walls call up thoughts of England. The gardeners who tend with care the lawns and walks are early astir, and accomplish much of their day’s