river teems with fish. Long canoes lie alongside the grassy banks, and children play upon the shores happy and free from care. In the evenings and on feast days the village is full of animation; men and women gather in little groups and gossip, the latter smoking pipes, which are considered effeminate by the men, who prefer cigars and cigarettes. Horse and cattle kind are plentiful, and the men amuse themselves with races upon a small scale. “Caipiras,” as the small farmers are called, are experts on the course, and have much of the trickiness and low cunning that long contact with horseflesh is believed by many to engender. A racing story is told in the locality about an Englishman who owned a horse he was eager to match against all comers. A day and course were fixed upon, but, to the surprise of outsiders, the race was won by an old “caipira,” whose steed was heavily backed by the punters on the course. The crestfallen and astonished “Ingleze” did not discover till long after his defeat that the winner was an old race-horse that had been surreptitiously obtained from São Paulo for the purpose of taking down his boastful pride. It was the last appearance of an English owner on the Parnahyba race-course, and the natives chuckle to this day over the way the old “caipira” soaked the “Ingleze.” A few days spent at the manager’s house on the hill are full of interest, and the details of the day’s work in connection with the station provide ample topics of conversation. Watchful attention has to be given night and day to the great installation, for lightning storms occur frequently, and may at any moment cause a slight disturbance of the transmission, which, but for the reserve steam power station in the city, would envelop the town in darkness, bring the whole tramway service to a standstill, and stop thousands of machines which are dependent upon the station for driving power. Telephones connect the distributing with the power station, and the latter with the manager’s house, and even his bedroom is provided with an alarum which can rouse him at any moment from his slumber. The Light and Power Company of São Paulo have acquired many concessions along the Tieté, and other rivers and sites for future stations have already been fixed upon--two at Pirapora, and one, where construction has been going on for some time, at Sorocaba, about three miles distant from Parnahyba. Surveyors and engineers are at work planning another station at Pau d’Alho, so that the rapid developments which are taking place in the State will not catch this enterprising company napping. At Pirapora, not far from the village, there is a Roman Catholic convent where a dozen priests under the direction of a bishop are housed. The building itself is new, but the site was occupied by one of the earliest Jesuit mission stations in the State. The church, Bom Jesus de Pirapora, in the village of about 1500 inhabitants, has an extensive fame, not