mothers straying into the woods; a little milk is taken from each cow in the morning before being turned out, at night they are not milked at all; of part of the milk they make a soft kind of cheese, which is much relished by all classes of society. They had not commenced making it here generally, but in the evening, one of the herds came to offer a large one for sale, which I was glad to purchase for the sake of my men. Shortly after we arrived at this place, a tremendous thunder-storm passed over us from the westward, followed by torrents of rain, and in a short time the small river became so much swollen as to be impassable; as the road to Canabrava, our next stage, passed over this stream, we were obliged to remain here till the following afternoon, when, on attempting to cross it, we found it still so deep, that all the loads had to be taken off the horses, and carried over on the heads of the men. Here a curious natural object presents itself: on a bare conical-shaped hill about 800 feet high, being the termination of a ridge, called Serra Grande, there is a stone of immense size placed on the top of another much smaller, and the point on which it rests appears to be so small, that one is led to think that a very slight breeze would upset it. Keeping along the margin of the river, we arrived towards sunset at a place where the road crosses it twice, occasioned by a sudden bend, but we were informed at Corumatá, that there was a bye-path in the woods, which would render this unnecessary. It was now night, and although the moon shone very brightly, we had some difficulty in finding this path; when we did, it was so much overgrown with bushes, from being little frequented, that we had much labour in driving the horses along it with the loads. After toiling about an hour in this labyrinth, much to our joy we reached the road leading from the river to the fazenda of Canabrava, where we arrived in about a quarter of an hour. This is a very large fazenda, and when we asked for accommodation to pass the night, we were shown to an old shed, the roof of which, in many places, was much decayed; as soon, however, as the proprietor learned from my men who I was, he invited me into the house, and prepared an excellent supper, of which we partook with much relish.