The climate of Rio has been very much modified by the clearing away of the forests in the neighbourhood. Previous to this, the seasons could scarcely be divided into wet and dry as they are at present. Then rains fell nearly all the year round, and thunder-storms were not only more frequent, but more violent. So much has the moisture been reduced, that the supply of water for the city has been considerably diminished, and the government has, in consequence, forbidden the further destruction of the forests on the Corcovado range, towards the sources of the aqueduct. During the months of May, June, July, August, and September, the climate is usually delightful, being the dry as well as the cool season. The mean temperature of the year is 72°. Although frequent showers fall during the dry season, yet they are not to be compared with the continued rains of the other, which generally commence in October. The rainy season sets in with heavy thunder-storms, which are of most frequent occurrence in the afternoon. The population of Rio consists principally of Portuguese and their descendants, both white and coloured; those only born in the country are styled Brazilians; and ever since its independence as an empire in 1820, a very bad feeling has existed between them and those who are natives of Portugal. But this feeling is less common among the higher than the lower orders, and is, perhaps, more strongly marked in the inner provinces than on the coast. Wherever any riot, or any attempt to revolt takes place in the interior—and such occurrences are now, unfortunately, but too common—the poor Portuguese are the first to fall victims, being butchered without mercy, and robbed of all they possess. Notwithstanding the ill usage they receive, hundreds of them arrive yearly to push their fortune in the country, which, at one time, formed the richest gem in the crown of Portugal. Many of those who call themselves white in Brazil, scarcely deserve the title, as few of those families who have been long in the country, have preserved the purity of the original stock. The inhabitants of Rio are in general short and slightly made, and form a great contrast to the tall and handsome inhabitants of the Provinces of San Paulo and Minas Geräes, and even those of several of the northern provinces. The Brazilian wherever he is met with is always polite, and but very seldom inhospitable, especially in the less frequented parts of the country. He is much more temperate in his drinking than in his eating, and much more addicted to snuff-taking as well as to smoking: hence the prevalence of dyspeptic and nervous complaints among them. Marriage is less common in Brazil than in Europe, a fact which accounts for the greater laxity of morals which exists here among both sexes. The women are generally short, and when young are pretty agreeable, but as they increase in years they mostly get very corpulent, from their living well and taking but little exercise.