The day was a most delightful one, the sun shining out brightly from a clear sky, and the air cooled by the fresh sea-breeze. We passed close to the Ilha do Governador, which is the largest island in the bay. It is about eight miles in length, but narrow in proportion, and thinly inhabited. Shortly before my arrival in the country, an Englishman commenced a soap and candle manufactory on it, both of which articles bring the same price in Rio as those imported from Europe. The muddy shores of this island, as well as those of the whole bay, abound with crabs of all sizes, and every variety of colour, from nearly black to a bright scarlet. On one occasion when I visited the island, I observed within a very short space about eight species. They are gregarious, and each kind inhabits a distinct colony; they burrow in the mud, under the shade and among the roots of the mangrove and other shore-loving trees. It was here that I first saw the apparent anomaly of trees bearing crops of oysters. These animals, when young, attach themselves to the lower part of the trunks, and long pendulous roots, of the mangrove and other trees, which grow in the sea even to low-water mark. The oysters are small and not well-flavoured. Others are found in the bay of enormous size, some of their shells, which I collected as specimens, measuring upwards of a foot in length. Near the head of the bay there are many little islands, some of which are inhabited, and present the agreeable prospect of cultivation, while others are little more than masses of rock, among the clefts of which grow a few stunted shrubs, and grotesque prickly pears.