The river banks are
flat, and fringed with underwood and young trees; the background is
formed by ranges of low green hills.
At Porto d'Estrella, Madame Pfeiffer and her companion landed, and
proceeded on foot towards Petropolis. The first eight miles lay through
a broad valley, clothed with dense brambles and young trees, and shadowed
by lofty mountains. The wild pine-apples by the roadside were very fair
to see; they were not quite ripe, but tinted of the most delicate red.
Beautiful humming-birds flashed through the air like "winged jewels," and
studded the dense foliage with points of many-coloured light.
After passing through the valley, they reached the Sierra, as the
Brazilians term the practicable mountain-summits. It was three thousand
feet in height, and was ascended by a broad paved road, striking through
the depths of virgin forests.
Madame Pfeiffer had always imagined that the trees in virgin forests had
very thick and lofty trunks; but such was not the case here; probably
because the vegetation was too luxuriant, and the larger trunks have the
life crushed out of them by masses of smaller trees, bushes, creepers,
and parasites.
Frequent truppas, or teams of ten mules driven by a negro, as well as
numerous pedestrians, enlivened the path, and prevented our travellers
from observing that their steps were persistently followed up by a negro.
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