Amid so much that calls for censure in Rio Janeiro, and of which the æsthetic perceptions of the visitor will apprize him in the course of a stroll in any part of the city, there are two improvements which deserve grateful acknowledgment. The first of these consists in the lighting of the city by gas (prepared from English coal), which had been introduced shortly before our arrival, and is now extended to the extreme outskirts of the suburbs; the second is the magnificent aqueduct, which provides every quarter of Rio with a lavish supply of excellent drinking-water. However ugly Rio may look in the daytime, the gas at night gives it a magnificent and splendid appearance, particularly from the harbour. When, the evening after our arrival, we gazed out upon the brilliantly-illuminated city that lay before us, we could not help thinking there must be some festive occasion for such a flood of light, ignorant as we then were of what we learned afterwards, that Rio is as fairy-looking by night as it appears gloomy by day.
Not less surprising, and forming a strong contrast with the deficiencies and requirements in other particulars, are the stately fountains that adorn the squares. Close by the corner of each street, gushes out through metal cocks, a stream of clear, fresh spring-water, which has been conveyed by the great aqueduct a distance of 10 or 12 English miles from the slopes of the neighbouring Carioca or Tejuca mountain-chains. The water supply has been in existence for 120 years, but the present immense reservoir and various improvements in it have been introduced by the Brazilian Government. With the exception of the Croton aqueduct, near New York, which supplies that city with 40,000,000 gallons daily, we do not remember to have seen in any part of the world a similar work of such magnitude.
The dreary, uncomfortable feeling left by the city, gives way to most enjoyable impressions so soon as one emerges from the suburbs of Rio, and seeks compensation for the absence of the appliances of European civilization in the eternal grace and majesty of Nature. Walks may be taken in every direction, each opening up a fresh point of view, while, if the visitor take horse or mule, he may in the course of an hour or two transport himself into the very midst of the most extraordinary features of tropical vegetation.