The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-07-21
Rio in Its Valleys Among Towering Peaks.

construction, having 10000 miles Of
| track. Yet so vast is the country that
railway construction seems barely be-
gun. Brazil has yet 10 build its trans
continental lirtes. With a single eX-
ception the railroads are confined TO Il
belt along the coast from $50 to 400
| miles deep. The exception is the road
extending from the port Of Santos 500
miles westward to Porto ESperanca
on the Paraguay river.
Rio de JaneirO, capital Of Brazil.
in which the exposition celebrating the
centenary of Brazilian independence
is to be held, has Il population between
a million and q million and q half, and
is therefore one Of the greatest of cit
les. 1t shares roughly with Vienna.
Osaka, Picking, Hankow and Calcutta
the rank of tenth city of the world. In
South America it is surpassed in size
only by BuenOS Aires. Set in a series
Of valleys, backed and all but encir-
cled by mountain-like hills clad in q
riot Of tropical vegetation, and with a
magnificent harbOr at its feet, Rio
dc Janeiro is n Of the most beauti-
ful--many travellers assert the most
heautiful-of the cities of the world.
Mans hand has helped nature in bring
ing about this beauty. Broad boule-
wards rim the deep crescents of the
harbor and the rough, picturesque adj
joining coast; one Of the most famous
Of botanical gardens has been created;
and n are lined by towering
palms, while stately buildings are set
in spacious parks.
"As multicolored and varied in
beauty as the butterflies of the trop-
les" is the characterization Of one re-
rent visitor to the metropolis Of Bra
I'll. ~In splendor of hue and setting.
this great city OF the South is III
rivaled the world over. Here granite
peak and turquoise sea. tropic forest
and rainbow-tinte1 town, meet and
harmOnize.
This city Of lure terraces up from
a glorious bay-tne Bay Of Guanabara.
mOuntain-encircled, islebejeweled.
From the shore, where parks and
bOulevards are fast crowding out the
old Rio of narrow streets, rise forested
hills on whose slopes the ~lovelier por-
ton Of the city lies"
Rio Seen From the Mountains.
To see Rio at it's best and loveliest
one must go 10 these mountains that
tower Over the city. Turning hayward,
one looks down, through a frame OF
tangled vines and branches, onto the
tree-tOps of the sloping virgin forest.
Far below, set in verdure, CLEANS the
Kaleidoscope city, with its crescent
shores. In numerous creScents the
Dreaming sea meets the beaches
Formosa, Santa Luzia, Lapa, Gloria,
Flamingo, Botafogo. Vermelha. The
bay, set in its amphitheater OF hills,
sparkles like a sapphire. To and fro
among the ships at anchor ply the
busy paddle-wheel ferry-boats to the
islands and TO Nictheroy, the little
sister city across the way. In the dis
lance tower the blue spires Of the lofty
Organ mountains.
Oceanward one looks down on
titanic granite mountains rising sheer
from the sea. There is bulky Baby
lOnia, and flat-topped Gavea, like a
great sail unfurled. Between them lie
Rios suburban beaches-Leme. Cap
acabana, Ipanema, Leblon-in a
g%listening chain, their white villas
nesting between hill and shore. The
Avenida Atlantica, which connects
them, is eQualed only by %boulevards
| ol,Vr tho Jn1ifArrayAan
one can motor from the city to
these beaches and on to Gavea >ver a
new road cut in the rock high above
the sea, climb to the divide at Tiiuca.
and drop down, on the bay side of the
range, to his starting place in the city
"A wonder circuit Of forty miles or
more.
Avenida Rio Grande, Rios finest
thorOughfare was hand made" after
the city had attained practically its
present extent. In 1904 ii was decided
to carve this great modern avenue out
Of the city, over GOO homes being sac
rificed.
The avenue, more than a mile in
length and SO wide that 1t consists
Of two distinct b%oulevardS separated
by q row Of shade trees, is thronged
day and night with automobiles.
The sidewalks, the widest the
traveller IS likely to find in all his
world travels. are of black-and-white
stones laid in mosaic designs, like
those in vogue in Lisbon. Both stones
and workmen were brought from
Portugal, but similar pavements, con
structed later in other parts Of the
city. are "lOme made.r