214 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



emerging, however, from tlie Catinga forests, between the 

 Fazendas Avjico and Capocnlo, we observed a low hill before 

 us, called by the natives the Serra dos dots Irmaos, running 

 from south to west, with gently rising sides, here and there in- 

 tersected l)y low furrows, and its declivities covered with 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants. Large antediluvian bones are 

 said to exist in a pond near the Fazenda of Capocido, and its 

 owner assured me, that in one place, a huge head with two 

 large tusks might be seen projecting half above the ground; 

 but as tiie spot was now covered with water, I could not my- 

 self examine into the truth of this statement. 



The road now continued to rise towards the Serra dos dois 

 Irmaos, and when we had left the little Fazenda do Barreira 

 behind us, we came to a lower part of the range of hills, and 

 saw the pass, sixty feet wide, which affords access to the pro- 

 vince of Piauhy. There is nothing picturesque in the scen- 

 ery ; the two hills are of uniform appearance, and very mo- 

 derate elevation : our barometrical observations gave a height 

 of 1250 Parisian feet. 



The Serra dos dois Irmaos, which we crossed, is a portion 

 of the widely extended mountain range, which, for at least 

 five degrees of latitude, divides the province of Piauhy from 

 the eastern provinces of Pernambuco and Ceara, and inter- 

 sects most part of the continent of Brazil. The accounts of 

 this range are extremely various and undefined, chiefly owing 

 to the different names which its individual parts bear. Most 

 of the Portuguese charts assign the appellation of Serra 

 Ihiopaha to the central portion, although tliis word signifies 

 *'end of the country." By the Sertanejos of Pernambuco 

 and Parahyba, again, the part of the range which forms the 

 boundary between Ceara and Rio Norte, is called Serra Bor- 

 borema. Numerous mountains, of lower elevation, branch off 

 east and west from the principal chain ; the rivers, which dis- 

 tribute water to the provinces around, here take their rise, and 

 some of them are abundant in gold. The general structure 

 of these mountains is granite, and they attain their greatest 

 elevation between the Gth and 7th degree of latitude. The 



