BOTANICAL INFORMATION'. 217 



of the gloomy clouds, when, all at once, a most vehement 

 storm rushed down on the forest and threatened to uproot 

 all the trees and bushes with its truly tropical fury. The 

 earth shook beneath us from the force of the hurricane, and 

 the thick trunks of the primitive forest crashed and fell, or 

 were uprooted by the wind ; added to which, the piercing 

 shrieks of the apes and the cries of the flocks of birds, whose 

 frail dwellings were driven about their ears, filled us witii 

 terror and alarin. A violent gust of wind, tearing off the 

 roof from an adjacent house, flung it on a low shed, which 

 having been used as a kitchen, contained a fire, which pre- 

 sently ignited the whole mass, and by its blaze illuminated 

 the whole disastrous scene. We had not fijrgotten our pack- 

 ages, but all our plans for their security were frustrated by 

 the suddenness and violence of the storm. Accident, how- 

 ever, favoured us ; the hospitable Joa-tree, beneath whose 

 boughs we had encamped, was uprooted, and its umbrageous 

 summit so sheltered our goods, that next morning, we were 

 enabled to extricate them almost uninjured. The rain had 

 a very disastrous influence on the health of our servants, 

 giving them heavy colds, and causing a return of the ague 

 with which they had previously been afflicted. 



Northward from Serrinka, rises the mountain, called the 

 Topa ; its direction is mainly east and west, and it lies in suc- 

 cessive terraces of white or pale-reddish chalky freestone. 

 ^\ e left (his attractive ridge to our right, and entered an ex- 

 tensive elevated plain of which the vegetation was peculiarly 

 pleasing, from the dense Catinga bushes, wliich gradually 

 give place to open plains. Fine grass of various kinds, with 

 flowering Mimosa in different species, and bushes of Acacia^ 

 Bauhinia, Combretum, and Cactus, clothe the soil, which is 

 formed of fine white sand; and the vegetation having been 

 refreshed by the rain and hurricane of the preceding night. 

 We traversed this district in a clieerful fiame of mind, till the 

 Fazenda da Serra Branca^ charmingly situated on the decliv- 

 ity of a mountain of the same name, received us hospitably 

 for the night. The inmates, amiable people, possessed of 



Vol. IV No. 28. 2 E 



