avoodworth: geological expedition to brazil and chile. 19 



August 20th. — The night was cloudy with a little rain and con- 

 sequently Avarmer than on the two previous nights. We found that 

 we had gotten on to the road leading over the Serra do Espigao, the 

 very route we meant to avoid because of the Bugres, but quickly 

 resolved to keep on. After proceeding at a painfully slow pace with 

 many uncertain turns through the forest we halted at a distance of 

 not more than 3.2 kilometers for breakfast in a piece of open campo 

 surrounded by the now dripping forest, our way having led over vales 

 and ridges about 100 feet high and through tree-fern swamps. More 

 native huts appeared at about 5 kilometers from last night's camp. 

 At about 6 kilometers from the camp we encountered a chert bed on 

 a hill south of a hamlet. Under this bed, at a river crossing immedi- 

 ately north, there outcrop green shales. We got into camp on the 

 bank of a small stream the valley of which is excavated in a yellowish 

 green shale. For an hour before reaching this camp, the flat sky-line 

 of the Triassic escarpment could be seen ahead on the south. Some 

 huts near camp were built of hewn boards and hand-made shingles, 

 with the usual open windows. This place is Chaxim. There was a 

 broken down cross and the remnants of a fence along side our camp, 

 enclosing the burial place of some one kille<l by the Bugres. All 

 travellers on this road we observed went armed, an example which we 

 followed. 



August 21st. — We got off early from camp as the manuscript map 

 in our possession indicated that we were now near the base of the trap 

 escarpment and should make the pass over the Serra do Espigao 

 before noon. The road led over some low hills of greenish shale near> 

 the beginning of the ascent. Shortly before the climb began we came 

 to a few houses south of Chaxim, at one of which, a store kept by a 

 German, we found a bugreiro, or sort of special police, armed with a 

 cavalry sword and a double-barreled horse-pistol, whose evident 

 business it was to accompany parties over the pass. The ascent of 

 this pass, only some 1,200 feet above our base at the store, was so steep 

 as to oblige us to dismount, and was made in such a rush with all 

 revolvers drawn, that geological observations were, despite the fre- 

 quent exposure of ledges, neither advisable nor clearly made. 



As is usual with South American mule paths the way led up the 

 steep spur in preference to following one of the adjacent creases of the 

 slope, since by so doing the minimum of mud and water is encountered 

 at all times of the year. The escarpment below the crowning trap 

 sheet is mainly sandstone of a reddish tinge which succeeds the green 

 shales at the base. The chert beds before mentioned apparently 



