woodworth: geological expedition to brazil and chile. 23 



The day came off clear and fairly warm, giving from one or two of 

 the trap elevations distant views to the north and south of level sky- 

 lines broken only by an occasional remnant of a still higher basalt 

 sheet in the series over which we were travelling. The surface past 

 over this morning was one of rather immature relief with no deep, 

 steep-sided gullies or ravines. Numerous small streams showed short 

 falls over trap ledges and rapids of no great length, manifestations of 

 streams actively at work and far from being well graded. While we 

 were halted on the Rio das Pedras a troup of forty mules came along 

 bound southward. After searching in the nests of quartz which 

 here beset the decomposed trap for other minerals, we set out and 

 went into camp for the night on a small rivulet (Rio Ponte alto) at the 

 base of a steep trap slope surrounded by the araucarian forest. 



August 24.th. — A puma came into camp in the night at about 1 

 o'clock and drove our dog into the tent. Alfredo fired twice at the 

 glowing eyes of the animal but missed him. This is the sole instance 

 in which on this expedition we were disturbed by any large nocturnal 

 cat. During the day we saw nothing of the mammalian fauna of the 

 forest. The tapir must be abundant in the deep recesses of the 

 woods along the streams. We saw hanging on the wall of the store 

 the skin of one which had been shot at the foot of the Serra do Espi- 

 gao. After a ride of an hour and a half from camp we forded the river 

 Marombas whose valley floor with a floodplain of some width lies 

 fully 300 feet below the surrounding trap plateau. There is a small 

 settlement of houses here in the garden of one of which I noted a palm 

 tree and a large prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) about ten feet high. 

 The road from this point onward crosses a succession of trap ridges 

 and valleys, with a relief varying from 200 to 300 feet, as far as the 

 broad elevation of cleared ground on which stands the pink and white 

 village of Corytibanos. Here we halted for breakfast by a spring on 

 the outskirts of the place and having rested on the warm dry grass and 

 procured an additional supply of provisions including some bread and 

 butter, proceeded southward along a mule path with bridges over 

 small streams to a camp for the night. On the way we encountered 

 in the south bank of a stream valley about 100 feet in thickness of red 

 beds in a clayey state overlain by trap. Quartz in radiating nodules 

 abounded in the trap traversed today, but little of geological interest 

 could be noted in the monotonous ride over the basalt surface other 

 than the minor variations of the topographic relief. Araucaria 

 remained the dominant forest tree, while tree-ferns and bamboo could 

 be seen near or along the water courses. Beside our camp, in the low 



