IN THE DESERT 



seldom presents a pleasant appearance, and at every stop the hands 

 of beggars wander past the windows or extend themselves in front 

 of the passengers, while in many of the stations one sees shocking 

 cases of leprosy. Swarms of pedlars with cakes, fruit, bottled drinks, 

 and so on, drift through the train, so that one is thankful when the 

 journey is ended. 



One leans back in one's seat, and the landscape glides past outside. 

 From the island in which the station lies the line crosses various 

 arms of the sea, and then passes between houses with small gardens, 

 cutting across streets at whose level crossings motor-cars, waggons, 

 and men and women stand waiting — many of the latter black or 

 brown, and the women in bright green, blue or pink dresses. Now 

 we pass the mangrove swamps already described, and the train 

 leaves the city behind. 



Meadows appear, on which cattle are grazing, and the rounded 

 masses of the dark-green, sharply-shadowed foliage of great mango- 

 trees with sturdy trunks. The light glitters gaily on the deep green 

 leaves of the tall Jacas. Now — as at Macacos on the Northern Railway 

 — the trees close in to form a shady forest. With never-failing delight 

 the eye notes the bright trunks of the trees, the far-flung cables of 

 the lianas, the infinitely rich and various spectacle of wild Nature ; 

 and yet this is only capoeira forest, which has grown up again where 

 the virgin forest was felled, and in which no tree ever grows to be 

 a hundred years old, since it has to furnish wood for firing the loco- 

 motives. 



The landscape is growing hilly. Where the forest flows over a hill 

 great shade-trees spread their wide boughs in august tranquillity 

 above the crinkled crests of their lesser brethren. Fields of sugar-cane 

 appear ; it is August, and the harvest is at hand ; they look like forests 

 of beautiful, succulent green reeds. Here, in the most fertile belt 

 of north-western Brazil, the sugar-cane, the "Brejo," is the most 

 important crop (Plate 23). 



Near Victoria station, where a memorial commemorates a 

 victory which the Portuguese once won over the Dutch, the land- 

 scape becomes more attractive. The hills are higher and less mono- 

 tonous ; but they have the soft contours of the secondary ranges, 

 though there are outcrops everywhere of primary rock, of granite. 

 Here are ravines crossed by viaducts, rushing brooks, and tunnels. 

 Now and again we have lovely glimpses of the forest. 



115 



