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The serra of Taiiajuil,* though in plahi siglit from Erere and 

 from the vicinity of Monte- Alegre, is quite unknown to tlie white 

 inhabitants of these i)laces, and I found none except Indians wlio had 

 visited it. Failing to reach tlie mountain in 1870, 1 made an excur- 

 sion thither the following year, in company with Messrs. Derby and 

 J. B. Steere. We left Monte-Alegre on foot at day-break, accompa- 

 nied by four Indians, striking off northward over the highlands, 

 follow^ing the road to Saudoso, a little agricultural settlement, situ- 

 ated on the loAV grounds east of the ridge. 



The Monte-Alegre plateau is noted for its flat, rounded outlines, 

 its long, gentle slopes, rarely gullied by rains, its superficial coating 

 of coarse sand, and its peculiar campos vegetation, in all which 

 features it agrees Avith the similar elevated, sandy campos of the 

 vicinity of Erere and Paituna, and also with those of Santarem, 

 which last I shall not attempt to describe here. The covering of 

 loose, coarse sand completely masks the geological structure of the 

 plateau, except along its southern border and in a few localities 

 where the underlying beds come to the surface in knolls. Here and 

 there on the road, across the plateau, from Erere to Monte-Alegre, 

 one meets with slight knolls composed of small, ferruginous concre- 

 tions, cemented together and resembling a conglomerate. The sur- 

 face sands are so coarse and loose that it is very fatiguing to Avalk 

 over them. The vegetation they support to-day is that of the high, 

 sandy campos districts everywhere in northern Brazil, modified by 

 campos fires. The sandy campos of the Erere-Monte- Alegre district 

 closely resemble those of Piauhy, Pernambuco and Bahia. Trees 

 are sparsely sown, and, having been singed by fire, are small, rough- 

 barked, stout and gnarly-branched, and thick-leaved. A large pro- 

 portion of the trees are cajiis, with whose grateful acid fruit the 

 traveler may refresh himself. Grass grows only in widely separated 

 tufts, and the surface is yearly burned over. The effect of these 

 campos fires is most disastrous, and if kept up they must inevitably 

 convert the ridge into a desert. 



*I !im not sure that this is the correct form of tlie name of the serra. The pronunciation 

 varies from Tajut'i to Tayur'i, Tauayur'i^ Tauajur'i., and I have even heard Tauacur'i. Penna 

 uses Taiiajury, and this appears more nearly right, but it would still be a Portuguese form. In 

 all this uncertainty it seems scarcely worth while to inquire into the origin of the name. • The 

 first point to be settled is, whether the first part of the word, in lingoa gcral, is i(<i, stone, or 

 tauA, a kind of clay. 



