396 Discovery of the Province of Minus Geraes. [April, 



are traditions of some small diamonds having been found there ; and as almost 

 the whole of the Cordilheira in question produces diamonds, it may rightly 

 be presumed to form the same system with the other ; moreover, as this chain 

 and those of Ita-bira do Campo, Serra do Curral, Piedade, Solledade, Morro 

 grande, Itambe, Gasjiar Soares, and Itapanhuacanga follow a similar direction, 

 it appears by their parallelism that they are the same Cordiliieua, which takes 

 a colossid body in Serrofrio. 



Serro frio is an agglomeration of several chains of rocky mountains in 

 various directions ; it is entirely formed of granite mixed with sand : its com- 

 pass is more than fifty leagues (at 18 to the degree); its height is so considerable 

 that it gives origin to many large rivers, such as the Toquitinhonha, Preto 

 do Inferno, Parauna, Vermelho, Milho verde, St. Antonia, and Arasuahy, 

 which when they issue from the heath run so formidably as not to be fordable. 



The highest parts of Minas Geraes are the mountains of Ita-auibi, of Ita- 

 bira, of Ita-cambira, the Monterorigo do Serro, and the mountain Villa-rica. 

 There are a great many of a second order, and many of the third, which still 

 are considerable, though small in comparison with the others. All these 

 mountains are rocky, though seVeiral are covered with a thick crust of earth; 

 every kind of known stone enters into their composition, but in divers orders. 

 The stones are commonly found in strata of various thicknesses, running from 

 south to north, making with the horizon an angle of 45°, which may occasion- 

 ally vary, but is generally regular. Between those strata there exist veins 

 of different thickness, some forty some sixty feet in diameter, and less; the 

 Pisarra* is generally the matrice of those veins of metals or fions, in which 

 gold is more frequently found than in any other part of the mountains ; its 

 richness and its hardness increase from the superficies to the centre. 



Tiie mountains produce gold, platina, copper, tin, lead, iron, quicksilver, 

 antimony, silver, and several other metals. There are likewise many other 

 minerals, such as sulphur, nitre, mineral salt, &c., and precious stones of every 

 description. Gold is found in veins (filons) or in cascalho, in formations, in 

 sands, or in batatas. 



Among all those matrix the most preferable are the filons, for their constancy 

 in producing, and the facility they offer for mining and forming an establishment, 

 which may continue and be dug for several generations, being the only ones 

 that present these advantages, tliough it requires the reduction of the stone 

 into grit to extract tlie gold, which is found so cohesive, that this grit reduced 

 to the minutest particles gives as much gold as the stone itself in the previous 

 washiuij, which from its hardness renders the process more difficult. 



The minhig of formations is likewise very productive; it is generally a sort 

 of cilicious chalk, always brittle, which varies in its richness and thickness, — 

 so much so, that the veins of formations sometimes entirely disappeai-, but 

 followed in their direction a[)pear again, and very often in brexexas or ancieris- 

 jjiiis, — terms applied to them by the miners when they enlarge, and on such occa- 

 sions they often produce wonderful riches. 



There are strata of cascalho extremely rich and thick, and others very thin, 

 since these circumstances depend on the declivity of rivers, the height of 

 mountains where they originate, and on the overflowing of their waters. 



Moreover, there are many sands or earths which, being washed, produce a 

 great quantity of gold in spangles, which manner of mining is called Gropcar ; 

 the wide territory of Minas Novas is the richest in this sort of mining, where 

 the admiration is excited by the quantities of spangles promiscuously scattered on 

 the earth. In the year 1815, a miner named O Seiscenlos, an inhabitant of 

 Chapada de Minas Novas, found amongst others a spangle, in the form of a 

 calf's liver, that weighed eleven pounds and a half; it was melted at Villa do 

 Principe by order of the director. 



This territory is rich, abounding in many formations, in cascalho, and filons. 

 Nobody mines there, because the country producing much and very good cotton, 



* Pisarra is the denomination of a filamenteous and brittle stone, which is frequently 

 assimilated to amianthus ; it surrounds the other stones, and growing deeper takes more 

 consistency, then it is called Pissarao. 



