38 Martius on ilte Physiognomy of the 



f ecially the Lan96es Grandes of Ceara, between the 2° and 3° 

 of south latitude ; and in the souths principally between Porto 

 Alegre and Monte Video, from the 29° to the 34° of south lati- 

 tude. Frequent sheets of salt water widiin the land, and a suc- 

 cession of lakes parallel to the sea, indicate a gradual recession 

 of the latter ; and, in consequence, large tracts present nothing 

 but dry sand, upon which are a few plants of scanty growth, pe- 

 culiar to the sea-shore. But, with these exceptions, a luxuriant 

 vegetation covers the confines of this quarter of the globe, 

 either immediately on the margin of the sea where the shore 

 rises abruptly, or separated from it by small intervening banks 

 of sand. When the shore ascends precipitously, it is crowned 

 by a dark green wood, whose overtopping palms already salute 

 the stranger from afar. Whercj on the contrary, the beach 

 slopes gently, or, in the deep slimy bays, there appears a ve- 

 getation quite peculiar to the shores of the tropics, consisting of 

 those trees which propagate themselves by the branches, forming 

 thick bushes, which spread themselves far over the often un- 

 fathomable deep mud. Their succulent foliage surrounds the ■ 

 low shore with a wreath, whose cheerful green is frequently 

 heightened by the red plumage of the ibis reposing on it *. 



Advancing into the interior, we come to the foot of a mode- 

 rately elevated chain of mountains, which, at one time, only 

 a little removed, at another from 150 to 190 miles distant, from 

 the coast, and almost always parallel to it, run through a great 

 part of the country ; on which account they nearly every where 

 go under the name of the Serra do Mar, or Sea Cordilleras. This 

 chain, consisting for the most part of granite and gneiss, begins 

 in the southern part of the province of Pernambuco ; sinking 

 considerably, and often continued only in the form of swells, it 

 proceeds through the eastern part of Bahia, whose hot and 

 parched plains it supplies very sparingly with fountains, and 

 again appears in a much higher and grander scale to the south 

 of the Rio Peruaguayu, in the Comarca dos Ilheos. From 

 this latitude onward, only occasionally interrupted by the Rios 

 •de Contas, Patype, Belmonte, Doce, Pariba, &c., it stretches 

 south through the provinces of Porto Seguro, Espiritu Santo, 

 Rio de Janeii-o, and St Paulo, in an extent of more than twelve 



• Tantalus ruber. 



