1864.] 
Notes and Correspondence. 
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Portion of Escarpment, showing the outcrop of the Coal-seams along the border of the Candiota 
Coal-field. Taken from a Photograph. 
In some places, the intermediate 
bands of shale which separate the 
mineral into distinct layers thin 
away, in which case a solid seam 
of no less than 65 feet is formed, 
unsurpassed, we believe, in vertical 
dimensions by any similar forma- 
tion yet discovered. We have 
handled specimens of the coal; and 
though taken from the outcrop, it 
is scarcely distinguishable, except 
by a slight brownish hue, from the 
ordinary coal of our own country. 
The coal-strata repose on a series 
of shales, sandstones, and crystal- 
line limestone, the whole of which 
are supported by mica-schist, and 
finally by syenite. 
Iron is also present, as in the 
coal-formation of Britain, both in 
the form of bands of clay-ironstone, 
and as a roof for the seams of coal. 
At the top of the cliffs formed by 
the outcrop of the coal-seam there 
occurs a mass of silicious iron-ore, — 
several yards in thickness, a sheet- 
casting from which was sent to the 
late Industrial Exhibition amongst 
the other Brazilian products. Thus 
there occurs in close proximity to 
each other, the ore, the fuel, the 
flux, and the clay, necessary for the 
establishment of iron-furnaces. 
The several minerals thus united 
rise in the form of an elevated 
escarpment (a portion of which is 
represented in the engraving), which 
may be traced for several leagues, 
affording the utmost facility for” 
working by open-work, or tunnels 
VOL. I. 
- Sul. 
driven into the sides of the hill. 
From its base stretches a gently 
sloping plain of basalt, over which 
a railway to a port in the Rio Gon- 
zalo might be laid down at a very 
moderate cost. Sailing-vessels of 
100 tons burden can navigate this 
river to the town of Jaguarao, 20 
miles from the borders of the coal- 
field, between which and the im- 
portant port of Rio Grande de San 
Pedro, on the Atlantic, there is at 
present a flourishing trade. 
The second coal-field which has 
been observed, lies about 100 leagues 
to the north of the Candiota field, 
in the valley of the Rio dos Ratos, 
near Porto Alegre, the capital of the 
province. It is not of large extent, 
but well situated for carriage by 
river and lake; nothing has, how- 
ever, yet been done to develope its 
resources. 
The third coal-field is in the small 
province of San Catharina, lying 
north-east of the Rio Grande do 
It is reported to occupy an 
area of about 80 square miles, in the 
midst of a range of hills, and is not 
so accessible to commerce as the 
other two tracts. 
It is not improbable that each of 
these coal-fields, lying as they do in 
a direct line parallel with the coast, 
is of the same geological age; and 
after an inspection of the fossil 
plants which have been sent over 
to this country, there cannot be a 
doubt, we think, that this age is 
the Carboniferous. Mr. Plant has 
2D 
