EASTERN BRAZIL—-CHASE 401 
Serra da Gramma, then proceeded afoot—a man to cut the trail, the 
old fazendeiro to help him, the guide, three men from Vicosa, Doctor 
Rolfs and his daughter, and I. For some distance we followed the 
rocky bed of a stream then struck into the virgin forest. This was 
the real tropical jungle of the school geographies, dense and dark, 
with palms, tree ferns, vines, and bamboos all tangled together, with 
brilliant bromeliads up the trees, and multitudes of ferns. From 
about 1,500 meters altitude the bamboos made the climbing difficult 
and fatiguing. The very steep trail was cut but there was no time 
to clear it, and we tripped and stumbled or sank into soft humus, up 
and up, then slipping and sliding down into a deep ravine, then 
climbing up again. We were nearly exhausted when light appeared 
ahead and we knew we were nearing the open summit. But the 
“campo” we were expecting was composed for some distance of 
dense brush up to our waists—almost what we would term chaparral. 
It was nearly dark when we passed the brush and came to open, 
grassy ground. It was too dark to go down hill for water, so we 
made camp without it. When streaks of scarlet appeared in the sky 
T was glad to get up and start collecting. Everything was wet with 
dew and it was like working in ice water, but there was too much to 
collect to wait for the sun. 
There are three peaks; we had camped on the lowest. We ascended 
the second through dense chusqueal (tangled Chusguea), but did 
not have time for the third, which appeared to be very like the 
second. On the way down the trail through the forest I found a 
single Chusquea in flower—it is always cause for rejoicing when one 
finds bamboos in flower—and a few other grasses. 
On the return journey to Araponga and the following day to Sao 
Miguel the cavalcade halted when I wanted to collect, and it was 
frequently, for there were two bamboos with flowers, one a beau- 
tiful slender vine, Chusquea capitata, besides numerous other grasses. 
A few days after our return from Serra da Gramma, Miss Rolfs 
and I left for a trip to Pico de Bandeira, the culminating point of 
Serra da Caparao, the mountain range which separates Minas Geraes 
and Espirito Santo to the east. It is claimed by recent topographers 
to be the highest point in Brazil, 2,884 meters in altitude. The vil- 
lage of Caparao, the railroad station nearest the peak, lies only 
about 150 kilometers east of Vicosa, but to reach it we had to spend 
two days on the railroad, stopping over night at Uba and again at 
Santa Luzia Carangola, covering two long sides of a triangle to 
reach the other end of a short base. It was this paucity of rail- 
roads that prevented me from carrying out the extended itinerary I 
had planned in Brazil. Doctor Rolfs sent with us a reliable youth 
from the school farm, and at Caparao we hired three riding mules, a 
