3o8 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



miles, to raise a railway train about 2500 feet. This 

 is done by four stationary engines. The line is laid 

 on four rather steep inclines, with nearly level inter- 

 mediate spaces, each ascending train being counter- 

 poised by one descending in the opposite direction, 

 and the loss of time in effecting the connections is 

 quite inconsiderable. 



On every map of Brazil that I have seen, the Serra 

 do Mar, which we w^ere here ascending, is represented 

 as a range of mountains running parallel to the coast, 

 and extending from near Rio Janeiro to the Bay of 

 Paranagua in South Brazil, apparently dividing the 

 strip of coast from the low country of the interior. 

 Most travellers would probably have expected, as I 

 did, that on reaching the summit we should descend 

 considerably before reaching San Paulo, and it was 

 with surprise that from the summit I saw before me 

 what appeared to be a vast level plain, with some 

 distant hills or mountains in the dim horizon. It is 

 true that the drainage of the whole tract is carried 

 westward and ultimately reaches the Parana ; but the 

 slope is quite insensible, and I do not think that, in 

 the space of about sixty miles that lay between us 

 and San Paulo, the descent can exceed two or three 

 hundred feet. There was a complete change in the 

 aspect of the vegetation, and open tracts of moorland 

 recalled scenes of Northern Germany. 



Night had closed before we reached the station at 

 San Paulo. There was a difficulty about a carriage 

 to convey us to the hotel. Perhaps the demands 

 were unreasonable, or perhaps we were too unfamiliar 

 with the coinage of Brazil, which is that of the mother 



