: AI'IIICAI. EXPLORATIONS AND DISCnVKHIKS IN' I860. 



345 



!. in order to 88- 



thcro was any 'ii bo- 



ro do Dios, but agaiu 



BOMi 1 Yofessor Agassiz states 



..f his corps ascended the 



, and, :il)oiit live hundred miles from its 



.ml an aflluotit connecting it with tlio 



M. Liuis, in lii- exploration of the Rio San 

 hi-might to light much that was of 

 : 1 importance concerning it. The 

 ;-;illy been reputed to he about 

 i. IK- demonstrated that 

 - 1801 miles in length, and 

 affluents extended even farther 

 principal stream. At a little 

 i miles from the sea it passes 

 through a defile of granite, whoso walls tower 

 it on both sides, and at 192 miles 

 leaps iu three successive cata- 

 :ho granite barrier two hundred and 

 -three feet. The principal of these fulls 

 wermost or nearest the sea) is two hun- 

 :i'l two feet in height. Though narrower 

 ;!ie cataract of Niagara, the volume of 

 water is nearly or quite as great as that of Ni- 

 agara, and the fall more than fifty feet farther. 

 M. I.iaK who has witnessed both, thinks the 

 fall of Francisco grander on a close ap- 



proach, though not so impressive when seen 

 a distance. The cataracts bear the name 

 of Paulo Alfonso. For sixty or seventy miles 

 '.- these falls, and for nearly two hundred 

 above thorn, the channel of the river is ob- 

 structed by rapids and rocks, but for a distance 

 "i miles from the sea to its mouth the river 

 id and majestic in its flow, and well 

 adapted for navigation by the largest vessels. 

 For nearly 200 miles above the falls the ob- 

 structions arc numerous, but above these it is 

 .Me for largo steamers for nearly a thou- 

 sand miles. In this part of its course it receives 

 numerous affluents, the most important of which 

 are the Rio das Velhas, the Paracatu, and the 

 Rio Grande. After receiving the last-named 

 tributary the San Francisco is about one and 

 one-lifth miles in width. The extreme upper 

 portion of the river is rocky and obstructed by 

 rapids ; but the thousand miles of continuous 

 navigable waters traverse the province of Mi- 

 ra'-s, the principal diamond and gold re- 

 gion of Brazil, and this can be more effectually 

 opened to commerce by a railroad starting from 

 the rapids or falls in the river, and extending 

 to Bahiu or Pernambuco, and running in con- 

 nection with steamers on the San Francisco, 

 than by any other route. The country M. Liais 

 represents as wonderfully beautiful, and pos- 

 ,' a delightful climate. The gold mines of 

 Minas Geraes are, like those of Colorado, com- 

 bined to a considerable extent with iron and 

 copper pyrites, and though exceedingly rich, 

 yield but a small return to the miners by the 

 rude processes hitherto adopted. The search 

 for diamonds is so uncertain in its results, that 

 it is almost a lottery. After working for a year 



without HUXMM Miflicient to defray expenses, 

 ; i tractor may suddenly come upon a few 

 diamonds of such value as to make him rich at 

 once. Diamonds are not, as is usually supposed, 

 found in \\gangue of talcoso quartz or itacol- 

 umite, but in serpentine or micaceous rock. 



The returns of population in Brazil, taken in 

 1805, and published in 1866, give the popula- 

 tion of the empire as 9,100,000. This* is, we 

 suppose, independent of the savage. Indian 

 tribes, whose numbers can only bo estimated 

 from very imperfect data. This population is 

 distributed among the provinces in the follow- 

 ing proportions in round numbers : Amazonas, 

 70,000; Para, 250,000; Maranham, 400,000; 

 Piauhy, 175,000 ; Ceara, 486,000 ; Rio Grande 

 do Norte, 210,000; Parahyba, 260,000; Per- 

 nambuco, 1,180,000; Alagoas, 250,000; Ser- 

 gipe, 250,000 ; Bahia, 1,200,000 ; Espirito Santo, 

 55,000; Rio de Janeiro, 850,000; the city of 

 Rio Janeiro, 400,000 ; Sao Paulo, 800,000 ; Pa- 

 rana, 100,000 ; Santa Catharina, 120,000; Rio 

 Grande do Sul, 420,000 ; Minas Geraes, 1,350,- 

 000 ; Goyaz, 200,000, and MattoGrosso, 80,000. 



J3ueno8 Ayres. Herr Burnieister, a German 

 geographer, for some years resident in the city 

 and State of Buenos Ayre?, communicated in 

 1806 to Professor Dove, of Berlin, a very elab- 

 orate article on the climatology of the country, 

 based on four years' observations. Buenos 

 Ayres, being in the South Temperate Zone, has 

 its winter during the months corresponding 

 to our summer, and its summer during our win- 

 ter months. We can only give the maximum 

 and minimum of the thermometer and barome- 

 ter during the different seasons of each year, 

 omitting many valuable statistics of the climate 

 in Herr Burmeister's dissertation. The maxi- 

 mum temperature in January, 1862, was 93 

 Fahrenheit ; in January, 1863, 95 ; in Janu- 

 ary, 1864, 94 ; in January, 1865, 86.4. The 

 minimum temperature of the same month was 

 in 1862, 59; in 1863, 51.4; in 1804, 60; in 

 1865, 60.3. In February, 1862, the maximum 

 was 93.9 ; in 1863, 88 ; in 1864, 93 ; in 1865, 

 90. The minimum for the same month in 

 1862 was 52.2 ; in 1863, 56 ; in 1864, 59.3 ; 

 in 1805, 57.6. In April, 1862, the maximum 

 was83.8; in 1803, 81.2 ; in 1864, 84.2 ; in 

 1865, 87.2. The minimum for the same month 

 in 1862 was47.8; in 1863, 39.2 ; in 1864, 

 39.2 ; in 1865, 43. In May, 1862, the maxi- 

 mum was 73.G ; in 1803, 7l.0 ; in 1864, 73.4 ; 

 in 1865, 65.3. The minimum for the same 

 month in 1863 was 43.2 ; in 1863, 86.5 ; in 

 1864, 41 ; in 1865, 38.8. In July (a winter 

 month), 1862, the maximum was 64.8 ; in 1863, 

 62.4; in 1864, 57.4; in 1865, 68.5. The 

 minimum for the same month in 1802 was 28; 

 in 1863, - 33-.8: in 1804, 32.4; in 1805, 80.9. 

 In August, 1802, the maximum was G4.6 ; in 

 1803, 73.4; in 1864, 73.4 ; in 1865, 66.2. 

 The minimum for the same month in 1802 was 

 82; in 1803, 85.6; in 1804, 34.5; in 1865, 

 88.l. In October, 1862, the maximum was 

 70; in 1863, 78.3 ; iu 1864, 75.6; in 1865. 



