225 



Early the next morning we climbed the serra by a very rough, 

 steep ascent through the woods over loose rocks, and worked our 

 way with much difSculty nearly to the western end of the moun- 

 tain. The serra is a sharp-crested monocliual ridge, trending ap- 

 proximately E. S. E., W. N. "W., and much longer than Erere. The 

 southern side is exceedingly steep, almost precipitous, and wooded 

 nearly to the top, along which runs a line of low bluffs. The north- 

 ern side slopes off at an angle of 10°-15° in a series of beautiful 

 campos interspersed here and there with trees. This side of the 

 serra is scored deeply with deep parallel gorges that extend in many 

 cases up to and through the crest of the serra, which consequently 

 presents a notched appearance when seen from the south. 



The uppermost stratum observed near the crest of the serra was a 

 light bluish, nearly white, tough, not well laminated clay-rock, with 

 a large percentage of very fine sand in its composition. Beneath 

 this are beds of fine, clayey sandstone, white, mottled with purplish, 

 and with fucoid (?) casts, alternating with which beds are shaley 

 bands and layers of sandstone, the whole not well exposed. Then 

 follow about 4 inches of red shaley iron-stone, overlying a bed of 

 rather coarse sandstone about 10-15 feet in thickness, which forms 

 a bluff running along the upper part of the southern side of the 

 serra, while underneath are light purplish brown, fine-grained sand- 

 stones poorly exposed. The dip of the Tauajuri beds in the serra 

 is about 10°-15° towards the N. N. E. or N. E. 



I found the elevation of the serra at its highest point to be 850 

 feet above the level of the sea.* Tauajuri appears to differ entirely 

 from Erere in its geological structure. ' It is, indeed, true that I 

 examined only the upper beds of the series, but if the Erere sand- 

 stone were represented lower down, it is hardly possible that it 

 should not have shown itself in bluffs on the mountain side.f 



* I made but a single observation, and as the mountain looks much higher than Erere, 1 

 suspect that the observation may be unreliable. 



tTuajuri is resorted to by the Indians of Monte-Alegre for the purpose of gathering the bark 

 of the cumate or cumati tree {Apocynea vel Asdepidea follicularis f v. Mart. Cilossarios, p. 393, 

 sub voce cumat'i), the sap extracted from which is used to varnish the drinking gourds, for the 

 manufacture of which Monte-Alegre has been so long famed. The name of the tree appears to 

 be derived from Jcamy'g, milk, sap, and eU, true. Cumate probably more nearly preserves the 

 original form than cumati, but I suspect it is still a corrupt form. The sap is obtained from 

 the bark, I believe, by pounding and squeezing. The cuias are prepared as follows: Tha 



B'JL. BUF. 80C. NAT. SCI. (29) JANUARY, 1874. 



