248 ELEVEN WEEKS IN NORTH-EASTERN BRAZIL. 



or less rounded, hummocky, and low, the highest being perhaps 700-800 

 feet in height, that any extent of the virgin forest is left. In some 

 places along the line patches of quite open country may be seen, which 

 are covered with grass, without trees or under-growth, and in general 

 character a good deal resemble our south downs. I at first thought they 

 were natural, but afterwards found out that they were inclosed spaces, 

 used for horses and cattle. The grazing has evidently prevented them 

 from becoming covered with a thick growth of capoeira, which always 

 covers the hills where these have been cleared for sugar and afterwards 

 allowed to lie fallow for a time. The destruction of the forests is still 

 going on, as new ground is continually cleared by burning and cutting 

 away the undergrowth for more sugar, so that in a few years there will, 

 if this goes on, be Jittle trace of the old forests left. 



Ibis, 1881, At Palmares the railway ceases, and henceforward all travelling and 

 p. 621. traffic has to be done on horseback, there being no roads in the interior 

 worthy of the name. The earthworks of the " Prolongamento " are now 

 nearly complete, only a few of the deeper cuttings and a tunnel or two 

 being unfinished. The line of railway now forms the chief road to the 

 interior ; but at this time, after the end of the rainy season, the stiff red 

 clay had become worked up, in most places, into the most frightful mud 

 conceivable, so that the horses were often up to their knees in it, and 

 the rate of progression in consequence was a walk. At Palmares I was 

 fortunate enough to fall in with the engineer-in- chief of the first section, 

 Dr. Abel, a most pleasant and well-educated Brazilian gentleman. He 

 too was going up country with the paymaster, so that I had the advantage 

 of his company and escort (two Brazilian troopers) for the first part of 

 my ride. As far as Barra do Jangada (a small village situated on the 

 river Pirangi, which falls into the Una near Palmares), about thirty miles 

 from Palmares, the country retains much the same features, though it 

 gradually rises towards the interior. The hills perhaps are higher, and in 

 some places, as around Catende, still pretty thickly covered with 

 " matto " (the Brazilian term for the virgin forest), there being less sugar- 

 cultivation here than nearer the coast. Towards Barra do Jangada 

 cotton appears for the first time, a sure sign of the increasing 

 elevation of the country. Biding along in this way I had no opportunity 

 of shooting, but from the saddle I saw many birds already seen or 

 secured. The " Sangre de Boi," however, disappeared soon after leaving 

 Catende, and I saw no more of it as we approached the Sertoes. Another 

 day's ride brought us to Quipapa, the most important town between Una 

 and Graranhuns. 



After leaving Barra the country gets decidedly more hilly and open, 

 and the forest begins to disappear, though many blackened and dead 

 trunks of old forest trees standing on the higher hills show that this is 

 due in large part to man's action. The soil is still clayey, restiog on 



