EAST-BRAZILIAN HIGHLANDS 141 



East- Brazilian Highlands. The Amazon luxuriance 

 of plant life gradually diminishes over the coastal 

 lowlands, to die out towards Maranhao. To the east of 

 this, and down to Uruguay, stretches a vast and dry 

 tableland, covered with a more varied vegetation, which 

 may be divided into a northern part as far as the Tropic 

 of Capricorn and a subtropical part farther south. 



Northern Portion. The vast tableland is very much 

 broken by swift rivers running in deep valleys well 

 below the general level. It is carved into a distinctly 

 hilly landscape in the north-east, while it assumes a 

 smoother and more rolling surface to the south-west. 

 The climate is of a dry and hot description, with a 

 well-marked rainy season lasting from three to five 

 months. The variations of temperature, both seasonal 

 and daily, are great, ranging from 60° to 100° F., and 

 increasing still farther inland. The rainfall varies from 

 20 to 60 inches, and shows great yearly irregularities. 



In consequence, the character of the vegetation is 

 alike drier, poorer, and more varied than in the Amazon 

 basin. It ranges from the half-desert through the 

 savana to the light type of tropical forest. Chief 

 among the features of the hilly north-eastern corner of 

 Brazil, which may be called the ' sertao ' or half-desert, 

 come the dreary white woods or ' caatingas \ These are 

 bare and tangled jungles of low thorny tree-bushes, 

 interspersed with umbrella-shaped spondias and zizy- 

 phus, with swollen, water- storing bombax, and prickly 

 candelabra cerei, opuntias, and cacti, covered in places 

 with epiphytic bromelias, tillandsias, and orchids. The 

 woods are green and flowery for four to five months, but 

 look as if dead for the remainder of the year. The 

 lower bush, on rocky wastes, is even drearier and 

 thinner, with gnarled and stunted prickly acacias, 



