LAST DAYS IN BRAZIL. 205 



two ridges descending from the Corcovado, forest clad 

 throughout, and with " chacaras " (country houses) peeping 

 out of groves of palms and clumps of bananas in clearings 

 in the forest. Leaving the tram-car at its terminal point, 

 40 metres (131 feet) above the sea, at 1.45 p.m. I began 

 the ascent, and, proceeding over a very rough, zigzag road, 

 reached the fine broad main road, leading to the hill of 

 Santa Theresa, at a height of 220 metres (621 feet), at 

 which point I came to the railway in course of construction, 

 which is being built by a private company, from Laran- 

 geiras to the summit of the Corcovado, on the central cog- 

 wheel system also employed on the Petropolis railway, 

 which I shall hope to describe when I have visited it. At 

 the point where I reached the railway, it crosses a very 

 high viaduct on a steep incline ; the bases of the piers are 

 of stone, and the superstructure of angle and tee irons, on 

 which rest the girders (three spans, lattice), carrying the 

 cross girders and rails, a hand-rail being placed on each 

 side. Seen from above, or, indeed, from either end, this 

 viaduct looks very awkward, the rails having a very ugly 

 S curve the cross girders being also laid to the same 

 curve which is decidedly objectionable. The engineering 

 features at this point are the most remarkable part of the 

 line, as the railway, after crossing the viaduct over a deep 

 gorge, enters a tremendous cutting on a curve, with a still 

 stiffer gradient of perhaps one in five, the cutting being at 

 least a hundred feet deep. Leaving the viaduct, I walked 

 up this cutting and proceeded partly over the banks and 

 through the cuttings of the railway and partly by the road, 

 making occasional short cuts along steep by-paths, in- 

 specting en route the works of the railway and the well- 

 constructed stone abutments at the edges of deep gorges, 

 which are to be spanned by girders. The whole route lay 



