WOODWORTH: GEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO BRAZIL AND CHILE. 115 
south Brazil are more or less patent to every visitor. The dissection 
of the coastal slope and the depression of the resulting Serra do Mar 
has given rise to commodious harbors so uniformly wanting because 
of the unlike geological structure and form on the west coast of South 
America. But the Serra do Mar renders ingress to the country 
exceedingly difficult and possible for roads and railways only along 
certain routes. Back of the Serra do Mar for the most part the lands 
slope toward the interior of the continent, and the large rivers, naviga- 
ble by small boats, serve only with ease to carry commerce into the 
interior. The transportation to the coastal border of the plateau is 
everywhere upgrade making the export of the products of plantations 
and the forest more costly than the importation of foreign goods, 
an item of cost which is offset on the inward journey by the necessity 
of ascending the Serra do Mar, and, to reach the trap plateaus, of 
surmounting the Triassic escarpment. Transportation is naturally 
slow to develop, except where peculiar conditions, such as give rise 
to the rich coffee-fields of Sio Paulo, have repaid the construction of 
railways. 
The recently uplifted plains of alluvium bordering the harbors afford 
the sites for the first settlement of the sea-coast. The variable relief 
of the dissected front of the Serra do Mar furnishes stations for resi- 
dence at altitudes great enough for Europeans, whose affairs require 
their daily presence in the federal capital, to escape the languishing 
effects of a continuous abode in the hot zone at sea-level, but the way 
to these retreats calls for special and costly methods of transportation, 
as in the case of the route to Petropolis. Owing to the mountainous 
relief of the coastal slope of the Serra do Mar and the luxurious growth 
of tropical vegetation the inhabitants enjoy outlooks unsurpassed in 
any land. As a scenic route for the traveller the railway journey 
from Paranagua to the summit of the Serra through the defile of the 
Ypiranga is surprisingly pleasant, and at many points exciting. 
The contrast between this region and the surface of the plateau is 
striking. The tableland is the seat of production. Variations in the 
geological character of the surface modified by altitude and rainfall 
come sharply into play. In northern Sao Paulo and adjoining parts 
of Minas Geraes the soils known as terra roxa and terra vermehlo 
developed by decomposition of the trap sheets which invade the 
Permian terrane afford under the peculiar conditions of rainfall there 
existing the richest coffee-fields in the world. Farther south the 
Devonian and Carboniferous sandstones present less favorable 
conditions. Open campos or prairies characterize much of the region 
underlain by Palaeozoic strata. 
