EDILORIAWe 
THE ‘‘Commissao Geographica e Geologica”’ of the State of 
Sao Paulo, Brazil, has just issued its first topographic sheet —a 
preliminary edition of the “folha de S. Paulo.” This is a thirty 
minutes sheet on a scale of one to one hundred thousand with 
contours twenty-five meters apart covering the region between 
Sao Paulo and Santos, and including both of those cities. It 
crosses one of the most characteristic and interesting pieces of 
topography of all South America—the Serra do Mar. The bit 
of coast shown in the vicinity of Santos is also a character- 
istic one, while the high plateau of the interior is beautifully 
shown between the crest of the serra and the city of Sado 
Paulo. 
Among other things brought out by this map is the evidence 
of a late depression of the coast. The bay of Santos and the 
estuaries thereabout are the remnants of a once much larger 
island-dotted bay that extended from Guaruja on the present 
coast to Cubatdo at the foot of the Serra. The mud buried hills 
that protrude from the marshes about Santos are only the 
summits of mountains whose bases were carried beneath the 
ocean water by this depression. 
The map is printed in three colors: the hydrography in blue, 
the topography in brown, the remainder in black. In appear- 
ance it is up to the highest standards of modern map making, 
and reflects great credit upon everyone responsible for its 
preparation and publication. That such work has been pro- 
vided for by the State of S. Paulo, and that the people have had 
the patience to await the slow and tedious processes of triangula- 
tion, field work, office work, and all the other preliminaries of a 
good map, is the most healthful and encouraging evidence we 
have yet seen of the high intelligence and modern progress of 
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