204 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



other in tlie Serra do Mar system. On the outer slopes the erupted rocks have, 

 for the most part, been transformed to the famous terra roxa, " red earth," which 

 yields such magnificent crops to the coffee growers. In some places this formation 

 has a thickness of 60, 100, and even 220 feet. The colour is of a duller red than 

 that of the terra vermclha or massapé, which occurs in many other parts of Brazil, 

 and which is derived from the disintegrated granites of those regions. Agricul- 

 turists thoroughl}^ understand the different shades of colour in all these lands, the 

 market price of which is, in fact, determined by the particular hue of the soil. 



On the Parana slope many of the uplands are sufficiently level to take the 

 name of campos — broad expanses under grasses or low plants contrasting with the 

 primeval forests and ca^weiras or thickets of second growth. Although the 

 campos have been enlarged by conflagrations, they do not appear, as many assert, 

 to owe their existence exclusively to the action of fire. These treeless regions 

 certainly receive a sufficient rainfall to nourish an arborescent vegetation, for the 

 trees now and then planted by the half-nomad settlers readily take root and 

 flourish without artificial irrigation. 



Rivers — Coast Streams. 



On the seaboard between the States of Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul 

 the chief watercourse is the Ribeira de Iguapé, whose headstreams, rising on the 

 inland plateaux, pierce the Serra do Mar through deep gorges. In its lower 

 course the Iguapé flows close to the coast, and even throws off a branch three 

 miles lono- which ioins the Cananea inlet. But the mainstream trends north- 

 eastwards to the coast at a point where the sea is open and free from reefs. Small 

 steamers ascend the Lower Iguapé and even its two aflluents, the Juquia and the 

 Jacupiranga. In Santa Catharina the chief river is the Itajahy, which traverses 

 the German settlements, and is thus better known although inferior in size and 

 volume to the Iguapé, whose catchment basin probably exceeds 11,000 square 

 miles. 



The Serra-abaixo, " Piedmont," or narrow strip of coastlands between the Serra 

 do Mar and the Atlantic, has been entirely formed by marine deposits. In the 

 sandstones covered with shifting dunes are embedded stems and roots bearing a 

 great resemblance to the present magnolia trees. These deposits have certainly 

 been covered by the ocean within a comparatively recent period, and several 

 successive movements of upheaval and subsidence would appear to have taken 

 place. The cliffs containing vegetable remains reveal eight or ten distinct strata 

 of varying thickness, all disposed horizontally. One of these strata, consisting of 

 a nearly pure limonite iron ore, has been formed in marshy waters. According to 

 Karl Rath the whole of the South Brazilian coast between Rio de Janeiro and Rio 

 Grande do Sul is at present rising. The old Indian graves, and the tambaqui or 

 shell -mounds occurring in large numbers along the beach, all stand at a height 

 of 40 to 80 or 90 feet above high water, although they must have been originally 

 deposited at sea-level. 



