TOPOGEAPHY OF MINAS GEEAES. 



217 



Fig. 90. — Baebacena. 

 Scale 1 : 23,000. 



m^M 



selected as tlie federal capital. The commission appointed to examine the rival 

 claims and report on the most convenient site for the future metropolis of Brazil 

 has revived the idea of the Marquis de Pombal, who favoured S. Paulo. It 

 recommended in the first place Varzea do Marçal, in a pleasant gently sloping 

 valley, which stretches east of S. Joâo beyond the Kio das Mortes. Although 

 pent up in a narrow gorge with 

 steep escarpments preventing the 

 free circulation of the air, and close 

 to a deep sink where were formerly 

 collected the waters of the sur- 

 rounding mines, S. Jojio is a healthy 

 town. Varzea do Marcal would 

 appear to be still more favourably 

 situated on breezy terraces with 

 abundance of pure water and ample 

 space for expansion in the direction 

 of Tiradentes. 



The southern region of Minas 

 Geraes, wedged in between the 

 States of Rio de Janeiro and S. 

 Paulo, abounds more than any other 

 part of Brazil in thermal waters. 

 Here are to be found, within easy 

 reach of the capital and in a salu- 

 brious climate, all the restorative 

 conditions which so many citizens 

 of Rio travel yearly all the way 

 to Europe in search of. The hills 

 rising to the south of Campanha 

 bear the name of Serra das Aguas 

 Virtuosas, " Range of the Salutary 

 Waters," and the church erected 

 on the spot has been dedicated to 

 •' Our Lady of Health." 



Strangers have already been 

 attracted to the Lamhary springs, 

 near the river of like name, but in 

 less numbers than to those of Cax- 



ambu, a watering-place over two miles south-west of Baependy, at the foot of a 

 dome- shaped mountain. The six chief springs of this place, gaseous and alkaline, 

 resemble those of Coutrexeville. Other mineral streams occur at Coutendas, in 

 a neighbouring valley, and 125 miles farther west Galdas, formerly Onro Fino, 

 occupies the centre of another thermal region draining through the Rio Sapucahy 

 to the Rio Grande. In this rugged mountainous district Poços de Caldas, with its 



)> / 



A 



43°56' West oF Greenwich 





45°b5'27- 



1,100 Yards. 



