ADMINISTRATION OF BRAZIL, 



291 



"town," are often less than a tenth of the number given for the whole raunicipio. 

 Hence travellers arriving at a " city " with a reputed population of 10,000 or 

 20,000 find themselves sometimes landed in a wretched village, where it is not 

 always easy to procure " accommodation for man and beast." 



In 1877 Brazil comprised altogether as many as 910 municipaliiies, of which 

 258 were classed as cities and 6-32 as towns. A group of municipalities consti- 

 tutes a comarca, which is defined to be an area of territory subject to the juris- 

 diction of a Juiz de Direito, and which is divided into a number of freguezias. 

 Hence some of the comarcas, especially in the less thickly peopled reo-ions, cover a 

 space of thousands of square miles. 



Other divisions prevail in the military and naval administrative departments, 

 while for trade purposes and the collection of customs Brazil is grouped in 

 five prefectures — two fluvial (Amazons and Matto Grosso), and three maritime, 

 those of the north, centre, and south. 



In the appendix is a table of the twenty States, with approximate areas and 

 populations. 



