TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. _ 289 



been burnt during the late dry months, were now 

 used for the new plantations. We, on the con- 

 trary, were of course greatly incommoded by the 

 rain, which came down all night in streams, or in 

 fine mist, and by the cold which accompanied it. 

 Our baggage suffered considerably by the sudden 

 increase of damp, and among our collections, the 

 insects and plants in particular, were covered with 

 a yellowish mould *, the formation of which no 

 care can prevent. We hoped, indeed, that after 

 crossing the second chain of mountains which 

 stretches from N.W. to S.E. towards the sea, we ■ 

 should find a more favourable climate ; but in this 

 we were deceived, for we had continued rainy 

 weather for several weeks. The roads, which are 

 mostly heavy clayey soil, became nearly impassable, 

 and the swelling of the rapid torrents, through 

 which the drivers had often to carry the baggage 

 on their backs, greatly delayed our progress. 



This second chain of mountains, from the most 

 northern valleys of which two of the chief sources 

 of the Paraiba, namely, the Paratininga and the 

 smaller Rio Turbo, flow, consists, like the first, 

 entirely of granite, which, here and there adopting 

 a scaly structure, passes into gneiss. 



In several places of the Freguezia of Bananal, 

 which leans on a hill, the mountain masses showed 



* It was the same Eurotium herbariorum Link, which, among 

 us also, makes its appearance in our herbals in damp weather. 



VOL. I. U 



