5^96 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



want the assistance of strangers ; and that the mules, 

 though a httle galled by the saddles, were in per- 

 fectly good condition, we continued our journey. 

 The road leads constantly southward, through se- 

 veral narrow valleys, thickly covered with wood, 

 which are intersected by some rivulets, flowing 

 southward to the Paraiba. The mountain consists 

 of a gneiss, in part much decomposed, upon which 

 there are beds of slaty clay iron-stone, which is 

 in strata, and the direction of which is in hours 

 3 and 4 of the miner's compass. From the 

 highest point of the mountain, we saw behind us 

 three parallel chains, piled up in immense steps, 

 but before us only the lower Serra do Paraiba 

 At sunset we had descended from the high moun- 

 tain, and reached some poor huts in the deep 

 bottom of the valley of Tacasava, near a rapid 

 stream, which runs into the Paraiba. Several 

 caravans had already encamped here, who were 

 conveying fowls to Rio for sale. The dispro- 

 portion of the wants of a great city, and the 

 scanty produce of the environs, which are for the 

 most part still uncultivated, makes it necessary to 

 bring supplies from very remote districts. The 

 industrious Paulistas, therefore, carry their live 

 stock from a distance of about a hundred leagues, 

 to the market at Rio, where they dispose of them 

 to great advantage. The neighbourhood of these 

 feathered travellers, caused us this time a sleep- 

 less night. We observed, on this occasion, that the 



