TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 51 



nema, with its incredible abundance in iron ore, 

 will be able to supply, not only Brazil, but all the 

 rest of the American continent, with that metal. 



The mountain which produces this extraordinary 

 quantity of ore, rises behind the place, a quarter of 

 a mile to the west, and extends, as a rather insulated 

 mountain ridge, a league in length, from south to 

 north. The elevation above the Ypanema is about 

 1000 feet. It is ahnost every where covered with 

 thick woods, from which, in the morning and 

 evening, the noisy howls of the brown monkey 

 {Mi/cetes Jiiscus*) are heard. We ascended it, 

 taking the narrow road through the bushes, by 

 which the mules bring the ore to the manufactory. 

 After we had gone winding up the mountain for a 

 short way through thick wood, we found ourselves 

 all at once before some gigantic rocks of magnetic 

 iron-stone, which rise almost perpendicularly to the 

 height of forty feet and more. Around them, 

 partly upon, and partly under, the surface of the 

 ground, which is a very rich mould, lie innumer- 

 able loose pieces, from the size of a fist to consider- 

 able blocks. The surface of the masses of rock 

 is almost everywhere flat and even, with slight 

 depressions and cavities, and has a crust of imper- 

 fectly oxydated iron-stone, which is some lines thick. 

 We did not observe that the great masses caused 

 any motion in a suspended needle, but small pieces, 



* Spix : Simiarum et Vespertilionum brasiliensium species 

 novae, &c. Monachii, 1823. fol. tab. xxx, 



E 2 



