146 TRAVELS IX BRAZIL. 



made in coffee planting ; on the other hand, maize 

 ;and several kinds of beans, and, in the more 

 southern parts of the country, wheat, corn, and 

 flax, produce a plentiful crop. Fruits of Cauca^ 

 sian origin, particularly apples and peaches, thrive, 

 as well as all European vegetables. 



A traveller who goes iiom S. Paulo to Villa 

 Rica, will easily perceive, on accurate observation, 

 that the general appearance of the country gra- 

 dually changes when he has passed the boundary, 

 from which the waters flow southwards to the Rio 

 Grande, and northwards to the Rio de S. Fran- 

 cisco. While the Rio Grande, with the thunder- 

 ing noise of its fall, here takes leave, as it were, of 

 its native mountains, to flow to the lower countries 

 towards the west, it at the same time prepares the 

 wanderer for grander scenes of nature, which await 

 him as he advances farther to the north. The 

 mountains become more lofty and more steep ; 

 the valleys deeper ; massive rocks, on the summits 

 or in the vale, more frequently interrupt the ver- 

 dant slopes and plains ; the streams flow with a 

 more rapid course; sometimes he finds himself on 

 elevated spots which command a sublime prospect 

 of manifold insulated mountain tops and profound 

 valleys, sometimes he is enclosed between steep and 

 threatening walls of rock. All objects assume 

 more and more the features of a romantic or Alpine 

 country. We advanced north-east from the passage 

 of the Rio Grande, upon hills which form a con- 



