158 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



particularly during the dry months. Between 

 Chapada and the Fazenda Joze Correa, which is 

 only three leagues from it to the N.N.E., where 

 we passed the night, the formation of the mountain 

 is exactly the same as we had observed the day 

 before. Beyond the picturesquely situated farms, 

 Rodeio, rises the Serra de Oiro Branco, higher 

 and steeper than Da Solidade, taking the direction 

 of E.S.E. to W.N.W, Its nucleus also consists of 

 white quartzy mica-slate, upon which thick layers 

 of variegated mica, divisible into large plates, are 

 incumbent. In the valley formed by this moun- 

 tain, which is watered by several crystal streams, 

 the iron formation is very evident in many places. 

 Large masses, similar in their direction and strati- 

 fication, consist of a bed of red brown iron-stone, 

 and even of a rich iron mica-slate ; the octahedrons 

 of magnetic iron-stone lie in great abundance de- 

 tached along the road. The iron mica-slate is ob- 

 served, especially in the neighbourhood of a green- 

 ish grey mica, and is easily decomposed. As the 

 layers of the latter are subordinate to the granular 

 quartzy mica-slate, and alternate with the iron 

 mica-slate, it is not uncommon to find pieces in 

 which these three rocks appear together. 



The road over these beautiful mountains con- 

 tinues to ascend, and unfolds to the eyes of the 

 traveller, at every step, new and interesting objects. 

 Manifold views of the valleys, in which the scat- 

 tered farms become more numerous the nearer 



