TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 211 



great tracts of forests, which have been cleared, 

 but, being since abandoned by the farmers, are now- 

 covered with thick brushwood of the Sambamjaba 

 {Pteris caudata). In the midst of this solitude 

 we met with a farm called Ourives, in the vicinity 

 of which gold is washed for. The formation here 

 is of a yellowish brown, fine and often ferruginous 

 clay-slate ; which contains nests and veins of au- 

 riferous quartz. Incumbent upon it is a red, 

 unctuous clay, sometimes of considerable thickness, 

 with which are mingled many fragments of white 

 quartz. These countries, however, are not so 

 rich by the metals which they produce, as by their 

 fertility, and it is to be expected, that the business 

 of mining will entirely yield to that of agriculture. 

 Maize bears in the first year 400 fold ; a harvest 

 of 200 is but moderate, and of 100 bad. 



The prospect became gradually more and 

 more confined ; we passed on the edge of thickly 

 wooded, frightfully deep precipices, and found 

 ourselves removed at once from light plains, into 

 the profound obscurity of the forests. Thick in- 

 terlacings of climbing plants, wreaths of flowers, 

 glowing in the greatest diversity of colours, con- 

 nect the gigantic trees, between which, scaly stems 

 of ferns form majestic dark green cool avenues, 

 through which the traveller passes in silent medit- 

 ation, sometimes only disturbed by the screams 

 of the parrots, the hammering of the woodpeckers, 

 or the howling of the monkeys. Except some 



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