276 J. C. BRANNER — DECOMPOSITION OF ROCKS IN BRAZIL. 



covered with forests the lower slopes show the usual smooth, exfoliated 

 surfaces. 



Nearly all the small islands of gneiss along the coast both north and 

 south of Rio are beautifully rounded by exfoliation. '^ 



On the Parahyba above Campos the hills begin about three miles below 

 Sao Fidelis, and thence up that stream the exfoliated hills appear here 

 and there far into Minas and Sao Paulo. Some of the peaks near Sao 

 Fidelis are especial!}^ imi^ressive on account of their height, size, perpen- 

 dicular sides and their rounded faces. The topography as a whole is- 

 strikingly like that at and about Rio de Janeiro. 



The great Garrafao south of Limeira, on the northeast border of the state 

 of Rio de Janeiro, is another fine example of an exfoliated peak. It is- 

 completely isolated in the plain and has an elevation of 910 meters, f 

 Serra da Onga, about 18 miles north of Campos, is another gneiss peak 

 1,400 meters in height. Between the Garrafao and the Serra da Onya is 

 one of the most striking mountains of exfoliation to be seen along thia 

 coast — the Pedra Liza at the western end of the Morro Bahu. Mouche:& 

 gives the elevation of the Pedra Liza as 3,737 feet, and it rises smooth and 

 perpendicular on all sides. 



The Serra do Mar continues into the state of Espirito Santo with a vast 

 number of spurs and peaks and exhibiting everywhere the same general 

 topographic features as it does farther south. In the southern part of the 

 state the Serra de Itabapuana has some tall, needle-shaped peaks very 

 much like those of the Organ mountains, some of which are several thou- 

 sand feet high. The Frade is said by Mouchez to be 6,770 feet high. 



At Victoria the church of Nossa Senhora da Penha is built on the sum- 

 mit of an exfoliated peak of gneiss. 



Along the Jequitinhonha rounded gneiss hills are abundant from a. 

 short distance below Calhao to the Salto Grande on the boundary between 

 Minas and Bahia.J; 



There are a large number of conical hills of gneiss at and about the 

 city of Victoria, state of Espirito Santo, ^lonte Moreno, one of them, is 

 700 feet high ; Pao d'Assucar, another precipitous, almost vertical rock,, 

 is about 500 feet high. 



Vincent, in describing the country along the Central railway in Bahia, 

 says: 



" Near Tanquinho the hills assumed an appearance similar to those round about 

 the bay of Rio de Janeiro. I saw even a huge rock facsimile of the Sugar Loaf 



* For a sketch of one of the islands of Sant' Anna off Macah6 see Hartt's Geology and Phys. Geog. 

 of Brazil, p. 42. 

 fLes Cotes du Br^sil. M. E. Mouchez. Paris, 1S76, p. 180. 

 X Hartt : Geol. and Phys. Geog. of Brazil, p. 1G5. 



