— 8 — 
This stratum appears to have been the horizon at which coal was 
first discovered in Santa Catharina. 
Visconde de Barbacena, the original concessioner of this mining 
district, gave me the following account of the first discovery of coal in 
Santa Catharina by a party of hunters, in the first half of the past cen- 
tury. 
The hunters, who were camping near the present siteof Barro 
Branco Velho mine, had placed some black-looking stones (as they sup- 
posed) for supports under a kettle in which some meat was being 
cooked. ies 
To their great surprise the stones took fire and burned. Vis- 
count Barbacena, to whom the story was related by one of the party, 
and who had become familiar with coal from his long residence in 
England, at once recognized the description as lumps of coal instead of 
ordinary black. stones, and lost notimeia visiting the locality, confir- 
ming his suspicions, and acquiring a concession of land about 14 kilo- 
meters square. 
Upon this concession, he formed a syndicate of English capitalists 
to exploit the coal, and market the sameover a railroad (Dona Theresa 
Christina) built by another English syndicate from Laguna, and Im- 
bituba to Minas. How that first mining enterprise in the Tubarao 
coal field failed through the extravagance, and mismanagement of the 
chief officers, is an old story in the Minas region. 
Barro Branco bedis the one upon which mining operations were 
begun by the English syndicate, at the locality shown as Barro Branco 
Novo on the accompanying detailled map of the region, 3 kilometers 
distant from the terminus of the railroad, and separated from itby a 
high ridge, the summit of which is known as Boa Vista. 
The coal was transported up this ridge by wire cable over a 
long gently inclined railway and lowered on the eastern side of 
the ridge by another cable over a much steeper slope to the Railvay 
Station at Minas. ; 
The coal was badly mined, with no attempt to purify, or free 
it from slate, and refuse. With so much expense incurred to place 
the coal. upon the cars, and on board steamers at Imbituba the 
word «failure» was written largeover the portals of the mine from 
the beginning, since it is reported that the first’ cargo of coal shippt 
ed to Buenos Ayres, which had cost 25 milreis per ton, brough- 
only 6 in the coal market. 
5569 12 
