LAST DAYS IN BRAZIL. 205 



two ridges descending from the Corcovado, forest clad 

 throughout, and with " chacaras " (country houses) peeping 

 out of groves of palms and clumps of bananas in clearings 

 in the forest. Leaving the tram-car at its terminal point, 

 40 metres (131 feet) above the sea, at 1.45 p.m. I began 

 the ascent, and, proceeding over a very rough, zigzag road, 

 reached the fine broad main road, leading to the hill of 

 Santa Theresa, at a height of 220 metres (621 feet), at 

 which point I came to the railway in course of construction, 

 which is being built by a private company, from Laran- 

 geiras to the summit of the Corcovado, on the central cog- 

 wheel system — also employed on the Petropolis railway, 

 which I shall hope to describe when I have visited it. At 

 the point where I reached the railway, it crosses a very 

 high viaduct on a steep incline ; the bases of the piers are 

 of stone, and the superstructure of angle and tee irons, on 

 which rest the girders (three spans, lattice), carrying the 

 cross girders and rails, a hand-rail being placed on each 

 side. Seen from above, or, indeed, from either end, this 

 viaduct looks very awkward, the rails having a very ugly 

 S curve — the cross girders being also laid to the same 

 curve — which is decidedly objectionable. The engineering 

 features at this point are the most remarkable part of the 

 line, as the railway, after crossing the viaduct over a deep 

 gorge, enters a tremendous cutting on a curve, with a still 

 stififer gradient of perhaps one in five, the cutting being at 

 least a hundred feet deep. Leaving the viaduct, I walked 

 up this cutting and proceeded partly over the banks and 

 through the cuttings of the railway and partly by the road, 

 making occasional short cuts along steep by-paths, in- 

 specting en route the works of the railway and the well- 

 constructed stone abutments at the edges of deep gorges, 

 which are to be spanned by girders. The whole route lay 



