274 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 113. 



tinent, which is generally known as the Serra das 

 Vertentes, — an improper designation, since a con- 

 siderable portion of the watershed is not, properly 

 speaking, mountainous. 



The mountains of the eastern group form a long 

 and comparatively narrow zone of about sixty miles 

 in maximum width in the provinces south of Kio de 



DIVERS. 



PROVINCES. 



(I. Funis. 



I. Amazonas. XI. Bahia. 



h. Jurua. 



II. Para. XII. Esprito Santo. 



i. Javary. 



III. Maranhao. XIII. Rio de Janeiro. 



.7". Negro. 



IV. Piauhy. XIV. Sao Paulo. 



k. Branco. 



V. Ceara. XV. Parana. 



1. Jequitinhonha. 



VI. Rio Grande do Norte. XVI. Santa Catharina. 



m. Doce. 



VII. Parahyba. XVII. Rio Grande do Sul 



n. Parahyba. 



VIII. Pernambuco. XVIII. Minas Geraes. 



o. Rio Graude. 



IX. Alagoas. XIX. Goyaz. 



p. Tiete. 



X. Sergipe. XX. Matto Grosso. 



q. Paranapanema. 





r. Iguassu. 





A. Amazonas. 



B. Paraguay. 



C. Parana. 



D. Uruguay. 



E. Sao Francisco 



F. Parnahyba. 



a. Tocantins. 



b. Araguaya. 



c. Xingu. 



d. Tapajox. 



e. Madeira. 

 /. Guapore. 



Janeiro, which widens to four or five times that 

 width in the southern part of the province of Minas 

 Geraes, but becomes reduced to a width of from 150 

 to 200 miles in the region to the east of the Sao Fran- 

 cisco. In the provinces of Parana, Sao Paulo, Rio de 

 Janeiro, Espirito-Santo, and the south-eastern part of 

 the province of Minas Geraes, where this group attains 

 its greatest development, there are two well-defined 

 parallel ranges, the Serra do Mar and the Serra da 

 Mantiqueira, which extend from south-west to north- 

 east. The culminating points are the peaks of the 

 Organ Mountains, in the Serra do Mar, at the head 

 of Rio Bay, 2,232 metres high; and Itatiaia, in the 



Serra da Mantiqueira, at the angle of the three 

 provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Minas 

 Geraes, with 2,712 metres of elevation above the 

 level of the sea ; this last being the highest point 

 of the empire. Somewhat to the north of Rio de 

 Janeiro the culminating line of the group passes 

 from the Serra da Mantiqueira, which continues in a 

 north-easterly direction, to a branch, 

 which, under the name of Serra 

 do Espinha^o, extends north, or a 

 little east of north, along the east- 

 ern margin of the Sao Francisco 

 basin. The highest points of this 

 range are the peaks of Itacolumi 

 (1,752 metres) and Caraca (1,955 

 metres), near Ouro Pre to; the peak 

 of Piedade, near Sabara (1,783 me- 

 tres) ; and Itambe, near Diamantina 

 (1,823 metres). The mountains of 

 this group become lower in the prov- 

 inces north and south of those above 

 indicated, and to the northward of 

 the Sao Francisco are represented 

 by short detached ranges and iso- 

 lated peaks. 



The western mountain group con- 

 sists of at least two distinct ranges, 

 — that of the Serra da Canastra, or 

 Matta da Corda, extending in a gen- 

 eral northerly direction from the 

 head waters of the Sao Francisco to 

 the southern rim of the basin of its 

 great western tributary the Paraca- 

 tu; and the mountains of southern 

 Goyaz, extending in a north-east- 

 erly direction between the heads of 

 the Tocantins, Araguaya,and Parana 

 basins. The first is an offset from 

 a broad expansion of the Manti- 

 queira Range, which, in southern 

 Minas Geraes and northern Sao 

 Paulo, extends westward to, and 

 somewhat beyond, the head of the 

 Sao Francisco. Its culminating 

 point is the Serra da Canastra, at the 

 source of the Sao Francisco, which 

 rises 1,282 metres above the sea. 

 The limits and extension of the 

 Goyaz chain cannot be definitely 

 traced, as the accounts of the geol- 

 ogy of the region are too meagre to enable one to dis- 

 criminate between the true mountains of upheaval 

 and the ridges produced by denudation from horizon- 

 tal strata. It is thus impossible, at present, to state 

 how great a part of the various watersheds radiating 

 from the Goyaz Mountains as a centre should be 

 classed with them, or whether any of these ridges con- 

 stitute, or not, a distinct system. The culminating 

 point of the system is the Montes Pyreneos, near the 

 city of Goyaz, whose height is variously estimated at 

 from 2,310 to 2,932 metres, the former being proba- 

 bly nearest the truth. 

 The great tablelands (composed of horizontal or 



