PROVINCE OP PORTO SEGURO. 



301 



Mountains. — Those in the central and western parts are unknown. At the 

 northern extremity of the eastern side only is discovered the serra of 

 Aimores, the highest portion of which, denominated the Mount of John de 

 Siam, and the outer portion Mount Pascoal, is seen for many leagues at sea, 

 being the principal land-mark in this latitude. 



Mineralogy. — Gold, iron, granite, calcareous stone, white potters' earth, 

 with other argils, amethysts, topazes, and other precious stones. 



Zoology. — Domestic animals are in all parts very rare, if we except the en- 

 virons of the capital. In the woods are the deer, boar, tamandua, monkey, 

 anta, with various other species of this region, generally very numerous. Ounces 

 are here in the greatest number, and commit their depredations upon the sea- 

 coast from April to August, in consequence, it is thought, of the cold, which 

 makes them desert the western lands, and seek the vicinity of the sea, where it 

 is warmer. Hunters find with much facility the mutun, juru, macuco partridge, 

 jacu, jacutinga, aracuan, nhamba, capueira, parrot, and a diversity of the turtle 

 bird. The araponga, bicudo, and sabio are well known. The pavo, or peacock, 

 is little larger than the tucano, black, with the breast yellow and red. The 

 crijoha is something larger than the black-bird, and its change of colours beau- 

 tiful. The bees produce honey in the trunks of trees, supplying aliment to a 

 great many. 



Phytology. — Amongst many other trees of good timber are the vinathico, 

 aderno, avariba, anhuhyba, aricurana, anhahyba de rego,angelim, of different colours ; 

 also the biriba, buranhen, camacary, caixeta, cedar, cherry, conduru, grapiapunha, 

 guanandirana, hoyticica, jatahy ; of the jacaranda, are the sorts called cabuina, 

 mulatto and white; of the jucirana, white and green; the jiquitiba, inhuhybatan, 

 and the clove ; ipe, black and other sorts ; piqui, black, yellow, otherwise mirin- 

 diba; the potumuju, bow wood, oil wood, Brazil wood, oanandy, sapucaya, sobro, 

 sucupiracu, sucupira acary, tatagiba, white and green timbuhyba ; the jabuticaba, 

 the aracaza, the pindahyba, and various palm trees are well known ; the Asiatic 

 cocoa-nut tree is not very frequent. There is a tree, the leaves of which, when 

 broken, exhale the aromatic smell of the clove. The tree which produces the 

 pechurim, here improperly called mulberry tree, is rare, and its fruit not so fine 

 as that of Para. The soil is good for the culture of mandioca, the most 

 valuable produce of the country ; Indian corn, rice, and legumes grow in some 

 districts. Cotton trees prosper best in the vicinity of the sea, at least in many 

 situations. 



