TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



namely, a pretty coarse-grained granite, with much 

 grey and silvery mica. Several colonists have 

 settled in the valleys by the side of small streams, 

 and their extensive plantations of Turkish wheat 

 give the first appearance of culture to those lonely 

 tracts. The third mountain ridge, Morro For- 

 moza, resembles by its bolder forms, larger and 

 irregular masses, the mountains round about Rio, 

 and constitutes the frontier of the provinces of Rio 

 and S. Paulo. Along the road, which runs south- 

 westward throuo^h the mountains with manv wind- 

 ings, there is exposed in many places granite, with 

 large foliated very ferruginous mica, and in it 

 small veins of disintegrated red iron-stone, the di- 

 rection of which is in hour 2 of the miner's com- 

 pass, in very considerable angles of inclination ; 

 likewise very large pieces of compact brown 

 iron ore, and large masses of hard white quartz 

 occur here and there. From the Morro Formoza, 

 which forms the limit of the territory, and divides 

 the rivers in this eastern branch of the Serra do 

 Mar, the road gradually declines through low 

 mountains, which are more open and agreeable, 

 and where population and culture increase. The 

 richness of the scenery indemnified us for the 

 fatigues which the bad roads and the frequent 

 showers of rain occasioned ; in particular, these 

 parts seemed to be the resort of the most beautiful 

 butterflies, which, with tlieir gay shining wings, 



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