106 



TRAVELS IN BRA^^IL. 



sists of a coarse-grained granite with reddish fel- 

 spar quartz, and a little mica. Large detached 

 pieces of rock, rounded off by the water, lay upon 

 the road and scattered through the forest. The 

 higher we ascended the more desolate and gloomy 

 did the way become ; at the height of about one 

 thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the 

 sea, we again met with those extensive and thick 

 plots of bamboos (Taguara) which on the granite 

 wooded mountains of this region occupy the land 

 between the forests and the campos, and are the 

 chief features in the physiognomy of such coun- 

 tries. The vegetation particularly resembles that 

 of the higher points of the Serra do Mar, towards 

 which the mountain chain extends, as a communi- 

 cating branch to the Serra do Mantiqueira. We 

 were just in the most savage and solitary part of 

 the mountain when several thunder-storms came 

 up, which the wind drove with such fury that they 

 resembled a furious hurricane. Wet through and 

 through, and exhausted with fatigue, we reached 

 at nightfall some miserable huts, called Jacare, in 

 the middle of a rude plain covered with bushes. 

 As the country became more lonely and wild the 

 difficulties of the journey appeared also to increase. 

 The next morning we discovered that several 

 mules, though they were tied together with ropes, 

 had run away from the pasture, and when we at 

 length found them, the Arrieiro, whom we had 

 brouglit with us from Ria de Janeiro, was missing. 



