TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



109 



higher moimtain ridges which run parallel from 

 north to south, of picturesque forms, something re- 

 sembling our lower Al})s, partly covered with wood 

 or young brushwood (Capoeira) skirt the plain. 

 The highest pomt over which the road passes 

 is the Morro de Catetuva ; from which we de- 

 scended into a broader valley, overgrown with 

 young wood, which is bounded on the east by the 

 Parapixinga, a pretty high wooded mountain of 

 rough outlines. About the poor village of S. Joao 

 de Atibaya, the country becomes broader. We 

 met here with a pupil of the surgical school of 

 Rio de Janeiro, who observed to us with much 

 naivete^ that the inhabitants of this country were 

 not at all worthy of having a surgeon among them, 

 because they were so seldom ill. In fact these 

 healthy districts are peopled by a robust race of 

 men, and only the syphilis makes great progress 

 among them, chiefly for want of proper treat- 

 ment. Northwards of S. Joao de Atibaya, several 

 chains of mountains run almost parallel to each 

 other The rock is a kind of granite, and the ex- 

 tensive growth of the brake (Pteris caudata) which 

 is unfavourable to agriculture, indicates the want 

 of active cultivators. Boa Vista, the highest 

 part of the mountain which we ascended, may be 



Gaudichaudias, Biittneria, Cnemidostachys, Palicureae, De- 

 cl'euxias, Escobedia scabrifolia, Eryngium lingua Tucani 

 nob., &c. 



