TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



147 



necting branch between the Serra de Capivary and 

 Serra de Viruna, and have many loose fragments 

 of iron-stone, among which is hematite, lying 

 on their surface. The country is poetically ru- 

 ral, but lonely and desolate. The great and ex- 

 tensive forests which run along the declivities of 

 the valleys, and bound the feeding places of the 

 several fazendas, are almost the only indications 

 that the land is inhabited, as the farms are, for the 

 most part, concealed in side valleys. At one 

 of these fazendas, called Vittoria, where we passed 

 the night, is a large rancho built of stone. The 

 arrangement of these houses is similar to that of 

 the caravanseries in Persia and India. Every tra- 

 veller has a claim to the use of them, for which he 

 gives nothing to the owner, except that he usually 

 pays him a trifle for every mule which is put for 

 the night in the enclosed pasture. 



From this place the road leads N.N.E. over 

 several rounded mountains, either wholly bare 

 or sparingly covered with some composite flowers, 

 rhexias, and grasses, and which connect the main 

 branches of the Serra Mantiqueira that run from 

 S.E. and N.W. A short distance before we 

 reach the last of these high mountains, Morro de 

 Bom-fim, we passed the Rio das Mortes, which 

 winds through the pretty broad swampy valley 

 with its black waters, and having received some 

 tributary streams, joins the Rio Grande twenty 

 miles fi'om S. Joao d'El Rey. It was in this val- 



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