154 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



more beautiful and striking. After two days' march 

 by the chapel de S. Eustachio, and the fazenda de 

 Camaboao, we passed the river Paraopeba by a 

 wooden bridge. From this river the labourers 

 have washed a great deal of iron-sand, which they 

 call tin-sand, and which, on an accurate analysis, 

 we found to contain admixed chromium and man- 

 ganese. Senhor Da Camara, the intendant of the 

 diamond district, had the goodness, when we were 

 at Tijuco, to give us a considerable quantity of it. 

 On our left hand lay the mountains of Camaboao, 

 then the Serra Negra, which forms the boundary 

 between the comarcas of Rio das Mortes, and of 

 Sahara. On this tract the granite in several 

 places stands out, and the white quartz or talc-like 

 mica-slate, in the direction of S.W., is incumbent 

 on it. A small species of palm* was often scat- 

 tered on the road-side : it was just then in flower, 

 and bees of various species hovered about it. 



W e left the small hut, which had received us at 

 the Ponte do Paraopeba, before daybreak, in order 

 to avoid the heat of noon. The country about us 

 continued to assume a character of grandeur, which 

 reminded us of the Alps of our native country. 

 All nature was reanimated ; we rode with feelings 

 of pleasure through the morning mist, and breath- 

 ed a delicate cool air, filled with the fragrance of 

 the pretty Alpine flowers, spangled with dew, which 



* Cocos flexuosa, Mart. Palm. Bras. fol. t. 82. 



