214 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



of European manners and civilisation ; the venda 

 was furnished not only with some of the most 

 necessary provisions, such as bacon, sugar, brandy, 

 maize, flour, but also with cottons, lace, iron- wares, 

 and similar articles. In the evening, the captain of 

 the place, a Portuguese, as a special mark of atten- 

 tion brought us some fresh bread, which he had had 

 baked for us of wheat flour. The gold washed in 

 the Rio Piranga is so fine, that it often forms a 

 thin skin floating on the water, and therefore can- 

 not well be separated, except by amalgamation. 

 In performing this operation, they expose the 

 amalgam in an open crucible to the fire, and catch 

 the volatilised mercury in a pisang leaf) formed 

 into the shape of a cornet. 



The succeeding day we passed near to the Venda 

 das duas Irmas, the sandy gravel ground at the 

 union of the Rio Turbo and the Rio Piranga, and 

 rode into a mountainous and woody country. 

 Damp clouds and fogs frequently veiled the sum- 

 mits of the forests (^Matto dos Furis) round us, and 

 reminded us of the autitonal season in our own 

 country. Towards evening we reached an elevated 

 and pleasant valley, and found a night's lodging in 

 a fazenda in the Capella de S. Rita. A much more 

 fatiguing journey awaited us the next day ; we had 

 scarcely traversed the well- watered valley when we 

 stood before the entrance of a forest, into which 

 the sun appeared never to have penetrated. The 

 gneiss and granite formation, which here basks out 



