NOTES OX BRAZIL. 267 



reaches other plains, four miles in extent, which, from their aspect, as 

 well as their name, Campinhos, appear never to have been covered with a 

 forest. The soil is evidently a washed sand, formed by the decomposition 

 of granite, such as frequently occurs near the sea. There are evidences, 

 as it seems to me, that the ocean once flowed over it to the harbour of 

 Rio, or left only a small intervening tract of land near the village of 

 Jacarepua, — so called from Jacare, an alligator, and pua or pu, long. 

 As we quit the bay and get farther inland, the country advances in 

 pleasantness, the rocks are bolder, the forests richer, and the enclosed 

 valleys more thickly covered with gramma. 



At Pedreiros, a lone house in this neighbourhood, I once met with 

 a party of Swedes, who were on their way to St. Paul's, to work an iron 

 mine. It had been given out that the ore of this mine would yield 

 nearly ninety-five per Cent, yet the project failed, owing, it was said, 

 to the ignorance of the director. Whether he was deficient in the 

 necessary qualifications or not, I felt no surprise at the result, for this 

 interview left on my mind an unfavourable opinion of the artists and 

 their undertaking. Yet both the quantity and the quality of iron ore 

 in Brazil are truly astonishing ; there are considerable mountains of 

 almost pure metal. By a natural though selfish stroke of policy, the 

 people were not allowed to work it, before the emigration of the Court 

 fi'om Portugal. 



Proceeding a few miles farther, we come to the Church of St. 

 Antonio de Lamerdn, situated on the ridge of a gentle hill. The soil 

 round about it is strong and productive, but the spot seems beyond the 

 influence of the city, and unbenefited by a steady demand from any 

 other quarter. Advancing towards Santa Cruz, and in the general 

 neighbourhood of that place, more considerable mountainous ridges make 

 their appearance, and the low lands are in some parts encumbered with 

 water. Here the road is made of poles, laid parallel and close to each 

 other, so that there is a sort of solid track in the midst of it, while the 

 sides are sAvampy and wet. But notwithstanding some natural disad- 

 vantages, and a great deficiency of pains to counteract them, the 



