NOTES ON BRAZIL. 395 



The soil to-day, as far as Riberam, has been of the richest desJ?.-^. .xon, 

 and the land frequently enclosed, sometimes with live fences of Mi- 

 mosa ; but we now change the scene, and enter upon a sort of Yorkshire- 

 looking iMoor, where we find a dry bare sand, generally brown, but 

 in two or three instances white, and sometimes consolidated into stone. 

 At the summit, which is about six or seven hundred feet above the 

 stream, reside a number of Blacksmiths, who gain their living by 

 making horse-shoes ; for the Government very unwisely imposes a heavy 

 duty upon all unwrought iron, which passes the Register farther 

 on. Among these artists is a division of labour, which I never saw 

 in any other part of Brazil ; for the people, who forge the shoes, do not 

 make the nails. We laid in a stock of both, and paid for them in 

 unwrought iron, a quantity of which my guide had brought on his 

 own account. 



Shortly afterwards we passed the village of Pedro Moreiro, consisting 

 of six or seven comfortless huts, situated on tlie declivity of a hill, 

 where the country opens extensively to the North, and shows that we 

 are entering upon some broad vale, probably that of the Pyrahyba. This 

 view is gained from a considerable elevation, whence, far below, we reach 

 Governo, a place pleasantly situated at the junction of three small dells, 

 down each of which flows a stream, ploughing the ground more deeply 

 than any I have yet noticed in the granitic part of Brazil. The soil has 

 again become almost equally rich with that which we passed in the early 

 part of the day, and I understand that we have reached the neighbour- 

 hood of some very large sugar plantations. 



Upon several of those estates which we have passed, I have observed 

 that a blacksmith was at work, and began to think that such a mechanic 

 was connected with every large establishment ; to-day however, I have 

 been undeceived, for, while resting here, an itinerant one arrived, driving 

 before him a small half-starved mule, loaded with a pair of small black- 

 smith's bellows on one side, and a box of tools on the other ; a bargain 

 was soon made with the keeper of the venda, and a little old building 



was opened, which contained a forge of brick-work ; the man soon 



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