398 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



It is common to plant trees, and even fences, by cutting pieces 

 from an old stock, and putting one end in the ground ; in the rainy- 

 season, this is sufficient for almost any kind of wood. I once put into the 

 ground, during the dry season, a row of stakes in this manner, watered 

 them for a few evenings, and when I left Brazil, they stood one of the 

 finest fences in the neighbourhood of Rio. On another occasion, I planted 

 some roots of reeds, which had been dug up and lain exposed to a Christ- 

 mas sun, for a whole month, and they flourished entirely to my satisfaction. 



About three miles from the Parahyba, the country opened before 

 us and presented a cliarming vale, which reminded me of that through 

 which the Tees flows, near Barnard-Castle. Lower down, we noticed that 

 the torrents had cut through the deep clayey soil, and exposed, imbeded 

 in it, a large quantity of rounded quartz. Still nearer the bottom, and 

 within a mile of the river, the rock itself appeared, and consisted of 

 gneiss with thick laminae, of various colours, grey, light brown, and 

 dark brown, inclining to red ; here and there intermingled with strata 

 of white feld-spar. All these strata lay parallel to the bed of the river, 

 and perpendicular to the plane of the horizon. The same conformation 

 of rocks was traced across the channel of the river, and nearly a mile and 

 a half on the other side of it. The water is about two hundred yards 

 broad, its course perfectly straight, where we cross it, and lies between 

 bold shores ; but at this time the bed was far from being full. Upwards 

 the view is exquisitely fine, for the bosom of the stream is broken by 

 numerous rocks, and adorned by two small islands, while the distant 

 landscape rises hill behind hill, forming points which tend toward the 

 river. Downwards the view is intercepted by a considerable eminence, 

 which turns the stream to the Southward, over the broad strata of the 

 rock, and through which it has worn and broken many a rough and 

 turbulent passage; from the summit of this rising ground is obtained 

 a fine view of the lower bed, and of the country through which the river 

 runs. The distance to the mouth of the Piabuna is reported to be fifteen 

 miles, and to St. Salvador, in the plains of Campos, almost sixty ; the 

 country, as far as the Falls of St. Fidelis, being composed of steep 

 mountains and narrow dells. 



