NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



401 



There are no loose stones upon the beach, and hence I judge that a degree 

 of rottenness exists among the component parts of the rock, such as 

 appears in many stones thrown upon the coast of Rio, which retain the 

 gneisseous form, but, being pressed with the hand, crumble into dust. 

 From tliis and other circamstances it appears to me, that sea water sh wly 

 destroys the texture of gneiss, and, in a less degree, that of granite 

 itself ; while fresh water acts upon it chiefly, if not merely, by friction. 



I thought it possible to launch timber into this river, and let it 

 float down with the floods to St. Salvador, supposing that it would be 

 borne by them over every rapid, and probably over the Falls of St. 

 Fidelis ; but the people tell me that they have no timber naturally 

 buoyant in water, and are prevented from assisting it down Avith canoas 

 by the impossibility of returning against the current, and by the exist- 

 ence of savages,. Anthropophagi, on the banks of the river, through whose 

 country they cannot pass. At some future period, when these obstacles 

 shall have been overcome, this fine stream will doubtless be rendered one 

 of the most useful in Southern Brazil. 



This Register, though one of the first importance to the Province 

 and the State, is a contemptible building ; the rooms appropriated for 

 the Intendant and his Officers are of the meanest sort ; there is not a 

 stable, a field, nor a garden, not any thing in the shape of an inclosure, 

 or out-house attached to it, except a fowl-yard, a temporary erection of 

 reeds. Though a military station, no soldiers appear, no sentinel mounts 

 guard, no uniforms are seen, no discipline produces order. It affords a 

 genuine specimen of the miserable provision made by the Brazilian 

 Government for its Officers, and points to the true reason why they 

 acquire contracted modes of thinking, and habits of such mean and dirty 

 practices as present them to the finger of scorn. Inferior functionaries 

 can never support their own dignity, unless themselves supported by 

 their superiors. 



In the evening it was announced, that the chief person of the place 

 was about to pay me a visit : he was preceded by three or four young 

 men. I received him at the verge of our shed, and introduced him into 



3e 



