NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



407 



very convenient kind of Bank Note, payable on demand, by the bar 

 which it represents, or exchangeable for Treasury Paper after date. 



On presenting my Passport at this place, some objections were 

 made to it, and at length the Superintendent told me it was such an 

 one as he had never seen before, I endeavoured to explain to him 

 that it was precisely such an one as every British subject ought to travel 

 with, that, as he might perceive, it was granted to me by the Minister of Po- 

 lice, upon the faith of his Britannic Majesty's Representative at Court, that 

 I had always obtained such an one, and had been permitted to enter, and 

 to travel, in other parts of Brazil, without difficulty ; that having been 

 signed by his Excellency, who held the chief place in the department of 

 the Interior, it ought not to be objected to by any inferior officer, without 

 some strong and urgent reason, which I presumed could not exist in my 

 own case. His Worship, after having listened patiently to my expostu- 

 lation, and consulted in a low tone of voice, with some of his associates, 

 counter-signed the document and dismissed me. 



At the place where we pass this stream the water is about a hundred 

 yards broad, and fifteen feet deep, with a smooth and sandy bottom ; 

 higher up it contracts itself to thirty yards, where the rapidity of the 

 current, between the rocks, produces a fall like that of London Bridge. 

 I am inclined to think, that the water sometimes covers the whole 

 expanse of the river, which is about two hundred yards, for in the space of 

 half an hour 1 observed that it rose nearly six inches, and within the 

 next half hour declined as much. Doubtless rain had fallen higher up 

 the stream, and the fresh, which it produced, had thus passed by us, but 

 in more general floods, the rocks must be considered as the bottom of the 

 river, and must be constantly worn by the water, while their lower and 

 softer parts, being frittered away, form channels for the stream in its 

 lowest state. The rocks consist of gneiss, and dip deeply to the South- 

 West, on both sides the river and in its bed, It may probably be from 

 the colour of these stones that the river derives its name, if it be written 

 Parabuna, or if Parahybuna be the proper mode, from the deep tinge 

 of the water. 



