NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



42^ 



attire. They gave to the scene an uncommonly lively air, and both 

 parties met without suspicion ; although strangers seemed pleased with 

 the rencontre, and thus strongly indicated, as I thought, the good moral 

 culture and advantageous condition of the district. In paying to each 

 other the usual compliment of taking off the hat at the same moment, 

 and bringing it down behind the knee, a mule, which one of the stran- 

 gers rode, took fright, and had nearly plunged with him down the pre- 

 cipice, but the sure-footed animal recovered her step from the very 

 brink, and the rider having kept his seat with wonderful presence of 

 mind, restored the cheerfulness which had been for a moment interrupted. 

 There were several ladies in his company quite free from the sallowness of 

 the coast, and one whose features and complexion were uncommonly 

 beautiful, evincing that the place where they resided is a healthy one. 

 They were returning from a small Church, situated in a singularly broken 

 spot, near the summit of the hill. 



In this part of our ride, we passed a Tata Tree, whose trunk mea- 

 sured twelve feet round, and with this unusual thickness its height cor- 

 responded. It is mentioned here less on account of its bulk than as 

 displaying the inadvertence and negligence of the people. Though these 

 trees are abundant, and though when cut, either by accident or design, 

 they yield an extraordinary abundance of turpentine, so rich as to bear 

 the heat of a vertical sun, the Government allows deals, and rosin, and 

 turpentine to be imported from the United States or from Sweden, while 

 much of the latter, more than Brazil can want, runs to waste upon its 

 own soil. We passed also a crop of Barley, the first I had seen in this 

 part of the world, for although some years before pains had been taken 

 to introduce this species of corn into Rio Grande do Sul, there had been 

 no crop from it when I left that part of the Continent. At present 

 it is produced there in sufficient abundance. Part of this crop also had 

 been cut, but the ear was small and the corn ill-conditioned, probably 

 owing to its having been shorn while green, a practice for which the 

 people assigned no other reason than this general, and perhaps sufficient 

 one, the heat renders it necessary. 



