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have given himself the trouble of milking her, though they all had 

 been dying of hunger. 



On resuming our journey, we entered on a road still more steep 

 and rugged than that which we had passed. We were often obliged 

 to dismount and lead our mules up almost perpendicular passes, and 

 along fearful declivities. In some places, the thick foliage of the 

 trees, and that of the underwood, which grew higher than our heads, 

 sheltered us from the sun, and indeed scarcely admitted the light. 

 Not a bird did we see, nor the trace of any living thing, except 

 some wild hogs. We passed several bare granite rocks of a gneiss- 

 like formation. 



In journeying to the next station, we observed nothing worthy of 

 note except a small saw-mill, worked by an overshot wheel, of very 

 clumsy construction. The frame, which contains a single saw of 

 very thick iron, moves in a perpendicular direction ; at every 

 stroke, a boy brings the timber up, by pulling a cord attached to a 

 crank that moves the cylinder on which it rests. How readily, 

 thought I, would the meanest Russian peasant improve this machine ! 



We proceeded on our way up an ascent so precipitous, that 

 we were obliged to walk more than ride ; after two hours toiling 

 along the side of a granite mountain, in which we observed some 

 beds of fine clay, we reached the summit, from whence we saw the 

 bay of Rio de Janeiro, the sugar-loaf mountain, and the city itself, 

 to all appearance not more than four or five leagues distant from us, 

 though, in reality, more than twenty. At this elevation, which we 

 may state to be at four or five thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea, the air was sharp and keen ; the thermometer stood at 58°. Con- 

 tinuing in a north-easterly direction, we passed two poor solitary 

 farms, and entered upon a range of scenery tremendously grand, 

 composed of bare abrupt conical mountains, with immense water- 

 falls in every direction. At the close of day, we arrived at a farm- 

 house, called Fazenda do Moro Quemado, the manager of which 



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