After having investigated these works, we took an excursion of 

 seven or eight miles, chiefly over a rich plain abounding with the 

 finest timber. On the margins of the rivulets which we crossed, I 

 observed that the moss was incrusted, somewhat like the tuffa at 

 Matlock ; and, on more particular examination, I found a stratum 

 of tuffst in all the valleys, a few inches below the surface, which, as I 

 conjecture, must have proceeded from the deposition of calcareous 

 matter by the overflowings of the streams after heavy rains. The 

 hills even at this distance were composed of the same sparry lime- 

 stone as at the gold-washing. It is much to be wished that the value 

 of this material were duly appreciated at the capital, where the cost 

 of the wood used in burning shells into lime exceeds the price at 

 which lime brought from Santa Rita might be delivered, if proper 

 roads were made for its conveyance from this district to Porto dos 

 Caxhes. Such an undertaking highly deserves the attention of His 

 Highnesses ministers ; the benefits likely to result from it are incal- 

 culable, and the expence attending it would be trifling ; for in no 

 part of the globe are roads made so cheaply, or public works of any 

 kind done on such moderate terms, as in Brazil. 



This fine but almost uninhabited district produces spontaneously 

 many valuable articles of commerce, which run to waste for want of 

 hands to. cultivate and gather them. Here is found that celebrated 

 variety of the palm-tree, the long, serrated, lancet-formed leaves of 

 which are composed of innumerable fibres, that rival silk both in 

 fineness and strength. I bought some fishing-lines made of them 

 for a mere trifle ; and I have no doubt that, if proper means were 

 employed to propagate the growth of the trees, this valuable sub-i 

 stance might be produced in as great plenty, and at as cheap a rate, 

 as flax is in England, .1 laid before His Highness's ministers a pro- 

 ject for using it as a substitute for that article in the manufacture of 

 fine cordage, and I shewed by experiment that it was fully adequate 

 to the purpose. 



