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time on the decline, and employs about 200 negroes. The in- 

 tendant, a very intelligent man, had been apprised of our coming by 

 aletter from the governor at Tejuco, and gave me avery friendly recep- 

 tion. While engaged in conversation with him, I observed (it being 

 now moon-light) some fine cows in front of the premises, and con- 

 cluded that they were come to be milked, but this I understood was 

 not the case. They were licking the door-posts and sides of the 

 houses with much apparent eagerness, and, on enquiring what this 

 signified, I was told that they wanted salt. They were so tame and 

 gentle that, on holding out my hand, they licked it ; when, being de- 

 sirous to see the effect which salt produced on them, I procured 

 some, and gave them a handful : but they became so very unruly 

 for more, that had I not immediately desisted and retired, their fury 

 might have produced serious consequences. — This article is so ne- 

 cessary for the support of the cattle, that their very existence de- 

 pends on it, yet it is encumbered with a heavier duty than any other 

 article of import, iron alone excepted. Surely, when it is considered 

 that vast herds are daily sent from this province to Rio de Janeiro, 

 each paying a toll of nearly twelve shillings on crossing the river 

 Paraibuna, the impolicy of this duty must be self-evident, because, 

 in raising the price of the commodity to an excessive degree, it 

 checks the breed of cattle, and thus ultimately defeats the purpose 

 for which it was imposed. 



The next day, before we left this romantic place, I devoted some 

 time to an examination of the refuse-hillocks contiguous to the 

 diamond works, but found nothing among the heaps of quartzose 

 stones, which had been washed when this place was more in repute. 

 I here noticed a thin stratum below the roots of the grass, which I 

 had elsewhere seen, but never so distinctly characteristic. It is 

 called burgalhao, and consists of quartz pebbles, generally angular, 

 and not unfrequently large beds of solid quartz not more than four 

 or five inches thick. This stratum does not appear to have been 

 formed at the same time or by the same means as the cascalhao, 



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