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parts it is confined by shelving rocks of quartz, through which it 

 runs rapidly ; in others it takes a serpentine course, and forms 

 eddies, which are called caldrones, on account of their resemblance 

 to the cavity of a boiler. The bed of the river, though confined, 

 has a stratum of cascalhao of variable thickness, which, after the 

 current has been diverted, is dug up, and washed in the same way 

 as at Jigitonhonha. The caldrones, or holes, formerly eddies, but now 

 partly filled with cascalhao, so as to be no more than three or four 

 feet deep, are frequently found to contain many diamonds ; one of 

 them, which was cleared by four men in as many days, produced 

 one hundred and eighty carats. 



Rio Pardo, though paltry and insignificant in its appearance, has 

 produced as large a quantity of the most precious gems as any river 

 in the district. The rough blueish-green-coloured diamonds, for- 

 merly so much esteemed by the Hollanders, continue to be found 

 here, and the stones of this rivulet are to this day reputed the most 

 valuable in Brazil. The accompanying substances are somewhat dif- 

 ferent from those of the washings at Mandanga ; here is no bean-like 

 iron ore, but a considerable quantity of fiiinty slate-like Lydian stone, 

 in various shapes and sizes, and very small black oxide of iron ; the 

 earthy matter is also much finer than at the above place. I was in- 

 formed that there remained as much unworked ground as would oc- 

 cupy a hundred negroes full twenty years. 



Rio Pardo runs about a league to the westward of Capelho Velho, 

 which is a chapel on a mountain, washed at its base by a stream 

 called Corgo de Capelho Velho, which some years ago was worked, 

 and produced diamonds of great size and superior brilliancy. The 

 rivulets to the eastward of this ridge of mountains run into the Jigi- 

 tonhonha ; those to the westward have their course into the Rio 

 Velho, which flows into the Rio de San Francisco. The height of 

 the mountains I had no means of ascertaining, but they are con- 

 sidered as undoubtedly the highest in Brazil. The air in this ele- 

 vated region is pure and rather keen ; the thermometer in the morn- 



H It 



