To 
In connection with my work THe made E visits of 8 raonths each to Brezil. 
people in general Brafdl means Rio de Janeiro or the ^jnazon and its jimgles. 
But there's a great deal more to Brazil than that. It is larger thsin the U. S., 
excluding Alaska.. In the Pan American Building is a large relief map of latin 
America. This gives s Tlvid~representf->:tion^o£^ half the country is 
highland, all th^ eastern and southe-ra part, and geologists say it is one of the 
oldest land masses on the globe. Two peaks of about the same height, just under 
10000 ft., Itatiaia and Pico de Bandeira, in the mountain chain horde -Ing the 
coast are the highest points in Brazil. The rest of the upland lies between 1000 
and iooO ft., very broken, a ma^s oj: rugged mountains in the east, gradually 
to rounded hills ft otard^'^^^^^^^ west. Half way across I^aatt 
changing 
;to Grosso it becomes 
flat and lower until along Rio Paraguay it is not much above sea level. 
It is a land of palms and humming birds. Only in places in Jfetto CJrosso Is 
one out of sight of palms. A'Tavorite poem of the Brazilians begins: 
Minha terra tern palmeiras 
Onde camt' o sabia 
yiirie is a land of palm trees, where the sabia sings. The sebia 
is related to our robin. There are several species, some with songs startlingly like 
our robins^, but the sabia'^ beloved of Brazilians, has a r-^efy— lovely- sor 
thst of our hermit thrush. 
The coast ranges are mostly ?/ooded, called the matta, but westward the campos, 
open grassland or savannas of grass and scattered shrubs, begin. and stretch to Rio 
