November i, i8qo.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
33t 
vinoial Assembly in 1870 authorized the President to 
disappropriate the land, declaring it of public benefit. 
Iq three years the Government spent some £3,000 
in trying to make the waters useful to the publio, but 
with very poor results, as the money was spent use- 
lessly. Then it was thought they could be better de- 
veloped by private enterprize, and a concession was 
given to Dr. Jose Gaetano dos Santos, and he raised 
a company in Eio de Janeiro in 1873 under the name 
of Don Pedro 2o Thermal springs. Unfortunately the 
Company did not succeed, it is said they did nothing 
at all and in 1880 Dr. Jos4 Gaetano dos Santos was 
notified by the President of the province that his 
contract was rescinded. After publio competition the 
right to make baths, build hotels &c., was given to 
some private individuals, who after bartering and 
selling parts of their rights, and speculating, the 
proprietors are now reduced to poor persons. It is 
said that up till now there has been spent by 
the syndicate from first to last some £10,000. 
The syndicate had a good deal to do, for they 
found the springs in almost their primitive condi- 
tion, a series of holes full of boulders and mud, 
as the tapir and wild boar had left them. These 
animals made the same use of them as your 
buffalos make of a muddy hole or wet paddy 
field. The first thing to do was to build ois .erns 
for enclosing the springs. There was little difficulty 
in doing this, as the pudding-stone rock, through 
which the water comes, was reached at from 3 to 4 
feat from the surface. The names of the first three 
so enclosed are Pedro BotiUio, Chiqidnha, and 
Mariquinha- There was greater difficulty in the 
canalization, for the water could not be taken far 
without losing heat on the way to the baths. This 
was successfully eSeoted : the water of these three 
springs was united and conducted in pip.°s to the 
bathing establishment by gravitation. This was in 
1882. The temperature of these three is from 44° to 
45° (Centigrade 112° to 113* Pahr) ; at the springs and 
baths can be taken at the establishment at ii7“ Gent. 
(98° Fahr.), which is blood heat. There is another 
fountains some GOO metres further away named 
Macacos. The baths from it are taken at 35“ Cant, 
(or 95 ° Fahr.). At the funt this one has a temperature 
of 42“ Cent, (107“ Fahr.) It is of this one 
that water can be drunk if so ordered. The rule 
seems to be to take a bath at the general baths 
during the day and in the cool evening take a 
walk to Macacos, to have a drink, the distance 
from the bath-rooms to Macacos being GOO metros 
about a third of a mile ; but as I said above 
the water from Macacos is also canalizsd and 
brought to the bathing establishment losing some 
of its heat on the way. The two cisterns of Macacos 
water at the bath-house hold 4,500 gallons each. 
Interpretive analysis 
Residual analysis. 
Sulphuric acid 
Silica 
O.arboaio acid 
Ohlorine 
Lime 
Potash 
Soda 
...00566 
...0 0200 
.. 0-2 -93 
...0-00-12 
...0-0110 
...0-0165 
...0-2973 
Organic matter and 
stones ...00191 
Magnesia and iron 
traces 
Total. ..0-6540 
As to gases lOcc, 6 were 
encountered p w litre being 
the same at all the fonts, 
(aulph hydric acid) nitrogen 
and sulphurated hydrogen 
in equal portions. 
of 1 kilogramme of water 
Grammes 
Sulphate of potash...0 0305 
Sulphate of soda ...0-0'’58 
Chlorurete of soda...0 0069 
Carbonate of lime ...0 0195 
Carbonate of soda ..0-4450 
Silic-a ...0-0200 
Sul-ph hydric acid ...0-0027 
Nitrogen ...0 0013 
Organic mater and 
stones ...0-0191 
Carbonate of magne- 
sia traces 
Carbonate of iron 
traces 
Total. ..0-6206 
The complaints the waters are said to cure, or to 
assist medical treatment, are scrofula, chronic rheu- 
matism in all its forms, chronic bronchitis, catarrh 
of the lungs, asthma, diabetes, functional paralysis, 
female complaints, and effects of mercury in the 
system. 
The visitors to Caldas are not confined to those 
Buffering from the above, but it is beginning to be 
looked on as a sort of resort for people who feel 
seedy, and for families going to spend a month or 
six weeks for a change of air. There are nion views 
from the tops of the hills which surround tho 
little town, and being 4,000 feet above sea level, the 
climate in the hottest part of the year (barring the 
rain) is very agreeable. 
Visitors from Eio if they go by rail spend one 
night in S, Paulo and next afternoon they are at 
the wells. Return tickets are given which extend for 
a month, these would not exceed £7 for first class: 
the hotel and bath charges would be about 12 
shillings per day. 
I have mentioned that the rock through which 
these waters come is a conglomerate, or pudding- 
stone, composed of gravel and stones of various 
sizes with a binding matter of hydrosilicate of 
lime. The geological formation is no doubt volcanic. 
But let us return to our journey and our old 
friend coffee whom we seem to have last sight of. 
From Moygmirim to Oisabranoa at which place 
we arrive after a run of some 27 miles from Cas- 
oavel (where the junction of the Caldas branch 
is) ; very little coffee is to be seen. The land is 
what is called eatnpj, unJulating, and covered with 
illuk grass. These campos are burned every year 
whether it be the ewuer’s wish or not, if ha do 
not set fire to them, some mischievous person 
does. Those lires are dangerous thmgg, for often 
forest land and dwelling-houses get involved in 
them, and there is no way of finding out who the fire 
raiser is. Of course one may expect that this keeps 
the ground in a dry baked state, and not fit to 
grow any kind of crop. The young herbage which 
shoots out from the roots of the burnt grass is 
very sweet and is greedily eaton by cattle, horses 
and sheep. I should say that nine-tenths of the 
land one sees along the line from Mogy to Casa- 
brauoa is of this class. 
At Oasabranoa commences the new districts for 
coffee which were begun to be cultivated after tha 
railway agitation mentioned above. The great 
pioneers here were the family of Prado. Antonio 
Prado who was for some time Minister of Agriculture 
and Martinho Prado, junior, who was Provincial 
Deputy, did so much to encourage immigration of 
Europeans, and was the means of effectually put- 
ing an end to buying and selling slaves, being "tha 
agitator for levying a heavy tax on all slaves 
entering from other provinces. These two and 
their father Martinho Prado, senr. were amongst 
the first to give unconditional liberty to their 
slaves before the emancipation law was passed, 
and finally they were tho foremost advocates for 
unconditionaljliberty being given at once to ail which 
I have already noted. But as this letter has run out 
to a length which may try your patience I must 
leave what more I have to say for another occasion. 
Rio, July -28th, 1980. 
A (S'.— I intended to have given you some notes 
on our political situation, but the ‘ John Elder” 
has come in, and goes away sooner than I 
expected. The Republic of Brazil is doing well. 
I have some notes and translation in pencil on 
the constitution, which will be revised by the 
constituent assembly in November next, but I 
shall write them out for the New Zealand steamer 
on 31st. 
