of a mass of native iron in Brasil. 277 
The rapidity of growth in plants is wonderful in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Bendego, although the main granite rock is 
so near the surface as to protrude in many places ; and what 
lies on it is chiefly a coarse gravel, consisting of rolled frag- 
ments of quartz, felspar and granite of the size of eggs, toge- 
ther with smaller pebbles and sand, which contains, of course, 
a great deal of mica, but hardly any vegetable earth. 
At about 40 leagues to the southward, are found hills of 
yellow and red sand stone, in which organic remains have 
not been found ; while to the northward, there is a formation 
of similar hills, in which are observed most beautiful impres- 
sions of whole fishes and remains of vegetables. 
Between the Bendego and the sandstone hills to the south- 
ward, I observed a great deal of what I certainly take to be 
basalt. I met with balls from the diameter of two inches to 
that of upwards of three feet, and numberless prisms, with 
three and with six faces, scattered about ; all of these small, 
that is to say, about three or four inches in length, and two or 
three in diameter. 
To the southward of the sandstone hills is a sandy plain, 
almost barren, extending many miles, perhaps 60 or 80, east 
and west to the sea, but not 20 in breadth, where I crossed 
it. Small conical hillocks are scattered over it, some of 
which, the largest, have flat tops, and appear all to be of the 
same height, about 20 fathoms. 
Appearances impressed me with the idea, that they were 
the remains of a plain which formerly extended over the one 
on which I then stood, but which had been washed away in 
a tumultuous manner by a violent current running nearly 
in an easterly direction. The larger hillocks appear to be 
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