350 Quaternary De2)osits, Etc. — Mills. 
stream at Marianna at 2,332 feet. From Marianna to Serro 
the road crosses streams flowing to the Doce at elevations be- 
tween 2,300 and 2,000 feet. The crest between Mono Grande 
hamlet and Cocaes village is 2,837 feet. Going off the main 
route, the Rio das Velhas at the little hamlet of Raposas is at 
the same elevation as the hamlet of Mono Grande on waters 
of the Doce, namely 2,302 feet, while the crest between the two 
is 3,956 feet at the saddle where the road crosses it. To re- 
turn to the direct route : the village of Serro is 2,707 feet ; the 
hamlet of Itaipaba on a stream flowing to the Gequitouhana, 
2,465 feet and the city of Diamantina 3,714 feet. This last 
elevation agrees with that given for Diamantina by Geber ; it 
is but 72 feet lower than that of Barbacena. 
The route from Porto Novo da Canho leaves the Parahyba 
at that place at an elevation of 509 feet (R. R.), crosses the di- 
vide between the waters of the Parahyba and Doce (the Mont- 
iqueira range) at 2,402 feet (R. R.), and at the village of San- 
ta Rita do Turvo on waters of the Doce is at an elevation of 
2,257 feet (R. R.). 
The elevation of some of the principal peaks of the region 
are given by Val Delden Laerne in his work on Brazil and 
Java without reference to authorities as follows : Itacolumi 
5,748 feet, Caraca 6,414 feet, Itambe 5,981 feet, Piedade 5,850 
feet. 
These elevations are given because the elevation and con- 
tour of the surface have a very important bearing on the char- 
acter and history of the Quaternary deposits, and because 
they are the result principally of Quaternary upliftings. The 
region is a mountainous one with steep slopes both of uplift 
and erosion. The streams flow in deep, V shaped channels 
except where the material is such as to strongly resist erosion, 
and I did not see between Barbacena and Diamantina any 
plains of considerable size except two which will be below de- 
scribed, both preserved from erosion by a hard, thick pave- 
ment of oxides of iron. 
The rocks consist of gneiss, slates, and micaceous sandstones 
(itacolumites, etc.) with a few exposures of limestone and 
trap, and extraordinarily large masses of oxides of iron. The 
rocks as a whole contain an unusually large proportion of ox- 
ides of iron, and in the sandstone and slate series there are 
many and very massive deposits of specular hematite which 
