ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
irrigation and for the generation of electric power. The 
most important harbour in the State is Santos. Ubatuba, 
Sao Sebastiao, Iguape, and Carranca are ports of less 
consequence. It is principally from Santos that the 
exportation of coffee takes place. 
The State extends roughly in a parallelogram from 
the ocean, southeast, to the Parana River, northwest; 
between the Rio Grande, to the north, and the Rio 
Paranapanema, to the south, the latter being two tribu¬ 
taries of the Parana River. The State can be divided into 
two distinct zones, one comprising the low-lying lands of 
the littoral, the second the tablelands of the interior, 
northwest of the Serra Cadias, Serra do Paranapiacaba, 
and Serra do Mar — along or near the sea-coast. The 
first zone by the sea is extremely hot and damp, with 
swampy and sandy soil often broken up by spurs from the 
neighbouring hill ranges. It is well suited to the cultiva¬ 
tion of rice. The second zone, which covers practically all 
the elevated country between the coast ranges and the 
Parana River, is extraordinarily fertile, with a fairly mild 
climate and abundant rains during the summer months. 
During the winter the days are generally clear and dry. 
It is in that second zone that immense coffee 
plantations are to be found, the red soil typical of that 
tableland being particularly suitable for the cultivation 
of the coffee trees. 
It is hardly necessary here to go into detailed statistics, 
but it may be sufficient to state, on the authority of the 
Directoria de Estatistica Commercial of Rio de Janeiro, 
that during the first eleven months of the year 1912, 
10,465,435 sacks of coffee were exported from Brazil — 
mostly from Sao Paulo — showing an increase of 548,854 
sacks on eleven months of the previous year. That means 
a sum of <£40,516,006 sterling, or £5,218,564 more than 
the previous year; the average value of the coffee being, 
in 1912, 58,071 reis, or, taking the pound sterling at 
18 
