ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
spurs and daggers, calicoes, gaudy wearing-apparel, 
perfumery, and so on. 
For any one interested in the study of the effects of 
erosion on a gigantic scale, no more suitable country 
could be found than Central Brazil. Here again to the 
east-northeast of Caldas stood the Serra do Sappe. In 
this case it was not a tableland, like the Serra de Caldas, 
but purely a hill range. The plateau of Serra de Caldas, 
I was told, measured on its summit 12 kilometres by 18 
kilometres. 
Again, after leaving Caldas, we went through most 
wonderful grazing ground to the northeast and east of 
our route, at the foot of the Serra do Sappe. We had 
descended to the Rio Lagiadi, 2,480 feet above the sea 
level, which flowed into the Pirapitinga River (a tributary 
of the Corumba). Once more did we admire, that even¬ 
ing, the remarkable effect of solar radiation, this time 
a double radiation with one centre — the sun — to the 
west, and a second centre, at a point diametrically 
opposite, to the east. Those radiations, with a gradually 
expanded width, rose to the highest point of the celestial 
vault, where they met. The effect was gorgeous indeed, 
and gave the observer the impression of being enclosed in 
the immeasurable interior of an amazingly beautiful 
sea-shell, turned inside out. 
We arrived in the evening at the farm of Laza 
(elevation 2,450 feet), where we had to abandon the 
wounded mule, and also another which, on coming down 
a steep incline, had badly injured its fore-leg. 
The pack-saddles used in the interior of Brazil (Minas 
Geraes, Goyaz, and Matto Grosso) were the most im¬ 
practicable, torturing arrangements I have ever had to 
use on my travels. The natives swore by them — it was 
sufficient for anything to be absurdly unpractical for 
them to do so. It only led, as it did with me at first, 
to continuous unpleasantness, wearying discussions, 
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