A MOUNTAINOUS REGION 
that point flowing northward. Seventeen kilometres 
farther we entered the neat-looking village of Curralhino 
(elevation 2,600 feet), with two squares and streets 
actually with names to them. We were from this point 
on the main route between Sao Paulo and the capital of 
Goyaz, and also met there the telegraph line between 
Goyaz and Sao Paulo. 
We were getting near the capital of the province. 
A little more life was noticeable in this settlement than 
in those we had met before. Caravans of mules and 
horses occasionally passed through, and bullock-carts, 
with eighteen and twenty oxen, slowly and squeakily crept 
along. We were going through a region that was more 
than hilly, almost mountainous, the first of the kind we 
had encountered since leaving the railway. 
At Camp Maria Alves we were at an elevation of 
8,006 feet. Beautiful crystals were to be found at and 
near this place. Many were enclosed in hard envelopes 
of yellow lava, which contained besides semi-crystallized 
matter easily crushed; to be strictly accurate, the 
imprisoned infinitesimal crystals were easily separated, 
under gentle pressure. Some spherical balls and pellets 
of lava I picked up, when split, contained red, baked 
earth, which had evidently been subjected to intense heat. 
In the centre of these pellets one or more crystals of great 
clearness were invariably to be found. These pellets must 
have been expelled with terrific force from a volcanic vent, 
and must have travelled great distances, for the depression 
where I found them had a surface of alluvial formation. 
On April thirteenth we again rose over a range where 
we encountered a good deal of igneous rock and quantities 
of beautiful crystals. We had a range to the west of us 
and one higher and more important to the northeast, the 
latter more broken up than any we had so far seen in the 
three last provinces crossed. We somehow missed now 
the lovely pasture lands of the day before, so refreshing 
85 
