GREAT WAVE OF MOLTEN MATTER 
depression or dip. On the south-southwest two more great 
domes of wonderfully perfect curves were to be observed, 
and on the southwest stood an isolated, gigantic, quad¬ 
rangular mountain of solid rock, with the usual buttresses 
in the lower portion typical of that region. 
To the southeast a square-shaped plateau of marvel¬ 
lously graceful lines stood prominent in the centre of the 
basin. In the same direction, only a few hundred yards 
off, was a most peculiar, angular rock, which looked exactly 
like the magnified crest of an immense wave. That was 
just what it had been formerly: the wave, of course, of a 
gigantic, molten mass of rock, set in violent motion by an 
immeasurable force. It was the terminal point of the great 
succession of rocky waves which we had skirted to the 
north in order to arrive at that point, and which extended 
from the great semicircle we had passed the previous day. 
At the terminal point of those rocky waves, or 
wherever the rock was exposed, it was evident that all 
those undulations had received a similar movement and 
had formed the great backbone range of rock, fully 
exposed in the last undulation. I had observed the 
continuation of this great rock crest the previous day in 
the basin previous to reaching the Capim Branco valley. 
There it crossed the spur on which I was — “ Observation 
Spur,” I shall call it for purposes of identification — 
almost at right angles. It seemed as if two forces had 
been acting simultaneously but in different directions, and 
at various points had come into conflict and eventually 
had overrun each other. 
The last great, rocky crest at Capim Branco, when 
seen in profile, looked like a huge monolith with a slight 
inclination to the southeast. The formation of the rock 
itself showed a frothy appearance, such as is common with 
any liquefied matter while in a state of ebullition. 
It is quite possible, too, that the great wave of molten 
matter travelling from northeast to southwest, upon 
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