It Presented Such A Contrast
To The Free-Labor Establishments Of The Mauritius, Which I Have Since Seen,
Where, With
Not one tenth of the number of hands, or such good soil,
a man of color had, in one year,
Cleared 5000 Pounds by a single crop,
that I quote the fact, in hopes it may meet the eye of Donna Anna.
The water of the river is muddy, and it is observed that such rivers
have many more mosquitoes than those which have clear water.
It was remarked to us here that these insects are much more numerous
at the period of new moon than at other times; at any rate,
we were all thankful to get away from the Senza and its insect plagues.
The whole of this part of the country is composed of marly tufa,
containing the same kind of shells as those at present alive in the seas.
As we advanced eastward and ascended the higher lands, we found eruptive trap,
which had tilted up immense masses of mica and sandstone schists.
The mica schist almost always dipped toward the interior of the country,
forming those mountain ranges of which we have already spoken
as giving a highland character to the district of Golungo Alto.
The trap has frequently run through the gorges made in the upheaved rocks,
and at the points of junction between the igneous and older rocks
there are large quantities of strongly magnetic iron ore.
The clayey soil formed by the disintegration of the mica schist and trap
is the favorite soil for the coffee; and it is on these mountain sides,
and others possessing a similar red clay soil, that this plant
has propagated itself so widely.
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