This Cordillera Loses Itself Northward,* Between Minas Novas And The Southern Extremity Of The Capitania Of Bahia, In 16 Degrees Latitude.

(* The rocky ridges that form the cataract of Paulo Affonso, in the Rio San Francisco, are supposed to belong

To the northern prolongation of the Serra do Espinhaco, as a series of heights in the province of Seara (fetid calcareous rocks containing a quantity of petrified fish) belong to the Serra dos Vertentes.) It is there more than 60 leagues removed from the coast of Porto Seguro; but southward, between the parallels of Rio Janeiro and Saint Paul (latitude 22 to 23 degrees), in the knot of the mountains of Serra da Mantiquiera, it draws so near to the Cordillera of the shore (Serra do Mar), that they are almost confounded together. In the same manner the Serra do Espinhaco follows constantly the direction of a meridian, towards the north; while towards the south it runs south-east, and terminates about 25 degrees latitude. The chain reaches its highest elevation between 18 and 21 degrees; and there the spurs and table-lands at its back are of sufficient extent to furnish lands for cultivation where, at successive heights, there are temperate climates comparable to the delicious climates of Xalapa, Guaduas, Caracas and Caripe. This advantage, which depends at once on the widening of the mass of the chain and of its spurs, is nowhere found in the same degree east of the Andes, not even in chains of more considerable absolute height, as those of Venezuela and the Orinoco. The culminant points of the Serra do Espinhaco, in the Capitania of Minas Geraes, are the Itambe (932 toises), the Serra da Piedade, near Sabara (910 toises), the Itacolumi, properly Itacunumi (900 toises), the Pico of Itabira (816 toises), the Serras of Caraca, Ibitipoca and Papagayo. Saint Hilaire felt piercing cold in the month of November (therefore in summer) in the whole Cordillera of Lapa, from the Villa do Principe to the Morro de Gaspar Suares.

We have just noticed two chains of mountains nearly parallel but of which the most extensive (the littoral chain) is the least lofty. The capital of Brazil is situated at the point where the two chains draw nearest together and are linked together on the east of the Serra de Mantiqueira, if not by a transversal ridge, at least by a mountainous territory. Old systematic ideas respecting the rising of mountains in proportion as we advance into a country, would have warranted the belief that there existed, in the Capitania of Mato Grosso, a central Cordillera much loftier than that of Villarica or do Espinhaco; but we now know (and this is confirmed by climateric circumstances) that there exists no continued chain, properly speaking, westward of Rio San Francisco, on the frontiers of Minas Geraes and Goyaz. We find only a group of mountains, of which the culminant points are the Serras da Canastra (south-west of Paracatu) and da Marcella (latitude 18 1/2 and 19.10 degrees), and, further north, the Pyrenees stretching from east to west (latitude 16 degrees 10 minutes) between Villaboa and Mejaponte). M. Eschwege has named the group of mountains of Goyaz the Serra dos Vertentes, because it divides the waters between the southern tributary streams of the Rio Grande or Parana, and the northern tributary streams of Rio Tucantines.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 273 of 332
Words from 143173 to 143734 of 174507