Notions on the Chorography of Brazil (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 Excerpt: ... are sought after on account of the purity of the air and healthy dwelling places: there are two seasons, the rainy, which is called the winter, and which commences in January or as late as March and lasts till June, and the dry season or summer which lasts till the end of the year; that first season is, however, irregular, as two years and more sometimes elapse without rain falling: the losses then are extraordinary; but from the moment that the first rains fall, vegetation shoots up with such prodigious fertility that the past evil is soon forgotten. PHYSICAL ASPECT. From the illustrious senator Senor Pompeio de Souza Brazil, we learn the following from his writings: "The surface of the ground is generally irregular; low and almost a swamp on the coast, it rises gradually up to the Cordillera of Ipiapaba, where it attains the height of 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea; the interior opens out in great spaces of table land and grassy plains, and bristles with rocky points, and stony heights, and with some cool mountain ranges, but of small extent." The geological construction of the land is altogether volcanic, for the greater part covered by calcareous and alluvial soil. As to its quality it may be divided into three kinds: on the borders of the sea (fresh and fit for culture); hilly (fresh, productive, and covered with woods); interior (dry, crossed by plains, rocky hills, and brooks, which only run in the winter season, but productive of rich pasture). OROGRAPHY. The principal Cordillera is that of Ibiapaba, which commences at Timonha on the coast, below Granja, and encircles the province from north-east to south-west finally linking itself to the western chain or that of the Vertentes, having before that taken various names; beside...