mes appear again. But in his 12th edition of Purdy's
_Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory of the N. Atlantic Ocean_ (1865),
the existence of Brazil and some other legendary islands is briefly
discussed and rejected. (See also ATLANTIS.)

BRAZIL, a republic of South America, the largest political division of
that continent and the third largest of the western hemisphere. It is
larger than the continental United States excluding Alaska, and slightly
larger than the great bulk of Europe lying east of France. Its extreme
dimensions are 2629 m. from Cape Orange (4 deg. 21' N.) almost due south
to the river Chuy (33 deg. 45' S. lat.), and 2691 m. from Olinda (Ponta
de Pedra, 8 deg. 0' 57" S., 34 deg. 50' W.) due west to the Peruvian
frontier (about 73 deg. 50' W.). The most northerly point, the Serra
Roraima on the Venezuela and British Guiana frontier (5 deg. 10' N.), is
56 m. farther north than Cape Orange. The area, which was augmented by
more than 60,000 sq. m. in 1903 and diminished slightly in the boundary
adjustment with British Guiana (1904), is estimated to have been
3,228,452 sq. m. in 1900 (A. Supan, _Die Bevolkerung der Erde_, Gotha,
1904). A subsequent planimetric calculation, which takes into account
these territorial changes, increases the area to 3,270,000 sq. m.

_Boundaries._--Brazil is bounded N. by Colombia, Venezuela and the
Guianas, N.E., E. and S.E. by the Atlantic, S. by Uruguay, Paraguay and
Bolivia, and W. by Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and
Colombia. Its territory touches that of every South American nation,
except Chile, and with each one there has been a boundary dispute at
some stage in its political life. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns
attempted to define the limits between their American colonies in 1750
and 1777, and the lines adopted still serve in great part to separate
Brazil from its neighbours. Lack of information regarding the
geographical features of the interior, however, led to some indefinite
descriptions, and these have been fruitful sources of dispute ever
since. The Portuguese were persistent trespassers in early colonial
times, and their land-hunger took them far beyond the limits fixed by
Pope Alexander VI. In the boundary disputes which have followed, Brazil
seems to have pursued this traditional policy, and generally with
success.

Beginning at the mouth of the Arroyo del Chuy, at the southern extremity
of a long sandbank separating Lake Mirim from the