nd
range, which is separated from the Coast Range in the vicinity of Rio
de Janeiro by the valley of the Parahyba do Sul river, is known as the
Serra da Mantiqueira, and from the point where it turns northward to
form the eastern rim of the Sao Francisco basin, as the Serra do
Espinhaco. This range is also known under various local names. Its
culminating point is toward the western extremity of the Mantiqueira
range where the Itatiaya, or Itatiaia-assu, peak rises to an elevation
of 8898 ft. (other measurements give 9823 ft.), probably the highest
summit in Brazil. This range forms the true backbone of the maritime
mountainous belt and rises from the plateau itself, while the Coast
Range rises on its eastern margin and forms a rim to the plateau.
North of Cape Frio the Coast Range is much broken and less elevated,
while the Serra do Espinhaco takes a more inland course and is
separated from the coast by great gently-sloping, semi-barren
terraces. The second system--the Central or Goyana--consists of two
distinct chains of mountains converging toward the north in the
elevated _chapadao_ between the Tocantins and Sao Francisco basins.
The eastern range of this central system, which crosses western Minas
Geraes from the so-called Serra das Vertentes to the valley of the
Paracatu, a western tributary of the Sao Francisco, is called the
Serra da Canastra and Serra da Matta da Corde. Its culminating point
is toward its southern extremity in the Serra da Canastra, 4206 ft.
above sea-level. The western range, or what is definitely known of it,
runs across southern Goyaz, south-west to north-east, and forms the
water-parting between the Parana and Tocantins-Araguaya basins. Its
culminating point is in the Montes Pyreneos, near the city of Goyaz,
and is about 4500 ft. above sea-level.

The great part of this immense region consists of _chapadoes_, as the
larger table-land areas are called, _chapadas_ or smaller sections of
the same, and broadly excavated river valleys. How extensive this work
of erosion has been may be seen in the Tocantins-Araguaya basin, where
a great pear-shaped depression, approximately 100 to 500 m. wide, 700
m. long, and from 1000 to 1500 ft. deep, has been excavated northward
from the centre of the plateau. Southward the Parana has excavated
another great basin and eastward the Sao Francisco another. Add to
these the eroded river basin