cky cliff, we passed a
strange volcanic vent-hole with a pyramid of granite of large proportions
on each side of its aperture.

We arrived at the Roncador, a picturesque torrent flowing over a bed of
lava moulded in the strangest possible shapes, hollows, terraces and
grottoes. Most peculiar were the great concave hollows, circular, oval,
and of irregular form, which were innumerable and of all sizes along that
extensive flow of lava.

[Illustration: Hideous Types characteristic of Central Brazil.

Two women (left) and two men (right).]

We had travelled 30 kil. that day. That was such a picturesque spot that
I made camp on the right bank of the torrent. We were all amazed to find
an immense block of rock--resembling in size and form the Sphinx of
Egypt--balanced to a nicety over the edge of a conical rocky hill. It
was, of course, the work of nature. Why that rock remained there at all
and did not tumble down, was more than we could understand. There was
also a giant monolith and other strange-looking rocks of great size
standing up at all angles close by. On climbing the hill where the
Sphinx-like rock stood, I discovered a circular crater of great beauty,
300 metres in diameter. The western wall of the crater had been knocked
down, but on the eastern inner side, in the central part 150 ft. high,
there was a precipitous fall, then a huge smooth inclined plane of lava
at an angle of 15 deg. overlapping the top, where it had subsequently been
subjected either to violent earthquake shocks or other disturbing
influences, as it was badly seamed and fissured. Many segments had
crumbled down, leaving the remaining portion of a most extraordinary
shape. In the centre of the crater there stood a huge mass of rock 150
ft. high, which looked like an inclined table--a giant slab cleanly cut
at its angles, which protruded at great length outside the base formed by
broken-up blocks. On looking west from the summit of the extinct volcano
one obtained a marvellous view of the vertical cliffs between which the
Roncador River flowed.

Then there was a great table-land extending from north to south, composed
of red volcanic rock and white limestone. A separate red quadrangular
castle-like structure of immense proportions rose in the middle
foreground in the north-west upon a conical green grassy base.

Add to this wonderful work of Nature a magnificent sky of gold and
brilliant vermilion, as limpid as limpid could be, and you will