ow elevation--only 1,300 ft. above the sea level. We were
travelling over immense quantities of marble pebbles and volcanic debris.
We there made the acquaintance of the _gramadin_, a plant with curved
spikes, which seldom attained a height of more than one inch above the
ground. It was terribly poisonous if touched.

We went over three successive ridges (elev. 1,300 ft.). On the summit of
each ridge we found a profusion of marble debris and even large blocks
immaculately white or else yellow--probably rendered of the latter colour
by contact with iron, plentiful in that region.

On the summit of the sixth ridge (elev. 1,330 ft.), that day, we came
upon large sheets of foliated rock--again almost absolutely vertical in
its stratification--and great masses of thin slate plates or foliations
extending from east to west.

Farther on, from a high point, 1,450 ft. above the sea level, we could
gaze once more upon a gorgeous panoramic view of the marvellous scenery
we had left behind--the great plateaux of rock as red as fire, and
"Church-rock" looming high against the sky. We kept on rising upon
various undulations--that day's march was one of continuous ascents and
descents. At 1,600 ft. we found more masses of vertically foliated slate,
ashes consolidated into easily-friable sheets, and large quantities of
beautiful marble.

To the north and north-east we had delightful scenery, the _pao d'arco_
trees in full bloom, of a reddish-purple colour, adding greatly to the
vivid colour-scheme of that view, with its cobalt blue of the distant
mountains and the Veronese green of the campos in the foreground. Nearly
all the ridges we had crossed which extended from north-east to
south-west were well rounded--fairly well padded with sediments of earth,
sand and ashes.

[Illustration: A Giant Dome of Lava.]

[Illustration: Campos and Chapada of Matto Grosso.]

We descended to 1,300 ft. (above the sea level) through thin forest, in a
valley where bamboo was abundant as well as _gamelleira_ trees with their
winged roots of great size. The _gamelleira_ was somewhat larger than the
_garappa_ or _garabu_. We found in that valley a beautiful grove of
_akuri_ palms, the palms being 10 to 15 ft. high. In going
through--cutting our way with _falcons_--long heavy-bladed knives
specially made for cutting through forests--we were much worried by
spiders' webs of great size, from which we had trouble in extricating our
heads and hands as we