traffic was so small that for nearly ten years the annual receipts did not cover working expenses; the deficit had to be made good out of the seven per cent. guarantee of the Imperial Government. At the close of 1868 the aggregate deficit for eight years amounted to 120,000l. Since then the affairs of the line have been every year improving. The Government shares represent 20,000l.

The Pernambuco line cost 1,825,000l., being fifty per cent. over the original estimates upon which the Government guarantee was given, on a length of 80 miles. The Imperial Government holds 700,000l. worth of shares. The working expenses are two-thirds of the gross receipts, and the shareholders' dividend chiefly depends on the Government guarantee.

There are no fewer than fifteen lesser railways or branches being constructed, besides numerous roads, canals, bridges, docks, and other public works of the most useful description. At the same time a submarine cable to unite Brazil with Europe is being contracted for by Baron Manà, who engages to have it complete before the end of 1874. Another great enterprise is the diversion of Bolivian trade from the Pacific to the Amazon by means of Colonel Church's Mamorè and Madera

Railway, which will connect the settled parts of Bolivia with the head-waters of the chief affluents of the Amazon.

But far surpassing all other schemes in magnitude is that of importing thousands of Germans and Englishmen to colonise the splendid provinces of Rio Grande, San Paulo, Santa Catalina, &c. Messrs. Crawfurd, Kitts, and Hodgskin have arrived in Rio Janeyro to arrange for sending out 150,000 English emigrants in batches up to 10,000 yearly. At the same time contracts have been concluded for 40,000 Germans to San Paulo, 60,000 to Rio Grande, and other smaller numbers for elsewhere; showing that colonisation is now the great aim of the Brazilian Government.

I.

PROVINCE OF RIO GRANDE.

At the southern extremity of the vast empire of Brazil we find the rich and favoured province of Rio Grande do Sul, otherwise called San Pedro, which, although one of the smallest provinces of Brazil, is yet three times the size of England, having an area of 8,925 square leagues (of 16 square miles each), or 142,800 square miles English. Its situation between the twenty-ninth and thirtyfourth parallels of south latitude, gives it a finer and more temperate climate than any other part of the empire.

It is bounded on the north by the provinces of St. Catherine's and Parana, on the south by the republic of Banda Oriental, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Upper Uruguay, which separates it from the Argentine Misiones and Corrientes. By the treaty of 1852,

the frontier with the Oriental Republic was defined as the mouth of the Chuy on the Atlantic, and the mouth of the Quareim on the Uruguay. The frontier line had been a constant bone of contention in the time of Spaniards and Portuguese, and no fewer than three special commissions, in 1759, 1789, and 1790, were sent to mark the limits on the part of the two Crowns, and at last agreed to the mouth of the Pepiry-Guassù, which is now the point of demarcation between the Brazilian and Argentine territories.

Its greatest measurement from east to west is 500 miles, and from north to south 400 miles. A range of hills, called the Coxilha Grande, traverses the country from north to south, forming two watersheds, the eastern with an area of 4,325, the western 4,600 square leagues. At the same time an equally remarkable bisection of the country is made by the Serra Geral, running east and west, all the northern half being high and mountainous, the southern low but undulating. The Serra Geral is sometimes called Serra do Mir, and all the other ranges, Serra Herval, Tapes, Pinhal, San Javier, are so many ramifications.

The country is magnificently wooded and watered, and the mountain ranges add to its picturesque

appearance, although no higher than the hills of Derbyshire. The highest point of the Sierra Geral is Passo Santa Victoria, 3,200 feet over the sealevel.

The principal rivers are the Jacuhy, Gravatahy, Sinos, Cahy, Guayiba, Camaquan, San Gonzalo, Yaguaron, Quarahim, Pepiry-Guassù, Ibicuhy, Upper Uruguay, and tributaries.

The Jacuhy is the most considerable of the four affluents which form the splendid estuary of Guayiba. It rises near Cruz Alta in the Serra Geral, waters the towns of Cachoeira, Rio Pardo, Santo Amaro, Triumfo and San Jeronimo, and debouches in front of Port Alegre: it has often a width of 700 feet, and the current sometimes runs up to five miles an hour. It is navigable for steamers to Rio Pardo (120 miles), and in times of high water to Cachoeira, 80 miles higher up. Among its tributaries are-Rio Pardo, which bathes the Santa Cruz colony; Taquary, the most rapid water-course in the province; and Arroyo dos Ratos, famous for its coal-fields.

The Gravatahy rises in the Coxilha das Lombas, and is only navigable about 20 miles, but in high water, boats go up to Aldea dos Anjos, 30 miles. from the embouchure at Port Alegre.