Page:Description of the Line and Works of the Sao Paulo Railway in the Empire of Brazil.pdf/5

Rh miles out of the 95,000 square miles is an elevated plateau, inclining, however, as the flow of the rivers indicate, gently inland towards the Parana, from the crest or summit of the "Serra do Mar." This mountain range, as already stated, rises abruptly to a height of from 2,500 feet to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, forming a sea cliff, the summit of which, in this province, is rarely more than from 10 miles to 15 miles from the shore line, which at no very remote geological period has been coincident with the base of the mountain itself. The sea face of the Serra is broken up into the wildest gorges and ravines by numerous mountain torrents, but no river or stream of any magnitude finds its way down the Serra, nor is there any gorge or pass of importance to break the uniformity of level of the summit. The narrow belt of country intervening between the sea coast and the foot of the Serra, is an alluvial deposit, in places forming an almost impassable salt marsh, covered with mangrove trees, and intersected with occasional spurs from the Cordilléra, which terminate in bold bluffs; or relieved by insular oases of high and dry ground, which rise prominently from the surrounding marsh. On such an island is built Santos, the seaport of the province, and the eastern terminus of the railway, on the shores of a bay which forms a well-sheltered harbour, readily entered by large vessels at all states of the tide. Although the seaboard of the province is 300 miles in extent, there is no other seaport worthy of the name along the coast. It will thus be seen that Santos, at present a small but thriving city of about 10,000 inhabitants, must eventually be a place of great commercial importance, as the only outlet and inlet to the entire province, which lies almost wholly on thehigh land above the mountain barrier.

São Paulo, the capital of the province, the seat of a university, and the largest inland town of the empire, is situated on the line of railway, about 45 miles from Santos. But the fertile district peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of coffee, the staple of the province, commences about 100 miles from the sea coast, in the neighbourhood of the city of Campinas, and about 30 miles beyond the terminus of the present line at Jundiahy. The cultivation of the coffee-plant is comparatively recent in this province, having only been introduced in 1840. There are, however, already in the province about thirty million trees, producing an average annual yield of 80,000,000 lbs. of coffee, and fresh plantations are year by year being added to those now existing. But, although coffee is the staple of this rich district, other tropical products, such as cotton, sugar, tobacco, rice, Indian corn, beans, arrowroot, tapioca, indigo, as well as the cereals and fruits of Central Europe, are cultivated in the interior. Cotton, especially, bids fair to rival in importance the cultivation of coffee, such has been the stimulus [1869-70. 11. N.s.]