The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-01

leS8 I'M operative Out ttie nhsuA as Sss@A -
Al we'll as the much cooler air OF
Petropolis have maintained IL a. q
summer resort.
Petropolis is a pretty little spot, nest
ling under steep hills, Its streets well
planted and shady, its rows OF shops
which address themselves to the sum-
mer visitor reminding one OF Pyre-
mean or Rhenish bathing place. But
the charm Of its surroundings Is be-
yond that Of any place in Europe, Tor
in no temperate cline are such land
scapes with such a wood and such
colors to be found.
A Typical Brazilian Estate.
We learnt still more of the charac-
ter OF the Country in an excursion over
the Leopoldina railway, down into the
valley OF the Parahyba river, and
back UP one of its tributary glens, to
the top Of the coast range, whence we
descended to the coast at Nictheroy,
opposite Rio.
This Leopoldina railway descends q
narrow valley, hemmed in by steep
mountains whose projecting spurs and
buttresses turn hither and thither the
course OF the foaming river. Right
and left waterfalls leap over the cliffs
to swell its waters. The slopes are
mostly too steep for tillage, but here
and there a cluster OF houses clings to
the slopes, and round them are fruit
trees and maize fields or little gar
dens
At last the ravine widens and we
emerge into the broad valley, bordered
by lower hills Of the Parahyba, one
Of the chief rivers of the Atlantic
side of Brazil. Running down 1t,
through rich country. we stopped
at a wayside station 10 take horse
and ride up to a Fazenda testate)
whose hospitable owner had invited
us to see his coffee plantations and
live stock. The house, set on a hill
with a pretty garden below 1t and
charming views all round, and in
habited by a large family of his chill
dren and grandchildren, gave pleas
ant impression Of Brazilian rural life.
Here was simplicity with abundance,
the beauty of groves and flowers, a
bountiful Nature, laborers, nearly all
negroes, who seemed contented and
attached to their kindly master.
We saw the process, quite an elab-
crate one, and carried on by ma
chinery, Of washing and drying the
coffee beans, sorting them out by size
and quality. separating the husks and
membranous coverings from the
beans before they are fit to be packed
and shipped. Coffee is AN exhausting
crop. Fresh land must be taken In
from time to time and the old land
allowed to rest; and We were to see
next day many tracts where 1t used to
be cultivated. which have now been
abandoned to forest because the soil
had ceased to repay tillage.
A Wilderness of Deep Valleys
At last, turning away from the
Parahyba, we mounted up lateral
valley passed through great stretches
of rough pasture land into the higher
region of thick woods, and halted for
the night in the midst of a thunder
storm which pealed and growled and
flashed all night long. Next morning
the line, after keeping along the
heights for some milea. descended
through a forest more wonderful in
it's exuberance than any we had yet
seen.
From the summit we looked over
a wilderness of deep valleys, the wav-
ing green of their tree-tops scanned
with the white fash of waterfalls,
with many ranges and peaks rising
in the far distance. few of whose tops
any European foot had pressed, for
1t is only the bottoms of the valleys
that are inhabited. The viewsswe all
the more beautiful because the preci,
pieces on the hillsides beneath which
we passed were dripping with rivu-
lets from last nights rain and cas-
cades leapt over a succession of rock
lodges and hurried in foaming chan
nels down the bottoms of the glens.
The Amazing Energy of Nature In
Brazil.
| 1t Is in a region like this that one
begins to realize tho amazing energy
of nature. Every inch of ground Is
covered with some living and grow
I ing thing. While the tall stems push
upward to overtop their fellows and
let their highest shoots put forth
flowers under the sunlight, bling
/ plants slender as vineshoot or stou,
! as a Llama embrace the trunk and
mount along the branches and hang
in swinging festoons from tree to tree
The fallen trunks are covered thick
with ferns and MOSES. Orchids and
many another parasite root themselves
in the living stem, and make it gay. tc
its ultimate undoing. with blossoms
not It's own.
| Even the bare faces OF gneiss rock
too steep for any soil to rest upon. sup