Diario las Américas., 1958-08-12
Know thy
Neighbor
BY o RUIZ

BRAZIL-With an area of $685.
$40 square miles, Brazil is the third
largest country in the world as
regards continuous land surface.
1t covers about $50 900 square mi
les more than the United States
from Canada to Mexico and is
thirty times larger than the Bri-
fish Isles. The maximum distance
from north to south is 2,685 miles
and from west to east $3.50, which
is equivalent to a tranS-ocean flight
from London to Nova Scotia or to
the coast of Maine.
Four-fifthS of this area are locat-
ed between the Equator and the
Tropic of Capricorn, but this does
not mean that all the regions of
Brazil suffer from an unbearably
torrld climate. On the contrary,
such adverse conditions are the ex-
ceptlon, for the south of the coun-
try is not the only temperate re.
gion, due to the fact that altitude
offsets latitude and 81 per cent OF
the land lies between $50 and
5000 feet above sea level.
Brazil is essentially formed by
a slightly tilted plateau, the high.
est edge of which oyerlooks the
Atlantic Ocean, while inland the
ground falls off gradually in g
northwesterly direction toward the
vast plains of the Amazon, which
separates it from the Guiana mas
sit. This mountain mass, is made
up of ancient crystalline rock GOV.
cred over in places by more re-
cent formations.
The mean temperature is fairly
high in the Amazonia and all the
northeast, from n to 70 degrees
F., but it drops as one travels
southwark until only about 66 de-
grees r registered at Porto Ale
gre. At the same time, there is a
progressively d er temperature
rang between the hottest and the
coolest months. Heavy rainfall and
relative humidity prevail in the
Amazonia and on the east coast.
but these two strips of land area
r separated by a dry zone, Dr.
responding to the Brazilian uplands
and stretching from the southwest
to the northeast.
These climatic conditions are re.
Elected in the vegetation: tropical
rainforests are found in the north
and along the coast, pinewoods in
the south, while the intermediate
plant cover consists mainly of gras,
sland, interspersed with clumps of
trees and thickets, merging into
the "caatinga" of the northeast
with it's desert cacti and thorny
twisted trees. Between the nor
theast and the Amazon r%ainforest
there is a zone where palmtrees
grow in profusion, including COCO
nut and babassu palms. The extre-
me south is a land of rolling
prairies.
Brazil's Atlantic seaboard is
close to 5000 miles in length, not
counting inletS and e~stuaries. 1t
was here that colonization began
and the activities of the early set
tiers were long confined to the
narrow strip of lowlands by the
forbidding aspect of the densely
wooded counterscarp that edged
the inland plateau. From the Oya-
pok down to Maranhao, this region
rises little above sea level, and
is often flooded, but from Ma
ranao to Bahia it is higher, with
an irregular coastline.
The northeast coast has always
been the center of sugar cane
growing, while from Bahia to Rio
the crystalline mass of the Brazil
ian highlands converges on the
seaboard, where the soil is suita-
BILE for cacaO, south of Bahia, and
is enriched by the alluvial deltas
of the Doce and Paraiba rivers.
From the Paraiba plain the coffee
plantations spread inland to the
State of Sac Paulo. In the States
of Sac Paulo and Parana, the
southern litoral is likewise crys-
talline and the mountains slope
steeply to the waters edge with
every now and then a stretch of
narrow coastal plain. In Santa Ca
tarina, however, the counterscap
withdraws, leaving a much wider
strip of fertile lowlands, while still
farther south, dunes and lagoons
IRE the dominant features.
Continued tomorrow
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