cold water. A short
distance from the cold stream was another stream of hot water emerging
from the rocks.

Small rectangular tanks had been made at the two higher springs, which
were said to possess wonderful curing qualities for eczema and other
cutaneous troubles; also for rheumatism and blood complaints of all
kinds. Whether those waters were really beneficial or not, it was not
possible to ascertain on a passing visit. I drank some of the water and
it did me no harm, so if it does no good neither is it injurious.

The village of Caldas showed signs of having seen better days. It was
clean-looking, but like all other villages of Goyaz it was dreary in the
extreme. There were only a few houses in the place, and each had a shop;
all the shops sold similar articles--nickel-plated revolvers, spurs and
daggers, calicoes, gaudy wearing-apparel, perfumery, and so on.

For any one interested in the study of the effects of erosion on a
gigantic scale, no more suitable country could be found than Central
Brazil. Here again to the E.N.E. of Caldas stood the Serra do Sappe. In
this case it was not a tableland, like the Serra de Caldas, but purely a
hill range. The plateau of Serra de Caldas, I was told, measured on its
summit 12 kil. by 18 kil.

Again, after leaving Caldas, we went through most wonderful grazing
ground to the north-east and east of our route at the foot of the Serra
do Sappe. We had descended to the Rio Lagiadi, 2,480 ft. above the sea
level, which flowed into the Pirapitinga River (a tributary of the
Corumba). Once more did we admire that evening the remarkable effect of
solar radiation, this time a double radiation with one centre--the
sun--to the west, and a second centre, at a point diametrically opposite,
to the east. Those radiations, with a gradually expanded width, rose to
the highest point of the celestial vault, where they met. The effect was
gorgeous indeed, and gave the observer the impression of being enclosed
in the immeasurable interior of an amazingly beautiful sea-shell turned
inside out.

We arrived in the evening at the farm of Laza (elev. 2,450 ft.), where we
had to abandon the wounded mule, and also another which, on coming down
a steep incline, had badly injured its fore leg.

The pack-saddles used in the interior of Brazil (Minas Geraes, Goyaz and
Matto Grosso) were the most impracticable, torturing arrangements I have
ever had to use on my travels. The natives swore by them--it was