The various regions of Brazil owe their peculiar character above all to the vegetation. The forests are concentrated in two regions the Amazon Valley and a long strip of sea board on the Atlantic coast, from Espirito Santo southward, where the Serra do Mar, r eceiving the humidity of the ocean winds upon its dripping flanks, produces far to the south the conditions which have made the Amazonian basin the home of the equatorial forest.? The same impenetrable growth lines the slopes of the serra for a distance of 1,200 miles and encircles Rio. Far inland, or at a distance west of the coast ridge, the basins of the Rio Doce and the Parahyba, as well as the southern and western parts of Minas Geraes, are afforested. Also in the states of Sao Paulo and Parana forests are found beyond the serra;' and on the plateau they alternate with prairies. Beyond the agricul tural regions, toward the interior, is the Sertilo, a great land without house or trail.
In his 'New Discovery' Descubri miento)) Acufia wrote that the climate on the Amazon itself and in all the adjacent country is temperate: to such an extent that there is no heat to prove disagreeable, no fatiguing cold (ni frio que fatigue), nor variations in tem perature. This does not apply to districts in which the mitigating effects of the trade winds are less apparent. The whole interior of Brazil has only steady heat, with a very slight range in temperature throughout the year somewhat modified by well-defined dry and rainy seasons. The rainy season begins in September or Oc tober, bringing with it the time of plenty, and for the herds of cattle an abundant pasturage. March brings back the drought. The vast regions of the dry and rainy seasons extend toward the south beyond the Tropic of Capri corn; still farther south the variations of tem perature become more marked. In southern Brazil frosts occur from June to September. On the ocean side of the serra there is no alternation of seasons; all the months of the year are alike; and there are no strictly cool, cold or dry periods.
Observing the action of the trade winds on the temperature of the Amazon Valley, a larger and more characteristic equatorial region, Mozans writes: "Although our course was almost directly under the equator the thermom eter rarely rose above 75 F. One entry in my diary, made near Tabatinga, reads as fol lows: 'Temperature at 7 A.M. 68° F.; at 10 A.M. 67° F.-cool enough for a light overcoat.) Another entry, made near Obidos, reads: 'Very cool all day. Temperature from 68° F. in the morning to F. in the afternoon.' Still another observation at 6 o'clock in the evening, on board our steamer in mid-river, gives the remarkably low temperature of 62° F. at Para, which is sometimes supposed to be a place where one gasps in a fierce, unintermitting, intolerable heat. The maximum heat en countered at the chief towns between Iquitos and Para is never so high as it often is in New York and Chicago, notwithstanding the difference in latitude of nearly 3,000 miles.° Entries in the diary of the author of this article give, for various points in equatorial Brazil, a somewhat higher range of tempera tures, with a maximum of 86° F. at noon on a single occasion.
Bibliography.-Acufia, C. de, 'Nuevo Des cumbrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas> (Madrid 1641) Denis, P., 'Le Brasil au XX° Slide' (Paris 1909) and (Brazil' (trans., with historical chapter by Mr. Miall and a supple mentary chapter by Mr. Vindin, London 1911); Hartt, C. F., 'Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil' (Boston 1870); Mello, H. de. and Mello, F. H. de, 'Atlas do Brazil' (Rio de Janeiro 1909)•, Mozans, H. J. (pseud. for Zahm, J. A.), 'Along the Andes and Down the Amazon> (New York and London 1911); Reclus, E.,