The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

274 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA.
depth of over 130 feet for several miles across the hills. Ahove the mining
village of Passao-om, near Ouro Preto, the hill has been carved into all manner of
fantastic shapes as if thrown up by some volcanic eruption.
During their days of prosperity the potentates of Minas Geraes displayed the
vulgar splendour which has at all times distinguished upstarts suddenly enriched.
They built themselves palaces, where sumptuous banquets were daily spread
before friends and all comers, and when the captain-general honoured their
table, he was usually served with a dish of cangita, in which the grains of maize
wore replaced by nuggets. At the processions of the Blessed Sacrament from
church to church the horses were shod in gold, and in the courts pleaders sup-
Fig-. 117.—GOLDFTELDS OF CbNTKAL BrAZTL.
Scale 1 : 1,200.000.
44° 10 Wdst Or bretnvv ch 4^"o
ported their clients' cause by presenting the judges with bananas stuffed with
gold
.
According to Gorceix, Minas Geraes alone yielded between 1700 and 1888
nearly 1,450,000 pounds weight of gold, worth about £74,000,000, and the total
product of the whole of Brazil appears to have fallen little short of £120,000,000.
At present the output is estimated at from £160,000 to £320,000 a year. Most
of the mining companies are English, and their operations are limited to the
region of Minas Geraes, north of the Queluz knot, between Ouro Preto and
Sahara. They no longer work the alluvial deposits of rivers, but attack the
au riferous reefs themselves, following up the lodes for great distances, and to
depths of hundreds of yards. The ores are conveyed by railways, or shot down