The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

27G
AilAZONIA AND LA PLATA.
round Diamantina, indicating the limits of the interdicted temtory. Within
these Kmits nobody could dig the foundations of a house except in the presence
of an inspector and three other officials.
The diamond streams were reserved for certain privileged persons liable to a
poll-tax on the number of hands employed. Later the deposits were leased to
farmers-general, and at last the King of Portugal had all the mines worked on
his own account. At jjresent the industry has been declared free. The term
Fig. 119.
—
Chief Mctes of Bbazcl.
Scale 1 : 45,000.000.
West oFo'~eenwich
Gold. Diamonds. Silver. Copper. Iron.
^-^^^^—— 620 Milea.
catas, figuring on the maps in several parts of Brazil, means " excavations," and
has reference to the old gold or diamond diggings.
These gems have also been found in Matto Grosso, and (1845) in the Chapada
Diamantina of western Bahia. But operations are, for the most part, carried on
without method, and by primitive processes. The stones occur in association
with other gravels, both in the conglomerates of paleozoic origin, and in more
recent rocks derived from the triturated fragments of primitive strata. But they
Coal.