Remember the Rainforest 1

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rather a breakdown in the open, rather than in the process of decay, is the reason why only a little humus is formed. The winds disperse the dust produced by the organic particles, and the bare rock is left uncoated, which is so particularly suitable for storing water from the atmosphere, thereby favoring the formation of perennial springs.

Waterfall, Rio Peixe

Also the particular plant species of this stretch seem to fit in with such a process of the elements, as the leaves are relatively scarcer than in coastal forests, and of drier texture. There remains, therefore, as the most important life-giving factor, only rain for this region badly battered by drought; and since neither high brush nor compact rock formation favors the attraction of atmospheric humidity, and only the general periodicity of wet and dry seasons has an effect, it is explained why here, in the cycle of unfavorable reciprocal actions, improvement cannot be achieved for the soil. These conditions also indicate the conveniences for possible cultivation; Only after great efforts can a profitable crop be obtained. Apart from cattle raising, which represents the most important subsistence branch of the inhabitants, a profitable crop, can only developed with great efforts. I have tried to give a general description of the relationship between soil, climate and vegetation; If I dared to formulate a hypothesis about the primary causes that created the present state, it would have been that the mountain had lost its former land cover, due to vast and violent clashes of the sea. Several circumstances seem to be right for this purpose: the steady slope of this stretch of land to the sea, the regular course of shallow streams in the same direction, the extensive bare rock surfaces, the rounding of many isolated granite clusters, which now lie in the heights, now below, and particularly the existence of common salt in the soil of the western regions. The fact that the vegetation of these forests is so completely different from that of the virgin forests of the coastal granitic mountains will no longer be surprising, assuming this hypothesis. It should be, in a certain fashion, considered it as a vegetal formation of the secondary age, because in fact it resembles, neither in height and robustness of vitality, nor in strength and in the particularities of the forms, the vegetation of the primary era.

Pre-drought in Santo Antonio das Queimadas

Santo Antonio das Queimadas, a small village with about 600 inhabitants in this parish, seemed to have suffered a great deal recently from the dry weather. They told us that for three years it did not rain on the farms of several residents, and they were forced to emigrate. The corn we had found until then on the farms

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