WCP4189

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne.

Dec^r. 16th. 1904

Dr K. Jordan¹

Dear D^r Jordan,

I have been making further enquiries about Brazil, & shall be glad to have any more information you can give me. Mr Godman² agrees with you that Bahia & Pernambuco are good districts, but he adds — "the coast is no good. He³ must go into the interior at least 5000 feet high on the mountains".

This shows that Mr. G. knows very little of that part of Brazil, for the whole interior of the two states consists of dry campos with low catinga forest all utterly burnt up in the dry season, and the ranges of mountains on it are few and do not reach anywhere I think even 4000 ft., the plateaux [2] being about ^{1000 to} 2000 ft. I have got four books about Brazil from the Library of the Roy. Geog. Soc., only one of which gives any such information as I want — the distribution of forests. These are almost wholly limited to the coast-districts for a width of 50 to 150 miles up to the first range of hills, beyond which is the arid campo. These true tropical forests have however been cleared away for sugar cultivation for many miles all round Bahia. But there appears to be ample forests from 20 to 50 miles from Bahia, but these are all on low ground, and, if Mr. Godman is right, too well known to be worth going to.

But in Hartt's Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil,⁴ he describes the valley of the Mucury river at the southern end of the State of Bahia, and just half way between Bahia and Rio, as covered with

Pernambuco seems to have less forest than Bahia.⁵ [3] magnificent forests extending inland over the first range of mountains about 200 miles inland. He says that the vegetation in the valleys is "luxuriant beyond description" — that the upland forests are full of rosewood and other valuable woods, which are largely cut, and that "the whole Mucury valleys is one of the most fertile and healthy tracts I have seen anywhere in Brazil" — He says the forests are the finest & the most extensive anywhere south of the Amazon valley. The port is at the small town of Caravellas, whence there is a railway for 160 miles inland, & roads on into the campos of the mining district, which it would be well to go in the wet season. There are some German Colonies in this valley, and if no good collector has ever been there it seems to offer the best place for Birch to go to when he leaves Trinidad, & there would be work [4] there for him for several years, especially if he could utilise the wet seasons in the "campos", and the dry seasons in the forest.

Do you know any entomologist who has collected in the interior "campos" of Brazil in the wet season? Several travellers speak of the enormous abundance of butterflies in the wooded valleys, but perhaps the species are not numerous. Have beetles ever been thoroughly collected in the "Campos"? I should think they would be totally distinct from ^{those of} the forests, and perhaps abundant for a good collector. It seems impossible to obtain any accurate information on these points. Is there no entomologist in England who has collected in these central parts of Brazil? Any information will be most acceptable.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]