Most of the wooded district south of the Mantiqueira belongs to the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but east of the Espinhago it belongs to Minas Geraes and extends eastward to the Serra das Aymores, on the frontier of Espirito Santo.
The discovery of gold in1692-1695by bands of adventurers from the Sao Paulo settlements, led to every occupation and profession being abandoned in the mad rush for the new mines.
In Brazil little or nothing is done by the central government, but the progressive states of Sao Paulo and Mines Gerdes have commissaos geographicos e geologicos engaged in the production of topographical maps.
The first consists of an almost continuous range crossing the northern end of Rio Grande do Sul and following the coast northward to the vicinity of Cape Frio, and thence northward in broken ranges to the vicinity of Cape St Roque, and a second parallel range running from eastern Sao Paulo northeast and north to the eastern margin of the Sao Francisco basin in northern Bahia, where that river turns eastward to the Atlantic. The first of these is generally known as the Serra do Mar, or Coast Range, though it is locally known under many names.
It rises on an elevated tableland in the state of Sao Paulo and flows across the state of Rio de Janeiro from west to east, through a broad fertile valley producing coffee in its most elevated districts and sugar on its alluvial bottom-lands nearer the sea.
