There are three railways which climb the mountain wall of South Brazil: the first was the São Paulo line, and the second the Petropolis link, built on the rack system; some wonderful views are passed on the two-hour journey. The third mountain climbing line connects the port of Paranaguá to Curityba, in the State of Paraná, some three hundred miles south of Santos. The construction of this line was as remarkable a feat as that of the São Paulo railway, and is even more spectacular; it was only completed after the first daring attempt had failed, and today the line hangs breathlessly on the sides of mountain precipices, traverses canyons on apparently frail bridges, and plunges into tunnels blasted through granite. The Serra is extremely steep in the region traversed by the railroad and the scenery is quite the most wild and beautiful of the Brazilian mountain barrier. The line is the outlet for the products of the mills of industrious Curityba, and from here the _herva matte_ of the interior woods of Paraná is sent to Paranaguá and thence by boat to its chief destination, Argentina. Paraná and the neighbouring forests comprise almost the sole source of supply of _matte_ leaves, and thus the mountain line has a practical monopoly in the transportation of this wild product; if recent Argentine plans for planting the shrub are successful a heavy blow would probably be dealt to this industry. Brazil built her first railway three years before the Argentine brought her first line into operation—a modest strip of thirteen miles running west from Buenos Aires—although British Guiana has the credit of possessing the earliest railroad of South America; during the Empire construction proceeded steadily but with a certain caution, and it was not until after the formation of the Republic in 1889 that floods of concessions for railway construction invaded Brazil. The years 1890–91 show the highwater mark of such plans, and while many of these dried up without leaving a trace there remained sufficient impetus for much genuine and useful construction.