In Southern Brazil we may still see the picturesque figure in an old industry--the _gaucho_ of the cattle-plains. The _gaucho_, or "cowboy," is a product of his calling, a creature of his kind. From childhood he has lived on horseback; has early learned all feats of wild horsemanship, including the throwing of the _riata_, or lasso, and the _boliadeira_, the latter a thong with a ball at each end which, dexterously thrown, winds around the legs of a fleeing animal and brings it to the ground. This form of lasso is peculiar to the South American _gaucho_, and is unknown to the _vaquero_ of Mexico, whose marvellous exploits with the ordinary noosed lasso, or riata, we may have witnessed. Again, the _gaucho_ will stem a charging bull by striking it across the muzzle with a short whip, and he seems quite fearless at the animal's onslaught upon him. The life of this strange cattle-minder may be lived on the lonesome _pampa_ for long periods. For his meat he may bring down a steer, cut off a portion of flesh with hide attached, and lay it in the embers of the camp fire, in rude cookery. He eats _farinha_ with it, washed down with water, if his wine or _aguardiente_ has given out, but follows it with the inevitable _maté_, the "Paraguayan tea." He will not live in the town, he is a creature of the plains. His wide-brimmed hat and silken or woollen poncho and huge coloured neck-handkerchief, raw hide boots, and enormous silver spurs, and other decorated trappings, are the habiliments he fancies best, and no ornate palace in Rio would tempt him to abandon his free and independent life. Turning now to a different field; if the interests of the traveller in Brazil lie in the rich world of minerals, he will not find here so varied and historical a field as that we have traversed in the regions of the Cordillera. Yet Nature has not necessarily been niggardly even here. In centuries past much gold has been produced, in _placer_ and other workings, and diamonds have been exported for nearly two centuries. One of the most famous gold mines of South America, indeed, the largest and most constant producer of any on this continent, is situated in the Republic, that of the St. John del Rey, whose workings are a matter of annual congratulation to its London shareholders, with its plentiful dividends, distributed with almost monotonous regularity to an amount approaching at times to half a million sterling per annum. The mine is of enormous depth. Baser metals have also their possibilities here. Brazil has been endowed by the geological operation of Nature with immense deposits of iron, such as we certainly do not encounter in any other part of Latin America, and these we may survey in the department of Minas Geraes. Very high-grade ores of iron exist here--thousands of millions of tons. Unfortunately the country has little coal for purposes of smelting the ore, and the iron industry may be largely confined to that of export of the raw mineral.