I have above spoken more particularly of high lands; the low and marshy grounds, called in Brazil _varzeas_, are however those which are the best adapted to the cane, and indeed upon the plantations that do not possess some portion of this description of soil, the crops are very unequal, and sometimes almost entirely fail, according to the greater or less quantity of rain which may chance to fall in the course of the year. The _varzeas_ are usually covered with short and close brushwood, and as these admit, from their rank nature, of frequent cultivation, they soon become easy to work. The soil of these, when it is new, receives the name of _pàûl_; it trembles under the pressure of the feet, and easily admits of a pointed stick being thrust into it; and though dry to appearance, it requires draining. The _maçapé_ marle is often to be met with in all situations; it is of a greenish white colour, and if at all wet, it sticks very much to the hoe; it becomes soon dry at the surface, but the canes which have been planted upon it seldom fail to revive after rain, even though a want of it should have been much felt. The white marle, _barro branco_, is less frequently found; it is accounted extremely productive. This clay is used in making bricks and coarse earthen ware, and also for claying the sugar. Red earth is occasionally met with upon the sides of hills near to the coast; but this description of soil belongs properly to the cotton districts. Black mould is common; and likewise a loose and brownish soil, in which a less or greater proportion of sand is intermixed. It is, I believe, generally acknowledged that no land can be too rich for the growth of the sugar cane. One disadvantage, however, attends soil that is low and quite new, which is, that the canes run up to a great height without sufficient thickness, and are thus often lodged before the season for cutting them arrives. I have seen rice planted upon lands of this kind on the first year, to decrease their rankness and render them better adapted to the cane on the succeeding season.[147] Some attempts have been made to plant cane upon the lands which reach down to the edge of the mangroves, and in a few instances pieces of land, heretofore covered by the salt water at the flow of the tide, have been laid dry by means of draining for the same purpose; but the desired success has not attended the plan, for the canes have been found to be unfit for making sugar; the syrup does not coagulate, or at least does not attain that consistence which is requisite, and therefore it can only be used for the distilleries.[148]