Geografia dos transportes no Brasil : circulação interna anual
Resumo
In this article Engineer Móacir Silva gives us the VII Chapter - Present internal Circulation of his "Geography of Transports in Brazil". He starts by saying that by imitating the distinction made in Hydraulics, we can establish the following divisions: - Hydrographic) Basin (the total of all the watercourses of a river); Hydraulic Basin (area reached .by the free surface of the volume of water) and Navigable Basin (the total of the navigable parts of a river).
He mentions that the "navigable basins constitute natural regions of circulation, with economic influence normally attaining the perimetral limits of the corresponding hydrographic basins". Thus if the study of the possibility of interconnecting the hydrographic basins presents some scientific value, the joining of the navigable basins by means of canals has still more economic importance.
He submits a scheme of the division of the rain waters in three watersheds: - The Amazonian, The River Plate and the Atlantic, and transcribes the divisions made by Messers. Eduardo José de Morais, Clodomiro Pereira da Silva and Barão Homem de Melo. He closes the subject adopting the division accepted by the Serviço Geologico e Mineralogico, by the Serviço de Aguas of the Ministry of Agriculture and by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, as follows: 8 basins thus descriminated: Amazon, 4,819,819 square kilometres distributed in the States of Amazonas (37,8 %) , Goiaz (10,9 %) , Maranhão (0,7), Mato Grosso (19,7 %), Pará (27,7 %) and Territory of Acre (3,1 %) ; Northeastern, 886,581 sq.km in the States of Alagoas (1,4 %) , Ceará (16,6 %) , Maranhão (35 %) , Pará (3 %) , Paraíbaba (6,3 %) , Pernambuco (3,6 %) , Piauí (27,5 %) and Rio Grande do Norte (5,9 %) ; São Francisco, 580,757 sq.km in the States of Alagoas (2,7 %) , Baía (46,3 %) , Minas Gerais (38,1 %) , Pernambuco (11,6 %) and Sergipe (1,2 ·%); Eastern, 607,505 'sq.km in the States of Baía (42,7 %) , Federal District (0,2 %); Espírito Santo (7,3 %) , Minas Gerais (38 %) , Rio lie Janeiro (7 %) , S. Paulo (2 %) and Sergipe (,4 %) ; Paraguay, 352,300 sq,km ali in the State of Mato Grosso; Paraná, 859,476 sq.km in the States of Goiaz (15,5 %) , Mato. Grosso (20,2 %) , Minas Gerais (16,3 %) , Paraná (21,6 %) , Santa Catarina (1,1 %) and S. ·Paulo (24,94 %), Uruguay, 202,168 sq.km in. the States of Rio Grande do Sul (73,7 %) and Santa Catarina (26,3 %) and Southeastern, 202,583 sq.km in the States of Paraná (6,7 %), Rio Grande do Sul (67,1 %), Santa Catarina (lll,2 %) and S. Paulo (9,9 %) . He names the principal rivers of each of these basins.
In referring to the navigable course of the rivers of Brazil he submits their distribution by basins: - Amazon, 25,446 km; Northeastern, 4,498 km; S. Francisco, 4,135 km; Eàstern, 2,253 km; Paraguay, 3,367 km; Paraná, 3,367 km; Uruguay, 625 km; and Southeastern, 1,266 km; with a total of 43,955 km. He gives their distribution by States and says the total as published by the Statistical Year Book of Brazil are nearer being correct than the 36,845 km accepted by other authors.
He brings into relief the influence which, in the early colonizing days, the rivers exerted on the populating of Brazil specially the Tieté, Paraná, Amazonas and São Francisco, and describes the various types of river navigation (by pole, tow-rope, sail and steam) and tells of the present state. of the last mentioned, steam, describing the existing navigation lines, with their itineraries and distances. The craft are appropriately built, some driven by paddle-wheels either aft or amidships, flat.bottom and small draft, and have curious denominations "gaiolas" (cages), "vaticanos" (vaticana) chatas (flats) and "chatinhas" (small flats), of which he gives a detailed description.
He ends up his work by making the division of the river navigation in accordance with the geo-economic regions of Amazonas, Middle North, Northeast, Mddle Southeast, East, Midlle South, South and Centre.
