Lagoa Salgada com acúmulo de estromatólitos recentes na restinga de
Paraíba do SulSalgada lagoon with the accumulation of recent stromatolites in the Paraíba do
Sul restingaaccount of economic and political aspects. There is substan-
tial information about the alluvial plain and about the adjacent
tablelands of the northern Fluminense. Little is detailed about
the areas of restinga, perhaps not because of lack of knowledge
but because of the very economic nature of the report. On the
most distant parts of the tablelands and the mountain, the in-
formation is quite vague considering the conditions of that time.
Restingas become visible when they integrate the ports where
the production of Campos dos Goitacás District flows. Macaé
village deserves attention, as it was “the beginning of a popula-
tion with expectation to become greater”. Close to Macaé river
mouth is situated the port of Povoa, where it was possible do
harbor “only boats that demanded eight spans of water,” and “at
the bottom of the hill there is a cove where is possible to load
corvettes, and it is where some larger ships that demand more
deep water have just been loaded”. The other port of the region
was located at the village of São João da Barra, where Paraí-
ba do Sul River flows into the area of restinga. The report ex-
plains that the river could only support boats that required less
than 12 spans of water. These boats, however, reached the vil-
lage of Sao Salvador (currently Campos dos Goytacazes), eight
leagues upstream the mouth of the Paraíba do Sul River. Finally,
the document notes that the Hinterland of Cacimbas presented
a low cultivation condition because the lands were not good,
despite, they were very rich in woods, that were transported by
canoes(18,19,22). Based on what we know today about Hinterland
of Cacimbas, it was located between restinga and the tableland,
and the woods came more from the latter geological unit than
the first one.
The most attentive observer of the northern Fluminense
during the colonial period was the captain cartographer Manoel
Martins do Couto Reis. Designated to draw a map of the north-
ern part of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro by the viceroy Luiz
de Vasconcellos e Souza, he also wrote a detailed description
of the territory that he drew, delivering it to the colony’s higher
authority in 1785. In 1779 the Marquis of Lavradio was scathing
about the geographers, according to his words “It seems that
those who have been in charge of this diligence, have always
governed themselves more by others information, than by their
own personal examinations; and here comes the difference from
what they speak, and that of not being able to give full reliability
to these maps.(23)” The viceroy of Brazil was a typical enlight-
ened despot, seeking information, precision, and efficiency to
better govern. Couto Reis fulfilled the demanded requirements
at that time, being also an illustrated one that used the cartog-
raphy as an instrument of knowledge and dominion of the space
for its rational use and for the war.(20)
Like no other until then, the military noticed clearly the
geomorphologic steps of north-northwest Fluminense. He first
identified the plain, which he termed as fields, separated from
each other by small woods, rivers, and marshes. In the vast
plain, he noticed the soil differences between the lands formed
by fluvial sediments and the sands accumulated by oceanic ac-
tion. The fields of Macaé, Juribatiba, and Carapebus, he realized,
are sandy, disturbed by woods, unpleasant and less fertile. He
drew attention to the lands that run along the coast, to the north
of Paraíba do Sul River, where:...among the groves, there are excellent
woodlands, commonly called restingas,
although narrow, still extensive: many,
and long marshes, that in dry season of-
fer passage to everywhere, and admira-
ble pastures; from which is possible to
establish large cattle farms(21).Couto Reis, with his usual acuity, also notes the differ-
ences between the vegetation of marine plain and that of fluvial
plain. In the first, sandy soils, unpleasant and less fertile, the
vegetation is dominated by shrubs and not suitable for pas-
tures. He observes that, to the north of Paraíba do Sul River, the
soil fertility diminishes near the dunes. He even uses the word
restinga for the left bank of the Paraíba, narrow, fairly long lands
interrupted here and there by marshes, which in dry season offer