Matto Grosso ('dense forest'), an inland state of Brazil, bordering on Bolivia: it is second to Amazonas alone, both in size and sparsity of population. Area, 532,708 sq. m.; pop. (1888) 79,750, nearly all Indians and blacks. Within this vast territory several great rivers rise, including the
Madeira and the Paraguay; but in most parts there is a scarcity of water during the dry season. The vegetation is generally scanty, grass, bush, and low trees covering the sandstone plateau; high trees and rich vegetation are confined to the river-valleys. The gold and diamonds which formerly constituted the wealth of Matto Grosso have been exhausted, and agriculture (insufficient for the wants of the state) and cattle-raising, with the gathering of medicinal plants by the Indians, are now the principal industries. The capital is Cuyabá (q.v.). The former capital, Matto Grosso, on the Guaporé, decayed with the gold-mining industry, and is now a fever-haunted place with only some 1500 inhabitants.