São Francisco

São Francisco, a large river of Brazil, rises in the south-west part of the province of Minas Geraes, flows north, north-east, and east-south-east to the Atlantic, and in its lower course separates the provinces of Bahia and Sergipe from Pernambuco and Alagoas. Length, 1800 miles; drainage area, 248,000 sq. m. It is navigable as far up as its junction with the Paraíba, except at three points—at the rapids of Pirapóra, near the frontier of Bahia, and where it breaks through the granite wall of the coast range, and forms the falls of Paulo Affonso (275 feet); traffic is carried past this last point by a railway (68 miles). Over the wide mouth there is a bar, with only 10 feet of water.