OK Tin: SEKfilPE-AL/VGOAS BASIN OF BRAZIL. 371 



obligations to Robert Brown, Esq., II. B. M.'s Consul at Maroim, for assistance in the 

 prosecution of my woik in the province of Sei-gipc. 



OUTLINES OP THE BKAZILIAN CRETACEOUS. 



Tlial tliu relations of the Sergipe-Alaguas basin to the otlu-r more or loss similar 

 deposits of the Brazilian coast may be better understood, I give here l)rielly the 

 prominent features of the cretaceous geology of the .several basins along the coast as 

 far as they are known. 



I use the term '"basin,'' however, in speaking of the geology of the provinces of 

 Sergipe and Alagoas partly to separate the locality geographicall}' from others of a 

 more or less similar character north and south, and partly because it seems to have 

 been one of the sepai-ate wide-mouthed bajs or indentations — mere curves of the 

 shore line — which characterized this coast in cretaceous times. 



The exposures of mesozoic rocks along and near the Brazilian coast point to the 

 probability that this portion of the coast line of the Atlantic was, during cretaceous 

 times, but slightly difi'erent fi-om that of the present day. 



The accompanying small map of Brazil will give an idea of the geographical 

 relations of the known cretaceous exposures to each other, and will suggest, at the 

 same time, the form of the coast at the time of their deposition. 



The most southerly exposures of cretaceous rocks thus far discovei-ed in Brazil 

 are upon the island of Sao Fi-ancisco in the province of Sta. Catherina. Others 

 occur along the coast at the Abrolhos, at Bahia, throughout the extension of the 

 Sei-gipe- Alagoas basin from Estancia to Kio Formozo in the province of Pernambuco, 

 at Olinda, Maria Farinha and on the island of Itamaricu in the province of Pernam- 

 buco, at Parabyha in the province of this name, on the Kio ^Slossoro in Pio Grande do 

 Xorte, and about Crato in Cear;i, while the most noi'tlicMly exposure known along 

 the coast is IoiiikI on Kio Piabas, province of Paru. More detailed descriptions of 

 these several basins and localities will be given at the end of the description and dis- 

 cussion of the Sergipc-Alagoas basin. 



TKEVIOUS WOUK. 



A glance at the annoted biiiliography of the subject given at the end of this 

 paper will show that almost no work was done on the geology of the Sergipc-Alagoas 

 basin prior to 1875. 



In IS.38, CJeorge Gardner, the English botanist, during a short voyage on the 

 Sao Francisco made in pursuit of his botanical .studies, made a ffw notes upon the 



