woodworth: geological expeditiox to brazil axd chile. 5 



Orville A. Derby. The report herewith submitted is the result of 

 that expedition. After the rainy season had begun in Brazil, I 

 devoted the time at my disposal to a brief examination of the changes 

 of level on the coast of southern Chile. 



Other investigations Avill be undertaken from time to time as the 

 state of the fund may warrant expenditures. 



II. INTRODUCTION. 



In presenting the itinerary of portions of the region traversed, I 

 have taken the most convenient way of recording numerous observa- 

 tions not pertinent to the main object of the journey. Some of the 

 phenomena dealt with in this report have long been described in 

 other languages but without much discussion of causes or of geolog- 

 ical correlation. On this account I have been led into a free exercise 

 of the geologist's privilege, if not his proper task, — to interpret his 

 observations and in the language of Robert Hooke "to raise a 

 chronology out of them." The chapter on the Triassic trap plateau 

 presents the results of a rapid reconnaissance of a little known 

 geological field quite unfamiliar to North American students, and the 

 account of the topographic relief of south Brazil is a sketch en route 

 embodying observations in a more systematic order than as if left to 

 discrete and unrelated paragraphs in an account of scientific travel. 



Through the courtesy of Dr. Orville A. Derby, the recently ap- 

 pointed Director of the Mineralogical and Geological Service of 

 Brazil it was arranged to conduct the Shaler Memorial party to the 

 glacial boulder-beds of Parana. To further facilitate the work of 

 the expedition Dr. Euzebio Paulo de Oliveira, Assistant geologist of 

 the Service, was detailed by the Director to act as " interpreter, guide, 

 and friend." We were met by Dr. Oliveira on the confines of Parana 

 where I found him engaged in making a geological map of the state. 

 The generous conduct of this young geologist in placing freely at ray 

 disposition the results of his observations upon the distril)ution of 

 the strata and in allowing me to examine his collections of rocks and 

 fossils makes me much indebted to him for many of the facts presented 

 in this report. With him and his pack-train I made the expedition 

 across the trap plateau from Rio Negro to Lages and later he made 

 with me the excursion up the valley of the Rio Tuberao in Santa 

 Catharina. Throughout these journeys the transportation was sup- 

 plied by the Brazilian Survey. Without this financial assistance the 

 work could not have been carried so far, and without the guidance 



