112 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



along the lower slopes of the hills as if washed down by rains during 

 the wet Season. Much dust is blown about by the winds in the dry 

 season and doubtless an eolian origin may be attributed to some of 

 the particles. 



The relations of the red earths to the underlying pebble beds indi- 

 cate pretty clearly the order of magnitude of the powers of the rainfall 

 in the immediate past and the changing climatic conditions, a heavy 

 rainfall with a strong run-off followed by a marked weakening in this 

 agency. Wind action if registered in the loess-like red earth hardly 

 can be called upon in the case of the gravels in old creases. Lag- 

 gravels are typically developed upon wind-swept plains; besides 

 glyptoliths or sand-carved pebbles are not here forth-coming; farther 

 north in Brazil Dr. Lisboa has found them. 



These deposits are related to each other in the range of dynamic 

 force concerned as are the Pleistocene glacial gravels to the Post- 

 glacial alluvial deposits of many North American sections. Hence the 

 probability that the gravels represent the Pleistocene. From an 

 excellent exposure in Parana at Tamandua Station I propose the 

 name Tamandua (anteater) beds for the gravels. As for the over- 

 lying shifted reddish earths whether terra ro.ra or not, they form a 

 group of surficial deposits blending in places with residual clays in 

 situ and do not so readily take a formation name. 



In railway cuts in the white sandstones between Sao Pedro de Itarare 

 and Fabio Rego the red earth rests on the eroded surface of the white 

 sandstones. The sharpness of the contact between the two and the 

 absence of red coloring in the sandstones proves the shifting of the 

 superficial deposit with its coloring matter. The development of the 

 red oxide of iron would seem here to have antedated the transportation 

 of the material otherwise the red matter seemingly should have been 

 carried downward into the porous sandstones. 



In the winter season of drought the red earth dries and cracks. 

 These cracks on the surface of newly cut banks by the railway stations 

 often form a hexagonal network. Similar cracks form o\'er the surface 

 of the campo. As leaves, sticks, and insects peculiar to the existing 

 flora and fauna readily fall into these cracks to some depth in the 

 clays, it is obvious that by the closing and opening of these cracks 

 under the changing seasons any contemporaneous fossils they may 

 be foimd to contain must be carefully discriminated from post- 

 depositional entries. 



Canga is a superficial segregation of oxide of iron or limonite in various 

 geological positions. On the road from Ponta Grossa to Conchas in 



