1 88 BRANNER 



beds. At the city of Caravellas such sandstone is used occa- 

 sionally in retaining walls. I was told that it was all brought 

 in canoes from several miles up the estuarj^, but that it could 

 be taken out only when the tide was low. No fossils have ever 

 been found in these black sandstones. On the line of the rail- 

 way the black sandstones are found here and there from kilo- 

 meter 10 to about kilometer i8. 



At kilometer 19 the railwa}'" makes a three or four 

 meter cut in a low ridge of light red sandy clay, which I take 

 to be the approximate eastern margin of the Eocene (?) sedi- 

 ments. From this point until after the Serra dos Aymores is 

 passed the road passes over beds of more or less similar ma- 

 terials. These beds are referred with some doubt to the Eocene 

 upon evidence collected farther north in the States of Bahia, 

 Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, etc. Along the line of the 

 Bahia and Minas railway no fossiliferous beds have been found, 

 but in general appearance and structural relations this series 

 corresponds to the weathered portions of the Eocene ( ? ) . In 

 this region the Eocene ( ?) beds are brown, yellow, pink, 

 red, of various shades of gray, and mottled. They are mostly 

 soft sandstones or sand clays. At a few places only do these 

 sandstones form hard rocks : these are on the grade between 

 Peruhype and Helvetia, about kilometer 68 ; in the vicinity of 

 kilometer 136.5, near the Pasto de Godinho ; and about the 

 caixa d'agua, at kilometer 141. 5, where the sandstone is from 

 four to six meters thick. At man}^ places the upper parts of 

 the beds contain irregular lumps of iron or of sand cemented 

 with iron, about the size of two fists. These sedimentary beds 

 are so nearly horizontal that no dip is apparent anywhere along 

 the line of the road. The railway elevations, however, show 

 that they have a gentle coastward dip. The Eocene (?) beds 

 continue to and beyond the Serra dos Aymores, ending at kilo- 

 meter 160. The Eocene (?) area forms extensive open campos 

 or prairies, bare of trees, covered with a sparse and stunted 

 vegetation, but in places dotted with small patches or ' islands ' 

 or forests. Over other portions of the Eocene (?) belt are also 

 some of the finest forests I have seen in any part of Brazil. 

 The great forests begin about kilometer 73 and extend almost 



