Branxkr : Geology of Alagoas, Brazil. 7 



be kept in niiiul, liowever, that, cxcei)l in the \icinity of Penedo, the 

 details of the areal distribution of these beds have not been worked out. 



The Coastal Sedimentary Bell. — Upon and against these older rocks 

 rest the conglomerates, sandstones, and shales which are all grouped to- 

 gether here under the name of coastal sediments. It is not possible to say 

 at present whether these sedimentary beds in Alagoas belong to a single 

 series or to two or more series of rocks. In Pernambuco, the next state 

 on the north, fossils of both Cretaceous and Tertiary ages have been found, 

 though the question still remains unsettled as to whether the formations 

 in which they occur belong to the Cretaceous alone or to both the Cre- 

 taceous and the Tertiary. ^ 



In Sergipe, the next state to the south. Cretaceous beds are well known, 

 and characteristic fossils are abundant in them;- but up to the present 

 time no unquestioned Tertiary beds have been reported in that state, 

 though it is highly probable that Tertiary beds cover a considerable part 

 of the coastal belt. A little further south, in the state of Bahia, both 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary beds are known. The coastal belt of Alagoas, 

 lying as it does between both Cretaceous and Tertiary beds to the north 



Fig. 3. Characteristic topography and false bedding of the coast sediments 

 ten kilometers north of Lagoa Jequia, Alagoas. (Crandall phot.) 



'Geologia Elementar, por J. C. Branner, p. 272. 



^Charles A. White, "Contribuigoes a paleontologia do Brasil," Archives do 

 Mtiseo Nacional, \'II, Rio de Janeiro, 1887. 



