Waring: Geology of Northeastern Brazil. 201 



gneiss with nearly horizontal foliation planes is in evidence two 

 kilometers north of Cangaty; then follows a zone with much peg- 

 matite. At Cangaty station crushed gneiss carrying narrow pegma- 

 tite dikes dips steeply to the south and there seems to be a sharp 

 syncline near this place. Thence southward to Junco pegmatite is less 

 in evidence. Between Junco and Quixada there is an area with promi- 

 nent granite hills, fluted and pitted, the highest of which rises 225 

 meters above the plain (Plate IX, fig. i). The character of the 

 fluting and pitting in these hills, and the way in which it has been 

 accomplished has been described by Dr. J. C. Branner.^^ Even in 

 this granitic area there is some evidence of the northeast-southwest 

 strike which is exhibited in the gneiss to the north and to the south; 

 and it seemed to the writer that the fluting and pitting was to some 

 extent determined by this structure, the fluting being chiefly on clifls 

 facing northwest or southeast (perpendicular to the strike), and the 

 pitting being best developed on the northeast and southwest portions 

 of the hills. ' 



Serra do Estevao, west of Quijiada, rises three hundred and fifty 

 meters above the plain. Gneiss forms the main body of this serra, 

 and dips steeply to the southeast. South of Quixada gneiss reappears 

 beyond the granitic area, with prevailing south-southwest strike and 

 steep easterly dip; but the higher land near Floriano Peixoto is again 

 granite, which is possibly the core of an anticlinal fold. Thence the 

 railroad descends across a plain of gneiss which exhibits constant 

 southward strike, to Quixeramobim, where the strike is S. 60° to 

 45° W., magnetic, or about S. 45° to 30° W., true, with vertical dip. 

 About two kilometers west of Quixeramobim the gneiss strikes S. 10° 

 W., true, with dip of 70° eastward. To the east, throughout most of 

 the distance between Quixeramobim and Morada Nova, SmalP" 

 found gneiss and schist to have fairly constant steep east or southeast 

 dips. Southward from Quixeramobim the railroad ascends to an 

 area of granitic domes and perennial ponds, the latter being unusual 

 in this arid region; and the track winds between the hills and ponds 

 to Prudente de Moraes. About thirteen kilometers north of this 

 station the granite contains large feldspars. South of the station the 



" The Fluting and Pitting of Granites in the Tropics. By J. C. Branner. The 

 Papers of the Stanford Expedition to Brazil in 191 1, Vol. I, 3-30. Stanford Uni- 

 versity, 1914. 



2" Publ. No. 32 of the Inspecloria, p. 31. 



