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" lous breakwater, heard the surf dashing without and saw the 

 "spray, but we ourselves were sailing along smoothly and 

 " calmly as if in a mill-pond. The rock of which the reef is 

 " formed is said to be coral, but it is so coated with barnacle 

 " and limpet that I can see nothing but the remains of these 

 " shells many feet down and as deep into the rock as our 

 " hammers will break, it extends from a good way to the north 

 " of Paraiba to Olinda, where it sinks under the water and 

 " then rises abruptly at .Recife and runs on to Cape Sao Agos- 

 " tinho, where it is interrupted by the bold granite head, that 

 " shoots through it into the ocean, it then reappears and 

 " continues interruptedly towards the south — the breadth of 

 " the harbour here, between the reef and the main land, varies 

 " from a few fathoms to three-fourths of a mile — the water is 

 "deep close to the rock, and there the vessels often moor. 

 " There is a bar at the entrance of the harbour, over which 

 " there is in ordinary tides sixteen feet of water, so that ships 

 " of considerable burthen lie here. The reef is certainly one 

 " of the wonders of the world — it is scarcely sixteen feet broad 

 "at the top — it slopes off more rapidly than the Plymouth 

 " breakwater." 



Tins is rather a rough recollection of the reef and the 

 entrance to the port, than an accurate description, but it 

 gives a very good idea of the rapid manner in which vessels 

 pass from the endless swell of the vast Atlantic into the 

 lake-like stillness of the harbour. 



Mr. Darwin, who accompanied Capt. Fitzroy in the "Beagle," 

 touched at Pernambuco, in August 1836, and describes it in 

 the following words : — "The most curious thing which I saw 

 ' in this neighbourhood was the reef that forms the harbour. 

 ' It runs for a length of several miles in a perfectly straight 

 ' line parallel to and not far distant from the shore. It 

 ' varies in width from thirty to sixty yards ; it is dry at low 

 'water, has a level smooth surface, and is composed of 

 ' obscurely stratified hard sandstone. Heucc at first sight it 



