few metres 
The Bah 
Naturalist. 
its entrance 
faces for the 
a slightly el 
and coating 
“This ree 
toward the 
ing close to 
abruptly ; 1 
appendix to 
8 «О reci 
188. 
246 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
a big solitary mass of coral rock rising three metres above the general 
level of the reef. Mr. Е. Ambler of the Alagóas railway kindly made 
photographs of this block from which the illustrations on pages 160 and 
161 were made. The form shows that it has been undermined and one 
end of the block has settled, lifting the other end into its present position. 
South of Maceio the reefs have not been examined. I was credibly 
informed that the one at Rio de Sáo Miguel was of sandstone, and that 
south of that place the reefs are very fragmentary. It is also a remark- 
able fact that there are no coral reefs (known) between the mouth of the 
Rio São Francisco and the city of Bahia.’ 
ia reef. — At Bahia there is a great coral reef off the east 
shore of the island of Пара са. This reef was studied by Mr. Rathbun 
in 1875-76, and a paper on it was published by him in the “ American 
the National Museum at Rio de Janeiro.2 I did not therefore visit the 
Itaparica reef, but have depended upon Mr. Rathbun’s paper, which is full 
and is given here at some length : — 
“The long island of Ttaparíca, often called the garden of Bahia, fills up 
almost the entire southwestern quarter of the large Bay of Bahia, and contracts 
Skirting the central portion of this coast for a distance of nearly nine miles is 
given over to another class of workers, who are putting on the finishing touches 
point named Jaburú, and stretches away southward, in the general trend of the 
shore, enclosing behind it a narrow and shallow channel which, at the most, is 
scarcely one-fourth of a mile in breadth, and generally less. It is most perfect 
openings which admit the smaller boats that ply along the shore. Approach- 
Cruz, terminating for good on the rocky shore. The study of the geology of 
1 For a description of the Maceio reef see Prof. A. W. Greeley’s paper, — 
2 Richard Rathbun Brazilian corals and coral reefs. American Naturalist. 
September, 1879. XIII., p. 539-551. 
р р 
Rio de Janeiro, 1878. 
hundred metres at its northern end, where it joins the beach, to only a | 
in its narrowest parts. At one point east of Jaraguá there is 
»2 Part of Mr. Rathbun’s paper appeared in the Archivos of 
to a width of about five miles. Its outer coast, running obliquely, 
most part the open sea, and is at the mercy of its boisterous waves. 
evated coral reef, long since abandoned by true living corals and 
it with a hard and durable substance. 
f begins directly opposite the city of Bahia, in front of alittle rocky 
northern end, and has, at irregular intervals, numerous breaks or 
Penha, another rocky point about three miles from Jaburt, it ends 
jut commencing again to the south, it runs onward to the Ponte da 
this paper, p. 268-274. 
fe de coral do Mar Grande.” Archivos do Museu Nacional, IIL, p. 174= 
