BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 251 
kilometres, and southward to and including the great Itassepanema 
reef at the northern end of the Bahia de Cabral. Their total length is 
about twenty kilometres to the Boqueiräo Grande entrance to that bay. 
These reefs all draw away from the coast somewhat at their northern 
ends. They are all covered at high tide, and uncovered at low tide, 
There are various small passages through the Araripe reefs, and there 
is a canal between the reef and the shore for small crafts only, The 
northern end of the Araripe group is not shown on the charts of the 
coast. The southern reef of this group is known ав Itassepanema. 
There are two yellow sandbanks on it, one of which is known as the 
Corda Alta; this bank is not covered at ordinary high tide. 
The Itassepanema reef is somewhat higher at its southern than at its 
northern end. Its surface is very flat and smooth. 
The Alagadas reefs south of the Boqueiräo Grande are also of coral, 
but they are small as compared with the Itassepanema reef. 
At the southern end of the Bahia de Cabral a line of coral reefs stands 
out from Ponta Vermelha and Corda Vermelha in a nearly northeast 
direction. This reef continues from the point marked “ Vermelha 
Bank” on the chart to and south of the mouth of Rio Manguinha. Its 
total length is about eight kilometres. It curves outward and away 
from Ponta Grande and leaves between it and the beach a canal for 
small crafts at high tide. 
The Recife de Fora, or Baixo de Fora, as it is called on the chart, 
just north of Porto Seguro, is a coral reef, reported by the coast pilots 
to be “not less than half a league wide,” east-west. 
The next coral reefs south of Porto Seguro are those known as the 
Itacolumis, south latitude 16° 53’. I did not visit the Itacolumi reefs. 
Coral reefs off Caravellas. — The Parcel das Paredes is the most ex- 
tensive group of coral reefs on the Brazilian coast. They have a total 
length of about thirty-three kilometres, and a maximum width of about 
twenty kilometres. I visited them only once, — in September, 1899, — 
but I traversed almost their entire length and breadth in a whale-boat 
that allowed me to pass freely through the shallower parts of the 
channels. I did not, however, see the extreme eastern edge of the 
reefs where they receive the heaviest surf. 
The highest part of the Pareel das Paredes reefs is at their northern 
end, and is known as the Recife da Lixa, or Shark Reef, on account of 
the great number of a certain kind of sharks about this part of it. 
But the whole of this group from one end to the other, and without 
any exception, is completely covered by water at high tide. It will be 
