116 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, 
Elsewhere he gives a brief description of the stone reefs, states that 
they are exposed at low tide, and that they are broken here and there. 
William Piso, who lived at Pernambuco during the Dutch occupancy 
under Maurice of Nassau from 1637 to 1644, says of the reef at that 
place that “its height is such that it is rarely covered by the highest 
tide.” 2 
Caspar Barleus, the first edition of whose work was published in 
1647, gives Piso’s description of the reef, but he gives besides a plan of 
the reef and of the city of Pernambuco, and a view of the reef taken 
from the south end and looking toward the city and the northern end 
of the reef? But Barleus was never in Brazil, and his information was 
all at second hand, probably from Piso. 
Pierre Moreau, who lived in Brazil two years, was at Pernambuco 
about 1648, and says of the reef that it is “as high as a pike or more, 
uncovered when the tide is out, but not otherwise because it is all 
covered.” 4 
Other early references to the reefs will be found in the annotated 
bibliography forming part of this paper under the names of Dapper, 
Angelo, Nieuhof, Gioseppe de S. Teresa, Ayres de Cazal, and Koster. 
These writers differ somewhat in regard to the height of the reefs, 
some of them stating that they are only uncovered at low tides, and 
others that they are rarely covered by the highest tides. These differ- 
ences, however, are precisely the kind of differences of opinion one may 
find to this day in regard to the height of the reefs among people per- 
fectly familiar with them. And it is not to be supposed that the old 
writers spoke with any unusual precision about this matter. 
During the spring tides here and there points remain uncovered at 
high tide, especially if there be but a little wind. At some places, 
however, where the reef has been undermined, and huge blocks of stone 
have been tipped on end, these may not be covered even at the highest 
tides except by the surf dashing over them. There is such a block on 
1 Le Sieur Ien de Laet, d’Anvers. L'histoire du nouveau monde, p. 530, 533. 
Leyde, 1640. 
? Gulielmi Pisonis — de Indae utriusque Re naturali et Medica, p. 6-7. 
Amsterdam, 1658, 
? C. Barleum. Res Brasilia, imperante Illustrismo. D. I. Mauritio Nassovie, 
etc., Principe. Accedit G. Pisonis tractatus de Aere, Aquis et Locis. (This work 
is commonly known as “ Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia.”) ^ Editio secunda, 
Clivis, 1668. (First ed. Amsterdam, 1647.) 
* Pierre Moreay. Histoire des derniers trovbles dv Brésil entre les Hollandois 
et les Portvgais, p. i, Paris, 1651. 
