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BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 135 
suggests the cutting of this neck just south of Fort Brum." But this 
neck has been cut through on more than one occasion, and the breach 
has been closed by the sea in spite of the fact that the break greatly 
shortens the course of the Beberibe to the sea. 
In the Instituto Archeologico e Geographico of Pernambuco is an 
interesting old water-color of the city said to have been made between 
1823 and 1844. This picture shows a break in this peninsula between 
Fort Brum and Recife. Several persons who have lived for many years 
at Pernambuco have assured me of such breaks having been made from 
time to time by the sea and afterwards filled up by the same agency. 
On a trip down the coast from Pernambuco to Maceio, made in July, 
1899, I observed several instances of sandy necks cut through by the 
streams behind them and immediately afterwards repaired by the sea. 
At Ilhetas Point (S. lat. 8º 45! 30") 
& small stream, Rio Ilhetas, ap- 
proaches the coast at right angles, 
but instead of entering the sea at 
once it swings northward, unites with 
another stream, and enters the ocean 
a kilometre or two away, under the 
protection of a wide sand-bar. At 
the time of my visit, near the end of 
the rainy season, the river at an ebb- 
ing tide had broken through the nar- 
row neck of sand that prevented its 
direct entrance to the sea, and cut a 
gap as wide as the river and more 
than two metres deep. But instead 
of the river being able to keep this нед а: 1 
H | Ў Ета. 72. Breached sand neck, Rio 
> 1 5 o very next in- 
new mouth open, the very next in Thetis: 
coming tide not only threw the sand 
back into the opening but piled through on top of it a great cone that 
the river was now compelled to cut out of its original channel. On the 
whole, there was a decided loss for the stream. 
Again, where Rio Una approaches the sea near Varzea (S. lat. 8° 499, 
a similar break was made by a larger stream. The opening was about 
two kilometres north of the mouth of the river, was 2.3 metres deep, and 
forty metres wide. The stream opposite the opening is one hundred 
metres wide and has a strong current. With an outgoing tide during 
1 М. de Barros Barreto. Projecto de doca no porto de Pernambuco, 1865. 
