256 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
run in the same direction at other times of the year, but not so 
strongly. 
Согда Vermelha, also called “Sebastião Gomes," a small island off 
Vicosa, south latitude 18°, is a coral reef. ‘The reef is quite flat, and is 
entirely covered by water at high tide. Тһе margins are said to have 
steep, almost wall-like faces.2 Some five or six years ago a Rio company 
shipped the reef rock from Coröa Vermelha to Rio de Janeiro, where it 
was burned for lime, 
The Abrolhos reefs. — The Abrolhos reefs I have not visited. It was 
not possible to make an extensive study of them, and a visit of a day 
during my stay at Caravellas hardly seemed worth while. 
Reclus speaks of the coral reefs of the Abrolhos as the most remark- 
able of this part of the coast; but as coral reefs, in size and interest 
they are hardly comparable with the Parcel das Paredes. He also says 
the Abrolhos are “ trois ilots granitiques,” 3 which they certainly are not, 
though there is a sheet of olivine gabbro diabase overlying the sedi- 
mentary beds upon and about which the coral reefs grow. 
In order to make these notes as comprehensive as possible, I add here 
what Hartt has written about the Abrolhos reefs.* 
“The islands of the Abrolhos lie about midway between the cities of Rio and 
Bahia, a little south of the parallel of Caravellas, and at a distance of about 
forty miles from the mainland. The position of the lighthouse on the island 
of Santa Barbara is, according to Mouchez, latitude 17° 57’ 31" south, longi- 
tude 40° 58’ 58" west from Paris. These islands are situated apparently near 
the middle of the submerged border of the continent, which here, over a very 
large area, lies at a depth of less than one hundred feet. They are four in 
number, with two little islets, and they are arranged in an irregular circle, 
three of them close together. АП are rocky and rather high, Santa Barbara, 
the principal one, being 33.22 metres in height. The length of this island is 
about three quarters of a mile. Its outline is irregular, and it is very narrow. 
It is composed of beds of sandstone, shales, and trap, which dip approximately 
north-northwest, at an angle of from ten to fifteen degrees. Owing to this 
northward dip of the strata, the northern side of this island presents a steep 
slope to the sea, while on all other sides it is precipitous. The island is almost, 
divided in two in the middle, by a cove indenting it on the southern side. . . . 
1 For further details and determinations of corals collected on these reefs, see 
Hartt’s Geology and physical geography of Brazil, р. 203-211. 
2 Сарийо Tenente Collatino Marques de Souza, Revista do Instituto Geographico 
da Bahia, 1895, IL, р. 27-29. 
3 Nouvelle Geographie Universelle, XIX. Amérique du Sud, р. 268. Paris, 1894. 
4 Ch. Е. Hartt. Geology and physical geography of Brazil, р. 174-200. 
Boston, 1870. 
