228 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
Cape St. Roque reefs. — It is greatly regretted that I have not been 
able to visit the reefs off Cape Säo Roque, for without doubt they 
are quite as important and as interesting as any on the Brazilian 
coast. 
These 6йо Roque reefs are upon a part of the coast never visited by 
large steamers. Coasting steamers from Pernambuco and Parahyba 
touch at Natal, thirty-six kilometres from the southern end of the Mara- 
cajahu reef, and this is ав near as one can get to them by such con- 
veyance. At the time of my visit to Natal, coast of Rio Grande do 
Norte, in June and July, 1899, it was impossible for a sailing vessel 
to pass the reefs and then return southward. Once past the Cape 
it would be necessary to remain there for months for the winds to 
change in order to get back to Pernambuco. For this reason when I 
reached Natal I turned back southward in order to see the coast 
south of Recife. 
Our knowledge of the Cape São Roque reefs is so scanty that it cannot 
be said positively that they are of coral. It is true that Findlay and 
Penn both speak of them as being coral, but these authors do not always 
discriminate between coral reefs and reefs of other kinds. So far as 
can be learned they have never been visited by a naturalist. 
The entire group extends from Cape Calcanhar on the north nearly to 
Cape St. Roque, a total length of about forty-two kilometres. There are 
three groups of reefs: the northwestern, called the Sioba reefs, the 
middle group, called Fogo, and the southeastern group known as the 
Maracajahá reef. Between these reefs and the mainland is the St. Roque 
channel, with a depth of from three and a quarter to three and a half 
fathoms. These are therefore barrier reefs. 
Lavandeira reefs. — About sixty kilometres west of the Sioba reefs of 
the Säo Roque group, on longitude 36° W. of Greenwich, is a large reef 
known as the Lavandeira, with several smaller ones both east and west 
of it. These reefs are off the point of land known as Tres Irmáos. I 
have not examined them, but they are probably of coral. 
João da Cunha reef — probably of coral — is about thirty-five kilo- 
metres northeast of the mouth of Rio Mossoró, W. lat. 37°. It seems 
to be only a small isolated reef. 
Ceará reefs. — Of the coral reefs along the coast of Ceará, Spix and 
Martius вау: “ Оп the sea-coast the numerous corals are used for mak- 
ing lime. . . . These banks are the same as the coral reefs further south 
along the coast of Pernambuco, Parahyba, and Rio Grande do Norte, and 
are covered here and there with thick beds of shellfish. The corals 
