BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 
São José, about S. lat. 8º 52/. Here the sea has encroached upon an 
old mangrove swamp. The two ends of a former channel have been cut 
across, but instead of these channel ends 
being left open they have both been closed 
by sand thrown into them by the sea, thus 
enclosing two miniature lakes. 
Hartt mentions such a case on the 
coast of Espirito Santo: “Just north of 
the Doce and near the coast is a large 
lagoon called Monserras. During the dry 
season this is separated from the sea by 
the sand-beach, but when the rains come 
it opens for itself a channel to the sea, 
which channel remains open until the dry 
season returns. . . . When I went to the 
Doce from Säo Matheos this bar was closed, 
but on my return, in the latter part of 
December, it was open and dangerous to 
cross” ! 
The closing of all these breaches by the 
sea must be accepted as meaning that the 
sea along the northeast of Brazil is quite 
capable of both making and maintaining 
the embankments that shut the lakes in 
on the seaward side. 
Choked embayments. — A large number 
of choked up embayments and estuaries 
along the Brazilian coast might be placed 
here in evidence. Only a few of them 
can be mentioned. 
The city of Recife itself stands on one 
of these choked up bays, though rather an 
open-mouthed one. The hills of Olinda stand at the northern end of 
the Pernambuco embayment, while its western boundaries are indi- 
cated by the line of steep-faced hills that sweep inland past Beberibe, 
Beberibe de Baixo, Casa Amarella, Monteiro Dois Irmáos, Caxang 
Engenho São João, approaching the São Francisco Railway two kilo- 
metres southwest of Вба Viagem station. 
137 
Mangrove 
snags 
27.2 
m у 
LN rary 
о... 
m 
n 
эү, 
me 
N 
g 
P 
м 
МЫ 
ы « 
Cocos бе 
ü € # вы. 
Fre. 74. Sketch-map of the 
former channel of Rio 
Santa Cruz. 
From this point the hills 
swing inland again and only come near the railway at Ilha station, and 
1 Geology and physical geography of Brazil, p. 106. 
, 
à, 
