BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. . 255 
about the edges of the reefs also, wherever there are accumulations of 
sediments they are in the form of calcareous mud that is blue a few 
centimetres below the surface, but cream-colored to yellow and buff on 
the surface. 
The chapeiróes or isolated masses are at various depths beneath the 
water ; some of them even reach the surface at low tide. Those whose 
summits are uncovered at low tide have very flat tops. Their sizes and 
forms in plan are simply endless. In some places they are so abundant 
that they are only from one to six metres apart, and pretty evenly spaced ; 
again they are but sparsely scattered over large areas. 
It is on these growing isolated masses that the best examples of coral 
heads are found. I was rather disappointed, however, in the corals of 
the Lixa reefs. Really fine examples can be had here only at the lowest, 
spring tides. The biggest heads accessible were not more than from 
forty-five to sixty centimetres in diameter. 
The facts that most impress one in regard to the Parcel das Paredes 
reef are (1) that the upper portion of it is completed and dead, (2) that 
its growth is now confined to filling in the channels that separate its 
larger portions, and (3), that the final completion of the still growing 
portions consists in the extension of the isolated stumps until the spaces 
between them are closed. In many places these stumps are so thick 
that the reef may be said to be in its last stages of growth. 
The reef is weaker in its development on the landward side than from 
the centre eastward, and its landward side is about a metre lower than 
the highest parts. The smoothness of the surface of these reefs as 
compared with the reefs of the northern coast is remarkable. And 
this smoothness is noticeable in all the reefs seen from Cabral Bay 
southward. 
As a place for collecting corals the Parcel das Paredes is no better 
than scores of more accessible reefs along the coast of Pernambuco and 
Alagóas. It has the advantage of not having been so much explored by 
lime-burners as many of the northern reefs, but it has the disadvantage 
of being a long way from land, with inconvenient sand-bars between the 
land and the reefs. 
An elevation of eight metres would kill nearly all of the living parts 
of the Paredes reefs, but an elevation of two metres would not affect 
them seriously. 
І was told by a pilot who has lived at the Barra de Caravellas for forty 
years, that the currents inside of the Abrolhos and Parcel das Paredes 
reefs set strongest to the southwest in May, June, and July, that they 
