BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 228 
Serres, Marcel de. Note sur la petrification des coquilles dans 
Pocéan actual. Compt. Rend. 1853, XXXVI, р. 14-16. 
The author gives the results of the observations of M. Christine, a 
surgeon in the French navy, at Bahia. He speaks of the recent sand- 
stones near the lighthouse and north of it. He says they are very hard, 
are used for building in Bahia, that they contain many shells, and also 
petrified shells, living species, without traces of animal matter, but with 
colors fresh. He is of the opinion that these examples show that shell- 
bearing sandstones are in process of formation in the present seas, and 
still more extensively in the oceans; that petrification goes on at 
present; “that the shell-bearing sandstones of Babia must have been 
deposited after the petrification of the shells which they enclose.” 
Serres, Marcel de. Sur le dépôts récents des côtes du Brésil. Compt. 
Rend. 1860, L., р. 907. 
This brief paper (a letter to Élie de Beaumont) was called forth by 
the letter of М. Liais upon the Pernambuco reef. M. Serres finds in 
that letter fresh evidence in support of petrification going on at the 
present time. 
Smith, Н. H. Brazil, the Amazons and the coast. New York, 1879, 
р. 438-439. 
“The reef looks much like an artificial breakwater from end to end, 
it forms almost a straight line, and the height is very uniform — about 
ten or twelve feet above high water.” Опр. 439 there is a wood en- 
graving of the reef made from a photograph taken from the lighthouse 
at its north end. 
Santa Teresa, Gio: Gioseppe di. Istoria delle guerre del regno del 
3rasile accadute tra la corona di Portogallo e la republica di Olanda. 
Roma, 1698. 
In Part II., at pp. 202-203, are a view and a plan of Pernambuco, 
both exhibiting the reef. The plan is obviously inaccurate so far as 
the city of Recife is concerned, and the reef is represented as strongly 
curved. It is stated that (Part I. p. 21): “ The Port of Recife is one 
of the most frequented of the world; it is protected by a wonderful 
mole formed there by nature, which rises above the water, and extend- 
ing a great number of leagues, cut by nature with such regularity as if 
they were so many moles made artificially at great expense.” 
Souza, Pero Lopes de. Diario da Navegação da Armada que foi à 
Terra do Brazil em 1530 sob a Capitania— mor de Martim Affonso 
