BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 141 
The shores along the lower part of the river are all low, and mostly 
covered with mangrove swamps; the highlands begin at the town of 
Jaguaripe on the south side; on the north side they begin a couple or 
three kilometres further upstream. These hills are some thirty-five 
metres high. They have steep slopes, some of them being nearly per- 
pendicular, that plunge without a break beneath the mangrove flats. 
When one can get a broad view over these mangrove flats, he sees them 
ending like a water-line against the foot of the hills. The landward 
margins of the mangrove swamps now follow for a distance parallel with 
Recte ms 
ME Каба 
Fra. 78. Outline sketch of the topography at the mouth of Rio Santa Cruz. 
the stream, and now turn square away from it, run inland for a kilo- 
metre or two, and then curve sharply back upon themselves, thus pro- 
ducing a regular dendritic form. In places these swamps are built out 
in front of hills, in others the river cuts the foot of the hills, and the 
swamps fill the valleys between them like the membrane between the 
fingers of the human hand. 
The present Jaguaripe river, in any case, is a very crooked one, now 
washing the rock bases of bluffs, and now winding through the midst of 
great mangrove swamps. 
These are the features of a region having originally a rather sharp 
drainage and narrow, steep-sided valleys, but now let down until the 
sea has invaded the lower 
ends of the valleys, and these 
valleys are more or less silted 
a > 2 = аж 
Rn 
up and taken possession of by ра ) Ñ 
Mangrove Swamps. са 
x as АМ AS 
The mouth of the Santa ren Га, 
Cruz river, in the State of 
Bahia, seen from the north 
end of the Alagadas reef, has the outlines shown in the accompanying 
sketch, 
The bluffs at the town of Santa Cruz are so steep on the northwest 
a а 
Fie. 79. Sketch of the bluff at Santa Cruz. 
