BRANNER: THE STONE REEFS OF BRAZIL. 119 
2. The inclination of the reef beds. 
3. The elevation of the stone reefs beyond the reach of the high tides. 
(Capanema speaks of the recession of the sea in the same sense.) 
4, The lakes along the coast. (Capanema refers to lakes shut off by 
sand-banks. ) 
5. The fixed dunes of the coast. 
To this list may be joined two additional points held by Capanema ; 
namely : — 
6. Islands joined to the mainland. 
7. The conversion of a deeply indented coast-line into a weakly in- 
dented one." 
It may be said at the outset that whether there has or has not been 
an elevation of the coast in question, in my opinion the facts to which 
appeal is made in these cases are either not facts at all, or else they do 
not admit of the interpretations given them. 
These points will be briefly considered in their order. 
1. The schistose structure of the reef rocks.— It is presumed that the 
idea here is that schistosity would have been produced by orographic 
movements. However that may be, in the many kilometres of stone 
reef examined by the present writer, what is commonly regarded as 
schistose structure has not once been observed in the reef rocks. In 
places the rocks sometimes contain mica, and are therefore somewhat 
foliated, and it seems probable that this foliation may have been re- 
garded by Liais as schistosity. The mica that causes the foliation was 
deposited with the sand. 
2. The dip of the reef rocks. — Liais considers the angle of slope of the 
beds (op. cit, p. 545) as having been produced by orographic disturbance, 
the inference being that the strata were originally horizontal. It is true 
that the beds of the rock reefs do have a dip varying between two and 
twenty degrees, and in a few cases running a little higher. But the dip 
is usually low and uniform and invariably toward the sea; it is simply 
the bedding of the beach sands of which the reefs are made. Such dips 
may be seen in the wet sands of the present beaches.? I have lately 
made notes upon the angles of the wet sand uncovered at low tide along 
the coast of Pernambuco and Alagõas. These angles run as high as 
twenty-four degrees in false beds. A newly formed delta in the Una 
1 Mittheilungen von Dr. Petermann, 1874, p. 230. 
2 A. de Lapparent. On this subject see Traité de géologie, р. 178, 175. Paris, 
1885, 
L. Élie de Beaumont. Leçons de géologie pratique, Vol. I., p.226-227. Paris, 1845. 
