THE SEDIMENTARY BELT OF THE COAST OF BRAZIL 
ORVILLE A. DERBY 
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 
INTRODUCTION. 
Location of the belt. 
Early references. 
Division into Cretaceous and Tertiary. 
Doubts regarding the division. 
DISCUSSION OF FOSSILIFEROUS LOCALITIES. 
The Sergipe district. 
The Pernambuco district. 
The Parahyba district. 
The Rio Grande do Norte district. 
The Para district. 
The Bahia district. 
The Maraht district. 
The Ilheos district. 
The Abrolhos district. 
The Alagoas district. 
The interior districts. 
SUMMARY. 
From a geological point of view the coast of Brazil can be divided 
into two principal sections according to the character of the highlands 
that either abut directly on the beach or at a moderate distance from 
it rise above the low costal plains, composed of sand flats and tidal- 
and fresh-water marshes, which are evidently of comparatively recent 
origin. In the southern section, extending from Cape Frio to the 
southern limit of the republic (this section might without impropriety 
be extended to the northern limit of the La Plata estuary) and embrac- 
ing about one-third of the entire coast line, these highlands are com- 
posed of ancient metamorphic and eruptive rocks which are presum- 
ably of Archean or early Paleozoic age.* 
t The only known exception is a comparatively short stretch of coast near the Porto 
de Torres, close to the northern boundary of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where sand- 
stones and eruptives of late Paleozoic or early Mesozoic age (Permian or Triassic, pre- 
sumably the latter) abut on the coast. 
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