60 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



stone reef -^ extending southward along, partly upon, and partly off the 

 beach, and having a total length of 3.3 kilometres. This includes also 

 the fragments on the beach at its southern end. As will be seen from 

 the map, the reef is more or less broken throughout, the longest piece 

 being only fifty-three metres long. 



It is fifteen metres wide at its widest part above water, but it dips 

 gently seawai'd, and its total width is considerably more than this. It 

 is Mr. Oilman's opinion that the largest pieces have a width to the east 

 of about one hundred metres more than is shown upon the map. 



The entire surface of this reef is thickly covered with corallines and 

 barnacles. 



At the southernmost point on the beach is an exposure of rock similar 

 to that of the reef, and like it containing many shells and some pebbles, 

 and strongly false bedded. These beach fragments are much etched. 



At another place in front of the village and about half a kilometre 

 south of the northern end of the reef is a similar exposure of sandstone 

 on the beach three decimetres above tide, and underlying the sandy soil. 



On the beach of calcareous sands are many bivalve shells, and similar 

 shells are imbedded in the rocks of the stone reef. 



Tlie Pernamhuco^ stone reef. — The Pernambuco reef lies in front of a 



1 The notes on the Rio Doce reef were kindly made for me by my assistant, Mr. 

 C. E. Oilman. I have myself seen this reef several times, but many years ago, and 

 my early notes on it have been lost. 



2 The name Pernambuco is variously spelled by the old writers on Brazil : Fer- 

 nambouc, Fernambuquo, Paranambuquo, Pernambuck, etc. Hans Staden spells it 

 " Prannenbucke." Fernandez Gama explains the name thus : " The native Indians 

 called the bar Peru Namhuco, that is to say, broken rock or hole, in allusion to the 

 opening through which the ships enter. . . ." (Memorias Historicas da Provincia 

 de Pernambuco, Por Jose Bernardo Fernandez Gama, 1844, 1., p. 97.) Macedo gives 

 the same explanation except that he says the native words are Pera-nabuco (No- 

 yces de Corographia do Brazil, por Joaquim Manoel de Macedo, p. 101. Rio de 

 Janeiro, 1873.) Sir Richard Burton says the etymology is Parana mbok or mbo, 

 meaning sea-arm. (Hans Stade of Hesse. Hakluyt Soc, 1874, p. 20.) 



The fantastic explanations given by Johan Nieuhof, by Arnoldus Montanus, 

 and by Rolt are quite out of the question. The first derives it from Inferno 

 enhokko, which he understands to mean the mouth of hell, and to refer to 

 the harbor mouth. (Gedenkweerdige Brasiliaense Zee-en Lant Reize. Amster- 

 dam, 1682, p. 13.) Montanus says the word means "mouth of hell." Rolt ac- 

 cepts a similar explanation from the Portuguese Infernohoco. (A new and accurate 

 history of South America. By Mr. Rolt. London, 1756, p. 546.) 



For the correct explanation of the word see note under "Rolt" on pages 221 and 

 222 of this report. 



Recife is the name of the older part of the city lying east of the Capibaribe. 

 This word is simply the Portuguese for " reef," and is originally from the Arabic, 

 — not from the Latin recipere, as stated by Barlaeus. (p. 66.) 



