116 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Elsewhere he gives a brief description of the stone reefs, states that 

 they are exposed at low tide, and that they are broken here and there.-^ 



William Piso, who lived at Pernambuco during the Dutch occupancy 

 under Maurice of Nassau from 1637 to 1644, says of the reef at that 

 place that " its height is such that it is rarely covered by the highest 

 tide." ^ 



Caspar Barlseus, the first edition of whose work was published in 

 1647, gives Piso's description of the reef, but he gives besides a plan of 

 the reef and of the city of Pernambuco, and a view of the reef taken 

 from the south end and looking toward the city and the northern end 

 of the reef.^ But Barloeus was never in Brazil, and his information was 

 all at second hand, probably from Piso. 



Pierre Moreau, who lived in Brazil two years, was at Pernambuco 

 about 1648, and says of the reef that it is "as high as a pike or more, 

 uncovered when the tide is out, but not otherwise because it is all 

 covered." * 



Other early references to the reefs will be found in the annotated 

 bibliography forming part of this paper under the names of Dapper, 

 Angelo, Nieuhof, Gioseppe de S. Teresa, Ayres de Cazal, and Koster. 



These writers differ somewhat in regard to the height of the reefs, 

 some of them stating that they are only uncovered at low tides, and 

 others that they are rarely covered by the highest tides. These differ- 

 ences, however, are precisely the kind of differences of opinion one may 

 find to this day in regard to the height of the reefs among people per- 

 fectly familiar with them. And it is not to be supposed that the old 

 writers spoke with any unusual precision about this matter. 



During the spring tides here and there points remain uncovered at 

 high tide, especially if there be but a little wind. At some places, 

 however, where the reef has been undermined, and huge blocks of stone 

 have been tipped on end, these may not be covered even at the highest 

 tides except by the surf dashing over them. There is such a block on 



1 Le Sieur len de Laet, d'Anvers. L'histoire du nouveau monde, p. 530, 533. 

 Leyde, 1640. 



2 Gulielmi Pisonis — de Indae utriusque Ke naturali et Medica, p. 6-7. 

 Amsterdam, 1658. 



3 C. Barleura. Res Brasiliae, imperante lUustrismo. D. I. Mauritio Nassoviae, 

 etc., Principe. Accedit G. Pisonis tractatus de Aere, Aquis et Locis (This work 

 is commonly known as " Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia.") Editio secunda, 

 Clivis, 1668. (First ed. Amsterdam, 1647.) 



* Pierre Moreav. Histoire des derniers trovbles dv Bresil entre les Hollandois 

 et les Portvgais, p. i, Paris, 1651. 



