brannek: the stone keeps of brazil. 



137 



Sao Jose, about S. lat. 8° 52'. Here the sea has encroached upon an 

 old mangrove swamp. The two ends of a former channel have been cut 

 across, but instead of these channel ends 

 being left open they have both been closed 

 by sand thrown into them by the sea, thus 

 enclosing two miniature lakes. 



Hartt mentions such a case on the 

 coast of Espirito Santo : ''Just north of 

 the Doce and near the coast is a large 

 lagoon called Monserras. During the dry 

 season this is separated from the sea by 

 the sand-beach, but when the rains come 

 it opens for itself a channel to the sea, 

 ■which channel remains open until the dry 

 season returns. . . . When I went to the 

 Doce from Sao Matheos this bar was closed, 

 but on my return, in the latter part of 

 December, it was open and dangerous to 

 cross." ^ 



The closing of all these breaches by the 

 sea must be accepted as meaning that the 

 sea along the northeast of Brazil is quite 

 capable of both making and maintaining 

 the embankments that shut the lakes in 

 on the seaward side. 



Choked emhmjments. — A large number 

 of choked up embayments and estuaries 

 along the Brazilian coast might be placed 

 here in evidence. Only a few of them 

 can be mentioned. 



The city of Eecife itself stands on one 

 of these choked up bays, though rather an 

 open-mouthed one. The hills of Olinda stand at the northern end of 

 the Pernambuco embayment, while its western boundaries are indi- 

 cated by the line of steep-faced hills that sweep inland past Beberibe, 

 Beberibe de Baixo, Casa Amarella, Monteiro Dois Irmaos, Caxauga, 

 Engenho Sao Joao, approaching the Sao Francisco Railway two kilo- 

 metres southwest of Boa Viagem station. From this point the hills 

 swing inland again and only come near the railway at Ilha station, and 

 1 Geology and physical geography of Brazil, p. 106. 



Fig. 74. Sketch-map of the 



former channel of Rio 



Santa Cruz. 



