202 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



Ou p. 31 it is stated that the harbor of Pernambuco " is formed by the 

 recife, a singular coral reef which borders the shore, more or less from 

 Bahia to Maranham, a distance of nearly a thousand miles." 

 Auchincloss, W. S. Ninety days in the Tropics or Letters from Brazil. 

 Wilmington, Del., 1874, p. 21. 



This writer says, " the natural harbor is formed by a coi'al reef running 

 parallel with the shore." 



Ball, John. Notes of a naturalist in South America. By John Ball, 

 London, 1887. 



On page 351 this writer says that Pernambuco is " separated from the 

 open roadstead by a coral reef several miles in length." The author was 

 at Pernambuco on board a transatlantic steamer, but, so far as I can 

 learn, did not personally examine the reef. 



Barlaeus, Caspar. Ees Brasiliae imperante Illustrismo D. L Mauritio 

 Nassoviae, etc. Principe, per C. Barleum. Accedit G. Pisonis 

 Tractatus de Aere, Aquis et Locis. Clivis. 



(This work has also the following title by which it is commonly 

 known : Rerum per Octenuium in Brasilia.) Editio secunda. Clivis, 

 1660. (The "dedicatio" is dated April 20, 1647.) The first edition 

 of this work was published at Amsterdam in 1647; the present refer- 

 ences are to the second edition. 



Piso's description of the reefs is given on p. 584-585. On page 248 is 

 a plan of the city and reefs of Pernambuco, and a view of the town and 

 reef taken by the Dutch artist F. Post from the south, and looking 

 toward the city and the northern end of the reef. (Page 66) : " Between 

 Rio Biberibe and the ocean is a very narrow sandy tongue of land about 

 a mile (?) long. . . . "Where it comes to an end is the so-called recife 

 {Reciffa) or receptacle (Rerepfus),^ probably so named because between 

 this tongue and another insular oblong tract called the stone reef ships 

 can enter." (p. 248-249.) 



It should be noted that Barlaeus was never in Brazil, and that his in- 

 formation was largely at second hand,* partly from Jean de Laet. The 

 work is important in this connection largely on account of the beautiful 

 drawings by Post. 

 Barrow, John. See Malte-Brun. 



^ Barlaeus is in error here. Recife is the Portuguese word for reef, and the name 

 of the city was unquestionably taken from the reef, not from tlie form of the 

 harbor. 



^ Historia das lutas com os HoUandezes. Pelo Barao do Porto Seguro, Lisboa, 

 1872, p. 176. 



