228 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



Cape Sf. Boque reefs. — It is greatly regretted that I have not been 

 able to visit the reefs off Cape Sao Roque, for without doubt they 

 are quite as important and as interesting as any ou the Brazilian 

 coast. 



These Sao Roque reefs are upon a part of the coast never visited by 

 large steamers. Coasting steamers from Pernambuco and Parahyba 

 touch at Natal, thirty-six kilometres from the southern end of the Mara- 

 cajahu reef, and this is as near as one can get to them by such con- 

 veyance. At the time of my visit to Natal, coast of Rio Grande do 

 Norte, in June and July, 1899, it was impossible for a sailing vessel 

 to pass the reefs and then return southward. Once past the Cape 

 it would be necessary to I'emain there for months for the winds to 

 change in order to get back to Pernambuco. For this reason when I 

 reached Natal I turned back southward in order to see the coast 

 south of Recife. 



Our knowledge of the Cape Sao Roque reefs is so scanty that it cannot 

 be said positively that they are of coral. It is true that Findlay and 

 Penn both speak of them as being coral, but these authors do not always 

 disci-iminate between coral reefs and reefs of other kinds. So far as 

 can be learned they have never been visited by a naturalist. 



The entire group extends from Cape Calcanhar on the north nearly to 

 Cape St. Roque, a total length of about forty-two kilometres. There are 

 three groups of reefs: the northwestern, called the Sioba reefs, the 

 middle group, called Fogo, and the southeastern group known as the 

 Maracajahu reef. Between these reefs and the mainland is the St. Roque 

 channel, with a depth of from three and a quarter to three and a half 

 fathoms. These are therefore barrier reefs. 



Lavandeira reefs, — About sixty kilometres west of the Sioba reefs of 

 the Sao Roque group, on longitude 36° W. of Greenwich, is a large reef 

 known as the Lavandeira, with several smaller ones both east and west 

 of it. These reefs are off the point of land known as Tres Irmaos. I 

 have not examined them, but they are probably of coral. 



Joao da Cunha reef — probably of coral — is about thirty-five kilo- 

 metres northeast of the mouth of Rio ^Iossor6, VV. lat. 37°. It seems 

 to be only a small isolated reef. 



Ceai-d reefs. — Of the coral reefs along the coast of Ceani, Spix and 

 Martins say : " On the sea-coast the numerous corals are used for mak- 

 ing lime. . . . These banks are the same as the coral reefs further south 

 along the coast of Pernambuco, Paraliyba, and Rio Grande do Norte, and 

 are covered here and there with thick beds of shellfish. The corals 



