branner: the stoxe reefs of brazil. 235 



barreta. At one of these the weed was piled up at the time of my visit 

 to the depth of more than a metre, and lay heaped along the shore fur 

 more than a hundred metres. These piles of Algae are found only in 

 this one place about the Parahyba reef and always on the south side of 

 the obstacles. 



The coral fauna of the Parahyba reef is not so rich as that of the 

 Maria Farinha, and of Rio Formoso reefs farther south. The living corals 

 are scarce, possibly on account of their being used for lime-making, and 

 the continual disturbance of the heads and prominences of calcareous for- 

 mations by the lime-burners must affect the life of the reef perceptibly. 



Coral reefs between Parahyha and Recife. South of the Parahyba 

 reef there are no considerable coral reefs again until the Barra de 

 Goyanna is reached. The reef-like breakers near the shore at Tambaba 

 and just south of Jacuma are of Tertiary rocks — those at the latter 

 place are fossiliferous. South of Tambaba it is possible that there are 

 some small low patchy coral reefs extending to a little south of Petimbii. 

 These reefs are only uncovered, however, at the lowest tides, and could 

 not be examined at the time of the writer's visit. 



The reefs put down on the hydrographic chart as Les Tacis and said 

 to be uncovered at quarter ebb, I was unable to find. Xorth of the 

 Barra de Goyanna is a sandstone reef uncovered at quarter ebb, but it 

 is known here as the Pedra do Gale, and has neither the great length 

 nor the position given the reef called Les Tacis on the chart. South 

 of the Barra do Goyanna the sandstone reef is continued in a south- 

 westerly direction. Outside of and overlapping its south end is a long, 

 patchy line of coral reefs extending to the Barra do Gerimum. The 

 reefs are interrupted at the Barra de Catuama, but they begin again 

 east of the northern end of the Island of Itamaraca and continue a little 

 more than half the length of that island. The reef is nearly three kilo- 

 metres out from the east shore of the island. The corals grow also on 

 the inside of the Itamaraca reef nearly to the shore. At the lowest 

 tides the coral banks are exposed at many places between the main 

 outer reef and the island. The rock is taken out and is used extensively 

 both for building-stone and for lime-burning. In the heaps found on 

 the shores, especially at the town of Itamaraca, the most common form 

 is Porites. Some of the heads of this genus measure 47 centimetres in 

 length. Millepores are also common. In the shallow water opposite 

 the church the Pontes is especially abundant. Tlie Pon'tes is known 

 here, as it is at many other places along the coast, as '* cabe^a de 

 carneiro" or sheep's head. 



