236 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



The dredge brought up very calcareous sands from the shallow waters 

 between the Itaniaraca reefs and the island. 



South of the island of Itamaraca there are two reefs, — one on either 

 side of the Barra de Maria Farinha. The one between this channel and 

 the land I saw many years ago, and my recollection of it is that it is a 

 stone reef. I cannot speak positively, however, as the notes then taken 

 are not now in my possession, and at the time of my last visit the water 

 was too high to permit a re-examination. The reef east of the Barra de 

 Maria Farinha is of coral. It has a length of nearly four kilometres. 

 The Maria Farinha reef is separated from one just south of it by the 

 Barra de Sao Jose. This last reef has a length of five kilometres, its 

 southern end being near the shore at the old fort Pan Amarello. The 

 Barra do Pau Amarello separates this reef from another shorter coral 

 reef that runs as far south as Quadras. 



These three reefs, Maria Farinha, Pau Amarello, and Quadras, overlap 

 each other somewhat, their northern ends all lying east of the reefs just 

 north of them. They are from one to two kilometres out from the 

 beach. 



The near-shore reef south of the mouth of Rio Doce is of sandstone, 

 and is described on page 59 of this report. 



Off the lighthouse at Olinda are some reefs uncovered at the lowest 

 tides, but they are small and ragged. I have not been on them. They 

 are generally supposed to be of coral, but the existence on shore of the 

 Tertiary rocks leads me to suspect that they may be the hard parts of 

 sedimentary rocks. 



The coral reefs from Pernambuco to Santo Aleixo. — At and south 

 of Pernambuco the reefs are of sandstone as far as Boa Viagem. No 

 coral reef is visible outside of the sandstone reef along this distance, but 

 about Boa Viagem the sands of the beach are very calcareous. 



The first considerable coral reef south of Pernambuco is at Candeias. 

 At the point of land near Candeias church the coral reef is one kilometre 

 off shore. Its northern end is opposite Venda Grande, and its southern 

 end is nearly opposite the Barra das Jangadas, giving it a length of 

 nearly three kilometres. Corals grow abundantl}' on the landward side 

 of the reef, especially through the openings or breaks in it. 



The collection of corals made by the Commissao Geologica do Brazil 

 in 1875 and afterwards deposited in the Museu Is'acional at Rio de 

 Janeiro was made partly on the Candeias reef. 



At the Pedras Pretas north of Cape Santo Agostinho there are many 

 patches of coral reefs growing upon the trachyte that forms most of the 



