46 J. C. BRANNER GEOLOGY OF NORTHEAST COAST OF BRAZIL 



The strata forming the higher parts of the hills appear to rest con- 

 formably on these lower marly beds, but the upper beds have yielded 

 no fossils. 



COASTAL SEDIMENTS 



Mr Sumner's house, on top of the hills south of the governor's palace, 

 in the city of Parahyba, has an elevation of 46 meters above tide-level. 

 A well was dug here 28 meters deep ; it penetrates only the pink, red, 

 and mottled sands and clays characteristic of the coastal sediments. 

 Many white quartz pebbles the size of a hen's egg and more or less 

 white kaolin were found in the earth taken from this well. The section 

 seems to resemble closely that exposed in the bluffs at Cabo Branco. 



Figure 2.—Ponta de Pedras, Permbuyo, looking Southwest. 



No unconformity has been found between the highly colored upper beds 

 and the gray calcareous Cretaceous beds at the base of the hills. The 

 line of demarkation between the weathered and the unweathered beds, 

 however, is so uneven that it looks as though the weathering had affected 

 both the upper and lower strata in much the same manner, regardless 

 of geologic age. 



FOSSILS FROM S4NDSTONE EXPOSURES OF THE COAST 



Further light is thrown on the geology of Parahyba and Cabo Branco 

 by the exposures on the coast south of the cape. Ponta de Pedras is a 

 village on the coast of Pernambuco, in south latitude 7 degrees 37 min- 

 utes, between the mouth of Rio Goyana and the northern end of the 

 island of Itamaraca. On the beach in front of the village yellow fossil- 

 iferous calcareous sandstones are exposed from about 2 meters above 

 mean tide to and below low tide, and extending about 200 meters along 

 the beach. 



