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west from Salto Apparado, Parana, according to Dr. Cicero Campos, The 
Limestone beds in the region of Therezina in the same state which 
Dr. Orville A. Derby regards as of marine origin, probably belong at 
this same horizon. 
Frequently nuggets of chert and silicified wood occur in these beds 
as near Tatuhy on the fazenda of Sr. Manoel Guedes de Mello. 
Sometimes they also contain much pyrite, the oxydation of which 
gives the shales a reddish tint, and often makes a soil resembling in 
color the famous coffee soils, or « terra roxa», derived from the oxi- 
dation of eruptive rocks. 
Occasionally, the cherty material is in thin lamina, jet blacls, 
and has been mistaken for coal in one instance a few kilometers south 
from Avaréin Sd Paulo. In such cases it is possible that bituminous 
layers have been replaced by silica, as claimed hy Dr. David White. 
In the drilling at Bofete, Séo Paulo, this formation was struck at 
145 meters, and extended down to 193 meters, thus giving a thickness 
of 48 meters at that locality. 
These dark shales crop along the road between Blumenau and 
Lages 3 to 4 kilometers east from the crest of the divide on the 
Serra Geral, and 275 meters lower. They also may he seen in their 
pale blue oxidized condition at points along the valleys between the 
Serra Geral and Lages. 
Along the road between Lages and Florianopolis, the Zraty black 
shale is well exposed in the cuttings between kilometers 124 and 129 
from the latter city, being filled with small, dark flinty concretions at 
kilometer 128. The matrix is here quite dark and hasa strong odor 
of petroleum when freshly broken. 
On the Estrada do Rio do Rasto west from Minas, Santa Catharina, 
the outcrop of these black shales with petroliferous odor, is visible 
at 12 1/2 kilometers from Minas at an elevation of 414 meters above 
tide, while on the Treviso road, at 2 kilometers south from Palermo 
they crop at 370 meters, thusgivinga dip of 4% meters in the 8 kilo- 
meters to the south-west. 
No remains of Mesosaurus have been seen in these beds except at 
Iraty, and on Rio Tibagy, state of Parana, (as reported by Dr. Campos) 
putas the fossiliferous layer near Iraty is only 20 centimeters in thick- 
ness, and other localities have not been systematically searched, it 
is possible that the distribution of Mesosaurus is not confined to the 
