Northeast Coast of Brazil. 375 



of broken slabs, while bands of shells and disintegrated frag- 

 ments of the rock in the sand back from the beach mark the 

 buried eastward continuation of the reef. Westward also, 

 beyond the extremity of the reef, shells and disintegrated 

 fragments of reef rock may be found at a distance of 50 to 

 100 yards from the present beach, for a couple of miles along 

 the undulating sandy plain. 



About 3f miles west of Queimadas the reef rock begins 

 again abruptly on the beach within reach of the tide. A 

 spring of fresh water gushes up from beneath its extremity, 

 and 450 yards beyond this spring another rises through the 

 beach sand at about half-tide level, probably from beneath a 

 buried block of the reef. Thence the reef continues, princi- 

 pally as great loosened blocks and slabs, along the beach at 

 half-tide to high-tide level, for l-£ miles to the eastern end of 

 the series of cliffs known as Tres Irmaos (Three Brothers). 

 In the cove between the eastern two headlands and also at 

 their bases a few blocks of the reef rock are visible at half-tide, 

 the gray or pale yellow of the latter contrasting with the dark 

 red sandstone of the cliffs. 



A few miles west of Tres Irmaos and 1^ miles east of Cai- 

 cara light, in the sandy plain 80 yards from the beach and 

 approximately parallel with it, there is an exposure of dis- 

 integrated calcareous reef rock, part rust-colored, part bleached, 

 about 5 yards wide and 50 yards long. It is perhaps the best 

 example that was seen of an inland remnant of a reef. About 

 one-half mile westward from this remnant the rock reappears 

 as broken slabs half-buried in the beach, but soon becomes a 

 continuous beach-reef, with blocks of the material piled in 

 confusion along its landward edge. The Caicara light post is 

 erected on a concrete foundation built on the reef at high- 

 tide level. A small headland that rises to a height of 20 or 

 25 feet just west of the light is composed of fluted and craggy, 

 lime-cemented sandstone that resembles the calcareous reef 

 rock, while over the sandy knolls behind the headland are 

 scattered many shells, fragments of coral, and pieces of lime 

 carbonate that resemble calcified brush roots. From among 

 these knolls a low ridge of gray to rust-colored, disintegrated 

 lime-cemented sandstone, with many loose shells lying along 

 its course, leads westward down to a small reef that disappears 

 in the water of a little bay. On the far side of this bay, a 

 short distance west of the fishing village of Santa Maria, the 

 reef again appears in the surf. The beach thence to Ponta 

 Caicara, a distance of If miles, is very nearly straight. The 

 reef rock, however, after attaining the beach and following it 

 for 550 yards, swings a short distance inland and becomes 

 nearly buried for 100 yards. It then returns and again forms 



