J. G. Branner — The Tombador Escarpment. 337 



A general idea of the structure of the Serra do Tombador 

 can best be had from the accompanying east-west section across 

 the range along the road from Jacobina to Catinga de Moura. 

 The altitude of the crest of the range where this road passes 

 over it is 930 meters (aneroid) above tide level, or 370 meters 

 above the fazenda Santa Cruz at the base of the mountain. 

 The plain to the east, tiiat is between the Serra do Tombador 

 and the Serra de Jacobina, is made up almost entirely of 

 granites, gneisses, schists, and old eruptives. At the fazenda 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 1. General east-west section across the Serra do Tombador, the 

 Serra de Jacobina and the valley between. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 2. Looking north-west along the eastern face of the Tombador 

 escarpment. The rounded hills are the granites underlying the Tombador 

 sandstone. Sketch by the author from Genepapo, 20 kilometers south of 

 Jacobina. 



Santa Cruz at the eastern base of the range hornblende schists 

 are exposed, and at the fazenda Sitio do Meio, a little further 

 north where the old road starts up the mountain, the rocks are 

 granites. The hills made of these older rocks are mostly low 

 and rounded. Some idea of the general topography, both of 

 the granite hills and of the escarpment so characteristic of the 

 Tombador range, can be had from the accom.panying sketches. 

 In addition to these granitic hills, however, there are a few- 



crops of lime rocks in place, and these rocks contain abundant remains of 

 recent freshwater shells. But nothing was found, after the most careful 

 search, that even suggested Lepidotus, or the rocks in which Lepidotus 

 remains have hitherto been found in Brazil. The rocks exposed where these 

 fossils are said to have been found are of two kinds, recent limestones and 

 old, probably Triassic limestones. In the latter the most careful search has 

 been made for fossils at hiindreds of exposures, and not a single one has yet 

 been found except certain small oolitic bodies that are probably algae. One 

 of the following conclusions is inevitable : first, that the Lepidotus was 

 found elsewhere, and was credited to this locality by accidental change of 

 label ; second, that it was brought from the Cretaceous area north of the 

 Rio SSo Francisco, or elsewhere, and dropped at this place ; or, third, that 

 there was an error in the identification. In any case the evidence afforded 

 by the fossils reported from this locality by M. Liais, excepting Paludina 

 and Planorbis which are now living in the streams and ponds, must be set 

 aside. 



