
THE CRUISE OF THE ABROLHOS. 87 
isolated coral structures, which are very common on the 
Brazilian reef-grounds. Corals grow over the bottom in 
small patches, and without spreading much, rise often to a 
height of forty to fifty or more feet, like towers, and some- 
times attain the level of low tide. At the top they are 
usually very irregular, and sometimes spread out like mush- 
rooms, or, as the fishermen say, umbrellas. Some of these 
Chapeirées are only a few feet in diameter. Two Chapeirédes 
are seen in the foreground of the engraving of the Recife do 
Lixo. Professor Verrill tells me that similar structures occur 
also in the West Indies. We soon came up to one and passed 
almost over it. They were of all heights, and on the larger 
the waves were breaking. The sea was full of them, a perfect 
labyrinth, through which our skilful captain readily tacked 
is way. In some places a good-sized ship might sail among 
them, but it would not be i to venture among them in 
dark or stormy weather. As we threaded our way through, 
Jacó and the sailors told me stories of the whale and other 
fisheries carried on here, of their adventures while eng 
in their hardy pursuits in these waters, and how vessels 
sometimes ran on the Chapeirées, sticking fast by the middle 
of the keel, to the amazement of the captain, who found 
deep water all round, the vessel being perched, as it were, 
- like a weather-cock on the top of a tower. Occasionally, I 
am told, the shock is sufficient to break off and upset some 
of the slender ones, for they are not very compact. 
After a while we came out once more into open water. 
The reef-ground we had crossed is known as the Parédes, or 
walls. Fiii north to south itis fifteen to twenty miles in 
length, while its width varies from three to nine miles. 
Where we crossed it, nearly in the middle, there are only 
Chapeirses; but farther north, as well as farther south, there 
are extensive reefs laid bare at low tide over an area of 
many square miles; but these I did not visit until -p return 
voyage. 
On finishing my examination of the islands, of which I 
