REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 675 
the north of the town of Ereré, at a distance of about two miles 
are red and whitish sandstones with whitish or yellowish shales. 
The sandstone is seldom seen in situ, but usually occurs in loose 
angular fragments. It affords an abundance of fossils, and forms 
the best collecting ground known on the plain. At this point 
Prof. Hartt and Mr. Derby made a very large collection of fossils. 
It represented ten genera of Brachiopods, about the same number 
of genera of Lamellibranchs and Gasteropods, two species and 
genera of Trilobites and several other forms. After a careful 
comparison of these with North American and European collec- 
tions, several of the species were found to be identical with species 
occurring in the Hamilton group of New York, and described by 
Prof. Hall. So the conclusions are, that the sandstones and 
shales of the Ereré plain were formed at a period, corresponding 
to that in which the Hamilton shales were laid down, in North 
America. 
The surface characters of the plain are in strict keeping with its 
simple structure. To the eastward of the Igarapé, it stretches to 
the foot of the Monte-Alegre highlands, almost as level as a floor, 
the Palseozoic rocks passing beneath the highlands. To the west- 
ward, as we approach Ereré, the plain forms a flat or rolling open 
_ Campo, with long gentle ascents and descents. There is very little 
soil on any part of the plain, the surface of which is usually 
covered with angular fragments of red sandstone or rounded iron 
nodules. The campo is sparingly covered with grass, while the. 
trees are few, stunted and scattered. Several large dykes occur 
on the plain. 
Having gone over, though very hastily, what seems to be the 
Most interesting part of Prof. Hartt’s paper, as it is the richest in 
Tesults, let us, by the aid of his sketches and descriptions, examine 
the surrounding hills. They form almost a square, protecting the, 
level plain on all sides; to the eastward lie the Tertiary hills of 
nte-Alegre, made up in large part of a single ridge, and extend- 
ing from the Curupatiba on the south nearly to the Serra of Taua- 
jurí on the north. They have a height of about 500 or 600 feet, 
are composed of horizontal beds of clays and sands, probably of 
Tertiary age, and seem to be “a degraded outlier of the once ex- 
tensive formation of the serras of Pard.” The upper town of the 
Villa of Monte-Alegre is placed upon its summit, above the Rio 
_ Curupatéba, toward which the descent is very rapid.  ' 
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