Professor Ch. Fred. Hartf^ J[. A. — Simonds. 75 
ten years, furnisliecl papers of unusual interest upon a variety 
of topics, geological, ethnological and descriptive. His acute 
and accurate observations were not confined, as in the case of 
many specialists, to the object directly sought, buteverything 
bearing even remotely upon it was deemed worthy of investi- 
gation. And thus it happened that though a professional 
geologist he has left behind nianj" observations and notes upon 
the liabits of life, burial customs, language and utensils of 
the native races of South America. 
In the first volume of the Naturalist (June and Julj^ 1867) 
he published a paper on "The Recent Bird Tracks of the 
Basin of Minas," in which he gave an account of the unique 
tidal phenomena to be witnessed in the easternmost arm of 
the Bay of Fund}^ the deposits resulting from it, and showed 
how the tracks of animals, especially birds, and even the im- 
prints of the falling raindrops, are recorded on the mud-flats 
and, in sheltered situations, preserved. 
"From these studies," he wrote, "we must see that the phe- 
"nomena going on around us must be the Rosetta Stone, which 
"shall furnish us with the key for the deciphering of the hie- 
"rogh'phics of the Stone Book, and that we shall understand 
"the results of the forces which acted in the past in propor- 
"tion as we correctly understand their action in the present." 
The opening article of volume II (March, 1868), entitled 
"A Naturalist in Brazil," is from his pen. He noted here the 
wonderful geological resemblance between the eastern coasts 
of Brazil and the United States, and, by means of sections, 
made clear the relations of the dilferent formations between 
the mountains and the sea. The evidence of the recent up- 
heaval of the Brazilian coast is briefly mentioned, as for in- 
stance, beds of sand containing recent species of shells and 
rocks containing the nests excavated by sea-urchins, now 
raised above the high-tide mark. 
He also described the Abrolhos islands, their position on the 
submarine shelf of Brazil ; their structure : the decay of their 
trap-rock covering; and their fauna, both terrestrial and ma- 
rine.* 
*Professor A. E. Verrill has described a number of new species of co- 
rals from this vicinity collected V)y professor Hartt. See Trans. Conn. 
Acad, of Arts and Sci., vol. i, pp. .351-371. Some of the descriptions 
accompany the above paper as notes. 
