76 The American. Geohxjist. February, isy; 
But the most important announcement is? that of tlie exist- 
ence in this vieinity of true coral reefs. He said : ''While 
"engaged in the late Tha^^er expedition under professor Agas- 
"siz, in company with Mr. Edward Copeland, the writer dis- 
"covered some quite extensive reefs in the bays of Santa Cruz 
"and Porto Seguro, and made out, in a geiuM-al way, their 
"structure. Fishermen and pilots described the reefs of the 
"Abrolhos as precisely like those at Porto Seguro, and a note 
"in a chart of lieutenant Mouchez. which afterwards fell into 
"the writer's hands, left no doubt of the existence of extensive 
"coral reefs in that region. The return of the expedition left 
"no time for their exploration, but the writer, during his visit 
"to the Brazilian coast last summer, gave them a careful ex- 
"amination. * * * 
"The great shelf of the Abrolhos lies, over a very large area, 
"at a depth of less than a hundred feet, and the conditions 
"for the growth of corals are of the most favorable kind. 
"In consequence of this, we find here not only around the 
"islands, but in the shoal, open waters, ver}- extensive reefs 
"and banks, which, in an area of fifty miles square, occupy a 
"space of nearly one hundred and fifty square miles."* 
In the April number of the Naturalist, for the same year, 
(p. 85) under the title "The Cruise of the Abrolhos," he des- 
cribed the reef-grounds of the Abrolhos region, known as the 
Paredes, with its mushroom-shaped coral structures, or 
chapeiroes and reefs. 
His account of Recife do Lixo, with its mj^riads of living 
forms, is especially vivid. "The whole reef is alive," he ex- 
claims with an enthusiasm which becomes contagious, and his 
readers peer with him into the clear pools and behold in 
strange places many interesting and unfamiliar phases of life. 
In 1869 Hartt was honored by an election to the General 
Secretaryship of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science for the Troy, New York, meeting, but when 
the time came he was conducting another exploration in Bra- 
zil, known as the first Morgan expedition. 
In his preliminary reportf he says : "My expedition to the 
"Amazonas, in 1870, was undertaken chiefly for the purpose 
*Pp. 9 and 11. 
"^ Bulletin of the Cornell University, Science, vol. 1, no. 1. 1874. 
