next to the Devonian bands. There is a lower series consisting
of sandstone and an upper series of limestone. The former appears to
be almost unfossiliferous, the latter has yielded a rich marine fauna,
which belongs to the top of the Carboniferous or to the
Permo-carboniferous. In southern Brazil, on the other hand, in Rio
Grande do Sul, Parana, &c., the beds of this period are of terrestrial
origin, containing coal seams and remains of plants. Some of the
plants are European forms, others belong to the Glossopteris flora
characteristic of India and South Africa. The beds are homotaxial with
the Karharbari series of India, and represent either the top of the
Carboniferous or the base of the Permian of Europe. The only Mesozoic
system which is represented in Brazil by marine beds is the
Cretaceous, and the marine facies, is restricted to the coasts and the
basin of the Amazon. In the province of Sergipe, on the east coast,
the beds are approximately on the horizon of the Cenomanian; in the
valley of the Amazon they belong to the highest parts of the
Cretaceous system, and the fauna shows Tertiary affinities. In the
interior of Brazil, the Palaeozoic beds are directly overlaid by a
series of red sandstones, &c., which appear to be of continental
origin and of which the age is uncertain. Tertiary beds cover a
considerable area, especially in the Amazonian depression. They
consist chiefly of sands and clays of aeolian and freshwater origin.
Of the Pleistocene and recent deposits the most interesting are the
remains of extinct animals (_Glyptodon_, _Mylodon_, _Megatherium_,
&c.) in the caves of the Sao Francisco.

From the above account it will appear that, excepting near the coast
and in the basin of the Amazon, there is no evidence that any part of
Brazil has been under the sea since the close of the Devonian period.
During the Triassic and Jurassic periods even the basin of the Amazon
appears to have been dry land. Eruptive rocks occur in the Devonian
and Carboniferous beds, but there is no evidence of volcanic activity
since the Palaeozoic epoch. The remarkable "stone reefs" of the
north-east coast are ancient beaches hardened by the infiltration of
carbonate of lime. They are quite distinct in their formation from the
coral reefs of the same coast.

_Climate._--Brazil lies almost wholly within the torrid zone, less
than one-twelfth of its area ly