Richard Rathbun

“ It was founded on the best of paleontological evidence which proves the existence of an immense palæozoic basin lying between the metamorphic plateau of Guiana on the north, and that of Central Brazil on the south, and through which flows the river Amazonas. Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous rocks, make up the series in regular succession, and in many localities are highly fossiliferous. He has explained the character of the isolated Cretaceous deposits, mostly discovered by himself, existing along the coast from Pará, to Bahia, and of the Carboniferous and other regions south of Rio. ”

“ CHARLES FREDERIC HARTT, whose death by yellow fever occurred at Rio de Janeiro on the 18th of last March, was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, August 23, 1840. For three years and a half before his decease, he had successfully withstood the fatigues of exploration and the labors of organizing and carrying on the geological commission of Brazil, an undertaking beset with many trying difficulties, only to succumb at last, the victim of an epidemic which caused him but two days of suffering. ”

“ On the reorganization of the National Museum at Rio, in 1876, Hartt became director of its department of Geology; but, on account of his many other duties, he was soon obliged to resign that position. The results of his researches may be briefly summed up as follows: Before he went to Brazil on his second trip, in 1867, scarcely anything was known of fossiliferous deposits there, and thus no material existed toward the study of the systematic geology of the country. A few Cretaceous fossils had been recorded from Bahia ”