Restinga Paralela = Parallel Restinga

Barco de pesca no mar na praia de Farol de São Tomé

Fishing boat on the beach of Farol de São Tomé

from oceanic movements. Here, Paraíba do Sul River has a key
role and is the lead actor in the words of the geologist. In the past,
it ended up in a large gulf of shallow waters in the open sea that
bordered the crystalline zone, perhaps passing behind Sapateiro
hill and flowing into the Muriae River, which would later become
its tributary. Sooner it slowly advanced into the sea in a south-
easterly direction, perhaps due to the influence of Muriae, who
has this orientation. Releasing sediments on both sides, the river
built its own bed inside the gulf until it reached what would be
the future coastline, at a point situated between the present Cape
of São Tomé and Barra do Furado, where it would flow through a
delta of the type "goose foot" or "Mississipi". The first river bed
divided the great gulf into the bays of Feia lagoon and Campos.

At one point in its history, the bed of the Paraíba do Sul
changed course, invading Campos Bay. Without abandoning,

however, its primitive bed, a delta of the type “arched” or “Ni-

ger-Ródano” has now been formed, with two arms that separate

far from the future line of the coast. Little by little, the river consol-

idated the second channel with alluvium deposited by the floods

and was abandoning the first, which only became an auxiliary

during the floods. Lamego states that the lagoons and streams of

Peru, Tingidouro, Cambaíba, Saquarema, Colomins, Jacarés, Taí

Pequeno (in Barreirinha do Caetá, entering together with Jacarés,

through Bananeiras lagoon and Colégio's River in the large Mula-

co reservoir, flowing by the Açu lagoon) witnesses this change of

route. In the words of the author of the theory,

During the regular period and in the ebb-

ing, the river flowed by a single mouth.

During the floods, in addition, several

small arms dispersed the waters over the