Geological Observations on South America. Darwin Charles

the conclusion, from a comparison of old with modern charts, that the coast both south and north of Callao has subsided. (I am indebted for this fact to Dr. E. Dieffenbach. I may add that there is a tradition, that the islands of San Lorenzo and Fronton were once joined, and that the channel between San Lorenzo and the mainland, now above two miles in width, was so narrow that cattle used to swim over.) I have shown that the island of San Lorenzo has been upraised eighty-five feet since the Peruvians inhabited this country; and whatever may have been the amount of recent subsidence, by so much more must the elevation have exceeded the eighty-five feet. In several places in this neighbourhood, marks of sea-action have been observed: Ulloa gives a detailed account of such appearances at a point five leagues northward of Callao: Mr. Cruikshank found near Lima successive lines of sea-cliffs, with rounded blocks at their bases, at a height of 700 feet above the present level of the sea. ("Observaciones sobre el Clima del Lima" par Dr. H. Unanue page 4. – Ulloa's "Voyage" volume 2 English Translation page 97. – For Mr. Cruikshank's observations, see Mr. Lyell's "Principles of Geology" 1st edition volume 3 page 130.) ON THE DECAY OF UPRAISED SEA-SHELLS.

      I have stated that many of the shells on the lower inclined ledge or terrace of San Lorenzo are corroded in a peculiar manner, and that they have a much more ancient appearance than the same species at considerably greater heights on the coast of Chile. I have, also, stated that these shells in the upper part of the ledge, at the height of eighty-five feet above the sea, are falling, and in some parts are quite changed into a fine, soft, saline, calcareous powder. The finest part of this powder has been analysed for me, at the request of Sir H. De la Beche, by the kindness of Mr. Trenham Reeks of the Museum of Economic Geology; it consists of carbonate of lime in abundance, of sulphate and muriate of lime, and of muriate and sulphate of soda. The carbonate of lime is obviously derived from the shells; and common salt is so abundant in parts of the bed, that, as before remarked, the univalves are often filled with it. The sulphate of lime may have been derived, as has probably the common salt, from the evaporation of the sea-spray, during the emergence of the land; for sulphate of lime is now copiously deposited from the spray on the shores of Ascension. (See "Volcanic Islands" etc. by the Author.) The other saline bodies may perhaps have been partially thus derived, but chiefly, as I conclude from the following facts, through a different means.

      On most parts of the second ledge or old sea-beach, at a height of 170 feet, there is a layer of white powder of variable thickness, as much in some parts as two inches, lying on the angular, salt-cemented fragments of sandstone and under about four inches of earth, which powder, from its close resemblance in nature to the upper and most decayed parts of the shelly mass, I can hardly doubt originally existed as a bed of shells, now much collapsed and quite disintegrated. I could not discover with the microscope a trace of organic structure in it; but its chemical constituents, according to Mr. Reeks, are the same as in the powder extracted from amongst the decaying shells on the lower ledge, with the marked exception that the carbonate of lime is present in only very small quantity. On the third and highest ledge, I observed some of this powder in a similar position, and likewise occasionally in small patches at considerably greater heights near the summit of the island. At Iquique, where the whole face of the country is covered by a highly saliferous alluvium, and where the climate is extremely dry, we have seen that, according to Mr. Blake, the shells which are perfect near the beach become, in ascending, gradually less and less perfect, until scarcely a trace of their original structure can be discovered. It is known that carbonate of lime and common salt left in a mass together, and slightly moistened, partially decompose each other (I am informed by Dr. Kane, through Mr. Reeks, that a manufactory was established on this principle in France, but failed from the small quantity of carbonate of soda produced. Sprengel "Gardeners' Chronicle" 1845 page 157, states, that salt and carbonate of lime are liable to mutual decomposition in the soil. Sir H. De la Beche informs me, that calcareous rocks washed by the spray of the sea, are often corroded in a peculiar manner; see also on this latter subject "Gardeners' Chronicle" page 675 1844.): now we have at San Lorenzo and at Iquique, in the shells and salt packed together, and occasionally moistened by the so- called Peruvian dew, the proper elements for this action. We can thus understand the peculiar corroded appearance of the shells on San Lorenzo, and the great decrease of quantity in the carbonate of lime in the powder on the upper ledge. There is, however, a great difficulty on this view, for the resultant salts should be carbonate of soda and muriate of lime; the latter is present, but not the carbonate of soda. Hence I am led to the perhaps unauthorised conjecture (which I shall hereafter have to refer to) that the carbonate of soda, by some unexplained means, becomes converted into a sulphate.

      If the above remarks be just, we are led to the very unexpected conclusion, that a dry climate, by leaving the salt from the sea-spray undissolved, is much less favourable to the preservation of upraised shells than a humid climate. However this may be, it is interesting to know the manner in which masses of shells, gradually upraised above the sea-level, decay and finally disappear.

       SUMMARY ON THE RECENT ELEVATION OF THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA.

      We have seen that upraised marine remains occur at intervals, and in some parts almost continuously, from latitude 45 degrees 35' to 12 degrees S., along the shores of the Pacific. This is a distance, in a north and south line, of 2,075 geographical miles. From Byron's observations, the elevation has no doubt extended sixty miles further south; and from the similarity in the form of the country near Lima, it has probably extended many leagues further north. (I may take this opportunity of stating that in a MS. in the Geological Society by Mr. Weaver, it is stated that beds of oysters and other recent shells are found thirty feet above the level of the sea, in many parts of Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico.) Along this great line of coast, besides the organic remains, there are in very many parts, marks of erosion, caves, ancient beaches, sand-dunes, and successive terraces of gravel, all above the present level of the sea. From the steepness of the land on this side of the continent, shells have rarely been found at greater distances inland than from two to three leagues; but the marks of sea-action are evident farther from the coast; for instance, in the valley of Guasco, at a distance of between thirty and forty miles. Judging from the upraised shells alone, the elevation in Chiloe has been 350 feet, at Concepcion certainly 625 feet; and by estimation 1,000 feet; at Valparaiso 1,300 feet; at Coquimbo 252 feet; northward of this place, sea-shells have not, I believe, been found above 300 feet; and at Lima they were falling into decay (hastened probably by the salt) at 85 feet. Not only has this amount of elevation taken place within the period of existing Mollusca and Cirripedes; but their proportional numbers in the neighbouring sea have in most cases remained the same. Near Lima, however, a small change in this respect between the living and the upraised was observed: at Coquimbo this was more evident, all the shells being existing species, but with those embedded in the uppermost calcareous plain not approximating so closely in proportional numbers, as do those that lie loose on its surface at the height of 252 feet, and still less closely than those which are strewed on the lower plains, which latter are identical in proportional numbers with those now cast up on the beach. From this circumstance, and from not finding, upon careful examination, near Coquimbo any shells at a greater height than 252 feet, I believe that the recent elevation there has been much less than at Valparaiso, where it has been 1,300 feet, and I may add, than at Concepcion. This considerable inequality in the amount of elevation at Coquimbo and Valparaiso, places only 200 miles apart, is not improbable, considering, first, the difference in the force and number of the shocks now yearly affecting different parts of this coast; and, secondly, the fact of single areas, such as that of the province of Concepcion, having been uplifted very unequally during the same earthquake. It would, in most cases, be very hazardous to infer an inequality of elevation, from shells being found on the surface or in superficial beds at different heights; for we do not know on what their rate of decay depends; and at Coquimbo one instance out of many has been given, of a promontory, which, from the occurrence of one very small collection of lime-cemented shells, has indisputably been elevated 242 feet, and yet on which, not even a fragment of shell could be found on careful examination between this height and the beach, although many sites appeared very favourable for the preservation of organic remains: the absence, also, of shells on the gravel-terraces a short distance up the valley of Coquimbo, though abundant on the corresponding terraces at its mouth, should be borne in mind.

      There are other epochs, besides that of the existence of recent Mollusca, by which to judge of the changes of level on this