E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 123 



destruction of the tissues he states to be far too rapid to be 

 attributable to the mechanical action of the ashes in closing 

 the pores of the leaves ; and there is no evidence of desic- 

 cation except in the immediate vicinity of the volcano, nor 

 of the change of color in the leaves and flowers which would 

 be the result of poisoning by acid fumes. Letter of Alfred 

 Bennett. 



EARTHQUAKE IX CALIFORNIA. 



On the 26th of March last an earthquake was experienced 

 in California and adjacent Territories, which is said to have 

 been the most severe since the American occupation of the 

 country. In October, 1869, a very violent shock occurred, 

 but the more recent one seems to have been of still greater 

 magnitude. Although rather feeble at San Francisco, it be- 

 came more and more severe toward the south, increasing in 

 energy, and being quite severe at the height of several thou- 

 sand feet up the Sierras. The area of disturbance was at 

 least 500 miles long by 60 to 100 wide. The shock was the 

 greatest in the valleys, and its line followed the Sierra. The 

 California papers were filled with local accounts of the dis- 

 turbance, consisting in the opening of fissures in the ground, 

 the change of level of adjacent localities, the drying of some 

 springs and the bursting forth of others, and various features 

 usually attendant upon such startling phenomena. San 

 Francisco Bulletin, March, 1872. 



CHILIAN GLACIERS. 



The overland journey from Talcahuana to Santiago by 

 Professor Agassiz, after leaving the Sassier, gave him an ex- 

 cellent opportunity of studying the glacial phenomena of the 

 south temperate zone. His route was by stage-coach to 

 Toma and Curico, the rest of his journey to Santiago being 

 by railway, thus making a distance of several hundred miles 

 through the entire country between the coast range and the 

 Andes. A correspondent on the Sassier writes that the pro- 

 fessor believes that the whole valley of southern and central 

 Chile, between the coast range and the Andes, was once the 

 bed of a glacier, or a part of a great glacial sheet moving 

 northward, and that, after the general glacial action had 

 ceased, large local glaciers descended from the Andes at cer- 



