198 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [chap. ix. 



more striking- by the contrast of the low, rounded fcnns of the 

 oi'is'hbourin": Iiills. 



I was interested by finding' on tlie highest peak of one ranp-e 

 (about 700 feet above the sea) a great arched fragment, lying 

 on its convex side, or back downwards. Must we believe that it 

 was fairly pitched up in the air, and thus turned? Or, with 

 more probability, that there existed formerly a part of the same 

 range more elevated than the point on which this monument of 

 a great convulsion of nature now lies. As the fragments in the 

 valleys are neither rounded nor the crevices filled up witli sand, 

 wc must infer that the period of violence was subsequent to the 

 land having been raised above the waters of the sea. In a trans- 

 verse section within these valleys, the bottom is nearly level, or 

 rises but very little towards either side. Hence the fragments 

 appear to have travelled from the head of the valley ; but in 

 reality it seems more probable that they have been hurled down 

 from the nearest slopes ; and that since, by a vibratory move- 

 ment of overwhelming force,* the fragments have been levelled 

 into one continuous sheet. If during- the earthquake^ which in 

 1835 overthrew Concepcion, in Chile, it was tliought wonderful 

 that small bodies should have been pitched a few inches from 

 the ground, wliat must we say to a movement wliich has caused 

 fragments many tons in weight, to move onwards like so much 

 sand on a vibrating- board, and find their level ? I have seen, in 

 the Cordillera of the Andes, the evident marks where stupen- 

 dous mountains have been broken into pieces like so much thin 

 crust, and the strata thrown on their vertical edges ; but never 

 did any scene, like these *' streams of stones," so forcibly convey 

 to my mind the idea of a convulsion, of which in historical 

 records we might in vain seek for any counterpart : yet the 

 progress of knowledge will probably some day give a simple 

 explanation of this phenomenon, as it already has of the so long- 



* " Nous n'avons pas <?te mollis saisis d'etonnement a la vue de rinnom- 

 brable quantite de pierres de toutes grandeurs, bouleverse'es les unes sur les 

 autres, et cependant range'es, comme si elles avoient etc' amoncele'es ncgli- 

 gommcnt pour rernplir des ravins. On ne se lassoit pas d'admirer les eiiiets 

 prodigieux de la nature." — Perneli/, p. 526. 



t An inliabitant of Mendoza, and hence well capable of judging, assured 

 D3e that, during the several years he had resided on these islands, he had 

 never felt the sliglitcst shock of an earthquake 



