On the PalcBontology of Houth America, Soi 



the same time, a great number of marine animals are to bo 

 found on both sides of the Cordilleras, including various spe- 

 cies of Bulla, Natica, Fusus, Rostcllaria, Oliva, Venus, Car- 

 dium, Area, Trigonia, and Perna ; and the wood of the Coni- 

 ferae, and the bones of the Megamys and the Toxodon, were 

 transported from the neighbouring continent into both seas. 



Judging from the extent of these deposits, matters continued 

 for a very long time in this state in America ; whilst in Europe 

 we find the tertiary formation also very thick, as in the Paris 

 basin, and there enveloping a great number of creatures, which 

 constitute a distinct fauna, although, as in America, composed 

 of species which are peculiar to hot climates. And if the seas 

 continued for ages, during which the contained animals under- 

 went no change, the neighbouring continents were not less fa- 

 voured. During this period, there existed in the New World, 

 along with a vegetation which was admirably fitted to support 

 them, such mammalia as the Mastodons, the Megatherium, 

 Megalonyx, Toxodons, and many other terrestrial animals dif- 

 ferent from the fauna which had preceded, and not less so 

 from that which now exists. And the same phenomenon is ex- 

 hibited in Europe : the Mastodons, Tapirs, Rhinoceroses, Ele- 

 phants, and all the great animals which are now unknown, then 

 inhabited our temperate and even cold regions. The world 

 generally, although it did not support more of the same identical 

 animal forms, did not the less present, and that everywhere, con- 

 ditions as favourable for supporting animal life, along with a 

 uniform distribution of beings which resembled each other in 

 their large size, and in the requirements of their existence. 



In the midst of the apparent repose of this active animaliza- 

 tion of the land and the waters, a fresh catastrophe occurred. 

 A new and considerable movement happened in the Chilian 

 system. The Cordilleras acquired great additional elevation by 

 the upraising and emergence, at the moment that the trachytic 

 rocks appeared, of the bottom of the tertiary seas of the Pam- 

 pas and the western coast. Not only would it appear that 

 the marine fauna was annihilated, but the impulse given to 

 the waters of the ocean, moreover, invaded the continents 

 sweeping all the animals along with them, depositing therewith 

 terrestrial debris at all heights, in the terrestrial basins, and 



