38 bulletin: MUSEUIM OF COMPAKATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



be noted also that in the Indian earthquake of 1895 (Oldham, 

 1899), many large boulders were inverted on their sites in a manner 

 demanding apparently their projection free from the base on which 

 they rested. 



The most important data gathered by Dr. Steffen has a definite 

 bearing upon the controversy raised by the distinguished Austrian 

 geologist. Professor Edward Suess, over the question of the uplift of 

 the coast of South America accompanying earthquakes, a thesis set 

 forth by Darwin and Fitzroy. Dr. Steffen was aware of the impor- 

 tance of critical observations made at once upon evidences of change 

 of level of land and sea along the disturbed coast. From the in- 

 formation obtained he came to the conclusion that there can scarcely 

 be any doubt as to an elevation of the coast from the mouth of Rio 

 Mataquito to that of the Choapa along a segment of the sea-border 

 corresponding to the area of maximun perturbation in which the 

 seismic intensity rose to the degrees of VII and X in Mercalli's scale. 

 This movement appears to ha\-e been greater on the north than on the 

 south. The measurements most worthy of confidence in Dr. Steffen's 

 opinion are 40 cm. at Llico, south of Valparaiso in about 34° 40' S. L. 

 and 70 to 80 cm. at Zapillar, north of that city in about 32° 25' S. L. 

 Senor Lorenzo Sundt, an experienced geological observer whom I met 

 in Santiago, stated that in the bay of Valparaiso some 200 meters west 

 of the pier of the Matodero at Portales, there was to be seen upon the 

 rocks after the earthquake a white band composed of a small species 

 of barnacle and of Algae of the Corallinacea forming a natural mark 

 which at time of low tide was left uncovered for two feet above low- 

 water mark, although before the earthquake it was not visible. 

 Likewise a local officer of Portales who had observed the coast for 

 eighteen years noticed after the earthquake that a rock, which he had 

 not seen before appeared above the surface of the lowest tides. These 

 stations which are composed of the solid rock are free from the doubts 

 which affect the altered position of loose materials. The probable 

 correctness of the contention of Darwin and Fitzroy that at times of 

 great earthquakes on the coast of Chile there is an upward movement 

 of the land seems now to be established ; but whether this uplift is 

 permanent is doubtful, since as in the celebrated case of Concepcion, 

 I was informed when in that vicinity that it was the opinion of the 

 naval officers stationerl at Talcahuano that a slow subsidence is now 

 in progress. As for the uplift of faulted blocks in relation to sea-level 

 it is now well established and nowhere more pronouncedly than in 

 Alaska by Tarr in the case of the earthquake of 1899 in which an 



