EARTHQUAKE IN PERU. 195 



and Columbian Andes, and not to the Chilian. In the 

 latter portion of the range there must be a continual 

 increase of height, since each earthquake in Chili has 

 produced a perceptible recession of the sea. Darwin, 

 indeed, relates that near Valparaiso he saw beds of 

 sea-shells belonging to recent species at a height of 

 about a quarter of a mile above the present sea-level ; 

 and he concluded that the land had been raised to this 

 height by a series of such small elevations as were 

 observed to have taken place during the earthquakes 

 of 1822, 1835, and 1837. That a contrary process 

 should be going on in Peru, confirms the idea that a 

 sort of undulatory or balancing motion is taking place 

 one long stretch of the Cordilleras rising while 

 another is sinking. A tradition prevails among the 

 Indians of Lican that the mountain called L" Altar, 

 or Cassac Urcu which means 'the chief was once 

 the highest of the sub-equatorial Andes, being higher 

 even than Chimborazo ; but, adds the tradition, in the 

 reign of Quainia Abomatha, before the discovery of 

 America, a prodigious eruption took place which lasted 

 no less than eight years, and brought down the summit 

 of the mountain. M. Boussingault states that the 

 fragments of trachyte which once formed the summit 

 of this celebrated mountain are now spread over the 

 plain. At present Cotopaxi is the loftiest volcano of 

 the Cordilleras, its height being no less than 18,858 

 feet. No mountain has ever been the seat of such 

 terrible and destructive eruptions as those which have 

 burst forth from Cotopaxi. The intensity of the heat 



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