PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE AMAZONS. 897 



CHAPTER XIII. 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE AMAZONS. 



DHIFT ABOUT Rio DE JANEIRO. DECOMPOSITION OF UNDERLYING ROOK. 

 DIFFERENT ASPECT OF GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN DIFFERENT CONTINENTS. 

 FERTILITY OF THE DRIFT. GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF MESSRS. HARTT 

 AND ST. JOHN. CORRESPONDENCE OF DEPOSITS ALONG THE COAST WITH 

 THOSE OF RlO AND THOSE OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZONS. PRIMITIVE 

 FORMATION OF THE VALLEY. FIRST KNOWN CHAPTER OF ITS HISTORY. 

 CRETACEOUS FOSSIL FISHES. FORMER EXTENT OF THE SOUTH-AMERICAN 

 COAST. CRETACEOUS FOSSILS FROM THE Rio PURUS. COMPARISON BE 

 TWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA. GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS ALONG 

 THE BANKS OF THE AMAZONS. FOSSIL LEAVES. CLAYS AND SAND 

 STONES. HILLS OF ALMEYRIM. MONTE ALEGRE. SITUATION AND SCEN 

 ERY. SERRA ERERE. COMPARISON WITH Swiss SCENERY. BOULDERS OF 

 ERERE. ANCIENT THICKNESS OF AMAZONIAN DEPOSITS. DIFFERENCE 

 BETWEEN DRIFT OF THE AMAZONS AND THAT OF Rio. INFERENCES DRAWN 

 FROM THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE DEPOSITS. IMMENSE EXTENT OF 

 SANDSTONE FORMATION. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THESE DEPOSITS. RE 

 FERRED TO THE ICE-PERIOD. ABSENCE OF GLACIAL MARKS. GLACIAL 

 EVIDENCE OF ANOTHER KIND. CHANGES IN THE OUTLINE OF THE SOUTH- 

 AMERICAN COAST. SOURE. IGARAPE GRANDE. VIGIA. BAY OF BRA- 

 GANZA. ANTICIPATION. 



A FEW days before we left Para, Senlior Pimenta Bucno 

 invited his friends and acquaintances, who had expressed 

 a wish to hear Mr. Agassiz s views on the geological char 

 acter of the Amazonian Valley, to meet at his house in 

 the evening for that purpose. The guests were some two 

 hundred in number, and the whole affair was very uncere 

 monious, assuming rather the character of a meeting for 

 conversation or discussion than that of an audience col 

 lected to hear a studied address. The substance of this 

 talk or lecture, as subsequently written out by Mr. Agassiz, 

 afterward appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and is in 

 serted here, with some few alterations under the head 



