CHAP, ix.] STREAMS OF STONES. 143 



an uninterrupted band half a mile wide, by jumping from one pointed 

 stone to another. So large were the fragments, that being overtaken 

 by a shower of rain, I readily found shelter beneath one of them. 



Their little inclination is the most remarkable circumstance in these 

 " streams of stones." On the hill-sides I have seen them sloping at an 

 angle of ten degrees with the horizon ; but in some of the level, broad- 

 bottomed valleys, the inclination is only just sufficient to be clearly 

 perceived. On so rugged a surface there was no means of measuring 

 the angle ; but to give a common illustration, I may say that the slope 

 would not have checked the speed of an English mail-coach. In some 

 places, a continuous stream of these fragments followed up the course 

 of a valley, and even extended to the very crest of the hill. On these 

 crests huge masses, exceeding in dimensions any small building, 

 seemed to stand arrested in their headlong course ; there, also, the 

 curved strata of the archways lay piled on each other, like the ruins of 

 some vast and ancient cathedral. In endeavouring to describe these 

 scenes of violence one is tempted to pass from one simile to another. 

 We may imagine that streams of white lava had flowed from many 

 parts of the mountains into the lower country, and that when solidified 

 they had been rent by some enormous convulsion into myriads of 

 fragments. The expression " streams of stones," which immediately 

 occurred to every one, conveys the same idea. These scenes are on 

 the spot rendered more striking by the contrast of the low, rounded 

 forms of the neighbouring hills. 



I was interested by finding on the highest peak of one range (about 

 seven hundred 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 with sand, we must infer that the period of violence 

 was subsequent to the land having been raised above the waters of the 

 sea. In a transverse section within these valleys, the bottom is nearly 

 kvel, 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 movement of over- 

 whelming force,* the fragments have been levelled into one continuous 

 sheet. If during the earthquake f which in 1835 overthrew Concepcion, 

 in Chile, it was thought wonderful that small bodies should have been 



* "Nous n'avons pas ete moins saisis d'etonnement a la vue de 1'innom- 

 brable quantite de pierres de toutes grandeurs, bouleversees les unes sur les 

 autres, et cependant rangees, comme si elles avoient ete amoncelees negh- 

 gemment pour remplir des ravins. On ne se lassoit pas d'admirer les eflets 

 prodigieux de la nature." Pernety, p. 526. 



f An inhabitant of Mendoza, and hence well capable of judging, assured 

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

 never felt the slightest shock of an earthquake. 



