I02 Charles Darwin. 



allied to that family. In the following graphic 

 terms he describes the wondrous changes that re- 

 sulted in producing this group of trees : " It required 

 little geological practice to interpret the marvellous 

 story which this scene at once unfolded ; though, I 

 confess, I was at first so much astonished that I 

 could scarcely believe the plainest evidence. I saw 

 the spot where a cluster of fine trees once waved 

 their branches on the shores of the Atlantic, when 

 that ocean (now driven back seven hundred miles') 

 came to the foot of the Andes. I saw that they had 

 sprung from a volcanic soil which had been raised 

 above the level of the sea, and that subsequently 

 this dry land with its upright trees had been let 

 down into the depths of the ocean. In these depths 

 the formerly dry land was covered by sedimentary 

 beds, and these again by enormous streams of sub- 

 marine lava — one such mass attaining the thickness 

 of a thousand feet, — and these deluges of molten 

 stone and aqueous deposits five times alternately 

 had been spread out. The ocean which received 

 such thick masses must have been profoundly deep ; 

 but again the subterranean forces exerted them- 

 selves, and I now beheld the bed of that ocean 

 forming a chain of mountains more than seven thou- 

 sand feet in height." 



Darwin completed this trip, collecting all the way, 

 and from Valparaiso rode on to Copiapd, where 

 Captain Fitz-Roy proposed to pick him up. It was 

 an excursion to his liking. Travelling on horseback, 

 camping at night, the day spent in collecting and 

 investigating every interesting feature, while at even- 



