THE EARTHQUAKE IN PERU. 1 93 



in modern times. He refers, doubtless, to the Peruvian 

 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 



