THE FLORA OF THE CONCEPCION ARAUCO 



COAL MEASURES OF CHILE* 



By EDWARD W. BERRY 



INTRODUCTION 



The only steam coal on or near tidewater along the western 

 coast of the Pacific south of Puget Sound in the State of 

 Washington is in the region around Coronel Bay a short 

 distance south of Concepcion, Chile. Mining in the latter 

 region is therefore an old and exceedingly profitable indus- 

 try, although it is not so important a factor in maritime 

 trade as it was when the main lanes of travel were around 

 the southern end of South America, as they were before the 

 Panama Canal was opened. The former importance of Cor- 

 onel as a port is perhaps conclusively shown by the fact that 

 drinks demanded by the officers and sailors of all maritime 

 races can still be mixed at the bar of the small but excellent 

 hotel in that city. 



Detailed geological information of the region has accum- 

 ulated very slowly. General observations go back to the 

 date of Darwin's voyage, and Pissis as early as 1873 pub- 

 lished a geological map of the whole of Chile, which natur- 

 ally is very much generalized. d'Orbigny, Darwin, Marcou, 

 and more recently Nogues, 1 supposed that the ammonite 

 bearing Upper Cretaceous of this region passed into the 

 Tertiary without a break. Even Philippi, who recognized 

 the Upper Cretaceous of Quinquina Island, lists (1887) 13 

 species common to the Cretaceous and Tertiary. The credit 

 for showing the unconformity between Cretaceous and Ter- 

 tiary and the description of the Cretaceous faunas belongs 

 to Steinmann. 2 Doubtless the old and erroneous tradition 

 is responsible for such correlations as DeLapparent's prob- 



* George Huntington Williams Memorial Publication No. 17. 



1 Nogues, A., Bol. Insp. Jeografia i Minas 1907, p. 121. 



2 Steinmann, G., Neues Jahrb. Beil. Bd. 10, p. i, 1895. 



