258 J^otes on JVatural History. [May, 



From some recent geological researches of ancient sea beaches, 

 situated far into the interior of the land, satisfactory evidence has 

 been furnished, of the gradual upheaval of this entire range of 

 country, from the Rio de la Plata to Cape Horn, a distance of 

 more than twelve hundred miles, and at this point to an elevation 

 of four hundred feet; and as there is every reason to believe that 

 this rise of the land is still in progress, I think we may safely in- 

 fer that at some future and unknown period of time, this bank 

 will have slowly emerged from the waters and become a part of 

 the present existing continent, and by that means furnish a strik- 

 ing illustration of the manner in which these Pampas have been 

 originally produced; and during the elevation of this great ter- 

 race, the numerous strata of which it is composed will successively 

 appear to view, disclosing in the greatest profusion the remains 

 of the various existing animals of the sea and neighboring land, 

 occasionally mingled with the works of art, proving to genera- 

 tions yet to come, that civilized man was a denizen of the earth 

 long e'er this widely extended plain had arisen from the waveS) 

 and become in all probability a vast and fertile scene. 



On casting the eye over a chart of the Atlantic ocean, we will 

 scarcely fail to have our attention attracted to the singular con- 

 formity of the shores of the three great continents: Europe, Af- 

 rica, and America; but far more remarkable will it appear, when 

 we contemplate for a moment the wonderful agreement in their 

 geological construction. The primary ranges of Canada, have 

 their equivalents in the elevated portions of Norway and Swe- 

 den, and even the mineral region of Lake Superior is replaced by 

 the Ural mountains in Russia. The great silurian, devonian and 

 carboniferous systems of the United States, are beautifully repre- 

 sented in Russia, Germany and Great Britain, and are alike ac- 

 companied by the wide spreading secondary and tertiary forma- 

 tions, l^he volcanic and trappean rocks of the Azores, Canary 

 and Cape de Verd islands, are repeated in the West Indian group 

 of isles, and the vast tertiary deposits of the African continent 

 and the immense extent of the same formation in southern Amer- 

 ica, present little or no dissimilarity in their respective geological 

 ages, as the fossil shells in some instances have been perfectly 

 identified ; and we may continue still farther, and compare the 

 devonian rocks of the Falkland islands, with those of the same 

 period in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. This enume- 

 ration is merely intended as a general comparison. Were it ne- 

 cessary, however, to enter into a more minute detail, a much more 

 particular relation might easily be furnished as an illustration. 



When we reflect upon these circumstances, we are almost irre- 

 sistibly led to the conclusion that the immense space at present 

 occupied by the Atlantic Ocean, was originally a continuous tract 



