188 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [CHAP. ix. 



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 700 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 level, or rises biit 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 overwhelming 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 havo 

 been pitched a few inches from the ground, what must we say to 

 a movement which has caused fragments many tons in weight, to 

 move onwards like so much sand on a vibrating board, and find 

 their level? I have seen, in the Cordillera of the Andes, the 

 evident marks where stupendous mountains have been broken into 

 pieces like so nmch thin crust, and the strata thrown on their 

 vertical edges; but never did any scene, like these "streams of 

 stones," so forcibly convey to my mind the idea of a convulsion, of 

 which in historical records we might in vain seek for any counter- 

 part : yet the progress of knowledge will probably some day give 

 a simple explanation of this phenomenon, as it already has of the 

 so long-thought inexplicable transportal of the erratic boulders, 

 which are strewed over the plains of Europe. 



* " Nous n'avons pas etc moins saisis d'e'tonnement a la vile cle 1'innora- 

 brable quantite cle pierrcs do toutes grandeurs, bouleverse'es les unes sur 

 les autres, et Dependant rauge'es, comme si ellcs avoient etc araoncele'cs 

 ne'gligemnient pour remplir des ravins. On ne se lassoit pas d'admirer 

 les eft'ets prodigieux de la nature." Pernety, p. 526. 



t Au 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. 



