48 



loil is continued to a considerable depth, as is 

 discoverable in the ravines and beds of the rivers. 



Sect. V. Physical Organization. The ma- 

 rine substances that are met with in every part 

 of Chili, are incontestible proofs of its having 

 been formerly covered by the ocean, which, gra- 

 dually retiring, has left the narrow strip of land 

 extending from the shore to the Andes.* Every 



* The retrocession of the sea from the coast of Chih* is 

 every year very perceptible, although not the same in every 

 part. In some places it docs not exceed two inches, while in 

 others, especially at the mouths of the rivers, it is more than 

 half a foot. This circumstance, apart from other more general 

 causes, is most probably owing to the shoals produced by the 

 flowing of so many large rivers into the sea ; these consist the 

 first year only of a light sand, in the second they produce a 

 little grass, and in the third are entirely clothed with verdure. 

 To this cause is the conformation of the shores assignable, 

 which consist in general of a plain two leagues broad between 

 the sea and the maritime mountains. Upon the western 

 declivities of these mountains, the vestiges of the ocenn are 

 still very perceptible ; they are excavated in various modes, 

 and exhibit many singular grottos, containing rooms hung 

 with shells and beautiful spars, which afford shelter to the 

 cattle durhig the heats of summer. On the left bank of the 

 river Maule, at four hundred paces distance from its mouth, 

 is an insulated mass of white marble, consisting of a single 

 piece, seventy-five feet in height, two hundred and twenty-four 

 in length, and fifty-four in breadth. This immense block, 

 called from its appearance, the church, is excavated within 

 like au arch the third part of its height, aud has on the outsidv 



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