38 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
be noted also that in the Indian earthquake of 1895 (Oldham, 
1899), many large boulders were inverted on their sites In a manner 
demanding apparently their projection free from the base on which 
they rested. 
The most important data gathered by Dr. Steffen has a definite 
bearing upon the controversy raised by the distinguished Austrian 
geologist, Professor Edward Suess, over the question of the uplift of 
the coast of South America accompanying earthquakes, a thesis set 
forth by Darwin and Fitzroy. Dr. Steffen was aware of the impor- 
tance of critical observations made at once upon evidences of change 
of level of land and sea along the disturbed coast. From the in- 
formation obtained he came to the conclusion that there can scarcely 
be any doubt as to an elevation of the coast from the mouth of Rio 
Mataquito to that of the Choapa along a segment of the sea-border 
corresponding to the area of maximun perturbation in which the 
seismic intensity rose to the degrees of VII and X in Mercalli’s scale. 
This movement appears to have been greater on the north than on the 
south. The measurements most worthy of confidence in Dr. Steffen’s 
opinion are 40 em. at Llico, south of Valparaiso in about 34° 40’ S. L. 
and 70 to 80 cm. at Zapillar, north of that city in about 32° 25’ S. L. 
Sefior Lorenzo Sundt, an experienced geological observer whom I met 
in Santiago, stated that in the bay of Valparaiso some 200 meters west 
of the pier of the Matodero at Portales, there was to be seen upon the 
rocks after the earthquake a white band composed of a small species 
of barnacle and of Algae of the Corallinacea forming a natural mark 
which at time of low tide was left uncovered for two feet above low- 
water mark, although before the earthquake it was not visible. 
Likewise a local officer of Portales who had observed the coast for 
eighteen years noticed after the earthquake that a rock, which he had 
not seen before appeared above the surface of the lowest tides. These 
stations which are composed of the solid rock are free from the doubts 
which affect the altered position of loose materials. The probable 
correctness of the contention of Darwin and Fitzroy that at times of 
great earthquakes on the coast of Chile there is an upward movement 
of the land seems now to be established; but whether this uplift is 
permanent is doubtful, since as in the celebrated case of Concepcion, 
I was informed when in that vicinity that it was the opinion of the 
naval officers stationed at Taleahuano that a slow subsidence is now 
in progress. As for the uplift of faulted blocks in relation to sea-level 
it is now well established and nowhere more pronouncedly than in 
Alaska by Tarr in the case of the earthquake of 1899 in which an 
