668 



A FEW KEMARKS 



are at least five grand alternations of such rocks, and aqueous 

 sedimentary deposits, amounting in thickness to several thou- 

 sand feet."* These wonderful alternations of the consequences 

 of fire and flood, are, to me, indubitable proofs of that tremen- 

 dous catastrophe which alone could have caused them; — of 

 that awful combination of water and volcanic agency which is 

 shadowed forth to our minds by the expression " the fountains 

 of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven 

 were opened." 



The upheaval of the island of Santa Maria has been quoted 

 by geologists, from my statement'; and it will be interesting to 

 learn whether that island has remained at its new elevation, or 

 whether, like the shore at Talcahuano,-f- it has sunk down 

 again. If the coast in that neighbourhood has been gradually 

 rising, it is strange that old Penco Castle should still stand so 

 low (p. 421). 



In Mr. Lyell's Elements of Geology, } he mentions Mr. 

 Darwin having found, near Callao, " at the altitude of eighty- 

 five feet above the sea, pieces of cotton thread, plaited rush, and 

 the head of a stalk of Indian corn, all of which had evidently 

 been imbedded with the shells" (marine). "At the same height on 

 the neighbouring mainland, he found other signs corroborating 

 the opinion that the ancient bed of the sea had there also been 

 uplifted eighty-five feet, since the region was first peopled by 

 the Peruvian race." The neighbourhood of Lima has suffered 

 from immense waves caused by earthquakes, and the relics found 

 among the shells may have been scattered by one of those 

 waves. The bed of shells may have been disturbed by the 

 earthquake and its consequences, the ground may have been 

 rent, and afterwards closed again, or the opening may have 

 been filled up by loose earth and anything lying on it, as has 

 taken place at Concepcion. That the country near Callao, or 

 Lima, has not been upheaved, to any sensible amount, since the 

 last great earthquake, which was accompanied by a wave that 



* Mr. Darwin's letters to Pjofessor Henslow : printed for the Cam- 

 bridge Philosophical Society — 1835. 



t See pages 420-1. | 1838, pp. 295-6. 



