Caebonifekous Deposits. 557 



in the Titicaca basin and near Santa Cruz, on the Mamore. 

 From the Pichis, which flows directly from the Cerro de 

 Sal (a spur of the eastern cordillera), I obtained several 

 fossils of limited vertical range which go to show that the 

 Pichis, Bolivian, and Itaituban beds are identical. The 

 Pichis, Titicaca, Oruro, and Guaco (province of San Juan) 

 deposits lie in the same line, northwest-southeast, along the 

 Andes. The altitude of the Tapajos beds is 125 feet; of 

 the Pichis, over 700 feet ; of the Titicaca, 12,500 feet ; and 

 liaimondi has found Carboniferous rocks on the Apurimac 

 at the height of more than 14,000 feet. It is evident that 

 through the Paleozoic ages at least the basin of the Am- 

 azons was an open sea."'^ 



* A pebbly bottom is first struck in ascending the Ucayali about fifteen 

 miles up the Pachitea. Now <ind then blutt's of yellowish-gray sandstone 

 abound on the Pachitea ; but the Ucayali, for 700 miles from its mouth, flows 

 through a vast pampa, overflowed in the rainy season. The rocky bed of 

 the Pichis (lat. 10^, long. 75°) is filled with fragmentary, fossiliferous lime- 

 stone of an ash-gray color. At Puerto Tucker, the highest point navigable 

 in canoes, lofty mountains are seen about seven miles distant, extending east 

 and west. I am indebted to the Hydrographical Commission for specimens 

 from the bed of the Pichis. Among them are two corals, which I have sub- 

 mitted to Professors Hall and Pourtales. One is cyathophylloid, having the 

 structure oi Amplexus ; but it is compound. The other has the aspect of 

 Syringopora, and may be an Eridophyllum of small size. The evidence is in 

 fevor of their Carboniferous age. The following note on the MoUusks is by 

 Mr. Orville A. Dewey, of Cornell University: "On his return from Peru in 

 1874, Professor James Orton submitted to me for examination a piece of 

 fossiliferous limestone from the Pichis River. The mass was a water-worn 

 pebble of dark-blue stone, scarcely larger than one's fist. The fossils being 

 silicified, the specimen was treated with acid, and a number of species of 

 Bracliiopoda obtained. The only other fossil was a slender ramose Coral or 

 Bryozoan, which, being imperfectly silicified, could not be obtained for iden- 

 tification. The number of individuals and species occurring in so small a 

 inass indicate an exceedingly rich fauna in the locality. The following are 

 the species determined : 



"Spirifera camerata, Morton: This widely distributed species is rep- 

 resented by several specimens, one of which is of considerable size, and shows 

 unmistakably the cliaracteristics of the species. The fasciculated arrange- 

 ment of the ribs, though distinct, is not strongly marked, and in this as in oth- 

 er respects it agrees with the forms found on the Tapajos. The occurrence 

 of this form in the Andes strengthens the view which I had taken in my pa- 



