

L 



On. 

 an 



entire], 



d 



e 



^>n 



^•"■•!iof 



re. 



,' <- ,irs after 



''^helmed 

 'i^te; and 



< ( 



,, a like 



IT of tie 

 *^phes has 



* bevond 



traJition. 



Is of the 



?j a tribe 



• 



r. ifie, 



rr them a 



; T^ci 



.J 



R 







iS 



r 



e 



156 



tribe 



Ch. XXX.] 



ELEVATION IN CONCEPTION BAY. 



IK K 

 00 



had flourished in Chili, but we can scarcely doubt^ that if its 

 experience reached back even for three or four centuries. 



memory 



several inroads of the ocean must 



period. But the 



similar in kind, i 



served bj a people destitute of written annals. Before two 



or three generations have passed away all dates are forgotten, 



and even the events themselves, unless they have given 



orisfin to some customs, or relio^ious rites and ceremonies. 



many 



me 



b> 



■ms 



m 



to be utterly valueless to the man of science. 



jfs of elevation of 



— During a late survey of 



Conception Bay, Captains Beechey and Sir E. Belcher dis- 

 covered that the ancient harbour, which formerly admitted 

 all large merchant vessels which went round the Cape, is 

 now occupied by a reef of sandstone, certain points of which 

 project above the sea at low water, the greater part being 



& 



very shallow. A tract of 1^ mile in lei 

 ing to the report of the inhabitants, the water w^as for- 

 merly 4 or 5 fathoms deep, is now a shoal ; consisting, as 

 our hydrographers found, of hard sandstone, so that it 

 cannot be supposed to have been formed by recent deposits 

 of the river Biobio, an arm of which carries down loose 

 micaceous sand into the same bay. 



It is impossible at this distance of time to affirm that the 

 bed of the sea was uplifted at once to the height of 24 feet, 

 during the single earthquake of 1751, because other move- 

 ments may have occurred subsequently ; but it is said, that 

 ever since the shock of 1751, no vessels have been able to 

 approach within 1^ mile of the ancient port of Penco. 



.92.) In proof of the former elevation of the 

 near Penco, our surveyors found above high-water 



Map 



coast 



mark an enormous bed of shells of the same 



micaceous 



which the Biobio now conveys to the bay. These shells, as 



mica 



■ol ''■ 



