130 NEWI-tt PLIOCENE PERIOD. [Ch. X. 



structure of the interior, as in Sicily, Calabria, and the Morea, 

 where subterranean movements are now violent. On the other 

 hand, it is a still more striking fact, that there is no example 

 of any extensive maritime district, now habitually agitated by 

 great earthquakes, which has not, when carefully investigated, 

 yielded traces of marine strata, either of the llecent or newer 

 Pliocene eras, at considerable elevations. 



Chill.- Conception Ktnj.* In illustration of the above re- 

 marks we may mention, that on the western coast of South 

 America marine deposits occur, containing precisely the same 

 shells as are now living in the Pacific. In Chili, for example, 

 as we before stated :;: , micaceous sand, containing the fossil re- 

 mains of such species as now inhabit the Bay of Conception, 

 arc found at the height of from 1000 to 1500 feet above the 

 level of the ocean, It is impossible to say how much of this 

 rise may have taken place during the Recent period. We have 

 endeavoured to show that one earthquake raised this part of 

 the Chilian coast, in 1750, to the height of at least 25 feet 

 above its former level. If we could suppose a continued series 

 of such shocks, one in every century, only GOOO years would 

 be required to uplift the coast 1500 feet. But we have no 

 data for inferring that so great a quantity of elevation has taken 

 place in that space of time, and although we cannot assume that 

 the micaceous sand may not belong to the llecent period, we 

 think it more probable that it was deposited during the newer 

 Pliocene period. 



Peru. We are informed by j\Ir. A. Cruckshanks, that in 

 the valley of Lima, or llimao, where the subterranean move- 

 ments have been so violent in recent times, there are indications 

 not only of a considerable rise of the land, but of that rise 

 having resulted from successive movements. Distinct lines of 

 ancient sea-dills have been observed at various heights, at the 

 base of which the hard rocks of greenstone are hollowed out 

 into precisely those forms which they now assume between high 

 and low water mark on the .shores of the Pacific. Immediately 

 below thui'j water-worn lines are ancient beaches strewed with 

 * Vul. i. ciia, xxv, 



