32 Dr. Fitton on the Geology of Australia. 



the 20th, that the whole line of coast, from north to south, to a 

 distance of about one hundred miles, had been raised above its 

 former level." — " The alteration of level at Valparaiso was 

 about three feet; and some rocks were thus newly exposed, on 

 which the fishermen collected the scallop-shell fish, which was 

 not known to exist there before the earthquake. At Quintero 

 the elevation was about four feet. — " When I went*" the nar- 

 rator adds, " to examine the coast, although it was high-water, 

 I found the ancient bed of the sea laid bare, and dry, with beds 

 of oysters, muscles, and other shells adhering to the rocks on 

 which they grew, — the fish being all dead, and exhaling most 

 offensive effluvia. And I found good reason to believe that 

 the coast had been raised by earthquakes at former periods in 

 a similar manner ; several ancient lines of beach, consisting of 

 shingle mixed with shells, extending in a parallel direction to 

 the shore, to the height of fifty feet above the sea." — Such an 

 accumulation of geological evidence, from different quarters 

 and distinct classes of phsenomena, concurs to demonstrate the 

 existence of most powerful expansive forces within the earth, 

 — and to testify their agency in producing the actual condition 

 of its surface, — that the phsenomena just now described are 

 nothing more than what was to be expected from previous in- 

 duction. These facts, however, not only place beyond dispute 

 the existence of such forces, — but show that, even in detail, 

 their effects accord most satisfactorily with the predictions of 

 theory. It is not, therefore, at all unreasonable to conceive, 

 that, in other situations, phaenomena of the same character 

 have been produced by the same cause, — though we may not 

 at present be enabled to trace its connexion with the existing 

 appearances so distinctly; and though the facts, when they 

 occurred, may have been unnoticed, — or may have taken place 

 at periods beyond the reach of historical record, or even be- 

 yond the possibility of human testimony. 



M. Peron has attributed the great abundance of the modern 

 breccia of New Holland to the large proportion of calcai'eous 

 matter, principally in the form of comminuted shells, which is 

 diffused through the siliceous sand of the shores in that coun- 

 try * ; and as the temperature, especially of the summer, is very 

 high on that part of the coast where this rock has been prin- 

 cipally found, the increased solution of carbonate of lime by 

 the percolating water, may possibly render its formation more 

 abundant there, than in more temperate climates. But the 

 true theory of these concretions, under any modification of 

 temperature, is attended with considerable difficulty : — and it 

 is certain that the process is far from being confined to the 

 * Peron, Voyage, &c. ii. p. llo\ 



warmer 



