246 Elevation of Coquzmbo. part n. 



the sea formerly flowed very near it ; by levelling, its 

 foundations were found to stand nineteen feet six inches 

 above the highest beach-line ; so that we see in a period 

 of 220 years, the elevation cannot have been as much 

 as nineteen feet six inches. From the facts given with 

 respect to the sea-wall, and from the testimony of the 

 elder inhabitants, it appears certain that the change in 

 level began to be manifest about the year 1817. The 

 only sudden elevation of which there is any record 

 occurred in 1822, and this seems to have been less than 

 three feet. Since that year, I was assured by several 

 competent observers, that part of an old wreck, which 

 is firmly embedded near the beach, has sensibly 

 emerged ; hence here, as at Chiloe, a slow rise of the 

 land appears to be now in progress. It seems highly 

 probable that the rocks which are corroded in a band 

 at the height of fourteen feet above the sea were acted 



o 



on during the period, when by tradition the base of 

 S. Augustin church, now nineteen feet six inches above 

 the highest water-mark, was occasionally washed by 

 the waves. 



Valparaiso to Coquimbo. — For the first seventy- 

 five miles north of Valparaiso I followed the coast-road, 

 and throughout this space I observed innumerable 

 masses of upraised shells. About Quintero there are 

 immense accumulations (worked for lime) of the Meso- 

 desma donaciforme, packed in sandy earth, they abound 

 chieflv about fifteen feet above hio-h-water, but shells 

 are here found, according to Mr. Miers, 1 to a height of 

 500 feet, and at a distance of three leagues from the 

 coast : I here noticed barnacles adhering to the rocks 

 three or four feet above the highest tides. In the 



1 ' Travels in Chile,' vol. i. pp. 458, 395. I received several similar 

 accounts from the inhabitants, and was assured that there are many 

 shells on the plain of Casa Blanca, between Valparaiso and Santiago, 

 at the height of S00 feet. 



