252 Elevation of Coquimbo. part n. 



Feuillee, were a fleur cVeau, but now are said to stand 

 twelve feet above low- water mark : the spring-tides rise 

 here only five feet. There is another rock, now nine 

 feet above high-water mark, which in the time of Frezier 

 and of Feuillee rose onlv five or six feet out of water. 

 Mr. Caldcleugh, I may add, also shows (and I received 

 similar accounts) that there has been a considerable 

 decrease in the soundinq-s during the last twelve vears 

 in the Bays of Coquimbo, Concepcion, Valparaiso, and 

 Gaasco ; but as in these cases it is nearly impossible to 

 distinguish between the accumulation of sediment and 

 the upheavement of the bottom, I have not entered into 

 any details. 



Valley of Coquimbo. — The narrow coast-plain sends, 

 as before stated, an arm, or more correctly a fringe on 

 both sides, but chiefly on the southern side, several 

 miles up the valley. These fringes are worn into steps 

 or terraces, which present a most remarkable appear- 

 ance, and have been compared (though not very cor- 

 rectly) by Capt. Basil Hall, to the parallel roads of Glen 

 Roy in Scotland : their origin has been ably discussed 

 by Mr. Lyell. 1 The first section which I will give, is 

 not drawn across the valley, but in an east and west 



No. 23. 



East and West Section through the Terraces at Coquimbo, where they debouch 

 from the Vallev, and front the Sea. 



(F.) 

 364 feet 



(E.) 

 302. 



T) 



(C) 



120 feet. 





\ 



(B.) 



X 



70 feet. 



(A.) 



25 feet. 



Level of sea. Town of Coquimbo. ' 



Vertical scale ^th of inch to 100 feet : horizontal scale much contracted. 



line at its mouth, where the step-formed terraces de- 

 bouch and present their very gently inclined surfaces 

 towards the Pacific. 



1 « Principles of Geology ' (1st edit.), vol. iii. p. 131. 



