chap. rx. Gravel-Terraces of Copiapo, 263 



I conceive, be some hundred feet above the sea. A 

 north and south section across the valley in this part is 

 here represented. 



No. 26. 



North and South Section across the Valley of Guasco, and of a plain north of it. 

 North. South. 



V\ B A River of Guasco. 



1 

 1 



Town of Ballenar. 



On the northern side of the valley the summit-plain 

 of gravel (A) has two escarpments, one facing the valley, 

 and the other a great basin-like plain (B), which 

 stretches for several leagues northward. This narrow 

 plain (A) with the double escarpment, evidently once 

 formed a spit or promontory of gravel, projecting into 

 and dividing two great bays, and subsequently was 

 worn on both sides into steep cliffs. Whether the 

 several escarpments in this valley were formed during 

 the same stationary periods with those of Coquimbo 

 I will not pretend to conjecture ; but if so, the inter- 

 vening and subsequent elevatory movements must have 

 been here much more energetic, for these plains cer- 

 tainly stand at a much higher level than do those of 

 Coquimbo. 



Copiajpo, — From Guasco to Copiapo, I followed the 

 road near the foot of the Cordillera, and therefore saw 

 no upraised remains. At the mouth, however, of the 

 valley of Copiapo there is a plain, estimated by Meyen l 

 between fifty and seventy feet in height, of which the 

 upper part consists chiefly of gravel, abounding with 

 recent shells, chiefly of the Concholepas, Venus Dombeyi, 

 and Calyptrcea trochiformis. A little inland, on a 

 plain estimated by myself at nearly 300 feet, the upper 



1 ' Eeise um die Erde.' Th. 1. s. 372, et seq. 



