266 Elevation of Lima. part u. 



height of between twenty and thirty feet the shells 

 and corals were in a quite fresh state, but at fifty feet 

 they were much abraded ; there were, however, traces 

 of organic remains at greater heights. On the road 

 from Tacna to Arequipa, between Loquimbo and 

 Moquegua, Mr. M. Hamilton l found numerous recent 

 sea-shells in sand, at a considerable distance from the 

 sea. 



Lima. 



Northward of Arica, I know nothing of the coast 

 for about a space of five degrees of latitude ; but near 

 Callao, the port of Lima, there is abundant and 

 very curious evidence of the elevation of the land. 

 The island of San Lorenzo is upwards of 1,000 feet 

 high ; the basset edges of the strata composing the 

 lower part are worn into three obscure, narrow, sloping 

 steps or ledges, which can be seen only when standing 

 on them : they probably resemble those described by 

 Lieut. Freyer at Arica. The surface of the lower ledge, 

 which extends from a low cliff overhanging the sea to 

 the foot of the next upper escarpment, is covered by an 

 enormous accumulation of recent shells. 2 The bed is 

 level, and in some parts more than two feet in thick- 

 ness ; I traced it over a space of one mile in length, 

 and heard of it in other places : the uppermost part is 

 eighty-five feet by the barometer above high-water 

 mark. The shells are packed together, but not strati- 

 fied ; they are mingled with earth and stones, and are 

 generally covered by a few inches of detritus ; they 

 rest on a mass of nearly angular fragments of the 

 underlying sandstone, sometimes cemented together by 



1 ' Edin. Xe^v Phil. Jour.' vol. xxx. p. 155. 



- M. Chevalier, in the ' Voyage of the Bonite,' observed these 

 shells ; but his specimens were lost. — ' L'Institut,' 1838, p. 151. 



