268 Fossil Remains of Hitman Art. pake ii. 



evaporation of the sea-spray, as the land slowly emerged. 1 

 On the highest parts of the ledge, small fragments of 

 the shells were mingled with, and evidently in process 

 of reduction into, a yellowish-white, soft, calcareous 

 powder, tasting strongly of salt, and in some places as 

 fine as prepared medicinal chalk. 



Fossil Remains of Human Art. — In the midst of 

 these shells on San Lorenzo, I found light corallines, 

 the horny ovule-cases of Mollusca, roots of sea-weed, 2 

 bones of birds, the heads of Indian corn and other 

 vegetable matter, a piece of woven rushes, and another 

 of nearly decayed cotton string. I extracted these re- 

 mains by digging a hole, on a level spot ; and they had 

 all indisputably been embedded with the shells. I 

 compared the plaited rush, the cotton string, and Indian 

 corn, at the house of an antiquary, with similar objects, 

 taken from the Huacas or burial-grounds of the ancient 

 Peruvians, and they were undistinguishable ; it should 

 be observed that the Peruvians used string only ot 

 cotton. The small quantity of sand or gravel with the 

 shells, the absence of large stones, the width and thick- 

 ness of the bed, and the time requisite for a ledge to 



1 The underlying sandstone contains true layers of salt ; so that 

 the salt may possibly have come from the beds in the higher parts 

 of the island ; but I think more probably from the sea-spray. It is 

 generally asserted that rain never falls on the coast of Peru ; but this 

 is not quite accurate ; for, on several days, during our visit, the so- 

 called Peruvian dew fell in sufficient quantity to make the streets 

 muddy, and it would certainly have washed so deliquescent a sub- 

 stance as salt into the soil. I state this because M. d'Orbigny, in 

 discussing an analogous subject, supposes that I had forgotten that 

 it never rains on this whole line of coast. See Ulloa's ' Voyage ' (vol. 

 ii. ' Eng. Trans.' p. 67) for an account of the muddy streets of Lima, 

 and on the continuance of the mists during the whole winter. Eain, 

 also, falls at rare intervals even in the driest districts, as, for in- 

 stance, during forty days, in 1726, at Chocope (7° 46') ; this rain 

 entirely ruined ('UHoa,' &c. p. 18) the mud-houses of the inhabi- 

 tants. 



2 Mr. Smith of Jordanhill found pieces of sea-weed in an upraised 

 pleistocene deposit in Scotland. See his admirable Paper in the 

 ' Edin. New. Phil. Journal,' vol. xxv. p. 384. 



