chap. ix. Fossil Earthenware near Lima. 271 



there were two sections, at right angles to each other, 

 of the floor of a shed or building. In both sections or 

 faces, two rows, one over the other, of large round stones 

 could be distinctly seen; they were packed close to- 

 gether on an artificial layer of sand two inches thick, 

 which had been placed on the natural clay-beds ; the 

 round stones were covered by three feet in thickness of 

 the loam with broken sea-shells and pottery. Hence, 

 before this widely spread-out bed of loam was deposited, 

 it is certain that the plain was inhabited ; and it is 

 probable, from the broken vessels being so much more 

 abundant in certain spots than in others, and from the 

 underlying clay being fitted for their manufacture, that 

 the kilns stood here. 



The smoothness and wide extent of the plain, the 

 bulk of matter deposited, and the obscure traces of 

 stratification seem to indicate that the loam was de- 

 posited under water ; on the other hand, the presence 

 of sea-shells, their broken state, the pebbles of various 

 sizes, and the artificial floor of round stones, almost 

 prove that it must have originated in a rush of water 

 from the sea over the land. The height of the plain, 

 namely, 120 feet, renders it improbable that an earth- 

 quake-wave, vast as some have here been, could have 

 broken over the surface at its present level ; but when 

 the land stood eighty-five feet lower, at the period when 

 the shells were thrown up on the ledge at S. Lorenzo, 

 and when as we know man inhabited this district, such 

 an event might well have occurred ; and if we may fur- 

 ther suppose, that the plain was at that time converted 

 into a temporary lake, as actually occurred, during the 

 earthquakes of 1713 and 1746, in the case of the low 

 land round Callao owing to its being encircled by a 

 high shingle- beach, all the appearances above described 

 will be perfectly explained, I must add, that at a 



