272 Recent Siibsidence near Lima. part n. 



lower level near tlie point where the present low land 

 round Callao joins the higher plain, there are appear- 

 ances of two distinct deposits both apparently formed 

 by debacles : in the upper one, a horse's tooth and a 

 dog's jaw were embedded ; so that both must have been 

 formed after the settlement of the Spaniards : accord- 

 ing to Acosta, the earthquake- wave of 1586 rose eighty- 

 four feet. 



The inhabitants of Callao do not believe, as far as I 

 could ascertain, that any change in level is now in pro- 

 gress. The great fragments of brickwork, which it is 

 asserted can be seen at the bottom of the sea, and which 

 have been adduced as a proof of a late subsidence, are, 

 as I am informed by Mr. Gill, a resident engineer, 

 loose fragments ; this is probable, for I found on the 

 beach, and not near the remains of any building, masses 

 of brickwork, three and four feet square, which had 

 been washed into their present places, and smoothed 

 over with shingle during the earthquake of 1746. The 

 spit of land, on which the ruins of Old Callao stand, is 

 so extremely low and narrow, that it is improbable in 

 the highest decree that a town should have been founded 

 on it in its present state ; and I have lately heard 1 that 

 M. Tschudi has come to the conclusion, from a com- 

 parison of old with modern charts, that the coast both 

 south and north of Callao has subsided. I have shown 

 that the island of San Lorenzo has been upraised eighty- 

 five feet since the Peruvians inhabited this country; 

 and whatever may have been the amount of recent sub- 

 sidence, by so much more must the elevation have ex- 

 ceeded the eighty-five feet. In several places 2 in this 



1 I am indebted for this fact to Dr. E. Dieffenbach. I may add 

 that there is a tradition, that the islands of San Lorenzo and Fronton 

 were once joined, and that the channel between S. Lorenzo and the 

 mainland, now above two miles in width, was so narrow that cattle 

 used to swim over. 



2 ' Observaciones sobre el Clima del Lima,' par Dr. H. Unanue, 



