578 Iquique, Peru. paet n. 



Lucina Americana, E. Forbes, PL V. fig. 24, 

 Terebratula inca, do. PL V. figs. 19, 20. 

 aenigma, D'Orbig. PL Y. figs. 10, 11, 12. 



This latter species we have seen associated with the 

 fossils of which lists have been given in this chapter, in 

 two places in the valley of Coquimbo, and in the ravine 

 of Maricongo at Copiapo. Considering this fact, and 

 the superposition of these beds on the porphyritic con- 

 glomerate formation ; and, as we shall immediately see, 

 from their containing much gypsum, and from their 

 otherwise close general resemblance in mineralogical 

 nature with the strata described in the valley of Copiapo, 

 I have little doubt that these fossiliferous beds of Iquique 

 belong to the great cretaceo-oolitic formation of Northern 

 Chile. Iquique is situated seven degrees latitude north 

 of Copiapo ; and I may here mention, that an Ammon- 

 ites, nov. spec, and Astarte, nov. spec, were given me 

 from the Cerro Pasco, about ten degrees of latitude north 

 of Iquique, and M. d'Orbigny thinks that they probably 

 indicate a Neocouuian formation. Again, fifteen degrees 

 of latitude northward, in Colombia, there is a grand 

 fossiliferous deposit, now well known from the labours 

 of Von Buch, Lea, d'Orbigny, and Forbes, which be- 

 longs to the earlier stages of the cretaceous system. 

 Hence, bearing in mind the character of the few fossils 

 from Tierra del Fuesfo, there is some evidence that a 

 great portion of the stratified deposits of the whole vast 

 range of the South American Cordillera belongs to 

 about the same geological epoch. 



Proceeding from the coast escarpment inwards, I 

 crossed, in a space of about thirty miles, an elevated 

 nndulatory district, with the beds dipping in various 

 directions. The rocks are of many kinds, — white 

 laminated, sometimes siliceous sandstone, — purple and 



