112 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. I. 



" Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, 

 Catch a glimpse of the days that are over ; 

 Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time 

 For the long faded glories they cover ! " — Moore. 



57. Elevation of the coast of Chili. — One of the 

 most remarkable modern instances of the upheaval of an 

 extensive tract of country, is that recorded by the late 

 Lady Calcott, (then Mrs. Maria Graham,) as having been 

 produced by the memorable earthquake which visited Chili 

 in 1822, and continued at short intervals till the end of 

 1823. The shocks were felt through a space of 1,200 

 miles, from north to south. At Valparaiso, on the morning 

 of the 20th of November, it appeared that the whole line 

 of coast had been raised above its level ; an old wreck of 

 a ship, which could not previously be approached, was now 

 accessible from the land; and beds of oysters, not before 

 known in that locality, were brought to light. " When I 

 went to examine the coast," says Lady Calcott, " although 

 it was high-water, I found the ancient bed of the sea laid 

 bare and dry, with oysters, mussels, and other shells, ad- 

 hering to the rocks on which they grew : the fish being all 

 dead, and exhaling the most offensive effluvia. It appeared 

 to me, that there was every reason to believe the coast 

 had been raised by earthquakes at former periods, in a 

 similar manner; for there were several layers of beach, 

 consisting of shingle mixed with shells, extending in parallel 

 lines to the shore, to the height of fifty feet above the sea."* 

 Part of the coast thus elevated consists of granite ; subse- 

 quent observations have proved that the whole of the 

 country was raised, from the foot of the Andes to far out 

 at sea ; the supposed area over which the elevatory move- 

 ments extended, being about 100,000 square miles; a space 



* Geological Transactions, vol. i. second series. 



