1835. 



PENCO CASTLE ' ULLOA.' 



421 



In a ride along the beach of Concepcion Bay, with Mr. 

 Rouse, we examined the solid wall of old Penco Castle, and 

 found on one side the date 1686 and on another 1687. 



This castle and the adjoining foundations of houses, are so 

 near the level of the sea, that I am surprised the inhabitants 

 should not have feared being frequently inundated, even by 

 tides only a few feet higher than usual. 



If all this coast has been more or less upheaved during 

 comparatively modern times, how is it that the foundations of 

 Penco still stand at the water's edge, very little above the 

 level of a high spring tide ? Ulloa remarks, that " the 

 country round the bay, particularly that between Talca- 

 huano and Concepcion, within four or five leagues from the 

 shore, is noted for a very singular curiosity, namely, that 

 at the depth of one-half or three-quartei-^ of a yard beneath 

 the surface of the ground, is a stratum of shells of different 

 kinds, two or three toises in thickness, and in some places even 

 more, without any intermixture of earth, one large shell being 

 joined together by smaller, and which also fill the cavities of 

 the larger. From these shells all the lime used in building is 

 made, and large pits are dug in the earth for taking out those 

 shells, and calcining them. Were these strata of shells found 

 only in low and level places, the phenomenon would be more 

 easily accounted for by a supposition no ways improbable, 

 namely, that these parts were formerly covered by the sea, 

 agreeable to an observation we made in our description of 

 Lima. But what renders it surprising is, that the like quar- 

 ries of the same kind of shells are found on the tops of moun- 

 tains in this country, fifty toises above the level of the sea. I 

 did not indeed personally, examine the quarries on the highest 

 of those mountains, but was assured of their existence by 

 persons who had lime-kilns there ; but I saw them myself on 

 the summits of others, at the height of twenty toises above 

 the surface of the sea, and was the more pleased with the sight, 

 as it appeared to me a convincing proof of the universality of 

 the deluge. I am not ignorant that some have attributed this 

 to other causes ; but an unanswerable confutation of their 



