PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE AMAZONS. 



397 



CHAPTEK XIII. 



PHYSICAL HISTOEY OF THE AMAZONS. 



Drift about Rio de Janeiro. — Decomposition of underlying Rock. — 

 Different Aspect of Glacial Phenomena in different Continents. — 

 Fertility op the Drift. — Geological Observations of Messrs. Hartt 

 AND St. John. — Correspondence of Deposits along the Coast with 

 those of Rio and those of the Valley of the Amazons. — Primitive 

 Formation of the Valley. — First known Chapter of its History. — 

 Cretaceous Fossil Fishes. — Former Extent of the South- American 

 Coast. — Cretaceous Fossils from the Rio Purus. — Comparison be- 

 tween North and South America. — Geological Formations along 

 the Banks of the Amazons. — Fossil Leaves. — Clays and Sand- 

 stones. — Hills of Almeyrim. — Monte ALfecRE. — Situation and Scen- 

 ery. — Serra Erer^;. — Comparison with Swiss Scenery. — Boulders of 

 Erer^:. — Ancient Thickness op Amazonian Deposits. — Difference 

 between Drift of the Amazons and that of Rio. — Inferences drawn 

 from the present Condition of the Deposits. — Immense Extent of 

 Sandstone Formation. — Nature and Origin of these Deposits. — Re- 

 ferred TO THE Ice-Period. — Absence of Glacial Marks. — Glacial 

 Evidence of another Kind. — Changes in the Outline of the South- 

 American Coast. — Souri?;. — Igarap^ Grande. — Vigia. — Bay op Bra- 

 ganza. — Anticipation. 



A FEW days before we left Para, Senhor Pimenta Bueno 

 invited his friends and acquaintances, who had expressed 

 a wish to hear Mr. Agassiz's views on the geological char- 

 acter of the Amazonian Valley, to meet at his house in 

 the evening for that purpose. The guests were some two 

 hundred in number, and the whole affair was very uncere- 

 monious, assuming rather the character of a meeting for 

 conversation or discussion than that of an audience col- 

 lected to hear a studied address. The substance of this 

 talk or lecture, as subsequently written out by Mr. Agassiz, 

 afterward appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and is in- 

 serted here, with some few alterations under the head 



