154 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



near Piura. It abounds in Eealejo, and at Chumf»i, near Guamanga in 

 Peru." 



"At the foot of the mountain of Curataqui is a cavern, and from the 

 number of bones of children and animals met with, was probably a place 

 of sacrifice. . . . Walls, ruins, and roads are seen in many parts of 

 Equador, in the plains, sides of mountains, and on their summits ; the 

 more irregular are thought to be the work of people long before the con- 

 quest of the country by the Incas." 



Peru and Bolivia now claim attention. A sandy desert runs along the 

 whole extent of coast from Tumbez to Loa. The western Cordillera is as- 

 cended by rugged paths to an elevation where the frozen Andean plains or 

 paramos are found, out of which rise the colossal peaks of the Andes, 

 covered with eternal glaciers. Prom the burning heat of Egypt to the icy 

 cold of Siberia, there is here every gradation of climate. " In the valleys 

 of the coast, and those of the interior, all the species of quadrujoeds and 

 domestic birds hnown in Europe are now bred." 



In Bolivia we have the rich barilla or native-copper mines of San Bar- 

 tolo ; and in the desert of Atacama, Dr. Philippi places the region of me- 

 teoric iron. ]N"ear Rosario are ancient gold-mines ; at Olarios, nuggets 

 have been found of from eighteen to thirty-seven ounces. Copper and 

 gold is worked at Conche ; silver, iron, alum, sulphur, salts, borate of 

 lime, and nitrate of soda. Guano is found at Argamo and San Franscisco 

 on the coast. The mines of Potosi — world-wide is their fame ! " The City 

 of Silver " is 13,320 feet above the sea, and the " Silver Mountain " top 

 15,200 feet. The mines of Conche supply the copper hammers for its busy 

 miners. Up to 1846, the ' Anales de Potosi ' tells us, £330,544,311 was 

 the value of the precious metal extracted from its mines. 



Lipes and many another district are rich in silver mines ; in gold and 

 copper ; salt-plains there are too, and lakes. In Tariga fossil bones of 

 mastodons and mammoths are found in various places, and gold and silver 

 are said to be met with in the mountain of Polla. But we shall fill page 

 after page if we state half the places in this rich region where gold and 

 silver are recorded ; and those who want to know more details— we think 

 we have given enough — must consult Mr. BoUaert's cyclopaedia of facts, 

 for such his book really is. 



It may not be written with that continuous flow of pleasant diction 

 which gives such a charm to some books of travel ; but it is one of the 

 densest masses of facts we ever perused. Por any defects of language, we 

 may observe, we should bear in mind that Mr. Bollaert is not an English- 

 man ; and when we remember this, we shall be more inclined to take an 

 opposite course, and wonder at his generally accurate knowledge of our 

 tongue. 



Essai d'une Reponse a la Question du Prix propose en 1850 par VAcademie 

 dcs {Sciences pour le concours de 1853, et puis remise pour celui de 1856. 

 Par M. lo Professeur Bronn. 



The task wliieh the successful candidate for the above prize had to ac- 

 complish was "to examine the laws of the distribution of organized fossil 

 bodios according to the order of their superposition in the various sedi- 

 mentary deposits ; to discuss the question whether their appearance or dis- 

 ji])poarance was successive or simultaneous ; to seek for the signification of 

 the relations between the existing state of the organic world and its an- 

 terior states." This task, which to perform successfully would require the 

 most universal knowledge of fossil and recent organisms, and in which 



