154 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
near Piura. It abounds in Eealejo, and at Chumpi, 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. From 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 quadrupeds and 
domestic birds known 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. Near 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 
Hme, and nitrate of soda. Guano is found at Argamo and San Eranscisco 
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. Bollaert'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. Eor any defects of language, we 
may observe, we should bear in mind that Mr. BoUaert 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. 
JSssai d'une Reponse a la Question du Prix propose en 1850_^ar V Academic 
des Sciences pour le concours de 1853, et puis remise pour celui de 1856. 
Par M. le Professeur Bronn. 
The task which the successful candidate for the above prize had to ac- 
complish was "to examine the laws of the distribution of organized fossil 
bodies according to the order of tlieir superposition in the various sedi- 
mentary deposits ; to discuss the question whether their appearance or dis- 
appearance 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 
