174 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
The “ lateritic ” formation of Madras and North Arcot in 
India, affords an example of a raised beach on a large scale, 
and one which has recently excited considerable interest from 
the discovery by Mr. Bruce Foote, of the Geological Survey, of 
stone implements similar to those found in the valley-gravels 
of Europe. Mr. Foote considers that the laterite, consisting 
of sand and gravel, was deposited at the bottom of a shallow 
sea studded with mountainous islands, between which flowed 
strong currents. Unfortunately no shells have as yet been 
discovered in this gravel ; but the works of human skill show 
that the bed of the sea has been elevated into dry land along 
the shores of Southern India since the appearance of man. 
I shall now request my reader to accompany me to the 
shores of the New World, and examine one or two remarkable 
cases of raised beaches there. Entering the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence we find the islands and coast presenting remarkable 
examples of these, together with sea-stacks and isolated 
masses of rock of the most fantastic forms, enough to employ 
the pencil of the artist and, we may add, the camera of the 
photographer for many a day to come. Captain Bayfield has 
published drawings of a group of sea-worn rock-pillars called 
“ the flower-pots,” in the Mingan Islands — the furthest from 
the shore being sixty feet above the reach of the highest tide ; 
and Sir C. Lyell (in his “ Manual of Geology , 33 ) gives a draw- 
ing of another group of limestone pillars in Niapisca Island, 
belonging probably to the same level. Other examples are 
described in the works of the States Geological Surveys. 
But the shores of South America afford perhaps the most 
stupendous examples of old coast-terraces that are to be found 
in any part of the world. They occur along the sea-border of 
Chile, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, and La Plata, throughout 
a coast-line of several thousand miles. At Coquimbo, Mr. 
Darwin in his “ Voyage of the Beagle/ 3 describes five narrow, 
gently sloping, fringe-like terraces, formed of shingle, rising 
one behind the other, and sweeping up the valley for miles 
from both sides of the bay. At Guasco, north of Coquimbo, 
these phenomena are displayed on even a much grander scale. 
The terraces expand into plains, and line the valley for a 
distance of thirty-seven miles from the coast. Shells of many 
existing species lie on the surface of these terraces, or are im- 
bedded in a friable calcareous stratum of which they are 
formed. Along the eastern coast, the same distinguished 
naturalist has traced a raised beach from the Bio Colorado for a 
distance of GOO or 700 nautical miles southward. This beach 
spreads itself over the plains of Patagonia for an average distance 
of 200 miles inland from the coast. He considers that the land, 
from the Bio de la Plata to Tierra del Fuego, a distance of 1,200 
