96 
Darwin’s description. 
imbedded, and from the lower part of which 
they must have sprung, had accumulated in 
successive thin layers around their trunks; 
and the stone yet retained the impression 
of the bark. 
It required little geological practice to 
interpret the marvellous story which this 
scene at once unfolded, though I confess I 
was at first so much astonished, that I could 
scarcely believe the plainest evidence. I saw 
the spot where a cluster of fine trees once 
waved their branches on the shores of the 
Atlantic, when that ocean (now driven back 
700 miles,) came to the foot of the Andes. 
I saw that they had sprung from a volcanic 
soil which had been raised above the level 
of the sea, and that subsequently this dry 
land, with its upright trees, had been let 
down into the depths of the ocean. In 
these depths the formerly dry land was 
covered by sedimentary beds, and these 
again by enormous streams of submarine 
lava, one such mass attaining the thickness 
of a thousand feet; and deluges of molten 
stone and aqueous deposits five times alter¬ 
nately had been spread out. The ocean 
