Fusus petitianus, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 3. Venus hanetiana, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 4. Venus incerta (?) d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 5. Venus Cleryana, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 6. Venus petitiana, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 7. Venus Chilensis, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 8. Solecurtus hanetianus, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 9. Mactra auca, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 10. Oliva serena, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal.
Of these twenty-four shells, all are extinct, except, according to Mr. Sowerby, the Artemis ponderosa, Mytilus Chiloensis, and probably the great Balanus.
COQUIMBO TO COPIAPO.
A few miles north of Coquimbo, I met with the ferruginous, balaniferous mass E with many silicified bones; I was informed that these silicified bones occur also at Tonguay, south of Coquimbo: their number is certainly remarkable, and they seem to take the place of the silicified wood, so common on the coast-formations of Southern Chile. In the valley of Chaneral, I again saw this same formation, capped with the recent calcareous beds. I here left the coast, and did not see any more of the tertiary formations, until descending to the sea at Copiapo: here in one place I found variously coloured layers of sand and soft sandstone, with seams of gypsum, and in another place, a comminuted shelly mass, with layers of rotten-stone and seams of gypsum, including many of the extinct gigantic oyster: beds with these oysters are said to occur at English Harbour, a few miles north of Copiapo.
COAST OF PERU.
With the exception of deposits containing recent shells and of quite insignificant dimensions, no tertiary formations have been observed on this coast, for a space of twenty-two degrees of latitude north of Copiapo, until coming to Payta, where there is said to be a considerable calcareous deposit: a few fossils have been described by M. d'Orbigny from this place, namely:--
1. Rostellaria Gaudichaudi, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 2. Pectunculus Paytensis, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 3. Venus petitiana, d'Orbigny "Voyage" Pal. 4. Ostrea Patagonica? This great oyster (of which specimens have been given me) cannot be distinguished by Mr. Sowerby from some of the varieties from Patagonia; though it would be hazardous to assert it is the same with that species, or with that from Coquimbo.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
The formations described in this chapter, have, in the case of Chiloe and probably in that of Concepcion and Navidad, apparently been accumulated in troughs formed by submarine ridges extending parallel to the ancient shores of the continent; in the case of the islands of Mocha and Huafo it is highly probable, and in that of Ypun and Lemus almost certain, that they were accumulated round isolated rocky centres or nuclei, in the same manner as mud and sand are now collecting round the outlying islets and reefs in the West Indian Archipelago. Hence, I may remark, it does not follow that the outlying tertiary masses of Mocha and Huafo were ever continuously united at the same level with the formations on the mainland, though they may have been of contemporaneous origin, and been subsequently upraised to the same height. In the more northern parts of Chile, the tertiary strata seem to have been separately accumulated in bays, now forming the mouths of valleys.
The relation between these several deposits on the shores of the Pacific, is not nearly so clear as in the case of the tertiary formations on the Atlantic. Judging from the form and height of the land (evidence which I feel sure is here much more trustworthy than it can ever be in such broken continents as that of Europe), from the identity of mineralogical composition, from the presence of fragments of lignite and of silicified wood, and from the intercalated layers of imperfect coal, I must believe that the coast-formations from Central Chiloe to Concepcion, a distance of 400 miles, are of the same age: from nearly similar reasons, I suspect that the beds of Mocha, Huafo, and Ypun, belong also to the same period. The commonest shell in Mocha and Huafo is the same species of Turritella; and I believe the same Cytheraea is found on the islands of Huafo, Chiloe, and Ypun; but with these trifling exceptions, the few organic remains found at these places are distinct.