Julian, recent species of shells are strewed on (or embedded in) the surface of the 250 feet plain, and of the 350 feet plain up to a height of 400 feet. These wide step-formed plains have been formed by the denuding action of the coast-waves on the old tertiary strata; and therefore, when the surface of the 350 feet plain, with the shells on it, first rose above the level of the sea, the 250 feet plain did not exist, and its formation, as well as the spreading out of the gravel on its summit, must have taken place subsequently. So also the denudation and the gravel-covering of the 90 feet plain must have taken place subsequently to the elevation of the 250 feet plain, on which recent shells are also strewed. Hence there cannot be any doubt that the Macrauchenia, which certainly was entombed in a fresh state, and which must have been alive after the spreading out of the gravel on the 90 feet plain, existed, not only subsequently to the upraised shells on the surface of the 250 feet plain, but also to those on the 350 to 400 feet plain: these shells, eight in number (namely, three species of Mytilus, two of Patella, one Fusus, Voluta, and Balanus), are undoubtedly recent species, and are the commonest kinds now living on this coast. At Punta Alta in B. Blanca, I remarked how marvellous it was, that the Toxodon, a mammifer so unlike to all known genera, should have co-existed with twenty- three still living marine animals; and now we find that the Macrauchenia, a quadruped only a little less anomalous than the Toxodon, also co-existed with eight other still existing Mollusca: it should, moreover, be borne in mind, that a tooth of a pachydermatous animal was found with the other remains at Punta Alta, which Professor Owen thinks almost certainly belonged to the Macrauchenia.
Mr. Lyell has arrived at a highly important conclusion with respect to the age of the North American extinct mammifers (many of which are closely allied to, and even identical with, those of the Pampean formation), namely, that they lived subsequently to the period when erratic boulders were transported by the agency of floating ice in temperate latitudes. ("Geological Proceedings" volume 4 page 36.) Now in the valley of the Santa Cruz, only fifty miles of latitude south of the spot where the Macrauchenia was entombed, vast numbers of gigantic, angular boulders, which must have been transported from the Cordillera on icebergs, lie strewed on the plain, at the height of 1,400 feet above the level of the sea. In ascending to this level, several step-formed plains must be crossed, all of which have necessarily required long time for their formation; hence the lowest or ninety feet plain, with its superficial bed containing the remains of the Macrauchenia, must have been formed very long subsequently to the period when the 1,400 feet plain was beneath the sea, and boulders were dropped on it from floating masses of ice. (It must not be inferred from these remarks, that the ice-action ceased in South America at this comparatively ancient period; for in Tierra del Fuego boulders were probably transported contemporaneously with, if not subsequently to, the formation of the ninety feet plain at S. Julian, and at other parts of the coast of Patagonia.) Mr. Lyell's conclusion, therefore, is thus far confirmed in the southern hemisphere; and it is the more important, as one is naturally tempted to admit so simple an explanation, that it was the ice-period that caused the extinction of the numerous great mammifers which so lately swarmed over the two Americas.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE PAMPEAN FORMATION.
One of its most striking features is its great extent; I passed continuously over it from the Colorado to St. Fe Bajada, a distance of 500 geographical miles; and M. d'Orbigny traced it for 250 miles further north. In the latitude of the Plata, I examined this formation at intervals over an east and west line of 300 miles from Maldonado to the R. Carcarana; and M. d'Orbigny believes it extends 100 miles further inland: from Mr. Caldcleugh's travels, however, I should have thought that it had extended, south of the Cordovese range, to near Mendoza, and I may add that I heard of great bones having been found high up the R.