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1835 Appendix to p 47. — Valparaiso

Having seen in Chiloe the immense quantities of shells carried by the inhabitants to considerable heights & distances from the sea, I was determined to reexamine with scrupulous care all the localities.

Proceeding along the bold rocky coast from the [Playonche] at very many spots, or rather nearly continuously there were beds of shells from about 60 ft to 232 ft above the level of the sea (barom observ). — Mr Alison,¹ a person gentleman interested in all scientific pursuits, kindly accompanied me to join give me his opinion. — We thought all the above to have been a marine deposition, from the following reasons: The beds consist of very numerous shells generally in a broken, rounded fragments. —

are the same as such as now exist in same proportion. — they lie on a hardened red breccia of granitic fragmnets, — are stained red, are brittle & appear very old; the different kinds are migled together. — I noticed in T. del Fuego, the most ancient heaps of shells collected by the savages retain a conical form & finds generally in groups. — These beds occur in small flat points; in two cases large quantities were seated placed on the edge of a precipitous cliff 200 ft high, & no where very near could a man descend. — These points are quite defenceless & no

¹ Robert Edward Alison (d. 1854), English author and resident of Valparaiso and later managing director of a Chilean mining company who wrote on South American affairs.

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1835 Valparaiso — Elevation of the land

water is to be found near. — Why should people bring shell-fish to such places. — Amongst the shells were considerable number of minute Concholepas. Patella & Crepidilae. Concholepas, Mytili, Turbos: the first kinds might probably have adhaered to the larger ones: the latter kind could, but I think improbably. — A Guiso Chilean man himself having been a fisherman, remarked of his own accord when i told him what I was investigating, that "people never would bring such small shells to eat" (a) — M^r Alison has subsequently written to me & assured that in a ravine to the South of the above points & about 300 yards from the sea. I observed that it has intersected several strat of shells leaving them exposed on both sides of the ravine : or one heard they ascended in a series of steps or beaches forming a little hill about 80 ft high are from the beach of the same & about 350 ft) about level of the sea. — The face of the hill ws much covered with brush-wood, so that it as only by pulling it up & removing the earth, that the shells could be found, & the steps were not well defined. — The situationis almost inaccessible from the sea — thought the shells are very small ones [illeg] specimens of the shells from the highest point; there were many small Concholepas &c, they appeared vert old. Even the purple

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(a) omitted

Not far from the 232 ft beds there is a round hill 557 ft. — on the summit of this there was a small bed of communuted shells. — We believe these are a marine deposit, solely from their aged appearance, the impassibility of the locality & chiefly from the large proportional numbers of small Concholepas, Turbos & Mytili specimen 2761).

I should remark that the perforation of the Concholepas can be scarcely be considered a proof that it was lying dead on the beach: because in recent fresh state the hole of the minute animal belonging to the Balanidae almost render extends to the inner surface, a little weathering would complete the aperture. — With respect to the more elevated situations mentioned in my paper I can produce no certain evidence — I strongly doubt whether such shells ever were brought but I can bring no amount of preseumptive evidence to bear.

I am assured that marine shells are found in the inland basin of Casa Blanco (800 ft above the sea)

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1835 Valparaiso elevation of the land

Turbo & Mytilus being nearly colorless. —

M^r Alison also remarks what I formerly had observed that the shells from the higher parts have are in a much more advanced stage of decomposition, than those lower down: which very certainly shows that the rise could not have been per saltum. —

Several authors have mentioned the considerable extent to which the land has gained on the sea, within a short period at Valparaiso. — M^r Alison the following information for me. — There is now standing a very small part (almost concealed) of the "Prefil" or sea wall of Valparaiso, which runs from Cruz de Reyes to the Arsenal: it was built about 1680 & was of very considerable elevation; but up to the year 1817 the sea broke over it during the [illeg] & washed the houses on the opposite side of the way (at the foot of an old Fort on the present site of the Prison) up to the year 1817. — M^r John Martin, a ship carpenter of this place, mentions that in 1819 he has walked at the foot of this wall on the beach, & has been frequently obliged to climb up to the street to avoid the sea." — At the present day, between this

See Darwin 1837 where this material was published.

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