Geological Observations on South AmericaDarwin, Charles
Science
Geological Observations on South America
Darwin, Charles
Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Geology -- South America; Mollusks, Fossil -- South America; Paleontology
Judging from the height, the general appearance, and the white colour
of the patches visible on the hill sides, the uppermost plain, both on
the north and western side of the Strait of Magellan, and along the
eastern coast of Tierra del Fuego as far south as near Port St.
Polycarp, probably belongs to the great Patagonian tertiary formation,
These higher table- ranges are fringed by low, irregular, extensive
plains, belonging to the boulder formation (Described in the
“Geological Transactions” volume 6 page 415.), and composed of coarse
unstratified masses, sometimes associated (as north of C. Virgin’s)
with fine, laminated, muddy sandstones. The cliffs in Sebastian Bay are
200 feet in height, and are composed of fine sandstones, often in
curvilinear layers, including hard concretions of calcareous sandstone,
and layers of gravel. In these beds there are fragments of wood, legs
of crabs, barnacles encrusted with corallines still partially retaining
their colour, imperfect fragments of a Pholas distinct from any known
species, and of a Venus, approaching very closely to, but slightly
different in form from, the V. lenticularis, a species living on the
coast of Chile. Leaves of trees are numerous between the laminae of the
muddy sandstone; they belong, as I am informed by Dr. J.D. Hooker, to
three species of deciduous beech, different from the two species which
compose the great proportion of trees in this forest-clad land.
(“Botany of the Antarctic Voyage” page 212.) From these facts it is
difficult to conjecture, whether we here see the basal part of the
great Patagonian formation, or some later deposit.
A SUMMARY ON THE PATAGONIAN TERTIARY FORMATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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