Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Geology -- South America; Volcanoes
The upper beds of the limestone, at the above-mentioned quarry on the
Sugar-Loaf Hill, are softer, finer-grained and less pure, than the
lower beds. They abound with fragments of land-shells, and with some
perfect ones; they contain, also, the bones of birds, and the large
eggs, apparently of water-fowl. (Colonel Wilkes, in a catalogue
presented with some specimens to the Geological Society, states that as
many as ten eggs were found by one person. Dr. Buckland has remarked
(“Geolog. Trans.” volume 5 page 474) on these eggs.) It is probable
that these upper beds remained long in an unconsolidated form, during
which time, these terrestrial productions were embedded. Mr. G.R.
Sowerby has kindly examined three species of land-shells, which I
procured from this bed, and has described them in detail. One of them
is a Succinea, identical with a species now living abundantly on the
island; the two others, namely, Cochlogena fossilis and Helix
biplicata, are not known in a recent state: the latter species was also
found in another and different locality, associated with a species of
Cochlogena which is undoubtedly extinct.
BEDS OF EXTINCT LAND-SHELLS.
Land-shells, all of which appear to be species now extinct, occur
embedded in earth, in several parts of the island. The greater number
have been found at a considerable height on Flagstaff Hill. On the N.W.
side of this hill, a rain-channel exposes a section of about twenty
feet in thickness, of which the upper part consists of black vegetable
mould, evidently washed down from the heights above, and the lower part
of less black earth, abounding with young and old shells, and with
their fragments: part of this earth is slightly consolidated by
calcareous matter, apparently due to the partial decomposition of some
of the shells. Mr. Seale, an intelligent resident, who first called
attention to these shells, gave me a large collection from another
locality, where the shells appear to have been embedded in very black
earth. Mr. G.R. Sowerby has examined these shells, and has described
them. There are seven species, namely, one Cochlogena, two species of
the genus Cochlicopa, and four of Helix; none of these are known in a
recent state, or have been found in any other country. The smaller
species were picked out of the inside of the large shells of the
Cochlogena aurisvulpina. This last-mentioned species is in many
respects a very singular one; it was classed, even by Lamarck, in a
marine genus, and having thus been mistaken for a sea-shell, and the
smaller accompanying species having been overlooked, the exact
localities where it was found have been measured, and the elevation of
this island thus deduced! It is very remarkable that all the shells of
this species found by me in one spot, form a distinct variety, as
described by Mr. Sowerby, from those procured from another locality by
Mr. Seale. As this Cochlogena is a large and conspicuous shell, I
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