(9/9. "Nous n'avons
pas ?t? moins saisis d'?tonnement ? la v?e de l'innombrable
quantit? de pierres de toutes grandeurs, boulevers?es les unes sur
les autres, et cependant rang?es, comme si elles avoient ?t?
amoncel?es n?gligemment pour remplir des ravins. On ne se lassoit
pas d'admirer les effets prodigieux de la nature." "Pernety" page
526.) If during the earthquake which in 1835 overthrew Concepcion,
in Chile, it was thought wonderful that small bodies should have
been pitched a few inches from the ground, what must we say to a
movement which has caused fragments many tons in weight to move
onwards like so much sand on a vibrating board, and find their
level? (9/10. An inhabitant of Mendoza, and hence well capable of
judging, assured me that, during the several years he had resided
on these islands, he had never felt the slightest shock of an
earthquake.) I have seen, in the Cordillera of the Andes, the
evident marks where stupendous mountains have been broken into
pieces like so much thin crust, and the strata thrown on their
vertical edges; but never did any scene, like these "streams of
stones," so forcibly convey to my mind the idea of a convulsion, of
which in historical records we might in vain seek for any
counterpart: yet the progress of knowledge will probably some day
give a simple explanation of this phenomenon, as it already has of
the so long thought inexplicable transportal of the erratic
boulders which are strewed over the plains of Europe.
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