clothes, utensils of elegant forms cut out of the hardest rocks, tools
of copper, ornaments of precious stones, palaces, and hydraulic works,
are considered, it is impossible not to respect the considerable
advance made by them in the arts of civilization. The burial mounds,
called Huacas, are really stupendous; although in some places they
appear to be natural hills incased and modelled.
There is also another and very different class of ruins, which
possesses some interest, namely, those of old Callao, overwhelmed by
the great earthquake of 1746, and its accompanying wave. The
destruction must have been more complete even than at Talcahuano.
Quantities of shingle almost conceal the foundations of the walls, and
vast masses of brickwork appear to have been whirled about like pebbles
by the retiring waves. It has been stated that the land subsided
during this memorable shock: I could not discover any proof of this;
yet it seems far from improbable, for the form of the coast must
certainly have undergone some change since the foundation of the old
town; as no people in their senses would willingly have chosen for
their building place, the narrow spit of shingle on which the ruins now
stand. Since our voyage, M. Tschudi has come to the conclusion, by the
comparison of old and modern maps, that the coast both north and south
of Lima has certainly subsided.
On the island of San Lorenzo, there are very satisfactory proofs of
elevation within the recent period; this of course is not opposed to
the belief, of a small sinking of the ground having subsequently taken
place. The side of this island fronting the Bay of Callao, is worn
into three obscure terraces, the lower one of which is covered by a bed
a mile in length, almost wholly composed of shells of eighteen species,
now living in the adjoining sea. The height of this bed is eighty-five
feet. Many of the shells are deeply corroded, and have a much older
and more decayed appearance than those at the height of 500 or 600 feet
on the coast of Chile. These shells are associated with much common
salt, a little sulphate of lime (both probably left by the evaporation
of the spray, as the land slowly rose), together with sulphate of soda
and muriate of lime. They rest on fragments of the underlying
sandstone, and are covered by a few inches thick of detritus. The
shells, higher up on this terrace could be traced scaling off in
flakes, and falling into an impalpable powder; and on an upper terrace,
at the height of 170 feet, and likewise at some considerably higher
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