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by the radiation from a large area of land into a clear sky, nor is it moderated by the warmth-bringing currents of the sea; the short summer, on the other hand, is hot. In the southern ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat; and hence the mean temperature of the year, which regulates the zone of perpetually congealed under-soil, is low. It is evident that a rank vegetation, which does not so much require heat as it does protection from intense cold, would approach much nearer to this zone of perpetual congelation under the equable climate of the southern hemisphere than under the extreme climate of the northern continents.

The case of the sailor's body perfectly preserved in the icy soil of the South Shetland Islands (lat. 62° to 63° S.), in a rather lower latitude than that (lat. 64° N.) under which Pallas found the frozen rhinoceros in Siberia, is very interesting. Although it is a fallacy, as I have endeavoured to show in a former chapter, to suppose that the larger quadrupeds require a luxuriant vegetation for their support, nevertheless it is important to find in the South Shetland Islands a frozen under-soil within three hundred and sixty miles of the forest-clad islands near Cape Horn, where, as far as the bulk of vegetation is concerned, any number of great quadrupeds might be supported. The perfect preservation of the carcasses of the Siberian elephants and rhinoceroses is certainly one of the most wonderful facts in geology; but independently of the imagined difficulty of supplying them with food from the adjoining countries, the whole case is not, I think, so perplexing as it has generally been considered. The plains of Siberia, like those of the Pampas, appear to have been formed under the sea, into which rivers brought down the bodies of many animals; of the greater number of these only the skeletons have been preserved, but of others the perfect carcass. Now it is known that in the shallow

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sea on the arctic coast of America the bottom freezes,* and does not thaw in spring so soon as the surface of the land d; moreover at greater depths, where the bottom of the sea does not freeze, the mud a few feet beneath the top layer might remain even in summer below 32°, as is the case on the land with the soil at the depth of a few feet. At still greater depths the temperature of the mud and water would probably not be low enough to preserve the flesh, and hence carcasses drifted beyond the shallow parts near an arctic coast would have only their skeletons preserved. Now in the extreme northern parts of Siberia bones are infinitely numerous, so that even islets are said to be almost composed of them ;† and those islets lie no less than ten degrees of latitude north of the place where Pallas found the frozen rhinoceros. On the other hand, a carcass washed by a flood into a shallow part of the Arctic Sea would be preserved for an indefinite period, if it were soon afterwards covered with mud sufficiently thick to prevent the heat of the summer water penetrating to it, and if, when the sea-bottom was upraised into land, the covering was sufficiently thick to prevent the heat of the summer air and sun thawing and corrupting it.

Recapitulation.--I will recapitulate the principal facts with regard to the climate, ice-action, and organic productions of the southern hemisphere, transposing the places in imagination to Europe, with which we are so much better acquainted. Then, near Lisbon, the commonest sea-shellsnamely, three species of oliva, a voluta and terebra-would have a tropical character. In the southern provinces of France, magnificent forests, entwined by arborescent grasses, and with the trees loaded with parasitical plants, would hide the face of the land. The puma and the jaguar would haunt the Pyrenees. In the latitude of Mont Blanc, but on an island as far westward as central North America, tree-ferns

* Messrs. Dease and Simpson, in Geograph. Journ., vol. viii., pp. 218, 220. + Cuvier (Ossemens Fossiles, tome i., p. 151), from Billing's Voyage.

and parasitical Orchidea would thrive amidst the thick woods. Even as far north as central Denmark humming-birds would be seen fluttering about delicate flowers, and parrots feeding amidst the evergreen woods; and in the sea there we should have a voluta, and all the shells of large size and vigorous growth. Nevertheless, on some islands only three hundred and sixty miles northward of our new Cape Horn in Denmark, a carcass buried in the soil (or if washed into a shallow sea and covered up with mud) would be preserved perpetually frozen. If some bold navigator attempted to penetrate northward of these islands, he would run a thousand dangers amidst gigantic icebergs, on some of which he would see great blocks of rock borne far away from their original site. Another island of large size in the latitude of southern Scotland, but twice as far to the west, would be "almost wholly covered with everlasting snow," and would have each bay terminated by ice-cliffs, whence great masses would be yearly detached; this island would boast only of a little moss, grass, and burnet, and a titlark would be its only land inhabitant. From our new Cape Horn in Denmark a chain of mountains, scarcely half the height of the Alps, would run in a straight line due southward; and on its western flank every deep creek of the sea, or fiord, would end in "bold and astonishing glaciers." These lonely channels would frequently reverberate with the falls of ice, and so often would great waves rush along their coasts; numerous icebergs, some as tall as cathedrals, and occasionally loaded with "no inconsiderable blocks of rock," would be stranded on the outlying islets; at intervals violent earthquakes would shoot prodigious masses of ice into the waters below. Lastly, some missionaries attempting to penetrate a long arm of the sea would behold the not lofty surrounding mountains sending down their many grand icy streams to the sea-coast, and their progress in the boats would be checked by the innumerable floating icebergs, some

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small and some great; and this would have occurred on our twenty-second of June, and where the Lake of Geneva is now spread out! *

* In the former edition and Appendix I have given some facts on the transportal of erratic boulders and icebergs in the Antarctic Ocean. This subject has lately been treated excellently by Mr. Hayes in the Boston Journal (vol. iv., p. 426). The author does not appear aware of a case published by me (Geographical Journal, vol. ix., p. 528) of a gigantic boulder embedded in an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean, almost certainly one hundred miles distant from any land, and perhaps much more distant. In the Appendix I have discussed at length the probability (at that time hardly thought of) of icebergs, when stranded, grooving and polishing rocks, like glaciers. This is now a very commonly received opinion, and I cannot still avoid the suspicion that it is applicable even to such cases as that of the Jura. Dr. Richardson has assured me that the icebergs off North America push before them pebbles and sand, and leave the submarine rocky flats quite bare; it is hardly possible to doubt that such ledges must be polished and scored in the direction of the set of the prevailing currents. Since writing that Appendix I have seen in North Wales (London Phil. Mag., vol. xxi., p. 180) the adjoining action of glaciers and of floating icebergs.

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CHAPTER XII.

CENTRAL CHILI.

Valparaiso Excursion to the foot of the Andes-Structure of the landAscend the Bell of Quillota-Shattered masses of greenstone-Immense valleys-Mines-State of miners-Santiago-Hot-baths of CauquenesGold-mines-Grinding-mills-Perforated stones-Habits of the puma —

El Turco and Tapacolo-Humming-birds.

July 23rd.-The Beagle anchored late at night in the bay of Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chili. When morning came everything appeared delightful. After Tierra del Fuego the climate felt quite delicious—the atmosphere so dry, and the heavens so clear and blue with the sun shining brightly, that all nature seemed sparkling with life. The view from the anchorage is very pretty. The town is built at the very foot of a range of hills, about sixteen hundred feet high, and rather steep. From its position, it consists of one long, straggling street, which runs parallel to the beach, and wherever a ravine comes down the houses are piled up on each side of it. The rounded hills, being only partially protected by a very scanty vegetation, are worn into numberless little gullies, which expose a singularly bright red soil. From this cause, and from the low whitewashed houses with tile roofs, the view reminded me of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe. In a north-easterly direction there are some fine glimpses of the Andes. But these mountains appear much grander when viewed from the neighbouring hills; the great distance at which they are situated can then more readily

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