The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London . ting on shale, north of the Rio Yerde, and at the side of the riverEsmeraldas, just above the old town of that name, where the lime-stone is overlain with the volcanic deposits. Again, the Tertiarylimestone was found much further up, where the river passes througha range of hills in the vicinity of the river Caninde ; here it appearsby the river-side in enormous white angular blocks, which hadevidently fallen from the side of the precipitous hill behind: the 1866.] WILSON—ECUADOR. 569 limestone appeared to rest on the volcanic deposit
The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London . ting on shale, north of the Rio Yerde, and at the side of the riverEsmeraldas, just above the old town of that name, where the lime-stone is overlain with the volcanic deposits. Again, the Tertiarylimestone was found much further up, where the river passes througha range of hills in the vicinity of the river Caninde ; here it appearsby the river-side in enormous white angular blocks, which hadevidently fallen from the side of the precipitous hill behind: the 1866.] WILSON—ECUADOR. 569 limestone appeared to rest on the volcanic deposits, and it was thewashing away of this latter from underneath that caused the harderlimestone to break off in those enormous blocks. So far as theauthors observations yet extend, the earlier beds of the volcanicmaterial are at least contemporaneous with the Tertiary limestone ;and the accumulation of these volcanic outcastings continued untillong after the close of the Tertiary period, but became gradually morecircumscribed. Section of Point at a. Vegetable mould. b. Clay and sand with pottery. c. Water-worn gravel and clay with pottery. d. Gravel and clay with pottery. e. Sand and Trash-rock. ff. Blue slaty rock with fragments ofshells. The second of the terraces described contains, in many places,^remains of articles of human art (broken pottery, earthen figures,and fragments of gold ornaments) at various depths below thesurface, but in all cases below high-tide mark, from which fact it isapparent that this region, during its occupation by man, stoodhigher above the sea than it does now. But the sea gradually en-croached on the land, till it attained a height of about fifteen feetabove its former level. That the duration of time occupied by thisadvance and retreat of the sea must have been very great is apparentwhen we consider that the stratified earth of the plain is simplythe sediment brought down by the rivers and deposited beneath themargins of the
Size: 2352px × 1063px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectgeology, bookyear1845
