On the road from Tacna to Arequipa, between Loquimbo and Moquegua, Mr. M.
Hamilton found numerous recent sea shells in sand, at a considerable
distance from the sea. ("Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" volume 30
page 155.)

LIMA.

Northward of Arica, I know nothing of the coast for about a space of five
degrees of latitude; but near Callao, the port of Lima, there is abundant
and very curious evidence of the elevation of the land. The island of San
Lorenzo is upwards of one thousand feet high; the basset edges of the
strata composing the lower part are worn into three obscure, narrow,
sloping steps or ledges, which can be seen only when standing on them: they
probably resemble those described by Lieutenant Freyer at Arica. The
surface of the lower ledge, which extends from a low cliff overhanging the
sea to the foot of the next upper escarpment, is covered by an enormous
accumulation of recent shells. (M. Chevalier, in the "Voyage of the
'Bonite'" observed these shells; but his specimens were lost.--"L'Institut"
1838 page 151.) The bed is level, and in some parts more than two feet in
thickness; I traced it over a space of one mile in length, and heard of it
in other places: the uppermost part is eighty-five feet by the barometer
above high-water mark. The shells are packed together, but not stratified:
they are mingled with earth and stones, and are generally covered by a few
inches of detritus; they rest on a mass of nearly angular fragments of the
underlying sandstone, sometimes cemented together by common salt. I
collected eighteen species of shells of all ages and sizes. Several of the
univalves had evidently long lain dead at the bottom of the sea, for their
INSIDES were incrusted with Balani and Serpulae. All, according to Mr. G.B.
Sowerby, are recent species: they consist of:--