Charles Darwin

“ Julian is formed by a spit of flat land, of nearly a hundred feet in height; and on its surface existing species of littoral shells are abundantly scattered. The gravel is there covered (a circumstance which I did not observe in scarcely any other locality) by a thin but irregular bed of a sandy or loamy soil, which likewise fills up hollows or channels worn through it. In the largest of these channels the remains of the single fossil quadruped, which was here discovered, were embedded. The skeleton probably was at first perfect ”

“ Sowerby would not have known as living kinds, five out of the twelve fossils: therefore, it is probable, if more attention had been paid to collecting the small living species, some of the seven unknown ones would also have been found in that state. The twelve first shells, as well as the four doubtful ones, are not only existing species, but nearly all of them inhabit this same bay, on the shores of which they are likewise found fossil. ”

“ In this part of South America there is reason to believe that the movements of the land have been so regular, that the period of its elevation may be taken as an element in considering the age of any deposit. ”

“ But from the skeleton, in one instance, being in a position nearly undisturbed, and from the abundance of serpulæ and encrusting corallines adhering to some of the bones, the water, at the time of their burial, must have been deeper than at present. ”

“ I will only here add, that there is the strongest evidence against admitting the theory of a period of overwhelming violence, by which the inhabitants of the land could have been swept away, and destroyed. ”

“ Arca nov. spec. near to A. antiquata ; a very large oyster, probably an extinct species; an imperfect specimen of a second species of oyster near to O. edulis ; and a Pecten near to P. opercularis. These beds pass upwards into an indurated marl, and this again into the red argillaceous earth of the Pampas, containing the remains of those extinct quadrupeds, which every where characterize that deposit. To the southward of the Plata level plains of an uniform composition, interrupted only at wide intervals by hills of crystalline rock, extend to a distance of about three hundred miles ”

“ On the banks of the Parana, a shell identical with, or most closely resembling an estuary species (Potamomya labiata, now living in that part of the Plata, where the water is brackish) is accumulated in great masses, which are found some miles inland, and are elevated several yards above the level of the river. Sir Woodbine Parish, also, has in his possession, shells procured from an extensive formation near Ensenada de Barragan (south of Buenos Ayres) , which is quarried for lime. Mr. ”