第44章 ON THE PLAINS AND VALLEYS OF CHILE:--SALIFEROUS SU

I carefully examined in many places the state of the gravel, and almost everywhere found the pebbles equally and perfectly rounded, occasionally with great blocks of rock, and generally distinctly stratified, often with parting seams of sand.The pebbles were sometimes coated with a white aluminous, and less frequently with a calcareous, crust.At great heights up the valleys the pebbles become less rounded; and as the terraces become obliterated, the whole mass passes into the nature of ordinary detritus.Iwas repeatedly struck with the great difference between this detritus high up the valleys, and the gravel of the terraces low down, namely, in the greater number of the quite angular fragments in the detritus,--in the unequal degree to which the other fragments have been rounded,--in the quantity of associated earth,--in the absence of stratification,--and in the irregularity of the upper surfaces.This difference was likewise well shown at points low down the valleys, where precipitous ravines, cutting through mountains of highly coloured rock, have thrown down wide, fan-shaped accumulations of detritus on the terraces: in such cases, the line of separation between the detritus and the terrace could be pointed out to within an inch or two; the detritus consisting entirely of angular and only partially rounded fragments of the adjoining coloured rocks; the stratified shingle (as I ascertained by close inspection, especially in one case, in the valley of the River Mendoza) containing only a small proportion of these fragments, and those few well rounded.

I particularly attended to the appearance of the terraces where the valleys made abrupt and considerable bends, but I could perceive no difference in their structure: they followed the bends with their usual nearly equable inclination.I observed, also, in several valleys, that wherever large blocks of any rock became numerous, either on the surface of the terrace or embedded in it, this rock soon appeared higher up in situ: thus I have noticed blocks of porphyry, of andesitic syenite, of porphyry and of syenite, alternately becoming numerous, and in each case succeeded by mountains thus constituted.There is, however, one remarkable exception to this rule; for along the valley of the Cachapual, M.Gay found numerous large blocks of white granite, which does not occur in the neighbourhood.Iobserved these blocks, as well as others of andesitic syenite (not occurring here in situ), near the baths of Cauquenes at a height of between two and three hundred feet above the river, and therefore quite above the terrace or fringe which borders that river; some miles up the valleys there were other blocks at about the same height.I also noticed, at a less height, just above the terrace, blocks of porphyries (apparently not found in the immediately impending mountains), arranged in rude lines, as on a sea-beach.All these blocks were rounded, and though large, not gigantic, like the true erratic boulders of Patagonia and Fuegia.M.Gay states that the granite does not occur in situ within a distance of twenty leagues ("Annales des Science Nat." 1 series tome 28.M.Gay, as I was informed, penetrated the Cordillera by the great oblique valley of Los Cupressos, and not by the most direct line.); I suspect, for several reasons, that it will ultimately be found at a much less distance, though certainly not in the immediate neighbourhood.The boulders found by MM.Meyen and Gay on the upper plain of San Fernando (mentioned in a previous note) probably belong to this same class of phenomena.

These fringes of stratified gravel occur along all the great valleys of the Cordillera, as well as along their main branches; they are strikingly developed in the valleys of the Maypu, Mendoza, Aconcagua, Cachapual, and according to Meyen, in the Tinguirica.("Reise" etc.Th.1 s.302.) In the valleys, however, of Northern Chile, and in some on the eastern flank of the Cordillera, as in the Portillo Valley, where streams have never flowed, or are quite insignificant in volume, the presence of a mass of stratified gravel can be inferred only from the smooth slightly concave form of the bottom.One naturally seeks for some explanation of so general and striking a phenomenon; that the matter forming the fringes along the valleys, or still filling up their entire beds, has not fallen from the adjoining mountains like common detritus, is evident from the complete contrast in every respect between the gravel and the piles of detritus, whether seen high up the valleys on their sides, or low down in front of the more precipitous ravines; that the matter has not been deposited by debacles, even if we could believe in debacles having rushed down EVERY valley, and all their branches, eastward and westward from the central pinnacles of the Cordillera, we must admit from the following reasons,--from the distinct stratification of the mass,--its smooth upper surface,--the well-rounded and sometimes encrusted state of the pebbles, so different from the loose debris on the mountains,--and especially from the terraces preserving their uniform inclination round the most abrupt bends.To suppose that as the land now stands, the rivers deposited the shingle along the course of every valley, and all their main branches, appears to me preposterous, seeing that these same rivers not only are now removing and have removed much of this deposit, but are everywhere tending to cut deep and narrow gorges in the hard underlying rocks.