第53章 ON THE FORMATIONS OF THE PAMPAS(2)

Parish, where the rock is quarried just beneath the surface of the plain, consist of broken bivalves, cemented by and converted into white crystalline carbonate of lime.I have already alluded, in the first chapter, to a specimen (also given me by Sir W.Parish) from the A.del Tristan, in which shells, resembling in every respect the Azara labiata, d'Orbigny, as far as their worn condition permits of comparison, are embedded in a reddish, softish, somewhat arenaceous marly rock: after careful comparison, with the aid of a microscope and acids, I can perceive no difference between the basis of this rock and the specimens collected by me in many parts of the Pampas.I have also stated, on the authority of Sir W.Parish, that northward of Buenos Ayres, on the highest parts of the plain, about forty feet above the Plata, and two or three miles from it, numerous shells of the Azara labiata (and I believe of Venus sinuosa) occur embedded in a stratified earthy mass, including small marly concretions, and said to be precisely like the great Pampean deposit.Hence we may conclude that the mud of the Pampas continued to be deposited to within the period of this existing estuary shell.Although this formation is of such immense extent, I know of no other instance of the presence of shells in it.

BUENOS AYRES TO THE RIO COLORADO.

With the exception of a few metamorphic ridges, the country between these two points, a distance of 400 geographical miles, belongs to the Pampean formation, and in the southern part is generally formed of the harder and more calcareous varieties.I will briefly describe my route: about twenty-five miles S.S.W.of the capital, in a well forty yards in depth, the upper part, and, as I was assured, the entire thickness, was formed of dark red Pampean mud without concretions.North of the River Salado, there are many lakes; and on the banks of one (near the Guardia) there was a little cliff similarly composed, but including many nodular and stalactiform concretions: I found here a large piece of tessellated armour, like that of the Glyptodon, and many fragments of bones.The cliffs on the Salado consist of pale-coloured Pampean mud, including and passing into great masses of tosca-rock: here a skeleton of the Megatherium and the bones of other extinct quadrupeds (see the list at the end of this chapter) were found.Large quantities of crystallised gypsum (of which specimens were given me) occur in the cliffs of this river; and likewise (as I was assured by Mr.Lumb) in the Pampean mud on the River Chuelo, seven leagues from Buenos Ayres: I mention this because M.d'Orbigny lays some stress on the supposed absence of this mineral in the Pampean formation.

Southward of the Salado the country is low and swampy, with tosca-rock appearing at long intervals at the surface.On the banks, however, of the Tapalguen (sixty miles south of the Salado) there is a large extent of tosca-rock, some highly compact and even semi-crystalline, overlying pale Pampean mud with the usual concretions.Thirty miles further south, the small quartz-ridge of Tapalguen is fringed on its northern and southern flank, by little, narrow, flat-topped hills of tosca-rock, which stand higher than the surrounding plain.Between this ridge and the Sierra of Guitru-gueyu, a distance of sixty miles, the country is swampy, with the tosca-rock appearing only in four or five spots: this sierra, precisely like that of Tapalguen, is bordered by horizontal, often cliff-bounded, little hills of tosca-rock, higher than the surrounding plain.Here, also, a new appearance was presented in some extensive and level banks of alluvium or detritus of the neighbouring metamorphic rocks; but I neglected to observe whether it was stratified or not.Between Guitru-gueyu and the Sierra Ventana, I crossed a dry plain of tosca-rock higher than the country hitherto passed over, and with small pieces of denuded tableland of the same formation, standing still higher.