It May Naturally Be Asked, How It Comes That,
Although No Extensive Fossiliferous Deposits Of The Recent
Period, Nor Of
Any period intermediate between it and the
ancient tertiary epoch, have been preserved on either side of
the continent, yet
That at this ancient tertiary epoch,
sedimentary matter containing fossil remains, should have been
deposited and preserved at different points in north and
south lines, over a space of 1100 miles on the shores of the
Pacific, and of at least 1350 miles on the shores of the
Atlantic, and in an east and west line of 700 miles across the
widest part of the continent? I believe the explanation is
not difficult, and that it is perhaps applicable to nearly
analogous facts observed in other quarters of the world.
Considering the enormous power of denudation which the sea
possesses, as shown by numberless facts, it is not probable
that a sedimentary deposit, when being upraised, could pass
through the ordeal of the beach, so as to be preserved in
sufficient masses to last to a distant period, without it were
originally of wide extent and of considerable thickness: now
it is impossible on a moderately shallow bottom, which
alone is favourable to most living creatures, that a thick
and widely extended covering of sediment could be spread
out, without the bottom sank down to receive the successive
layers. This seems to have actually taken place at about
the same period in southern Patagonia and Chile, though
these places are a thousand miles apart.
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