Note 24 — Chapter VII · CENTRAL CHILE:—STRUCTURE OF THE CORDILLERA. (continued 2)

At first I imagined, that the strata with the trees might have been accumulated in a lake: but this seems highly improbable; for, first, a very deep lake was necessary to receive the matter below the trees, then it must have been drained for their growth, and afterwards re-formed and made profoundly deep, so as to receive a subsequent accumulation of matter several thousand feet in thickness. And all this must have taken place necessarily before the formation of the Uspallata range, and therefore on the margin of the wide level expanse of the Pampas! Hence I conclude, that it is infinitely more probable that the strata were accumulated under the sea: the vast amount of denudation, moreover, which this range has suffered, as shown by the wide valleys, by the exposure of the very trees and by other appearances, could have been effected, I conceive, only by the long-continued action of the sea; and this shows that the range was either upheaved from under the sea, or subsequently let down into it. From the natural manner in which the stumps (fifty-two in number) are grouped in a clump, and from their all standing vertically to the strata, it is superfluous to speculate on the chance of the trees having been drifted from adjoining land, and deposited upright: I may, however, mention that the late Dr. Malcolmson assured me, that he once met in the Indian Ocean, fifty miles from land, several cocoa-nut trees floating upright, owing to their roots being loaded with earth.