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Embedded in the same bone-breccia, and enveloped with red earth like the mammalian remains, were detected shells of the Mytilus edulis before mentioned, implying that the marine formation containing shells and pottery had been already upheaved and exposed to denudation before the remains of quadrupeds were washed into these rents and included in the red earth.
Let it be borne in mind that Avicula, Mytilus, Chiton, Natica, Patella, Trochus, Discina, Orbicula, Lingula, Rhynchonella, and Nautilus, all of which are existing genera, are given without a doubt as Silurian in the last edition of "Siluria;" while the highest forms of the highest Cephalopods are represented in the Lias by a genus, Belemnoteuthis, which presents the closest relation to the existing Loligo.
Occasionally marshes were formed and peaty matter accumulated, after which salt water again predominated, so that species of Mytilus, Mya, Leda, and other marine genera, lived in the same area where the Unio, Cyclas, and Paludina had flourished for a time. That the marine shells lived and died on the spot, and were not thrown up by the waves during a storm, is proved, as Mr.
M. Gay has stated that he found in the neighbourhood of Rio shells of the marine genera solen and mytilus, and fresh-water ampullariae, living together in brackish water. Caught on back of Darwin's horse near Coquimbo. Leaving the coast for a time, we again entered the forest. The trees were very lofty, and remarkable, compared with those of Europe, from the whiteness of their trunks.
I did not observe here any distinct proofs of recent elevation; but in a bed of very soft sandstone, forming a fringe-like plain, about sixty feet in height, round the hills of mica-slate, there are shells of Mytilus, Crepidula, Solen, Novaculina, and Cytheraea, too imperfect to be specifically recognised.
The Californians used the shells of the MYTILUS CALIFORNICUS and HALIOTIS to make fish-hooks, and these were even more curved than those made of bone. The shape seems but little suited for fishing, but even in our own day the natives of the Samoa Islands use similar tackle with great success.
The wooden frame of the hut, with a ring of hearthstones on the floor, and much charcoal, were found, and over them marine strata, more than 60 feet thick, containing the dwarf variety of Mytilus edulis, and other brackish-water shells of the Bothnian Gulf.
On the bare surface of the calcareous plain, or in a thin covering of sand, there were lying, at a height from 200 to 252 feet, many recent shells, which had a much fresher appearance than the embedded ones: fragments of the Concholepas, and of the common Mytilus, still retaining a tinge of its colour, were numerous, and altogether there was manifestly a closer approach in proportional numbers to those now lying on the beach.
Finely laminated sands and clays, with thin layer of lignite, and shells of Cyclas and Valvata, and with Mytilus in some beds. 4. Glacial boulder till. 5. Contorted drift. 6. Gravel overlying contorted drift.
At Monte Video, I noticed near the town, and along the base of the mount, beds of a living Mytilus, raised some feet above the surface of the Plata: in a similar bed, at a height from thirteen to sixteen feet, M. Isabelle collected eight species, which, according to M. d'Orbigny, now live at the mouth of the estuary.
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