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 inal condition is due to the recency of the break at the border of the continent. In addition to broad regional uplift with marginal breaking away on both the eastern and western borders, the continent was warped or bowed upward in what is now the cordilleran region.

While inquiring about earthquakes I learned of their inter- esting effects upon a famous mountain near the village of Toledo, called El Bramador, or “The Roarer.”’ It is a pointed volcanic mountain, some 2000 feet in elevation, standing on the edge of the Copiapó valley about 10 miles west of the city of Copiap6. It is on the estate of Señor Garay, who invited me to stay at his ranch. The mountain has the reputation in that vicinity of having been actually visited by Darwin, though asa matter of fact Darwin merely mentions the mountain as fol- lows:

“…Whilst staying in the town I heard an account from several of the inhabitants, of a hill in the neighbourhood which they called ‘El Bramador,’—the roarer or bellower. I did not at the time pay sufficient attention to the account; but, as far as I understood, the hill was covered by sand, and the noise was produced only when people, by ascending it, put the sand in motion. The same circumstances are described in detail on the authority of Seetzen and Ehrenberg, as the cause of the sounds which have been heard by many travellers on Mount Sinai near the Red Sea. One person with whom | conversed, had himself heard the noise; he described it as very surprising; and he distinctly stated that, although he could not under- stand how it was caused, yet it was necessary to set the sand rolling down the acclivity. A horse walking over dry and coarse sand, causes a peculiar chirping noise from the friction of the particles; a circumstance which I several times noticed on the coast of Brazil.”

Sefior Garay’s ranch is perhaps a thousand feet above sea level and is located on the south side of the valley on the low