Patagonia; climate of old Tertiary period, page 134. The subject which
has been most fertile in my mind is the discussion from page 135 to end
of chapter on the accumulation of fossiliferous deposits. (556/3. The
last section of Chapter V. treats of "the Absence of extensive modern
Conchiferous Deposits in South America; and on the contemporaneousness
of the older Tertiary Deposits at distant points being due to
contemporaneous movements of subsidence." Darwin expresses the view that
"the earth's surface oscillates up and down; and...during the elevatory
movements there is but a small chance of durable fossiliferous deposits
accumulating" (loc. cit., page 139).)