Excerpt from South American Archaeology: An Introduction to the Archaeology of the South American Continent, With Special Reference to the Early History of PeruIng moisture upon the Andes, which thus rob the coast of its rainfall. But there is reason to believe that at one time the Andes were several thousand feet lower, and did not offer an insurmountable barrier to the rains. At this period the coast must have been wooded, and a forest must have stood where now is the waterless desert of Tarapaca, a forest of which the only traces are the numerous skeletons of anteaters which once it har boured. Further evidence of the gradual elevation of the country is afforded by the presence of beaches now raised many feet above the sea-level and some miles from the coast while it is evident that this elevation has been proceeding since the advent of man, since traces of his settlements have been discovered in these raised beaches. At points along the coast, however, a good deal of erosion has taken place and the victory has sometimes rested with the sea.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.