SECTION 3.

NATURE OF THE ROCKS.

RELATIVE AGE AND SUPERPOSITION OF THE FORMATIONS.

PRIMITIVE, TRANSITION, SECONDARY, TERTIARY, AND VOLCANIC STRATA.

The preceding section has developed the geographical limits of the

formations, the extent of the direction of the zones of

gneiss-granite, mica-slate-gneiss, clay-slate, sandstone and

intermediary limestone, which come successively to light. We will now

indicate succinctly the nature and relative age of these formations.

To avoid confounding facts with geologic opinions I shall describe

these formations, without dividing them, according to the method

generally followed, into five groups--primitive, transition,

secondary, tertiary and volcanic rocks. I was fortunate enough to

discover the types of each group in a region where, before I visited

it, no rock had been named. The great inconvenience of the old

classification is that of obliging the geologist to establish fixed

demarcations, while he is in doubt, if not respecting the spot or the

immediate superposition, at least respecting the number of the

formations which are not developed. How can we in many circumstances

determine the analogy existing between a limestone with but few

petrifactions and an intermediary limestone and zechstein, or between

a sandstone superposed on a primitive rock and a variegated sandstone

and quadersandstein, or finally, between muriatiferous clay and the

red marl of England, or the gem-salt of the tertiary strata of Italy?

When we reflect on the immense progress made within twenty-five years

in the knowledge of the superposition of rocks, it will not appear

surprising that my present opinion on the relative age of the

formations of Equinoctial America is not identically the same with

what I advanced in 1800. To boast of a stability of opinion in geology

is to boast of an extreme indolence of mind; it is to remain

stationary amidst those who go forward. What we observe in any one

part of the earth on the composition of rocks, their subordinate

strata and the order of their position are facts immutably true, and

independent of the progress of positive geology in other countries;

while the systematic names applied to any particular formation of

America are founded only on the supposed analogies between the

formations of America and those of Europe. Now those names cannot

remain the same if, after further examination, the objects of

comparison have not retained the same place in the geologic series; if

the most able geologists now take for transition-limestone and green

sandstone, what they took formerly for zechstein and variegated

sandstone. I believe the surest means by which geologic descriptions

may be made to survive the change which the science undergoes in

proportion to its progress, will be to substitute provisionally in the

description of formations, for the systematic names of red sandstone,

variegated sandstone, zechstein and Jura limestone, names derived from

American localities, as sandstone of the Llanos, limestone of

Cumanacoa and Caripe, and to separate the enumeration of facts

relative to the superposition of soils, from the discussion on the

analogy of those soils with those of the Old World.*

(* Positive geography being nothing but a question of the series or

succession (either simple or periodical) of certain terms represented

by the formations, it may be necessary, in order to understand the

discussions contained in the third section of this memoir, to

enumerate succinctly the table of formations considered in the most

general point of view.

1. Strata commonly called Primitive; granite, gneiss and mica-slate

(or gneiss oscillating between granite and mica-slate); very little

primitive clay-slate; weisstein with serpentine; granite with

disseminated amphibole; amphibolic slate; veins and small layers of

greenstone.

2. Transition strata, composed of fragmentary rocks (grauwacke),

calcareous slate and greenstone, earliest remains of organized

existence: bamboos, madrepores, producta, trilobites, orthoceratites,

evamphalites). Complex and parallel formations; (a) Alternate beds of

grey and stratified limestone, anthracitic mica-slate, anhydrous

gypsum and grauwacke; (b) clay-slate, black limestone, grauwacke with

greenstone, syenite, transition-granite and porphyries with a base of

compact felspar; (c) Euphotides, sometimes pure and covered with

jasper, sometimes mixed with amphibole, hyperstein and grey limestone;

(d) Pyroxenic porphyries with amygdaloides and zirconian syenites.

3. Secondary strata, presenting a much smaller number of

monocotyledonous plants; (a) Co-ordinate and almost contemporary

formations with red sandstone (rothe todtes liegende), quartz-porphyry

and fern-coal. These strata are less connected by alternation than by

opposition. The porphyries issue (like the trachytes of the Andes) in

domes from the bosom of intermediary rocks. Porphyritic breccias which

envelope the quartzose porphyries. (b) Zechstein or Alpine limestone

with marly, bituminous slate, fetid limestone and variegated gypsum

(Productus aculeatus). (c) Variegated sandstone (bunter sandstein)

with frequent beds of limestone; false oolites; the upper beds are of

variegated marl, often muriatiferous (red marl, salzthon) with

hydrated gypsum and fetid limestone. The gem-salt oscillates from

zechstein to muschelkalk. (d) Limestone of Gottingen or muschelkalk

alternating towards the top with white sandstone or brittle sandstein.

(Ammonitis nodosus, encrinites, Mytilus socialis): clayey marl is

found at the two extremities of muschelkalk. (e) White sandstone,

brittle sandstein, alternating with lias, or limestone with graphites;

a quantity of dicotyledonous mixed with monocotyledonous plants. (f)

Jura limestone of complex formation; a quantity of sandy intercalated

marl. We most frequently observe, counting from below upwards; lias

(marly limestone with gryphites), oolites, limestone with polypi,

slaty limestone with fish, crustacea, and globules of oxide of iron

(Amonites planulatus, Gryphaea arcuata). (g) Secondary sandstone with

lignites; iron sand; Wealden clay; greensand or green sandstone; (h)

Chlorite; tufted and white chalk; (planerkalk, limestone of Verona.)

4. Tertiary strata, showing a much smaller number of dicotyledonous

plants. (a) Clay and tertiary sandstone with lignites; plastic clay;

mollasse and nagelfluhe, sometimes alternating where chalk is wanting,

with the last beds of Jura limestone; amber. (b) Limestone of Paris or

coarse limestone, limestone with circles, limestone of Bolca,

limestone of London, sandy limestone of Bognor; lignites. (c)

Silicious limestone and gypsum with fossil bones alternating with

marl. (d) Sandstone of Fontainebleau. (e) Lacustrine soil with porous

millstone grit. (e) Alluvial deposits.)

1. CO-ORDINATE FORMATIONS OF GRANITE, GNEISS AND MICA-SLATE.

There are countries (in France, the vicinity of Lyons; in Germany,

Freiberg, Naundorf) where the formations of granite and gneiss are

extremely distinct; there are others, on the contrary, where the

geologic limits between those formations are slightly marked, and

where granite, gneiss and mica-slate appear to alternate by layers or

pass often from one to the other. These alternations and transitions

appeared to me less common in the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela

than in the Sierra Parime. We recognise successively, in the former of

these two systems of mountains, above all in the chain nearest the

coast, as predominating rocks from west to east, granite (longitude 70

to 71 degrees), gneiss (longitude 68 1/2 to 70 degrees), and

mica-slate (longitude 65 3/4 to 66 1/2 degrees); but considering

altogether the geologic constitution of the coast and the Sierra

Parime, we prefer to treat of granite, gneiss and mica-slate, if not

as one formation, at least as three co-ordinate formations closely

linked together. The primitive clay-slate (urthonschiefer) is

subordinate to mica-slate, of which it is only a modification. It no

more forms an independent stratum in the New Continent, than in the

Pyrenees and the Alps.

(a) GRANITE which does not pass to gneiss is most common in the

western part of the coast-chain between Turmero, Valencia and Porto

Cabello, as well as in the circle of the Sierra Parime, near the

Encaramada, and at the Peak of Duida. At the Rincon del Diablo,

between Mariara and Hacienda de Cura, and at Chuao, it is

coarse-grained, and contains fine crystals of felspar, 1 1/2 inches

long. It is divided in prisms by perpendicular vents, or stratified

regularly like secondary limestone, at Las Trincheras, the strait of

Baraguan in the valley of the Orinoco, and near Guapasoso, on the

banks of the Atabapo. The stratified granite of Las Trincheras, giving

birth to very hot springs (from 90.5 degrees centigrade), appears from

the inclination of its layers to be superposed on gneiss which is seen

further southward in the islands of the lake of Valencia; but

conjectures of superposition founded only on the hypothesis of an

indefinite prolongation of the strata are doubtful; and possibly the

granite masses which form a small particular zone in the northern

range of the littoral Cordillera, between 70 degrees 3 minutes and 70

degrees 50 minutes longitude, were upheaved in piercing the gneiss.

The latter rock is prevalent, both in descending from the Rincon del

Diablo southward to the hot-springs of Mariara, and towards the banks

of the lake of Valencia, and in advancing on the east towards the

group of Buenavista, the Silla of Caracas and Cape Codera. In the

region of the littoral chain of Venezuela, where granite seems to

constitute an independent formation from 15 to 16 leagues in length, I

saw no foreign or subordinate layers of gneiss, mica-slate or

primitive limestone.* (* Primitive limestone, everywhere so common in

mica-slate and gneiss, is found in the granite of the Pyrenees, at

Port d'Oo, and in the mountains of Labourd.)

The Sierra Parime is one of the most extensive granitic strata

existing on the globe;* but the granite, which is seen alike bare on

the flanks of the mountains and in the plains by which they are

joined, often passes into gneiss. (* To prove the extent of the

continuity of this granitic stratum, it will suffice to observe that

M. Leschenault de la Tour collected in the bars of the river Mana, in

French Guiana, the same gneiss-granites (with a little amphibole)

which I observed three hundred leagues more to the west, near the

confluence of the Orinoco and the Guaviare.) Granite is most commonly

found in its granular composition and independent formation, near

Encaramada, at the strait of Baraguan, and in the vicinity of the

mission of the Esmeralda. It often contains, like the granites of the

Rocky Mountains (latitude 38 to 40 degrees), the Pyrenees and Southern

Tyrol, amphibolic crystals,* disseminated in the mass, but without

passing to syenite. (* I did not observe this mixture of amphibole in

the granite of the littoral chain of Venezuela except at the summit of

the Silla of Caracas.) Those modifications are observed on the banks

of the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, the Atabapo, and the Tuamini. The

blocks heaped together, which are found in Europe on the ridge of

granitic mountains (the Riesengebirge in Silesia, the Ochsenkopf in

Franconia), are especially remarkable in the north-west part of the

Sierra Parime, between Caycara, the Encaramada and Uruana, in the

cataracts of the Maypures and at the mouth of the Rio Vichada. It is

doubtful whether these masses, which are of cylindrical form,

parallelopipedons rounded on the edge, or balls of 40 to 50 feet in

diameter, are the effect of a slow decomposition, or of a violent and

instantaneous upheaving. The granite of the south-eastern part of

Sierra Parime sometimes passes to pegmatite,* composed of laminary

felspar, enclosed in curved masses of crystalline quartz. (*

Schrift-granit. It is a simple modification of the composition and

texture of granite, and not a subordinate layer. It must not be

confounded with the real pegmatite, generally destitute of mica, or

with the geographic stones (piedras mapajas) of the Orinoco, which

contain streaks of dark green mica irregularly disposed.) I saw gneiss

only in subordinate layers;* (* The magnetic sands of the rivers that

furrow the granitic chain of the Encaramada seem to denote the

proximity of amphibolic or chloritic slate (hornblende or

chloritschiefer), either in layers in the granite, or superposed on

that rock.); but, between Javita, San Carlos del Rio Negro, and the

Peak of Duida, the granite is traversed by numerous veins of different

ages, abounding with rock-crystal, black tourmalin and pyrites. It

appears that these open veins become more common on the east of the

Peak of Duida, in the Sierra Pacaraina, especially between Xurumu and

Rupunuri (tributaries of the Rio Branco and the Essequibo), where

Hortsmann discovered, instead of diamonds* and emeralds, a mine (four)

of rock-crystal. (* These legends of diamonds are very ancient on the

coast of Paria. Petrus Martyr relates that, at the beginning of the

sixteenth century, a Spaniard named Andres Morales bought of a young

Indian of the coast of Paria admantem mire pretiosum, duos infantis

digiti articulos longum, magni autem pollicis articulum aequantem

crassitudine, acutum utrobique et costis octo pulchre formatis

constantem. [A diamond of marvellous value, as long as two joints of

an infant's finger, and as thick as one of the joints of its thumb,

sharp on both sides, and of a beautiful octagonal shape.] This

pretended adamas juvenis pariensis resisted the action of lime. Petrus

Martyr distinguishes it from topaz by adding offenderunt et topazios

in littore, [they pay no heed to topazes on the coast] that is of

Paria, Saint Marta and Veragua. See Oceanica Dec. 3 lib. 4 page 53.)

(b) GNEISS predominates along the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela,

with the appearance of an independent formation, in the northern chain

from Cerro del Chuao, and the meridian of Choroni, as far as Cape

Codera; and in the southern chain, from the meridian of Guigne to the

mouth of the Rio Tuy. Cape Codera, the great mass of the Silla of

Galipano, and the land between Guayra and Caracas, the table-land of

Buenavista, the islands of the lake of Valencia, the mountains between

Guigne, Maria Magdalena and the Cerro do Chacao are composed of

gneiss;* (* I have been assured that the islands Orchila and Los

Frailes are also composed of gneiss; Curacao and Bonaire are

calcareous. Is the island of Oruba (in which nuggets of native gold of

considerable size have been found) primitive?); yet amidst this soil

of gneiss, inclosed mica-slate re-appears, often talcous in the Valle

de Caurimare, and in the ancient Provincia de Los Mariches; at Cabo

Blanco, west of La Guayra; near Caracas and Antimano, and above all,

between the tableland of Buenavista and the valleys of Aragua, in the

Montana de las Cocuyzas, and at Hacienda del Tuy. Between the limits

here assigned to gneiss, as a predominant rock (longitude 68 1/2 to 70

1/2 degrees), gneiss passes sometimes to mica-slate, while the

appearance of a transition to granite is only found on the summit of

the Silla of Caracas.* (* The Silla is a mountain of gneiss like Adams

Peak in the island of Ceylon, and of nearly the same height.) It would

require a more careful examination than I was able to devote to the

subject, to ascertain whether the granite of the peak of St. Gothard,

and of the Silla of Caracas, really lies over mica-slate and gneiss,

or if it has merely pierced those rocks, rising in the form of needles

or domes. The gneiss of the littoral Cordillera, in the province of

Caracas, contains almost exclusively garnets, rutile titanite and

graphite, disseminated in the whole mass of the rock, shelves of

granular limestone, and some metalliferous veins. I shall not decide

whether the granitiferous serpentine of the table-land of Buenavista

is inclosed in gneiss, or whether, superposed upon that rock, it does

not rather belong to a formation of weisstein (heptinite) similar to

that of Penig and Mittweyde in Saxony.

In that part of the Sierra Parime which M. Bonpland and myself

visited, gneiss forms a less marked zone, and oscillates more

frequently towards granite than mica-slate. I found no garnets in the

gneiss of Parime. There is no doubt that the gneiss-granite of the

Orinoco is slightly auriferous on some points.

(c) MICA-SLATE, with clay-slate (thonschiefer), forms a continuous

stratum in the northern chain of the littoral Cordillera, from the

point of Araya, beyond the meridian of Cariaco, as well as in the

island of Marguerita. It contains, in the peninsula of Araya, garnets

disseminated in the mass, cyanite and, when it passes to clayey-slate,

small layers of native alum. Mica-slate constituting an independent

formation must be distinguished from mica-slate subordinate to a

stratum of gneiss, on the east of Cape Codera. The mica-slate

subordinate to gneiss presents, in the valley of Tuy, shelves of

primitive limestone and small strata of graphic ampelite

(zeicheschiefer); between Cabo Blanco and Catia layers of chloritic,

granitiferous slate, and slaty amphibole; and between Caracas and

Antimano, the more remarkable phenomenon of veins of gneiss inclosing

balls of granitiferous diorite (grunstein).

In the Sierra Parime, mica-slate predominates only in the most eastern

part, where its lustre has led to strange errors.

The amphibolic slate of Angostura, and masses of diorite in balls,

with concentric layers, near Muitaco, appear to be superposed, not on

mica-slate, but immediately on gneiss-granite. I could not, however,

distinctly ascertain whether a part of this pyritous diorite was not

enclosed on the banks of the Orinoco, as it is at the bottom of the

sea near Cabo Blanco, and at the Montana de Avila, in the rock which

it covers. Very large veins, with an irregular direction, often assume

the aspect of short layers; and the balls of diorite heaped together

in hillocks may, like many cones of basalt, issue from the crevices.

Mica-slate, chloritic slate and the rocks of slaty amphibole contain

magnetic sand in the tropical regions of Venezuela, as in the most

northern regions of Europe. The gannets are there almost equally

disseminated in the gneiss (Caracas), the mica-slate (peninsula of

Araya), the serpentine (Buenavista), the chloritic slate (Cabo

Blanco), and the diorite or greenstone (Antimano). These garnets

re-appear in the trachytic porphyries that crown the celebrated

metalliferous mountain of Potosi, and in the black and pyroxenic

masses of the small volcano of Yana-Urca, at the back of Chimborazo.

Petroleum (and this phenomenon is well worthy of attention) issues

from a soil of mica-slate in the gulf of Cariaco. Further east, on the

banks of the Arco, and near Cariaco, it seems to gush from secondary

limestone formations, but probably that happens only because those

formations repose on mica-slate. The hot springs of Venezuela have

also their origin in, or rather below, the primitive rocks. They issue

from granite (Las Trincheras), gneiss (Mariara and Onoto) and the

calcareous and arenaceous rocks that cover the primitive rocks (Morros

de San Juan, Bergantin, Cariaco). The earthquakes and subterraneous

detonations of which the seat has been erroneously sought in the

calcareous mountains of Cumana have been felt with most violence in

the granitic soils of Caracas and the Orinoco. Igneous phenomena (if

their existence be really well certified) are attributed by the people

to the granitic peaks of Duida and Guaraco, and also to the calcareous

mountain of Cuchivano.

From these observations it results that gneiss-granite predominates in

the immense group of the mountains of the Parime, as mica-slate-gneiss

prevails in the Cordillera of the coast; that in the two systems the

granitic soil, unmixed with gneiss and mica-slate, occupies but a very

small extent of country; and that in the coast-chain the formations of

clayey slate (thonschiefer), mica-slate, gneiss and granite succeed

each other in such a manner on the same line from east to west

(presenting a very uniform and regular inclination of their strata

towards the north-west), that, according to the hypothesis of a

subterraneous prolongation of the strata, the granite of Las

Trincheras and the Rincon del Diablo may be superposed on the gneiss

of the Villa de Cura, of Buenavista and Caracas; and the gneiss

superposed in its turn on the mica-slate and clay-slate of Maniquarez

and Chuparuparu in the peninsula of Araya. This hypothesis of a

prolongation of every rock, in some sort indefinite, founded on the

angle of inclination presented by the strata appearing at the surface,

is not admissible; and according to similar equally vague reasoning we

should be forced to consider the primitive rocks of the Alps of

Switzerland as superposed on the formation of the compact limestone of

Achsenberg, and that [transition, or identical with zechstein?] in

turn, as being superposed on the molassus of the tertiary strata.

2. FORMATION OF THE CLAY-SLATE (THONSCHIEFER) OF MALPASSO.

If, in the sketch of the formations of Venezuela, I had followed the

received division into primitive, intermediary, secondary and tertiary

strata, I might be doubtful what place the last stratum of mica-slate

in the peninsula of Araya should occupy. This stratum, in the ravine

(aroyo) of Robalo, passes insensibly in a carburetted and shining

slate, into a real ampelite. The direction and inclination of the

stratum remain the same, and the thonschiefer, which takes the look of

a transition-rock, is but a modification of the primitive mica-slate

of Maniquarez, containing garnets, cyanite, and rutile titanite. These

insensible passages from primitive to transition strata by clay-slate,

which becomes carburetted at the same time that it presents a

concordant position with mica-slate and gneiss, have also been

observed several times in Europe by celebrated geologists. The

existence of an independent formation of primitive slate

(urthonschiefer) may even be doubted, that is, of a formation which is

not joined below by strata containing some vestiges of monocotyledonous

plants.

The small thonschiefer bed of Malpasso (in the southern chain of the

littoral Cordillera) is separated from mica-slate-gneiss by a

co-ordinate formation of serpentine and diorite. It is divided into

two shelves, of which the upper presents green steatitous slate mixed

with amphibole, and the lower, dark-blue slate, extremely fissile, and

traversed by numerous veins of quartz. I could discover no fragmentary

stratum (grauwacke) nor kieselschiefer nor chiastolite. The

kieselschiefer belongs in those countries to a limestone formation. I

have seen fine specimens of the chiastolite (macle) which the Indians

wore as amulets and which came from the Sierra Nevada de Merida. This

substance is probably found in transition-slate, for MM. Rivero and

Boussingault observed rocks of clay-slate at the height of 2120

toises, in the Paramo of Mucuchies, on going from Truxillo to Merida.*

(* In Galicia, in Spain, I saw the thonschiefer containing

chiastholite alternate with grauwacke; but the chiastolite

unquestionably belongs also to rocks which all geologists have

hitherto called primitive rocks, to mica-schists intercalated like

layers in granite, and to an independent stratum of mica-slate.)

3. FORMATION OF SERPENTINE AND DIORITE (GREEN-STONE OF JUNCALITO.)

We have indicated above a layer of granitiferous serpentine inclosed

in the gneiss of Buenavista, or perhaps superposed on that rock; we

here find a real stratum of serpentine alternating with diorite, and

extending from the ravine of Tucutunemo as far as Juncalito. Diorite

forms the great mass of this stratum; it is of a dark green colour,

granular, with small grains, and destitute of quartz; its mass is

formed of small crystals of felspar intermixed with crystals of

amphibole. This rock of diorite is covered at its surface, by the

effect of decomposition, with a yellowish crust, like that of basalts

and dolerites. Serpentine, of a dull olive-green and smooth fracture,

mixed with bluish steatite and amphibole, presents, like almost all

the co-ordinate formations of diorite and serpentine (in Silesia, at

Fichtelgebirge, in the valley of Baigorry, in the Pyrenees, in the

island of Cyprus and in the Copper Mountains of circumpolar America),*

traces of copper. (* Franklin's Journey to the Polar Sea page 529.)

Where the diorite, partly globular, approaches the green slate of

Malpasso, real beds of green slate are found inclosed in diorite. The

fine saussurite which we saw in the Upper Orinoco in the hands of the

Indians, seems to indicate the existence of a soil of euphotide,

superposed on gneiss-granite, or amphibolic slate, in the eastern part

of the Sierra Parime.

4. GRANULAR AND MICACEOUS LIMESTONE OF THE MORROS OF SAN JUAN.

The Morros of San Juan rise like ruinous towers in a soil of diorite.

They are formed of a cavernous greyish green limestone of crystalline

texture, mixed with some spangles of mica, and are destitute of

shells. We see in them masses of hardened clay, black, fissile,

charged with iron, and covered with a crust, yellow from

decomposition, like basalts and amphiboles. A compact limestone

containing vestiges of shells adjoins this granular limestone of the

Morros of San Juan which is hollow within. Probably on a further

examination of the extraordinary strata between Villa de Cura and

Ortiz, of which I had time only to collect some few specimens, many

phenomena may be discovered analogous to those which Leopold von Buch

has lately described in South Tyrol. M. Boussingault, in a memoir

which he has recently addressed to me, calls the rock of the Morros a

problematic calcariferous gneiss. This expression seems to prove that

the plates of mica take in some parts a uniform direction, as in the

greenish dolomite of Val Toccia.

5. FELSPATHIC SANDSTONE OF THE ORINOCO.

The gneiss-granite of the Sierra Parime is covered in some few places

(between the Encaramada and the strait of Baraguan and in the island

of Guachaco) in its western part with an olive-brown sandstone,

containing grains of quartz and fragments of felspar, joined by an

extremely compact clayey cement. This cement, where it abounds, has a

conchoidal fracture and passes to jasper. It is crossed by small veins

of brown iron-ore, which separate into very thin plates or scales. The

presence of felspar seems to indicate that this small formation of

sandstone (the sole secondary formation hitherto known in the Sierra

Parime) belongs to red sandstone or coal.* (* Broken and intact

crystals of feldspar are found in the todte liegende coal-sandstone of

Thuringia. I observed in Mexico a very singular agglomerated felspar

formation superposed upon (perhaps inclosed in) red sandstone, near

Guanaxuato.) I hesitate to class it with the sandstone of the Llanos,

the relative antiquity of which appears to me to be less

satisfactorily verified.

6. FORMATION OF THE SANDSTONE OF THE LLANOS OF CALABOZO.

I arrange the various formations in the order which I fancied I could

discern on the spot. The carburetted slate (thonschiefer) of the

peninsula of Araya connects the primitive rocks of gneiss-granite and

mica-slate-gneiss with the transition strata (blue and green slate,

diorite, serpentine mixed with amphibole and granular greenish-grey

limestone) of Malpasso, Tucutunemo and San Juan. On the south the

sandstone of the Llanos rests on this transition strata; it is

destitute of shells and composed, like the savannahs of Calabozo, of

rounded fragments of quartz,* kieselschiefer and Lydian stone,

cemented by a ferruginous olive-brown clay. (* In Germany sandstones

which belong unquestionably to red sandstone contain also (near

Weiderstadt, in Thuringia) nodules, and rounded fragments. I shall not

cite the pudding-stone subordinate to the red sandstone of the

Pyrenees because the age of that sandstone destitute of coal may be

disputed. Layers of very large rounded nodules of quartz are inclosed

in the coal sandstone of Thuringia, and in Upper Silesia.) We there

find fragments of wood, in great part monocotyledonous, and masses of

brown iron-ore. Some strata, as in the Mesa de Paja, present grains of

very fine quartz; I saw no fragments of porphyry or limestone. Those

immense beds of sandstone that cover the Llanos of the Lower Orinoco

and the Amazon well deserve the attention of travellers. In appearance

they approximate to the pudding-stones of the molassus stratum, in

which calcareous vestiges are also often wanting, as at Schottwyl and

Diesbach in Switzerland; but they appeared to me by their position to

have more relation to red sandstone. Nowhere can they be confounded

with the grauwackes (fragmentary transition-rocks) which MM.

Boussingault and Rivero found along the Cordilleras of New Grenada,

bordering the steppes on the west. Does the want of fragments of

granite, gneiss and porphyry, and the frequency of petrified wood,* (*

The people of the country attribute those woods to the Alcornoco,

Bowdichia virgilioides (See Nova Gen. et Spec. Plant. volume 3 page

377), and to the Chaparro bovo, Rhopala complicata. It is believed in

Venezuela as in Egypt that petrified wood is formed in our times. I

found this dicotyledonous petrified wood only at the surface of the

soil and not inclosed in the sandstone of the Llanos. M. Caillaud made

the same observation on going to the Oasis of Siwa. The trunks of

trees, ninety feet long, inclosed in the red sandstone of Kifhauser

(in Saxony), are, according to the recent researches of Von Buch,

divided into joints, and are certainly monocotyledonous.) sometimes

dicotyledonous, indicate that those sandstones belong to the more

recent formations which fill the plains between the Cordillera of the

Parime and the coast Cordillera, as the molassus of Switzerland fills

the space between the Jura and the Alps? It is not easy, when several

formations are not perfectly developed, to determine the age of

arenaceous rocks. The most able geologists do not concur in opinion

respecting the sandstone of the Black Forest and of the whole country

south-west of the Thuringer Waldgebirge. M. Boussingault, who passed

through a part of the steppes of Venezuela long after me, is of

opinion that the sandstone of the Llanos of San Carlos, that of the

valley of San Antonio de Cucuta and the table-lands of Barquisimeto,

Tocuyo, Merida and Truxillo belong to a formation of old red sandstone

or coal. There is in fact real coal near Carache, south-west of the

Paramo de las Rosas.

Before a part of the immense plains of America was geologically

examined, it might have been supposed that their uniform and continued

horizontality was caused by alluvial soils, or at least by arenaceous

tertiary strata. The sands which in the Baltic provinces and in all

the north of Germany, cover coarse limestone and chalk, seem to

justify these systematic ideas, which have been extended to the Sahara

and the steppes of Asia. But the observations which we have been able

to collect sufficiently prove that both in the Old and the New World,

both plains, steppes, and deserts contain numerous formations of

different eras, and that these formations often appear without being

covered by alluvial deposits. Jura limestone, gem-salt (plains of the

Meta and Patagonia) and coal-sandstone are found in the Llanos of

South America; quadersandstein,* (* The forms of these rocks in walls

and pyramids, or divided in rhomboid blocks, seems no doubt to

indicate quadersandstein; but the sandstone of the eastern declivity

of the Rocky Mountains in which the learned traveller Mr. James found

salt-springs (licks), strata of gypsum and no coal, appear rather to

belong to variegated sandstone (buntersandstein).) a saliferous soil,

beds of coal,* (* This coal immediately covers, as in Belgium, the

grauwacke, or transition-sandstone.) and limestone with trilobites,*

(* In the plains of the Upper Missouri the limestone is immediately

covered by a secondary limestone with turritulites, believed to be

Jurassic, while a limestone with grypheae, rich in lead-ore and which

I should have believed to be still more ancient than oolitic

limestone, and analogous to lias, is described by Mr. James as lying

above the most recent formation of sandstone. Has this superposition

been well ascertained?) fill the vast plains of Louisiana and Canada.

In examining the specimens collected by the indefatigable Caillaud in

the Lybian desert and the Oasis of Siwa, we recognize sandstone

similar to that of Thebes; fragments of petrified dicotyledonous wood

(from thirty to forty feet long), with rudiments of branches and

medullary concentric layers, coming perhaps from tertiary sandstone

with lignites;* (* Formation of molassus.); chalk with spatangi and

anachytes, Jura limestone with nummulites partly agatized; another

fine-grained limestone* employed in the construction of the temple of

Jupiter Ammon (Omm-Beydah) (* M. von Buch very reasonably inquires

whether this statuary limestone, which resembles Parian marble, and

limestone become granular by contact with the systematic granite of

Predazzo, is a modification of the limestone with nummulites, of Siwa.

The primitive rocks from which the fine-grained marble was believed to

be extracted, if there be no deception in its granular appearance, are

far distant from the Oasis of Siwa.); and gem-salt with sulphur and

bitumen. These examples sufficiently prove that the plains (llanos),

steppes and deserts have not that uniform tertiary formation which has

been too generally supposed. Do the fine pieces of riband-jasper, or

Egyptian pebbles, which M. Bonpland picked up in the savannahs of

Barcelona (near Curataquiche), belong to the sandstone of the Llanos

of Calabozo or to a stratum superposed on that sandstone? The former

of these suppositions would approach, according to the analogy of the

observations made by M. Roziere in Egypt, the sandstone of Calabozo,

or tertiary nagelfluhe.

7. FORMATION OF THE COMPACT LIMESTONE OF CUMANACOA.

A bluish-grey compact limestone, almost destitute of petrifactions,

and frequently intersected by small veins of carburetted lime, forms

mountains with very abrupt ridges. These layers have the same

direction and the same inclination as the mica-slate of Araya. Where

the flank of the limestone mountains of New Andalusia is very steep we

observe, as at Achsenberg, near Altdorf in Switzerland, layers that

are singularly arched or turned. The tints of the limestone of

Cumanacoa vary from darkish grey to bluish white and sometimes pass

from compact to granular. It contains, as substances accidentally

disseminated in the mass, brown iron-ore, spathic iron, even

rock-crystal. As subordinate layers it contains (1) numerous strata of

carburetted and slaty marl with pyrites; (2) quartzose sandstone,

alternating with very thin strata of clayey slate; (3) gypsum with

sulphur near Guire in the Golfo Triste on the coast of Paria. As I did

not examine on the spot the position of this yellowish-white

fine-grained gypsum I cannot determine with any certainty its relative

age.

([Footnote not indicated:] This sandstone contains springs. In general

it only covers the limestone of Cumanacoa, but it appeared to me to be

sometimes enclosed.)

The only petrifactions of shells which I found in this limestone

formation consist of a heap of turbinites and trochites, on the flank

of Turimiquiri, at more than 680 toises high, and an ammonite seven

inches in diameter, in the Montana de Santa Maria, north-north-west of

Caripe. I nowhere saw the limestone of Cumanacoa (of which I treat

specially in this article) resting on the sandstone of the Llanos; if

there be any such superposition it must be found on descending the

table-land of Cocollar towards the Mesa de Amana. On the southern

coast of the gulf of Cariaco the limestone formation probably covers,

without the interposition of another rock, a mica-slate which passes

to carburetted clay-slate. In the northern part of the gulf I

distinctly saw this clayey formation at the depth of two or three

fathoms in the sea. The submarine hot springs appeared to me to gush

from mica-slate like the petroleum of Maniquarez. If any doubts remain

as to the rock on which the limestone of Cumanacoa is immediately

superposed, there is none respecting the rocks which cover it, such as

(1) the tertiary limestone of Cumana near Punta Delgada and at Cerro

de Meapire; (2) the sandstone of Quetepe and Turimiquiri, which,

forming layers also in the limestone of Cumanacoa, belongs properly to

the latter soil; the limestone of Caripe which we have often

identified in the course of this work with Jura limestone, and of

which we shall speak in the following article.

8. FORMATION OF THE COMPACT LIMESTONE OF CARIPE.

Descending the Cuchillo de Guanaguana towards the convent of Caripe,

we find another more recent formation, white, with a smooth or

slightly conchoidal fracture, and divided in very thin layers, which

succeeds to the bluish grey limestone formation of Cumanacoa. I call

this in the first instance the limestone formation of Caripe, on

account of the cavern of that name, inhabited by thousands of

nocturnal birds. This limestone appeared to me identical (1) with the

limestone of the Morro de Barcelona and the Chimanas Islands, which

contains small layers of black kieselschiefer (slaty jasper) without

veins of quartz, and breaking into fragments of parallelopiped form;

(2) with the whitish grey limestone with smooth fracture of Tisnao,

which seems to cover the sandstone of the Llanos. We find the

formation of Caripe in the island of Cuba (between the Havannah and

Batabano and between the port of Trinidad and Rio Guaurabo), as well

in the small Cayman Islands.

I have hitherto described the secondary limestone formations of the

littoral chain without giving them the systematic names which may

connect them with the formations of Europe. During my stay in America

I took the limestone of Cumanacoa for zechstein or Alpine limestone,

and that of Caripe for Jura limestone. The carburetted and slightly

bituminous marl of Cumanacoa, analogous to the strata of bituminous

slate, which are very numerous* in the Alps of southern Bavaria (* I

found them also in the Peruvian Andes near Montau, at the height of

1600 toises.), appeared to me to characterize the former of these

formations; while the dazzling whiteness of the cavernous stratum of

Caripe, and the form of those shelves of rocks rising in walls and

cornices, forcibly reminded me of the Jura limestone of Streitberg in

Franconia, or of Oitzow and Krzessowic in Upper Silesia. There is in

Venezuela a suppression of the different strata which, in the old

continent, separate zechstein from Jura limestone. The sandstone of

Cocollar, which sometimes covers the limestone of Cumanacoa, may be

considered as variegated sandstone; but it is more probable that in

alternating by layers with the limestone of Cumanacoa, it is sometimes

thrown to the upper limit of the formation to which it belongs. The

zechstein of Europe also contains a very quartzose sandstone. The two

limestone strata of Cumanacoa and Caripe succeed immediately each

other, like Alpine and Jura limestone, on the western declivity of the

Mexican table-land, between Sopilote, Mescala and Tehuilotepec. These

formations, perhaps, pass from one to the other, so that the latter

may be only an upper shelf of zechstein. This immediate covering, this

suppression of interposed soils, this simplicity of structure and

absence of oolitic strata, have been equally observed in Upper Silesia

and in the Pyrenees. On the other hand the immediate superposition of

the limestone of Cumanacoa on mica-slate and transition

clay-slate--the rarity of the petrifactions which have not yet been

sufficiently examined--the strata of silex passing to Lydian stone,

may lead to the belief that the soils of Cumanacoa and Caripe are of

much more ancient formation than the secondary rocks. We must not be

surprised that the doubts which arise in the mind of the geologist

when endeavouring to decide on the relative age of the limestone of

the high mountains in the Pyrenees, the Apennines (south of the lake

of Perugia) and in the Swiss Alps, should extend to the limestone

strata of the high mountains of New Andalusia, and everywhere in

America where the presence of red sandstone is not distinctly

recognized.

9. SANDSTONE OF THE BERGANTIN.

Between Nueva Barcelona and the Cerro del Bergantin a quartzose

sandstone covers the Jura limestone of Cumanacoa. Is it an arenaceous

rock analogous to green sandstone, or does it belong to the sandstone

of Cocollar? In the latter case its presence seems to prove still more

clearly that the limestones of Cumanacoa and Caripe are only two parts

of the same system, alternating with sandstone, sometimes quartzose,

sometimes slaty.

10. GYPSUM OF THE LLANOS OF VENEZUELA.

Deposits of lamellar gypsum, containing numerous strata of marl, are

found in patches on the steppes of Caracas and Barcelona; for

instance, in the table-land of San Diego, between Ortiz and the Mesa

de Paja; and near the mission of Cachipo. They appeared to me to cover

the Jura limestone of Tisnao, which is analogous to that of Caripe,

where we find it mixed with masses of fibrous gypsum. I have not given

the name formation either to the sandstone of the Orinoco, of

Cocollar, of Bergantin or to the gypsum of the Llanos, because nothing

as yet proves the independence of those arenaceous and gypsous soils.

I think it will one day be ascertained that the gypsum of the Llanos

covers not only the Jura limestone of the Llanos, but that it is

sometimes enclosed in it like the gypsum of the Golfo Triste on the

east of the Alpine limestone of Cumanacoa. The great masses of sulphur

found in the layers, almost entirely clayey, of the steppes (at

Guayuta, valley of San Bonifacio, Buen Pastor, confluence of the Rio

Pao with the Orinoco) may possibly belong to the marl of the gypsum of

Ortiz. These clayey beds are more worthy of attention since the

interesting observations of Von Buch and several other celebrated

geologists respecting the cavernosity of gypsum, the irregularity of

the inclination of its strata and its parallel position with the two

declivities of the Hartz and the upheaved chain of the Alps; while the

simultaneous presence of sulphur, oligist iron and the sulphurous acid

vapours which precede the formation of sulphuric acid, seem to

manifest the action of forces placed at a great depth in the interior

of the globe.

11. FORMATION OF MURIATIFEROUS CLAY (WITH BITUMEN AND LAMELLAR GYPSUM)

OF THE PENINSULA OF

ARAYA.

This soil presents a striking analogy with salzthon or leberstein

(muriatiferous clay) which I have found accompanying gem-salt in every

zone. In the salt-pits of Araya (Haraia) it attracted the attention of

Peter Martyr d'Anghiera at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It

probably facilitated the rupture of the earth and the formation of the

gulf of Cariaco. This clay is of a smoky colour, impregnated with

petroleum, mingled with lamellar and lenticular gypsum and sometimes

traversed by small veins of fibrous gypsum. It incloses angular and

less friable masses of dark brown clay with a slaty and sometimes

conchoidal fracture. Muriate of soda is found in particles invisible

to the naked eye. The relations of position or superposition between

this soil and the tertiary rocks does not appear sufficiently clear to

enable me to pronounce with certainty on this element, the most

important of positive geology. The co-ordinate layers of gem-salt,

muriatiferous clay and gypsum present the same difficulties in both

hemispheres; these masses, the forms of which are very irregular,

everywhere exhibit traces of great commotions. They are scarcely ever

covered by independent formations; and after having been long

believed, in Europe, that gem-salt was exclusively peculiar to Alpine

and transition limestone, it is now still more generally admitted,

either from reasoning founded on analogy or from suppositions on the

prolongation of the strata, that the true location of gem-salt is

found in variegated sandstone (buntersandstein). Sometimes gem-salt

appears to oscillate between variegated sandstone and muschelkalk.

I made two excursions on the peninsula of Araya. In the first I was

inclined to consider the muriatiferous clay as subordinate to the

conglomerate (evidently of tertiary formation) of the Barigon and of

the mountain of the castle of Cumana, because a little to the north of

that castle I had found shelves of hardened clay containing lamellar

gypsum inclosed in the tertiary strata. I believed that the

muriatiferous clay might alternate with the calcareous conglomerate of

Barigon; and near the fishermen's huts situated opposite Macanao,

conglomerate rocks appeared to me to pierce through the strata of

clay. During a second excursion to Maniquarez and the aluminiferous

slates of Chaparuparu, the connexion between tertiary strata and

bituminous clay seemed to me somewhat problematical. I examined more

particularly the Penas Negras near the Cerro de la Vela,

east-south-east of the ruined castle of Araya. The limestone of the

Penas is compact, bluish grey and almost destitute of petrifactions.

It appeared to me to be much more ancient than the tertiary

conglomerate of Barigon, and I saw it covering, in concordant

position, a slaty clay, somewhat analogous to muriatiferous clay. I

was greatly interested in comparing this latter formation with the

strata of carburetted marl contained in the Alpine limestone of

Cumanacoa. According to the opinions now most generally received, the

rock of the Penas Negras may be considered as representing muschelkalk

(limestone of Gottingen); and the saliferous and bituminous clay of

Araya, as representing variegated sandstone; but these problems can

only be solved when the mines of those countries are worked. Those

geologists who are of opinion that the gem-salt of Italy penetrates

into a stratum above the Jura limestone, and even the chalk, may be

led to mistake the limestone of the Penas Negras for one of the strata

of compact limestone without grains of quartz and petrifactions, which

are frequently found amidst the tertiary conglomerate of Barigon and

of the Castillo de Cumana; the saliferous clay of Araya would appear

to them analogous to the plastic clay of Paris,* (* Tertiary sandstone

with lignites, or molassus of Argovia.) or to the clayey shelves (dief

et tourtia) of secondary sandstone with lignites, containing

salt-springs, in Belgium and Westphalia. However difficult it may be

to distinguish separately the strata of marl and clay belonging to

variegated sandstone, muschelkalk, quadersandstein, Jura limestone,

secondary sandstone with lignites (green and iron sand) and the

tertiary strata lying above chalk, I believe that the bitumen which

everywhere accompanies gem-salt, and most frequently salt-springs,

characterizes the muriatiferous clay of the peninsula of Araya and the

island of Marguerita, as linked with formations lying below the

tertiary strata. I do not say that they are anterior to that

formation, for since the publication of M. von Buch's observations on

the Tyrol, we must no longer consider what is below, in space, as

necessarily anterior, relatively to the epoch of its formation.

Bitumen and petroleum still issue from the mica-slate; these

substances are ejected whenever the soil is shaken by a subterranean

force (between Cumana, Cariaco and the Golfo Triste). Now, in the

peninsula of Araya, and in the island of Marguerita, saliferous clay

impregnated with bitumen is met with in connexion with this early

formation, nearly as gem-salt appears in Calabria in flakes, in basins

inclosed in strata of granite and gneiss. Do these circumstances serve

to support that ingenious system, according to which all the

co-ordinate formations of gypsum, sulphur, bitumen and gem-salt

(constantly anhydrous) result from floods passing across the crevices

which have traversed the oxidated crust of our planet, and penetrating

to the seat of volcanic action. The enormous masses of muriate of soda

recently thrown up by Vesuvius,* (* The ejected masses in 1822 were so

considerable that the inhabitants of some villages round Vesuvius

collected them for domestic purposes.) the small veins of that salt

which I have often seen traverse the most recently ejected lavas, and

of which the origin (by sublimation) appears similar to that of

oligist iron deposited in the same vents,* (* Gay-Lussac on the action

of volcanoes in the Annales de Chimie volume 22 page 418.) the layers

of gem-salt and saliferous clay of the trachytic soil in the plains of

Peru and around the volcano of the Andes of Quito are well worthy the

attention of geologists who would discuss the origin of formations. In

the present sketch I confine myself to the mere enumeration of the

phenomena of position, indicating, at the same time, some theoretic

views, by which observers in more advantageous circumstances than I

was myself may direct their researches.

12. AGGLOMERATE LIMESTONE OF THE BARIGON, OF THE CASTLE OF CUMANA, AND

OF THE VICINITY OF PORTO CABELLO.

This is a very complex formation, presenting that mixture and that

periodical return of compact limestone, quartzose sandstone and

conglomerates (limestone breccia) which in every zone peculiarly

characterises the tertiary strata. It forms the mountain of the castle

of San Antonio near the town of Cumana, the south-west extremity of

the peninsula of Araya, the Cerro Meapire, south of Caraco and the

vicinity of Porto Cabello. It contains (1) a compact limestone,

generally of a whitish grey, or yellowish white (Cerro del Barigon),

some very thin layers of which are entirely destitute of

petrifactions, while others are filled with cardites, ostracites,

pectens and vestiges of lithophyte polypi: (2) a breccia in which an

innumerable number of pelagic shells are found mixed with grains of

quartz agglutinated by a cement of carbonate of lime: (3) a calcareous

sandstone with very fine rounded grains of quartz (Punta Arenas, west

of the village of Maniquarez) and containing masses of brown iron ore:

(4) banks of marl and slaty clay, containing no spangles of mica, but

enclosing selenite and lamellar gypsum. These banks of clay appeared

to me constantly to form the lower strata. There also belongs to this

tertiary stratum the limestone tufa (fresh-water formation) of the

valleys of Aragua near Vittoria, and the fragmentary rock of Cabo

Blanco, westward of the port of La Guayra. I must not designate the

latter by the name of nagelfluhe, because that term indicates rounded

fragments, while the fragments of Cabo Blanco are generally angular,

and composed of gneiss, hyaline quartz and chloritic slate, joined by

a limestone cement. This cement contains magnetic sand,* (* This

magnetic sand no doubt owes its origin to chloritous slate, which, in

these latitudes, forms the bed of the sea.) madrepores, and vestiges

of bivalve sea shells. The different fragments of tertiary strata

which I found in the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela, on the two

slopes of the northern chain, seem to be superposed near Cumana

(between Bordones and Punta Delgada); in the Cerro of Meapire; on the

[Alpine] limestone of Cumanacoa; between Porto Cabello and the Rio

Guayguaza; as well as in the valleys of Aragua; on granite; on the

western declivity of the hill formed by Cabo Blanco, on gneiss; and in

the peninsula of Araya, on saliferous clay. But this is perhaps merely

the effect of apposition.* (* An-nicht Auflagerung, according to the

precise language of the geologists of my country.) If we would range

the different members of the tertiary series according to the age of

their formation we ought, I believe, to regard the breccia of Cabo

Blanco with fragments of primitive rocks as the most ancient, and make

it be succeeded by the arenaceous limestone of the castle of Cumana,

without horned silex, yet somewhat analogous to the coarse limestone

of Paris, and the fresh-water soil of Victoria. The clayey gypsum,

mixed with calcareous breccia with madrepores, cardites and oysters,

which I found between Carthagena and the Cerro de la Popa, and the

equally recent limestones of Guadalope and Barbadoes (limestones

filled with seashells resembling those now existing in the Caribbean

Sea) prove that the latest deposited strata of the tertiary formation

extend far towards the west and north.

These recent formations, so rich in vestiges of organized bodies,

furnish a vast field of observation to those who are familiar with the

zoological character of rocks. To examine these vestiges in strata

superposed as by steps, one above another, is to study the Fauna of

different ages and to compare them together. The geography of animals

marks out limits in space, according to the diversity of climates,

which determine the actual state of vegetation on our planet. The

geology of organized bodies, on the contrary, is a fragment of the

history of nature, taking the word history in its proper acceptation:

it describes the inhabitants of the earth according to succession of

time. We may study genera and species in museums, but the Fauna of

different ages, the predominance of certain shells, the numerical

relations which characterize the animal kingdom and the vegetation of

a place or of a period, should be studied in sight of those

formations. It has long appeared to me that in the tropics as well as

in the temperate zone the species of univalve shells are much more

numerous than bivalves. From this superiority in number the organic

fossil world furnishes, in every latitude, a further analogy with the

intertropical shells that now live at the bottom of the ocean. In

fact, M. Defrance, in a work* full of new and ingenious ideas, not

only recognizes this preponderance of the univalves in the number of

the species, but also observes that out of 5500 fossil univalve,

bivalve and multivalve shells, contained in his rich collections,

there are 3066 univalve, 2108 bivalve, and 326 multivalve; the

univalve fossils are therefore to the bivalve as three to two. (*

Table of Organized Fossil Bodies, 1824.)

13. FORMATION OF PYROXENIC AMYGDALOID AND PHONOLITE, BETWEEN ORTIZ AND

CERRO DE FLORES.

I place pyroxenic amygdaloid and phonolite (porphyrschiefer) at the

end of the formations of Venezuela, not as being the only rocks which

I consider as pyrogenous, but as those of which the volcanic origin is

probably posterior to the tertiary strata. This conclusion is not

deduced from the observations I made at the southern declivity of the

littoral Cordillera, between the Morros of San Juan, Parapara and the

Llanos of Calabozo. In that region local circumstances would possibly

lead us to regard the amygdaloids of Ortiz as linked to a system of

transition rocks (amphibolic serpentine, diorite, and carburetted

slate of Malpasso); but the eruption of the trachytes across rocks

posterior to the chalk (in the Euganean Mountains and other parts of

Europe) joined to the phenomenon of total absence of fragments of

pyroxenic porphyry, trachyte, basalt and phonolite (The fragments of

these rocks appear only in tufas or conglomerates which belong

essentially to basaltic formations or surround the most recent

volcanoes. Every volcanic formation is enveloped in breccia, which is

the effect of the eruption itself.), in the conglomerates or

fragmentary rocks anterior to the recent tertiary strata, renders it

probable that the appearance of trap rocks at the surface of the earth

is the effect of one of the last revolutions of our planet, even where

the eruption has taken place by crevices (veins) which cross

gneiss-granite, or the transition rocks not covered by secondary and

tertiary formations.

The small volcanic stratum of Ortiz (latitude 9 degrees 28 minutes to

9 degrees 36 minutes) formed the ancient shore of the vast basin of

the Llanos of Venezuela: it is composed on the points where I could

examine it of only two kinds of rocks, namely, amygdaloid and

phonolite. The greyish blue amygdaloid contains fendilated crystals of

pyroxene and mesotype. It forms balls with concentric layers of which

the flattened centre is nearly as hard as basalt. Neither olivine nor

amphibole can be distinguished. Before it shows itself as a separate

stratum, rising in small conic hills, the amygdaloid seems to

alternate by layers with the diorite, which we have mentioned above as

mixed with carburetted slate and amphibolic serpentine. These close

relations of rocks so different in appearance and so likely to

embarrass the observer give great interest to the vicinity of Ortiz.

If the masses of diorite and amygdaloid, which appear to us to be

layers, are very large veins, they may be supposed to have been formed

and upheaved simultaneously. We are now acquainted with two formations

of amygdaloid; one, the most common, is subordinate to the basalt: the

other, much more rare,* (* We find examples of the latter in Norway

(Vardekullen, near Skeen), in the mountains of the Thuringerwald; in

South Tyrol; at Hefeld in the Hartz, at Bolanos in Mexico etc.)

belongs to the pyroxenic porphyry.* (* Black porphyries of M. von

Buch.) The amygdaloid of Ortiz approaches, by its oryctognostic

characters, to the former of those formations, and we are almost

surprised to find it joining, not basalt, but phonolite,* an eminently

felspathic rock, in which we find some crystals of amphibole, but

pyroxene very rarely, and never any olivine. (* There are phonolites

of basaltic strata (the most anciently known) and phonolites of

trachytic strata (Andes of Mexico). The former are generally above the

basalts; and the extraordinary development of felspar in that union,

and the want of pyroxene, have always appeared to me very remarkable

phenomena.) The Cerro de Flores is a hill covered with tabulary blocks

of greenish grey phonolite, enclosing long crystals (not fendillated)

of vitreous felspar, altogether analogous to the phonolite of

Mittelgebirge. It is surrounded by pyroxenic amygdaloid; it would no

doubt be seen below, issuing immediately from gneiss-granite, like the

phonolite of Biliner Stein, in Bohemia, which contains fragments of

gneiss embedded in its mass.

Does there exist in South America another group of rocks, which may be

preferably designated by the name of volcanic rocks, and which are as

distinct from the chain of the Andes, and advance as far towards the

east as the group that bounds the steppes of Calabozo? Of this I

doubt, at least in that part of the continent situated north of the

Amazon. I have often directed attention to the absence of pyroxenic

porphyry, trachyte, basalt and lavas (I range these formations

according to their relative age) in the whole of America eastward of

the Cordilleras. The existence even of trachyte has not yet been

verified in the Sierra Nevada de Merida which links the Andes and the

littoral chain of Venezuela. It would seem as if volcanic fire, after

the formation of primitive rocks, could not pierce into eastern

America. Possibly the scarcity of argentiferous veins observed in

those countries may be owing to the absence of more recent volcanic

phenomena. M. Eschwege saw at Brazil some layers (veins?) of diorite,

but neither trachyte, basalt, dolerite, nor amygdaloid; and he was

therefore much surprised to see, in the vicinity of Rio Janeiro, an

insulated mass of phonolite, exactly similar to that of Bohemia,

piercing through gneiss. I am inclined to believe that America, on the

east of the Andes, would have burning volcanoes if, near the shore of

Venezuela, Guiana and Brazil, the series of primitive rocks were

broken by trachytes, for these, by their fendillation and open

crevices, seem to establish that permanent communication between the

surface of the soil and the interior of the globe, which is the

indispensable condition of the existence of a volcano. If we direct

our course from the coast of Paria by the gneiss-granite of the Silla

of Caracas, the red sandstone of Barquisimeto and Tocuyo, the slaty

mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Merida, and the eastern Cordillera

of Cundinamarca to Popayan and Pasto, taking the direction of

west-south-west, we find in the vicinity of those towns the first

volcanic vents of the Andes still burning, those which are the most

northerly of all South America; and it may be remarked that those

craters are found where the Cordilleras begin to present trachytes, at

a distance of eighteen or twenty-five leagues from the present coast

of the Pacific Ocean.* (* I believe the first hypotheses respecting

the relation between the burning of volcanoes and the proximity of the

sea are contained in Aetna Dialogus, a very eloquent though

little-known work by Cardinal Bembo.) Permanent communications, or at

least communications frequently renewed, between the atmosphere and

the interior of the globe, have been preserved only along that immense

crevice on which the Cordilleras have been upheaved; but subterranean

volcanic forces are not less active in eastern America, shaking the

soil of the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela and of the Parime group.

In describing the phenomena which accompanied the great earthquake of

Caracas,* on the 26th March, 1812, I mentioned the detonations heard

at different periods in the mountains (altogether granitic) of the

Orinoco. (* I stated in another place the influence of that great

catastrophe on the counter-revolution which the royalist party

succeeded in bringing about at that time in Venezuela. It is

impossible to conceive anything more curious than the negociation

opened on the 5th of April, by the republican government, established

at Valencia in the valleys of Aragua, with Archbishop Prat (Don

Narciso Coll y Prat), to engage him to publish a pastoral letter

calculated to tranquilize the people respecting the wrath of the

deity. The Archbishop was permitted to say that this wrath was merited

on account of the disorder of morals; but he was enjoined to declare

positively that politics and systematic opinions on the new social

order had nothing in common with it. Archbishop Prat lost his liberty

after this singular correspondence.) The elastic forces which agitate

the ground, the still-burning volcanoes, the hot sulphurous springs,

sometimes containing fluoric acid, the presence of asphaltum and

naphtha in primitive strata, all point to the interior of our planet,

the high temperature of which is perceived even in mines of little

depth, and which, from the times of Heraclitus of Ephesus, and

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, to the Plutonic theory of modern days, has

been considered as the seat of all great disturbances of the globe.

The sketch I have just traced contains all the formations known in

that part of Europe which has served as the type of positive geology.

It is the fruit of sixteen months' labour, often interrupted by other

occupations. Formations of quartzose porphyry, pyroxenic porphyry and

trachyte, of grauwacke, muschelkalk and quadersandstein, which are

frequent towards the west, have not yet been seen in Venezuela; but it

may be also observed that in the system of secondary rocks of the old

continent muschelkalk and quadersandstein are not always clearly

developed, and are often, by the frequency of their marls, confounded

with the lower layers of Jura limestone. The muschelkalk is almost a

lias with encrinites; and quadersandstein (for there are doubtless

many above the lias or limestone with gryphites) seems to me to

represent the arenaceous layers of the lower shelves of Jura

limestone.

I have thought it right to give at some length this geologic

description of South America, not only on account of the novel

interest which the study of the formations in the equinoctial regions

is calculated to excite, but also on account of the honourable efforts

which have recently been made in Europe to verify and extend the

working of the mines in the Cordilleras of Columbia, Mexico, Chile and

Buenos Ayres. Vast sums of money have been invested for the attainment

of this useful end. In proportion as public confidence has enlarged

and consolidated those enterprises, from which both continents may

derive solid advantage, it becomes the duty of persons who have

acquired a local knowledge of these countries to publish information

calculated to create a just appreciation of the relative wealth and

position of the mines in different parts of Spanish America. The

success of a company for the working of mines, and that of works

undertaken by the order of free governments, is far from depending

solely on the improvement of the machines employed for draining off

the water, and extracting the mineral, on the regular and economical

distribution of the subterraneous works, or the improvements in

preparation, amalgamation, and melting: success depends also on a

thorough knowledge of the different superposed strata. The practice of

the science of mining is closely linked with the progress of geology;

and it would be easy to prove that many millions of piastres have been

rashly expended in South America from complete ignorance of the nature

of the formations, and the position of the rocks, in directing the

preliminary researches. At the present time it is not precious metals

solely which should fix the attention of new mining companies; the

multiplication of steam-engines renders it indispensable, wherever

wood is not abundant or easy of transport, to seek at the same time to

discover coal and lignites. In this point of view the precise

knowledge of the red sandstone, coal-sandstone, quadersandstein and

molassus (tertiary formation of lignites), often covered with basalt

and dolerite, is of great practical importance. It is difficult for a

European miner, recently arrived, to judge of a country presenting so

novel an aspect, and when the same formations cover an immense extent.

I hope that the present work, as well as my Political Essay on New

Spain, and my work on the Position of Rocks in the Two Hemispheres,

will contribute to diminish those obstacles. They may be said to

contain the earliest geologic information respecting places whose

subterraneous wealth attracts the attention of commercial nations; and

they will assist in the classification of the more precise notions

which later researches may add to my labours.

The republic of Colombia, in its present limits, furnishes a vast

field for the enterprising spirit of the miner. Gold, platinum,

silver, mercury, copper, gem-salt, sulphur and alum may become objects

of important workings. The production of gold alone amounted, before

the outbreak of the political dissensions, on the average, to 4700

kilogrammes (20,500 marks of Castile) per annum. This is nearly half

the quantity furnished by all Spanish America, a quantity which has an

influence the more powerful on the variable proportions between the

value of gold and silver, as the extraction of the former metal has

diminished at Brazil, for forty years past, with surprising rapidity.

The quint (a tax which the government raises on gold-washings) which

in the Capitania of Minas Geraes was, in 1756, 1761 and 1767, from

118, 102 and 85 arobas of gold (of 14 3/5 kilogrammes), has fallen,

during 1800, 1813 and 1818, to 30, 20 and 9 arobas; an arob of gold

having, at Rio Janeiro, the value of 15,000 cruzados. According to

these estimates the produce of gold in Brazil, making deductions for

fraudulent exportation, was, in the middle of the eighteenth century,

the years of the greatest prosperity of the gold-washings, 6600

kilogrammes, and in our days, from 1817 to 1820, 600 kilogrammes less.

In the province of San Paulo the extraction of gold has entirely

ceased; in the province of Goyaz, it was 803 kilogrammes in 1793 and

in 1819 scarcely 75. In the province of Mato Grosso it is almost

nothing; and M. Eschwege is of opinion that the whole produce of gold

in Brazil does not amount at present to more than 600,000 cruzados

(scarcely 440 kilogrammes). I dwell on these particulars because, in

confounding the different periods of the riches and poverty of the

gold-washings of Brazil, it is still affirmed in works treating of the

commerce of the precious metals, that a quantity of gold equivalent to

four millions of piastres (5800 kilogrammes of gold*) flows into

Europe annually from Portuguese America. (* This error is twofold: it

is probable that Brazilian gold, paying the quint, has not, during the

last forty years, risen to 5500 kilogrammes. I heretofore shared this

error in common with writers on political economy, in admitting that

the quint in 1810 was still (instead of 26 arrobas or 379 kilogrammes)

51,200 Portuguese ounces, or 1433 kilogrammes; which supposed a

product of 7165 kilogrammes. The very correct information afforded by

two Portuguese manuscripts on the gold-washings of Minas Geraes, Minas

Novas and Goyaz, in the Bullion Report for the House of Commons, 1810,

acc. page 29, goes as far only as 1794, when the quinto do ouro of

Brazil was 53 arrobas, which indicates a produce of more than 3900

kilogrammes paying the quint. In Mr. Tooke's important work, On High

and Low Prices part 2 page 2) this produce is still estimated (mean

year 1810 to 1821) at 1,736,000 piastres; while, according to official

documents in my possession, the average of the quint of those ten

years amounted only to 15 arrobas, or a product quint of 1095

kilogrammes, or 755,000 piastres. Mr. John Allen reminded the

Committee of the Bullion Report, in his Critical Notes on the table of

M. Brongniart, that the decrease of the produce of the gold-washings

of Brazil had been extremely rapid since 1794; and the notions given

by M. Auguste de Saint Hilaire indicate the same desertion of the

gold-mines of Brazil. Those who were miners have become cultivators.

The value of an arroba of gold is 15,000 Brazilian cruzados (each

cruzado being 50 sous). According to M. Franzini the Portuguese onca

is equal to 0.028 of a kilogramme, and 8 oncas make 1 mark; 2 marks

make 1 arratel, and 32 arratels 1 arroba.) If, in commercial value,

gold in grains prevails, in the republic of Columbia, over the value

of other metals, the latter are not on that account less worthy to fix

the attention of government and of individuals. The argentiferous

mines of Santa Anna, Manta, Santo Christo de las Laxas, Pamplona, Sapo

and La Vega de Sapia afford great hope. The facility of the

communications between the coast of Columbia and that of Europe

imparts the same interest to the copper-mines of Venezuela and New

Grenada. Metals are a merchandize purchased at the price of labour and

an advance of capital; thus forming in the countries where they are

produced a portion of commercial wealth; while their extraction gives

an impetus to industry in the most barren and mountainous districts.

INDEX.

Acephali.

Action:

electric, similarity of, in the electric eel and the voltaic battery.

volcanic, centre of.

connexion of.

Acosta, travels of.

Adansonia, or baobab of, Senegal.

Acuvajos, country of the.

Aerolites.

Africa:

travels in.

deserts of.

Aguas Calientes:

ravine of.

river of.

Agriculture:

tropical.

early practice of.

influence of on individuals.

mean temperature required for the success of.

geology applied to.

in the island of Cuba.

zone of, in Spanish America.

Aguatire, the.

Ajuntas.

Alcaldes, or Indian magistrates.

Alegranza, island of.

Algodonal:

crocodiles of.

Aloe, see Maguey.

Alligators.

Almond-trees.

Alphabet, application of the, in Indian languages.

Alta Vista:

plain of.

natural ice-house of.

Gracia.

Alum:

European.

mines.

Amalivaca.

Amasonia, arborea.

Amazon river:

falls of the.

valley of the.

navigation of.

tributary streams of.

bridges over the.

course of the.

basin of the.

plains of the.

stones.

locality of.

Amazons, traditions of the.

Amygdaloide.

America:

discovery of.

rapidity of vegetation in.

Savannahs of.

geological structure of.

early colonists of.

traditons of.

ancient name of.

supposed identity of, with Asia.

east of the Andes.

English.

population of.

Portuguese.

population of.

South.

plants of.

forests of.

missions of.

natives of.

waters of.

pampas of.

geography of.

geognostic description of.

configuration of.

mountains of.

extent of.

plains of Ibib, boundaries of.

America, Spanish:

inhabitants of.

civil wars of.

state of society in.

productions of.

boundaries of.

frontier posts of.

population of.

extent of.

republics of.

commerce of.

agriculture of.

political position of.

Amerigo, Vespucci.

Andalusia, New:

coasts of.

mountains of.

capital of.

inhabitants of.

earthquakes in.

extent of.

Andes:

ascent of the.

branches of the.

structure of.

elevation of.

etymology of the name.

importance of the.

of Chili.

Angostura:

commerce of.

geology of.

bark.

Anil, see Indigo.

Animals:

effects of heat and cold upon.

organization of.

contemplations on the nature of.

hemispherical distribution of.

geography of.

domestic.

wild, herds of.

Animals, painted representations of, by native Indians.

Anthropophagy.

Antidotes, to poisons.

Antiles, the.

Antimano.

Ants:

of the torrid zone.

use of by the natives as food.

Apes, different species of.

Apparatus, electrical.

Apples, American.

Apure river:

voyage on the.

channel of.

navigation of.

junction of, with the Orinoco.

fetid waters of.

rise of the.

Apurito, island of.

Aquio, river.

Aradores.

Aragua:

cotton plantations of.

boundaries of.

forests of.

plains of.

indigo grounds of.

cacao plantations of.

geology of.

vultures of.

Araguatos.

Araya:

salt works of.

Peninsula of.

castle of.

pearls of.

inhabitants of.

scarcity of rain in.

geology of.

Archipelago:

of St. Bernard.

of Chonos.

of Rosario.

Arenas.

Areverians, tribe of.

Areo, river.

Aroa:

copper mines of.

river of.

Arowaks, tribe of the.

Arrua, the.

Artabrum, promontory of.

Arvi, the.

Asia, steppes of.

Asphaltum, lake of.

Assuay, mountains of.

Astorga.

Astronomy, study of.

Atabapo, the:

pure waters of the.

banks of the.

Ataripe, cavern of.

Atlantic:

temperature of the.

currents in the.

phenomena, in the.

Atlantis.

Atmosphere:

rapid changes in the.

serenity of the.

greatest heat of the.

observations on the.

Atmospheric transparency, effects of, on mental and vegetable

properties.

Atrato.

Aturajos, country of the.

Atures:

rapids of.

mission of.

prevalence of fevers at.

vegetation of.

church of.

tribes of.

language of.

Arauca, river:

birds of the.

Avila, mountain of.

Azores:

new island of the.

sea around the.

Balsam-trees, groves of.

Bamboos:

furniture made from.

region of.

Banana-tree.

Bandits of the plains.

Baracoa, commerce of.

Baragnan, passage of.

Barba de Tigre.

Barbarian, origin of the term.

Barbarism, regions in which it most prevails.

Barbula, cotton plantations of.

Barcelona, New:

native population of.

languages of.

port of.

fort of.

earthquakes at.

plains of.

town of.

Barigon, limestones of the.

Bark:

medicinal.

trees.

Barometer:

variations of, previous to earthquakes.

horary variations of.

Barquisimeto.

Baru:

peninsula of.

island of.

Basalt.

Batabano:

route to.

gulf of.

rocks of.

Batavia, sugar cane of.

Bathing, methods of, practised by the Indians.

Bats.

Baudin, Captain:

expedition of to the South Seas.

ascent of peak of Teneriffe, by.

Baxo de la Cotua.

Bears.

Beauty, national ideas of.

Bees:

peculiar to the New World.

European importation of.

Beet-root sugar.

Benedictus Alexander, physiological phenomenon related by.

Beni, river.

Benzoni Girolamo:

voyage of.

Berbice.

Bergantin:

excursion to.

sandstone of the.

Bermuda, islands of.

Berrio, Antonio de:

expedition of.

Bertholletia excelsa, or Brazil nut tree.

Bird island.

Birds of South America:

domestic.

migrations of.

fishing.

granivorous.

nocturnal, see Guacharo.

Bishop's lake.

Bitumen springs.

Blow-tubes of the Indians.

Boats of Cumana.

Bobadilla Francisco, mission founded by.

Boca de Arichuna:

Chica.

del Drago.

Grande of Carthagena.

de la Tortuga.

Bochica, or Indacanzas, priests of.

Body-painting:

practice of.

methods of.

Bohemia, mountains of.

Bombax.

Bonpland, M.:

intrepidity of.

tree dedicated to (Bonplandia trifoliata).

Boracha, island of.

Borachita, island of.

Botany:

descriptive.

of the Canary islands.

of the Coral islands.

Bougainville, dissemination of the sugar cane by.

Bovadillo, expedition of.

Branco river.

Brazil:

boundaries of.

extent of.

population of.

mountains of.

frontiers of.

gold of.

Brazil-nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa):

nut, harvest of.

Bread-fruit.

Breschet, M.

Bridges:

over the Amazon.

of Lianas.

Brigantine:

situation of the.

conjunction of, with the Cocolla.

descent of the.

Bruyere, description of slaves by.

Brownea, or mountain roses.

Buen Pastor, mineral springs of.

Buenos Ayres:

exports of.

extent of.

population of.

situation of.

pampas of.

Burro, isle of.

Butterflies, American.

Butter:

tree.

from birds.

from palm-fruit.

from the tortoise egg.

Cabo Blanco:

summit of.

climate of.

Cabrera, promontory of.

Cabruta, town of.

Cabullure, river.

Cacao:

port of.

export of.

adulteration of.

harvest of.

of Cumana.

trees, propagation of.

plants having the same properties.

of Barcelona.

wild.

plantations.

Cactus:

American.

forests of.

varieties of.

plantations of.

Calabozo:

departure from.

plains of.

Calabury river.

Caldera, of Peak of Teneriffe.

Caledonia, New.

Camels:

first introduction of, in America.

of Forteventura.

of Teneriffe.

Campeachy.

Campoma, lake of.

Canada:

basin of.

lakes of.

Cananivacari, rapids of.

Canaries of Orotava:

of Montana Clara.

Canary Islands:

birds of the.

ancient historical notices of.

geology of the.

fruits and plants of.

aborigines of.

inhabitants of.

government of the.

hot springs of.

Cannibal:

origin of the term.

chief.

tribes.

Cannibalism:

tribes most addicted to.

in Egypt.

Cano de la Tigre.

Canoes:

Indian.

modes of conveying them overland.

of Norfolk Island.

Caparro monkey.

Capanaparo, lake of.

Cape:

Araya, salt-pits of.

Baco.

Barima.

De la Brea.

Cirial.

Codera.

Finistere.

Guaratarito.

Macanao.

Matahambre.

Negril.

Portland.

Manas.

Sotto.

St. Vincent.

Three Points.

Vela.

Cape Verd Islands.

Capitania, General of Caracas.

government of.

population of.

exportation of hides from.

annexation of with New Granada.

Caps, of bark.

Capuchin Hospital, near Cumana.

Capuchins:

missions of.

indigo, manufactures of.

government of.

influence of.

Caracas:

city of.

salt-works of.

population of.

valleys of.

climate of.

vegetable productions of.

temperature of.

state of society in.

intelligence of the inhabitants.

printing office in.

mines of.

earthquakes at.

effects of the.

departure from.

flora of.

Cacao, plantations of.

commerce of.

plains of.

La Venta, or large Inn of.

islands of.

Carapa.

Caratapona, granite islands of.

Caravalleda, sugar plantations of.

Caravanserai of San Fernando.

Cari:

missions of.

inhabitants of.

Cariaco:

town of.

valley of.

climate of.

population of.

Cariaco, gulf of.

Caribbean Sea:

basins of the.

Caribbees, see Caribs.

Caribs:

language of the.

tribes of.

native white race of.

migrations of.

ferocity.

missions of.

customs of.

characteristics of.

extermination of the.

origin of the term.

government of.

laws of.

Carib:

chief.

slave-dealers.

women.

language of the.

Carichana:

mission of.

port of.

Caripe:

convent of.

valley of.

climate of.

cavern of.

oil harvest of.

river of.

geology of.

Carizales, island of.

Carlos:

del Pino.

Pozo.

Carolinas.

Carony, river:

course of the.

falls of.

tributary streams of.

Carthagena, port of.

Cascabel, or rattlesnake.

Cascades.

Cascarilla-bark, see Cinchona.

Cassime, or Zodiacal Light.

Cassipagotos, tribe of.

Cassiquiare:

river banks of the.

encampment on the.

branch of the.

fertility of the.

general aspect of.

temperature of.

navigation of.

Castanos, el Monte de.

Castile, climate of.

Castle of San Antonio:

hospital of the.

Cataracts:

latitude of the.

of Atures.

of Cariven.

of Cunuri.

of Guaharibos.

of Maypures.

of the Orinoco.

navigation of the.

scenery of the.

of Rio Caroni.

of Quittuna.

Catia.

Cattle:

of the plains.

exportation of hides.

European.

Cavern:

of Ataripe.

of Caripe.

of Dantoe.

of the Guacharo.

Caverns:

origin of.

geological formations of.

of Derbyshire.

of Franconia.

Cayman, see Crocodile:

islands.

geology of.

situation of.

Caymanbrack.

Cayo:

Bonito.

de Cristoval.

Flamenco.

Piedras.

de Perez.

Cecropia, the.

Cedeno, river.

Centurion, Don M., expedition of.

Ceremonies, religious, of the Indians.

Cerro de Flores.

Cerros de Sipapo.

Ceylon, pearl fisheries of.

Chacaito, river of.

Chamberg, island of.

Charts:

inaccuracies of.

of Vespucci.

Chaymas:

missions of the.

nation of.

physiognomy of.

habits of.

physical conformation of.

mental inaptitude of.

language of.

colour of.

Chayma women.

Chemistry, vegetable.

Chiquires, or water hogs.

Chile:

mountains of.

Chimanas, groups of.

Chimborazo, chain of.

Churches:

of Cumana.

of Caracas.

Chocolate, preparation of.

Cigars, exportation of, from Cuba.

Cinchona, or Cascarilla bark.

Cinnamon, or Canela tree.

Civilization:

causes which tend to retard the progress of.

advance of, between the tropics.

effects of, on the human countenance.

physical evils attending.

grades of.

course of.

humanizing influence of.

promoted by river-intercourse.

and slavery.

Claystone (Thonschiefer):

muriatiferous.

Climate of America:

causes of the variableness of, in corresponding latitudes.

Cloquet, M., on physiognomy.

Cocoa, see cacao.

Cocollar:

ascent of the.

climate of.

elevation of the.

Cocuy, harem of.

Cocuyza, peak of.

Coffee trees:

propagation of.

cultivation of, at Caripe.

at Caracas.

plantations of.

abundant produce of.

berries.

of the Havannah.

Colonies:

American society in the.

Castilian.

Dutch.

English.

French.

Spanish.

Colonists of America.

Colorado river.

Colonization, progress of.

Colour:

causes of the different shades of, in the human family.

of the native Indians.

aristocracy of.

Columbia:

republic of.

mines of.

Columbus, Christopher:

early discoveries of.

his estimation of gold.

tomb of.

journal of.

Columbus, Ferdinand, description of the Indians by.

Combustion, volcanic.

Commerce, future advantages to.

Concepcion de Urban.

Concervo, island of.

Congo river.

Conorichite, river.

Conquistadores.

Consejo, see Mammon.

Constellations of the torrid zone.

Contagion:

of fevers, facts relating to.

of the plague.

Dr. Bailey's opinion on the.

Convent of Caripe.

Conuco, or Farm of Bermudez.

Coral:

formation of.

rocks.

snake.

Cordillera:

of the Andes.

of Baraguaro.

near Cumana.

native inhabitants of the.

climate of.

volcanic nature of the.

of the coast.

Real de Neve.

Corn:

European.

cultivation of, in the equinoctial regions.

limits of the growth of.

Cortez, Hernan.

Cortex Angosturae.

Corunna:

port of.

mountains of.

light house of.

departure from.

Cosmogony, theory of.

Cotopaxi, mountain of.

Cotton:

native manufactures of.

trees of America.

cultivation of.

plantations of.

Courbrail, the.

Cow-tree (Palo de Vaca).

Cows in the torrid zone.

Creole sugar cane, introduction of the, into West Indies.

Creoles, nobility of the.

Crocodiles:

groups of.

ferocity of.

summer sleep of.

instinct of.

oil of, used medicinally.

effect of heat and cold upon.

food of.

flesh of, sold for food.

habits of.

modes of destroying.

of Algodonol.

of the Havannah.

of Latie Valencia.

of Manzanares.

of the Nile.

of Rio Adeuas Calentes.

of Rio Cabulare.

of Rio Neveri.

of the Orinoco.

of Uritucu.

Crystals:

formation of.

Cuba:

coffee plantations of.

agriculture of.

extent of.

population of.

political importance of.

inhabitants of.

position of.

geology of.

minerals of.

climate of.

turtles of.

voyage of Cortez to.

ports of.

shores of.

temperature of.

dioceses of.

government of.

colonization of.

public institutions of.

commerce of.

tobacco plantations of.

productions of.

revenue of.

Cuba and the slave trade.

Cubagua:

island of.

pearls of.

native deer of.

Cuchivano:

Risco or crevice of.

tigers of the.

forests of.

gold mines of.

caverns of.

Culebra, island of.

Culimacari, rock of.

Cumana:

city of.

geology of.

forests of.

frequency of earthquakes in.

population of.

plains of.

port of.

climate of.

ancient name of.

slave market of.

government of.

mountains of.

cacao of.

languages of.

trading boats of.

departure from.

return to.

geology of.

governor of.

Cumanacoa:

town of.

tobacco plantations of.

indigo plantations of.

geology of.

Cumanagoto:

subdued tribes of.

Cunavami, mountains of.

Cuneva.

Cunucunumo river.

Cunuri, cataract of.

Cura, the.

Curare, or vegetable poison, see Poisons.

Curacicanas, cotton manufactures of the.

Currents:

equinoctial, in the Atlantic.

causes of.

variations of the.

seeds and fruits, deposited by.

Currency.

Cuspa, or Cinchona tree, medicinal properties of.

Cuzco, city of.

Dagysa notata, a mollusc, discovered by Sir J. Banks.

Darien:

coast of.

gold of the.

gulf of.

Dairies of Andalusia.

Dances of the Indians.

Dapa, island of.

Dapicho, or fossil India-rubber.

preparation of.

growth of.

Daripe, San Miguel de.

Decrement of heat, laws of the.

Deer, American.

Deformities, natural, total absence of, among the Indians.

Deity, ideas of the, held by native Indians.

Delpeche, printing office established by.

Delta, the plains of the.

Deluge, traditions of the.

Demerara:

settlement of.

Depons, M., opinions of, on Lake of Valencia.

Deserts of the New World:

dangers of travelling in.

Devil's Nook (Rincon del Diablo).

Dialects, Indian:

analogy of.

affinity of.

diversity of.

Diamante:

island of.

sugar plantations of.

Diamonds:

cutting of, first invented.

legends of.

Diego de Losada, town founded by.

Diego de Ordaz.

Dirt-eating, a custom of the Ottomacs.

Diseases most prevalent in America.

Divinity, native ideas of.

Dolphins:

of the river Manzanares.

of the Temi.

Dornajito, spring of.

Don Alexandro Mexia.

Don Jose de Manterola.

Don Nicolas Soto, travels with.

Don Vincent Emparan, Governor of Cumana:

intelligence and hospitality of.

Dorado:

district of.

expeditions to.

de la Parima.

Doubts, geographical, respecting the junction of great rivers.

Dragon-tree:

height and antiquity of.

juice of the.

Dresses of the native Indians.

Duida:

volcano of.

peak of the.

Durasno, hill of, levelled by the Marquis de Nava.

Dutch:

settlements.

Guiana.

Earth:

oscillation of the.

undulations of.

effects of, on men and animals.

Earth-eating:

practice of.

effects of.

in Asia.

among animals.

Earths, odoriferous.

Earthquakes:

causes of.

connection of, with the atmosphere, preceding the shock.

connection of, with volcanic eruptions.

frequent shocks of, in towns distant from volcanoes.

effects of, on the sea.

on the shoals.

annual indications of.

atmospheric indications of.

phenomena of.

theories of.

at Caracas.

at Cumana.

at Lima.

in Mexico.

at Morro Roxo.

in Peru.

at Riobamba.

Eclipse:

of the moon.

of the sun, effects of.

Eels:

electric.

varied species of.

modes of fishing for.

habits of the.

dangers attending the shock from.

medicinal properties of the.

Eggs of the turtle:

fisheries of, on the river Orinoco.

harvest of.

season for laying.

method of depositing.

immense numbers of.

Egypt:

crocodiles of.

traditions of.

El Castillo.

El Castillito, rock of.

El Cucurucho de Coco, mountain of.

El Dorado:

legends of.

etymology of.

traditions of.

legendary city of.

El Moro, or fort of Barcelona.

El Penol de los Banos.

El Roncador.

Electricity:

theory of.

Indian knowledge of.

effects of, on horses.

transmission of the shock.

dangerous effects of.

atmospheric.

Elevation of mountains, maxima of.

Emancipation of slaves.

Emeralds, supposed mines of.

Encampments, Indian.

Encaramada:

port of.

mountains of.

natives of.

legends of.

Endava.

Epidemics.

Equator, crossing the.

Equinox:

autumnal.

vernal.

Errors, geographical.

Eruptions, volcanic:

connection of, with earthquakes.

Erythrina, the.

Esmeralda:

mission of.

origin of the colony.

monkeys of.

villa of.

native tribes of.

departure from.

mosquitos of.

longitude of.

Essay, political, on the island of Cuba.

Essequibo:

English colony of.

missionaries of.

river.

Estevan:

river.

acqueducts of.

Esquimaux:

countries of the.

colour of the.

Etna, eruptions, and lava of.

Europe, departure of the author from.

Europeans:

dangers of a tropical climate to.

influence of.

on slavery.

Evaporation:

theory of.

effects of, on the atmosphere.

Exhalations, inflammable.

Eye-stones, remarkable properties of the.

Facts, pathological, relating to fevers.

Falling-stars:

observations on.

Faxardo, Francisco:

town founded by.

island of.

Features, mobility and immobility of, in men and animals.

Females, Indian, condition of.

Fernando, Cortez.

Ferns:

arborescent.

geographical distribution of.

Ferrol, port of.

Fever:

American typhus.

propagation of.

yellow, first appearance of the.

limits and spread of.

proximate cause of.

prevalence of.

treatment of.

Fevers:

prevalence of, in the islands of the Orinoco.

remedies for.

pathological facts relating to.

epidemic, in the region of Cariaco.

Fig tree.

Fires:

nocturnal, in the Llanos.

subterranean.

Fish:

caribe or cannibal.

electrical.

action of.

of the Nile.

flying, formation of.

flour.

bread.

Fishes, respiration of.

Fishing, singular methods of.

Florida:

bees of.

Flour:

of the United States.

stores of Caracas

Forests:

American.

zone of.

effects of the diminution of.

on the Caribbean Sea.

of Catuaro.

of cedar.

of mahogany.

of palm trees.

of Pimichin.

of Punzera.

of Venezuela.

Formations:

geologic.

volcanic.

Forteventura.

Fortunate Islands.

Fossil remains:

discovery of.

study of.

Francisco, Lozano:

remarkable physiological phenomenon of.

of Pampeluna.

Fray Ramon Bueno:

residence of.

remarks of, on the habits of the Ottomacs.

Fruits:

of Antimano.

of Araya.

of Caracas.

of Macarao.

Fucus, or sea-weed, banks of, in the Atlantic.

Fuente de Sanchorquiz.

Galicia:

scenery of.

mines.

plants of.

Galipano, mountain of.

Gallitos, or rock manikin.

Gardens, botanical, of Orotava.

Garnets.

Garzes, or white herons.

Geognosy:

of America.

laws of.

Geology:

queries in.

problem of.

basis of the study of.

of America.

of Aragua.

of the Canary Islands.

of Cumana.

applied to mining and agriculture.

of Mariara.

of Peak of Teneriffe.

of volcanoes.

Geophagy, details of.

Geography:

errors in.

nature of.

by M. Leschenault.

of America.

of plants.

Girolamo, Benzoni:

account of the slave trade by.

voyage of.

Glass, volcanic.

Glorieta de Cocuy.

Glue, natural.

Gneiss.

strata of.

formation of.

strata of.

Goats, of Peak of Teneriffe.

Gold.

early use of, as a medium of exchange.

of Brazil.

districts.

their legends.

mines of Baruta.

of Buria.

of Cuba.

of Paria.

of Rincomada.

of San Juan.

of the valley of Tuy.

ornaments, worn by native Indians.

washings.

of Brazil.

produce of.

Golfo:

de las Damas.

Yeguas.

Triste.

Gomara, history of the Parians by.

Gomora, island of.

Gonzales Pizarro.

Govierno de Cumana:

prevailing languages in the.

Graciosa, island of.

Grammars, American, collected by the author's brother.