Ch.XV.] GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. 277 



After crossing the river, I noticed boulders of con- 

 glomerate in the drift ; none of these had occurred in 

 the valley of Depilto. The bed rock was still contorted 

 schists, with many quartz veins. At the top of a steep 

 rise, beyond the river, is a small plateau, or level terrace, 

 fringing the range, formed of a gravelly boulder deposit ; 

 then another steep ascent led us to a second higher 

 plateau, like the first, covered with boulders, lying on 

 the level surface. The first beds of the quartz-conglo- 

 merate occurred about half-way between Ocotal and Tota- 

 galpa. Between it and the contorted schists we passed 

 over some soft, decomposing trap-rocks, which, both here 

 and elsewhere, appeared to intervene between these two 

 formations. Over the whole country between Ocotal 

 and Totagalpa were spread many large boulders, great 

 blocks of conglomerate, and of a hard blue trap-rock 

 that I did not see in situ, lying on the upturned edges of 

 the schistose rocks. I should have liked to have worked 

 out the exact relative positions of the quartz conglome- 

 rate and the contorted schists, for I have no doubt that 

 a day or two's search amongst the ravines would have 

 shown many natural sections that would have thrown 

 great light upon the subject ; but I had no time to 

 devote to it. We were hurrying on every day as far as 

 our mules could carry us, as it was important that I 

 should get back to the mines before the end of the 

 month, and I was only able to note down the exposures 

 that occurred within sight of the road. These, however, 

 were sufficient to show me that the gneiss of Depilto was 

 overlain conformably by the contorted schists ; that the 

 latter were followed by soft trappean beds, and these by 

 thick beds of quartz conglomerate, apparently derived 



