178 Geological Dclinealion of South America. 



S. Juan, de S. Sebastian). It contains strata of black 

 hornstone, which passes into tiiliceous schist or Lydian 

 stone (Morro de Barcelona) and Egyptian jasper to the 

 south of Curataquiche. Over this compact liniestone is 

 placed, as on Jura, very beautiful alo.baslerin large masses 

 at Soro, in Golfo Tiiste. All this gypsum contains sulphur 

 as well as the gypsum of Bex and Kretzetzow, and in the 

 Carpathians. This formation of limestone, with black 

 bornstone and gypsum, seems also to occur in the valley 

 of the Amazon and Rio Negro, where they were found by 

 la Condamine near Cuenga, between Racam and Guyausi, 

 on the east side of the Andes. 



This limestone and gypsum (the latter in the llano of 

 Barcelona near Cachipe) are ofteja covered in the valleys of 

 Orinoco, and the Amazon river, ,by a conglomeration or 

 sandstone, with large strata, in which the remains of lime- 

 stone, quartz, Lvdian stone, all of greater antiquity than 

 the sandstone itself, occur. This conglomeration, breccia, 

 which has a similarity to that of Aranjuez, Salzburg, &c., 

 is extended over more than 18000 square miles in the 

 llanos. It contains strata with small grains and traces of 

 brown and red iron ore. I have never seen petrifactions 

 in it. 



The sandstone full of shells and coral, without any traces 

 of crocodiles in a countr}' which unfortunately contains so 

 many, and which passes into limestone, but on closer ex- 

 amination is intermixed with grains of quartz, is of newec 

 formatioi;!, and always nearer the coasts : I'. Araya, Cabo 

 Blanco, Castillo, S. Antonio de Cumana. 



It may perhaps be expected that I should close this de- 

 scription with an enumeration of the volcanic productions 

 of this country, which has been convulsed by the most 

 terrible earthtjuakes, the high summits of which (Duida), 

 and lately some of its caverns (Cueva du Cuchivano);, vomit 

 forth flames, where boiling springs are thrown up from 

 Golfo Triste to the Sierra Nevada de Merida (the spruigi 

 of Triache\ar I found to be 72°-3 of Reaumur), where, on 

 the coast of Paria, near Cumacator, there is an air volcano, 

 the noise of which is heard at a great distance, and sul- 

 phureous pits in several places as at Guadaloupe — a coun- 

 try where, in the extent of several square miles, the whole 

 surface is undermined and hollow (Tierra Hueca de Cari- 

 aco), where, in the year 1766, the earth, after being agi- 

 tated eleven months by violent shocks, opened on all sides, 

 and pnured forth sulphureous water and bitumen ; and 

 where, in the midst of the driest plains in the Mcra de 

 ~ 1 ■ . ' Guanipa 



