GEOLOGICAL VIEW. 55 



Copaiba may be reckoned among our timber ; among our lianes, 

 the Bauhinia and Bambusa (Chusquea), with many Orchids. 



The resemblance between the island and the continent, how- 

 ever, becomes more striking still, when we come to consider the 

 geological structure, and consequent surface disposition of the 

 country. We can follow the direction of the mountains of Paria 

 to Cape Galera, through the Dragon's Mouths : the islets which 

 contribute to the formation of the passages representing so 

 many peaks which, having resisted the convulsions of nature, 

 and remained above the waters when the lower parts were sub- 

 merged, are to us as so many witnesses of a past cataclysm : 

 just as the highest summits between Diego-Martin and Cuesa, 

 and those to the westward of the latter, might probably become 

 if the valley they form were sunk and invaded by the sea. All 

 our valleys are transversal to the northern ridge and directed 

 southward — only a few insignificant glens opening to the north, 

 exactly as in the peninsula of Paria. 



" The chain of calcareous mountains of the Brigantine and 

 Cocollar," says Baron von Humboldt, u sends off a considerable 

 branch to the north, which joins the primitive mountains of the 

 coast. This branch bears the name of Sierra de Meapire. 



" When standing on the summit of the Cerro de Meapire, 

 we see the mountain currents flow on one side to the Gulf of 

 Paria, and on the other to the Gulf of Carriaco ; east and west 

 of the ridge there are low marshy grounds, spreading out with- 

 out interruption; and if it be admitted that both gulfs owe 

 their origin to the sinking of the earth, and to rents caused by 

 earthquakes, we must suppose that the Cerro de Meapire has 

 resisted the convulsive movements of the globe, and hindered 

 the waters of the Gulf of Paria from uniting with those of the 

 Gulf of Carriaco. But for this rocky dyke, the isthmus itself, 

 in all probability, would have had no existence ; and from the 

 Castle of Araya, as far as the Cape of Paria, the whole mass of 

 the mountains of the coast would have formed a narrow island 

 parallel to the island of Margarita/' 



No such dyke existing where the mountains were rent in for- 

 mation of the Bocas, Trinidad was thus and then severed from 

 the continent; and even at the epoch of its discovery by 

 Columbus, the Indians entertained the opinion that the catas- 

 trophe had taken place at a not very remote period. Previous 



