44 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



Cundinamarea. The coast chain forms an unbroken rampart from 

 Porto Cabello to the promontory of Paria. Its mean height hardly 

 equals 750 toises or 4795 English feet ; yet single summits, like the 

 Silla de Caracas (also called Cerro de Avila), decked with the purple- 

 flowering Befaria, the American Rose of the Alps, rise 1350 toises, 

 or 8630 English feet, above the level of the sea. The coast of 

 Terra Firma bears traces of devastation. We recognize everywhere 

 the action of the great current which, sweeping from east to west, 

 formed by disruption the West Indian Islands, and hollowed out the 

 Caribbean gulf. The projecting tongues of land of Araja and Chu- 

 paripari, and especially the coast of Cumana and New Barcelona, 

 offer a remarkable spectacle to the geologist. The precipitous 

 Islands of Boracha, Caracas, and Chimanas rise like towers from 

 the sea, and bear witness to the terrible pressure of the waters 

 against the mountain chain when it was broken by their irruption. 

 Perhaps, like the Mediterranean, the Antillean gulf was once an 

 inland sea, which became suddenly connected with the ocean. The 

 islands of Cuba, Hayti, and Jamaica still contain the remnants of 

 the lofty mountains of mica slate which bounded this sea to the 

 north. It is remarkable that where these three islands approach 

 each other most nearly, the highest summits are found ; and we may 

 conjecture that the highest part of this Antillean chain was situated 

 between Cape Tiburon and Point Morant. The Copper Mountains 

 (Montanas de Cobre) near Santiago de Cuba, have not yet been 

 measured, but their elevation is probably greater than that of the 

 Blue Mountains of Jamaica, (1138 toises, 7277 English feet,) 

 which somewhat exceeds the height of the St. Grothard Pass. My 

 conjectures on the valley-form of the Atlantic Ocean, and on the 

 ancient connection of the continents,, were given more in detail in a 

 memoir written in Cumana, entitled Fragment d'un Tableau Geolo- 

 gique de FAmerique Me"ridionale (Journal de Physique, Messidor^ 

 An. IX.). It is worthy of remark that Columbus himself, in his 

 Official Reports, called attention to the connection between the di- 

 rection of the equatorial current and the form of the coast line of 

 the larger Antilles. (Examen critique de Thist. de la Geographic, 

 pp. 104-108.) 



The northern and most cultivated part of the province of Carac- 



