GRANITE STRUCTURES. 21 



their party had lost his life by falling from the cliffs. 

 They were sometimes obliged to separate in search 

 of food, and this explained the bed of the solitary 

 man. Considering what they had undergone, I 

 think they had kept a very good reckoning of time, 

 for they had lost only four days. 



December 30th. — We anchored in a snug little 

 cove at the foot of some high hills, near the north- 

 ern extremity of Tres Montes. After breakfast the 

 next morning, a party ascended one of these mount- 

 ains, which was 2400 feet high. The scenery was 

 remarkable. The chief part of the range was com- 

 posed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, 

 which appeared as if they had been coeval with 

 the beginning of the world. The granite was cap- 

 ped with mica-slate, and this, in the lapse of ages, 

 had been worn into strange finger-shaped points. 

 These two formations, thus differing in their out- 

 lines, agree in being almost destitute of vegetation. 

 This barrenness had to our eyes a strange appear- 

 ance, from having been so long accustomed to the 

 sight of an almost universal forest of dark-green 

 trees. I took much delight in examining the struc- 

 ture of these mountains. The complicated and lofty 

 ranges bore a noble aspect of durability — equally 

 profitless, however, to man and to all other animals. 

 Granite, to the geologist, is classic ground : from 

 its wide-spread limits, and its beautiful and compact 

 texture, few rocks have been more anciently recog- 

 nised. Granite has given rise, perhaps, to more 

 discussion concerning its origin than any other 

 formation. We generally see it constituting the 

 fundamental rock, and, however formed, we know 

 it is the deepest layer, in the crust of this globe, to 

 which man has penetrated. The limit of man's 

 knowledge, in any subject, possesses a high inter- 

 est, which is perhaps increased by its close neigh- 

 bourhood to the realms of imagination. 



