MAXIMA OP TUB STBATA. 



which bounds the steppes of Calabozo towards the north ? 

 The basin of the steppes is itself the bottom of a sea desti- 

 tute of islands ; it is only on the south of the A pure, between 

 that river and the Meta, near the western bank of the Sierra, 

 that a few hills appear, as Monte Parure, la Gal era de Sina- 

 ruco, and the Cerritos de San Vicente. With the exception 

 of the fragments of tertiary strata above mentioned, there is 

 from the equator to the parallel of 10 north (between the 

 meridian of Sierra Nevada de Merida and the coast of 

 Guiana), if not an absence, at least a scarcity of those petri- 

 factions, which strikes an observer recently arrived from 

 Europe 



The maxima of the height of the different formations 

 diminish regularly, in the country we are describing, with 

 their relative ages. These maxima, for gneiss-granite (Peak of 

 Duida in the group of Parime, Silla de Caracas in the coast 

 chain) are from 1300 to 1350 toises ; for the limestone of 

 Cumanacoa (summit or Gucurucho of Turimiquiri), 1050 

 toises ; for the limestone of Caripe (mountains surrounding 

 the table-land of the Guarda de San Augustin), 750 toises ; 

 for the sandstone alternating with the limestone of Cuma- 

 nacoa (Cuchilla de Guanaguana), 550 toises; for the tertiary 

 strata (Punta Araya) 200 toises 



The tract of country, of which I am here describing the 

 geological constitution, is distinguished by the astonishing 

 regularity observed in the direction of the strata of which 

 the rocks of different eras are composed. I have already 

 often pointed the attention of my readers to a geognostic 

 law, one of the few that can be verified by precise measure- 

 ments. Occupied since the year 1792, by the parallelism, 

 or rather the loxodromism of the strata, examining the direc- 

 tion and inclination of the primitive and transition beds, 

 from the coast of Genoa across the chain of the Bochetta, 

 the plains of Lombardy, the Alps of Saint Gothard, the 

 table-land of Swabia, the mountains of Bareuth, and the 

 plains of Northern Germany, I was struck with the extreme 

 frequency, if not the uniformity, of the horary directions 3 



like Harudje (Mons Ater, P/z'n.) on the northern boundary of the African 

 desert (the Sahara). Hills of sandstone rising like towers, walls, and 

 fortified castles, and offering great analogy to quadersandsrein, bound 

 the American desert towards the west, on the south of Arkansas. 



