PARALLELISM OF THE ETUATA. 375 



and 4 of the compass of Freiberg (direction fron south-west 

 to north-east). This research, which I thought might lead 

 to important discoveries relating to the structure of the 

 globe, had then such attractions for me that it waa 

 one of the most powerful incentives of my voyage to the 

 equator. My own observations, together with those of many 

 able geologists,convince me that there exists in no hemisphere 

 a general and absolute uniformity of direction ; but that in 

 regions of very considerable extent, sometimes over several 

 thousand square leagues, we observe that the direction and 

 (though more rarely) the inclination have been determined by 

 a system of particular forces. We discover at great distances, 

 a parallelism (loxodromism) of the strata, a direction, of 

 which the type is manifest amidst partial perturbations, and 

 which often remains the same in primitive and transition 

 strata, A fact which must have struck Palasson and Saussure 

 is, that in general the direction of the strata, even in 

 those which are far distant from the principal ridges, is 

 identical with the direction of mountain chains ; that is to 

 say, with their longitudinal axis. 



Venezuela is one of the countries in which the parallelism 

 of the strata of gneiss-granite, mica-slate, and clay-slate, is 

 most strongly marked. The general direction of these strata 

 is N. 50 E., and the general inclination from 60 to 70 

 north-west. Thus I observed them on a length of more 

 than a hundred leagues, in the littoral chain of Venezuela ; 

 in the stratified granite of Las Trincheras at Porto Cabello ; 

 in the gneiss of the islands of the lake of Valencia, and in 

 the vicinity of the Villa de Cura; in the transition-slate and 

 greenstone on the north of Parapara ; in the road from La 

 Guayra to the town of Caracas, and through all the Sierra 

 de AvilainCapeCodera; and in the mica-slate and clay-slate 

 of the peninsula of Araya. The same direction from tf . E. to 

 JS. AV\, and this inclination to N. W., are also manifest, 

 although less decidedly, in the limestones of Cumanacoa at 

 Cuchivano, and between Guanaguana and Caripe The excep- 

 tions to this general law are extremely rare in the gneiss- 

 granite of the littoral Cordillera ; it may even be affirmed, 

 that the inverse direction (from S. E. to N.W.) often bears 

 with it the inclination towards S. W. 



As that part of the group of the Sierra Parii -e over which 



