GEOLOGICAr. PHKNOMENA. 73 



the travellers over Barigon and Caney, to the villaffe oi chap. vi. 

 Maniquarez. The thermometer kept as high as 88-3°, ,, j — 7 

 and before their guide had travelled a league, he fre- 

 quently sat down to rest himself, and expressed a desire 

 to repose under the shade of a tamarind-tree until night 

 should approach. Humboldt explains the circumstance, 

 that the natives complain more of lassitude under an in- 

 tense heat than Europeans not inured to it, by a refer- 

 ence to their listless disposition, and their not being 

 excited by the same stimulus. 



In crossing the arid hills of Cape Cirial they perceived Petroleum. 

 a strong smell of petroleum, the wind blowing from the 

 side where the springs of that substance occur. Near 

 the village of Maniquarez they found the mica-slate 

 cropping out from below the secondary rocks. It was 

 of a silvery white, contained garnets, and was traversed 

 by small layers of quartz. From a detached block of 

 this last, found on the shore, they sepai-ated a fragment 

 of cyanite, the only specimen of that mineral seen by 

 them in South America. 



A rude manufacture of pottery is carried on at that jj^tive 

 hamlet by the Indian women. The clay is produced by pottery. 

 the decomposition of mica-slate, and is of a reddish 

 colour. The natives being unacquainted with the use 

 of ovens, place twigs around the vessels, and bake them 

 in the open air. 



At the same place they met with some Creoles who cenms 

 had been hunting small deer in the uninhabited islet of Mesicanna 

 Cubagua, where they are very abundant. These crea- 

 tures are of a brownish-red hue, spotted with white, and 

 of the latter colour beneath. They belong to the species 

 named by naturalists Cervus Mexicanus. 



In the estimation of the natives the most curious pro- 

 duction of the coast of Araya is what they call the eye- Eyo-stoDc. 

 stone. They consider it as both a stone and an animal, 

 and assert, that when it is found in the sand it is 

 motionless ; whereas on a polished surface, as an earthen 

 plate, it moves when stimulated by lemon-juice. When 

 introduced into the eye, it expels every other substance 



