Geological Prodromus. 63 



found near, to fortify the spaces which need it ; when there is a pro- 

 portion of enraaderar, they do this, and then the pieces cut off are 

 called tineas, which last in proportion to the quality of the wood, and 

 to the weight they have, to sustain. The excavations of St. Judas 

 and Yanacantha, are lined with tineas. The tree of queriua, which 

 grows in the Cordilleras, lasts longest, and I have seen pieces pulled 

 out of old mines perfectly entire.* The mines of St. Cataline, Great 

 Mine, Trinidad, St. Augustin and St. Rite, which are below the line^ 

 have pumps, worked by the Indians, twelve inches in diameter, set- 

 tled in square calderas, well lined, from eight to ten yards deep ; in 

 each one of them are two pumps, but in the first three mines are 

 three stocks which throw from the first caldera, to the second, and 

 this to the line ; from the bottom of this caldera to the second, and 

 this to the line ; from the bottom of these calderas, they construct 

 pipes, to the north and south, with a certain inclination, to extract the 

 metals ; and the space they leave is filled with stones and rubbish. 

 The workmen enter the mines by jpuiitas, and are ten or twelve 

 hours, some pumping and others extracting the metal and sending it 

 to the place of deposit, which is nearer the entrance ; those in the 

 interior, rest three times in the space of half an hour, and this they 

 call acullio. 



The sequel of the memoir, may be given in the next number. 



Art. VI. — Geological Prodromus ; by Prof. A. Eaton. 



It having been announced in public journals, that Mr. Van Rens- 

 selaer had ordered an extension of his geological surveys, and Mr. 

 Cortlandt Van Rensselaer and myself having already travelled be- 

 tween two and three thousand miles, the present summer, in pursuit 

 of geological facts to fill up the chasms of former surveys, pubhc cu- 

 riosity may be in some measure gratified with the following : — 



* There is in the cabinet of Yale Cojlege, a piece of perfectly sound wood taken 

 flora an old Roman work in a mine which was wrought more than fourteen hundred 

 years ago, and the wood is supposed to be of that age. 



