TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 189 



mould and iron-stone flotz are wanting, there ap- 

 pear, as of the mica-slate containing ironglance, 

 large smooth planes (^Lages), for example, above 

 the city near the palace. The strata are often 

 only one or a few lines or inches thick, and have 

 some elasticity, for which reason it has obtained 

 the name of elastic quartz. Sometimes there is a 

 transition of this form of mica-slate into that in- 

 cumbent on it, containing specular iron-ore. The 

 gold peculiar to this rock is found in veins {Jiloes) 

 or nests (pafiellas) of white quartz, and sometimes 

 in incredible quantity. Hence on the road from 

 Villa Rica to Passagem, we see many cavities 

 hewn in the rock, which show the construction of 

 these exposed veins and nests, from which thou- 

 sands of crusadoes have been extracted. This 

 very massive formation of the quartzy mica-slate, 

 is incumbent on clay-slate, which, according to its 

 appearance, where it stands out in the lowest parts 

 of the valley of Oiro Preto, seems to form the basis 

 of the Morro, and to rest on gneiss, which is found 

 basking out at Caxoeira, two leagues from Villa 

 Rica. The kind of rocks here described, are not 

 uniformly spread over the Morro de Villa Rica, but 

 have different thicknesses, their general direction is 

 in hour 3 of the miner's compass, and their 

 inclination in an angle from 50° to 70° to the east. 

 After we had examined the geognostical nature 

 of the surface of the mountain, Mr. Von Eschwege 

 led us into an adit which had been commenced 



