142 GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT. 
free negroes and whites ; the wealth of the monks ; 
and on the difficulty of holding slaves in obedience. 
From Guayavo the road passes over a smooth table- 
land covered with Alpine plants ; and here is seen 
for the first time the capital, standing nearly 2000 
feet lower, in a beautiful valley enclosed by lofty 
mountains. 
The ridges between La Gucies and Caraccas con- 
sist of gneiss. On the south side the eminence, which 
bears the name of Avila, is traversed by veins of 
quartz, containing rutile in prisms of two or three 
lines in diameter. The gneiss of the intervening 
valley contains red and green garnets, which disap- 
pear when the rock passes into mica-slate. Near the 
cross of La Guayra, halfa league distant from Carac- 
cas, there were vestiges of blue copper-ore disseminat- 
ed in veins of quartz, and small layers of graphite. 
Between the former point and the spring of Sanchor- 
quiz, were beds of bluish-gray primitive ‘limestone, 
containing mica, and traversed by veins of white cal- 
careous spar. In this deposite were found crystals of 
pyrites and rhomboidal fragments of sparry iron-ore. 
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