280 



to one hundred and eighty toises in height. 

 The direction of the primitive rock near Cape 

 Sotto is from north east to south west ; it's strata 

 incline fifty degrees to the north west *. The 

 mica-slate is silvery white, of lamellar and un- 

 dulated texture, and contains garnets. Strata 

 of quartz, the thickness of which varies from 

 three to four toises, traverse the mica-slate, as 

 we may observe in several ravines hollowed out 

 by the waters. We detached with difficulty a 

 fragment of cyanite-f- from a block of splintered 

 and milky quartz, which was Isolated on the 

 shore. This was the only time we found this 

 substance in South America 



The potteries of Maniquarez, celebrated from 

 time immemorial, form a branch of industry, 

 which is exclusively in the hands of the Indian 

 women. The fabrication is still carried on ac- 

 cording to the method used before the conquest. 

 It indicates both the infancy of the art, and that 

 stability of manners, which is the characteristic 

 of all the natives of America. Three centuries 

 have been insufficient, to introduce the potter's- 

 wheel on a coast, which is not above thirty or 



* Hours three and four of th& Freiberg compass. Very 

 near the village of Maniquarez, the strata vary to hours ele- 

 ven and twelve, inclining often to the south west. 



+ Disthene, Haiiy. 



X In New Spain, the cyanite has been discovered only in 

 the province of Guatimala, at Estancia Grande. Del Rio, 

 Tablas min., 1804, p. 27. 



