11 



cumstance assimilates the breccia to that recent 

 sandstone designated by the German mineralo- 

 gists by the name of nagelfluhe, and which co- 

 vers so great a part of Switzerland to the height 

 of a thousand toises*, without presenting any 

 trace of marine productions. Near Cumana 

 the formation of the calcareous breccia eon- 

 tains, first a compact whitish gray limestone, 

 the strata of which, sometimes horizontal, some- 

 times irregularly inclined, are from five to six 

 inches thick. Some beds are almost unmixed 

 with petrifactions, but in the greatest part the 

 cardites, the turbinites, the ostracites, and shells 

 of small dimensions, are found so closely con- 

 nected, that the calcareous matter forms only 

 a cement, by which the grains of quartz and 

 the organized bodies are united : 2dly, a calca- 

 reous sandstone, in which the grains of sand 

 are much more frequent than the petrified 

 shells ; other strata form a sandstone entirely 

 free from organic fragments, yielding but a small 

 effervescence with acids, and enclosing not la- 

 mellae of mica, but nodules of compact brown 

 iron ore: 3d, beds of indurated clay, which con- 

 tain selenite and lamellar gypsum -f-. These 

 last beds present a great analogy with the mu- 

 riatiferous clay of Punta Araya, and appear con- 

 stantly inferior to the last strata. 



* At the Hohgaut, that towers over the Emmethal. 



t At the north of St. Anthony's castle, very near Cuinana. 



