80 



The calcareous beds of the Cuchivano and the 

 neighbouring mountains keep pretty regularly 

 the direction of N. N. E. and S. S. W. Their 

 inclination is sometimes Norths and sometimes 

 South ; most commonly they seem to precipi- 

 tate themselves toward the valley of Cumana- 

 coa ; and it cannot be doubted, that the forma- 

 tion of the valley had an influence # on the in- 

 clination of the strata. 



We had suffered great fatigue, and were 

 quite drenched by the frequently crossing the 

 torrent, when we reached the foot of the ca- 

 verns of the Cuchivano. A wall of rock there 

 rises perpendicularly to the height of eight hun- 

 dred toises. It is seldom that in a zone, where 

 the force of vegetation conceals every where the 

 soil and the rocks, we behold a great mountain 

 presenting naked strata in a perpendicular sec- 

 tion. In the midst of this, and in a position 



limestone. We find these same inflexions in the strata 

 near Bonneville, at Nant d'Arpenaz in Savoy, and in the 

 valley of Estaubee in the Pyrenees, (Sauss. Voy. vol: I, § 

 472 and 1672. Rasoumousky, Voy. miner., p. 154. Ra- 

 mond. Voy. aux Pyrenees, p. 55, 100, and 280). Another 

 transition rock, the grauwakke of the Germans, (very near 

 the English killas), offers the same phenemenon in Scotland, 

 Edin. Phil. Trans. 1814, p. 80. 



* The same observation may be made at the lake of Ge- 

 muenden in Austria, which I visited with Mr. de Buch, and 

 which is one of the most picturesque situations in Europe. 



