385 



is the phonolite (Mingstein). I have already 

 observed, that, as it is very rare to find in Ame- 

 rica nephrite, jade, or compact feldspar in it's 

 native place, we may well be astonished at the 

 quantity of hatchets, which are every where dis- 

 covered in digging the earth, from the banks 

 the Ohio as far as Chili. We saw in the moun- 

 tains of the Upper Oroonoko, or of Parime, only 

 granular granites containing a little hornblend, 

 granites passing into gneiss, and schistoid horn- 

 blends. Has nature repeated on the east of 

 Esmeralda, between the sources of the Carony, 

 the Essequebo, the Oroonoko, and the Rio Bran- 

 co, the transition formation of Tucutunemo* 

 reposing on mica-schist ? Does the Amazon 

 stone come from the rocks of euphotide, which 

 form the last member of the series of primitive 

 rocks ? 



We find among the people of both worlds 

 at the first degree of dawning civilization, a 

 peculiar predilection for certain stones ; not 

 only for those which from their hardness may 

 be useful to man as cutting instruments^, but 

 also for mineral substances, which, on account 

 of their colour and their natural form, he be- 



* See vol. iv, p. 284, and my Researches on the American 

 Monuments, vol. ii (xivof the present work), 38. 



+ The 1yd ian stone, the kieselschiefer, the axinian jade, 

 the obsidian, &c. 



VOL. V. 2 c 



