255 



nal valley of the Rhone also sometimes cuts * at 

 an oblique angle the calcareous banks in which 

 it has been excavated. 



The two parallel links of Araya and Cocollar 

 were connected, to the east of the town of Cari- 

 aco, between the lakes of Campoma, and Puta- 

 quao, by a kind of transverse dyke, which bears 

 the name of Cerro de Meapire ; and which in 

 distant times, by resisting the impulse of the 

 waves, has hindered the waters of the gulf of 

 Cariaco from uniting with those of the gulf of 

 Paria. Thus, in Switzerland the central chain, 

 that which passes by the Col de Ferrex, Simplon, 

 St. Gothard, and Spluegen, is connected on the 

 north and the south to two lateral chains, by the 

 mountains of Furca and Maloya. It is pleasing 

 to recall to mind those striking analogies, which 

 are exhibited in both continents by the external 

 structure of the Globe. 



The primitive chain of Araya ends abruptly in 

 the meridian of the village of Maniquarez. We 

 shall presently show, that thirty-four leagues to 

 the west it's continuation is found in the gneiss of 

 the Silla of Caraccas, and in the granite of Las 

 Trincheras : we here confine ourselves to what 

 immediately relates to the environs of Cumana. 

 The western slope of the peninsula of Araya, as 

 well as the plains in the midst of which the cas- 



* Near Sitten (Alpina, t. iv, p. 295. Bernoulli, Geogu. 

 Uebersicht der Schweiz, p. 35—41). 



