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nesia, that line the clefts and cavities of rocks, 

 but real masses of native alum, with a conchoid 

 or imperfectly lamellar fracture. We were led 

 to hope, that we should find the mine of alum 

 in the slaty cordillera of Maniquarez, and so 

 new a geognostic phenomenon was calculated to 

 fix all our attention. Juan Gonzalez, an eccle- 

 siastic, and the treasurer, don Manuel Nava- 

 rete, whose counsels had been useful to us from 

 our first arrival on this coast, accompanied 

 us in our little excursion. We disembarked 

 near Cape Caney, and again visited the ancient 

 saltpit, converted into a lake by the irruption of 

 the sea, the fine ruins of the castle of Araya, and 

 the calcareous mountain of Barigon, which, from 

 it's steepness on the western side, is somewhat 

 difficult of access. Muriatiferous clay mixed 

 with bitumen and lenticular gypsum, and some- 

 times passing to a darkish brown clay, destitute 

 of salt, is a formation widely spread in this penin- 

 sula, in the island of Margaretta, and on the 

 opposite continent, near the castle of St. Anto- 

 nio of Cumana. It is even very probable, that 

 the existence of this formation has contributed 

 to those ruptures and rents in the ground, which 

 strike the geologist when he is placed on one of 

 the eminences of the peninsula of Araya. The 

 cordillera of this peninsula, composed of mica- 

 ceous slate and clayslate, is separated on the 

 north from the chain of mountains of the island 



