96 



wood. It is consequently the effect of very 

 complicated causes. The limestone of Barigon, 

 which makes a part of the great formation of 

 sandstone or calcareous breccia of Cumana*, 

 is filled with fossil shells in as perfect preserva- 

 tion as those of other tertiary limestones in 

 France and Italy. We detached some blocks 

 for the cabinet of the King at Madrid, contain- 

 ing oysters of eight inches in diameter, pectens, 

 venuses, and lithophyte polypi. I recommend 

 to naturalists better versed in the knowledge of 

 fossils than I was at that period, to examine with 

 care this mountainous coast, which is easy of 

 access to European vessels in their way to Cu- 

 mana, Guayra, or Curassao. It would be curious 

 to discover whether any of these shells, and 

 these species of petrified zoophytes, still inhabit 

 the sea of the West Indies, as it appeared to 

 Mr. Bonpland, and as is the case in the island 

 of Timor, and perhaps in Guadaloupe. 



We set sail the 4th of November, at one in 

 the morning, in search of the mine of native 

 alum. I took with me the timekeeper, and 

 my large Dollond telescope, to observe at the 

 Laguna chica, east of the village of Maniquarez, 

 the immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter ; 

 this design however was not accomplished, con- 

 trary winds having prevented our arrival before 



* Vol,i, p. 262; Vol. iii, p. XO. 



