392 



making us distinguish more easily what is the 

 result of a direct observation, or that of a com- 

 bination founded on analogy ; but in order to 

 comprehend in one point the geognostic view 

 of a vast part of the globe, and contribute to 

 the progress of geognosy, which is a science of 

 connexion, we must relinquish the sterile accu- 

 mulation of insulated facts, and study the rela- 

 tions that exist between the inequalities of soil, 

 the direction of the Cordilleras, and the mine-, 

 ralogical nature of the territory. 



I passed through an extent of country in dif- 

 ferent directions, of more than 15,400 square 

 leagues. It has already been the object of a 

 geognostic sketch, traced hastily on the spot, 

 after my return from the Oroonoko, and pub- 

 lished in 1801, by M. de Lametherie in the 

 Journal de Physique (Vol. xlv, p. 46). At that 

 period, the direction of the Cordillera on the 

 coast of Venezuela, and the existence of the 

 Cordillera of Parime, were not known in Europe. 

 No measure of height had been attempted be- 

 yond the province of Quito ; no rock of South 

 America had been named ; no description ex- 

 isted of the superposition of rocks, in any region 

 of the tropics. In such circumstances, an essay 

 tending to prove the identity of the formations 

 of the two hemispheres, could not fail to excite 

 the interest of geognosts. The study of the 

 collections that I brought back, and four years 



