589 



bounds the steppes of Calabozo, towards the 

 north ? The basin of the steppes is the bottom 

 of a sea destitute of islands ; it is only on the 

 south of the Apure, between that river and the 

 Meta, near the western bank of the Sierra, that 

 some hills appear, Monte Parure *, la Galera 

 de Sinaruco, and the Cerritos of San Vicente. 

 With the exception of the fragments of tertiary 

 soil which we have indicated above, we remark, 

 from the equator to the parallel of 10° north 

 between the meridian of Sierra Nevada de Me- 

 rida and the coast of Guyana), if not an absence, 

 at least a scarcity of the petrifications which 

 strikes the geognosts recently arrived from Eu- 

 rope. 



The maxima of the height of the different 

 formations diminish regularly in the country 

 we describe, with their relative age. These 

 maxima for gneiss-granite (Peak of Duidain the 

 groupe of Parime, Silla de Caraccas, in the chain 

 of the shore) are from 1300 to 1350 toises; for the 

 limestone of Cumanacoa (summit or Cucurucho 



those eruptions near Parapara, like the Harudje {Mons ater 

 Plin.) in the northern boundary of the African desart (the 

 Sahara). Hills of sandstone rising like towers, walls, and 

 strong castles, and offering a great analogy with the qua- 

 dersandstone, bound the American desart towards the west, 

 on the south of Arkensas. (Long. Vol. ii, p. 293, 389.) 



* Near the Alto de Macachaba (manuscript of the Ca- 

 non Madariaga). 



