612 



soil, unmixed with gneiss and micaslate, occu- 

 pies but a very small extent of country ; and 

 that in the chain of the shore, the formations 

 of clayey slate (thons chief er), micaslate, gneiss, 

 and granite, succeed each other in such a 

 manner on the same band from east to west 

 (presenting a very uniform and regular incli- 

 nation of their strata towards the north-west), 

 that according to the hypothesis of a subterra- 

 neous prolongation of the strata, the granite of 

 las Trincheras and the Rincon del Diablo, may 

 be superposed on the gneiss of the Villa de 

 Cura, of Buenavista, and Caraccas ; and the 

 gneiss superposed in its turn, on the micaslate 

 and clayslate of Maniquarez and Chuparuparu 

 in the peninsula of Araya. I have already ob- 

 served in another place, that this hypothesis of 

 a prolongation of every rock, in some sort in- 

 definite, founded on the angle of inclination 

 which the strata present on the surface of the 

 soil, is not admissible, and that according to 

 similar and equally vague reasoning, we should 

 be forced to consider the primitive rocks of 

 the Alps of Switzerland as superposed on the 

 formation of the compact limestone of Achsen- 

 berg, and that limestone (of transition, or iden- 

 tic with zechstein?) as being superposed on 

 the mollassus of tertiary soil. 



