640 



gneiss ; and in the peninsula of Araya, on sali- 

 ferous clay. This latter mode of position is 

 perhaps but a simple opposition*. If we 

 would range the different members of the ter- 

 tiary series according to the age of their for- 

 mation, we ought I believe to regard the bre* 

 chia of Cabo Blanco, with fragments of primi- 

 tive rocks, as the most ancient, and make it be 

 succeeded by the arenacious limestone of the 

 castle of Cumana, destitute of horned silex, yet 

 somewhat analogous to the (coarse) limestone 

 of Paris, and the fresh water soil of Victoria. 

 The clayey gypsum, mixed with calcareous 

 brechia with madrepores, cardites, and oysters, 

 which I found between Carthagena and the 

 Cerro de la Popa, and the equally recent 

 limestones of Guadaloupe, and Barbadoes 

 (limestones filled with pelagic shells resem- 

 bling those that now exist in the Caribbean 

 sea) prove that the tertiary soil (soil of upper 

 sediment), extends far towards the west and 

 north. 



These recent formations, so rich in vestiges 

 of organized bodies, furnish travellers who are 



* An-nicht Auflogerung, according to the precise lan* 

 guage of the geognosts of my country. 



+ Moreau de Jonnes, Hist. phys. des Antilles franc, Vol. 

 i, p. 564. Brongniartf Descript. geol. des environs de Paris ? 

 1822, p. 201, 



