385 



is the phonolite (klingstein). I have already 

 observed, that, as it is very rare to find in Ame- 

 rica nephrite, jade, or compact feldspar in it's 

 native place, we may well be astonished at the 

 quantity of hatchets, which are every where dis- 

 covered in digging the earth, from the banks of 

 the Ohio as far as Chili. We saw in the moun- 

 tains of the Upper Oroonoko, or of Parime, only 

 granular granites containing a little hornblend, 

 granites passing into gneiss, and schistoid horn- 

 blends. Has nature repeated on the east of 

 Esmeralda, between the sources of the Carony, 

 the Essequebo, the Oroonoko, and the RioBran- 

 co, the transition formation of Tueutunemo* 

 reposing on mica-schist? Does the Amazon 

 stone come from the rocks of euphotide, which 

 form the last member of the series of primitive 

 rocks? 



We find among the people of both worlds 

 at the first degree of dawning civilization, a 

 peculiar predilection for certain stones ; not 

 only for those which from their hardness may 

 be useful to man as cutting instruments^, but 

 also for mineral substances, which, on account 

 of their colour and their natural form, he be- 



* See vol. iv, p. 284, and my Researches on the American 

 Monuments, vol. ii (xiv of the present work), 38. 



+ The lydian stone, the kieselschiefer, the axiniun jade^ 

 the obsidian, &c. 



VOL. v. 2 c 



