79 



slate filled with garnets, and containing subor- 

 dinate beds of serpentine. This situation has 

 some analogy with that of Zoeblitz in Saxony. 

 The serpentine, very pure and of a fine green, 

 varied with spots of a lighter tint, often appears 

 only superimposed on the mica-slate. I found 

 in it a few garnets, but no metalloid diallage. 



The valley of San Pedro, through which flows 

 the river of the same name, separates two great 

 masses of mountains, Higuerota and Las Cocuy- 

 zas. We ascended toward the West by the 

 small farms of Las Lagunetas and Garavatos. 

 These are only solitary houses, which serve as 

 inns, and where the mule-drivers find their 

 favourite beverage, the guarapo, or fermented 

 juice of the sugar-cane ; intoxication is very 

 common among the Indians who frequent this 

 road. Near Garavatos there is a mica-slate 

 rock of a singular form, that of a ridge, or steep 

 wall, crowned by a tower. We opened the 

 barometer at the highest point * of the mountain 

 Las Cocuyzas, and found ourselves almost at 

 the same elevation as on the table-land of 

 Buenavista, which is scarcely ten toises higher. 



The prospect at Las Lagunetas is extensive, 

 but rather uniform. This mountainous and un- 

 cultivated ground between the sources of the 



* Absolute height 845 toises, 



