38a 



Lydian stone, cemented by an olive brown 

 ferruginous clay. It is altogether the same for- 

 mation as the todteliegende of Thuringia. The 

 cement is sometimes of so vivid a red, that the 

 people of the country take it for cinnabar. We 

 found a Capuchin monk at Calabozo, who in 

 vain attempted to extract mercury from this red 

 sandstone. In the Mesa de Paja this rock con- 

 tains strata of another quartzose sandstone, 

 very fine-grained ; more to the South it contains 

 masses of brown iron, and fragments of petrified 

 wood, of the monocotyledonous family ; but we 

 did not see in it any shells. The red sandstone, 

 called by the Llaneros, piedra de arrecifes*, is 

 everywhere covered with a stratum of clay. This 

 clay, dried and hardened in the Sun, splits into 

 separate prismatic pieces with five or six sides. 

 Does it belong to the trap formation of Parapara? 

 It becomes thicker, and mixed with sand, as we 

 approach the Rio Apure ; for near Calabozo it 

 is one toise thick, near the mission of Guayaval 

 five toises; which may lead to the belief, that 

 the strata of red sandstone dip toward the South. 

 We gathered in the Mesa de Pavones little 

 nodules of azure iron ore disseminated in the 

 elay-f-. 



A dense, whitish-gray limestone, with a smooth 



* Stone of the reefs. 

 f Blaue Eisenerde, blue phosphated iron. 

 VOL. IV. 2 c 



