THE GBAUITES OE GUIANA. 
()5 
that tE * Wore soutliem nations; but nothing indicates 
vestis'p % constructed an edifice of stone. We saw no 
Thn 1 during the course of our journey, 
chieflv^^^-™® celebrity of the riches of Spanish Guiana is 
try geographical situation of the coun- 
denVin +e ®ld maps, we are not justified in 
of counts ^ existence of any auriferous land in the tract 
etreteliA K eighty-two thousand square leagues, which 
of tho / between the Orinoco and the Amazon, on the east 
this on Quito and New Granada. Wliat I saw of 
tude between the second and eighth degrees of lati- 
tude” t • ®^^ty-sixtli and seventy-first degrees of longi- 
iuto mi composed of granite, and ot a gneiss passing 
W the und talcous slate. These rocks appear naked 
ut'the At E ™°'™tains of Parima, as well as in the plains 
there ^ud the Cassiquiare. Granite predominates 
the other rocks ; and though, in both continents, 
of ancient formation is pretty generally destitute 
^urima'°^^’ uwmot thence conclude that the granite of 
the uo vein, no stratum of auriferous quartz. 
Orinop,^ Cassiquiare, towards the sources of the 
theso utiserved that the numbe 
number of these strata and 
granite of these countries, by its 
features Vt .™'^fure of hornblende, and other geological 
'■eceut f appears to me to belong to a more 
Sous to perhaps posterior to the gneiss, and analo- 
Pegtoatite^^ stenuiferous granites, the hyalomictes, and the 
least desft f ancient granites are also the 
torrents ■ °f wetals ; and several auriferous rivers and 
the tabl in the Salzburg, Fichtelgebirge, and 
these era" > " Castiles, lead us to believe that 
uuriferou ^*®®.®°®®times contain native gold, and portions of 
whole gsdena disseminated throughout the 
oeous iron ’ magnetic and mica- 
summits of fr® S'^oup of the mountains of Parima, several 
hundred to’^"^^" attain the height of one thousand three 
to the Orin*^^’ almost entirely unknown before our visit 
loim anH ,^his group, however, is a hundred leagues 
anf ’i .(jj, ^Shty broad ; and though wherever M. Bonpland 
seemed . this vast gi-oup of mountains, its structure 
’^on. iTj"* ®^tremely uniform, it would be wrong to aflfirm 
