102 
AUUIVAL AT AUEVA BAHCELONA. 
the desert, and of which travellers often make mention, with 
mere scattered fragments. These facts seem to prove that 
the blocks of Scandinavian granite, which cover the sandy 
countries on the south of the Baltic, and those of Westphalia 
and Holland, must be traced to some local revolution. The 
ancient conglomerate (red sandstone) which covers a great 
part of the Llanos of Venezuela and of the basin of the 
Amazon, contains no doubt fragments of the same primitive 
rocks which constitute the neighbouringmouutaius ; but th(' 
convulsions, of which these mountains exhibit evident marks, 
do not appear to have been attended with eircumstauccs 
favourable to the removal of great blocks. This geognostic 
phenomenon was to me the more unexpected, since there 
exists, nowhere in the world, so smootli a ])lain entirely 
granitic. Before my departure from Europe, 1 had observed 
with surprise that there were no primitive blocks in Lom- 
bardy, and in the great plain of Bavaria, which appears to be 
the bottom of an ancient lake, and which is situated two 
hundred and fifty (oiscs above the hwel of the ocean. It is 
hounded on the north hy tiu; granites oJ’ the Ujtpcr ral.i- 
tinate ; and ou the south by Alpine limestone, transition, 
thonschiefer, and tlie niica-slatos ol’tho Tyrol. 
dVc arrived, on tlio 2drdof .Tuly, at tlie town of A'lmva 
Bareeloua, less fatigued by the heat of tlie Llanos, to w liich 
w c had been long ncoustomed, than annoyed by the tviiids ci/' 
Hand, which occasion painful chaps in the skin. Seven mouths 
previously, in going from Cumana to Caracas, wc had re.stcd 
a few hours at the Morro de Barcelona, a fortified rock, which, 
near the village of Pozuelos, is joined to the continent oulv 
by a neck of land. We were received with the kindest hos- 
[)itality in the house of Don Pedro Lavie, a wealthy merchant 
of Preucli extraction. This gentleman, who was accused of 
liaying given refuge to the unfortunate Espafia, when a 
fugitive on til ese coasts in 1796, was arrested by order of 
the Audieiicia, and conveyed as a prisoner to Caracas. The 
friendship of the governor of Cumana, and the reinein- 
hrance of the services he had rendered to the rising com- 
merce of those countries, contributed to procure his liberty. 
We had endeavoured to alleviate his captivity by visiting 
him in prison; and we had now the satisfaction of finding 
him in the midst of his family. Illness under w'bich he was 
