STRATA OF THE SIERRA PARIIIB. 
369 
of the shore of Venezuela, and belongs exclusively to that Cor- 
dillera and the group of the Parime mountains ; since it no- 
where pierces the secondary and tertiary strata in the Llanos 
or basin of the Lower Orinoco. Thence it results, that the 
same formations do not constitute the region ot plains and 
that of mountains. 
If we mav be allowed to judge of the structm-e of the whole 
Sierra Parime, from the part which I examined in 6° of lon- 
gitude, and 4“ of latitude, we may believe it to be entirely 
composed of gneiss-granite ; I saw some beds ot greenstone 
andi amphibolic slate, but neither mica-slate, clay-slate, nor 
banks of green limestone, although many phenomena render 
the presence of mica-slate probable on the east ot the May- 
pures and in the chain of Pacaraina. The geological forma- 
tion of the Parime group is consequently still more simple 
than that of the Brazilian group, in which granites, gneiss, 
and mica-slate, are covered with thonschiefer, chloritic quartz 
(Itacolumite), grauwacke, and transition-limestone; but 
those two groups exhibit in common the absence of a real 
system of secondary rocks ; we find in both only some frag- 
ments of sandsto ne or sll icious conglomerate. In the littoral 
Cordillera of Venezuela the granitic formations predomniate ; 
but they are wanting towards the cast, and especially in the 
southern chain, where we observe (in the missions ot Caripe 
and around the gulf of Cariaco) a great accumulation of 
secondan' and tertiary calcareous rocks. Prom the point 
where the littoral Cordillera is linked with the Andes ot New 
Grenada (long. 71 ^°), we observe first the granitic moun- 
tains of Aroa and Sail Felipe, between the nveraTaracui and 
Tocuyo ; these granitic formations extend on the east ot the 
two coasts of the basin of the Valleys of Aragua, in 
northern chain, as far as Cape Codera ; nnd iii the southern 
as far as the mountains (altas savanas) of Oeumare. 
the remarkable interruption of the littoral Cordillera in the 
province of Barcelona, granitic rocks begin to appear in 
the island of Marguerita and in the isthmus of Araya, and 
continue, perhaps, towards the Boca del Drago ; but on t le 
east of the meridian of Cape Codera, the northern chain only 
is granitic (of micaceous slate) ; the southern chain is 
entirely composed of secondary limestone and sandstone. 
If, m the granitic series, here a very complex forma- 
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