374 
maxima of the strata. 
wMch bounds the steppes of Calabozo towards the north ? 
the basm of the steppes is itself the bottom of a sea desti- 
tute of islands ; it is only on the south of the A pure, between 
that nver and the Meta, near the western bank of the Sierra, 
that a tew hills appear, as Monte Parure,]a Galera de Sina- 
ruco, and the Cerritos de San Vicente. With the exception 
ot the tragments of tertiary strata above mentioned, there is 
trom the equator to the parallel of 10° north (between the 
meridian of Sierra jSlevada de Merida and the coast of 
Guiana), it not an absence, at least a scarcity of those petri- 
Eu 0 strikes an observer recently arrived from 
maxima of the height of the different formations 
dimmish regularly, in the country w'e are describing, with 
toeir relative ages. These maxima, for gneiss-granite (Peak of 
Jluida in the group of Parime, SiUa de Caracas in the coast 
Cham) are from 1300 to 1350 toises; for the limestone of 
Oumanacoa (summit or Cucurucho of Turimiqiiiri) 1050 
toises ; for the limestone of Caripe (mountains surrounding 
the table-land of the Guarda de San Augustin), 750 toises^ 
for the sandstone alteniatmg with the limestone of Cuma- 
nacoa (Cuchilla de Guanaguana), 550 toises; for the tertiary 
strata ( I unta Araya) 200 toises 
The tract of country, of which I am here describing the 
geological constitution, is distinguished by the astonishing 
regularity observed m the direction of the strata of which 
the rocks of different eras are composed. I have already 
often pointed the attention of my readers to a geognostic 
law, one ^ the few' that can be verified by precise measure- 
ments. Occupied since the year 1792, by the parallelism, 
r rather the loxodroiiiism of the strata, examining the direc- 
tion and inclination of the primitive and transition beds, 
from the coast ot Genoa across the chain of the Bochetta, 
the p ains of Lombardy, the Alps of Saint Gothard, the 
table-land of Swabia, the mountains of Eareuth, and the 
plains of Northern Germany, I was struck with the extreme 
frequency, il not the uniformity, of the horary directions 3 
hke Harudje (Mens Ater, P««.) on the northern boundary of the African 
wifi sandstone rising like towers, walls, and 
fortified castles, and oftenng great analogy to quadersandstein, bound 
the American derert towards the west, on the south of Arkansas. 
