i>ai!-vlm:lts:\i of the stuata. 
375 
and 4 of tlie compass of Freiberg (direction fron soutb-west 
to north-east). This research, which 1 thouglit might lead 
to imiiortant discoveries relating to the structure of the 
globe, had then such attractions for me that it was 
one of the most powerful incentives of my voyage to the 
equator. My own observations, together with those oi many 
able geologists, conraice me that there exists in no hemisphere 
a o-eneral and absolute uniformity of direction ; but that in 
regions of very considerable extent, sometimes over seveiM 
thousand square leagues, we observe that the direction and 
(though more rarely) the inclination have been determined by 
a system of particular forces. AVe discover at great distances 
a parallelism (loxodromism) of the strata, a direction, ot 
which the type is manifest amidst partial perturbations, a.ncl 
which often remains the same in primitive and transition 
strata A fact which must have struck Pahisson and Sanssure 
is that in general the direction of the strata, even lu 
those which are far distant from the principal ridges, la 
identical with the direction of mountain chains ; that is to 
say, with their longitudinal axis. , . , , i, 
'A"enezuela is one of the countries in which the parallelism 
of the strata of gneiss-granite, mica-slate, and clay-slatc, is 
most strongly marked. The general direction of these strata 
is N. 50^ E., and the general inclination Ironi 00 to 70 
north-west. Thus I ohsemmd them on a length of more 
than a hundred leagues, in the littoral chain of A enezuela ; 
in the stratified granite of Las Triiic ieras at 1 orto Cabello; 
in the gneiss of the islands of the lake of Valencia, and m 
the vicinity of the Villa de Cura; in the transition-slate and 
greenstone on the north of Parapara ; in the road from La 
(luayra to the town of Caracas, and through all the tsiei-ra 
de Avila in Cape Codera; and in the nuea-shite and d^'-^ate 
of the peninsula of Araya. The same direction from N. E. to 
S. AV., and this inclination to N. W., are dso manifest, 
although less decidedly, in the limestones of Cumanacoa at 
Cuchivano, and between Guanaguana and Canpa. Iheexcep- 
•tions to this general law are extremely rare in the gneiss- 
granite of the littoral Cordillera; it may even he aflirmed 
that the inverse direction (from b. E. to N.AV.) often hea s 
with it the inclination towards S. A\ . 
As that part of the group of the Sierra Parime over which 
