87G 
I^'CLINATIOS or THE E0CK3. 
I passed, contains much more granite* than gneiss, ami 
other rocks distinctly stratified, the direction of the laj^ers 
coidd be observed in this group only on a small number of 
points ; but I was often struck in this region with the con- 
tinuity of the phenomenon of loxodromism. The amphibolic 
slates of Angostura run N. 45° E., like the gneiss of Gua- 
pasoso which forms the bed of the Atabapo, and like the 
imca-slate of the peninsula of Araya, though there is a 
distance of ICO leagues between the limits of those rocks. 
ihe direction of the strata, which we have just noticed 
the wonderful uniformity, is not entirely parallel with the 
longitudinal axes of the two coast chains, and the chain of 
1 a rime. 1 he strata generally cut the former of those 
chains at an angle ot 35°, and their inclination towards the 
north-west becomes one of the most powerful causes of the 
aridity which prevails on the southern declivityt of the 
mountains ot the coast. May we conclude that the direc- 
tion of the eastern Cordillera of JTew Grenada, which is 
nearly N. 45° E. from Santa Ee de Bogota, to bevond the 
8ierra Nevada de Merida, and of which the littoral chain is 
but a continuation, has had an intiuence on the direction 
(hor. 3—4) ot the strata in Venezuela ? That region pre- 
sents a very remarkable lo.Todromism with the strata of 
mica-slate, grauwacke, and the orthoceratite limestone of 
the Alleghanies, and that vast extent of country (lat. 5G° 
68°) lately visited b^- Captain Franklin. The direction N. E. 
--S. W. prevails in every part of North America, as in 
Europe in the Fitchtelgebirge of Franconia, in Taunus 
\y esterwald, and Eifel ; in the Ardennes, the Vosges, in’ 
( oteiitm, in Scotland, and in the Tarentaise, at the south- 
wes^t extremity of the Alps. If the strata of rocks in Vene- 
zuela do not exactly follow the direction of the nearest 
Cordillera, that of the shore, the parallelism between the 
axis of one chain, and the strata of the formations that 
compose it, are manifest in the Brazil group. J 
* Only the granite of the Baragon is stratified, as well as crossed by 
veins of granite : the direction of the beds is N. 20° W. 
t This southern declivity is however less rapid than the northern. 
t The strata of the primitive and intermediary rocks of Brazil run very 
regularly, like the Cordillera of Villarica (Seira do Espinharo) hor 1'4 
or lior. 2 of the compass of Freiberg (N. 28° E.) ' 
