250 
DESCENT EEOM THE CTJCHIIXA. 
,6 we approached the convent of Caripe. Everything 
_5ere changes its aspect, even to the rock that accompa- 
nied us from Punta Delgada. The calcareous strata be- 
comes thinner, forming graduated steps, which stretch out 
like walls, cornices, and turrets, ns in the mountains of 
Jura, those of Pappenheim in Germany, and near Oizow 
in Galicia. The colour of the stone is no longer of a 
smoky or bluish grey; it becomes white; its fracture is 
smooth, and sometimes even imperfectly conchoidal. It 
is no longer the calcareous formation of the Higher Alps, 
but a formation to which this serves as a basis, and which 
is analagous to the Jura limestone. In the chain of the 
Apennines, between Home and Nocera, I observed this 
same immediate superposition.* It indicates, not the tran- 
sition from one rock to another, but the geological affinity 
existing between two formations. According to the general 
type of the secondary strata, recognised in a great part 
of Europe, the Alpine limestone is separated from the 
Jura limestone by the muriatiferous gypsum ; but often 
this latter is entirely wanting, or is contained as a subordi- 
nate layer in the Alpine limestone. In this case the two 
great calcareous formations succeed each other immediately, 
or are confounded in one mass. 
The descent from the Cuckilla is far shorter than the 
ascent. We found the level of the valley of Caripe 200 
toises higher than that of the valley of Guanaguana.f A 
group of mountains of little breadth separates two valleys, 
one of which is of delicious coolness, while the other is 
famed for the heat of its climate. These contrasts, so 
common in Mexico, New Grenada, and Peru, are very rare 
in the north-east part of South America. • Thus Caripe i3 
the only one of the high valleys of New Andalusia which 
is much inhabited. 
* In like manner, near Geneva, the rock of the Mole, belonging to the 
Alpine limestone, lies under the Jura limestone which forms Mount 
Saleve. 
+ Absolute height of the convent above the level of the sea, 412 toises. 
