CURIOUS .PHENOMENON. 
475 
from six to eight toises thick. These veins contain not 
fragments, but balls or spheres of granular diabasis,* formed 
of concentric layers. These balls are composed of lamellar 
feldspar and hornblende closely commingled. The feldspar 
approximates sometimes to vitreous feldspar when dissemi- 
nated in very thin lamina; in a mass of granular diabasis, 
decomposed, and emitting a strong argillaceous smell. The 
diameter of the spheres is very unequal, sometimes four or 
eight inches, sometimes three or four feet; their nucleus, 
which is more dense, is without concentric layers, and of a 
very dark green hue, inclining to black. I could not per- 
ceive any mica in them ; but, what is very remarkable, I 
found great quantities of disseminated garnets. These gar- 
nets are of a very fine red, and are found in the griinstein 
only. They are neither in the gneiss, which serves as a 
cement to the balls, nor in tlie mica-slate, which the veins 
traverse. The gneiss, the constituent parts of which arc in 
a state of considerable disintegration, contains large crystals 
of feldspar ; and, though it forms the body of the vein in tlie 
mica-slate, it is itself traversed by threads of quartz two 
inches thick, and of very recent formation. Tlie aspect of 
this phenomenon is very curious: it appears ns if cannon-- 
balls were embedded in 'a wall of rock. I also thought I 
recognized in these same regions, in the MontaSa de Avila, 
and at Cabo Blanco, east of La Guayra, a granular diabasis, 
mixed with a small quantity of quartz and pyrites, and des- 
titute of garnets, not in veins, but in subordinate strata in 
tlie mica-slate. This position is unquestionably to be found 
in Europe in primitive mountains ; but in general the gra- 
nular diabasis is more frequently connected with the system 
of transition rocks, especially with a schist (iibergangs-thons- 
chiefer) abounding in beds of Lydian stone strongly carbu- 
retted, of schistose jasper, f ampelites,J and black limestone. 
Near Antimano all the orchards were full of peach-trees 
loaded with blossom. This village, the Valle, and the banks 
of the Macarao, furnish great abundance of peaches, quinces, 
* Ur-grunstein. I remember having seen similar hulls filling a vein in 
transition. slate, near tlie castle of Schauenstein in the margravate of 
Bayreuth. I sent several balls from Antimano to the collection of the 
ting of Spain at Madrid. 
t Kieselschiefev. 
+ Alaunschiefer. 
