Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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These
Geological Questions Can Be Solved Only So Far As They Are Directed
By The Actual State Of Things, That Is, Of Facts Susceptible Of
Being Verified By Observation.
Considering rocks according to the succession of eras, we find that
primitive formations exhibit very few caverns.
The great cavities
which are observed in the oldest granite, and which are called
fours (ovens) in Switzerland and in the south of France, when they
are lined with rock crystals, arise most frequently from the union
of several contemporaneous veins of quartz,* (* Gleichzeitige
Trummer. To these stone veins which appear to be of the same age as
the rock, belong the veins of talc and asbestos in serpentine, and
those of quartz traversing schist (Thonschiefer). Jameson on
Contemporaneous Veins, in the Mem. of the Wernerian Soc.) of
feldspar, or of fine-grained granite. The gneiss presents, though
more seldom, the same phenomenon; and near Wunsiedel,* (* In
Franconia, south-east of Luchsburg.) at the Fichtelgebirge, I had
an opportunity of examining crystal fours of two or three feet
diameter, in a part of the rock not traversed by veins. We are
ignorant of the extent of the cavities which subterranean fires and
volcanic agitations may have produced in the bowels of the earth in
those primitive rocks, which, containing considerable quantities of
amphibole, mica, garnet, magnetic iron-stone, and red schorl
(titanite), appear to be anterior to granite. We find some
fragments of these rocks among the matters ejected by volcanoes.
The cavities can be considered only as partial and local phenomena;
and their existence is scarcely any contradiction to the notions we
have acquired from the experiments of Maskelyne and Cavendish on
the mean density of the earth.
In the primitive mountains open to our researches, real grottoes,
those which have some extent, belong only to calcareous formations,
such as the carbonate or sulphate of lime. The solubility of these
substances appears to have favoured the action of the subterranean
waters for ages. The primitive limestone presents spacious caverns
as well as transition limestone,* and that which is exclusively
called secondary. (* In the primitive limestone are found the
Kuetzel-loch, near Kaufungen in Silesia, and probably several
caverns in the islands of the Archipelago. In the transition
limestone we remark the caverns of Elbingerode, of Rubeland, and of
Scharzfeld, in the Hartz; those of the Salzfluhe in the Grisons;
and, according to Mr. Greenough, that of Torbay in Devonshire.) If
these caverns be less frequent in the first, it is because this
stone forms in general only layers subordinate to the mica-slate,*
(* Sometimes to gneiss, as at the Simplon, between Dovredo and
Crevola.) and not a particular system of mountains, into which the
waters may filter, and circulate to great distances. The erosions
occasioned by this element depend not only on its quantity, but
also on the length of time during which it remains, the velocity it
acquires by its fall, and the degree of solubility of the rock. I
have observed in general, that the waters act more easily on the
carbonates and the sulphates of lime of secondary mountains than on
the transition limestones, which have a considerable mixture of
silex and carbon. On examining the internal structure of the
stalactites which line the walls of caverns, we find in them all
the characters of a chemical precipitate.
As we approach those periods in which organic life develops itself
in a greater number of forms, the phenomenon of grottoes becomes
more frequent. There exist several under the name of baumen,* (* In
the dialect of the German Swiss, Balmen. The Baumen of the Sentis,
of the Mole, and of the Beatenberg, on the borders of the lake of
Thun, belong to the Alpine limestone.) not in the ancient sandstone
to which the great coal formation belongs, but in the Alpine
limestone, and in the Jura limestone, which is often only the
superior part of the Alpine formation. The Jura limestone* (* I may
mention only the grottoes of Boudry, Motiers-Travers, and Valorbe,
in the Jura; the grotto of Balme near Geneva; the caverns between
Muggendorf and Gaylenreuth in Franconia; Sowia Jama, Ogrodzimiec,
and Wlodowice, in Poland.) so abounds with caverns in both
continents, that several geologists of the school of Freyberg have
given it the name of cavern-limestone (hohlenkalkstein). It is this
rock which so often interrupts the course of rivers, by engulfing
them into its bosom. In this also is formed the famous Cueva del
Guacharo, and the other grottoes of the valley of Caripe. The
muriatiferous gypsum,* (* Gypsum of Bottendorf, schlottengyps.)
whether it be found in layers in the Jura or Alpine limestone, or
whether it separate these two formations, or lie between the Alpine
limestone and argillaceous sandstone, also presents, on account of
its great solubility, enormous cavities, sometimes communicating
with each other at several leagues distance. After the limestone
and gypseous formations, there would remain to be examined, among
the secondary rocks, a third formation, that of the argillaceous
sandstone, newer than the brine-spring formations; but this rock,
composed of small grains of quartz cemented by clay, seldom
contains caverns; and when it does, they are not extensive.
Progressively narrowing towards their extremity, their walls are
covered with a brown ochre.
We have just seen, that the form of grottoes depends partly on the
nature of the rocks in which they are found; but this form,
modified by exterior agents, often varies even in the same
formation. The configuration of caverns, like the outline of
mountains, the sinuosity of valleys, and so many other phenomena,
present at first sight only irregularity and confusion. The
appearance of order is resumed, when we can extend our observations
over a vast space of ground, which has undergone violent, but
periodical and uniform revolutions. From what I have seen in the
mountains of Europe, and in the Cordilleras of America, caverns may
be divided, according to their interior structure, into three
classes. Some have the form of large clefts or crevices, like veins
not filled with ore; such as the cavern of Rosenmuller, in
Franconia, Elden-hole, in the peak of Derbyshire, and the Sumideros
of Chamacasapa in Mexico.
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