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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Near Maniquarez, Breccia Or Sandstone With
Calcareous Cement, Which Might Easily Be Confounded With Real
Limestone, Lies Immediately Over The Mica-Slate; While On The
Opposite Side, Near Punta Delgada, This Sandstone Covers A Compact
Bluish Grey Limestone, Almost Destitute Of Petrifactions, And
Traversed By Small Veins Of Calcareous Spar.
This last rock is
analogous to the limestone of the high Alps.* (* Alpenkalkstein.)
The very recent sandstone formation of the peninsula of Araya
contains: - first, near Punta Arenas, a stratified sandstone,
composed of very fine grains, united by a calcareous cement in
small quantity; - secondly, at the Cerro de la Vela, a schistose
sandstone,* (* Sandsteinschiefer.) without mica, and passing into
slate-clay,* (* Thonschiefer.) which accompanies coal; - thirdly, on
the western side, between Punta Gorda and the ruins of the castle
of Santiago, breccia composed of petrified sea-shells united by a
calcareous cement, in which are mingled grains of quartz;
- fourthly, near the point of Barigon, whence the stone employed
for building at Cumana is obtained, banks of yellowish white shelly
limestone, in which are found some scattered grains of quartz;
- fifthly, at Penas Negras, at the top of the Cerro de la Vela, a
bluish grey compact limestone, very tender, almost without
petrifactions, and covering the schistose sandstone. However
extraordinary this mixture of sandstone and compact limestone* (*
Dichter kalkstein.) may appear, we cannot doubt that these strata
belong to one and the same formation. The very recent secondary
rocks everywhere present analogous phenomena; the molasse of the
Pays de Vaud contains a fetid shelly limestone, and the cerite
limestone of the banks of the Seine is sometimes mixed with
sandstone.
The strata of calcareous breccia are composed of an infinite number
of sea-shells, from four to six inches in diameter, and in part
well preserved. We find they contain not ammonites, but
ampullaires, solens, and terebratulae. The greater part of these
shells are mixed: the oysters and pectinites being sometimes
arranged in families. The whole are easily detached, and their
interior is filled with fossil madrepores and cellepores. We have
now to speak of a fourth formation, which probably rests* on the
calcareous sandstone of Araya, I mean the muriatiferous clay. (* It
were to be wished that mineralogical travellers would examine more
particularly the Cerro de la Vela. The limestone of the Penas
Negras rests on a slate-clay, mixed with quartzose sand; but there
is no proof of the muriatiferous clay of the salt-works being of
more ancient formation than this slate-clay, or of its alternating
with banks of sandstone. No well having been dug in these
countries, we can have no information respecting the superposition
of the strata. The banks of calcareous sandstone, which are found
at the mouth of the salt lake, and near the fishermen's huts on the
coast opposite Cape Macano, appeared to me to lie beneath the
muriatiferous clay.) This clay, hardened, impregnated with
petroleum, and mixed with lamellar and lenticular gypsum, is
analogous to the salzthon, which in Europe accompanies the sal-gem
of Berchtesgaden, and in South America that of Zipaquira.
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