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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In The High Alps Of Europe, The Great
Longitudinal Valley Of The Rhone Also Sometimes Cuts At An Oblique
Angle The Calcareous Banks In Which It Has Been Excavated.
The two parallel chains of Araya and the Cocollar were connected,
to the east of the town of Cariaco,
Between the lakes of Campoma
and Putaquao, by a kind of transverse dyke, which bears the name of
Cerro de Meapire, and which in distant times, by resisting the
impulse of the waves, has hindered the waters of the gulf of
Cariaco from uniting with those of the gulf of Paria. Thus, in
Switzerland, the central chain, that which passes by the Col de
Ferrex, the Simplon, St. Gothard, and the Splugen, is connected on
the north and the south with two lateral chains, by the mountains
of Furca and Maloya. It is interesting to recall to mind those
striking analogies exhibited in both continents by the external
structure of the globe.
The primitive chain of Araya ends abruptly in the meridian of the
village of Maniquarez; and the western slope of the peninsula, as
well as the plains in the midst of which stands the castle of San
Antonio, is covered with very recent formations of sandstone and
clay mixed with gypsum. 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.
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