Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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M. Bonpland And Myself, During Our
Long Journey, Saw Nothing In The Gneiss Granite Of Spanish Guiana To
Confirm The
Old faith in the metallic wealth of that district; yet it
seems certain from several historical notices that there exist
Two
groups of auriferous alluvial land; one between the sources of the Rio
Negro, the Uaupes and the Iquiare; the other between the sources of
the Essequibo, the Caroni and the Rupunuri. Hitherto only one working
is found in Venezuela, that of Aroa: it furnished, in 1800, near 1500
quintals of copper of excellent quality. The green-stone rocks of the
transition mountains of Tucutunemo (between Villa de Cura and
Parapara) contain veins of malachite and copper pyrites. The
indications of both ochreous and magnetic iron in the coast-chain, the
native alum of Chuparipari, the salt of Araya, the kaolin of the
Silla, the jade of the Upper Orinoco, the petroleum of Buen-Pastor and
the sulphur of the eastern part of New Andalusia equally merit the
attention of the government.
It is easy to ascertain the existence of some mineral substances which
afford hopes of profitable working but it requires great
circumspection to decide whether the mineral be sufficiently abundant
and accessible to cover the expense.* (* In 1800 a day-labourer (peon)
employed in working the ground gained in the province of Caracas 15
sous, exclusive of his food. A man who hewed building timber in the
forests on the coast of Paria was paid at Cumana 45 to 50 sous a day,
without his food.
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