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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I Saw In The Plains Of Jaen
De Bracamoros A Sandstone Which Alternates With Ledges Of Sand And
Conglomerate Nodules Of Porphyry And Lydian Stone.
MM.
Spix and
Martius affirm that the banks of the Rio Negro on the south of the
equator are composed of variegated sandstone; those of the Rio Branco,
Jupura and Apoporis of quadersandstein; and those of the Amazon, on
several points, of ferruginous sandstone.* (* Braunes eisenschussiges
Sandstein-Conglomerat (Iron-sand of the English geologists, between
the Jura limestone and green sandstone.) MM. Spix and Martius found on
rocks of quadersandstein, between the Apoporis and the Japura, the
same sculptures which we have pointed out from the Essequibo to the
plains of Cassiquiare, and which seem to prove the migrations of a
people more advanced in civilization than the Indians who now inhabit
those countries.) It remains to examine if (as I am inclined to
suppose) the limestone and gypsum formations of the eastern part of
the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela differ entirely from those of the
Llanos, and to what series belongs that rocky wall* named the Galera,
which bounds the steppes of Calabozo towards the north? (* Is this
wall a succession of rocks of dolomite or a dyke of quadersandstein,
like the Devil's Wall (Teufelsmauer), at the foot of the Hartz?
Calcareous shelves (coral banks), either ledges of sandstone (effects
of the revulsion of the waves) or volcanic eruptions, are commonly
found on the borders of great plains, that is, on the shores of
ancient inland seas.
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