There Is In Venezuela A Suppression Of The Different Strata Which, In The Old Continent, Separate Zechstein From Jura Limestone.

The sandstone of Cocollar, which sometimes covers the limestone of Cumanacoa, may be considered as variegated sandstone; but it is more probable that in alternating by layers with the limestone of Cumanacoa, it is sometimes thrown to the upper limit of the formation to which it belongs.

The zechstein of Europe also contains a very quartzose sandstone. The two limestone strata of Cumanacoa and Caripe succeed immediately each other, like Alpine and Jura limestone, on the western declivity of the Mexican table-land, between Sopilote, Mescala and Tehuilotepec. These formations, perhaps, pass from one to the other, so that the latter may be only an upper shelf of zechstein. This immediate covering, this suppression of interposed soils, this simplicity of structure and absence of oolitic strata, have been equally observed in Upper Silesia and in the Pyrenees. On the other hand the immediate superposition of the limestone of Cumanacoa on mica-slate and transition clay-slate - the rarity of the petrifactions which have not yet been sufficiently examined - the strata of silex passing to Lydian stone, may lead to the belief that the soils of Cumanacoa and Caripe are of much more ancient formation than the secondary rocks. We must not be surprised that the doubts which arise in the mind of the geologist when endeavouring to decide on the relative age of the limestone of the high mountains in the Pyrenees, the Apennines (south of the lake of Perugia) and in the Swiss Alps, should extend to the limestone strata of the high mountains of New Andalusia, and everywhere in America where the presence of red sandstone is not distinctly recognized.

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