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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These Clayey Beds Are More Worthy Of Attention Since The
Interesting Observations Of Von Buch And Several Other Celebrated
Geologists
Respecting the cavernosity of gypsum, the irregularity of
the inclination of its strata and its parallel position with the two
Declivities of the Hartz and the upheaved chain of the Alps; while the
simultaneous presence of sulphur, oligist iron and the sulphurous acid
vapours which precede the formation of sulphuric acid, seem to
manifest the action of forces placed at a great depth in the interior
of the globe.
11. FORMATION OF MURIATIFEROUS CLAY (WITH BITUMEN AND LAMELLAR GYPSUM)
OF THE PENINSULA OF
ARAYA.
This soil presents a striking analogy with salzthon or leberstein
(muriatiferous clay) which I have found accompanying gem-salt in every
zone. In the salt-pits of Araya (Haraia) it attracted the attention of
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It
probably facilitated the rupture of the earth and the formation of the
gulf of Cariaco. This clay is of a smoky colour, impregnated with
petroleum, mingled with lamellar and lenticular gypsum and sometimes
traversed by small veins of fibrous gypsum. It incloses angular and
less friable masses of dark brown clay with a slaty and sometimes
conchoidal fracture. Muriate of soda is found in particles invisible
to the naked eye. The relations of position or superposition between
this soil and the tertiary rocks does not appear sufficiently clear to
enable me to pronounce with certainty on this element, the most
important of positive geology.
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