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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Probably The Existence Of This Formation Has
Contributed To Produce Those Ruptures And Rents In The Ground Which
Strike The Eye Of The Geologist When He Stands On One Of The Eminences
Of The Peninsula Of Araya.
The cordillera of this peninsula, composed
of mica-slate and clay-slate, is separated on the north from the
Chain
of mountains of the island of Margareta (which are of a similar
composition) by the channel of Cubagua; and on the south it is
separated from the lofty calcareous chain of the continent, by the
gulf of Cariaco. The whole intermediate space appears to have been
heretofore filled with muriatiferous clay; and no doubt the continual
erosions of the ocean have removed this formation and converted the
plain, first into lakes, then into gulfs, and finally into navigable
channels. The account of what has passed in the most modern times at
the foot of the castle of Araya, the irruption of the sea into the
ancient salt-pit, the formation of the laguna de Chacopata and a lake,
four leagues in length, which cuts the island of Margareta nearly into
two parts, afford evident proofs of these successive erosions. In the
singular configuration of the coasts in the Morro of Chacopata; in the
little islands of the Caribbees, the Lobos and Tunal; in the great
island of Coche, and the capes of Carnero and Mangliers there still
seem to be apparent the remains of an isthmus which, stretching from
north to south, formerly joined the peninsula of Araya to the island
of Margareta. In that island a neck of very low land, three thousand
toises long, and less than two hundred toises broad, conceals on the
northern sides the two hilly groups, known by the names of La Vega de
San Juan and the Macanao. The Laguna Grande of Margareta has a very
narrow opening to the south and small boats pass by portage over the
neck of land or northern dyke. Though the waters on these shores seem
at present to recede from the continent it is nevertheless very
probable that in the lapse of ages, either by an earthquake or by a
sudden rising of the ocean, the long island of Margareta will be
divided into two rocky islands of a trapezoidal form.
The limestone of the Barigon, which is a part of the great formation
of sandstone or calcareous breccia of Cumana, is filled with fossil
shells in as perfect preservation as those of other tertiary
limestones in France and Italy. We detached some blocks containing
oysters eight inches in diameter, pectens, venuses, and lithophyte
polypi. I recommend to naturalists better versed in the knowledge of
fossils than I then was, to examine with care this mountainous coast
(which is easy of access to European vessels) in their way to Cumana,
Guayra or Curacao. It would be curious to discover whether any of
these shells and these species of petrified zoophytes still inhabit
the seas of the West Indies, as M. Bonpland conjectured, and as is the
case in the island of Timor and perhaps in Guadaloupe.
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