we here repeat, not the transition from one rock to another, but the geological affinity existing between two formations. According to the general type* of the secondary strata, recognised longing to the Alpine limestone, lies under the Jura limestone, which forms Mount Saleve. * The succession of secondary formations seems to be on the continent as follows, when they are all equally developed; that is to say, when none of them are either wanting, or involved in the neighbouring formations. 1°. Ancient sandstone, lying on transition slate (alter sandstein, todes liegende). 2°. Alpine limestone (alpenkalkstein, zechstein). 3. Ancient gypsum (salzgyps). 4°. Jura limestone (jurakalkstein). 5°. Sandstone of the second formation, Molasse (bunter sandstein). 6°. Fibrous gypsum (neuer gyps). 7. Limestone of the third formation (muschelkalkstein of Werner). 8°. Chalk. 9°. Limestone with cerites. 10°. Gypsum with bones. 11°. Sandstone. 12°. Fresh water formation. We shall often have occasion to recur to this type, the complete knowledge of which seems to be the principal object of geognosy, and upon which accurate ideas have been begun to be formed only within these twenty years. We shall merely observe here, that the last formations, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, examined with so much care by Brogniart and Cuvier, are wanting in a great part of Europe; that the limestones 2 and 4 often form only one mass; and that in every place, where the two formations of gypsum (3 and 6) are missing, the order of secondary rocks is reduced to the very simple type of two sandstone formations alternating with two calcareous formations. To account for a great number of phenomena of superposition, which appear very singular at first sight, we must recollect the two following laws, founded upon the analogy of well observed facts; 1o. When two in a great part of Europe, the Alpine limestone is separated from the Jura limestone by the muriatiferous gypsum; but often this last is entirely wanting, or is contained as a subordinate layer in the Alpine limestone. In this case the two great calcareous formations succeed each other immediately, or are confounded in one mass. The descent from the Cuchilla is far shorter than the ascent. We found the level of the valley of Caripe 200 toises higher than that of the valley of Guanaguana. A group of mountains of little breadth separates two valleys, one of which is of delicious coolness, while the other is famed for the heat of it's climate. These contrasts, so common in Mexico, New Grenada, and Peru, are very rare in the North east part of South America. Thus Caripe is the only one of the high valleys of New Andalusia, which is well inhabited. In a province, the population formations succeed one another immediately, it often happens, that the strata of one begin to alternate with the strata of the other, till the newest formation appears without being mingled with subordinate strata (Buch, Geogn. Beob., Vol. i, p. 194 and 156): 2o. When a formation of little thickness is placed, from its relative antiquity, between two great formations, we sometimes observe that it disappears entirely, or that it is involved as a subordinate stratum in one or other of the neighbouring formations. * Absolute height of the convent, above the level of the sea, 412 toises. of which is inconsiderable, and where the mountains offer neither a great mass, nor very extensive flats, men have few motives to forsake the plains, and settle themselves in temperate or elevated regions. CHAPTER VII. Convent of Caripe.-Cavern of the Guacharo.Nocturnal Birds. AN alley of perseas led us to the Hospital of the Arragonese Capuchins. We stopped near a cross of Brazil wood, erected in the midst of a square, and surrounded with benches, on which infirm monks seat themselves to say their rosaries. The convent is backed by an enormous wall of perpendicular rocks, covered with thick vegetation. The stone, of resplendent whiteness, appears only here and there between the foliage. It is difficult to imagine a more picturesque spot. It recalled forcibly to my remembrance the valleys of Derbyshire, and the cavernous mountains of Muggendorf in Franconia. The places of the beaches and mapletrees of Europe are here occupied by the prouder forms of the ceiba, and the palm-trees, praga and irasse. Numberless springs gush out from the sides of the rocks, which encircle the basin of Caripe, and of which the abrupt slopes pre sent toward the South profiles of a thousand feet in height. These springs arise for the most part from a few narrow crevices. The humidity, which they spread around, favors the growth of the great trees; and the natives, who love solitary places, form their conucos along the sides of these crevices. Plantains and papaw trees surround tufts of arborescent fern. The mixture of wild and cultivated plants gives the place a peculiar charm. Springs are distinguished from afar, on the naked flanks of the mountains, by the tufted masses of vegetation*, Among the interesting plants of the valley of Caripe, we found for the first time a calidium, the trunk of which is twenty feet high (c. arboreum); the mikania mierantha, which may probably possess some of the alexipharmic properties of the famous guaco of the Choco; the bauhinia obtusifolia, a very large tree, called guarapa by the Indians; the weinmaunia glabra; a psychotria-trec, the capsules of which, when rubbed between the fingers, give a very agreeable orange smell; the dorstenia houstoni (raiz de resfriado); the martinia craniolaria, the white flowers of which are six or seven inches long: a scrofularia, that has the aspect of the verbaseum miconi, and the leaves of which, all radical and hairy, are marked with silvery glands. The nacibæa or manettia of Caripe (manettia cuspidata), of which I made a drawing on the spot, is very different from the m. reclinata of Mutis. This last, which serves as a type to the genus, Linnæus places in Mexico, though it belongs to New Grenada. Mr. Mutis has never been in Mexico; and he requested us, to acquaint those who pursue the study of botany, that all the plants he sent to Upsal, and which are described |