. The earth and its inhabitants ... cal Society, April, 1892, p. 242. 84 SOUTH AMEEICA—THE ANDES EEGIONS. height of 6,730 feet, while Mount Berg-antin, towards the western extremity ofthe Cordillera, rises 5,480 feet above the surrounding plain. Consisting of metamorphie rocks, schists, limestones, and sandstones, overlaidround their periphery by cretaceous deposits, the Cumana mountains have becomefamous for their vast caverns, tenanted by myriads of birds which have acquiredthe habits of bats. The entrance to these galleries is half concealed by festoons oflianas and dense foliage. Easitward
. The earth and its inhabitants ... cal Society, April, 1892, p. 242. 84 SOUTH AMEEICA—THE ANDES EEGIONS. height of 6,730 feet, while Mount Berg-antin, towards the western extremity ofthe Cordillera, rises 5,480 feet above the surrounding plain. Consisting of metamorphie rocks, schists, limestones, and sandstones, overlaidround their periphery by cretaceous deposits, the Cumana mountains have becomefamous for their vast caverns, tenanted by myriads of birds which have acquiredthe habits of bats. The entrance to these galleries is half concealed by festoons oflianas and dense foliage. Easitwards the system is abruptly arrested by the alluvial lands of the Orinoco,while the roots of the mountains disappear towards the south and west beneaththe almost horizontal strata of the llanos. Here, therefore, the ranare is com-plet^ly interrupted, nor does any eminence appear above the level surface west ofthe Rio Aragua, as far as the more copious Rio Unare, whose delta encloses the Fig. 28.—Gulf of 1 : 64° 20- West or breenwich 63°50 Depths. 0to25Fathoms. 25 Fathomsand upwards. 12 Miles. isolated Morro Unare, some 3,400 feet high. But farther on the mountainsreappear, developing, as in the east, two parallel Cordilleras, a coast and an inlandrange disposed in the normal direction from east to west. But here the coastchain is the higher of the two ; it often takes the name of the Cordillera de la Silla,from one of its conspicuous peaks. This range, which begins abruptly at Cape Codera, evidently forms a continua-tion of the Paria and Cariaco mountains, and consists of gneiss, mica schists, andmetamorphie rocks. It runs close to the shore with scarcely any interveningbeach, so that its precipitous seaward escarpments can only be ascended by zigzagand devious tracks. Between Guaira, at its northern base, and Caracas, on thesouthern slope, the crest maintains a mean altitude of 5,250 feet, culminating inthe Naiguata peak (9,130 feet), a gneiss crag
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
