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Updated: June 10, 2025
Mica-slate is the most frequent rock in the peninsula of Araya and the group of Macanao, which forms the western part of the island of Marguerita. Beds of granular limestone are most common in the primitive northern chain; and it is somewhat remarkable that they are found in gneiss, and not in mica-slate.
It is true, that for the new salt-work near the battery of Araya, the seawater is received into pits, as in the salt marshes of the south of France; but in the island of Margareta, near Pampatar, salt is manufactured by employing only fresh water, with which the muriatiferous clay has first been lixiviated.
We must not confound the salt disseminated in these clayey soils with that contained in the sands of the seashore, on the coasts of Normandy. These phenomena, considered in a geognostical point of view, have scarcely any properties in common. I have seen muriatiferous clay at the level of the ocean at Punta Araya, and at two thousand toises' height in the Cordilleras of New Grenada.
In December 1600 the governor of Cumana had suggested to the King, as a means of keeping Dutch and English ships from the salt mines of Araya, the ingenious scheme of poisoning the salt.
To the south is Cape Araya on the continent, near which there are extensive salines or salt ponds. Cubagua has a good harbour on the northern shore, which is sheltered by the opposite island of Margarita. There was at first such abundance of pearl oysters, that at one time the royal fifth amounted to 15,000 ducats yearly.
The first excursion we made was to the peninsula of Araya, and those countries formerly celebrated for the slave-trade and the pearl-fishery. We embarked on the Rio Manzanares, near the Indian suburb, on the 19th of August, about two in the morning.
He had long perceived that we had lost our way; and as he hoped to work on our fears he continually warned us of the danger of tigers and rattlesnakes. Venomous reptiles are, indeed, very common near the castle of Araya; and two jaguars had been lately killed at the entrance of the village of Maniquarez.
If we suppose the dip of the strata to be regular, the mica-slate must be but a few toises below the sand. We have already observed, that the muriatiferous clay of Araya contains solid and friable petroleum.
The lofty summits of the island of Margareta are seen above the rocky coast of the isthmus of Araya, and towards the west the small islands of Caracas, Picuita, and Boracha, recall to mind the catastrophes that have overwhelmed the coasts of Terra Firma.
But since December 1797, new communications appear to have been opened in the interior of the globe. The peninsula of Araya is now not merely subject to the same agitations as the soil of Cumana, but the promontory of mica-slate, previously free from earthquakes, has become in its turn a central point of commotion.
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