Just about this
spot we happened to meet with one of those people who serve as guides
to travelers in those parts, and who told us, among other things, that
stones with shells in them were often found not far from where we were
then walking. We immediately began to look about for specimens of that
kind, and soon met with several; the most remarkable of which was in a
rock that rose a little above the surface, about 300 or 400 yards to
the right of the road. It was a part of a limestone stratum, nearly
vertical, and was full of bivalves with the impressions as strong as
in a common secondary limestone. The strata on both sides had the same
inclination, and were decidedly primary, consisting of the ordinary
micaceous schistus. This however I need not remark to you, who know so
well from your own observations that the whole of the country I am now
speaking of has every character of a primary one. I, only mention it,
that it may not be supposed that the rock in question was some fragment
of a secondary stratum that remained, after the rest was washed away,
superincumbent on the primary.
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