Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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As We Approach Those Periods In Which Organic Life Develops Itself
In A Greater Number Of Forms, The Phenomenon Of Grottoes Becomes
More Frequent.
There exist several under the name of baumen,* (* In
the dialect of the German Swiss, Balmen.
The Baumen of the Sentis,
of the Mole, and of the Beatenberg, on the borders of the lake of
Thun, belong to the Alpine limestone.) not in the ancient sandstone
to which the great coal formation belongs, but in the Alpine
limestone, and in the Jura limestone, which is often only the
superior part of the Alpine formation. The Jura limestone* (* I may
mention only the grottoes of Boudry, Motiers-Travers, and Valorbe,
in the Jura; the grotto of Balme near Geneva; the caverns between
Muggendorf and Gaylenreuth in Franconia; Sowia Jama, Ogrodzimiec,
and Wlodowice, in Poland.) so abounds with caverns in both
continents, that several geologists of the school of Freyberg have
given it the name of cavern-limestone (hohlenkalkstein). It is this
rock which so often interrupts the course of rivers, by engulfing
them into its bosom. In this also is formed the famous Cueva del
Guacharo, and the other grottoes of the valley of Caripe. The
muriatiferous gypsum,* (* Gypsum of Bottendorf, schlottengyps.)
whether it be found in layers in the Jura or Alpine limestone, or
whether it separate these two formations, or lie between the Alpine
limestone and argillaceous sandstone, also presents, on account of
its great solubility, enormous cavities, sometimes communicating
with each other at several leagues distance.
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