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Communication from M. Lund to the Academy at Copenhagen

The plains, the vallies, & the lower hills, are without exception overspread with a vast stratum of loose soil, from which the higher ranges alone are free. This stratum with a certain degree of uniformity combines no inconsiderable variety, which is shown partly in its subordinate beds, & partly in the occasional appearance of these beds, without any connection sequence by the side of each other. The most common form which these formations assume is that of a stratum of red coarse clay, from 10 to 30 & more feet in thickness, in which there is no trace of stratification or other divisions. Occasionally one may follow this clay bed over considerable tracts, without observing any remarkable intermixture extraneous substance; but usually it contains, in greater or less quantities, rolled stones of quartz, from the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a man's head. These boulders are sometimes strewed about without order; sometimes they form more or less regular beds. Intermixed with these rolled quartz stones, are found, but in far less quantity, similarly rolled fragments of the other kinds of rock belonging to this district, & it is out of this same soil that the natives obtain gold & diamonds by washing. Quartz is also found in this bed of clay, under another form still more common in Province of Minas, viz that of sharp angular fragments

 

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