Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univers).pdf/172
with the predominant foyaite, phonolite and basaltic rocks, which have since been named mouchiquites by Prof. Rosenbusch, occurred. These two last types, found only in loose blocks or in small dykes in gneiss that was clearly older than the foyaite, gave no idea of their relations to the latter rock except that at one point a small dyke of phonolite containing polyhedral inclusions of foyaite, like raisins in a pudding, was observed cutting foyaite of the same type as the inclusions. An examination of a series of railroad cuttings between the peak and the city showed a plexus of phonolite and monchiquite dykes together with a peculiar feldspathic rock of syenitic aspect, which, as they did not extend to the city, were suggestive of a possible genetic connection with the eruptive center of Tingua, or of some other similar center in the vicinity.
The occurrence of phonolites, hitherto only known on Brazilian soil on the volcanic island of Fernando de Noronha, suggested a search for phonolitic centers of eruption. About this time a chance collection made by a naval officer from the island of Cabo Frio, 60 miles from Rio, came to hand. As it contained specimens of both phonolite and foyaite, an excursion was resolved upon, guided by the thought that a rocky island on an open coast should give good exposures and thus perhaps prove a better point than Tingua for the study of the problems presented in this mountain. The island, from two to three miles long and from one-fourth to one-half mile wide, was found to give an almost continuous rock exposure about its entire margin. About four-fifths of the island is composed of coarse grained sodalite-bearing foyaite somewhat different from the Tingua type, and like it cut by numerous dykes of phonolite. The remainder consists of augite-syenite of two types, except a small point which is distinctly tuffaceous and cut by innumerable small dykes of a basaltic character. In one place dyke-like masses and large boulder-like inclusions of a pyroxene-plagioclase rock of a gabbro type occur. The coast of the mainland, distant half a mile more or less from the island, is entirely free from rocks of a syenitic character, and is composed of gneiss cut