At this place the bed of the creek had been cut through the basalt into the sandstone, exposing a fine section of the junction of the two rocks; the sandstone was much altered at the line of contact, and, having been deeply cracked, the basalt had filled the fissures of the older rock.

It is built of reddish basalt from the quarries of Huaccoto, near the twin peaks of Mt. Picol.

Two lions in basalt on each side of the escalier are very striking objects, and the escalier itself is the most superb thing of the kind perhaps in the world.

At 6.0 a.m. ascended the trap plain and steered north 190 degrees east; at 6.45 a.m. came to a large creek from the west, which joined the Victoria three-quarters of a mile to the east; but the deep and rocky character of the valley, or rather ravine, in which it ran precluded our approaching it, and we had to turn to the west, and descend from the basalt to the sandstone before the creek could be passed.

The hill is of basalt with a flat top, but is based on sandstone; its form is nearly a truncated cone 150 feet high and 300 feet in diameter at the top.