Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 108 of 208 - First - Home
According To The General Type Of
The Secondary Strata, Recognised In A Great Part Of Europe, The
Alpine Limestone Is Separated From The Jura Limestone By The
Muriatiferous Gypsum; But Often This Latter Is Entirely Wanting, Or
Is Contained As A Subordinate Layer In The Alpine Limestone.
In
this case the two great calcareous formations succeed each other
immediately, or are confounded in one mass.
The descent from the Cuchilla is far shorter than the ascent. We
found the level of the valley of Caripe 200 toises higher than that
of the valley of Guanaguana.* (* Absolute height of the convent
above the level of the sea, 412 toises.) A group of mountains of
little breadth separates two valleys, one of which is of delicious
coolness, while the other is famed for the heat of its climate.
These contrasts, so common in Mexico, New Grenada, and Peru, are
very rare in the north-east part of South America. Thus Caripe is
the only one of the high valleys of New Andalusia which is much
inhabited.
CHAPTER 1.7.
CONVENT OF CARIPE.
CAVERN OF THE GUACHARO.
NOCTURNAL BIRDS.
An alley of perseas led us to the Hospital of the Aragonese
Capuchins. We stopped near a cross of Brazil-wood, erected in the
midst of a square, and surrounded with benches, on which the infirm
monks seat themselves to tell their rosaries. The convent is backed
by an enormous wall of perpendicular rock, covered with thick
vegetation. The stone, which is of resplendent whiteness, appears
only here and there between the foliage. It is difficult to imagine
a more picturesque spot. It recalled forcibly to my remembrance the
valleys of Derbyshire, and the cavernous mountains of Muggendorf,
in Franconia. Instead of the beeches and maple trees of Europe we
here find the statelier forms of the ceiba and the palm-tree, the
praga and irasse. Numberless springs gush from the sides of the
rocks which encircle the basin of Caripe, and of which the abrupt
slopes present, towards the south, profiles of a thousand feet in
height. These springs issue, for the most part, from a few narrow
crevices. The humidity which they spread around favours the growth
of the great trees; and the natives, who love solitary places, form
their conucos along the sides of these crevices. Plantains and
papaw trees are grouped together with groves of arborescent fern;
and this mixture of wild and cultivated plants gives the place a
peculiar charm. Springs are distinguished from afar, on the naked
flanks of the mountains, by tufted masses of vegetation* which at
first sight seem suspended from the rocks, and descending into the
valley, they follow the sinuosities of the torrents.* (* Among the
interesting plants of the valley of Caripe, we found for the first
time a calidium, the trunk of which was twenty feet high (C.
arboreum); the Mikania micrantha, which may probably possess some
of the alexipharmic properties of the famous guaco of the Choco;
the Bauhinia obtusifolia, a very large tree, called guarapa by the
Indians; the Weinnannia glabra; a tree psychotria, the capsules of
which, when rubbed between the fingers, emit a very agreeable
orange smell; the Dorstenia Houstoni (raiz de resfriado); the
Martynia Craniolaria, the white flowers of which are six or seven
inches long; a scrophularia, having the aspect of the Verbascum
miconi, and the leaves of which, all radical and hairy, are marked
with silvery glands.)
We were received with great hospitality by the monks of Caripe. The
building has an inner court, surrounded by an arcade, like the
convents in Spain. This enclosed place was highly convenient for
setting up our instruments and making observations. We found a
numerous society in the convent. Young monks, recently arrived from
Spain, were just about to settle in the Missions, while old infirm
missionaries sought for health in the fresh and salubrious air of
the mountains of Caripe. I was lodged in the cell of the superior,
which contained a pretty good collection of books. I found there,
to my surprise, the Teatro Critico of Feijoo, the Lettres
Edifiantes, and the Traite d'Electricite by abbe Nollet. It seemed
as if the progress of knowledge advanced even in the forests of
America. The youngest of the capuchin monks of the last Mission had
brought with him a Spanish translation of Chaptal's Treatise on
Chemistry, and he intended to study this work in the solitude where
he was destined to pass the remainder of his days. During our long
abode in the Missions of South America we never perceived any sign
of intolerance. The monks of Caripe were not ignorant that I was
born in the protestant part of Germany. Furnished as I was with
orders from the court of Spain, I had no motives to conceal from
them this fact; nevertheless, no mark of distrust, no indiscreet
question, no attempt at controversy, ever diminished the value of
the hospitality they exercised with so much liberality and
frankness.
The convent is founded on a spot which was anciently called
Areocuar. Its height above the level of the sea is nearly the same
as that of the town of Caracas, or of the inhabited part of the
Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Thus the mean temperatures of these
three points, all situated within the tropics, are nearly the same.
The necessity of being well clothed at night, and especially at
sunrise, is felt at Caripe. We saw the centigrade thermometer at
midnight, between 16 and 17.5 degrees; in the morning, between 19
and 20 degrees. About one o'clock it had risen only to 21, or 22.5
degrees. This temperature is sufficient for the development of the
productions of the torrid zone; though, compared with the excessive
heat of the plains of Cumana, we might call it the temperature of
spring. Water exposed to currents of air in vessels of porous clay,
cools at Caripe, during the night, as low as 13 degrees.
Experience has proved that the temperate climate and rarefied air
of this spot are singularly favourable to the cultivation of the
coffee-tree, which is well known to flourish on heights.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 108 of 208
Words from 109124 to 110147
of 211363