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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We Shall See Hereafter How These Plants, Which Characterize
A Warm And Singularly Dry Climate, Like That Of Egypt And
California, Gradually Disappear In Proportion As We Remove From The
Coasts, And Penetrate Into The Inland Country.
The groups of columnar cactus and opuntia produce the same effect
in the arid lands of equinoctial America as the junceae and the
hydrocharides in the marshes of our northern climes.
Places in
which the larger species of the strong cactus are collected in
groups are considered as almost impenetrable. These places are
called Tunales; and they are impervious not only to the native, who
goes naked to the waist, but are formidable even to those who are
fully clothed. In our solitary rambles we sometimes endeavoured to
penetrate into the Tunal that crowns the summit of the castle hill,
a part of which is crossed by a pathway, where we could have
studied, amidst thousands of specimens, the organization of this
singular plant. Sometimes night suddenly overtook us, for there is
scarcely any twilight in this climate; and we then found ourselves
dangerously situated, as the Cascabel, or rattle-snake, the Coral,
and other vipers armed with poisonous fangs, frequent these
scorched and arid haunts, to deposit their eggs in the sand.
The castle of San Antonio is built at the western extremity of the
hill, but not on the most elevated point, being commanded on the
east by an unfortified summit. The Tunal is considered both here
and everywhere in the Spanish colonies as a very important means of
military defence; and when earthen works are raised, the engineers
are eager to propagate the thorny opuntia, and promote its growth,
as they are careful to keep crocodiles in the ditches of fortified
places. In regions where organized nature is so powerful and
active, man summons as auxiliaries in his defence the carnivorous
reptile, and the plant with its formidable armour of thorns.
The castle is only thirty toises above the level of the water in
the gulf of Cariaco. Standing on a naked and calcareous hill, it
commands the town, and has a very picturesque effect when viewed
from a vessel entering the port. It forms a bright object against
the dark curtains of those mountains which raise their summits to
the clouds, and of which the vaporous and bluish tint blends with
the azure sky. On descending from Fort San Antonio to the
south-west, we find on the slope of the same rock the ruins of the
old castle of Santa Maria. This site is delightful to those who
wish to enjoy at the approach of sunset the freshness of the breeze
and the view of the gulf. The lofty summits of the island of
Margareta are seen above the rocky coast of the isthmus of Araya,
and towards the west the small islands of Caracas, Picuita, and
Boracha, recall to mind the catastrophes that have overwhelmed the
coasts of Terra Firma. These islets resemble fortifications, and
from the effect of the mirage (while the inferior strata of the
air, the ocean, and the soil, are unequally heated by the sun),
their points appear raised like the extremity of the great
promontories of the coast.
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