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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On The Other Hand, Pallas Observes That In
Siberia, Consequently Also Northward Of The Tropics, Fossil Bones
Are Never Found In Mountainous Parts.
These facts, intimately
connected together, seem calculated to lead to the discovery of a
great geological law.) the great mastodons of the Ohio, and the
fossil elephants of the Susquehanna, in the temperate zone), but on
table-lands having from six to fourteen hundred toises of
elevation.
As we approached the southern bank of the basin of Cumanacoa, we
enjoyed the view of the Turimiquiri.* (* Some of the inhabitants
pronounce this name Tumuriquiri, others Turumiquiri, or
Tumiriquiri. During the whole time of our stay at Cumanacoa, the
summit of this mountain was covered with clouds. It appeared
uncovered on the evening of the 11th of September, but only for a
few minutes. The angle of elevation, taken from the great square of
Cumanacoa, was 8 degrees 2 minutes. This determination, and the
barometrical measurement which I made on the 13th, may enable us to
fix, within a certain approximation, the distance of the mountain
at six miles and a third, or 6050 toises; admitting that the part
uncovered by clouds was 850 toises above the plain of Cumanacoa.)
An enormous wall of rocks, the remains of an ancient cliff, rises
in the midst of the forests. Farther to the west, at Cerro del
Cuchivano, the chain of mountains seems as if broken by the effects
of an earthquake. The crevice is more than a hundred and fifty
toises wide, is surrounded by perpendicular rocks, and is filled
with trees, the interwoven branches of which find no room to
spread. This cleft appears like a mine opened by the falling in of
the earth. It is intersected by a torrent, the Rio Juagua, and its
appearance is highly picturesque. It is called Risco del Cuchivano.
The river rises at the distance of seven leagues south-west, at the
foot of the mountain of the Brigantine, and it forms some beautiful
cascades before it spreads through the plain of Cumanacoa.
We visited several times a small farm, the Conuco of Bermudez,
opposite the Risco del Cuchivano, where tobacco, plantains, and
several species of cotton-trees,* are cultivated in the moist soil
(* Gossypium uniglandulosum, improperly called herbaceum, and G.
barbadense.); especially that tree, the cotton of which is of a
nankeen colour, and which is so common in the island of Margareta.*
(* G. religiosum.) The proprietor of the farm told us that the
Risco or crevice was inhabited by jaguar tigers. These animals pass
the day in caverns, and roam around human habitations at night.
Being well fed, they grow to the length of six feet. One of them
had devoured, in the preceding year, a horse belonging to the farm.
He dragged his prey on a fine moonlight night, across the savannah,
to the foot of a ceiba* of an enormous size. (* Bombax ceiba:
five-leaved silk-cotton tree.) The groans of the dying horse awoke
the slaves of the farm, who went out armed with lances and
machetes.* (* Great knives, with very long blades, like a couteau
de chasse.
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