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 passed the
little Indian village of Aricagua surrounded by woody hills.
Thence
we began to ascend, and the ascent lasted more than four hours. We
crossed two-and-twenty times the river of Pututucuar, a rapid
torrent, full of blocks of calcareous rock. When, on the Cuesta del
Cocollar, we reached an elevation two thousand feet above the level
of the sea, we were surprised to find scarcely any forests or great
trees. We passed over an immense plain covered with gramineous
plants. Mimosas with hemispheric tops, and stems only four or five
feet high, alone vary the dull uniformity of the savannahs. Their
branches are bent towards the ground or spread out like umbrellas.
Wherever there are deep declivities, or masses of rocks half
covered with mould, the clusia or cupey, with great nymphaea
flowers, displays its beautiful verdure. The roots of this tree are
eight inches in diameter, and they sometimes shoot out from the
trunk at the height of fifteen feet above the soil.
After having climbed the mountain for a considerable time, we
reached a small plain at the Hato del Cocollar. This is a solitary
farm, situated on a table-land 408 toises high. We rested three
days in this retreat, where we were treated with great kindness by
the proprietor, Don Mathias Yturburi, a native of Biscay, who had
accompanied us from the port of Cumana. We there found milk,
excellent meat from the richness of the pasture, and above all, a
delightful climate. During the day the centigrade thermometer did
not rise above 22 or 23 degrees; a little before sunset it fell to
19, and at night it scarcely kept up to 14 degrees.* (* 11.2
degrees Reaum.) The nightly temperature was consequently seven
degrees colder than that of the coasts, which is a fresh proof of
an extremely rapid decrement of heat, the table-land of Cocollar
being less elevated than the site of the town of Caracas.
As far as the eye could reach, we perceived, from this elevated
point, only naked savannahs. Small tufts of scattered trees rise in
the ravines; and notwithstanding the apparent uniformity of
vegetation, great numbers of curious plants* are found here. (*
Cassia acuta, Andromeda rigida, Casearia hypericifolia, Myrtus
longifolia, Buettneria salicifolia, Glycine picta, G. pratensis, G.
gibba, Oxalis umbrosa, Malpighia caripensis, Cephaelis salicifolia,
Stylosanthes angustifolia, Salvia pseudococcinea, Eryngium
foetidum. We found a second time this last plant, but at a
considerable height, in the great forests of bark trees surrounding
the town of Loxa, in the centre of the Cordilleras.) We shall only
speak of a superb lobelia* with purple flowers (* Lobelia
spectabilis.); the Brownea coccinea, which is upwards of a hundred
feet high; and above all; the pejoa, celebrated in the country on
account of the delightful and aromatic perfume emitted by its
leaves when rubbed between the fingers.* (* It is the Gualtheria
odorata. The pejoa is found round the lake of Cocollar, which gives
birth to the great river Guarapiche.
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