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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This Position Seems To Prove The
Influence Of Local Causes On Meteors, The Nature Of Which Is Not
Yet Sufficiently Known To Us.
On the 14th at sunrise, we were in sight of the Boca del Drago.
We
distinguished Chacachacarreo, the most westerly of the islands
situated between Cape Paria and the north-west cape of Trinidad.
When we were five leagues distant from the coast, we felt, near
Punta de la Boca, the effect of a particular current which carried
the ship southward. The motion of the waters which flow through the
Boca del Draco, and the action of the tides, occasion an eddy. We
cast the lead, and found from thirty-six to forty-three fathoms on
a bottom of very fine green clay. According to the rules
established by Dampier, we ought not to have expected so little
depth near a coast formed by very high and perpendicular mountains.
We continued to heave the lead till we reached Cabo de tres
Puntas* (* Cape Three Points, the name given to it by Columbus.) and
we every where found shallow water, apparently indicating the
prolongation of the ancient coast. In these latitudes the
temperature of the sea was from twenty-three to twenty-four
degrees, consequently from 1.5 to two degrees lower than in the
open ocean, beyond the edge of the bank.
The Cabo de tres Puntas is, according to my observations, in 65
degrees 4 minutes 5 seconds longitude. It seemed to us the more
elevated, as the clouds concealed the view of its indented top.
The aspect of the mountains of Paria, their colour, and especially
their generally rounded forms, made us suspect that the coast was
granitic; but we afterwards recognized how delusive, even to those
who have passed their lives in scaling mountains, are impressions
respecting the nature of rocks seen at a distance.
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