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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If The Level
Of The Soil Seem To Indicate That The Two Gulfs Of Cariaco And
Paria Formerly Occupied A Much More Considerable Space, We Cannot
Doubt That At Present The Land Is Progressively Extending.
Near
Cumana, a battery, called La Boca, was built in 1791 on the very
margin of the sea; in 1799 we saw it very far inland.
At the mouth
of the Rio Neveri, near the Morro of Nueva Barcelona, the retreat
of the waters is still more rapid. This local phenomenon is
probably assignable to accumulations of sand, the progress of which
has not yet been sufficiently examined. Descending the Sierra de
Meapire, which forms the isthmus between the plains of San
Bonifacio and Cariaco, we find towards the east the great lake of
Putacuao, which communicates with the river Areo, and is four or
five leagues in diameter. The mountainous lands that surround this
basin are known only to the natives. There are found those great
boa serpents known to the Chayma Indians by the name of guainas,
and to which they fabulously attribute a sting under the tail.
Descending the Sierra de Meapire to the west, we find at first a
hollow ground (tierra hueca) which, during the great earthquakes of
1766, threw out asphaltum enveloped in viscous petroleum. Farther
on, a numberless quantity of sulphureous thermal springs* are seen
issuing from the soil (* El Llano de Aguas calientes,
east-north-east of Cariaco, at the distance of two leagues.); and
at length we reach the borders of the lake of Campoma, the
exhalations from which contribute to the insalubrity of the climate
of Cariaco. The natives believe that the hollow is formed by the
engulfing of the hot springs; and, judging from the sound heard
under the hoofs of the horses, we must conclude that the
subterranean cavities are continued from west to east nearly as far
as Casanay, a length of three or four thousand toises. A little
river, the Rio Azul, runs through these plains which are rent into
crevices by earthquakes. These earthquakes have a particular centre
of action, and seldom extend as far as Cumana. The waters of the
Rio Azul are cold and limpid; they rise on the western declivity of
the mountain of Meapire, and it is believed that they are augmented
by infiltrations from the lake Putacuao, situated on the other side
of the chain. The little river, together with the sulphureous hot
springs, fall into the Laguna de Campoma. This is a name given to a
great lagoon, which is divided in dry weather into three basins
situated north-west of the town of Cariaco, near the extremity of
the gulf. Fetid exhalations arise continually from the stagnant
water of this lagoon. The smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is mingled
with that of putrid fishes and rotting plants.
Miasms are formed in the valley of Cariaco, as in the Campagna of
Rome; but the hot climate of the tropics increases their
deleterious energy. These miasms are probably ternary or quaternary
combinations of azote, phosphorus, hydrogen, carbon, and sulphur.
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