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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Having Reached These Latitudes, We Saw The High Mountains Of Cape
Macanao, On The Western Side Of The Island Of Margareta, Which Rose
Majestically On The Horizon.
If we might judge from the angles of
altitude of the tops, taken at eighteen miles' distance, they
appeared to be about 500 or 600 toises high.
According to
Berthoud's time-keeper, the longitude of Cape Macanao is 66 degrees
47 minutes 5 seconds. I speak of the rocks at the extremity of the
cape, and not that strip of very low land which stretches to the
west, and loses itself in a shoal. The position of Macanao and that
which I have assigned to the east point of the island of Coche,
differ only four seconds in time, from the results obtained by
M. Fidalgo.
There being little wind, the captain preferred standing off and on
till daybreak. We passed a part of the night on deck. The
Guayqueria pilot conversed with us respecting the animals and
plants of his country. We learned with great satisfaction that
there was, a few leagues from the coast, a mountainous region
inhabited by the Spaniards, in which the cold was sensibly felt;
and that in the plains there were two species of crocodiles, very
different from each other, besides, boas, electric eels, and
several kinds of tigers. Though the words bava, cachicamo, and
temblador, were entirely unknown to us, we easily guessed, from the
pilot's simple description of their manners and forms, the species
which the creoles distinguished by these denominations.
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