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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The Remains Of An Old Battery, Situated
North-North-East Of The Castle Of San Antonio, And Very Near It,
Serve As A Mark To Avoid The Bank Of Morro Roxo.
The city lies at the foot of a hill destitute of verdure, and is
commanded by a castle.
No steeple or dome attracts from afar the
eye of the traveller, but only a few trunks of tamarind, cocoa, and
date trees, which rise above the houses, the roofs of which are
flat. The surrounding plains, especially those on the coasts, wear
a melancholy, dusty, and arid appearance, while a fresh and
luxuriant vegetation marks from afar the windings of the river,
which separates the city from the suburbs; the population of
European and mixed race from the copper-coloured natives. The hill
of fort San Antonio, solitary, white, and bare, reflects a great
mass of light, and of radiant heat: it is composed of breccia, the
strata of which contain numerous fossils. In the distance, towards
the south, stretches a vast and gloomy curtain of mountains. These
are the high calcareous Alps of New Andalusia, surmounted by
sandstone, and other more recent formations. Majestic forests cover
this Cordillera of the interior, and they are joined by a woody
vale to the open clayey lands and salt marshes of the environs of
Cumana. A few birds of considerable size contribute to give a
peculiar character to these countries. On the seashore, and in the
gulf, we find flocks of fishing herons, and alcatras of a very
unwieldy form, which swim, like the swan, raising their wings.
Nearer the habitation of man, thousands of galinazo vultures, the
jackals of the winged tribe, are ever busy in disinterring the
carcases of animals.* (* Buffon Hist.
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