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 Naphtha Covers The Surface
Of The Sea To More Than A Thousand Feet Distant.
If we suppose the
dip of the strata to be regular, the mica-slate must be but a few
toises below the sand.
We have already observed, that the muriatiferous clay of Araya
contains solid and friable petroleum. This geological connection
between the muriate of soda and the bitumens is evident wherever
there are mines of sal-gem or salt springs: but a very remarkable
fact is the existence of a fountain of naphtha in a primitive
formation. All those hitherto known belong to secondary mountains;*
(* As at Pietra Mala; Fanano; Mont Zibio; and Amiano (in these
places are found the springs that furnish the naphtha burned in
lamps in Genoa) and also at Baikal.) a circumstance which has been
supposed to favour the idea that all mineral bitumens are owing to
the destruction of vegetables and animals, or to the burning of
coal. In the peninsula of Araya, the naphtha flows from the
primitive rock itself; and this phenomenon acquires new importance,
when we recollect that the same primitive rocks contain the
subterranean fires, that on the brink of burning craters the smell
of petroleum is perceived from time to time, and that the greater
part of the hot springs of America rise from gneiss and micaceous
schist.
After having examined the environs of Maniquarez, we embarked at
night in a fishing-boat for Cumana. The small crazy boats employed
by the natives here, bear testimony to the extreme calmness of the
sea in these regions.
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