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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But How Can We Give
Credit To An Epidemical Black Vomit, Having Lasted Sixteen Months
Without Interruption, And Which May Be Said To Have Passed Through
That Very Cool Season When The Thermometer At Caracas Falls To
Twelve Or Thirteen Degrees?
Can the typhus be of older date in the
elevated valley of Caracas, than in the most frequented ports of
Terra Firma.
According to Ulloa, it was unknown in Terra Firma
before 1729. I doubt, therefore, the epidemic of 1696 having been
the yellow fever, or real typhus of America. Some of the symptoms
which accompany yellow fever are common to bilious remittent
fevers; and are no more characteristic than haematemeses of that
severe disease now known at the Havannah and Vera Cruz by the name
of vomito. But though no accurate description satisfactorily
demonstrates that the typhus of America existed at Caracas as early
as the end of the seventeenth century, it is unhappily too certain,
that this disease carried off in that capital a great number of
European soldiers in 1802. We are filled with dismay when we
reflect that, in the centre of the torrid zone, a table-land four
hundred and fifty toises high, but very near the sea, does not
secure the inhabitants against a scourge which was believed to
belong only to the low regions of the coast.
CHAPTER 1.13.
ABODE AT CARACAS.
MOUNTAINS IN THE VICINITY OF THE TOWN.
EXCURSION TO THE SUMMIT OF THE SILLA.
INDICATIONS OF MINES.
I remained two months at Caracas, where M. Bonpland and I lived in
a large house in the most elevated part of the town. From a gallery
we could survey at once the summit of the Silla, the serrated ridge
of the Galipano, and the charming valley of the Guayra, the rich
culture of which was pleasingly contrasted with the gloomy curtain
of the surrounding mountains. It was in the dry season, and to
improve the pasturage, the savannahs and the turf covering the
steepest rocks were set on fire. These vast conflagrations, viewed
from a distance, produce the most singular effects of light.
Wherever the savannahs, following the undulating slope of the
rocks, have filled up the furrows hollowed out by the waters, the
flame appears in a dark night like currents of lava suspended over
the valley. The vivid but steady light assumes a reddish tint, when
the wind, descending from the Silla, accumulates streams of vapour
in the low regions. At other times (and this effect is still more
curious) these luminous bands, enveloped in thick clouds, appear
only at intervals where it is clear; and as the clouds ascend,
their edges reflect a splendid light. These various phenomena, so
common in the tropics, acquire additional interest from the form of
the mountains, the direction of the slopes, and the height of the
savannahs covered with alpine grasses. During the day, the wind of
Petare, blowing from the east, drives the smoke towards the town,
and diminishes the transparency of the air.
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