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 View From The Imposible Is Finer And More Extensive Than That
From The Table-Land Of Quetepe.
We distinguished clearly by the
naked eye the flattened top of the Brigantine (the position of
which it would be important to fix accurately), the embarcadero or
landing-place, and the roadstead of Cumana.
The rocky coast of the
peninsula of Araya was discernible in its whole length. We were
particularly struck with the extraordinary configuration of a port,
known by the name of Laguna Grande, or Laguna del Obispo. A vast
basin, surrounded by high mountains, communicates with the gulf of
Cariaco by a narrow channel which admits only of the passage of one
ship at a time. This port is capable of containing several
squadrons at once. It is an uninhabited place, but annually
frequented by vessels, which carry mules to the West India Islands.
There are some pasture grounds at the farther end of the bay. We
traced the sinuosities of this arm of the sea, which, like a river,
has dug a bed between perpendicular rocks destitute of vegetation.
This singular prospect reminded us of the fanciful landscape which
Leonardo da Vinci has made the back-ground of his famous portrait
of Mona Lisa, the wife of Francisco del Giacondo.
We could observe by the chronometer the moment when the disk of the
sun touched the horizon of the sea. The first contact was at 6
hours 8 minutes 13 seconds; the second, at 6 hours 10 minutes 26
seconds; mean time.
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