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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This Observation, Which Is Not Unimportant For
The Theory Of Terrestrial Refractions, Was Made On The Summit Of
The Mountain, At The Absolute Height Of 296 Toises.
The setting of
the sun was attended by a very rapid cooling of the air.
Three
minutes after the last apparent contact of the disk with the
horizon of the sea, the thermometer suddenly fell from 25.2 to 21.3
degrees. Was this extraordinary refrigeration owing to some
descending current? The air was however calm, and no horizontal
wind was felt.
We passed the night in a house where there was a military post
consisting of eight men, under the command of a Spanish serjeant.
It was an hospital, built by the side of a powder magazine. When
Cumana, after the capture of Trinidad by the English, in 1797, was
threatened with an attack, many of the inhabitants fled to
Cumanacoa, and deposited whatever articles of value they possessed
in sheds hastily constructed on the top of the Imposible. It was
then resolved, in case of any unforeseen invasion, to abandon the
castle of San Antonio, after a short resistance, and to concentrate
the whole force of the province round the mountains, which may be
considered as the key of the Llanos.
The top of the Imposible, as nearly as I could perceive, is covered
with a quartzose sandstone, free from petrifactions. Here, as on
the ridge of the neighbouring mountains, the strata pretty
regularly take the direction from north-north-east to
south-south-west.
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