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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I Am Of Opinion That The Shocks So Frequently
Felt In The Province Of Cumana Are As Little To Be Attributed To
The Rocks Above The Surface Of The Earth, As Those Which Agitate
The Apennines Are Assignable To Asphaltic Veins Or Springs Of
Burning Petroleum.
The whole of these phenomena depend on more
general, I would almost say on deeper, causes; and it is
Not in the
secondary strata which form the exterior crust of our globe, but in
the primitive rocks, at an enormous distance from the soil, that we
should seek the focus of volcanic action. The greater progress we
make in geology, the more we feel the insufficiency of theories
founded on observations merely local.
On the 12th of September we continued our journey to the convent of
Caripe, the principal settlement of the Chayma missions. We chose,
instead of the direct road, that by the mountains of the
Cocollar* (* Is this name of Indian origin? At Cumana I heard
it derived in a manner somewhat far-fetched from the Spanish word
cogollo, signifying the heart of oleraceous plants. The Cocollar
forms the centre of the whole group of the mountains of New
Andalusia.) and the Turimiquiri, the height of which little exceeds
that of Jura. The road first runs eastward, crossing over the length
of three leagues the table-land of Cumanacoa, in a soil formerly
levelled by the waters: it then turns to the south. We passed the
little Indian village of Aricagua surrounded by woody hills.
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