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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Though Their Appearance Is Very Heavy,
They Pass Lightly Over The Most Slippery Turf.
We first stopped at
a spring issuing, not from the calcareous rock, but from a layer of
quartzose sandstone.
The temperature was 21 degrees, consequently
1.5 degrees less than the spring of Quetepe; and the difference of
the level is nearly 220 toises. Wherever the sandstone appears
above ground the soil is level, and constitutes as it were small
platforms, succeeding each other like steps. To the height of 700
toises, and even beyond, this mountain, like those in its vicinity,
is covered only with gramineous plants.* (* The most abundant
species are the paspalus; the Andropogon fastigiatum, which forms
the genus Diectomis of M. Palissot de Beauvais; and the Panicum
olyroides.) The absence of trees is attributed at Cumana to the
great elevation of the ground; but a slight reflection on the
distribution of plants in the Cordilleras of the torrid zone will
lead us to conceive that the summits of New Andalusia are very far
from reaching the superior limit of the trees, which in this
latitude is at least 1800 toises of absolute height. The smooth
turf of the Cocollar begins to appear at 350 toises above the level
of the sea, and the traveller may contrive to walk upon this turf
till he reaches a thousand toises in height. Farther on, beyond
this band covered with gramineous plants, we found, amidst peaks
almost inaccessible to man, a small forest of cedrela, javillo,* (*
Huras crepitans, of the family of the euphorbias.
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