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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On The North-East Opens The Valley In Which Is Situated
The Convent Of Caripe.
The aspect of this valley is peculiarly
attractive, for being shaded by forests, it forms a strong contrast
with the nudity of the neighbouring mountains, which are bare of
trees, and covered with gramineous plants.
We found the absolute
height of the Cuchilla to be 548 toises.
Descending from the ridge by a winding path, we entered into a
completely woody country. The soil is covered with moss, and a new
species of drosera,* (* Drosera tenella.) which by its form
reminded us of the drosera of the Alps. The thickness of the
forests, and the force of vegetation, augmented as we approached
the convent of Caripe. Everything here changes its aspect, even to
the rock that accompanied us from Punta Delgada. The calcareous
strata becomes thinner, forming graduated steps, which stretch out
like walls, cornices, and turrets, as in the mountains of Jura,
those of Pappenheim in Germany, and near Oizow in Galicia. The
colour of the stone is no longer of a smoky or bluish grey; it
becomes white; its fracture is smooth, and sometimes even
imperfectly conchoidal. It is no longer the calcareous formation of
the Higher Alps, but a formation to which this serves as a basis,
and which is analogous to the Jura limestone. In the chain of the
Apennines, between Rome and Nocera, I observed this same immediate
superposition.* (* In like manner, near Geneva, the rock of the
Mole, belonging to the Alpine limestone, lies under the Jura
limestone which forms Mount Saleve.) It indicates, not the
transition from one rock to another, but the geological affinity
existing between two formations.
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