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 Mules Lowered Their Cruppers And Slid Down The Steepest
Slopes.
This descent is called Saca Manteca.* (* Or the
Butter-Slope.
Manteca in Spanish signifies butter.) There is no
danger in the descent, owing to the great address of the mules of
this country. The clay, which renders the soil so slippery, is
produced by the numerous layers of sandstone and schistose clay
crossing the bluish grey alpine limestone. This last disappears as
we draw nearer to Cariaco. When we reached the mountain of Meapira,
we found it formed in great part of a white limestone, filled with
fossil remains, and from the grains of quartz agglutinated in the
mass, it appeared to belong to the great formation of the sea-coast
breccias. We descended this mountain on the strata of the rock, the
section of which forms steps of unequal height. Farther on, going
out of the forest, we reached the hill of Buenavista,* (* Mountain
of the Fine Prospect.) well deserving the name it bears; since it
commands a view of the town of Cariaco, situated in the midst of a
vast plain filled with plantations, huts, and scattered groups of
cocoa-palms. To the west of Cariaco extends the wide gulf; which a
wall of rock separates from the ocean: and towards the east are
seen, like bluish clouds, the high mountains of Paria and Areo.
This is one of the most extensive and magnificent prospects that
can be enjoyed on the coast of New Andalusia. In the town of
Cariaco we found a great part of the inhabitants suffering from
intermittent fever; a disease which in autumn assumes a formidable
character.
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