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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When Standing On The Summit Of The Cerro Del Meapire, We See The
Mountain Currents Flow On One Side To The Gulf Of Paria, And On The
Other To The Gulf Of Cariaco.
East and west of the ridge there are
low and marshy grounds, spreading out without interruption; and if
it
Be admitted that both gulfs owe their origin to the sinking of
the earth, and to rents caused by earthquakes, we must suppose that
the Cerro de Meapire has resisted the convulsive movements of the
globe, and hindered the waters of the gulf of Paria from uniting
with those of the gulf of Cariaco. But for this rocky dyke, the
isthmus itself in all probability would have had no existence; and
from the castle of Araya as far as Cape Paria, the whole mass of
the mountains of the coast would have formed a narrow island,
parallel to the island of Santa Margareta, and four times as long.
Not only do the inspection of the ground, and considerations
deduced from its relievo, confirm these opinions; but a mere glance
of the configuration of the coasts, and a geological map of the
country, would suggest the same ideas. It would appear that the
island of Margareta has been heretofore attached to the coast-chain
of Araya by the peninsula of Chacopata and the Caribbee islands,
Lobo and Coche, in the same manner as this chain is still connected
with that of the Cocollar and Caripe by the ridge of Meapire.
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