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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In A Narrow Pass Between Two
Hills, Crowned With Scattered Tufts Of Trees, Marks Of Cultivation
Were Visible.
The last rays of the sun gilded the corn ready for
the sickle.
Even the desert is animated wherever we can discover a
trace of the industry of man.
We endeavoured to get out of this bay by the pass which separates
Alegranza from Montana Clara, and through which we had easily
entered to land at the northern point of Graciosa. The wind having
fallen, the currents drove us very near a rock, on which the sea
broke with violence, and which is noted in the old charts under the
name of Hell, or Infierno. As we examined this rock at the distance
of two cables' length, we found that it was a mass of lava three or
four toises high, full of cavities, and covered with scoriae
resembling coke. We may presume that this rock,* (* I must here
observe, that this rock is noted on the celebrated Venetian chart
of Andrea Bianco, but that the name of Infierno is given, as in the
more ancient chart of Picigano, made in 1367, to Teneriffe, without
doubt because the Guanches considered the peak as the entrance into
hell. In the same latitudes an island made its appearance in 1811.)
which modern charts call the West Rock (Roca del Oeste), was raised
by volcanic fire; and it might heretofore have been much higher;
for the new island of the Azores, which rose from the sea at
successive periods, in 1638 and 1719, had reached 354 feet when it
totally disappeared in 1723, to the depth of 480 feet. This opinion
on the origin of the basaltic mass of the Infierno is confirmed by
a phenomenon, which was observed about the middle of the last
century in these same latitudes. At the time of the eruption of the
volcano of Temanfaya, two pyramidal hills of lithoid lava rose from
the bottom of the ocean, and gradually united themselves with the
island of Lancerota.
As we were prevented by the fall of the wind, and by the currents,
from repassing the channel of Alegranza, we resolved on tacking
during the night between the island of Clara and the West Rock.
This resolution had nearly proved fatal. A calm is very dangerous
near this rock, towards which the current drives with considerable
force. We began to feel the effects of this current at midnight.
The proximity of the stony masses, which rise perpendicularly above
the water, deprived us of the little wind which blew: the sloop no
longer obeyed the helm, and we dreaded striking every instant. It
is difficult to conceive how a mass of basalt, insulated in the
vast expanse of the ocean, can cause so considerable a motion of
the waters. These phenomena, worthy the attention of naturalists,
are well known to mariners; they are extremely to be dreaded in the
Pacific ocean, particularly in the small archipelago of the islands
of Galapagos. The difference of temperature which exists between
the fluid and the mass of rocks does not explain the direction
which these currents take; and how can we admit that the water is
engulfed at the base of these rocks, (which often are not of
volcanic origin) and that this continual engulfing determines the
particles of water to fill up the vacuum that takes place.
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