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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We Might Have Fancied Ourselves On The Table-Land Of
Freiberg.
We crossed first the little rivulet of Agua Salud, a
limpid stream, which has no mineral taste, and then the Rio
Garaguata.
The road is commanded on the right by the Cerro de Avila
and the Cumbre; and on the left, by the mountains of Aguas Negras.
This defile is very interesting in a geological point of view. At
this spot the valley of Caracas communicates, by the valleys of
Tacagua and of Tipe, with the coast near Catia. A ridge of rock,
the summit of which is forty toises above the bottom of the valley
of Caracas, and more than three hundred toises above the valley of
Tacagua, divides the waters which flow into the Rio Guayra and
towards Cabo Blanco. On this point of division, at the entrance of
the branch, the view is highly pleasing. The climate changes as we
descend westward. In the valley of Tacagua we found some new
habitations, and also conucos of maize and plantains. A very
extensive plantation of tuna, or cactus, stamps this barren country
with a peculiar character. The cactuses reach the height of fifteen
feet, and grow in the form of candelabra, like the euphorbia of
Africa. They are cultivated for the purpose of selling their
refreshing fruits in the market of Caracas. The variety which has
no thorns is called, strangely enough, in the colonies, tuna de
Espana (Spanish cactus). We measured, at the same place, magueys or
agaves, the long stems of which, laden with flowers, were
forty-four feet high.
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