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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Only Those Plants Which Have Very Tough And
Glossy Leaves Resist This Absence Of Humidity.
Beneath the fine sky
of the tropics the traveller is struck with the almost hibernal
aspect of the country;
But the freshest verdure again appears when
he reaches the banks of the Orinoco, where another climate
prevails; and the great forests preserve by their shade a certain
quantity of moisture in the soil, by sheltering it from the
devouring heat of the sun.
Beyond the small village of Antimano the valley becomes much
narrower. The river is bordered with Lata, a fine gramineous plant
with distich leaves, which sometimes reaches the height of thirty
feet.* (* G. saccharoides.) Every hut is surrounded with enormous
trees of persea,* (* Laurus persea (alligator pear).) at the foot
of which the aristolochiae, paullinia, and other creepers vegetate.
The neighbouring mountains, covered with forests, seem to spread
humidity over the western extremity of the valley of Caracas. We
passed the night before our arrival at Las Ajuntas at a sugar-cane
plantation. A square house (the hacienda or farm of Don Fernando
Key-Munoz) contained nearly eighty negroes; they were lying on
skins of oxen spread upon the ground. In each apartment of the
house were four slaves: it looked like a barrack. A dozen fires
were burning in the farm-yard, where people were employed in
dressing food, and the noisy mirth of the blacks almost prevented
us from sleeping. The clouds hindered me from observing the stars;
the moon appeared only at intervals.
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