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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But The Difference Of Climate Observable Between
Places So Near Each Other Is Perhaps Less Owing To Comparative
Height Than To Local Circumstances.
Among these causes we may cite
the proximity of the forests; the frequency of descending currents,
so common in these valleys, closed on every side; the abundance of
rain; and those thick fogs which diminish during a great part of
the year the direct action of the solar rays.
The decrement of the
heat being nearly the same within the tropics, and during the
summer under the temperate zone, the small difference of level of
one hundred toises should produce only a change in the mean
temperature of 1 or 1.5 degrees. But we shall soon find that at
Cumanacoa the difference rises to more than four degrees. This
coolness of the climate is sometimes the more surprising, as very
great heat is felt at Carthago (in the province of Popayan); at
Tomependa, on the bank of the river Amazon, and in the valleys of
Aragua, to the west of Caracas; though the absolute height of these
different places is between 200 and 480 toises. In plains as well
as on mountains the isothermal lines (lines of similar heat) are
not constantly parallel to the equator, or the surface of the
globe. It is the grand problem of meteorology to determine the
inflections of these lines, and to discover, amid modifications
produced by local causes, the constant laws of the distribution of
heat.
The port of Cumana is only seven nautical leagues from Cumanacoa.
It scarcely ever rains in the first-mentioned place, while in the
latter there are seven months of wintry weather. At Cumanacoa, the
dry season begins at the winter solstice, and lasts till the vernal
equinox. Light showers are frequent in the months of April, May,
and June. The dry weather then returns again, and lasts from the
summer solstice to the end of August. Then come the real winter
rains, which cease only in the month of November, and during which
torrents of water pour down from the skies.
It was during the winter season that we took up our first abode in
the Missions. Every night a thick fog covered the sky, and it was
only at intervals that I succeeded in taking some observations of
the stars. The thermometer kept from 18.5 to 20 degrees, which
under this zone, and to the sensations of a traveller coming from
the coasts, appears a great degree of coolness. I never perceived
the temperature in the night at Cumana below 21 degrees. The
greatest heat is felt from noon to 3 o'clock, the thermometer
keeping between 26 and 27 degrees. The maximum of the heat, about
two hours after the passage of the sun over the meridian, was very
regularly marked by a storm which murmured near. Large black and
low clouds dissolved in rain, which came down in torrents: these
rains lasted two or three hours, and lowered the thermometer five
or six degrees. About five o'clock the rain entirely ceased, the
sun reappeared a little before it set, and the hygrometer moved
towards the point of dryness; but at eight or nine we were again
enveloped in a thick stratum of vapour. These different changes
follow successively, we were assured, during whole months, and yet
not a breath of wind is felt. Comparative experiments led us to
believe that in general the nights at Cumanacoa are from two to
three, and the days from four to five centesimal degrees cooler
than at the port of Cumana. These differences are great; and if,
instead of meteorological instruments, we consulted only our own
feelings, we should suppose they were still more considerable.
The vegetation of the plain which surrounds the town is monotonous,
but, owing to the extreme humidity of the air, remarkable for its
freshness. It is chiefly characterized by an arborescent solanum,
forty feet in height, the Urtica baccifera, and a new species of
the genus Guettarda.* (* These trees are surrounded by Galega
pilosa, Stellaria rotundifolia, Aegiphila elata of Swartz,
Sauvagesia erecta, Martinia perennis, and a great number of
Rivinas. We find among the gramineous plants, in the savannah of
Cumanacoa, the Paspalus lenticularis, Panicum ascendens, Pennisetum
uniflorum, Gynerium saccharoides, Eleusine indica, etc.) The ground
is very fertile, and might be easily watered if trenches were cut
from a great number of rivulets, the springs of which never dry up
during the whole year. The most valuable production of the district
is tobacco. Since the introduction of the farm* (* Estanco real de
tabaco, royal monopoly of tobacco.) in 1779, the cultivation of
tobacco in the province of Cumana is nearly confined to the valley
of Cumanacoa; as in Mexico it is permitted only in the two
districts of Orizaba and Cordova. The farm system is a monopoly
odious to the people. All the tobacco that is gathered must be sold
to government; and to prevent, or rather to diminish fraud, it has
been found most easy to concentrate the cultivation in one point.
Guards scour the country, to destroy any plantations without the
boundaries of the privileged districts; and to inform against those
inhabitants who smoke cigars prepared by their own hands.
Next to the tobacco of the island of Cuba and of the Rio Negro,
that of Cumana is the most aromatic. It excels all the tobacco of
New Spain and of the province of Varinas. We shall give some
particulars of its culture, which essentially differs from the
method practised in Virginia. The prodigious expansion which is
remarked in the solaneous plants of the valley of Cumanacoa,
especially in the abundant species of the Solanum arborescens, of
aquartia, and of cestrum, seems to indicate the favourable nature
of this spot for plantations of tobacco. The seed is sown in the
open ground, at the beginning of September; though sometimes not
till the month of December, which period is however less favourable
for the harvest. The cotyledons appear on the eighth day, and the
young plants are covered with large leaves of heliconia and
plantain, and shelter them from the direct action of the sun.
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