Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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May We Attribute The Insalubrity Of The Atmosphere To
The Same Causes As Those Which Operate In The Plains Between
Tivoli
and Rome, namely, disengagements of sulphuretted hydrogen?* (* Don
Carlos del Pozo has discovered in this district, at the bottom
Of the
Quebrada de Moroturo, a stratum of clayey earth, black, strongly
soiling the fingers, emitting a powerful smell of sulphur, and
inflaming spontaneously when slightly moistened and exposed for a long
time to the rays of the tropical sun. The detonation of this muddy
substance is very violent.) Possibly, also, the mountainous lands,
near the llanos of Monai, may have a baneful influence on the
surrounding plains. The south-easterly winds may convey to them the
putrid exhalations that rise from the ravine of Villegas, and from La
Sienega de Cabra, between Carora and Carache. I am desirous of
collecting every circumstance having a relation to the salubrity of
the air; for, in a matter so obscure, it is only by the comparison of
a great number of phenomena, that we can hope to discover the truth.
The barren yet feverish savannahs, extending from Barquesimeto to the
eastern shore of the lake of Maracaybo, are partly covered with
cactus; but the good silvester-cochineal, known by the vague name of
grana de Carora, comes from a more temperate region, between Carora
and Truxillo, and particularly from the valley of the Rio Mucuju,* to
the east of Merida. (* This little river descends from the Paramo de
los Conejos, and flows into the Rio Albarregas.) The inhabitants
altogether neglect this production, so much sought for in commerce.
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