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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Every Production Of That
Province, Hides, Cacao, Cotton, And The Indigo Of Mijagual, Which Is
Of The First Quality, Passes Through This Town Towards The Mouths Of
The Orinoco.
During the season of rains large vessels go from
Angostura as far as San Fernando de Apure, and by the Rio Santo
Domingo as far as Torunos, the port of the town of Varinas.
At that
period the inundations of the rivers, which form a labyrinth of
branches between the Apure, the Arauca, the Capanaparo, and the
Sinaruco, cover a country of nearly four hundred square leagues. At
this point, the Orinoco, turned aside from its course, not by
neighbouring mountains, but by the rising of counterslopes, runs
eastward instead of following its previous direction in the line of
the meridian. Considering the surface of the globe as a polyhedron,
formed of planes variously inclined, we may conceive by the mere
inspection of the maps, that the intersection of these slopes, rising
towards the north, the west, and south,* between San Fernando de
Apure, Caycara, and the mouth of the Meta, must cause a considerable
depression. (* The risings towards the north and west are connected
with two lines of ridges, the mountains of Villa de Cura and of
Merida. The third slope, running from north to south, is that of the
land-strait between the Andes and the chain of Parime. It determines
the general inclination of the Orinoco, from the mouth of the Guaviare
to that of the Apure.) The savannahs in this basin are covered with
twelve or fourteen feet of water, and present, at the period of rains,
the aspect of a great lake. The farms and villages which seem as if
situated on shoals, scarcely rise two or three feet above the surface
of the water. Everything here calls to mind the inundations of Lower
Egypt, and the lake of Xarayes, heretofore so celebrated among
geographers, though it exists only during some months of the year. The
swellings of the rivers Apure, Meta, and Orinoco, are also periodical.
In the rainy season, the horses that wander in the savannah, and have
not time to reach the rising grounds of the Llanos, perish by
hundreds. The mares are seen, followed by their colts,* swimming
during a part of the day to feed upon the grass, the tops of which
alone wave above the waters. (The colts are drowned everywhere in
large numbers, because they are sooner tired of swimming, and strive
to follow the mares in places where the latter alone can touch the
ground.) In this state they are pursued by the crocodiles, and it is
by no means uncommon to find the prints of the teeth of these
carnivorous reptiles on their thighs. The carcases of horses, mules,
and cows, attract an innumerable quantity of vultures. The zamuros are
the ibisis of this country, and they render the same service to the
inhabitants of the Llanos as the Vultur percnopterus to the
inhabitants of Egypt.
We cannot reflect on the effects of these inundations without admiring
the prodigious pliability of the organization of the animals which man
has subjected to his sway.
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