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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The Wall Is
Perpendicular, And Resembles The Devil's Wall, Which Surrounds A Part
Of The Group Of Mountains In The
Hartz.* (* Die Teufels Mauer near
Wernigerode in Germany.) These peaks, when seen from afar in the
Llanos, strike the imagination
Of the inhabitants of the plain, who
are not accustomed to the least unequal ground, and the height of the
peaks is singularly exaggerated by them. They were described to us as
being in the middle of the steppes (which they in reality bound on the
north) far beyond a range of hills called La Galera. Judging from
angles taken at the distance of two miles, these hills are scarcely
more than a hundred and fifty-six toises higher than the village of
San Juan, and three hundred and fifty toises above the level of the
Llanos. The thermal waters glide out at the foot of these hills, which
are formed of transition-limestone. The waters are impregnated with
sulphuretted hydrogen, like those of Mariara, and form a little pool
or lagoon, in which the thermometer rose only to 31.3 degrees. I
found, on the night of the 9th of March, by very satisfactory
observations of the stars, the latitude of Villa de Cura to be 10
degrees 2 minutes 47 seconds.
The Villa de Cura is celebrated in the country for the miracles of an
image of the Virgin, known by the name of Nuestra Senora de los
Valencianos. This image was found in a ravine by an Indian, about the
middle of the eighteenth century, when it became the object of a
contest between the towns of Cura and San Sebastian de los Reyes.
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