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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This Part Of My Itinerary May Differ Entirely
From The Maps That Preceded It.
I shall begin the description of this
country with the granitic group of Duida, at the foot of which we
sojourned.
This group is bounded on the west by the Rio Tamatama, and
on the east by the Rio Guapo. Between these two tributary streams of
the Orinoco, amid the morichales, or clumps of mauritia palm-trees,
which surround Esmeralda, the Rio Sodomoni flows, celebrated for the
excellence of the pine-apples that grow upon its banks. I measured, on
the 22nd of May, in the savannah at the foot of Duida, a base of four
hundred and seventy-five metres in length; the angle, under which the
summit of the mountain appeared at the distance of thirteen thousand
three hundred and twenty-seven metres, was still nine degrees. A
trigonometric measurement, made with great care, gave me for Duida
(that is, for the most elevated peak, which is south-west of the Cerro
Maraguaca) two thousand one hundred and seventy-nine metres, or one
thousand one hundred and eighteen toises, above the plain of
Esmeralda. The Cerro Duida thus yields but little in height (scarcely
eighty or one hundred toises) to the summit of St. Gothard, or the
Silla of Caracas on the shore of Venezuela. It is indeed considered as
a colossal mountain in those countries; and this celebrity gives a
precise idea of the mean height of Parima and of all the mountains of
eastern America. To the east of the Sierra Nevada de Merida, as well
as to the south-east of the Paramo de las Rosas, none of the chains
that extend in the same parallel line reach the height of the central
ridge of the Pyrenees.
The granitic summit of Duida is so nearly perpendicular that the
Indians have vainly attempted the ascent. It is a well-known fact that
mountains not remarkable for elevation are sometimes the most
inaccessible. At the beginning and end of the rainy season, small
flames, which seem to change their place, are seen on the top of
Duida. This phenomenon, the existence of which is borne out by
concurrent testimony, has caused this mountain to be improperly called
a volcano. As it stands nearly alone, it might be supposed that
lightning from time to time sets fire to the brushwood; but this
supposition loses its probability when we reflect on the extreme
difficulty with which plants are ignited in these damp climates. It
must be observed also that these flames are said to appear often where
the rock seems scarcely covered with turf, and that the same igneous
phenomena are visible, on days entirely exempt from storms, on the
summit of Guaraco or Murcielago, a hill opposite the mouth of the Rio
Tamatama, on the southern bank of the Orinoco. This hill is scarcely
elevated one hundred toises above the neighbouring plains. If the
statements of the natives be correct, it is probable that some
subterraneous cause produces these flames on the Duida and the
Guaraco; for they never appear on the lofty neighbouring mountains of
Jao and Maraguaca, so often wrapped in electric storms.
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