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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We Pursued Our Course During A Part Of The Night, To Pitch Our Tent
Again In The Island Of Panumana.
We recognized with pleasure the spots
where we had botanized when going up the Orinoco.
We examined once
more on the beach of Guachaco that small formation of sandstone, which
reposes directly on granite. Its position is the same as that of the
sandstone which Burckhardt observed at the entrance of Nubia,
superimposed on the granite of Syene. We passed, without visiting it,
the new mission of San Borga, where (as we learned with regret a few
days after) the little colony of Guahibos had fled al monte, from the
chimerical fear that we should carry them off; to sell them as poitos,
or slaves. After having passed the rapids of Tabaje, and the Raudal of
Cariven, near the mouth of the great Rio Meta, we arrived without
accident at Carichana. The missionary received us with that kind
hospitality which he extended to us on our first passage. The sky was
unfavourable for astronomical observations; we had obtained some new
ones in the two Great Cataracts; but thence, as far as the mouth of
the Apure, we were obliged to renounce the attempt. M. Bonpland had
the satisfaction at Carichana of dissecting a manatee more than nine
feet long. It was a female, and the flesh appeared to us not
unsavoury. I have spoken in another place of the manner of catching
this herbivorous cetacea. The Piraoas, some families of whom inhabit
the mission of Carichana, detest this animal to such a degree, that
they hid themselves, to avoid being obliged to touch it, whilst it was
being conveyed to our hut. They said that the people of their tribe
die infallibly when they eat of it. This prejudice is the more
singular, as the neighbours of the Piraoas, the Guamos and the
Ottomacs, are very fond of the flesh of the manatee. The flesh of the
crocodile is also an object of horror to some tribes, and of
predilection to others.
The island of Cuba furnishes a fact little known in the history of the
manatee. South of the port of Xagua, several miles from the coast,
there are springs of fresh water in the middle of the sea. They are
supposed to be owing to a hydrostatic pressure existing in
subterraneous channels, communicating with the lofty mountains of
Trinidad. Small vessels sometimes take in water there; and, what is
well worthy of observation, large manatees remain habitually in those
spots. I have already called the attention of naturalists to the
crocodiles which advance from the mouth of rivers far into the sea.
Analogous circumstances may have caused, in the ancient catastrophes
of our planet, that singular mixture of pelagian and fluviatile bones
and petrifactions, which is observed in some rocks of recent
formation.
Our stay at Carichana was very useful in recruiting our strength after
our fatigues. M. Bonpland bore with him the germs of a cruel malady;
he needed repose; but as the delta of the tributary streams included
between the Horeda and Paruasi is covered with a rich vegetation, he
made long herbalizations, and was wet through several times in a day.
We found, fortunately, in the house of the missionary, the most
attentive care; we were supplied with bread made of maize flour, and
even with milk.
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