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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Tormented During The Day By Gadflies And Mosquitos, The Horses,
Mules, And Cows Find Themselves Attacked At Night By Enormous Bats,
Which Fasten On Their Backs, And Cause Wounds That Become Dangerous,
Because They Are Filled With Acaridae And Other Hurtful Insects.
In
the time of great drought the mules gnaw even the thorny cactus* in
order to imbibe its cooling juice, and draw it forth as from a
vegetable fountain.
(* The asses are particularly adroit in extracting
the moisture contained in the Cactus melocatus. They push aside the
thorns with their hoofs; but sometimes lame themselves in performing
this feat.) During the great inundations these same animals lead an
amphibious life, surrounded by crocodiles, water-serpents, and
manatees. Yet, such are the immutable laws of nature, that their races
are preserved in the struggle with the elements, and amid so many
sufferings and dangers. When the waters retire, and the rivers return
again into their beds, the savannah is overspread with a beautiful
scented grass; and the animals of Europe and Upper Asia seem to enjoy,
as in their native climes, the renewed vegetation of spring.
During the time of great floods, the inhabitants of these countries,
to avoid the force of the currents, and the danger arising from the
trunks of trees which these currents bring down, instead of ascending
the beds of rivers in their boats, cross the savannahs. To go from San
Fernando to the villages of San Juan de Payara, San Raphael de
Atamaica, or San Francisco de Capanaparo, they direct their course due
south, as if they were crossing a single river of twenty leagues
broad. The junctions of the Guarico, the Apure, the Cabullare, and the
Arauca with the Orinoco, form, at a hundred and sixty leagues from the
coast of Guiana, a kind of interior Delta, of which hydrography
furnishes few examples in the Old World. According to the height of
the mercury in the barometer, the waters of the Apure have only a fall
of thirty-four toises from San Fernando to the sea. The fall from the
mouths of the Osage and the Missouri to the bar of the Mississippi is
not more considerable. The savannahs of Lower Louisiana everywhere
remind us of the savannahs of the Lower Orinoco.
During our stay of three days in the little town of San Fernando, we
lodged with the Capuchin missionary, who lived much at his ease. We
were recommended to him by the bishop of Caracas, and he showed us the
most obliging attention. He consulted me on the works that had been
undertaken to prevent the flood from undermining the shore on which
the town was built. The flowing of the Portuguesa into the Apure gives
the latter an impulse towards south-east; and, instead of procuring a
freer course for the river, attempts were made to confine it by dykes
and piers. It was easy to predict that these would be rapidly
destroyed by the swell of the waters, the shore having been weakened
by taking away the earth from behind the dyke to employ it in these
hydraulic constructions.
San Fernando is celebrated for the excessive heat which prevails there
the greater part of the year; and before I begin the recital of our
long navigation on the rivers, I shall relate some facts calculated to
throw light on the meteorology of the tropics. We went, provided with
thermometers, to the flat shores covered with white sand which border
the river Apure. At two in the afternoon I found the sand, wherever it
was exposed to the sun, at 52.5 degrees. The instrument, raised
eighteen inches above the sand, marked 42.8 degrees, and at six feet
high 38.7 degrees. The temperature of the air under the shade of a
ceiba was 36.2 degrees. These observations were made during a dead
calm. As soon as the wind began to blow, the temperature of the air
rose 3 degrees higher, yet we were not enveloped by a wind of sand,
but the strata of air had been in contact with a soil more strongly
heated, or through which whirlwinds of sand had passed. This western
part of the Llanos is the hottest, because it receives air that has
already crossed the rest of the barren steppe. The same difference has
been observed between the eastern and western parts of the deserts of
Africa, where the trade-winds blow.
The heat augments sensibly in the Llanos during the rainy season,
particularly in the month of July, when the sky is cloudy, and
reflects the radiant heat toward the earth. During this season the
breeze entirely ceases; and, according to good thermometrical
observations made by M. Pozo, the thermometer rises in the shade to 39
and 39.5 degrees, though kept at the distance of more than fifteen
feet from the ground. As we approached the banks of the Portuguesa,
the Apure, and the Apurito, the air became cooler from the evaporation
of so considerable a mass of water. This effect is more especially
perceptible at sunset. During the day the shores of the rivers,
covered with white sand, reflect the heat in an insupportable degree,
even more than the yellowish brown clayey grounds of Calabozo and
Tisnao.
On the 28th of March I was on the shore at sunrise to measure the
breadth of the Apure, which is two hundred and six toises. The thunder
rolled in all directions around. It was the first storm and the first
rain of the season. The river was swelled by the easterly wind; but it
soon became calm, and then some great cetacea, much resembling the
porpoises of our seas, began to play in long files on the surface of
the water. The slow and indolent crocodiles seem to dread the
neighbourhood of these animals, so noisy and impetuous in their
evolutions, for we saw them dive whenever they approached. It is a
very extraordinary phenomenon to find cetacea at such a distance from
the coast.
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