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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These Solitary Haunts The Rock-Manakin With Gilded Plumage (Pipra
Rupicola), One Of The Most Beautiful Birds Of The Tropics, Builds Its
Nest.
The Raudalito of Carucari is caused by an accumulation of
enormous blocks of granite, several of which are spheroids of five or
six feet in diameter, and they are piled together in such a manner, as
to form spacious caverns.
We entered one of these caverns to gather
the confervas that were spread over the clefts and humid sides of the
rock. This spot displayed one of the most extraordinary scenes of
nature that we had contemplated on the banks of the Orinoco. The river
rolled its waters turbulently over our heads. It seemed like the sea
dashing against reefs of rocks; but at the entrance of the cavern we
could remain dry beneath a large sheet of water that precipitated
itself in an arch from above the barrier. In other cavities, deeper,
but less spacious, the rock was pierced by the effect of successive
filtrations. We saw columns of water, eight or nine inches broad,
descending from the top of the vault, and finding an issue by clefts,
that seemed to communicate at great distances with each other.
The cascades of Europe, forming only one fall, or several falls close
to each other, can never produce such variety in the shifting
landscape. This variety is peculiar to rapids, to a succession of
small cataracts several miles in length, to rivers that force their
way across rocky dikes and accumulated blocks of granite.
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