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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On Examining The Law Which The Primitive Strata Of The Cordillera Of
The Coast Follow In Their Dip, We Believe We Recognize One Of The
Causes Of The Extreme Humidity Of The Land Bounded By This Cordillera
And The Ocean.
The dip of the strata is most frequently to the
north-west; so that the waters flow in that
Direction on the ledges of
rock; and form, as we have stated above, that multitude of torrents
and rivers, the inundations of which become so fatal to the health of
the inhabitants, from cape Codera as far as the lake of Maracaybo.
Among the rivers which descend north-east toward the coast of Porto
Cabello, and La Punta de Hicacos, the most remarkable are those of
Tocuyo, Aroa, and Yaracuy. Were it not for the miasmata which infect
the atmosphere, the valleys of Aroa and of Yaracuy would perhaps be
more populous than those of Aragua. Navigable rivers would even give
the former the advantage of facilitating the exportation of their own
crops of sugar and cacao, and that of the productions of the
neighbouring lands; as the wheat of Quibor, the cattle of Monai, and
the copper of Aroa. The mines from which this copper is extracted, are
in a lateral valley, opening into that of Aroa; and which is less hot,
and less unhealthy, than the ravines nearer the sea. In the latter the
Indians have their gold-washings, and the soil conceals rich
copper-ores, which no one has yet attempted to extract.
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