Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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We Frequently
Find These Filaments In The Gulf-Stream, And The Channel Of Bahama, As
Well As Near The Coast Of Buenos Ayres.
Some naturalists are of
opinion that they are vestiges of the eggs of mollusca:
But they
appear to be more like fragments of fuci. The phosphorescence of
sea-water seems however to be augmented by their presence, especially
between 28 and 30 degrees of north latitude, which indicates an origin
of some sort of animal nature.
On the 27th we slowly approached the island of Orchila. Like all the
small islands in the vicinity of the fertile coast of the continent it
has never been inhabited. I found the latitude of the northern cape 11
degrees 51 minutes 44 seconds and the longitude of the eastern cape 68
degrees 26 minutes 5 seconds (supposing Nueva Barcelona to be 67
degrees 4 minutes 48 seconds). Opposite the western cape there is a
small rock against which the waves beat turbulently. Some angles taken
with the sextant gave, for the length of the island from east to west,
8.4 miles (950 toises); and for the breadth scarcely three miles. The
island of Orchila which, from its name, I figured to myself as a bare
rock covered with lichens, was at that period beautifully verdant. The
hills of gneiss were covered with grasses. It appears that the
geological constitution of Orchila resembles, on a small scale, that
of Marguerita. It consists of two groups of rocks joined by a neck of
land; it is an isthmus covered with sand which seems to have issued
from the floods by the successive lowering of the level of the sea.
The rocks, like all those which are perpendicular and insulated in the
middle of the sea, appear much more elevated than they really are, for
they scarcely exceed from 80 to 90 toises. The Punta rasa stretches to
the north-west and is lost, like a sandbank, below the waters. It is
dangerous for navigators, and so is likewise the Mogote which, at the
distance of two miles from the western cape, is surrounded by
breakers. On a very near examination of these rocks we saw the strata
of gneiss inclined towards the north-west and crossed by thick layers
of quartz. The destruction of these layers has doubtless created the
sands of the surrounding beach. Some clumps of trees shade the
valleys, the summits of the hills are crowned with fan-leaved
palm-trees; probably the palma de sombrero of the Llanos (Corypha
tectorum). Rain is not abundant in these countries; but probably some
springs might be found on the island of Orchila if sought for with the
same care as in the mica-slate rocks of Punta Araya. When we recollect
how many bare and rocky islands are inhabited and cultivated between
the 17th and 26th degrees of latitude in the archipelago of the Lesser
Antilles and Bahama islands, we are surprised to find those islands
desert which are near to the coast of Cumana, Barcelona and Caracas.
They would long have ceased to be so had they been under the dominion
of any other government than that to which they belong.
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