Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 126 of 332 - First - Home
He Found, In June, 1835, The Surface Of The Island Of Cuba,
Without The Isla Dos Pinos, To Be 3520 Square Sea Leagues, And With
That Island 3615.
From this calculation, which has been twice
repeated, it results that the island of Cuba is one-seventh less
Than
has hitherto been believed; that it is 32/100 larger than Hayti, or
San Domingo; that its surface equals that of Portugal, and within
one-eighth that of England without Wales; and that if the whole
archipelago of the Antilles presents as great an area as the half of
Spain, the island of Cuba alone almost equals in surface the other
Great and Small Antilles. Its greatest length, from Cape San Antonio
to Point Maysi (in a direction from west-south-west to east-north-east
and from west-north-west to east-south-east) is 227 leagues; and its
greatest breadth (in the direction north and south), from Point
Maternillo to the mouth of the Magdalena, near Peak Tarquino, is 37
leagues. The mean breadth of the island, on four-fifths of its length,
between the Havannah and Puerto Principe, is 15 leagues. In the best
cultivated part, between the Havannah and Batabano, the isthmus is
only eight sea leagues. Among the great islands of the globe, that of
Java most resembles the island of Cuba in its form and area (4170
square leagues). Cuba has a circumference of coast of 520 leagues, of
which 280 belong to the south shore, between Cape San Antonio and
Punta Maysi.
The island of Cuba, over more than four-fifths of its surface, is
composed of low lands. The soil is covered with secondary and tertiary
formations, formed by some rocks of gneiss-granite, syenite and
euphotide. The knowledge obtained hitherto of the geologic
configuration of the country, is as unsatisfactory as what is known
respecting the relative age and nature of the soil. It is only
ascertained that the highest group of mountains lies at the
south-eastern extremity of the island, between Cape Cruz, Punta Maysi,
and Holguin. This mountainous part, called the Sierra or Las Montanas
del Cobre (the Copper Mountains), situated north-west of the town of
Santiago de Cuba, appears to be about 1200 toises in height. If this
calculation be correct, the summits of the Sierra would command those
of the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and the peaks of La Selle and La
Hotte in the island of San Domingo. The Sierra of Tarquino, fifty
miles west of the town of Cuba, belongs to the same group as the
Copper Mountains. The island is crossed from east-south-east to
west-north-west by a chain of hills, which approach the southern coast
between the meridians of La Ciudad de Puerto Principe and the Villa
Clara; while, further to the westward towards Alvarez and Matanzas,
they stretch in the direction of the northern coast. Proceeding from
the mouth of the Rio Guaurabo to the Villa de la Trinidad, I saw on
the north-west, the Lomas de San Juan, which form needles or horns
more than 300 toises high, with their declivities sloping regularly to
the south.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 126 of 332
Words from 65611 to 66139
of 174507