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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The Most Abundant
Springs Rise On The Southern Coast Where, From Xagua To Punta De
Sabina, Over A Length Of Forty-Six Leagues, The Soil Is Extremely
Marshy.
So great is the abundance of the waters which filter by the
clefts of the stratified rock that, from the effect of an hydrostatic
pressure, fresh water springs far from the coast, and amidst salt
water.
The jurisdiction of the Havannah is not the most fertile part
of the island; and the few sugar-plantations that existed in the
vicinity of the capital are now converted into farms for cattle
(potreros) and fields of maize and forage, of which the profits are
considerable. The agriculturists of the island of Cuba distinguish two
kinds of earth, often mixed together like the squares of a
draught-board, black earth (negra o prieta), clayey and full of
moisture, and red earth (bermeja), more silicious and containing oxide
of iron. The tierra negra is generally preferred (on account of its
best preserving humidity) for the cultivation of the sugarcane, and
the tierra bermeja for coffee; but many sugar plantations are
established on the red soil.
The climate of the Havannah is in accordance with the extreme limits
of the torrid zone: it is a tropical climate, in which a more unequal
distribution of heat at different parts of the year denotes the
passage to the climates of the temperate zone. Calcutta (latitude 22
degrees 34 minutes north), Canton (latitude 23 degrees 8 minutes
north), Macao (latitude 22 degrees 12 minutes north), the Havannah
(latitude 23 degrees 9 minutes north) and Rio Janeiro (latitude 22
degrees 54 minutes south) are places which, from their position at the
level of the ocean near the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn,
consequently at an equal distance from the equator, afford great
facilities for the study of meteorology. This study can only advance
by the determination of certain numerical elements which are the
indispensable basis of the laws we seek to discover. The aspect of
vegetation being identical near the limits of the torrid zone and at
the equator, we are accustomed to confound vaguely the climates of two
zones comprised between 0 and 10 degrees, and between 15 and 23
degrees of latitude. The region of palm-trees, bananas and arborescent
gramina extends far beyond the two tropics: but it would be dangerous
to apply what has been observed at the extremity of the tropical zone
to what may take place in the plains near the equator. In order to
rectify those errors it is important that the mean temperature of the
year and months be well known, as also the thermometric oscillations
in different seasons at the parallel of the Havannah; and to prove by
an exact comparison with other points alike distant from the equator,
for instance, with Rio Janeiro and Macao, that the lowering of
temperature observed in the island of Cuba is owing to the irruption
and the stream of layers of cold air, borne from the temperate zones
towards the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
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