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 Springs, While In Contact With The Oxygen Of The
Atmosphere, Deposit A Good Deal Of Sulphur.
I did not collect, as I
had done at Mariara, the bubbles of air that rise in jets from these
thermal waters.
They no doubt contain a large quantity of nitrogen
because the sulphuretted hydrogen decomposes the mixture of oxygen and
nitrogen dissolved in the spring. The sulphurous waters of San Juan
which issue from calcareous rock, like those of the Bergantin, have
also a low temperature (31.3 degrees); while in the same region the
temperature of the sulphurous waters of Mariara and Las Trincheras
(near Porto Cabello), which gush immediately from gneiss-granite, is
58.9 degrees the former, and 90.4 degrees the latter. It would seem as
if the heat which these springs acquire in the interior of the globe
diminishes in proportion as they pass from primitive to secondary
superposed rocks.
Our excursion to the Aguas Calientes of Bergantin ended with a
vexatious accident. Our host had lent us one of his finest
saddle-horses. We were warned at the same time not to ford the little
river of Narigual. We passed over a sort of bridge, or rather some
trunks of trees laid closely together, and we made our horses swim,
holding their bridles. The horse I had ridden suddenly disappeared
after struggling for some time under water: all our endeavours to
discover the cause of this accident were fruitless. Our guides
conjectured that the animal's legs had been seized by the caymans
which are very numerous in those parts.
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