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 172 of 635 - First - Home
The Laguna Chica Is A Cove Surrounded By Perpendicular Mountains, And
Connected With The Gulf Of Cariaco Only By A Narrow Channel
Twenty-Five Fathoms Deep.
It seems, like the fine port of Acapulco, to
owe its existence to the effect of an earthquake.
A beach shows that
the sea is here receding from the land, as on the opposite coast of
Cumana. The peninsula of Araya, which narrows between Cape Mero and
Cape las Minas to one thousand four hundred toises, is little more
than four thousand toises in breadth near the Laguna Chica, reckoning
from one sea to the other. We had to cross this distance in order to
find the native alum and to reach the cape called the Punta de
Chuparuparu. The road is difficult only because no path is traced; and
between precipices of some depth we were obliged to step over ridges
of bare rock, the strata of which are much inclined. The principal
point is nearly two hundred and twenty toises high; but the mountains,
as it often happens in a rocky isthmus, display very singular forms.
The Paps (tetas) of Chacopata and Cariaco, midway between the Laguna
Chica and the town of Cariaco, are peaks which appear isolated when
viewed from the platform of the castle of Cumana. The vegetable earth
in this country is only thirty toises above sea level. Sometimes there
is no rain for the space of fifteen months; if, however, a few drops
fall immediately after the flowering of the melons and gourds, they
yield fruit weighing from sixty to seventy pounds, notwithstanding the
apparent dryness of the air.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 172 of 635
Words from 47005 to 47275
of 174507
