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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A Small Portion Of Hilly Land
Separates The Town Of Carthagena And The Islet Of Manga From The
Cienega De Tesca.
Those hills, some of which are more than 500 feet
high, command the town.
The Castillo de San Lazaro is seen from afar
rising like a great rocky pyramid; when examined nearer its
fortifications are not very formidable. Layers of clay and sand,
belonging to the tertiary formation of nagelfluhe, are covered with
bricks and furnish a kind of construction which has little stability.
The Cerro de Santa Maria de la Popa, crowned by a convent and some
batteries, rises above the fort of San Lazaro and is worthy of more
solid and extensive works. The image of the Virgin, preserved in the
church of the convent, has been long revered by mariners. The hill
itself forms a prolonged ridge from west to east. The calcareous rock,
with cardites, meandrites and petrified corals, somewhat resembles the
tertiary limestone of the peninsula of Araya near Cumana. It is split
and decomposed in the steep parts of the rock, and the preservation of
the convent on so unsolid a foundation is considered by the people as
one of the miracles of the patron of the place. Near the Cerro de la
Popa there appears, on several points, breccia with a limestone cement
containing angular fragments of Lydian stone. Whether this formation
of nagelfluhe is superposed on tertiary limestone of coral, and
whether the fragments of the Lydian stone come from secondary
limestone analogous to that of Zacatecas and the Moro de Nueva
Barcelona, are questions which I have not had leisure to investigate.
The view from the Popa is extensive and varied, and the windings and
rents of the coast give it a peculiar character. I was assured that
sometimes from the windows of the convent and even in the open sea,
before the fort of Boca Chica, the snowy tops of the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta are discernible. The distance of the Horqueta to the Popa
is seventy-eight nautical miles. This group of colossal mountains is
most frequently wrapped in thick clouds: and it is most veiled at the
season when the gales blow with violence. Although only forty-five
miles distant from the coast, it is of little service as a signal to
mariners who seek the port of Saint Marta. Hidalgo during the whole
time of his operations near the shore could take only one observation
of the Nevados.
A gloomy vegetation of cactus, Jatropha gossypifolia, croton and
mimosa covers the barren declivity of Cerro de la Popa. In herbalizing
in those wild spots, our guides showed us a thick bush of Acacia
cornigera, which had become celebrated by a deplorable event. Of all
the species of mimosa the acacia is that which is armed with the
sharpest thorns; they are sometimes two inches long; and being hollow,
serve for the habitation of ants of an extraordinary size. A woman,
annoyed by the jealousy and well founded reproaches of her husband,
conceived a project of the most barbarous vengeance.
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