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 Punta Rasa Stretches To
The North-West And Is Lost, Like A Sandbank, Below The Waters.
It is
dangerous for navigators, and so is likewise the Mogote which, at the
distance of two miles from the western cape, is surrounded by
breakers.
On a very near examination of these rocks we saw the strata
of gneiss inclined towards the north-west and crossed by thick layers
of quartz. The destruction of these layers has doubtless created the
sands of the surrounding beach. Some clumps of trees shade the
valleys, the summits of the hills are crowned with fan-leaved
palm-trees; probably the palma de sombrero of the Llanos (Corypha
tectorum). Rain is not abundant in these countries; but probably some
springs might be found on the island of Orchila if sought for with the
same care as in the mica-slate rocks of Punta Araya. When we recollect
how many bare and rocky islands are inhabited and cultivated between
the 17th and 26th degrees of latitude in the archipelago of the Lesser
Antilles and Bahama islands, we are surprised to find those islands
desert which are near to the coast of Cumana, Barcelona and Caracas.
They would long have ceased to be so had they been under the dominion
of any other government than that to which they belong. Nothing can
engage men to circumscribe their industry within the narrow limits of
a small island when a neighbouring continent offers them greater
advantages.
We perceived at sunset the two points of the Roca de afuera, rising
like towers in the midst of the ocean.
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