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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M. Bonpland And Several Passengers Saw In The Night At
The Distance Of A Quarter Of A Mile, With The Wind, A Small Flame On
The Surface Of The Ocean; It Ran In The Direction Of South-West And
Lighted Up The Atmosphere.
No shock of earthquake was felt and there
was no change in the direction of the waves.
Was it a phosphoric gleam
produced by a great accumulation of mollusca in a state of
putrefaction; or did this flame issue from the depth of the sea, as is
said to have been sometimes observable in latitudes agitated by
volcanoes? The latter supposition appears to me devoid of all
probability. The volcanic flame can only issue from the deep when the
rocky bed of the ocean is already heaved up so that the flames and
incandescent scoriae escape from the swelled and creviced part without
traversing the waters.
At half-past ten in the morning of the 4th of December we were in the
meridian of Cape Bacco (Punta Abacou) which I found in 76 degrees 7
minutes 50 seconds, or 9 degrees 3 minutes 2 seconds west of Nueva
Barcelona. Having attained the parallel of 17 degrees, the fear of
pirates made us prefer the direct passage across the bank of Vibora,
better known by the name of the Pedro Shoals. This bank occupies more
than two hundred and eighty square sea leagues and its configuration
strikes the eye of the geologist by its resemblance to that of
Jamaica, which is in its neighbourhood.
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