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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From This Situation Of The Most Prominent Islands
And Capes Of The Continent, There Results A Division Into Three
Partial Basins.
The most northerly has long been distinguished by a
particular denomination, that of the Gulf of Mexico; the intermediary
Or central basin may be called the Sea of Honduras, on account of the
gulf of that name which makes a part of it; and the southern basin,
comprehended between the Caribbean Islands and the coast of Venezuela,
the isthmus of Panama, and the country of the Mosquito Indians, would
form the Caribbean Sea. The modern volcanic rocks distributed on the
two opposite banks of the basin of the West Indies on the east and
west, but not on the north and south, is also a phenomenon worthy of
attention. In the Caribbean Islands, a group of volcanoes, partly
extinct and partly burning, stretches from 12 to 18 degrees; and in
the Cordilleras of Guatimala and Mexico from latitude 9 to 19 1/2
degrees. I noticed on the north-west extremity of the basin of the
West Indies that the secondary formations dip towards south-east;
along the coast of Venezuela rocks of gneiss and primitive mica-slate
dip to north-west. The basalts, amygdaloids, and trachytes, which are
often surmounted by tertiary limestones, appear only towards the
eastern and western banks.
3. THE BASIN OF THE LOWER ORINOCO, OR THE PLAINS OF VENEZUELA.
This basin, like the plains of Lombardy, is open to the east. Its
limits are the littoral chain of Venezuela on the north, the eastern
Cordillera of New Grenada on the west, and the Sierra Parime on the
south; but as the latter group extends on the west only to the
meridian of the cataracts of Maypures (longitude 70 degrees 37
minutes), there remains an opening or land-strait, running from north
to south, by which the Llanos of Venezuela communicate with the basin
of the Amazon and the Rio Negro. We must distinguish between the basin
of the Lower Orinoco, properly so called (north of that river and the
Rio Apure), and the plains of Meta and Guaviare. The latter occupy the
space between the mountains of Parime and New Grenada. The two parts
of this basin have an opposite direction; but being alike covered with
gramina, they are usually comprehended in the country under the same
denomination. Those Llanos extend, in the form of an arch, from the
mouth of the Orinoco, by San Fernando de Apure, to the confluence of
the Rio Caguan with the Jupura, consequently along a length of more
than 360 leagues.
(3a.) PART OF THE BASIN OF VENEZUELA RUNNING FROM EAST TO WEST.
The general slope is eastward, and the mean height from 40 to 50
toises. The western bank of that great sea of verdure (mar de yerbas)
is formed by a group of mountains, several of which equal or exceed in
height the Peak of Teneriffe and Mont Blanc. Of this number are the
Paramos del Almorzadero, Cacota, Laura, Porquera, Mucuchies, Timotes,
and Las Rosas.
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