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 48 of 170 - First - Home
It Was Sold In My Time At Cumana To The Dyers And
Tanners, At The Price Of Two Reals* Per Pound, While Alum From Spain
Cost Twelve Reals.
(* The real is about 6 1/2 English pence.) This
difference of price was more the result of prejudice and of the
impediments to trade, than of the inferior quality of the alum of the
country, which is fit for use without undergoing any purification.
It
is also found in the chain of mica-slate and clay-slate, on the
north-west coast of the island of Trinidad, at Margareta and near Cape
Chuparuparu, north of the Cerro del Distiladero.* (* Another place was
mentioned to us, west of Bordones, the Puerto Escondido. But that
coast appeared to me to be wholly calcareous; and I cannot conceive
where could be the situation of ampelite and native alum on this
point. Was it in the beds of slaty clay that alternate with the alpine
limestone of Cumanacoa? Fibrous alum is found in Europe only in
formations posterior to those of transition, in lignites and other
tertiary formations belonging to the lignites.) The Indians, who are
naturally addicted to concealment, are not inclined to make known the
spots whence they obtain native alum; but it must be abundant, for I
have seen very considerable quantities of it in their possession at a
time.
South America at present receives its alum from Europe, as Europe in
its turn received it from the natives of Asia previous to the
fifteenth century. Mineralogists, before my travels, knew no
substances which, without addition, calcined or not calcined, could
directly yield alum (sulphate of alumina and potash), except rocks of
trachytic formation, and small veins traversing beds of lignite and
bituminous wood. Both these substances, so different in their origin,
contain all that constitutes alum, that is to say, alumina, sulphuric
acid and potash. The ores of Tolfa, Milo and Nipoligo; those of
Montione, in which silica does not accompany the alumina; the
siliceous breccia of Mont Dore, which contains sulphur in its
cavities; the alumiferous rocks of Parad and Beregh in Hungary, which
belong also to trachytic and pumice conglomerates, may no doubt be
traced to the penetration of sulphurous acid vapours. They are the
products of a feeble and prolonged volcanic action, as may be easily
ascertained in the solfataras of Puzzuoli and the Peak of Teneriffe.
The alumite of Tolfa, which, since my return to Europe, I have
examined on the spot, conjointly with Gay-Lussac, has, by its
oryctognostic characters and its chemical composition, a considerable
affinity to compact feldspar, which constitutes the basis of so many
trachytes and transition-porphyries. It is a siliciferous subsulphate
of alumina and potash, a compact feldspar, with the addition of
sulphuric acid completely formed in it. The waters circulating in
these alumiferous rocks of volcanic origin do not, however, deposit
masses of native alum, to yield which the rocks must be roasted. I
know not of any deposits analogous to those I brought from Cumana; for
the capillary and fibrous masses found in veins traversing beds of
lignites (as on the banks of the Egra, between Saatz and Commothau in
Bohemia), or efflorescing in cavities (as at Freienwalde in
Brandenburg, and at Segario in Sardinia), are impure salts, often
destitute of potash, and mixed with the sulphates of ammonia and
magnesia. A slow decomposition of the pyrites, which probably act as
so many little galvanic piles, renders the waters alumiferous, that
circulate across the bituminous lignites and carburetted clays. These
waters, in contact with carbonate of lime, even give rise to the
deposits of subsulphate of alumina (destitute of potash), found near
Halle, and formerly believed erroneously to be pure alumina belonging,
like the porcelain earth (kaolin) of Morl, to porphyry of red
sandstone. Analogous chemical actions may take place in primitive and
transition slates as well as in tertiary formations. All slates, and
this fact is very important, contain nearly five per cent of potash,
sulphuret of iron, peroxide of iron, carbon, etc. The contact of so
many moistened heterogeneous substances must necessarily lead them to
a change of state and composition. The efflorescent salts that
abundantly cover the aluminous slates of Robalo, show how much these
chemical effects are favoured by the high temperature of the climate;
but, I repeat, in a rock where there are no crevices, no vacuities
parallel to the direction and inclination of the strata, native alum,
semitransparent and of conchoidal fracture, completely filling its
place (its beds), must be regarded as of the same age with the rock in
which it is contained. The term contemporary formation is here taken
in the sense attached to it by geologists, in speaking of beds of
quartz in clay-slate, granular limestone in mica-slate or feldspar in
gneiss.
After having for a long time wandered over barren scenes amidst rocks
entirely devoid of vegetation, our eyes dwelt with pleasure on tufts
of malpighia and croton, which we found in descending toward the
coast. These arborescent crotons were of two new species,* very
remarkable for their form, and peculiar to the peninsula of Araya. (*
Croton argyrophyllus and C. marginatus.) We arrived too late at the
Laguna Chica to visit another rock situated farther east and
celebrated by the name of the Laguna Grande, or the Laguna del
Obispo.* (* Great Lake, or the Bishop's Lake.) We contented ourselves
with admiring it from the height of the mountains that command the
view; and, excepting the ports of Ferrol and Acapulco, there is
perhaps none presenting a more extraordinary configuration. It is an
inland gulf two miles and a half long from east to west, and one mile
broad. The rocks of mica-slate that form the entrance of the port
leave a free passage only two hundred and fifty toises broad. The
water is everywhere from fifteen to twenty-five fathoms deep. Probably
the government of Cumana will one day take advantage of the possession
of this inland gulf and of that of Mochima,* eight leagues east of the
bad road of Nueva Barcelona.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 48 of 170
Words from 48300 to 49316
of 174507