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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See MacCulloch In Edinburgh Journal Of Science 1824 July
Pages 3 To 16.
On a vein of serpentine, and the alterations it
produces on the banks of Carity, near West-Balloch in
Forfarshire see
Charles Lyell l.c. volume 3 page 43.) It is the latter formation of
euphotide which, by its mixture with diorite, is itself linked with
hyperthenite, in which real beds of serpentine are sometimes developed
in Scotland and in Norway. No volcanic rocks of a more recent period
have hitherto been discovered in the island of Cuba; for instance,
neither trachytes, dolerites, nor basalts. I know not whether they are
found in the rest of the Great Antilles, of which the geologic
constitution differs essentially from that of the series of calcareous
and volcanic islands which stretch from Trinidad to the Virgin
Islands. Earthquakes, which are in general less fatal at Cuba than at
Porto Rico and Hayti, are most felt in the eastern part, between Cape
Maysi, Santiago de Cuba and La Ciudad de Puerto Principe. Perhaps
towards those regions the action of the crevice extends laterally,
which is believed to cross the neck of granitic land between
Port-au-Prince and Cape Tiburon and on which whole mountains were
overthrown in 1770.
The cavernous texture of the limestone formations (soboruco) just
described, the great inclination of the shelvings, the smallness of
the island, the nakedness of the plains and the proximity of the
mountains that form a lofty chain on the southern coast, may be
considered as among the principal causes of the want of rivers and the
drought which is felt, especially in the western part of Cuba. In this
respect, Hayti, Jamaica, and several of the Lesser Antilles, which
contain volcanic heights covered with forests, are more favoured by
nature. The lands most celebrated for their fertility are the
districts of Xagua, Trinidad, Matanzas and Mariel. The valley of
Guines owes its reputation to artificial irrigation (sanjas de riego).
Notwithstanding the want of great rivers and the unequal fertility of
the soil, the island of Cuba, by its undulated surface, its
continually renewed verdure, and the distribution of its vegetable
forms, presents at every step the most varied and beautiful landscape.
Two trees with large, tough, and glossy leaves, the Mammea and the
Calophyllum calaba, five species of palm-trees (the palma real, or
Oreodoxa regia, the common cocoa-tree, the Cocos crispa, the Corypha
miraguama and the C. maritima), and small shrubs constantly loaded
with flowers, decorate the hills and the savannahs. The Cecropia
peltata marks the humid spots. It would seem as if the whole island
had been originally a forest of palm, lemon, and wild orange trees.
The latter, which bear a small fruit, are probably anterior to the
arrival of Europeans,* who transported thither the agrumi of the
gardens; they rarely exceed the height of from ten to fifteen feet. (*
The best informed inhabitants of the island assert that the cultivated
orange-trees brought from Asia preserve the size and all the
properties of their fruits when they become wild. The Brazilians
affirm that the small bitter orange which bears the name of loranja do
terra and is found wild, far from the habitations of man, is of
American origin. Caldcleugh, Travels in South America.) The lemon and
orange trees are most frequently separate; and the new planters, in
clearing the ground by fire, distinguish the quality of the soil
according as it is covered with one or other of those groups of social
plants; they prefer the soil of the naranjal to that which produces
the small lemon. In a country where the making of sugar is not
sufficiently improved to admit of the employment of any other fuel
than the bagasse (dried sugar-cane) the progressive destruction of the
small woods is a positive calamity. The aridity of the soil augments
in proportion as it is stripped of the trees that sheltered it from
the heat of the sun; for the leaves, emitting heat under a sky always
serene, occasion, as the air cools, a precipitation of aqueous
vapours.
Among the few rivers worthy of attention, the Rio Guines may be
noticed, the Rio Armendaris or Chorrera, of which the waters are led
to the Havannah by the Sanja de Antoneli; the Rio Canto on the north
of the town of Bayamo; the Rio Maximo which rises on the east of
Puerto Principe; the Rio Sagua Grande near Villa Clara; the Rio de las
Palmas which issues opposite Cayo Galiado; the small rivers of Jaruco
and Santa Cruz between Guanabo and Matanzas, navigable at the distance
of some miles from their mouths and favourable for the shipment of
sugar-casks; the Rio San Antonio which, like many others, is engulfed
in the caverns of limestone rocks; the Rio Guaurabo west of the port
of Trinidad; and the Rio Galafre in the fertile district of Filipinas,
which throws itself into the Laguna de Cortez. The most abundant
springs rise on the southern coast where, from Xagua to Punta de
Sabina, over a length of forty-six leagues, the soil is extremely
marshy. So great is the abundance of the waters which filter by the
clefts of the stratified rock that, from the effect of an hydrostatic
pressure, fresh water springs far from the coast, and amidst salt
water. The jurisdiction of the Havannah is not the most fertile part
of the island; and the few sugar-plantations that existed in the
vicinity of the capital are now converted into farms for cattle
(potreros) and fields of maize and forage, of which the profits are
considerable. The agriculturists of the island of Cuba distinguish two
kinds of earth, often mixed together like the squares of a
draught-board, black earth (negra o prieta), clayey and full of
moisture, and red earth (bermeja), more silicious and containing oxide
of iron. The tierra negra is generally preferred (on account of its
best preserving humidity) for the cultivation of the sugarcane, and
the tierra bermeja for coffee; but many sugar plantations are
established on the red soil.
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