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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On The Morning Of The 17th Of March, We Came Within Sight Of The Most
Eastern Island Of The Group Of The Lesser Caymans.
Comparing the
reckoning with the chronometric longitude, I ascertained that the
currents had borne us in seventeen hours twenty miles westward.
The
island is called by the English pilots Cayman-brack, and by the
Spanish pilots, Cayman chico oriental. It forms a rocky wall, bare and
steep towards the south and south-east. The north and north-west part
is low, sandy, and scantily covered with vegetation. The rock is
broken into narrow horizontal ledges. From its whiteness and its
proximity to the island of Cuba, I supposed it to be of Jura
limestone. We approached the eastern extremity of Cayman-brack within
the distance of 400 toises. The neighbouring coast is not entirely
free from danger and breakers; yet the temperature of the sea had not
sensibly diminished at its surface. The chronometer of Louis Berthoud
gave me 82 degrees 7 minutes 37 seconds for the longitude of the
eastern cape of Cayman-brack. The latitude reduced by the reckoning on
the rhumbs of wind at the meridian observation, appeared to me to be
19 degrees 40 minutes 50 seconds.
As long as we were within sight of the rock of Cayman-brack
sea-turtles of extraordinary dimensions swam round our vessel. The
abundance of these animals led Columbus to give the whole group of the
Caymans the name of Penascales de las Tortugas (rocks of the turtles.)
Our sailors would have thrown themselves into the water to catch some
of these animals; but the numerous sharks that accompany them rendered
the attempt too perilous. The sharks fixed their jaws on great iron
hooks which were flung to them; these hooks were very sharp and (for
want of anzuelos encandenados* (* Fish-hooks with chains.)) they were
tied to cords: the sharks were in this manner drawn up half the length
of their bodies; and we were surprised to see that those which had
their mouths wounded and bleeding continued to seize the bait over and
over again during several hours.* (* Vidimus quoque squales,
quotiescunque, hamo icti, dimidia parte corporis e fluctibus
extrahebantur, cito alvo stercus emittere haud absimile excrementis
caninis. Commovebat intestina (ut arbitramur) subitus pavor. Although
the form and number of teeth change with age, and the teeth appear
successively in the shark genus, I doubt whether Don Antonio Ulloa be
correct in stating that the young sharks have two, and the old ones
four rows of grinders. These, like many other sea-fish, are easily
accustomed to live in fresh water, or in water slightly briny. It is
observed that sharks (tiburones) abound of late in the Laguna of
Maracaybo, whither they have been attracted by the dead bodies thrown
into the water after the frequent battles between the Spanish
royalists and the Columbian republicans.) At the sight of these
voracious fish the sailors in a Spanish vessel always recollect the
local fable of the coast of Venezuela, which describes the benediction
of a bishop as having softened the habits of the sharks, which are
everywhere else the dread of mariners. Do these wild sharks of the
port of La Guayra specifically differ from those which are so
formidable in the port of the Havannah? And do the former belong to
the group of Emissoles with small sharp teeth, which Cuvier
distinguishes from the Melandres, by the name of Musteli?
The wind freshened more and more from the south-east, as we advanced
in the direction of Cape Negril and the western extremity of the great
bank of La Vibora. We were often forced to diverge from our course;
and, on account of the extreme smallness of our vessel, we were almost
constantly under water. On the 18th of March at noon we found
ourselves in latitude 18 degrees 17 minutes 40 seconds, and in 81
degrees 50 minutes longitude. The horizon, to the height of 50
degrees, was covered with those reddish vapours so common within the
tropics, and which never seem to affect the hygrometer at the surface
of the globe. We passed fifty miles west of Cape Negril on the south,
nearly at the point where several charts indicate an insulated flat of
which the position is similar to that of Sancho Pardo, opposite to
Cape San Antonio de Cuba. We saw no change in the bottom. It appears
that the rocky shoal at a depth of four fathoms, near Cape Negril, has
no more existence than the rock (cascabel) itself, long believed to
mark the western extremity of La Vibora (Pedro Bank, Portland Rock or
la Sola), marking the eastern extremity. On the 19th of March, at four
in the afternoon, the muddy colour of the sea denoted that we had
reached that part of the bank of La Vibora where we no longer find
fifteen, and indeed scarcely nine or ten, fathoms of water. Our
chronometric longitude was 81 degrees 3 minutes; and our latitude
probably below 17 degrees. I was surprised that, at the noon
observation, at 17 degrees 7 minutes of latitude, we yet perceived no
change in the colour of the water. Spanish vessels going from Batabano
or Trinidad de Cuba to Carthagena, usually pass over the bank of La
Vibora, on its western side, at between fifteen and sixteen fathoms
water. The dangers of the breakers begin only beyond the meridian 80
degrees 45 minutes west longitude. In passing along the bank on its
southern limit, as pilots often do in proceeding from Cumana or other
parts of the mainland, to the Great Caymnan or Cape San Antonio, they
need not ascend along the rocks, above 16 degrees 47 minutes latitude.
Fortunately the currents run on the whole bank to south-west.
Considering La Vibora not as a submerged land, but as a heaved-up part
of the surface of the globe, which has not reached the level of the
sea, we are struck at finding on this great submarine island, as on
the neighbouring land of Jamaica and Cuba, the loftiest heights
towards its eastern boundary.
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