Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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We Seem Then To Be Drawing Near The Mouth
Of A Furnace.
The same impression is felt, when, on the coast of
Caracas, we descend from the mountain of Avila to the port of La
Guayra.
According to the law of the decrement of heat, three
hundred and fifty toises in height produce in this latitude only
three or four degrees difference in temperature. The heat which
overpowers the traveller on his entrance into Santa Cruz, or La
Guayra, must consequently be attributed to the reverberation from
the rocks, against which these towns are built.
The perpetual coolness which prevails at Laguna causes it to be
considered in the Canaries a delightful abode. Situated in a small
plain, surrounded by gardens, protected by a hill which is crowned
by a wood of laurels, myrtle, and arbutus, the capital of Teneriffe
is very beautifully placed. We should be mistaken if, relying on
the account of some travellers, we believed it seated on the border
of a lake. The rain sometimes forms a sheet of water of
considerable extent; and the geologist, who beholds in everything
the past rather than the present state of nature, can have no doubt
but that the whole plain is a great basin dried up. Laguna has
fallen from its opulence, since the lateral eruptions of the
volcano have destroyed the port of Garachico, and since Santa Cruz
has become the central point of the commerce of the island. It
contains only 9000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 400 are monks,
distributed in six convents.
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