Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 420 of 779 - First - Home
I Gave The First Information Respecting The Cueva Del
Guacharo In 1800, In My Letters To Messrs.
Delambre and
Delametherie, published in the Journal de Physique.) These
nocturnal birds have been no where yet discovered, except in the
mountains of Caripe and Cumanacoa.
The missionaries had prepared a
repast at the entry of the cavern. Leaves of the banana and the
vijao,* (* Heliconia bihai, Linn. The Creoles have changed the b of
the Haitian word bihao into v, and the h into j, agreeably to the
Castilian pronunciation.) which have a silky lustre, served us as a
table-cloth, according to the custom of the country. Nothing was
wanting to our enjoyment, not even remembrances, which are so rare
in those countries, where generations disappear without leaving a
trace of their existence.
Before we quit the subterranean rivulet and the nocturnal birds,
let us cast a last glance at the cavern of the Guacharo, and the
whole of the physical phenomena it presents. When we have step by
step pursued a long series of observations modified by the
localities of a place, we love to stop and raise our views to
general considerations. Do the great cavities, which are
exclusively called caverns, owe their origin to the same causes as
those which have produced the lodes of veins and of metalliferous
strata, or the extraordinary phenomenon of the porosity of rocks?
Do grottoes belong to every formation, or to that period only when
organized beings began to people the surface of the globe?
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 420 of 779
Words from 113979 to 114231
of 211363
