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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Fearing Fatigue Less Than
They Did, And Being Accustomed To Travel Slowly For The Purpose Of
Gathering Plants And Examining The Nature Of The Rocks, We
Preferred Going Down On Foot; And, Indeed, The Care Which Our
Chronometers Demanded, Left Us No Liberty Of Choice.
The forest that covers the steep flank of the mountain of Santa
Maria, is one of the thickest I ever saw.
The trees are of
stupendous height and size. Under their bushy, deep green foliage,
there reigns continually a kind of dim daylight, a peculiar sort of
obscurity, of which our forests of pines, oaks, and beech-trees,
convey no idea. Notwithstanding its elevated temperature, it is
difficult to believe that the air can dissolve the quantity of
water exhaled from the surface of the soil, the foliage of the
trees, and their trunks: the latter are covered with a drapery of
orchideae, peperomia, and other succulent plants. With the aromatic
odour of the flowers, the fruit, and even the wood, is mingled that
which we perceive in autumn in misty weather. Here, as in the
forests of the Orinoco, fixing our eyes on the top of the trees, we
discerned streams of vapour, whenever a solar ray penetrated, and
traversed the dense atmosphere. Our guides pointed out to us among
those majestic trees, the height of which exceeded 120 or 130 feet,
the curucay of Terecen. It yields a whitish liquid, and very
odoriferous resin, which was formerly employed by the Cumanagoto
and Tagiri Indians, to perfume their idols.
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