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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The Beauty Of The Befarias, And
Their Branches Covered With Large Purple Flowers, Again Rivetted
Our Attention.
When, in these climates, a botanist gathers plants
to form his herbal, he becomes difficult in his choice in
proportion to the luxuriance of vegetation.
He casts away those
which have been first cut, because they appear less beautiful than
those which were out of reach. Though loaded with plants before
quitting the Pejual, we still regretted not having made a more
ample harvest. We tarried so long in this spot, that night
surprised us as we entered the savannah, at the elevation of
upwards of nine hundred toises.
As there is scarcely any twilight in the tropics, we pass suddenly
from bright daylight to darkness. The moon was on the horizon; but
her disk was veiled from time to time by thick clouds, drifted by a
cold and rough wind. Rapid slopes, covered with yellow and dry
grass, now seen in shade, and now suddenly illumined, seemed like
precipices, the depth of which the eye sought in vain to measure.
We proceeded onwards, in single file, and endeavoured to support
ourselves by our hands, lest we should roll down. The guides, who
carried our instruments, abandoned us successively, to sleep on the
mountain. Among those who remained with us was a Congo black, who
evinced great address, bearing on his head a large dipping-needle:
he held it constantly steady, notwithstanding the extreme declivity
of the rocks. The fog had dispersed by degrees in the bottom of the
valley; and the scattered lights we perceived below us caused a
double illusion.
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