Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Valley Of The Amazon Is Closed
Only At Its Western Extremity, Where It Approaches The Cordilleras Of
The Andes.
Towards the east, where the sea-breeze strikes the New
Continent, the shore is raised but a few feet above the level of the
Atlantic.
The Upper Orinoco first runs from east to west, and then
from north to south. Where its course is nearly parallel to that of
the Amazon, a very hilly country (the group of the mountains of Parima
and of Dutch and French Guiana) separates it from the Atlantic, and
prevents the wind of rotation from reaching Esmeralda. This wind
begins to be powerfully felt only from the confluence of the Apure,
where the Lower Orinoco runs from west to east in a vast plain open
towards the Atlantic, and therefore the climate of this part of the
river is less noxious than that of the Upper Orinoco.
In order to add a third point of comparison, I may mention the valley
of the Rio Magdalena, which, like the Amazon, has one direction only,
but unfortunately, instead of being that of the breeze, it is from
south to north. Situated in the region of the trade-winds, the Rio
Magdalena has the stagnant air of the Upper Orinoco. From the canal of
Mahates as far as Honda, particularly south of the town of Mompox, we
never felt the wind blow but at the approach of the evening storms.
When, on the contrary, you proceed up the river beyond Honda, you find
the atmosphere often agitated.
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