Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 58 of 777 - First - Home
They Were Happily Repulsed By The Valour Of Garcia
Gonzales, One Of The Captains Whose Names Are Still Most Revered In
Those Provinces.
It is gratifying to recollect, that the descendants
of those very Caribs now live in the missions as peaceable husbandmen,
and that no savage nation of Guiana dares to cross the plains which
separate the region of the forests from that of cultivated land.
The
Cordillera of the coast is intersected by several ravines, very
uniformly directed from south-east to north-west. This phenomenon is
general from the Quebrada of Tocume, between Petares and Caracas, as
far as Porto Cabello. It would seem as if the impulsion had everywhere
come from the south-east; and this fact is the more striking, as the
strata of gneiss and mica-slate in the Cordillera of the coast are
generally directed from the south-west to the north-east. Most of
these ravines penetrate into the mountains at their southern
declivity, without crossing them entirely. But there is an opening
(abra) on the meridian of Nueva Valencia, which leads towards the
coast, and by which a cooling sea-breeze penetrates every evening into
the valleys of Aragua. This breeze rises regularly two or three hours
after sunset.
By this abra, the farm of Barbula, and an eastern branch of the
ravine, a new road is being constructed from Valencia to Porto
Cabello. It will be so short, that it will require only four hours to
reach the port; and the traveller will be able to go and return in the
same day from the coast to the valleys of Aragua.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 58 of 777
Words from 15467 to 15737
of 211397
