Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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We Must Distinguish Between The Basin
Of The Lower Orinoco, Properly So Called (North Of That River And The
Rio Apure), And The Plains Of Meta And Guaviare.
The latter occupy the
space between the mountains of Parime and New Grenada.
The two parts
of this basin have an opposite direction; but being alike covered with
gramina, they are usually comprehended in the country under the same
denomination. Those Llanos extend, in the form of an arch, from the
mouth of the Orinoco, by San Fernando de Apure, to the confluence of
the Rio Caguan with the Jupura, consequently along a length of more
than 360 leagues.
(3a.) PART OF THE BASIN OF VENEZUELA RUNNING FROM EAST TO WEST.
The general slope is eastward, and the mean height from 40 to 50
toises. The western bank of that great sea of verdure (mar de yerbas)
is formed by a group of mountains, several of which equal or exceed in
height the Peak of Teneriffe and Mont Blanc. Of this number are the
Paramos del Almorzadero, Cacota, Laura, Porquera, Mucuchies, Timotes,
and Las Rosas. The height of the northern and southern banks is
generally less than 500 or 600 toises. It is somewhat extraordinary
that the maximum of the depression of the basin is not in its centre,
but on its southern limit, at the Sierra Parime. It is only between
the meridians of Cape Codera and Cumana, where a great part of the
littoral Cordillera of Venezuela has been destroyed, that the waters
of the Llanos (the Rio Unare and the Rio Neveri) reach the northern
coast.
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