that of Cumana is the most aromatic. It excels all the tobacco of
New Spain and of the province of Varinas. We shall give some
particulars of its culture, which essentially differs from the
method practised in Virginia. The prodigious expansion which is
remarked in the solaneous plants of the valley of Cumanacoa,
especially in the abundant species of the Solanum arborescens, of
aquartia, and of cestrum, seems to indicate the favourable nature
of this spot for plantations of tobacco. The seed is sown in the
open ground, at the beginning of September; though sometimes not
till the month of December, which period is however less favourable
for the harvest. The cotyledons appear on the eighth day, and the
young plants are covered with large leaves of heliconia and
plantain, and shelter them from the direct action of the sun. Great
care also is taken to destroy weeds, which, between the tropics,
spring up with astonishing rapidity. The tobacco is transplanted
into a rich and well-prepared soil, a month or two after it has
risen from the seed. The plants are disposed in regular rows, three
or four feet distant from each other. Care is taken to weed them
often, and the principal stalk is several times topped, till
greenish blue spots indicate to the cultivator the maturity of the
leaves. They begin to gather them in the fourth month, and this
first gathering generally terminates in the space of a few days. It
would be better if the leaves were plucked only as they dry. In
good years the cultivators cut the plant when it is only four feet
high; and the shoot which springs from the root, throws out new
leaves with such rapidity that they may be gathered on the
thirteenth or fourteenth day. These last have the cellular tissue
very much extended, and they contain more water, more albumen and
less of that acrid, volatile principle, which is but little soluble
in water, and in which the stimulant property of tobacco seems to
reside.
At Cumanacoa the tobacco, after being gathered, undergoes a
preparation which the Spaniards call cura seca. The leaves are
suspended by threads of cocuiza;* (* Agave Americana.) their ribs
are taken out, and they are twisted into cords. The prepared
tobacco should be carried to the king's warehouses in the month of
June; but the indolence of the inhabitants, and the preference they
give to the cultivation of maize and cassava, usually prevent them
from finishing the preparation before the month of August. It is
easy to conceive that the leaves, so long exposed to very moist
air, must lose some of their flavour. The administrator of the farm
keeps the tobacco deposited in the king's warehouses sixty days
without touching it. When this time is expired, the manoques are
opened to examine the quality. If the administrator find the
tobacco well prepared, he pays the cultivator three piastres for
the aroba of twenty-five pounds weight. The same quantity is resold
for the king's profit at twelve piastres and a half. The tobacco
that is rotten (podrido), that is, again gone into a state of
fermentation, is publicly burnt; and the cultivator, who has
received money in advance from the royal farm, loses irrevocably
the fruits of his long labour. We saw heaps, amounting to five
hundred arobas, burnt in the great square, which in Europe might
have served for making snuff.
The soil of Cumanacoa is so favourable to this branch of culture,
that tobacco grows wild, wherever the seed finds any moisture. It
grows thus spontaneously at Cerro del Cuchivano, and around the
cavern of Caripe. The only kind of tobacco cultivated at Cumanacoa,
as well as in the neighbouring districts of Aricagua and San
Lorenzo, is that with large sessile leaves,* (* Nicotiana tabacum.)
called Virginia tobacco. The tobacco with petiolate leaves,* (*
Nicotiana rustica.) which is the yetl of the ancient Mexicans, is
unknown.
In studying the history of our cultivated plants, we are surprised
to find that, before the conquest, the use of tobacco was spread
through the greater part of America, while the potato was unknown
both in Mexico and the West India Islands, where it grows well in
the mountainous regions. Tobacco has also been cultivated in
Portugal since the year 1559, though the potato did not become an
object of European agriculture till the end of the seventeenth and
beginning of the eighteenth century. This latter plant, which has
had so powerful an influence on the well-being of society, has
spread in both continents more slowly than tobacco, which can be
considered only as an article of luxury.
Next to tobacco, the most important culture of the valley of
Cumanacoa is that of indigo. The manufacturers of Cumanacoa, of San
Fernando, and of Arenas, produce indigo of greater commercial value
than that of Caracas; and often nearly equalling in splendour and
richness of colour the indigo of Guatimala. It was from that
province that the coasts of Cumana received the first seeds of the
Indigofera anil,* which is cultivated jointly with the Indigofera
tinctoria. (* The indigo known in commerce is produced by four
species of plants; the Indigofera tinctoria, I. anil, I. argentea,
and I. disperma. At the Rio Negro, near the frontiers of Brazil, we
found the I. argentea growing wild, but only in places anciently
inhabited by Indians.) The rains being very frequent in the valley
of Cumanacoa, a plant of four feet high yields no more colouring
matter than one of a third part that size in the arid valleys of
Aragua, to the west of the town of Caracas.
The manufactories we examined are all built on uniform principles.
Two steeping vessels, or vats, which receive the plants intended to
be brought into a state of fermentation, are joined together. Each
vat is fifteen feet square, and two and a half deep. From these
upper vats the liquor runs into beaters, between which is placed
the water-mill. The axletree of the great wheel crosses the two
beaters. It is furnished with ladles, fixed to long handles,
adapted for the beating. From a spacious settling-vat, the
colouring fecula is carried to the drying place, and spread on
planks of brasiletto, which, having small wheels, can be sheltered
under a roof in case of sudden rains. Sloping and very low roofs
give the drying place the appearance of hot-houses at some
distance. In the valley of Cumanacoa, the fermentation of the plant
is produced with astonishing rapidity. It lasts in general but four
or five hours. This short duration can be attributed only to the
humidity of the climate, and the absence of the sun during the
development of the plant. I think I have observed, in the course of
my travels, that the drier the climate, the slower the vat works,
and the greater the quantity of indigo, at the minimum of
oxidation, contained in the stalks. In the province of Caracas,
where 562 cubic feet of the plant slightly piled up yield
thirty-five or forty pounds of dry indigo, the liquid does not pass
into the beater till after twenty, thirty, or thirty-five hours. It
is probable that the inhabitants of Cumanacoa would extract more
colouring matter if they left the plants longer steeping in the
first vat.* (* The planters are pretty generally of opinion, that
the fermentation should never continue less than ten hours.
Beauvais-Raseau, Art de l'Indigotier page 81.) During my abode at
Cumana I made solutions of the indigo of Cumanacoa, which is
somewhat heavy and coppery, and that of Caracas, in sulphuric acid,
in order to compare them, and the solution of the former appeared
to me to be of a much more intense blue.
The plain of Cumanacoa, spotted with farms and small plantations of
indigo and tobacco, is surrounded with mountains, which towards the
south rise to considerable height. Everything indicates that the
valley is the bottom of an ancient lake. The mountains, which in
ancient times formed its shores, all rise perpendicularly in the
direction of the plain. The only outlet for the waters of the lake
was on the side of Arenas. In digging foundations, beds of round
pebbles, mixed with small bivalve shells, are found; and according
to the report of persons worthy of credit, there were discovered,
thirty years ago, at the bottom of the ravine of San Juanillo, two
enormous femoral bones, four feet long, and weighing more than
thirty pounds. The Indians imagined that these were giants' bones;
whilst the half-learned sages of the country, who assume the right
of explaining everything, gravely asserted that they were mere
sports of nature, and little worthy of attention; an opinion
founded on the circumstance that human bones decay rapidly in the
soil of Cumanacoa. In order to decorate their churches on the
festival of the dead, they take skulls from the cemeteries on the
coast, where the earth is impregnated with saline substances. These
pretended thigh-bones of giants were carried to the port of Cumana,
where I sought for them in vain; but from the analogy of some
fossil bones which I brought from other parts of South America, and
which have been carefully examined by M. Cuvier, it is probable
that the gigantic femoral bones of Cumanacoa belonged to elephants
of a species now extinct. It may appear surprising that they were
found in a place so little elevated above the present level of the
waters; since it is a remarkable fact, that the fragments of the
mastodons and fossil elephants which I brought from the equinoctial
regions of Mexico, New Grenada, Quito, and Peru, were not found in
low regions (as were the megatherium of Rio Luxan* (* One league
south-east from the town of Buenos Ayres.) and Virginia,* (* The
megatherium of Virginia is the megalonyx of Mr. Jefferson. All the
enormous remains found in the plains of the new continent, either
north or south of the equator, belong, not to the torrid, but to
the temperate zone. On the other hand, Pallas observes that in
Siberia, consequently also northward of the tropics, fossil bones
are never found in mountainous parts. These facts, intimately
connected together, seem calculated to lead to the discovery of a
great geological law.) the great mastodons of the Ohio, and the
fossil elephants of the Susquehanna, in the temperate zone), but on
table-lands having from six to fourteen hundred toises of
elevation.
As we approached the southern bank of the basin of Cumanacoa, we
enjoyed the view of the Turimiquiri.* (* Some of the inhabitants
pronounce this name Tumuriquiri, others Turumiquiri, or
Tumiriquiri. During the whole time of our stay at Cumanacoa, the
summit of this mountain was covered with clouds. It appeared
uncovered on the evening of the 11th of September, but only for a
few minutes. The angle of elevation, taken from the great square of
Cumanacoa, was 8 degrees 2 minutes. This determination, and the
barometrical measurement which I made on the 13th, may enable us to
fix, within a certain approximation, the distance of the mountain
at six miles and a third, or 6050 toises; admitting that the part
uncovered by clouds was 850 toises above the plain of Cumanacoa.)
An enormous wall of rocks, the remains of an ancient cliff, rises
in the midst of the forests. Farther to the west, at Cerro del
Cuchivano, the chain of mountains seems as if broken by the effects
of an earthquake. The crevice is more than a hundred and fifty
toises wide, is surrounded by perpendicular rocks, and is filled
with trees, the interwoven branches of which find no room to
spread. This cleft appears like a mine opened by the falling in of
the earth. It is intersected by a torrent, the Rio Juagua, and its
appearance is highly picturesque. It is called Risco del Cuchivano.
The river rises at the distance of seven leagues south-west, at the
foot of the mountain of the Brigantine, and it forms some beautiful
cascades before it spreads through the plain of Cumanacoa.
We visited several times a small farm, the Conuco of Bermudez,
opposite the Risco del Cuchivano, where tobacco, plantains, and
several species of cotton-trees,* are cultivated in the moist soil
(* Gossypium uniglandulosum, improperly called herbaceum, and G.
barbadense.); especially that tree, the cotton of which is of a
nankeen colour, and which is so common in the island of Margareta.*
(* G. religiosum.) The proprietor of the farm told us that the
Risco or crevice was inhabited by jaguar tigers. These animals pass
the day in caverns, and roam around human habitations at night.
Being well fed, they grow to the length of six feet. One of them
had devoured, in the preceding year, a horse belonging to the farm.
He dragged his prey on a fine moonlight night, across the savannah,
to the foot of a ceiba* of an enormous size. (* Bombax ceiba:
five-leaved silk-cotton tree.) The groans of the dying horse awoke
the slaves of the farm, who went out armed with lances and
machetes.* (* Great knives, with very long blades, like a couteau
de chasse. No one enters the woods in the torrid zone without being
armed with a machete, not only to cut his way through the woods,
but as a defence against wild beasts.) The tiger, crouching over
his prey, awaited their approach with tranquillity, and fell only
after a long and obstinate resistance. This fact, and many others
verified on the spot, prove that the great jaguar* of Terra Firma
(* Felis onca, Linn., which Buffon called panthere oillee, and
which he believed came from Africa.), like the jaguarete of
Paraguay, and the real tiger of Asia, does not flee from man when
it is dared to close combat, and when not intimidated by the number
of its assailants. Naturalists at present admit that Buffon was
entirely mistaken with respect to the greatest of the feline race
of America. What Buffon says of the cowardice of tigers of the new
continent, relates to the small ocelots.* (* Felis pardalis, Linn.,
or the chibiguazu of Azara, different from the Tlateo-Ocelotl, or
tiger-cat of the Aztecs.) At the Orinoco, the real jaguar of
America sometimes leaps into the water, to attack the Indians in
their canoes.
Opposite the farm of Bermudez, two spacious caverns open into the
crevice of Cuchivano, whence at times there issue flames, which may
be seen at a great distance in the night; and, judging by the
elevation of the rocks, above which these fiery exhalations ascend,
we should be led to think that they rise several hundred feet. This
phenomenon was accompanied by a subterranean, dull, and long
continued noise, at the time of the last great earthquake of
Cumana. It is observed chiefly during the rainy season; and the
owners of the farms opposite the mountain of Cuchivano allege that
the flames have become more frequent since December 1797.
In a herborizing excursion we made at Rinconada we attempted to
penetrate into the crevice, wishing to examine the rocks which
seemed to contain in their bosom the cause of these extraordinary
conflagrations; but the strength of the vegetation, the
interweaving of the lianas, and thorny plants, hindered our
progress. Happily the inhabitants of the valley themselves felt a
warm interest in our researches, less from the fear of a volcanic
explosion, than because their minds were impressed with the idea
that the Risco del Cuchivano contained a gold mine; and although we
expressed our doubts of the existence of gold in a secondary
limestone, they insisted on knowing "what the German miner thought
of the richness of the vein." Ever since the time of Charles V and
the government of the Welsers, the Alfingers, and the Sailers, at
Coro and Caracas, the people of Terra Firma have entertained a
great confidence in the Germans with respect to all that relates to
the working of mines. Wherever I went in South America, when the
place of my birth was known, I was shown samples of ore. In these
colonies every Frenchman is supposed to be a physician, and every
German a miner.
The farmers, with the aid of their slaves, opened a path across the
woods to the first fall of the Rio Juagua; and on the 10th of
September we made our excursion to the Cuchivano. On entering the
crevice we recognised the proximity of tigers by a porcupine
recently emboweled. For greater security the Indians returned to
the farm, and brought back some dogs of a very small breed. We were
assured that in the event of our meeting a jaguar in a narrow path
he would spring on the dog rather than on a man. We did not proceed
along the brink of the torrent, but on the slope of the rocks which
overhung the water. We walked on the side of a precipice from two
to three hundred feet deep, on a kind of very narrow cornice, like
the road which leads from the Grindelwald along the Mettenberg to
the great glacier. When the cornice was so narrow that we could
find no place for our feet, we descended into the torrent, crossed
it by fording, and then climbed the opposite wall. These descents
are very fatiguing, and it is not safe to trust to the lianas,
which hang like great cords from the tops of the trees. The
creeping and parasite plants cling but feebly to the branches which
they embrace; the united weight of their stalks is considerable,
and you run the risk of pulling down a whole mass of verdure, if,
in walking on a sloping ground, you support your weight by the
lianas. The farther we advanced the thicker the vegetation became.
In several places the roots of the trees had burst the calcareous
rock, by inserting themselves into the clefts that separate the
beds. We had some trouble to carry the plants which we gathered at
every step. The cannas, the heliconias with fine purple flowers,
the costuses, and other plants of the amomum family, here attain
eight or ten feet in height, and their fresh tender verdure, their
silky gloss, and the extraordinary development of the parenchyma,
form a striking contrast with the brown colour of the arborescent
ferns, the foliage of which is delicately shaped. The Indians made
incisions with their large knives in the trunks of the trees, and
fixed our attention on those beautiful red and gold-coloured woods,
which will one day be sought for by our turners and cabinet-makers.
They showed us a plant of the compositae order, twenty feet high
(the Eupatorium laevigatum of Lamarck), the rose of Belveria,* (*
Brownea racemosa.) celebrated for the brilliancy of its purple
flowers, and the dragon's-blood of this country, which is a kind of
croton not yet described.* (* Plants of families entirely different
are called in the Spanish colonies of both continents, sangre de
draco; they are dracaenas, pterocarpi, and crotons. Father Caulin
Descrip. Corografica page 25, in speaking of resins found in the
forests of Cumana, makes a just distinction between the Draco de la
Sierra de Unare, which has pinnate leaves (Pterocarpus Draco), and
the Draco de la Sierra de Paria, with entire and hairy leaves. The
latter is the Croton sanguifluum of Cumanacoa, Caripe, and Cariaco.
) The red and astringent juice of this plant is employed to
strengthen the gums. The Indians recognize the species by the
smell, and more particularly by chewing the woody fibres. Two
natives, to whom the same wood was given to chew, pronounced
without hesitation the same name. We could avail ourselves but
little of the sagacity of our guides, for how could we procure
leaves, flowers, and fruits growing on trunks, the branches of
which commence at fifty or sixty feet high? We were struck at
finding in this hollow the bark of trees, and even the soil,
covered with moss* and lichens. (* Real musci frondosi. We also
found, besides a small Boletus stipitatus, of a snow-white colour,
the Boletus igniarius, and the Lycoperdon stellatum of Europe. I
had found this last only in very dry places in Germany and Poland.)
The cryptogamous plants are here as common as in northern
countries. Their growth is favoured by the moisture of the air, and
the absence of the direct rays of the sun. Nevertheless the
temperature is generally at 25 degrees in the day, and 19 degrees
at night.
The rocks which bound the crevice of Cuchivano are perpendicular
like walls, and are of the same calcareous formation which we
observed the whole way from Punta Delgada. It is here a blackish
grey, of compact fracture, tending sometimes towards the sandy
fracture, and crossed by small veins of white carbonated lime. In
these characteristic marks we thought we discovered the alpine
limestone of Switzerland and the Tyrol, of which the colour is
always deep, though in a less degree than that of the transition
limestone.* (* Escher, in the Alpina volume 4 page 340.) The first
of these formations constitutes the Cuchivano, the nucleus of the
Imposible, and in general the whole group of the mountains of New
Andalusia. I saw no petrifactions in it; but the inhabitants assert
that considerable masses of shells are found at great heights. The
same phenomenon occurs in the country about Salzburg.* (* In
Switzerland, the solitary beds of shells, at the height of from
1300 to 2000 toises (in the Jungfrauhorn, the Dent de Morcle, and
the Dent du Midi), belong to transition limestone.) At the
Cuchivano the alpine limestone contains beds of marly clay,*
(*Mergelschiefer.) three or four toises thick; and this geological
fact proves on the one hand the identity of the alpenkalkstein with
the zechstein of Thuringia, and on the other the affinity of
formation existing between the alpine limestone and that of the
Jura.* (* The Jura and the Alpine limestone are kindred formations,
and they are sometimes difficult to be distinguished, where they
lie immediately one upon another, as in the Apennines. The alpine
limestone and the zechstein, famous among the geologists of
Freyberg, are identical formations. This identity, which I noticed
in the year 1793 (Uber die Grubenwetter), is a geological fact the
more interesting, as it seems to unite the northern European
formations to those of the central chain. It is known that the
zechstein is situated between the muriatiferous gypsum and the
conglomerate (ancient sandstone); or where there is no
muriatiferous gypsum, between the slaty sandstone with roestones
(buntesandstein, Wern.), and the conglomerate or ancient sandstone.
It contains strata of schistous and coppery marl (bituminoce mergel
and kupferschiefer) which form an important object in the working
of mines at Mansfeld in Saxony, near Riegelsdorf in Hesse, and at
Hasel and Prausnitz, in Silesia. In the southern part of Bavaria
(Oberbaiern), I saw the alpine limestone, containing these same
strata of schistous clay and marl, which, though thinner, whiter,
and especially more frequent, characterize the limestone of Jura.
Respecting the slates of Blattenberg, in the canton of Glaris which
some mineralogists, because of their numerous impressions of fish,
have long mistaken for the cupreous slates of Mansfeld, they
belong, according to M. von Buch, to a real transition formation.
All these geological data tend to prove that strata of marl, more
or less mixed with carbon, are to be found in the limestone of
Jura, in the alpine limestone, and in the transition schists. The
mixture of carbon, sulphuretted iron, and copper, appears to me to
augment with the relative antiquity of the formations.) The strata
of marl effervesce with acids, though silex and alumina predominate
in them: they are strongly impregnated with carbon, and sometimes
blacken the hands, like a real vitriolic schistus. The supposed
gold mine of Cuchivano, which was the object of our examination, is
nothing but an excavation cut into one of those black strata of
marl, which contain pyrites in abundance. The excavation is on the
right bank of the river Juagua, and must be approached with
caution, because the torrent there is more than eight feet deep.
The sulphurous pyrites are found, some massive, and others
crystallized and disseminated in the rock; their colour, of a very
clear golden yellow, does not indicate that they contain copper.
They are mixed with fibrous sulphuret of iron,* (* Haarkies.) and
nodules of swinestone, or fetid carbonate of lime. The marly
stratum crosses the torrent; and, as the water washes out metallic
grains, the people imagine, on account of the brilliancy of the
pyrites, that the torrent bears down gold. It is reported that,
after the great earthquake which took place in 1766, the waters of
the Juagua were so charged with gold that "men who came from a
great distance, and whose country was unknown," established
washing-places on the spot. They disappeared during the night,
after having collected a great quantity of gold. It would be
needless to show that this is a fable. Pyrites dispersed in
quartzose veins, crossing the mica-slate, are often auriferous, no
doubt; but no analogous fact leads to the supposition that the
sulphuretted iron which is found in the schistose marls of the
alpine limestone, contains gold. Some direct experiments, made with
acids, during my abode at Caracas, showed that the pyrites of
Cuchivano are not auriferous. Our guides were amazed at my
incredulity. In vain I repeated that alum and sulphate of iron only
could be obtained from this supposed gold mine; they continued
picking up secretly every bit of pyrites they saw sparkling in the
water. In countries possessing few mines, the inhabitants entertain
exaggerated ideas respecting the facility with which riches are
drawn from the bowels of the earth. How much time did we not lose
during five years' travels, in visiting, on the pressing
invitations of our hosts, ravines, of which the pyritous strata
have borne for ages the imposing names of 'Minas de oro!' How often
have we been grieved to see men of all classes, magistrates,
pastors of villages, grave missionaries, grinding, with
inexhaustible patience, amphibole, or yellow mica, in the hope of
extracting gold from it by means of mercury! This rage for the
search of mines strikes us the more in a climate where the ground
needs only to be slightly raked to produce abundant harvests.
After visiting the pyritous marls of the Rio Juagua, we continued
following the course of the crevice, which stretches along like a
narrow canal overshadowed by very lofty trees. We observed strata
on the left bank, opposite Cerro del Cuchivano, singularly crooked
and twisted. This phenomenon I had often admired at the Ochsenberg,
* in passing the lake of Lucerne. (* This mountain of Switzerland
is composed of transition limestone. We find these same inflexions
in the strata near Bonneville, at Nante d'Arpenas in Savoy, and in
the valley of Estaubee in the Pyrenees. Another transition rock,
the grauwakke of the Germans (very near the English killas),
exhibits the same phenomenon in Scotland.) The calcareous beds of
the Cuchivano and the neighbouring mountains keep pretty regularly
the direction of north-north-east and south-south-west. Their
inclination is sometimes north and sometimes south; most commonly
they seem to take a direction towards the valley of Cumanacoa; and
it cannot be doubted that the valley has an influence* on the
inclination of the strata. (* The same observation may apply to the
lake of Gemunden in Styria, which I visited with M. von Buch, and
which is one of the most picturesque situations in Europe.)
We had suffered great fatigue, and were quite drenched by
frequently crossing the torrent, when we reached the caverns of the
Cuchivano. A wall of rock there rises perpendicularly to the height
of eight hundred toises. It is seldom that in a zone where the
force of vegetation everywhere conceals the soil and the rocks, we
behold a great mountain presenting naked strata in a perpendicular
section. In the middle of this section, and in a position
unfortunately inaccessible to man, two caverns open in the form of
crevices. We were assured that they are inhabited by nocturnal
birds, the same as those we were soon to become acquainted with in
the Cueva del Guacharo of Caripe. Near these caverns we saw strata
of schistose marl, and found, with great astonishment,
rock-crystals encased in beds of alpine limestone. They were
hexahedral prisms, terminated with pyramids, fourteen lines long
and eight thick. The crystals, perfectly transparent, were
solitary, and often three or four toises distant from each other.
They were enclosed in the calcareous mass, as the quartz crystals
of Burgtonna,* (* In the duchy of Gotha.) and the boracite of
Lunebourg, are contained in gypsum. There was no crevice near, or
any vestige of calcareous spar.* (* This phenomenon reminds us of
another equally rare, the quartz crystals found by M. Freiesleben
in Saxony, near Burgorner, in the county of Mansfeld, in the middle
of a rock of porous limestone (rauchwakke), lying immediately on
the alpine limestone. The rock crystals, which are pretty common in
the primitive limestone of Carrara, line the insides of cavities in
the rocks, without being enveloped by the rock itself.)
We reposed at the foot of the cavern whence those flames were seen
to issue, which of late years have become more frequent. Our guides
and the farmer, an intelligent man, equally acquainted with the
localities of the province, discussed, in the manner of the
Creoles, the dangers to which the town of Cumanacoa would be
exposed if the Cuchivano became an active volcano, or, as they
expressed it, "se veniesse a reventar." It appeared to them
evident, that since the great earthquakes of Quito and Cumana in
1797, New Andalusia was every day more and more undermined by
subterranean fires. They cited the flames which had been seen to
issue from the earth at Cumana; and the shocks felt in places where
heretofore the ground had never been shaken. They recollected that
at Macarapan, sulphurous emanations had been frequently perceived
for some months past. We were struck with these facts, upon which
were founded predictions that have since been almost all realized.
Enormous convulsions of the earth took place at Caracas in 1812,
and proved how tumultuously nature is agitated in the north-east
part of Terra Firma.
But what is the cause of the luminous phenomena which are observed
in the Cuchivano? The column of air which rises from the mouth of a
burning volcano* is sometimes observed to shine with a splendid
light. (* We must not confound this very rare phenomenon with the
glimmering commonly observed a few toises above the brink of a
crater, and which (as I remarked at Mount Vesuvius in 1805) is only
the reflection of great masses of inflamed scoria, thrown up
without sufficient force to pass the mouth of the volcano.) This
light, which is believed to be owing to the hydrogen gas, was
observed from Chillo, on the summit of the Cotopaxi, at a time when
the mountain seemed in the greatest repose. According to the
statements of the ancients, the Mons Albanus, near Rome, known at
present under the name of Monte Cavo, appeared at times on fire
during the night; but the Mons Albanus is a volcano recently
extinguished, which, in the time of Cato, threw out rapilli;* (*
"Albano monte biduum continenter lapidibus pluit."--Livy lib. 25
cap. 7. (Heyne, Opuscula Acad. tome 3 page 261.)) while the
Cuchivano is a calcareous mountain, remote from any trap formation.
Can these flames be attributed to the decomposition of water,
entering into contact with the pyrites dispersed through the
schistose marl? or is it inflamed hydrogen that issues from the
cavern of Cuchivano? The marls, as the smell indicates, are
pyritous and bituminous at the same time; and the petroleum springs
at the Buen Pastor, and in the island of Trinidad, proceed probably
from these same beds of alpine limestone. It would be easy to
suppose some connexion between the waters filtering through this
calcareous stone, and decomposed by pyrites and the earthquakes of
Cumana, the springs of sulphuretted hydrogen in New Barcelona, the
beds of native sulphur at Carupano, and the emanations of
sulphurous acid which are perceived at times in the savannahs. It
cannot be doubted also, that the decomposition of water by the
pyrites at an elevated temperature, favoured by the affinity of
oxidated iron for earthy substances, may have caused that
disengagement of hydrogen gas, to the action of which several
modern geologists have attributed so much importance. But in
general, sulphurous acid is perceived more commonly than hydrogen
in the eruption of volcanoes, and the odour of that acid
principally prevails while the earth is agitated by violent shocks.
When we take a general view of the phenomena of volcanoes and
earthquakes, when we recollect the enormous distance at which the
commotion is propagated below the basin of the sea, we readily
discard explanations founded on small strata of pyrites and
bituminous marls. I am of opinion that the shocks so frequently
felt in the province of Cumana are as little to be attributed to
the rocks above the surface of the earth, as those which agitate
the Apennines are assignable to asphaltic veins or springs of
burning petroleum. The whole of these phenomena depend on more
general, I would almost say on deeper, causes; and it is not in the
secondary strata which form the exterior crust of our globe, but in
the primitive rocks, at an enormous distance from the soil, that we
should seek the focus of volcanic action. The greater progress we
make in geology, the more we feel the insufficiency of theories
founded on observations merely local.
On the 12th of September we continued our journey to the convent of
Caripe, the principal settlement of the Chayma missions. We chose,
instead of the direct road, that by the mountains of the
Cocollar* (* Is this name of Indian origin? At Cumana I heard
it derived in a manner somewhat far-fetched from the Spanish word
cogollo, signifying the heart of oleraceous plants. The Cocollar
forms the centre of the whole group of the mountains of New
Andalusia.) and the Turimiquiri, the height of which little exceeds
that of Jura. The road first runs eastward, crossing over the length
of three leagues the table-land of Cumanacoa, in a soil formerly
levelled by the waters: it then turns to the south. We passed the
little Indian village of Aricagua surrounded by woody hills. Thence
we began to ascend, and the ascent lasted more than four hours. We
crossed two-and-twenty times the river of Pututucuar, a rapid
torrent, full of blocks of calcareous rock. When, on the Cuesta del
Cocollar, we reached an elevation two thousand feet above the level
of the sea, we were surprised to find scarcely any forests or great
trees. We passed over an immense plain covered with gramineous
plants. Mimosas with hemispheric tops, and stems only four or five
feet high, alone vary the dull uniformity of the savannahs. Their
branches are bent towards the ground or spread out like umbrellas.
Wherever there are deep declivities, or masses of rocks half
covered with mould, the clusia or cupey, with great nymphaea
flowers, displays its beautiful verdure. The roots of this tree are
eight inches in diameter, and they sometimes shoot out from the
trunk at the height of fifteen feet above the soil.
After having climbed the mountain for a considerable time, we
reached a small plain at the Hato del Cocollar. This is a solitary
farm, situated on a table-land 408 toises high. We rested three
days in this retreat, where we were treated with great kindness by
the proprietor, Don Mathias Yturburi, a native of Biscay, who had
accompanied us from the port of Cumana. We there found milk,
excellent meat from the richness of the pasture, and above all, a
delightful climate. During the day the centigrade thermometer did
not rise above 22 or 23 degrees; a little before sunset it fell to
19, and at night it scarcely kept up to 14 degrees.* (* 11.2
degrees Reaum.) The nightly temperature was consequently seven
degrees colder than that of the coasts, which is a fresh proof of
an extremely rapid decrement of heat, the table-land of Cocollar
being less elevated than the site of the town of Caracas.
As far as the eye could reach, we perceived, from this elevated
point, only naked savannahs. Small tufts of scattered trees rise in
the ravines; and notwithstanding the apparent uniformity of
vegetation, great numbers of curious plants* are found here. (*
Cassia acuta, Andromeda rigida, Casearia hypericifolia, Myrtus
longifolia, Buettneria salicifolia, Glycine picta, G. pratensis, G.
gibba, Oxalis umbrosa, Malpighia caripensis, Cephaelis salicifolia,
Stylosanthes angustifolia, Salvia pseudococcinea, Eryngium
foetidum. We found a second time this last plant, but at a
considerable height, in the great forests of bark trees surrounding
the town of Loxa, in the centre of the Cordilleras.) We shall only
speak of a superb lobelia* with purple flowers (* Lobelia
spectabilis.); the Brownea coccinea, which is upwards of a hundred
feet high; and above all; the pejoa, celebrated in the country on
account of the delightful and aromatic perfume emitted by its
leaves when rubbed between the fingers.* (* It is the Gualtheria
odorata. The pejoa is found round the lake of Cocollar, which gives
birth to the great river Guarapiche. We met with the same shrub at
the Cuchilla de Guanaguana. It is a subalpine plant, which forms at
the Silla de Caracas a zone much higher than in the province of
Cumana. The leaves of the pejoa have even a more agreeable smell
than those of the Myrtus pimenta, but they yield no perfume when
rubbed a few hours after their separation from the tree.) But the
great charms of this solitary place were the beauty and serenity of
the nights. The proprietor of the farm, who spent his evenings with
us, seemed to enjoy the astonishment produced on Europeans newly
transplanted to the tropics, by that vernal freshness of the air
which is felt on the mountains after sunset. In those distant
regions, where men yet feel the full value of the gifts of nature,
a land-holder boasts of the water of his spring, the absence of
noxious insects, the salutary breeze that blows round his hill, as
we in Europe descant on the conveniences of our dwellings, and the
picturesque effect of our plantations.
Our host had visited the new world with an expedition which was to
form establishments for felling wood for the Spanish navy on the
shores of the gulf of Paria. In the vast forests of mahogany,
cedar, and brazil-wood, which border the Caribbean Sea, it was
proposed to select the trunks of the largest trees, giving them in
a rough way the shape adapted to the building of ships, and sending
them every year to the dockyard near Cadiz. White men, unaccustomed
to the climate, could not support the fatigue of labour, the heat,
and the effect of the noxious air exhaled by the forests. The same
winds which are loaded with the perfume of flowers, leaves, and
woods, infuse also, as we may say, the germs of dissolution into
the vital organs. Destructive fevers carried off not only the
ship-carpenters, but the persons who had the management of the
establishment; and this bay, which the early Spaniards named Golfo
Triste (Melancholy Bay), on account of the gloomy and wild aspect
of its coasts, became the grave of European seamen. Our host had
the rare good fortune to escape these dangers. After having
witnessed the death of a great number of his friends, he withdrew
from the coast to the mountains of Cocollar.
Nothing can be compared to the majestic tranquillity which the
aspect of the firmament presents in this solitary region. When
tracing with the eye, at night-fall, the meadows which bounded the
horizon,--the plain covered with verdure and gently undulated, we
thought we beheld from afar, as in the deserts of the Orinoco, the
surface of the ocean supporting the starry vault of Heaven. The
tree under which we were seated, the luminous insects flying in the
air, the constellations which shone in the south; every object
seemed to tell us how far we were from our native land. If amidst
this exotic nature we heard from the depth of the valley the
tinkling of a bell, or the lowing of herds, the remembrance of our
country was awakened suddenly. The sounds were like distant voices
resounding from beyond the ocean, and with magical power
transporting us from one hemisphere to the other. Strange mobility
of the imagination of man, eternal source of our enjoyments and our
pains!
We began in the cool of the morning to climb the Turimiquiri. This
is the name given to the summit of the Cocollar, which, with the
Brigantine, forms one single mass of mountain, formerly called by
the natives the Sierra de los Tageres. We travelled along a part of
the road on horses, which roam about these savannahs; but some of
them are used to the saddle. Though their appearance is very heavy,
they pass lightly over the most slippery turf. We first stopped at
a spring issuing, not from the calcareous rock, but from a layer of
quartzose sandstone. The temperature was 21 degrees, consequently
1.5 degrees less than the spring of Quetepe; and the difference of
the level is nearly 220 toises. Wherever the sandstone appears
above ground the soil is level, and constitutes as it were small
platforms, succeeding each other like steps. To the height of 700
toises, and even beyond, this mountain, like those in its vicinity,
is covered only with gramineous plants.* (* The most abundant
species are the paspalus; the Andropogon fastigiatum, which forms
the genus Diectomis of M. Palissot de Beauvais; and the Panicum
olyroides.) The absence of trees is attributed at Cumana to the
great elevation of the ground; but a slight reflection on the
distribution of plants in the Cordilleras of the torrid zone will
lead us to conceive that the summits of New Andalusia are very far
from reaching the superior limit of the trees, which in this
latitude is at least 1800 toises of absolute height. The smooth
turf of the Cocollar begins to appear at 350 toises above the level
of the sea, and the traveller may contrive to walk upon this turf
till he reaches a thousand toises in height. Farther on, beyond
this band covered with gramineous plants, we found, amidst peaks
almost inaccessible to man, a small forest of cedrela, javillo,* (*
Huras crepitans, of the family of the euphorbias. The growth of its
trunk is so enormous, that M. Bonpland measured vats of javillo
wood, 14 feet long and 8 wide. These vats, made from one log of
wood, are employed to keep the guarapo, or juice of the sugar-cane,
and the molasses. The seeds of javillo are a very active poison,
and the milk that issues from the petioles, when broken, frequently
produced inflammation in our eyes, if by chance the least quantity
penetrated under the eyelids.) and mahogany. These local
circumstances induce me to think that the mountainous savannahs of
the Cocollar and Turimiquiri owe their existence only to the
destructive custom practised by the natives of setting fire to the
woods when they want to convert the soil into pasturage. Where,
during the lapse of three centuries, grasses and alpine plants have
covered the soil with a thick carpet, the seeds of trees can no
longer germinate and fix themselves in the earth, though birds and
winds convey them continually from the distant forests into the
savannahs.
The climate of these mountains is so mild that at the farm of the
Cocollar the cotton and coffee tree, and even the sugar cane, are
cultivated with success. Whatever the inhabitants of the coasts may
allege, hoar-frost has never been found in the latitude of 10
degrees, on heights scarcely exceeding those of the Mont d'Or, or
the Puy-de-Dome. The pastures of Turimiquiri become less rich in
proportion to the elevation. Wherever scattered rocks afford shade,
lichens and some European mosses are found. The Melastoma guacito,*
(* Melastoma xanthostachys, called guacito at Caracas.) and a
shrub, the large and tough leaves of which rustle like parchment*
when shaken by the winds, (* Palicourea rigida, chaparro bovo. In
the savannahs, or llanos, the same Castilian name is given to a
tree of the family of the proteaceae.) rise here and there in the
savannah. But the principal ornament of the turf of these mountains
is a liliaceous plant with golden flowers, the Marica
martinicensis. It is generally observed in the province of Cumana
and Caracas only at 400 or 500 toises of elevation.* (* For
example, in the Montana de Avila, on the road from Caracas to La
Guayra, and in the Silla de Caracas. The seeds of the marica are
ripe at the end of December.) The whole rocky mass of the
Turimiquiri is composed of an alpine limestone, like that of
Cumanacoa, and a pretty thin strata of marl and quartzose
sandstone. The limestone contains masses of brown oxidated iron and
carbonate of iron. I have observed in several places, and very
distinctly, that the sandstone not only reposes on the limestone,
but that this last rock frequently includes and alternates with the
sandstone.
We distinguished clearly the round summit of the Turimiquiri and
the lofty peaks or, as they are called, the Cucuruchos, covered
with thick vegetation, and infested by tigers which are hunted for
the beauty of their skin. This round summit, which is covered with
turf, is 707 toises above the level of the ocean. A ridge of steep
rocks stretches out westward, and is broken at the distance of a
mile by an enormous crevice that descends toward the gulf of
Cariaco. At the point which might be supposed to be the
continuation of the ridge, two calcareous paps or peaks arise, the
most northern of which is the loftiest. It is this last which is
more particularly called the Cucurucho de Turimiquiri, and which is
considered to be higher than the mountain of the Brigantine, so
well known by the sailors who frequent the coasts of Cumana. We
measured, by angles of elevation, and a basis, rather short, traced
on the round summit, the peak of Cucurucho, which was about 350
toises higher than our station, so that its absolute height
exceeded 1050 toises.
The view we enjoyed on the Turimiquiri is of vast extent, and
highly picturesque. From the summer to the ocean we perceived
chains of mountains extended in parallel lines from east to west,
and bounding longitudinal valleys. These valleys are intersected at
right angles by an infinite number of small ravines, scooped out by
the torrents: the consequence is, that the lateral ranges are
transformed into so many rows of paps, some round and others
pyramidal. The ground in general is a gentle slope as far as the
Imposible; Farther on the precipices become bold, and continue so
to the shore of the gulf of Cariaco. The form of this mass of
mountains reminded us of the chain of the Jura; and the only plain
that presents itself is the valley of Cumanacoa. We seemed to look
down into the bottom of a funnel, in which we could distinguish,
amidst tufts of scattered trees, the Indian village of Aricagua.
Towards the north, a narrow slip of land, the peninsula of Araya,
formed a dark stripe on the sea, which, being illumined by the rays
of the sun, reflected a strong light. Beyond the peninsula the
horizon was bounded by Cape Macanao, the black rocks of which rise
amid the waters like an immense bastion.
The farm of the Cocollar, situated at the foot of the Turimiquiri,
is in latitude 19 degrees 9 minutes 32 seconds. I found the dip of
the needle 42.1 degrees. The needle oscillates 229 times in ten
minutes. Possibly masses of brown iron-ore, included in the
calcareous rock, caused a slight augmentation in the intensity of
the magnetic forces.
On the 14th of September we descended the Cocollar, toward the
Mission of San Antonio. After crossing several savannahs strewed
with large blocks of calcareous stone, we entered a thick forest.
Having passed two ridges of extremely steep mountains,* (* These
ridges, which are rather difficult to climb towards the end of the
rainy season, are distinguished by the names of Los Yepes and
Fantasma.) we discovered a fine valley five or six leagues in
length, pretty uniformly following the direction of east and west.
In this valley are situated the Missions of San Antonio and
Guanaguana; the first is famous on account of a small church with
two towers, built of brick, in pretty good style, and ornamented
with columns of the Doric order. It is the wonder of the country.
The prefect of the Capuchins completed the building of this church
in less than two summers, though he employed only the Indians of
his village. The mouldings of the capitals, the cornices, and a
frieze decorated with suns and arabesques, are executed in clay
mixed with pounded brick. If we are surprised to find churches in
the purest Grecian style on the confines of Lapland,* (* At
Skelefter, near Torneo.--Buch, Voyage en Norwege.) we are still
more struck with these first essays of art, in a region where
everything indicates the wild state of man, and where the basis of
civilization has not been laid by Europeans more than forty years.
I stopped at the Mission of San Antonio only to open the barometer,
and to take a few altitudes of the sun. The elevation of the great
square above Cumana is 216 toises. After having crossed the
village, we forded the rivers Colorado and Guarapiche, both of
which rise in the mountains of the Cocollar, and blend their waters
lower down towards the east. The Colorado has a very rapid current,
and becomes at its mouth broader than the Rhine. The Guarapiche, at
its junction with the Rio Areo, is more than twenty-five fathoms
deep. Its banks are ornamented by a superb gramen, of which I made
a drawing two years afterward on ascending the river Magdalena. The
distich-leaved stalk of this gramen often reaches the height of
fifteen or twenty feet.* (* Lata, or cana brava. It is a new genus,
between aira and arundo. This colossal gramen looks like the donax
of Italy. This, the arundinaria of the Mississippi, (ludolfia,
Willd., miegia of Persoon,) and the bamboos, are the highest
gramens of the New Continent. Its seed has been carried to St.
Domingo, where its stalk is employed to thatch the negroes' huts.)
Towards evening we reached the Mission of Guanaguana, the site of
which is almost on a level with the village of San Antonio. The
missionary received us cordially; he was an old man, and he seemed
to govern his Indians with great intelligence. The village has
existed only thirty years on the spot it now occupies. Before that
time it was more to the south, and was backed by a hill. It is
astonishing with what facility the Indians are induced to remove
their dwellings. There are villages in South America which in less
than half a century have thrice changed their situation. The native
finds himself attached by ties so feeble to the soil he inhabits,
that he receives with indifference the order to take down his house
and to rebuild it elsewhere. A village changes its situation like a
camp. Wherever clay, reeds, and the leaves of the palm or heliconia
are found, a house is built in a few days. These compulsory changes
have often no other motive than the caprice of a missionary, who,
having recently arrived from Spain, fancies that the situation of
the Mission is feverish, or that it is not sufficiently exposed to
the winds. Whole villages have been transported several leagues,
merely because the monk did not find the prospect from his house
sufficiently beautiful or extensive.
Guanaguana has as yet no church. The old monk, who during thirty
years had lived in the forests of America, observed to us that the
money of the community, or the produce of the labour of the
Indians, was employed first in the construction of the missionary's
house, next in that of the church, and lastly in the clothing of
the Indians. He gravely assured us that this order of things could
not be changed on any pretence, and that the Indians, who prefer a
state of nudity to the slightest clothing, are in no hurry for
their turn in the destination of the funds. The spacious abode of
the padre had just been finished, and we had remarked with
surprise, that the house, the roof of which formed a terrace, was
furnished with a great number of chimneys that looked like turrets.
This, our host told us, was done to remind him of a country dear to
his recollection, and to picture to his mind the winters of Aragon
amid the heat of the torrid zone. The Indians of Guanaguana
cultivate cotton for their own benefit as well as for that of the
church and the missionary. The natives have machines of a very
simple construction to separate the cotton from the seeds. These
are wooden cylinders of extremely small diameter, within which the
cotton passes, and which are made to turn by a treadle. These
machines, however imperfect, are very useful, and they begin to be
imitated in other Missions. The soil of Guanaguana is not less
fertile than that of Aricagua, a small neighbouring village, which
has also preserved its ancient Indian name. An almuda of land, 1850
square toises, produces in abundant years from 25 to 30 fanegas of
maize, each fanega weighing 100 pounds. But here, as in other
places, where the bounty of nature retards industry, a very small
number of acres are cleared, and the culture of alimentary plants
is neglected. Scarcity of subsistence is felt, whenever the harvest
is lost by a protracted drought. The Indians of Guanaguana related
to us as a fact not uncommon, that in the preceding year they,
their wives, and their children, had been for three months al
monte; by which they meant, wandering in the neighbouring forests,
to live on succulent plants, palm-cabbages, fern roots, and fruits
of wild trees. They did not speak of this nomad life as of a state
of privation.
The beautiful valley of Guanaguana stretches towards the east,
opening into the plains of Punzera and Terecen. We wished to visit
those plains, and examine the springs of petroleum, lying between
the river Guarapiche and the Rio Areo; but the rainy season had
already arrived, and we were in daily perplexity how to dry and
preserve the plants we had collected. The road from Guanaguana to
the village of Punzera runs either by San Felix or by Caycara and
Guayuta, which is a farm for cattle (hato) of the missionaries. In
this last place, according to the report of the Indians, great
masses of sulphur are found, not in a gypseous or calcareous rock,
but at a small depth below the soil, in a bed of clay. This
singular phenomenon appears to me peculiar to America; we found it
also in the kingdom of Quito, and in New Spain. On approaching
Punzera, we saw in the savannahs small bags, formed of a silky
tissue suspended from the branches of the lowest trees. It is the
seda silvestre, or wild silk of the country, which has a beautiful
lustre, but is very rough to the touch. The phalaena which produces
it is probably analogous with that of the provinces of Gua[?]uato
and Antioquia, which also furnish wild silk. We found in the
beautiful forest of Punzera two trees known by the names of curucay
and canela; the former, of which we shall speak hereafter, yields a
resin very much sought after by the Piaches, or Indian sorcerers;
the leaves of the latter have the smell of the real cinnamon of
Ceylon.* (* Is this the Laurus cinnamomoides of Mutis? What is that
other cinnamon tree which the Indians call tuorco, common in the
mountains of Tocayo, and at the sources of the Rio Uchere, the bark
of which is mixed with chocolate? Father Caulin gives the name of
curucay to the Copaifera officinalis, which yields the Balsam of
Capivi.--Hist. Corograf., pages 24 and 34.) From Punzera the road
leads by Terecin and Nueva Palencia, (a new colony of Canarians,)
to the port of San Juan, situated on the right bank of the river
Areo; and it is only by crossing this river in a canoe, that the
traveller can arrive at the famous petroleum springs (or mineral
tar) of the Buen Pastor. They were described to us as small wells
or funnels, hollowed out by nature in a marshy soil. This
phenomenon reminded us of the lake of asphaltum, or of chopapote,
in the island of Trinidad,* (* Laguna de la Brea, south-east of the
port of Naparima. There is another spring of asphaltum on the
eastern coast of the island, in the bay of Mayaro.) which is
distant from the Buen Pastor, in a straight line, only thirty-five
sea leagues.
Having long struggled to overcome the desire we felt to descend the
Guarapiche to the Golfo Triste, we took the direct road to the
mountains. The valleys of Guanaguana and Caripe are separated by a
kind of dyke, or calcareous ridge, well known by the name of the
Cuchilla* de Guanaguana. (* Literally "blade of a knife".
Throughout all Spanish America the name of "cuchilla" is given to
the ridge of a mountain terminated on each side by very steep
declivities.) We found this passage difficult, because at that time
we had not climbed the Cordilleras; but it is by no means so
dangerous as the people at Cumana love to represent it. The path is
indeed in several parts only fourteen or fifteen inches broad; and
the ridge of the mountain, along which the road runs, is covered
with a short slippery turf. The slopes on each side are steep, and
the traveller, should he stumble, might slide down to the depth of
seven or eight hundred feet. Nevertheless, the flanks of the
mountain are steep declivities rather than precipices; and the
mules of this country are so sure-footed that they inspire the
greatest confidence. Their habits are identical with those of the
beasts of burden in Switzerland and the Pyrenees. In proportion as
a country is wild, the instinct of domestic animals improves in
address and sagacity. When the mules feel themselves in danger,
they stop, turning their heads to the right and to the left; and
the motion of their ears seems to indicate that they reflect on the
decision they ought to take. Their resolution is slow, but always
just, if it be spontaneous; that is to say, if it be not thwarted
or hastened by the imprudence of the traveller. On the frightful
roads of the Andes, during journeys of six or seven months across
mountains furrowed by torrents, the intelligence of horses and
beasts of burden is manifested in an astonishing manner. Thus the
mountaineers are heard to say, "I will not give you the mule whose
step is the easiest, but the one which is most intelligent (la mas
racional)." This popular expression, dictated by long experience,
bears stronger evidence against the theory of animated machines,
than all the arguments of speculative philosophy.
When we had reached the highest point of the ridge or cuchilla of
Guanaguana, an interesting spectacle unfolded itself before us. We
saw comprehended in one view the vast savannahs or meadows of
Maturin and of the Rio Tigre;* (* These natural meadows are part of
the llanos or immense steppes bordered by the Orinoco.) the peak of
the Turimiquiri;* (* El Cucurucho.) and an infinite number of
parallel ridges, which, seen at a distance, looked like the waves
of the sea. On the north-east opens the valley in which is situated
the convent of Caripe. The aspect of this valley is peculiarly
attractive, for being shaded by forests, it forms a strong contrast
with the nudity of the neighbouring mountains, which are bare of
trees, and covered with gramineous plants. We found the absolute
height of the Cuchilla to be 548 toises.
Descending from the ridge by a winding path, we entered into a
completely woody country. The soil is covered with moss, and a new
species of drosera,* (* Drosera tenella.) which by its form
reminded us of the drosera of the Alps. The thickness of the
forests, and the force of vegetation, augmented as we approached
the convent of Caripe. Everything here changes its aspect, even to
the rock that accompanied us from Punta Delgada. The calcareous
strata becomes thinner, forming graduated steps, which stretch out
like walls, cornices, and turrets, as in the mountains of Jura,
those of Pappenheim in Germany, and near Oizow in Galicia. The
colour of the stone is no longer of a smoky or bluish grey; it
becomes white; its fracture is smooth, and sometimes even
imperfectly conchoidal. It is no longer the calcareous formation of
the Higher Alps, but a formation to which this serves as a basis,
and which is analogous to the Jura limestone. In the chain of the
Apennines, between Rome and Nocera, I observed this same immediate
superposition.* (* In like manner, near Geneva, the rock of the
Mole, belonging to the Alpine limestone, lies under the Jura
limestone which forms Mount Saleve.) It indicates, not the
transition from one rock to another, but the geological affinity
existing between two formations. According to the general type of
the secondary strata, recognised in a great part of Europe, the
Alpine limestone is separated from the Jura limestone by the
muriatiferous gypsum; but often this latter is entirely wanting, or
is contained as a subordinate layer in the Alpine limestone. In
this case the two great calcareous formations succeed each other
immediately, or are confounded in one mass.
The descent from the Cuchilla is far shorter than the ascent. We
found the level of the valley of Caripe 200 toises higher than that
of the valley of Guanaguana.* (* Absolute height of the convent
above the level of the sea, 412 toises.) A group of mountains of
little breadth separates two valleys, one of which is of delicious
coolness, while the other is famed for the heat of its climate.
These contrasts, so common in Mexico, New Grenada, and Peru, are
very rare in the north-east part of South America. Thus Caripe is
the only one of the high valleys of New Andalusia which is much
inhabited.