The Travels and Researches of Alexander Von Humboldt: Being a Condensed Narrative of His Journeys in the Equinoctial Regions of America, and in Asiatic Russia:--together with Analysis of His More Important InvestigationsJ. & J. Harper, 1835 - 367 pages |
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animals appearance Apure Aragua Araya arrived ascend atmosphere banks basaltic beautiful Bonpland Calabozo canoe Cape Caraccas Caripe cataracts chain Chaymas climate clouds coast colour containing cordilleras covered crocodiles Cruz Cuba cultivated Cumana distance district earthquakes east elevated equinoctial Europe extent feet forests gneiss granite ground Guanaxuato Guanches Guayra Gulf of Cariaco heat height Indians inhabitants island jaguars journey La Guayra lake land latitude llanos maize Mariara mass Mexico miles mission missionary morning mountains mouth natives New-Spain night observed ocean Orinoco palms passed Peak plains plants province Quito rain regions remarkable Rio Negro rise river rocks San Fernando Santa savannas seen shore Silla soil South America Spanish species summit surface Teen-shan temperature Teneriffe thermometer tion torrid zone town travellers trees tribes Uruana valley vapours vegetation Vera Cruz village visited volcano vols voyage wind Zacatecas
Popular passages
Page 165 - In -less than five minutes two horses were drowned. The eel, being five feet long, and pressing itself against the belly of the horses, makes a discharge along the whole extent of its electric organ. It attacks at once the heart, the intestines, and the plexus cui'tttrus of the abdominal nerves.
Page 164 - ... which they had been scouring for wild horses and mules. They brought about thirty with them, which they forced to enter the pool. The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs makes the fish issue from the mud, and excites them to combat.
Page 132 - ... a tremendous subterraneous noise was heard, resembling the rolling of thunder, but louder, and of longer continuance, than that heard within the tropics in time of storms. This noise preceded a perpendicular motion of three or four seconds, followed by an undulatory movement somewhat longer. The shocks were in opposite directions, from north to south, and from east to west. Nothing could resist the movement from beneath upward, and undulations crossing each other.
Page 56 - A river, the temperature of which, in the season of the floods, descends as low as twenty-two degrees, when the air is at thirty and thirty-three degrees, is an inestimable benefit in a country where the...
Page 186 - ... could be accessible only by constructing very lofty scaffolds. When the natives are asked how those figures could have been sculptured, they answer with a smile, as relating a fact of which a stranger, a white man only, could be ignorant, that " at the period of the great waters, their fathers went to that height in boats.
Page 151 - ... shower moistens its foliage. Its branches appear dead and dried, but when the trunk is pierced, there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk. It is at the rising of the sun, that this vegetable fountain is most abundant. The blacks and natives are then seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow, and thickens at its surface. Some empty their bowls under the tree itself, others carry the juice home to their children.