An alley2 of perseas led us to the Hospital of the Aragonese Capuchins. We stopped near a cross of Brazil-wood, erected3 in the midst of a square, and surrounded with benches, on which the infirm monks4 seat themselves to tell their rosaries. The convent is backed by an enormous wall of perpendicular5 rock, covered with thick vegetation. The stone, which is of resplendent whiteness, appears only here and there between the foliage6. It is difficult to imagine a more picturesque7 spot. It recalled forcibly to my remembrance the valleys of Derbyshire, and the cavernous mountains of Muggendorf, in Franconia. Instead of the beeches8 and maple9 trees of Europe we here find the statelier forms of the ceiba and the palm-tree, the praga and irasse. Numberless springs gush10 from the sides of the rocks which encircle the basin of Caripe, and of which the abrupt11 slopes present, towards the south, profiles of a thousand feet in height. These springs issue, for the most part, from a few narrow crevices13. The humidity which they spread around favours the growth of the great trees; and the natives, who love solitary14 places, form their conucos along the sides of these crevices. Plantains and papaw trees are grouped together with groves15 of arborescent fern; and this mixture of wild and cultivated plants gives the place a peculiar16 charm. Springs are distinguished17 from afar, on the naked flanks of the mountains, by tufted masses of vegetation* which at first sight seem suspended from the rocks, and descending18 into the valley, they follow the sinuosities of the torrents20.*
[* Among the interesting plants of the valley of Caripe, we found for the first time a calidium, the trunk of which was twenty feet high (C. arboreum); the Mikania micrantha, which may probably possess some of the alexipharmic properties of the famous guaco of the Choco; the Bauhinia obtusifolia, a very large tree, called guarapa by the Indians; the Weinnannia glabra; a tree psychotria, the capsules of which, when rubbed between the fingers, emit a very agreeable orange smell; the Dorstenia Houstoni (raiz de resfriado); the Martynia Craniolaria, the white flowers of which are six or seven inches long; a scrophularia, having the aspect of the Verbascum miconi, and the leaves of which, all radical22 and hairy, are marked with silvery glands23.]
We were received with great hospitality by the monks of Caripe. The building has an inner court, surrounded by an arcade24, like the convents in Spain. This enclosed place was highly convenient for setting up our instruments and making observations. We found a numerous society in the convent. Young monks, recently arrived from Spain, were just about to settle in the Missions, while old infirm missionaries25 sought for health in the fresh and salubrious air of the mountains of Caripe. I was lodged26 in the cell of the superior, which contained a pretty good collection of books. I found there, to my surprise, the Teatro Critico of Feijoo, the Lettres Edifiantes, and the Traite d’Electricite by abbe Nollet. It seemed as if the progress of knowledge advanced even in the forests of America. The youngest of the capuchin monks of the last Mission had brought with him a Spanish translation of Chaptal’s Treatise27 on Chemistry, and he intended to study this work in the solitude28 where he was destined29 to pass the remainder of his days. During our long abode30 in the Missions of South America we never perceived any sign of intolerance. The monks of Caripe were not ignorant that I was born in the protestant part of Germany. Furnished as I was with orders from the court of Spain, I had no motives31 to conceal32 from them this fact; nevertheless, no mark of distrust, no indiscreet question, no attempt at controversy33, ever diminished the value of the hospitality they exercised with so much liberality and frankness.
The convent is founded on a spot which was anciently called Areocuar. Its height above the level of the sea is nearly the same as that of the town of Caracas, or of the inhabited part of the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Thus the mean temperatures of these three points, all situated34 within the tropics, are nearly the same. The necessity of being well clothed at night, and especially at sunrise, is felt at Caripe. We saw the centigrade thermometer at midnight, between 16 and 17.5°; in the morning, between 19 and 20°. About one o’clock it had risen only to 21, or 22.5°. This temperature is sufficient for the development of the productions of the torrid zone; though, compared with the excessive heat of the plains of Cumana, we might call it the temperature of spring. Water exposed to currents of air in vessels35 of porous36 clay, cools at Caripe, during the night, as low as 13°.
Experience has proved that the temperate37 climate and rarefied air of this spot are singularly favourable38 to the cultivation39 of the coffee-tree, which is well known to flourish on heights. The prefect of the capuchins, an active and enlightened man, has introduced into the province this new branch of agricultural industry. Indigo40 was formerly41 planted at Caripe, but the small quantity of fecula yielded by this plant, which requires great heat, caused the culture to be abandoned. We found in the conuco of the community many culinary plants, maize42, sugar cane43, and five thousand coffee-trees, which promised a fine harvest. The friars were in hopes of tripling the number in a few years. We cannot help remarking the uniform efforts for the cultivation of the soil which are manifested in the policy of the monastic hierarchy44. Wherever convents have not yet acquired wealth in the New Continent, as formerly in Gaul, in Syria, and in the north of Europe, they exercise a happy influence on the clearing of the ground and the introduction of exotic vegetation. At Caripe, the conuco of the community presents the appearance of an extensive and beautiful garden. The natives are obliged to work in it every morning from six to ten, and the alcaldes and alguazils of Indian race overlook their labours. These men are looked upon as great state functionaries45, and they alone have the right of carrying a cane. The selection of them depends on the superior of the convent. The pedantic46 and silent gravity of the Indian alcaldes, their cold and mysterious air, their love of appearing in form at church and in the assemblies of the people, force a smile from Europeans. We were not yet accustomed to these shades of the Indian character, which we found the same at the Orinoco, in Mexico, and in Peru, among people totally different in their manners and their language. The alcaldes came daily to the convent, less to treat with the monks on the affairs of the Mission, than under the pretence47 of inquiring after the health of the newly-arrived travellers. As we gave them brandy, their visits became more frequent than the monks desired.
That which confers most celebrity48 on the valley of Caripe, besides the extraordinary coolness of its climate, is the great Cueva, or Cavern of the Guacharo.* In a country where the people love the marvellous, a cavern which gives birth to a river, and is inhabited by thousands of nocturnal birds, the fat of which is employed in the Missions to dress food, is an everlasting49 object of conversation and discussion. The cavern, which the natives call “a mine of fat” is not in the valley of Caripe itself, but three short leagues distant from the convent, in the direction of west-south-west. It opens into a lateral50 valley, which terminates at the Sierra del Guacharo.
[* The province of Guacharucu, which Delgado visited in 1534, in the expedition of Hieronimo de Ortal, appears to have been situated south or south-east of Macarapana. Has its name any connexion with those of the cavern and the bird? or is this last of Spanish origin? (Laet Nova Orbis page 676). Guacharo means in Castilian “one who cries and laments;” now the bird of the cavern of Caripe, and the guacharaca (Phasianus parraka) are very noisy birds.]
We set out for the Sierra on the 18th of September, accompanied by the alcaldes, or Indian magistrates51, and the greater part of the monks of the convent. A narrow path led us at first towards the south, across a fine plain, covered with beautiful turf. We then turned westward52, along the margin53 of a small river which issues from the mouth of the cavern. We ascended54 during three quarters of an hour, sometimes in the water, which was shallow, sometimes between the torrent21 and a wall of rocks, on a soil extremely slippery and miry. The falling down of the earth, the scattered55 trunks of trees, over which the mules56 could scarcely pass, and the creeping plants that covered the ground, rendered this part of the road fatiguing57. We were surprised to find here, at scarcely 500 toises above the level of the sea, a cruciferous plant, Raphanus pinnatus. Plants of this family are very rare in the tropics; they have in some sort a northern character, and therefore we never expected to see one on the plain of Caripe at so inconsiderable an elevation58. The northern character also appears in the Galium caripense, the Valeriana scandens, and a sanicle not unlike the S. marilandica.
At the foot of the lofty mountain of the Guacharo, we were only four hundred paces from the cavern, without yet perceiving the entrance. The torrent runs in a crevice12 hollowed out by the waters, and we went on under a cornice, the projection59 of which prevented us from seeing the sky. The path winds in the direction of the river; and at the last turning we came suddenly before the immense opening of the grotto60. The aspect of this spot is majestic61, even to the eye of a traveller accustomed to the picturesque scenery of the higher Alps. I had before this seen the caverns62 of the peak of Derbyshire, where, lying down flat in a boat, we proceeded along a subterranean63 river, under an arch two feet high. I had visited the beautiful grotto of Treshemienshiz, in the Carpathian mountains, the caverns of the Hartz, and those of Franconia, which are vast cemeteries,* containing bones of tigers, hyenas64, and bears, as large as our horses. Nature in every zone follows immutable65 laws in the distribution of rocks, in the form of mountains, and even in those changes which the exterior66 crust of our planet has undergone. So great a uniformity led me to believe that the aspect of the cavern of Caripe would differ little from what I had observed in my preceding travels. The reality far exceeded my expectations. If the configuration67 of the grottoes, the splendour of the stalactites, and all the phenomena68 of inorganic69 nature, present striking analogies, the majesty70 of equinoctial vegetation gives at the same time an individual character to the aperture71 of the cavern.
[* The mould, which has covered for thousands of years the soil of the caverns of Gaylenreuth and Muggendorf in Franconia, emits even now choke-damps, or gaseous72 mixtures of hydrogen and nitrogen, which rise to the roof of the caves. This fact is known to the persons who show these caverns to travellers; and when I was director of the mines of the Fichtelberg, I observed it frequently in the summer-time. M. Laugier found in the mould of Muggendorf, besides phosphate of lime, 0.10 of animal matter. I was struck, during my stay at Steeben, with the ammoniacal and fetid smell produced by it, when thrown on a red-hot iron.]
The Cueva del Guacharo is pierced in the vertical73 profile of a rock. The entrance is towards the south, and forms an arch eighty feet broad and seventy-two high. The rock which surmounts74 the grotto is covered with trees of gigantic height. The mammee-tree and the genipa,* with large and shining leaves, raise their branches vertically75 towards the sky; whilst those of the courbaril and the erythrina form, as they extend, a thick canopy76 of verdure. Plants of the family of pothos, with succulent stems, oxalises, and orchideae of a singular structure,* rise in the driest clefts77 of the rocks; while creeping plants waving in the winds are interwoven in festoons before the opening of the cavern. We distinguished in these festoons a bignonia of a violet blue, the purple dolichos, and for the first time, that magnificent solandra,* which has an orange-coloured flower and a fleshy tube more than four inches long.
[* Caruto, Genipa americana. The flower at Caripe, has sometimes five, sometimes six stamens.]
[* A dendrobium, with a gold-coloured flower, spotted78 with black, three inches long.]
[* Solandra scandens. It is the gousaticha of the Chayma Indians.]
But this luxury of vegetation embellishes79 not only the external arch, it appears even in the vestibule of the grotto. We saw with astonishment80 plantain-leaved heliconias eighteen feet high, the praga palm-tree, and arborescent arums, following the course of the river, even to those subterranean places. The vegetation continues in the cave of Caripe as in those deep crevices of the Andes, half-excluded from the light of day, and does not disappear till, penetrating81 into the interior, we advance thirty or forty paces from the entrance. We measured the way by means of a cord; and we went on about four hundred and thirty feet without being obliged to light our torches. Daylight penetrates83 far into this region, because the grotto forms but one single channel, keeping the same direction, from south-east to north-west. Where the light began to fail, we heard from afar the hoarse84 sounds of the nocturnal birds; sounds which the natives think belong exclusively to those subterraneous places.
The guacharo is of the size of our fowls85. It has the mouth of the goat-suckers and procnias, and the port of those vultures whose crooked87 beaks88 are surrounded with stiff silky hairs. Suppressing, with M. Cuvier, the order of picae, we must refer this extraordinary bird to the passeres, the genera of which are connected with each other by almost imperceptible transitions. It forms a new genus, very different from the goatsucker, in the loudness of its voice, in the vast strength of its beak89 (containing a double tooth), and in its feet without the membranes90 which unite the anterior91 phalanges of the claws. It is the first example of a nocturnal bird among the Passeres dentirostrati. Its habits present analogies both with those of the goatsuckers and of the alpine92 crow.* The plumage of the guacharo is of a dark bluish grey, mixed with small streaks93 and specks94 of black. Large white spots of the form of a heart, and bordered with black, mark the head, wings, and tail. The eyes of the bird, which are dazzled by the light of day, are blue, and smaller than those of the goatsucker. The spread of the wings, which are composed of seventeen or eighteen quill95 feathers, is three feet and a half. The guacharo quits the cavern at nightfall, especially when the moon shines. It is almost the only frugiferous nocturnal bird yet known; the conformation of its feet sufficiently96 shows that it does not hunt like our owls86. It feeds on very hard fruits, like the nutcracker* and the pyrrhocorax. The latter nestles also in clefts of rocks, and is known by the name of the night-crow. The Indians assured us that the guacharo does not pursue either the lamellicornous insects or those phalaenae which serve as food to the goatsuckers. A comparison of the beaks of the guacharo and the goatsucker serves to denote how much their habits must differ. It would be difficult to form an idea of the horrible noise occasioned by thousands of these birds in the dark part of the cavern. Their shrill97 and piercing cries strike upon the vaults98 of the rocks, and are repeated by the subterranean echoes. The Indians showed us the nests of the guacharos by fixing a torch to the end of a long pole. These nests were fifty or sixty feet high above our heads, in holes in the shape of funnels99, with which the roof of the grotto is pierced like a sieve100. The noise increased as we advanced, and the birds were scared by the light of the torches of copal. When this noise ceased a few minutes around us, we heard at a distance the plaintive101 cries of the birds roosting in other ramifications102 of the cavern. It seemed as if different groups answered each other alternately.
[* Corvus Pyrrhocorax.]
[* Corvus caryocatactes, C. glandarius. Our Alpine crow builds its nest near the top of Mount Libanus, in subterranean caverns, nearly like the guacharo. It also has the horribly shrill cry of the latter.]
The Indians enter the Cueva del Guacharo once a year, near midsummer. They go armed with poles, with which they destroy the greater part of the nests. At that season several thousand birds are killed; and the old ones, as if to defend their brood, hover103 over the heads of the Indians, uttering terrible cries. The young,* which fall to the ground, are opened on the spot. Their peritoneum is found extremely loaded with fat, and a layer of fat reaches from the abdomen104 to the anus, forming a kind of cushion between the legs of the bird. This quantity of fat in frugivorous animals, not exposed to the light, and exerting very little muscular motion, reminds us of what has been observed in the fattening105 of geese and oxen. It is well known how greatly darkness and repose106 favour this process. The nocturnal birds of Europe are lean, because, instead of feeding on fruits, like the guacharo, they live on the scanty107 produce of their prey108. At the period commonly called, at Caripe, the oil harvest,* the Indians build huts with palm-leaves, near the entrance, and even in the porch of the cavern. There, with a fire of brushwood, they melt in pots of clay the fat of the young birds just killed. This fat is known by the name of butter or oil (manteca, or aceite) of the guacharo. It is half liquid, transparent109, without smell, and so pure that it may be kept above a year without becoming rancid. At the convent of Caripe no other oil is used in the kitchen of the monks but that of the cavern; and we never observed that it gave the aliments a disagreeable taste or smell.
[* Called Los pollos del Guacharo.]
[* La cosecha de la manteca.]
The race of the guacharos would have been long ago extinct, had not several circumstances contributed to its preservation110. The natives, restrained by their superstitious111 ideas, seldom have courage to penetrate82 far into the grotto. It appears also, that birds of the same species dwell in neighbouring caverns, which are too narrow to be accessible to man. Perhaps the great cavern is repeopled by colonies which forsake112 the small grottoes; for the missionaries assured us that hitherto no sensible diminution113 of the birds has been observed. Young guacharos have been sent to the port of Cumana, and have lived there several days without taking any nourishment114, the seeds offered to them not suiting their taste. When the crops and gizzards of the young birds are opened in the cavern, they are found to contain all sorts of hard and dry fruits, which furnish, under the singular name of guacharo seed (semilla del guacharo), a very celebrated115 remedy against intermittent116 fevers. The old birds carry these seeds to their young. They are carefully collected, and sent to the sick at Cariaco, and other places of the low regions, where fevers are generally prevalent.
As we continued to advance into the cavern, we followed the banks of the small river which issues from it, and is from twenty-eight to thirty feet wide. We walked on the banks, as far as the hills formed of calcareous incrustations permitted us. Where the torrent winds among very high masses of stalactites, we were often obliged to descend19 into its bed, which is only two feet deep. We learned with surprise, that this subterranean rivulet117 is the origin of the river Caripe, which, at the distance of a few leagues, where it joins the small river of Santa Maria, is navigable for canoes. It flows into the river Areo under the name of Cano do Terezen. We found on the banks of the subterranean rivulet a great quantity of palm-tree wood, the remains118 of trunks, on which the Indians climb to reach the nests hanging from the roofs of the cavern. The rings, formed by the vestiges119 of the old footstalks of the leaves, furnish as it were the steps of a ladder perpendicularly121 placed.
The Grotto of Caripe preserves the same direction, the same breadth, and its primitive122 height of sixty or seventy feet, to the distance of 472 metres, or 1458 feet, accurately123 measured. We had great difficulty in persuading the Indians to pass beyond the anterior portion of the grotto, the only part which they annually124 visit to collect the fat. The whole authority of ‘los padres’ was necessary to induce them to advance as far as the spot where the soil rises abruptly125 at an inclination126 of sixty degrees, and where the torrent forms a small subterranean cascade127.* The natives connect mystic ideas with this cave, inhabited by nocturnal birds; they believe that the souls of their ancestors sojourn128 in the deep recesses129 of the cavern. “Man,” say they, “should avoid places which are enlightened neither by the sun (zis), nor by the moon (nuna).” ‘To go and join the guacharos,’ is with them a phrase signifying to rejoin their fathers, to die. The magicians (piaches) and the poisoners (imorons) perform their nocturnal tricks at the entrance of the cavern, to conjure130 the chief of the evil spirits (ivorokiamo). Thus in every region of the earth a resemblance may be traced in the early fictions of nations, those especially which relate to two principles governing the world, the abode of souls after death, the happiness of the virtuous131 and the punishment of the guilty. The most different and most barbarous languages present a certain number of images, which are the same, because they have their source in the nature of our intelligence and our sensations. Darkness is everywhere connected with the idea of death. The Grotto of Caripe is the Tartarus of the Greeks; and the guacharos, which hover over the rivulet, uttering plaintive cries, remind us of the Stygian birds.
[* We find the phenomenon of a subterranean cascade, but on a much larger scale, in England, at Yordas Cave, near Kingsdale in Yorkshire.]
At the point where the river forms the subterranean cascade, a hill covered with vegetation, which is opposite to the opening of the grotto, presents a very picturesque aspect. It is seen at the extremity132 of a straight passage, 240 toises in length. The stalactites descending from the roof, and resembling columns suspended in the air, are relieved on a back-ground of verdure. The opening of the cavern appeared singularly contracted, when we saw it about the middle of the day, illumined by the vivid light reflected at once from the sky, the plants, and the rocks. The distant light of day formed a strange contrast with the darkness which surrounded us in the vast cavern. We discharged our guns at a venture, wherever the cries of the nocturnal birds and the flapping of their wings, led us to suspect that a great number of nests were crowded together. After several fruitless attempts M. Bonpland succeeded in killing133 a couple of guacharos, which, dazzled by the light of the torches, seemed to pursue us. This circumstance afforded me the means of making a drawing of this bird, which had previously134 been unknown to naturalists135. We climbed, not without difficulty, the small hill whence the subterranean rivulet descends136. We saw that the grotto was perceptibly contracted, retaining only forty feet in height, and that it continued stretching to north-east, without deviating137 from its primitive direction, which is parallel to that of the great valley of Caripe.
In this part of the cavern, the rivulet deposits a blackish mould, very like the matter which, in the grotto of Muggendorf, in Franconia, is called “the earth of sacrifice.”* We could not discover whether this fine and spongy mould falls through the cracks which communicate with the surface of the ground above, or is washed down by the rain-water penetrating into the cavern. It was a mixture of silex, alumina, and vegetable detritus138. We walked in thick mud to a spot where we beheld139 with astonishment the progress of subterranean vegetation. The seeds which the birds carry into the grotto to feed their young, spring up wherever they fix in the mould which covers the calcareous incrustations. Blanched140 stalks, with some half-formed leaves, had risen to the height of two feet. It was impossible to ascertain141 the species of these plants, their form, colour, and aspect having been changed by the absence of light. These traces of organization amidst darkness forcibly excited the curiosity of the natives, who examined them with silent meditation142 inspired by a place they seemed to dread143. They evidently regarded these subterranean plants, pale and deformed144, as phantoms145 banished146 from the face of the earth. To me the scene recalled one of the happiest periods of my early youth, a long abode in the mines of Freyberg, where I made experiments on the effects of blanching147 (etiolement), which are very different, according as the air is pure or overcharged with hydrogen or azote.
[* Opfer-erde of the cavern of Hohle Berg (or Hole Mountain — a mountain pierced entirely148 through.)]
The missionaries, with all their authority, could not prevail on the Indians to penetrate farther into the cavern. As the roof became lower the cries of the guacharos were more and more shrill. We were obliged to yield to the pusillanimity149 of our guides, and trace back our steps. The appearance of the cavern was however very uniform. We found that a bishop150 of St. Thomas of Guiana had gone farther than ourselves. He had measured nearly 2500 feet from the mouth to the spot where he stopped, but the cavern extended still farther. The remembrance of this fact was preserved in the convent of Caripe, without the exact period being noted151. The bishop had provided himself with great torches of white Castile wax. We had torches composed only of the bark of trees and native resin152. The thick smoke which issued from these torches, in a narrow subterranean passage, hurts the eyes and obstructs153 the respiration154.
On turning back to go out of the cavern, we followed the course of the torrent. Before our eyes became dazzled with the light of day we saw on the outside of the grotto the water of the river sparkling amid the foliage of the trees which shaded it. It was like a picture placed in the distance, the mouth of the cavern serving as a frame. Having at length reached the entrance, we seated ourselves on the bank of the rivulet, to rest after our fatigues155. We were glad to be beyond the hoarse cries of the birds, and to leave a place where darkness does not offer even the charm of silence and tranquillity156. We could scarcely persuade ourselves that the name of the Grotto of Caripe had hitherto been unknown in Europe;* for the guacharos alone might have sufficed to render it celebrated. These nocturnal birds have been no where yet discovered, except in the mountains of Caripe and Cumanacoa. The missionaries had prepared a repast at the entry of the cavern. Leaves of the banana and the vijao,* which have a silky lustre157, served us as a table-cloth, according to the custom of the country. Nothing was wanting to our enjoyment158, not even remembrances, which are so rare in those countries, where generations disappear without leaving a trace of their existence.
[* It is surprising that Father Gili, author of the Saggio di Storia Americana, does not mention it, though he had in his possession a manuscript written in 1780 at the convent of Caripe. I gave the first information respecting the Cueva del Guacharo in 1800, in my letters to Messrs. Delambre and Delametherie, published in the Journal de Physique.]
[* Heliconia bihai, Linn. The Creoles have changed the b of the Haitian word bihao into v, and the h into j, agreeably to the Castilian pronunciation.]
Before we quit the subterranean rivulet and the nocturnal birds, let us cast a last glance at the cavern of the Guacharo, and the whole of the physical phenomena it presents. When we have step by step pursued a long series of observations modified by the localities of a place, we love to stop and raise our views to general considerations. Do the great cavities, which are exclusively called caverns, owe their origin to the same causes as those which have produced the lodes of veins159 and of metalliferous strata160, or the extraordinary phenomenon of the porosity161 of rocks? Do grottoes belong to every formation, or to that period only when organized beings began to people the surface of the globe? These geological questions can be solved only so far as they are directed by the actual state of things, that is, of facts susceptible162 of being verified by observation.
Considering rocks according to the succession of eras, we find that primitive formations exhibit very few caverns. The great cavities which are observed in the oldest granite163, and which are called fours (ovens) in Switzerland and in the south of France, when they are lined with rock crystals, arise most frequently from the union of several contemporaneous veins of quartz164,* of feldspar, or of fine-grained granite. The gneiss presents, though more seldom, the same phenomenon; and near Wunsiedel,* at the Fichtelgebirge, I had an opportunity of examining crystal fours of two or three feet diameter, in a part of the rock not traversed by veins. We are ignorant of the extent of the cavities which subterranean fires and volcanic165 agitations166 may have produced in the bowels167 of the earth in those primitive rocks, which, containing considerable quantities of amphibole, mica168, garnet, magnetic iron-stone, and red schorl (titanite), appear to be anterior to granite. We find some fragments of these rocks among the matters ejected by volcanoes. The cavities can be considered only as partial and local phenomena; and their existence is scarcely any contradiction to the notions we have acquired from the experiments of Maskelyne and Cavendish on the mean density169 of the earth.
[* Gleichzeitige Trummer. To these stone veins which appear to be of the same age as the rock, belong the veins of talc and asbestos in serpentine170, and those of quartz traversing schist (Thonschiefer). Jameson on Contemporaneous Veins, in the Mem. of the Wernerian Soc.]
[* In Franconia, south-east of Luchsburg.]
In the primitive mountains open to our researches, real grottoes, those which have some extent, belong only to calcareous formations, such as the carbonate or sulphate of lime. The solubility171 of these substances appears to have favoured the action of the subterranean waters for ages. The primitive limestone172 presents spacious173 caverns as well as transition limestone,* and that which is exclusively called secondary. If these caverns be less frequent in the first, it is because this stone forms in general only layers subordinate to the mica-slate,* and not a particular system of mountains, into which the waters may filter, and circulate to great distances. The erosions occasioned by this element depend not only on its quantity, but also on the length of time during which it remains, the velocity174 it acquires by its fall, and the degree of solubility of the rock. I have observed in general, that the waters act more easily on the carbonates and the sulphates of lime of secondary mountains than on the transition limestones175, which have a considerable mixture of silex and carbon. On examining the internal structure of the stalactites which line the walls of caverns, we find in them all the characters of a chemical precipitate176.
[* In the primitive limestone are found the Kuetzel-loch, near Kaufungen in Silesia, and probably several caverns in the islands of the Archipelago. In the transition limestone we remark the caverns of Elbingerode, of Rubeland, and of Scharzfeld, in the Hartz; those of the Salzfluhe in the Grisons; and, according to Mr. Greenough, that of Torbay in Devonshire.]
[* Sometimes to gneiss, as at the Simplon, between Dovredo and Crevola.]
As we approach those periods in which organic life develops itself in a greater number of forms, the phenomenon of grottoes becomes more frequent. There exist several under the name of baumen,* not in the ancient sandstone to which the great coal formation belongs, but in the Alpine limestone, and in the Jura limestone, which is often only the superior part of the Alpine formation. The Jura limestone* so abounds177 with caverns in both continents, that several geologists178 of the school of Freyberg have given it the name of cavern-limestone (hohlenkalkstein). It is this rock which so often interrupts the course of rivers, by engulfing179 them into its bosom181. In this also is formed the famous Cueva del Guacharo, and the other grottoes of the valley of Caripe. The muriatiferous gypsum,* whether it be found in layers in the Jura or Alpine limestone, or whether it separate these two formations, or lie between the Alpine limestone and argillaceous sandstone, also presents, on account of its great solubility, enormous cavities, sometimes communicating with each other at several leagues distance. After the limestone and gypseous formations, there would remain to be examined, among the secondary rocks, a third formation, that of the argillaceous sandstone, newer than the brine-spring formations; but this rock, composed of small grains of quartz cemented by clay, seldom contains caverns; and when it does, they are not extensive. Progressively narrowing towards their extremity, their walls are covered with a brown ochre.
[* In the dialect of the German Swiss, Balmen. The Baumen of the Sentis, of the Mole182, and of the Beatenberg, on the borders of the lake of Thun, belong to the Alpine limestone.]
[* I may mention only the grottoes of Boudry, Motiers–Travers, and Valorbe, in the Jura; the grotto of Balme near Geneva; the caverns between Muggendorf and Gaylenreuth in Franconia; Sowia Jama, Ogrodzimiec, and Wlodowice, in Poland.]
[* Gypsum of Bottendorf, schlottengyps.]
We have just seen, that the form of grottoes depends partly on the nature of the rocks in which they are found; but this form, modified by exterior agents, often varies even in the same formation. The configuration of caverns, like the outline of mountains, the sinuosity of valleys, and so many other phenomena, present at first sight only irregularity and confusion. The appearance of order is resumed, when we can extend our observations over a vast space of ground, which has undergone violent, but periodical and uniform revolutions. From what I have seen in the mountains of Europe, and in the Cordilleras of America, caverns may be divided, according to their interior structure, into three classes. Some have the form of large clefts or crevices, like veins not filled with ore; such as the cavern of Rosenmuller, in Franconia, Elden-hole, in the peak of Derbyshire, and the Sumideros of Chamacasapa in Mexico. Other caverns are open to the light at both ends. These are rocks really pierced; natural galleries, which run through a solitary mountain: such are the Hohleberg of Muggendorf, and the famous cavern called Dantoe by the Ottomite Indians, and the Bridge of the Mother of God, by the Mexican Spaniards. It is difficult to decide respecting the origin of these channels, which sometimes serve as beds for subterranean rivers. Are these pierced rocks hollowed out by the impulse of a current? or should we rather admit that one of the openings of the cavern is owing to a falling down of the earth subsequent to its original formation; to a change in the external form of the mountain, for instance, to a new valley opened on its flank? A third form of caverns, and the most common of the whole, exhibits a succession of cavities, placed nearly on the same level, running in the same direction, and communicating with each other by passages of greater or less breadth.
To these differences of general form are added other circumstances not less remarkable183. It often happens, that grottoes of little space have extremely wide openings; whilst we have to creep under very low vaults, in order to penetrate into the deepest and most spacious caverns. The passages which unite partial grottoes, are generally horizontal. I have seen some, however, which resemble funnels or wells, and which may be attributed to the escape of some elastic184 fluid through a mass before being hardened. When rivers issue from grottoes, they form only a single, horizontal, continuous channel, the dilatations of which are almost imperceptible; as in the Cueva del Guacharo we have just described, and the cavern of San Felipe, near Tehuilotepec in the western Cordilleras of Mexico. The sudden disappearance* of the river, which took its rise from this last cavern, has impoverished185 a district in which farmers and miners equally require water for refreshing186 the soil and for working hydraulic187 machinery188.
[* In the night of the 16th April, 1802.]
Considering the variety of structure exhibited by grottoes in both hemispheres, we cannot but refer their formation to causes totally different. When we speak of the origin of caverns we must choose between two systems of natural philosophy: one of these systems attributes every thing to instantaneous and violent commotions189 (for example, to the elastic force of vapours, and to the heavings occasioned by volcanoes); while the other rests on the operation of small powers, which produce effects almost insensibly by progressive action. Those who love to indulge in geological hypotheses must not, however, forget the horizontality so often remarked amidst gypseous and calcareous mountains, in the position of grottoes communicating with each other by passages. This almost perfect horizontality, this gentle and uniform slope, appears to be the result of a long abode of the waters, which enlarge by erosion clefts already existing, and carry off the softer parts the more easily, as clay or muriate of soda190 is found mixed with the gypsum and fetid limestone. These effects are the same, whether the caverns form one long and continued range, or several of these ranges lie one over another, as happens almost exclusively in gypseous mountains.
That which in shelly or Neptunean rocks is caused by the action of the waters, appears sometimes to be in the volcanic rocks the effect of gaseous emanations* acting191 in the direction where they find the least resistance. When melted matter moves on a very gentle slope, the great axis192 of the cavity formed by the elastic fluids is nearly horizontal, or parallel to the plane on which the movement of transition takes place. A similar disengagement of vapours, joined to the elastic force of the gases, which penetrate strata softened193 and raised up, appears sometimes to have given great extent to the caverns found in trachytes or trappean porphyries. These porphyritic caverns, in the Cordilleras of Quito and Peru, bear the Indian name of Machays.* They are in general of little depth. They are lined with sulphur, and differ by the enormous size of their openings from those observed in volcanic tufas* in Italy, at Teneriffe, and in the Andes. It is by connecting in the mind the primitive, secondary, and volcanic rocks, and distinguishing between the oxidated crust of the globe, and the interior nucleus194, composed perhaps of metallic195 and inflammable substances, that we may account for the existence of grottoes everywhere. They act in the economy of nature as vast reservoirs of water and of elastic fluids.
[* At Vesuvius, the Duke de la Torre showed me, in 1805, in currents of recent lava196, cavities extending in the direction of the current, six or seven feet long and three feet high. These little volcanic caverns were lined with specular iron, which cannot be called oligiste iron, since M. Gay–Lussac’s last experiments on the oxides of iron.]
[* Machay is a word of the Quichua language, commonly called by the Spaniards the Incas’ language. Callancamachay means a cavern as large as a house, a cavern that serves as a tambo or caravansarai.]
[*Sometimes fire acts like water in carrying off masses, and thus the cavities may be caused by an igneous197, though more frequently by an aqueous erosion or solution.]
The gypseous caverns glitter with crystallized selenites. Vitreous crystallized plates of brown and yellow stand out on a striated198 ground composed of layers of alabaster199 and fetid limestone. The calcareous grottoes have a more uniform tint200. They are more beautiful, and richer in stalactites, in proportion as they are narrower, and the circulation of air is less free. By being spacious, and accessible to air, the cavern of Caripe is almost destitute201 of those incrustations, the imitative forms of which are in other countries objects of popular curiosity. I also sought in vain for subterranean plants, those cryptogamia of the family of the Usneaceae, which we sometimes find fixed202 on the stalactites, like ivy203 on walls, when we penetrate for the first time into a lateral grotto.*
[* Lichen204 tophicola was discovered when the beautiful cavern of Rosenmuller in Franconia was first opened. The cavity containing the lichen was found closed on all sides by enormous masses of stalactite.]
The caverns in mountains of gypsum often contain mephitic emanations and deleterious gases. It is not the sulphate of lime that acts on the atmospheric205 air, but the clay slightly mixed with carbon, and the fetid limestone, so often mingled206 with the gypsum. We cannot yet decide, whether the swinestone acts as a hydrosulphuret, or by means of a bituminous principle.* Its property of absorbing oxygen gas is known to all the miners of Thuringia. It is the same as the action of the carburetted clay of the gypseous grottoes, and of the great chambers207 (sinkwerke) dug in mines of fossil salt which are worked by the introduction of fresh water. The caverns of calcareous mountains are not exposed to those decompositions of the atmospheric air, unless they contain bones of quadrupeds, or the mould mixed with animal gluten and phosphate of lime, from which arise inflammable and fetid gases.
[* That description of fetid limestone called by the German mineralogists stinkstein is always of a blackish brown colour. It is only by decomposition208 that it becomes white, after having acted on the surrounding air. The stinkstein which is of secondary formation, must not be confounded with a very white primitive granular limestone of the island of Thasos, which emits, when scraped, a smell of sulphuretted hydrogen. This marble is coarser grained than Carrara (Marmor lunense). It was frequently employed by the Grecian sculptors209, and I often picked up fragments of it at the Villa210 Adriani, near Rome.]
Though we made many enquiries among the inhabitants of Caripe, Cumanacoa, and Cariaco, we did not learn that they had ever discovered in the cavern of Guacharo either the remains of carnivorous animals, or those bony breccias of herbivorous animals, which are found in the caverns of Germany and Hungary, and in the clefts of the calcareous rocks of Gibraltar. The fossil bones of the megatherium, of the elephant, and of the mastodon, which travellers have brought from South America, have all been found in the light soil of the valleys and table-lands. Excepting the megalonyx,* a kind of sloth211 of the size of an ox, described by Mr. Jefferson, I know not a single instance of the skeleton of an animal buried in a cavern of the New World. The extreme scarcity212 of this geological phenomenon will appear the less surprising to us, if we recollect213, that in France, England, and Italy, there are also a great number of grottoes in which we have never met with any vestige120 of fossil bones.
[* The megalonyx was found in the caverns of Green Briar, in Virginia, at the distance of 1500 leagues from the megatherium, which resembles it very much, and is of the size of the rhinoceros214.]
Although, in primitive nature, whatever relates to ideas of extent and mass is of no great importance, yet I may observe, that the cavern of Caripe is one of the most spacious known to exist in limestone formations. It is at least 900 metres or 2800 feet in length.* Owing to the different degrees of solubility in rocks, it is generally not in calcareous mountains, but in gypseous formations, that we find the most extensive succession of grottoes. In Saxony there are some in gypsum several leagues in length; for instance, that of Wimelburg, which communicates with the cavern of Cresfield.
[* The famous Baumannshohle in the Hartz, according to Messrs. Gilbert and Ilsen, is only 578 feet in length; the cavern of Scharzfeld 350; that of Gaylenreuth 304; that of Antiparos 300. But according to Saussure, the Grotto of Balme is 1300 feet.]
The determination of the temperature of grottoes presents a field for interesting observation. The cavern of Caripe, situated nearly in the latitude215 of 10° 10′, consequently in the centre of the torrid zone, is elevated 506 toises above the level of the sea in the gulf180 of Cariaco. We found that, in every part of it, in the month of September, the temperature of the internal air was between 18.4 and 18.9° of the centesimal thermometer; the external atmosphere being at 16.2°. At the entrance of the cavern, the thermometer in the open air was at 17.6°; but when immersed in the water of the little subterranean river, it marked, even to the end of the cavern, 16.8°. These experiments are very interesting, if we reflect on the tendency to equilibrium216 of heat, in the waters, the air, and the earth. When I left Europe, men of science were regretting that they had not sufficient data on what is called the temperature of the interior of the globe; and it is but very recently that efforts have been made, and with some success, to solve the grand problem of subterranean meteorology. The stony217 strata that form the crust of our planet, are alone accessible to our examination; and we now know that the mean temperature of these strata varies not only with latitudes218 and heights, but that, according to the position of the several places, it performs also, in the space of a year, regular oscillations round the mean heat of the neighbouring atmosphere. The time is gone by when men were surprised to find, in other zones, the heat of grottoes and wells differing from that observed in the caves of the observatory219 at Paris. The same instrument which in those caves marks 12°, rises in the subterraneous caverns of the island of Madeira, near Funchal, to 16.2°; in Joseph’s Well, at Cairo* to 21.2°; in the grottoes of the island of Cuba to 22 or 23°.* This increase is nearly in proportion to that of the mean temperature of the atmosphere, from latitude 48° to the tropics.
[* At Funchal (latitude 32° 37′) the mean temperature of the air is 20.4°, and at Cairo (latitude 30° 2′), according to Nouet, it is 22.4°.]
[* The mean temperature of the air at the Havannah, according to Mr. Ferrer, is 25.6°.]
We have just seen that, in the Cueva del Guacharo, the water of the river is nearly 2° colder than the ambient air of the cavern. The water, whether in filtering through the rocks, or in running over stony beds, doubtless imbibes220 the temperature of these beds. The air contained in the grotto, on the contrary, is not in repose; it communicates with the external atmosphere. Though under the torrid zone, the changes of the external temperature are exceedingly trifling221, currents are formed, which modify periodically the internal air. It is consequently the temperature of the waters, that of 16.8°, which we might look upon as the temperature of the earth in those mountains, if we were sure that the waters do not descend rapidly from more elevated neighbouring mountains.
It follows from these observations, that when we cannot obtain results perfectly222 exact, we find at least under each zone certain numbers which indicate the maximum and minimum. At Caripe, in the equinoctial zone, at an elevation of 500 toises, the mean temperature of the globe is not below 16.8°, which was the degree indicated by the water of the subterranean river. We can even prove that this temperature of the globe is not above 19°, since the air of the cavern, in the month of September, was found to be at 18.7°. As the mean temperature of the atmosphere, in the hottest month, does not exceed 19.5°,* it is probable that a thermometer in the grotto would not rise higher than 19° at any season of the year.
[* The mean temperature of the month of September at Caripe is 18.5°; and on the coast of Cumana, where we had opportunities of making numerous observations, the mean heat of the warmest months differs only 1.8° from that of the coldest.]
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1
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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beeches
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| n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 )；山毛榉木材 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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glands
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| n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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arcade
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| n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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porous
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| adj.可渗透的，多孔的 | |
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temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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functionaries
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| n.公职人员，官员( functionary的名词复数 ) | |
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pedantic
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| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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lateral
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| adj.侧面的，旁边的 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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54
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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fatiguing
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| a.使人劳累的 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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grotto
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| n.洞穴 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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hyenas
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| n.鬣狗( hyena的名词复数 ) | |
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immutable
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| adj.不可改变的，永恒的 | |
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exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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configuration
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| n.结构，布局，形态，(计算机)配置 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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inorganic
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| adj.无生物的；无机的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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gaseous
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| adj.气体的，气态的 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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surmounts
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| 战胜( surmount的第三人称单数 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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76
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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77
clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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78
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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79
embellishes
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| v.美化( embellish的第三人称单数 )；装饰；修饰；润色 | |
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80
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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81
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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82
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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83
penetrates
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| v.穿过( penetrate的第三人称单数 )；刺入；了解；渗透 | |
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84
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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85
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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86
owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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87
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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88
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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89
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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90
membranes
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|
| n.（动物或植物体内的）薄膜( membrane的名词复数 )；隔膜；（可起防水、防风等作用的）膜状物 | |
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91
anterior
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| adj.较早的；在前的 | |
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92
alpine
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| adj.高山的；n.高山植物 | |
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93
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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94
specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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95
quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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96
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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97
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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98
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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99
funnels
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| 漏斗( funnel的名词复数 )； （轮船，火车等的）烟囱 | |
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100
sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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101
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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102
ramifications
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| n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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103
hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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104
abdomen
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| n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分) | |
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105
fattening
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|
| adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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106
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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107
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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108
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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109
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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110
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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111
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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112
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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113
diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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114
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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115
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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116
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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117
rivulet
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| n.小溪，小河 | |
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118
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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119
vestiges
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| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
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120
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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121
perpendicularly
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| adv. 垂直地, 笔直地, 纵向地 | |
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122
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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123
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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124
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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125
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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126
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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127
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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128
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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129
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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130
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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131
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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132
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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133
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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134
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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135
naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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136
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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137
deviating
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| v.偏离，越轨( deviate的现在分词 ) | |
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138
detritus
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| n.碎石 | |
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139
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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140
blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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141
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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142
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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143
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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144
deformed
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|
| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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145
phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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146
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147
blanching
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| adj.漂白的n.热烫v.使变白( blanch的现在分词 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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148
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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149
pusillanimity
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| n.无气力，胆怯 | |
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150
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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151
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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152
resin
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| n.树脂，松香，树脂制品；vt.涂树脂 | |
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153
obstructs
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| 阻塞( obstruct的第三人称单数 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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154
respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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155
fatigues
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| n.疲劳( fatigue的名词复数 )；杂役；厌倦；（士兵穿的）工作服 | |
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156
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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157
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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158
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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159
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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160
strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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161
porosity
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| n.多孔性，有孔性 | |
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162
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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163
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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164
quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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165
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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166
agitations
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| （液体等的）摇动( agitation的名词复数 )； 鼓动； 激烈争论； （情绪等的）纷乱 | |
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167
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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168
mica
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| n.云母 | |
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169
density
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| n.密集，密度，浓度 | |
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170
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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171
solubility
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| n.溶解度；可解决性；溶度 | |
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172
limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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173
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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174
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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175
limestones
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| n.石灰岩( limestone的名词复数 ) | |
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176
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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177
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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178
geologists
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| 地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 ) | |
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179
engulfing
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| adj.吞噬的v.吞没，包住( engulf的现在分词 ) | |
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180
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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181
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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182
mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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183
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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184
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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185
impoverished
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|
| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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186
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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187
hydraulic
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| adj.水力的；水压的，液压的；水力学的 | |
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188
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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189
commotions
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| n.混乱，喧闹，骚动( commotion的名词复数 ) | |
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190
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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191
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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192
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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193
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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194
nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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195
metallic
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|
| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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196
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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197
igneous
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| adj.火的，火绒的 | |
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198
striated
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| adj.有纵线，条纹的 | |
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199
alabaster
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| adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石 | |
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200
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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lichen
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| n.地衣, 青苔 | |
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atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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decomposition
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| n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃 | |
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sculptors
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| 雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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sloth
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| n.[动]树懒；懒惰，懒散 | |
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scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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213
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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rhinoceros
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| n.犀牛 | |
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latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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219
observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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220
imbibes
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| v.吸收( imbibe的第三人称单数 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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