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Thermal springs of Onoto, between Turmero and Maracay, in the valleys of Aragua, west of Caracas. Thermal springs of Mariara, in the same valleys. Temperature 58.9 degrees. Temperature 90.4 degrees. Boiling springs of the Sierra Nevada of Merida. Aperture of Mena, on the borders of Lake Maracaybo.
We sent some to Europe, and they have germinated in the gardens of Berlin, Paris, and Malmaison. The numerous plants of the volador, now seen in hot-houses, owe their origin to the only tree of the kind found near Mariara. The geographical distribution of the different species of gyrocarpus, which Mr. Brown considers as one of the laurineae, is very singular.
These springs gush out at three points of the granitic Cordillera of the coast; near Onoto, between Turmero and Maracay; near Mariara, north-east of the Hacienda de Cura; and near Las Trincheras, on the road from Nueva Valencia to Porto Cabello. I could examine with care only the physical and geological relations of the thermal waters of Mariara and Las Trincheras.
MM. Rivero and Boussingault, who visited the thermal waters of Mariara in February, 1823, during their journey from Caracas to Santa Fe de Bogota, found their maximum to be 64 degrees centigrade. I found it at the same season only 59.2 degrees. Has the great earthquake of the 26th March, 1812, had an influence on the temperature of these springs?
The deepest places are between the rocky island of Burro and the point of Cana Fistula, and opposite the high mountains of Mariara.
In going up the small river Cura towards its source, the mountains of Mariara are seen advancing into the plain in the form of a vast amphitheatre, composed of perpendicular rocks, crowned by peaks with rugged summits. The range stretching to the east is called El Chaparro; that to the west, Las Viruelas.
We discover islands, which, in consequence of the retreat of the waters, are just beginning to be joined to the continent, as for instance the rocky island of Culebra, in the direction of Guigue; other islands already form promontories, as the Morro, between Guigue and Nueva Valencia, and La Cabrera, south-east of Mariara; others again are now rising in the islands themselves like scattered hills.
It no more forms an independent stratum in the New Continent, than in the Pyrenees and the Alps. At the Rincon del Diablo, between Mariara and Hacienda de Cura, and at Chuao, it is coarse-grained, and contains fine crystals of felspar, 1 1/2 inches long.
A few plants near the springs were encrusted with sulphur. This deposit is scarcely visible when the water of Mariara is suffered to cool in an open vessel; no doubt because the quantity of disengaged gas is very small, and is not renewed. The water, when cold, gives no precipitate with a solution of nitrate of copper; it is destitute of flavour, and very drinkable.
After bowing gravely, he made us a long speech on the virtues of the waters of Mariara, adverting to the numbers of invalids by whom they have been visited for some years past, and to the favourable situation of the springs, between the two towns Valencia and Caracas.
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