94 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



level of the sea, in order to ascertain the geo- 

 graphical longitude of the place. He left on 

 the day following, and his companions, fearing 

 the danger of the small conveyance on a bois- 

 terous sea, resolved to continue their journey 

 by land, together with Bonpland, who proposed 

 to institute botanical researches. Humboldt, 

 accompanied by a single pilot, crossed the sea * 

 to Guayra, whose harbour is a resort of sharks, 

 and its environs more like a desolate rock than 

 a continent. He remained only a few hours, 

 chiefly on account of the ravages of the yellow 

 fever, and reached, on the evening of November 

 21st, Caracas ; whilst his companions, after a 

 difficult journey in these inhospitable and damp 

 regions, arrived four days later. 



The sight of Caracas, a town which con- 

 tained at that time above 30,000 inhabitants, 

 and where Humboldt remained two months, 

 awakened in him serious and gloomy thoughts. 

 One might almost suppose that he had a 

 kind of presentiment with regard to the 

 fearful calamity which, in 1812, visited the 

 place, when an earthquake buried 12,000 in- 

 habitants under its ruins. Fogs descended 

 nightly from the mountains, and enveloped the 

 valley ; the environs reminded Humboldt of 

 the well-known " Harzgebirge " and its pine- 



