Page 21 - AHATA

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 8 OcTOber 2019

A Scientific journey across the island Episode XXXVIII

It was in the first week of January 1885; Aruba had received an in-
teresting visitor in the person of a German Professor, Dr. K. Martin of
the Leyden University who was a passionate Geologist with a spe-
cial interest in moths and butterflies. He came for agro-geological
research, but left a book of cultural- historical value and he was ac-
companied by the students Van der Pol, De Haan and Molengraaff,
and also by Professor Dr. Suringa. The island journey was planned to
start on the 29th of January, at six o’clock in the morning. Professor
Martin is the one who will narrate his adventure: “We were to depart,
but we were about to experience that time is something scarce-
ly heeded on Aruba for of the five donkeys and three servants we
had managed to obtain with great difficulty the previous evening
nothing was as yet to be seen. True, our guide gave himself every
conceivable trouble to accelerate our journey, but only after the
lapse of more than an hour was everything ready, the donkeys with
their saddles and girths having meanwhile been wetted through by
a sudden shower.”

Past Hooiberg and the picturesque fields the company journeyed to
Santa Cruz, reaching the road via Spanish Lagoon in order to go from Horses bay 1885
there to the extreme eastern point of the island, Ceru Colorado.
petrifactions. Behind this lagoon a few coconut trees offered a shady
“For a considerable time masses of stone having the height of good- place of repose on the alluvial sol. But any attempt to lie down on the
sized houses and consisting of heavy worn-off diorite rocks grayly striped ground and stretch our limbs was prevented by the stony surface of this
by the weather are the only objects arresting our attention in the midst extremely thinly grown spot. Our boxes were taken off the donkeys, and
of the high cacti surrounding them, for the sandy soil stretching between we sat down on them whilst the animals were being watered, coconuts
is very thinly covered with plants and its monotonous hue is rather enliv- provided us with a refreshing beverage, the enjoyment of which was not
ened by the bluish green backs of lizards than by any vegetation. Our spoiled by our having procured them in an illicit manner. After scarcely
eyes are aching and we prefer to lift our glance from the shade less an hour’s rest the insistent thought of the long distance we still had to
road.” cover made us rise again.”
Continued on Page 15
He continues his story: “About noon we arrived at Spanish Lagoon on
the south-west coast of the island, where we encountered numerous

Limestone hole and small channels and cavities Prof. Dr. K. Martin Director of National Museum of Geology
and Minerology History 1878 1922