contrasted with the stillness which prevails within the tropics during
the noontide hours of a day of more than usual heat. I borrow from the
same journal the recollections of a day at the Narrows of Baraguan. At
this part of its course the Orinoco forces for itself a passage through
the western portion of the Parime Mountains. What is called at this
remarkable pass a “Narrow” (Angostura del Baraguan), is still a bed or
water-basin of 890 toises (5690 English feet) in breadth. On the naked
rocks which formed the shores we saw only, besides an old withered
stem of Aubletia (Apeiba tiburba), and a new Apocinea (Allamanda
salicifolia), a few silvery croton shrubs. A thermometer observed in
the shade, but brought within a few inches of the towering mass of
granite rock, rose to above 40° Reaumur (122° Fah.) All distant objects
had wave-like undulating outlines, the effect of mirage; not a breath
of air stirred the fine dust-like sand. The sun was in the zenith, and
the flood of light which he poured down upon the river, and which,
from a slight rippling movement of the waters, flashed sparkling back,
rendered still more sensible the red haze which veiled the distance.
All the naked rocks and boulders around were covered with a countless
number of large thick-scaled iguanas, gecko-lizards, and variously
spotted salamanders. Motionless, with uplifted heads and open mouths,
they appeared to inhale the burning air with ecstacy. At such times
the larger animals seek shelter in the recesses of the forest, and
the birds hide themselves under the thick foliage of the trees, or in
the clefts of the rocks; but if, in this apparent entire stillness of
nature, one listens for the faintest tones which an attentive ear can
seize, there is perceived an all-pervading rustling sound, a humming
and fluttering of insects close to the ground, and in the lower strata
of the atmosphere. Every thing announces a world of organic activity
and life. In every bush, in the cracked bark of the trees, in the earth
undermined by hymenopterous insects, life stirs audibly. It is, as it
were, one of the many voices of Nature, heard only by the sensitive and
reverent ear of her true votaries.
ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS.
[64] p. 260.--“_Characteristic names in Arabic and Persian._”
More than twenty different terms might be cited as used by Arabs in
speaking of steppes, (tanufah), to denote deserts without water,
entirely bare, covered with siliceous sand, or interspersed with
spots affording some pasture: (sahara, kafr, mikfar, tih, and mehme.)
Sahl, is a low plain; dakkah, a desolate elevated plain. In Persian,
“beyaban” signifies the arid sandy desert,--as do the Mogul “gobi,”
and the Chinese “han-hai,” and “scha-mo.” “Yaila” is a steppe covered
rather with grasses or herbage than with herbaceous plants; so are also
the Mogul “küdah,” and the Turkish “tala,” or “tschol,” and the Chinese
“huang.” “Deshti-reft” is an elevated plain devoid of vegetation.
(Humboldt, Relation hist. T. ii. p. 158.)
[65] p. 260.--“_In the old Castilian idiom._”
Pico, picacho, mogote, cucurucho, espigon, loma tendida, mesa,
panecillo, farallon, tablon, peña, peñon, peñasco, peñoleria, roca
partida, laxa, cerro, sierra, serrania, cordillera, monte, montaña,
montañuela, cadena de montes, los altos, malpais, reventazon, bufa, &c.
[66] p. 263.--“_Where the map had exhibited Montes de Cacao._”
On the range of hills which had been converted into the lofty Andes de
Cuchao, see my Rel. hist. T. iii. p. 238.
[67] p. 268.--“_Hermesia._”
The genus Hermesia, the Sauso, has been described by Bonpland, and
figured in our Plantes equinoxiales, T. i. p. 162, tab. xlvi.
[68] p. 269.--“_The fresh-water dolphin._”
These are not sea-dolphins, ascending the rivers for a great distance,
as is done by some species of Pleuronectes (flat fish, which always
have both eyes on one side of the body); for example, the Limande
(Pleuronectes Limanda), which comes up the Loire to Orleans. Some
sea forms of fish, as dolphins and skates, are repeated in the great
rivers of both continents. The fresh-water dolphin of the Apure and the
Orinoco differs specifically from the Delphinus gangeticus, as well as
from all sea-dolphins. See my Rel. hist. T. ii. pp. 223, 239, 406-413.
[69] p. 270.--“_The striped nocturnal monkey._”
This is the Douroucouli, or Cusi-cusi of the Cassiquiare, described
by me as Simia trivirgata in my Recueil d’Observations de Zoologie
et d’Anatomie comparée, T. i. p. 306-311, tab. xxviii., the plate
being taken from a drawing made by myself from the living animal. We
subsequently saw this nocturnal monkey living in the menagerie of the
Jardin des Plantes at Paris. (See the work above cited, T. ii. p. 340.)
Spix also found this remarkable little animal on the Amazons river, and
called it Nyctipithecus vociferans.
Potsdam, June 1849.
HYPSOMETRIC ADDENDA.
I am indebted to Mr. Pentland (whose scientific labours have thrown so
much light on the geology and geography of Bolivia) for the following
determinations, which he communicated to me in a letter written from
Paris, in October 1848, after the publication of his great map:--
Nevado of Sorata, or Long. from Height in
Ancohuma. S. lat. Greenwich. English Feet.
South Peak 15° 51′ 33″ 68° 33′ 55″ 21286
North Peak 15° 49′ 18″ 68° 33′ 52″ 21043
Illimani.
South Peak 16° 38′ 52″ 67° 49′ 18″ 21145
Middle Peak 16° 38′ 26″ 67° 49′ 17″ 21094
North Peak 16° 37′ 50″ 67° 49′ 39″ 21060
The heights (with the exception of the unimportant difference of a few
feet in the South Peak of Illimani) are the same as those given in
the map of the Lake of Titicaca. A sketch of the last-named mountain
(Illimani), as it shews itself in all its majesty from La Paz, has been
given by Mr. Pentland in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,
Vol. V. (1835), p. 77. This was five years after the publication of the
first measurements in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes for 1830,
p. 323, which results I myself hastened to make known in Germany.
(Hertha, Zeitschrift für Erd und Völkerkunde, von Berghaus, Bd. xiii.
1829, S. 3-29.) The Nevado de Sorata is to the east of the village
Sorata, or Esquibel: it is called in the Ymarra language, according to
Pentland, Ancomani, Itampu, and Illhampu. We recognise in “Illimani,”
the Ymarra word “illi,” snow.
If, however, in the _eastern_ chain of Bolivia the Sorata was long
assumed 3718 French, or 3952 English feet, and the Illimani 2675
French, or 2851 English, feet too high, there are in the _western_
chain of the same country, according to Pentland’s map of Titicaca
(1848), four peaks to the east of Arica and between lat. 18° 7′ and 18°
25′, all of which are higher than Chimborazo, which is 21422 English or
20100 French feet. These four peaks are--
Pomarape 21700 English feet, or 20360 French feet.
Gualateiri 21960 „ „ 20604 „ „
Parinacota 22030 „ „ 20670 „ „
Sahama 22350 „ „ 20971 „ „
Berghaus has applied to the eastern and western chains of the Andes of
Bolivia the investigation published by me in the Annales des Sciences
Naturelles, T. iv. 1825, p. 225-253, of the proportion (very different
in different mountain chains), which the general height of the ridge,
the crest, or kamm (the mean height of the passes), bears to the
highest summits or culminating points. He finds, following Pentland’s
map, the mean height of the passes in the eastern chain 12672 French,
or 13502 English feet; and in the western chain 13602 French, or 14896
English feet. The culminating points are 19972 and 20971 French, 21286
and 22350 English feet; consequently the ratio of the height of the
ridge to that of the culminating point is, in the eastern chain, as 1 :
1.57, and in the western chain as 1 : 1.54. (Berghaus, Zeitschrift für
Erdkunde, Band. ix. S. 322-326). This ratio, which is, as it were, the
measure of the subterranean elevating force, is very similar to that
which exists in the Pyrenees, but very different from the Alps, where
the mean height of the passes is less as compared with Mont Blanc. The
ratios are, in the Pyrenees, = 1 : 1.43, and in the Alps, = 1 : 2.09.
But, according to Fitz Roy and Darwin, the height of the Sahama is
still surpassed by 796 French, or 850 English feet, by that of the
volcano of Aconcagua, on the north east of Valparaiso, in Chili, in S.
lat. 32° 39′. The officers of the Adventure and Beagle, in Fitz Roy’s
Expedition, found, in August 1835, the summit of Acongagua between
23000 and 23400 English feet. If we take it at 23200 (equal to 21767
Paris feet), this volcano would be 1667 French, or 1777 English, feet
higher than the Chimborazo. (Fitz Roy, Voyages of the Adventure and
Beagle, 1839, Vol. ii. p. 481; Darwin, Journal of Researches, 1845,
pp. 223 and 291.) According to more recent calculations, the height
of Acongagua is given as 22431 French, or 23907 English feet. (Mary
Somerville, Physical Geogr. 1849, Vol. ii. p. 425.)
Our knowledge of the systems of mountains which, north of the parallels
of 30° and 31° N. lat., are called the Rocky Mountains and the
Sierra Nevada of California, has received most important additions,
geologically, botanically, hypsometrically, and geographically by
astronomical determinations of position, from the excellent works
of Charles Frémont (Geographical Memoir upon Upper California, an
illustration of his Map of Oregon and California, 1848); of Dr.
Wislizenus (Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico, connected with Col.
Doniphan’s Expedition, 1848); and of Lieutenants Abert and Peck
(Expedition on the Upper Arkansas, 1845; and Examination of New Mexico
in 1846 and 1847.) There prevails throughout these different North
American works a true scientific spirit, which is deserving of the
greatest commendation. The remarkable elevated plain, which rises to
an uninterrupted height of four or five thousand French (4260 and 5330
English) feet, between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of
California, of which I have spoken in p. 44, and which is called the
Great Basin, forms an inland closed river basin, and has hot springs
and salt lakes. None of its rivers,--Bear River, Carson River, and
Humboldt River,--find their way to the sea. The Lake, which I was led
by combinations and inferences to represent, in the great Map of Mexico
drawn by me in 1804, under the name of Lake Timpanogos, is the great
Salt Lake of Frémont’s Map: it is sixty geographical miles long from
north to south, and ten broad; and it communicates with the fresh water
lake of Utah, which is situated at a higher level, and receives the
Timpanogos or Timpanaozu River, which enters it from the eastward, in
lat. 40° 13′. The circumstance of the Timpanogos Lake of my map not
having been placed by me sufficiently far to the north and west, is to
be attributed to the entire want, at that time, of any astronomical
determinations of the position of Santa Fé, in New Mexico. The error
amounts, for the western margin of the lake, to almost 50 minutes
of arc; a difference of absolute longitude which will appear less
surprising, if it is remembered that my itinerary map of Guanaxuato
could only be based for 15 degrees of latitude on compass surveys, or
compass directions, for which I was indebted to Don Pedro de Rivera.
(Humboldt, Essai polit. sur la Nouvelle Espagne, T. i. pp. 127-136.)
These directions being differently combined by my early deceased
fellow-labourer, Herr Friesen, and myself, gave him as the result of
his combinations 107° 58′ from Paris as the longitude of Santa Fé, and
to me as the result of mine, 107° 13′. According to actual astronomical
determinations since obtained, the true longitude appears to be 108°
22′ W. of Paris, or 106° 00′ W. of Greenwich. The relative position
of the beds of fossil salt--found in “thick strata of red clay,” on
the south east of the island-studded Great Salt Lake (my Laguna de
Timpanogos), and not far from the present Fort Mormon and the Utah
Lake--was given with perfect correctness in my large map of Mexico. I
may refer on this point to the latest evidence of the traveller who
made the first well-assured determinations of geographical position
in that district:--“The mineral or rock salt, of which a specimen is
placed in Congress Library, was found in the place marked by Humboldt
in his map of New Spain (northern half), as derived from the journal
of the missionary Father Escalante, who attempted (1777) to penetrate
the unknown country from Santa Fé of New Mexico to Monterey of the
Pacific Ocean. South-east of the Lake Timpanogos is the chain of the
Wha-satch Mountains; and in this, at the place where Humboldt has
written _Montagnes de sel gemme_, this mineral is found.” (Frémont,
Geogr. Mem. of Upper California, 1848, pp. 8 and 67; compare Humboldt,
Essai politique, T. ii. p. 261.)
A great historical interest attaches to this part of the highland, and
more particularly to the country round the Lake of Timpanogos, which
is perhaps the same with the Lake of Teguayo, the ancestral seat of
the Aztecs. In their migration from Aztlan to Tula, and to the Valley
of Tenochtitlan (Mexico), this people made three halting places or
stations, at which the ruins of the Casas grandes are still to be seen.
The first sojourn of the Aztecs was at the Lake of Teguayo, the second
on the Rio Gila, and the third not far from the Presidio de Llanos.
Lieutenant Abert found on the banks of the Gila the same immense number
of fragments of pottery ornamented with painting, and scattered over
a considerable tract of ground, which had astonished the missionaries
Francisco Garces and Pedro Fonte in that locality. These remains of
the products of human skill are supposed to indicate the existence of
a former higher civilisation in these now solitary regions. Remains
of buildings in the singular style of architecture of the Aztecs, and
of their houses of seven stories, are also found far to the eastward
of the Rio Grande del Norte; for example, in Taos. (Compare Abert’s
Examination of New Mexico, in the Documents of Congress, No. 41, pp.
489 and 581-605, with my Essai pol. T. ii. pp. 241-244.) The Sierra
Nevada of California is parallel to the Coast of the Pacific; but
between the latitudes of 34° and 41°, between San Buenaventura and
the Bay of Trinidad, there runs, on the West of the Sierra Nevada,
another (smaller) coast chain, of which Monte del Diablo, 3448 French,
3674 English feet high, is the culminating point. In the narrow
valley, between this coast chain and the great Sierra Nevada, flow
from the south the Rio de San Joaquin, and from the north the Rio del
Sacramento, on the banks of which, in rich alluvial soil, are the rich
gold-washings now so much resorted to.
I have already referred, p. 43, to a hypsometric levelling, and to
barometric measurements made from the junction of the Kanzas River with
the Missouri to the Pacific, or throughout the immense extent of 28
degrees of longitude. Dr. Wislizenus has now successfully continued the
levelling began by me from the city of Mexico, in the Equinoctial Zone,
to the North as far as Santa Fé del Nuevo Mexico, in lat. 35° 38′. It
will be seen, perhaps, with surprise, that the elevated plain which
forms the broad crest of the Mexican Andes is far from sinking down,
as had long been supposed, to an inconsiderable height. I give here
for the first time, according to the measurements which we at present
possess, the elevations of several points, forming a line of levelling
from the city of Mexico to Santa Fé, which latter town is less than
four German (sixteen English) geographical miles from the Rio del Norte.
French Feet. Eng. Feet. Observer.
Mexico 7008 7490 Ht.
Tula 6318 6733 Ht.
San Juan del Rio 6090 6490 Ht.
Queretaro 5970 6363 Ht.
Celaya 5646 6017 Ht.
Salamanca 5406 5761 Ht.
Guanaxuato 6414 6836 Ht.
Silao 5546 5910 Br.
Villa de Leon 5755 6133 Br.
Lagos 5983 6376 Br.
Aguas Calientes 5875 6261 Br.
San Luis Potosi 5714 6090 Br.
Zacatecas 7544 8040 Br.
Fresnillo 6797 7244 Br.
Durango 6426 6848 (Oteiza)
Parras 4678 4985 Ws.
Saltillo 4917 5240 Ws.
El Bolson de Mapimi {3600 to 3837 to} Ws.
{ 4200 4476 }
Chihuahua 4352 4638 Ws.
Cosiquiariachi 5886 6273 Ws.
Passo del Norte, on the}
Rio Grande del Norte } 3557 3812 Ws.
Santa Fé del Nuevo Mexico 6612 7047 Ws.
The letters Ws., Br., and Ht., are placed to distinguish the barometric
measurements of Dr. Wislizenus, Oberbergrath Burkart, and my own.
Wislizenus has appended to his valuable memoir three vertical sections
of the surface of the ground: one from Santa Fé to Chihuahua by Passo
del Norte; one from Chihuahua to Reynosa by Parras; and one from Fort
Independence (a little to the east of the Confluence of the Missouri
and the Kanzas River) to Santa Fé. The calculation is founded on daily
corresponding observations of the barometer, made by Engelmann at St.
Louis, and by Lilly at New Orleans. If we consider that the difference
of latitude between Santa Fé and Mexico is 16° and that thus (apart
from deviations from a straight line) the distance in the north and
south direction is above 960 geographical miles, we are led to inquire
whether there be in any other part of the whole globe a similar
conformation of the Earth, equal in extent and elevation (between 5000
and 7000 French, or 5330 and 7460 English feet above the level of the
sea) to the highland of which I have just given the levelling, and yet
over which four-wheeled waggons can travel as they do from Mexico to
Santa Fé. It is formed by the broad, undulating, flattened crest of the
chain of the Mexican Andes, and is not the swelling of a valley between
two mountain chains, as is the case in some other remarkable elevations
of plain or undulating surface--in the Northern Hemisphere, in the
“Great Basin” between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of
California,--in the Southern Hemisphere, in the high plain of the lake
of Titicaca, between the eastern and western chains of the Andes of
Bolivia,--and in Asia, in the highlands of Thibet, between the Himalaya
and the Kuen-lün.
GENERAL SUMMARY
OF THE
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
_Preface to the First Edition_--p. vii. to p. ix.
_Preface to the Second and Third Editions_--p. xi. to p. xv.
_Note by the Translator_--p. xvii.
_Steppes and Deserts_--p. 1 to p. 26.
Coast chain and mountain valleys of Caraccas. Lake of Tacarigua.
Contrast in respect to the luxuriance of vegetation between
those districts and the treeless plains. The steppe regarded as
the bottom of a Mediterranean Sea; broken strata a little higher
than the rest of the plain called “banks.” General phenomena of
extensive plains; the Heaths of Europe, the Pampas and Llanos of
South America, the African Deserts, and the Steppes of Northern
Asia. Different characters of the vegetable covering of the
surface. Animal life. Pastoral nations, and their invasive
migrations 1-6
Description of the South American plains and prairies--their
extent and climate; the latter dependent on the outline of
the coasts, and on the hypsometric conformation of the New
Continent. Comparison with the plains and deserts of Africa 7-13
Original absence of pastoral life in America. Food furnished by
the Mauritia palm; the Guaranis’ huts raised on trees 13-17
Since the discovery of America the Llanos have become more
habitable. Extraordinary increase in the number of wild cattle,
horses, asses, and mules. Description of the season of extreme
dryness, and of the rainy season. Appearance of the surface
of the ground and of the sky. Life of the animals--their
sufferings, their conflicts; power of adaptation with which
certain animals and plants are endowed. Jaguars, crocodiles, and
electric fishes. Unequal conflict between Gymnoti and horses
17-23
Retrospective glance at the countries surrounding the Steppes
and Deserts. Forest wildernesses of the Orinoco and the Amazons.
Indian tribes separated by the wonderful diversity of their
languages and differences of their habits; their hardships, and
frequent variance between the different tribes. Figures graven
on the rocks show that these solitudes were once the seat of a
degree of civilisation which has now disappeared 23-26
_Scientific Elucidations and Additions_--p. 27 to p. 204.
The island-studded lake of Tacarigua; its relations to the
neighbouring mountain chains. Geological description. Progress
of cultivation and of European civilisation. Varieties of
the sugar-cane. Cacao plantations. Great fertility of soil
associated within the tropics with insalubrity of atmosphere
27-33
“Banks” or broken strata. General horizontality of the surface.
Subsidences of the surface 33-35
Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean. Naked stony
crust. Tabular masses of syenite; whether prejudicial to health
36-37
General views respecting the mountain systems of North and South
America, embracing the most recent information. Chains running
in a south-west and north-east direction in Brazil and in the
Atlantic portion of the United States of North America. The low
province of Chiquitos; small swellings of the ground constitute
the division between the waters of the Guaporé and Aguapehi in
15° and 17° S. lat., and between the river basins of the Orinoco
and the Rio Negro in 2° and 3° N. lat. 37-39
Continuation of the chain of the Andes north of the isthmus of
Panama (through the Aztec country, where Popocatepetl, 16626
French, or 17720 English feet high, has very recently been again
ascended by Captain Stone) in the Sierra de las Grullas and the
Rocky Mountains. Excellent scientific investigations of Captain
Frémont. The longest barometric levelling ever made, showing a
profile or vertical section of the earth’s surface through a
space of 28° of longitude. Culminating point of the route from
the coast of the Atlantic to the Pacific. “South Pass,” south of
the Wind River Mountains. Swelling of the ground in the Great
Basin. Long contested existence of the Timpanogos Lake. Coast
Chain, Maritime Alps, or Sierra Nevada of California. Volcanic
eruptions. Falls of the Columbia 39-50
General considerations on the contrasts shown by the spaces
included between the central chain (the Rocky Mountains) and
the diverging chains on the east and west (the Alleghanies and
the Sierra Nevada of California); hypsometric characters of the
low eastern space, which is only from 400 to 600 French, or
426 to 639 English feet above the level of the sea, and of the
arid uninhabited plain 5000 or 6000 (5330 to 6400 English) feet
above the same level, called the Great Basin. Sources of the
Mississipi in the Lake of Istaca according to Nicollet’s highly
meritorious researches. Buffalo country; Gomara’s assertion of
buffaloes having been formerly tamed in the northern part of
Mexico 50-55
Retrospective view of the chain of the Andes from the Rocks
of Diego Ramirez to Behring’s Strait. Long circulated errors
respecting the heights of mountains in the eastern chain of
the Andes of Bolivia, especially the Sorata and the Illimani.
Four summits of the western chain of Bolivia, which, according
to Pentland’s latest determinations, are higher than the
Chimborazo, but are not equal in height to the still active
volcano of Acongagua measured by Fitz-Roy 55-58
The African mountains of Harudsch-el-Abiad. Oases 58-60
West winds on the coast of the Sahara. Accumulation of sea-weed;
position of the great bank of Fucus from the time of Scylax of
Caryanda to that of Columbus, and to the present day 60-67
Tibbos and Tuaricks. The camel and its distribution 67-71
Mountain systems of the interior of Asia between Northern
Siberia and India. Erroneous belief in the existence of a single
great elevated plain called “Plateau de la Tartarie” 71-75
Chinese literature a rich source of orographic knowledge. Series
of elevations of different highlands. Desert of Gobi. Probable
mean height of Thibet 75-85