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of porphyritick columns, they crossed the Puela by a bridge of cords, and climbed to the Cuchilla de Guandisava, a sharp ridge of burnt rocks, which, before the dreadful earthquake, were covered with a fine forest of odorous cedar. From that base, they estimated the volcanick cone of Tunguragua to have the height of 16,500 feet above the sea. At last, after incredible exertion, they reached, on the 23d of June, the eastern slope of Chimborazo, and planted their instruments on a narrow ledge of porphyritick rock, which projected from the vast field of unfathomed snow. A chasm, 500 feet wide, prevented their further ascent. The air was reduced to half its usual density, and felt intensely cold and piercing. Respiration was laborious; and blood oozed from their eyes, their lips and their gums. They stood on the highest spot ever trod by man. Its height, ascertained from barometrical observation, was 3,485 feet greater than the elevation attained in 1745 by Condamine, and 19,300 feet above the level of sea. From that extreme station, the top of Chimborazo was found, by trigonometrical measurement, to be 2,140 feet still higher.

Having finished their interesting observations, our travellers descended to the region of vegetation, and followed nearly the great chain of the Andes. A train of fifteen or twenty mules followed with their baggage. Skirting the high savannahs of Tiocaxas, they advanced to Sitzan, in the paramo or woody desert of Assuay, and crossed the mountains by that dangerous passage. In their route to Cuenca, they saw the ruins of the palaces of the Incas, and other monuments of ancient, Peruvian grandeur. Proceed= ing through the village of Cumbe, near the great paramo of Sarar, in which the stately melastoma and the embothrium are growing at an clevation of 12,000 feet, they passed

the fine cascade of Uduchapa, by a road of half a mile in perpendicular descent; and, traversing the vale of Saraguru, which is 2,900 feet lower than the adjoining wilderness, and forms altogether one of the richest scenes in the Andes, they entered Loxa, a town famous for its commerce in the best sort of quinquina, or Jesuits' bark; the trees producing which, shoot up from the micaceous schist of the neighbouring mountains, at a height from eleven to fifteen thousand feet above the sea, and where the medium temperature ranges between 60 and 70 degrees. Continuing their route through a succession of native villages, amidst groves of anona chilimoya and wild citrons, and in sight of the scattered vestiges of Peruvian palaces, they descended to the bed of the Cutaco, in a narrow vale, at the vast depth of 4,200 feet; and, pressing forward through plantations of sugar-canes, they mounted again to the forest of Chulucanas, near immense ruins of the baths of the Incas, and, crossing the chain of mountains, not far from the great causeway which those princes had constructed, at the height of two miles, along the ridge of the Andes, from Cusco to Assuay and Caxamarca, they advanced to San Felipe, having, with infinite difficulty, saved their instruments and collections, as they were obliged, in the space of three days, to ford, nearly thirty times, the Guancabamba. After a rapid descent of more than a mile in perpendicular, they came to an Indian hamlet; and, journeying sometimes through orange groves, they took canoes on the Chayma, and at length arrived, in the province of Jaen, at the falls of Rentema, on the left bank of the river Amazons, only 1,240 feet above the level of the sea.

Embarking on that noble stream, Humboldt and his companions sailed as far as the cataracts of Tomeperda; and then shaping their course to the southeast, over the Cordillere,

by the famous silver mines of Cheta, they reached the town of Caxamarca, in the midst of a plain which yields prodigious crops of barley though at an elevation of 9,370 feet. After some descent on the western slope of the Andes, they descried with delight the great Pacifick Ocean; and, skirting along its naked and sterile shores, the temperature of the air, in the month of October, being only 70, and that of the water 61 degrees, they reached Lima, the capital of the viceroyalty of Peru.

In that city, Humboldt rested some months, highly pleased with the spirit and intelligence of its inhabitants. At the pit of Callao, he had the fortune to observe the emersion of the transit of Mercury over the disk of the sun. From Lima, our travellers went by sea to Guyaquil, and thence they were carried in a frigate, after a very quick passage, to Acapulco, in the kingdom of New Spain. They found the inhabitants sickly and wretched, under a climate remarkably sultry and noxious; but different reasons induced them to spend a twelvemonth in that government. In April 1803, they made an excursion from Acapulco to Tasco, the seat of the noted mines, in a region clothed with oaks and pines, and tree-ferns, and yielding, at the height of 6,000 feet, abundant crops of wheat and barley. A short journey now brought them to the wealthy and famous city of Mexico, built on the site of the ancient Tenochtitlan, between the lakes of Texcuco and Xochimilco, which have considerably decreased since the Spaniards drained the adjoining country, and opened the canal of Huehuetoca. It is encircled with alleys of trees, and with Indian villages; and, at no great distance, are seen two volcanick mountains crowned with eternal snow. Mexico, standing 7,475 feet above the level of the sea, enjoys a mild climate, its mean temperature being only 624 degrees of Fahrenheit's scale.

Our travellers visited the mines of Moran and Oyamel, where the ancient Mexicans quarried the obsidian, for the manufacture of stone knives and hatchets. Pursuing their journey, they saw the Puente de la Madre de Dios, or the Well of the Virgin, a cavern in the limestone rock from which issues the river Capula. They next proceeded by Quiretaro and Salamanca, over fertile plains, to the city of Guanaxuato, celebrated for the richest silver mines in the world. The single mine of Valenciana yields an annual produce of half a million sterling, and affords its proprietor a revenue of 130,000l. The mouth of the pit is elevated only 180 feet above the plain of Mexico; but its shaft has the enormous depth of 280 fathoms, the mean temperature being 81 degrees. At Los Joares, a flat stretch of ground on the neighbouring mountains at the height of 8,700 feet above the level of the sea, the Indian dealers in snow dig ponds for collecting ice, from the month of December to that of April. On their return from Guanaxuato, the travellers passed through the valley of St. Jago to Valladolid, the capital of the province of Mechoacan, the most fertile and delightful of New Mexico. They bent downwards from Pescuaro to the plain of Malpays, near the coast of the Pacifick Ocean, and had the courage to descend almost to the bottom of the crater of the great volcano of Jorullo, and to collect its gaseous products at the depth of 130 feet. Returning to Mexico by the plain of Toluca, they saw the trunk of the famous handleaved tree, or cheirostemon platanoides, the only individual found in New Spain, and which is of immense antiquity and nine yards in circumference. They climbed to the highest peak of the adjacent mountain, and found it to be 15,180 feet above the level of the sea. Its crater was formed into a lake, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet, from which

there flowed a river having only the temperature of 48 degrees.

The toils of Humboldt and his companions were now drawing to a close. In the months of January and February, 1804, they made excursions to the Nevado, or snowy height, of Iztaccihinatl, whose summit is 15,710 feet above the sea; to the Puebla de los Angeles, the capital of an intendancy; to Cholula, a city at the foot of the famous ancient

pyramid, and thence to the Llano de Tetimpa; from which plain, the entire elevation of the crater of Popocatepetl, or the Smoky Mountain, was ascertained to be 17,735 feet; and, lastly, to the square top of the mountain behind Perote, at the height of 13,425 feet. They halted at the city of Xalappa, in a charming climate, and a situation romantically beautiful; near which rises, at the height of 17,390 feet above the level of the sea, the snowy peak of Orizaba, called, in the Mexican language, the Star Mountain, from the distant appearance of its flame. Thence they proceeded to Vera Cruz, and embarked for Havannah. Having made their arrangements, they sailed, in the month of July, to Philadelphia; and after a stay of some months in the United States, they finally recrossed the Atlantick, and arrived safe in France, after an absence of six years animated by glowing prospects, but full of anxie. ty, fatigue and danger.

This hasty and imperfect anticipation of the narrative of Humboldt will render such observations more intelligible, as we have to make on the results of his memorable travels. In a subject so much diversified, we will not pretend to follow any precise plan; but will endeavour; according to the best of our judgment, to combine the more interesting facts which are contained in the disjointed materials now before us, including the fragments recently imported from the continent. To the work named at the head of this

article, we may join a small tract, entitled Tableaux de la Nature, which was published in the German language, and afterwards, under the author's eye, translated, with considerable additions, into French. Some detached pieces will assist us in filling up the outlines. For the sake of greater perspicuity, we shall dispose our remarks into four distinct classes.

I. The Continent of America differs widely, in its general features, from the Old World. It is distinguished by majestick rivers and natural indentings, which fit it for being the scene of the most extended commerce. Perhaps, at some future period, when that vast region is crowded with an active and wealthy population, those advantages will be improved by the creative powers of art, and navigable communications opened between the Pacifick and Attantick Oceans. Mr. Humboldt enumerates no fewer than nine different points at which a junction could be attempted with the best prospect of success. 1. In the parallel of Queen Charlotte's Island, about the 54th degree of north latitude, ascending the Columbia to its source, then crossing the Stony mountains, and following the source of the Ounigigah to Slave Lake; and by Mackenzie's River to Hudson's Bay. 2. In the latitude of 40°, the sources of the Rio del Norte, or North River, which discharges itself into the Gulph of Mexico, are only divided by a mountainous tract of twelve or thirteen leagues in breadth, from those of the Rio Colorado or Red River, that flows into the Gulph of California. 3. The Isthmus of Tehauntepeck, in the latitude of 16o, affords an easy communication. A canal of twenty miles in length, cut through the forests of Tarifa, would connect the head of the Huasacualco, which runs into the Gulph of Mexico, with that of the Rio de Chimalapa, which empties itself in the Pacifick Ocean. A road has ac-.

tually been formed in that line, for conveying, in time of war, the precious indigo of Guatemala to the port of Vera Cruz. 4. The great lake Nicaragua, on the one side, joins with that of the Leon, stretching near the shores of the Pacifick Ocean, and communicates on the other, by the river San Juan, with the Caribbean Sea. 5. Since the adventurous Balboa crossed the isthmus of Panama in 1513, the idea of cutting a passage through the Continent has been fondly entertained. But the height of that savage tract is unknown; nor is the distance between the opposite shores yet ascertained with any degree of accuracy. The navigation of the Rio Chagre, which would form part of the communication, is, besides, very difficult and hazardous. From all that he could learn, Mr. Humboldt is inclined to think, that the project could be effected only on a small scale, and by means of a system of locks and tunnels. 6. Another plan has lately been proposed to the Spanish government. It is to dig a canal, from the bight of Cupica, near Cape Corientes, through land of no great elevation, and only fifteen or twenty miles in length, to the navigable stream of Naipi, that falls below the village of Zitara, into the river Atrato, which again discharges its waters into the Gulph of Darien. 7. But, as we noticed in a preceding article, a communication, on a diminutive scale indeed, has already been opened across the American continent. In the year 1788, a very active monk, rector of the village of Novita, caused his flock to cut a small canal in the torrent of Raspadura, which connects the San Juan with the rivulet of Quito, one of the branches of the Atrato. Canoes, laden with cocoa, have, after copious rains, actually passed from the one sea to the other, a distance of at least 250 miles. 8. The city of Lima is not more than two or three days journey from the river Guallaga, which falls into the

Maragnon. If a road were, therefore, traced from that capital, across the chain of the Andes, goods could, after a short portage, be conveyed by water over the whole extent of the continent, from the coast of Peru, to the shores of Brazil. 9. It has been supposed that an inlet exists about the 46th degree of south latitude, connecting the Gulph of St. George with the Archipelago of Chayamapu. This conjecture appears, however, to be unsupported; but, on the west side of the continent, the firth of Aysen penetrates far into the interiour, where it receives a small ri

ver.

Humboldt has fixed the geographical position of near three hundred capital points in the Spanish settlements. The results were all calculated by Oltmanns, an able mathematician, from a series of observations, carefully repeated, whether by help of chronometers, or from eclipses, occultations, and lunar distances, corrected sometimes by azimuths, or the bearings of remote conspicuous objects. It would appear that even the best and latest charts of America, are still, in many cases, wonderfully inaccurate. Thus Arrowsmith represents Mexico as 32 minutes farther north, and 42 more westerly than its true position. The same able and experienced delineator, likewise errs in the longitude of Acapulco, by an excess of 38 minutes. We may remark, in general, that the older geographers were accustomed to great exaggeration in the estimating of longitude. India was figured many degrees farther east than its real place; a mistake which, it is well known, suggested to Columbus the bold idea of sailing to that seductive country by a western course. Since the first discovery of America, the extent of the Atlantick has been gradually reduced to narrower limits.

The lofty chain of the Andes, running along the western coast of America, extends on both sides of

the equator, to near the 30th degree of latitude. It is of unequal height; sinking, in some parts, to 600 feet from the level of the sea, and, at certain points, towering above the clouds, to an elevation of almost four miles. The colossal Chimborazo lifts its snowy head to an altitude which would equal that of the Peak of Teneriffe, though placed on the top of Mount Etna. The medium height of the chain under the equator may be reckoned at 14,000 feet, while that of the Alps and Pyrenees hardly exceeds 8,000: its breadth is proportionally great, being 60 miles at Quito, and 150 or 200 in Mexico, and some districts of the Peruvian territory. This stupendous ridge is intersected, in Peru and New Grenada, as we have seen, by frequent clefts or ravines, of amazing depth; but, to the north of the isthmus of Panama, it softens down by degrees, and spreads out into the vast elevated plain of Mexico. In the former provinces, accordingly, the inhabitants are obliged to travel on horseback or on foot, or even to be carri ed on the backs of Indians; whereas carriages drive with ease through the whole extent of New Spain, from Mexico to Santa-Fé, along a road of more than 1500 miles in length.

The equatorial regions of America exhibit the same composition of rock that we meet with in other parts of the globe. The only formations which Humboldt could not discover in his travels, were those of chalk, roestone, gray wakke, the topaz-rock of Werner, and the compound of serpentine with granular limestone, which occurs in Asia Minor. Granite constitutes, in South America, the great basis which supports the other formations; above it lies gneiss, next comes micaceous schist, and then primitive schist. Granular limestone, chlorite schist, and primitive trap, often form subordinate beds in the gneiss and micaceous schist, which is very abundant, and sometimes alternates with

[blocks in formation]

serpentine and fienite. The high ridge of the Andes is every where covered with formations of porphy ry, basalt, phonolite, and greenstone; and these, being often divided into columns, that appear, from a distance, like ruined castles, produce a very striking and picturesque effect. At the bottom of those huge mountains, occur two different kinds of limestone; the one with a felicious base, enclosing primitive masses, and sometimes cinnabar and coal; the other with a calcareous base, and cementing together the secondary rocks. Plains of more than 600,000 square miles are covered with an ancient deposit of limestone, containing fossil wood and brown iron ore. On this rests the limestone of the higher Alps, presenting marine petrefactions at a vast elevation. Next appears a lamellar gypsum, impregnated with sulphur and salt; above this, another calcareous formation, whitish and homogeneous, but sometimes cavernous. Again occurs calcareous sandstone, then lamellar gypsum mixed with clay; and the series terminates with calcareous masses involving flints and horn

stone.

But what may perplex some geologists, is the singular fact noticed by Humboldt, that the secondary formations in the New World have such enormous thickness and elevation. Beds of coal are found in the neighbourhood of Sante-Fé, 8,650 feet above the level of the sea; and even at the height of 14,700, near Huanuco, in Peru. The plains of Bogota, although elevated 9,000 feet, are covered with sandstone, gypsum, shell-limestone, and even, in some parts, with rock salt. Fossil shells, which in the old continent have not been discovered higher than the summits of the Pyrenees, or 11,700 feet above the sea, wère observed in Peru, near Micuipampa, at the height of 12,800; and again, at that of 14,120, beside Huancavelica, where sandstone also appears.

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