Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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If We Admit
That These Waters Indicate Nearly The Mean Heat Of The Place Whence
They Issue, We May Fix
The absolute elevation of the station at 520
toises, supposing the mean temperature of the coast to be 21
degrees,
And allowing one degree for the decrement of caloric
corresponding under this zone to 93 toises. We should not be
surprised if this spring remained a little below the heat of the
air, since it probably takes its source in some more elevated part
of the peak, and possibly communicates with the small subterranean
glaciers of which we shall speak hereafter. The accordance just
observed between the barometrical and thermometrical measures is so
much more striking, because in mountainous countries, with steep
declivities, the springs generally indicate too great a decrement
of caloric, for they unite small currents of water, which filtrate
at different heights, and their temperature is consequently the
mean between the temperature of these currents. The spring of
Dornajito has considerable reputation in the country; and at the
time I was there, it was the only one known on the road which leads
to the summit of the volcano. The formation of springs demands a
certain regularity in the direction and inclination of the strata.
On a volcanic soil, porous and splintered rocks absorb the rain
waters, and convey them to considerable depths. Hence arises that
aridity observed in the greater part of the Canary Islands,
notwithstanding the considerable height of their mountains, and the
mass of clouds which navigators behold incessantly overhanging this
archipelago.
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