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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The Ascent Is Steep, And The
Blocks Of Lava Rolled From Beneath Our Feet.
I can compare this
part of the road only to the Moraine of the Alps or that mass of
Pebbly stones which we find at the lower extremity of the glaciers.
At the peak the lava, broken into sharp pieces, leaves hollows, in
which we risked falling up to our waists. Unfortunately the
listlessness of our guides contributed to increase the difficulty
of this ascent. Unlike the guides of the valley of Chamouni, or the
nimble-footed Guanches, who could, it is asserted, seize the rabbit
or wild goat in its course, our Canarian guides were models of the
phlegmatic. They had wished to persuade us on the preceding evening
not to go beyond the station of the rocks. Every ten minutes they
sat down to rest themselves, and when unobserved they threw away
the specimens of obsidian and pumice-stone, which we had carefully
collected. We discovered at length that none of them had ever
visited the summit of the volcano.
After three hours' walking, we reached, at the extremity of the
Malpays, a small plain, called La Rambleta, from the centre of
which the Piton, or Sugar-loaf, takes its rise. On the side toward
Orotava the mountain resembles those pyramids with steps that are
seen at Fayoum and in Mexico; for the elevated plains of Retama and
Rambleta form two tiers, the first of which is four times higher
than the second. If we suppose the total height of the Peak to be
1904 toises, the Rambleta is 1820 toises above the level of the
sea.
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