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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Davy And Gay-Lussac Have Already Made The Ingenious Remark,
That Two Bodies Highly Inflammable, The Metals Of Soda And
Potash,
have probably an important part in the action of a volcano; now the
potash necessary to the formation of
Alum is found not only in
feldspar, mica, pumice-stone, and augite, but also in obsidian.
This last substance is very common at Teneriffe, where it forms the
basis of the tephrinic lava. These analogies between the peak of
Teneriffe and the Solfatara of Puzzuoli, might no doubt be shown to
be more numerous, if the former were more accessible, and had been
frequently visited by naturalists.
An expedition to the summit of the volcano of Teneriffe is
interesting, not solely on account of the great number of phenomena
which are the objects of scientific research; it has still greater
attractions from the picturesque beauties which it lays open to
those who are feelingly alive to the majesty of nature. It is a
difficult task to describe the sensations, which are the more
forcible, inasmuch as they have something undefined, produced by
the immensity of the space as well as by the vastness, the novelty,
and the multitude of the objects, amidst which we find ourselves
transported. When a traveller attempts to describe the loftiest
summits of the globe, the cataracts of the great rivers, the
tortuous valleys of the Andes, he incurs the danger of fatiguing
his readers by the monotonous expression of his admiration. It
appears to me more conformable to the plan I have proposed to
myself in this narrative, to indicate the peculiar character that
distinguishes each zone:
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