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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We Exhibit With More Clearness The
Physiognomy Of The Landscape, In Proportion As We Endeavour To
Sketch Its Individual Features, To Compare Them With Each Other,
And To Discover By This Kind Of Analysis The Sources Of The
Enjoyments, Furnished By The Great Picture Of Nature.
Travellers have learned by experience, that views from the summits
of very lofty mountains are neither so beautiful, picturesque, nor
so varied, as those from heights which do not exceed that of
Vesuvius, Righi, and the Puy-de-Dome.
Colossal mountains, such as
Chimborazo, Antisana, or Mount Rosa, compose so large a mass, that
the plains covered with rich vegetation are seen only in the
immensity of distance, and a blue and vapoury tint is uniformly
spread over the landscape. The peak of Teneriffe, from its slender
form and local position, unites the advantages of less lofty
summits with those peculiar to very great heights. We not only
discern from its top a vast expanse of sea, but we perceive also
the forests of Teneriffe, and the inhabited parts of the coasts, in
a proximity calculated to produce the most beautiful contrasts of
form and colour. We might say, that the volcano overwhelms with its
mass the little island which serves as its base, and it shoots up
from the bosom of the waters to a height three times loftier than
the region where the clouds float in summer. If its crater, half
extinguished for ages past, shot forth flakes of fire like that of
Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands, the peak of Teneriffe, like a
lighthouse, would serve to guide the mariner in a circuit of more
than 260 leagues.
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