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 Visual Ray
Of The Horizon From The Peak Being 1 Degree 57 Minutes, Cape
Bojador Can Be Seen Only On The Supposition Of Its Height Being 200
Toises Above The Level Of The Ocean.
We are ignorant of the height
of the Black Mountains near cape Bojador, as well as of that peak,
called by navigators the Penon Grande, farther to the south of this
promontory.
If the summit of the volcano of Teneriffe were more
accessible, we should observe without doubt, in certain states of
the wind, the effects of an extraordinary refraction. On perusing
what Spanish and Portuguese authors relate respecting the existence
of the fabulous isle of San Borondon, or Antilia, we find that it
is particularly the humid wind from west-south-west, which produces
in these latitudes the phenomena of the mirage. We shall not
however admit with M. Vieyra, "that the play of the terrestrial
refractions may render visible to the inhabitants of the Canaries
the islands of Cape Verd, and even the Apalachian mountains of
America."* (* The American fruits, frequently thrown by the sea on
the coasts of the islands of Ferro and Gomera, were formerly
supposed to emanate from the plants of the island of San Borondon.
This island, said to be governed by an archbishop and six bishops,
and which Father Feijoa believed to be the image of the island of
Ferro, reflected on a fog-bank, was ceded in the 16th century, by
the King of Portugal, to Lewis Perdigon, at the time the latter was
preparing to take possession of it by conquest.)
The cold we felt on the top of the Peak, was very considerable for
the season.
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