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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M. De
Borda, Whose Death We Deplored, Was Its Inmate During His Last
Visit To The Canary Islands.
It was in a neighbouring plain that he
measured the base, by which he determined the height of the Peak.
In this geometrical operation the great dracaena of Orotava served
as a mark.
Should any well-informed traveller at some future day
undertake a new measurement of the volcano with more exactness, and
by the help of astronomical repeating circles, he ought to measure
the base, not near Orotava, but near Los Silos, at a place called
Bante. According to M. Broussonnet there is no plain near the Peak
of greater extent. In herborizing near La Paz we found a great
quantity of Lichen roccella on the basaltic rocks bathed by the
waters of the sea. The archil of the Canaries is a very ancient
branch of commerce; this lichen is however found in less abundance
in the island of Teneriffe than in the desert islands of Salvage,
La Graciosa, and Alegranza, or even in Canary and Hierro. We left
the port of Orotava on the 24th of June.
To avoid disconnecting the narrative of the excursion to the top of
the Peak, I have said nothing of the geological observations I made
on the structure of this colossal mountain, and on the nature of
the volcanic rocks of which it is composed. Before we quit the
archipelago of the Canaries, I shall linger for a moment, and bring
into one point of view some facts relating to the physical aspect
of those countries.
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