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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To The First Class Belong Cotopaxi, The Peak Of Teneriffe,
And The Peak Of Orizava In Mexico.
In the second may be placed
Cargueirazo and Pichincha, in the province of Quito; the volcano of
Puracey, near Popayan; and perhaps also Hecla, in Iceland.
In the
third and last we may rank the majestic figure of Chimborazo, and,
(if it be allowable to place by the side of that colossus a hill of
Europe,) the Great Sarcouy in Auvergne.
In order to form a more exact idea of the external structure of
volcanoes, it is important to compare their perpendicular height
with their circumference. This, however, cannot be done with any
exactness, unless the mountains are isolated, and rising on a plain
nearly on a level with the sea. In calculating the circumference of
the peak of Teneriffe in a curve passing through the port of
Orotava, Garachico, Adexe, and Guimar, and setting aside the
prolongations of its base towards the forest of Laguna, and the
north-east cape of the island, we find that this extent is more
than 54,000 toises. The height of the Peak is consequently one
twenty-eighth of the circumference of its basis. M. von Buch found
a thirty-third for Vesuvius; and, which perhaps is less certain, a
thirty-fourth for Etna.* (* Gilbert, Annalen der Physik B. 5 page
455. Vesuvius is 133,000 palmas, or eighteen nautical miles in
circumference. The horizontal distance from Resina to the crater is
3700 toises. Italian mineralogists have estimated the circumference
of Etna at 840,000 palmas, or 119 miles.
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