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 General Aspect Of The
Mountain Points Out This Path; The Rocks Being So Steep On The East
Of The Ravine That It Would Be Extremely Difficult To Reach The
Summit Of The Silla By Ascending Straight To The Eastern Dome,
Instead Of Going By The Way Of The Puerta.
From the foot of the cascade of Chacaito to one thousand toises of
elevation, we found only savannahs.
Two small liliaceous plants,
with yellow flowers,* alone lift up their heads, among the grasses
which cover the rocks. (* Cypura martinicensis, and Sisyrinchium
iridifolium. This last is found also near the Venta of La Guayra,
at 600 toises of elevation.) A few brambles* (* Rubus jamaicensis.)
remind us of the form of our European vegetation. We in vain hoped
to find on the mountains of Caracas, and subsequently on the back
of the Andes, an eglantine near these brambles. We did not find one
indigenous rose-tree in all South America, notwithstanding the
analogy existing between the climates of the high mountains of the
torrid zone and the climate of our temperate zone. It appears that
this charming shrub is wanting in all the southern hemisphere,
within and beyond the tropics. It was only on the Mexican mountains
that we were fortunate enough to discover, in the nineteenth degree
of latitude, American eglantines.* (* M. Redoute, in his superb
work on rose-trees, has given our Mexican eglantine, under the name
of Rosier de Montezuma, Montezuma rose.)
We were sometimes so enveloped in mist, that we could not, without
difficulty, find our way. At this height there is no path, and we
were obliged to climb with our hands, when our feet failed us, on
the steep and slippery acclivity. A vein filled with porcelain-clay
attracted our attention.* (* The breadth of the vein is three feet.
This porcelain-clay, when moistened, readily absorbs oxygen from
the atmosphere. I found, at Caracas, the residual nitrogen very
slightly mingled with carbonic acid, though the experiment was made
in phials with ground-glass stoppers, not filled with water.) It is
of snowy whiteness, and is no doubt the remains of a decomposed
feldspar. I forwarded a considerable portion of it to the intendant
of the province. In a country where fuel is not scarce, a mixture
of refractory earths may be useful, to improve the earthenware, and
even the bricks. Every time that the clouds surrounded us, the
thermometer sunk as low as 12 degrees (to 9.6 degrees R.); with a
serene sky it rose to 21 degrees. These observations were made in
the shade. But it is difficult, on such rapid declivities, covered
with a dry, shining, yellow turf, to avoid the effects of radiant
heat. We were at nine hundred and forty toises of elevation; and
yet at the same height, towards the east, we perceived in a ravine,
not merely a few solitary palm-trees, but a whole grove. It was the
palma real; probably a species of the genus Oreodoxa. This group of
palms, at so considerable an elevation, formed a striking contrast
with the willows* scattered on the depth of the more temperate
valley of Caracas.
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