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
Sulphur Reduced Into Vapour Is Condensed Into Fine Crystals, Which
However Are Not Equal In Size To Those M. Dolomieu Brought From
Sicily.
They are semi-diaphanous octahedrons, very brilliant on the
surface, and of a conchoidal fracture.
These masses, which will one
day perhaps be objects of commerce, are constantly bedewed with
sulphurous acid. I had the imprudence to wrap up a few, in order to
preserve them, but I soon discovered that the acid had consumed not
only the paper which contained them, but a part also of my
mineralogical journal. The heat of the vapours, which issue from
the crevices of the caldera, is not sufficiently great to combine
the sulphur while in a state of minute division, with the oxygen of
the atmospheric air; and after the experiment I have just cited on
the temperature of the soil, we may presume that the sulphurous
acid is formed at a certain depth,* in cavities to which the
external air has free access. (* An observer, in general very
accurate, M. Breislack, asserts that the muriatic acid always
predominates in the vapours of Vesuvius. This assertion is contrary
to what M. Gay-Lussac and myself observed, before the great
eruption of 1805, and while the lava was issuing from the crater.
The smell of the sulphurous acid, so easy to distinguish, was
perceptible at a great distance; and when the volcano threw out
scoriae, the smell was mingled with that of petroleum.)
The vapours of heated water, which act on the fragments of lava
scattered about on the caldera, reduce certain parts of it to a
state of paste. On examining, after I had reached America, those
earthy and friable masses, I found crystals of sulphate of alumine.
MM. Davy and Gay-Lussac have already made the ingenious remark,
that two bodies highly inflammable, the metals of soda and potash,
have probably an important part in the action of a volcano; now the
potash necessary to the formation of alum is found not only in
feldspar, mica, pumice-stone, and augite, but also in obsidian.
This last substance is very common at Teneriffe, where it forms the
basis of the tephrinic lava. These analogies between the peak of
Teneriffe and the Solfatara of Puzzuoli, might no doubt be shown to
be more numerous, if the former were more accessible, and had been
frequently visited by naturalists.
An expedition to the summit of the volcano of Teneriffe is
interesting, not solely on account of the great number of phenomena
which are the objects of scientific research; it has still greater
attractions from the picturesque beauties which it lays open to
those who are feelingly alive to the majesty of nature. It is a
difficult task to describe the sensations, which are the more
forcible, inasmuch as they have something undefined, produced by
the immensity of the space as well as by the vastness, the novelty,
and the multitude of the objects, amidst which we find ourselves
transported. When a traveller attempts to describe the loftiest
summits of the globe, the cataracts of the great rivers, the
tortuous valleys of the Andes, he incurs the danger of fatiguing
his readers by the monotonous expression of his admiration. It
appears to me more conformable to the plan I have proposed to
myself in this narrative, to indicate the peculiar character that
distinguishes each zone: 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.
When we were seated on the external edge of the crater, we turned
our eyes towards the north-west, where the coasts are studded with
villages and hamlets. At our feet, masses of vapour, constantly
drifted by the winds, afforded us the most variable spectacle. A
uniform stratum of clouds, similar to that already described, and
which separated us from the lower regions of the island, had been
pierced in several places by the effect of the small currents of
air, which the earth, heated by the sun, began to send towards us.
The port of Orotava, its vessels at anchor, the gardens and the
vineyards encircling the town, shewed themselves through an opening
which seemed to enlarge every instant. From the summit of these
solitary regions our eyes wandered over an inhabited world; we
enjoyed the striking contrast between the bare sides of the peak,
its steep declivities covered with scoriae, its elevated plains
destitute of vegetation, and the smiling aspect of the cultured
country beneath.
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