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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These Reflections Occurred To Me On Descending From The Summit Of
The Peak Of Teneriffe, The First Unextinct Volcano I Had Yet
Visited.
They returned anew whenever, in South America, or in
Mexico, I had occasion to examine volcanic mountains.
When we
reflect how little the labours of mineralogists, and the
discoveries in chemistry, have promoted the knowledge of the
physical geology of mountains, we cannot help being affected with a
painful sentiment; and this is felt still more strongly by those,
who, studying nature in different climates, are more occupied by
the problems they have not been able to solve, than with the few
results they have obtained.
The peak of Ayadyrma, or of Echeyde,* (* The word Echeyde, which
signifies Hell in the language of the Guanches, has been corrupted
by the Europeans into Teyde.) is a conic and isolated mountain,
which rises in an islet of very small circumference. Those who do
not take into consideration the whole surface of the globe,
believe, that these three circumstances are common to the greater
part of volcanoes. They cite, in support of their opinion, Etna,
the peak of the Azores, the Solfatara of Guadaloupe, the
Trois-Salazes of the isle of Bourbon, and the clusters of volcanoes
in the Indian Sea and in the Atlantic. In Europe and in Asia, as
far as the interior of the latter continent is known, no burning
volcano is situated in the chains of mountains; all being at a
greater or less distance from those chains. In the New World, on
the contrary, (and this fact deserves the greatest attention,) the
volcanoes the most stupendous for their masses form a part of the
Cordilleras themselves. The mountains of mica-slate and gneiss in
Peru and New Grenada immediately touch the volcanic porphyries of
the provinces of Quito and Pasto. To the south and north of these
countries, in Chile and in the kingdom of Guatimala, the active
volcanoes are grouped in rows. They are the continuation, as we may
say, of the chains of primitive rocks, and if the volcanic fire has
broken forth in some plain remote from the Cordilleras, as in mount
Sangay and Jorullo,* (* Two volcanoes of the Provinces of Quixos
and Mechoacan, the one in the southern, and the other in the
northern hemisphere.) we must consider this phenomenon as an
exception to the law, which nature seems to have imposed on these
regions. I may here repeat these geological facts, because this
presumed isolated situation of every volcano has been cited in
opposition to the idea that the peak of Teneriffe, and the other
volcanic summits of the Canary Islands, are the remains of a
submerged chain of mountains. The observations which have been made
on the grouping of volcanoes in America, prove that the ancient
state of things represented in the conjectural map of the Atlantic
by M. Bory de St. Vincent* (* Whether the traditions of the
ancients respecting the Atlantis are founded on historical facts,
is a matter totally distinct from the question whether the
archipelago of the Canaries and the adjacent islands are the
vestiges of a chain of mountains, rent and sunk in the sea during
one of the great convulsions of our globe. I do not pretend to form
any opinion in favour of the existence of the Atlantis; but I
endeavour to prove, that the Canaries have no more been created by
volcanoes, than the whole body of the smaller Antilles has been
formed by madrepores.) is by no means contradictory to the
acknowledged laws of nature; and that nothing opposes the
supposition that the summits of Porto Santo, Madeira, and the
Fortunate Islands, may heretofore have formed, either a distinct
range of primitive mountains, or the western extremity of the chain
of the Atlas.
The peak of Teyde forms a pyramidal mass like Etna, Tungurahua, and
Popocatepetl. This physiognomic character is very far from being
common to all volcanoes. We have seen some in the southern
hemisphere, which, instead of having the form of a cone or a bell,
are lengthened in one direction, having the ridge sometimes smooth,
and at others bristled with small pointed rocks. This structure is
peculiar to Antisana and Pichincha, two burning mountains of the
province of Quito; and the absence of the conic form ought never to
be considered as a reason excluding the idea of a volcanic origin.
I shall develop, in the progress of this work, some of the
analogies, which I think I have perceived between the physiognomy
of volcanoes and the antiquity of their rocks. It is sufficient to
state, generally speaking, that the summits, which are still
subject to eruptions of the greatest violence, and at the nearest
periods to each other, are SLENDER PEAKS of a conic form; that the
mountains with LENGTHENED SUMMITS, and rugged with small stony
masses, are very old volcanoes, and near being extinguished; and
that rounded tops, in the form of domes, or bells, indicate those
problematic porphyries, which are supposed to have been heated in
their primitive position, penetrated by vapours, and forced up in a
mollified state, without having ever flowed as real lithoidal
lavas. 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.
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