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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Independent Of These Observations,
It Is Not Astonishing, That The Peak Of Teyde Should Be Seldomer
Visible At A Very
Remote distance, than the summits of the Andes,
to which, during so long a time, my observations were directed.
This
Peak, inferior in height to those parts of the chain of Mount
Atlas at the foot of which is the city of Morocco, is not, like
those points, covered with perpetual snows. The Piton, or
Sugar-loaf, which terminates the peak, no doubt reflects a great
quantity of light, owing to the whitish colour of the pumice-stone
thrown up by the crater; but the height of that little truncated
cone does not form a twenty-second part of the total elevation. The
flanks of the volcano are covered either with blocks of black and
scorified lava, or with a luxuriant vegetation, the masses of which
reflect the less light, as the leaves of the trees are separated
from each other by shadows of more considerable extent than that of
the part enlightened.
Hence it results that, setting aside the Piton, the peak of Teyde
belongs to that class of mountains, which, according to the
expression of Bouger, are seen at considerable distances only in a
NEGATIVE MANNER, because they intercept the light which is
transmitted to us from the extreme limits of the atmosphere; and we
perceive their existence only on account of the difference of
intensity subsisting between the aerial light which surrounds them,
and that which is reflected by the particles of air placed between
the mountains and the eye of the observer. As we withdraw from the
isle of Teneriffe, the Piton or Sugar-loaf is seen for a
considerable space of time in a POSITIVE MANNER, because it
reflects a whitish light, and clearly detaches itself from the sky.
But as this cone is only 80 toises high, by 40 in breadth at its
summit, it has recently been a question whether, from the
diminutiveness of its mass, it can be visible at distances which
exceed 40 leagues; and whether it be not probable, that navigators
distinguish the peaks as a small cloud above the horizon, only when
the base of the Piton begins to be visible on it. If we admit, that
the mean breadth of the Sugar-loaf is 100 toises, we find that the
little cone, at 40 leagues distance, still subtends, in the
horizontal direction, an angle of more than three minutes. This
angle is considerable enough to render an object visible; and if
the height of the Piton greatly exceeded its base, the angle in the
horizontal direction might be still smaller, and the object still
continue to make an impression on our visual organs; for
micrometrical observations have proved that the limit of vision is
but a minute only, when the dimensions of the objects are the same
in every direction. We distinguish at a distance, by the eye only,
trunks of trees insulated in a vast plain, though the subtended
angle be under twenty-five seconds.
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