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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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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