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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Two Inclined Rocks Form A Kind Of Cavern, Which Affords
A Shelter From The Winds.
This point, which is higher than the
summit of the Canigou, can be reached on the backs of mules;
And
here has ended the expedition of numbers of travellers, who on
leaving Orotava hoped to have ascended to the brink of the crater.
Though in the midst of summer, and under an African sky, we
suffered from cold during the night. The thermometer descended as
low as to five degrees. Our guides made a large fire with the dry
branches of retama. Having neither tents nor cloaks, we lay down on
some masses of rock, and were singularly incommoded by the flame
and smoke, which the wind drove towards us. We had attempted to
form a kind of screen with cloths tied together, but our enclosure
took fire, which we did not perceive till the greater part had been
consumed by the flames. We had never passed a night on a point so
elevated, and we then little imagined that we should, one day, on
the ridge of the Cordilleras, inhabit towns higher than the summit
of the volcano we were to scale on the morrow. As the temperature
diminished, the peak became covered with thick clouds. The approach
of night interrupts the play of the ascending current, which,
during the day, rises from the plains towards the high regions of
the atmosphere; and the air, in cooling, loses its capacity of
suspending water. A strong northerly wind chased the clouds; the
moon at intervals, shooting through the vapours, exposed its disk
on a firmament of the darkest blue; and the view of the volcano
threw a majestic character over the nocturnal scenery. Sometimes
the peak was entirely hidden from our eyes by the fog, at other
times it broke upon us in terrific proximity; and, like an enormous
pyramid, threw its shadow over the clouds rolling beneath our feet.
About three in the morning, by the sombrous light of a few fir
torches, we started on our journey to the summit of the Piton. We
scaled the volcano on the north-east side, where the declivities
are extremely steep; and after two hours' toil, we reached a small
plain, which, on account of its elevated position, bears the name
of Alta Vista. This is the station of the neveros, those natives,
whose occupation it is to collect ice and snow, which they sell in
the neighbouring towns. Their mules, better practised in climbing
mountains than those hired by travellers, reach Alta Vista, and the
neveros are obliged to transport the snow to that place on their
backs. Above this point commences the Malpays, a term by which is
designated here, as well as in Mexico, Peru, and every other
country subject to volcanoes, a ground destitute of vegetable
mould, and covered with fragments of lava.
We turned to the right to examine the cavern of ice, which is at
the elevation of 1728 toises, consequently below the limit of the
perpetual snows in this zone.
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