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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This Gentleman, Who Rendered Great Service To
The Canarians During The Last Famine, Has Cultivated A Hill Covered
With Volcanic Substances.
He has formed in this delicious site an
English garden, whence there is a magnificent view of the Peak, of
the villages along the coast, and the isle of Palma, which is
bounded by the vast expanse of the Atlantic.
I cannot compare this
prospect with any, except the views of the bays of Genoa and
Naples; but Orotava is greatly superior to both in the magnitude of
the masses and in the richness of vegetation. In the beginning of
the evening the slope of the volcano exhibited on a sudden a most
extraordinary spectacle. The shepherds, in conformity to a custom,
no doubt introduced by the Spaniards, though it dates from the
highest antiquity, had lighted the fires of St. John. The scattered
masses of fire and the columns of smoke driven by the wind, formed
a fine contrast with the deep verdure of the forests which covered
the sides of the Peak. Shouts of joy resounding from afar were the
only sounds that broke the silence of nature in these solitary
regions.
Don Cologan's family has a country-house nearer the coast than that
I have just mentioned. This house, called La Paz, is connected with
a circumstance that rendered it peculiarly interesting to us. M. de
Borda, whose death we deplored, was its inmate during his last
visit to the Canary Islands. It was in a neighbouring plain that he
measured the base, by which he determined the height of the Peak.
In this geometrical operation the great dracaena of Orotava served
as a mark. Should any well-informed traveller at some future day
undertake a new measurement of the volcano with more exactness, and
by the help of astronomical repeating circles, he ought to measure
the base, not near Orotava, but near Los Silos, at a place called
Bante. According to M. Broussonnet there is no plain near the Peak
of greater extent. In herborizing near La Paz we found a great
quantity of Lichen roccella on the basaltic rocks bathed by the
waters of the sea. The archil of the Canaries is a very ancient
branch of commerce; this lichen is however found in less abundance
in the island of Teneriffe than in the desert islands of Salvage,
La Graciosa, and Alegranza, or even in Canary and Hierro. We left
the port of Orotava on the 24th of June.
To avoid disconnecting the narrative of the excursion to the top of
the Peak, I have said nothing of the geological observations I made
on the structure of this colossal mountain, and on the nature of
the volcanic rocks of which it is composed. Before we quit the
archipelago of the Canaries, I shall linger for a moment, and bring
into one point of view some facts relating to the physical aspect
of those countries.
Mineralogists who think that the end of the geology of volcanoes is
the classification of lavas, the examination of the crystals they
contain, and their description according to their external
characters, are generally very well satisfied when they come back
from the mouth of a burning volcano.
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