Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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I Measured, On
The 22nd Of May, In The Savannah At The Foot Of Duida, A Base Of Four
Hundred
And seventy-five metres in length; the angle, under which the
summit of the mountain appeared at the distance of
Thirteen thousand
three hundred and twenty-seven metres, was still nine degrees. A
trigonometric measurement, made with great care, gave me for Duida
(that is, for the most elevated peak, which is south-west of the Cerro
Maraguaca) two thousand one hundred and seventy-nine metres, or one
thousand one hundred and eighteen toises, above the plain of
Esmeralda. The Cerro Duida thus yields but little in height (scarcely
eighty or one hundred toises) to the summit of St. Gothard, or the
Silla of Caracas on the shore of Venezuela. It is indeed considered as
a colossal mountain in those countries; and this celebrity gives a
precise idea of the mean height of Parima and of all the mountains of
eastern America. To the east of the Sierra Nevada de Merida, as well
as to the south-east of the Paramo de las Rosas, none of the chains
that extend in the same parallel line reach the height of the central
ridge of the Pyrenees.
The granitic summit of Duida is so nearly perpendicular that the
Indians have vainly attempted the ascent. It is a well-known fact that
mountains not remarkable for elevation are sometimes the most
inaccessible. At the beginning and end of the rainy season, small
flames, which seem to change their place, are seen on the top of
Duida.
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