Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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M. De
Churruca Found The Height Of The Western Peak Of Cape Pilares
(Latitude 52 Degrees 45 Minutes South) Only 218 Toises; Even Cape Horn
Is Probably Not More Than 500 Toises* High.
(* It is very distinctly
seen at the distance of 60 miles, which, without calculating the
effects of terrestrial refraction,
Would give it a height of 498
toises.) The plain extends on the northern shore of the Straits of
Magellan, from the Virgin's Cape to Cabo Negro; at the latter the
Cordilleras rise abruptly, and fill the whole space as far as Cape
Victoria (latitude 52 degrees 22 minutes). The region between Cape
Horn and the southern extremity of the continent somewhat resembles
the origin of the Pyrenees between Cape Creux (near the gulf of Rosas)
and the Col des Perdus. The height of the Patagonian chain is not
known; it appears, however, that no summit south of the parallel of 48
degrees attains the elevation of the Canigou (1430 toises) which is
near the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees. In that southern country,
where the summers are so cold and short, the limit of eternal snow
must lower at least as much as in the northern hemisphere, in Norway,
in latitude 63 and 64 degrees; consequently below 800 toises. The
great breadth, therefore, of the band of snow that envelopes these
Patagonian summits, does not justify the idea which travellers form of
their height in 40 degrees south latitude. As we advance towards the
island of Chiloe, the Cordilleras draw near the coast; and the
archipelago of Chonos or Huaytecas appears like the vestiges of an
immense group of mountains overwhelmed by water. Narrow estuaries fill
the lower valleys of the Andes, and remind us of the fjords of Norway
and Greenland. We there find, running from south to north, the Nevados
de Maca (latitude 45 degrees 19 minutes), of Cuptano (latitude 44
degrees 58 minutes), of Yanteles (latitude 43 degrees 52 minutes), of
Corcovado, Chayapirca (latitude 42 degrees 52 minutes) and of Llebean
(latitude 41 degrees 49 minutes). The peak of Cuptana rises like the
peak of Teneriffe, from the bosom of the sea; but being scarcely
visible at thirty-six or forty leagues distance, it cannot be more
than 1500 toises high. Corcovado, situated on the coast of the
continent, opposite the southern point of the island of Chiloe,
appears to be more than 1950 toises high; it is perhaps the loftiest
summit of the whole globe, south of the parallel of 42 degrees south
latitude. On the north of San Carlos de Chiloe, in the whole length of
Chile to the desert of Atacama, the low western regions not having
been overwhelmed by floods, the Andes there appear farther from the
coast. The Abbe Molina affirms that the Cordilleras of Chile form
three parallel chains, of which the intermediary is the most elevated;
but to prove that this division is far from general, it suffices to
recollect the barometric survey made by MM. Bauza and Espinosa, in
1794, between Mendoza and Santiago de Chile. The road leading from one
of those towns to the other, rises gradually from 700 to 1987 toises;
and after passing the Col des Andes (La Cumbre, between the houses of
refuge called Las Calaveras and Las Cuevas), it descends continually
as far as the temperate valley of Santiago de Chile, of which the
bottom is only 409 toises above the level of the sea. The same survey
has made known the minimum of height at Chile of the lower limit of
snow, in 33 degrees south latitude. The limit does not lower in summer
to 2000 toises.* (* On the southern declivity of the Himalayas snow
begins (3 degrees nearer the equator) at 1970 toises.) I think we may
conclude according to the analogy of the Snowy Mountains of Mexico and
southern Europe, and considering the difference of the summer
temperature of the two hemispheres, that the real Nevadas at Chile, in
the parallel of Valdivia (latitude 40 degrees), cannot be below 1300
toises; in Valparaiso (latitude 33 degrees) not lower than 2000
toises, and in that of Copiapo (latitude 27 degrees) not below 2200
toises of height. These are the limit-numbers, the minimum of
elevation, which the ridge of the Andes of Chile must attain in
different degrees of latitude, to enable their summits to rise above
the line of perpetual snow. The numerical results which I have just
marked and which are founded on the laws of distribution of heat, have
still the same importance which they possessed at the time of my
travels in America; for there does not exist in the immense extent of
the Andes, from 8 degrees south latitude to the Straits of Magellan,
one Nevada of which the height above the sea-level has been
determined, either by a simple geometric measure, or by the combined
means of barometric and geodesic measurements.
Between 33 and 18 degrees south latitude, between the parallels of
Valparaiso and Arica, the Andes present towards the east three
remarkable spurs, the Sierra de Cordova, the Sierra de Salta, and the
Nevados de Cochabamba. Travellers partly cross and partly go along the
side of the Sierra de Cordova (between 33 and 31 degrees of latitude)
in their way from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza; it may be said to be the
most southern promontory which advances, in the Pampas, towards the
meridian of 65 degrees; it gives birth to the great river known by the
name of Desaguadero de Mendoza and extends from San Juan de la
Frontera and San Juan de la Punta to the town of Cordova. The second
spur, called the Sierra de Salta and the Jujui, of which the greatest
breadth is 25 degrees of latitude, widens from the valley of Catamarca
and San Miguel del Tucuman, in the direction of the Rio Vermejo
(longitude 64 degrees). Finally, the third and most majestic spur, the
Sierra Nevada de Cochabamba and Santa Cruz (from 22 to 17 1/2 degrees
of latitude), is linked with the knot of the mountains of Porco.
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