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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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.
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