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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He Only Opposes Anti-Suyu, Or The Region Of Summits Covered
With Eternal Snow (Ritiseca), To The Plains Or Yuncas, That Is, To The
Lower Region Of Peru.
The etymology of the name of the largest
mountain chain of the globe cannot be devoid of interest to the
mineralogic geographer.
The structure of the Cordillera of the Andes, that is, its division
into several chains nearly parallel, which are again joined by knots
of mountains, is very remarkable. On our maps this structure is
indicated but imperfectly; and what La Condamine and Bouguer merely
guessed, during their long visit to the table-land of Quito, has been
generalized and ill-interpreted by those who have described the whole
chain according to the type of the equatorial Andes. The following is
the most accurate information I could collect by my own researches and
an active correspondence of twenty years with the inhabitants of
Spanish America. The group of islands called Tierra del Fuego, in
which the chain of the Andes begins, is a plain extending from Cape
Espiritu Santo as far as the canal of San Sebastian. The country on
the west of this canal, between Cape San Valentino and Cape Pilares,
is bristled with granitic mountains covered (from the Morro de San
Agueda to Cabo Redondo) with calcareous shells. Navigators have
greatly exaggerated the height of the mountains of Tierra del Fuego,
among which there appears to be a volcano still burning. 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.
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