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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This Zone Of Volcanoes Is The Parallel Of The Greatest Heights Of New
Spain.
If the survey of Captain Basil Hall afford results alike
certain in latitude and in longitude, the volcano of
Colima is north
of the parallel of Puerto de Navidad in latitude 19 degrees 36
minutes; and, like the volcano of Tuxtla, if not beyond the zone, at
least beyond the average parallel of the volcanic fire of Mexico,
which parallel seems to be between 18 degrees 59 minutes and 19
degrees 12 minutes.) This line of summits, several of which enter the
limit of perpetual snow, and which are the loftiest of the Cordilleras
from the peak of Tolima (latitude 40 degrees 46 minutes north), is
almost perpendicular to the great axis of the chain of Guatimala and
Anahuac, advancing to the 27th parallel, uniformly north 42 degrees
east. A characteristic feature of every knot, or widening of the
Cordilleras, is that the grouping of the summits is independent of the
general direction of the axis. The backs of the mountains in New Spain
form very elevated plains, along which carriages can roll for an
extent of 400 leagues, from the capital to Santa-Fe and Taos, near the
sources of Rio del Norte. This immense table-land, in 19 and 24 1/2
degrees, is constantly at the height of from 950 to 1200 toises, that
is, at the elevation of the passes of the Great Saint Bernard and the
Splugen. We find on the back of the Cordilleras of Anahuac, which
lower progressively from the city of Mexico towards Taos, a succession
of basins:
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