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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Although It Cannot Be Doubted That, Among The Five
Systems Of Mountains On The East Of The Andes, Of Which
One only
belongs to the southern hemisphere, the littoral chain of Venezuela is
the most elevated (having a culminant point
Of 1350 toises, and a mean
height from the line of elevation of 750), we yet recognise with
surprise that the mountains of eastern America (whether continental or
insular) differ very inconsiderably in their height above the level of
the sea. The five groups are all nearly of an average height of from
500 to 700 toises; and the culminant points (maxima of the lines of
elevation) from 1000 to 1300 toises. That uniformity of structure, in
an extent twice as great as Europe, appears to me a very remarkable
phenomenon. No summit east of the Andes of Peru, Mexico and Upper
Louisiana rises beyond the limit of perpetual snow.* (* Not even the
White Mountains of the state of New Hampshire, to which Mount
Washington belongs. Long before the accurate measurement of Captain
Partridge I had proved (in 1804), by the laws of the decrement of
heat, that no summit of the White Mountains could attain the height
assigned to them by Mr. Cutler, of 1600 toises.) It may be added that,
with the exception of the Alleghenies, no snow falls sporadically in
any of the eastern systems which we have just examined. From these
considerations it results, and above all, from the comparison of the
New Continent with those parts of the old world which we know best,
with Europe and Asia, that America, thrown into the aquatic
hemisphere* of our planet, is still more remarkable for the continuity
and extent of the depressions of its surface, than for the height and
continuity of its longitudinal ridge.
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