Curious Particulars reſpecting the Mountains and Volcanos, and the Effect of the late Earthquakes in South America, with Remarks on the Language and Science of the Natives, and other Subjects.

By M. A.

Von Homboldt .

Abridged from the Magazin Encylopédique.

Three branches of the Andes.

We arrived at Quito, by croſſing the ſnows of Quridien and Tolima, for as the cordillera of the Andes forms three ſeparate branches, and at Santa Fe de Bogoto, we were on the eaſternmoſt, it was neceſſary for us to paſs the loftieſt, in order to reach the coaſt of the Pacific ocean.

We travelled on foot, and ſpent ſeventeen days in theſe deſerts, in which are to be found no traces of their ever having been inhabited.

We ſlept in huts made of the leaves of the heliconia, which we carried with us for the purpoſe.

Deſcending the Andes to the weſt, there are marſhes, in which you ſink up to the knees.

The latter part of the time we were deluged with rain; our boots rotted on our legs; and we arrived barefoot at Carthago, but enriched with a ſine collection of new plants, of which I have a great number of drawings.

Huts made of the leaves of heliconia.

The Andes marſhy toward the weſt.

Mines of Platina in mount Choca.

From Carthago we went to Popayan, by way of Buga, croſſing the beautiful vale of the river Cauca, and having conſtantly at one ſide the mountain of Choca, in which are the mines of Platina.

Baſaltic mountains.

We ſtaid during the month of November 1801, at Popayan, viſiting the Baſaltic mountains of Juluſuito; the mouths of the volcano of Purace, which evolve, with a dreadful noiſe, vapours of hydroſulphurated water; and the porphyritic granites of Piſche, which form columns of five, ſix, or ſeven ſides, ſimilar to thoſe I remember I ſaw in the Euganean mountains in Italy, which Strange has deſcribed.

Volcano of Purace.

Columnar porphyritic granites.

Paramos piercing cold and deſtitute of vegetation.

In travelling from Popayan to Quito, we had to croſs the paramos of Paſto, and this in the rainy ſeaſon.

Every place in the Andes, where, at the height of 3500 or 4000 yards, vegetation ceaſes, and the cold penetrates to the very marrow of your bones, is called a paramo.

To avoid the heats of the valley of Patia, where, in a fingle night, a fever may be caught, that will laſt three or four months, we paſſed the ſummit of the Cordillera, traverſing frightful precipices.

We ſpent our Chriſtmas at Paſto, a little town at the foot of a tremendous volcano, where we were entertained with great hoſpitality.

The roads leading to and from it are the moſt ſhocking in the world.

Thick foreſts, between marſhes, in which the mules ſink up to their bellies; and gullies ſo deep and narrow, that we ſeemed entering the galleries of a mine.

Town of Paſto.

The whole province of Paſto, including the environs of Guachucal and Tuqueres, is a frozen plain, nearly beyond the point where vegetation can ſubſiſt, and ſurrounded by volcanos and ſulphur-pits, continually emitting volumes of ſmoke.

The wretched inhabitants of theſe deſerts have no food but potatoes: and if theſe fail, as they did laſt year, they go to the mountains to eat the ſtem of a little tree, called achupalla (pourretia pitcarnia); but the bears of the Andes, as they too feed on it, often diſpute it with them.

On the north of the volcano of Paſto, I diſcovered, in the little In - dian village of Voiſaco, 1900 yards above the level of the ſea, a red porphyry, with baſe of argil, encloſing vitreous feldſpar, and hornblende, that has all the properties of the ſerpentine of the Fichtelgebirge.

This porphyry has very diſtinctly marked poles, but no attractive power.

Near the town of Ibarra, we nearly eſcaped being drowned by a very ſudden ſwell of the water, accompanied with ſhocks of an earthquake.

The province a frozen plain.

The people live on potatoes,

and the ſtems of the pouretia pitcarnia.

Red porphyry with diſtinct poles.

We reached Quito on the 6th of January 1802. It is a handſome city; but the ſky is commonly clouded and gloomy.

The neighbouring mountains exhibit little verdure, and the cold is very conſiderable.

The great earthquake on the 4th of February 1797, which changed the face of the whole province, and in one inſtant deſtroyed thirty-five or forty thouſand perſons, has ſo altered the temperature of the air, that the thermometer is now commonly 41° to 54°, and ſeldom riſes to 68° or 70°, whereas Bouguer obſerved it conſtantly at 66° or 68°.

Since this cataſtrophe, earthquakes are continually recurring; and ſuch ſhocks! it is probable, that all the higher ground is one vaſt volcano.

What are called the mountains of Cotopoxi and Pichincha, are but little ſummits, the craters of which, form different conduits terminating in the ſame cavity.

The earthquake of 1797, afforded a melancholy proof of this; for the ground then opened every where, and vomited forth ſulphur, water, &c. Notwithſtanding the dangers and horrors that furround them, the people of Quito are gay, lively, and ſociable, and in no place did I ever ſee a more decided and general taſte for pleaſure, luxury, and amuſement.

Thus man accuſtoms himſelf to ſleep tranquilly on the brink of a precipice.

Quito.

Earthquake of 1797.

altered the climate greatly.

The heights one vaſt volcano.

People of Quito.

Pichincha.

I was twice at the mouth of the crater of Pichincha, the mountain that overlooks the city of Quito. I know of no one but Condamine, that ever reached it before; and he was without inſtruments, and could not ſtay above a quarter of an hour, on account of the extreme cold.

I was more ſucceſsful.

From the edge of the crater riſe three peaks, which are free from ſnow, as it is continually melted by the aſcending vapour.

At the ſummit of one of theſe I found a rock, that projected over the precipice, and hence I made my obſervations.

This rock was about twelve feet long, by ſix broad, and ſtrongly agitated by the frequent ſhocks, of which we counted eighteen in leſs than half an hour.

We lay on our bellies, the better to examine the bottom of the crater.

The mouth of the volcano forms a circular hole, near a league in circumference, the perpendicular edges of which are covered with ſnow on the top.

The inſide is of a deep black; but the abyſs is ſo vaſt, that the ſummits of ſeveral mountains may be diſtinguiſhed in it.

Their tops ſeemed to be ſix hundred yards below us, judge then where their baſes muſt be. I have no doubt but the bottom of the crater is on a level with the city of Quito.

Condamine found it extinct, and even covered with ſnow; but we had to report the unpleaſant news, that it was burning.

On my ſecond viſit, being better furniſhed with inſtruments, I found the diameter of the crater to be 1600 yards, whereas that of Veſuvius is but 670. The height of the mountain is 5280 yards.

Its crater.

Several mountains within it.

Its diameter 1600 yards;

height 5280.

Volcano of Antiſana, 5915 yards.

Barometer at 15.6 inches.

Hemorrhages brought on.

When we viſited the volcano of Antiſana, the weather was ſo favourable, that we reached the height of 5915 yards.

In this loſty region, the barometer ſunk to 14 inches 7 lines, [15.6 Eng.] and the tenuity of the air occaſioned the blood to iſſue from our lips, gums, and even eyes: we felt extremely feeble, and one of our company fainted away.

The air brought from the loftieſt point we viſited, gave on being analyſed 0.218 of oxigen gas, and 0.008 of carbonic acid.

Air 0.218 of oxigen.

We viſited Cotopoxi, but could not reach the mouth of the crater.

The aſſertion, that this mountain was diminiſhed in height by the earthquake of 1797, is a miſtake.

Cotopoxi not ſunk by the earthquake of 1797.

In June we proceeded to meaſure Chimboraco and Tunguragua, and take a plan of all the country affected by the grand cataſtrophe of 1797.

We approached within about 500 yards of the ſummit of Chimboraco, our aſcent being facilitated by a line of volcanic rocks bare of ſnow.

The height we reached was 6465 yards; and we were prevented from aſcending farther by a chaſm too deep to croſs.

We felt the ſame inconveniences as on Antiſana; and were unwell for two or three days after. The air at this height contained 0.20 of oxigen.

The trigonometrical meaſurement I took of the mountain at two different times, and I can place ſome conſidence in my operations, gave me for its height 6970 yards, a hundred more than Condamine aſſigns it.

The whole of this huge maſs, as of all the high mountains of the Andes, is not granite, but porphyry, from the foot to the ſummit, and there the porphyry is 4050 yards thick.

Air at 6465 yards, contained 0.20 of oxigen.

Chimboraco 6970 yards high.

Conſiſts of porphyry.

Chimboraco is probably a volcanic mountain, for the track by which we aſcended, conſiſts of a burnt and ſcoriſied rock mixed with pumice-ſtone, reſembling all the ſtreams of lava in this country, and ran higher up the mountain than we could climb.

The ſummit therefore is in all likelihood the crater of an extinct volcano.

Chimboraco a volcano.

The mountain of Tunguragua has diminiſthed in height ſince the earthquake of 1797.

Bouguer aſſigns it 5589 yards, I found it but 5399, ſo that it muſt have loſt 190 yards; and indeed the people in the vicinity ſay, that they have ſeen its ſummit crumble away before their eyes.

Tunguragua diminiſhed in height. Now 5399 yards.

During our ſtay at Riobancha, we accidentally made a very curious diſcovery.

The ſtate of the province of Quito, previous to its conqueſt by the Inca Tupaynpangi, in 1470, is wholly unknown: but the king of the Indians, Leandro Zapla, who reſides at Lican, and has a mind extraordinarily cultivated for an Indian, poſſeſſes manuſcripts compoſed by one of his anceſtors, in the ſixteenth century, which contains the hiſtory of that period.

They are written in the Parugay tongue, which was formerly general in Quito, but is now loſt, having been ſupplanted by the Inca or Anichna.

Fortunately another of Zapla’s anceſtors amuſed himſelf by tranſlating theſe memoirs into Spaniſh.

We have obtained from them valuable information, particularly in the memorable period of the eruption of Nevado del Atlas, which muſt have been the higheſt mountain in the world, loftier than Chimboraco, and called by the Indians Capa-urcu, or chief of mountains.

Theſe manuſcripts, the traditions I collected at Parima, and the hieroglyphies I ſaw in the deſert of Caſiquiare, where ſcarcely a veſtige of a human being is now to be ſeen, added to what Clavigero has ſaid of the emigration of the Mexicans toward the ſouth, have ſuggeſted to me ideas reſpecting the origin of this people, which I ſhall purſue when I have leiſure.

Indian manuſcripts of the 16th century.

Nevado del Atlas, once the higheſt mountain in the world.

Hieroglyphics.

American languages not poor.

I have likewiſe paid much attention to the ſtudy of the American languages, and found what Condamine has ſaid of their poverty to be extremely falſe.

The Caribbee is rich, beautiful, energetic, and poliſhed: it is not deſtitute of expreſſions for abſtract ideas; and it has numerical terms ſufficient for any poſſible combination of figures.

The Inca is particularly rich in delicacy and variety of expreſſion.

The prieſts knew how to draw a meridian line, and obſerve the ſolſtices: they had reduced the lunar to a ſolar year by intercalations: and the ſavages even at Erevato, in the interior of Parima, believe the moon to be inhabited, and know, from the traditions of their anceſtors, that its light is derived from the ſun.

Caribee.

Inca.

Ancient ſcience.

Crocodile increaſes air by reſpiration.

At Monpox I made ſome very curious experiments on the reſpiration of the crocodile, having procured forty or fifty young ones.

Inſtead of diminiſhing the quantity of the air in which it reſpires like other animals, the crocodile increaſes it. A crocodile placed in 1000 parts of atmoſpheric air, conſiſting of 274 oxigen, 15 carbonic acid, and 711 azot, increaſed it in an hour and forty-three minutes, by the addition of 124 parts.

The carbonic acid had received an augmentation of 64 parts: the oxigen had been diminiſhed 167; but, as 46 are contained in the carbonic acid produced, the crocodile had appropriated to itſelf only 121 parts, a ſmall quantity conſidering the colour of its blood: and 227 parts of azot, or other gaſſes, on which acidifiable baſes had no action, were produced.

For the analyſis I uſed lime water and nitrous gas, prepared with great care.

Air 274 oxigen, 15 carbonic acid, 711 azot.

Near Santa Fee, at an elevation of 2890 yards, are found an immenſe number of foſſil bones of elephants, both of the African ſpecies and of the carnivorous kind, diſcovered in North America. I have ſince received others from a part of the Andes, about the latitude of 2° from Quito, and from Chili:

ſo that theſe animals muſt have exiſted from Patagonia to the Ohio.

Large foſſil bones at a conſiderable height, and nearly from one extremity of America to the other.