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Alexander von Humboldt: „Particulars respecting the Volcanoes in the Andes, and the Fishes thrown out by them“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1806-Memoir_on_a_new_species_of_Pimelodus-3-neu> [abgerufen am 29.03.2024].

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Titel Particulars respecting the Volcanoes in the Andes, and the Fishes thrown out by them
Jahr 1806
Ort Edinburgh
Nachweis
in: The Scots Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (Juli 1806), S. 511–513.
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Schmuck: Initialen.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: II.44
Dateiname: 1806-Memoir_on_a_new_species_of_Pimelodus-3-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 3
Spaltenanzahl: 4
Zeichenanzahl: 9112

Weitere Fassungen
Memoir on a new Species of Pimelodus thrown out of the Volcanoes in the Kingdom of Quito; with some Particulars respecting the Volcanoes of the Andes (London, 1806, Englisch)
Volcanic Fish (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1806, Englisch)
Particulars respecting the Volcanoes in the Andes, and the Fishes thrown out by them (Edinburgh, 1806, Englisch)
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Particulars respecting the Volcanoes in the Andes, and the Fishes thrownout by them. By M. Von Humboldt.

T HE chain of the Andes, extend-ing more than 2000 leagues,from the Straits of Magellan to thenorthern shores which border on Asia, contains above fifty volcanoesstill active, of which the phenomenaare as various as their height and lo-cal situation. A small number ofthe least elevated of these volcanoesthrow out running lava. I have seen,at the volcano of Zurullo, in Mexico,a basaltic cone that sprung from theearth the 15th of September 1759,and at present rising 1593⅔ feetabove the surrounding plain. Thevolcanic ridges of Guatimala cast outa prodigious quantity of muriat ofammonia. Those of Popayan and thehigh plain of Pasto contain either solfatares, which exhale sulphure-ous acid, or little craters filledwith boiling water, and disengagingsulphurated hydrogen, which de-composes by contact with the oxy-gen of the atmosphere. The volca-noes of the kingdom of Quito throwout pumice stone, basaltes, and sco-rified porphyries; and vomit enor-mous quantities of water, carburet-ted argil, and muddy matter, whichspreads fertility from eight to tenleagues around. But since the periodto which the traditions of the na-tives ascend, they have never pro-duced great masses of running meltedlava. The height of these colossalmountains, being five times greaterthan that of Vesuvius, and their in-land situation are, no doubt, theprincipal causes of these anomalies.The subterranean noise of Cotopaxiduring its great explosions, extendsas far as the distance between Vesu-vius and Dijon. But not withstand-ing this prodigious force, it is known,that if the volcanic fire was at agreat depth, the melted lava couldneither raise itself to the edge of the |512| |Spaltenumbruch| crater, nor pierce the flank of thesemountains, which, to the height of8970 feet, are fortified by high sur-rounding plains. It appears, there-fore natural, that volcanoes so ele-vated should discharge from theirmouth only detached stones, volca-nic cinders or ashes, flames, boilingwater, and, above all, this carburet-ted argil impregnated with sulphur,that is called moga in the language ofthe country. The mountains of the kingdom ofQuito sometimes offer to the natura-list another spectacle less alarming,but not less curious. The great ex-plosions are periodical, and some-what rare. Cotopaxi, Tungurahua,and Sangay, sometimes do not pre-sent one in twenty or thirty years.But during such intervals, even thesevolcanoes will discharge enormousquantities of argillaceous mud; and,what is more extraordinary, an innu-merable quantity of fish. By acci-dent, none of these volcanic inunda-tions took place the year that I pas-sed the Andes of Quito; but the fishvomited from the volcanoes is a phe-nomenon so common, and so gene-rally known by all the inhabitantsof that country, that there cannotremain the least doubt of its authen-ticity. As there are in these regionsseveral very well informed persons,who have successfully devoted them-selves to the physical sciences, I havehad an opportunity of procuring exactinformation respecting these fishes.M. de Larrae, at Quito, well versedin the study of chemistry, who hasformed a cabinet of the minerals of hiscountry, has been particularly use-ful to me in these researches. Exa-mining the archives of several littletowns in the neighbourhood of Co-topaxi, in order to extract the e-pochs of the great earthquakes, thatfortunately have been preserved withcare, I there found some notes onthe fish ejected from the volcanoes.On the estates of the Marquis of |Spaltenumbruch| Selvalegre the Cotopaxi had throwna quantity so great, that their putre-faction spread a fetid odour around.In 1691, the almost extinguished vol-cano of Imbaburu threw out thou-sands on the fields in the environs ofthe city of Ibarra. The putrid feverswhich commenced at that periodwere attributed to the miasma whichexhaled from these fish, heaped onthe surface of the earth, and exposedto the rays of the sun. The lasttime that Imbaburu ejected fish, wason the 19th of June 1798, when thevolcano of Corgneirazo sunk, andthousands of these animals, envelopedin argillaceous mud, were thrownover the crumbling borders. The Cotopaxi and Tungurahuathrow out fish, sometimes by thecrater which is at the top of thesemountains, sometimes by lateral vents,but constantly at 15,000 or 16,000feet above the level of the sea: theadjacent plains being 9000 feet high,we may conclude that these animalsissue from a point which is 9000feet higher than the plains on whichthey are thrown. Some Indianshave assured me that the fish thrownout by the volcanoes were sometimesstill alive, as they descended alongthe flank of the mountain: but thisfact does not appear to me sufficient-ly proved: certain it is that amongthe thousands of dead fish that in afew hours are seen descending fromCotopaxi with great bodies of coldfresh water, there are very few thatare so much disfigured that we canbelieve them to have been exposed tothe action of a strong heat. Thisfact becomes still more striking,when we consider the soft flesh ofthese animals, and the thick smokewhich the volcano exhales duringthe eruption. It appeared to me ofvery great importance to descriptivenatural history to verify sufficientlythe nature of these animals. Allthe inhabitants agree that they arethe same with those which are found |513| |Spaltenumbruch| in the rivulets at the foot of thesevolcanoes, and called prennadillas:they are even the only species of fishthat is discovered at the height ofabove 7 500 toises, in the waters ofthe kingdom of Quito. M. Lace-pede, who has also examined it, ad-vised me to place it in that divisionof Silurus, which, in the fifth volumeof his natural history of fishes, hehas described under the name of pi-melodes. From the enormous quantity ofPimelodes the volcanoes of the king-dom of Quito occasionally discharge,we cannot doubt, that this coun-try contains great subterranean lakeswhich conceal these, for in the littlerivers around there are very few. Apart of those rivers may communicatewith the subterranean pits; it is alsoprobable that the first pimelodeswhich have inhabited these pits havemounted there against the current.I have seen fish in the caverns ofDerbyshire in England; and nearGailenreath, in Germany, where thefossil heads of bears and lions arefound, there are living trouts in thegrottoes, which at present are verydistant from any rivulet, and greatlyelevated above the level of the neigh-bouring waters. In the province ofQuito, the subterraneous roaringsthat accompany the earthquakes;the masses of rocks that we thinkwe hear crumbling down below theearth we walk on; the immensequantity of water that issues fromthe earth during the volcanic explo-sions, and numerous other phenome-na, indicate that all the soil of thiselevated plain is undermined. But,if it is easy to conceive that vast sub-terranean basins may be filled, it ismore difficult to explain how theseanimals are attracted by volcanoesthat ascend to the height of 9000feet, and discharged either by theircraters or by their lateral vents.Should we suppose that the pimelodes |Spaltenumbruch| exist in subterranean basins of thesame height at which they are seento issue? How conceive their originin a position so extraordinary; inthe flank of a cone so often heated,and perhaps partly produced by vol-canic fire? Whatever may be thesource from which they issue, the per-fect state in which they are foundinduces us to believe that those vol-canoes, the most elevated and themost active in the world, experiencefrom time to time, convulsive move-ments, during which the disengage-ment of caloric appears less consi-derable than we should suppose it.Earthquakes do not always accom-pany those phenomena. The corregidor of the city of Ibar-ra, Don José Pose Pardo, has com-municated to me an interesting ob-servation on the pimelodes. „It isknown (says he in a letter whichI have still preserved,) that the vol-cano of Imbaburu, at the time ofits great eruption on the side nextour city, threw out an enormousquantity of prennadillas; it evencontinues still occasionally to do so,especially after great rains. Itis observed, that these fishes ac-tually live in the interior of themountain, and that the Indians ofSt Pabla fish for them in a rivuletat the very place whence they issuefrom the rock. The fishery doesnot succeed either in the day or inmoonlight: a very dark night istherefore necessary, as the prenna-dillas will not otherwise come outof the volcano, the interior of whichis hollow.” It appears then thatthe light is injurious to these sub-terraneous fishes, which are not ac-customed to so strong a stimulus;an observation so much the morecurious, that the pimelodes of thesame species, which inhabit thebrooks in the vicinity of the city ofQuito, live exposed to the bright-ness of the meridian sun.