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Alexander von Humboldt: „On Two Attempts to ascend Chimborazo“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1837-Ueber_zwei_Versuche-03> [abgerufen am 25.04.2024].
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| Titel | On Two Attempts to ascend Chimborazo | ||||
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| Jahr | 1837 | ||||
| Ort | Edinburgh | ||||
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Nachweis in: The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 23:46 (Oktober 1837), S. 291–311.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken und Kreuzen; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||
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The highest mountain-summits of both continents,—in theold continent, Dhawalagiri (White Mountain) and the Jawahir;in the new, the Sorata and the Illimani,—remain unreached byman. The highest point of the earth’s surface attained, lies inSouth America on the south-east side of Chimborazo. Theretravellers have reached the height of nearly 18,500 Paris feet*—viz. in June 1802, 3016 toises,† in December 1831, 3080toises, above the level of the sea. Barometrical measurementshave thus been made, in the chain of the Andes 3720 (Paris)feet above the level of the summit of Mont Blanc. The heightof Mont Blanc is in relation to that of the Cordilleras so incon-siderable, that in the latter, there are much frequented passesthat are higher; indeed, the upper part of the great city ofPotosi has an elevation only 323 toises inferior to that of thesummit of Mont Blanc. I have thought it needful to premisethese numerical statements, in order to present to the imagina-tion definite points of comparison for the hypsometric, as it wereplastic, contemplation of the surface of the earth.The attainment of great heights is of less scientific interest,when the same lie far above the snow-line, and can be visitedfor a few hours only. Immediate barometrical measurementsof heights afford indeed this advantage, that the results arequickly obtained, yet the summits are, for the most part, sur-rounded by high plains, adapted for trigonometrical operations,by which all the elements of the measurements can be repeat-edly proved; whilst a single determination by means of thebarometer, is liable to considerable errors, because of the as-cending and descending currents of air on the mountain slopes,and the variation in the decrease of temperature thus occasion-ed. The nature of the rocks, from the permanent covering
* One French foot is — 1.07892, or about 1\( \frac{1}{13} \) English.—Tr.† A toise is — 1.94904 metres, or 6.39459 English feet.—Tr.|292| of snow, is almost entirely withdrawn from geognostic observa-tion, since there are presented only single ridges composed ofmuch weathered strata. Organic life ceases in these lofty soli-tudes. Scarcely do the condor and winged insects stray intothese attenuated strata of the atmosphere, the latter beingcarried up by the currents of air. If the endeavours of tra-velling natural philosophers, who strive to climb the highersummits of the earth, is scarcely rewarded by a serious scien-tific interest, there is, on the other hand, an active popularparticipation in such endeavours. That which seems unattain-able has a mysterious attractive power; we wish that allshould be explored,—at least attempted, though not to be ob-tained. Chimborazo has been the wearisome object of all in-quiries addressed to me since my first return to Europe. Thethoroughly exploring of the most important laws of nature,the most vivid delineations of stratified zones of plants and dif-ferences in climates, determining, as the latter do, the object ofagriculture, were seldom capable of diverting attention fromthe snow-clad summit which at that time (before Pentland’sjourney to Bolivia) was supposed to be the culminating pointof the dike-like Andes.I shall here extract from the still unprinted portion of myjournals, the simple narration of a mountain journey. The en-tire detail of the trigonometrical measurement, which I made atNew Riobamba in the plain of Tapia, was made known in theintroduction to the first volume of my Astronomical Observations,soon after my return. The geographical distribution of theplants on the acclivity of Chimborazo and the neighbouringmountains (from the sea coast up to a height of 14,800 feet),I have attempted to represent, by a figure in a table of myGeographical and Physical Atlas of South America, accordingto the excellent determination by Kunth of the alpine vegetationof the Cordilleras, collected by Bonpland and myself.The history of the ascent itself, which can present but littledramatic interest, was reserved for the fourth and last volumeof my journey towards the equatorial regions. But since myfriend M. Boussingault, now Professor of Chemistry at Lyons,one of the most talented and learned travellers of modern times,has recently, at my request, described in the Annals de Chimie|293| et de Physiques,* this enterprize, which very closely resemblesmy own,—and since our observations are mutually confirma-tive of each other,—this small fragment of a journey, which Ihere lay before the public, will no doubt be favoured with anindulgent reception. I shall provisionally refrain from all cir-cumstantial geognostic and physical discussions.On the 22d June 1799, I was in the crater of the Peak ofTeneriffe. Three years afterwards, almost on the same day(the 23d June 1802), I reached a point 6700 feet higher, nearthe summit of Chimborazo. After a long delay in the table-land of Quito, one of the most wonderful and picturesque regionsof the earth, we undertook the journey towards the forests ofthe Peruvian bark trees of Loxa, the upper course of the riverAmazons, westward of the celebrated strait (Pongo de Man-seriche), and through the sandy desert along the Peruvian coastof the South Sea towards Lima, where we were to observethe transit of Mercury on the 9th November 1802. On a plaincovered with pumice-stone,—where (after the fearful earth-quake of 4th February 1797) the building of the new city Rio-bamba was begun,—we enjoyed for several days a splendid viewof the bell or dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo. We hadthe clearest weather, favouring trigonometrical observation. Bymeans of a large telescope, we had thoroughly examined the snow-mantle of the mountain, still 15,700 toises distant, and discoveredseveral ridges, which, projecting like sterile black streaks, con-verged towards the summit, and gave some hope that, upon them,a firm footing might be obtained in the region of eternal snow.Riobamba Nuevo lies within sight of the enormous and now in-dented mountain Capac-urcu, called by the Spaniards El Altar,which (says a tradition of the natives) was once higher thanChimborazo, and after having been many years in a state oferuption, suddenly fell in. This terror-spreading event is saidto have taken place shortly before the conquest of Quito by theInca Tupac-Yupanqui. Riobamba Nuevo must not be con-founded with the old Riobamba of the great map of La Conda-mine and Don Pedro Maldonado. The latter city was entirely
* See Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xix. for 1835, where thereis a translation of Boussingault’s memoir.|294| destroyed by the great catastrophe of the 4th February 1797,which in a few minutes destroyed 45,000 human beings. Thenew Riobamba lies, according to my chronometrical observations,42 seconds more to the eastward than the old Riobamba, butalmost in the same latitude (1° 41′ 46″ south). We were inthe plain of Tapia, from which, on the 22d June, we began ourexpedition towards Chimborazo, being already 8898 Paris feet *(1483 toises) above the level of the South Sea. This table-land is a part of the valley-land between the Eastern and West-ern Andes, i. e. between the chain of the active volcanoes Coto-paxi and Tungurahua on the one hand, and the chain of theIliniza and Chimborazo on the other. We gently ascended asfar as the foot of the last mentioned mountain, where, in theIndian village Calpi, we were to pass the night. This plain issparingly covered with Cactus stems and Schinus molle, whichresembles a weeping willow. Herds of variegated llamas, inthousands, seek here a scanty subsistence. At so great a height,the nightly terrestrial radiation of heat, when the sky is cloudless,proves injurious to agriculture, through cold and frost. Beforereaching Calpi, we visited Lican, now likewise a small village,but before the conquest of the country by the eleventh Inca, †a considerable city, and the place of residence of the Concho-cando, or Prince of Puruay. The natives believe that the fewwild llamas found on the western side of Chimborazo, are de-rived from dispersed and fugitive herds, which, after the de-struction of the old Lican, became wild.Very near to Calpi, north-westward of Lican, there is in thebarren table-land a little isolated hill, the black mountain, Yana-Urcu, the name of which has not been given by the French aca-demicians, but which, in a geognostical point of view, deservesmuch attention. The hill lies SS.E. of Chimborazo, at a dis-tance of less than three miles (15 to 1°), and separated from thesame by the high plain of Luisa only. If in it we do not re-
* Thus 2890 metres. Boussingault calculated this elevation to be 2870metres, and estimated the mean temperature of the high plain of Tabia at16°.4 C. (61°52 F.)† The same Tupac-Yupanqui, whose well preserved remains, Garcillassode la Vega, so lately as in 1559, had seen in the family-vault at Cuzco.|295| cognise a lateral eruption of Chimborazo, the origin of the conemust certainly be ascribed to the subterranean forces which,under that mountain, have for thousands of years vainly soughtan opening. It is of later origin than the elevation of the greatdome-shaped mountain. The Yana-Urcu forms, with the northernhill Naguangachi, a connected eminence in the form of a horse-shoe; the bow, more than a semicircle, is open towards theeast. There probably lies in the centre of the horse-shoe, thepoint out of which the black slags have been thrown, that nowlie spread far around. We found there a funnel-shaped depres-sion of about 120 feet in depth, in the interior of which there isa small hill, whose height does not equal that of the surround-ing margin. Yana-Urcu probably signifies the southern culmi-nating point of the old crater-margin, which, at the most, is ele-vated 400 feet above the level of Calpi. Naguangachi signifiesthe northern lower end. The whole eminence reminds one,—through its horse-shoe form, not in regard to its rock,—of thesomewhat higher hill Javirac (el Panecillo de Quito), whichrises isolated at the foot of the volcano Pichincha, in the plain ofTurubamba, and which, in La Condamine’s, or rather Morain-ville’s map, is drawn erroneously as a perfect cone. According tothe tradition of the natives, and according to old MSS which theCacike or Apu of Lican (the Conchocandi) possessed, the vol-canic eruption of the Yana-Urca occurred immediately afterthe death of the Inca Tupa-Yupanqui:—thus probably in themiddle of the 15th century. Tradition says that a fire-ball, orindeed a star, fell from heaven and set on fire the mountain.Such fables, connecting the fall of aërolites with eruptions arealso spread among the tribes of Mexico. The rock of theYana-Urcu is a porous dark clove-coloured, often entirely blackslaggy mass, which may be easily confounded with porous ba-salt. Olivin is entirely wanting in it, the white, sparingly dis-tributed crystals it contains are throughout small and probablyLabrador. Here and there, I saw a sprinkling of iron-pyrites.The whole belongs probably to the black augite-porphyry, aswell as the whole formation of Chimborazo, of which we shallspeak further on, and to which I am not disposed to give thename trachyte, since it contains no felspar, (with some albite),such as is contained in our trachyte of the Siebengebirge near|296| Bonn. The slaggy masses of the Yana-Urcu altered by a veryactive fire, are indeed extremely light, but proper pumice-stone has not been thrown out there. The eruption has takenplace through a grey, irregularly stratified mass of dolerite,which here forms the table-land, and resembles the rock ofPenipe (at the foot of the volcano of Tungurahua) wheresyenite and mica-slate containing garnets, have been brokenthrough. On the eastern side of the Yana-Urcu, or rather atthe foot of the hill towards Lican, the natives conducted us toa projecting rock, an opening in which resembled the mouth ofa forsaken gallery. Here, as well as at the distance of ten feet,there is heard a violent subterranean noise, which is accom-panied by a current of air, or subterranean wind. The cur-rent of air is much too weak to admit of the noise being attri-buted to it. The noise certainly arises from a subterraneanbrook, which is precipitated downwards into a deep hollow,and through its fall occasions a motion in the air. A monk, thepriest at Calpi, had, with the same idea, some time before, con-tinued on the gallery at an open fissure to procure water forhis village. The hardness of the black augite rock probablyinterrupted the work. Chimborazo, notwithstanding its enor-mous mass of snow, sends down into the table-land such insig-nificant brooks of water, that it may be presumed the greaterpart of its water flows through clefts to the interior. In thevillage of Calpi itself also, there was formerly heard a greatnoise in a house that had no cellar. Before the celebratedearthquake of the 4th February 1797, there sprang forth abrook in the south-west of the village, at a deeper point. ManyIndians considered this brook as a part of the water that flowsunder the Yana-Urcu. But since the great earthquake, thisbrook has again disappeared.After we had passed the night at Calpi, which, according tomy barometrical measurement, lies 9720 feet (1620 toises)above the sea, we began, on the morning of the 23d, our pro-per expedition up Chimborazo. We attempted to ascend themountain on the SS. E. side, and the Indians who were to at-tend us as guides, but of whom but a few had ever reached thelimit of perpetual snow, gave this course the preference. Wefound Chimborazo surrounded with great plains, which rise,|297| step-like, one above the other. Proceeding first through theLlanos de Luisa, then after rather a gradual ascent of scarcely5000 feet in length, we reached the table land (Llano) of Sis-gun. The first step (stufe) is at a height of 10,200 feet, the se-cond 11,700. These grass grown plains thus equal in eleva-tion, respectively, the highest summit of the Pyrenees (PeakNethou) and the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe. The per-fect horizontality of these table-lands allows us to infer thelong continuance of stagnant water. The traveller imagines hesees before him the bottom of a lake. On the acclivity of theSwiss Alps, there is sometimes observed this phenomenon ofsmall step-like plains, lying one above the other, which, likethe emptied basins of alpine lakes, are united by narrow openpasses. The widely extended grass lands (los Pajonales) areon Chimborazo, as everywhere around the high summits ofthe Andes, so monotonous that the family of the grasses (speciesof Paspalum, Andropogon, Bromus, Dejeuxia, Stipa) are sel-dom interrupted by dicotyledonous plants. There prevails al-most the heathy scenery which I have seen in the barren partof Northern Asia. The flora of Chimborazo, in general, ap-peared to us less rich than that of the other snow mountainswhich surround the city of Quito. But a few Calceolariæ, Com-positæ, (Bidens, Eupatorium, Dumerilia paniculata, Wernerianubigena) and Gentianæ, among which the beautiful Gentianacernua shining forth with purple flowers,—rear themselves onthe high plain of Sisgun, between the associated grasses. Thesebelong, for the most part, to the genera of Northern Europe.The temperature of the air generally prevailing in these regionsof alpine grasses, elevated respectively 1600 and 2000 toises,fluctuates by day between 4° and 16° C. (39°.2 and 60°.8 F.),by night between 0° and 10° (32° and 50° F.). The meantemperature of the whole year, according to my collective ob-servations in the neighbourhood of the Equator, appears to beabout 9° * (48°.2 F.). In the flat lands of the TemperateZone, this is the mean temperature of the north of Germany,
* All temperatures mentioned in this paper are expressed in degrees of thecentigrade thermometer. (The equivalent degree of Fahrenheit have beensince added.—TR.)|298| for example, of Luneburg (Lat. 53°15′); but here the distri-bution of heat among the different months (the most importantelement in determining the character of the vegetation of acountry) is so unequal, that in February, the mean heat is—1°.8 (+28°.76 F.), in July + 18° (+ 64°.4 F.)My plan was to perform a trigonometrical operation in thebeautiful perfectly level grass land of Sisgun. I had made arrange-ments for measuring a base line here. The angles of altitudewould have proved very considerable in such proximity to thesummit of Chimborazo. There remained yet a perpendicularheight of less than 8400 feet (the height of the Canigou in thePyrenees) to determine. Yet with the enormous masses of singlemountains in the chain of the Andes, every determination of theheight above the sea is compounded of a barometrical and trigo-nometrical observation. I had taken with me the sextant andother instruments of measurement in vain. The summit ofChimborazo remained densely veiled in mist. From the highplain of Sisgun the ascent is tolerably steep as far as the littlealpine lake of Yana-Coche. Thus far I had remained on themule, having from time to time alighted with my travelling com-panion M. Bonpland merely to collect plants. Yana-Cochedoes not deserve the name of a lake. It is a circular basin ofscarcely 130 feet in diameter. The sky became more and moreobscured; but between and over the mist-strata there still layscattered single groups of clouds. The summit of Chimborazowas visible for a few moments only at a time. Much snowhaving fallen during the preceding night, I left the mule wherewe found the lower border of this newly-fallen snow, a borderwhich must not be confounded with the limit of perpetual snow.The barometer shewed that we had only now attained the heightof 13,500 feet. On other mountains, likewise near to the equa-tor, I have seen snow fall at the height of 11,200 feet, but notlower. My companion rode as far as the line of perpetual snow,i. e. to the height of Mont Blanc; which mountain, as is known,would not in this latitude (1° 27′ south) always be covered withsnow. The horses and mules remained there to await our re-turn.A hundred and fifty toises above the little basin of Yana-Coche, we saw at length naked rock. Hitherto the grass-land|299| had withdrawn the ground from any geognostical examination.Great walls of rocks, extending from the N. E. towards theS. W., in part cleft into misshapen columns, reared themselvesout of the eternal snow,—a brownish-black augite rock shininglike pitch-stone porphyry. The columns were very thin, per-haps fifty to sixty feet in height, almost like the trachyte co-lumns of Tabla Umca on the volcano Pichincha. One groupstood alone, and reminded one of masts and stems of trees. Thesteep walls led us through the snow region to a narrow ridge ofrock extending towards the summit, by which alone it was pos-sible for us to advance any farther; for the snow was then sosoft that one scarcely dared to tread upon its surface. Theridge consisted of very weathered crumbling rock. It was oftenvesicular like a basaltic-amygdaloid.The path became more and more narrow and steep. The na-tives forsook us all but one at the height of 15,600 feet. Allentreaties and threats were unavailing. The Indians maintain-ed that they suffered more than we did from breathlessness.We remained alone, Bonpland,—our amiable friend theyounger son of the Marquis of Selvalegre, Carlos Montufar,who, in the subsequent struggle for freedom, was shot, (at thecommand of General Morillo),—a Mestize from the neighbour-ing village of San Juan,—and myself. We attained, with greatexertion and endurance, a greater height than we had daredhope to reach, as we were almost entirely wrapped in mist.The ridge (very significantly called, in Spanish, Cuchilla, as itwere the knife-back) was in many places only eight to teninches broad. On the left the precipice was concealed by snow,the surface of the latter seeming glazed with frost. The thin icymirror-like surface had an inclination of about 30°. On theright our view sank shuddering 800 or 1000 feet into anabyss out of which projected, perpendicularly, snowless massesof rock. We held the body continually inclined towards thisside, for the precipice upon the left seemed still more threaten-ing, because there no chance presented itself of grasping thetoothed rock, and because, further, the thin ice-crust offered nosecurity, against sinking in the loose snow. Only extremelylight porous bits of dolerite could we roll down this crust ofice; and the inclined plane of snow was so extended that we lost|300| sight of the stones thus rolled down before they came to rest.The absence of snow, as well upon the ridge along which weascended, as upon the rocks on our right hand towards the east,cannot be ascribed so much to the steepness of the masses, andto the gales of wind, as to open clefts, which breathe out warmair from deeper situated beds. We soon found our furtherascent more difficult, from the increase of the crumbling natureof the rock. At single and very steep échélons it was necessaryto apply at the same time the hands and feet, as is so usual inall alpine journeys. As the rock was very keenly angular, wewere painfully hurt, especially in the hands. Leopold VonBuch and I suffered very much in this manner near the craterof the Peak of Teneriffe, which abounds in obsidian. I hadhad besides (if it be permitted a traveller to mention such unim-portant particulars) for several weeks a sore in the foot, occasionedby the accumulations of Niguas * (Pulex penetrans), and muchincreased by fine dust of pumice-stone during measurements inLlano de Tapia. The little adhesion of the rocks upon the ridgenow rendered greater caution necessary, as many masses which wesupposed firm lay loose and covered with sand. We proceededone after the other, and so much the more slowly, as it was need-ful to try the places which seemed uncertain. Happily the at-tempt to reach the summit of Chimborazo was the last of ourmountain journeys in South America; hence previous experi-ence guided us, and gave us more confidence in our powers.It is a peculiar character of all excursions in the Andes, thatabove the snow-line white people find themselves in the mostperilous situations, always without guides, indeed without anyknowledge of localities.We could see the summit no longer, even for a moment onlyat a time, and were hence doubly curious to know, how muchhigher it remained for us to ascend. We examined the baro-meter at a point where the breadth of the ridge permittedof two persons standing conveniently together. We were nowat an elevation of 17,300 feet; thus scarcely two hundred
* The Sand-flea, the Chique of the French colonists of the West Indies,an insect that introduces itself under the human skin, and, as the ovary of theimpregnated female considerably enlarges, inflammation is excited.|301| feet higher than we had been two months before, when climb-ing a similar ridge on the Antisana. It is with the deter-mining of heights in climbing mountains, as with the determin-ing of temperature in the heat of summer. One finds with vex-ation the thermometer not so high, the barometer not so low,as one expected. As the air, notwithstanding the height, wasquite saturated with moisture, we now found the loose rock andthe sand that filled its interstices extremely wet. The air wasstill 2° 8′ (37° 04′ Fahr.). Shortly before, we had in a dry placebeen able to bury the thermometer three inches deep in thesand. It indicated + 5° 8′ (+ 42° 44′ Fahr.). The result ofthis observation, which was made at the height of about 2860toises, is very remarkable, for 400 toises lower down, at the li-mit of perpetual snow, the mean heat of the atmosphere is, ac-cording to many observations, carefully collected by Boussin-gault and myself, only + 1° 6′ (34° 88′ Fahr.). The tempera-ture of earth (sand) at + 5° 8′ (42° 44′ Fahr.) must thereforebe ascribed to the subterranean heat of the dolerite mountain;I do not say to the whole mass, but to the current of air ascend-ing from the interior.After an hour of cautious climbing, the ridge of rock becameless steep; but alas! the mist remained as thick as ever. Wenow began gradually to suffer from great nausea. The tenden-cy to vomiting was combined with some giddiness; and muchmore troublesome than the difficulty of breathing. A colouredman (a mestize of San Juan), not from selfish motives, but merelyout of good nature, had been unwilling to forsake us. He wasa poor vigorous peasant, and suffered more than we did. Wehad hæmorrhage from the gums and lips. The conjunctiva ofthe eyes likewise, was, in all, gorged with blood. These symp-toms of extravasation in the eyes, and of oozing from the lipsand gums, did not in the least disquiet us, as we had repeatedlyexperienced them before. In Europe, M. Zumstein began to ex-perience hæmorrhage at a much lower elevation on Monte Rosa.The Spanish warriors during the conquest of the equinoctial re-gion of America (during the Conquista), did not ascend above thesnow line, thus but little above the elevation of Mont Blanc, andyet Acosta, in his Historia Natural de las Indias,—a kind ofphysical geography, which may be called a master-piece of the16th century,—speaks circumstantially of “Nausea and Spasm|302| of the Stomach,” as painful symptoms of the mountain-sickness,which in these respects is analogous to sea-sickness. On thevolcano of Pichincha I once felt, without experiencing hæmor-rhage, so violent an affection of the stomach, accompanied bygiddiness, that I was found senseless on the ground, just as Ileft my companions on a wall of rock above the defile of Verde-Cucha, in order to perform some electrical experiments on a per-fectly open space. The height was inconsiderable, below 13,800feet. But on the Antisana, at the considerable elevation of17,220 feet, our young travelling companion, Don Carlos Mon-tufar, bled freely from the lips. All of these phenomena varyaccording to age, constitution, the tenderness of the skin, thepreceding exertions of the muscular powers; yet for single indivi-duals they are a kind of measure of the atmospheric tenuity, andof the absolute elevation reached. According to my observationsin the Cordilleras, these symptoms manifest themselves in whitepeople, with a mercurial column between 14 inches,—and 15inches 10 lines. It is known that the estimates regardingheights, which æronauts maintain that they have reached, gene-rally deserve but little credit, and if a more certain and extremelyaccurate observer, M. Gay Lussac, who, on the 16th of Sep-tember 1804, reached the vast height of 21,600 feet (thus betweenthe height of Chimborazo and Illimani), experienced no hæmor-rhage, this is perhaps to be ascribed to the absence of muscularexertion. According to the present condition of eudiometry,the air of those lofty regions appear to contain in proportion asmuch oxygen as that of lower heights; but since in that attenu-ated air—the barometric pressure only one-half of that to whichwe are generally exposed—the blood in each act of respirationtakes up a smaller quantity of oxygen, it is certainly conceivablethat a general feeling of weakness should take place. Why thisasthenie as in fainting, should excite nausea and a tendencyto vomiting, it is not our purpose to determine; as little is ithere to be proved, that the oozing of blood (the hæmorrhagefrom the lips, gums, and eyes), which also has not been expe-rienced by all, at such great heights,—can by no means be sa-tisfactorily explained by the absence of a “mechanical counter-pressure” on the vascular system; our attention should ratherbe engaged in examining the probability of the influence of a|303| diminished atmospheric pressure, during fatigue, on the movingof the legs in regions of very attenuated air; for, according tothe memorable discovery of two spirited inquirers, Wilhelm andEdward Weber,* the hovering leg, hanging from the trunk, isheld and carried merely by the pressure of the atmosphere.The layers of mist that prevented our seeing distant objects,appeared suddenly, notwithstanding the total stillness of theair, perhaps through electrical processes, to be broken up. Werecognised once more, and indeed immediately before us, thedome-shaped summit of Chimborazo. It was an earnest, mo-mentous gaze. The hope to reach this summit animated ourpowers anew. The ridge of rock, only here and there coveredwith thin flakes of snow, became somewhat broader. We hastenedonwards, with certain steps, when all at once a ravine of some400 feet in depth, and 50 broad, set an insurmountable barrierto our undertaking. We saw distinctly beyond the abyss, ourridge of rock continued forward in the same direction; yet Idoubt its leading to the summit itself. The chasm was not tobe gone round. On the Antisana, M. Bonpland indeed hadfound it possible, after a very cold night, to proceed for a con-siderable length through the snow. We durst not venture theattempt, because of the looseness of the mass, and the form ofthe precipice rendered climbing down impossible. It was oneo’clock in the afternoon. We set up with much care the baro-meter. It indicated 13 inches 11 \( \frac{2}{10} \) lines. The temperatureof the air was now — 1° 6′ (+ 29° 12′ F.), but after severalyears’ stay in the hottest regions of the Tropics, this small de-gree of cold benumbed us. Besides, our boots were thoroughlysoaked with snow-water, for the sand that covered here andthere the ridge was mixed with old snow. According to LaPlace’s barometrical formula, we had reached a height of 3016toises, or more precisely 18,097 Paris feet. If La Condamine’sestimate of the height of Chimborazo, as noted on the stone-table of the Jesuit’s College in Quito, be correct, there failed us
* Mechanik der Menschlichen Gehwerkzeuge. 1836. § 64. S. 147–160.More recent experiments of the brothers Weber, at Berlin, have fully con-firmed the position, that the leg is carried in the acetabulum by the pressureof the atmosphere.|304| yet of the summit of the mountain 1224 feet, or thrice theheight of St Peter’s church at Rome.La Condamine and Bouguer say explicitly, that they attained,on Chimborazo, the height of 2400 toises only; but they gloryin having seen on the Corazon,—one of the most picturesquesnow-mountains (Nevados) in the immediate neighbourhood ofQuito,—the barometer at 15 inches 10 lines. They say this is“a lower state than any human being has hitherto ever beenin a situation to observe.” At the above described point onChimborazo, the pressure of the air was about two inches less;less also than at the highest point reached in 1818, sixteen yearsafterwards, by Captain Gerard, on the Tarhigang, in the Him-malayan Mountains. I have been exposed in a diving-bell inEngland to an air-pressure of forty-five inches, for almost anhour together. The flexibility of the human organism conse-quently endures changes in the state of the barometer, amount-ing to thirty-one inches. Yet the physical constitution of thehuman race might be remarkably changed, if great cosmicalcauses were to make permanent such extremes in atmospherictenuity and condensation.We remained but a short time in this mournful solitude, beingsoon again entirely veiled in mist. The humid air was not therebyset in motion. No fixed direction was to be observed in singlegroups of the denser particles of vapour; I therefore cannot saywhether at this elevation the west wind blows, opposing theTropical monsoon. We saw no longer the summit of Chimbo-razo, none of the neighbouring snow-mountains, still less thetable-lands of Quito. We were as though isolated in a ball ofair. Some stone-lichens only had followed us above the line ofperpetual snow. The last cryptogamic plants which I col-lected were Lecidea atrovirens (Lichen geographicus, Web.),and a Gyrophora of Acharius, a new species (Gyrophora ru-gosa), at about the height of 2820 toises. The last moss, Grim-mia longirostris, grew 400 toises lower down. A butterfly(sphinx) was caught by M. Bonpland at the height of 15,000feet; we saw a fly 1600 feet higher. The following facts affordthe most striking proof that these animals are involuntarily car-ried up into those upper regions by the current of air whichrises from the warmed plains. As Boussingault ascended the|305| Silla de Caracas, to repeat my measurement of the mountain,he saw from time to time, at the height of 8000 feet, at noon,as the west wind blew, whitish bodies rapidly pass through theair, which he at first took for soaring birds with white plumage,that reflected the sun’s rays. These bodies rose with great ra-pidity out of the valley of Caracas, and surmounting the summitof Silla, took a north-east direction, and reached probably thesea. Some fell upon the southern acclivity of the Silla; theywere grass-halms, that had reflected the sun’s rays. Boussin-gault sent me some of these, which still had ears, in a letter toParis, where my friend and fellow-labourer Kunth instantlyrecognised them as the Wilfa tenacissima, which grows in thevalley of Caracas, and which he has described in our work,Nova Genera et Species Plantarum Americæ Æquinoctialis.I must remark, that we met with no condor on Chimborazo, thatpowerful vulture, which is so frequent on Antisana and Pich-incha, and which shews great confidence from its ignorance ofman. The condor loves pure air, in order the easier from onhigh to recognise its prey or its food, for it gives dead animalsthe preference.As the weather became more and more cloudy, we hasteneddown upon the same ledge of rock, that had favoured our ascent.Caution, however, on account of the uncertainty of the steps,was more necessary than in climbing up. We tarried only justto collect fragments of rock. We foresaw, that in Europe “alittle bit of Chimborazo” would be asked for. At that time, nomountain rock in any part of South America had been named;the rocks of all the high summits of the Andes were called gra-nite. As we were at the height of about 17,400 feet, it beganto hail violently. The hailstones were opaque, and milk-white,with concentric layers. Some appeared considerably flattenedby rotation, twenty minutes before we reached the lower limitof perpetual snow, the hail was replaced by snow. The flakeswere so dense, that the snow soon covered the ridge of rock manyinches deep; we should have been brought into great danger,had the snow surprised us at the height of 18,000 feet. At afew minutes after two o’clock, we reached the point where ourmules were standing. The natives that remained behind, hadbeen very apprehensive for our safety.|306| That part of our expedition which lay above the snow-line, hadlasted only 3\( \frac{1}{2} \) hours, during which, notwithstanding the tenuityof the air, we had not found it needful to take rest by sitting down.The diameter of the dome-shaped summit at the snow-line—i. e.at the height of 2460 toises—amounts to 3437 toises, and nearthe apex, about 150 toises below the same, the diameter is672 toises. The last number is thus the diameter of the up-per part of the dome or bell; the first expresses the breadth,of which the whole snow-mass of Chimborazo appears to theeye, as seen from Rio Nuevo; a mass which, together with thetwo mountain-tops lying to the north, is represented in the 16thand 25th table of my engraved work, Vues des Cordillères. Ihave carefully measured with the sextant, the single parts of thecontour, as the latter, on a clear day, magnificently stands forthin opposition to the deep-blue of a tropical sky. Such observa-tions assist in thoroughly exploring the volume of this colossus,in so far as it surmounts a plain, in which Bonguer performedhis experiments on the attraction of the mountain for a pendu-lum. A distinguished geognost, M. Pentland, to whom we areindebted for a knowledge of the heights of Sorata and Illimani,and who, furnished with excellent instruments for astronomicaland physical research, is now again going to upper Peru (Boli-via) has assured me, that my figure of Chimborazo is, as itwere, repeated in the Nevado de Chuquibamba, a trachyte moun-tain of the Western Cordilleras, north of Arequipa, having aheight of 19,680 feet (3280 toises). Next to the Himmalayanmountains, this is, owing to the frequency of high summitsand the mass of the same, between the 15th and 18th degree ofsouth latitude the greatest enlargement on the earth’s surface, withwhich we are acquainted, in so far namely, as this enlargementproceeds, not from the primitive form of the revolving planet,but from the elevation of mountain-chains and single domes ofdolerite, trachyte, and albite rock, within these mountain-chains.On account of the snow newly fallen, we found in our de-cent from Chimborazo, the lower limit of perpetual snow, inaccidental and temporary conjunction with the deeper sporadialspots of snow on the naked lichen-covered rocks, and on thegrass plain (Pajonal); yet it was always easy to recognise theproper limit of perpetual snow (then at the height of 2470 toises)by the thickness of the bed and by its peculiar state. I have|307| shewn, in another place (in a treatise on the causes which con-ditionate the curvature of isothermal lines incorporated into oneof the fragmens Asiatique), that in the province of Quito, thedifferences in height of the snow-line on the different Nevados,according to the sum-total of my measurements, varies onlyabout 38 toises,—that the mean height itself is to be reckoned14,760 feet, or 2460 toises,—and that this limit in Bolivia, 16°to 18° south of the equator, on account of the relation of themean annual temperature to the mean temperature of the hot-test months, on account of the mass, extent, and greater heightof the surrounding heat-radiating plateaus, on account of thedryness of the atmosphere, and the complete absence of any fall-ing snow between March and November, lies at a height of full26,780 toises. The lower limit of perpetual snow, which by nomeans coincides with the isothermal curve of 0°, rises consequent-ly higher, as an exception, instead of falling, as one recedes fromthe equator. From quite analogous causes of the radiation of heatin neighbouring table-lands, the snow-line lies between 30\( \frac{3}{4} \)° and31° of northern latitude, on the northern Thibet side of theHimmalayan range, at the height of 2600 toises; while on thesouthern Indian side, it reaches the height of only 1950 toises.Through this remarkable influence of the shape of the earth’ssurface, a considerable part of inner Asia, beyond the Tropics,is inhabited by an agricultural population, who, though monk-governed, are advanced in civilization; where in South Ame-rica, under the equator, the ground is covered with eternal ice.We took a somewhat more northern way back to the villageof Calpi than the Llanas de Sisgum, through the Paramo dePungupala, a district rich in plants. By five o’clock in theevening we were again with the friendly clergyman of Calpi.As usual, the misty day of the expedition was succeeded by theclearest weather. On the 25th of June, at Riobamba Nuevo,Chimborazo presented itself in all its splendour,—I may say, inthe calm greatness and supremacy which is the natural charac-ter of the tropical landscape. A second attempt upon a ridgeinterrupted by a chasm, would certainly have turned out asfruitless as the first, and I was already engaged with the trigo-nometrical measurement of the volcano of Tungurahua.|308| Boussingault, on the 16th of December 1831, with his Eng-lish friend Colonel Hall,—who was soon afterwards assassinat-ed in Quito,—made a new attempt to reach the summit of Chim-borazo, first from Mocha and Chillapullu, then from Arenal,thus by a different way from that trodden by Bonpland, DonCarlos Montufar, and myself. He was obliged to give up theascent, when his barometer indicated 13 inches 8\( \frac{1}{2} \) lines, withan atmospheric temperature of + 7°.8 (+ 46°.04 F.). Hethus saw the uncorrected column of mercury almost three lineslower, and reached a point 64 toises higher than I did, viz. 3080toises. Let us have the words of this well-known traveller ofthe Andes, who was the first to carry a chemical apparatus to,and into, the craters of volcanoes. “The way,” says Boussin-gault, “which we opened for ourselves through the snow, inthe latter part of our expedition, permitted of our advancingbut very slowly. On the right we were enabled to grasp holdof a rock, on the left, the abyss was fearful. We were alreadysensible of the effect of the attenuated air, and were obliged,every two or three steps, to sit down. As soon, however, as wewere seated, we again stood up, for our sufferings lasted onlywhile we moved. The snow we were obliged to tread was soft,and lay three or four inches deep, on a very smooth and hardcovering of ice. We were obliged to hew out steps. A Negrowent before, to perform this work, by which his powers weresoon exhausted. As I was endeavouring to pass him, for thepurpose of relieving him, I slipped, and happily was held back byColonel Hall and my Negro. We were (adds M. Boussingault)for a moment all three in the greatest danger. Further on, thesnow became more favourable, and at three quarters past threeo’clock we stood upon the long-looked for ridge of rock, whichwas only a few feet broad, and surrounded by immeasurabledepths. Here we became convinced that to advance farther wasimpossible. We found ourselves at the foot of a prism of rock,whose upper surface, covered with a cap of snow, forms the pro-per summit of Chimborazo. To have a true figure of the topo-graphy of the whole mountain, one must imagine an enormoussnow-covered mass of rock, which from all sides appears as ifsupported by buttresses. The latter are the ridges, which, ad-|309| herent, project through the eternal snow.” The loss of a na-tural philosopher, like Boussingault, would have been inde-scribably dearly-bought with the little gain which undertakingsof this sort can afford to science.Although, thirty years ago, I expressed the wish that theheight of Chimborazo might be again trigonometrically mea-sured, there yet remains some uncertainty as to the abso-lute result. Don Jorge Juan and the French Academicians,after different combinations of the same elements, or at leastafter operations, the whole of which were in common, give theheights of 3380 and 3217 toises; heights which present a dif-ference of \( \frac{1}{20} \)th. The result of my trigonometrical operation(3350 T.) falls between them, but approaches to within \( \frac{1}{112} \)th ofthe Spanish estimate. Bouguer’s lesser result is founded, in partat least, upon the height of the city of Quito, which he esti-mated at 30 to 40 toises too low. He gives, according to oldbarometric formula, without correction for the temperature, theheight of 1462, instead of 1507 and 1492 toises, the very ac-cordant results, respectively, of Boussingault’s observations andmy own. The height at which I estimate the plain of Tapia,where I measured a base of 873 toises in length, * also appearsto be pretty free from error. I found the same to be 1482toises; and Boussingault, at a very different season of the year,and thus with other diminutions of temperature in the atmo-spheric strata, 1471 toises. Bouguer’s operation was, on theother hand, very complicated, as he was obliged to estimate theheight of the valley-plain, between the eastern and westernAndes, by means of very small angles of height of the trachyte-pyramid of Ilinissa, measured in the under region of the coast.The only considerable mountain of the earth, of which the mea-surements now agree within \( \frac{1}{246} \)th. is Mont Blanc; for MonteRosa was, with four different series of triangles by an excellentobserver, the astronomer Carlini, estimated at 2319, 2343,2357, and 2374 toises; by Oriani, likewise by triangulation,at 2390 toises; differences of \( \frac{1}{34} \)th. The oldest detailed men-tion of Chimborazo, I find to be that of the spirited, somewhat
* Humboldt, Recueil d’observations astronomiques d’operations trigono-metriques, etc. T. I. p. lxxii.|310| satyrical, Italian traveller, Girolamo Benzoni, whose work wasprinted in 1565. He says, that the Montagna di Chimbo, 40miglia high, appeared to him strangely come una visione. Thenatives of Quito knew, long before the arrival of the Frenchsurveyors, that Chimborazo was the highest snow-mountain inall their country. They saw that it ascended highest above theline of perpetual snow. It was just this consideration thatinduced them to consider the now fallen in Capac Urcu ashigher than Chimborazo.Regarding the geognostical constitution of Chimborazo, Ihere add only the general remark, that if, according to the im-portant results which Leopold von Buch has laid down in hisclassical memoir, “On Craters of Elevation and Volcanoes,*”Trachyte is a mass containing Felspar, and Andesite a masswith imbedded Albite; the rock of Chimborazo is by nomeans deserving of either name. That in Chimborazo, Augitereplaces Hornblende, the same intelligent geognost observed,more than twenty years ago, when I requested him to ex-amine, oryctognostically and with precision, the rocks broughthome by me from the Andes. This fact has been mentionedin several parts of my “Essai geognostique sur le Gisementdes Rochers dans les deux Hémisphères,” which appeared in theyear 1823. Besides this, my Siberian travelling companion,Gustav Rose, who, by his excellent work on the minerals relatedto felspar, and their association with augite and hornblende, hasopened new ways for geognostical research, finds in all my col-lection of mountain-fragments from Chimborazo, neither albitenor felspar. The whole formation of this celebrated summit of theAndes, consists of labrador and augite; both fossils recognisablein distinct crystals. Chimborazo is, according to the nomencla-ture of Gustav Rose, an augite-porphyry, a species of dolerite.Obsidian and pumice stone are also wanting in it. Hornblendeoccurs very sparingly. Chimborazo is thus, as taught byLeopold von Buch’s and Elie de Beaumont’s latest decisions,analogous in its rock to Etna. With the ruins of the old cityof Riobamba, three geographical miles east of Chimborazo, there
* Poggendorff’s Annalen, Band. 37. S. 188—190. Also Edinburgh NewPhilosophical Journal, for translation of this memoir.|311| is associated true diorite-porphyry, a mixture of black horn-blende (without augite) and white glassy albite, a rock whichreminds one of the beautiful columnar masses of Pisoje nearPopayan, and of the Mexican volcano of Toluca; which also, Iascended. Some of the pieces of augite-porphyry, which I foundas high up as 18,000 feet upon the ridge of rock leading to-wards the summit, for the most part in loose pieces, of from 12to 14 inches in diameter, are minutely porous, and red in colour.These pieces have shining vesicular cavities. The blackest aresometimes light, like pumice-stones, and as if recently changed byfire. They have not, however, flown in streams like lava, but haveprobably been thrust out through fissures, on the side of the earlierraised-up dome-shaped mountain. The whole table-land of theprovince of Quito has always been considered by me as a greatvolcanic area. Tungurahua, Cotopaxi, Pichincha, with theircraters, are only different openings of this area. If volcanism,in the broadest sense of the word, marks all the appearanceswhich depend on the reaction of the interior of a planeton its oxydized surface, this part of the high land is moreexposed than any other in the tropical region of South Ame-rica, to the effect of this volcanism. The volcanic powersrage also, under the domes of augite-porphyry, which, likethat of Chimborazo, have no crater. Three days after ourexpedition, we heard, in New Riobamba, at one o’clock a. m.,a raging subterranean crash (bramido) that was accompaniedby no concussion. Three hours later, there followed a vio-lent earthquake, without any preceding noise. Similar bra-midos, coming, as it is supposed, from Chimborazo, were per-ceived some days before at Calpi. Nearer to this mountain-Colossus, in the village of San Juan, they are extremely frequent.They excite the attention of the natives no more, than distantthunder out of a deeply-clouded sky does in our northern zone.These are the few fugitive remarks on two ascents of Chim-borazo, which I have allowed myself to communicate from anunprinted journal. Where Nature is so mighty and so vast,and our endeavours are purely scientific, the exhibition of anyornament in language may well be spared.
On Two Attempts to ascend Chimborazo. By Alexander vonHumboldt. Translated from the German, and communi-cated, at the request of the Author, by Dr Martin Barry.
* One French foot is — 1.07892, or about 1\( \frac{1}{13} \) English.—Tr.† A toise is — 1.94904 metres, or 6.39459 English feet.—Tr.|292| of snow, is almost entirely withdrawn from geognostic observa-tion, since there are presented only single ridges composed ofmuch weathered strata. Organic life ceases in these lofty soli-tudes. Scarcely do the condor and winged insects stray intothese attenuated strata of the atmosphere, the latter beingcarried up by the currents of air. If the endeavours of tra-velling natural philosophers, who strive to climb the highersummits of the earth, is scarcely rewarded by a serious scien-tific interest, there is, on the other hand, an active popularparticipation in such endeavours. That which seems unattain-able has a mysterious attractive power; we wish that allshould be explored,—at least attempted, though not to be ob-tained. Chimborazo has been the wearisome object of all in-quiries addressed to me since my first return to Europe. Thethoroughly exploring of the most important laws of nature,the most vivid delineations of stratified zones of plants and dif-ferences in climates, determining, as the latter do, the object ofagriculture, were seldom capable of diverting attention fromthe snow-clad summit which at that time (before Pentland’sjourney to Bolivia) was supposed to be the culminating pointof the dike-like Andes.I shall here extract from the still unprinted portion of myjournals, the simple narration of a mountain journey. The en-tire detail of the trigonometrical measurement, which I made atNew Riobamba in the plain of Tapia, was made known in theintroduction to the first volume of my Astronomical Observations,soon after my return. The geographical distribution of theplants on the acclivity of Chimborazo and the neighbouringmountains (from the sea coast up to a height of 14,800 feet),I have attempted to represent, by a figure in a table of myGeographical and Physical Atlas of South America, accordingto the excellent determination by Kunth of the alpine vegetationof the Cordilleras, collected by Bonpland and myself.The history of the ascent itself, which can present but littledramatic interest, was reserved for the fourth and last volumeof my journey towards the equatorial regions. But since myfriend M. Boussingault, now Professor of Chemistry at Lyons,one of the most talented and learned travellers of modern times,has recently, at my request, described in the Annals de Chimie|293| et de Physiques,* this enterprize, which very closely resemblesmy own,—and since our observations are mutually confirma-tive of each other,—this small fragment of a journey, which Ihere lay before the public, will no doubt be favoured with anindulgent reception. I shall provisionally refrain from all cir-cumstantial geognostic and physical discussions.On the 22d June 1799, I was in the crater of the Peak ofTeneriffe. Three years afterwards, almost on the same day(the 23d June 1802), I reached a point 6700 feet higher, nearthe summit of Chimborazo. After a long delay in the table-land of Quito, one of the most wonderful and picturesque regionsof the earth, we undertook the journey towards the forests ofthe Peruvian bark trees of Loxa, the upper course of the riverAmazons, westward of the celebrated strait (Pongo de Man-seriche), and through the sandy desert along the Peruvian coastof the South Sea towards Lima, where we were to observethe transit of Mercury on the 9th November 1802. On a plaincovered with pumice-stone,—where (after the fearful earth-quake of 4th February 1797) the building of the new city Rio-bamba was begun,—we enjoyed for several days a splendid viewof the bell or dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo. We hadthe clearest weather, favouring trigonometrical observation. Bymeans of a large telescope, we had thoroughly examined the snow-mantle of the mountain, still 15,700 toises distant, and discoveredseveral ridges, which, projecting like sterile black streaks, con-verged towards the summit, and gave some hope that, upon them,a firm footing might be obtained in the region of eternal snow.Riobamba Nuevo lies within sight of the enormous and now in-dented mountain Capac-urcu, called by the Spaniards El Altar,which (says a tradition of the natives) was once higher thanChimborazo, and after having been many years in a state oferuption, suddenly fell in. This terror-spreading event is saidto have taken place shortly before the conquest of Quito by theInca Tupac-Yupanqui. Riobamba Nuevo must not be con-founded with the old Riobamba of the great map of La Conda-mine and Don Pedro Maldonado. The latter city was entirely
* See Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xix. for 1835, where thereis a translation of Boussingault’s memoir.|294| destroyed by the great catastrophe of the 4th February 1797,which in a few minutes destroyed 45,000 human beings. Thenew Riobamba lies, according to my chronometrical observations,42 seconds more to the eastward than the old Riobamba, butalmost in the same latitude (1° 41′ 46″ south). We were inthe plain of Tapia, from which, on the 22d June, we began ourexpedition towards Chimborazo, being already 8898 Paris feet *(1483 toises) above the level of the South Sea. This table-land is a part of the valley-land between the Eastern and West-ern Andes, i. e. between the chain of the active volcanoes Coto-paxi and Tungurahua on the one hand, and the chain of theIliniza and Chimborazo on the other. We gently ascended asfar as the foot of the last mentioned mountain, where, in theIndian village Calpi, we were to pass the night. This plain issparingly covered with Cactus stems and Schinus molle, whichresembles a weeping willow. Herds of variegated llamas, inthousands, seek here a scanty subsistence. At so great a height,the nightly terrestrial radiation of heat, when the sky is cloudless,proves injurious to agriculture, through cold and frost. Beforereaching Calpi, we visited Lican, now likewise a small village,but before the conquest of the country by the eleventh Inca, †a considerable city, and the place of residence of the Concho-cando, or Prince of Puruay. The natives believe that the fewwild llamas found on the western side of Chimborazo, are de-rived from dispersed and fugitive herds, which, after the de-struction of the old Lican, became wild.Very near to Calpi, north-westward of Lican, there is in thebarren table-land a little isolated hill, the black mountain, Yana-Urcu, the name of which has not been given by the French aca-demicians, but which, in a geognostical point of view, deservesmuch attention. The hill lies SS.E. of Chimborazo, at a dis-tance of less than three miles (15 to 1°), and separated from thesame by the high plain of Luisa only. If in it we do not re-
* Thus 2890 metres. Boussingault calculated this elevation to be 2870metres, and estimated the mean temperature of the high plain of Tabia at16°.4 C. (61°52 F.)† The same Tupac-Yupanqui, whose well preserved remains, Garcillassode la Vega, so lately as in 1559, had seen in the family-vault at Cuzco.|295| cognise a lateral eruption of Chimborazo, the origin of the conemust certainly be ascribed to the subterranean forces which,under that mountain, have for thousands of years vainly soughtan opening. It is of later origin than the elevation of the greatdome-shaped mountain. The Yana-Urcu forms, with the northernhill Naguangachi, a connected eminence in the form of a horse-shoe; the bow, more than a semicircle, is open towards theeast. There probably lies in the centre of the horse-shoe, thepoint out of which the black slags have been thrown, that nowlie spread far around. We found there a funnel-shaped depres-sion of about 120 feet in depth, in the interior of which there isa small hill, whose height does not equal that of the surround-ing margin. Yana-Urcu probably signifies the southern culmi-nating point of the old crater-margin, which, at the most, is ele-vated 400 feet above the level of Calpi. Naguangachi signifiesthe northern lower end. The whole eminence reminds one,—through its horse-shoe form, not in regard to its rock,—of thesomewhat higher hill Javirac (el Panecillo de Quito), whichrises isolated at the foot of the volcano Pichincha, in the plain ofTurubamba, and which, in La Condamine’s, or rather Morain-ville’s map, is drawn erroneously as a perfect cone. According tothe tradition of the natives, and according to old MSS which theCacike or Apu of Lican (the Conchocandi) possessed, the vol-canic eruption of the Yana-Urca occurred immediately afterthe death of the Inca Tupa-Yupanqui:—thus probably in themiddle of the 15th century. Tradition says that a fire-ball, orindeed a star, fell from heaven and set on fire the mountain.Such fables, connecting the fall of aërolites with eruptions arealso spread among the tribes of Mexico. The rock of theYana-Urcu is a porous dark clove-coloured, often entirely blackslaggy mass, which may be easily confounded with porous ba-salt. Olivin is entirely wanting in it, the white, sparingly dis-tributed crystals it contains are throughout small and probablyLabrador. Here and there, I saw a sprinkling of iron-pyrites.The whole belongs probably to the black augite-porphyry, aswell as the whole formation of Chimborazo, of which we shallspeak further on, and to which I am not disposed to give thename trachyte, since it contains no felspar, (with some albite),such as is contained in our trachyte of the Siebengebirge near|296| Bonn. The slaggy masses of the Yana-Urcu altered by a veryactive fire, are indeed extremely light, but proper pumice-stone has not been thrown out there. The eruption has takenplace through a grey, irregularly stratified mass of dolerite,which here forms the table-land, and resembles the rock ofPenipe (at the foot of the volcano of Tungurahua) wheresyenite and mica-slate containing garnets, have been brokenthrough. On the eastern side of the Yana-Urcu, or rather atthe foot of the hill towards Lican, the natives conducted us toa projecting rock, an opening in which resembled the mouth ofa forsaken gallery. Here, as well as at the distance of ten feet,there is heard a violent subterranean noise, which is accom-panied by a current of air, or subterranean wind. The cur-rent of air is much too weak to admit of the noise being attri-buted to it. The noise certainly arises from a subterraneanbrook, which is precipitated downwards into a deep hollow,and through its fall occasions a motion in the air. A monk, thepriest at Calpi, had, with the same idea, some time before, con-tinued on the gallery at an open fissure to procure water forhis village. The hardness of the black augite rock probablyinterrupted the work. Chimborazo, notwithstanding its enor-mous mass of snow, sends down into the table-land such insig-nificant brooks of water, that it may be presumed the greaterpart of its water flows through clefts to the interior. In thevillage of Calpi itself also, there was formerly heard a greatnoise in a house that had no cellar. Before the celebratedearthquake of the 4th February 1797, there sprang forth abrook in the south-west of the village, at a deeper point. ManyIndians considered this brook as a part of the water that flowsunder the Yana-Urcu. But since the great earthquake, thisbrook has again disappeared.After we had passed the night at Calpi, which, according tomy barometrical measurement, lies 9720 feet (1620 toises)above the sea, we began, on the morning of the 23d, our pro-per expedition up Chimborazo. We attempted to ascend themountain on the SS. E. side, and the Indians who were to at-tend us as guides, but of whom but a few had ever reached thelimit of perpetual snow, gave this course the preference. Wefound Chimborazo surrounded with great plains, which rise,|297| step-like, one above the other. Proceeding first through theLlanos de Luisa, then after rather a gradual ascent of scarcely5000 feet in length, we reached the table land (Llano) of Sis-gun. The first step (stufe) is at a height of 10,200 feet, the se-cond 11,700. These grass grown plains thus equal in eleva-tion, respectively, the highest summit of the Pyrenees (PeakNethou) and the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe. The per-fect horizontality of these table-lands allows us to infer thelong continuance of stagnant water. The traveller imagines hesees before him the bottom of a lake. On the acclivity of theSwiss Alps, there is sometimes observed this phenomenon ofsmall step-like plains, lying one above the other, which, likethe emptied basins of alpine lakes, are united by narrow openpasses. The widely extended grass lands (los Pajonales) areon Chimborazo, as everywhere around the high summits ofthe Andes, so monotonous that the family of the grasses (speciesof Paspalum, Andropogon, Bromus, Dejeuxia, Stipa) are sel-dom interrupted by dicotyledonous plants. There prevails al-most the heathy scenery which I have seen in the barren partof Northern Asia. The flora of Chimborazo, in general, ap-peared to us less rich than that of the other snow mountainswhich surround the city of Quito. But a few Calceolariæ, Com-positæ, (Bidens, Eupatorium, Dumerilia paniculata, Wernerianubigena) and Gentianæ, among which the beautiful Gentianacernua shining forth with purple flowers,—rear themselves onthe high plain of Sisgun, between the associated grasses. Thesebelong, for the most part, to the genera of Northern Europe.The temperature of the air generally prevailing in these regionsof alpine grasses, elevated respectively 1600 and 2000 toises,fluctuates by day between 4° and 16° C. (39°.2 and 60°.8 F.),by night between 0° and 10° (32° and 50° F.). The meantemperature of the whole year, according to my collective ob-servations in the neighbourhood of the Equator, appears to beabout 9° * (48°.2 F.). In the flat lands of the TemperateZone, this is the mean temperature of the north of Germany,
* All temperatures mentioned in this paper are expressed in degrees of thecentigrade thermometer. (The equivalent degree of Fahrenheit have beensince added.—TR.)|298| for example, of Luneburg (Lat. 53°15′); but here the distri-bution of heat among the different months (the most importantelement in determining the character of the vegetation of acountry) is so unequal, that in February, the mean heat is—1°.8 (+28°.76 F.), in July + 18° (+ 64°.4 F.)My plan was to perform a trigonometrical operation in thebeautiful perfectly level grass land of Sisgun. I had made arrange-ments for measuring a base line here. The angles of altitudewould have proved very considerable in such proximity to thesummit of Chimborazo. There remained yet a perpendicularheight of less than 8400 feet (the height of the Canigou in thePyrenees) to determine. Yet with the enormous masses of singlemountains in the chain of the Andes, every determination of theheight above the sea is compounded of a barometrical and trigo-nometrical observation. I had taken with me the sextant andother instruments of measurement in vain. The summit ofChimborazo remained densely veiled in mist. From the highplain of Sisgun the ascent is tolerably steep as far as the littlealpine lake of Yana-Coche. Thus far I had remained on themule, having from time to time alighted with my travelling com-panion M. Bonpland merely to collect plants. Yana-Cochedoes not deserve the name of a lake. It is a circular basin ofscarcely 130 feet in diameter. The sky became more and moreobscured; but between and over the mist-strata there still layscattered single groups of clouds. The summit of Chimborazowas visible for a few moments only at a time. Much snowhaving fallen during the preceding night, I left the mule wherewe found the lower border of this newly-fallen snow, a borderwhich must not be confounded with the limit of perpetual snow.The barometer shewed that we had only now attained the heightof 13,500 feet. On other mountains, likewise near to the equa-tor, I have seen snow fall at the height of 11,200 feet, but notlower. My companion rode as far as the line of perpetual snow,i. e. to the height of Mont Blanc; which mountain, as is known,would not in this latitude (1° 27′ south) always be covered withsnow. The horses and mules remained there to await our re-turn.A hundred and fifty toises above the little basin of Yana-Coche, we saw at length naked rock. Hitherto the grass-land|299| had withdrawn the ground from any geognostical examination.Great walls of rocks, extending from the N. E. towards theS. W., in part cleft into misshapen columns, reared themselvesout of the eternal snow,—a brownish-black augite rock shininglike pitch-stone porphyry. The columns were very thin, per-haps fifty to sixty feet in height, almost like the trachyte co-lumns of Tabla Umca on the volcano Pichincha. One groupstood alone, and reminded one of masts and stems of trees. Thesteep walls led us through the snow region to a narrow ridge ofrock extending towards the summit, by which alone it was pos-sible for us to advance any farther; for the snow was then sosoft that one scarcely dared to tread upon its surface. Theridge consisted of very weathered crumbling rock. It was oftenvesicular like a basaltic-amygdaloid.The path became more and more narrow and steep. The na-tives forsook us all but one at the height of 15,600 feet. Allentreaties and threats were unavailing. The Indians maintain-ed that they suffered more than we did from breathlessness.We remained alone, Bonpland,—our amiable friend theyounger son of the Marquis of Selvalegre, Carlos Montufar,who, in the subsequent struggle for freedom, was shot, (at thecommand of General Morillo),—a Mestize from the neighbour-ing village of San Juan,—and myself. We attained, with greatexertion and endurance, a greater height than we had daredhope to reach, as we were almost entirely wrapped in mist.The ridge (very significantly called, in Spanish, Cuchilla, as itwere the knife-back) was in many places only eight to teninches broad. On the left the precipice was concealed by snow,the surface of the latter seeming glazed with frost. The thin icymirror-like surface had an inclination of about 30°. On theright our view sank shuddering 800 or 1000 feet into anabyss out of which projected, perpendicularly, snowless massesof rock. We held the body continually inclined towards thisside, for the precipice upon the left seemed still more threaten-ing, because there no chance presented itself of grasping thetoothed rock, and because, further, the thin ice-crust offered nosecurity, against sinking in the loose snow. Only extremelylight porous bits of dolerite could we roll down this crust ofice; and the inclined plane of snow was so extended that we lost|300| sight of the stones thus rolled down before they came to rest.The absence of snow, as well upon the ridge along which weascended, as upon the rocks on our right hand towards the east,cannot be ascribed so much to the steepness of the masses, andto the gales of wind, as to open clefts, which breathe out warmair from deeper situated beds. We soon found our furtherascent more difficult, from the increase of the crumbling natureof the rock. At single and very steep échélons it was necessaryto apply at the same time the hands and feet, as is so usual inall alpine journeys. As the rock was very keenly angular, wewere painfully hurt, especially in the hands. Leopold VonBuch and I suffered very much in this manner near the craterof the Peak of Teneriffe, which abounds in obsidian. I hadhad besides (if it be permitted a traveller to mention such unim-portant particulars) for several weeks a sore in the foot, occasionedby the accumulations of Niguas * (Pulex penetrans), and muchincreased by fine dust of pumice-stone during measurements inLlano de Tapia. The little adhesion of the rocks upon the ridgenow rendered greater caution necessary, as many masses which wesupposed firm lay loose and covered with sand. We proceededone after the other, and so much the more slowly, as it was need-ful to try the places which seemed uncertain. Happily the at-tempt to reach the summit of Chimborazo was the last of ourmountain journeys in South America; hence previous experi-ence guided us, and gave us more confidence in our powers.It is a peculiar character of all excursions in the Andes, thatabove the snow-line white people find themselves in the mostperilous situations, always without guides, indeed without anyknowledge of localities.We could see the summit no longer, even for a moment onlyat a time, and were hence doubly curious to know, how muchhigher it remained for us to ascend. We examined the baro-meter at a point where the breadth of the ridge permittedof two persons standing conveniently together. We were nowat an elevation of 17,300 feet; thus scarcely two hundred
* The Sand-flea, the Chique of the French colonists of the West Indies,an insect that introduces itself under the human skin, and, as the ovary of theimpregnated female considerably enlarges, inflammation is excited.|301| feet higher than we had been two months before, when climb-ing a similar ridge on the Antisana. It is with the deter-mining of heights in climbing mountains, as with the determin-ing of temperature in the heat of summer. One finds with vex-ation the thermometer not so high, the barometer not so low,as one expected. As the air, notwithstanding the height, wasquite saturated with moisture, we now found the loose rock andthe sand that filled its interstices extremely wet. The air wasstill 2° 8′ (37° 04′ Fahr.). Shortly before, we had in a dry placebeen able to bury the thermometer three inches deep in thesand. It indicated + 5° 8′ (+ 42° 44′ Fahr.). The result ofthis observation, which was made at the height of about 2860toises, is very remarkable, for 400 toises lower down, at the li-mit of perpetual snow, the mean heat of the atmosphere is, ac-cording to many observations, carefully collected by Boussin-gault and myself, only + 1° 6′ (34° 88′ Fahr.). The tempera-ture of earth (sand) at + 5° 8′ (42° 44′ Fahr.) must thereforebe ascribed to the subterranean heat of the dolerite mountain;I do not say to the whole mass, but to the current of air ascend-ing from the interior.After an hour of cautious climbing, the ridge of rock becameless steep; but alas! the mist remained as thick as ever. Wenow began gradually to suffer from great nausea. The tenden-cy to vomiting was combined with some giddiness; and muchmore troublesome than the difficulty of breathing. A colouredman (a mestize of San Juan), not from selfish motives, but merelyout of good nature, had been unwilling to forsake us. He wasa poor vigorous peasant, and suffered more than we did. Wehad hæmorrhage from the gums and lips. The conjunctiva ofthe eyes likewise, was, in all, gorged with blood. These symp-toms of extravasation in the eyes, and of oozing from the lipsand gums, did not in the least disquiet us, as we had repeatedlyexperienced them before. In Europe, M. Zumstein began to ex-perience hæmorrhage at a much lower elevation on Monte Rosa.The Spanish warriors during the conquest of the equinoctial re-gion of America (during the Conquista), did not ascend above thesnow line, thus but little above the elevation of Mont Blanc, andyet Acosta, in his Historia Natural de las Indias,—a kind ofphysical geography, which may be called a master-piece of the16th century,—speaks circumstantially of “Nausea and Spasm|302| of the Stomach,” as painful symptoms of the mountain-sickness,which in these respects is analogous to sea-sickness. On thevolcano of Pichincha I once felt, without experiencing hæmor-rhage, so violent an affection of the stomach, accompanied bygiddiness, that I was found senseless on the ground, just as Ileft my companions on a wall of rock above the defile of Verde-Cucha, in order to perform some electrical experiments on a per-fectly open space. The height was inconsiderable, below 13,800feet. But on the Antisana, at the considerable elevation of17,220 feet, our young travelling companion, Don Carlos Mon-tufar, bled freely from the lips. All of these phenomena varyaccording to age, constitution, the tenderness of the skin, thepreceding exertions of the muscular powers; yet for single indivi-duals they are a kind of measure of the atmospheric tenuity, andof the absolute elevation reached. According to my observationsin the Cordilleras, these symptoms manifest themselves in whitepeople, with a mercurial column between 14 inches,—and 15inches 10 lines. It is known that the estimates regardingheights, which æronauts maintain that they have reached, gene-rally deserve but little credit, and if a more certain and extremelyaccurate observer, M. Gay Lussac, who, on the 16th of Sep-tember 1804, reached the vast height of 21,600 feet (thus betweenthe height of Chimborazo and Illimani), experienced no hæmor-rhage, this is perhaps to be ascribed to the absence of muscularexertion. According to the present condition of eudiometry,the air of those lofty regions appear to contain in proportion asmuch oxygen as that of lower heights; but since in that attenu-ated air—the barometric pressure only one-half of that to whichwe are generally exposed—the blood in each act of respirationtakes up a smaller quantity of oxygen, it is certainly conceivablethat a general feeling of weakness should take place. Why thisasthenie as in fainting, should excite nausea and a tendencyto vomiting, it is not our purpose to determine; as little is ithere to be proved, that the oozing of blood (the hæmorrhagefrom the lips, gums, and eyes), which also has not been expe-rienced by all, at such great heights,—can by no means be sa-tisfactorily explained by the absence of a “mechanical counter-pressure” on the vascular system; our attention should ratherbe engaged in examining the probability of the influence of a|303| diminished atmospheric pressure, during fatigue, on the movingof the legs in regions of very attenuated air; for, according tothe memorable discovery of two spirited inquirers, Wilhelm andEdward Weber,* the hovering leg, hanging from the trunk, isheld and carried merely by the pressure of the atmosphere.The layers of mist that prevented our seeing distant objects,appeared suddenly, notwithstanding the total stillness of theair, perhaps through electrical processes, to be broken up. Werecognised once more, and indeed immediately before us, thedome-shaped summit of Chimborazo. It was an earnest, mo-mentous gaze. The hope to reach this summit animated ourpowers anew. The ridge of rock, only here and there coveredwith thin flakes of snow, became somewhat broader. We hastenedonwards, with certain steps, when all at once a ravine of some400 feet in depth, and 50 broad, set an insurmountable barrierto our undertaking. We saw distinctly beyond the abyss, ourridge of rock continued forward in the same direction; yet Idoubt its leading to the summit itself. The chasm was not tobe gone round. On the Antisana, M. Bonpland indeed hadfound it possible, after a very cold night, to proceed for a con-siderable length through the snow. We durst not venture theattempt, because of the looseness of the mass, and the form ofthe precipice rendered climbing down impossible. It was oneo’clock in the afternoon. We set up with much care the baro-meter. It indicated 13 inches 11 \( \frac{2}{10} \) lines. The temperatureof the air was now — 1° 6′ (+ 29° 12′ F.), but after severalyears’ stay in the hottest regions of the Tropics, this small de-gree of cold benumbed us. Besides, our boots were thoroughlysoaked with snow-water, for the sand that covered here andthere the ridge was mixed with old snow. According to LaPlace’s barometrical formula, we had reached a height of 3016toises, or more precisely 18,097 Paris feet. If La Condamine’sestimate of the height of Chimborazo, as noted on the stone-table of the Jesuit’s College in Quito, be correct, there failed us
* Mechanik der Menschlichen Gehwerkzeuge. 1836. § 64. S. 147–160.More recent experiments of the brothers Weber, at Berlin, have fully con-firmed the position, that the leg is carried in the acetabulum by the pressureof the atmosphere.|304| yet of the summit of the mountain 1224 feet, or thrice theheight of St Peter’s church at Rome.La Condamine and Bouguer say explicitly, that they attained,on Chimborazo, the height of 2400 toises only; but they gloryin having seen on the Corazon,—one of the most picturesquesnow-mountains (Nevados) in the immediate neighbourhood ofQuito,—the barometer at 15 inches 10 lines. They say this is“a lower state than any human being has hitherto ever beenin a situation to observe.” At the above described point onChimborazo, the pressure of the air was about two inches less;less also than at the highest point reached in 1818, sixteen yearsafterwards, by Captain Gerard, on the Tarhigang, in the Him-malayan Mountains. I have been exposed in a diving-bell inEngland to an air-pressure of forty-five inches, for almost anhour together. The flexibility of the human organism conse-quently endures changes in the state of the barometer, amount-ing to thirty-one inches. Yet the physical constitution of thehuman race might be remarkably changed, if great cosmicalcauses were to make permanent such extremes in atmospherictenuity and condensation.We remained but a short time in this mournful solitude, beingsoon again entirely veiled in mist. The humid air was not therebyset in motion. No fixed direction was to be observed in singlegroups of the denser particles of vapour; I therefore cannot saywhether at this elevation the west wind blows, opposing theTropical monsoon. We saw no longer the summit of Chimbo-razo, none of the neighbouring snow-mountains, still less thetable-lands of Quito. We were as though isolated in a ball ofair. Some stone-lichens only had followed us above the line ofperpetual snow. The last cryptogamic plants which I col-lected were Lecidea atrovirens (Lichen geographicus, Web.),and a Gyrophora of Acharius, a new species (Gyrophora ru-gosa), at about the height of 2820 toises. The last moss, Grim-mia longirostris, grew 400 toises lower down. A butterfly(sphinx) was caught by M. Bonpland at the height of 15,000feet; we saw a fly 1600 feet higher. The following facts affordthe most striking proof that these animals are involuntarily car-ried up into those upper regions by the current of air whichrises from the warmed plains. As Boussingault ascended the|305| Silla de Caracas, to repeat my measurement of the mountain,he saw from time to time, at the height of 8000 feet, at noon,as the west wind blew, whitish bodies rapidly pass through theair, which he at first took for soaring birds with white plumage,that reflected the sun’s rays. These bodies rose with great ra-pidity out of the valley of Caracas, and surmounting the summitof Silla, took a north-east direction, and reached probably thesea. Some fell upon the southern acclivity of the Silla; theywere grass-halms, that had reflected the sun’s rays. Boussin-gault sent me some of these, which still had ears, in a letter toParis, where my friend and fellow-labourer Kunth instantlyrecognised them as the Wilfa tenacissima, which grows in thevalley of Caracas, and which he has described in our work,Nova Genera et Species Plantarum Americæ Æquinoctialis.I must remark, that we met with no condor on Chimborazo, thatpowerful vulture, which is so frequent on Antisana and Pich-incha, and which shews great confidence from its ignorance ofman. The condor loves pure air, in order the easier from onhigh to recognise its prey or its food, for it gives dead animalsthe preference.As the weather became more and more cloudy, we hasteneddown upon the same ledge of rock, that had favoured our ascent.Caution, however, on account of the uncertainty of the steps,was more necessary than in climbing up. We tarried only justto collect fragments of rock. We foresaw, that in Europe “alittle bit of Chimborazo” would be asked for. At that time, nomountain rock in any part of South America had been named;the rocks of all the high summits of the Andes were called gra-nite. As we were at the height of about 17,400 feet, it beganto hail violently. The hailstones were opaque, and milk-white,with concentric layers. Some appeared considerably flattenedby rotation, twenty minutes before we reached the lower limitof perpetual snow, the hail was replaced by snow. The flakeswere so dense, that the snow soon covered the ridge of rock manyinches deep; we should have been brought into great danger,had the snow surprised us at the height of 18,000 feet. At afew minutes after two o’clock, we reached the point where ourmules were standing. The natives that remained behind, hadbeen very apprehensive for our safety.|306| That part of our expedition which lay above the snow-line, hadlasted only 3\( \frac{1}{2} \) hours, during which, notwithstanding the tenuityof the air, we had not found it needful to take rest by sitting down.The diameter of the dome-shaped summit at the snow-line—i. e.at the height of 2460 toises—amounts to 3437 toises, and nearthe apex, about 150 toises below the same, the diameter is672 toises. The last number is thus the diameter of the up-per part of the dome or bell; the first expresses the breadth,of which the whole snow-mass of Chimborazo appears to theeye, as seen from Rio Nuevo; a mass which, together with thetwo mountain-tops lying to the north, is represented in the 16thand 25th table of my engraved work, Vues des Cordillères. Ihave carefully measured with the sextant, the single parts of thecontour, as the latter, on a clear day, magnificently stands forthin opposition to the deep-blue of a tropical sky. Such observa-tions assist in thoroughly exploring the volume of this colossus,in so far as it surmounts a plain, in which Bonguer performedhis experiments on the attraction of the mountain for a pendu-lum. A distinguished geognost, M. Pentland, to whom we areindebted for a knowledge of the heights of Sorata and Illimani,and who, furnished with excellent instruments for astronomicaland physical research, is now again going to upper Peru (Boli-via) has assured me, that my figure of Chimborazo is, as itwere, repeated in the Nevado de Chuquibamba, a trachyte moun-tain of the Western Cordilleras, north of Arequipa, having aheight of 19,680 feet (3280 toises). Next to the Himmalayanmountains, this is, owing to the frequency of high summitsand the mass of the same, between the 15th and 18th degree ofsouth latitude the greatest enlargement on the earth’s surface, withwhich we are acquainted, in so far namely, as this enlargementproceeds, not from the primitive form of the revolving planet,but from the elevation of mountain-chains and single domes ofdolerite, trachyte, and albite rock, within these mountain-chains.On account of the snow newly fallen, we found in our de-cent from Chimborazo, the lower limit of perpetual snow, inaccidental and temporary conjunction with the deeper sporadialspots of snow on the naked lichen-covered rocks, and on thegrass plain (Pajonal); yet it was always easy to recognise theproper limit of perpetual snow (then at the height of 2470 toises)by the thickness of the bed and by its peculiar state. I have|307| shewn, in another place (in a treatise on the causes which con-ditionate the curvature of isothermal lines incorporated into oneof the fragmens Asiatique), that in the province of Quito, thedifferences in height of the snow-line on the different Nevados,according to the sum-total of my measurements, varies onlyabout 38 toises,—that the mean height itself is to be reckoned14,760 feet, or 2460 toises,—and that this limit in Bolivia, 16°to 18° south of the equator, on account of the relation of themean annual temperature to the mean temperature of the hot-test months, on account of the mass, extent, and greater heightof the surrounding heat-radiating plateaus, on account of thedryness of the atmosphere, and the complete absence of any fall-ing snow between March and November, lies at a height of full26,780 toises. The lower limit of perpetual snow, which by nomeans coincides with the isothermal curve of 0°, rises consequent-ly higher, as an exception, instead of falling, as one recedes fromthe equator. From quite analogous causes of the radiation of heatin neighbouring table-lands, the snow-line lies between 30\( \frac{3}{4} \)° and31° of northern latitude, on the northern Thibet side of theHimmalayan range, at the height of 2600 toises; while on thesouthern Indian side, it reaches the height of only 1950 toises.Through this remarkable influence of the shape of the earth’ssurface, a considerable part of inner Asia, beyond the Tropics,is inhabited by an agricultural population, who, though monk-governed, are advanced in civilization; where in South Ame-rica, under the equator, the ground is covered with eternal ice.We took a somewhat more northern way back to the villageof Calpi than the Llanas de Sisgum, through the Paramo dePungupala, a district rich in plants. By five o’clock in theevening we were again with the friendly clergyman of Calpi.As usual, the misty day of the expedition was succeeded by theclearest weather. On the 25th of June, at Riobamba Nuevo,Chimborazo presented itself in all its splendour,—I may say, inthe calm greatness and supremacy which is the natural charac-ter of the tropical landscape. A second attempt upon a ridgeinterrupted by a chasm, would certainly have turned out asfruitless as the first, and I was already engaged with the trigo-nometrical measurement of the volcano of Tungurahua.|308| Boussingault, on the 16th of December 1831, with his Eng-lish friend Colonel Hall,—who was soon afterwards assassinat-ed in Quito,—made a new attempt to reach the summit of Chim-borazo, first from Mocha and Chillapullu, then from Arenal,thus by a different way from that trodden by Bonpland, DonCarlos Montufar, and myself. He was obliged to give up theascent, when his barometer indicated 13 inches 8\( \frac{1}{2} \) lines, withan atmospheric temperature of + 7°.8 (+ 46°.04 F.). Hethus saw the uncorrected column of mercury almost three lineslower, and reached a point 64 toises higher than I did, viz. 3080toises. Let us have the words of this well-known traveller ofthe Andes, who was the first to carry a chemical apparatus to,and into, the craters of volcanoes. “The way,” says Boussin-gault, “which we opened for ourselves through the snow, inthe latter part of our expedition, permitted of our advancingbut very slowly. On the right we were enabled to grasp holdof a rock, on the left, the abyss was fearful. We were alreadysensible of the effect of the attenuated air, and were obliged,every two or three steps, to sit down. As soon, however, as wewere seated, we again stood up, for our sufferings lasted onlywhile we moved. The snow we were obliged to tread was soft,and lay three or four inches deep, on a very smooth and hardcovering of ice. We were obliged to hew out steps. A Negrowent before, to perform this work, by which his powers weresoon exhausted. As I was endeavouring to pass him, for thepurpose of relieving him, I slipped, and happily was held back byColonel Hall and my Negro. We were (adds M. Boussingault)for a moment all three in the greatest danger. Further on, thesnow became more favourable, and at three quarters past threeo’clock we stood upon the long-looked for ridge of rock, whichwas only a few feet broad, and surrounded by immeasurabledepths. Here we became convinced that to advance farther wasimpossible. We found ourselves at the foot of a prism of rock,whose upper surface, covered with a cap of snow, forms the pro-per summit of Chimborazo. To have a true figure of the topo-graphy of the whole mountain, one must imagine an enormoussnow-covered mass of rock, which from all sides appears as ifsupported by buttresses. The latter are the ridges, which, ad-|309| herent, project through the eternal snow.” The loss of a na-tural philosopher, like Boussingault, would have been inde-scribably dearly-bought with the little gain which undertakingsof this sort can afford to science.Although, thirty years ago, I expressed the wish that theheight of Chimborazo might be again trigonometrically mea-sured, there yet remains some uncertainty as to the abso-lute result. Don Jorge Juan and the French Academicians,after different combinations of the same elements, or at leastafter operations, the whole of which were in common, give theheights of 3380 and 3217 toises; heights which present a dif-ference of \( \frac{1}{20} \)th. The result of my trigonometrical operation(3350 T.) falls between them, but approaches to within \( \frac{1}{112} \)th ofthe Spanish estimate. Bouguer’s lesser result is founded, in partat least, upon the height of the city of Quito, which he esti-mated at 30 to 40 toises too low. He gives, according to oldbarometric formula, without correction for the temperature, theheight of 1462, instead of 1507 and 1492 toises, the very ac-cordant results, respectively, of Boussingault’s observations andmy own. The height at which I estimate the plain of Tapia,where I measured a base of 873 toises in length, * also appearsto be pretty free from error. I found the same to be 1482toises; and Boussingault, at a very different season of the year,and thus with other diminutions of temperature in the atmo-spheric strata, 1471 toises. Bouguer’s operation was, on theother hand, very complicated, as he was obliged to estimate theheight of the valley-plain, between the eastern and westernAndes, by means of very small angles of height of the trachyte-pyramid of Ilinissa, measured in the under region of the coast.The only considerable mountain of the earth, of which the mea-surements now agree within \( \frac{1}{246} \)th. is Mont Blanc; for MonteRosa was, with four different series of triangles by an excellentobserver, the astronomer Carlini, estimated at 2319, 2343,2357, and 2374 toises; by Oriani, likewise by triangulation,at 2390 toises; differences of \( \frac{1}{34} \)th. The oldest detailed men-tion of Chimborazo, I find to be that of the spirited, somewhat
* Humboldt, Recueil d’observations astronomiques d’operations trigono-metriques, etc. T. I. p. lxxii.|310| satyrical, Italian traveller, Girolamo Benzoni, whose work wasprinted in 1565. He says, that the Montagna di Chimbo, 40miglia high, appeared to him strangely come una visione. Thenatives of Quito knew, long before the arrival of the Frenchsurveyors, that Chimborazo was the highest snow-mountain inall their country. They saw that it ascended highest above theline of perpetual snow. It was just this consideration thatinduced them to consider the now fallen in Capac Urcu ashigher than Chimborazo.Regarding the geognostical constitution of Chimborazo, Ihere add only the general remark, that if, according to the im-portant results which Leopold von Buch has laid down in hisclassical memoir, “On Craters of Elevation and Volcanoes,*”Trachyte is a mass containing Felspar, and Andesite a masswith imbedded Albite; the rock of Chimborazo is by nomeans deserving of either name. That in Chimborazo, Augitereplaces Hornblende, the same intelligent geognost observed,more than twenty years ago, when I requested him to ex-amine, oryctognostically and with precision, the rocks broughthome by me from the Andes. This fact has been mentionedin several parts of my “Essai geognostique sur le Gisementdes Rochers dans les deux Hémisphères,” which appeared in theyear 1823. Besides this, my Siberian travelling companion,Gustav Rose, who, by his excellent work on the minerals relatedto felspar, and their association with augite and hornblende, hasopened new ways for geognostical research, finds in all my col-lection of mountain-fragments from Chimborazo, neither albitenor felspar. The whole formation of this celebrated summit of theAndes, consists of labrador and augite; both fossils recognisablein distinct crystals. Chimborazo is, according to the nomencla-ture of Gustav Rose, an augite-porphyry, a species of dolerite.Obsidian and pumice stone are also wanting in it. Hornblendeoccurs very sparingly. Chimborazo is thus, as taught byLeopold von Buch’s and Elie de Beaumont’s latest decisions,analogous in its rock to Etna. With the ruins of the old cityof Riobamba, three geographical miles east of Chimborazo, there
* Poggendorff’s Annalen, Band. 37. S. 188—190. Also Edinburgh NewPhilosophical Journal, for translation of this memoir.|311| is associated true diorite-porphyry, a mixture of black horn-blende (without augite) and white glassy albite, a rock whichreminds one of the beautiful columnar masses of Pisoje nearPopayan, and of the Mexican volcano of Toluca; which also, Iascended. Some of the pieces of augite-porphyry, which I foundas high up as 18,000 feet upon the ridge of rock leading to-wards the summit, for the most part in loose pieces, of from 12to 14 inches in diameter, are minutely porous, and red in colour.These pieces have shining vesicular cavities. The blackest aresometimes light, like pumice-stones, and as if recently changed byfire. They have not, however, flown in streams like lava, but haveprobably been thrust out through fissures, on the side of the earlierraised-up dome-shaped mountain. The whole table-land of theprovince of Quito has always been considered by me as a greatvolcanic area. Tungurahua, Cotopaxi, Pichincha, with theircraters, are only different openings of this area. If volcanism,in the broadest sense of the word, marks all the appearanceswhich depend on the reaction of the interior of a planeton its oxydized surface, this part of the high land is moreexposed than any other in the tropical region of South Ame-rica, to the effect of this volcanism. The volcanic powersrage also, under the domes of augite-porphyry, which, likethat of Chimborazo, have no crater. Three days after ourexpedition, we heard, in New Riobamba, at one o’clock a. m.,a raging subterranean crash (bramido) that was accompaniedby no concussion. Three hours later, there followed a vio-lent earthquake, without any preceding noise. Similar bra-midos, coming, as it is supposed, from Chimborazo, were per-ceived some days before at Calpi. Nearer to this mountain-Colossus, in the village of San Juan, they are extremely frequent.They excite the attention of the natives no more, than distantthunder out of a deeply-clouded sky does in our northern zone.These are the few fugitive remarks on two ascents of Chim-borazo, which I have allowed myself to communicate from anunprinted journal. Where Nature is so mighty and so vast,and our endeavours are purely scientific, the exhibition of anyornament in language may well be spared.