Aspects of Nature - Forgotten Books

ASPE CTS OF NATURE ,

DIFFERENT LANDS AND DIFFERENT CLIMATES ;

W ITH

5 £ i c n t i fi £ QE l n t i h a t i nn a .

ALE XANDE R VON HUMBOLDT .

TRANSLATE D BY MRS. SABINE .

P H I L A D E L P H I A

L E A IUH) B L A N O HA R D .

1849 .

PHILAD E LPHIA

T . K. AND P. G . CO LLINS , PRINT E RS .

AUTHO R ’S PR E F A C E

T O THE

F IR S T ED IT IO N .

IT is not without difiiden c e that I present to the public a seriesof papers which took their origin in the presence of natural sc enes

of grandeur or of beauty—on the O cean, in the forests of the

O rinoco, in the Steppes of Venezuela, and in the mounta in wilder

nesses of Peru and Mexico . Detached fragments were writtendown on the spot and at the moment

,and were afterwards moulded

into a whole . The view of Nature on an enlarged scale,the dis

play of the concurrent action of various forces or powers,and the

renewal of the enj oyment which the immediate prospect of tropical

scenery afi’

ords to sensitive minds,are the obj ects which I have

proposed to myselfi According to the design of my work,whilst

each of th e treatises of which it consists should form a whole com

plete in itself, one common tendency should pervade them all .

Such an artistic and literary treatment of subj ects of natural historyis liable to difficulties of composition

,notwithstanding the aid which

it derives from the power and flexibility of our noble language .

The unbounded riches of Nature occasion an accumulation of separate images ; and accumul ation disturbs t h e repose and the unity ofimpression which should belong to the picture . Moreover

,when

addressing the feelings and imagination,a firm hand is needed to

guard the style from degenerating into an undesirable species of

poetic prose . But I need not here describe more fully dangerswhich I fear the following pages will show I have not always suc

ceeded in avoiding .

105-1 62

Vi PRE FAOE TO THE FIRST E DITION .

Nevertheless,notwithstanding faults which I can more easily

perceive than amend,I venture to h0pe that these descriptions of

the varied Aspects which Nature assumes in distant lands mayimpart to the reader a portion of that enj oyment which is derivedfrom their immediate contemplation by a mind susceptible of suchimpressions . A s this enj oyment is enhanced by insight into themore hidden connection of the different powers and forces of nature

,

I have subj oined to each treatise scientific elucidations and additions .

Throughout the entire work I have sought to indicate the unfail

ing influence of external nature on the feelings,the moral disposi

tions,and the destinies of man . To minds oppressed with the cares

or the sorrows of life,the soothing influence of the contemplation

of Nature is peculiarly precious ; and to sudh these pages are moreespecial ly dedicated . May they

,

“ escaping from the stormy wavesof life

,

” follow me in spirit with willing steps to the recesses of the

primeval forests,over th e boundless surfac e of the Steppe, and to

the higher ridges of the Andes . To them is addressed the poet’svoice

,in the sentence of the chorus

Au f den Bergen ist Freih e it ! Der Hau ch der Grii fteS te igt n ic h t h in au f in die re in e n Lii fte ;

D ie We l t is t vo l lkomme n u bera l l ,

W0 de r Men sc h n ic h t h inkomm t m it se in er Q ua l .

AUTHO R ’S PR E F A C E

T O THE

S E CO ND AND THIRD ED I T I O N S .

THE twofold aim of the present work ( a carefully prepared andexecuted attempt to enhance the enj oyment of Nature by animated

description,and at the same time to increase in proportion to the

state of‘ knowledge at the time the reader’s insight into the barmo

nion s and concurrent action of different powers and forces of Nature)was pointed out by me nearly half a century ago in the Preface tothe First E dition . In so doing, I alluded to the various obstacleswhich oppose a successful treatment of the subject in the mannerdesigned. The combination of a literary and of a purely scientific

obj ect—the endeavor at once to interest and occupy the imagination,

and to enrich th e. mind with new ideas by the augmentation ofknowledge—renders the due arrangement of the separate parts

,and

the desired unity of composition,difficult of attainment . Yet

,

'

n ot

Withstanding these disadvantages, the public have long regarded myimperfectly executed undertaking with friendly partiality .

The second edition of the “Ansichten der Natur” was preparedby me in Paris in 1826 and at the same time two fresh treatiseswere added—one an E ssay on the Structure and Mode of Action ofVolcanos in different regions of the earth ; and the other on the“Vital Power,

” bearing the title “Lebenskraft ; oder der rhodische

Genius . During my long stay at Jena; Schiller, in th e rec ol lec

tion of his youthfu l medical studies,loved .to converse with me on

physiological subj ects ; and the considerations in which I was thenengaged on th e

.mu scu lar and nervous fibres when excited by con

V111 PREFACE TO THE SE COND AND THIRD EDITIONS .

tact with chemically difl'

eren t substanc es,oft en gave a more spec ific

and graver turn to our discourse . The “Rhodian Genius” was

written at this time : it appeared first in Schil ler’s “Horen,

” aperiodical j ournal ; and it was his partiality for this little workwhich encouraged me to allow it to be reprinted . My brother

,in

a letter forming part of a collection which has recently been givento the public (Wilh elm

'

von Humboldt’s Briefe an eine Freundin ,th . ii . 8 . touches tenderly on the subj ect of the memoir in

question,but adds at the same time a very just remark : “Th e de

velopmen t of a physiological idea is the obj ect of the entire treatise ;men were fonder at that time than they would now be of such semipoetic clothing of severe scientific truths .”

In my eightieth year,I am still enabled to enj oy the satisfaction

of completing a third edition of my work,remoul ding it entirely

afresh to_

meet the requirements of the present time . Almost allthe scientific E lucidations or An notations have been either enlargedor replaced by new and more comprehensive ones . I have ' hopedthat these volumes might tend to inspire and cherish a love for thestudy of Nature

,by bringing together in a small space the results

of careful observation on the most varied subj ects ; by showing the

importance of exact numerical data,and the use to be made of them

by well-considered arrangement and comparison ; and by opposing

the dogmatic half-knowledge and arrogant skepticism which havelong too much prevailed in what are called the higher circles of

society.

The expedition made by E hrenberg, Gustav Rose, and myself,

by the command of the E mperor of Russia,i n 1829

,to Northern

Asia ( in the Ural and Altai Mountains, and on the shores of theCaspian Sea), falls between the period of publication of the secondand third editions . This expedition has contributed material ly tothe enlargement of my views in all that regards the form of thesurface

‘

of the earth,the direction of mountain-chains

,the connection

of Steppes and Deserts with each other,and the geographical distri

bu t ion of plants m relation to ascertained conditions of temperature .The long subsisting want of any accurate kn owledge on the subj ectof the great snow~covered mountain-chains which are situated between the Altai and the Himalaya ( i . e. the Thi an-schan and the

PR E FACE TO THE SE COND AND THIRD E DITIONS . ix

Kuen-lun), and the ill-j udged neglect of Chinese authorities , havethrown great obscurity around the geography of Central Asia

,and

have allowed imagination to be substituted for the results of obser

vation in works which have obtained extensive circulation . In thecourse of the last few months

,the hypsometrical comparison of the

culminating summits of the two Continents has almost unexpectedly

received important correction s and additions,of which I hasten to

avail myself. (See pages 63—64, and 88 The determinationsof the heights of two mountains in the eastern chain of the Andesof Bolivia

,the Sorata and the Illimani

,have been freed from the

errors which had placed those mountains above the Chimborazo ,but without as yet altogether restoring to the latter with certa inty

its ancient pre-eminence among the snowy summits of the New

World , In the Himalaya,the recently executed trigonometrical

measurement of the Kin ch inj inga E nglish feet) places it

next in altitude to the Dhawalagiri,a new and more exact trigono

metrical measurement of which has also been recently made .

For the sake of uniformity with the two previous editions of the“An sich ten

'

der Natur,

” I have given the degrees of temperature inthe present work (unless wh ere . expressly stated otherwise) in degrees of Reaumur

’s scale . The linear measures are the old French,

in which the toise equals six Parisian feet . The miles are geographical

,fifteen to a degree of the E quator. The longitudes are

reckoned from the Observatory at Par is as a first meridian .

BE RL I N ,1849 .

N OT E BY THE TRAN SLATOR .

IN th e translation,the temperatures are given in degrees of Fahr

enh eit,retaining at the same time the original figures in Reaumu r’s

scale . In the same manner,the measures are given in E nglish feet

,

generally retaining at the same time the original statements in Pa

risian or French feet or toises,a desirable precaution where accuracy

is important. The miles are given in geographical miles,sixty to a.

degree ; but in this case the original figures have usually been omit

ted,the conversion being so simple as to render the introduction of

error very improbable. In a very few instances,

“‘E ngl ish miles”

appear without any/farth er epithet or explanation ; these have been

taken by the author from E nglish sources,and may probably signify

statute miles . The longitudes from Greenwich are substituted for

those from Paris,retaining in addition the original statement in

particular cases .

C ONT ENT S .

AUTHOR’S PRE FACE To THE FIRST E DITION

AUTHOR’S PRE FACE To THE SE COND AND THIRD E DITIONS

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR

STE PPE S AND DE SE RTSAnnotations and Additions

CATARACTS OF THE ORINocoAnnotations and Additions

NOCTURNAL L IFE OF ANIMAL S IN THE PRIME VAL FORE STAnnotations an d Additions

HYPSOME TRIC ADDE NDA

PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTSAnnotations an d AdditionsPostscript on the Physiognomic C lassification of Plants

ON THE STRUCTURE/AND MODE O F ACTION O F VOLCANOS, IN D IF

FE RE NT PARTS O F THE GLOBEAn n ota t ion s an d Additions

THE VITAL FORCE ; OR , THE RHODIAN GE NIUSNote

THE PLATE AUOF CAXAMARCA , THE ANCIE NT CAPITAL O F THE INCAATAHUALLPA , and th e First View of the Pacific O cean ,from the Crest of the Andes

Annotations and Additions

General Summary of the CONTE NTS

INDE X.

2

ASPE CTS OF NATURE

DIFFERENT LANDS AND DIFFERENT CLIMATES .

n ” 1 3

0~STEPPES AND DESERTS

A WIDELY extended and apparently interminable plain stretchesfrom the southern base of the lofty granitic crest, which, in the

youth of our p lanet, when the Caribbean gulf was formed, bravedthe invasion of the waters . O n quitting the mountain valleys ofCarac cas

,and the island-studded Lake of Tacarigua

, (1

)whosesurfacereflects the stems of plantains and bananas

,and on leaving behind

h im meads adorned with t h e bright and tender green of the Tahitian

sugar-cane or the darker verdure of the Cacao groves,the traveller

,

looking southward/sees unroll before him Steppes receding untilthey vanish in the far horizon .

Fresh from the richest luxuriance of organic life,he treads at

once the desolate margin of a treeless desert. Neither hill nor cliffrises

,like an island in the ocean

,to break the uniformity of the

boundless plain ; only here and there broken strata of limestone,

several hundred square miles in extent,appear sensibly higher than

the adj oining parts . Banks” (2

) is th e name given'to them by the

natives ; as if language instinctively recalled the more ancient con

dition of the globe,when those elevations were shoals

,and the

Steppes themselves were the bottom of a great Medi terranean sea .

Even at the present time,nocturnal illusion still recalls these

images of the past. When the rapidly rising and descending Constellat ion s illumine the margin of the plain, or when their trembling

26 STE PPES AND DE SE RTs .

image is repeated in the lower stratum of undulating vapor,we

seem to see before us a shoreless ocean . (3

) Like the ocean,the

Steppe fills the mind with the feeling of infinity ; and thought,escaping from the visible impressions of space

,rises to contemplations

of a higher order. Yet the aspect of the clear,transparent mirror

of the ocean,with its light

,curling

,gently foaming

,Sportive waves

,

cheers the heart like that of a friend ; but the Steppe lies stretchedbefore us dead and rigid, like the stony crust

”

(4

) of a desolated

planet .

In every zone nature presents the phenomena Of these great

plain s z j n each 5a pecul iar physiognomy, determined by

diveFSityfof soil ; and by elevation above th e level of the

sea .

Northarzf E lfropr

efthe'Heath s

,which

,covered with a single

race of plants repelling all others,extend from the point of Jutland

to the mouth of the Scheldt,may be regarded as true Steppes—~ but

Steppes of small extent and hilly surfaci

e,if compared with the

Llanos and Pampas of South America,or even with the Prairies of

the Missouri (5

) and the Barren s of the Coppermine river, whererange countless herds of the shaggy buffalo and musk ox .

'

A grander and severer aspect characterizes the plains of the interior of Africa . Like the wide expanse of the Pacific O cean

,it is

only in recent times that attempts have been made to explore them

thoroughly. They are parts of a sea of sand,which

,stretching

eastward,separates fruitful regions from each other, or encloses them

like islands ; as where the Desert, near the basaltic mountains ofHarudsh

, (6

) surrounds the O asis of Siwah rich in date trees, and in

which the ruins of the temple of Ammon mark the venerable site

of an ancient civilization . Neither dew nor rain bathes these desolate

plains,or develops on th eir glowing surface the germs of vegetable

life ; for heated columns of air, everywhere ascending, dissolve thevapors

,and disperse each swiftly vanishing cloud .

Where the Desert approaches the Atlantic O cean, as between theWadi Nun and Cape Blanco

,the moist sea air pours in to supply

the void left by these upward currents . ‘ The mariner,steering to

wards the mouth Of the Gambia through a sea covered wi th weed,when suddenly deserted by the east trade wind of the tropics

, (7)infers

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28 STEPPES AND DE SE RTs .

Steppes in the temperate zone are characterized by the great height

attained by flowering herbaceous plants,Saussureas and oth er Syn an

th erae,and Papil ionaceae

,especially a host of species of Astragalus .

In traversing pathless portions of these Steppes,the traveller

,seated

in the low T artar carriages,sees the thickly crowded plants bend

beneath the wheels,but without rising up cannot look around him

to see the direction in which he is moving . Some of the AsiaticSteppes are grassy plains ; others are covered with succul ent, ever

green,articulated soda plants : many glisten from a distance with .

flakes of exuded salt,which cover the clayey soil

,not unlike in ap

pearan c e to fresh fallen snow.

These Mongolian and Tartarian Steppes,interrupted frequently

by mountainous features,divide the very ancient civilization of

Thibet and Hindostan from the rude nations of Northern Asia .

They have in various ways exercised an important influence on the

ch angefu l ‘

destin ies of man . They have compressed the popul ation

towards the south,and have t ended

,more than the Himalaya

,or

than the snowy mountains of Srin agur and Gh orka, to impede the

in tercours e,ofn a tion s

,and to place permanent limits to the extension

of milder manners,and of artistic and intellectual cultivation in

Northern Asia .

But,in the history of the past

,it is not alone as an opposing bar

rier that we must regard the plains Of CentralAsia : more than once

they have proved the sou rce from whence devastation has spread

over distant lands . The pastoral nations of these Steppes —Moguls,

Getae, Al ani, and Usuni - have shaken the world . As, in the course

of past ages,early intellectual culture has come like the cheering

light of the sun from the E ast,so,at a later period , from the same

direction barbaric ruden ess has threatened to overspread and in volve

E urope in darkness . A brown pastoral race, (

11

) of Tukiuish or

Turkish descent, theHiongnu , dwelling in tents of skins, inhabitedthe elevated Steppe of Gobi . Long terri ble to the Ch inese power

,a

part of this tribe was driven back into Central Asia . The shock orimpulse thus given p assed fmm Hat iea t en at ien

,until it reach ed the

ancient- lan d of tha E inn s,near the Ural

‘

nTO’

un tain s. From thence,Huns

,Avari

,Gh a z arés

,and various admixtures of Asiatic races,

broke forth . Armies Of Huns appeared su ccessively on the Volga,

STEPPES AND DESERTS . 29

in Pannonia,on the Marne

,and

'

on the Po,desolating thosefair

‘

and

fertile fields which,since the time of Antenor

,civilized man had

adorned ‘with monument after monument . Thus went forth from

the Mongolian deserts a.

deadly blast,which withered o n Cisalpine

ground the tender,long-cherished flower of art.

From the“

salt Steppes of Asia,from the E uropean Heaths smiling

in summer with their purple blossoms rich in honey, and from the

arid Deserts of Africa,devoid of all vegetation

,let us n ow return to

those South American plains of which I have already began to trace

the pictu re, albeit in rude outlines .

The interest which this picture can offer to the beholder 1s,how

ever,exclusively that of pure nature . Here no O asis recalls thememory of earlier inhabitants ; no carved stone, (

19

) no ruinedbuilding

,no fruit tree once the c are ‘

of the cultivator,but now wild

,

speaks of the art or industry of former generations . As if estrangedfrom the destinies of mankind

,and rivetting attention solely to the

present momen t,

‘

th is corner of the e arth appears as a wild theatrefor the free development of animal and vegetable life .

The Steppe extends from the Cara c c as coast chain to the forests

Guiana,and from the snowy mountains of Merida ( on the slope

u fi fo h fl

of which the Natron Lake Urao Is an Obj ect of superstitious venera

tion to the natives), tO/ the egreat delta formed by “

the fiOrinoco at its

mnuth . To the south-west a branch is prbIdnged, like an arm of

th e sea, (

13

) beyond’

the banks of the Meta and Vich ada ‘

to the i1n

visited sources of the Guaviare, and to the lonely mountain to whichthe excited fancy of the Spanish soldiery gave thename of Paramode la Suma Paz—the seat of perfect peace .

This Steppe occupies a space of E n glish) squaremiles. It has often been erroneously described as running un in ter

ruptedly, and‘

with an equal breadth,to the Straits of ' Magellan,

forgetting the forest-covered plain of the Amazons, which intervenes

between th e’

grassy Steppes of the Apure and those of t h e river

Plate . The Andes of Cochabamba, and the Brazilian group ofmountains, send forth, between the province of Chiquitos and theisthmus of 7Vil label la, some detached spurs, which advance, as it

were,to meet each other . (

14

) A narrow plain connects the forest

lands of the Amazons with the Pampas of Bucnos Ayres . The3 >l<

30 STEPPES AND DESERTS .

latter far surpass the Llanos of Venezuela in area ; and their extentis so great that, while their northern margin is bordered by palmtrees

,their southern extremity is almost continually covered with ice .

The Tuyu,which resembles the Cassowary (the Struthi o rhea),

is peculiar to these Pampas,which are als o the h aunt of troops of

dogs (15

) descended from those introduced by the colonists,but

which have become completely wild,dwelling together in subterra

nean hollows,and often attackin g with blood thirsty rage the human

race whom their progenitors served and defended .

Like the greater portion of the deseI t of Sahara, (

16) the north

ernmost of the South American plains, the Llanos, are in the torrid

zone : during one-half of th e year, they are desolate, like the Lybian

sandy waste ; during the other, they appear as a grassy plain, resembling many of the Steppes of Central Asia . (

17)It is a highly interesting though difficult task of general geography

i to compare the natural condi tions of distant regions, and to represent .

by a few traits the results of this comparison . The c auses whichlessen both heat and dryness in the New World (

18

) are manifold,and in some respects as yet only partially understood . Amongst these

may be classed the narrowness and deep indentation of the Americanland in the northern part of the torrid zone

,where consequently the

atmosphere,resting on a liquid base

,does not present so heated an

ascending current -the extension of the continent towards the

expanse of Ocean over which the trade-winds sweep

a cooler temperature —the flatness of the

of cold sea-water from the antarctic regions,

which, coming from the south-west to the north east, first strike thecoast of Chili in the parallel of 35° south latitude

,and advanc e

along th e coast of Peru as far north as Cape Parina, and then turn

1suddenly to the west —the numerous lofty mountain chains rich insprings, and whose snow-clad summits

,rising high above al l the

strata of clouds, cause descending currents of cold air to roll down

their . declivities ; -the’

abundance of rivers of enormous breadth,

whi ch, after many windings, seek the most distant coast —Steppeswhich from not being sandy are less susceptible of acquirin g a highdegree of heat —impenetrable forests occupying the alluvial plains

situated immediately beneath th e equator, protecting with th eir


shade the soil beneath from the direct influence of the ' sunbeams,

and exhaling,in the interior of the country

,at a great distance from

the 'mountains and from the ocean,vast quantities of moisture

,

partly imbibed and partly elaborated —all these circumstancesafford to the flat part of America a climate which by. its humidity

and coolness contrasts wonderfully with that ofAfrica . It is to the

same causes that we are to attribute the luxuriant vegetation,the

magnificent forests,and that abundant leafin ess by which the New

Continent is peculiarly characterized .

If,therefore

,one side of our planet has a moister atmosph'ere than

th e other,the ' consideration Of the present condition of things is

amply sufficient to”

explain the problem presented by this inequality.

The physical inquirer needs not to clothe the explanation of thesephenomena in a mantle of geological myths . He needs not to as

Sume that on our planet the harmonious reconciliation of the destructive conflict of the elements took place at different epochs inthe eastern and the western hemispheres or that America emerged

later than the other parts of the globe from the chaotic waterycovering

, (19) as an island of swamps and marshes tenanted by alli

gators and serpents .

There is,indeed

,a striking similarity between South Ameri ca

and the Southern peninsula of the O ld Continent in the form of the

outline and in the direction of the coasts ; but the nature of the‘

soil,and the relative position of the n eighboi ing masses of land,

produce in Africa that extraordinary aridity which over an immensearea checks thedevelopment of organic life . Four-fifth s of South

America are situated on the southern side of the equator ; or in a lhemisphere which from the greater proportion of sea and from othercauses is cooler andmoister than our northern half of the globe,to which the larger part of Africa belongs. The breadth of the

South American Steppe,measured from east to west

,is only a third ,

of that Of the African Desert . The Llanos receive the influence of

the tropical sea wind,while the African Deserts

,being situated in i

the same zone of latitude as Arabia and the south of Persia, are incontact with strata of air which have blown over warm heat-radiat

ing continents .

32 STEPPES AND DE SE RTs .

ture,described the Deserts of Northern Africa

,Of Yemen

,of Ker

man,and Mekran ( the Gedrosia of the Greeks), and even as far as

LMou l tan,as forming a single connec ted sea of sand. (21)

In addi tion to the action of these hot winds,there is ( so far as

we know) an absence or comparative paucity in Africa of largerivers

,Of widely extended forests producing coolness and exhaling

moisture,and of lofty mountains . O f mountains covered with per

petu al snow, we know only the western part of the Atlas, (92

) whosenarrow range

,seen in profile from the Atlantic

,appeared to the an

cient navigators when sailing along the coast as a single,detached

,

lofty,sky-supporting mount . The eastern prolongation of the chain

extends nearly to Dakul,where Carthage

,once mistress of th e seas

,

now lies in mouldering ru ins . As forming a long extended coastchain

,or Gaetulian rampart

,the effect of the Atlas range is to inter

cept the cool north breezes,and the vapors which ascend from the

Mediterranean .

The Mounta ins of the Moon,Dj ebel-al-Komr

, (23

) (fabulouslypresented as forming part of a mountainous parallel extending fromthe high plateaux ofHabesh

,an African Qui to

,to the sources of the

Senegal,) were supposed to rise above the limit of perpetual snow .

The Cordill era of Lupata,which extends along the eastern coast of

Mozambique and Monomotapa, as the Andes along the western

coa st of Peru,is believed to be covered with perpetual snow in th e

gold districts of Machinga and Moc anga . But all these mountains,

with the abundant waters to which they give rise,are far remote

from the immense Desert which stretches from the southern dec l i

vity of the A tl as to the Niger .Possibly

,however

,all the caus es of heat and dryness which have

been enumerated may have been in suflic ien t to transform such con

siderable parts of the Afri can plains into a dreadful desert, without

the concurrence of some'

revolution of n ature,—su ch

,for instance

,

as an irruption of the oc ean,whereby these flat regions may have

been despoiled of their coating of vegetable soil,as well as of the

plants which it nourished . Profound obscuri ty veils the period of

such an event,and the force which determined the irru ption . Per

haps it may have been caused by the great rotatory curr ent” (24

)which sends the warmer water of the Mexican gulf over the banks

STEPPES AND DE SE RTs . 33

ofNewfoundland and to the shores of the O ld Continent,and causes

West India cocoa-nuts and other tropical fruits to reach the coast ofIreland and Norway. There is still at least at the present time, anarm of this current directed from the Azores to the south-east

,which

sometimes produces[disasters by carrying ships upon the west coast

of Africa,which it strikes at a part lined by sand-hills . O ther sea

coasts ( I particularly recall that of Peru between Amotape and COquimbo) show that, in these hot regions of the earth, where rain

never falls and where neither Lecideas nor other Lichens (25) ger

minate,centuries and perhaps thousands of years may elapse before

the movable sand can afford to the roots of plants a secure holding

place .

These considerations are ‘

Sufiic ien t to explain why,with an ex

ternal similarity of f orm,

'

Africa and South America present somarked a difference of character both in respect to climate and to

vegetation . But although the South American Steppe is covered

with a thin coating of mould or fertile earth,and although it is

periodically bathed by rains,and becomes covered at such seasons

with luxu riantly sprouting herbage,yet it

,

never coul d attract the

surrounding nations or tribes to forsake the beautiful mountain

valleys of Carac cas,the margin of th e sea

,or the wooded banks of

the O rinoco,for the treeless and springless wildern ess ; and thus,

previous to the arrival of E uropean and African settlers, the Steppe

was almost entire ly’

devoid of,human inhabitants .

The Llanos are,indeed

, wel l s u ited to the rearing of cattle, but

the care of animal s yi elding milk (25) was almost unknown to the

original inhabitants of the New Continent . - Hardly any of the

American tribes have ever availed themselves of the advantages

which nature offered them in this r espect . The American race

(which, wi th the exception of the E squimaux, is one and the same

from 65° north to 55° south latitude), has not passed from th e

state of hunters to that of cultivators of the soil through the inter

mediate stage of a pastoral life . Two kinds of native cattle ( the

Buffalo and the Musk Ox) feed in the northern prairies of westernCanada and the plains of arctic America

,in Q uivira, and around

the colossal ruins of the Aztec fortress which rises in the wilderness,like an American Palmyra, on the solitary banks of the Gila . The

34‘

STEPPES AND DESERTS .

long-horned Rocky Mounta in Sheep abounds on the arid limestonerocks of California . The Vicun as

,fHu an a cos

,Alpacas

,and Lamas

belong to South America ; but the two first named of al l'

th ese use

ful animals,c'

. a,the Buffalo and the Musk Ox

,have reta ined their

natural freedom for two thousand years,and the use of milk and

cheese,l ike the possession and cultivation of farinaceous grasses

, (27)

has r emained a di stinguishing characteristic of the nations of the

O ldworld.

f' If some of the latter have crossed from Northern Asia

‘

to th e west

coast of America,and if

,keeping by preference to the cooler mount

ain regions, (

28

) they have foll owed the lofty ridge of the Andes

towards the south,their migration must have taken

.

place by ways

in which they ceul d not be ac companied by their flocks and herds,

‘

or bring with them the cultivation of corn . When the long-shakenempire of the Hiongnu fell, may we conj ec ture that the movement

of this powerful tribe may also have oc c as iOn ed in the north-east of

China and in Corea a sh ock and an impulse which may have caused

civilized Asiatics to pass over into the New Continent ? If such amigration had consisted of inhabitants of the Steppes in which

agriculture was not pursued,this hazardous hypothesis (which has

hitherto been but little favored by the comparison of languages)would at least explain the striking absence of the Cereals in Ame

rica . Possibly onel

of those Asiatic priestly colonies whom mysticdreams sometimes impelled to embark in long voyages

, ( of which

the history of the peopling of Japan (99) in the time of Th sin ch i

huang-ti offers a memorable example,)may have been driven by

storms to the coasts of,

New California .

If,then

,pastoral life

,that ben eficen t middle stage which attaches

nomadic hunting hordes to desi rable pastures,and prepares them, as

it were,for agriculture

,has remained unknown to the aboriginal

“

(nations of America

,this circumstance sufficiently explains the ab ;

sence of .human inhabitants in the South American Steppes . This

absence has all owed the freest scope for the abundant development

Of the most varied forms of animal life ; a development limited only

I by their mutual pressure, and similar to that of vegetable life in theforests of the O rinoco

,where the Hymenaea and the gigantic laurel are

never exposed to the destructive hand of man,but only to the pres


eating palm wine Of the Guaranis . The s caly fruits, which resem

ble in their appearance reddish fir cones,afi ord

,like the plantain

and almost all tropical fruits,a different kind of nutriment

,accord

ing as they are eaten after their saccharine substance is fully de

veloped, or in their earlier or more farinaceous state . Thus,in the

lowest state Of man’s intellectual development,we find the existence

of an entire people bound up with that of a single tree ; like the insectwhich lives exclusively on a single part of a particul ar flower .

Since the discovery of the New Continent,the Llanos have be

come habitable to men . In order to facilitate communication between

the O rinoco country and the coasts, towns have been built here and

there on the banks of the.

streams which flow through the Steppes . (33

)The rearing of cattle has began over all part s Of these vast regions .

Huts,formed of reeds tied together with thongs

,a nd covered with

skins,are placed

fat distances Of a day’s j ourney from each other ;

numberless herds of oxen,horses

,and mules

,estimated

,at the

peaceful epoch of my j ourney,at a million and a half

,roam over the

Steppe . The immense multiplication of these anima ls,originally

brought by man from the O ld Continent,is the more remarkable

from the number of dangers with which they have to contend .

When, under the vertical rays of the never-clouded sun , the carbon i z ed turfy covering falls into dust

,the indurated soil cracks

asunder as if from the shock of an earthquake . If at such times

two opposing currents of air,whose conflict produces a rotary motion

,

come in contact with the soil,the plain assumes a strange and sin

gul ar aspect . Like conical shaped clouds, (

34

) the points of whichdescend to the earth

,the sand rises through the rare fied air in the

electrica lly charged centre Of .the whirling current ; resembling the

loud waterspout dreaded by the experienced mariner. -The loweringsky sheds a; dim

,almost straw-colored light on the desolate plain .

The hfiri z on draws suddenly nearer ; the Steppe seems to contract,and with it the heart of the wanderer . The hot dusty particles

wh ich fi ll the air increase its suffocatin g heat, (

35

) and the east wind

b lowing over the long heated soil,brings with it no refreshment

,but

rather a stillmore burning glow. The pools which the yellow,fad

ing branches of the fan palm had protected from evaporation,now

gradually disappear. AS in the icy north the animals become torpid


with cold, so here, under the influence of the parching drought, thecrocodile and the b oa become motionless and fall asleep

,deeply

buried in the'

drymud. E verywhere the death-threatening droughtprevails

,a nd yet

,by the play

“

of the refracted rays of light producing

the phenomenon of th efmirage, the thirsty traveller is everywhere

pursued by the il lusive image of a cool,

“

rippling, watefy mirror. (

36

)The ‘ distant palm

'

bush,apparently raised by

“

the influence of th econtact of unequallyheated, and th erefore

'

un eq'

u al ly dense, strata of

air,hovers above the ground

,from which it is separated by a narrow

,

intervening margin . Half concealed by th e’

dark clouds of dust,

restless with th e pain of thirst and hunger, the h orses and cattleroam around

,the cattle lowing dismally

,and the horses stretching

out their long necks and sn‘

uffing the wind, if h aply a moister currentmay betray the neighborhood of a not wholly dried up pool . More

sagac iou s'

and cunning,the

(mule seeks a different mode of alleviatinghis thirst. The ribbed and spherical melon-cactus (

37) conceals under

its prickly envelope a watery pithi The mule first strikes th e

prickles aside with his fore'

feet,and t hen ventures warily to approach

his lips to the plant and drink th e cool jui ce . But resort to this

vegetable fountain is not always without danger,and on e sees many

animals that have been lamed by the prickles of the cactus .

When the burning heat of the day is followed by the coolness ofthe night

,which in these latitudes is always of the same length, eventhen the horses and

,cattle cannot enj oy repose . E normous bats suck

their blood like vampires during their sleep, or attach themselves totheir backs

,causing festering wounds

,in which

‘

mu squ itoes, hippo

bosc es, and a host Of stinging insects, niche themselves . Thus the

animals lead a painful life during the season when,under the fierce

glow of the sun,the soil is deprived of its moisture . At length

,

after the long drought,th e welcome season of the rain arrives ; and

then how suddenly is the scene changed ! (38

) The deep bluemof thehitherto perpetually cloudless sky becomes lighter ; at night

‘

th e

dark space in the constellation of the Southern Cross is h ardly di s

t ingu ish able the soft,phosphorescent light hrth e Magellanic clouds

fades away ; even the stars in Aquila and Ophiucus in the zenith

shine with a trembling and less planetary light.‘

“

A single cloud

appears in the south,like a distant mountain

,rising perpendicularly

4


from th e horizon . Gradually. the increasing vapors spread like mist

over the sky,and now the di stant thunder ushers in the life-restoring

Hardly has the surface = of the earth received the refreshing

moisture,before th e previously barren Steppe begins to exhale sweet

odors,and to clothe itself with Kyll ingias, the many pan icu les of the

Paspalum,and a variety of grasses . The herbaceous mimosas

,wi th

renewed sensibil ity to the influence of light, unfold their -droopin g,

slumbering leaves to greet the rising s un ; and the early song of

birds,and the opening blossoms of the water. plants

, j oin‘

to salute

the,morning . The horses and cattle now graze in full enj oyment

of life . T h e tall springing grass hides the beautifully spotted j aguar,

who,lu rking in safe concealment, and measuring carefully the dis

tance of a single bound, springs, cat-like, as the Asiatic tiger, on h ispassing prey.

Sometimes, (so the Aborigines relate,) on the margin of the swamps

the moistened clay is seen to bl ister _ and rise slowly in a kind ofmound ; then with a violent noise, like the outbreak of a small mudvolcano

,the heaped-up earth is cast high into the air. The beholder

,

acquainted with the meaning of this spectacle,flies

,for he knows

there will issue forth a gigantic water-snake or a scaly crocodile,awakened from a torpid state (

39) by the first fal l of

The rivers which bound the plain to the south,the Ar auca

,

Apure,and Payara

,become gradually swollen ; and now nature con

strains the same animal s,who in the first h alf of the year panted

with thirst on the dry and dusty soil,to adopt an amphibi ous l ife .

A portion of the Steppe now presents the aspect of a vast inland

sea . (40

) The brood mares retire with their foals . to the higher

banks,which stand like i slands above the surface of the lake .

E very day the space remaining dry becomes smaller . The animals,

crowded together,swim about for hours in search of other pasture

,

and feed sparingly on the tops of the flowering grasses rising above

the seething su rface Of the dark-colored water. Many foals are

drowned,and many are surprised by the crocodiles

,killed by a stroke

of their powerful notched tails,and devoured . It is not a rare thing

to see the marks of the pointed teeth Of these monsters on the legs'

of the horses and cattle who have narrowly escaped from their

blood-t hirsty jaws . Such a sight reminds the thoughtful Observer

STEPPES AND DESERTS. 39

cumstan ces,wi th which the all-providing Au th or of

'

Nature

endowed certain animals and plants .

The ex and the horse, ‘

like the farinaceous cerealia, have followed

man over the whole surfac e of the globe,from India

.to Northern

Siberia,from the Ganges to the River Plate

,from the African sea

shore to the mountain plateau of Antisana, (

41

),

which is higher thanthe summit of the Peak of Teneriffe . The ex wearied from the

plough reposes, sheltered from the noontide sun in one country byth e quivering shadow of the northern birch

,and in another by the

date palm . Th e same species which,in the east of E urope

,has to

encounter the attacks of bears and wolves,is exposed in other regions

to th e ~

assaul ts of tigers and crocodiles .

But the crocodile and j aguar are not the‘

only assailants of theSouth American horses ; they have also

i

a dangerous enemy among

fishes . The marshy waters of Bera and Rastro (42

) are filled with

numberless elec tric eels,which can at pleasure send a powerful dis

charge from any part of their slimy,yellow-spotted bodies . These

gymn oti arefrom five to six feet in length,and are powerful enough

to kill the largest animals when -they discharge their nervous organs

at on ce in a favorable direction .

The route from Uritucu through the Steppe was formerly obligedto be changed

,because the gymn ot i had increased to such numbers

in a small stream that,in crossing it

,many horses were drowned every

year,either from the effects of the shocks they received, Or from

fright. Al l other fishes fly‘

the vic in ityo f these formidable , eels .

E ven the fisherman angl ing from the "high bank fears lest the dampline should

,

convey the shock to him from a distance . Thus,in

these regions,electric fire breaks forth from the bosom of the waters ;

The Capture of the gymn oti affords a picturesque Spectacle .

Mules and horses are driven in to'

a marsh which is closely surrounded by Indians

,until the unwonted noise and disturbance induce the.

pugnacious fish t O 'begin an attack .~ O n e sees them swimming about

like serpents,and trying cunni ngly to glide under the bellies of the

horses . Many of these are stunned by theforc e of the invisible

blows ; others, with manes standing on end, foaming, and with wild

terror Sparkling in their eyes, try to fly from the r aging tempest.


But the Indians,armed with long poles of bamboo

,drive them back

into‘ the middle of the pool . Gradually t h e fury of,the unequal

strife begins to slacken . Like clouds which have discharged their

electricity,

“

the wearied fish begin to disperse ; long r epose andabundant food are required to replace the galvanic force which they

have expended . Their shocks become gradually weaker and weaker.Terrified by the noise of the trampling horses

,they timidly approach

the bank,where they are wounded by harpoons

,and c autiously drawn

on shore by non-conducting pieces of dry wood .

Such is the extraordinary battle between horses and fish . Thatwhich forms the invisible but living weapon of this electric eel

that which,awakened by the contact of moist

,dissimilar particles

, (43

)circulates through all the organs of plants and animals —thatwhich

,flashing from the thunder

,cloud

,illumines the wide skyey

canopy —that which draws iron to iron,and directs the silent recur

ring march of the guiding needle -all,like the several hues of the

divided ray Of light,flow from one source ; and all blend again to

gether in one perpetually,everywhere diffused, force or power.

I might here close the hazardous attempt to trace a picture ofnature such as she shows herself in the Steppes . -But as on the

ocean fancy not unwillingly dwell s awhile on the image of its distant

shores,so,before the wide plain disappears from our view

,let us cast

a rapid glance at the regions by which the Steppes are bounded .

g; The Northern Desert -

Of Africa divides two races of men who

belong originally to the same part of the globe,and whose unrecon

Zeiled discord appears as ancient as the mythus

‘ of O siris and Typhon . (

44

) North of the Atlas there dwell nations with long and

straight hair,of sallow complexion

,and Caucasian features . O n the

south of the Senegal,towards Soudan,live hordes of negroes in many

different stages of civilization.In CentralAsia , t h e Mongolian Steppe

divides Siberian barbarism from the ancient civilization of the penin-zsul a of India .

The South American Steppes form the boundary of a partial E urop

_

can cultivation . To the north,between the mountains of

Venezuela and the Caribbean sea,we fin d commercial cities

,neat

k vil lages,and carefully cultivated fields . E ven the love of art and

scientific culture,together with the noble desire of civil freedom ,


have long been awakened‘ there

”

. Towards the south,the Steppe

terminates in a savage wilderness . Forests,the growt h of thousands

of years,fill with their impenetrable fastnesses the

’

h umid regions

between the.

O rinoco and the Amazons . Massive,leaden-colored

granite rocks (46)n arrow the bed of the foaming rivers. Mountains

and forests resoundwith the thunder of th e falling waters,with the

roar of the tiger-like j aguar,and with the melancholy

,rain-ann oun

'

c l

ing howlings of the bearded apes . ( 47)Where a sand-bank is left dry 157 the sh allOw current

,the un

wieldy crocodiles lie,with open jaws

,as motionless as piec es of rock

,

and often covered with birds . (48

) The boa serpent, his body marked

like a chess-board,coiled up

,his tail wound round the branch of

a tree,lies lurking on the bank

,secure of his prey ; he marks the

young bul l,or some feebler i nhabitant of the forest

,as it fords the

stream,and swiftly uncoiling seizes the victim

,and covering it with

mucus forces it laboriously down his swelling throat. (49)

In the midst of this grand and savage nature,live many tribes of

men,isolated from each other by the extraordinary diversity of their

languages : Some are nomadic,wholly unacquainted with agriculture,

and usingants, gums, and earth as food ; (50

) these, as the O tomacsand Jarures

,seema kind of outcasts from humanity : others

,like

the Maquiritares and Ma‘

cos,are settled

,more intelligent

,and Of

milder manners,and live On fruits which they have themselves

reared .

Large Spaces between the Cassiqu iare and' the Atabapo are only

inhabited by the tapir and the social apes, and are wholly destitute

of human beings. Figures graven on the rocks (51

) show that even

these deserts were once the seat Of some degree of intellectual cultivation . They bear witness to the changeful destinies of man, as dothe unequally developed flexible languages ; which latter belong to

the oldest and most imperishable class of historic memorials .

But as in the Steppe tigers and crocodile s fight with horses and

cattle,so in the forests on its borders

,in the wildernesses of Guiana,

man is ever armed against man. Some tribes drink with unn atural

thirst the blood of their enemies ; others apparently weaponless , and

yet prepared for murder, (

52

) kill wi th a poisoned thumb-nail . The

weaker hordes,when they have to pass along the sandy margin of

4a


the rivers,carefully efia cewith their hands the traces of their timi d

footsteps . Thus man,in the lowest stage of almost animal rudeness

,

aswell as amidst the apparent brilliancy of our higher cultivation,prepares for himself and hi s fellow men

,increased toil and danger.

The traveller,wandering over. the wide globe by sea and land, as

well as the historic inquirer searching the records . of past ages,finds

everywhere the uniform and saddening spectacle of man at variance

with man .

He,therefore, wh o, amidst the unreconciled discord of nations,

seeks for intellectual ca lm,gladly turns to contemplat e the silent life

of vegetation,and the hidden activities of forces and powers Ope

rating in the sanctuaries of nature ; or, obedient to the inborn impulse which for thousands of years has glowed i n the human breast,gazes upwards in meditative contemplation on those celestial orbs

,

which are ever pursuing in undisturbed harmony t heir ancient and

unchanging course .

44 STEPPES AND DE SE RTs.

Cundinamarca . The coas t chain forms an unbroken rampart from

Porto Cabello to the promontory of Paria . Its mean height hardlyequals 750toises or 4795 E nglish feet yet single summits

,like the

Silla de Caracas (also called Cerro de Avila), decked with the purpleflowering Befaria, theAmerican Rose of the Alps, rise 1350toises,Or 8630 E nglish feet, above the level of the sea .

”

The coast of

TerraFirma bears traces of devastation . We recognize everywhere

the action of the great currentwhich, sweeping from east_to west,

formed by disruption the West Indian Islands, and hollowed out theCaribbean gulf. The proj ecting tongues of land of Araja and Chu

paripari,and especially the coast of Cumana and New Barcelona,

Offer a remarkable spectacle to the geologi st. The precipitous

Islands of Bora ch a,Caracas

,and Ch iman as rise like towers from

th e sea,and bear witness to the terrible pressure of the waters

against the mountain chain when it was broken by their irruption .

Perhaps,like the Mediterranean

,the Antillean gulf was once an

inland sea,which became suddenly connec ted with the ocean . The

islands of Cuba,Hayti

,and Jamaica still contain the remnants of

the lofty mountains of mica slate which bounded this sea to the

north . It is remarkable that where these three islands approacheach other most nearly

,the highest summits are found ; and we may

conj ecture that the highest part of this Antille an chain was situated

between Cape Tiburon and Point Morant. The Copper Mountains

(Montar‘

ias dc Cobre) near Santiago de Cuba,' h ave not yet been

measured,but their elevation is probably greater than that of the

Blue Mountains of Jamaica, (1138 toises, 7277 E nglish feet,)

wh ich /somewh at exceeds the height of the St. Gothard Pass . Myconj ectures on the valley-form of the Atlantic O cean, and on the

ancient connection of the continents,were given more in detail in a

memoir written in Cumana,entitled Fragment d’un Tableau Géolo

gique de l’Amériqu e Méridionale (Journal de Physique, Messidor,

An . IX) . It is worthy of remark that Columbus himself,in hi s

O fficial Reports,called attention to the connection between the di

rection of the equatorial current and the form of the coast line of

the larger An tilles . ( E xamen critique de l’h ist . de la Geograph ic ,

pp. l 04—108)The northern and most cultivated part of the province of Carac

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS . 45

cas is a country of mountains . The coast chain is divided, like the

Swiss Alps, into several subordinate chains enclosing longitudinal

valleys . The most'

celebrated of these is the pleasant valley Of

Aragua,which produces a great quantity of indigo

,sugar

,cotton

,

and,what 1s most remarkable

,E uropeanWheat. The south ern mar

gin of this valleyadj oins the beautiful Lake of Valencia, whose O ldIndian name is Tacarigua . The contrast between its opposite shores

gives it a striking resemblance to the ‘Lake of Geneva. It is truethat the bare mountains of Guigue and Gu iripa have ‘ less grandeur

of character than the Savoy Al ps ; but, - on the other hand,the

Opposite bank of the Tacarigua lake,which is thickly clothed with

plantains,mimosas

,and triplaris

,far surpasses in picturesque beauty

the vineyards of the Pays ‘ de Vaud . The lake is,

about thirty

geograph ical'

miles in length,and is full of small islands

,which

,as

the loss of water by Evaporation exceeds the influx,are increasing

in size ..Within some years

,sand banks have even become real

islands,and have received the significant name of the “Newly Ap

peared,” L

‘

as Aparecidas . O n the island of Cura, the remarkable

specres of Solanum is . Cultivated which has edible fruit,and which

Wildenow has described in th e Hortu S Berolin en sis (1816, Tab .

xxvii”) The height of the Lake of Tacarigua above the sea isalmost 1400 French feet

, (according to my measurement exactly

230toises,or 1470E nglish feet,) less than the mean height of th e

valley of Carac cas The lake has several kinds of fish ( see my Ob

servat ion s deZ oologie et d’An atOmie comp

’

arée,T . ii . pp . 179

and is one of the most pleasing natural scenes which I know ' in anypart .of the globe .

~ In bathing, Bonpland and myself were oftenalarmed by the appearance of the ‘ Bava

,an undescribed crocodi le

like lizard,three for four feet in length, of repulsive aspect, but

harmless to men . We found in the lake a Typha (Cat'

S-tail), iden

tical with the E uropean Typha angustifolia ; a singular fact, and

important in reference to the geography of plants .

Two varieties of sugar cane are cultivated near the lake, in thevalleys of Arag ua : the common sugar-cane of the West Indies,Cana criolla : and the cane recently introduced from the Pacific

”Cana de O taheiti . The verdure of the Tahitian cane is of a much ,

i

lighter and more agreeable tint,and a field of it can readi ly be (1181 i

STE PPE S AND Dnsnzars .

t inguish ed at‘

a greatfdistan ce from a field of the common cane .The sugar-cane of Tah iti

'

was first'

described by Cook and GeorgeForster

,who appear

,however, from the excellent memoir of the

latterupon the edible plants of the islands of the Pacific,to have

brought it to the Isle of France,from whence it was conveyed to

Cayenne,and since 1792 it has been taken to Martinique

,Hayt i

,

and several of the smaller West Indi an'

Islands . It‘

was carried

with the bread-fruit tree to Jamaica by the brave but unfortunateCaptain Bligh

,and was introduced from the Island of Trin idad to

the neighboring coast of Carac cas, where it became a more import

ant acqui sition than the bread-fruit,which is never likely to super;

sede a plant so valuable,and affording so large an amount of susteu

ance,as the plantain . The Tahitian sugar-cane is\much richer in

j uice than the common cane,sa id to be originally a native of the

east of Asia . O n an“

equal surface of ground, it yields‘

a third more

Sugar than the Cana criolla, which has a thinner stalk and smaller

j oints . As,moreover

,the West Indian islands begin to suffer great

want of fuel, ( in Cuba the wood of the

”

orange tree , is used for sugar

boiling,) the thi cker and morewoody stalk of the Tahitian cane i s

an important advantage . If the introduction of this plant had not

taken place almost at the same time as the commencement of thebloody negro war in St. Domingo

,the prices of sugar in E urope

woul d have risen still higher than they di d,in consequence of the

ruinous effects of those troubles on agriculture and trade . It was

an important question,whether the cane of the Pacific

,when re

moved fromits native soil,would gradually degenerate and

“

becomethe same as the common cane

.E xperience -hitherto has decided

against any such degeneration . In Cuba,a caballeria (nearly 33

E ngli sh acres) planted with Tahitian sugar-cane produces 870hundred weight of sugar. It is singular that this important production

of the islands of the Pacific is only cul tivated in those parts of the

Spanish colonies which are farthest from the Pacific . The Peruvian

c oafst is only twenty-five days’sail from -Tahi ti,and yet

,at the period

of my travels in P eru and Chili,the Tahitian cane was unknown

there . The inhabitants of E aster Island, who suffer much from

deficiency of fresh water,drink the juice of the sugar-cane

,and (a

ANNOTATIONS AND UADDITIONS . 47

very remarkabl e physiologic al fact), also sea water. In the Society,Friendly

,and Sandwich Islands

,the light» green

,thick-stalked

sugar-cane is always the one cultivated .

Besides the Cana de O tah eiti and the_Cana criolla, a reddish

African variety,called Caii a -de Guinea

,is cultivated in the West

Indies : its juice is less in quantity than that of the common Asiatic

cane,but is said to be better suited for making rum .

In the province of Carac cas,the dark shade

,of the cacao p lanta

tions contrasts beautiful ly with the.

light,

green of the Tahitian sugar

cane . Few tropical trees have such thick foliage as the Theobroma

cacao . It loves hot and humid valleys : .great fertility of soil and

insalubrity of atmosphere ( are inseparable from each other in SouthAmerica as well as in Asia ; and it has even been remarked that, as

increasing cultivation lessens the extent of the forests,and renders

the soil and'

climate less humid,the cacao plantations become less

flourishing. For these reasons,th ese plantations are diminishing

in number and extent in the province of Carac cas, and increasing

rapidly in themore eastern provinces of New Barcelona and Cumana ,and particularly in the moist woody district between Cariaco and the

Golfo Triste .

(2

) p . 25.

‘c lcs’is the mmn e

i

g t'

ven by the na tives to th is

p henomenon .

”

The Llanos of“Caraccas are occupied by a great and widely ex

tended formation of conglomerate of an early peri ods In descend?

ing from the valleys of Aragua,and crossing over the most southernridge of the coast chain of Guigue and Villa de Cura towards Para

para,one finds successively

,gneiss and mica slate, ;

—a probably

Silur ian formation of clay slate and black limestone ;—.T serpen tineand greenstone in detached spheroidal masses ; —and, lastly, close tothe margin of the great plain

,small hill s-of augitic

,amygdaloid

,and

porphyritic slate . These hills between Parapara and O rtiz appeartome like volcanic eruptions on the ancient sea-shore of the Llanos .Farther to the north are the celebrated grotesque-shaped cavernous

rocks of Morros de' San Juan ; they forma kind of rampart, have acrystalline grain like upheaved dolomite

,and are rather to be re

garded as parts of-the shore of the ancient gulf than as islands. I

48 STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS .

term the Llanos a gul f ; for,’

wh en ' we consider their small elevation

above the present sea level,their form open as it were to the equa

torial current sweeping from east to west,and the lowness of the

eastern coast between the mouth of the O rinoco and the E ssequibo,

we can scarcely doubt that the sea once overflowed the Whole basin

between the coast chain of Carac cas and the Sierra de la Parime,and beat against the mountains of Merida and Pamplona

, (as it is

supposed to have overflowed the plains of Lombardy,and beat

against the Cottian and Pennine Alps .) The strike or inclination

of the American Llanos is also directed from we'

st to east . Theirheight at Calabozo

,400geographical miles from the’ sea

,is barely

30toises (192 E nglish feet), being 15 toises (96 E nglish feet) lessthan that of Pavia

,and 45 toises (288 E nglish feet) less than that

of Milan,in the plains of Lombardy between theAlps and Apen

nines . The form of the surface of thi s part,

of the globe reminds

one of Claudi an’s expression,curvata tumore parvo plan it ies .

”

The horizontality of the Llanos is so perfect that inmany portionsof them no part of an area of more than 480square miles appears

to be a foot higher than the rest . If,in addition to this

,we imagine

to ourselves the absence of all bushes,and even in the Mesa de Pa

voues the absence of any isolated palm trees,it will afford some

,

idea

of the singular aspect of this sea-like desert plain . As far as theeye can reac h

,it can hardly rest on a single obj ect a few inches high .

If it were not that the state of the lowest strata of the atmosphere,

and the consequent changes of refraction,render the horizon con

t inu al ly indeterminate and undul ating, al titudes of the sun might

be taken vwith the sextant from the margin of the plain as well asfrom the horizon at sea . This great horiz ontality of the former seabottom makes the banks”more striking . They are broken strata

which rise abruptly from two to three feet above the Surrounding

rock,and extend uniformly over a length of from 40to 48 E nglish

geographical miles . The small streams of the Steppes take their

rise on these banks ..In passing through the Llanos of Barcelona

,on our return from

the Rio Negro,we found frequent traces of earthquakes . Instead

of the banks standing h igher than the surrounding rock, we found

here solitary strata of gypsum from 3 to 4 toiseS ’

(19 to 25 E nglish


feet) lower . Farther to the west,near the junction of the Caura

With the O rinoco,and to the east of the mission of S . Pedro de

Al cantara,an extensive tract of dense forest sank down In an earth

quake in 1790, and a lake was formed of more than 300 toises

(1918 E nglish feet) diameter. The tall tree s (Desmanthus, Hymenaeas

,and Malpighias) long retained their foliage and verdure

under the water.

(ff

) p . 26. we seem to see before u s a'

shoreless ocea n .

The prospec t of the distant Steppe is still more striking, when

the spectator has been long accustomed in the dense forests both toa very restricted field of view

,and

‘

to the aspect of a rich and highlyluxuriant vegetation . Ineffaceable is the impressionwhich I receivedon our return from the Upper O rinoc o

,when

,from the Hato del

Capuchino,on a mountain opposite to the mouth of the Rio Apure

,

we first sawa gain the distant Steppe . The sun had j ust set theS teppe appeared to rise like a hemisphere , and the light of therising stars was refracted in the lowest stratum of air. The exc es

Sive heating of the plain by the vertical rays of the sun causes the

variations of refraction—occasioned by the effects of radiation,

. of

the ascending current,and of the contact of strata of air of unequal

density—to continue through the entire night .

26. The stony crust .”

Immense tracts of flat,bare rock form p eculiar and characteristic

featu res in the Deserts both of Africa“ and Asia . In the Sch amo,

which separates Mongolia and the mountain chains of Ulangom and

Malakh a-O ola from t h e north-we st part of China,these banks of

rock are called Tsy . They are also found in the forest-coveredplains of the -O rinoco, surrounded by the most luxuriant vegetation

(Relation Hist . t .'

ii . p . In . the middl e of"

these flat,tabul ar

masses of granite and syenite of some thousand feet diameter,de

nuded of all v egeta tion save a few scantily d istributed lichens,‘

we

find small islands of soil,covered with low and always flowering

plants which give them the appearance of little gardens. Th e

monks of the Upper O rinoco regard these bare and perfectly level

surfaces of rock,when they are of considerable extent

,as pecu liarly :

5


have been deserted or removed elsewhere in consequence of this

opinion, which is very widely diffused . Supposing the opinion cor

rect,is such an influence of these flat rocks or laxas to be attributed

to a chemi cal action on the atmosphere, or merely to the effect ofincreased radiation ?

(5

) p . 26. The L lanos a nd Pamp a s of Sou th Ameri ca , a nd the

The physical and geognostical vl ews entertained respecting thewestern part of North America have been rectified m many respectsby the adventurous j ourney of Maj or Long

,the excell ent WI it ings

of his companion E dwin James,and more especial ly by the com

prehensive observations of Captain Fremont . These,and all other

recent accounts, now place in a clear ligh t what, in my workg onNew Spain

,I could on ly put forward as conj ect ure

,on the subject

of the moun tain ridges and plains to th e n orth . In the description

of nature as well as in historical inquiries,facts long rema in isolated

,

un til by laboriou s investigation they are brought into connection

The east coast of the United States of North America runs from

south-west to north-east, in the same, direction as that followed in

the southern hemisphere by the Brazilian coast from the river Plateto O linda . In the two hemispheres two ranges of mountains exist

at a short distance fromthe eastern -c oast ; they are more nearly

parallel to each other than they are to the more westerly'

ch ain,

call ed in,

South America the Cordilleras of Peru a nd Chil i, and in

North Am erica the Itocky Mountains . The Brazilian system ofmountains forms a n isola ted group, of which the highest summits( th e Itacolumi and Itambe) do n ot ris e above the height of 900toises (5755 E nglish feet). The most easterly ridges

,which are

nearest to the Atlantic,follow a uniform direction from SSW. to

NNE . more to the west thegroup becomes broader, but diminishesconsiderably in height . The Parecis hil ls approach the rivers Iten esand Guapore

,and the mountains of Agu apeh i ( to the south of Vil :

labella) approach the lofty Andes of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz

52 STE PPES AND DE SE RTS . .

ral equatorial current ‘

Of the waters of t h e ocean,and Opposes a

Western Africa with the eastern parts of Asia . North of the 17thdegree of latitude and

,the celebrated isthmus of Tehuantepec

,the

mountains,quitting the coas t of the Pacific

,and

‘

following '

a more

direct northerly course,become an inland Cordillera - 1 In North

Mexico,the Crane Mounta ins” ( Sierra de las Grullas) form part

of the Rocky Mountain ch ain fi Here rise,to

,the west

,the ColumJ

bia and the Rio Colorado of California ; and, to thfi

é'

e as—

t,the Rio

Roxo de Na tch itOches; the Candian, th e Arkansas, and the Platteor shallow river

,a name which has latterly been ignorantly trans

formed into that of a silver-promising river Plate . Between the

sources of these rivers ( from N . lat . 37 ° 20’ to 40° rise threelofty summits ( formed of a granite containing much hornblende and

l it tle mica), called Spanish Peak, James’s or Pike’s Peak

,and Big

Ho rn or Long’s Peak . ( See my E ssai Politique sur la Ncuvell e

E spagne, 2me édit . t . i . pp . 82 and The elevation Of these

peaks exceeds that of any of the summi ts Of‘

the Andes of NorthMexico

,

‘

which,indeed

,from the 18th and 19 th parall els of latitude

,

or from the group of O rizaba and Popocatepetl ( respectively 2717toises or E nglish feet

,and 2771 toises or E ngli sh

feet), to Santa Fé and Taos, never“ reach the limits Of perpe tual .

snow . James’s Peak,in lat. 38° is supposed to be 1798 toises

,

or E nglish feet ; but of this elevation only 1335 toises (8537

E nglish feet) h as been meas ured trigonometrically the remaining

463 toises, or 2960 E ngl ish feet, being dependen tfiin the absenceof barometrical observations

,on uncerta in estimations Of the deoli

vi ty of streams . As a trigonometrical measurement can hardly everbe undertaken from the

,level Of the s ea , measurements Of in ac c ess

ible heights must gen eral ly . be partly trigonometrical, and partlybarometrical . E stimations of

'

the fall of rivers,Of th eir rapidity

,

and of the length Of their course,are so deceptive

,that the plain

,

at the foot of the Rocky Mountains,nearest to the

,summits above

spoken of,was estimated

,previous to the import ant expedition of

Capt . Fremont, some tM es at 8000

,and sometimes at 3000 feet .

(Long’

S E xpedition, vol . ii. pp . 36,362

,382

,App . p . xxxvii .) It

was from a similar deficiency Of‘

barometrical measurements that the

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 53

true elevation of the Himalaya continued so long uncertain : butnow the resources which belong to the cu ltivation of science have

increased in India to such a degree, that Captain Gerard, when onthe Tarh igang, near the Sutlej , north of Sh ipke, at an elevation of

E nglish feet,after breaking three barometers

,had still four

equally correct ones remaining. (Critical Researches on Philologyand Geography

,1824 , p .

Fremont,in the expedition which h e

’

made in the years 1842—1844by order Of the Government of the United States

,found the highest

summit of the whole chain of the Rocky Mountains to the north

north-west of Spanish,James’s

,Long’s

,and Laramie '

Peaks. This

snowy summit,of w hich he measured the elevation barometrically,

belongs to the group of the Wind River mountains . It bears on

the large map, edited by Colon el Abert, Chief Of the Topographical

O ffice at Washingt on, the name of Fremont’s Peak

,and is situated

in 43° 10’ lat . and 110°- 13 ’W. long. from Greenwi ch, almost

n orth Of Spanish Peak . Its height,by direct measurement

,is

French,or E nglish feet. This would make Fremont’s

Peak 324 toises (or 2072 E nglish feet) higher than the elevation

assIgned by Long to James’s Peak, whi ch, accordingto its position,

appears to be identical with Pike’sPeak in the map above referred

to . The Wind River Mountains form the d1vort1a aquarum,

” or

division between the waters flowing towards ei ther ocean . CaptainFremont ( in his O fi c ial Report of the E xploring E xpedition to theRocky Mountains In the year 1842, and to O regon and North Califormia in the years 1843—44

,p . says

,“We saw, On one side,

countless mountain lakes,an d the sourc es ’

of theRio Colorado whichcarries its waters through the Gulf Of California tothe Pacific ; and,on the other side

,the deep valley Of the Wind River, where are

situated the sources of the Yellowstone River, one of the principal

branches of the Missouri, which unites with the Mississippi at St.

Louis . To the north-west, rise, covered wi th perpetual snow, thesummits called the Trois Tetons

,where the tr ue source of

‘

the Missouri itself is situated

,not far from that Of th e head water of the

O regon or Columbia, or the source of that branch of it called Snake

River or Lewis Fork .

” To the astonishment of the adventuroustravellers

,they found the top of Fremont’s Peak visited byb ees :

5*

54 S TE PPES AND DE SE RTS .

perhaps, like the butterfli es seen by-me

,also among perpetual snow,

but in much more elevated regions in the Andes of Peru,they had

been carried thither involuntarily by ascending currents of ai r. I‘

have seen In the Pacific,at a great distance from the coast

,large

winged lepidopterous insects fall on’

the deck of the ship,having

,no

doubt,been carried far out to

‘

sea ‘ by land winds .

Fremont’s map and geographical investigations comprehend theextensive region from the junction of the Kan z as River with theMissouri

,to the falls Of the Columbia and to the missions of Santa

Barbara‘ and Pueblo de los Angeles in New Cal ifornia ; or a spac e

of 28 degrees of longitude,and from the 34th to th e 45th pafal lel of

latitude . Four hundred points have been determined hypsometri

cally by barometric observations,and

,for the most part

, geograph i

cal ly by astronomical Observations ; so that a district which, withthe windings of the route

,amounts to 3600 geographical miles

,

from the mouth Of the Rauzas to Fort Vancouverand the shores of

the Pacific ( almost 720miles more than the distance from Madridto . Tobolsk), has been represented in profile, showing the relativeheights above the level of the sea . As I was

,I believe

,the first

person who unde1 took to represent, in geognostic profile, the formof entire countries—such as the Iberian peninsula

,the highlands

of Mexico,and the Cordilleras of South America, ( the semi-per

Spec t ive proj ections of a Siberian travell er, the Abbé Chappe, were

founded on mere and generally ill-judged estimations of the fall ofrivers) -it has given me peculiar pleasure to See the graphicalmethod of representing the form of the earth in a vertical di rection,or the elevations of the solid port ions of our planet above its watery

covering, applied on sogrand a scale as has been done in Fremont’s

map . In the middle latitudes of 37° to th e Rocky Mountainspresent, besides thehigher snowy summits comparable with the Peakof Tenerifl

'

e in elevation,lofty plains o f an extent hardly met with

elsewhere on the surface of the earth, and almost twice as extensive,in an east and west direction, as that Of the Mexican plateaux .

From th e group of mountains, which commences a little to thewest of Fort Laramie, to beyond the Wahsatch mountains, there

is an uninterrupted swelling Of the ground from 5300 to 7400E nglish feet above the level of the sea . A similar elevation may ,


even be said to occupy the whole space from 34° to 45° between theRocky Mountains proper and the Californ ian snowy coast chain :This space

,a kind of broad longitudinal val ley like that of the Lake

Of Titicaca,has been cal led

,by Joseph Walker

,a traveller well

acquainted with these western regions,a nd by Captain Fremont

,

“ The Great Basin .

” It is a terra incognita of at least 128,000

square miles 111 extent, arid, almost entirely without human inhabit

ants,and full of salt lakes

,the largest of which is 4200E nglish

feet above the level of the sea,and 1s connected with the narrow lake

ofUtah . (Fremont, Report of the E xploring E xpedition, pp . 154

and 273 The last mentioned lake receives the abundant

waters of the “Rock River Timpan Ogo,in the Utah language .

Father E scalante,in j ourneying

,in 1776

,from Santa Fé del Nnevo

Mexico to Monterey in New California,discovered Fremont’s“Great

Salt Lake,

” and,confounding lake and river, gave it the name

Of Laguna de Timpan ogo. As such I inserted it in my map of

Mexico ; and this h as given rise to much uncritical discussion onthe assumed non-existence of a great inland salt lake in North Ame

rica—a question previously raised by the well-informed Americangeographer Tanner . (Humboldt, Atlas Mexicain, planche 2 E ssai

Politique sur la Nouvelle E spagne,t . i . p . 231

,t. ii . pp . 243

,313

,

and 420,Fremont

,Upper California

,1848

, p . 9,and

,also

,Duiiot de

Mofras,E xploration de l’Oregon , 1844, t . ii . p . Gallatin says

expressly,m the Memoir on theAboriginal Races m the Arch aeologia

Americana,vol . ii. p . 140

,“General Ashley and Mr. J. S . Smith

have found the Lake Timpan ogo in the same latitude and longitudenearly as had been assigned to it in Humboldt’s Atlas of Mexico .

”

I have dwelt on th e remarkable swelling of the ground in the

region of the Rocky Mountains,because

,doubtless

,

‘by its elevationand extent

,it exercises an influence hitherto but little considered

,on

the climate of th e‘

wh ole continent of North America, -to th e‘

sou th

and east. In the ext en sive,continuous plateau

,Fremont saw the

waters covered wi th ice every night in the month of August. Noris the elevation of this region less important as respects the social

state and progress of the great United“

States of North America .

Although the elevation of the line of the separation of thewatersnearly equals that of the Passes of the Simplon (6170French, or

56 STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS.

6576 E nglish feet), of the St . Gothard (6440French, or 6865 E ngli sh feet), and of the St., Bernard (7476

‘

French,or 7969 E nglish

feet), yet the as cent is so gradual, as to Offer no obstacle to the useof wheel carriages Of all kinds in the communication between the

basins of the Missouri and the O regon ; in other words, between the

states on the Atlantic sea board opposite E urope,and the new set

t lemen ts on the O regon and Columbia Opposite China . The itinerarydi stance from Boston to As toria on the Pacific at the mouth of th e

Columbia, is, according to the difference of longitude, 2200 geo

graphi cal miles, or about one sixth less than the distance of Lisbon

from the Ural near Ka th arinenburg. From the gentleness of theascent of the high plateau which leads from the Missouri to Cali

forn ia and to the basin of the O regon—(from the River and FortLaramie

,on the northern branch of the Platte River

,to Fort

Hall on the Lewis Fork of the Columbia,all the camping plac es of

which the height was measured were from upwards of five to seventhousand , and at O ld Park even 9 760French, or 10,403 E nglish

feet)—it has not been easy to determine the situation of the culminating point

,or divortia aquarum .

”It

'

is south of theWind Rivermountains

,nearly midway between the Mississippi and the coast of

the Pacific,at an elevation of 7027 French, or 7490 E nglish feet ;

therefore only 450French,or 480E nglish feet lower than the Pass

,

of the Great St. Bernard . The immigrants call this point “ the

South Pass .” (Fremont’s Report

,pp . 3

,60, 70, 100, It is

situated in a pleasant district,in whic h the mica slate and gneiss

rock are found covered with many species of Artemisia,particularly

Artemisia tridentata (Nu t tal l), asters, and cactuses . Astronomicaldeterminations give the latitude 42° and the longitude 109 ° 24’

W. from Greenwich . Adolph E rman h as al ready called attentionto the circumstance that the direction of th e

xgreat chain of the

Aldan -mountains in the east of Asia,which divides the streams

flowin g into the Lena from those which flow t owards the Pacific, if

prolonged on the surface of the globe in the direction Of a great cir

cle,pas ses through several summits of the Rocky Mountains

,be

tween the para llels of 40° and “Thus an American and an

Asiatic chain of mountains appear to belong to one great fissure,

following the direction Of a great circle,or the shortest . course from


point to point.” (Compare'

E rman’s Reiseum die E rde

,Abth . i .

bd. iii . s . 8,Abth . ii . bd. i . s . 386

,with his Archiv fu

'

r wissen~

sch aftli ch e Kunde von Russland,bd.vi . s .

The Rocky -Mountains which sink down towards the MackenzieRiver

,which is covered a large portion of the year with ice

,and the

highlands from wh ic h single snow-clad summits rise,are altogether

distinct from .the more westerly and higher mountains Of the coast ,or the chain Of the Californian Maritime Alps

,the Sierra Nevada de

California . However ill selected th e now generally used name ofthe Rocky Mountains

,to designate the most northerly continuation

Of the Mexican Central Chain,it does not appear to me desirable to

change it,as has been often proposed

,for that of the O regon Chain .

A lthough these mountains do indeed contain the sources of Lewis’s,Clark’s

,and North Fork

,the three chief branches which form the

mighty O regon, or Columbia River, yet this river also breaksthrough the Californ ian chain of snow-c lad Maritime Alps . The

name of O regon District 1s also employed politically and official lyfor the smaller territory west of the Coast Chain, whereFort Van

c Ouver and the Walahmu tt i settlements are situated,and therefore

it is the more desirable not to give the name of O regon either to the

Central or the Coast Chain . This name is connected with a mostsingular mistake of an eminent geographer

,M . Malte Brun : Reading

on an old Spanish map,

“And it is not yet known (y aun se ignora)where the source of thi s river’.’ ( th e river now called the Columbia)“ is situated

,

” he thought he recogn ized In the word Ignora the nameof O regon . ( See myE ssai politique sur la Nouvel le E spagne, t .ii . p .

The rocks which,

'where the Columbia breaks through the Ch ain,

form the Cataracts,mark the continuation of the Sierra Nevada de

California from the 44th to the 47th‘

degree of latitude . (Fremont,Geographical Memo1r upon—Upper California

,1848

,p . This

northern continuation comprises the three colossal summits of Mount

Jefferson,Mount Hood

,and Mount St . Helen’s

,which rise more

than Fren ch or E nglish feet above the level of thesea . The height Of this Coast Chain, or Range, far exceeds, therefore

,that of the Rocky Mountains . “

During a j ourn ey Of eight

men th s’ duration which was made a long the Maritime Alps,” Says

58 STE PPE S AND“

DESERTS. 1

Captain Fremont,in his Report

,p .

’

274 ,“we h ad snowy p eaks

always in view ; we had surmounted the Rocky -Mounta in s by the

South Pass at an elevation of 7027 feet,but we found

the passes of the Maritime Al ps,which are di vided into several

parallel ranges,more than 2000feet higher therefore

,Oh ly about

1170feet (1247 E .) below the summit of E tna . It i s extremelyremarkable

,and reminds ‘us of

.

the difference between the eastern

and western Cordilleras of Chili,that it is onl y the chain Of mount

ains nearest to the sea ( the Californian range), which h as still

active volcanoes . The conical mountainsof Regnier and St. Helen’sare Seen to emit smoke almost constantly, and On

‘

the 23d Of N0vember

, ‘

1843,Mount St. Helen’s sent forth a quantity of ashes

whi ch covered the banks of the Columbia .for forty miles like snow .

To the volcanic Coast Range also belong, ( in Russian America in

the high north,)Mount St . \E lias ( 1980 toises high, according to

La Perouse,and 2792 toises, according to Malaspina and

E . feet), and Mount Fair Weather (Cerro de Buen Tempo)2304 toises

,or E . feet high . Both these mountains are

supposed to be'

still active volcanoes. Fremont’s E xpedition (whichwas important alike for its botanical and geological results), collected

volcanic products,such as scoriaceou s basalt

,trachyt e

,and even Obsi

di an,in the Rocky Mountains

,and found

'

an extinct volcanic crater a

little to the east of Fort Hall ( lat . 43° long

—112O 28' W.) but

there are no signs of volcanoes still active,that is to say, emitting at

times lava or ashes . We are not to confound with such activity thestill imperfectly explained phenomenon of smoking hills ;” cOteS

brfi lées ,” or “ terrains ardens

,

” as they are called by the E nglish sett lers

,and by n at iyes speaking French . An accurate observer

,M .

Nic oll et,says

,

“Ranges of low conical hills are covered with a thickblack smoke ahn ost periodi call y, and Often for two or three years toge

ther. No flames are seen . This phenomenon shows itselfprincipally

in the district of theUpper Missouri,and still nearer to the eastern de

c l ivity of the Rocky Mountains, where a river bears the native nameof Mankiz itah -Watpa, or the

“ river Of the smoking earth .

” Sco

riac eo/u s pseudo-volcanic products, such as a kind Of porcel ain j asper,

are found in the vicinity of the “ smoking hill s .” Since the expedition Of Lewis and Clark

,an ~ opin ion has become prevalent that the

60 STE PPE S’AND D E SE RTS .

son’S Bay from th ose which seek the Gulf of Mexic o . Such adividing line is formed north Of Lake Superior by the MissabayHeights

,and more to the west by the Hauteurs des

which were first discovered,in 1832

,the true sources of the Missis

sippi,one of th e largest rivers in the world . The high est of these

ranges of hills hardly attains an elevation Of -1400to'

1500 (1492 to1599 E nglish) feet. From St . Louis

,a little to the south ofw th e

j unction of_

the Missouri and the Mississippi,to the mouth . of the

latter river at O ld French Balize, it has only a fa l li

of 357 ( 380

E ngli sh) feet in an i tinerary dis tance of more than 1280geograph ical miles . The surface Of Lake Superior is 580 (618 E nglish) feet

above the level Of the sea,and its depth near Magdalen Island is 742

(791 E nglish) feet ; its bottom,therefore

,is 162 ( 173 E nglish) feet

below the surface of t h e ocean . (Nicollet, pp . 99,125 and

Beltrami , who separated himself from Maj or Long’s E xpedition in

1825,boasted of having di scovered the source of the Mississippi

in 1 Lake Cass . The river in the upper part of its course p assesthrough four lakes

,Of which Lake Cass is the second . Th e upper

most is the Ista ca Lake ( in lat . 47° and long. 95° and was

first recognized as the true source of the Mississippi in the expeditionof Schoolcraft and A llen in 1832. This afterwards mighty river is

only 17 feet wide and 15 inches deep when it issues from the singu

lar horseshoe-shaped Lake of Ista ca . It was not u n t ill

t h e scientificexpedition of Nic ol let, in 1836, that a clear knowledge Of the localities was Obt

'

ained and rendered definite by astronomically determinedpositions . The height of the sources of the Mississippi

,viz . of the

r emotest afli u en t . received by the Lake of Ista ca from the dividingridge

,or “Hauteur de Terre

,

” is 1575 (1680 E nglish) feet abovethe level of the Sea. In the immediate vicinity

,and indeed on th e

southern slope of the same dividing ridge,is E lbow Lake

,in which

the smaller Red River o f the north,which after many windings

flows into Hudson’s Bay, has its origin . The Carpathian Mountainspresent similar circumstances in the proximity and relative positions

Of the sources of rivers which send , th eir waters r espectively to the

Black Sea and to the Bal tic . Twenty small lakes,forming n arrow

groups to the south and west of Lake Istaca , have received from M .

Nic ollet the names Of distingui shed E uropean as tronomers, adversa

ries as well as friends The map thus becomes a kind of geographi s

ANNOTATIONS AND '

ADDITIO’

NS. 61

cal album,reminding one of the botanical album of Ruiz and Pavon’s

'Flora Peruviana,infwh ich the names of n ew genera

,

of plan ts wereadapted to the Court Calendar

,and to the various: changes taking

place l n the O fic iales de la Secretaria .

To the east of the Mississippi dense forests still partially prevail ;bu t to the west of the river there are only Prairies

,in which the

buffalo (Bos americanus), and the musk -ox , (Bos moschatus), feed 111large -herds . .Both these animals (the largest of the New World)serve the wandering Indians

,the Apa

’

ches Llaneros and the A'

paches

Lipan os, for food . Th e gAssin iboin s sometimes kill in a few days

from seven to eight hundred bisons in what are called “ bison parks,

”

artificial enclo sures into Which the wild .herds are driven “ (Maxi

milian,Prinz z u Wied

,Reise in das innere Nord-America

,bd. i .

1839,s . Th e American bison, or buffalo, called by the

Mexicans cibolo,which is frequently killed merely for the sake of

the tongue,a much-priz ed_ dain ty, is by no means a mere variety of

th e Aurochs of the O ld Continent ; although some other kinds of

animals,as

(the elk (Cervus alces) and th e p

reindeer (Cervus taran

dus), and even, in the human race, the short-statured polar-man, arecommon to ( the northern part s of both continents

,evidencing their

former long-c ontinued connection . The Mexicans call the E uropean

ox in the Aztec d ialect “qu aquahu e,

” a horned animal,from qua

qu ahu itl , a horn . Some very large horns of cattle ' found in theancient Mexican bui ldings

,not far from Cuernavaca

,to the south

west of the city of Mexico, appear to me to have belonged to themusk ox . The Canadian bison can be tamed to agricultural labor.

It breeds with the E uropean cattle,but it was long uncertain whether

the hybrid was fruitful . Albert Gallatin, wh o, before h e appearedin E urope as a distingui shed diplomatist

,had obtained by personal

inspection great knowledge of the uncultivated parts of the UnitedStates

,assures us that “ the mixed breed was quite common fifty

years ago in some of the north-western counties of Virginia andth e cows

,th e issue of tha t mixture

,propagated like all others .” “I

do not remember,

” he adds,

“ th e grown bison being tamed, but

sometimes young bison calves were caught by dogs, and were broughtup and driven out with the E uropean cows . At Monongahela all

the cattle were for a long time of this mixed breed : but complaints6


were made that they gave very little milk . The favorite food of

the bison or bufi alo is Tripsacum dactyloides (called buffalo grass inNorth Carolina), and an undescribed species of clover nearly alli ed

‘

to Trifolium repens,and designated by Barton as Trifolium bison i

cum .

I have already called attention elsewhere (Cosmos, vol . 11. note455

,E nglish ed .) to the c ircu stan ce that

,according to a statement

of the trustworthy Gomara (Historia General de las Indias, cap .

there was still living in the sixteenth century,in thg n orth -west of

Mexico,in 40° latitude

,an Indian tribe

,whose principal riches

consisted in herds of tame bisons (bueyes con una giba). But notwithstanding the p ossibility of taming the bison, notwithstanding

the quantity of milk it yields,and notwithstanding the herds of

lamas in the Cordi l leras of Peru,no pastoral life or pastoral people .

were found when America was discovered,and there is no historica l

evidence of this intermediate stag e in the life of nations ever having

existed there . It i s worthy of remark that the American buffalo or

bison has exerted an influence on the progress of geography l n track

less mountainous regions . These animals wander,in the winter

,in

search of a mi lder climate,in herds of several thousands to the south

of the Arkansas River . In these migrations their size and unwieldi

ness make‘

it diffi cul t for them to pass over high mountains . When,

therefore,a well-trodden buffalo path is metw ith, it is advisable to

follow it,as being sure to conduct to the most convenient pass across

the mountains . The best routes through the Cumberland Mount

ains,in the south-west parts of Virginia and Kentucky

,in the

Rocky Mountains between the sources of the Yellow Stone and the

Platte,and between the southern branch of the Columbia and the

Rio Colorado of California, were thus marked out beforehand by .

bufl'

alo paths . The advance of settlement and cultivation has gra

dually driven the bufi alo from all the E astern Sta tes : they formerly

roamed on the banks of the Mississippi and'

of the Ohio far beyondPittsburg . (Arch aeologia Americana, vol . ii . 1836, p .

From the granitic cliffs of Diego Ramirez—in the deeply indented r

and intersected Tierra del Fuego,whi ch contains on the east Silurian

schists,and on the west the same schists altered by the metamorphic

action of subterranean fire, (Darwin

’s Journal of Researches into the


Geology and Natural History of the C ountries visited in 1832—1836by the Ships Adventure and Beagle

,p . 266) - to the North t Polar

Sea,the Cordilleras extend in length more than 8000geographical

miles . They are the l c‘

mgest though not the'

loftiest chain on ourplanet ; being raised from a cleft running in the direc tien of a meridian from pole to

'

pole,and exceeding in linear distance the interval

which in'

the O ld Continent separates the Pill ars of Hercules fromthe IcyC ape of the Tchuktch es in the n orth least of Asia . Wherethe Andes di vide into several parallel chains

,it is remarked that the

~ranges nearest the sea are usually those which exh ibit most volcanic

activity ; but it has also been observed repeatedly, that, when the

phenomena of still active subterranean fire disappear in one chain,

they break out in another cha in running parallel to it. Generally

speaking, the volcanic cones are found in a direction correspondingwith that of the axis of direction of .the entire chain ; but in the

elevated highlands of Mexico the active volcanoes are placed along

a transverse cleft running from sea to sea in the east and west direc

tion. (Humboldt, E ssai Politique, t . ii . p . Where,by the

elevation of'

mountain masses in the ancient corrugation or folding

of the crust of the earth,access has been opened to the molten inte

rior,that interior continues to act, through the medium of the cleft,

upon the.

upheaved wall-like mass . That which we now call amountain chain has not .

arrived at once'

a t its present state : rocks,

very different in th e o'

rder of succession in reference to age, are foundsuperimposed upon each other

,and have penetrated to the surface

by early formed channels . Th e various nature of the formations isdue to the outpouring and elevation of eruptive rocks

,as well as to

the slow and complicated process of metamorphic action taking placein clefts fil led with vapors and favorable tol th e conduction of heat .For a l ong time past,from 1830to 1848, the following have been

regarded as the culminating or highest points of the Cordilleras of

the New Continent .’

The Nevado de Sorata,also called Ancohuma or Tu subaya

( S . lat e 15° a little to the south of th e village of Sorataor E squibel

,in the eastern Bolivia Range : elevation 3949

toises,or Parisian

,or E nglish feet .

The Nevado de Illimani,west of the Mission of Yrupana


( S . lat . 16° in . the same mountain range at'

Sorata: eleva

tion 3 753 toises , or Parisian,or E nglish feet.

The Chimborazo (S . lat . 1° in the province of Qu ito :

elevation 3350toises,or Parisian

,or E ngl ish

feet .

The Sorata and Ill imani were first measured by a distinguished

geologist,Mr. . Pentland

,in 1827, and also in 1838 . Since the

publica tion, in June, 1848, of h is great map of the basin of theLake of Titicaca

,we know that the above-mentioned elevations of

these two mountains are respectively 3960and 2851 E nglish feet

too great : The map gives to the Sorata and to the E l iman iE ngli sh -feet . A more exact calculation

'

of the trigonometrica l Operations of 1838 has led Mr . Pentland to these new resul ts.There are

,according to him

,in the western Cordill era

,four peaks of

from to E ngli sh feet. The highest of these,the Peak

of Sahama,woul d thus be 926 'E nglish feet higher than the Chim

bora z o,and but 850 E nglish feet lower than the Volcano of Acon

gagna,measured by the E xpedition of the Beagle (Fitz Roy

’s Nar~

rative,vol . ii . p .

(6

) p . 26. The D esert n ea r the ba saltic moun ta ins of Harudsh .

Near the E gyptian Natron L akes, (which in the time of Strabo

had not yet been divided into six reservoirs,) there is a range of hillswhich rise s steeply on the northern side, and runs from east towestpast Fezzan

,where it finally appears to j oin the chain of the Atlas .

It divides in north-easternAfrica,as theAtlas does in north-western

Africa,the inhabited maritime Lybia of Herodotus from the land of

l imits of Middl e E gypt the whole region south of the 30th degree ofnorth latitude is a sea of sand

,in which are dispersed islands

,or

O ases, containing springs ofwater and a flourishin g vegetation . The

number of these O ases,of whi ch the an c ien ts only reckoned three,

and which Strabo compared to the spots on a panther’8 skin,has

been considerably augmented by the di scoveries of modern travellers.Th e . third O asi s of the ancients, now called Siwah, was the Ncmosof Ammon a a residence of priests

,a resting place for caravans

,and

,

the site of the temple of the horned Ammon and the supposed pe


riodica lly cool fountain of the Sun . The ruins ofUmmibida (OmniBeydah ) belong incontestably to the fortified caravanserai at thet emple o f Ammon, and therefore , to the

i

most a ncient monumentswhich have come down to us from the early dawn of civilization .

(Cail laud, Voyage a Syou ah , p . 14 ;‘ Ideler in den Fundgruben des

O rients,bd. iv . 8 . 399

The word O asis is E gyptian, and synonymous with Auasis and

Hyasis (Strabo, lib . ii . p . 130,lib . xvii . p : 813

,Cas . ; Herod . lib .

iii . cap . 26,p . 207, Wessel). Abul feda calls

‘

the O ases,

’

el-Wah .

In the later times of the Caesars,malefactors were sent to the O ases ;

being banished to these islands in the sea of sand,as the Spaniards

and the E nglish have sent criminals to the Falklands or to New

Holland . E scape by the ocean is almost easier than through the

desert. The fertility of t h e O ases is subject to diminution by theinvasion of sand.

The small mountain-range ofHarudsh is said to consist of basaltichills of grotesque form (Ritter

’s Afrika,1822, s . 885, 988, 993 ,

and It is the Mons Ater of Pliny a nd its western extremi

ty or continuation, called the Soudah mountains, has’ been explored

by my unfortunate friend,the adventurous traveller Ritchie . This

eruption of basalt in tertiary limestone,rows of hills rising abr uptly

from dike-like fis sures,appears to be analogous to the outbreak of

basalt in the Vicentine.territory. Nature often repeats the samephenomena in the most distant parts of the earth . In the limestoneformations of the f‘white Harudsh”(Harudj e el-Abiad), which

perhaps belong to the old chalk,Horn emann found an immense

number of fossil heads of fish. Ritchie and Lyon remarked that

the basalt of the Soudah mountains, like that of the Monte Berico,was in many places intimately mixed with carbonate of lime—a

phenomenon probably connected with eruption through lim estonestrata . Lyon’s map even mentions dolomite in the neighbourhood ;

Modern mineralogists have found syenite and gre'

enstone in E gypt,

but not basalt. Possibly th e 'material of some of.th e ancient E gyp

tian vases,which are occasionally found of true basalt

,may have

been taken from these western mountains . May Obsidi u s lapis”

also have been found there or are basalt and obsidian to be sought

for near the Red S ea ? The strip of volcanic or eruptive formations6a


of the Harudsh,on the margin of th e African Desert, reminds the

stone porphyry, which a re only found at the ,

northern and westernboundaries of the Steppes of-Venez uela and of the plains of the Ar

kansas,as it were on the hill s of the ancient co

'

ast line . (Humboldt ,Relation Historique

,tom . ii . p . 142 Long’s E xpedition -to the

Rocky Mountains,vol . ii .” pp . 91 and

( 7) p . 26. Wh en suddenly deserted by the ea st svind of the trop icsin a sea covered wi th weed .

”

It is a remarkabl e phenomenon,well

'known among sailors, that;in the vic in ity

’

of the African coast (between the Canaries and the

Cape de Verde Islands,and particularly between Cape Bojador and

the mouth of the Senegal), a west wind often takes the place of the

general eas t or trade-wind of the tropics . It Is the wide expanse of

the Desert of Sahara which causes this westerly wind . The air over

the heated sandy plain becomes rarefied,

-and ascends,the air from

the sea rushes in to supply the void so formed, and‘

th u s there some

times arises a west wind,adverse t o ships bound to the American

coast,which are made in this manner to feel the vicinity of the heat

radiating desert without even seeing the continent to which it belongs .

The changes of land and sea breezes, which blow alternately at cer

tain hours of the day or night on all coasts,are due to the same

causes .

The a c cumul at ion of sea-weed in the neighbourhood of the African coast has been often spoken of by ancient writers . The locality

of this accumul ation is a problem which is intimately connected withour ccnj ec tures respecting the extent of Phoenician n avigation .

The Periplus,which has been ascribed to Scylax of Caryanda, and

which,according to the researches of NIebuhr and Letronn e

,was

very probably Compiled In the time of Philip of Macedon,describes

beyond Cerne a quantity of fucu s f ormin g a w eed-covered sea—4 akind of Mar de Sargasso5 but the locality indicated appears tome to differ very much from that assigned in the work entitled

‘fDeMirabilibu s Auscul ta tion ibu s

,

” which long bore, unduly, the great

name of Aristot lef (Compare Scyl . Caryand. Peripl . in Hudson,vol . ii . p .

~53,with Aristot. de ‘Mirab . Auscult . in opp . omnia ex .


with'

th em in western navigation and commerce. But even in thegenuine writings of Aristotle (Meteorol . ii . pp . 1

,he maintains

this same opinion of the absence of wind in those regions,and seeks

the explanation ‘ of what he erroneously supposes to be a fact of

observation,but which is more properly a fabulous mariner’s tale

,

in an hypothesis concerning the depth of the sea .

' In reality,the

stormy sea between Gades and the islands of th e'

Blest or FOrtunateIslands, (between Cadi z and the Canaries

,) is very unlike the seafarther to the south between the tropics, where the gentle G

lade winds

blow,and which is called very characteristically by the Spaniards

,c l

Golfo de las DamaS,th e

'

Ladies’Gulf“ (Acosta,Hist oria natural y

moral de las Indias, lib . iii . cap .

From very.

careful researches by myself,and from the comparison

of the logs or j ournals of many E nglish and French vessels,I infer

that the old and indefini te expression,Mar de Sargasso

,includes two

banks of fucus,of which the greater and easternmost one

,of a length

,

ened Shape,1s situated between the parallels of 19 ° and 34° N . lat .

,

in a meridian of 7 degrees to the west of the Island of Corvo, oneof the Azores

,while the lesser and westernmost bank

,of a roundish

form,is situated between th e Bermudas and the Bahamas

, ( lat .

25° long . 66° The longer axis of the small bank which

is crossed by ships going from Baj o de Plata (Caye d’Argen t, Silver

Cay) en the north of St. Domingo,to the Bermudas

,appears to“ have

a N. 60° E . direction . A transverse band of Fucus natans,running

in an east and west direction betweeii the parallels of 25° and

connects the greater and lesser banks . I have had the gratification

of seeing these inferences approved by my honored friend Maj orRennell

,and adopted by him In his great work on Currents

,where

he has furth er supported and confirmed them by many new and ad

dition al observations . (Compare Humboldt, Relation Historique,t . i . p . 202, and E xamen Critique, t . iii . pp . 68-99

,with Renn el l’s

Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic O cean,1832

,p .

The two groups of sea-weed, included together with the transverseci

onnecting band under the old general name of the Sargasso Sea,

occupy altogether a space exceeding Six or seven times the area of

Thus it is the vegetation"

of the ocean which offers the most re


markable example of an assemblage of Social plants ”of a singleSpecies . O n terra firma

,the savannahs or prairies

,or grassy p lains

of America,the heaths (erice ta), and the forests Of the north of

E urope and Asia, consisting of c oniferous trees, birches, and will ows,offer a less degree of uniformity than do those th alassophyt es. O ur

h eaths Show, in the north, in addition to the prevailing Call una vuli

garis,E rica tetralix

,

‘

E . ciliaris,and E . cinerea and in the south

“

,

of the aspect offered by the Fuc us natans is grea ter than that of”

any‘

other assemblage or association of plants. O viedo calls the fucusbanks meadows

,

”praderias de yerba. Considering that the island

of Flores was di scovered in 1452,by Pedro Velasc o

,a native of the

Spanish port of Palos,by following the. flight of certain birds from

theisland of Fayal,it seems almost impossible, seeing the proximity

of the great fucus bank of Corvo and Flore s,th at a p art of these

oceanic meadows should not have been Seen before Columbus, byPortuguese ships driven by storms to the westward. Yet the aston ishmen t of the companions of Columbus in 1492

,when surrounded

by sea-weed uninterruptedl y from the l 6th of September to the 8thof O c tober

,. Sh ows that the magni tude of the phenomenon at least

was previously unknown to the sailors . Th e anxieties excited by the

accumulation of sea-weed,and

'

the murmurs of hi s companions inreference thereto

,are not indeed mentioned by Columbus In the ex

tra cts from the Ship’s journal given by Las Casas . He merely speaks

of the complaints and murmurs respecting the danger to be fearedfrom the weak but constant east winds. It is only the son, FernandoColon

,who

,in writing his father’s life, endeavored to depict the fears

of the sailors -in a dramatic manner.

According to my researches,

“ Columbus c rossed the great fucus

bank in 1492,in ‘ lat . and in 1493

,in lat . both times in

the long. of from 38° to 41° W. This is deducible with tolerablecertainty from Columbus’s recorded est imation ,of the ship’s rate

,and

the distance daily sailed over derived indeed,not from c asting the

log,but from data afforded by the running out

‘

of ‘ hal f-hour'

sandglasses (ampolletas). The first certain and definite mention of a log

’

( catena del la . poppa) which I have~

been able to dis cover,is in the

year 1521,in Pigafet ta

’s j ournal of Magellan’s Voyage round

“

the

70 STE PPE S AND,DE SE BTS .

World. (Cosmos, vol . 11. p . 259,and note 405

,E nglish ed .) Th e

determination of the ship’s place,while Columbus was engaged in

traversing the great meadows of sea-weed,is the more important

,

because we learn fromit that for three centuries and a half the situation of thi s great accumul ation of th alaSSOphytes, whether resulting

from the local character of the bottom of the sea,or from the direc

tion of the Gulf Stream, h as remain ed the same . Such evidences

of the permanency of great natural phenomena arrest the attention

of the physical inqu irer‘

with double force, when they present themselves in the ever-mov mg oceanic element . Although the limi ts ofthe fucus banks oscillate considerably

,In correspondence with the

variations of the strength and di rection of the prevailing winds,yet

We may stil l In the middle of the 19th century take the meridian of41° W. from Paris (38

° 38’W. from(

Greenwich) as the principalaxis of . the great bank .

” In the vivid imagination of Columbus ,the idea of the position of this bank was int imately connec ted with

the great physical'l ine of demarcation

, wh ich, _ according to him,dii

vided the globe into two parts, with the changes of magnetic varia

tion,and With climatic relations . ’

v

Columbus,when uncertain rel

specting his longitude, (February directed himself by the

appearance of the first floating streamers of weed (de la primerayerba) on the eastern margin of the great Corvo bank . The phy

sical line of demarcation was, by the powerful influence Of the Ad

miral,converted on the 4th of May

,1493

,into a poli tical line, being

made the celebrated “ line of demarcation” between the Spanish andPortuguese rights of possession . (Compare my E xamen Critique,tom . iii . pp . 64—99

,and Cosmos

,E nglish ed .

,vol. ii . pp . 279

(8

) p . 27 . Th e Noma d ic Ti bbos a nd Tua ricks .

These two nations inhabit theDeserts between Bornou,Fezzan

,and

Lower E gypt. They were first made known to us wi th some exactness by Hornemann

’s and Lyon’s travels . The Tibbos or Tibbous

roam th rough f th e eastern,and the Tuaticks (Tueregs) through

'the

western,parts of the Great Desert . The first are called by the other

tribes,from being in continual movement,

“ birds .” The Tu aricksare distingu ISh ed into those of Agh adez and th ose o f Tagazi . Theyare often engaged as conductors of caravans

,and in trade. Their

ANNOTATIONS AND A DDITIONS. 71

langu age is the same as that of the Berbers and they belong'

un ;

qu'estionably to the number of the primitive Lybian nations . The

Tuaricks present a remarkable physiological phenomenon . Differenttribes among them are

,according to the climate

,white

,yellowish

,

and even almost black ; but all are without woolly hair or negro

features . ( E xploration sc ien t ifiqu e de l’Algérie, t . ii . p .

(a) p .

'

27 . The Ship of the D esert.”

In oriental poems,the camel is called the land-ship

,or the ship

of th e Desert (Sefyn et-el—badyet). (Chardin, Voyages, nouv. cd’

. par

Langles, 1811, t . iii . p .

But the c arriel Is not merely the carrier of theDesert,and the l ink

Which,rendering communication between different countries possible,

connects them with each other : he is also, as . Carl Ritter sh as Shown

in his excellent memoir on the sphere of diffusion of these animals,

the principal and essential condition of the nomadic life of nationsin the patriarchal stage of national development, in the hot parts of

our planet Where rain is either altogetherwanting, or very infrequent .No animal’ss life Is so closely associated by natura l bonds with a par

t icu lar stage of the development of the life of man—a connectionhistorically established for several thousand years—as the life of thecamel among the Bedouin tribes (Asien, bd. viii . Abth . i . 1847 ,s . 610 und The camel was entirely unknown to the

cultivated Carth agin iaii nation through all the centuries of theirflourishing existence

,until the destruction of their city. The Maru

sians first brought it into military use,in the train of armies, in

Western Lybia , in the times of the Caesars'

perhaps in'

consequence

of its employment in commercial operations in the valley of the

Nile by the Ptolemies . The Guanches, inhabitants of the Canary

Islands,and

'

probably related to the Berber race, were n ot acquainted

with the camel before the 15th century,when i t was introduced by

Norman conquerors and settlers . In the probably verylimited commun ic at ion of the Guanches with the coast of Africa, the small

'

'size of the boats would prevent the transport of large animals . The

true Berber race,diffused th rongh ou t th e interior of Northern

Africa,and to which the Tibbos and Tu aricks, as already mentioned,


belong,owes doubtless to the use of the -camel

”

throughout th e Lybian Desert and -i ts Oa ses, not only the advantages of in tercommun ic at ion

, bu t also the preservation of its national existence to thepresent day . O n the other hand, the negro races never, of their

own accord, made an y use of the camel ; it was only in companywith the conquering expeditions and proselyting mi ssions of the

Bedouins,carrying their prophet’s doctrines over the

( whole of

Northern Africa,that th e ‘

u seful animal of the Nedj id, of the Nabath ean s

,and of all the countries inhabited by Aramean races

,spread

The Goths took camels as early as

'

th'

e fourth century to the LowerIstros (the Danube), and the Gh a z nevides conveyed them in muchlarger numbers as far as India and the banks of the Ganges .” We

must distingui sh two epochs in the diffusion of the camel throughout the northern part of theAfrican continent ; one under the Ptole

mies,Operating through Cyrene on the whole of the north-west of

Africa ; and th e Mohammedan epoch of th e conquering Arabs .

It has long been a question, Whether those domestic animals whichhave been the earliest companions of mankindr—oxen, sheep, dogs,and camels—are still to be met wi th in a state of original wildness .

The Hiongnu , in E astern Asia, belong to the nations -wh o earliesttamed and trained wild camels as domestic animals . The compilerof the great Chinese work

,' Si-yu

-Wen -kien-lo, (Historia Regionum.

oc c iden tal ium,quae Si-yu vocan tur

,visu et auditu cogn itarum,)affirms

that,in the middl e of the 18th century

,wild c amels, as wel l as wild

horses and wil d'

asses, st ill wandered in E ast Turkestan . Hadj i

Ch alfa , in his Turkish Geography, written in the 17th century,Speaks of the frequent chase of th e ,wil d camel in the high plainsof Kashgar

,Turfan, and Khotan . Schott translates

,from a Chinese

author,Ma-dschi , that wild camels are to be found in the countries

to the north of China and west of the Hoang-ho,

' in Ho-si or Tan~

gut. Cuvier alone (Regne Animal, t . i . p . 257) doubts the present existence of Wild camels in the interior of Asia . He believe s

they have merely “ become Wild ;” because Calmucks

,and others

ha ving Buddhistic religious affinities with them,set camels and other

animal s at liberty,in order to acquire to themselves merit for the

other world .

”A ccording to Greek witnesses of the times of Ar


Nabath ean s was the home of the wild Arabian camel ._ (Ritter

’s

Asien,bd. viii . s . 670, 672, and , The discovery ,

of fossilcamel bones of the ancient world ‘ by Capta in Cantley and Doctor :

Falconer,in 1834

,in the sub-Himalaya range of the Sewal ik hills, is

pecul iarly deserving of notice .

3 These bones were found with other

ancient bones of mastodons, of true elephants, of giraffes, and .of a

gigantic land tortoise (Colossochelys), twelve feet in length and Six

feet in height. (Humboldt, Cosmos, E ng]. ed . vol ..i . p . This

camel of the . Ancient World has received the name of Camelussivalen sis, but does not Show any considerable difference fromthe still living E gyptian

, and Bactrian camels with . one and twohumps. Forty camels have very recently been

'

introduced into~

Java,

having been brought there from (Singapore Journal ofthe Indian Archipelago, 1847 , p . The first experiment has

been made in Samarang. In l ikel

manner, reindeer have only beenintroduced into Iceland from Norway in the course of the last cen

tury. They were not found there when the island was settled,not

withs tanding the proximity to E ast Greenland,and the , existence of

floating masses of ice . (Sartorius von Waltershausen -physisch

geographische Skizze von Island,1847, s .

p . 27 . Between the Alta i a nd the Kuen-Z it'

n .

Th e great highland, or as it'

is commonly call ed,the mountain

plateau of Asia,which includes the lesser Bu ch aria

,Songarei , Thi

situated between the 36th and 48th degrees of latitude, and the

meridi ans of 81° and 118° E . long. It“

is an erroneous view torepresent thi s part of the interior of Asia as a s ingle undivided

mountainous gibbosity, continuous like the elevated plains of Quito

and Mexico,and elevated from seven to ni ne. thousand feet above

the level of the sea . That there is not in t his sense any undividedmountain plateau in the interior of Asia, has already

’been shown byme

,in my Researches respecting the Mountains ofNorthern India .

”

(Humboldt, Premier Mémoire sur leS .Montagnes de l’Inde,in the

Annales de Chimie et de Physique; t. iii . 1816, p .

.

303 ; Second

Mémoire,t . xiv.

‘1820

,pp . 5

74 f“

STE PPE S AND DE SE nTs .

My views concerning th e'

geOgraphical range of plants, a nd the

nic an degree of temperature requisite for certain kinds of cul tiva

tion,had early led me to entertain considerable doubts as to the

continui ty of a. great .Tartarian plateau between the Himal aya and

the Altai . Writers continued to characterize th is pl ateau as it hadbeen described by Hippocrates (De E re et Aquis, xcvi .as “ the high and naked plains

’

of Scythia,which

,without being

tion’of t h e’

Bear. Klaproth has the unden iable merit r e f having

been the fir st to m ake us acquainted with the true position, exten t,and di rection of two great an d ‘

en t irely di stinct chains of mountain s—‘ theKuen-liin and the Thian-schan, in a part of Asia which isbetter e ntitled to thename of “ c ehtra l” than Kashmeer, Baltist an,and the Sacred Lakes of T hibet (the Manasa: and the Ravanah rada).The importance of the Celestial Mountains

,the Thian-schan

,had

indeed been already surmised by Pallas,without his being aware of

their volcanic nature ; but this highly-gifted investigator of nature,hampered by the then prevailing hypothesis of a dogmatic and fantastic geology

,firml y believing in

“ chains of mountains radi ating

froma centre,

” saw in the Bogdo O ola ( the Mons Augustus, or

culminating point of th e Thi an-schan) such a“ central node

,from

whence all the Asiatic mountain chains diverge in rays,and which

dominates over al l the rest of th e'

c on tinen t l”

The erroneous idea of a single vast elevated plain occupying thewhole of Central Asia

,the “Plateau de la Tartaric

,

” “

took its rise in

Franc e,in the latter half of the 18th centu ry . It was the result ofh isterical combinations

,and of a not sufi c ien tly attentive study of

‘th e writings of the celebrated Venetian traveller, as well as of thenaive

'

relations of th ese diplomatic monks who,in the 13 th and 14th

centuries, ( thanks to the h n ity and extent of the Mogul empire atthat time,) were able to traverse almost the whole of the interior ofth e continent, from the ports of Syria and of-the Caspian Sea to theshores Of the Pacific on the ’east coast of China . If a more exact

acquaintance with the language and ancient literature of India h addated farther back ‘ among us than half a century

,the hypothesis of

this c entral . plateau,occupying the wide space between the Hima

laya and the south of Siberia,would no doubt have h ad adduced in its

support an ancient and venerable authority from that source . The


Ladak, Gertop, and H

’lassa

, ( the seat of the Great Lama,) 720geographical miles ; between Hami in the Celestial Mountains, andthe great bend of the Hoang-h o near .the In -schan chain

,hardly

480 and in the north,between the Kh angga i, where the great city

of Karakh orum once stood,

‘ and the chain of Khin-gan -Petsch a,

which runs north and south (in the part of th e Gobi traversedin travelling ‘ from Kiac hta by Urga to Pekin) 760 geogra

ph ical miles . The whole extent of this swelling ground,which

must be carefully distinguished from the far more elevatedm oun ta in

ran ge to th e '

east,

‘

may be approximately estimated, t aking its in

flec t ion s into account, at about three times the area of“France . The

map of the mountain ranges and volcanoes of Central Asia (Cartsder Bergketten und Vulkane von Central-Asien), constructed byme in 1839

,but not published until 1843

,Shows in the clearest

manner the hypsometric relations between the mountain ranges and

the Gobi plateau . It was founded on the critical employment of all

the astronomical determination s accessible to me,and on a vast

amount of , orographic description, in which Chinese l iterature is

beyond measure rich, examined'

at my request by Klaproth andStanislas Ju l ien . My map marks the mea n direction and the

height of the mountain ch ain sfiand represents the leading features

of the interior of the continent of Asia,from 30° to 60° of north

latitude,and between the meridians

'

of Kherson and Pekin . It

differs materially from‘

any previously published map:

The Chinese have enjoyed -a threefold advantage towards thecollection of so great an amount of orographic data in the high lands

of Asia,and more especially in the regions (hitherto so little known

in the west) north and south of the Celestial mountains, betweenthe In-schan

,themountain lake Kh uku -noor

,and the banks of the

Il i and the Tarim . The three advantages I allude to are, —themilitary expeditions towards the weSt, (under the d ynasties of Hanand Thang

,122 years before our era, and again in the ninth century

wh eiI conquerors advanced as far . as Fergh ana and to the borders ofthe .Caspian

,) together with th e more peaceful conquests of Buddhistic pilgrims -the rel igiou s

‘

i n terest atta ching to certain lofty

mountain summits on a ccount of sacrifi ces to be periodically offeredthere —and the early and general use of the compass in giving the


direc tions of ’mountains and of rivers . The knowledge and '

use ofthe ‘5South pointing” of. the magnetic needle ,

twelve centuries beforeour era; has given to the orOgraph ic and hydrographic descriptionsof countries by the Chinese

,a great superiority over the de scriptions

of the same kind which Greek or Roman writers havebequeathed

to us,and which are besides extremely few. The acute and saga

c iou s Strabo was alike imperfectly acquainted with the[direction of

t he Pyrenees, an d with those of the Alps and

,of th e .Apenn ines .

(Compare Strabo, lib.

’

ii . pp . 71 and”

128 ; lib . iii . p . 137 ; lib . iv. p .

199 and 202; lib . v . p . 211, Casaub .)

To the lowlands belong almost the Whole of Northern Asia to thenorth-west of the volcanic chain of the Thian-schan ; —the

'

Steppes tothe north of the Altai and of the Sayan chain —the countrieswhi chextend from the mountains of Bolor

,or Bu lyt-Tagh, cloud moun

tains ” in the Uigurian‘

dialect,)which follow a north and south

direction,and from the upper Oxus, (Whose sources were found by

the‘

B uddhistic pilgrims Hiuen e th sang and Song-yun”

in 518 and629

,by Marco Polo in 1277 , and by Lieutenant Wood in 18 38, in

the Pamer Lake,Sir-i-kol

,Lake Victoria

,) towards the Caspian ;and from Tc ngh ir or the Balkhash Lake through the Kirgh isSteppe

,towards the sea of Ar al and “ the southern extremity of the

Ural mountains . AS c ompared‘

with high plains of 6000tofeet above the level of the sea

,it may be well permitted to use the

expressions of “ lowland s ” for flats of little more ’ than 200to 1200feet of elevation . The lowest of the last two numbers correspondsnearly to the altitude of the town of Mannheim

,and the h ighest

to that of Geneva and Tubingen . If the Word plateau,so often

misemployed in modern works on geography, Is to have its use extended to el cva tion s which hardly present .any sensible difference in

climate and vegetation,the indefin iteness of the expressions high

lands and”

lowlands,

” which are only relative terms, will deprive

physical geography of themeans of expressing the idea of the con

n ec tion between elevation and climate, between the profile or reliefof the ground and .the decrease of temperature . When I foundmyself

x in Chinese Dz ungarei, between the boundary of Siberia andLake Dsaisang, at an equal distance from the Icy Sea and from themouth of the Ganges

,I might well consider myself In Central ’As ia .

7>k


The barometer,however

,soon taught me that the p lains through

which the Upper Irtysh flows,between Ustkamen ogorsk and the

Chinese Dz u ngarian Post, Ch

'

on imailach u, (sheep-bleating,) are

scarcely rais ed 850, or at the most 1170, feet above the level of the

sea . Pan sner’s older barometric measurements (which, however,

were n ot published until after my expedition) are confirmed bymine . Both refute the hypothesis of Chappe , relative to the supposedhigh elevation of the banks of the Irtysh

,in Southern Siberia ; an

hypothesis based on estimations of river decli vities .“ E ve‘

s furtherto the E ast

,Lake Baikal is only 222 t oises

,or . 1420E nglish feet

,

above the level of the sea .

Inorder to connect the idea‘

of the rela tion of the terms lowla ndsarid h igh la nd s, and of the various gradations in the height of ele

vated plains or undulating grounds, with actual examples ascertained

by'

measuremen t , I have subj oined a table, forming an ascendifigscale of such distri cts in different parts of th e globe .

”

What Ihave said above respecting the mean height of ' those Asiatic plains

,

which I have terfn ed lowlands,may be compa red with the following

numbers

of Au vergn e

of Ba varia

of C a st i l le

of Mysoreof Ca ra cca s

of Popaya nrou nd Lake T z an a ( in Abyss in ia )of th e O ra nge Rive r ( in Sou th Afric a)of Axum ( in Abyss in ia )

of th e Provin c e de lo s Pa s tos

rou nd Lake T i tia c a

N0 portion of the so-called Desert of Gobi (parts of whichtain fine pastures) h as been so thoroughly explored in respect to thedifferences of elevation as the zone

,of n early 600 geographical

miles in b read th, between the sources of the Selenga and the great

Wall of China. A‘

very exact series'

of barometric levellings was

ANNOTATIONsANDADDITIONS. 79

executed under th e'

auspices of the Academy of St. Petersburgh by twodistinguished savan s

,the astronomer GeorgeFuss

,and the botanist

Bunge . In the year 1832 they accompanied the mission of Greek

monks to Pekin,to establish there one of the magnetic stations re

commended by me . Th e mean height of this part of Gobi doesnot amount

,as had been too hastily inferred from the measurement

of neighbouring summits by the Jesuits Gerbil lon and Verbiest,to

from 7500to 8000French (8000 to 8500E ngl ish) feet, but onlyto littlemore than half that height

,or barely 4000French or 4264

E nglish feet . Between .E rgh i, Burma, and Sch arabu'

rgu n a , the

ground is only 2400French,or 2558 E nglish feet above the

.

level

of the sea,or hardly 300French E nglish) feet higher than

the plateau of Madrid . E rgh i i s situated midway, in lat . 45°

long . 111° 26’ E . from Greenwich . There Is here a depression Of

more than 240miles m breadth,in a SW. and NE . direction . An

ancient Mogul tradition marks it as the bottom of a former inlandsea . There are found in it reeds and saline plants

,mostly of the

same kinds as those on the low shores Of t h e Caspian,In this

central part‘

Of the desert there are small salt lakes,from which salt

is carried to China. According to a singular Opinion very

/

prevalen t

among the Moguls,the ocean will one day return and establish its

empire anew in Gobi . O ne is reminded of the Chinese tradition ofthe bi tter lake

,in the anterior of Siberia

,mentioned by me in an

other work . (Humboldt, Asie Centrale, tom . ii . p . 141”Klaproth

Asia Polyglotta, p . The valley or basin Of Kashmeer,so

enthusiastically extolled by Bernier,and but too moderately praised

by Victor Ja cquemon t , has also given occasion to great hypsometric

exaggerations . By a careful barometrical "measurement,Jacque

mont found the height Of theWulur Lake in the valley Of Kashmeer,

not far from the chiefcity Siri n agur, 836 toises, or 5346 E nglish fee t.

Uncertain determinations by the boiling point of water gave Baron

Carl von Hiigel a result Of 910, and Lieutenant Cunningham only

790toises . (Compare my As ie Centrale, tom . iii . p . 310,with the

Journal of th e Asiatic Society of Bengal,vol . x . 1841

,p .

Kashmeer,—respecting which

,in Germany particularly, so much

interest has been felt,but the delightfulness Of whose climate is

considerably -impaired by four months of win tei

r‘

snow,in the streets


Of Sirinagur (Carl von Htigel , Kaschmir, bd. 11. s . - is notsituated

,-as is often supposed, upon the ridgeof the Himalaya,_

b'

t1t

is a true cauldron-shaped valley’ (Kessel th al , Cal dera) on t he

southern declivity of those mountains . O n the south-wes t, wherethe rampart-like elevation Of the Pir Panjal separates it from the Pun

j aub, the snow-covered summits are crowned,according to Vigne,

with formations Of basalt and amygdaloid . The latter f ormation

has received fromthe natives the characteristic name of sc h isch ak

deyu,

” marked by the devil’s small-pox . (Vigne, Travels in Kash

Ineer,1842

,vol . i . pp. 23 7 The beauty of its vegetation has

from the earliest times been very differently described,a ccording as

th e’

vi sitor came from the rich and luxuriant vegetation of India,or

from the northern regions of Turkestan,Samarcand

,and Fergh ana .

'

It is also only very recently that clearerviews h ave been Obtained

respecting the elevation of Thibet ;'

the level of the plateau havinglong been most uncritically confounded with the summits which risefrom it . Thibet occupies the interval between the two great chains

of the Himalaya and the Kuen-liin,forming the raised ground of

the valley between them . It is divided from east to west, both by

the natives and by Chinese geographers,into three portions . Upper

Thibe t,with its capital city H’

lassa,probably 1500 toises (9590

E nglish feet) above”

the level of the sea —Middle Thibet,with the

town Of Leh or Ladak (1563 toises, 01‘ 9995 E nglish feet) —and

Little Thibet,or Baltistan

,called the

.

Thibet Of Apricots, (Sari

Boutan,) in which are situated Iskardo (985 toises, or6300E nglish

feet), Gilgit, and south Of Iskardo but on the left‘

bank of th e Indus,the plateau of Deotsuh

,measured by Vigne

,and found to be 1873

toises,or E nglish feet . O n examining all the notices that

we poss’

ess‘

r‘espec ting the three Thibets, ( and which iwil l ‘ have re

c eived in -the present year a rich -augmentation by the boundary.

expedition under the auspices of the governor-general, Lord x

Da l

housie,) we soon become convinced that the region between the

Himalaya and the Kuen-liin is no unbroken plain or table land,'bu t

wholly distinct systems Of elevation . There are,properly speaking

,

very few plains’

; the most considerable are those between Gertop,Daba, Schang-thung ( Shepherd

’s P lain); the native country Of the


Shawl-goat,and Sch ipke (1634 toises, E nglish feet)

those round Ladak, which have an elevation of 2100 toises, or

E nglish feet,and must not be c onfounded with th e

‘

depression

inwhich the town is situated ; —and lastly, ~th e plateau of the SacredLakes Manasa and Ravan ah rada (probably 2345 toises), which wasvisited so early as 1625

,by Pater Antonio de Andrada . O ther

parts are e ntirely filled With"

crowded,mountainous elevations

,

“

“ rising,

” as a rece nt traveller expresses it,

“ like the waves of a“‘

vast ocean .

”Along ' the rivers

, th e Indus, the Sutlej , and’

theYarn -dz angbO

-tsch u,which was ' formerly regarded as identical with

the Brahma-putra, poin ts gh ave been measured which are

‘

Only be

tween 1050and 1400toises (6714 and 8952 E nglish feet) abovethe level of the sea ; SO

'

al SO with respect to the Th ibetian villagesof Pangi

,Ku n awur, Kelu, and Murung . (Humboldt, Asie Centrale,

t . iii . pp. 281 From many carefully collected measurements( of elevation I think I may conclude that the plateau of -Thibet

,

rsbetween 73 ° and 85° E . long .

,does not reach a mean height of

‘

1800 toises E nglish feet) ; this is hardly equal to thebheight Of the fertile plain Of Caxamarca in Peru, and is 211 and33 7 toises (1350 and 2154 E nglish feet) less than th e ~ h eigh t of

the plateau of Titicaca,and the street pavement of the Upper Town

of Potosi (213 7 toises, E nglish feet).That

,outside of the Th ibet ian highlands and of the Gobi, the

boundaries Of wh ich/ h ave been defined above, there are in Asia,between the parallels of 3 7° and considerable depressions and

even true lowlands,where one boundless uninterrupted p lateau was

formerly imagined to exist,is shOwn by th e cultivation of plants

which cannot thrive without a c ertain d'

egree of heat . An attentivestudy of the travels of Marco P010

,in which the cultivation of the

vine and the production Of cotton in northern latitudes are spokenOf,h ad long called the attention of the acute Klaproth to this point.

In a Chinese work,entitled “ Information respecting

“

the recentlysubdued Barbarians ( Sin-kiang—wai-tan-ki it is said

,

“ thecountry of Aksu

,somewhat to the s outh of the Celestial Mountains

(the Thian-schan), near the rivers which form ‘ the great Tarim-

gq l ,

produces grapes, pomegranates, and numberless other excellent

fruits ; also cotton (Gossypium' religiosum), which covers the fields


like yellow clouds . In the summer the heat is exceedingly grea t,

and in winter there is here,as at Turfan

,neither severe

heavy snow.

” The district round Khotan,Kashgar

,and Yarkand

,

still pays its tribute in.

home-grown cotton as it di d in~

the time ofMarco P010. (11Milione di Marco Polo, pubbl . dal Conte Bal del li,t. i . pp . 32 and In the O asis of Hami (Khami l), above 200miles east of Aksu

,orange trees

,pomegranates

,and vines

,whose

fruit 1s of a superior quality,grow and flourish .

The products of cultivation which,

are thus noticed “ imply theexistence of only a small degree of elevation

,and that over extensive

districts . At so great a distance from any coast,and in those

easterly meridi ans where the cold Of winter is known to exceed that

Of c Orresponding latit udes nearer our own part of the world, a

plateau whi ch should be as high as Madrid or Munich might indeed

have very hot summers,but wou ld hardly have

,In 43 ° and 44°

latitude,extremely mild winters with scarcely any Snow. Near. the

Caspian,83 E nglish feet below the level of the Black Sea, at

Astrachan,in 46° 21' I saw the cultivation of the vine greatly

favored by a high degree Of summer heat ; but the winter c old isthere from —20° to —25° Cent . —4° to —13° Fahr .) It istherefore

“necessary to protect the vines after November, by sinkingthem deep in the earth . P lants which live

,as we may say

,only in

the summer,as the vine

,the cotton bush

,rice

,and melons

,may

indeed be cultivated with success between the latitudes Of 40° and

44° on plains of more than 500 toises (3197 E nglish feet) eleva

tion,being favored by the powerfu l radiant heat but how could

( thepomegranate trees of Ak su

,and the orange trees of Hami, whose

'

fruit Pere Grosier extolled as distinguished for its goodness, bear thecold of the long and severe winter which wou ld be the necessaryconsequence of a considerable elevation of th e land ? (Asie Centrale,t . ii . pp . 48—52, and Carl Zimmerman ( in the learned Ana

lysis Of his “ Karte von Inner Asien,

”1841

,s . 99) has made it

appear extremely probable that the Tarim depression,75. e .

,the

desert between the mountain chains of the Thian-schan and th e

Kuen-liin,where the Steppe river Tarim-gol empties itself into the

Lake of Lop, which used to be described as an alpine lake, is hardly

1200( 1279 E ngli sh) feet above the level of the sea, or only twice


meridian of Lake Baikal . T h e divisions and names of1the “Great”

and the “Little .A ltai,

” taken from an Obscure passage of. Abul

gh as‘

I, are to be altogether ,

avoided . (Asie Centrale, t . i . p .

The mountain System of the Altai comprehends ( a ) the Al tai pro

per, or KOlywanski Altai, the wholeof which' is under the Russian

sceptre ; it i s west of the transverse opening of the Telez ki Lake,which follows the direction of the meridian ; and in ante-his toric

times probably formed the 'eastern Shore , Of the great arm ' of thesea, by which, in the direction of thestill existing groups of lakes,Ak sakal-Barbi and Sary-Kupa (Asie Centrale, t . ii . p .

AralO-Caspian basin was connected with the Icy Sea —(b) E as t ofthe Tele z ki chain which follows the - ' direction Of the

—meridian,the

Sayani,Tangn u , and Ulangom or Mal akh a chains

,all ru nn ingxtole

rably parallel with each other, and in an

'

east and west direction .

The Tangna,which sinks down' and termina tes i n the basin of the

Selenga,has from very ancient times formed '

a boundary between

the Turkish race to the south,and the Kirgh is (Hakas, identical

with d o u) in the north . (Jacob Grimm,Gesch . der deutschen

Sprache,1848

, ,th . i . s . It

.

is the ( or iginal seat of theSamoieds or Soyotes, who wandered as far as the Icy Sea, and whowere long regarded in E urope .as a nation belonging exclusively to

the coasts of the Polar Sea . The highest snow-clad summits Of

the Altai Of Kolywan are the Bielu ch a and the K a tun ia-Pillars .

The height of the latter is '

abou t that of E tna. The Banrian high

land,to which the mountain knot Of Kemtei belongs

,and on the

eastern side Of which is the Jablon oi Ch rebet, divides the depressionsOf the Baikal and the Amur .2. The mountain system of t h e Thian-schan, or Celestial Mount

ains, the Tengriz tagh Of'

the Turks (Tukin) and of the kindred raceOf the Hiongnu , is eight times as long, in an eas t and

'

west direction,’

as the Pyrenees . Beyond—i . e . west of its intersection with the

transverse or north and south chain of ~

,the Bolor and Kosuyrt , theThian-schan bears the names Of Asferah and Aktagh , is rich in

metals,and ‘ h as open fissures

,which emit hot vapors

,luminous at

night,and which are used for Obtaining sal-ammoniac . (Asie Cen

trale,t . Ii . pp . 18 E ast of th e transverse Bolor and Kosyurt

chain,there follow successively in the Thian-schan—the Kashgar

'


to Kutch . andl

-Aksu in the Tarim Basin ; the volcano of Pe-‘ schan

,

which sent forth‘

fire and . Streams of lava v-a t'

least as . late as themiddle of the seventh century ; the great, snow-covered

,massive

elevation, Bon -O ola ; the Solfatara of Urumst i

,.wh ich furnishes

sulphur and sal-ammon iac (nao-sch a), and-is situated in a coal dis

triot ; the still activevolcano of Turfan (or volcano 001104 8011611

or Bischbal ik), almost jmidway: between the meridians of Turfan

(Kune-Turpan), and of'Pidjan . T he volcanic eruptions of the

Thian-schan chain, recorded by Chinese historians, reach.

as fart back

as the,year 89 A . D .

,when theHiongnu of the sources Of the Irtysh

were pursued by the Chinesearmy as far as Kutch and Kh arasch ar

(Klaproth, Tableau hist . de l’Asie

,p .

( The Chinese General,Teu-hian

,surmounted the Thian-schan

,and saw “ the Fire Mount

ains wh ich s end out masses of molten rock that flow for many Li .”

2 The great distance from the sea Of the volcanoes of the interior

of Asia , is a remarkable and solitary phenomenon . Abel Rému sat,in a letter to Cordier (Annales des Mines, t . v .

_1820

,p . first

directed the attention Of geologists to this fact. The distance,for

example, in the case of the volcano of Pe schan, to the north, or tothe Icy Sea at the mouth Of the Obi

,Is 1528 geographical in iles ;

tothe south,or to the mouths of the Indus and th e Ganges, 1512

geographical miles ; to the west, 1360 geographical miles to theCaspian in the Gulf of Karabogh a z ; and to the east, 1020geogra

Of the New World Were previously supposed to Offer the“most re

markable instances of such phenomena at a great distance

sea ; their di stance, however, is only _132 geographical miles

,In the

case of the volcano of Popocatepetl in Mexico,and only

and 156 geographical miles in those of the South American volcanoes Sangai

,Tolima

,and de la Fragua

, _

respe ctively. I excludefrom these statements all extinct volcanoes, and all trachytic mount

.ains which have no perman en t.. c onn ec t ion with the interior of t h e

earth . (Asie Centrale, t . ii . pp . I ii—55, 69—77, and 341 E ast

of the volcano of Turfan, and of th e fertile O as is of Hami, ric h infine fruit

,th e eh ain of the Thian-schan ' gives place ~to . the g reat

e levated t ract of Gobi, which fol lows .a SW. and NE direc tion.

8


This interruption Of the mountain chain,caused by the transverse

intersection Of the Gobi,continues for more than degrees of

longitude ; but beyond it the mountains recommence in the somewhatmore southerly chai n of the In-schan

,or the Silver Mountains

,

running (north of the Pe-ts ch el i) from west to east, almost to theshores of the Pacific near Pekin

,and forming a continuation Of the

Thian-schan . AS‘ I have viewed

'

the In -Schan as an easterly prolongation (beyond the interruption (of theGobi) of the cleft abovewhich th e Thian-schan stands

, SO one might possi blym

vi

Caucasus as a westerly prolongation of the same,beyond th

basin of the Aral and Caspian Seas,or the depression of Turan .

The mean paral lel of latitude or axi s Of elevation of the Thian

Schan oscillates between and 4 3 ° N. lat ; that of the Cancasus, according to the map of the Russian E tat—Major ( runningrather E SE : and is between and 44° north lat.

(Baron von Meyendorfi , in the Bul letin de la SOc iété Géologiquede France

,t . ix . 1837—1838, p . O f the four parallel Oh ain s

which traverse Asia from east“ to west,the Thian-schan is the only

one in which no summits have yet had their elevation above the sea

determined by measurement.3 . The mountain system of ” the Ku en-lun (Kurkun or

‘

Ku lkun),if we include it in the Hindu-Coosh and its western prolongation in

the Persian E lbourz and Demavend,is,next to theAmerican -Cor

dil lera of the Andes,the longest line of elevation on the surface Of

Ou r planet. Where t h e north-and-south chain of Bolor intersectsthe Kuen-lun at right angles

,the latter takes the name Of the

Thsung-ling(OnionMountains), which is also given to a part of the

Bolor at the eastern angle of intersection . The Kuen-lu‘

n,forming

the northern boundary of Thibet,'

runs very regul arly in an east andwest direction

,in the latitude Of~ In the meridian Of

'

H’lassa ;

an interruption takes place from‘ the '

great mountain knot wh ich‘

sur

rounds the alpine lake of Kh uku-noor,theSing-SO-hai

,or Starry Sea

,

so celebrated in the mythical geography Of theChinese . The somewhat more northerly chains of Nan i sch an and Kilian-schan. may

almost-be regarded as an eas terly prolongation'

Of the Thian-schan .

They extend to the Chinese wall near tLiang-tsch eu . West Of the

in stersec tion of the Bolor and Kuen-liin ( the Th sung-ling), I think


-I have been the first to Show (Asie Centrale, t . i . p . 23,and 118

'

159 t. ii . pp . 431—434 and 465),that the corresponding direction Of

the axes Of the Kuen-liin and the Hindu-Coosh (both being eastand west, whereas the Himalaya is south-east and north-west) makesit reasonable to regard the Hindu-Coosh as a continuation, not of theHimalaya

,but Of the Kuen-liin . From the Taurus

'

in Lycia to

Kafiristan , through an extent Of 45 degrees of longitude, this chainfollows -the parallel of Rhodes

,or the diaphragm of Dic earch u s .

The grand geognostical view O

'

f E ratosthenes (Strabo, lib . ii . p . 68 ;

lib . xi . pp . 490and 511 ; and lib . xv. p . which is farther developed by Marinus Of Tyre, and Ptolemy, and according to whichthe continuation of the Taurus in Lycia extends across the whole

Of Asia to India,in one and the same direction

,

” appears to havebeen partly founded on statements which reached the Persians and

Indians fromthe Punjaub. The Brahmins CosmasIndic Opleu stes, in his Christian Topography (Montfaucon, Col lec t ionova

‘

Patrum,t . i

'

i .‘ p .

“ that a line drawn from Tz in it z a (Th inae)across Persia and Romania

,exactly cuts the middle of the inhabited

earth .

” It_

is deserving of notice that E ratosthenes had so early

remarked that this longest axis of elevation in the O ld Continent,in the parallels Of 35l ° and points direc tly

'

th rough the basin

( or depression) of thei

Medi terranean to the Pillars of Hercules .

(Compare Asie Centrale, t . i . pp . 23 .. and 122—138 ; t . 430

434,with Kosmos, he. ii .

"

s . 222 and 488,p . 188

,and note 292,

E ng]. ed .) The easternmost part of the Hindu-Coosh is the Paro

pan isu S'

of th e e an c ien ts,th e

'

Indi an‘Caucasus Of the companions ofAlexander . The now generally used term of Hindu-Coosh belongs,as may be seen from the Travels Of the Arab Ibn Batuta (E nglishversion

,p . to a single mountain pass on which many Indi an

slaves Often perishedfrom cold . The Kuen-liin,like the Thian schan

,

Shows Igneous outbreaks or eruptions at many hundred miles from

the sea“ F lames,visible at a great distance

,issue from a cavity in

the Schin khieu Mountain . (Asie Centrale, t . ii . pp .-427 and 483 ,

where I have followed th e text of Yuen-thong-ki,translated by my

friend Stanislas Juh en The highest summit measured In the HinduCoosh , north-west of Jellalabad is 3164 toises above the seaE nglish feet); to the west, towards Herat, the chain sinks to 400

88 STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS»

to ises (2558 E nglish feet), u ntil, north of Teheran, it rises again toa

'

height of 2295 toises E nglish feet) ini

th e volcano Of

Demavend .

4 . The mountain system of the Himalaya . The normal directionof. this system is eas t and west ‘ when followed from ~ 81° to 97° Flong . from Greenwich

,or through more than fifteen degrees of longi

tude from the colossal Dhawalagiri (4390 toises,'

28,071 E nglish

feet) to the breaking through Of th e ~ lOng~

problema tic al Dz angbo

tsohu river (the Irawaddy, according to Da lrymple h a nd h Klaproth ),and to the chains runn ing

'

n orth and south,which cover the whole

OfWestern China,and in the provinces of Sse-tsch u an, E u -kuang

,

and Kuang-si form t h e great mounta in group Of the source s Of theKian g . Th e

‘

next highest culminating point to the Dh awalagiri,i

of

this east and west part of the Himalaya,is not

,as has been hitherto

supposed,the eastern peak of the Sc h amalari

,but the Kin ch inj inga .

This mountain is situated In the meridian Of Sikh im,betweenBootan

and Nepau l , and between the Sc h amalari (3750? toises, E u

gl ish'

feet)and the Dhawal agiri : its height is 4406 toises, orParisian

,or E nglish feet. It was first measured accurately

by trigonometrical Operations in the present year, and as the account

Of , this measuremen t rec eived'

by me from India says decidedly,

“ that a new determination Of the Dh awalagiri'

leaves to th e latter

the first rank among all the snow-capped moun ta in s‘

of th e Himalaya

,

” the height of the Dhawalagiri mu st’

n ecessarily be greater

than that of 439—

0toises,Or Parisian

,E nglish feet

,

hitherto ascribed to it. (Lette r of the accomplished botanist Of Sir

James ROSS’s Antarctic E xpedition,Dr . Joseph Hooker

,written from

DOrj il ing, Jul y The turning point -in the direction of

the axis of the Hima laya range is not fare from the Dhawalagiri, in79

° E fi lOng. fromParis‘

(81° 22’Greenwich). From thence to the

westward,the Himalaya no longer runs ea st and west, but from SE .

to NW.

,connecting itself

,as a great crOss vein

,between Moz ufl

'

er

abad and Gilgit south of Kafir istan,

’ with ap art of the Hindu-Coosh .

Such a bend or change In the direction or strike Of the axis Of elevation Of the Himalaya (from E .

—W. to SE .—NW doubtless points,

as in the western part of our .E uropean Alps, to a di fference in the

age or epoch '

Of elevation .

' The cOurse of the Upper I ndus, from


the sacred Lakes Manasa and Ravan ah rada (at an elevation of 2345~toises

,14

,995 E nglish feet), In the vicinity of which the great river

rises,to Iskardo and to the plateau of Deo-t su h (at an elevation Of

2032 toises,

E nglish feet), measured ,by Vigne, follows in

the Th ibetian highlands the same north-westerly dihec tion as theHimalaya . Here is the summit Of the Djawah ir,

‘

long Since wellmeasured a nd known to be 4027 t oises E nglish feet) inelevation

,and the valley of Kashmeer

,where

,at an elevation of only

836 toises(5346 E nglish feet), theWulur Lake freezes eve ry winter,and

,from the 'perpetual' calm

,no wave ever

’

curls'

its surface .

Having thus described'

th e four great mountain systems of Asia,which in their normal geognostic character are chains coinciding with

parallels Of latitude,I have next to speak Of the series Of elevations

coinciding nearly with meridians ( or, more precisely, having a SSE .

NNW direction), wh ich, from Cape Comorin Opposite to the Islandof Ceylon to th e Icy Sea

,alternate between . the ~meridians Of 66°

and 77 ° E . long . from Greenwich . To this system,of which the

alternations remind us offa u lts in vein s,belong the Ghauts

,the Soli

man chain,the Paralasa

,the Bolor

,and the Ural . The interrup

"tions of the sseries of elevations are so ,

arranged,that

,beside their

alternate position in respect to longitude, each new chain begins ina degree Of latitude to which th e preceding ch ain had

“

not quite

reached . The importance Which the Greeks (although probably notbefore the second century) attached to these chains induced Agatho

demon and Ptolemy ( tab . vii . and viii .) to represent to themselvesthe Bolor

,under the name of Imau s

,as an axis of elevation extend

ing as far as 62° N. lat . into the low basin of the Lower Irtisch and

the Obi . (Asie Centrale, t . i . pp .

‘138,154

,and 198 ; t . ii . p .

-AS the perpendicular elevation of mountain summits'

above thelevel of the sea (unimportant a s in the eyes Of the geologist ‘ thecircumstance Of the greater or less corrugation of - the crust Of theearth may be), is still, like all that is difficult of attainment, an Obj ect

of popular curiosity,th e ‘ fol lowing r

h istOrica l natice Of the gradualprogress of h ypsometric knowledge

,

may here find a suitable place .

When I returned to E urope in 1804, after a four years’ absence

,

not a single Asiatic snowy summit eith eI in the Himalaya,the

Hindu-Coosh,or the Caucasus, had been measured with any exact

8a


n ess ; and I coul d not therefore c ompare my determinations-

Of theheight Of perpetual snow in the Cordilleras of Quito

,or the mount

ains of Mexico,with any corresponding determinations in the E a st.

Th e important j ourney Of Turner,

’ Davi s,and Saunders ‘ to the

highlands Of Thi bet does indeed belong to the year but Colebrooke justly remarks

,that the elevation given by Turner to the

Sch amalari (lat. 28° long. 89 ° a little to the north Of Tassi

Sudan) rests on foundations as Slight as those of the SO-called mea

Su remen ts Of the heights seen from Patna and the Kazfiristan by

Colonel Crawford and Lieutenant Macartney . (Compare Turner, In

the Asiatic Re searches,vol . xii . p . with E lph instone’sA ccount

Of the Kingdom Of Caubul,1815

,p . 95

,and Francis Hamilton

,

Account Of “Nepal,1819

,p . The excellent Observations and

writings pfWebb, Hodgson, Herbert , and the brothers Gerard, havethrown great and certain light on the elevation of the colossa l sum?

mits of the Himal aya ; yet, in 1808, the hypsometric knowledge of

this great Indian ' chain was still ‘

SO uncertain tha tWebb e te to~Colebrooke z “ The height Of the Himalaya still remains a problem .

I find,indeed, that

' the summits visible from the high plain Of Rohil

cund are E ngli sh feet above that plain, but we do not know

the absolute height above the sea.

’

It was not until the beginn in g Of th e year 1820that it began to

be reported in E urope,that not only were there, In the Himalaya,

summits much higher than those of the Cordilleras,but also that

Webb ‘had seen in the Pass of Niti,and Moorcroft in»the Th ibet ian

plateau of Daba and th e Sacred Lakes,fine pastures and flourishing

fields of corn,at altitudes far exceeding the height Of Mont Blanc .

These accounts were received In E ngland withmuch incredulity, andwere met by doubts respecting the influence of refract ion . I have

shown the groundlessness , Of these doubts In two memoirs (Sur lesMontagnes de l’Inde), printed in

“the Annales de Chimie et de

Physique . The Tyrolese Jesuit,P. Tiefen th aler

,who in 1766 pene

trated into the provinces Of Kemaun and Nepal,h ad already di vined

the importance Of th e Dhawalagiri . We read on his map, Mpn tes

Albi,qui Indis Dolagh ir, nive Obsit i .

” Captain Webb always use s

the same name .

J

Until the measurements Of the Dj awah ir ( lat. 30°

long . 79 0 altitude 4027 toises, or E nglish feet)

92. STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS.

than in any of the other mountains), might prove very deceptive inthe temperate

.

zone . of Thibet,where radiation is so active in

{

thetable-land, and where the lower limit of perpetual snow does notform a regul ar line—at an equal elevation

,

‘

as it does in the' tropics .The greatest elevation above the level of the sea ever attained byhuman beings on the declivity of the Himalaya, Is 3035 toises, or

Parisian,or E nglish feet

,reached by Captain Gerard,

with seven barometers,on themountain of Tarh igang, a little to the

northwest of Sch ipke . (Colebrooke, in the Transactions of th e Geological Society

,vol. vi . p . This happens to be exactly the

same height as that reached by myself on the 23d of June,1802

,

and thirty years later by my friend Boussingault,on the 16th of

December,1831

,on the declivity of - the Chimborazo . The unat

tain ed summit of the Tarh igang is, however, 197 toises, or 1260E nglish feet higher than that of the Chimborazo .

The passes across the Himalaya,leading from Hindostan into

Chi nese Tartary,or rather into Western Thibet, more particularly

between the rivers of Bu spa and Sch ipke or" Langz ing Khampa,

are from 2400 to 29_

00~toises,or to E ngli sh

’

fee t'

.

In the chain of the Andes I found the pass of Assu ay, between

Quito and Cuenca, on the Ladera de Cadlud, having a similar elevation

,being 2428 toises, or E nglish feet

,h igh . A

‘

greatpart of the moun tain plains of th e interior of A sia would be buriedthroughout the year in perpetual snow and ice

,if it were not that

,

by the great radiation,

of heat from the Th ibetian'

plateau , by the

constant Serenity of the sky, by the rarity of the formation of snow

in the dry a tmosph ere, , an d by the powerful solar heat pecul iar tothe ea stern continental climate

,the‘ limi t of perpetual snow is won

derfu l ly raised on the northern slope of the Himalaya—perhaps to

2600 toises, or E nglish feet above the level of the sea.

Fields of barley (Hordeum hexa stichon) are seefl in Ku n awur up

to 2300toises, or E nglish feet 5'

and another variety of barley called C oa , and a llied to Hordeum coeleste

,.even much higher.

Wheat succeeds extremely well -in the Thibetian h igh lands up to‘

1880 toises,or E nglish feet . O n the northern declivity of

the Himalaya, Captain Gerard found the upper limit of the higher

birch woods ascend to 2200toises,

E nglish feet and small

'

A'

NNOTATIONSA ND ADDITIONS. 93

bushes which serve th e inhabitants for fuel to w arm their huts,

attain,in the latitude of 304° and 31

° of north latitude,a height

of 2550 toises E nglish feet), or almost 200 toises (1279

E n glish feet) higher than the limit of perpetual snow under theequator. From the . data hitherto coll ected it would follow, that wemay take the lower lim it of perpetual snow on the northern side of

the Himalaya, on'

th e‘

average, and in round numbers, at 2600toises,or about E nglish feet ; whilst on the southern declivity of

theHimalaya the snow-line’

sinks to 2030‘ toises,or about

E nglish feet.Bu t for this remarkable distribution of temperature in the upper

strata of the atmosphere,the mountain plain (of Western Thibe t

woul d be.

uninhabitable to the millions who dwell there . (Comparemy E xamination of the Limi t of Perpetual Snow on the two declivities of the Himalaya

,In the As ie Centrale, t . ii . pp . 435—437 , t .

iii . pp . 281- 326,and in Cosmos

,E ngl . ed , vol . i . note 403 ; s .

483 of the original.)t A letterwh ich ' I have . j ust received from India from Dr. JosephHooker

,who

'

is engaged in meteorological and geol ogica l researches,as. well as those connected with the geography of plants,says :

“Mr.

Hodgson,whom we.regard here as the geographer be st acquainted

with the hypsometric relations of the snow ranges,completely

~

re~

cognizes the correctness of your sta temen t ' in the thi rd part of theAsie

'

Centrale,respeeting the reason of the inequality in the height

'

of th e limit of perpetual snow on the northern and”southern declivities of the Himalaya . In the trans Sutlej region

’. in we

often saw th esnow l imit only commence at an altitude ofE nglish feet

,while in the passes south of the Brahm

‘

aputra,between

Assam“ and Burman,in 27° lat ., where the most southernAsiatic

snowy mountains are si tuated, the limit of p erpetual snow‘

sinks toE nglish feet.” I believe we ought to d istinguish between

the extreme and the mean -heights,but in both we see manifested

in t h e clearest manner the formerly contested differences betweenthe Th ibetian and the Indian declivities.

94 STE PPE S AND DE SE‘

Rrs .

My s ta temen ts respe c ting th e mean h e igh t E xtreme s a c c ordi

s

n

gto Dr. J oseph

of th e Snow l in e In th e Hima l ay a . (A s ie Hooker’ e tter.

C en tra le , tom . i ii . p .v

Pa ris fe e t . E ng . fee t . Pa ris fe e t . E ng . fee t .

North ern dec l ivity . 16 North ern d ec l ivity18

,7 64 . 000

Sou th ern Sou th ern 14

'Difl‘

erence Differen c e

The local differences vary still more,as may be seen from the li st

of extremes glven In my Asie Centrale,t . iii . p . 295. Alexander

Gerard saw the snow limit ascend, _

qn the Th ibetianfdeclivity of theHima laya

,to Parisian feet E nglish) ; and on the

on the Jamnotri,even as low as Parisian E nglish)

feet.

The Hiongnu (Hiong-nou), who Degui gn es, and with him manyhistorians, long considered to be the Huns, inhabited that vast regionof Tartary whi ch Is bounded on the east byUo-leang-h o ( the presentMan tsch u domi nion), on the south by the Chinese wall , on the westby the U-siiin territory

,and on the north by the country of the

E leu th es. But the Hiongnu belong to the Turkish, and the Huns

to the Finnish or Urali an race. The nor thern Huns,a rude pastoral

people,unacquainted with agricul ture

,were dark brown ( sunburnt)

the southern Huns or Haja telah ( called by the Byzantines E u th a

lites or Nepth al i tes, and dwelling along the eastern shore of the

Caspian), had a fairer complexion . The latter cul tivated the ground,and .possessed towns. They are often call ed the white, or fair Ha n s,and d

’Herbelot‘ even , de clares them to be

,Indo-Scythians . O n

Punu,the Leader or Tanju of the Huns

,and on the great drought

and famine which about 46 A . D . caused a part of the nation tomigrate northwards (see Deguign es, Histoire gen . des Huns

,des

Turcs,&c .

,1756, t . i . pt . i . p . 217 ; pt . ii . pp . 111

,125

,223

,

All the accounts of the Huns taken from the above-mentioned

celebrated work,have been subj ected to a learned and strict exami

nation by Klaproth . According to the resul t of this research,theHiongnu belong to th e wi dely diflh sed Turkish races of the Altaiand Tangnu Mountains . The name Hiongnu,even in the third

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS: 95

century before the Christian era, Was a general . name

’

for the Ti,

Thu-kiu or Turks,in the north and north-west of China .

’

The

southern Hiongn u overcame the Chinese, and in conjunction with

them destroyed the empire of th e'

n orth ern Hiongnu . These latterfled to the west

,and this flight seems to have given the first im

pulse to the migration of nations in Middle Asia . The Huns,who

were long confounded with the Hiongnu (as the Uigures with theUgures and the Hungarians), belonged, according to Klaproth, tothe Finnish race of the Ural mounta ins between E urope and Asia,a race which was variously mingled with Germans, Turks, andSamoieda

, (Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta , pp . 183 and 211 ; TableauxHistoriques de l’Asie, pp . 102 and The Huns (v ot) arefirst named by»Dionysius Perigetes, a -writer 'who was able to 'obtainmore accurate information respecting the interior of Asia

,because

,

as a learned man .born at Ch arax . on'

the ArabianGulf, Augustus

had sent h im back to the E ast to accompany thither his adopted son

.Caius Agrippa . Ptolemy

,a century later

,writes the word (X ofivo t)

with a strong aspiration, which, as StxMart in ob serves,is found

it

again in the geographical name of Chun igard.

(12

) p . 29 . No ca rved S ton e.

”

O n th e banks of the O rinoco near Caicara, where the forest regionj oins the plain

,we have indeed found representations of the sun,

and figures of animals, cut on the rocks : but in the Llanos themselves no traces of th ese rude memorials of earlier inhabitants havebeen discovered; It

/

is to be regretted that we have n ot receivedany more complete and certain information : respecting a monument

Which was sent to France to‘

Coun t Maurepas,and which

,according

to Kalm,had been found by M . de Verandrier in the Prairies of

Canada 900miles west of Montreal, in the course of an expeditioni ntended to reach the Pacific . (Kalm

’s Reise

,th . . iii . s .

This traveller found in'

the middle of the plain enormous masses ofst one

,placed in an

k

uprigh t position uby the hand of man

,and on

one of them was something which was taken to be a,Tartar in scrip

tion . (Archaeologia z,or Miscellaneous Tracts

,{published by the

Soc iety‘

of Antiquaries of London,vol . viii . 1787, How

is it that so important a monument has remained unexa ‘mined ?

96 STE PPE S’

AND

more probably a pictorial hi story,like the supposed Phoenician

inscription on the bank of the Taunton River ? I consider it,how

ever,very probabl e that these plains were once traversed by civilized

nations : pyramidal sepulchral mounds,and entrenchments of extra

ordi nary length,found In various places between the Rocky Mount

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley” are now throwing

a new light,appear to confirm thi s supposition . (Rel ation Hist ,

t . iii . p . 155. Verandrier had been sent on his expedition by theChevali er de Beauharnois, the French Governor-general of Canada,in 1746. Several Jesuits in the city

‘

of Quebec assured Kalmthatthey had themselves had the supposed inscription in their hands :was engraved upon a smal l tablet whic h had been let into a pil la rof cut stone

,in whi ch position it was found . I have asked several

of my friends in France to search out this monument, in case itsh ould really be in existence in the coll ection of Count Maurepas,“but without success . I find older

, bu t equally doubtful, sta tementsas to the existence of alphabetical inscriptions belonging to ; theprimitive nations of America

,in Pedro de Ciega de Leon, Ch rdn ica

del Peru,p . i . cap : 87 ( losa con letras en los edific ios ,

de Vin aqu e)in Garcia, O rigen

‘

de los Iiidios,1607, lib. iIi . cap . 5, p . 258 and in

Columbus’s Journal of h is.

fi rst voyage,in Navarrete

,Viages de

-los E spanoles,t . i . p . M . de Verandrier moreover

'

aflirmed

(and earlier t ravellers had also th ough t i they had observed th e samething), that in the prairies of Western Canada, throughout

“

entire

days’ j ourneys,traces of the ploughshare Were discoverable but the

total Ignorance of the primitive nations of America with regard tothis agricul tural implement

,the want of draft cattle

,and the great

extent of gr0und over whi ch the supposed furrows are found—alllead me to conj ecture that this singul ar appearance of a ploughed

field h as been produced by some effect of water on the surface ofthe earth .

(13

) p 29 L ike a n a rm of the Sea .

The great Steppe,which extends from east to west from the

mouth of the O rinoco to the snowy mountains of Merida,turns tog

ANNOTATIONS A‘

ND ADDITIONS . 97

the south In the 8th degree of latitude, fillingthe space between theeastern declivity of the high mountains of New Granada

,and the

O rinoco,the course of which is

,in this part

,from south to north .

This latter portion of the Llanos,which Is watered by the Meta

,the

Vichada,the Zama

,and the Guaviare, connects the valley of the

Amazons with the valley of the Lower O rinoco . The word Paramo,

which I often employ In th esfe pages,signifies in Spanish America

al l those mountainous regions which are elevated from 1800to 2200toises above the level of the sea to E nglish feet Inround numbers), and in which an ungenial, rough, and misty climateprevails . Hail and snowfall daily for several hours in the upperParamos

,and furnish a beneficial supply of moisture to the alpine

plants a supply not arising from a large absolute quantity of aqueous vapor in these high regions

,but from the frequency of showers

(hail and snow being so termed asWell as ' rain), produced by therapidly changing currents of air

,and the variations of the electri c

tension . The arborescent vegetation of these regions is low andspreading, consisting chiefly of large flowering laurels and myrt le

leaved alpine shrubs,whose knotty branches are adornedwith fresh

and evergreen foliage . E scallonia tubar,E scallonia myrtilloides

,

Chuqu iragua insignis, Aralias,Weinmannias, Frez ieras, Gaultherias,and Andromeda reticulata

,may be regarded as representatives of

the physiognomy of this,

vegetation . To the south of the"

townof Santa Fé de Bogota Is the Paramo de la Suma Paz a lonelymountain group

,in which

,according to Indian tradition

,vast trea

sures are buried . The torrent which flows under the remarkablenatural bridge of the rocky ravineof Icononzorises

“

in'

this Paramo .

In my Latin memoir,en tit led " ‘De distribu tione geograph ica Planta

rum secundem coeli temperiem et al titudinem'

mon t ium,

I

have sought to characterize those moun tain regions : Altitudine1700—1900

‘

hexapod . Asperrimae sol itudin es, quae a colonis hispa

nis uno nomine Paramos appel lan tur, tempesta tum vic issitudinibus

mire obnoxiae,ad quas solu tae et emol litae defluun t nives ; ven torum

flatibu s ac n imborum grandmisque jac tu tumultuosa regio,’

quae aequ e

per diem et per "

n oc tes riget , solis nubila et tristi luce fere nunquam

c alefac ta . Habitan tur in hac ipsa altitudine sat magnae civitates, a t

Micuipampa Peruvianorum‘

,ubi thermometrum cen tes. meridie inter

9

STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS .

5° et neetu 4 consistere vidi ; . Huancaveh ea, propter cinna

baris venas celebrata, ubi altitudine 1835 h exap . fere totum per an

Iium temperies mensis Martii Parisiis . (Humboldt de distribij

geogr. Plant . p .

p: The Andes a hd the ea stern moun ta ins send forth

The vast regi on situated between the eastern coast of South Ame-vrisa and

.

the eastern deelivity of the Andes, is narrowed“

by twomountain passes, which partially divide frem each other the three

valleys or plains of the Lower O rinoco, of th e Amazon s, and of theRiver Plate . The most northern mountains, call ed the group of th eParime

, are epposite to the Andes of Cundinamarca, which proj ectfar to the east, and assume, in the 66th and 68th degrees of longi

tude,the ferm of high mounta ins

,connected by th e narrow ridge of

Pacaraima with the granite hills of French Guiana. On themap ofColumbia constru cted by me from my own astronomieal observations,th IsJeorInec tIon 1s clearly marked . The Caribs, who penetrated from

themissions of th e Caroni te th e plains of the Rio Branco, andas faras th e Braz fli an boundary, crossed In the journey the ridges of Pace.rairea andQuirriiropaca . The second mountain mass

,which divides

the valley of the Amazons from the River

greup . In the province of Chiquitos (west of the Parecis range ofbills), it approaches the promontory of Santa Cruz de la Sierra . As

neither th e group ef theParime, which causes the great cataracts ofthe C rinose, nor the Brazil ian greup of mountains, are absolutely

connected with th e Andes, the plains of Venezuela have a directc onnection with those ef Patagonia

’

(See .my geognostical vIew ef

—ff Troops of dogs.

E eropean dogs have become wild III the grassy plains or Pampas

of, Peep ers .Ayres . They l ive in_

society, and in hollows in whichIf t h e society becomes too numerous, some

colonies . The E uropeaedog

,which has become wild, barks as loud as the original American

hairy race . Garc ilassorelates that, bef01e the arrival of the Spaniards,


is identica l with the Procyon,or Ursus c an crivoru s, the Raton crab

ier,or crab-eating Aquaraguaz a of the Patagonian coast. (Azara

sur les quadrupedes du Paraguay, t . i . p . Linnaeus,on the

other hand,confounds the

‘ dumb variety of dogs with the MexIt z cuin tepot z otl i, a kind of dog still only imperfectly described, sai d

to be distingu ished by a short ta il,a very small head

,and a la rge

hump on the back . The name signifies humped-deg, and 1s formedfrom the A ztec

,it z cu in tli (another word for dog), and tepot z ot li ,

especially in Qu ito, and generally in Peru , \with the great number

of black dogs without hair,called by Buflon chiens tures” (Canis .

mgypt iu s, E ven among the Indi ans this variety is common,

but it is generall y despised and ill-treated . Al l E uropean breeds ofdogs perpetuate themselves very well in South America, and if thedogs there are not so handsome as those in E urope

,the reas on is partly

want of care,and partly that the handsomest varieties (such as fine

greyhounds and the Danish spottedb reed),have never been introdu c ed there .Herr von Tsch udi makes the s ingul ar remark that

,in the Cor

'

dil leras,

‘

a t elevations of feet,tender races of dogs, ,

and the

E uropean domestic cat,are exposed to a particul ar kind of mortal

disease . Innumerable attempts have been made to keep cats as

domestic animals In the town of the Cerro de Pasco,

French

(or E nglish)feet above the level of the sea, but such attemptshave failed

,both cats and dogs dying at th e end of a few days

,In fits

,

in which th e cats were taken at first with convulsive movements,

then tried to climb the walls,fell back exh aus ted and motionless

,1

and died . In Yauli I had several opportunities of observing thischorea-l ike disease it seems

’

to be a consequence of the absence ofsuffi cient atmospheric pressure.

” In the Spanish colonies,thehair

less dog was looked upon as of Chinese origin, and called Perro Ch i,nesco

,or Chino . The race was supposed to have come from Canton

or from Manila : according to Klaproth,it h as certainly been ex

tremely common in China since very early times . Am ong

'

th e animals indigenous to Mexico

,there was an entirely hairless

,dog-like

,

but very large wolf, called Xoloitz cu in tl i ( from the Mexican xolo or


xolotl,servant or

’

slave). O n American dogs,see Smith Barton’s

Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania, p. i . p . 34 .

The result of Tsch udi’s researches on the American indigenousraces of d ogs is the fOl lowing. There are two kinds almost spe

c ifical ly different 1. The Canis caraibicu s of Lesson, quite withouthair, except a small bunch of white hair on the forehead and at the

point of the tail,of a slate gray color

,and silent , it was found by

a

Columbus in the Antilles,by Cortes in Meme,

‘

and .

”by Piz ah’o In

Peru, where it suffers from the cold Of the Cordilleras , but is StilLabundant in thewarmer parts Of th e country; uh de11 theh aine

’

iefperros ch ines. 2. The Canis ingae, with pointed nose and pointed

ears t his kind barks : it is now employed in the care of cattle,and

sh ows many varieties of colors,from being crossed with E uropean

breeds . The Canis ingae follows man to th e high regions of th e

Cordilleras . In ancient Peruvian graves his skeleton Is Sometimesfound resting at the feet of the human mummy. We know how

often the carvers Of monuments In our own middle ages employedthe figure Of a dog In this position

,as an emblem of fidelity. (J. J.

v . Tsch udi,Untersuchungen uber die Fauna Peruana

,s . 247

At the very beginning Of the Spanish conquests, E uropean dogs ,

became wild In the islands of San Domingo and Cuba . (Garc ilasSo,p i . 1723

, p. In the prairies between the Meta,the Arauca

,

and the Apure,VoIc eless/dogs (perros mudos)were eaten in the16th

A lonso de Herrara,who

,in 1535

,undertook an expe

dition to the O rinoco,says the natives called them Maj os” or

“Aurics . A well-informed traveller,Giesecke, found th e same

nOn -barking variety of dog in Greenland . The E squimaux dogspass their lives entirely In the open ai r ; at night they scrape holesfor themselves i n the snow ; they howl like wolves, In ac compan iment with a dog that sits in the middle of the circle and sets themOff. In Mexico the dogs were subj ected to an Operat ion

r tomakethem fatter and better eating . O n the bOrders of the province Of

Durango,and farther to the n erth on the slave lake, the natives,

formerly at least,conveyed their tents of buffalo Skins on the backs

of large dogs when ch anging th eir place of residence with the,

change of season . Al l these traits resemble the customs of th e9 *


inhabitants Of E astern Asia . (Humboldt, E ssai poh t . t . II. p . 448

Relation.

hist. t . ii . p .

(16) p . 30. the grea ter p a rt of the D esert of ,

Sa ha ra , the~

L la nos a re in the torrid z on e.

”

Significant denominations—particularly such as refer to the formin relief of the earth’s surface, and which have arisen at a period

.

when there was only. Ivory uncertain information re specting the

countries in questm i and their hypsometric relations—have ledlong

-continued geographic al errors . Th e ancient denot h e ‘5Greater and Lesser Atlas” (Ptol

‘

. Geogr. lib .

cap . 1) has exercised the prejudicial influence here alluded to . Nodoubt the snow-covered western summits of the Atlas in the territory of Morocco maybe regarded as the Great Atlas of Ptolemy ;but where is the l imit of the Little Atlas ? Is the division into two

Atlas chains, which the conservative tendencies of geographers have

preserved for 1700 years, to be still maintained in the territory of

Al giers,and even between Tunis and Tl emse ? Are

'

we to seekbetween the coast and the interior for parallel chains constituting a

greater and a lesser Atlas Al l travellers familiar with’

geognostica l

views,who have visited Al geria since it has been taken possession

of by the French,contest the meaning conveyed by the generally

rec eived nomenclature .“

Among the parallel chains,that of Jurjura

is generally supposed to be the highest Of those which have been

measured but the wel l-informed Fournel ( long Ingenieur en chef

des Mines de l’Algérie), aflirrn s that the mountains of Aures, nearBatnah

,which w ere still found covered with snow at the end of

March,are higher. Fournel denies the existence Of a Little and a

Great Atlas, as I do that Of aLittle and ~ a Great Altai (Asie Cen

trale, .

t i . pp .

“ There is only one Atlas, formerly called

Dyris by the Mauritanians, and this name is to be applied to the“ foldings” (

‘

frides”

) or succession of crests which form the divi

sion between th e waters flowing to the Mediterranean,and those

which flow towards the Sahara lowland. The strike or direction ofthe E astern

'

Mauritan ian portion of the Atlas is from east to‘

west

that of the elevated'

Atlas of Morocco from north-east to south-west.

Th e latter rises into summits, which, according to Renou , (E xplora


tion Sc ien tifique de l’Algérie de 1840 a 1842,publiée par ordre

'

du

Gouvernement,Sciences Hist . et Geogr. t . viii . 1846

, pp . 364 andattain an elevation of Fr. E ng.) feet , exceed

ing,therefore, the height of E tna . A singularly formed highland

of an almost square shape ( Sahab ol Marga),"

bounded on the southbyhigher elevations

,is situated in 33 ° lat . From thence towards the sea

to the west,about a degree south of Mogador

,the Atlas declines in

height this sou th-westernmost part bears the nam e of Idrar-N-Deren .

The northern Mauritanian boundaries of the widely extended low

region of the Sahara,as well as its southern limits towards the fertile

Soudan,are still but little known . If we take on a mean

.estima

tion the parallels of.

and 325° as the outside limits, we obtainfor the Desert

,including its C ases, an area of more than

square German geographical mil es , or between nine and ten timesthe area of Germany, and almost three times that of theMedi ter

rausan, exclusive of the Black Sea . From the best and most recentintelligence

,for which we are indebted to the French Colonel

Daumas and MM . Fourne‘l,Ren ou , and

.

Carette,we learn that the

Desert of Sahara is composed of several detached basms,and that

the number and the population of the fertile C ases are very muchgreater than had been imagined from th e awfully desert characterof

!

the route between In salah and Timbuctoo, and that from Mour

zouk in Fezzan,to Bilma, Tirtuma

,and Lake Tschad . It is now

generally aflirmed that the sand covers Only th e smaller portion ofthe great lowland . A similar Opinion had been previously propounded by th e acutely observant E hrenberg,my Siberian travellingcompanion, fromwhat he had himself seen (E xploration Sc ien tifiqu ede l’Algérie, Hist . et Geogr. t . ii

a p . O f larger‘

wild animals,

only gazelles,wild asses

,and ostriches are to be met with .

“ Le

lion du desert,

” says M . Carette, (E xplor. de l’Alg. t . 11. pp .

126—129 ; t . vii . pp . 94 and est un mythe popul arisé par lesartistes et les poetes . Il n

’existe que dans leur imagination . Cet

animal n o sort pas de sa montagne on 11 trouve de quoi se loger,

s’abreuver et se nourrir. Qu a

‘

nd on parle aux habitans da désert

de ces betes féroces"

que les E uropéens leiir donnent'

pour compagnons

,ils repon den t avec un imperturbable sang froid, 11y a done chez

vous des l ion si

qu i boivent de l’air et broutent des feuilles ? Chez nous

104 STE PPE S AND DE SE Rrs .

é.il faut aux lions de l’eaucourante e t de la chair vive . Aussi des li ons

n e paraissent dans le Zahara que la O I‘

I il y a des col lines boisées et

de l’eau . Nous n e craignons que.

la vipere (lefa) et d’innombrables

essaims de moustiques, ces derniers la ou il y a quelque'

humidité .

Whereas Dr. O udn ey, In th e course of the long j ourney fromTripoli to Lake Tschad, estimated the elevation of the southern

Sahara at 1637 E nglish feet, to which German geographers haveeven ventured to add an additional thousand feet

,the Ingenieur

Fournel has,by careful barometric measurements based on cor

responding'

observations,made it tolerably probable that a part of

the north ern desert is'

below the level of the Sea . T hat portion"

of the desert which Is now called le Zahara d’Algérie” advanc es

to the chains of hil ls of Metl ili and el Gaons, where the northernmost of all the Gases—that of el-Kantara

,fru itful in dates—is

situated. This low basin,which touches the parallel of 34

° lat,

receives the radiant heat of a stratum of chalk ( full of the shellsof Inoceramus), inclined at an angle of 65

° towards the south

(Fournel sur les Gisemen s de Muriate de Soude en Algerie, p . 6 In

the An nales des Min es,4me série, t . ix . 1846, p .

“Arrives

a‘

Biscara” (Biskra), says Fournel, n u horizon indefin i commecelui de la mer se déroul ait devant nous . Between Biscara and

Sidi c a the ground is only 228 (243 E ng.) feet above the level ofthe sea . The inclina tion increases considerably towards the south .

In another work (Asie Centrale, t . ii . p . where I have broughttogether everythi ng relating to the depression of some portions ofcontinents below the level of

,

the sea,I have already noticed that

,

according to Le Pé‘

re,the “ bitter lakes” on the Isthmus of Suez

,

when they have a little water—and,according to GeneralAndréossy,

the Natron Lakes of Fayoum—are also lower than the l evel of theMediterranean .

Among other manuscript notices Of M . Fournel,I possess a ver

tical geological profil e,which gives all the infi exion s and inclinations

of the strata,representing a section of the surface the whole way from

Philippeville on the coast to the Desert of Sahara, at a spot not farfrOm the O asis of Biscara . The direction of the line on which the

barometric measurements were taken is south 20° west ; but the elevations determined are proj ected

,as in my Mexican profiles

,on a dif


'feren t plane—a north-south one ; Ascending uninterruptedly fromConstantine

,at an elevation of 332 toises (2122 E ng. feet), the

culminating point is found between Batnah and Ti z nr,at an eleva

tion of only 560toises (3580E ng. feet). In th e part of the Desertsituated between Biscara and Tuggurt

,Fournel has had a series of

Artesian wells dug with success (Comptes Rendus de l’Acad . des

Sciences,t . xx . 1845

,pp . and We learn from the

old accounts of Shaw,that the inhabitants of the country knew of

a subterran ean supply of water,and relate fabulous tales of a

‘5 sea

under the earth (bahr toht el -erd) Fresh waters flowing betweenclay and marl strata of th e old cretaceous and other sedimentarydeposits

,under the

,

ac tion Of hydrostatic pressure form gushingfountains when the strata are '

pierc ed (Shaw, Voyages dans plusieurs

parties de la Berbérie,t . i . p . 169

,Renn éll

,Africa

,Append . p .

lx‘xxv). That,

fresh water in this part of the world shoul d often be

found near beds of rock salt,need not surprise geologists acquainted

with mines,sin ce E urope Offers many anal ogous

.

phenomena .

Th e riches of the Desert in rock salt,and the fact of rock salt

having been used in building,have been known since the time of

Herodotus . The salt zone of the Sahara ( zone salifere du l

désert)is the southernmost of three zones

,stretching across Northern Africa

from south-west to north-east,and believed to be connected with the

beds or deposits of rock salt of Sicily and Palestine,described b y

Friedrich Hoffman and by Robinson . (Fournel, sur les Gisemen s

de'

Muriate de Soude en Al gerie,pp . 28—4 1 ; Karsten

x

iiber das

Vorkommen 'des Kochsa lzes auf der Oberfl'

ach e der E rde, 1846, s .497, 648, and The trade in saltwith Soudan, and the .possi

bil ity of cultivating dates in the Oases, formed by depressions causedprobably by falls or subsidences of the earth in the gypsum beds of

the tertiary cretaceous or keuper promotions,have alike contributed

to enliven the Desert, at least to some extent, by human intercourse .

The high temperature of the air,which makes the day’s march so

Oppressive,renders the coldness Of the nights ( of which Denham

complained so often in the African Desert, and Sir Al exanderBurnes in the Asiatic), so much the more striking. Mel lon i“

(Memoria sull’

'

abassamen to di temperatura durante le notti placide

e serene,1847, p . 55) ascribes this cold, produced doubtless by the

106 . sThPPIIs AND DE snaTs .

radiation from the ground, less to the great purity and

immensa e'

deserta pianura dell’Africa centrale), thanfound calm,

the nightly absence of al l movement in the atm0

( Consult also, respectingAfrican meteorology, Aimé in the Etion de l’Algérie, Physique generale, t . ii . 1846, p .

The southern declivi ty of the 'Atlas'

of Morocco sends

de l’Alg. Hist. et Geogr. t. viii . pp . 65—78) considers to be a sixthlonger than the Rhine . It flows at first from north to south

,until

,’

in lat . 29° N. and long. 5°W.

,it turns almost at right angles to its

former course,runs to the west

,and

,after passing through the great

fresh‘

water Lake of Debaid, enters the sea at Cape Nun , in lat . 28°

46’N. and long. 11° 8 'w. This region, which Was so celebratedformerly in th e

'

h is tory of the Portuguese discoveries of the 15th

century, and was afterwardswrapped in profound geographical obscurity, is now called on the coast “ the country of the Sheikh Bei

rouk ” ( a chief independent of the E mperor of Morocco). It was

explored in the months of July and August 1840,by Captain Count

Bouet-Vil laumez of the French Navy,by order of his government .

From the official Reports and Surveys which have been communicated to me in manuscript

,it appears evident that the mouth of the

Quad-Dra Is at present very mu'ch stopped up with sand, having anopen channel of onl y about 190 E nglish feet wide. A somewhat .

more easterly channel in the'

same mouth is that of t h e still verylittle known Saguiel el-Hanira, which comes from the south, and is

supposed to have a course'

of at least 600geographical miles . O n e

is astonished at the length Of these deep, but commonly dry rive rbeds. They are ancient furrows

,such as I have

Desert at‘

the foot of the Cordil leras, betvveen

the coast of the Pacific ; In Donet’s man u scrip

pédit ion de la Maloui ne,

Cape Nun are estini ated at th e great

Cape Nun is usually supposed to

by 'the Knight Gil ianez , acting


are found,interspersed among the Gramineae, a few h eibaceous,

di cotyledonous plants, consisting of two very low-growing species

of Mimosa (Sensitive Plant), Mimosa intermedi a, . and Mimosa

dormien s,which

'

are great favorites with the wild horses and

cattle . The natives give to this group of plants, which close theirdelicate feathery leaves on being touched

,the expressive name of

seen 5 but where solitary trees are found, they are; in"moist places

,

the Mauritia Palm ; in arid districts, a Prot eacea, described byBonpland and myself

,the Rh opala complicata (Chaparro bobo),

which Wildenow regarded as an E mbothrium“

also —t h e highly

useful Palma de Covija , or de Sombrero and our Corypha inermis,

an umbrella palm allied to Chamaerops,which is used to

“

cover theroofs of huts . How far more varied is the aspect of the Asiatic

plains ! Throughout a large portion of the Kirgh is and Calmuck'

Steppes,which I have traversed from the Don

,the Caspian, and

the O renburg Ural river to the Jaik, to the Obi and the Upper Irtyshn ear

’

Lake Dsaisang, through a space of 40 degrees of longitude, I

have never seen,as

’

in’

the Llanos,the P ampas

,and the Prairies

,

an horiz on like that of the ocean, where the vault of heaven

appears to rest on the unbroken plain . At the utmost this appearance presented itself in One direction

,or towards one quarter of the

heavens . The Asiatic Steppes are often"

crossed by ranges of hill s,

or clothed with c oniferous woods or forests . E ven in the mostfruitful p astures the vegetation is by no means limited to grasses ;there is a great variety of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Inspring-time” small snow-white and 'red flowering rosaceae and amygdaleae (Spiraea, Crataegus, Prunus spinosa, and Amygdalus nana)present a smi ling aspect. I have already mentioned the ta l l and

luxuriant Synan th erae (Saussurea amara, S . salsa,

’

Artemisias,and

Centaureas), and of leguminous plants,species of Astragalus

,Cy

t isus, and Caragana . Crown Imperials'

(Fritillaria ruthenica, and

F . meleagroides), Cypripedias, and tulips, rej oice the eye by thebright variety of their colors .A contrast t o the pleasing vegetation of these A siatic

,plains

s

is

presented by the desolate salt Steppes,particularly by the part of

the Barabinski Steppe which is at the foot of the Altai mountains,

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONs . 109

and by the Steppes between Barnaul and the Serpent Mountain andthe country on the east of the Caspian . Here Ch enopodias,

'

some

Species of Salsola and Atriplex, Salicornias andHal imocn emis cras

sifol ia, ( each species growing s001ally,

’ form patches of vegetation

on the muddy ground. See G'

Obel’s J ourney in the Steppes of the

South . of Russia (Reise in die Steppe des siidlich en Russlands,

.1838,th . ii . s . 244 and O f the 500phanerogamous species

wh ic liClaus and G'

obel collected In the Steppes, the S'

yran th erae, the

Ch en Opodeae, and the Cruciferae, were more numerous than thegrasses the latter being only 7

1

1th of the whole

,and the former —th

and 5th . In Germany, from the mixture of hill and plain districts ,t h e Glumaceae ( i . e. the Gramineae, Cyperaceae, and Jun c a ceae collec tively) form i th

,the Syn an th erae or Composi tes ath and the

CruciferaeTl-

gth of all our German phanerogamia . In the most

northern part s of the flat Siberian lowlands,the fine map of Admi

ral Wrangell shows that the extreme northern limit of tree andshrub

,vegetation (Coniferae and Amen tac eae) is, in the portion to

wards the Behring’s Straits side

,in 675

° lat. and more to the West,towards the banks of the Lena

,in which is the parallel of the

north cape of Lapland . The plains which border the Icy Sea are thedomain of cryptogamous plants . They are called Tundras (Tu n tur, inFinnish) they are swampy districts extendi ng farther than the eye

can reach,partly covered with a thick carpet of Sphagnum palustre

and other mosses,and partly with a dry snow-white covering of Ceno

myce rangiferin a (Reindeermoss), Stereocau lon pasch ale, and otherlichens . Admiral Wrangell, in describing his perilous expedition tothe new Siberiarf

,islands so rich in fossil wood

,~says : These Tun .

dras accompanied me to the extreme arctic coast. Their soil has

been frozen for thousands of years . In th e dreary i i n iformity of

landscape,the eye of the traveller

,surrounded by reindeer moss,

dwell s with pleasure on the smallest patch of green turf showingitself now and then on a moist spot .”

(18

) p . 30. The‘

ca uses wh ich lesseh both hea t a nd dryness in the

New World .

0

I have tried to bring together in abriefand compendious mannerthe various causes

‘

wh ich produce greater moisture and a‘

less degree10


of .heat in America ; it will of course be understood that the ques

tion r espects the general hygrometric state of the atmosph ere,‘

and

the temperature of ' the New Continent as a wh ole. Single distric ts,'

such as the island of Margarita,the Coasts of Cumana and Coro, are

as hot and as dry as any part of Africa . It must also be remarkedthat the maximum of heat at certain hours of a summer

’s d ay h as

been found,on a series of years, to be almost equal at very. difleren t

parts of the earth’s surface, on the Neva, the Senegal, the Ganges,and the O rinoco 3 being approximately between 27

°and 32° Reau

mur (93° and 104° Fahrenheit), and generally not higher, —.provid

ing the observation be made in the shade,at a dis tance from all solid

bodies which could radiate heat to the thermometer, not in an air

filled with hot particles of dust or sand,and not with spirit thermo

meters,which absorb the light. It is probably to fin e grains of sand

floating in -the air,and forming c entres of radi ant heat, tha t we must

ascribe the dreadful temperature of to Reaumur (122° to

133 ° Fah .) in the sh ade, _

to which my unhappy friend Ritchie, whoperished there

,and Captain Lyon

,were exposed for weeks in the

O asis of Mourzouk . The . most remarkable instance of very high

temperature,in an air probably free from dust, has been recorded by

an observer who knew well how to place and to correct all his in

strumen ts with the greates t degree of accuracy. Ruppel l foundReaumur Fahrenheit), at Ambukol in Abyssinia ,

with a clouded sky, strong south-west wind, and an approachingthunderstorm . The mea n annual temperature of the tropics

,or of

the proper climate of palms,is,on land

,between and

Reaumur ( or and Fahrenheit), without any con siderabledifleren ce between the observations collected in Senegal

,Pondicherry

,

and Surinam . (Humboldt, Mémoire sur les lignes isothermes, 1817,p . 54 . Asie Cen trale

,t . iii . Mah lmann

,Table iv.)

The great coolness,Imight almost say cold

,which prevails for a

considerable .part of the year within the tropics on the coast of Peru,caus ing the thermometer to sink to 12° Reaumur (59

° Fahrenheit),is, as I have noticed elsewhere, by no means to be ascribed to the

vicinity of the snow-covered Andes,but rather to the fogs (garua)

which veil the solar disk,and to a cold sea cu rren t which,commen c

ing in the antarctic regions and coming from the south-west, strikes


condition of strong radiation and of the formation of dew, thecoolingof the grassy surface Is also promoted by the particles of air which

a re already cooled sinking to the ground as being the heaviest. In

the vicinity of the E quator,under the clouded sky of the Upper

O rinoco,the Rio Negro

,and the

.

Amazons River,th e plains are

clothed with dense primeval forests ; but to the north and south ofthis wooded region there extend from “ the zone of palms and loftydicotyledonous trees

,

'

in the northern hemisphere,the. Llanos of the

Lower O rinoco,the Meta and the Guaviare

,and in the southern

Hemisphere the Pampas of the Rio de la Plata and of Patagonia .

The space thus occupied by Savannahs or grassy plain Sv in South

America is at least nine times as great as the area of FranceThe wooded region acts in a threefold manner in diminishing the

temperature ; by cooling shade, by evaporation, and by radiation ;

Forests,—which In our temperate zone consist of trees living together

in f‘soc iety,

”i . 6 .

, ,many individual s of on e

,or of a few kinds

,of th e

families of Coniferae or Amen tac eae,oaks

,beeches

,and birches

,but

in the tropics,of an immense variety Of trees living separately or

‘fun soc ial ly,

”—protect the,ground from the direct rays of the sun

,

evaporate fluids elaborated by the trees themselves,and cool the

strata of air in immediate contact with them by the radiation of heat

from their appendicular organs or leaves . The latter are far from

bein g all parallel wi th each other ; they are, on the contrary, variously

inclined to the horizon,and

,according to the law developed by Leslie

and Fourier,the influence of this inclin ation upon thequantity of

heat emitted by radiation Is such,that the power of radiation (pou

voir rayonnant) of a measured surface a,having a given Oblique

direction, is equal to the pouvoir rayonnant” which would belongto a surfa ce of the size of a

,proj ected

_

on a horiz ontal plane . Nowin the initial condition of r

adiation

,of all the leaves which form the

summit of a tree and partly c over'

each other, th ose‘

are first cooledwhich are directed without any intervening screen towards the unclouded sky. The cooling result (or the exhaustion of heat byemission) will be the more considerable the greater the thinness ofthe leaves . A second stratum of leaves has its

’

upper su rface turnedto the under surface of the first stratum,

and will give out more heat

by radiation towards that stratum than it can receive by radiation

ANNOTATIONS ANDADDITIONS . 113Q

from it . The result of this unequal exch ange'

wil l thus be a loss oftemperature for the Second stratum of leaves also . A

‘

sim'

ilar Operat ion will continuefrom stratum to stratum

'

until all the leaves of thetreefby greater or less radiation, as modified by their diversity ofposition

,have passed into a state of stable equilibrium

,of which the

law can be deduced by mathematical analysis . In this manner,in

the long and clear nights of the equinoctial zone, the forest air cOntain ed in the intervals between the strata of leaves becomes cooled

by the process of radiation ; and“ by reason of the great quantity of

its thin appendicu lar organs or leaves,a tree

,the horizontal section

of Whose summit would measure for example 2000square feet, woul dac t in diminishing the temperature of the air equivalently to a spaceof bare or turf covered ground several thousand t imes greater than

2000square feet (Asie Centrale, t . iii . pp . 195 I have sought

thus to develope In detail the c omplicated effects which make up thetotal action of extensive forests upon the atmosphere

,because they

have been s o often touched upon in reference to the important question concerning the climates of ancient Germany and Gaul .

As In the O ld Continent E uropean civilization has had its principal seats On a western coast, it could not but be early remarked that,under equal degrees of latitude

,the oppos ite eastern coast of the

United Stateswas several degrees colder in mean annual temperature than

’

E urope,which is

,

'as it were,a proj ecting western penin

sul a to Asia,as BI ittany Is to the rest Of France . But in this re

mark itwas forgotten that these differences decrease from the higherto the Iowa latitudes

,In such manner that they almost entirely

disappear from 30° downwaIds. For the west coast of the NewContinent

,exact thermometric observations are still almost entirely

wanting but the mildness of th e Winters in New California shows

that the west coasts of America and E urope,under thesame paral

lels of latitude,probably differ little from each other in mean annual

temperature .

'

The subj oined table shows what are the corresponding mean annual temperatures

,in

'

the'

same geographical latitudes,

of the West coast of E urope and the east coast of th e'

N’

ew Conti

nent.


W e s t c o a s t

E a s t c oa s t of

57 ° 10' Na in6° . l

—O° .2

57 ° 4 1' Got te nburg

47 ° 34’ St . J oh n’s

3 1°0

47° 30'

48° 50'

440 39’ Ha l ifax

44° 50' Borde a ux

40° 43'New York

0

39°57’ Ph i lade lph ia

38° 03’ Wa sh ington 10

°2 3

°4

L isbon 13°. l


1,the Atlantic States east of the Al legh anies 2

,theWestern States

in the wide basin between the Al legh an ies and the Rocky Mount

ains,through which flow the Mississippi

,the Ohio, the Arkansas,

and the Missouri,3,th e high plains be tween t h e Rocky Mountains,

and the Maritime Alps of New California through which the O regonor Columbia River finds a passage . Since the highly honorable

establ ishment, by John C . Calhoun,of unin

temperatu re,made on a uniform plan at 35

du ced -to daily,monthly

,and annual means

,we

just climatic views than th ose '

wh ich were so generally received in

the time of.

Jefferson,Barton

,and Volney. These meteOrological

stations or observatories extend from the point of Florida and Th ompason’s Island (Key West), lat . 24

° to the Council Bluffs on th e"

.

Missouri ; and if we reckon amongst them Fort Vancouver, , lat. 45°

they include differences of-‘ longitude‘

of

It cannot be afli rmed that,on the whole

,the mean annual tem

peraturep f th e second or ‘middle region is higher than that of the

first or Atlantic region . The further a dvance ‘of certain plants to

wards the north,on the west of th e Alleghany mountains

,depends

‘

partly on the nature of those plants,and partly on the different dis

tribu t ion of the same annual quantity of heat. Th e wide valley ofthe Mississippi enj oys at its northern and southern extremities the

warming influence of the Canadian Lakes,and of the Mexican Gu lf

Stream . The five lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, E rie, and ~

O ntario) occupy a space of E nglish square miles . T h e

climate is ‘much milder and more equable in the neighborhood ofthe lakes

,for example

,at Niagara (lat . 43

° 15’ the mean Wintertemperature is only half a degree of Reaumur 2 Fahrenheit)below the freezing point

,while at a distance from the lakes

,in lat.

44° at the confluence of the river St . Peter’s with the Mississippi, the mean winter temperature of Fort

'Snelling is Reaumur

, or Fahrenheit (see Samuel Forry’s excellent Memoir on

“ the Climate of the United States,

”1842

,pp . 37, 39, and

A t this distance from the Canadian Lakes (Whose surface is from500to 600—530to 640E n glish—feet above the level of the sea

,

whilst the bottom of the Lakes—Michigan and Huron is about fivehundred feet below it), recent observations have shown the climate


of. the country to possess a proper contin ental ch arac ter,i . e. hOtter

summers and colderwinters . It Is proved,

” says Forry,“ by our

thermometrical data,that the climate west

‘of the Allegh any

'

Ch ain

is more excessive than that of the Atlantic side .” At Fort Gibso’

n,

on the Arkansas River, which fall s into'

the Mississippi in lat . 35°

with a mean annual temperature hardly equal to that of Gibral tar

,the thermometer In the shade

,and without any reflected heat

fromthe ground,has been seen

,in August 1834

,to rise to 7

Reaumur,or 117° Fahrenheit.

The statement so often repeated,although unsupported by any

thermometric measurements,that

,since the first E uropean settle

ments in New E ngland,Pennsylvania and Virginia

,the eradication

ofma ny forests on both sides of the Allegh an ies had rendered theclimate m ore equable ( i . e. milder in Winter and cooler in summer),is nowgenerally doubted or disbelieved . Series of trustworthy thermometric observations in the United States hardly extend so far

back as seven ty-eight years. We see in the Philadelphia o bserva

tions,that

,from 1771 to 1824

,the mean annual temperature has

hardly increased 2 Reaumu r ( or 8 Fahrenheit) -a differencewhich Is attributed to the increased size of the town, to its greaterpopulation

,and to the numerous steam-engines . The difference may

possibly be merely accidental,forI find in the same period an in

crease of mean winter,cold

,amounting to Reaumur

,or 2° Fahr

enh eit ; th e three other seasons had become somewhat warmer.

Three and thirty years’ observations at Salem

,in Massachusetts,

show no alteration at all . the annual means oscil late, Within a de

gree of Fahrenheit,about the mean of the whole number of years

and the winters of Salem,instead of having

(become milder

,as sup

. posed from the destruction of the forests in the course Of the thirty

three years,have become colder by Reaumur

,or 4° Fahrenheit .

(Ferry, pp . 97, 101, and

As the east coast of the United States is comparable in respect tomean annual temperature

,in equal latitudes

,to the Siberian and

Chinese coasts of the O ld Continent, so also the west coasts of E urope

and Amerrca have"

been very properly compared together. I willonly take a few examples from the western region on the shores ofthe Pacific

,for two

,of which (Sitka in Russian America, and Fort

118 STE PPE S AND DE sE RTs.

George, in th e same latitu des respectively as Gottenburg and Geneva)I am indebted to Admiral Lii tke’s voyage of c ircumn avigationzE u luk and Danz ig are nearly on the same parallel

,and although th e

mean temperature of Ilu luk, owing to its in sul ar climate and to acold sea-current

,is somewhat lower. than .that of Danzig, yet the

winter temperature of th e American station is milder th an that of

the port on the Bal tic . I

57 9 8’

a“

;

Gottenburg . 11° 59 ! E .

122° 58 '‘W .

Geneva'

46° 12' (Al t . 1298 E . ft .) 70 9

—3° Z l '

Kh ers on 46° 38 ' 32° 39’E .

Snow is. h ardly ever seen on the banks of the O regon or ColumbiaRiver

,and ice on the river lasts only a very few days . T h e lowest

temperature which Mr. Ball once observed there in the winter of

1833 was 65° of Reaumur —below the freezing point, or Fahrenheit (Message from the President of the United State s to Congress,1844

,p . 160; and Ferry, Clim . of the U . States

,pp . 49

,67, and 735.

A cursoryglance at the summer and winter temperatures abovegiven

, shows that on and near the west coast, a true insul ar climateprevails . The winter cold is less than in the western parts of

'

the

O ld Continent,and the summers are much cooler. The most st riking

contrast is presented by comparing the mouth “ of the O regon withFort s Snelling and Howard

,and the Counci l Bluffs in the inte rior

of the Mississippi and Missouri basin ( lat. 44° —where

,to


of the New Continent ( of which I'

stil l reckon a bove'

28 in a state of

activity) have only continued to burn longer than oth ers, becausethe lofty mountain ridges

,on whi ch they have b roken forth in rows

or series above long subterranean fissures,are nearer to the sea

,

"and

energy Of the subterranean fires in some way not yet suflic ien tlyexplained . Besides

,both earthquakes and fire-emitting mountains

the present moment,

”

(I wrote thus 42 years ago !)“ physica l dis

qui et and political calm reign in the New Continent,while in the

O ld the desolating strife of, nations disturbs the enjoyment of therepose Of natu re . Perhaps a tim e is comin g when

,in thi s singular

contra st between physical and moral forces,the two sides of the

Atlantic will,ch ange parts . Volcanoes are quiescent for centuries

before they burst forth anew ; and the idea that in the so-called

older countries,a c erta in peace must prevail in nature

,is founded

on a mere play of the . imagination . There exists no reason . forassuming one entire side of our planet to be O lder or ,

newer than the

other . Islands are indeed rai sed from the bed of the ocean by vol

c an ic action,

‘ and gradually heightened by c oral animal s,as t h e

Azores and many lowflat islands of th e Pac ific ; and these may

indeed be sa id to be newer than many Plutonic formations of theE uropean central chain . A small dis trict of the earth

,surrounded

,

like Bohemia and Kashmeer (and like many of the val leys in the

Moon), by annular mountains, may, by partial inundations, be long

covered with water ; and after the flowing Off of thi s lake or inl and

sea, the ground onWhich vegeta tion begins gradually to establishitself might be said

,figu ratively

,to be of recent origin . Islan ds

have become connected with each other by .the elevati on Of freshmasses of land 3 and parts of the previously dry land have been submerged by the subsidence Of the oscillating ground ; but submersions

so general as to embrace a hemisphere can,from hydrostatic laws ,

only be imagined as extending at thesame time over all parts“ of theearth . The sea cannot permanently overflow the boundless plain sOf the O rinoco and the Amaz ons

,without al so overwhelming the

plains adj oining th e Baltic . The sequenc e and identity Of the sedi

mentary strata , and of the organic remains of plants and animal s


belongi ng to the AncientWorld enclosed In those strata , show thatseveral great depositions have taken place almost simultaneouslyover the entire

,globe .

”

(For the fossil vegetable remains in th e'

c oal

formation in North America and in E urope, compare Adolph ,

Brog

n iart,Prodrome d’une His . des Végétaux ~ Fossiles

,p . 179 and

Charles Lyell’s Travels in North America,vol. ii . p .

p .

‘

The ScatherriHemisp here is cooler a ncl moister tha n

ou r Northern h a lf of the globe.

”

Chili,Buenos Ayres

,and the southern ' parts Of Brazil and Peru

,

have all,as a result of the narrowness of the Continent of South

America as it tapers towa rds the south,a tru e “ insular climate ,

” ora; climate of cool summers and mild winters. As far as the 48th or50th parallel Of latitude this charac ter of the Southern Hemispheremay be regarded as an advantage

,but farther on towards the An t

arctic Pole,South America gradually becomes an inhospitable wilder

ness . The difference Of latitude Of the southern terminating points

of Australia ( including Van Diemen Island), Of Africa, ai d of America gives to each of these continents a peculiar ch aI ac ter. The

Straits of Magellan are between the 53d and 54th degrees Of la titude

,and yet in December and January, when the sun is 18 hours

above the horizon,the temperature sinks to 4° Reaumur

,or 41°

’

Fahrenheit. Snow falls almost daily,and the highest atmospheric

temperature Observed by Churruc a (1788) in December ( the sum

mer of those regions), was not above or 52° 2' Fahr. TheCabo Pilar

,whose towering rock

,though only 218 toises

,or 1394

E nglish feet high,may be regarded as th e southern termination of the

chain of the Andes,i s almost in the same latitude as Berlin . (Re

lac ion del Viage al E strecho de Magallanes, apendic e, 1793, p .

While in the Northern Hemisphere all the continents attaina sor tOf mean limit

”

towards the Pole,coinciding pretty regularly with th e

parallel Of the terminating points in the Southern Hemisphere

Of America, in the deeply indented and intersected Tierra del

Fuego—of Australia—and‘

of Africa—are respectively 4659

,

and 56° distant from the South Pole .

’

The temperature . Of thevery unequal extents Of ocean

,which divide these southern points

from the icy pole, contributes very materially to modify their climates .

11


The areas of dry land in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres i

are

to each other in the -proportion of 3 to a But this inferiority inextent Of continental masses in the Southern Hemisphere; as com

pared with the Northern,belongs much more to the temperate than

to the torrid.

zone . In the temperate zones of the Northern and

Southe rn Hemisph eres,‘

th e ratio is as 13 to 1 ; in the torrid zones

as 5 to 4 . The great inequality in the distribution of the dry land

ses a very sensible influence on“

the strength of the ascendingaerial current which turns towards the Southern Pole, and on ,

thetemperature Of the Southern Hemisphere . Some of the noblest

“forms Of tropical vegetation

,for example the tree-fernsg

‘

advan ce

south Of the E quator as far as the parallels of and of even 53 °

whereas north of the E quator they are not found beyond th e tropic

of Cancer (Robert Brown, Appendix to Flinders’

.Voyage,pp . 575

and 584 Humboldt,de distribu t ione geograph ica

‘Plan tarum, pp .

81—8 Tree-ferns thrive extremely well at Hobart Town in Van

Diemen Island ( lat. 42° where the mean annual temperature

is 9 ° Reaumur, or 52° 2’ Fahrenheit

,and is therefore 1° 6’R eau

mur,or Fahrenheit

,less than that Of Toulon . Rome is almost

a degree of latitude farther fromthe E quator than Hobart Town,and

has an annual temperature Of It,or

.

37 3 wintertemperature of R

,or Fahr .

,—and a summer t emperature

of 24° R,or 86° Fahr . these three values being in Hobart Town

and R .

,or and 63 ° Fahr . In Dusky

,

Bay, New Zealand, tree-ferns grow in S . lat. 46° and in the Auck

land and Campbell Islands,even in 53° S . lat . (J08 . Hooker

,Flora

Antarctica, 1844 , p .

In the Archipelago Of Tierra del Fuego—where,in the same lati

tude as Dublin,themean Winter temperature is Reaumur (33

°

and themean summer temperature only 8° R. or 50° Fahr .

Captain King found the “ vegetation thriving most luxuriantly inlarge woody-stemmed trees Of Fuchsia and Veronica ;

” while this

vigor of vegetation,which

,especially on the western coast Of Ame

rica in 38° and 40° Of south latitude,is so picturesquely described

by Charles Darwin,suddenly disappears south of Cape Horn

,on the

rocks of the Southern O rkney'

and Shetland Islands,and Of the

Sandwich Archipelago . These islands,but scantily covered with

grass,moss

,and lichens

,“Terres de Desolation

,

” as the French na


(21

) p 32 . A con n ec ted sea of sa nd .

As the Heaths formed of socially growing E ric eae, which stretchfrom the mouth Of the Scheldt to that of the E lbe

,and from the

point of Jutland to the Harz,may be regarded as one “ connected

tra c t of regela tion—so the seas of sand may be traced through

Africa and Asia,from Cape Blanco to beyond the Indus

,or through

an'

exten t of 5600 geographical miles . Herodotus’s Sandy Re

gion interrupted by O ases, called by the Arabs the Desert of Sahara,traverses almost the whole of Africa

,whi ch it intersects like a dried

up i

arm Of the sea. The valley Of the Nile Is the eastern limit ofthe Lybian Desert. Beyond the Isthmus Of Suez

,beyond the por

phyrit ic , sy

-

en itic,and basaltic rocks of

'

Sinai,begins the Desert

mountain plate au of Nedj id, which occupies thewhole of the inte

rior of the Arabian Peninsula,and is bounded to thewest and -south

by the fertile and happier coast lands of Hedjaz and Hadhramaut .The E uphrates bounds the Arabian and Syrian Deserts towards th eeas Immense seas Of sand (bejaban) cross Persia from the Cas

pian

1;

to the Indian Sea . Among them are the salt and sodaD eserts

of Kerman,Seistan

,Belooch istan

,and Mekran . The latter is sepa

rated from the Desert Of MOu l tan by the Indus .“

(22

) p . 32. Th e western p a rt of the At la s .

The question respecting the position of th e ancient Atlas has

been much discussed in modern times,but the oldest Phoenician

legends have been confounded in this discussion with the later fables‘

of the Greeks and’

th e Roman s . A man who combined deep philological with thorough mathematical and astronomical knowledge,Professor Ideler, (the fa ther,)was the first person who explained and

dispelled the confusion of ideas which had previously existed on thissubj ect. I permit myself to introduce here the remarks that clear

sighted and highly-informed writer has communicated to me on this

important subj ect.

At a very early period of the world,the Phoenicians ventured

beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. They built Gades and Tartessuson the Spanish

,and Lixu s and several other towns on the Maurita

nian coasts of the Atlantic . They sailed along those coasts north


wards to the Cassiterides where they Obtained tin,and to the Prussian

coast from whence they brought amber ; and sou thwards, , past Ma

deira, ,to the Cape de Verde Islands . They visited

,among

, other

places, the. Canaries, and were s truck by the appearance of the loftyPeak of Tenerifl

'

e, enhanced by its rising immediately from the sea .

Through the’

colonies which they . sent to Greece, and especially

through that which came under Cadmus to Boeotia, ,the notice Of

this mountain rising high“

above the region of clouds,and

.

Of the‘Fortunate Islands,

’ adorned with fru its of every kind,and ‘espe

c ia l ly with the golden orange , spread into Greece : Here the tradi

tion was propagated by the songs of the bards, and thus reached

Homer. He speaks in'

the Odyssey (i . 52) Of an Atlas who knowsall the depths of the sea

,and who supports the great pillars which

divide heaven and earth from each other.’ He speaks,too

,in the

Iliad, of the E lysian fields,which he describes as a lovely land in

the west. (11. iv. Hesiod expresses himself in a similar

manner respecting Atlas,whom he makes a neighbor of the n ymphs

,

the daughters of Hesperus . (Theog. v. He calls the E lysian fields, which he places at the western limit

'

of the earth,the

Islands of; the'

Blest . (Op . et dies,v. Later poets have

added further embellishments to these myths Of Atlas,of the Hes

perides, their golden apples, and the Islands of the Blest, assigned

as'

the dwelling-place of the virtuous after death and have combined

with them the expeditions of the Tyrian god of trade, Melicertes

( the Grecian Hercules).

c ian s and Carthaginians in navigation . They visited the coasts Of the

Atlantic,it is true

,but n ever appear to have penetrated far into the

ocean . I doubt whether they ever saw the Canaries and the Peak of

Teneriffe . They believed that Atlas,which their poets and legends

described as a very high mounta in placed at th e western limit of th eearth

,must be sought on the west coast Of Africa . It was placed

there’ also by their later geographers,Strabo

,Ptolemy

,and others .

As there is not any single mountain dist inguished by its elevationin north-western Africa, the true situation of Mount Atlas has been

“

a subj ect of perplexity and it has been sought,sometimes on the

coast, sometimes in the interior, sometimes near the Mediterranean,

126 STE PPE S AND DE snia'rs .

and sometimes further towards the south . It became the,

custom

( in the first century of our era,when the Roman arms

‘

pen etra ted

into the interior of Mauritania and N to give the name of

Atlas to the African chain of mounta ins Which runs from west‘

to

eas t almost parallel with the coast of the Mediterranean . Pliny

and Sol inu s were, however, very sensible that the descriptions’

of

Mount Atlas given by the Greek and Roman poets were n ot appli

cable to this long mounta in chain , and they therefore thought itnecessary to transfer the Atlas

,ofwhich they gave a picturesque

description in accordancewith the poetic legends,to

.the terra in

cognita of Central Africa . According to what has been"

said,the

Atlas of Homer and Hesiod can only be the Peak of Teneriffe and

the Atlas of the Greek and Roman geographersmust be in Northern

Africa .

I will only add the following remarks to thi s instructive discussion

by .Professor Ideler. . According to Pliny and Sol inu s,Atlas rises

from a sandy plain (e medio arenarum);i

and elephants (which c er

ta in ly were never known in Ten erifi‘

e) feed'

on its declivity. Whatwe now term Atlas is a long ridge .

"How came the Romans to re

cognize in this long ridge the isolated conical mountain of Herodotus ?May not the reason be found in the optical delusion by which every

mountain chain seen in profile,in the prolongation of its direction

,

has the appearan ce’

of“

a narrow cone ? ' I have often seen in thismanner, from the sea, the ends of long chains or ridges, which might

be taken for isolated mountains . According to Host,the Atlas is

covered n'

ear Morocco with perpetual snow,which implies an ‘

eleva

tion of above 1800toises,or E nglish feet. It is also re

markable that, according to Pliny, the“ Barbarians

,

”i . e. the

ancient Mauritanians,called the Atlas Dyris .

”Th e chain of the

Atlas is still called by the Arabs Daran,a word which has almost the

same consonants as Dyris . Horn iu s,on

“

the other .hand (de O rigin ibus American orum

,p . thinks that he recognizes

‘

the wordDyris in the Guanche name of the Peak of Tenerifi

‘

e,Aya

lDyrma .

O n the connection between purely mythical ideas and geographical

traditions,and on the way in which the Titan Atlas gave occasion to

the image of a mountainsupporting the heavens, beyond the Pillars of Hercul es

,see Letronne’s “ E ssai sur les Idées cosmograph


t

(23

) p . 32. Th e .Moun ta z'

n s of the Moon,Dj ebel-a l-Kamr.

The Mountains of the Moon of Ptolemy ( lib . iv. cap .

( osmiumapog) form on our older maps an immense, uninterruptedmountain zone

,traversing Africa from east to west." T h e existence

of these mountainsappears certain ; but their extent, their di stanc efrom ' the E quator

,and their general direction

,are all unsolved

problems . I h ave already alluded in another work (Cosmos,‘

vol .

ii . p . 191,and note 297, E ngl .

-

cd ), to the manner in which a closeracqua intan c e

’

with Indian languages,and with the ancient Persian

idiom,the Zend

,teaches us that part of the geographi cal nomen

c la ture of Ptolemy forms an historic monument of the commercialconnection of the west with the most distant regions of Southern

Asia and E astern Afri ca . The same direction of ideas shows itselfin a question very recently brought forward . It is asked

,whether

the great geographer and astronomer of Pelu sium meant,in e the

name of “ Mounta ins of the as in that of the “ Island of

(Jabadiu , Java), merely to give the Greek translation of anative name5—whether ( as is most probable) E l Istachri, E drisi,Ibn-al -Vardi

,and other early Arabian geographers

,only transferred

the nomenclature of Ptolemy into their own language -or whetherthey were misled by similarity in the sound of the words and themanner of writing. In the notes to th e translation of Abd-Al l at if’scelebrated description of E gypt

,my great instructor, Silvestre de

Sacy, (éd . de 1810,pp . 7 and says expressly : “ O n traduit

ordinairement le nom de ces mon tagnes que Léon Africain regardecomme les [sources du Nil

,par mon tagn es de la lun e

,et j ’ai suivi

cet usage . J e n e sais si les Arabes ont pris originairement ce ttedenomin a t ion de Ptolémée . O n peut

’ croire qu’i l s entendent etfec

t ivemen t auj ourd’hui le mot,-4 -3 dans l e sens de

’

la l un e en le

pron on can t Kamar’ j e n e crois pas cependant que c’ait été

l’opin ion des anciens écrivains arabes qui prononcent

,comme le

prouve Makriz i,Komr. Abou lféda rej ette positivement l’opin ion de

ceux qui prononcent kamar,et qu i dérivent c c nom de celui de la

lune . Comme le mot komr,considéré comme pluriel de

ra j ],

sign ifie un obj et d’une cou leu r eerdd lre ou d’un blanc sale

, suivant


l’au teur du Kamou s

, ,

il paroit que quelque s écrivains ont cru que

cette montagne t iroit son nom de sa couleur .”

The learned Rein aud,in his recent excellent translation of Abul

feda ( t . ii . pp . 81 considers it probable that the Ptolemaic inter

pretation of the name, by Mountains of the Moon” c eama i a),was that originally ,

adopted by the Arabian writers . He remarks

that in the Mosch tarek of Yakut,and in Ibn-Said

,

‘

the mountainsare written al-Komr

,and that Yakut write s in t h e same 'way th e

name Of the Islands of Z endj (Z angu ebar). TheAbyssinian travellerBeke, in his learned critical memoir on the Nile and its tributaries

(Journal of th e Royal Geographical Society Of Loiidon , vol . xvii .1847 , pp . 74 seeks to prove that Ptolemy had merely formed

his 6 8 71971177; opog from -a native name,for which he was indebted to

intelligence received through the medium of the extensive commerc ial intercourse which prevailed . He

‘

says,

“ Ptolemy knew thatthe Nile rises in the mountainous c oun try

‘

of Moez i ; and in t h e lan

gu ages which extend over a great portion of South Africa ( forexample, in the languages of Congo, Monjou, andMozambique), theword Moez i signifies the moon x A great south -western country was

called Mono-Mu ez i,or Mani-Moez i

,t'

. e. the land of the king ofMoez i

( of the king‘of the Moon-country), for in the same family of languages

in which Moe z i'

or Mu ez i‘

sign ifies the Moon, Mono or Mani signifiesa king. Alvarez

,i n the Viaggio nella E thiopia (Ramu sio, vol . i .

p . speaks of the ‘ regno de Manicongo,’ the kingdom of th e

king of Congo .

” Beke’s opponent,Ayrton , seeks th e origin of the

White Nile (Bahrfl'

el Abiad), not as do Arnaud, Werne, and Beke,near the E quator

,or even south of it ( and in ‘ 29 ° E . long. from

Paris,or 31° 22’ from Greenwich), but with , Antoine d’Abbadie

far to the north east,in the Godjeb and Gibbe of E n eara (In iara)

therefore 1n the high mountains of Habesch , in 7° 20

' N . latitude,

apd83° E . long . from Paris

,or 35° 22’ from Greenwich . He

conj ectures that the Arabs,from a similarity of sound

,may have

interpreted the native name Gamaro belonging to the Abyssinian

Mountains,in the south-west of Gaka

'

in which the Godjeb (orWhiteNile ?) has its source, to mean Moon Mountains (Dj ebel al-Kamar)so that Ptolemy himself, familiar with. the intercourse between

Abyssinia and . the Indian O cean, may, have“ taken the ‘ Semitic

version,given by early Arab emigrants . (Compare Ayrton in the

130 (STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS .

Journal of the Royal Geogr. Soc . vol . xviii . 1848, pp . 53,55, a nd59—63

,with Fred . Wern e

’s instructive expedition for the discovery

of the sources of the Nile,E xped . zur E n td . der Nil-Quellen

,1848

s . 534 536.

The lively interest which has again been excited In E ngland forthe discovery of the most southern sources of the Nile

,induced the

above named Abyssinian traveller, Charles ,

Beke, ,a t the recen t

meeting of the BritishA ssociation for the Advancement of Science,

held at Swansea,August

,1 848; to develop more in de tail his ideas

respecting the connection between the Mountains of the Moon andthe Mountains Of Habesch . He says —“ The Abyssinian elevated .

plain,generally above 8000feet high, extends towards the south to

nearly 90

° or 10° N. latitude . The eastern declivity of the high

lands has to the inhabitants of the coast the appearance of a mountain chain . The plateau at its southern extremity passes into the

Mountains of the Moon,which run

,not east and west

,but parallel

to the coast,or from NNE . to SSW. extending from 10° N . to 5°

S . latitude . The sources of the White 'Nile are situated in the

Mono-Moez i country,probably in S.

,n ot

'

far from where the

river Sabaki,on the eastern side of the Mountains of the Moon, falls

into the Indian O cean near Mel indeh,north -of Mombaza . Last

autumn ( 1847)the two Abyssinian missionaries Rebmann and Krapf

were Still on the coast of Mombaza. They.

have established in thevicinity, among the Wakamba tribe, a missionary station calledRabbay E mpie, which promises to be very useful also for geograph ical discovery. Families belonging to

_

the Wakamba tribe haveadvanced to the west five or six hundred miles ‘ into the interior ofthe country

,as far as the upper course of the river Lu sidj i, the

great Lake Nyassi or Zambeze (5° S . lat . and the sources of the

Nile,which are not far distah t . An expedi tion to these sources

,

which Herr Friedrich Bial loblot z ky, of Hanover, is preparing toundertake (bythe advice of Beke), 1s to set out from Mombaza .

The Nile coming from the west referred to by the anci ents is probably the Bahr-el-Ghazal

,O_

r Keilah,wh ich falls into the Nile in 9 °

N . lat .,above the mouth of the Godj eb or Sobat.

”

Ru ssegger’s scientific expedition—which by Meh emet Ali’s desire

was sent to the gold-washings of Faz okl on the Blue (Green)Nil e,


than Mont Blanc.. (Compare Ruppel l , Reise in Abyssih ien , bd .

i . s . 414,and bd. 11. S . Riippel l found, adj oining the Bua

hat,an elevated plain ( 13 ,939 E ng.) feet above the Red

Sea,barely covered with a small quantity of fresh fallen snow (Hum

boldt,Asie Centrale, t . iii . p . The celebrated inscription of

Adu l is, which N1ebuh r considers to be somewhat later than Jubaand Augustus

,also speaks of Abyssinian snow “ that reaches to

the knees ” This IS,I believe

,the earliest mention in antiquity

of snow within the tropics (Asie Centrale, t. iii . p . as the

Paropan isus is 12° of latitude north .Of the northern

,limit of the

torrid zone .

Zimmermann’s map of the countries about the Upper Nile showsthe dividing line which determines the basin of the Great River,and separates it on the south-east from the domain of the riverswhich flow into the Indian O cean -that is to say, from the Doara,which enters the sea north Of Magadoxo ; from the Teb, which h asits embouchure on the Amber coast

,near Ogda ; and from the

Gosch op, whose abundant stream is formed by the confluence Of

the Gibu and the Zehi,and which he distinguishes from the Godjeb,

rendered celebrated since 1839 -by Antoine d’Abbadie

,the missionary

Krapf, and Beke . These results of the travels of Beke,Krapf,

Isenberg, Russeger, Rfi ppel l , Abbadie , andWerne, brought together,and shown in the most comprehensive and convenient mann eribyZimmermann , were hailed by me on their . appearance in 1843 with

the most lively j oy, as expressed in a letter to .Carl B it ter .

“ If,

”

I wrote to him,

“ a life prolonged to an advanced period brings withi t , several inconveniences to the individual

,and perhaps some even

to those who live with h im,there is a compensation in the delight

of being able to compare older states of knowledgewi th that whichnow exists, and to see great advances in knowledge . grow and develop themselves under our eyes in departments where all h ad longslumbered in inactivity

,with the exception

,perhaps

,of attempts

by hypercriticism to render previous acquisitions doubtful . This

enj oyment has from time to time fallen to our share,yours and

mine, in our geographical studies, and this particularly in reference

to those very parts of the world which formerly could—only be treatedof with timid, hesitating uncertainty . The conformation of a con

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS . 1 33

tinen t depends .in' its” leading traits on several '

plastic relations, whichare usually among the latest to be discovered and_ unravelled . A

new and excellent work of our friend,Carl Z immermann

,on the

u pper country Of the Nile,and the eastern parts of Central Africa

,

h as again brought these considerations very vividly before me . Hisnew map shows in the clearest manner to th e eye, by means of aparticular method of shading, What is still unknown, a nd what, bythe courage and perseverance of travellers Of all nations- among

whom ~Our own countrymen happily hold an important place—hasbeen already disclosed to us . It is a valuable service

,and one which

opens the way for farther advances and more comprehensive infer

en c es,when persons

,thoroughly acquainted with the existing

,Often

widely scattered,materials—men who do not merely draw and com

pile,but compare

,select

,and

,wherever it is possible

,check and.

control the routes of travellers by as tronomical determinations of

position—undertake to represent graphically the results of the elements of knowl edge possessed at the time . Those who have them

selves given to the world so much as you have done,have an especial

right to expect much ; since their combinations have largely aug

men ted the number of connecting points ; yet I believe that when

you executed your great work on Africa, in 1822, you could h ardly

have expected so many accessions as we have now received . Theknowledge acquired is, -indeed

,often Only that of rivers, their direc

tion,their branches

,and the various synonyms by which they are

called in dialects belonging to different families , of_languages ; but

rivers reveal to us by th eir‘

course_ the form of the surface of theearth

,and are at once the n ohrish ers of vegetation

,the channels of

intercourse between men,and pregnant with unknown influences on

the future .

The northerly course of the White Nile,and the south-easterly

course of the great Goschop, would indicate that a swelling of the"

ground separates the domains or basins of these rivers . We know,

indeed,but imperfectly, how such a swelling or elevation may be con

n ec ted with the mountains OfHabesch,and in what manner it may be

continued southward beyond the E quator . Probably,and this IS also

theopinion of my friend Carl B it ter, the Lupata mountains, which,according to the excellentWilhelm Peters, extend to 26

° S.latitude,

12

134 "

STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS.

are connected with the elevated parts of the E arth’s Surfaceon the

north side Of the E quator (o ith the Abyssinian mountains), by

the mountains of . the Moon . The word “Lupata,” We learn from

the last-named African traveller,is used in the l anguage of Tette

,

as an adj ective,meaning “ closed .

” The chain Of mountains woul d

thus be called the “ closed” or “ barred .

” “ The Lupata,ch ain

'

of

Portuguese rwriters,

” says Peters,

“ is about 90 legOas or leaguesfrom the mouth of the Zambeze

,and is only about two thousand feet

high . The direction of this mountain rampart is north and south;but with occasional bends alternately to the east and to the west .

It is «sometimes interrupted by plains . Along the wh cfle'

of the

Zanzibar coast,the traders into the interior speak of thi s long but

n ot very elevated ridge,which extends from 6° to 26° S . latitude

,

as far as the Factory of Lou ren z o-Marques, on the Rio de E spiritu

Santo ( in the Bay da Lagoa, or Delagoa Bay Of the E nglish). Th e

farther the Lupata chain advances towards the south, the nearer itapproaches the coast

,from which it is only fifteen legoas d istant at

Lou ren z o-Marques .”

(24

) p . 32. Ca used by the grea t revolving cu rren t.

In the northern part of the Atlantic,between E urope

,North

Africa, and the New Continent, the waters ,

of the ocean are drivenround in a true revolving current

,Or circle . This general current

which , fromits cause, might be called a “Rotation Current” —movesbetween the tropics, as is well known, with the trade wind, from

'eastto west. It accelerates the passage of ships sailing from the Canaries

to South Americahandmakes it almost impossible to sail “up stream

,

”

or in a direct line from Cartagena de Indias to Cumana ._This set

to the west,attributed to t h e trade winds

,receives

,however

,in the

Caribbean Sea,the accession of a much

.stronger movement

,origi

nating in a

'

very remote c au se,~Wh ich was discovered as early as

1560by,

Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Hakluyt, Voyages, vol . iii . p .

and developed with greater certainty by Rennell in 1832. The

Mosambiqu e current, flowing from north to south between Madagasear and the east coast Of Africa, sets on the Lagu llas Bank, turns

on the north side of it round the south point of Africa,and advances

with much force up the western coast of the Continent to a l ittle


possibility of trunks of South Americ an andWest Indian trees beingcarried

,in spite Of the trade winds, to the coasts of th e

‘

Can aryIslands

,and stranded there . I have made many experiments on

the temperature of th e Gulf Stream inl

th e v icinity—

Of the Banks ofNewfoundland . The stream brings the warmer water of lower lati

tudes into more northern regions with much rapidity,and I have

thus found its temperature two or three degrees of Reaumur (5° to

7 ° Fah . higher than that of the adjacent unmoved masses of water,

which form as it were the banks of the warm oceanic river.The flying fish of the tropics ( E xocetus vol itan s) accompanies the

warm water of the Gulf Stream far into the temperate , zone Float

ing , sea-weed (Fucus natans), ch iefly t aken up by the stream in the

Gulf of M exico, Shows when a ship is entering the current, and thearrangement of the branches of

,

the sea-weed shows the di rect ion Of

the movement of the water . The mainmast of the E ngli sh ship of

war,the Tilbury

,destroyed by fire on the coast of San Domingo

,

was carried by the Gul f Stream to the north coast of Scotland , E ven

casks filled with palm Oil , the remains of the cargo of a ship wreckedOff Cape Lopez on the coast of Africa, were carried in the samemanner to after having twice traversed the whole breadth

of the At lantic ; once from east to west with the equatorial currentbetwe en 2° and 120 N. lat .

,and once from west toeast by the aid

of the Gul f Stream,between 45° and 55° N . lat. Rennell

,in p . 347

of the “ Investigation of Currents,relates the voyage of a bottle

with papers enclosed, thrown overboard by the E nglish ship Newcastle on the 20th of January

,1819

,in lat . 38° and long.

63 ° wh ich’

was picked up on the -2d of June,1820

,at the

Rosses (near the island of ~Arran), on the west coast of Ireland“

“

A

short tme before my arrival at Ten erifle,a stem O f South American

cedar (Cedrela Odorata), well covered with lichens, h ad been castashore in the harbor of Santa Cruz .

E ffects of the Gulf Stream in stranding on the Islands of Fayal,

'

Flores, and Corvo in the Azores, bamboos, artificially cut pieces Of

[T h e c ircumsta n c e referred to w a s even more rema rkable . Ca sks'

of

p a lm o i l, pa rt of th e c a rgo of th e sh ip w rec ked n ear Cap e Lopez , w ere c on

veyed by th e c u rre n t to Finma rken , a n d stran ded n ear th e North C ape . Vi de

E ditor’s n ote in th e E nglish tran sla tion of “ Cosmos ,

”vol . 1. p . xcvii .]—Tr.


wood,trunks Of an

"

unknown Species Of Pine from Mexico and theWest Indian Islands, and corpses of men of unknown race with unusually broad faces

,contributed to the discovery of America

,

'

by

confirming Columbus in his belief of the existence to the westwardof Asiatic countries and islands at no impassable distance . Thegreat discoverer even heard from the lips of settlers near the Cape

de la Verga'

in t h e Azores,of some

,

“who,in sailing westward

,had

m et‘

decked or covered " boats, manned by persons of strange andforeign appearance

,and built apparently in such a manner that they

could not founder,—almadias con casa movediza qu e nunca se hun

den . T here is highly credible and well-c onfirmed testimony to thefact

,much ‘as it has long been doubted

,of natives Of America (prol

bably E squimaux fromGreenland or Labrador), carried by currentsor driven by storms from the northwest

,having actually crossed the

Atlantic in their canoes and reac h ed our Shores . James Wallace”,

in his'

“Account of the Islands of O rkney ( 1700, p . r elatesthat

,

’

in 1682,a Greenlander was seen in his boat off the south point

o f the Island of E da by‘

several persons,who did n ot succeed in

bringing him to shore . In 1684,a Greenland fisherman appeared

in his boat Off the Island ofWestram . In the church at Barra there

was suspended an'

E squimaux boat,driven thither by currents and

tempests . The inhabitants of the O rkneys 'call Greenlanders soappearing among them Finns or “Finnmen .

”

In Cardinal Bembo’s History of Venice, I findanarrative totheeffect that i n 1508 a. French Shipcaptured near the E nglish coast 3.small boat

,with seven persons of a strange and foreign appearance .

The descriptionl

su its extremely,,well with E squimaux (homines

eran t septem med/Zoom sta tum,colore subobscuro

,Za tO

'

etpaten te vu ltu,c ic a tricequ e una violacea sign ato). .No one understood their language . Their clothing was composed Of fi sh -Skins sewn ' together.

O n their heads they wore c oron am e culmo pic tam,septem

‘

qu asi

au ricu l is in textam . They ate raw flesh,and " drank -blood as we

would wine. Six of the men died during the passage of the vessel,

on board which they had been taken ; bu t e th e seventh,a youth

,

was presented to the king of France,who was then at O rleans .

(Bembo, Historia Ven etae,ed . 1718, lib . vii . p .

The appearance of men called I ndia ns on the western coast of12*


Ge rmany,under the O thos,and under Frederic Barbarossa,

‘ in the

l oth and 12th centuries, a nd even, as is related by Cornelius' Nepos

( ed . Van Staveren,cur. Bardil i

,t . 11 1820

,p . Pompon ius Mela

( lib . iii . cap . and Pliny (Hist.'Nat.

,t . ii . p . when

Qu intus Metellus,Celer was Pro-consul in Gaul, may be explained

by similar effects of currents and north-west winds of long'

continuance . A king

’

of the Boii,others say of the Suevi

,gave the ship

wrecked dark-colored men to Metell us Celer. Gomara, in his His

toria Gen . de las In dias (Saragossa, 1553 , fol . refers to ‘

th is

account,and considers the Indians spoken of in it to have been n

‘

a

t ives of Labrador. Si ya no fuesen de Tierra del Labrador,

/

y lostuviesen

,los Romanos por Indianos enganados en c l color .” The

appearance of E squimaux on the northern c oasts of E urope;may bebelieved to have occurred more often in earlier tim es, because we

know,from the researches of Rask and Finn Magnu sen , that in the

11th and 12th centuries this race extended in considerable numbers,

under the name of the Skr'

al inges of Labrador, even as far south asthe “good Vinland 75. e. the coast -of Massachusetts and Conn ec t i

cut. ( Cosmos, bd. ii . s . 270; E nglish ed. p . 234 E xamen C ritiquede l’Hist . de la Geograph ic , t . ii . pp . 224

As the winter cold of"

the most northern parts of Scandinavia is

softened -by the influence of the Gulf Stream,by which American

tropical fruits ( cocoa nuts , and seeds of the Mimosa scandens and

the An ac ardium oc c iden tale) are cast upon the shore beyond the62d degree of latitude, so does Iceland also occasionally enj oy thebeneficial influenceof the extension of the warm waters of the Gul f

Stream far to the northward . The coasts of Iceland as well as thoseof the Faroe Islands

,receive a great deal of driftwood

,which

,

coming formerly in great er abundance,was cut into beams and

plank s and used for buil ding timber. Frui ts of tropical plants,col

lec ted on the c oast of Iceland, between Raufarh avn and Vapn afiord,

testify the movement of the waters from the southward . (Sartorius

vonWaltershausen, physisch-geographische Skizze von Island, 1847,s. 22—35 )

h

(25) p . 33 . M aker Lec idea s n or

i

othcr Ifl'

chens .

In northern countries,th e earth

,if left bare

,soon becomes


bable that, among some of the tribes ofWestern Canada, the buffalowas from early times madean obj ect of care, for the sake of i ts fleshand skin . (Fragments of the Nat. Hist. of Pennsylvania, p . i . p .

In Peru and’

Qui to, the lama is now nowhere found in a'

state oforiginal wildness . I was told by the natives th at th e lamas on thewestern declivity of the Chimborazo had become wild when theancient residence of the rulers of Quito Lican” was laid In ashes.

In the same manner the oxen in the Cej a de la Montana, in M iddl e

Peru,have become perfectly wild : they are a small and daring race

,

and often attack the Indi ans . The natives call them Vacas del

Monte,or Vaca s cimarronas . (Tsch udi, Fauna Pemaria

'

,s .

Cuvier’8 opinion, that the lama had descended from the still wild

Guanaco, has b een unfortunately still further dissemi nated by themeritorious traveller Meyen (Reise um di e E rde

,th . iii . s.

but has been completely refuted by von Tsch udi .

The Lama,the Paco or Alpaca

,a nd the Guanaco

;are three

originally distinct s pecies of animals . (Tschudi, s .,

228 andThe Guanaco (Huanacu in the

'

Quichua language) is the largest of

the . three ; and the Alpaca, measured from the ground to the

crown of the head,the smallest . The lama is next to the guanaco

in stature: Herds ‘of lamas,when they are as numerous as I have

seen them in the high plateau between Quito and Riobamba,are a

great ornament to the landscape . The Moromoro of Chili appears

to be a mere variety of the lama . Vicufias,Gu an ac oes

,and Al

pacas, still live wild at elevations of from to feet

above the level of the sea . Th e two latter species are sometimes

met with tamed, but the guanaco only rarely. The alpaca does not

bear the warmer climate of the lower elevations so well as thelama . Sin ce the introduction of the more useful horses

,mul es

,

and asses (the latter acqui re great spirit and beauty within the

tropics), th e custom of rearing and using the lama and the alpacaas beasts of burden

,

'

in the mountains and among the mines,has

much decreased . But the wool,of such d ifferent qualities in

respect to fineness , is still an important article in the‘ industry of the

inh abitan ts . of the mountains . In Chili, the wild and the tamedguanaco are, distinguished by separate names ; the wild being calledLuan, and the tame Chi lihuequ c . The wide dissemination of the


wild guanaco, from the Peruvian Cordil leras to Tierra del Fuego,Sometimes in herds of 500, ,

has been favored,

by‘

th e circumstancethat these animals can swim with great ease from island to island

,

so that the Patagonian fiords Offer no Obstacle to their wanderings.

(See the pleasing descriptions by Darwi n, in his Journal, 1845,p 66 )South of the Gila River, which, together with

‘

the Rio Colorado,enters the Californian Gulf or Mar de Cortes

,stand

,in the solitude

of the Steppe, the enigmatical ruins of the Aztec Pal ace, called bythe Spaniards las Casas grandes . When the Aztecs, about theyear 1160

,came from the unknown land Of Aztlan t o Anahuac

,

they settled themselves for a time on the banks of the Gil a . The

Fran ciscan monks,Garces and Font

,are the latest t ravel lers who

have visited the Casas grandes, and they did so in 1773 . They

stated the ruins to extend over above a square German mile (16E nglish square miles). The whole plain 1s strewed with fragmentsOf painted pot teryf The principal palace (if a house built Of

burnt clay c an be so design ated) is 447 E nglish feet long and 277

E nglish feet broad . (SeeJa rare work printed in Mexico

,and

entitled Cronica serafica y apostolica del Colegio de'

Propaganda

Fide de la ’Santa Cruz de Queretaro por Fr. Juan Domingo Arricivita .

The Taye of California),as drawn by Father Venegas

,appears to

difler little from the O vis musimon Of the O ld Continent . The sameanimal i s a lso seen on the Stony Mountains,

” near the sources of

the Peace River . V ery different from it, on the other hand, is the

small white and black spotted goat-l ike creature which feeds nearthe Missou ri and Arkansas rivers . The synonymy of

‘

Antilope fur

c ifer, A . tememaZ ama of Smith,and O vis montana

,is still very un

determined

The original habitat Of ‘ the farinaceous grasses is wrapped in thesame Obscurity as t hat of the domestic an imms which have accom

pan ied man since his earlie st migrations . The German word for

corn,

has been ingeniously derived byJacob Grimmfrom the Old German gitragidi, getregede.

“ It is as ' it were the

142 STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS . i

tame fru it'

(fruges, fi'

umen tum), -whi ch has come into the hands of

(Jacob Grimm, Gesch . der'

deu tsch en r Sprache,1848

,th . i .

It is certainl y a very striking phenomenon, tq‘

find on on e side of

our planet nations to whom flour or meal from .small-eared gra sses

(Hordeaceae and -Aven ac eae), and the use Of mi lk, were completelyunknown

,while the n ation s

’

of almost all parts Of the other hemi

cul tivation of different kinds of grasses may be said to afford a ch a

rac teristic distinction between the two parts of the world . I n the

New Continent,from 52° north to 46° south latitude

,

-

we‘

see onlyone species cul tivated

,viz . maize ; In the O ld Continent

,on the

other h and,we find everywhere

,from the earliest times Of hi story

,

the fruits Of Ceres,wheat

,barley

,spelt or red wheat, and oats.

That wheat grew wild in th e Leontine fields,as well as in several

other places in Sicily,was a belief entertained by ancient nations,

and i s mentioned by Diodorus Sicu lus . (Lib . v . p . 199 and 232,

Wessel .) Ceres was found in the alpine meadow Of E nna 5 and

Diodorus fables that the inhabitants of the Atlantis were unac

qua in ted with the fruits Of Ceres, becaus e they h ad separated fromth e rest of mankind before those fruits

-

had been Shown to mortals .

”

Sprengel has collected several interesting passages which lead him

to thi nk it probable that the greater part Of our E uropean kinds of

grain were originally wild -in the northern parts of Persia and India,namely, summer wheat in the country of the Mu sican es

,a province

in Northern India ( Strabo, xv. 1017)3 barley an t iqu issimum frumentum,

” as Pliny cal ls it,and which is also the only cereal with

which the Guanches Of the Canaries were acquainted), according toMoses of Ch orene ea histon , 1736, p .

,On

the Araxes or Kur in Georgia,and according to Marco Polo in Balasch am in Northern India (Ramusio, vol . ii . p . and spelt orred wheat

,near Hamadan . But these passages

,as has been shown

by my keen-sighted friend and teac her Link, in an instructive criti

cal memoir (Abh andl . de Berl . Akad . 1816,s . stil l leave

much uncertainty. I also early regarded the existence of originallywild kin ds of grain in Asia as extremely doubtful, and viewed suchas might have been seen there as having become wi ld . ( E ssai sur la.


to the spot in question . The monks , wh om I often visited ,during my

stay at Quito,begged me to explain to them the inscription on the

earthen vessel,which they thought mus t contain some mystic refer

ence to the wheat . I read the motto,which was in the old German

di alect,and was Whoso drinks from me let him n ot forget his

God .

” I too felt with the monks that this old German drinking

vessel was a truly venerable relic . Would that there had been pre~

served everywhere in the New Continent the names,not of those

wh o madethe earth desol ate by bloody conquests, bu t~

of those whofirst intrusted to it these its fruits, so early associated with thecivilization

'

of mankind in the O ld Continent ! In respect generally

to the names Of the kinds of grain,as bearing on .the original aflini

ties of different languages,a high authority has remarked

,that “ such

indications are much more rare in the case Of different kinds of grain,

and on subjects Of agriculture,than on those connected with the care

of cattle : herdsmen,when dispersed

,had still much in common,

whereas the subsequent cultivators of the soil had to create new

words . But the fact that,in comparison with the Sanscrit

,Romans

andGreeks appear nearly on a par with the Germans and Sclavonians,

argues in favor Of the very early contemporaneous emigration Of th e

two latter. .Yet the Indi an ‘j ava’. (Frumentum hordeum), cOm

pared with th e Lithuanian j awai,

’ and the Finnish ‘

i a,

"Offers a

singul ar exception .

”

(Jac . Grimm,Gesch . der deutschen Sprac he

,

th . i . S.

(28

) p . 34 . Keep ing by p referen ce to the cooler mount a in region s.

‘

Throughout Mexico and Peru the’ traces Of a great degree of civili z ation are confined to

~

the elevated plateaux . We have seen on theAndes the ruins of palaces and baths at heights between 1600 and1800 toises and E nglish feet). It can only havebeen men Of a northern race

,who

,migrating from the north towards

the south,could fin d delight in such a climate .

(29) p . 34 . The h istory of thep eop linoof J ap an.

.The probability of the western nations of the New Continent having

had communication with the east Of Asia long before the arrival of

ANNO TATIONS AND ADDITIONS . 145

the Spaniards,was'

I think shown by me in a work on the monuments of the native inhabitants Of America (Vues des Cordil leres etMonumen s des peuples indigenes de l’Amériqu e). I inferred

'

th is

probabil ity from a comparison Of th e Mexican and Th ibetO-Japanesecalendars—from the correct orientation Of the steps of the pyramidal

elevations towards the different quarters Of the heavens—and frOmthe ancient myths and traditions of the four ages or four epochs Of

destruction of the world,and the dispersion of mankind after a great

flood Of waters . The accounts published since my work,in

‘

E ngland,France and the United States

,describing the wonderful bas reliefs

,

almost in the Indian style,in the ruins Of Gua t imala and Yucatan

,

have given'

to these analogies a s till higher value . (Compare Antonio del Rio

,Description Of the Ruin s of an Ancient City

’

discovered

near Pale'

nque,1822 translated from the original manuscript report

by Cabrera (del Rio’s exploration

,

took place in 9,tab .

12—14 ; with Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, 1843 ,'

vol . i.pp . 391 and 429—434 ; vol . ii . pp ? 21, 54, 56, 3 17, 323 ;

' with themagn ificeh t volume of Catherwood,

“Views OfAncient Monumentsi n Central America

,Chiapas

,and Yucatan

,

”1844 and lastly

,with

Prescott’s ‘ “ Conques t of Mexico,” vol . iii . App.

‘

p .

The a rchi tectural remains in the peninsul a Of Yucatan show,still

more than those of Palenque,a degree of civi lization and art which

excites our astonishment . They are situated between Valladolid ,Merida, and Campeachy, chiefly in the western

'

part Of the country .

Bu t the monuments in the island of Cozumel (more properly Cuzamil), east Of Yucatan , were the first which were seen by the Span

iards 1n the expedition Of Juan de Grij alva,1518, and that O f Cortes

in 1519,and the repOI t of them did much to spread over E urope a

high idea of ancient Mexic an civilization . The most important

ruins “of the peninsula of Yucatan,which unfortunately have not

ye t been thoroughly measured and drawn by architects, are the Casadel Gobernador of Uxmal, the Teocallis and vaulted constructions at

Kabah,the

L

ru in s .of Labnah with domed columns, those O f Zayiwith columns very nearly of th e Doric Order

,and those Of Chiche

with large ornamented pilasters . An O ld manuscript written in the

Maya language by a Christian Indian,and which is sti ll in the hands

of the Gefe politico of Peto, Don Juan Pio Perez, gives the differen t13

146 STE PPE S AND .D E SE RTS .

epochs Katunes Of 52 years) in .Wh ich the Toltec s‘

set tled -in

different parts of the peninsul a . From these data Perez . infers that

the monuments or buildings of Chiche go back to the c lose of thefourth century Of our era

,while those of Uxmal belOng to the middle

of the-tenth century. But the accuracy of these conclusions is sub

j cet to much uncertainty . ( Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yuca

tan,

~

vol . i . p . 439 ; and vol . ii . p .

I regard the existence of ancient connections between the inhabit

ants ofWestern America and E a stern Asia as more . than probable,

but byw hat routes, or with what Asiatic nations, the c ommun ica

tions took place,cannot at present be decided . A small number of

individuals of the educated priestly caste might perhaps be sufficientto bring about great alterations in the civil and social sta te ofWesternAmerica . The stories formerly narrated of Chin ese , expedit ion s to

the New Continent really apply only to voyages to Fusang or Japan .

O n the other hand, Japanese and Sian Pi from the Corea may havebeen driven by storms to the American coast, and landed there .

We knowas matter of history that Benzes and other adventurerssailed over the eastern Chinese seas in search Of some medicine wh ich

should entirely p1event death . Under Tschin schi kuang-ti,209

years before our era,300 young couples

,young men and young

women,were sent to Japan

,and instead Of returning to China they

settled at N1pon (Klaproth, Tableaux historiques de l’Asie

,1824

, p .

79 ; Nouveau Journal Asiatique, t . x . 1832, p . 335 ; Humboldt,E xamen Critique

,t . ii . pp . 62 May not similar e xpeditions

have been driven by storms or other accidents to th e Aleutianislands, to Alashka, or to New California ? As the western coasts

of the American Continent trend from NW. to SE . and the easternc oasts

'

Of Asia in the Opposite direction,or from NE . to SW.

,the

distance between the two continents in 45° of latitude,or in the

temperate zone which is most favorable to menta l development,is

t OO considerable to admit of the probability of such an accidental

s ettlement taking( place in that latitude . We must

,then

,assume

the first landing to have been made in the inhospitable climate of

from 55° to and that the civilization thus introduced,like the

genera1”

movemen t of population in America, has proceeded by suc

c essive stations from north to south (Humboldt, R'

éla t . his torique,t.

iii . pp . 155 The remains of ships fromCathay,i . e. from

148 STE PPE S AND Dp snRTs .

Gu iana theWarraws or Guaranos, and by the CaribsU-ara-u); inhabitnot only the marshy delta and river network of the O rinoco

,and

particu larly the banks of the Manamo Grande and the Cafi o Macareo,but also extend

,with little variati on in their modes of life

,along the

sea coast between the mouths Of the E ssequibo and the Boca de

Navios Of the O rinoco . (Compare my Relation historique, t . i . p .

492,t . ii . pp . 653 and 703, with Richard Sch omburgkfs Reisen in

Britisch Guiana,”th . i . 1847 , s . 62, 120, 173 , and According

to the testimony of the last-named excellent explorer and Observer,

there are Still 1700Warraws or Guaranis living in th e district Of'

Cumaca,and along the banks Of the Barima river

, wh ich emptiesitself into the gulf of the Boca de Navios . The manners and ou stoms Of the tribes living in the delta Of the O rinoco were alreadyknown to the great historical writer

,Cardinal Bembo

,the cotem

porary of Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Alonzo de Hojeda . He

says, qu ibu sdam indoc is propter paludes in c olw domus in arboribu s

aedifi c an t”

(Histories Ven etae,1551

,p . It is more probable

that Bembo is al luding to the Guaranis a t the mouth of the O rinoco,

than to the natives near the mouth Of the Gul f of Maracaibo, where

Alonzo de Hoj eda , in August, ~ 1499 , when he was accompanied byVespucci and Juan de la Cosa, also found a population having their

residence “ fondata sopra l’acqua come Venezia” . (Ric cardi’s Text in

my E xamen Crit . t . iv . p . In Vespucci’s account of his voyage

( in which we fin d the first indication. of the etymology of the termProvince of Venezuela

,Little Venice

,for Province of Carac c as), he

only speaks Of houses raised upon foun‘dation pillars,-not 0f~ habita

tions in the trees .

SirWalter Ra leigh Offers a l a ter evidence Of high“authority ; he

says expressly, in his description of Guiana, tha t, on h is second

voyage in 1595, when in the mouth.

of the O rinoco,be . saw the

“fi res

” of the Tivitives and the O ua-raa -etes (so he calls the Guaran is)

“ high up in the trees (Raleigh, Discov. Of .Gu ian a,1596

,p .

The fire is represented in a drawing in the Latin edition :brevis et admiranda descriptio regni Gu ianae” (Norib . tab .

4 . Raleigh was also the first who brought to E ngland the fruit ofthe Mau ritia-palm, which ,

h e very jus tlyc ompared, on account of its

scales, to a fir cone . The Padre José Gumil la,who twice visited


the Guaranis as a missionary,says

,indeed, that this people had

their habitation in the p almares (palm groves) of the morasses ; buthe only mentions dwellings raised upon p

h igh'

pillars,and not scaffold

ings attached to trees still in a growing sta te (Gumil la , Historianatural

,civil

,y geografi ca de las Naciones situadas en las riveras del

Rio O rinoc o, nueva imp . 1791, pp . 143,

and Hillhouse

and Sir Robert Seh omburgk (Journal .Of the Royal .GeographicalSociety

,vol . xii . 1842

,p . 175 and Description of the Murich i or

Ita Palm,read at the Meeting of the British Association held at

Cambridge,June 1845 printed l n Simond’s Colonial Magaz ine),

are of Opinion that both Bembo and Raleigh (the former speakingfrom the reports of others

,the latter as an eye-witness), were deceived

by the high tops of the palm-trees being lit up at night by the flames

of fires b eneath, SO that those who sailed by thought the habitations

th emselves'

were‘ attached to the trees . “We do not deny t hat in

order to escape the attacks of the mu squ itos, th e Indian sometimessuspends h is

‘

h ammock fromth e’

tops of trees ; on such occasions,however

,no fires are made under ' the hammock .

”

(Compare alsol

Sir Robert Seh omburgk’s New E dition of Raleigh’s Discovery of

Guiana, 1848, p .

According to Martin s,the fine Palm MOrich e

,Mauritia flexuosa ,

Quiteve, Or Ita palm (Bernau, Missionary Labors 1n “British Guiana,1847, pp. 34 and belongs

,as well as Calamus, to the group of

Lepidocaryeae, or Coryph in eae. Linnaeus has described it very imperfectly

,as he erroneously considers it to be leafless . The trunk

grows as high as 26 feet, but it probably requires from‘

120to 150

years to reach this height. The Mauritia extends high up on thedeclivity of the Duida

,north of the E smeralda mi ssi on

,where I

have found it in great beauty. It forms in moist places fin e groups

of a fresh,shining verdure

,which reminds us of that of our Alder

groves . Th e trees preserve the moisture of the ground bytheirshade

,and hence the Indians say that the Mauritia draws the water

round its roots by a mysterious attraction . By a somewhat similar!

theory they advise that serpents Shoul d not be killed ; because thedestruction Of the serpents and the drying up Of the pools or lagunas accompany each other : thus the untutored child of nature con

founds cause and effect . Gumil la terms the Mauritia flexuosa of th e


Guaranis the tree of l ife , ' arbol de la vida . It grows in the mountains of Ron aima

,east of the sources of the O rinoco

,as high as

4000 (4263 E ng.) feet . O n'

the unvisited banks of theRio Atabapo

,in the interior Of Guiana, we discovered a new species Of Mau

rit ia with prickly stems, our Mauritia aculeata (Humboldt, Bonpland,and Kunth

,Nova Genera et Species Plan tarum,

t . i . p .

(32

) p . 35. Amer ic a n S ty li tes .

”

Th e founder of the sect of the Stylites,the fanatical pillar-saint

Simeon Sisan ites,the son of a

_

Syrian herdsmen, is said » to havepassed thirty-seven years inreligious con templation on th e summits

Of five successive pillars,each higher than the preceding . The last

pillar was 40ells high . He died in the year 461 . F0 rseven hundred years there cont inued to be men who imitated this manner Oflife

,and were called sancti c olumn ares” (pillar saints). E ven in

Germany, i n the diocese of Treves, it was proposed to erect Suchaerial cloisters

,but the bishops opposed the undertaking\ (Mosh eim

,

Institut. Hist. E ccles . 1755,p .

(33

) p . 36. Town s o n th e banks of the streams wh ich flowthrough the S tepp e.

”

Families who live not by agricul ture, but by the care of cattle,have congregated in the middle Of the Steppe in small towns, which,in the cultivated parts Of E urope

, woul d hardly be rega1ded as villages . Such are Calabozo

,in 8 ° 56’ 14” N. lat. and 67 ° 42’ long .

rding to my Observations,Villa del Pao

,. lat. 8° long .

66° S . Sebastian,and

‘

oth e'

rs.

(34

) p . 36. Con ica l-sh ap ed c louds .

The singular phenomenon of these “sand spouts

” —somethin‘

ganalogous to which may occasionally be seen on a small scale inE urope where four roads meet—is particularly charac teristic Of thePeruvian Sand Desert between Amotape and Coquimbo . Such adense cloud of sand or dust may prove dangerous to th e traveller

who does not cautiously avoid its approach . It is also worthy ofnotice that these partial conflicting currents of air only arise whenthe air

’

generally 18 perfectly calm . The aerial ocean resembles the

sea in this respect,for in the latter also the small currents which


lides) or provided with ,leaves (Pereskiae). Many extend h igh up

the sides Of the mountains . Near the foot, of the Chimborazo,in

the elevated Sandy plain around Riobamba, I have found a new kindof Pitahaya

,theCactus sepium,

even at’

a h eigh t ‘

of

E ng.) feet . (Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum aequ inoc t . O rbis n evi, t . iii . p .

(33)p . 37 . The scene in the S tepp e is sudden ly cha nged .

1 t endeavored to depict the coming in of the rainy‘

seasOn ,

and the signs by which it is announced .

~ The usual deep darkazure of thesky in »the tropics arises from the more

’

c or’

n

'

pl ete solution of the vapor contained in

'

the atmosphere . The cyanometerindicates a paler blue as Seen as

’

the vapors begin to be precipitated .

The dark spot or patch in the constellation of the Southern Crossgradually becomes indistinc t as the transparency of the atmospherediminishes

,and this alteration announces the near approach Of rain.

The‘ brightness Of the Magellanic clouds (Nubecul a major andminor), gradually vanishes in

'

a

~

similar manner. The fixed stars,

Which before shone like planets wi th a steady, tranquil, and not

trembling light,now scintillate even in the zenith

,where th e vapors

are least.~ (See Arago, in my Relation .hist . t . i . p .

'

All

these appearances are the results of the increased quantity ‘of vapOrdiffused in the atmosphere .

p . 38. Awakened from a torp id sta te by ,

thefi rstfa ll of ra in .

’

E xtreme dryness produces in plants and animals the samephemomena as does the Withdrawal Of the stimulus of heat. Many

tropical trees and plants shed their l eaves during the dry season .

The crocodiles and other amphibious animals hide themselves in the

mud, Where they lie apparently dead, like animals in a state ofhybern at ion or plunged into winter sleep by cold . ( See my Rélation historique

,t . ii . pp . 192 and

(40

) p . 38 . The a sp ec t of a_c a st in la nd sea .

. Nowhere are“

these inundations more extensive than in the network of rivers formed by the Apure

,the Ara chun a

,Pajara

,Arauca

,


.and Cabul iare . Large vessels sail across the country over theSteppe for40or 50miles .

(41

) p . 39 .—“T0 the moun ta in p la tea u of An tisa n a

The great.

mountain plain or plateau surrounding the volcano of

Antisana is 2107 toises E nglish feet), above the level'

of

the sea . The atmospheric pressure at this elevation is so small that

the wild cattle,when hunted with dogs

,bleed from th e nose and

mouth .

p . 39 .—“Bera a nd Ra stro.

I have desc ribed th e capture of the Gymn ot i in detail in another

place . (Observati ons de Zoologie et d’An atomie comparée

,vol . i .

pp . 83—87 ; and Relation historique, t . ii . pp . 173—190. M . GayLussac and I found-the experiment without a circuit succeed perfec t ly with a liv ing Gymnotus, which,

was still very vigorous when

brought to Paris . The discharge is solely dependent on/thewill of

the animal . We did not see any spark, but other physicists havedo ne .so on several occasions .

(43

) p . 401—“Awa lcen ed by the con ta c t of moist, di ssimi la r p a rtic les .

In all parts of organic bodies,dissimilar substances are ”in contact

with . each other 3 in all, solids are associated with fluids . Thus,

wherever there are organization and life,there is also electric tension

or the play of th e Voltaic pile,

.as the experiments '

of Nobili and Mat

t eu c c i,and especially the ‘ latest admirable labors

i

of E mil du Bois,

teach us . The last named physicist h as~su c c eeded in manifesting

the presence of the electric muscular current in living and whollyuninjured animal bodies

,he shows that the human body,through

the medium of a copper wire,can cause a magnetic needle at a dis

tance to be deflected at pleasure,first in one and then in the opposite

(Untersuchungen iiber th ierisch e'

E lec tricet'

at,von E mil

du Bois-Reymond,1848

,bd . i . s .

’

xv .) I have witnessed thesemovements produced at pleasure

,and have h ad the gratification of

seeing thereby great and unexpected light thrown on phenomena to

which I had laboriously and hopefully devoted several years of my

youth .

154 STE PPE S AND Dnsnn'rs .

40. Osiris a nd'

Typ hon .

O n the conflict between two races of men, the Ar abian pastoral

people in Lower E gypt,and the agricultural race in Upper _

E gypt

who were in a more advanced state of civilization ; on the fair-hairedPrince Baby or Typhon

,who founded Pelu sium and on the dark

complexioned Dionysos or O s iris,see Z oega

’s ancient

,and n ow ' fof

the most part abandoned views, in h is great work“De O rigins

.

et

Usu Obelis corum,

” p . 577 .

(45

) p . 40. The boun da ry of a pa rtia l E urop ean, gnl tiva tion .

”

In the Capitania General de Caracas, as generally everywhere on

the)

eastern shores of America,th e cul tivation introduced by E u

rOpean s, and their presence and influence, are limited to a narrowstrip of country along the coast. In Mexico

,New Granada

, and

Quito,on the other hand

,E uropean civilization has penetrated deep

into the interior of the. country,and advanced up the ridges of the

Cordilleras. There existed l n these last named regions a considerabledegree of settled and civilized life previous tothe arrival of the Spaniards ; and theyhave followed this civilization wherever they foundit,regardless whether its seat was near or at a di stance frOm the sea

coast ; They retained and enlarged the ancient c ities,of which they

either mutil ated the old significant Indian names,or gave them new

names,as,for example

,of Christian saints.

(46

) p . 41. leaden—colored gra n i te rocks.

In the O rinoco,and more especially at the Cataracts ofMaypu res

and Atures, all blocks of granite, and even whi te pieces of quartz,whenever they are touched by the water of the river

,acquire a

grayish-black coating which scarcely penetrate s a hundredth ofa line below the surface of the rock . The appeara nce producedis that of basalt

,-or fossils colored with graphite . The crust ap

pears to contain manganese and carbon I say appears,for the

phenomenon has not yet been thoroughly examined. Something

similar was remarked by Rozier on the syeni te rocks of the Nile,

near Syene and Philae,by the unfortunate Captain Tuckey on the

rocky banks of the.Congo ;

and by Sir Robert Seh omburgk on the

Berbice. (Reisen in Guiana und am O rinoko, s . On the

156 srnp rns AND DE SE RTS .

attain a length of 48 feet ; but the largest skins which have' as yet

beeli brought to E urope,and carefully measured

,do not exceed 21 to

23 feet . The South American boa (which is a Python) differs fromthe E ast Indian . O n th e

'

E th iOpian'

boa,see Diodor . lib . iii . p. 204

,

ed . Wesseling .

(50) p . 41. Using a n ts

, gums,'

a nd ea rth a sfood .

’ m

It was a very prevalen t report on th e coasts of Cumana, New.

Bar

celona,and Carac cas, visited by the Franciscan monks of Guiana on

their return from the missions,that there were men on the banks of

the O rinoco who ate earth . When,inreturning from the Rio Negro

,

wedescended the O rinoco in thirty-six days,we passed the day ofthe 6th of June

,1800

,in the Mission inhabited by the earth-eating

O tomac s . This little village 1s called La Concepcion deUruana,and

is very picturesquely situated at the foot of a granite rock . I found

its geographical position to be 7 9 8 '

3” N . lat .

,and 67° 18 'W. long.

from Greenwich . The earth which the O tomac s eat is a soft,unc

tu ou s clay ; a true potter’s clay

,of a yellowish-gray col or

,due to a

little oxide of iron . They seek for it in particular spots on the banksof the O rinoc o and the Meta

,and s elect it with care . They distin

guish the ta ste of one kind of earth from that of another, and do notconsider al l clays as equally agreeable to eat . They knead the earthinto balls of about five or six inches di ameter

,which they burn

'

or

roast by a weak fire until the outside assumes a reddish tint s The

ball s are re-moistened when about to be eaten . These Indians aregenerally wi ld, uncultivated beings, and altogether averse to anykind of tillage . It 13 a proverb even among the most distant of then ations living on the O rinoco

,when speaking of anyt hing very uh

clean, to say that it is “ so dirty, that the O tomac s eat it .”

As long as the waters of the O rinoco and the Meta are low,these

Indians live on fish 'and river tortoises. They kill th e fish with

arrows when at the surfac e of the water,a pursuit in which we have

often admired their grea t dexterity. During the periodic al swellin gof the rivers, the taking of -fish ceases

,for it is as difficul t to fish in

deep river water as in the deep sea . It is in this interval,which is

of two or three months’ duration,that the O tomac s swallow great

quantities of earth . We have found considerable stores of it in their


huts,the clay balls being piled together in pyramidal

‘

i h eaps” The

very intelligent monk,Fray Ramon Bueno

,a native of Madrid (who

“

lived twelve years among these Indians), assured us that on e of themwould ea t from t h ree quarters .of a pound to a poun d and a quarterin a day. According to the accounts which the O tomacs themselvesgive

,this earth forms their principal subsisten c e '

during the rainy

season,though they eat at ' th e same time oc casionally, when they

c an obtain it, a lizard, a small fish , or a fern root. They have such.

a'

predilec tion forthe clay, that even in the dry season, when t heyc an Obtain plenty of fish

,they eat a little earth after th eir meals

every day as a kind of dainty . These men have a dark copper-brown

c omplexion, and unpleasing Tartar features. They are t fat,but not

large-bellied .- The Franc iscan monk who lived among them as a

mis‘

sionary,assured us that he coul d perceive no alteration in their

health during the earth-eating season .

The simple facts are therefore as follows : The Indians eat large'

quantities of earth without inj ury to their health and they them“

selves regard the earth so eaten as an alimentary subst ance, i . e . they .

feel themselves s atisfied «by'

eat ing it, and that for a considerable

time ; and they attribute this to the earth . or clay,and not to the

o ther scanty artic les of subsistence which they now and then Obtain

in addition , If you inquire of an O tomae abou t ' h is winter provision ( in tropical South America the rainy season is usually . called

winter), he points to the h eap of clay balls stored in his hut . But

these simple facts by no means determine the questions , whether thec lay be I eally an alimentary substance ? whether earths be capa

lole of assimilation .7 or whether they merely serve to appease hunger

by distending th e stomach ? I cannot pretend to decide these

questions . (Rel . hist. t. ii . pp . 618 It is curious that theusua lly credulou s and un OI itical F ather Gumil la pos itively denies

the earth-eating as such. (Historia del Rio O rinoco, nueva impr

1791, t . i p . He affirms that the balls of clay had maizemeal and crocodile-fat mixed with them. But the miss ionary , Fray

Ramon Bueno,and our friend and travelling companion, the lay

’

brother Fray Juan Gonzalez, who was lost at sea off the Coast ofAfrica with part of our collections

,both assured us that the Otomac s

n ever mix crocodile fat with the clay ; and of the meal said to

14


be mixed with it, we heard absol utely nothin g during ,our

'

stay in

Uruan a . The earth which we brought back with us,and which

Vauquelin analyzed,is thoroughly pure and unmixed . May Gumil la ,

by a confusion of things wholly di stinct,have been alluding th the

preparation of bread from the long pod of a kind of Inga,which is

previously buried in th e earth in order to hasten the commencementof the first stage of decay ? That the h eal th of the O tOmac s should

not suffer from eating -

so much earth appears to me '

particu larlyremarkable . Have they become accus tomed to it in th e course of

several generations. In all tropical countries

,human beings show an extraofi i nary and

almost irresistible desire to swal low earth and not alkaline earths,

which they might be supposed to crave to neutralize acid, bu t unc

tuons and strong-smelling clays . It is often necessary to confinechildren to prevent them from running out to eat earth immediately

after a fall of rain . I have observed with astonishment the Indian

women in the village of Banco on the Magdalena River,whils t en

gaged in . shaping earthen vessels on the potter’s wheel,put great

lumps of clay into their mon th s . The same thing was remarked at:

an earli er period by Gili . ( Saggio di StoriaAmericana, t . ii . p .

Wolves also eat earth, and especially clay, in winter. It woul d beimportant to examine carefully the excremen ts’

of animals and menthat eat earth . With the exception of the O tomac s

,indi viduals of

all other races who indu lge for any length of time the strange desireof earth-eating have their health injured by it. At the mission of

San Borj a,

‘we saw the child of an Indian woman , who, his mother

said,would hardly eat anything but earth . Hewas

,however

,wasted

nearly to a skeleton .

Why is it that in the temperate and cold zones this morbid cravingfor eating earth is so much more rare

,and is almost entirely confined,

when it is met with,to children and pregnant women ; whi le in th e

tropics it would appear to be indigenous in all quarters of the globe ?In Guinea, the negroes eat a yellowish earth, which they call Caon ac .

When brought as slaves to th erWes t“

Indies,they try to obtain a si

milar earth,and affi rm that in their own country the habit never did

them any harm . In the American Islands they were made ill by it,

and it was forbidden in'

consequence ; but a ki nd of earth (un tuf rouge.

60. STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS .

been eaten ; speaking of them under the vague and gen eral h ameoh“mountain meal .” It was thus during the Thirty Years’~War in

Pomerania (at in the”

Lausitz (at Muskau); and in‘

the teii

ri tory of Dessau (at Klieken) and subsequently,in 1719 and 1733;at the fortress ofWittenberg . (See E hrenberg iiber das unsichtbarwirkende organische Leb en , 1842, s .

p .

-41.—“F ignres gra ven on the rock.

”

In the interior of South America,between the2d and 4th degrees

OftNorth latitude,a forest-covered plain is enclosed by four rivers

,the

O rinoco, the Atabapo , the'Rio Negro

,and the CassiquiaI

'E In this

di stric t e are found rocks of granite and of syenite, covered, hke thoseof Caicara and Uruana

,with colossal sy

'

mbolical figures of crocodilesand

'

tigers,

{and drawings of household u tensils, and of the sun and

moon .

“

At the present time this remote corner of the earth is entirely withou t human inhabitants

,throughout an extent of more than

8000square geographical miles . The tribes neares t to its boundaries

are wandering naked savages,in the lowest stage of human existence,

and far removed from any thoughts of carving hieroglyphics on rocks .O ne may trace "1n South America an entire zone, extending through

more than eight degrees of longitude,of rocks so ornamented ; vi z .

,

from the Rupun iri , E ssequibo, and the mountains of Pacaraima,to

the banks of the O rinoco and of the Yupura . These carvingsmaybelong to very different epochs, for Sir Robert Seh omburgk evenfound on the Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galiot (Reisenin Guiana und am O rinoko

,fi berset z t von O tto Sehomburgk, 1841,

s . which must have beea a later date than the beginning

of the 16th century,and this 1n a wildern ess where the natives were

probably as rude then as at the present time . But it must not beforgotten that

,as I have elsewhere noticed

,nations of very different

descent,when in a similar unc ivihz ed state

,having the same disposi

tion to simplify and generalize outlines,’ and being impelled

,

by inherent mental dispositions to form rhythrhical repetitions and series,may be led to produce similar signs and symbols . (Compare Relation hist. t . ii . p . 589

,and Mart ins iiber di e Physionomie des Pflan

z enreich s In Brasilien, 1824, s . 14 .

At the Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London, on the


,17th of November

,1836

,there was read a memoir by Sir Robert

Seh ombu rgk“ O n the Religious Traditions of the Macusi Indians,

who inhabit the Upper Ma hu and a part of the Pa caraimapMou n

tains a nation,consequently

,who fOr a century (since the j ourney

of the adventurous Hortsmann) have not ch anged their residence .

Sir Robert Seh omburgk says :“ The Macusis believe that the sole

survivor of a general deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones

into human beings .” This myth (the fruit of the lively Imagina

tion of these nations,and which reminds , u s of Deucalion and

Pyrrha) shows itself in a somewhat altered form among the Taman aks of the O rinoco . When asked how mankind survived the greatflood

,the “ age of waters” of the Mexicans

,they reply

,without any

hesitation,that one man and one woman took refuge on the high

mountain of Taman acu,on the banks of the Asiveru , and that they

then threw over their heads and behind their backs the fruits of the

Maur itia-palm,from the kernels of which sprang men and women

who repeopled the . earth .

” Some miles from E ncaramada,there

rises,in th e middle of the savannah, the rock Tepu—Mereme

,or the

painted rock . It shows several figures of animals and symbolical

outlines which resemble much those observed -by us at some distance

above E ncaramada,near Caycara , in 7

° 5' to 7 ° 40’ lat . and 66°

28" to 67° 23 ’W. long.

~from Greenwich . Rocks thus marked are

found between the Ca ssiqu iare and the Atabapo ( in 2° 5

’ to 3 ° 20’

lat. and what is particul arly remarkable 560 geographi cal miles

farther to the E ast,

i n the solitudes of the Parime . This last fact i s

placed beyond a d oubt by the j ournal of Nicholas,

Hortsmann,of

which I have,

seen a copy in the handwriting of the c elebrated

D’Anvil le . That simple and modest t i avel ler wrote down

,

every

day,oon the spot, what had appeared to him most worthy of notice

and he deserves perhaps the more credence because, being full ofdissatisfaction at having, failed to discover the obj ects

,

of his re

searches,the Lake of Dorado

,with lumps of gold and a diamond

mine,he looked with a certa in degree of contempt ,On whatever fell

in his way .

'

.He found on the 416th of April, 1749 , on the banks of

the Rupu n‘

uri,at the spot where the river winding between the Ma

carana mountains forms Several small cascades, and before arriving

a t the district immediately round —Lake Amucu,“ rocks covered with

162 , STE PPE S AND DE SE RTS .

figures,”—or

,as he says in Portuguese, f‘d

’

c varias letras .” We

were shown at the rock of Cu l imac ari,on the banks of the Cassi

qu iare , signs which were called characters, arranged in lines—bu t

they were only ill-shaped fi gures of heavenly bodies, boa-serpents,and the utensils employed in preparing manioc-meal . I have neverfound among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) any symmetri

cal arrangement or any'

regu lar ey en-spaced ch araqters .

‘

I am,there

fore,dis

‘

posed to think that the word letras,

” inHortsmann’s jour

nal,must n ot '

be taken in th e strictest sense .

by Hortsmann,but he has seen and described Others 011th e banks

of the E ssequibo, near the cascade of Warrapu ta.

“ This c ascade,

”

he says,“ is celebrated .not only for its height but also for the

quantity of figures cut on.

the rock,which have great resemblanee

to th ose which I -h ave seen in ~ the Island of St . Joh n,

'

on e of th e

Virgin Islands,and which I consider to be

,without doubt

,the

work of the Caribs,by wh om that part of the Antilles was formerly

inhabited . I ‘ made , the utmost efforts to detach portions of the

rock which contained the inscription,and which I desired to take

with me but the stone wa s too hard,and fever had taken away my

strength “ Neither promises nor threats could prevail on the In

dians to give a single blow with a hammer to these rocks,-f—fth e

venerable monuments of the superior mental cultivation of their

predecessors . They regard them”

as th e work of the Great Spirit ;and the different tribes whom we met with

,though living at a great

d istance, were nevertheless ac quainted wi th t hem . Terror waspainted on the faces of my Indi an» companions

,.who appeared to

expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall on myhead . I saw clearly that my endeavours would be fruitless

-and I

contented myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these

memorials .” The last determination was certainly the best,and

the editor of f th e E nglish Journal,to my great satisfaction

,adds a

note to the effect that it i s to be wished that no one else may bemore su ccessful than Mr. Sehomburgk, and that no

'

fu ture traveller

from civilized countries may (10 ‘ anything towards the destructionof these monuments of the unprotected Indians .

The symbolical signs seen by Robert Seh omburgk inthe Valley


In pai ntings as surrounding the heads of Saints and Sacred Persons.

I have left my drawin gs of these figures in the colony,bu t I hope

some day to be able to lay them all before the public . I saw ruder

figures on the Cuyuwin i, a river which empties itself into the E sse

quibo 1n latitude 2° 16’N. e,ntering it from the north-west ; and I

have since seen similar figures on the E ssequibo itself,in 1° 40’N.

lat. These figures extend,therefore

,as ascertained by actual oh

servation,from 7° 10’ to 1° 40' N. lat.

,and from 57° 30’ to 66°

30’W. long. Thus the zone of pictured rocks -extends , so far as it

has been at,present examined

,over a space of 192,0007 square geo

graphical miles,comprising the basins of the Coren tyn , the E ssequibo ,

and the O rinoco ; a circumstan ce from which we may form someinferences respecting the former amount of p opul ation in thi s ~partof the continent.”

O ther remarkable remains of a degree of civil ization whi ch nolonger exists

,are the granite vases with graceful labyrinthine orna

ments,and the earthen masks resembling Roman ones

,which have

been discovered on the Mosqu ito c oast, among wild Indians . (AIch aeologia Britan . vol . v . 1779,pp . 318—324 ; and vol . vi . 1782, p .

I have had them engraved in the “ Picturesque Atlas”. whi chaccompanies the historical portion of my Travels to the E quinoctial

Regions . Antiquaries are astonished at the similarity of these

ornaments ( resembling a well-known Grecian form) to those bf thePalace of Mitla

,near O axaca

,in Mexico . In looking at Peruvian

carvings, I have never remarked any figures of the large-nosed race

of men,so frequently represented In the bas—reliefs of Palenque In

Guatimala, and in the Aztec paintings . Klaproth‘

rememberedhaving seen individuals with similar large noses among the Ch alcas,a northern Mogul tribe ; It is well known that many tribes of theNorth American red or copper-colored Indians have fin e aqu ih n e

noses ; and that this i s an essential physiognomic distinction between

them and the present inha bitants of Mexico,New Granada

,Quito,

and Peru . Are the large-eyed,comparatively fair-complexioned

people,spoken o f by Marchand as having been seen in 54° and 58°

l at . on the north-west coast of America,desc ended from an Alano

Gothic race, the Usiin i of the interior of As ia ?

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITI ONS . 65’

(59

) p . 41. App a ren tly weap on less, a nd-

yetprep a red for murder.

The O tomac s often poison the thumb-nail with Ourare .

‘

A mere

scratch of the nail is deadly if th e curare mixes with the blood . We

obtained spec lmen s of the climbing plant, from the ju ice of whichthe curare is prepared

,at E smeralda on the Upper O rinoco, but un

fortunately we did not find it in blossom . Judging by its physiognomy it appears _to be related to Strychnos (Rel . hi st. t . ii . pp .

547 Since the notice in the work referred to,of the curare

or ourari (previously mentioned byRaleigh, both as a plant and asa poison), the brothers Robert and Richard Seh omburgk have donemuch towards making us ‘ accurately acquainted with the nature andpreparation of this substance

,of which Iwas the first to bring a

siderable quantity to E urope . Richard Seh omburgk found the

plant 1n blossom m Guiana, on the banks of the Pomeroon and the

Suru ru, 1n the territory of the Caribs, who are not, however, ao

quain ted with the manner of preparing the poison . His instru ctive

work (Re1sen l n Britisch Guiana, th . i . s . 441 contains the

chemical analysis of the j uice of the Strychnos toxifera, which,notwithstanding its name and its organic structure

,does not contain

,

according to Boussingaul t,any trace of strychnine . Virch ou and

Miin ter’s interesting physiological experiments make it probable

that the curare or ourari poison does not kill by mere external absorption

,but only when absorbed by living animal substance of

which the continuity has been severed ( i . e. which has been woundedslightly), that it does not belong to the clas s of tetanic poisons , andthat its part icul ar effect 1s to take away th e power of voluntary mus

cul ar movement, whilst the involun tary functions of the heart andintestines still continue . Compare

,also

,the older chemical analysis

of Boussingault,m the Annales de Ch imie et de Physique, t. xxxix.

1828, pp. 24—37 .

, THE CATARACTS on THE ORINOCO .

IN the preceding section,which was made the subj ect of an aca

demical lecture,I sought to depict those boundless plains which

,

acc ording to the varying modification of their natural charactersinduced by climatic relations

,appear to us sometimes as Deserts

devoid of vegetation,

“

and sometimes as Steppes,or widely-extended

gra ssy plains or Prairies . In so doing,I contrasted the Llanos of

the southern part of the New Continent with ’ the dreadful seas ofsand which form the African Deserts

,and these again with the

Steppes of Central Asia,the habitation of world assailing pastoral

nations,who

,at a former period, when pressed hitherward from th e

E ast,spread barbarism and devastation over the earth .

If on that occasion (in I ventured to combine widely distributed portions of the earth’s surface m a single picture of nature

,

and to entertain a publ ic assembly with 1mages whose coloring wasm un l son with the mournful disposition of our minds at that epoch

,

I will now,limiting myself to a narrower circle of phenomena, sketch

the more cheerful picture of r1ver scenery, composed of foamingrapids and rich

,luxuriant vegetation . I propose to describe in par

t ic u lar two scenes of nature in the wilderness of Guiana—t h e celebrated Cataracts of

t

the O rinoco, Atures and Maypures—which

,

previousto my visit,few E uropeans had ever seen .

T h e impression left on our minds by the aspect of nature'

is frequently determined

,less even by the peculiar character of the strictly

terrestrial port ion of the scene,than by the light thrown on mount

ain or plain,either by a sky of azure purity

,or by one veiled by

lowering clouds,and m the same manner descriptions of nature act

170 CATARACTS‘ OF THE ORINOCO .

or less in harmony with the requirements of our feelings . For it is

the inward mirror of the sensitivemind which reflects the true and

living image of the n atural world . All that determines the cha

rac ter of a landscape— th e outline of the mountains, which, in the

far-vanishing distance,bound the horizon—the dark shade of the

pine forests—the sylvan torrent rushing between overhanging cliffsto its fall—all are in antecedent

,mysterious communion with the

inner feelings and life of man .

O n this communion rests the nobler portion of the enjoymentwh ich n ature affords . Nowhere does sh e penetrate us more deeply

With th e feeling of her grandeu r,fl

n owh ere does she speak to us with

a more powerful voice,than in the tropical world

,under the “ Indian

sky ,”as

,in th e early middle ages

,the climate of the torrid zone was

called . If,therefore

,I venture agal u to occupy this assembly with

a description of those regions, I do so in the h0pe that the pecul iarcharm which belongs to them will not be unfelt. The remembranceof a distant

,richly endowed land— the aspect of a free and vigorous

vegetation—refreshes and strengthens the mind ; in the:

same man

ner as our spirits,when oppressed with . th e a c tu al

'

presen t , love toescape awhile

,and to delight themselves with the earlier youthfu l

age of mankind, an d with the manifestations of its simple grandeur.Favoringw inds , and currents bear the voyager westward across

the peaceful O cean arm (1

) which fills the wide valley between the

New Continent and Western Africa . Before the American shorerises from th e liquid plain

,he hears the tumul t of contending

,

mutually opposing,and inter-crossing waves . The mariner unac

quain ted with the regi on would surmise the vicinity of shoals, or awonderful outbreak of fresh sprmgs l n the middle of the ocean, (

9)like those l n the neighborhood of Cuba . On approaching nearerto the granitic coast of

,Gui ana

,he becomes sensible that he h as

entered the wide embouchure of a mighty river,which issues forth

like a shoreless lake,and covers the ocean around with fresh water.

The green , and, on the shallows, the milk-white, tint of the fresh

water contrasts with th e indigo blue color of the sea,and marks

with sharp outlines the limits of th e river waves.Th e name O rinoco, given to the river by its first discoverers

,and

"

which probably originated in some c onfusion of language,is un

172 CATARACTS or THE ORINOCO .

peculiar psychological interest. It teaches us anew that , ,the~

creative

imagination of the poet exists in the Discoverer as in every form ofhuman greatness .In considering the quantityof water which the Orinoco bears t o

the Atlant ic,the question arises—Which of the great South Ame

rican Rivers—the O rinoco, the Amazons, or the River Plate—i sth e largest ? The question

,however

,thus put is not a determinate

one,the idea of siz e

,' in this case

,not being altogether definite .

The River Plate has the widest embouchure,being 92 geographical

miles across ; but, like the British rivers, its length is comparatively

small . E ven at Buenos Ayres i ts depth is already so inconsiderableas

'

to impede navigation . The Amazons is the longest of all rivers :its course, from its origin in the Lake of -Lauricocha to its mouth,is 2880 geographical miles . But its~ bread th, in the province

'

of

Jaen de Bra camoros,near th e Cataract of Rentama, as measured

by me at the foot of the picturesque mountain of Pata chuma,hardly

equals that .of the Rhine at Mayence :

The O r1noco 1s n arrower at'

its mouth than either the River Plate

or the Amazons; and its length, according to positions astronomical lydetermined by me

,only amounts to 1120geographical miles . But

,

on the other,hand

,far in the interior of

“

Guiana, 560miles from itsmouth

,I still found its breadth

,when full

,Parisian

E ng.) feet . The periodical swelling of the river annually raises itslevel

,at this part of its course

,from 30to 36 feet above its lowest

level . Suflic ien t materials for an accurate comparison of the enor

mous rivers which intersect the Continent of South America are'

stillwanting. For such a comparison it would be needful to know ineach case the profile of the river-bed

,and the velocity of the water,

which differs very greatly in different parts of the same stream .

If,in the Delta enclosed by its variously divided and still un ex

plored arms—in the regul arity of its periodical rise and fal le and

in the number and size of its crocodiles—the O rinoco shows pointsof resemblance to the Nile

,there is this further analogy between

the two rivers,that after long rushing rapidly through many wind

ings between wood-fringed shores formed by granitic and syeniticrocks and mountains

,during the remainder of their course they

slowly roll their waters to the sea,between treeless banks

,over an

r CATARACTs or .THE ORINOCO . 173

a lmost horiz ontal bed . An arm of the Nile ( the Green Nile, Bah rel -Az rek) flows from the celebrated mountain-lak e near Gondar, inthe Abyssinian Gojam Alps, to Syene and E leph an t is, through the

mountains of Shangalla and Sennaar. In a similar manner,th e

O rinoco rises on the southern declivity oft h e mountain chain which,in the 4 th and 5th parallel of ' north latitude

,extends westward

from French Guiana towards the Andes of New Granada . The

sources oft h e O rinoco (6) have never been visited by aby E uropean ,

oreven“

by any natives who have been in communication with

E uropeams

In ascending the Upper O rinoco in the summer of 1800, wepassed the Mission of E smeralda

,and reached the mouths of the

Sodomon i and the Guapo . Here rises high above the clouds the

massive summit of the Yeonnamari or Duida,a grand and pic

'

turesque mountain which presents to the spectator one of the finestsc enes of nature which the tropical world has to offer . Its altitude

,

acc ording to my trigonometrical measurement,is 8278 (8823 E ng.)

feet above the.

level of the sea . Th e southern slope of th e mountain presents a treeless

,grassy surface

,and the humid evening air is

filled far and wide with the fragrance of the ripe ananas . The stalks

of the pineapples,swelling with rich juice

,rise between the lowly

herbs of . the meadow,and the golden fruit is seen shining at a dis

tance from under its leafy crown of bluish green . Where mounta inSprings or rivulets break forth from the turfy covering

,the scene is

further adorned by groups of tall fan-palms,whose foliage never

feels the influence of a cool breeze .

O n the east of the Du ida mountain a dense thicket of wild Cacao '

groves begin s,i

and amidst th ese are found trees of the celebrated

Bertholletia excelsa,the most vigorous of the productions of the

tropical world . (7) Here the Indians collect the materials for their

blow-pipes,colossal grass-stalks having mi nts

-above 18 feet long

from knot to knot . (8) Some Franciscan monks have penetrated

as far as the mouth of the Chiguire, where the river i s already sonarrow that the natives have thrown across it

,near the waterfall of

the Gu ah aribes,a suspension bridge formed of th e twining stems of

climbing plants . TheGuaicas, a race of comparatively light com“

f

174 CATARACTS or THE onrNoco .

plexion,but of small stature

,armed JW1th poisoned arrows, forbid

any farther advance towards the east.

All , therefore, that has been put forward respectin g the lake

origin of the O rinoco is fabulous . ( 9) We seek in vain in nature for

the Lagun a"

of'

E l Dorado,which

'

is still marked in An owsmith’s

maps as an inl and sea 80geograph ical'

miles in length . Has the

little reedy Lake of Amucu, from which the Pirara (a branch of theMahu)

"

flows,given rise to this fable ? But the swamp in which

the Lake of Amucu is situated is four degrees of longitude to theeast of the district in which the

“

sources of the O rinoco must be

sought .

It was an ancient custom of dogmatizing geographers to make allthe larger rivers of the world originate in considerable lakes . To

th e lake forming the supposed origin,of the Orinoc o was transferred

the site of t h e Island of Pumacena,a rock of “micaceous slate, the

glitter of which,in the 16th century

,played

,

'

in the fable of E l

Dorado,a memorable

,and to deceived humanityoften a fatal part .

It is the belief of th e natives,that the Magell an ic s

‘

c louds of theSouthernHemisphere

,and even the fine nebulae in the constellation

of the ship Argo,are a reflection of the metallic brilliancy of the

silver mountains of th e Parime .

The O rinoco is one of those rivers which,after many windings

,

seem to return back towards the region in which they took their

rise . After following a westerly and then a northerly course,it

runs again to . the east,so that its mouth is almost in the same

meridian as its source . From the Chiguire and the Geh et te as far

as the Guaviare, the O rinoc o flows to the west,as if it would carry

its waters'

to th e Pacific . It is in this part of its course that itsends out towards the south a remarkable arm

,the Cassiqu iare, but

littl e known in E urope,which un ites

'

with the Rio‘

Negro ( ca l ledby the natives the Guainia), and offers perhaps the only example ofa bifurcation forming in the very interior of a continent a natural

conn ection between two great rivers and their basins .

The nature of the ground,and the junction of the Guaviare and

Atabapo with the Orinoco, cause the latter to turn suddenly towards

the north . In the absence of correct geographical knowledge, the

Guaviare flowing in from th e west was long regarded as the true


Which each tree annually ripens three. This fine tree might becalled the peach palm . The fleshy fruits are from the luxurianceof vegetation most often devoid of seeds

,and offer to the natives a

nutritious,farinaceous food which

,like plantains and potatoes

,can

be prepared in a variety of ways .Hi th erto

,

‘

or as far as the mouth of the Guaviare, the O rinoco

flows along the southern declivity of the Sierra de Parime ; and from

its southernbank the vast forest-covered plain of the Amazons Riverstretches far beyond the E quator

, ,even to the 15th degree of south

l atitude . When the O rinoco turns suddenly to the‘ north

,near San

Fernando de Atabapo,it breaks through a part of the a moun tain

chain,al ong the -base

‘

of which it had previou sly flowed ; and this isthe site of the great waterfalls of Atures and Maypures . The river

bed is here everywhere hemmed in by colossal masses of rock,and

divided,as it were

,into separate reservoirs by natural dikes .

In front of the entrance of the Meta,there stands

,l n the middle

of a mighty whirlpool,an isolated c l ifl

'

,to which the natives have

given ‘th e very appropriate nameof the Rock of Patience because

,

when the waters are low,it sometimes costs those who are ascending

the river two days to pass it. Here the O rinoco,eating deep into

the land,forms picturesque rocky b ays . Opposite to th e

,Indian

ml ss1on of Carichana the traveller is surprised by the singular pros

pec t which presen ts ' itself to his view. His eye’

is involuntarilyriveted on an abrupt granitic rock

, el Mogote de Cocuyz a, ,

a cube

with vertically precipitous sides, above 200feet high and bearing onits upper su rface a forest of trees of rich

.

and varied foliage . Re

sembling a Cyclopean monument in its simple grandeur,this mass

of rock rises high above the tops of the surrounding palms, its

sharp outlines appearing in strong relief against the deep azure ofthe sky, and its summit uplifting high in a ir a forest above theforest .

In descending the O rinoco from this point,still with in the range

of the Carichanamission,we arrive at the part of the river where

the stream has forced for itse lf a way through the narrow pass ofBaragu an . Here we recognize everywhere traces of chaotic devastation . To the ' north (towards Uruana and E ncaramada), masses ofgranite of extraordinarily notched and serrated outline and grotesque

CATARACTS or THE ORINOCO . 177

a spect shine with daz z ling 'wh iteness high above the thickets from

amidst which th eyrise .It is in this region

,after receiving the Apure

,that th e O rinoco

leaves the granitic chain of mountains,and flows eastward to the

Atlantic, dividing the impenetrable forests of Guiana from the

grassy plains on which the vaul t of heaven seems everywhere torest as on the horizon of the ocean Thus

,the elevated cluster of

the Parime mountains,which occupies the entire space between the

sources of the Jac and the Caura,1s surrounded on three sides, to

the south,to the west

,and to the north

,by the O rinoco. Below

Carichana the course of the river is uninterrupted by roc ks or rapidsto its mouth

,excepting at the Whirlpool of the Boca del Infiern o

(Hell’smouth) near Mu itac o

,where

,however

,the rocks which occa

sion the rapid do not extend across the entire bed of the river as at

Atures and Maypures .

- In these lower pa rts of the river, in thevicinity of the sea, the only danger feared by the boatmen is that

of encountering the great natural rafts, c onsisting of trees torn from

the banks by the swelling of the river,against which canoes are

often wrecked during th e ‘

n igh t . These rafts,covered like meadows

with flowering Water plants, remind the spectator of the floating

gardens of t h e Mexican lakes .

After this rapid review of the course ‘of the O rinoco,and of its

general relations to the surrounding country, I pass to the de scn ption of the Falls

,

of Maypures and Atures .’

Between the sources of the rivers Sipapo and Ventuari a granite

ridge proj ects from the elevated mountain group of .Cunavami,‘

and

advances far to th e west towards the mountains of Un iama . Fourstreams

,which may be said to mark the limits of the Cataracts of

Maypures,

"

descend from this ridge ; two, the Sipapo and the Sana

riapo, on the eastern side of the O rinoco ; and two, the Camej i andthe Toparo, on its western sides Near the missionary village ofMay

pures the mountains retire and form a wide bay open tothe south-west.

The foaming s tream flows at the present time at the foot of theeastern mountain declivity

,and far to the west we

"

recognize theancient bank now forsaken by the water. ‘A grass-covered plain,only about thirt y feet above .the present highest level of the river,


extends between the two chains of bills . T h e Jesu its have built

upon it a small c hurch formed of the trunks of palm trees .

The g eological aspect of the district, the shapes of the rocks of

Keri and O co, whi ch have so much the character of islands; the

water-worn hollows . in th e of these rocks,situated at

exactly.

the same height as the cavities in the opposite island‘

of

Uivi tari,all testify that the O rinoco once filled the whole of this

now dry gul f or bay. Probably the waters formed a wide lake aslong as th e _ north ern dike was able to withstand their pressure .

When it gave way,the prairie now inhabited by the Gu areke In

dians must have been t h e first part which appeared—

ab ove the

Waters ; which may subsequently, perhaps, have long continued to

surround the rocks of Keri and O c o, which, rising like mounta in

fortresses from the ancient bed of the river,present a picturesque

aspect . As the Wate rs gradually diminished, they withdrew al to

gether to the foot'

of the eastern hills,where the river now flows .

This conj ecture is confirmed by several circumstances . The

O rinoco,like the Nile near Philae and Syene, has the property of

imparting a black color to the reddish-white masses of granite whichit has bathed for thousands of years . As far as the waters reach,one may remark on the rocky , shore the leaden-colored coatingdescribed at page 155 : its

‘

presence,and the hollows before men

t ioned,mark t h e ancient height of the waters of the Or inoco .

In the rock of Keri,in the islands of the Cataracts

,in the gn eiss

h ills of Cumadamin ari above the Island of Tomo,and lastly at the

mouth of the Jao,we trace these black-colored hollows at elevations

of 150 to 180 ( 160to 192 E nglish) feet above the present heightof the

,river. " Their existence teaches us a fact of which We may

also observe indications in the river beds of E urope : viz .

,that the

streams wh ose o magn i tude now excites our astonishment are only

the feeble remains of the immense masses of water belonging to anearlier age of the world

These simple remarks and‘

inferences have no t escaped even the

rude natives of Guiana . The Indians everywhere called our attention to the traces of the former height of the waters . There is, in agrassy plain near Uruana

,an isolated granite rock

,on which, accord

ing to the report of trustworthy witnesses, there are at a height of

180 caTARACT‘

s or THE ORINOCO .

Unlike the grander~

falls of Niagara (which are 140 French or

150E nglish feet high) the Catarac ts'

of Maypures” are not formed

by the single precipitous descent of a vast mass of waters, nor ,are

they “ narrows” or passes through which the river rushes With‘

accelerated velocity, as in the Pongo of Man serich e in the River of

the Amazons . The Cataracts of Maypures consist of a countlessnumber of little cascades succeeding each other like steps . TheRaudal” ( the name given by the

'Spaniards to this species of

cataract) IS formed by numerous islands and rocks which so restrictthe bed of the river

,that out of a breadth of E .) feet

there often only remains an open channel of twenty feet-

ln width ;

The eastern side is“

now much more inaccessible and dangerous thanthe western .

At the confluence of'

th e'

Camej 1 with the O rinoco, goods are un

lad en,in order that the empty canoe

,or,as l it is

’

here”

called,the

Piragua,may be conveyed by Indians well acquainted with the

'

Randal to the mouth of the Toparo, wherethe danger is consideredto be past. Where the separate rocks orx steps (each of which isdesignated by a particular name) are not mu ch

'

above two or threefeet high

,the natives

,if descending the stream

,venture

,remaining

themselves in the canoe,to let it go down the falls : if they are as

cending the stream,they leave the boat

,swim forward

,and when

,

after many unsuccessful attempts,they have succeeded in castinga

rope round th e" poin ts of rock which rise , above the broken water,they draw up their vessel

,which is often either overset or entirely

filled with water in the course of theselaborious proceedings .Sometimes

,and it is t h e only cas a whi ch gives the natives any

uneasiness, the canoe is dashed 1n pieces against the rocks ; the menhave then to di sengage themselves with bleeding bodies from thewreck and from the whirling forc e of the torrent

,and to gain the

shore by swimming. Where the rocky steps are very high and extend across the entire bed of the river

,the light boat is brought to ”

land and drawn along the bank by means of branches of trees placedunder it as rollers .

The mos t celebrated and difli cu l t steps,those of Purimarimi and

Mah imi,are between nine and ten feet high .

’ I found with astonish

merit, by barometric“

measurements (geodesical levelling being ou t of

OATARAOTS or THE oarNoco .

' 181

the question from the inaccessibility of the locality,its highly insa

lubriou s atmosphere,and the swarms of mosquitoes which fil l the

air), that the whole fall of the Raudal, frOm the mouth of the Camej ito that

,

of the Toparo, hard ly amounts to 28 or 30feet (30or 32E nglish); I say

,I ' found with astonishment ;

” for this shows that.

the dreadful noise and wild dash ing'

and foaming of the river are theresults of the n arrowing

~of its bed by countless rocks.and islands,and of the counter currents produced by the form and situation ofthe masses of rocks The best ocular demonstration of the smallheight of the whole fall i s obtained by

,

descending from the villageof Maypures to the bed of the river by the rock of Man imi .From this point a wonderfu l prospect is enjoyed: A foaming sur

face of four miles in length presents itself at once to the eye : ironblack masses of rock resembling ruins and battlemented towers risefrowning from the waters . Rocks and islands are adorned with theluxuriant vegetation of the tropical forest ; a perpetual mist hoversover the waters

,and the summits of the lofty palms pierce through

the cloud of spray and vapour . When the rays of the glowing evening sun' are refracted in these humid exhalations

,a magic Optical

effect begins . Colored bows shine, vanish, and reappear; and theethereal image is swayed to and fro by the breath of the sportivebreeze . During the long rainy season

,the streaming waters bring

down islands of vegetable mould,and thus the naked rocks are

studded with bright flower beds adorned with Melastomas and Droseras

,and with small silver-leaved mimosas and ferns . These spots

recall to the recollection of the E uropean those blocks of granite

decked with flowers which rise solitary amidst the glaciers of Savoy,and are called by the dwellers in the Alps “ Jardins

,

”or. Courtils .”

In the blue distance the eye rests on the mountain chain of Cunavami

,a long extended ridge which termin a tes

”abruptly in a trun

c a ted cone . We saw the latter (Cal itamin i i s . its Indian name)glowing at sunset as if in roseate flames . This appearance returnsdaily : no one has

,ever been near the mountain to -detect the precise

cause of this brightness,which may perhaps proceed from “a reflec t

ing surface produced by the decomposition of talc or~mica slate .

During the five days which we passed in the neighborhood of the16

182 CaTARACTs or THE ORINOCO .

Catarac ts , i t was striking to hear the thunder of the rushing torrents sound three . times louder by night than by day. In a ll E u ropean waterfall s the same phenomenon is remarked. What can ‘ beits cause in a wilde rness

’

wh ere'

there is nothing to int errupt the repose of nature ? Perhaps the currents of heated a scending air , bycausin g irregul ar density in the elastic medium impede the propa

gation of sound during the day, by the disturbance they may occa

sion in th e~waves of soun d ; whereas during the nocturnal coolingof the earth’s surface the upward currents cease .

The Indi ans called our attention to ancient tracks «of wh eels.They speak with admiration of the horned animals (oxenmh ich inthe times of the Jesuit missions used to draw the canoes on wheel edsupports

,along the left b ank of the O rinoco, from the mouth of th e

Camej i to that of the TOparo . _ The lading was no t then removed

from the boats,norWere the latter worn and inj ured as they now are

by being constantly st randed upon‘

th e rocks and dragged over their

rough surface .

’

The topographical plan of the district sketched by me shows ,the

fac ilities which the nature of the ground oflers for the opening of acanal from the Camej i to th e TOparo, which woul d form a navigableside-arm to the river

,the dangerous portion of which would be thus

avoided. I prop osed its execution to the Governor-General of Venez u ela .

The Raudal of Atures closely resembles th at of‘

Maypures ; likeit,it is a cluster of islands between which the river forces its way

for ten or twelve thousand yards ; a forest of palms rising from themids t of. the foaming waters . The most celebrated Steppes of thisRaudal are situated between the Islands of Avaguri . and J avariven i

,

between Sliripaman a and Uirapuri .‘When M . Bonpland and I return ed from th e

‘banks of th e RioNegro

,we ventured to pass the latter or lower half of the Raudal

of Atures with the loaded canoe, often leaving it for the rocky dikeswhich connect one island with another . Sometimes the waters rush

over these dikes,and sometimes they fall with a hollow thundering

sound into cavities, and flowing for a time through subterran ean

channels,leave large pieces of the bed of the river dry . Here the

golden Pipra rupicola makes its nest ; it is one of the most beautiful

184 CATARACTS 011 1111112 ORINOCO .

and striking prospect. From t h e foaming r iver-bed rise.wood

crowned hill s,while beyond th e western shore of th e »0rinoco the

eye rests on the boundl ess grassy plain of the Me,ta,

*

nn in terrupted

save where at one part of the horizon th e mounta in ofUn iama n s‘

es

like a threatening cloud . Such is the di stance,the nearerprospect

is desolate,and closely hemmed in by high and barren rocks . All

is motionless,save where the vul ture or the hoarse goat-sucker h over

sunk ravine,their sil ent shadows are seen gliding al ong the face o f

the bare r o cky precipice until they vanish from the eye .

This pre c ipitous valley is bounded by mountains—”

on w hose

rounded summits are enormous detached granite spheres of morethan 4 0 to 50 feet diameter : they appear to touch the base onwhich they rest only in a single point

,as if the slightest movement

,

such as that of a faint earth quake shock, must cause them to roll

down .

The farther part of the valley is densely wooded, and it is i n thisshady. portion

“

that the cave of Ataru ipe is situated. It is not properly speaking a cave

,but rather a vaul ted roof formed by a far

over-hanging cliff,the c avity having apparently been formed by the

waters when at their ancient level . Th is'plac e is the vault or

ceme tery of an extinct nation .We counted about 600 well

preserved skeletons placed in as many baskets woven from t h e stalks

of palm leaves . These baskets,which the Indians call mapires,

”

are shaped like square sacks,differing in size a ccording to the age of

the deceased . E ven new-born c hildren had each its , own mapire .

The skeletons are so perfect that not a bone'

or a j oint is wanting ;

The bones had been prepared in three~

different ways ; somebleached

,some colored red’ with onoto

,the p lgmen t of the Bixa

Qrel lana and some l ike mummies closely enveloped in sweetsmellin g resin and plantain leaves.The Indians assured us that the custom had been to

‘

bury /th e

fresh corpses for some months in damp earth,which gradually con

sumed the flesh ; they were then dug . up, and any remaining fleshscraped away with sharp stones . This the Indians said.was still thepractice of several tribes in Gu iana. Besides the map l res or baskets

we found urns of half burnt clay which appeared to contain the

CATARACTS or THE oanvoco . 85

bones of entire families . The larger of these urns were about threefeet high and nearly six feet long

,of a pleasing oval form and

green ish color, having handles shaped like snakes and crocodiles,and .meandering or labyrinthine ornaments round the upper margin .

These ornaments are quite similar to those which cover the walls ofthe Mexican Palace at Mitla . They are found in all countries and

clima tes,and in th e most different stages of h uman .cu ltivation

among the Greeks and Romans,as well 'as on the shields of the

natives of Tahiti and o th er islands of the South Sea—wh erever.

’

th e

eye is grat ified by th e rhythmical . recurrence of regular forms .

These similarities, as I have elsewhere remarked more in detail, are

rather to be ascribed to p sychological causes, or to such as belong

inherently to our mental constitution, than to be viewed as,

evidencesof kindred descent or ancient intercoursebetween different nations!

O ur interpreters could give‘ us no certain information as to theage of these vessels ; that of the skeletons appeared for the mostpart not to exceed a century. It is report ed among the Gu areca Indians

,that the brave Atures

,being pressed upon by cannibal Caribs ,

withdrew to the rocks of the Cataracts ; a melancholy refuge anddwelling-place

,in which the distressed tribe finally perished

,and

with them their language . In the most inaccessible parts of theRaudal

,there are cavities and recesses which h ave served like the

cave of Ataru ipe as burying-places . It_is even probable that the

last family of th e Atures may not have been long deceased, for ( a

singul ar fac t) there is still in Maypures an old parrot, of whom thenatives afiirm that he is not understood because he speaks the Ature

We left the cave at nightfall,after having collected

,to the great

displeasure of our Indian guides,several

.

skulls and ‘ the entire

skeleton of a man . O n e of these skul ls has been figured by Blurmenbach in his excellent craniological work, but the skeleton

( together with a large part of our natural ,history collections

,espe

c ial ly the entomological) was lost in a shipwreck on t h e coast ofAfrica,in which our friend and former travelling companion

,the

young Franciscan monk Juan Gonzalez, perished .

As if with a presentiment of this painful less, we turned our stepsin a thoughtful and melancholy mood from th is burying place ~of a

16*

186 CATARACTS or THE c amoc o .

race deceased . It was one of those clear and cool nights so fi equ en tin the tropics . The moon

,encircled with colored rings,“ stood high

l n the zenith, illuminating the margin of the mist, which lay withwell-defin ed

,cloud-e outlines on the surface of the foaming river.

Countless insects poured their r ed phosphoric light . on the herbcove

'

red ground,which glowed with living fire

,as if the starry canopy

of heaven had sunk down upon the turf. Climbing Bignonias,fra

grant Vanillas,and yellow-floweringBan isterias, adorned t h e entrance

of the cave ; and the summits of the palms rustled above the graves.

Thus perish the generations of men i Thus do the name and thetraces of nations fade .and di sappear ! Yet when each—b lossomofman’s in tel lec t with ers—when in the storms of time the memorial sof h is art moul der and decay—an ever new life springs forth from

the bosom of the earth ; maternal Nature unfolds unceasingly her

germs,her flowers

,and her fruits ; regardless though man with his

passions and hi s crimes treads under foot her ripening harvest .

88 CATARACTS or THE onmoeo .

cisco Lemaur, who made a trigonometrical survey of the Bay ofXagu a . I have been farther to the South in the group of islandscalled the Jardines del Rey (the King

’s Gardens), making astron o

mical observations for latitude and longitude ; but I have never been

at Xagua itself.

(3

) p . 171.—“The a nc ie nt site of a rocky bulwa rk.

every direction,propounds in his letters to the Spani sh monarchs a

Having his mind deeply impressed with the strength off the east and

west equinoctial current,he . ascribes to it the breaking up of the

group of th e smallerWest Indi an islands,and the singu larly length,

ened configuration of the southern coasts of PortoRico, Haiti, Cuba;d Jamaica

,which all followalmost exactly the direction of paral lels

of latitude . On his third voyage ( from the end of May 1498 to theend of November in which

,from the Boca del Drago to the

Island of Margarita,and afterwards from that island to Haiti, he

felt the whole force of the equinoct ial current,that movement of

the waters whi ch is in accordance or conformity with themovementof the heavens—movimiento de los cielos

,

’ he says expressly thatthe island of Trinidad h ad been torn from the ‘ main land ‘

by theviolence of the current . -He all udes to a chart whi ch he’ sends tothe monarchs—a pintura de l a tierra” by himself

,which

.

is oftenreferred to in the celebrated lawsui t against Don Diego Colon respecting the rights of the Admiral . E s la carta de marear y figm qu e

hi zo el Almirante sefi alando los rumbos y vientos por los quales vinoa Paria

,que dicen parte del As ia” (Navarrete Viages y Descubri

mi entes que hicieron por mar los E spanoles,t. i . pp . 253 and 260;

t . iii . pp . 539 and

(4

) p . I7] . Overthe snow-covered Pa rop a n isus .

Diodorus’s descriptions of the Paropan isu s (Diodor. Sieul . lib .

xvn . p . 553,Rh odom .) might almost pass for a description of the

Andes of Peru [ T h e army passed through inhabited places wheresnow fell daily !

(5

) p . 171. Herra ra in the D ecades .

Historia general de las Indias occidentales, dec . i . lib . iii . cap . 12

[cd. 1601,p . 106] Juan Bautista Munoz

,Historia del Nuevo

Mundo,l ib. vi . 0. 31

,

'

p . 301 Humboldt,E xamen Crit. t. iii .

p . 111.

(6) p . 173 . Thc

’

E ources of ,the Orinocoha ve never been visi ted

Thus I wrote respecting these sources in the year 1807 , in thefirst edition of the Ansichten der Natur and I have to repeat the

same statement after an interval of 41 years . The travels of thebrothers Robert and Richard Seh omburgk, so important for all de

partmen ts of natural knowledge and geography,have afforded us

thorough investigations of other and more interesting facts,but the

problem of the situation of the sources of the O rinoco has been onlyapproximately solved by Sir Robert Seh omburgk. It was from the

West t hat M . Bonpland and myself advanced as far as E smeralda,

or the confluence of the O rinoco and th e Guapo ; and I was able to

describe with certainty,by the aid of well assured information

,the

upper course of the O rinoco to above the mouth of the Geh ette, and

to the small Waterfall (Raudal) de los Guaharibos . It was fromthe E ast that Robert Seh omburgk, advancing from the mountainsof the Majonkong Indians ( the altitude of the inhabited portions of

Which he estimated by the boiling point of Water at 3300 F.

,or

3517 E . feet), came to th e O rinoco by the Padamo River, whichthe Majonkongs a nd Gu in au s (Gu ayn as call Paramu (Reisen in

Guiana,1841

,s . In myAtlas, I had estimated the position

"

of the confluence of the‘ Padamo with the O rinoco at N. lat . 3 °

and W. long. 65° Robert Sehomburgk found it by direct obser

vation,lat . 2° long. 65° The leading obj ect of this travel

ler’s arduous journ ey'

was not th e pursuit of natural history, but thesolution of the prize question proposed by the Royal GeographicalSociety of London. in November 1 834,—viz . the connection of thecoast of British Guiana with the east ernmost point which I hadreached on ' the Up’per O rinoco . After many difficulties ahd much

190 OATABAC'

TS or THE ORINOCO .

1839,at E smeralda. His determinations of th e latitude and longi

wou ld be th e case ( s. xvi ii . and' 471). Here let us allow the ob

server to speak for himself ;“ I want words to describe the feelings

whi ch overpowered me as I sprang to shore . My aim was attained,

my observations, began on the coast of Guiana, were brought intoconnection with those of Humboldt at E smeralda . I frankly own

,

that i n the course of this enterprise,at a time when almost all my

physical powers had well-nigh deserted me, and when I was surrounded

,

by dangers and difficulties of no common nature, it was

onl y by the recogni tion which I h oped f or from him, that I h adbeen encouraged ‘ to press onward with unalterable determination

towards the goal which I had now reached. The emaciated figuresof my Indians and faithful guides told more plainly th an any words

could do,what diflicu l ties we h ad had to surmount, and had sur

mounted .

’After expressions so kind towards myself, I

‘

must bepermitted to subj oin the followi ng passage, extracted from my Preface to the German E dition of Robert Sch omburgk

’s Ac count of his

Travels,published m 1841.

Immediately after my retu rn from Mexico,I notified the direc

tion and the routes whi ch shoul d be followed to explore the unknownportion of the South American Continent between the sources of th e

O rinoco,the mountain chain of Pacaraima

,and the sea-shore

‘

nearE ssequibo . These wishes

,which I expressed so strongly in my

Relation Historique,have at last

,after the lapse of almost half a

century,been for the greater part fulfilled . Besides the j oy of h av

ing lived to see so important an extension of our geographical knowledge

,I have had that of seeing it attained by means of a - courageous

ance,executed by a young man with whom I feel united by the

double bond of similarity of ' pursuits and e fforts,and

.

of our com‘

mon country. Motives su ch as these have alone been suffic ien t t o‘

overcome th e'

distaste whi ch I entertain, perhaps without reason , tointroductory prefaces by another han d than that of the author of the

work . But in this case I coul d not consent to‘

forego the opportunity

of expressing, thus publicly, my heartfelt esteem forAthe aecom

192 CATAaAcrs or'

THE ORINOCO .

part an east andwest d irection From pol itical“

reasons, the Bra.

z il ian s,sin ce

’

th e beginning of the present century,have testified a

l ively interest in the extensive plains east of the Rio ”Branco . Seethe memoirwhich I drew up at the request

~

of the Portuguese courtin 1817 , sur la fixation des limites des h

Guyan es Francaise et Portu

guai se”

(Sch oell , _Arch ives hi storiques et poli tiques,ou Recueil de

Pieces oflic iel les, Memoires,&c . t . i . 1818

,pp . 48 Viewingthe

pears to'

have been determined with tolerable accuracy by Portuga ase engin eers,

‘

th e sources of the O rinoco cannot be looked“

for

east of the meridian of 655° from Paris 8’W. lon g . from

Greenwich). This being the eastern limit beyond which they cannot be placed

,and considering the state of the river at the Raudal

de los Guaharibos (above Cah o Chigui re, in the country of the surprisingly fair-

.

skinned Guaycas In dians, and 525 east of th e greatCerroD ui da), it appea rs tome probable that the upper part of theO rinoco does notreally extend, at the utmost , beyond the meridian

of from Paris w. from Greenwich) This point isaccording to my combinations west of the little ‘

Lake of

Amucu,wh ich was reached by Sir Robert Seh omburgk;

I next subj oin the conj ectures of that gentleman,having gi ven

the earlier ones formed by myself. According to hi s view,the

course of the upper O rinoco to the east of E smeralda is directedfrom southeast to northwest ; my estimations of latitude for the

mout hs of the Padamo and the Geh et te appearing to be respectively

19 and 36’ too small. Robert Seh omburgk supposes the sources ofthe Orinoco to be in lat . 30’ (s . and the fine “ Map of

Guayana, to illustrate the routeof R . H. Seh omburgk, wh ich ao

companies the splendid E nglish work entitled Views i n the Interior of Guiana

,

” places the sources of the O rinoco in (W.

from Paris), i . e. 1° 6’west of E smeralda, and only 48’ of longitude

n earer,to the Atlantic than I had thought admis sible . From astron o

mical combinations,Seh omburgk has placed the mountain of Mara

vaea,which is upwards of nine thousand feet high

,in lat.

and long: Near the mouth of the Padamo or Paramu,the

O rinoco. was scarcely th ree hundred yards wide ; and more to the

west,where it spreads to a breadth of from four to six hundred

193

yards, it was so shallow and so full of sand-banks th at 'th e E xpedition were obli ged to dig channels, the river bed being only fifteeninches deep. Fresh water Dolphin s were still t o be seen everywherein large numbers ; a ph enomenon

rwh ieh the zoologists of the 18thcentury would not have be en prepared to expec t in the O rinocoandthe Ganges.

( 7) p. 173 . Themost'

e igormts df thep roductions qf the

The Bertholletia excelsa (duvia), of the family of Myrtac eae (an dplac ed in Richard Seh omburgk

’s

’

pr0posed division of Lecyth ideae),was first described by Bonpland and myself in the Plantes équ inoxiales

,

” t. £ 1808, tab . 36. This gigantic(and magn ifi

cent tree c h ers,in the perfect formation of its cocoa like

,round

,

th ick,woody fruit enclosing the th ree~cornered and also woody

seed-vessels,the most remarkable example of high organic develop

ment . The Bertholletia grows in the forests of the Upper O rinoco

between the Padamo and the O camu , near the mounta in of Mapaya

and also between the rivers Amaguaca and Geh ette. (Relationh istorique, t

‘

ii. pp . 474, 496, 558

(9

) p . 173. Gra ss sta lks ha ving j oin ts abat e eigh teen f eet- long

fi om v hnot to knot .”

Robert Seh omburgk, when visiting the smallmountainous c ountryof the Majonkongs,

on h isr

way to E smeralda, was so fortunate as todetermine the species of Arundinaria which furnishes the materialfor th e blowpipes or tubes through which the Indians discharge

their arrows . He says of this p lant : It grows in large tufts like

the Bambusa ; the first j oint riseswith ou t'

a knot to a height of from

16 to 17 feet before itjbegins to put forth leaves . The entire h eigh t

of the Arundinaria, as it grows at the foot of the great mountain of

Maravac a,is from 30to 40feet

,with a

'

thi ekn ess of scarcely‘ hal f an

inch di ameter. The top is always inclined. This kind of grassis peculiar to the sands tone mountains between the Ventuari, theParamu (Padamo), and the Mavaca. The Indian name is Cu rata,and hence

,fr’om the excellence of these far-famed bl ow tubes of

great length,the Maj onkongs and Guinaus of these districts ham

17

194 CATARAors or THE

been given the names of th e Curata nation . (Reisen in ‘Guianan nd

am O rinoco, s .

(9) p . 174 .

—“Fa ba lous la ke—origin of the Orinoco.

”

The lakes of these regions (some of which have had their real siz emuch exaggerated by theoretical geographers

,whil e the existence of

placed between E smeralda (theO rinoco) and the Rio Branco ; and th e

h

second, those assumed toexist in the district between the Rio Branco and French

,Du tc h

,and

British Guiana . This general view,of which travellers shoul d never

lose sight,shows that the question of whether there Is yet a Lake

Parime east of the Rio Branco,other than the Lake Amucu

,seen

by Hort smann,Santos

,Colonel Barata

,and Seh omburgk, has no

offic e at Madrid,Don Felipe Bauz a

,is deservedl y of great weight in

tific investigation makes me feel it a duty to recal l tha t this learnedman was

’

in c l in ed to the view,that there—must be lakes west of the

Rio Branco and not far from the sources of the O rinoco . He wroteto me from London

,a Short

'

time before his death .

“ I wish you

were here, tha t I might converse with you on the subj ect of the

geography of the Upper O rinoco, whi ch has occupied you so much .

I have been so fortunate as to rescue“

from entire destruction the

papers of the general of marine,Don José Solano

,father of th e

Solano who perished in so melancholy a manner at Cadiz .These

documents relate to th e boundary division between the Spaniardsand the Portu gue se , with which the elder Solano h ad been ch arged

,

in conjunction with Chef d’E seadron Yturriaga and Don VicenteDoz, since 1754 . In all these plans and sketches I see a LagunaParime, represented sometimes as the source of the O rinoco

,and

sometimes quite detached from that river. Are we,then

,to admit

the existence of another lake north-east of E smeralda ?”

L'

otfling, th e celebrated pupil of Linnaeus, came to Cumana as thebotan ist of the boundary expedition

'

above alluded to . After tra~

196 dAi 'ARACTs or THE ORINooo .

remark,that for a century past no

”

advan c e , h as in our

geographical knowledge of the country west of

615° and 6M° W. longitude . The attempts repeatedly made by

the government of Spanish Guiana, since th e expeditions of Iturriaand , Solano, to reach .an d

[

to pass the Pacaraima mountains,have

only produced very inconsiderable resu lts. =When the Spaniards,

in travelling to the ml ssl on s of the Catalonian Capuchin monks ofBarcelone ta at

“

the confluence of the Caron i'

and the Rio Paragua,

the Paragu amu si, they founded at the‘

site of the latterjunction t h emission of Gu irion , fwh ich ~ a t first received the pompous name ofCiudad de Gu iri

'

on . I place it in about 45° of north latitude . Fron

’

i

thence the governor Centurion, st imul ated by the exaggerated ao

counts given by two Indian chiefs, Paran acare and Arimu icapi,of the powerful nation of the Ipuru cotos, to search for E l Dorado,prosecuted what were then called spiritual conquests still farther

,

and founded,beyond the Pacaraima mountains the two vi llages pf

Santa Rosa and San Bautista de Caudacac la ; the former on thehigher eastern bank of theUraricapara, a tributary of theUraricuera

which,in the narrative of Rodriguez, I find called Rio Curaricara ;

and the latter six or seven German (24 or28 E nglish) geographicalmiles farther to the east south-east . -The astronomer of the Portu

gu ese Boundary Commission, Don Antonio Pires de Sylva PontesLeme

,captain of a fri gate

,and the captain of engineers

,Don Ricardo

Franco d’Almeida de Serra,who

,between 1787 and 1804

,surveyed

with the grea test care the whole course of the Rio Branco and itsupper branches

,called the westernmost part of the Uraricapara, the

Valley of Inundation .

” They place the Spanish mi ssion of SantaRosa in 3 ° 46’N t lat .

,and point ou t

,th e

‘ route which leads fromthence northward across

q

th e chain of mountains to the Cano An oc

'

apra,an afi lu en t of the Paragu amu si, by means of which one passes

from the basin of the Rio Branco to that of th e Caroni . Two maps

of these Portuguese officers, whi ch conta in the whole details of the

trigonometrical -su rvey of the .windings of the Rio Branco,the Ura

ricuera,the Tacu tu

,and the Mahu

,have been kindly communicated

to Colonel Lapie and myself. by the Count of Linhares . These valu

able unpublished documents of which I h ave made use,are in the


hands of the learned geographer,who began a c on siderable time ago

to have them engraved at his own‘

expen se .

'

The Portuguese some

times give the name of Rio Parime to the whole of the Rio Branco,

an d sometimes confine that denomination to one bfan ch or tributary,

the Uraricuera,below the Cano Mayari and above t h e old mission

of San‘

Antonio . As the words Paragua and Parime sign ify water,

great water, lake, or sea, it is not surprising to find them so oftenrepeated among nations at a distance from each oth er

,

'

the Omagu ason the Upper Maraf

’

lon,the Western Gua

'

ranis,and the Caribs .

“

In

all parts of the world,as I have already

'

remarked,the largest rivers

are called by those who dwell on their banks“The River,

” withoutany distinct and peculiar appellation . Paragua

,the name of

'

a branch

of -the Caroni,is als o the name given by th e natives to the Upper

O rinoco . Th e name O rinu cu is Taman aki and Diego de O rdaz firstheard it pronounced in ' 1531

,when he ascended the river to the

mouth of theMeta . Besides the “Valley of Inundatio'n,

” abovespoken of

,we find other large lakes or expan ses of water between

the Rio Kumuru and the Parime . O n e of these belongs to the

Tacu tu River,and the other to the Uraricuera. E ven at the foot

of the Pacaraima mountains the rivers are subj ect to great periodical

overflows and ‘ the Lake of Amucu,which will be spoken of more

in the sequel,imparts a similar character, to

‘

the'

country at the com»

men cemen t of theplains . The Spanish miss ions of Santa Rosa and

San Bautistade Caudac ac la or Cayacaya, founded in the years 1770

and 1773 by th e GovernorDon Manuel Centurion, were destroyed

tempt has been made to penetrate from the basin of ‘ the Caroni tothe southern declivity of thePac araima

‘

moun tain s

The territory east of the‘

valley of the Rio Branco ha s of late

years been the subjec t o f some suc cessful examination ; Mr.Hillhouse navigated the Massarun i as far as the Bay of Carenang, fromwhence

,he says

,a path would have conducted the traveller in two

days to the sources of the Massarun i,and in t hree days to streams

flowing into the Rio ”Branco . In regard to“

the win dings of thegreat river Massarun i

,described by Mr. Hillhouse

,that gentleman

remarks,in a letter written to me from Demera ra (January 1,

that “ the Massarun i beginning from its source flows first to the17


west,then to the north for one degreeof latitude, afterwardsalmost

200E nglish miles to the east, and finally north and NNE . to its

junction wi th the E ssequibo . As Mr. Hill house was unable to

reach the southern dech vi ty of the Pacaraima ch ain,he was not

acquainted with the Amucu Lake . he says himself,in his printed

account,that “ from the information he had gained from

,the Ao

lake at all in these dis tricts . This statement occasioned me somesurprise

,as it was in direct contradiction t o the views whi ch I had

formed respecting the Lake of Amucu,from“which th e Cai

‘

ioPirara

flows ac cordin g to the narratives of Hortsmann , Santos, and Rodri

guez , whose accounts inspired me with the more confidence becausethey agree entirely with the recent Portuguese manus cript maps.

Finally,after five years of expecta tion, Sir Robert Sch omburgk

’s

j ourney has dispell ed all doubts .“ It 18 difficult to believe

,

”says Mr. Hillhouse

,l n hi s interesting

memoir on the Massarun i,that the report of a great inland water

is entirely wi thout foundation . It seems to ‘me p ossible that thefollowing circumstances may have given occasion to the belief in th eexistence of the fabul ous Lake of the Parime .

“At some distance

from the fallen rocks of Teboco,the waters of the Massarun i appear

to the eye as motionl ess as the tranqui l surface of a lake . If at amore or less remote 'epoch the horizonta l stratum of granite at Teboc o had been perfectly compact and unbroken, the waters must havestood at least fifty feet above their present level

,and there would

thus have been formed an immense lake,ten or twelve E nglish miles

broad and 1500 to 2000 E nglish mil es long ” (Nouvel les Annalesdes Voyages, 1836, Sept , p . It is not solely the vast extent

of this supposed inundation which prevents me from ac cepting thisexplanation . I have seen plain s (the Llanos), where, during therainy season, the overflowingof the afliuen ts of the O rinoco annuallycover with water a space of 400German geographical square miles

( equal to 6400E nglish , geographical square miles). At such timesthe labyrinth of branches b etween the Apure

,the Arauca

,the Ca

pan aparo, and t he Sinaruco( see Maps 17 and 18 iof my Geographical

and Physical Atlas), can no longer be traced, for the separate courses

200 ' OATARACTS '

OF THE ORINOCO .

ri111e and the supposedWhite sea . Whenwe visited it in December

was half covered with reeds. (This remark is found as early as’ in

D’Anvil le

’s map, in

“The Pirara issues from th e lake west

north-west of the Indian village of Pirara,and falls into the Maou

or Mahu . The last—named river,from

'

such in formation as I wasable to gather

,rises on the north side of the Pacaraima mountain s;

the eas ternmost part of whi ch only attains a height of 1500French

( in round numbers 1600E nglish) feet. The sources of the Mahuare on a plateau, from .whence it descends in a fine waterfall cal ledCorona. We were about to visit thi s fall when on th e _ th ird day ofour excursion to the mounta ins the sickness of‘ one of my companionsobliged us to return to the station near Lake Amucu . The Mahuh as 1 ‘black” or c oflee-brown water, and its current is more rapid than

that of the Rupunuri . In the mountains through whi ch it -makesits way it is about 60yards broad, and its environs are remarkablypicturesque . This valley

,as well as t h e banks of the Buroburo

,

which flows_

in to the Siparun i, are inhabited by the Macusis . InApril

,the whole of the savannahs are overflowed, and present the

pecul iar phenomenon of the waters belonging todifferent river bas ins

being intermixed and united . The enormous extent of thi s temporary inundation -may not improbably h ave given occasion to the storyof the Lake of Parime . During the rainy season there is formed inthe interior of the country a water communication between the E sse

quibo, the Rio Branco, and Gran Para. Some groups of trees,which

rise l ike ca ses on the sand-hills of the savannahs,assume a t the time

of the inundation the charac ter of islands scattered over the extensive lake they are

,no doubt

,the Ipomu cen a Islands of Don .An to

nio Santos .

In D’Anvi lle

’s manuscripts

,which his heirs have kindly permitted

me to examine,I find that the surgeon Hortsmann

, of Hildesheim,

who described these countries with great care,saw a second Alpine

lake, which he places two days’ j ourney above the confluence of the

Mahu with the Rio Parime (Tac u tu It IS a lake of black wateron the top of a mountain . He distinguishes it clearly from the Lake

of Amucu, which he describes as “ covered with reeds .” The nar

ra tives of Hortsmann and Santos are as far as the Portuguese


manuscript maps of t h e Bureau de la Marine . at Rio Janeiro fromindicating or admit ting a constant connection between th e/Rupunuriand the Lake of Amucu . In D’

Anvill e’s maps

,the rivers are better

drawn in the fi st edition of his South America,published in 1748,

than in'

the more widely circulated edition of 1760. Sch omburgk’s

travels have completely established this general independence of thebasins of the

'

Rupunuri and,the E ssequibo ; but h e remarks that

during the rainy'

season th e'

RioWaa-E kuru,a tributary of the Ru

punuri , 1s In connection with the Cano Pirara .

’

Su ch ~ is the state Ofthese river basins

,which are

,as it were

,stil l imperfectly developed

,

and are almost entirely without separating ridges .

The Rupunuri and the village ofAnai'

(lat. 3° long . 58°

are at s presen t recognized as th e‘

pol itical boundary between theBritish and the Brazilian territories in t hese uncultivated regions .Sir Robert Seh omburgk makes his chronological ly determined lon

gitude of the Lake of Amucu depend on‘the mean of several lunar

distances (east and west)measured by him during his stay at Anai,where he was detained some time by severe illness . His longitudesfer-these points of the Parime are in general a degree more easterly

than the longitudes of my map of Columbia . I am far from throwing any doubt on the observations of lunar distances taken at Anai

,

and would only remark that t heir calculation is important, if it isdesired

'

to carry the comparison from the,Lake of Amucu to E s

meralda,which I found in long . 68° 23’19”W. from

'

Paris (66°

21’19” Gr”)We see

,then

,the great Mar de la Parima—which was so difficult

to displace from our maps that,after my return from America

,it

was still set down as. having a length of 160 E nglish geographicalmiles—s educed by the resul t of modern researches to the little Lakeof Amucu

,of two Or three miles circumference . The illusions cher

ish ed for nearly two centuries (several hundred lives were lost inthe last Spanish expedition for the

“

discovery of E l Dorado,in

have thus fin ally terminated,leaving some results of geo

graphical knowledge as their fruit . In 1512, thou sands of soldiersperished in the expedition undertaken by Ponce de Leon for the

discovery of the Fountain of Youth,

” supposed to exist in one of

the Bahama Islands called Bimini,and which 1s not to be found on

202 OATARAOTS OF THE ORINOCO .

our maps“

. This E xpedition led to th e conquest of Florida, and tothe knowledge of the great current of the Gul f Stream

,which issues

forth through the Bahama channel . The thirst for t reasures,and

the desire Of renovated youth,stimulated wi th nearly equal force

the passions and cupidity of the nations of E urope .

(10

) p .

’

175. The Pin’

gn a o, one of the noblest of p a lm trees .

Compare Humboldt,Bonpland

,andKunth

,Nova Genera Plant .

aequ in oc t . t. i . p . 315.

p“

. 184 .—“T7te va ul t or cemetery of tr

u

n c a ting—

nation .

During the pe‘

riod'

of my stay in the forests of the O rinoc o, these

caves of bones were examined by order of the court . The Mis

sionary of the Cataracts had been u njustly accused of having discovered in the caves treasures which had been hidden there by theJesuits previous to their flight.

THE NOCTURNAL'

LIFE OF ANIMALS

IN THE

PRIME VAL FORE ST .

IF.

the vivid appreciation and sentiment of nature which difl’

er so

and’

aspect of the countries which these nations‘

now inhabit,or

whi ch have been the scene of their earlier wanderings or abode,have rendered different languages more or l ess rich in well defined‘

and‘

ch aracteristic_expressions denoting th e forms of mountains, the

state of vegetation,the appearance of the atmosphere

,and the con

tour and grouping of the clouds,it is also true that longuse, and

perhaps their arbitrary employment by literary men,have diverted

many such words from their original meaning. Terms have been gradually regarded as synonymous which ought to have been preserveddistinct

,and thus languages have lost part of the vigor and the

grace,as well as the fidelity

,which they might otherwise have been

capable of imparting to descriptions of natural scenery and of thecharacteristic physiognomy of a

’

. landscape . With the View'

Of

showing.

how much,

an intimate acquaintance and contact withnature

,and the wants and necessiti es of a laborious nomade life,

may increase the riches of a language, I woul d recall the numerous

characteristic appellations which may be used in Arabic (1

) and InPersian todistinguish plains, steppes, and deserts, according as theyare quite bare

,covered with sand

,broken by tabul ar masses of rock,

or interspersed with patches of pasturage,or with long tracts Occupied

by social plants . Scarcely less striking is it to observe in the old

Castilian idiom (2

) the many expressions afl'

orded for describingthephysiognomy of mountain-masses, and more particularly for designating those features which

,recurrl ng l n every zone of the earth’s

18

206 NOCTURNAL LIFE or ANIMALS

surface,announce from afar to

'

the attentive beholder the nature of

the rock ; AS the declivities of the Andes,“

of Peru,Chili

,and

Mexico,and t h e mountainous part s of the Canaries, the Antilles,

and the Phil ippines, are all inhabited by men of Spanish descent,

and as these are the parts f of the earth where (wi th the exception,perhaps

,of the Himalaya and the Th ibetianHighlands

,) the man

ner of life of the inhabitants is most affected by and dependent onthe form of the earth’s surface

,so all the expressions which the

language of the mother country afforded for denotin g the forms of

mountains in trachytic,b asaltic, and porphyritic districts, as well as

in those where schists,limestones

,and sandstone are

’

the pf é vaili ngrocks

,have been happily preserved in daily use . Under

.

such influen ces, even newly-formed words become partOf the common treasure.

Speech is enriched and animated by everything that tends to and

promotes truth to nature,whether in rendering the impressions

received through the sensesfrom the contemplation of the external

world,or in expressing thoughts

,emotions

,or sentiments whi ch

have their sources in the l nn er depths of our being.

In descriptions of natural obj ects or scenery,both in the manner

of'

viewing th e phenomena, and in the choice of'

the expressions 1employed to describe them

,this truth to nature must ever be kept in

view as the guidin g aim : its attainment will be at once most easilyand most effectually secured by s implicity in the narration of what

we have ourselves beheld or experienced,and by lim iting a nd

indivi dualizing the locality wi th which the narrat ive is connected .

Generalization of physical views,and the sta tement of general resul ts

,

belong’

rath er to the “ study of the Cosmos,” which

, indeed, .mu st

ever continue tobe to us a science of Induction ; but the animateddescription of organic forms (plants and animals), in their local andpicturesque relations to the varied surface

'

of the earth ( as a smallfragment of the whole terrestrial life), afl

’

ords materials towards thestudy of the Cosmos

, and also tends to advance it bye th e stimulusor impul se impart ed to the mind when artistic treatmen t is appliedto phenomena of nature on a great scal e .

Among such phenomena must certain ly be classed the vast forestregion which

,in the tropical portion of South America

,fil ls the great

connected basins of the O rinoco and the Amazons . If the name of


word monte” led to the introduction, i n a fine and extensively\circulated E ngli sh map of South America, of high mountain ranges,where

,i n reali ty

,only plains exist . When the Spani sh map of La

Cruz O lmedill a, which has served as the foundation of so,

many

other maps,showed Montes de Cacao” “ ‘cacao woods

,

”Cafe

dilleras were made to rise,although the cacao seeks onl y the lowest

and hottest localities .

includes the whole of the mterior‘

of Sou th'

America,from the grassy

steppes of Venez uela ( los Llanos de Caracas) to the Pampas ofBuenos Ayres

,or from 8° n Orth

‘

to 19 ° south shall

perceive that this connected forest of the tropical zone has an extent

unequall ed in any”

other portion of th e earth’s surface . Its area isabout twelve times that of Germany. Traversed in all directionsby Systems of rivers

,in whi ch the

,

minor and tributa ry streams

sometimes exceed ourRhine or Danube in the abundanc e of th eirwaters

,it owes the wonderful luxuriance of t h e growt h of its trees

to the combined influen ce of great moisture and high temperature .In the temperate zone

,and espec ially in E urope and Northern Asia

,

fores ts may be named from particular genera or species,which

, grow

ing together as social plants (plantae social es), form separate and

d istinct woods . In the northern forests of O aks,Pines

,and

B it c h es, and , in the eastern forests of Limes or Linden trees,

usually only one species of Amen taceae, Coniferae, or Tiliaceae, prevails Or is predominant ; sometimes a single species of Needle-trees

is intermingled with the foliage of trees of other classes . Tropica l

forests,on the other hand

,decked with thousands of flowers

,are

of their flora renders it vain to ask offwh at trees the primeval forestconsists . A countless number

Q

Of famili es are here crowded together,

and even in small spaces indi viduals of the same species are rarelyassociated . E ach day

,and at each chan ge of place

,new forms

present themselves to the traveller,who

,however

, Often finds that

he cannot reach the blossoms of trees whose leaves and ramificationsh ad previous ly arrested his atten tion .

The rivers, with their countless lateral arms, afford the only routes

by. whi ch the country can be traversed . Between the Orinoco, the

IN THE PRIME VAL FORE ST . 09

where these were wanting,determinations by compass of the dirce

tion of the rivers,respectively showed us that two lonely mission

villages might be only a fewmiles apart,and yet that the monks

,

when they wished to visit each other,could only do so ‘

byfspending

a day and a half in following the windi ngs of small streams, incanoes hollowed

‘

out of the trunks of trees . A striking evidence of

the impenetrability‘

of particular parts of th e forest is afforded by atrait related by an Indian of the habits cf the large American tiger

,

or panther-like j aguar. While in th e '

Llanos of Varinas and the

Meta,and i n the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, th e introduction of

E uropean cattle,horses

,and mules has enabled the beasts of prey

to find an abundant subsistence—so that, since the first discovery

of ‘

America, their. numbers have increased exceedingly in‘

th ose extended and treeless grassy steppes—their congeners in th e . den se

forests around the sources of the O rinoco lead a very different andfar. less easy life . In a bivouac near the junction of the Oassiqu iarewith the O rinoco we had had the misfortune of losing a large dog,to which

'

we were much attached,as the most faithful and afl

'

ec

t ion at‘

e companion of our wanderings . Being still uncertain whether

he had been actually killed by the tigers, a faint hope of recoveringhim induced us

,in returning from the mission of E smeralda through

the swarms of musqu itoes by which it is infested, to spend anothernight at the spot where we had so long sought him in vain . We

heard the cu es of the jaguar, probably the very individual wh ich

we suspected of the deed,extremely near to us ; and as the clouded

sky made astronomical observations impossible, .we passed part of

the night in making our interpreter ( lenguaraz) repeat to us theaccounts given by our native boat’s crew of the tigers of the country.

The “ black j agu ar” was,th ey said

,not unfrequently found there ;

it is the largest and most bloodthirsty variety,with black spots

scarcely distinguishable on its deep,dark-brown skin ; It lives at the

foot of th e'

mou n ta in s of Maragu ac a and Un turan . O 11e of the In

dians of the Du rimu nd tribe then related to us that jaguars are oftenled

,by their love of wandering and by their rapacity, to lose them

selves in suc h impen etrable parts of,

the forest , that they can no

longer hunt along the ground,and l ive instead ,

in the trees, where18*

210 NOCTURNAL m s or m m s

silo-tailed viverra, the Oercoleptes . I borrow these'

notices fromj ourna ls written at the time in German

,and whi ch were no t entirely

exha uswd in the Narrative of my Travels,which I publ ish ed in the

French language . They contain a detailed descripti on of the noc

turnal life,or perhaps I might rather say

,th e nocturna l voices, of

the wi ld animals in the forests of the torrid zone ; which a ppea rs tome particu la rly suited to form part of a work bearing the title of the

present volumes . That which is written down on the spot, either inthe immedia te presence of the phenomena

,or soon after the rec ep

tion of the impressions which they produce,may at leas t lay cla im

to more life and freshness than can be expect ed in recollections .

Descen ding from west to eas t the Rio Apure,the overflowin gs

of whose waters and the inun da ti ons produced by them were noticed

in the ch apter on Steppes and Deserts,we arrived at its junction

with the O rinoco . It was the season of low water,and the average

breadth of the Apure was only a little more than twelve hundred

E nglish feet, yet I found the O rinoco at the confluence of the two

rivers,not far from the granite rock

‘

of Curiquima, .wh cre I was able

to measure a base line,still upwards of French E u

glish) feet wide . Yet this point,i . e. the Rock of Curiquima , is

four hundred geographical miles in a straight l ine from the sea and

from th e Delta of the O rinoco . Part of the plains watered by th e

Apure and the Pagara are inhabited by tribes of the Yaruros andAchaguas, who , as they persist in maintaining their independence,are called savages in the mission villages establi shed by the monks

their manners,however

,are scarcely more rude th an those of the

Indians of th e villages—who, although baptized, and living “ under

the bell” (baxo la compana), are st ill almost entirely untaught and

uninstructed .

O n leaving the Island del Diamante,in which Zambos who speak

Spanish cultivate sugar-canes,we entered on scenes of natu re chan ce

teriz ed by wildness and grandeur . The air was filled with countlessflocks of flamingoes (Ph oenicOpterus) and other water birds , whichappeared against the blue sky like a dark cloud with continua lly va

rying outl ines . The river h ad here narrowed to between 900and

1000feet,and flowing in a perfectly straight line

,formed a kind of


from among the numerous herds which presented themselves . « J

Below themission of Santa Barbara de Arichuna .we passed thenight as usual

,under the open sky

,on a sandy flat on . the bank of

the Rio Apure,closely bordered by the impenetrable forest. It was

not without diffi culty that we succeeded in finding dry wood to kindle

a bivouac,in order to guard against the attacks of the j agua r. The

the shore ; I think I have Observed these animals to be a tt rac ted by

fire,like our cray-fish and many other inhabitants of the water. The

c ars of our boat were placed upright and carefully driven into theground

,to form poles from which ourh ammoeks could be suspended .

Beep stil l ness prevailed ; only from‘

time to time we heard the blow

ing of the fresh-water dolphins (5

)‘

which are pecu li ar to the O rinoc o

net-work of rivers ( and, according to Colebrooke, to the Ga nges asfar as Benares), which followed each other in long lines

‘

.

Soon after 11 o’cloc k such a disturbance began to be heard in the

adj oining forest,that for the remainder of . the night all sleep was

impossible .

’

The wild cries of animals appeared to rage throughoutthe forest. Among the many voices which resounded together

,the

Indians could only recogn ize those which,after ' short pauses in the

general uproar,were first heard singly. Therewas the monotonous

howling of the s luates (the bowl ing monkeys); the plaintive, sea ,and almost flu te-like tones of the small sapaj ous the snorting grumblings of the striped nocturnal monkey (

6

) (the Nyetipithi cu s trivir

gatu s, which I was the first to describe); the interrupted cries of thegreat tiger

,the c uguar or maneless American lion, the peccary, the

sloth,and

,a host of parrots

,of parraquas, and other pheasant-like

birds . When the tigers came'

near the edge of the forest,our dog

,

'which had before barked in c essan tly,'

came howling to seek refugeunder our hammocks . Sometimes the cry of the tiger was hea rd toproceed fromami dst the high branches of a tree

,and was in su ch

always accompanied by the plaintive piping of the monkeys,

who were seeking to escape from the unwonted pursuit.

If one asks t h e Indians why this incessant noise and disturbance

arises on particular nights,they answer

,with a smile, that

“ the

IN THE PRIME VAL roansr . 213

an imals are rej oic ing in the bright moonl ight, and keeping th e fea st

of,the full moon .

” To me it appeared tha t the sc ene had probably

originated in some accidental combat, and that hence the disturbanc e

had spread to other animals, and thus the noise had increased more

and more . Th e jaguar pursues the peccaries and tapirs, and these,pressing against each other in their flight, break through the inter

woven tree-l ike shrubs which impede their escape , the apes on thetops of the trees, being fri ghtened by th e crash, j oin th eir cries tothose of the larger animals ; this arouses the tribes of birds, who

build their nests in communities, and thus th e wh ole animal world

becomes in a state of commotion . Longer experience taught us tha tit is by no means always the celebration of the brightn ess Of the

moon which dis turbs the repose Of th e woods : we witnessed thesame oc currence repea tedly, and found that the voices were loudest

during violent falls of rain, or when, with loud peals of th under, the

flashing lightning illuminated the deep recesses of theforest . The

good-natured Francisc an monk, who , although he had been sufferingfor several months from fever

,accompanied us throu gh the Cataracts

ofAtures and Maypures to San Carlos on the Rio Negro, and to the

Brazil ian boundary, used to say, when fearful on the c losin g in ofnight that there might be a l thunder-storm

,“May Heaven grant a

quiet night both to us and to the wild beasts ‘

of the forest !”

1 Scenes, such as those I have just described, awere wonderq y

ing the noontide hours of a day of more than usual heat. Iborrow from the same j ournal the recollections of a day at the

Narrows of Baraguan . At this part of its course the O rinoco

forces for itself a passage through the western portion of the

Parime Mountains; What is call ed at this remarkable pass aNarrow (Angostura del Baraguan), is still a bed or water-basinof 890toises (5690E ngl ish

‘

feet) in breadth . O n the naked rocks

whi ch formed the shores we saw an old witheredstem '

of Aubletia (Apeiba tiburba)manda salicifolia), a few silvery croton shrubs. A thermometer

observed in the shade,but brought within a few inches of the

towering mass of granite rock,rose to abOve 40° Reaumur (122

°

214 NOCTURNAL LIFE or“

ANIMAL S .

efl'

ec t Of mirage ; not a breath of air stirred the fine,dust-l ike sand .

The sun was'

in the zenith,and the flood of light whi ch he poured

down upon the river, and whi ch, from a slight rippling movement

of the waters,flashed sparkling back

,rendered still more sensible

the “red haze which veiled the distance . Al l the naked rocks andboul ders around were covered with a countless number of large

,

thi ck-scaled iguanas, gecko-lizards , and variously s potted salaman

ders . Motionl ess,with uplifted heads and Open mon th s

,they

appeared to inhale the burn ing a1r with ecstasy .

'

A t such timesthe larger animal s seek shelter in the recesses Of the forest

,and

the birds hide themselves under the thi ck foliage of . the trees,or in

the clefts of. the rocks ; but if, in this apparent entire stillness of

nature,one lis tens for the faintest tones which an attentive car can

seiz e,there is perceived an all-pervading rustling sound, a humming

and fluttering '

Of insects close to th e ground,and in

‘

the lower strata

of the atmosphere . E verything announces a world of organicactivity and life . In every bush

,in

‘

the cracked bark of the tree s,

in the earth undermined by hymenopterous insects, life stirs audibly. It is

,as it were

,one of the many vol ees of Nature

,heard

only by the sensitive and reverent ear of her true votaries .

216 NOCTURNAL LIFE or ANIMALS :

always have both eyes on one side Of th e body); for example, theLimande (Pleuronectes Limanda), which comes up the Loire to Orleans . Some sea forms of fish

,as dolphins and skates

,are repeated

in the great rivers of both continents . The fresh-water dolph in o f

the ‘Apure and the O rinoco di ffers spec ifically fi om the Delphinusgangeticus

,as well as from all seaedolph in s. (See myRel . hist. t . ii .

pp . 223 seams

(6) p . 212. The stmjpecl nocturnal monkey .

This is the Douroucouli, or Cusi-cusi of the Cassiquia re, desc ribedby me as Simia trivirgate in my Recueil d’Observatioflsd é

‘

Z oolegie

et d’Anatomie comparée, t . i . pp . 306—311,tab . x viii ., the plate be

ing taken from a drawing made by myself from the living animal.

We subsequently saw this nocturnal monkey living in the menagerie

of the Jardin‘

des Plantes at Paris . (soothe work above cited, t . ii .

p . Spix also found this remarkable l ittle animal '

on the Amazons River, and called it Nyetipithecus vociferan s.

PO T SDAM,Ju ne

,1849 .

HYPSOME TRIC ADDE NDA.

I AM mdebted to Mr. Pentland (whose scientific labors havethrown so much light on the geology and geography ofB olivia) for

the following determinations, which he communicated to me in aletter written from Pan s

,In O ctober, 1848, after the publication of

NevadOof Sorata , or

Sou th PeakNorth PeakIl l ima n i .

Sou th Peak 16° 38’ 52” 67° 49’ 18”

M idd le Pea k 16° 38’26” 67° 49’ 17”

North Pea k 16° 37’50" 67 ° 4 9’ 39”

The heights (with the exception of’ the unimportant difference of

a few feet in the South Peak of Illimani) are the same as those givenin the map of the Lake of Titicaca . A

, sketc h of the last-namedmountain (Il l ima

ni), as it shows itself in all its" majesty from La

Paz,has been given by Mr. Pentland In the Journal of the Royal

Geographi cal Society, vol . v. p . 77 . This was five yearsafter the publication of the first measurements in the An nuaire daBureau . des Longitudes for 1830, p . 323

,which resul ts I myself

hastened to make known in Germany. (Hertha , Zeits chrift fiir

E rd 11nd V'

Olkerkunde, von Berghaus, bd. xiii . 1829, 8. 3 Th e

Nevade de Sorata is to the east of the vil lage Sorata; or ,E squibel :

it is called in the ~Ymarra language,according to Pentland

,Anco

mani,Itampu , and Il lh ampuf We recogmz e In

“Il limani,

” the

Ymarra word ill i,

”snow.

If,however

,in the ea stern chain of Bolivia the Sorata was long

assumed 3718 Fie nch,

-Or 3952 E nglish feet, and the Illimani 267519

218 HYPSOME TRIC ADDE NDA .

French,or 2851 E nglish

,feet too high

,there are in the

.

western

chain of the same country, according to Pentlan d’s map of Titicaca

four peaks to the east of Ar ica and between lat . 18° 7'

and 18° all of which are higher than Ch in ibora z o,whi ch is

E ngl ish or French feet : These four peaks are

E ngl ish fee t , or Fren ch fee t .

Berghaus h as applied to the eastern and western ‘

ch ain s of the

Andes of Bolivia the investigation publi shed by me in the Annales

des Sciences Na turell es,t . iv . 1825

,pp . 225—253

,of the proportion

(very different in different mountain chains), which the general

height of the ridge,the crest

,or kamm ( the mean height of

'

the

passes), .bears to the highest summits or culminating points . He

fin ds,following 'Pentland’s map

,the mean -height of the passes in

the eastern chain French,or E nglish ‘feet a nd in

the western chain French,or E nglish feet. The

culminating points are and French,

" andE nglish feet ; consequently the

,

ratio of the h eigh t of the

r idge to that of the culminating point is,in the eastern chain

,as

1 : 1 .57 , and in the western chain as 1 : 1.54 . (Berghaus, Z eits

ch rift fii'

r E rdkunde,band . ix . s . 322 This ratio

,which is

,

as it were,the measure of the subterranean elevating force

,i s very

sim ilar to that which exists in the Pyrenees,but very different from

the Alps,where the mean ‘height of the passes is less as compared

wi

th Mont Blanc .

- The ratios are,in the Pyrenees, 1

and in the Al ps,

1

But, according to Fitzroy and Darwin, the height of theSahamais still surpassed by 796 French

,or 850E nglish feet

,by that of the

volcano of Ac ongagua , on the north-eas t of Valparaiso, in Chili , in"

S . lat. 32° The ofii cers of the Adventure and Beagle, in FitzBoy’s E xpedition, found, in August 1835, the summ it ofAc ongaguabetween and E nglish feet. If we take it at

(equal to Paris feet), this volcano wou ld be 1667 French, or

220 HYPSOME TRIC ADDE NDA .

Mexico . The error amounts,for the western margin

‘

of the l ake,to

almost 50minutes of are ; a difference of absolute longitude which

will appear less s urprising, if it is remembered that my itinerary

map of Gu anaxu ato coul d only be based for 15 degrees of latitude

on compass surveys, orcompass directions, for which I was indebtedto Don Pedro de Rivera . (Humboldt, E ssai polit . sur la NouvelleE spagn e

,t . i . pp . 127 These

° directions being difi'

eren tly

combined by my early‘dec eased fellow-laborer

,Herr Friesen,and

myself,gave him as t h e result of his combinations 107

° 58’ from

Paris,as the longitude of Santa F6

,and to me as theresul t of mine

107 ° According to actual astronomical determinatibns sinceobtained the tru e longitude appears to

l

h e 108° 22’W. of Paris,or106° 00W. of Greenwich . The relative position of the beds offossil salt—found in “ thick strata of red clay

,

” on the south-eas t of

the i sland-studded Great Salt Lake (my Laguna de Timpan ogos),and not far fromthe present Fort Mormon and the Utah Lake—wasgiven wi th perfect correctness in my large map of Mexico. I mayrefer on this point to the latest evidence of the traveller who made

the first well—assured determi nations of geographical position in thatdistrict : “ The mineral or rock salt

,of which a specimen is placed

in Congress Library, was found in the place marked by Humboldt

in his map of New Spain (northern half), as derived from the j our:n al of the missionaryFather E scalante, who attempted (1777) topenetrate the unknown country from Santa Fé of New Mexico toMonterey of the Pacific O cean . South-east of the Lake Timpanogiis

is the chain of the Wh a-satch Mounta ins ; and in thi s, at the place

Where Humboldt has written Mon tagnes dc sel gemme, this mineral

8 and 67 ; compare Humboldt; E ssai politique, tf 11 . p .

A great historical interest attaches to thi s part bf the highland,and more particularly to the country round the Lake of Timpan ogos,which is perhaps the sain e with the Lake of Te

’

guayo, the ances tral

seat of the Az tecs. In their migration from Aztlan to Tul a,and to

th e valley of Tenochtitlan (Mexico), thi s:

people made three hal ting

places'

or stations,at which theruins of the Casas grandes are still

to be seen . The first soj ourn of the Az tecs was at the Lake'

of

HYPSOME TRIC ADDE NDA . 221

Teguayo, the second on the Rio Gila, and the third not far from thePresidio de Llanos . Lieutenant Abert found on the banks of theGil a the same immense number of fragments of pottery ornamentedwith painting

,and scattered over a considerable tract of ground

,

which had astonished the missionaries Francisco Garces and PedroFonte in that locality

.These remains of the products of human

skill are supposed to indicate the existence of a former higher civi

l iz ation in these now solitary regibn s . Remains of lin ildings i n the

singul ar style of architecture.

of the Aztecs,and of their houses of

seven stories,are also found far to the eastward of the Rio Grande del

Norte for example,in Taos . (Compare Abert

’s E xamination of New

Mexico,i n the Documents of Congress

,No 41

,pp . 489 and 581

605,with my E ssai pol . t . ii . pp . 241—244 . The Sierra Nevada of

Cal ifornia is parallel to the coast of the Pacific ; bu t between the lati

tudes of 34° and between San ~Bu enave1itura(and the Bay of

Trinidad,there runs

,on the west of the Sierra Nevada

,another

(small er) coast chain,e’

f which Monte de1Diablo,3448 French

,3674

E nglish feet high , is the culminating point . In the narrow valley,

between this coast chain and the great Sierra Nevada, flow from

thesouth the Rio de San Joaquin, and from the north the Rio delSacramento

,on the banks of which

,in rich alluvial soil

,are the rich

gold-washin gs now so much resorted to .

I havealready referred, p . 43,to a hypsometric levelling, and to

barometric measurements made from the junction of the Kan z as

River with the Missouri to the Pacific,or throughout the 1mmen se

extent of 28 degrees of longitude . Dr. Wisl iz enu s has now successfully continued the levelling began byme from the cityof Mexico,in the E quinoctial Zone, to the north as far as Santa Fé del Nu evo

Mexico,in lat 35° It will be seen

,perhaps, with - surprise

,that

the elevated plain which forms the broad crest of,the Mexican

Andes is far from sinking down , as had long been supposed, to

inconsiderableheight. I give here for th e first time,according to

the measurements which we at present possess, the elevations ofseveral points

,forming a line of levelling from the city of Mexico to

Santa Fé,which latter town is less than four German (sixteen

E nglish) ge0graph ical ini les from the Rio del Norte ,19*

222 HYPSOME TRIC ADDE NDA.

Frenc h feet .

Mexic o 7008

Tu la . 6318

San J u an de l Rio 6090

Q u ere‘

taro 5970

C e laya 5646

Sa lama n c a 5406

Guan axua to 6414

Silao 5546

Vil la'

de Leon 5755

Lagos 5983

Agne s Ca l ien te s 5875

Sa n Lou is Potosi 57 14

Z a c a tec a s 7544

Fresn i l lo 67 9 7

Dura ngo 6426

Parras 4 67 8

Sa l ti l lo 49 17'

3600 toE l Bol son de M ap imi

4200

Ch ih uah ua 4 352

5886

Pa sso del Norte , on th e Rio G ra nde.

de l No rte 3557

San taFé del Nu evo M exic o"

6612

The letters Ws.

,Br.

,and Ht .

,are placed to distinguish the baro

metric measurements of Dr .Wisl iz enus, Oberbergrath Burkart, andmy own . Wisl iz enu s ‘

has appended to his val uable memoir threevertical sections of the surface of the ground : one from Santa Fé toChihuahua by Passo del Norte one from Chihuahua to Reynosa by

Parras and one'

from Fort Independence (a little”

to the east of theconfluence of the Missouri and the Kan z as River) to Santa Fé. The

barometer,madeby E ngelmann, at St . Louis, and by Lilly at

“

New

O rleans . If we consider that °

th e difi erehce of latitude between

Santa Fé and Mexico is and that thus (apart from deviationsfrom a straight line) the distance in the north and south direction isabove 960geographical miles

,we are led to inquire whether there be

in any other part of the whole globe a similar conformation of the

earth,equal in extent and elevation (between 5000and 7000French,

228 PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS.

animalcul ae, are carried up by the winds from the surface of'

evapo

rating waters . These minute creatures,motionless and apparently

dead,are borne to and fro in the air until the falling dews bring

themback to the surface of the earth, dissolve the film or envelopwhich encloses their transparent rota ting bodies

, (3

) and, probablyby means of the oxygen which al l waters contain

,breathe new irri

tabil ity into their dormant organs .

According to E hrenberg’s brilliant dis covery, the yel low sand ordust which falls like rain on the Atlantic near the Cape de Verde

Islands,and is occasionally carried even to Italy and Middle E urope,

consists of”

a multitude of silicious-shel led microscopic —animals .

Perhaps many of them float for years in the upper strata of theatmosphere

,until they are brought down by vertical currents or in

accompaniment with the superior current of the trade-winds,stil l

susceptible of revivific ation, and multiplying their species by spon

tan eous di vision in conformity with the particular l aws of theirorganization .

But,besides creatures fully formed

,the atmosphere conta ins in

numerable germs of future life,such as the eggs of insects and the

seeds of plants,th e latter provided with light hairy or feathery

appendages,by means of whi ch they are wafted through the air

during long autumnal wanderings . E ven the fertilizing dus t orpollen from the anthers of the male flowers

,in species in which

,the

sexes are separate d,is carried over land and sea

,by winds and by

the agency of winged insects, (4

) to the solitary female plant on

other shores . Thus,wherever the glance of the inquirer into

Nature penetrates,he sees the continua l di ssemination of life, either

fully formed or in the germ .

If the aerial ocean in which we are submerged,and above the

surface of which we cannot rise, beindispensable to the exist ence oforganized bein gs , they also require a more substantial aliment,

‘

whi ch they c an‘

find only at the bottom of this gaseous ocean . Thisbottom is of two kinds ; the smaller portion consisting of dry land

in immediate contact with the external atmosphere,and the larger

portion consisting of water,which may perhaps have been formed

thousands of years ago by electric agencies from gaseous substances,

and which is now incessantly“

undergoing decomposition in the labor

PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS. 229,

'

mals and plants . O rgan ic forms also‘

descend deep below the surface

of the earth, wherever rain or surfacewater can percolate either”

bynatural cavities or by mines or other excavations made by man : the

subterranean cryptogamic Flora was an obj ect of my scientific re

search in the early part of my life . Thermal springs of very high

temperature nourish small Hydropores, Confervae, and Oscillatoria .

At Bear Lake,near the Arctic C ircle, Richardson saw the ground,

which continues frozen throughout the summer at a depth of twentyinches

,covered with flowering plants .

We do n ot yet know where life is most abundant—whether oncontinents or in the unfathomed depths of the ocean . Th rough the

excellent work of E hrenberg,

“Uber das Verhalten des kleinsten

Lebens,” we have seen the sphere of 01gan ic life extend, and its

horizon widen before our eyes,both in the tropical parts of the

ocean and m the fixed or floating masses of i ce of the Antarctic seas .

Silicious-shelled Polygastric a, and even Cosc inodiscae, with their

green ovaries,have been found alive enveloped in masses of ice only

twelve degrees from the pole ; the small black Glacier flea (Desoria

glacialis) and-Podurel lae inhabit the narrow tubular holes examined

by Agassiz in the Swiss glaciers . E hrenberg has Shown that onseveral microscopic Infusoria (Synedra, Coc coneis) others live asparasites, and that m the Ga ll ion el lae such 1s their prodigious powerof development

,or capability of

'

division,that m the Space of four

days an animalcule invisible to the naked eye can form two cubicfeet of the Bilin

, polishing Slate . In the sea,gelatinous worms,

living or dead,shine like stars

, (5) and by their phosphoric light

change the surface of the wide ocean into a sea of fire . In eflaceable

i s the impression made on my mind by thecalm nights of the torrid

zone,on the waters of the Pacific . I still see the dark azure of-the

firmamen t,the constellation of the Ship near the zenith

,and that of

the Cross declining towards the horizon,shedding through the per

fumed air the ir soft and planetary lustre ; while bright furrows of

flashing light marked the track of the dolphins through th e midstof the foaming waves .Not only the ocean

,but al so the waters of our marshes

,hide from

us an innumerable multitude of strange forms The nakedj

eye can20

230 PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS .

with difi cu l ty distinguish the Cyc l idias, the E uglenes,’

and the hostof Na iades divisible by . branches like the Lem

‘

na or Duckweed, ofwhich they seek ' the shade . O ther creatures inhabit receptacles ,

where the light cannot penetrate,and an atmosphere variously com

posed,but differing from that which we breathe : such are the spotted

Ascaris,which lives beneath the skin of the earthworm ; the Leu-

I

coph ra , of a bright silvery color, in the interior of the shore Naiad ;and a Penta stoma

,which inhabits th e/ l arge pulmonary cells of the

ra tt leSn akey

of the tropics There are animalculae in the blood of

frogs and of salmon,and even

,according to Nordmann

,in the fluids of

the eyes of fishes and in the gills of the Bleak . Thus the most hid

den recesses of creation teem with life . We propose in these pages

to direct our attention to the vegetable world,on the existence of

which that of animals is dependent . Plants are incessantly engagedin disposing into order towards subsequent organization the raw

materials of which the earth is composed : it is their oflice,by their

vital forces or powers,to prepare those substances which

,after un

dergoing a thousand modifications, are gradually converted to noblerpurposes in the formation of nervous tissues . In directing our

consideration towards the various families of plants,we Shall at the

same time glance’ at the multitude of animated beings to which they

afl'

ord nutriment and protection .

The carpet of flowers and of verdure spread over the naked crustof our planet is unequally woven ; it is thicker where the sun riseshigh in the ever cloudless heavens

,and thinner towards the poles

,

in the less happy climes where returning frosts often destroy theOpening buds of spring

,or the ripening fruitsof autumn . E very

where,however

,man finds some plants to minister to his support

and enj oyment . If new lands are formed,the organic forces are

ever ready to cover the naked rock with life . Sometimes,as at an

early period among th e Greek Islands,volcanic forces suddenly ele

vate above the surface of the boilingwaves a rock covered withScoriae : sometimes

,by a long cont inued and more tranquil series of

phenomena,the collective labors of united Lithophytes ( 7) raise

their cellular dwellings on the crusts of submarine mountains,until

,

after thousands of years,the structure reaches the level of the ocean

,

when the creatures which have formed it die,leaving a low flat coral


gamia,are in those regions buried for several mon th S °

of each yearin winter sleep . O ver a large part of the earth, therefore, therecould only be developed organic forms capable of supporting either

a considerable diminution of heat,or,being without l eaves, a long

interruption of the vital functions . Thus we see variety and grace

of form,mixture of colors

,and generally the perpetually youthful

energy and vigor of organic life, increase as we approach the tropics .

This ‘ increase can be denied only by those who have never quitted

E urope,or who have neglected the study of physical geography.

When, leaving our oak forests, we traverse theAlps or the Pyrenees,and enter Italy or Spain

,or when we direct our attention tes ome of

the,A frican shores,

of the Mediterranean, wemight easily be led to

draw the erroneous inference that hot countries are marked by the

absence of trees . But t hose who do so,forget that the South of

E urope wore a different aspect on the first arrival of Pelasgian ~or

Carthaginian colonies ; they forget that an ancient civili zation causes

the forests to recede more and more, and that the wants and restless

activity of large communities of men gradually despoil the face ofthe e arth of the refreshing shades which still rej oice th e eye inNorth ern . and Middle E urope, and which,even more than any historic documents, prove the recent date and youthful age of our civili z ation . The great cata strophe which occasioned the formation of

the Mediterranean,when the Swollen waters of what was previously

an immense lake burst through the barriers of the Dardanelles and

of the Pillars of Hercules,appears to have stripped the adj acent

countries of a large portion of their. coating of vegetable mould .

The traditions of Samothrace, (

8

) handed down to us by Grecianwriters, appear to indi cate the recentness of the epoch of the ravagescaused by this great change . In all the countries which surroundthe Mediterranean

,and whi ch are character

i

zed by beds of the tertiary and cretaceous periods (nummulitic limestone

‘

and neocomianrocks), great part of the surface of the earth consists of naked rock .

One especial cause of the picturesque beauty of Italian scenery isthe contrast thus afl

'

orded between the bare rock and the islands,if

I may so call them,of luxuriant vegetation scattered over its surface.

Wherever the rock is less intersected with fissures,so that it retains

water at the surface,and where it is coveredwith vegetable mould,

PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS. 233

there,as on the

'

enchanting sh ores of the Lake of Albano,Italy has

” her oak.

forests,with glades

'

as deeply embowered,and verdure as

fresh as those which we admire in the North of E urope .

The deserts to the south of the Atlas,and the immense plains or

steppes of SouthAmerica,must be regarded as only local phenomena .

The latter,the South American steppes

,are clothed

,in the rainy

season at least,with grass, and with low-growing almost herbaceousmimosas . TheAfrican deserts

,

are,indeed

,at all seasons devoid of

vegeta tion y séas of sand,surrounded by forest shores clothed with

perpetual verduref A few scattered fan palms alone recall to the

wanderer’s recollection that these awful solitudes belong tothe do

main of the same animated terrestrial creation which is elsewhere So

rich and so varied . The fantastic play of the mirage, occasioned bythe effects of radiant heat

,sometimes causes these palm trees to ap

pear divided from the ground and hovering above‘

its surface,and some

times shows their inverted image reflected in strata of air undulating

like the waves of the sea . O n the west of th e great Peru'

vian chainof the Andes

,on the coasts of the Pacific

,I have passed entireweeks

in traversing similar deserts destitute of water.

The origin of extensive arid tracts destitu te ‘

of plants,in t he midst

of countries rich in luxurian t 'vegetation , is a geognostical problemwhich has hitherto been but little considered

,but which h as

l

doubt

less depended on ancient revolutions of n ature,such as inundations

or great volcanic changes . When once a regionhas lost the covering of plants with

'

wh ich it was invested,if

‘

the sands are loose andmobile

,and are destitute of springs

,and if the heated atmosphere

,

forming constantly ascending currents,prevents precipita tion taking

place from clouds, (

9) thousands of years may elapse ere organic life

c an’

pass from the verdant shores to the interior of the sandy sea,and repossess itself of the domain from which it had been banished.

Those,therefore, who can view nature with a comprehensive

glance and apart from local phenomena,may see from the Poles to

the E quator organic life and vigor gradually augment with the aug

mentation of vivifying heat. But,in the course of this progressive

increase, there are reserved to each zone its own peculiar beauties;to the tropics

,variety and grandeur of vegetable forms ; to the

north,the aspectof its meadows and green pastures, and the periodic

20*


re-awakening of nature at the first breath of the mild air of Spring.

E ach zone, bes ides its own pecu liar‘

advan tages, has its own distin ctive character. Primeval laws of organization

,notwithstanding a

certai n degree of freedom in the abnormal development of single

parts,bind all animal and vegetable forms to fixed ever-recurring

types . AS we recognize in distinct organic beings a determi nate

physiognomy,and as descriptive botany and zoology

,in the restricted

sense of the terms,consist in a detailed analysis of animal r and

vegetable forms,so each region of the earth has a natural physiog

n omy ,peculiar to itself. The idea indi cated by the painter by.

expressions such as “ Swiss nature,

” “Italian sky,

”&c .

,f rests on a

partial perception of this local character in the aspect of nature .

Th e a z ure of the Sky, the lights and shadows, the haze res ting onthe distance

,the forms of animals, the succulency of the plants and

herbage,the brightness of the foliage

,the ou tlin e of the mountains,

are all elements which determine the total impres sion characteristic

of each district or region . It 1s true that i n every zone the same

kinds of rocks,trachyte

,basalt

,porphyritic schi sts, and dolomite,

form groups having the same physiognomy and aspect. The green

stone precipices of South America and Mexico resemble those of

the Fich tel-Gebirge of Germany, just as among animals the form

of the All co,or native race of dogs of the New Continent

,corre

sponds perfectly with that of the E uropean race . For the inorganiccrust of the globe shows itself independent of climatic influences ;whether it be that differences of cl imate depending on differences

of latitude were more recent than the formation of the rocks, or

that the mass of the earth in solidifying and parting with its heatregulated its own temperature

, (10

) instead of receiving it fromwithout . Thus all the kinds of rock with which we are acquaintedmay be met with in al l parts of the globe

,and everywhere affect

the same characteristic forms . E verywhere basalt rises in twinmountains and truncated cones ; everywhere ,

the porphyritic trap

appears in grotesquely arranged masses,and granite in rounded

summits . Also similar forms of trees—pines and oaks—adorn thedeclivities of the mountains of Sweden

,and those of . the most

southern part of Mexico . (11

) Yet, notwithstanding these correspondences of form, and this similarity of outline in the component


terial—gives to the Study of nature, when regarded from h igherpoints of view

,a peculiar charm

,still too little recogni zed .

But if the characteristic aspect of different portions of the earth’ssurface depends conj oin t ly on all external phenomena—i f the contours of the m ountains

,the physiognomy of plants and animals,

the azure of the sky,the form of the clouds

,and the transparency

of the atmosphere,all combine i n forming that general impressi on

which is the result of the whole,yet it cannot be denied that the

vegetable covering with whi ch the whole earth is adorned is theprincipal element in .the impression . Animal forms are deficient in

mass,and the individual power of motion which animalsp osses s, as

well as often the smallness of their size,withdraw them from our

sight. The vegetable forms,on the contrary

,produce a greater effect

by their magn itude and by their constant presence . The age oftrees is marked by their size

,and the union of age with the mani

festa tion of constantly renewed vigor is a ch arm pecul iar to -the

vegetable kingdom . The gigantic Dragon-tree.

of O rotava (19

) (assacred in the eyes of the inhabitants of the Canaries as the olive

tree in the Citadel of Athens,or the E lm of E phesus), the diameter

of which I found,when I visited those Islands

,to be more than 16

feet,had the _same colossal size

,when the French adventurers

,the

Béth en courts,conquered these gardens of the Hesperides - in the

beginning of the fifteenth century ; yet it sti ll , flourishes,as if in

perpetual youth,bearing flowers and fruit . A tropical forest of

Hymenaeas and Cmsalpin ieee may perhaps present to us a monument of more than a thousand years’ standing .

If we'

embrace in one general view the different species of ph aen ogamons plants at present contained in herbariums

,the number of

which may now bei

est ima ted at considerably above (13) we 0

shall recognize in this prodigious multitude certa in leading forms towhich many others may be referred . In determining these leading

forms or types,on the individual beauty

,the distribution

,and the

grouping of which the physiognomy of the vegetation of a country

depends,we must not follow the march of systems of botany

,in

which from other motives the parts chiefly regarded are the small erorgans of propagation

,the flowers and the fruit ; we must, on the

contrary,consider solely that which by its mass stamps a peculiar

PHYSi oeNOMY or PLANTS. 237

character on the total impression produced, or on the aspect of thecountry . .Among the leading forms of vegetation to which I allude

,

there are,indeed

,some which coincide with famil ies belonging . to

the “ natural systems” of botan ists . Such are th e forms of Bananas,Palms, Ca suarineae, . and Coniferae. Bu t the botanic systematist

,divides many groups which the physiognomist is obliged to unite .

.When plants or trees present themsel ves in'

masses, the outlines and

distribution of the,

leaves ,and the .form of the stems and of the

branch es are blended together. The painter (and ,

here the artis t’8delicate tact and appreciation of nature are demanded) can distin

guish in the middle distance and background of a landsc ape groves

of palms or pines from beech woods, but he cannot distinguish the

lat terfrom woods consisting of o ther deciduous forest trees .Above sixteen different forms of vegetation are principally con

cerned in determining the aspect or physiognomy of Nature ; I mention only those which I have observed in the course ofmy travels bothin the New and O ld Continents

,where during many years I have at

tentively examined the vegetation of the regions comprised between

th e 60th degree of north and the 12th degree of south latitude .

The number of these forms will no doubt be considerably augmented

When travellers shall have penetrated farther into the interior‘

of

Continents, and discovered .new genera of p lants. In the .south

eastern part of ,As ia, th e ; in terior of Africa and of New Holland,and in South America fromthe river of the Amazons to the provinceof C hiqui tos, th e vegetation is stil l . entirely unknown to us . How

if at some fu ture time a country should be discovered in‘

which

ligneous fungi, Cenomyce rangiferine, or mosses, should form tall

tress ? The Neckera dendroides, a German species of moss, is in

fact arboreiscen t ; and bamboos (which are arborescent grasses) andthe tree ferns of the tropics, which are often higher than our

'

l imc-s

trees, and elders, now present to the E uropean s sight as surprising

as would be that of a forest of tree mosses to its discoverer. . The

absolu te s iz e and . ; the'

degree of development attained by organic

t. forms of th e ,same family (whether plants or animal s), depend on

laws which are stil l unknown to us . In each of the great divisions

of the aninml kingdom,insects

,crustacea, reptiles, birds, fishes, or


limits . But these limits,which have been established by observa

tion as far as it has .ye t gone, may be corrected by the discovery ofSpecies with which we are still unacquainted .

In land animals,the higher. temperature s of the low latitudes ap

pear to have favored organic development . The small and slender

form of our l izards is exch anged in the south for the gigantic,heavy

,

and cuirassed b odies of croc odiles . In the formidable tiger,lion

,

and ‘j aguar,we See repea ted

,on a larger scal e

,theform of the com

mon cat,one of the smallest of our domestic animals. If we pene

trate into the interior of the earth,and search the cemeteries in

which the plants and an inmls of the ancient world lie en tombed, the

inconsistent with our present climates—they also di sclose to us gigan tic forms that contrast no less with those which now surround us,than does the simple heroism of the Greeks with th e character ofhuman greatness in modern times .

‘

Has the temperature of our

planet undergone considerable changes—possibly of periodical rec urrence ? If the proportion between

’

land and sea,and even the

height of the aerial ocean and’

its pressure, (14

) have not always beenthe same

,the physiognomy of nature

,and the dimensions and forms

of organized beings,

.must also have been subjected to various alter-2

ation s . Huge Pachydermata,Mastodons

,Owen’s Mylodon robustus,

and the Colossochelys,a land-tortoise above Six feet high, have ex

isted, and m the vegetable kingdom there have been forests composed

of gigantic Lepidodendra , cactus-like Stigmarias, and numerous kinds

of,Cyc adeaa. Unable to depict fully according to its present features

the physiognomy of our planet in this its later age,I will only ven

guish those vegetable groupswhich appear to me to be most stronglymarked by physiognomic differences. However favored by the richness and flexibility of our native language

,it is still an arduous and

hazardous undertaking when we attempt to trace in words that whichbelongs rather to the imita tive art of the painter. I feel a lso the

necessity of avoiding as much as possible the wearisome impression

almost inseparable from all lengthened enumerations .

{a We will begin with palms, (

15

) the loftiest and noblest of all ve

getable forms, that to wh ich the prize of beauty has been assigned .


by others withmore probability, at the foot of the Himalaya: Grei

c ian fables named the fields of E nna as the happy native land of the

mense unbroken fields,their monotonous aspect adds

"

but litt le to

the beauty of the landscape, the inhabitant of the tropics, on'

the

other h and,in rearing groves of plantains wherever he fixes his

the extension of one of the most noble and beautiful forms of the

The form of Malvaceae (17) and Bombacem, represented byCeiba,

Cavan illesia , and the Mexican hand-tree Ch eirostemonr h as enor

mously thick trunks ; large, soft, woolly leaves, either-‘

heart-shapedor indented ; and superb flowers frequently of a purple or crims onhue . It is to this group

'

of plants that the Baobab,or monkey

bread-tree (Adansonia digitata) belongs, which, with a very moderate elevation

,has a di ameter of 32 E nglish feet

,and is probably

the largest and most ancient organi c monument on our planet . InItaly

,the Malvaceae already begin to impart to the vegetation a

pecul iar southern character .

The del icately pinnated foliage of th e Mimosa form, (

18

) of which

Acacia,Desmanthus

, Gleditschia , Porleria, and Tamarindus are important members

,is entirely wanting in our temperate zone in the

O ld Continent, though found in the United States, where, in corre

sponding latitudes, vegetation is more varied and more vigorous than

in E urope . The umbrella-like arrangement of thebranches,resem

blin g th at ‘

seen in the stone pine of Italy,is very frequent among

the Mimosas . The deep blue of the trOpic ,sky

,seen through their

finely divided fol iage,has an extremely picturesque effect .

The Heath form (19) belongs more especially to the O ldWorld, and

gui des physiognomi c charac ter and general aspect, we may class

under it the E pacrideae and Diosmeae, many Proteac eae, and those“

Australian Acacias which have mere leaf-stalks instead of leaves

(phyll odias). This form has some points of similarity with that of

needle trees,and the partial resemblance enhances the effect of the

pleasing contrast which,when these two are placed] together

,is

afforded by the abundant bell-shaped blossoms of the heaths . Arbo~

PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS . 241

rescen t heaths,like some otherAfrican plants

,extend to the northern

shores of the Mediterranean : they adorn Italy,and the cistu s-covered

grounds of the south of Spain . The declivity of the Peak of Tenerifle is the locality where I have seen them growing with the greatestluxuriance . In th e countries adjoining ' the Baltic

,and farther to

the north,the aspect of this form of plants is unwelcome

,as an

noun c ing sterility . O ur heaths,‘

E rica (Callun a) vulgaris, E ricatetralix

,E . carnea

,and E . cinerea

,are social plants

,and

i

for centuries

agricultural nations have combated their advance with little success:It 1s remarkable that the extensive genus which 1s the leading represen ta tive of this form appears to be almost limited to one side ofour planet . O f the 300known species of E rica only one has beendi scovered across the whole extent of the New Continent

,from

Pennsylvania and Labrador to Nootka and Alashka .

The Cactus form, (

20

) on the'other hand

,is almost exclusively

American . Somet imes spherical,sometimes articulated or j ointed

,

and sometimes assuming the shape of tall,upright

,polygon al

columns resembling the pipes of an orga ny th is group presents the

most striking contrast to those of,Lil iaceae and Bananas . It com

prises some of the plants to"

which Bernardin de St. Pierre has ap

plied the term of “ vegetable fountains in the desert .” In the

waterless plains of South America,the animals suffering from thirst

seek the melon-cac tu s,

'

a Spherical plant half buried in the dry sand,

and.

encased in formidable prickles,but of .which the interiorabounds

in refreshing juice . The stems of the columnar”

cactus rise to aheight of 30 or 32 feet ; they are often covered with lichens, and,dividing into candelabra-like branches

,resemble

,in physiognomy

,

some of the E uphorbias of Africa .

"

I While the above-mentioned plants flourish in desert s almost devoid of other vegeta tion

,the O rch ideae (

21

) enliven the clefts of the

wildest rocks, and the trunks of tropical trees blackened by excess

of heat. This form ( to which the Vanilla belongs) is distingui shedby its bright green

,succulent leaves

,and by its flowers of many .

colors and strange and curious shape,sometimes resembling that of

winged insects,and sometimes that of the birds which are attracted

by the perfume of the honey vessels . Such are their,number and

variety,that

,to mention only a limited distric t

,. th e e ntire l ife of a

21


painter would be too short for the del ineation of all the magnificen t

Orch ideae which adorn the recesses of the deep valleys of the, Andes

of Peru .

The Casuarina form, (

22

) leafless, like almost all species of Cact us,consists of trees with branches resembling the stalks ofour E quise

tums . It is found only in the islands of the Pacific and in India},

but traces of the same singular rather than beautiful type are seen

in other parts of. the world . Plumier’s E quisetum altissimum,

Forsk‘

al’s E phedra aphylla from the north of Africa, the Peruvian

Colletias,and the Siberian

-

Calligonum pallas ia,are nearly all ied to

As the Banana form shows th e greates t expansion, sothe greatest

contraction of the leaf-vessels is shown in Casuarinas,and in the

form of Needl e trees (23) (Coniferae). Pines

,Th uias

,and Cypresses

belong to this form,which prevails in northern regions

,and is com

paratively rare within th e tropics : in Dammara‘and Salisburia the

leaves,though they may still be termed needle-shaped, are broader.

In the colder latitudes,the never-failing verdure of this form of trees

cheers the desolate winter landscape,and tells to the inhabitants of

those regions that when snow and ice cover the ground the inwardlife of plants

,like the Promethean fire

,is never extinct upon our

planet .

L ike mosses and lichens in our latitudes,and like Orch ideae in the

tropica l zone,plants of the Pothos form (

24

) clothe parasitical ly thetrunks of aged and decaying forest trees succulent

,herbaceous stalks

support large leaves,sometimes sagittate

,sometimes ei ther digitate

or elongate,but always with thick veins . The flowers of the Aroidess

are cased in hooded spathes or sheaths,and in some ‘ of them when

they expand a sensible increase of vital heat is perceived . Steml ess,

they put forth aerial roots . Pothos,Dracontium

, Caladium,and

Arum,al l belong to this form,

which prevails chiefly in the tropicalworld . O n the Spanish and Italian shores of the Mediterranean

,

Arums combine with the succulent Tussil ago,the Acanthus

,and

Thistles,which are almost arborescent

,to indicate the increasing

luxu riance of southern vegetation .

Next to the las t-mentioned form,of which the Pothos and Arum

are representatives, I place a form with which, in the h ottest ~parts


groves'

of Bamboo'

form shaded,over-arching walks or avenuesfi The

smooth polished and often lightly-waving and bending stems of these

tropical grasses are taller than ou r

'

alders and oaks. The form of

Gramineae begins even in Italy, in the Arundo donax, to rise fromthe ground

,and to det ermine by height as well as mass th e natural

character and aspect of: the country .

Theform of Ferns, (

23

) as well as that of Grasses, becomes ennobled in the hotter parts of the globe . Arborescent ferns

,when they

reach a height of above 40,

feet,have somethin g of a palm-like ap

pearance but their stems are less slender,shorter

,and more rough

and scaly than those of palms . Their foliage is more delica te, of athinner and more translucent texture

,and the minutely indented

margins of thefronds are finely and sharply cut. Tree ferns belong

almost entirely to the tropical zone,but in that zone they seek by

preference the more tempered heat of a moderate elevation abovethe level of the sea

,and mountain s two or three thousand feet high

may be,

regarded as their principal seat. In South America th earborescent ferns are usually found associated with the tree which hasconferred such benefits on mankind by its fever-healing bark . Both

indicate by their presence the happy region where reigns a soft per

petu al spring.

I will next name the form of Liliaceous plants (29) (Amaryllis,

Ixia, Gladiolus, Pancratium), with their flag-like leaves and superb

blossoms,of whi ch Southern Africa is the principal country ; also

the Willow form, (

30

) which is indigenous in all parts of th e globe,and is represented in the elevated plains of Quito (not in the shapeof th e

'

leaves,but in that of the ramification), by Schinus Molle ;

Myrtac eae,

E ucalyptus,E scallonia myrtilloides)

Melastomaceae, (

39

) and the Laurel form . (33

)It would be an enterprise worthy of a great artist to study the

aspect and character of all these vegetable groups, not merely inhot-houses or in the descriptions of botanists

,but in their native

grandeur in the tropical zone . How interesting and instructive tothe landscape painter (

34

) would be a work which should present tothe eye

,first separately

,and then in combination and contrast

,the

leading forms which have been here enumerated ! How picturesque

is the aspec t of tree-ferns spreading their delicate fronds above the

PursroeNoMY or PLANTS. 245

arborescent grasses“

(Guaduas and Bamboos) ! It is the artist’s

privilege, having studied these groups, to analyze them : and thusin h is hands the grand and beautiful form of nature which he wouldportray resolves itself (if I may venture on the expression), like thewritten works of men

,into a few simple elements .

It is under the burning rays of a tropical sun that vegetat ion displays its most majestic fornis . In the cold north the bark of treesis covered with lichens and mosses

,whilst between the tropics the

Cymbidium and fragrant Vanilla enliven the trunks of the An acardias

,and of the gigantic fig trees . The fresh verdure of the Pothos

leaves,and of the Dracon t ias, contrasts with the many-colored flowers

of the O rch ideae. Climbing Bauhinias,Passifloras

,and yellow flower

ing Ban isterias,twine round th e

'

tru nks of the forest trees . Delicateblossoms spring from the roots of the Theobroma

,and from the thick

and rough bark . of. the Crescentias and the Gustavia. (35) In the

midst of this profusion of flowers and fruits,and in the luxuriant

intertwin ings of the climbing plants,the naturalist often finds it

diffi cult to discover to which stem the different leaves and flowersreally belong. A single tree adorned with Pau l l in ias

,Bignonias,

and Dendrobium,forms a group of plants which

,if di sentangled

and separated from each other,would cover a cons iderable space of

luxuriant and succulent,and adorned with largerand more shining

leaves,than l n our northern climates. The “ social” plants

,which

often impart so uniform and monotonous a character to E uropean

countries,are almost entirely absent in the E quatorial regions . Trees

almost as lofty as our oaks are adorned with flowers as large and as

beautiful as our lilies . O n the shady banks of the Rio Magdalenain South America

,there grows a climbing Aristolochia bearing

flowers four feet in circumference,which the Indian boys draw over

their heads in sport,and wear as hats or helmets . (

36) In the islands

of the Indian Archipelago,the flower of the Rafliesia is nearly three

feet in diameter,and weighs above fourteen pounds .

The great elevation attained in several tropical countries,not only

by single mountains but even by extensive districts, enables th e

21*


inhabitants of the torrid zone—surrounded by palms,bananas, andthe other beautiful forms proper to those latitudes—to behold al sothose vegetable forms which , demanding a cooler temperature, would

seem to belong to other zones . E levation above the level of the seagives this cooler temperature even in the hottest parts of the, earth ;and Cypresses

,Pines

,O aks

,Berberries, and Alders (nearly alli ed to

our own) cover the mountainous districts and elevated plains ofSouthern Mexico and the chain of the Andes at the E quator. Thus

it is given to man in those regions to behold wi thout quitting hisnative land all the forms of vegetation dispersed over the globe

,and

all the Shining worlds which stud the heavenly vau l t ~ from pole to

pole . (3 7)

These and many other of the enj oyments which Nature affordsare wanting to the nations of the North . Many constell ations

,and

many vegetable forms—and of the latter,those which are most beau

tiful (pa lms, tree fern s, plantains, arborescent grasses, and the finelydivided, feathery foliage of the Mimosas) -remain for ever unknown

to them . Individual plants languishing in our hot-houses can givebut a very faint idea of the maj estic vegetation of the tropical zone .

But the high cultivation of our languages,the glowing fancy of the

poet,and the imitative art of the painter

,open to us sources whence

flow abundant compensations,and from whence our imagination can

derive the living image of that more vigorous nature which other

cl imes display. In the frigid N the midst of the barren

heath, the solitary student can appropriate mentally all that hasbeen discovered in the most distant regions

,and can create within

h imself a world free and imperishable as the spirit by which it is

248 PHYSIoGNOMY or PLANTS.

and myself reached on the 23d of June, 1802, on the eastern'

declivity of the Chimborazo, the height of E .)feet—a height at which the barometer sank to 13 inches 11

lines E nglish inches), we saw winged insects fluttering

around us . We coul d see that they were Dipteras, resemblingflies

,but on a sharp ridge of reek ( cuchilla) often only ten

inches wide,between steeply

“

descending masses of snow, it wasimpossible to catch the insects . The height at which we saw them

through the eternal snows,gave to our view

,in Lecidea geo

graph ic a, the last trac es of vegetation . The insects were flyin g ata height of about 2850 toises E . feet), or about 2600E .

feet higher than Mont Blanc . Somewhat lower ' down,at about

2600 toises E . feet), also therefore within the region ofperpetual snow

,Bonpland h ad seen yellow butterfli es flying very

near the ground . According to our present knowledge, the Mammali a which l ive nearest~ to the region of perpetual snow are in theSwiss Alps

,the Marmot which sleeps through the win ter

,and a

very small field-mouse (Hypudaeus nivalis), described by Martins,which on the Faul h orn lays up a store of the roots of ph aenogamous alpine plants almost under the snow. (Actes de la SociétéHelvétique

,1843

,p . The beautiful Chinchilla

,of which

the bright and silky fur is so much prized,is often supposed by

E uropeans to be an inhabitant of the h igh mountain regions of

Chili : thi s, however, is an error ; the Chinchi lla lamiger (Gray)only lives in the mild temperature of the lower zone

,and is not

found farther south than the parallel of (Claudi o Gay, Historia fisica y politica de Chile

,Zoologia

,1844

, p.

While on our E uropean Alps,Lecideas

,

“

Parmelias,and Umbili

carias form only a few colored patches on the rocks which are notcompletely covered with snow

,in the Andes

,beauti fu l flowering

phaenogamous plants,first described by us

,live at elevations of

thirteen to fourteen thousand feet to nearly E ).We found there woolly species of Cul c itium and E speletia (C .

nivale,C . rufescen s

,and C . reflexum

,E . grandiflora , and E . argen

tea), Sida pich in ch en sis, Ranunculus nubigenus, R . Crusmann i with

red or orange-colored blossoms,the small moss-like umbelliferous

ANNOTATIONS AND‘

ADDITIONS . 249

plant Myrrhis andieola,and Fragosa arc tioides. On the declivity

of the Chimborazo the Saxifraga bou ssingau l ti, described byAdolph

Brongn iart , grows beyond the limit of perpetual snow on loose

boulders of rock,at E .) feet above the level of the

sea,not at as stated in two estimable E nglish j ournals.

(Compare my Asie Centrale, t . iii . p . 262,with Hooker

,Journal of

Botany, vol . i . 1834, p . 327, and E dinburgh New Philosophica l

Journal,

”

vol . xvii . 1834,p . The Saxifrage discovered by

Boussingault is certa inly, ( up to the present time, the highest

known’

ph aen ogamou s plant on the surface'

of the earth .

The perpendicular height of the Chimborazo is,according to my

trigonometrical measurement,3350 toises E . feet). (Re

eu eil d’Observ. Astron .

,vol . i .

,Introd .

,p, lxxii .) This result is

intermediate b etween those given by French ‘and S panish acade

niic ian sx The differences depend not on di fferent assumptions forrefraction

,but on differences in the reduction of the measured base

lines to the level of the sea . In the Andes,this reduction could

only be made by the barometer,and thus every measurement called

a trigonometric measurement is also a barometric one,of which the

result differs according to the first term in the formula employed .

If in,c hains of mountain s of great mass

,such as the Andes

,we

insist on determining the ; greater part of th e whole altitude trigono

metrically,measuring

.

from a low and distant point in the plain or

n early‘

a t the level of the sea,we can only obtain '

very'

smal l anglesof altitude . On the ; other hand

,not only is it '

diflicu l t to find *

a

convenient base among mountains, bu t also every step increases theportion of the height which must

'

be determined barometrically.

These diflicu l ties have to be encountered by every traveller who

selects, among the elevated plains which surround the'

An'

des,the

station at which he may execute his geodesical measurements . My

measurement of the Chimborazo was made from the plain of Tapia,

which is covered with pumice . It is situated to the west of theRio Chambo, and its elevation, as determined by the barometer,

'

is

1842 toises (9477 E . feet). The Llanos de Luisa,and still more

the plain of Sisgun , which is 1900 toises E . feet,high),

would have given greater angles of altitude ; I had prepared


thi ck clouds concea led the summit of Chimborazo .

Those who are engaged in investigations on languages may not be

unwilling to find h ere'

some conj ectures respecting the etymology ofthe widely celebrated name of Chimborazo . Chimbo is th e nameof the Corregimiento or District in which themountain of Chimborazo is situated . La Condamine (Voyage a l

’E qu ateur, 1751, p.

184) deduces Chimbo from chimpan i,“ to pass over a river.’

because at the vi llage of Chimbo one crosses a stream in fu ll viewof the enormous snow-clad mountain . ( In th e Quich ua da nguage

chimpa” signifies the “ other,or farther side and chimpan i sign i

fies to pass or cross over a river,a bridge

,&c .) Several natives of

the province of Quito have assured me that Chimborazo signifies

merely “ the snow of Ch imbo . We find the same termination in

Carguai-razo . But razo appears to be a provincial word. The

Jesuit Holguin (whose excellent Vocabulario de la Lengua general de todo el Peru llamada Lengua Quichua 6 del Inca,

” printed at

Lima in 1608,1s m my possession) knows nothing of the word

“ razo .

” The genuine word for snow is “ritti . On the otherhand, my learned fri end Professor Buschmann remarks that, in the

Chinchaysuyo dial ect ( spoken north of Cuzco up to Quito and'

Pasto), raju ( the j apparently guttural) signifi es snow ; see the*

word in Juan de Figueredo’s notice of Chinchaysuyo words ap

pended to Diego de Torres Rubio,Arte

,y Vocabulario de la Lengua

Quichua, reimpr. en Lima,1754 ; fol . 222, b . For the first two

syllables of th e name of the mountai n,and for the village of

Chimbo (as chimpa and chimpan i suit badly on account of the a ),we may find a definite sign ification by means of the Qui chua word

lana,hilo <5borlil la de colores) -for the red of the sky ( arreboles)

and for a ha lo round the sun or moon . O n e may try to derive thename of the mountain di rectly from this word

,without the inter

ven tion of the village or district. In any case,and whatever the

etymology of Chimborazo may be,it must be written in Peruvian

Chimporaz o, as we know that the Peruvians h ave no 6.

But what if the name of this giant mountain should have nothing

252 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS .

those mountains , although situated m 29 to 305; degrees of latitude ,as accessible as the Peruvian Andes within the tropics . Captain

Gerard has attained on the Tarh igang an elevation as g reat, andperhaps (as is maintained in the Critical Researches on Philosophyand Geography) 117 E nglish feet greater than that reached by meon the Ch inhbora z o. Unfortunately

,as I have shown more at large

in another place,these mountain j ourneys beyond the limi ts Of per

are Of only very inconsiderable scientific use . {r as

(2

) p . 228—“The 00m,the gia n t of the Val ture zribe.

In my Recueil d’Observation s de Zoologie et_d’

Aiiatomie comparée

,vol . i . pp . 26—45

,I have given the natura l history Of the

Condor,which

,before my journey to the equatorial regions

,had

been much misrepresented. (The name of the bird is properly

Cun tur, 1n the Inca language ; in Ch ili , in the Araucan, Mafi que

Sarc oramph u s Condor Of Duméril .) I made and had engraved a

drawing of the head from the l iving bird,and of the size Of nature .

Next to the Condor,the L'

ammergeier of Switzerland,and the Falco

destructor of Daudin,probably the Falco Harpyia Of Linnaeus

,are

the largestfly ing birds .

The region which may be regarded as the Ordinary haunt Of theCondor begins

,at the height of E tna

,and comprises atmospheric

strata from ten to eighteen thousand (about to

E nglish) feet above the level of the sea . Humming birds,which

make summer excursions as far as 61° N. latitude on the north

west coast of America on the .On e hand,and the Ti erra del Fuego

on the other,have been seen by Von -Tsch udi

'

(Fauna Peruana,O rnithol . p . in Puna

,as high as E nglish)

Of the feath ered inhabitants Of,the air . O f the Condors

,the

largest individuals found in the chain Of the Andes round Quito,

measured,with extended wings

,14 (nearly 15 E nglish) feet, and

the.

smallest 8 (85 E ngl ish) feet . From these dimen siO’

n S,and

from the visual angle at which the bird often appeared verticallyabove our heads

,we are . enabled to infer the enormou s height

to which the Condor soars when the sky is serene . A visual angleOf for example

,gives a perpendicul ar height above the eye

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS.

‘

258

Of 6876 ( 7330 E nglish) feet? The cave (Machay) of Antisana,which 1s opposite th e mountain Of Chu ssu longo, and from whencewemeasured the height of the soaring bird

,is 14

,958 E ng

li sh) feet above the surface Of the Pacific . This would give theabsolu te height attained by the Condor at ful ly E ng

lish) feet ; an elevation at which the barometer would hardly reach12 French inches

,but which yet does not surpass th e

.h igh est sum

mits Of the Himalaya . It is a remarkable physiological ph enOmenon

,that the same bird

,which can fly round in circles for hours in

fegion s Of an atmosphere so rarefied,should sometimes suddenly

descend, as on'

the western dec livity of th e Volcano Of Pichincha, to

the sea-shore,thus passing rapidly through all gradations Of climate .

The membranou s air-bags of the Condor,if filled in the lower regions

of the atmosphere,must undergo extraordinary . distension at alti

tudes Of more than E ngli sh fee t .’ Ulloa

,more than a cen

tury a go, expressed his astonishment that the vulture of the Andes~

could soar in regions where the atmospheric pressure is less than 14

French inches (Voyage'

de l’Amériqu e Méridionale, t . ii. p . 2,1752

O bservations astronomiqu‘

es et physiques, p . It was then bel ieved; in analogy

~ with experiments under the air-pump,that no

animal could live in so low a pressure . I have myself,as I have

already noticed,seen the barometer sink on the Chimborazo to 13

French inches lines inches). Man , indeed,at such , elevations, if

‘ wearied by muscul ar exertion,finds himself in

th e functions Of respira t ion with equal facility under pressures of-3Q

our planet the on e’

wh ich c an remove at pleasure to the greatest dis. tance from the surface of the earth ; I Say at pleasu repfor minute

insects and s ili cious-shelled infusoria are carried by the ascending

c urrent to possibly still,

greater ' elevations. The Condor probably

flies higher than the altitude found as above. by computation. I re

member on the Cotopaxi,in the pumice plain Of Sun igu aicu ,

( 14,470E nglish) feet above the sea, to have seen the bird soar1ng

at a height at whi ch he appeared only as a small black speck . Whatis the smallest angle under

'

which feebly illuminated Objects can be

discerned ? Their form (linear extension)h as a great influence on pthe

22

254 PHYSIOGNOMY o r PLANTS .

minimum Of this angle: The transparency of the moun tairi atmo,

Sphere at the E quator is such that, in the province Of Qui to, as I haveelsewhere noticed

,the white mantle or Poncho of a hOrseman was

distinguished with the naked eye at a horizontal distance Of

E nglish) feet ; therefore under a visual angle of 13 seconds .It was my friend Bonpland

,whom

,from the pleasant country seat

Of the Marques de Selvalegre’

,we saw moving along the face of a

black precipice on the Volcano Of Pichincha . L ightning conduc tors,

being long thin,Objects

,are seen

,as has already been remarked by

Arago, from the greatest distances, and under the smallest angles .The accounts of the habits Of the Condor -in the mountainous

districts of Quito and Peru, given by me in a monograph on thi spowerful bird

,have been confirmed by a later traveller

,Gay, who

has explored the whole Of Chili,and has described that country in

an excellent work entitled Historia ' fisica'

y politica de Chile . T he

Condor,which

,like the Lamas

,Vicunas

,Al pacas

”

,and Guanacos,

does not extend beyond the E quator into New Granada, is found as

far south as the Straits of Magellan . In Chili,as in the mountain

plains of Qui to,the Condors

, which at other times live either soli

t arily or in pairs, assemble in flocks to attack lambs and calves,or

to carry Off young Guanacos (Guan ac ill os). Th e’ravages annually

c ommitted among the herds of sheep,goats

,and cattle

,as well as

among the wild Vicunas,Alpacas, and Guanacos Of the Andes, are

very considerable . The inhabitants Of Chili assert that,in captivity,

the Condor can support forty days’ hunger ; when free, his voracity

is excessive,and, vulture-like, is directed by preferenceto dead

' flesh .

The mode of capture Of Condors in Peru. by means of palisades,

as described by me,is practiced with equal success in Chili . When

the bird has gorged himself with flesh,he cannot rise into the air

without fir st running for some little distance with hi s wings half ex

panded. A dead ox,in

'

which decomposition is beginning to takeplace

,is strongly fenced round, leaving within the fence only a small

spac e,in which the Condors attracted by the prey are crowded toge

ther .

‘

When they have gorged themselves with food, the palisadesnot permitting them to :

Obtain a start by running,they become

,as

remarked above,unable to rise

,and are either. killed with clubs by

th e country people, or taken alive by the lasso. On the first dec la


tions have been more exact and have had to undergo stric ter'

criti

c iSm,has been the subj ect of much animated discussion. Baker

affi rmed that he had resuscitated,in 1771; paste-eels which Needh am

had given him in 1744 Franz Bauer saw his Vibrio tritici, whichhad been dried up for fou r years,move again on being moistened .

An extremely careful and experienced Observer,Doyere

,ih

' his

Mémoire sur les Tardigrade s,et sur

'

leur prOpriété de revenir a la

vie draws from h is own fine e xperiments the following con

c lu sion s : Rotiferas come'

to life,i . e. pass from a motionless stat e

to a state Of motion,after h aving been exposed to temperatures

‘

Of

Re aumur below,and 36° Reaumur above

,

'th e free z’

fi ig point ;i . e. from to Fahr. They preserve the capability Of

apparent revivificat ion,in d ry sa nd

,up to R .

but they lose it, and cannot be excited afresh, if heated in moist Sand

to 44° only Fah .) Doyere,p . 119 . The possibility of

revivification ' or reanimation is not prevented"

by their being placed

for twe u ty-e ight days in barometer tubes in vacuo, or even by the

application Of chloride Of lime or sulphuric acid (pp . 130

Doyere has also seen the rotiferas come to life again very slowly afterbeing dried without sand (desséchés a nu), which Spal l anzani haddenie d (pp . 117

‘and “Toute dessiccation faite a la tempera

t ure ‘

Ordinaire pou rroit souffrir des Obj ections auxquelles l’empl oi du

vide sec n’efi t pent-etre pas completement repondu : mais en voyant

les Tardigrades périr irrévocablement a une tempera ture de si

leurs tissus ‘ sont pénétrés di

’eau,tandis que ‘ desséchés ils supportent

sans périr une chaleur qu’on peut évaluer a1

96° Reaumur,on doit

etre di sposé a admettre que la revivifi cat ion n’a dans l’an imal d’au tre

condition que l’in tégrité de composition et de co'

nnexionsIn the same way, in the vegetable kingdom,

the sporules of cryptogamia, which Kunth compares to

‘ the propagation Of fcertain ph aeno

gamou s plants by buds (bulbilles), retain their germinating power inthe highest temperatures . According to the most recent experimentsof Payen, the sporules Of a minute fungus (O idium aurantiacum),whi ch covers the crumb Of bread with a reddish

,feathery coating

,do

not lose their power of germination by being exposed for half an

hour in closed tubes to a temperature of from 67° to 78° Reaumur

to before being strewed on fresh, perfectly


unspoilt dough . May not the newly discovered‘

monad (Monas prodigiosa), which causes blood like spots on mealy substances, havebeen mingled with this fungus .

7

E hrenberg,in his grea t work on Infusoria (s . 492 has

given the most complete history of all the investigations which have

taken place on what is called the revivific ation of Rptiferae. Hebelieves that

,in spite of al l the means Of desiccation employed

,the

organiz ation-flu id s till remains ' in the apparently dead animal . He

contests the hypoth esis of latent life death,

.h e says,is ‘not “ life

latent,but the

,want of life .We have evidence of the diminution

,if not of the entire disap

pearan ce or s uspension Of organic functions,i n the hybern ation or

winter sleep bothi

of warm and cold-blooded animals,in the dormice

,

marmots,sand mart in S

, (Hirundo riparia) according to Cuvier (Regneanimal

,1829

,t.i . p. frogs

,and toads . F rogs

,awakened from

winter-sleep by warmth, can support an e ight times’ longer stay

under water without being drowned,than frogs in the breeding sea

son . It woul d seem as if the functions of the lungs in respiration,for some time after their excitability had been suspended, required a

less degree of ac tivity.

‘

Thecircumstance of the sand-martin sometimes burying itself in a morass is a phenomenon whi ch, while itseems not . to admit Of doubt

,is the more surprising

,as in

.

birdsrespiration is so extremely energetic, that, according to Layoisier

’s

posed,in the same spac eo f time, as much atmospheric air as a por

poise . (Lavoisier,Mémoires de Chimie, t. i. p . The winter

sleep of the swallow 1n question ( the Hirundo riparia) is not supposed to belong to the entire species, but only to have been Observedin some indi viduals . (Milne E dwards, E lémens de Zoologie, 1834,p .

As in t he cold zone,the deprivation Of heat causes some animals

to fall into,winter-sleep

,so the hot

,tropical countries afford

analogous phenomenon, which .h as not been suffi ciently attended to,and to which I have applied the name o f summer-sleep . (Relationhistorique

,t . ii . pp . 192 and Drought and continuous high

temperatures act like the cold Of winter in diminishin g excitabil ity.

InMadagascar (which, with the exception of a very small portion at


its southern extremity, is entirely within the tropical zone), as~Bru=

guiere had before Observed,the hedgehog-hke Tenrecs (Cen ten es,

Il liger), one species Of which (C . ecaudatu s) has been introducedinto the Isle Of France

,sleep during great heat. Desj ardins makes,

it is true,the Obj ection that the time of their slumber is the winter

season Of the southern hemisphere ; but in a country in which the

mean temperature Of the coldest month isi

3 ° Reaumu r Fahr.)above that of the hottest month in Paris

,thi s circumstance cannot

change the three months’ summer-sleep” of the Tenrec in oMada

gasearand at Port Louis,into what we understand by‘

a‘

win ter-sl eep,or state

'

Of hybern at ion .

In the hot and dry season,the crocodi le in the Llanos of Vene

z u ela,the land and water tortoises Of the O rinoco, the huge boa, and

several smaller kind s of serpents,

-become torpid and motionless,and

lie incrusted in the indurated soil . The missionarry Gili relatesthat the natives

,in seeking for the slumbering Terekai ( land tor

toises), which they find lying at a depth Of sixteen or seventeen

inches 1n dried mud,are sometimes bitten by serpents which become

suddenly aroused,and which had buried themselves at the same time

as the tortoise . An excellent Observer,Dr. Peters

,who has just

returned from the E ast Coas t of Africa, writes thus to me on the

subj ect : “During my short stay at Madagascar,I could Obtain no

certain information respecting the Tenrec ; but, on the other hand,I know that In the E ast of Africa

,whereI lived for several years

,

different kinds of tortoises (Pen tonyx and Trion chydias) pass monthsduring the dry season of th iS '

trOpical country enclosed in the dry,hard ea rth, and without food . The Lepidosiren also

,In places where

the swamps are dri ed up,remains coiled up and motionl ess , encased

in indurated earth,from May to December.

Thus we fin d an annual enfeeblement of certain vital functions in

many and very different classes of animals, and, what is particularlystriking, without the same phenomena being presented by other

living creatures n early allied to them,and belonging to the same

family. The northern glutton allied to the badger

(Meles), does“

not,like him

,sleep during the winter whereas

,accord

ing to Cuvier’s remark

,

“ a Myoxus (dormouse) Of Senegal (MyOxu sc oupeii), which could never have known winter-sleep in his tropical


seeds without the neighborhood of poll en-bearing vessels, has been

refuted by later experiments . When seeds have been obtained,

anthers in a rudimentary state,c apable of furnishi ng some grains

of fertilizing dust,have been discovered near the ovarium . Such

hermaphroditism is frequent in th e _ en tire family of Urt iceae, but apeculiar and still unexplained phenomenon has b een presented - in

bogyn e of Smith .

- This phaenogamous plant produces in E ngland

perfect seeds with ou t trace of male organs, or the hybridi zing introduction of the pollen of other species . An ingempuf b ot ah ist,Adrien de Ju ssieu

,in his “Cours E lémen taire de Botanique

,

”1840

,

p . 468,expresses himself on the subj ect as follows : Un genre

d’E uph orbiacées assez nouvellement décrit

,mais cul t ivé depui s

plus ieurs années dans les serres d’Angleterre, le Coelebogyne, y a

plusieurs fois frirc tifié,et ses graines étaient évidemment parfaites,

puisque non seulement on y a observé um embryon bien constitué,mais

'

qu’en le semant cet embryon'

s’est développé en une plante

semblable. O r les fleurs sont di o’

iqu es ; on .ne c onnait’

et n e'

possede

pas (en Angleterre). de pieds males, et les rech erch es les plus minutieu ses

,faites par les meilleurs observateurs

,n’on t pu

'

ju squ’ic i faire

découvrir la moindre trace d’an theres ou seulement de pollen . L’em

bryon n e venait donc pas de ce pollen,qui manque en tieremen t : il

a dfi se former de toutepiece dans l’ovul e.

”

In order to obtain a fresh confirmation or elucidation of thi shighly important and isolated phenomenon

,I addressed , mys elf not

long since to my young friend Dr. Joseph Hooker,who

,after mak

ing ' the Antarctic voyage with Sir James Ross,has now j oined the

great Th ibeto-Himalayan? expedition . Dr. Hooker wrote to me inreply

,on his

-arrival at Al exandr ia near the end of December 1847,before embarking at Suez : O ur Coelebogyn e still flowers with myfather at Kewas well as in the Gardens of the Horticultural Society.

It ripens its seeds regularly : I have examined it repeatedly veryclosely and carefully

,and have never been able to discover a

_pen etra

tion of pollen-tubes eith er‘

in th e style or ovarium . In my herbariam the mal e blossoms are in small catkins .”

ANNOTATIONsAND ADDITIONS. 261

(5

) p’

. 229 , S h in e like sta rs .

The luminosity of th e‘

ocean

'

is one of those superb naturalph enomena which continue to excite our admiration even when we haveseen them recur every night for months . The Sea is phosphorescentin

'

every zone ; but those who have not witnessed the phenomenon

within the tropics, and especiallyin the Pacific, have on ly an imperfec t idea of the grand and maj estic spectacle which it affords .

When a man-of-war, impelled by'

a fresh breeze,cuts th e foaming

Waves, the voyager standing at the ship’s side feels as if -h e could

never be sati sfied with gazing on the spectacle wh ich ‘

presen ts itselfto his view. E very time that in the rolling of the vessel her sideemerges from the water

,blue

'

or reddish streams of light appear todart upwards like flashes of lightning from her keel . Nor can Idescribe the splendor of the appearance presented on a dark nightin the tropic seas by the sports of a troop of porpoises . As theycut through the foaming waves

,following each other m long winding

l ines,one sees their mazy -track

'

marked by intense and sparkling

light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana and the'

Peninsulaof Man iquarez , I have stood for hours enj oying this spectacle .

Le Gentil and the elder Forster attributed the flashing”

to the

electric friction excited by the ship in moving through the water,

but the present state of our knowledge does not permit us to receivethis as a valid explanati .on (Joh Reinh . Forster’s Bemerkungen

‘

auf seiner Reise um die Welt, 1783 , s . 57 ; Le Gentil, Voyagedans les Mers de l’Inde

,1779 , t . i . pp . 685—698 .

Perhaps there are few natural subjects of observationwhich have

been so long and so much debated as th e luminosity of t h e waters of

the sea . What we know with,

certainty on th e subj ect may be'

reduced to th e following simple facts . There are several luminousanimals which

,when alive

, give out at pleasure a faint'

phosph oriclight . t his light is

,in most instances

,rather bluish

,as in Nereis

noctiluca,Medusa pelagica var. B (Forsk

’

al,Fauna .ZE gyptiaco

arabica, s . Descriptiones an imal ium quae in itinere orientali observavit, 1775, p . and m the Mon ophOra noctiluca, discovered l n

Baudin’s expedition, (Bory de St. Vincent, Voyagedans les Il es

des Mers t. i . p . 107, pl . vi .) The luminous

262 PHYSIO GNOMY or PLANTS .

appearance of the sea is due partly to living animals, such'

as arespoken of above

,and partly to organic fibres and membranes derived

from the destruction of these living t orch-bea rers . Th e ' fir‘

st ofthese causes is undoubtedly the most usual andmust extensive . In

proportion as travellers engaged in the investigation of natural phe

nomena have become more zealous in their researches, and more

experienced l n the use of excell en tour zoological systems the groups of

become luminous either at pleasure or wh en excited by externalstimul us

,increase more and more .

The luminosity of the sea,so far as

‘

it is produced by l iving organicbeings

,is principally due

,in the class of Zoophytes

,to the Acaleph&

( the families of Medusa and Cyanea), to some Mollusca, and to‘

acountless host of Infusoria . Among the sma ll Acalephae

,the Mau i

maria scintillans offers the beautifu l spectacl e of, as it were,th e

starry firmamen t reflected by the surface of the sea . This li ttlecreature, wh en ful l grown , hardly equal s in sizethe head of a pin .

Michaelis,at Ki el

,was the first to show that there are luminous,

silic ious-shelled Infusoria : he observed the flashing light of th ePeridinium .(a ciliated animal cul e), of the cuirassed monad the Prorocen trum mican s

,and of .a Rotifera to which he gave the name of

Syn ch ata baltica. (Michaelis—tiber das Leuchten der O stsee bei

Kiel, 1830,"s . -The same

,

Syn cha ta baltica was subsequen tlydiscovered by Focke in the Lagunes of Ven ice . My distinguishedfriend and Siberian traven companion

,E hrenberg

,h as succeeded .

in keeping luminous infusoria from the Baltic alive for a lmost twomonths in Berlin . He showed them to me in 1832 with a

'

micro

of light. Th e larges t of these little infusoria were 1-8 th , and thesmallest from 14 8th to 1-96th of a Paris line in length (a Parisline is about nin e-hundredths of an E nglish inch) : after th ey 'were

exhausted,and had ceased to send forth sparkles Of light, the flashing

was renewed on their being stimulated by the addition of acids orof a little alcohol to the sea-water .By repeatedly filtering water taken up fresh from the sea

,E hren

berg succeeded in obtaining a fluid in whi ch a'

greater number ofthese luminous creatures were concen trated. (Abhandlungen der


with the gal vanic circuit, decompose water and impart magnetism to

Steel bars, as I showed more than half a century ago (Versuche

fi ber di e gereizte Muskel und Nervenfaser, bd . i . s . 438—441, andsee al so Obs . deZoologie et d’An atomie comparée, vol . i . p . andas John Davy has since confirmed (Phil. Trans . for 1834, Part ii .

pp .-545—54

F

7), do not pass a flash through the smallest in terveiiingstratum .

The considerations whi ch have been developed make it pi ol'

iablethat it is one and the same process wh ich operates in the smallestliving organic creatures , so minute that they are not perc eived by

the naked eye—in the combats of the serpent-like“

gymnoti—in

flashing, luminous Infusoria which raise the phosphorescence of the

sea to such a degree of brilliancy as well as in the thunder-cloud,and in the auroral

,terrestrial

,or polar light ( Silent magnetic light

nings), which, as the result of an increased tension in the interiorof th e globe, are announced forhours beforehand by the suddenly

altered movements'

of the“magnetic needle . (See my letter to the

E ditor of the Annalen der Physik und Chemie, bd . xxxvii . 183 6,s . 242

Sometimes one cannot,even with high magnifying powers

,dis

cern. any animalcules in the luminous water and yet

,-whe

_

never

the wave strikes and breaks in foam against a hard body,a light is

seen to flash . In such case,the cause of the phenomenon probably

consists in the decaying animal fibres,which are disseminated in

immense-abundance throughout the body of water. If this lumi

nous water is fil tered through fine and closely woven cloths,thes e

little fibres and membranes are separated in the shape of Shiningpoints . When we bathed at Cumana 1n the waters of the Gul f Of

Cariaco, and afterwards lingered awhile on the solitary beach In themild evening air without our clothes

,parts of our bodi es continued

luminous from the shining organic particles which had adhered tothe skin, and the l ight only became extinct at the end of someminu tes . Considering the enormous quantity of animal life In all tropical seas, it is, perhaps, not surprising that th e

'

sea water should beluminous, even where no visible organic particles can be detach ed

from it. From the . almost infinite subdivision of the masses of


dead Dagysae'

and Medu sae,

~ th e sea may perhaps be looked on as agelatinous fluid

,which as such is luminous

,distasteful to

,and un

drinkable by man,and capable of affording nourishment to many

fish . If one rubs a board with part of a Medusa h ysocel la, thepart so rubbed regains i ts luminosity

'

on friction with a dry finger :

O n my passage to South America,I sometimes placed a M edusa ona.tin plate . When I struck another metallic substance against theplate

,th e slightest vibrations of the tin were suffi cient to cause the

light . What is the man n er in which,In this case

,the bloWa nd

the‘ vibrations ac t ? Is the temperature momentari ly augmented ?

Are new surfaces exposed ? or does the blow press out a fluid,such

as phosphuretted hydrogen,which may burn on coming into con

tact with the oxygen of the a tmosph el e, or of the a i r held in solu

tion by the sea-water ? This light-exciting influence of a shock orblow is particularly remaIkable in a cross sea

,

’i . e . when waves

coming from opposite direc tiona meet and clash .

I have seen the sea within the tropics appear luml nou s in themost different states of weather

,but the light was most brilliant

wh eni

r

a storm was near,or with a sultry atmosphere and

.

a vaporousthickly-clouded sky . Heat and cold

'

appear to have little influence

On the phenomenon,for on the Banks of Nv ou ndland the phos

ph oresc en c e l s often very bright during the .coldest winter weather .

Sometimes under apparently similar external circumstances the seawill be highly luminous one night and not at all so the follo

’wingnight . Does the atmosphere influence the disengagement of light,“

or‘

do al l these differences . depend on the accident of the observer

sailing through a part of the sea more or less'

abundan tly impreg

n ated With gelatinous animal substances ? , Perhaps it'

is only incertain states of

“

the atmosphere that th e light-evolving animalculae'

come In large numbers to the Surface of the sea . It has been.

asked

Why the fresh water of our marshes, which is filled with polypi, isnever Seen to become luminous Both in animals and plants, a

particu lar’ ;mixtu re of organic particles appears to be required in

“

,

order to favor the production of light .'

Wil lOw-wood is oftener

found to be luminous than oak wood . In E ngland,experiments have

succeeded l n making salt water shine by pouring into it the liquor

from pickled herrings . It IS easy to show by galvanic experiments ,

23


that In living animals the evolution of light depends onof the nerves . I have seen an E later n oc tilu cu s which wemit strong flashes of light when I touched the ganglion of his foreleg with zinc and silver. Medusae sometimes show increased bright;ness at the moment of completing the galvanic circuit. (Humboldt,Bélat . Hist. t . 1. pp . 79 and 533 .

.Respecting the wonderfu l development of mass and

crease in Infusoria, see E hrenberg, Infus .

observes that “ the galaxy of the minutest organisms passes throughthe genera of Vibrio and B acterium,

and that of,Monas” (in the

latter they are often only s ale sof a line), S. xix . and2

_

44 .

_ c

(6) p . 230 -3‘Wh ich in ha bits the largep u lmona ry cel ls of them

/ra ttle

sna ke of th e trop ics .

”

This animal,which I formerly called an E chinorhynchus, or even

a Porocepli alu s, appears On closer investigation, and according tothe

better-founded judgment of Rudolphi , to belong to the division of the

PentastOn es . (Rudolph i, E n toz oorum Syn opsis,pp . 124 and

It inhabits the ventral cavitiesand Wide-celled lungs of a species ofCrotalus wh ich lives i n Cumana

,sometimes in the interior of houses

,

where it pursues the mice . Ascaris lumbrici (GOz en’s E ingeweide

wiirmer, tab . iv. fig. 10) lives. under the skin of‘ the common earth

worm,and is the smallest of all .the species of Ascaris. Leu coph ra

n odu la ta , Oleich en’s

’

pearl-animalcule,h as been observed by O tto

Friedrich Muller in the interior of the reddish Nais li ttoralis . (Mfi ller

,Zoologia danica

,fasc . ii . tab . lxxx . a—e .) P robably these

microscopic/

a n imal s are again . inhabited by others . -All are sur

rounded byair poor in oxygen,‘

an d variously mixed with hydrogen

and carbonic acid . Whether any animal can live In p ure n i trogen isvery doubtful . It might formerly have been believed t obe the case

experiments the swimming bladders of fish appeared to contain an

air entirely deprived of oxygen . E rman’s experience and my own

show, however, that fresh-water fishes never contain pure nitrogen intheir swimming bladders . (Humboldt et Provencal, sur la respiration des Poissons

,1n the Recueil d’Observ . de Zoologie

,v .01 ii . pp.

194-216. In sea-fish , as much as of oxygen h as been found,


In E hrenberg’s Classification (Abhandlungen der Akad derWiss.

z u Berlin aus dem,J. 1832

,s . 393 Coral-animals (often im

properly called,in E nglish works, Coral-insects) are di vided into two

great classes : the single-mouthedAnthozoa, which are either . free or

capable of detaching themselves, being the animal-corals, Z ooco

rallia ; and those in whi ch the attachment is permanent and plant

belOng the Hydras or Arm-polypi of Trembley, theJ

Ac tin iae decked

or Phyto-corals belong the Madrepores, the As traeids, and the O cellinae. The Polypi of the second order are those which, by the cel

lu lar wave-defying ramparts which they construct, are the principa l

subj ect of the present note . These ramparts consist of an aggregateof coral trunks

,which

,however

,do n ot

(

in sta'

n

'

t ly lose their commonvitality as does a forest-tree when cut down .

E very coral trunk 13 a whole wh ich has arisen by a formation Ofbuds taking place according to certa in laws, the parts of which the

whole consists forming a number of organically distinct individuals.

In the group of Phytoic ora ls these individuals cannot detach themselves a t pleasure

,but rema1n un l ted with each other by thin plates

Of carbonate of lime . It 18 not,therefore

,by any means the case

that each trunk of coral has a central point of common vitalityorlife . ( See E hrenberg

’s Memoir,above referred to, s . The

propagation of cow l-animals takes place,1n the one order

,by eggs

or by spontaneous division ; and in the Other order, by the formation

of buds . It is the latter mode of propagation wh ich,in th e deve

10pmen t of individuals, is the most rich In variety of form .

Coral-reefs (according to the definition of Dioscorides, sea-plants,a forest of stone-trees

,LithOdendra) are of three k1nds —coas t—reefs

called by the E nglish “ shore or fringing reefs,

” which are immediately connected with the coasts Of continents or islands, as almos tall the coral banks of the Red Sea seen during an eighteen month s’

examination by E hrenberg and Hemprich ,—“barrier-reefs

,

”en

circling reefs, as the great Australian barrier-reef on the north-eastcoast of New Holland

,extending from Sandy Cape to the dreaded

Torres Strait , and as the encircling-reefs surrounding the islands ofVanikoro (between the Santa Cruz group and the New Hebrides)

ANNOTATIONS AND”

ADDITIONS.

and Poupynete (one of th e Carolinas) —andc losing lagoons, forming Atolls” or Lagoonn atural division and nomenclature have been“Darwin

,and are intimately connected with the explanation which

that ingenious and excellent investigator '

of nature'

has given of the

gradual production of th ese’

wonderfu l forms? As on the one hand

Cavol ini, E hrenberg, and Savigny have perfected th e scientific ana

otherhand the geographical and geological relations of coral-islandshave been investigated and elucidated, first by Reinhold and GeorgeForster 1n Cook’s Second Voyage

,and subsequently

,after a long

interval,by Chamisso, Peron, Quoy and Gaimard

,F1inders

,Lutke

,

Besekey,Da rwin, d’Urvil le, and Lottin .

The coral-animals and their stony cellu lar structures or scaffoldingbelong principally to the warm tropical seas, and the reefs are foundmore frequently 1n the Southern than l n the Northern Hemisphere.

The Atolls or Lagoon Islands are crowded together in what h asbeen called the Coral-Sea , ofi

'

th e n orth -east coast of New Holland,

including New Caledonia, the Salomon’8 Islands

,and the Louisiade

Archipelago in the group of the Low Islands (Low Archipelago),eighty 1n number

,in the Fidji , E llice, and Gilbert groups , and m

t h e Indian O cean, on the north-eas t ofMadagascar, under the name

of th e'

Atol l-group of Saya de Malha .

and rocks of dead

coral have been thoroughly “examined Moresby and by

Powell, is so much the more interesting, bec ause we may regard it

as a continuation of the more northerly Laccadives an d Maldives . 1

h ave'

already called attention elsewhere (Asie Centrale, t.“

i“

. p . 218)to the importance of th e s u cc ession of these Atolls, running exactlyin the direction of a meridian and continued as far as 7° south lati

tude,to th e general system of mounta ins and th e configuration of

the earth’s surface in Central Asia. They form a kind of continua

tion to the great rampart-like mounta in elevations of the Ghautsand the more northern chain of Bolor

,to Which correspond in the

trans-Gangetic Peninsula the North and South Chains which are

intersec ted near the great bend of the Th ibetian Tz ang-bo River by

PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS .

this eastern pen insula are situated the chains of Cochin China,Siam,

and Malacca which are parallel with each other,as well as

those of Ava and Arracan which all, after~ courses of unequal

length,terminate in

.th e 'Gul fs or Bays of Siam,

Martaban,and

Bengal . The Bay of Bengal appears like an arrested attempt ofnature to form an inland sea. A deep invasion of the ocean,between the simplewestern system of the Ghauts, and the easternvery complex trans-Gangetic system of mountains

, has swallowed

up a large portion of the low lands on the eastern side,but met

with an obstacle more diffi cult toovercome in the existence of the

extensive high plateau of MysoreSuch an invasion of the ocean h as occasioned two

—almost pyra

midal peninsulas of very different dimensions,and difi

'

eren tly proportioned in breadth and length ; and the continuations of two

mounta in systems (both running in the direction of the,

meridian,

z’

.e. the mountain system of Malac cay on the east, and the Gh autsof Mal abar on the west) show themselves in submarine chains ofmountains or symmetrical series of islands

,on the one side in the

Andaman and Nicobar Is lands whi ch are very poor in corals,and on

th e other side 111 the three long-extended groups or series of Atollsof the Laccadives

,Maldives

,and the Chagos . The latter series

,

called by navigators the Chagos-bank,forms a lagoon en c i1c led by a

narrow and already much broken,and m great measure submerged

,

coral reef. The longer and shorter diameters of . this lagoon,or its

length and breadth,are respectively 90and 70 geographical miles .

Whilst the enclosed lagoon,

is only from seventeen to forty fathomsdeep

,the depth of water at a small distance from the ou ter

'

margin

of the coral (which appears to be gradually sinking) i s suc h, thatat half a mil e no bottom was found in sounding with a line of 190fathoms, and, at a somewhat greater distance, , none with 210

fathoms . (Darwin , Structure of Coral Reefs, p . and

At the coral lagoon cal led Keeling-Atoll,Captain Fitz-Roy

,at a.

distance of only tiyo thousand yards fromth e reef, found no soundings with 1200fathoms.

The corals which, in the Red Sea,form th ick wall-l ike masses,are species of Meandrina, Astraea, Favia, Madrepora (Porites), Pocil lopora (h emprich ii), Millepora, and Heteroporaa The latter are

272‘


turning to the westward ofl'

Pu nta Parina,the temperature of which

I found,in 1802

,to be only

the undi sturbed adjacen t masses of water were from 22° to

Reaumur to and there"

are also among the Ga

lapagos small currents running between the islands,~ h aving a tem

perature of onl y'

11° .7 Reaumur But these lowertemperatures do not extend farther to the north alon g the shores ofthe Pacific

,and are not found upon the coasts ofGuayaquil, Guati

mala,and Mexico ; nor does a low . temperature prevai l at the Cape

de Verde Islands on theWest Coast ofAfrica, or at the small islandsof St. Paul (St. Paul

’s rocks), or at St. Helena, Ascensi on, or SanFernando Norouba—which yet are all without coral reefs .While thi s absence of coral reefs appears to characteriz e the west

ern coasts of Africa,America

,and Australia

,on the other hand such

reefs abound on the eastern coasts of tropical America,ofAfrica , on

the coasts of Zanzibar and Australia, and on that of New SouthWales. The coral banks which I have chieflyhad opportunities ofobserving are those of the interior of the Gul f of Mexico, and thoseto the south of the Island of Cuba,1n what are called the “Gardensof the King and Queen” (Jardi nes y Jard ml llos del Rey y de laReyna). It was Columbus himself who

,on his second voyage

,in

May 1494,gave t hat name to this little group of islands

,because

the agreeable mixture of the silver-leaved ’ arborescen t Tournefortia

gnaph oloides, flowering Species of Dolichos, Avicennia nitida, and

mangrove hedges, gave to the coral islands the appearance of a group

of floating gardens. “ Son Cayos verdes y graciosos llenos de arboledas,

” says the Admiral . O n the passage from Batabano to Trinidad de Cuba, I remained several days 1n these gardens, situated tothe east of the larger island

,call ed the Isla de Pinos

,which is rich

in mahogany trees : my stay was for the purpose of determining thelongitude of the different keys (Cayos). The Cayo Flamenco, CayoBonito, Cayo de Diego Perez, and

‘

Cayo'

de Piedras,are coral islands

rising only from eight to fourteen inch es above the level of the sea .

The upper edge of th e reef does not consist simply of blocksof deadcoral

'

it is rather a true conglomerate,in which angular pieces of

coral, cemented together with grains of quartz, are embedded . In

ANNOTATIONS AND :ADDITIONS . 273

the Cayo de Piedras I saw such embedded pieces of coral measuring

as much as three cubic feet . Several of the smallWest Indian coralislands havefresh water

,a phenomenon which

,wherever it presents

itself (for example, at Radak l n the Pacific ; see Ch amisso in Kot

z ebu e’s E n tdeckungs-Reise, bd . iii . IS deserving of exami

na t ion,, as . it has sometimes been ascribed to hydrostatic pressureoperating from a distant coast (as at Venice, and

, in , the Bay ofXagua east of Batabano), and sometimes to the filtration. of rain

water. (See'

my E ssai politique sur l’Ile de Cuba, t . ii. p .

"

The living gelatinous i nvestment of the stony calcareous . part of

the coral attractsfish, and even turtles, who seek it as-food . In thetime of Columbus

,the n ow

’

unfrequ en ted locality of the Jardines delRey was en l iven ed

p

by a singular kind of fishery, inwhich the inha

bitan ts of the coasts of the Island of Cuba engaged, and in which

they availed themselves of the services of a small fis h . Th ey'

em

ployed in the capture of turtle the Remora,once said to detain ships

(probably E cheneis Nau crates), called in Spanish“Reves

,

” or re

versed,because a t first sight his back and abdomen are mistaken for

each .other . The remora‘ attaches'

itself to the turtle by suction

throu gh the interstices'

of'

th e indented andmovable cartilaginous

pla t es which cover th e’

h ead of the latter,and would rather,

” says

Columbus, ,

“a l low itself to be cut in -pieces than lose its hold .

”

The ‘ natives,therefore, attach a line, formed of palm fibresgto the

tail of the little fish,and after it h as fastened itself to the turtle

draw both out of,the water ;together. Martin Angh iera , the learned

secretary.of Ch arles,V .

,says ‘5NoStrates pisc em reversum appellant

,

quod versus ven atur. Non"

al iterac nos c an ibu s gal l ic is per aequ oracampi lepores in sec tamur

,illi ( in colae

‘ Cuhea in su lee) venatorio pisce

pisces alios capieban t .

”

(Petr. Martyr, O ceanica, 1532, dec . i . p .

9 Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, 1553, fol . xiv.) We learn byDampier and Commerson that this piscatorial artifice, the employinga sucking fish to catch other inhabitants of the water

,is much prae

ticed on the E ast Coast of Africa,at Cape Natal and on the Moz am

bique Channel,and also l n the Island of Madagascar. (Lacepede,

Hist. nat . des Poissons,t . i

“

. p .

'

Th e'

same necessities combine

with a knowledge .

'

of the habits of animals to induce the same

274

artifices and modes of capture among nations who are ent irely nu

A lthough,as we have already remarked

,the z one included

between 22 or 24 degrees of latitude on “either side of the equator,

appears to be the true region of the calcareous saxigenous litho

phytes which raise wall-like structures,yet coral reefs arealso found,favored it is supposed by the warm current of the Gulf Stream,

in

described by Lieutenant Nelson . (Transactions of the Geologica l

Society,2d Series

,1837, vol . v. pt . i . p .

_In‘

the southern

hemisphere, corals (Millepores and Cel lepores) are fond? singly asfarsouth as Chiloe

,the Archipelago of

'Ch on os, and Tierra de Fuego ,in 53 ° lat . and Retepores are even found in

" lat. 72

Since the second voyage of Captain Cook there have been manyde fenders of th e hypothesis put forward by him as well as by Reinhold

,and George

“

Forster,according to which the low coral islands

of the Pacific have been built up by living creatures from the depths

Quoy '

and Gaimard,who accompanied Captain Freyc inet in

“ his

ventured,in 1823,to express themselves

~

with'great boldness and

freedom in opposi tion ‘to the views of the two Forsters (father and'

son), of Flinders and of Peron . (Annales des Sc iences Na turel les,t. vi . “1825

,p. E n appelant l’atten t ion des n atu ralistes

'

surles animalcul es des coraux

,nous espérons démontrer que tou t cc

qu’on a dit ou cru’

obServer ju squ’a ce j our relativement

“

aux im

menses travaux qu’il sont suscept ibles d’exécu ter,est ls plus souvent

toises d’épaisseur. Quoy and Ga—imard also propounded (p . 289)

the conj ecture,that the A tolls (coral walls enclosing a lagoon) pro

bably owed their origin to submarine volcanic craters . Th eirestimate of the depth below the surface of th e sea at which the

animals which form the coral reefs ( the species of As traea, for

example) coul d live, was doubtless too'

smal l , being at the utmostfrom 25

’

to 30 feet (265 to 32 E ). An investigator and lover of


descending takes place .bu t slowly 3 that ~of l ight almost equally so 3

and the existence of numerous Infusoria at great depths shows thatthe polypifers woul d notWant for food .

’

~ In Opposition to ' the hitherto.

generally received Opinion of the

entire’

absen ce of organic li fe in the Dead Sea,it is deserving of

notice that my friend and fellow-laborer,M . Valenciennes, has

received through the Marqu is Charles de l’E scal Opier, and al so the

French consul Botta,fine specimens of Por

i

tes elongata from the

Dead Sea . This fact 1s the more interesting because this Species isnot found l n the Mediterranean

,but belongs to the Red Sea , which,

according to Valenciennes,has but few organic form

'

S in common

with the Mediterranean . I have before remarked that in France asea fish

,a species of Pleuronectes

,advances far up the rivers ‘into

the interior of the country,thus becoming accustomed to gil l -respira

tion in fresh water,so we find that the coral-animal above Spoken

of,the Porites elongata of Lamarck

,h as a not less remarkable

flexibility of organization,since it lives in the Dead Sea

,Which is

over-saturated with salt,and in the open ocean near the Seychelle

Is lands . (See my Asie Centrale, t. ii ; p .

According to the most recent chemical analyses made by the

younger Sil liman,

. th e’ genus Porites

,as well as many other cellul ar

polypifers (Madrepores, Andracas, and Meandrin as of Ceylon andthe Bermudas), contai n, besides per cent. of carbonate ‘oflime and magnesia

,some fluoric and phosphoric acids . ( See pp .

124—131“

of Structure and Classification of Zoophyt es , by James

Dana,Geologist of the United States E xploring E xpedition, u nder

the command of Captain Wilkes .) The presence of fluorine in thesolid parts of polypifers reminds us of the flu orat e of lime in thebones of fishes

,a ccordi ng to the experiments of Morech in i and Gay

wi th -fluorate and phosphate of l imei in coral stocks ; but a coralanimal allied to the Horn-coral

,Gray’s

,

Hyalonema,has an axis of

pure fibres of -silex resembl ing a queue or braided“

tress

'

of hair .

Professor Forc h h ammer,who has been lately engaged in a thorough

analysis of the sea-water fromthe most different parts of the globe,finds the quantity of lime . in the Caribbean

.Sea remarkably sma ll

,

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITI ONS . 277

being only 247 . parts in’

ten thousand,while ; in the Categat it

amounts to 371 parts in ten thousand . He is disposed to attributethis difference «to the «many coral-banks among the West IndianIslands, which appropriate th e ,

lime,and lower the per centage

remaining in the sea-waters"

(Report of the l 6th Meeting of the

British Association for the Advancement of Sc Ien c e,held in 1846,

p . 3

Charles Darwin has developed in a very,ingenious manner the

probable genetic connection between fringing or sh orefreefs,island

encircling and lagoon-islands,i . c . narrow ring-shaped reefs

enclosing interior lagoons . - According to hi s views, these three

varieties of form are dependent on the oscillating condition of the

bottom of the sea,or on periodic elevations and subsidences . The

hypothesis wh ich'

h as been several times put forward,according to

which the closed ring or annular form of the coral-reefs in Atolls or

Lagoon Islands ‘marks -the configuration of a submarine volcano,the structure having been raised on the margin of' the crater

,is

opposed by their.great dimensions

,the di ameters of many of

'

them

being . 30,40

,and Sometimes even» 60 geographical miles . O ur

fire emitting mountains have no such craters and if we wouldcompare the lagoon

,with its submerged interior and narrow en

closing reef,to one of the annular mountains of the moon

,we must

not forget that those lunar mountains are not volcanoes,but wall

surrounded districts,According to Darwin

,the process of forma a

rounded by a coral-reef ( a fringing reef” at tached -

'

to‘the shore);

to undergo subsidence : th e“ fringi ng reef” which subsides with

the island is continually restored to its level‘

by the tendency of the

coral animals to regain the su rface of the sea, and becomes thus, asthe island gradu allyk sinks and is reduced 1n size

,first an en c ir

cling reef at Some distance from the included islet, and subse

quently, when the latter has entirely disappeared, an Atoll . Ac

cord‘ing to this view, in which islands are regarded as the culmi

nating points of a submerged land,the relative positions of the

different coral islands would disclose to us that; which we could

h ardly l earn by the sounding“ line

,concerning the

'

c onfigh ration‘"

of.

the land whi ch was above the surface of the sea at an earlier epoch:

24


men attention was ca lled at the commencement of the present

note) c an only be hopedfor when Inquirers shall have succeeded In

obtaining greater knowledge than 1s now possessed of the depth and

the nature of the rocks on which the lowest strata of the dead

coral s rest. ~

(8) P Tra ditionsof Sdmothm ce.

Diodorus has preser ved to us th is remarkable tradition, theprobability of which renders it in the eyes of the geologist almost

equivalent to a' historical certainty. Th e Island of Samothrac e,

formerly ca lled also j E th iopea , Dardania, Leu can ia or Leu cosia inthe Scholiast to Appol lon iu s Rh odius, and which Was a seat of the

ancient mysteries of the Cabiri, was inhabited by th e remains of an

ancient nation,several words of Whose language were preserved to

a later period in the ceremonies accompanying sacrifices ."

Thesituation of this island

,opposite to the Thracian Hebrus and near

the Dardanelles,renders it not surprising that a more deta iled

tradition of the ca tastrOplie of the breaking forth of the waters ofthe

,

‘E uxine should have been preserved there . Rites were per

formed a t altars supposed to mark the limits of the irruption of thein Samothrace

,as well as in Boeotia

,a belief in the .

recurring destruction of mankind (a belief whicha lso found among the Mexicans In the form of a myth of fourdestructions of the world) was connected with historical rec ol lections of particular inundations . (O tfr. Mul ler Geschichten .Hell en isch er St

'

amme und Stadte,bd. i .

,

s . 65 and‘

119 .) Accordingto ‘Diodoru s

,the Samothracians related that the Black Sea h ad

which flow into it,it h ad broken through

,first the Strait of th e

Bosphorus,and afterwards that of th e Hellespont 3 and this long

before the inundations spoken of by other nations. (Died . Sieul .

lib . .v. cap . 47 ,“p

. 3 69,Wesseling.) Th ese ancient revolutions of:

nature have been treated of in a special work by Du reau de laMalle

,and all the information p ossessed on the subj ect has been

collected in Carl von Hofl’s importan t work,entitled Geschichte

.

der

280 Pnr sroc NOMY or PLANTS.

Lybia)may once have stood on the sea-shore, and causes Stitch as

these may explain .why it is now far inland . This,Strato

might account for the celebrity

surprising if it had been on the sea-shore w hereas its great distanc e

from the coast made its present renown inexplicable . E gypt,too

,

h ad been formerly overflowed by the sea as far as the marsh es of

Pelu sium,Mount Casiu s, and Lake Serbon is for

,on digging be

n eath the Surface, beds of sea sand and shells are found ; showingthat the country was formerly overflowed

,and JtheWhole distric t

round Mount 03 81118 and Gerrhawas a marshy sea which j oined thegulf of the Red Sea . When our Sea ( th e Mediterraneafi retrbated

,

the land was uncovered still,however

,leaving the Lake of Serbo

niss : subsequently,this lake also broke through its bounds and the

water flowed off,so that the lake became a swamp . The banks of

Lake Moeris are also more like sea than river banks .” An erro

n eou sly corrected reading introduced by Grosskurd on account of a

passage in Strabo,lib xvii . p . gives

‘

in stead'

of Moeristhe Lake Halmyris but this latter lake was Situated not far fromthemouth of the Danube.

The sluice-theory of Strato led E ratosthenes of Cyrene ( the mostcelebrated of the Series of

’

librarians of Alexandria,but less happy

than Archimedes in writing on floating bodies) to examine the problem of the equality of level of all external seas, i . e. seas Surrounding the Continents . (Strabo, lib . i . pp . 51—56 3 ‘ lib . ii . p : 104,Casaub .) The varied outlines of the northern shores of the Mediterranean

,and the articul ated form of the peninsul as" and islands,

had given occasion to the geognostical myth of the ancient land ofLyc ton ia . The supposed mode of origin of the smaller Syrtis andof the Triton Lake (Died . iii . 53 as well as that of the wholeWesternAtlas (Maximus Tyriu s, vi i i . was drawn In to fo m partof an imaginary scheme of Igneous eruptions and earthquakes (Seemy E xamen crit. de l’h ist . de la Geograph ic , .vol . i . p . 179 ; t. i i i .

p . I have recen t ly'

tou ch ed more in detail on this Subject(Cosmos, bd. ii . s . 153 E ngl . ed . pp

.118—119) in a passage whi ch

I permit myself to subjoin“A more richl y varied and broken outline gives to the northern

shore of the Mediterranean an advantage over the southern or Ly


,The three great peninsul as, the Iberian, the Italian, and th e .Hel le

nic,with thei r smu ou s and deeply indented shores

,form

,in combi

nation with the neigh boring islands and Opposite coasts,many straits

and isthmuses . The configuration of the continent and th e islands,the lattereither severed from the main or y olcan ica l ly elevated inlines

,as if over long fissures

,early led t o geogn ostical yiews, respect

ing eruptions,terrestrial revolutions

,and overpourings of the swollen

“

, higher seas into those which were lower. The 'E uxine,the Darda

n el les, ,

th e Straits of Gades, and’

the Mediterranean.

with its manyislands

,were well fitted to

.give rise to the view of such‘ a system of

sluices . The O rphic Argonaut, who probablywrote in Christiant imes

,wove antique legends into his song

,he describes th e break

ing up of the ancient Lykton ia into several islands, wh‘en the dark

haired Poseidon,be ing wroth wi th Father Kronion

,smote Lykton ia

with the golden trident.’ Similar phantasies, which indeed mayoften h ave arisen from imperfect knowledge of geographical circumstances

, p roceeded from the Alexandrian school, where erudition

abounded,and a strong predilection .was felt for antique legends. It

is not necessary to determine here whether the myth of the Atlantisbroken into f ragments should be regarded as a distant and western

reflex of that of Lykton ia ( as I think—I have elsewhere shown to be

probable), or whether,as O tfried Muller considers,‘ the destru ction

of Lykton ia (Leu con ia) refers to the Samothracian tradition of a

great flood which had changed the form of that district.’

i

(9) p . 233 . Preven ts p rec ipi ta tion taking p la ce from c louds .

.The vertically-ascending current of the atmosphere is a princ ipal

cause of many most important meteorological phenomena ; Whena desert or a sandy plain partly or entirely destitute of plants isbounded by a chain of high mountains, we see the sea breeze drive

the .

dense clouds over t h e desert without any precipitation taking

place before they have reached the mountain-ridge. This ph en omenon was formerly explai ned in a very inappropriate manner by asupposed superior attraction exercised by the mountains on theclouds. The true reason of the phenomenon appears to consist in

the ascend ing column of warm air Which rises from ~ the san dy plain,24*


and prevents the vesicles of vapor from being dissolved The more

complete the absence of vegetation, and the more the sand 18 h eated,the greater is th e height of the clouds, and the less can any fall ofrain take place . When the clouds reach the mountains, these causes

current is feebler,the clouds sink .lower,

'

and dissolve i n rain in a

a bsence of vegeta tion , act and react upon each other. It doesnot

r ain,becausethe naked, sandy surface, having no vegetable covering,

b ecomes more powerfu lly heated by the solarrays, and thus radiates

more heat 51

and the absence of rain forbids the desertrbeing converted into a steppe or grassy plain

,because without water no organic

development is possible .

p . 234 . The mass of the ea rth fin-

solidifying andp a rtt'

ng

wi th i ts hea t.”

If,acc ording to the hypothesis of th e Neptun ists , now long smce

obsolete, the so-call ed primitive rocks were precipitated frOm a flu id,the transition of the crust -

of the earth from‘ a fluid to a solid

state must have been accompanied by an enormous disengagementof heat

,which wou ld

‘

in turn have caused fresh evaporation andfresh precipitations . The -later these precipitations

,the more rapid

,

tumul tuous,and uncrystalline they woul d have been . Such a sudden

disengagement of heat migh t cause local augmentations of tempera

ture independent of the height of the pole or the latitud e of theplace

,and independent of the position of the earth’s axis and the

temperatures thus caused would influence the distribution of plants .

The same sudden disengagement of heat might also occasion aspecies of porosity

,of which there seem to be indi cations i n many

enigmatical geological phenomena in sedimentary rocks I havedeveloped th

'

ese conj ectu res in detail in a smal l memoir,“ fi ber

ursprungl ich e Porosit'

a t . ( See mywork, entitled Versuche fi berdi e chemische Zersetzung des Luftkreises

,1799

,s 177

,and Moll’s

Jah rbu ch er der berg und Huttenkunde,1797, s . 234 . According

to the newer views which I now entertain,the shattered and fissured

earth,with her molten interior

,

-may long~have maintained a high

temperature on her oxidi zed surface, independently of position in

284‘

PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS.

ground Le Drumade un easy79'

E n'

glish feet. Sir George sa unton found the diameter still as much as 12 feet at the height Of 10feet above the ground . The height of the tree is not much above 69E nglish feet . According to tradition

, this treewas veneratedby theGuanches (as was the ash-tree Of E phesus by the Greeks, or as theLydian plane-tree which Xerxes decked with ornaments, and thesac red Banyan tree Of Ceylon), and at the time Of the first expedition Of the Béth encourts in 1402, it Was already as thick and as

hollow as it now is . Remembering that the Dracaena grows ex

O rotava: BerthOlet,

"

in his description ef Tenerifl’

e; s ays; .

“ E n

comparant les'

jeun es Dragonniers,‘ voisins de l’arbre gigantesque, les

calcu ls qu’on fait sur l’age de ce dernier effraient l’imagin

a tion .

”

(Nova Acta Acad . Loop . Carol. Naturae Curiosorum,t. xiii . 1827,

p . 781. The dragon-tree has been cultivated l n the Canaries,and

in Madeiraand Porto Santo,from the earliest times

,and an accurate

observer,Leopold von

,

Buch,has e ven found it wild in Teneriffe,

near Igueste. Its original country,

“

therefore,is not India

,as h ad

long been believed nor does its appearance in the Canaries cén tradiet the Opinion O f thosewh o regard the Guanches as having been anisolated Atlantic nation without intercourse with African or Asiati c

nations . The formOf the Dracaenas is repeated at t h e southernextremity of Africa

,in the Isle

‘

Of Bourbon,and in New Zealand .

In all ‘ these distant regions species of the genus in question arefound, but none have been met with in the New Continent, whereits form is replaced by that of the Yucca . Dracaena borealis OfAiton is a true Convall aria , and h as all the habitus” Of that genus .

(Humboldt, Rel . hist. t. i . pp . 118 andOI have given a repre

sen ta tion‘

of the d ragon-tree of O rotava, taken from a drawingmadeby F . d

’O z on n e in 1776, in the last plate of the Pi cturesque Atlas

Of my American j ourney. (Vues des Cordil leres et Monumens desPeuples indigenes de l’Amériqu e, pl. lxixz) I found d’O z onn e

’s

drawing among the manuscripts left by the celebrated Borda, in th estill unprinted travelling j ournal entrusted to me by the Dépfit de la—Marine, and from which I borrowed important astronomically determined geographical, aswell as barometric and trigonometric, notice s .

(Rel . his t. t. i . p . The measurement Of the dragon tree Of

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS.

'

285

th eVilla ~F515anqui Was made on Borda’s first voyageWith ra ga; in

1771 ; net in his second voyage, in 1776, with Varela.

’

It is afi rmed that in ‘ the earlier t imes of the Norman and Spanish Conquests,in the 15th century,Mass was said a t

'

a small a ltar erected in thehollow trunk Of the tree. Unfortunately, thedragon-tree Of O rotavalost one side Of its top in the storm Of the 21st Of Jul y

,1819 . There

isa fine’

and large “E nglish copperplate engraving which repre sentsthe present state of

‘

the tree with remarkable truth to n ature .

The monumental character of these colossal livin gvegetable forms,and th e kind Of reverence which has been felt for them among allnations

,have oc casioned in modern times the bestowal Of greater

care in the numerical determination of their age and the size of theirtrunks . T he results Of these inquiries have led the author Of theimportant treatise, De ‘

la longévité des Arbres,

” the elder Dec andol le

,

'

E ndlich er,Unger

,and other able botanists

,to consider it not

improbable that the age Of several individual trees which are still

alive,goes back to the earliest hi storica l periods, if not Of E gypt, at

least Of Greec e and Italy. It 1s said m the Bibliotheque Universellede Geneve, 1831, t. lxv u. p . 50: Plusieurs exemples SemblentcOnfirmer l

iidée qu’il existe encore sur le globe des arbres d’une

antiquité pro'

digieuse, et peut-etre témoins de ses dern ieres révolu

tions physiques . Lorsqu’on regarde un arbre comme un agrégat

d’au tan t d

’individu s soudés ensemble qu

’il 8

’est développé de h our.

geons a sa surface,on n e peut pas s

’étonn er si

,de nouveaux bour

point de terme necessa ire a son existence .

” In the samemanner

Agardh says : If in trees there are produced 1n each solar year'

new parts,so that the O lder hardened parts are replaced by new Ones

capable of conducting sap, we see herein a type Of ‘

grcwth limited

only by external causes He a scribes the shortness of the life of

herbs,Orof such plants as are not trees, to the preponderance of

th e'

production of flowers . and frui t over the formation Of leaves .”

Unfruitfulness is to a plant a prolongation Of l ife . E ndlicher cites

th e example Of a plant Of Medicago sativa, var. 13 versicolor, which,bearing no fruit

,lived eighty years . (Grundz iige der Botan ik , 1843,

s .

With the dragon trees, whi ch, notwithstanding the gigantic de


floral parts be placed in the same natural-family with asparagus and

habitants of our planet } In the very first voyages jeffdiscevery of

desire Of handing down their names,but also t o serve as marks or

signs Of possession,and Of what ever rights nations claim on the

ground Of being the first discoverers . The Portu guese navigatorsOften u sed as their marco” Or token of possession

,theFrench motto

says in his As ia Portu guesa (t. i . cap . 2, pp . 14 and 18) E ra use

de les primeros Navegan tes de dexar inscrite el Motto“

del Infante,ta len t de bien

'

fa t'

re,en la certeza de les arboles . (Compare also

Barres,Asia

,dec . 1. liv. ii . cap. 2

,t . i . -p . 148 ;

The above-named motto,ou t On the bark of two trees by Portu

dea th '

ef the Infante,is curiou sly connected in the history of dishe

veries with the elucida tion s to which the comparison of Vespucci’s

fourth voyage with that of Gonzalo Coelho, in 1503, has gi

ven rise .

Vespucci relates that ' Coelho’s admiral’s ship was wrecked on an

island which has been sometimes supposed to be San Fern ando Nor

Onha,s ometimes the Pefi edo de San Pedro

,and sometimes the prob

lematical Island of St. Mat th ewf This last-named island was dis

covered by Garcia Jofre de Loaysa , on the 15th of O ctober, 1525,in S . the meridian of Cape Palmas

,almost in the Gul f

crosses,as well asoran ge trees which h ad been

'

plan ted'and had be

years: (Navarrete, t . v . pp . 8,247, and I have examined

the questions presented by this account more in detail in my inquiries“

into the trustworthiness Of Amerigo Vespucci . (E xamen critique del’h ist . de la Geographie . t . v. pp . 129

The O ldest description of the Baobab (Adansonia digitata), isthat given hy t he Venetian Al oysius Cadameste ( the real name was

Alvis e daCa da Meste), in 1454: He found at ‘ the mouth Of , the


Marques,almost to 26° of S . lat. Al though Cadainosto said in the

15th century eminentia non quadrat magnitudin i,and although

Golberry (Fragmens d’un Voyage en Afrique

,t . ii . p . 92) found m

the Vallée des deux Gagnacks” trunks which

,with 36 E ngl ish v

feet

di ameter near the roots, were only 64 E nglish feet high, yet thisgreat disproportion between height and

garded as general . The learned traveller

old trees lose height by the gradual decay of the top,while t hey

continue to in crease i n girth . On the east coas t of Africa one sees

a height of 69 E nglish feet .”

If,according to what has been said

,the bold estimations of Adan

son and Perot tet assign to the Adansonias measured by them an age

of from 5150 to 6000 years,which woul d make them c otemporaf

neous with the epoch of the bu il ding of the Pyramids or even with

that of Menes,a period when the constella tion of the Southern Cross

was still visible in Northern Germany (Cosmos, bd . iii . s . 402 and487 ; E ng. ed. p . 293

,and note on the other hand, the more

sec ure estimations made from the annual rings of trees in our northern .

temperate zone, and from the ratio which h as been found to subsist

between the thickness of the layer of wood and the time of growth,give us shorter periods . Decandol le finds as the result of his inqu ii

ries,that of all E uropean species of trees the yew is that whi ch attains

the greatest age . He assigns to the yew (Taxus baccata) of Braborne

,1n the county of Kent

,thirty centuries ; to the Sc otch yew

of Fortingal , from twenty-five to twenty-six ; and to those of Crowhurst l n Surrey

,and Ripon m Yorkshire

,respectively

,fourteen an d

a half and twelve centuries . (Dec andol le, de la longévité des arbres,p . 65. E ndl icher remarks that the age of another yew tree

,in the

churchyard of Grasford, in NorthWales, which measures 52 E ngli shfeet m circumference below the branches

,1s estimated at 1400years

,

and that of a yew in Derbyshire at 2096 years. In Lithuania,lime

trees have been cut down which were 87 E nglish feet in circumference

,and in which 815 annual rings have been counted .

”

(E nd

l ich er,_

Grundz i1’

ge der Botanik, s . In the temperate zoneofthe southern hemisphere, some spec ies

‘

of E ucalyptus attain an enor


nions girth, and as they alsoreach‘

to a great stat ur

245 E nglish,feet), they are singul arly contrasted

whose great dimens i on Is In thickness only. Mr. Backhouse found ;

in E mu Bay,on the coas t of Van Diemen Land, trunks of E uca

lyptu s which measured 70E nglish feet round the trunk near theground

,and five feet higher up 50E nglish feet

, (Gould, Birds ofAustralia

,vol. i . introd. p . xv.)

It is not,as 13 commonly stated, Malpighi, but the Ingen l ou s

Michel Montaigne,who has the merit of having been the first

,in

1581,in his Voyage en Italie, to notice the relation of the annual

rings to th e age of the tree. (Adrien de Ju SS1eu , Cours élémentairede Botanique

,1840

,p . A skilful artist

,engaged in the pre

parat ion of as tronomic ar instruments, had‘ called the attention of

Montaigne to the annual rings ; and he also maintained that th erings were narrower on the north side of the tree . Jean Jacques

Rousseau had the same belief ; and his E mi le,~if he loses himself in

a fores t,is to direct himself by the indications afforded by the rela

t ive thickness of the layers of wood . More recent observations on

the anatomy of plants teach us,however

,that both the acceleration

and also the retardation or intermission of growt h,or the varying

production of circles of ligneous fascicles (annual deposits) from the

C ambium cells, depend on influences wh i ch'

are whol ly distinct fromthe Quarter of the heavens towards which one side

’

Of theannual

rings‘

is turned. (Kunth, Lehrbuch der Botanik, 1847, t . i . s . 146and 1 64 Lindley

,Introduction to Botany

,2d edition

,p .

Trees which in individual'

c asesra ttai

‘

n a diameter of more thantwenty feet, and an age extending to many centuries, belong to the

most different natural families . I may name here Baobabs,Dragon

trees,some species of E ucalyptus

,Taxodium diéticum (Rich . Pinus

Lambertiana (Douglas), Hymenaea courbaril, Caesalpin ieae, Bombax,Swietenia mahagoni

,the Banyan tree (Ficus religiosa), Liriodendron

tulipifera ? Platanus orientalis,and our Limes

,O aks

,and Yews .

The celebrated Taxodiumdistichon'

‘

the Ah uah u ete of the Mexicans

(Cupressus disticha Linn , Schubertia disticha Mirbel), at Santa Maria del Tule

,in the state of O axaca

,has not a diameter of 57, as

Decandol le says,but Of exactly 38 French (405 E nglish) feet .

(Miih lenpfordt, Versuch einer getr'

euen Schil derung der Republik»

25


Mexico, bd. i . The two fine Ahuah uetes near Chapul tepec ,Which I have Often seen, andwhich are probably the surviving remnants of an ancient garden or pleasure ground of Montezuma

,mea

sure (according to Burkart’s account of his travels

, bd . i . s . 268,a

_

work which otherwise contains much information) only 36 and 38E ngli sh feet In circumference ; not in di ameter, as has often been

erroneous ly asserted . The Buddhists i n Ceylon venerate the giganti ctrunk of the sacred fig tree ofAn ourahdepoura . The Indian fig-treeor Banyan

,of which the branches take root round the parent stem,

many-pillared tent,often atta in a thickness of 28 E ngli sh) feet

diameter. (Lassen, Indische Al terth umskunde, bd i . s . 260. On

the Bombax ceiba,see early notices of the time of Columbus

,in

Bembo’s Histo ries Venetae, 1551, fol . 83 .

Among oak-trees, of those Which,h ave been accurately mea

sured,the largest in E urope is no doubt that near the town of

Saintes,in the Departement de la Charente Inférieure

,on the road

to Cozes . Th is tree, which is 60 (64 E nglish) feet high, h as a

diameter of 27 feet 8% inches (29 % E nglish feet) near the ground ;21} (almost 23 E nglish) feet five feet ' h igh er up ; and Where the .

great boughs commence 6 Parisian feet (6 feet 5 inches E ngli sh).In

'

the dead part of the tru nk a little chamber has been arranged,

from 10feet 8 inches to 12 feet 9 inches wide, and 9 feet 8 incheshigh (all E nglish measure), with

'

a semi-circul ar bench cut out of

the fresh wood . A window gives ligh t to the interior,so that th e

sides of the chamber (which is closed with a door) are ‘

c lothed with

ferns and lichens,giving it a pleasing appearance. Judging by th e

size of a small piece of wood which has been cut out above thedoor

,and i n whi ch the marks of200annular rings have been counted

,

the oak of Saintes would be between 1800and 2000years Old . (Annales de la Société d’Agricu l ture dela Rochell e, 1843 , p . 380.

In the wild rose tree of the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim,

said to be a thousand years old,it is the root only

,and not the

stem,which i s eight centuries old

,according to accurate information

derived from ancient and trustworthy original documents,for the

knowledge ofWhich I am indebted to the kindness of Stadtgerich tsfAssessor ROmer. A legend connects the rose-tree with a vow made


globe .7 Murray’SJ edition of the Linnean system contains, includ.

ing cryptogamia,only species . Wil ldenow, i n his edition of

the Species Plan tarum between the years,

1797 and‘1807, ‘had

al ready described phaenogamous spec ies (from Monandria toPolygamia dioecia). If we add 3000 cryptogamous species, we ,

Obtain the number which Willdenowmentions , viz . species .

More recent researches have shown h owmuch this estimation of thenumber of species described and c ontained in h erbariums ifalls shortof th e truth RobertB rown counted above phaenogamous

plants . (General Remarks on the BOtany ofT erra Australis,I afterwards attempted to

'

give the g eographical di stribu tion (indifferent parts of the earth already explored) of ph aen Oga

mous and cryptogamous plan tsf (Humboldt, de distribu t ion e geo

graphi ca Planta ram,p . Decandoll e found

,in comparing Per

SOon’s E n ch iridium with his Universal System in 12 several families,that the writings of botanists and E uropean herbariums taken

togeth er~migh t be assumed to con tain upwards Of species of

plants . ( E ssai élemen taire de . Géographie botanique, p . If

we consider how many species have since that period b een describedby travellers—(my expedition

'

alon e f urn ish ed . 3600 of the 5800collected species of the equinoctial zone)—and if we remember thatin all the botanical gardens taken together there are certainly above

phaenogamous plants cultivated,we shall easily perceive how

muchDecandol le’s number falls short of the truth . Completely un

acquainted as we still are with the larger portions of the interior of

South America— (Mato-Grosso, Paraguay, the . eastern declivity ofthe Andes

,Santa Cruz de la Sierra

,and all .

th e countries betweenthe O rinoco

,the Rio Negro

,t h e Amazons

,and Puruz)—of Africa

,

Madagascar,Borneo

,and Central and E astern Asia—the thought

rises involuntarily in the mind that we may not yet know th e . th ird,

or probably even the fifth part of th e plants existing on the earth !

Drége has collected 7092 species of phaenogamous plants in South

Africa alone . (Sec Meyer’s pflan z en geographische Documente,

“

s .5 and He believes that the Flora of that dist-riot consists of

more than phaenogamous species,while on a surface of equ al

area German, or E nglish square geographical miles)von Koch has described in Germany or Switz erland 3300, and De


a ssent in France 3045 species of phaen ogamous plants'

I woul drec all tha t even n ow new Genera ( some even consisting of tallforest trees), are being discovered i n the small West Indian Islandswhich have been visited by E uropeans for three centuries

,and in

the vicinity of large commercial towns . These considerations, whichI propose to develop in further d etail at the c loSe of th e present

says that the Primeval Creating Power called forth from the bloodOf th e sacred bul l difl

'

eren t forms of plants .l”

1 If,then

,we cannot look for any direct scientific solu t ion '

of the

question of how many forms of the vegetable kingdom—includingleafless Cryptogamia (waterAlgae, funguses, and li chens), Characeae,liver-worts

,mosses

,Marsil ac éac

,Lycopodiaceae

,and ferns—exist on

the dry land and in the—O cean, in the present stateof

'

the organic.

life of our globe,we may yet attempt an approximate method by

which we may find some probable “ lowest limits” Or numericalminima . Since 1815

,I have sought

,in arithmetical considerations

relating to the geography of plants,to examine first the ra tios which

the number of species in the different natural families bear to theentire mass of the phaenogamous vegetation in countries where the

latter is suffi ciently Well known . Robert Brown,

‘ the greatestbotanist amOngeour cotemporaries, had previously determined thenumerical proportions of the leading divisions Of the vegetable

to Cotyledons (Phanerogamic or vascul ar plan ts), and of Monocotyledonous ( E ndogenous) to Dicotyledonous (E xogenous) plants .He finds the ratio

_

of Monocotyledons to Dicotyledons in the tro

pical zone as 1 : 5,and in the cold z ones of the parallels of 60° N .

and 55° S . latitude,as 1 : (Robert Brown , General Remarks

On the Botany of Terra Australis,i n Flinders’ Voyage

,vol . ii . p .

The absolute number of species in the three leading divisionsof the vegetable kingdom are compared together in that workaccording to the method there laid down . I was the first to passfrom these leading divisions to the divisions of

.

the several families,

bears to theentire mass of phaenogamous plants belonging to a zone

294 PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS ,

of the earth’s su rface . (Compare my memoir, entitled (‘Def

‘

distribui

ti one geographi ca Plan tarum secundem coeli temperiem et al t itudin em

mon t ium,1817, pp. 24—44 ; and the farther develOpnien t ,

of the sub

j ect of these numerical relations given by me in the Dictionnaire desSciences naturelles

,t . xviii . 1820

,pp . 422—436 and in the Ann ales

de Chimie et de Physique, t . xvi . 1821, pp . 267—292.

The numerical relations of th e forms of plants, and'

the laws ob

very different ways . If plants are studied in their arrangementaccording to natural famili es, without regard to their geographi cal

distribution, it is asked, What are the fundamental forms or typesof organi zati on .to which the greatest number of species correspond ?

Ar e there on the entire surface Of the earth more Glumaceae than

Compositae ? DO these two orders make up between th em one-fourth

part ,of the whole number of phaenogamous plants ? What is the

proportion s of Monocotyledons to Dicotyledons ? These are questionsof General Phytology, or of the scienceWhich investigates the organiz ation of plants and their mutual connection

,or the present state of

the entirevegetable world .

If,on the other h and, th e species of plants which have been

grouped according to the analogy of their structure are considered,not abstractedly

,but accordi ng to their climatic relations

,or accord

ing to their di stri bution over the surface of the earth,

.we have questions offering quite another and distinct interest. We then examine

what are the families which prevail,more - in proportion

‘

to other

Phanerogamae in the torrid zone than towards the polar circle ? ,Are

Compositae more numerous,either in the same geographical l atitudes

or . o

‘

n d the,

same isothermal lines, in the New than in - the O ld Cont inen t ? Do the forms wh ich ‘graduall y l ose their predominance inadvancing from the E quator towards the Poles follow a similar lawof decrea se in ascending mountains situated i n the equatorial regions ?Do th e proportions of particular families to the Whole mass of Phan erogamae differ in the temperate zones, and on equal isothermallines

,north and south of the E quator ? These questions belong pro

perly to the Geography of Plants,and connect themselves with the

‘

most important problems of meteorology and terrestrial physics .Th e Character of a landscape or coun try ,

is also in a high degree


earth ; If the attention of the travellin g botanis t is engaged.

by th e

frequent repetition of, the same species,their mass

,and the uni

formity of vegetation thus produced , it is even more arrested by the

rarity or infrequency of several other species which are valuable tomankind . In tropical regions

,where the Rubiaceae

,Myrtacem,

L eguminosae,or Terebinthaceae

,form fores ts

,one is as tonished to

ing towards the unhealthy val ley of the Catamayo and to'

the Amazons River

,

‘

to remark the manner in which the trees which furni sh

the precious fever-bark ( species of Cinchona) are found singly andat

,

considerable dis tances from each other. The China Hunters,

Cazadores de Casc ai'ill a (the name given at Loxa to the In dians and

Mestizoes who collect each year the most ‘

eflica c iou s.

of al l feverbarks

,that of the

‘

Cinchona Condamin ea, among the lonely moun

tains of Caxanuma ; Uritu singa , and Rumisitan a), climb,’

not withoutperil

,to the summits of the loftiest forest trees in order to gain a

wide prospect, and to discern the solitarily scattered slender aspiringtrunks of the trees of whi ch they are

( in search, and which theyrecognize by the shining reddish tint of their large leaves . The

mean temperatu re of th is important forest region,situated in 4° to

4 91 ° S . lat. and at an elevation of about 6400to 8000E nglish feet

,

is from 125° to 16° Reaumur to 68° (Humboldt

and Bonpland,Plantes équi noxial es

,t . i . p . 33

,tab .

In considering the distribution of species,we may also proceed

,

particular family in each country. Thi s isthe mode ‘

of compari sonwhich Decandol le has employed in the work entitled Regni vegetabilis Systema natural e (t. i . pp . 128

,396

,439

,464

,and and

Kunth has carried it out in regard to the whole number of speci es

of Composites , at present known (above It does not show

which is the predominant family either in the number of species or

in th e quantity of individuals as compared with oth er‘famil ies ; it

‘

ANNOTATIONS AND '

ADDITIONS . 297

merely tells how many of the species of one and the same familyare indigenous in each country or each quarter .of the world .

Th e results . of thismethod are on the whole mere exac t,because

they are obta ined by the careful study Of single families without thenecessity of being acquainted with the whole number of the phanesrogamae belonging to each country. The most varied fOrms OfFerns

,for example

,are found between the tropics ; it. is there, in

the tempered, heat of moist and shaded places in mountainous

islands,that each genus presents the largest number of Species : this

variety of species in each genus diminishes in passing from the tropical to the temperate zone, and decreases still farther in approachingnearer to the pole . Nevertheless

,as in the cold zone—in Lapland

,

for example—those plants succeed best which can best resist the cold,

so the species ofFerns, although the a bsolute number is less than inFrance -or Germany, are yet rela tively more numerous than in thosecountries ;

fl . e. their n umber bears a greater , proport ion to ,the sum

total of all the ph aen erogamou s plants of the country. These propor

tions or ratios, giyen as above ,

mentioned by quotien ts,are in France

and Germany 71

3and

717 ,and in Lapland

513

. I published numerical ratios of this kind— (i . e. the entire quantity of phaenogamous

plants in each of the different Floras divided . by the number of

spec ies‘

in'

each family) —in my Prolegomen is , de distribu tion e geo

graph ica Plan tarum,in 1817 and in the Memoiron the distribution

of plants Over the E arth’s surface,subsequently “published in the

French language,I . corrected my previou sly

‘

publ ish ed numbers byRobert Brown’s great works . In advancing from the E quator to thePoles

,the ratios taken in this manner vary considerably from t h e

numbers which would be obtained from a comparison of the a bsolu tenumber of species belonging to each family. We often find thevalue of the fraction increase by the d ecrease of the denominator,while yet the absolute number of species has diminished. In themethod by fractions, which I have followed as more instructive in

reference to the geography of plants, there are two variables for inproceedin g from one isothermal line , or on e zone of equal temperature

,to another,we do not see the sum total of all the ph an erOé

gamae change in the same proportion as does the number of species

belongin g to a particular family.


that of di visions formed i n the natura l syst em of botany ac cordingto an ideal series of abstractions

,and direct our attention to Genera,

Classes . There are some genera, and even some entire families,which belong exclusively to particular zones ef the E arth’s surface

and this not only because they can only flourish under a pa rti cular

c ombination of climatic conditions,but

.

also because both the localities in which they Originated

,and their migrations

,have been

families,which have their representatives in al l regions of th e globe,

and at all latitudes of elevation . The earliest investigations intothe distribution of vegetable forms related solely to genera we findthem in a valuable work of Treviranus, in his Biology (bd. ii . s . 47,63

,83

,and This method is

,however

,less fitted to afford

general results than that whi ch compares either the number of spe

cies of each family,or the great leading divisions (of Acotyledons ,

Monocotyledons,and Dicotyledons)with the sum of all the ph an ero

gamee. We find that in the cold zones the variety of forms dOesnot decrease so much if estimated by genera as if estimated by spe

cies in other words,we find relatively more genera and fewer spe

cies. (Dec andol le, Théorie élémentaire de la Botanique, p . 190

Humboldt,Nova genera et species Plan tarum

,t. i . pp . xvii . and

It is almost the same in the case of high mountains whose summits

support single members of a large number of genera,which we should

have been -d p riore'

inclined to regard as belonging exclusively to thevegeta tion of the plains .

I have thought it desirable to indi cate the different points of view

be considered . It ~ is b y con foundin g these different points of .view

that apparent contradictions are found,which are unjustly attributed

to uncertainties of observation . (Jahrbi'

i'

ch er der Gew'

ach skunde,

bd. i. Berlin,1818

,s . 18

,21

, When such expressions as

'

th e

following are made use Of This form,or this family

,diminishes

as the cold zones are approached ; —it has its true home in such orsuch a latitude -it is a southern form —it predominates in thetemperate zone ; care should always be taken to state expressly

300 PHYSIOGNOMY OF iPLANTS .

reaped in the several ' families.

alreadywell-explored zones, h as conducted me to the recognition oflaws according to which, in proceeding from the E quator to the Poles,the vegetable forms constituting a natu ral family decrease or increase

as compared with the whole mass of phanerogamae belonging to eachzone . We have here to regard not only th e directi on of. the change

(whether an increase‘or a decrease), but also its rapidi ty or measure .

We see the denominator of the frac tion whi ch expresses the ratio

increase or decrease : let us take as our example the beaut iful fami lyof Legummosae

,which decreases in going from th e equinoctial zone

towards the North Pole . If we find its proportion or ratio for the

torrid zone ( from 0° to 10° of latitude) at 315 , we obtain for th e part

.

of the temperate zone whic h is between .45° and 52° latitude T

'

g ,

and for the frigid zone ( lat . 67°to only

51

3.

-The di rection

followed by the great famil y of Leguminosae ( increa se on approaching the E quator), is also that of the Rubiaceae, the E uphorbiaceae,and especially the Malvaceae . On the contrary, the Grasses and

Jun cac eae (the latter still more than the former) diminish“

in ap

proach ing the E quator, as do also the E riceae and Amen taceae. Th e

Compos itae, ‘

Labiatm,Umbelliferae

,and Cruciferae

,decrease in pro

c eeding from the temperate z one, either towards the Pole or towards

th el

E qu a tor, the Umbelliferae and Crucife'

rae decreasing most rapidly

in the last-named di rection ; while at the same time in the temperatezone the Cruciferae are three times more numerous in E urope thanin t he United States

.Of North America . O n reaching Greenland,

the Labiatae have entirely disappeared with the exception of,one

,

Hornemann,to 315 species .

I t must be remarked at,the same time that the development of

plants of different families,.and the distribution of vegetable forms,

do not depend exclusively ion geographi cal, or even on isothermallatitude 3 the quotients are not always on . the same isothermal line

in the temperate zone,for example

,in the plains of North America

and those .of the O ld Continent . Within the tropics there’ is a very


sensible difference between America, India, and the West Coast ofAfrica . The distribution of organic beings over the surface of theearth does not depend wholly on thermic or climatic relations

,which

are of themselves very complicated,but also on geological causes

almost unknown to us, belonging to the original state o f the earth,and to cata strophes which have not affected all parts of our planetsimul taneously. The large pachydermatous animal s are at .the present time wanting in. the New Continent, while we still

' find themin analogous climates in Asia and Africa . These di fferences oughtnot to deter

,u s from endeavoring to search

'

out the concealed laws

of nature, but should rather stimulate us,to the study of them

through all their intricacies .

The numerical laws of the famili es of plants,the often striking

agreement of the numbers expressing their ratios,where yet the

species'

of which,

the families consist are for the most" part different

,

conduct us into the mysterious obscurity which" envelops all_that is

c on nec ted with the fixing of organic types in“ the species of plantsand animals

,or with their original formation or creation . I will

take as examples two [adjoining countries which have both beenthoroughly explored

—France and Germany. In . France,many

species of‘Grasses, Umbelliferaeand Cruciferae, Compos ites, Legumi

noses,and Labiatae are wanting

, which are common, in Germany ;and yet the numerical ratios of “these 's1x great families ‘ are almost

identical in the two c ountries,as will be seen by th e subj oined com

parison . 1g , 4

F ra n c e

L2 4

This agreement in th e number of species in each family comparedto the whole number of phaenogamous spec 1es 1n the Floras of Franced Germany, would not by any means exist if the German species

whi ch are missing In France were not replaced there by other types

belonging to the same families . Those who are fond of imagining

26


of parrots proper to two islands'

not far removed for each other-

topresent examples of such a change

,will be inclined to attribute the

have ju st been given, to a'

migration of species which,having been

the same at first,have been altered gradually by the long-continued

identi ty being lost they appear to replace each other. But why is

oaks have never advanced to the eastward of the Ural Mountain s,and so passed from E urope to Northern Asia ? Whyus

‘

th ere no

species of the genus Rosa 1n the Southern Hemisphere, and why arethere scarcely any Calceolarias in the Northern Hemisphere ? Theneces sary conditions of temperature are insufficient to explain this .Thermic relations al one cannot

,any more than “ the hypothesis of

migrations of plantsradiat ing from certain cen tral points, explainthe present d istribution of fixed organic forms? Thermic relations

species do not .pass, either in latitude towards the pole at the levelof the sea

,or in vertical elevation towards the summitsof mountains:

The cycle of vegetation in each species,however different its duration

may be,requires

,in order to be successful ly passed th rough

,a oer

tain minimum of temperature . (Playfair, in the Transactions of the

Royal Society of E dinburgh, vol. v . 1805,p . 202 ; Humboldt, on

the sum of the degrees of temperature requi red for the cycle ofvegetation in the Cerealia

,in Mem . sur les lignes isothermes

,p .

96 Boussingault,

‘ E conomie rurale,t . i i. pp . 659

,663

,and 667 ;

Alphonse Decandolle,sur les causes qui limitent les especes végétales,

1847 , p .

“But all the conditions necessary for the existence ofa plant

,either as diffused naturally or by cul tivation—conditions

of latitude or minimum distance from the pole,and of elevation or

maximum height above the level of the sear —arefarther complicatedby the difficulty of determining the commencement of the thermic

cycle of vegetation,and by the influence which the unequal distri

bu tion of the same quantity of heat into groups of successive daysand nights exercises on the excitability

,the progressive develop


early part of this dissertation, by givin g in an' approximate manner

the numerical limi t ( l e nombre limite of French mathematic ians),which the whole phanerogamae now existing on the surface

“

of theearth cannot be supposed to fall short of

,we may

,perhaps, find our

safest gui de in a comparison of the numerica l ratios (which, as‘

we

h ave s een , may be assumed to exist between the different famili es of

cul tivated '

in our great botanic gardens I have said that in 1820

des Plantes at Paris was already estimated at I du n ot per

mit myself to conj ecture the amoun t which the herbariums of E ngland may

,contain ; but the great Paris herbarium,

which was formed

with much personal sacrifice by Benjamin Delessert ,’

and given by

him for free and general use, was sta ted at hi s dea th to contain

species ; a number almc st equal to that which, as late as

1835,was conj ect urally assigned by Lindley as that of all the spef

cies existing on the whole earth . (Lindley, Introduction to Botany,2d edit. ‘ p

. Few herbarium s have been reckoned with caie,after a complete and strict separation

,and withdrawal of all mefe

varieties . Not a few plants contained in smaller coll ections are stillwanting in the greater herbariums which are supposed to be general

or complete . Dr. Kl ot z sc h estimates the present entire number ofphaenogamous plants in the great Royal Herbarium at Sch

'

oneberg,

nearBerlin,of which he is the curator

,at species .

Loudon’s useful work,Hortus Britannicus

,gives an approximate

view of all the species which are,or at -

n o _ remote time have been,

We must not confound with th is large number of plants whi ch havegrown or been cultivated at any time

,and in any pa rt of the whole

British Islands,the number of living plants which can be shown at

any single moment of time in any single botanic garden . In thi slast-named respect, the Botanic Garden of Berlin has long been regarded as one of the richest in E urope . The fame of its extraerdinary riches rested formerly only on uncertain and approxima tees timations ; and, as

-my fell ow-laborer and friend of many years’


notices communicated to the Gartenbau-Verein, in December,“ no real enumertation or. c ompuat ion could be made until a system

'

atic catalogue, based on a rigorous examina tion of species, hadbeen prepared .

’ Such an enumeration has given rather above

species : if we deduct from this number 375 cul tivated Ferns, wehave remaining phaenogamous species ; among which, wefind 1600 Composites, 1150 Leguminosae, 428 . Labiatae, 370 ,Um

If we compare with these numbers those of the species already de

scribed in recent works—Composites (Decandoll e and Walpers)about Leguminosae, 8070 Labiatae (Bentham), 2190;Umbelliferae

,1620; Grasses, [

3544 and Cyperaceae (Kunth, E numera tio Plan tarum), 2000 we shall perceive tha t the Berlin

Leguminosae, and Grasses), only 1-7 th , 1-8th , and 1-9 th —and ofthe smal l fami lies (Labiatae and Umbelliferae), about 1-5th , or 13—4th ,of des‘cribed species. If

,then

, we estimate the number of all thedifferent phaenogamous plants cul tivated at one time in all thebotanic gardens of E urope .

at we find that the cultivated

spec ies appear tO be about”the eighth pa rt of those which are already

eith erd escribed or . preserved ini

h erbariums, and that these must

nearly amount to Th is estimate need not be thought ex‘

c essive,since

, of many of the larger famil ies (for e xample, Gutti

a hundredth part are found in our garden .

” ' If we take the number

given by Loudon in h is Hort a s Britannicus species) as abasis

,we Shal l find (according to the justly drawn succession of in

feren ces of Professor Kunth, in the manuscript notices from whichI have borrowed the above) the estimate of species rise to

and even this is still very moderate, for Heyn h old’s No

men c lator botani cus hortensis (1846) even rates the phaenogamousspecies then cul tivated at wh ereas, . I have employed Lou

don’s number for 1832,viz . O n the whole, it would

appear from wh at has b ee n sa idf and the conclusion is, at first

more known species of phaenogamous (p lants with whi ch we are ao26*


quain ted by gardens, descriptions, or herbariums), than there are

known insects . Accordin g to the average of the sta tements which

I have received from several of our most dis tinguished en tomol cgists,whom I have h ad the opportunity of consultin g, the number of In

Sects at present described, or contained in collections without . being

described,may be taken at between and species .

The rich Berlin collection does not contain less than species,

among which are about Cole'

optera . A very large numberof plants have been collected in distant parts of the globe, without

the insects which live on them Or near them being brought at the

same time . If,however

,we limit the estimates of numb ers to a

single part of the world,and that the one which has been the best

explored in respect to both plants and insects, viz . E urope,we find

a very different proportion for 'while we can hardly enumerate be.tween seven and eight thousand E uropean phaenogamous plant s

,

more than three times that number of E uropean insects are already

known . According to the interesting communications of‘my friend

Doh'

rn,at Stettin

,8700insects have already been coll ected from the

rich Fauna of that vicinity ( and many micro—Lepidopteras are stillwanting), while th e phaenogamous plants of the same district scarcelyexceed 1000. The Insect Fauna of Great Britain is estimated at

species . Such a preponderance of animal forms—need th eless surprise '

u s,Since large classes of insects subsist solely on

animal substances,and others on agamou s vegetation ( funguses,

and even those which are subterranean). Bombyx pini,alone ( the

spider which infests the Scotch fir,and is the most destructive of

al l forest insects), 1s visited, according to Ra t z ebui'

g, by thirty-fivei

If these considerations have led us to the‘ proportion borne by thespecies of 'plants cultivated in gardens to the entire amount of thosewhich are already either described or preserved in h erbariums

,

*we

have still to consider the proportion borne by the latter to what we

conj ecture to be the wh ole’

number of forms existing upon the earthat the present time ; i . e. to test the assumed minimum of such

forms by the relative numbers of Species in the different fami lies,

therefore,by uncertain multipliers . Such a test

,however

,gives for

t h e lowest limit or min Imum number results so low as to lead us to


If we had suffi cient grounds for believing that we are now acqhain tedwith half the phaenogamous plants on the globe

,and if we took the

number of known species only at one or other of the before-men

t ion ed numbers of or we should st il l have to

take the number of grasses (the general“proportion of which appears

to be T‘

In the first case at least at and In the secon d case

c ases only either l or Ti

npart as kn own .

The assumption that we already know half the existing species ofphaenogamous plants i s farther opposed by the following considera

tions . Several th ousan d spec ies of Monocotyledons andD c tyledons,

and aniong themtall trees —(I refer here to my own E xpedition)have been d iscovered in

’

regions,considerable portions of which

h ad been previously examined by distinguished botanists . Theport ions of the grea t‘ con tinents which have never even been trodden

by botanical observers considerably exceed in area those whi ch have

been traversed by such travellers,even in a superficial manner. The

greatest variety of ph asn ogain ou s vegetation, i . e. the greatest numberof species on a given area, is found between the tropics, and in thesub-tropical zones .

‘

Th is last-mentioned consideration renders it somuch the more important to remember how almost

'

en t irely unac

qua in ted we are, on the New Continent, north of the E quator, withthe Floras of O axaca

,Yucatan

,Guatimal a, Nicaragua , the Isthmus of

Panama,Choco

,An t iOqu ia, and the Provincia de los Pa stos ;

‘

-and

south of the E quator,with the Floras of the vast forest region between

the Ucayale,th e Rio de la Madera , and the Tocan tin (three great tribu

taries of, theAmazons), and with those of Paraguay and. the Provincia

de los Mission'

es . InAfrica,except in respect to the coasts

,we know

nothing of the vegeta tion frOm 15° north to 20° south latitude ; in

Asia, we are unacquainted with: the Floras of the south and southeast of Arabia

,where the highlands rise to about 6400E nglish feet

above the level of the sea—of the countries between the Thi an

schan, the Ku en l iin,and the Himalaya

,all th e west part of China

,

and the greater part of the countries beyond the Ganges . Still moreunknown to the botanist are the interior of Borneo

,New Guinea,

and part of Australia. Farther to the south,the number of spec ies

undergoes a wonderful diminution,as Joseph Hooker h as well and

. ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS . 309

ably '

Shown fromhis own ‘ observation in hi s Antarctic fFlora? Thethree islands of whi ch New Zealand consists extend from n 343~° t o

—S. latitude ;'

and‘ as they contain,moreover

,snowy mountains

of a bove E ngl ish feet elevation, they must include considerable diversity x

of climate . Th e Northern I sland has been examined

with tolerable completeness from the voyage of Banks and Solandert’

mIIesson and"

th e . Brothers Cunningham and Colenso,and yet in

more than 70 years we h ave only”b ecome acqu ainted with lessthan 700 phaenogamous “

species. (Dieflenbach , Travels in NewZealand

,1843

,vol . i . p . The pau c ityo f'

vegetable correspondsto the p aucity of animal species . Joseph Hooker

,in n is Flora

Antarctica,pp . 73—75, remarks, that “ the botany of th e densely

wooded regions of the southern islands of the‘

New Zealand groupand of E ucgia 1s much more meagrenot only than that of similarly

clothed regions of E urope,but of islands Inany degrees nearer to

the Northern pole f th an these are to th e ,Sou th ern one . Iceland,for

instance,which 1s from 8 to 10degrees farther from the E quator than

theAuckland and th e Campbell Islands,contains certainly five times

as many flowering plants . In the Antarctic Flora,under the in

flu en ce of a cool and moist,but singul arly equable climate

, great

uniformity; arising from paucity Of species,is associated with great

luxuriance of vegetation . This strIking uniformity prevails both atdifferent levels (th e species found on the plains appearing al so on

the slope s Of the mountains) and Over vast extents of country, fromthe south of Chili to Patagonia and even to T

i

erra del Fu ego, or

from lat . 45° to Compare,on the other hand

,inthe northern

temperate region, the FIOra of the South of France, In the latitude

of the Chonos Ar chipelago on t h e coast of Chili, with the Fl ora ofArgylesh ire in Scotland, in the latitude of Cape Horn, and how great

a difference of species is found ; While in“

the Southern Hemisphere

the same types of vegetation pass through many degrees of latitude ;

Lastly,on Wal den Island

,in lat. 801 ° N . or not ten

‘

degrees fromthe North Pole of the earth

,ten species of flovvering. plants have

been collected,while in the southernmost islet of the South Shet

lands,though only In lat. 63 ° S .

,only a solitary grass was found .

”

These considerations on the distribution of plants confirm th e belief

that the great mass of stil l unobserved, unc ollec ted,'

and undescribed


latitudes from 12° to 15° dis tant from th e tropics.

of our knowledge in this still little cul tivated department of arith

for the possibility of, deducing the lower ormin imum limits ;“

as ina question treated of by,

me,

elsewhere; on the proportion of coined

other ways ; or as in the q uestions of how many stars, from th e l 0th

to the 12th’

magni tude, are di spersed over the sky, and how many of

the smallest telescopic stars th e Mi lky Way may contain .. (John

Herschel,Resul ts of Astron . Observ . at the Cape of Good HOpe,

1847, p . We may consider it as establ ished,that

,if it were

possible to knowcompletely and thoroughly by observa tion al l th e

Species -belonging to one of the great families of ph aen erogamous or

flowering plants,we Should learn th ereby ‘

at the - same time , approxi

As, t herefore, by the progressive exploration of new coun tries,

'we

of any of the great families,the previously assigned lowest lim it

rises gradually higher ; and Sinc e the forms reciprocally limi t each

otherin conformi ty with still undiscovered laws of universal organ i

z ation,we approach continually nearer to the solution of the grea t

numerical problem of organi c life . But ‘

is the number'

of organic

forms itself a c onstant number ? -.Dornew vegetable forms spring

from the ground after long periods of. time,while others become

more and more rare, and at last disappear ? Geology,by means bf

latter portion of thi s quest ion affi rmatively.

“ In the Ancient

World,” to

’

use the remark of an eminent naturalist,Link (Abhandl .

der Akad . der Wiss . z u Berlin aus dem Jahr 1846, S .

“ wesee characters

,now apparently remote and widely separated from

each other,associated or crowd ed together in wondrous forms, as . if

a greater developmen t and Separation awaited a later age in the

history of our planet.”


(15

) p .,

238 . Pa lms .

It is remarkable, that . of this‘

majestic form of plants ( some of

which rise to mere than twice the height of the Royal Palace atBerlin

,and to which the Indian Amarasinh a gave the cha rac ter

istic appellation of Ki ngs among the Grasses”) up to the time of

the dea th' of Linnaeus onl y 15 Species were described .

,The Peru

vian travellers Ruiz‘

and Pavon added to these 8 more species .

Bonpland and I, in passing over a more extensive range of country,from 12° S . lat. to 21° N . lat .

,described 20new Species of palms,

and distinguished as many more, but without beihga ble to obtaincomplete specimens of their flowers . (Humboldt de distrib. geogr .

Plan tarum,pp . 225 At the present time, 4 4 years after my

return from Mexico,there are from the 01d and ~New World, in

cluding the E ast Indian species brough t nbyGriffith, above 440regularly described species . The E numera tio Plan tarum of myfriend Kunth

,published in 1841

,had already; 356 Species ,

A.

few,but only a few species of palms

,are

, like .our Coniferae,

Q uerc in eae, and Betul in eee , social plants : such are the Mauritiaflexuosa

,and two species of ‘

Chamaerops, one‘ of which

,the Cha

maerops humilis, occupies ' extensive tracts of ground near themouth of the E bro

,and in Valencia ; and the other, C . moc in i

,

'

dis

covered by us on the Mexican Shore of the Pacific, and _ entirelywithout prickles

,is also a social plant. While some kinds of palms ,

including Chamaerops and Cocos,are littoral or shore-loving trees

,

there is in the tropics a peculiar group of mounta in palms,which

,

if I am not mistaken,was entirely unknown previous to my South

American travels . Almost all spe’

c ieS of the family of palms growon

_the

.

plains‘

or low grounds,in a mean tempera ture

’of between

22° and 24° Reaumur 5 and rarely ascendingso high as 1900E nglish feet on the declivities of the Andes : butin the mountain palms .to which I have alluded

,the beautiful wax

palm (Ceroxylon andicola), the Palmeto of Azufral at the Pass ofQu indiu (O reodoxa frigida), and th e reed-like Kun th ia montana

(Cafi a de la Vibora) of Pasto, attain elevations between 6400and9600E nglish feet above the level of the sea

,where the th ermome

ter often Sinks at night as low as and 6° of Reaumur


and 5 and the mean temperature Scarcely amounts to11° Reaumur

,or 8 Fahrenheit. These Alpine Palms grow

among“Nu t trees, yew-leaved spec 1es of Podoc arpus f and .O aks

(Quercus gran a ten sis). I have determined by exact barometricalmeasurement t h e upper and lower limits of the .

range of the Wax

palm . We first began to find it on the eastern declivity of Andesof Qu indiu , at the height of 7440( about 7930E nglish) feet above

. the level of the sea,and it extended upwards as far as the Garita

. del Paramo and los Volcancitos, or to 9100 (almost 9 700E nglish)feet : several years after my departure from the country

,the dis

t ingu ished'

botan ist -Don'

J ose Caldas , who had been long ou r. com

panion amidst the mountains of New Granada, and who afterwardsfell a victim to Spanish party hatred

,found three species of palms

growing in the Paramo de Guanacos, very near the limits of perpetua l snow

,therefore

,probably at an elevation of more than13

,000

(13,855 E nglish) feet. (Semanariode Santa Fé de Bogota, 1809 ,No 21, p . 1 63 . E ven beyond the tropics, in th e latitude of 28

°

north,

. the ‘Chamaerops"martiana reaches on the sub-Himalayan

mountains a height of ‘5000E nglish feet. (Wallich, Plantes Asiat icae, vol . iii . tab . 211.

If we look for the extreme geographical limits of palms (whichare also the extreme climatic limits In all the Spec l es which inhabit

localities bu t little raised above the level of the Sea), we see some,as the date-palm

,the Chamaerops humilis

,C . palmetto

,and the

Areca sapida of New Zealand,advance far into .the temperate zones

of either‘

hemisphere ; into regions where the mean . temperature ofthe year hardly equals and Reaumur andFahrenheit). If we‘ form a series of cultivated plants or trees

,

placed in order of successi on according to the degree of heat , they

require,and beginning with the maximum

,we have Cacao, Indigo,

,Planta ins, Coffee, Cotton, Date-palms, O range and Lemon Trees,O l ive

_s, ,Sweet Chestnuts, and Vines . In

‘

E urope, date-palms (introduced

,not indigenous) ‘grow mingled with Ch ameerOps humilis

e in

E the parallels of and as on the GenoeseRivera del Ponente,near Bordigh era ; .between Monaco and San Stefano, where there isan assemblage of more

‘

than 4000 palm-stems ; . and .in , Dalmatiaround Spa latro . It is remarkable that Chamaerops humi lis is abund

27

314'

e hss iooso'

m or’

P'

LANTs .

”

an t both at Nice and in S ardin ia, and yet is not found i n the Island

bf Corsica, which l ies between those loc alities , In the New'

Con ‘

t inen t,

"

the‘ palmetto,which is sometimes above 40

E nglish f eet high ; only advances as'

far north as 34° latitu de,‘

a

difference sufficiently explained hy'

the inflexi

on s of the 'isothermal

lines . In the Southern Hemisphere,In New Holland

,

'

palms,of

which there are very few (Six or seven species), only advance to 34°

of latitude ( see Robert Brown’s general remarks on the Botany of

Terra Au stralis, , p . and in New Zea land

,where Sir Joseph

Banks first saw an Areca palm,'

thhy reach'

th e 38th pal‘al lelf In

Africa, which, quite contrary to the an c ien t

'

and st il l lwid‘

ely prevail

ing b elief,is "poor in Species of palms, on ly one palm, the

‘Hyphaenecoriacea

,advances to Port Nata l

'

in 30° latitude . The Continent

of Sout h America presents almost the same limits in reqdec t to

latitude . O n the eastern Side of the Andes,in

.

the Pampasiof

Buenos Ayres and in the Cis-Plata province, palms

‘

extend,according

to Auguste de St. Hilaire, to 34° and 35°

'

S. latitude . Th is i s also

the latitude to which,on the western Side of the Andes

,the (E co

de Chile ( our Jubaea spectabilisD,the only Chilian palm

,extends

,

according to Claude Gay, being as far as the banks of the Rio

Maule .

‘

( See also Darwin’s Journ al

,

'

edition of 1845,pp . 244 a nd

,256)

'

I will here introduce some detached remarks which I wrote in

March,1801

,on board the Sh ip in

'

wh ich ’wé were sailing from th e

palmy

i

sh ores of the mouth of the Rio Sinu, west of Darien, toCartagena de las Indias .

"3We have :now,in t h e course of the two years

'

which we'

h ave'

Spent in South America,seen 27 different species of palms . How

manymust Commers on,Thunberg

,Banks

,Solander

,the two For

sters,Adanson

,and Son n era t have observed In their distant voyages !

Yet,at the present moment

,when I write these lines

,our systems

of botany do not include more than from 14 to 18 systematical lydescribed Species . In truth

,the diffi culty of procuring the flowers

of palms is greater than can readily be imagined . We have felt itso much the more from having especially directed our attention to

Palms, Grasses, Cyperaceae, Juncaceae, Cryptogamou s Plants; and

such other'

obj ects'

as have been least studied hitherto ;'

Most Species

316 PHYSIOGNOM‘Yo r PLANTS .

O reodoxa Regia), in the immediate vicinity of th e city and.

on ‘ the“

public walks,adorned with Snow-white blo .ssoms For Several days

we offered the negro boys whom we met in the streets of Reg'

la and

Gu an ava c oa two piastres for a single bunch of the blos soms whichwe wanted

,but in vain ! Between the tropics men are indi sposed

‘

to labori ous exertion,unless compelled by constraint or by extreme

destitution . The botanists and artists of the Royal Spanish Com

mission for researches l n Natural History—under the direction ofCount Jaru co y Mopor ( E stevez, Boldo, Guio, and E cheveria)acknowledged to us that

,during several years

,they had not been

able to obtain these flowers for examination . These difi cu l ties suffi c ien tly explain what would

“

have been incomprehensible to mebefore my voyage

,namely

,th at

'

al th ough , during our two years’ stay

up to the present time, we have, indeed, discovered more than 20different speci es of palms

,we have as yet been only able to describe

systematically 12. Howinteresting a work might be produced bya traveller 1n South America who Should occupy himself exclus ivelywith the study of palms

,and Should make drawings of the spathe,

spadix, inflorescenc e, and fru it, all of the size of nature ! ( I wrotethis many years before the Brazilian travels of Martin s and Spix,and t h e admirable and - excel lent work

'

of Martins on Palms .)“ There is

‘

considerable uniformity in the shape of the leaves of

palms ;‘

they are generally either pinnate (feathery, or divided l ike"

the plume of a feather); or else palmate or palmo-digitate -

(of a

fan-like form) : the leaf-stalk (petiolus) is in some species without'

sp ines, in others Sharply tooth ed, ( serrat o-spinosus). The form of

the leaf in Caryota'

u ren s and Mart inez ia c aryotifol ia (whichWe sawon the banks of

'

th e O rinoco'

and Atabapo,and again in the Andes,

at,

the'

pas'

s‘

of Q u indiu, 3000 Fr. (3197 E nglish) feet above thelevel of the sea), is

‘

exc ept ion al and almost unique among palms, asis the form of the leaf

'

of the Gingko among trees . The port andphysiognomy

'

of palms “have a grandeur'

of character very difficult

to convey by words . The stem,shaft,or caudex is generally simple

and undivided,but in extremely rare exceptions divides into branches

in’

the manner of the Dracaenas,as in Cru c ifera th ebaic a ( the Doum

palm), and'

Hyphaene coriacea. It is sometimes disproportionatelythick ( as in

" Corozo ‘del Sinu,our Alfonsia oleifera); sometimes feeble

Annq rn'

ri oms AND ADDITIONS. 317t

as s reed ( as in Piritu, Kun th ia montana, and the Mexican C

'

erypha

nana); sometimes swelling towards the base’

( as in Cocos), sometimes smooth, and sometimes scaly (Palma de covija o de sombrero,in the Llanos) sometimes armed with spines (as Corozo de Cumana ,

and Mac anil la de Caripe), the long spines being distributed withmuch regu larity in concentric rings.

”

“Characteristic difl'

erenc es are also furnished In somespec ies by

roots which, springing from the stem at about a foot or a foot and ahalf above the ground

,either raise the stern as it were upon a seaf

folding, 01' surround it with thick buttresses . I have seen Viverras,

and even very small monkeys, pass underneath this kind of scaflold

ing formed by the roots of the Caryota . O ften the shaft or stem isswollen only in the middle

,being more slender above and below, as

in the Palma Real of the Island of Cuba . Th e leaves are sometimesof .a dark and Shining green ( as In the Mauritia and the Coc oa

-nut

palm) sometimes of a silvery white on the under side (as In th eslender Fan -palm

,Corypha miragu ama, which ,

we found in theHarhor of Trinidad de Cuba). Sometimes the middle of th e fan qr

palmate leaf is ornamented with concentric yellowish or bluishstripes like a peacock

’s tail ; as in the thorny Mauritiawhich Bonpland discovered on the banks of the Rio Atabapo .

”

‘fThe direction of the leaves 18 a character not less important thantheir form and color. The leaflets (fol iola) are sometimes arrangedlike th e teeth of a comb, set on in the same plane, and close to eachoth er, .and having a very rigid parenchyma ( as in Coc os, and inPh oenix the g enus to which the Date belongs)

'

whence th e fine

play of light from the sunbeams falling . on t he upper surface ,of th e

leaves (which is of a fresher verdure in Cocos, and of’

a moredeadand ashy hue in the Date-palm) sometimes the leaves are flag-l ike,of a thinner

.

and more flexible texture, and curl towards the extl emities (as in Jagua, Palma Real del Sinu, Palma Real de Cuba,and Piritu dell

?

O rinoco). The peculiarly maj estic charac ter of

palms 1s given not only by their lofty stems, but also 111 a very high

degree by the direction of their leaves. It Is part of the beauty of

any particular species of palms that its leaves should possess ,th is

aspiring character ; and not only in youth, as is th e case in the

Date-palm,but also throughout the duration of the life of . the tree

“

.

27*

18 PIiYSIooNOMY or PLANTS.

t inu ation'

of the stem,the grander and more imposing is the general

character and physiognomy of the tree . How different are t h e

character and aspect given by the drooping leaves of the Palma de

covija del O rinoco y de los Llanos de Calabozo (Corypha tectorum)the more nearly horizontal or at least less up right leaves of theDate and Cocoa-nut palms ; and the aspiring, heavenward poin tingbranches of the Jagua

,the Cucurito

,and the Pirijao !

“Nature’ .has’

lavished every beau tyfof form-

,

on'

the Jagua palm,which, intermingled with the Cucurito or Vadgihai

"

(8 5 to 106

E nglish feet high), adorns the Cataracts of Atures and Maypures,

and iso c ca sion al ly found also on the lonely banks of the Cassiquiare .

The smooth,slender stems of the Jagua

,rising to

‘

between 64; and

75 E nglish feet, appear above the dense mass of5foliage of. other

kinds of trees from amidst which they spring like raised colonnades,

their ai ry summits “contrasting beautifully with the - thickly-leavedspec ies of Ceiba

,and with the forest of Laurineae

,Calophyllum,

anddifferent species of Amyris which surround them . The leaves ofthe Jagua

,which are few In number (scarcely so many as seven or

eight), are sixteen or seventeen feet long, and rise almost verticallyinto

'

the air ; their extremities are curled like plumes ; the ultimatedivisions

'

br leaflets,having only a thin

,grass-like pa renchyma

,flutter

lightly and airily round the slowly balancing central leaf-stalks .'

In

al ll

palms, the inflorescence springs from the trunk itself, . and belowthe place where the leaves originate

,but the manner in wh ich this

takes place modifies the physiognomic character. In a few speciesonly ( as the Corozo del Sinu), the spathe ( or sheath enclosing the

ing a kind of thyrsus, like . the fruits of the Bromelia : in m ost

species of palms, the are sometimes smooth and

sometimes rough and armed with formidable spines) are pendent ;ina few Species, the male flowers are of a dazzling whitene ss

,and

in such cases the flower-covered spadix,when fully developed

,

shines from afar. In most spec ies‘

of palms,the male flowers are

yellowi sh, closely crowded, and appear almost withered when th eydisengage themselves from the spath e .

320 PHYSIooNOMY or PLANTS .

Three vegetable forms of peculiar beauty_ _

are proper to the’

tropi

ca l zone in'

al l parts of the globe ; Palms, Plantains or Bananas,and Arborescent Ferns . It is where heat and moisture are com”

bined that vegetation is most vigorous, and «its formsw most varied ;and hence South America,

excels the res t of the tropical ‘

world'

i n

the number and beauty of her species of Palms . In Asia,thi s form

the Indian continent which was situated immediate ly under theequin oc tia l line has been broken up and covered by the sea in the course

the palm trees of Africa between the Bight of Benin and t h e Coastof Aj an ; and, generally speaking, we are only acquainted, as hasbeen already remarked, wi th a very small number of spec ies ofPalms belonging to th a t quarter of the globe .

Palms afl'

ord,next to Coniferae and species of E ucalyptus, belong

ing to the family of Myrtaceae,examples of th e greates t loftiness of

stature attained by any of the members of the vegetable kingdomu

Of the Cabbage Palm “

(Areca oleracea), stems have been seen'

from

15Q'

to 160 French ( 160 to 170 E nglish) feet high . (Aug .,

de

Saint-Hilaire,Morphologie

,végétale, 1840,

1

p . The Wax

palm, our Ceroxylon andieola, discovered by us on the A ndes, be

tween Ibague and Carth ago,'

on the Mon tafi a de Quindiu , attains the

immense height of 160 to 180French ( 170 to 192 E nglish) feet.I was able to measure with exactness the prostrate tron ks which hadbeen cut down and were l ying in the forest. Next t0 1 theWax

pa lm, O reodoxa Saucona, which we found in flower near Roldan illain the Cauca Valley

,and which affords a very hard and excel lent

bui lding wood, appeared to me to be the tallest of.American pa lms .

The circumstance that,n otwithstanding the enormous quantity of

fruits produced by a Single Palm . tree,the number of individuals

of each species which are found in a wild state is not very considerable, can only be expla ined by the frequently abortive development

of the fruits (and consequent absence of seeds), and by the voracity of their numerous assailants

,belonging to all classes of the

animal world .

-Yet,although I have said that the wild individuals

are not very numerou s, there are in the basin of the O rinoco entire

tribes of men who live for several months of th e year on the fruits

ANNOTATIONSAND ’

ADDITIONS . 321

Of,

palms. -“Ifi

'

palmetispPih igu ao c on sitis,singu l i trun ci quotami

n iS fere 400fru ctus ferun t pomiformes, trituInque'

eSt verbum interFratres S . Fran c isc i

,ad ripas O rin oc i et Gau in iae degen tes, m1re

pingu escere Indorum corpora, quoties uberem Palmae fruc tum fundant.” (Humboldt, de Distrib . geogr. Plant . p .

M

(16) p . 239 . S ince the earliest infa n cy“

of human

rIn all tropical . countries we find the cultivation of th e_

Banan a or

Plantain established from the earliest times with which tradition or.

history makes us acquainted . It is certain that,in the course of the

last few centuries,African slaves have brought new varieties to

America,

. bu t it is equally certain that Plantains were cultivated in

the!

New.World before its discovery by Columbus. The Gu aikeri

Indian s, at ‘

Cuman aLassured us that, on t h e coast of Paria, near the

ripe,the pl antain sometimes produced seeds which would germinate

and in this manner plantains are Occasionally found growing wild int he recesses Of the forest

,from ripe seeds conveyed thither by birds .

“Perfectly formed seeds have also sometimes been found in plantain

fruits at Bordon es,

'

n ear Cumana (Compare my E ssai sur’

la G'

éo

graph ic des~Plan tes

"

,p . 29 ; a nd my Rélat . hist. t .

_i . pp .

' 104 and

587 , t . ii . pp . 355 andI h ave / already remarked elsewhere (Cosmos, bd . 11. s, 191 ;

E nglish edition,p . that O nesicri tus and the oth er companions

Of Alexander, while they makeno'

al lusion'

10 the tall, arborescent

ferns,speak of the, fan-leaved umbrella palm,

a nd of“

the delicate

and always fresh verdure of the cultivated p lantains'

or bananas .

Among the Sanscrit names given by Amarasinh a for the plantainor banana ( the Musa Of botanists) there are bhanu phala (sun fruit),varana-buscha, andmoko . Phala signifies fruit 111 general . Lassen

explains the words of Pliny ‘F arbori nOmen palae, pomo

arienae” thus : “ The Roman mistook the word pala, fruit, for the

name of the tree ; and varana ( in‘

the mOu th of a Greek ou aran a)became transformed into ariena . The Arabic mauzamay have beenformed from moko

,and hence. our Musa Bhanu fruit is not far

322 PHYSIOGNOMY on PLANTS.

11. p . 382,and Rél .-hist. t. i . p .

(17) p ; Z 40. Theform of Ma lva ceee .

Larger malvaceous forms begin to appear as .soon as .we havecrossed the Al ps ; at Nice and in Dalmatia, Lavate ra arborea ; and

bread tree,

‘have been mentioned above (vol . p . To th is form

are attached the also botanically allied families of the Byt tn eriaceae

which the flowers spring from the bark~both of: the" trunk and th e

roots); the Bo'

mbaceae (Adansonia, Helicte‘

res,and Ch eirostemon)

and lastly the Tiliaceae (Sparmannia Africana). I may name more

particularly,as superb representatives of th e Mallow-form

,our Ca

van illesiaplatan ifol ia, of Turbaco, near Carth‘

agena1

'

_

in South Ame

rica,and the celebrated O chroma-like Hand-tree, the Macpalxoc h i

quah u itl of the Mexicans (from ma cp a l l i, the flat hand), Arbol delasManitas Of the Spaniards

,our Cheirostemon platanoides inwhich

the\

long curved anthers proj ec t b eyond the fine purple blossom,

causing it to resemble a hand or claw. Throughout the MexicanStates this one highly ancient tree is the only existing individual of

this extraordinary race : it is supposed to be a stranger,planted about

five centuries ago bythe k ings of Toluca . I found th e h eigh t abovethe see.where the Arbol de las Manitas stands to be 8280 French

(8824 E nglish) feet . ,Why is there only a single individual, and

from ‘

wh en ce did the kings of Toluca procure either the young treeor the seed ? It seems no less difli cu l t to account for Montezumanot having possessed it in his botanical gardens Of Huaxtepec

,Cha

pOl tepec , and Iz tapalapan , Of wh ich ‘

Hern andez,the surgeon of Phili p

II. was stil l able to avail himself,and of which some traces remain

even“

to the present day ; and it‘

seems strange that it should n othave found a place among the representations of Obj ects of natural

history which Nez ahualcoyotl , king of Tez cu c o, caused to be drawnhalf a centurybefore the arrival Of the Spaniards . It is assertedthat the Hand-tree

"

exists in a wild state in the forests of Guatimala .

(Humboldt and Bonpland, Plantes équinoxiales, t . i . p.

‘

82,

'

pl . 24 ;E ssai polit. sur la Nohv. E sp .

,t . i . p . At the E quator

,we have

324 1


has no true Mimosa,but it has three species of Acac ia . E ven in

the north part of Chili,the Acacia c aven ia only grows to a heigh t of

twelve or thirteen feet ; and in the south, near the sea coast, it

hardly rises a foot above the ground . In South America, north of

th e E quator,the most excitable Mimosas ~ were (next to Mimosa

dormions,M . . somn ians

,and M. somn icu losa . Theo

ph rastus ( iv. 3) and Pliny (xiii . 10) mention the irritability of theAfrican sensitive plant ; but I find the first description o f th e SouthAmerican sensitive plants (Dormideras) in Herrera, Decad . ii .‘ lib .

iii . cap . 4 The plant first attracted the attention of the Spaniardsin 1518

,in the savannahs on the isthmus near Nombre de Dies :

.

“ parece como cosa sensible and it was said tha t the leaves (“ de

ech u ra de una pluma de paj aros’ only contracted on bein g touchedwith the finger

,and not if touched with a piece Of wood . In the

small swamps which surround the town of Mompox on the Magda

lena, we discovered a beautiful aquatic Mimosacea’

(Desman th uS

lacustris). It 1s figured In our Plantes équinoxiales,t. i . p . 55

,pl .

16. In the Andes of Caxamarca we found two Alpine M imoseae

(Mimosa montana and Acac ia revoluta), 8500 and 9000 French

( about 9060 and 9590. E nglish) fe et above the surface of the

Hitherto no true Mimosa ( in the sense established by Wil ldenow), or even Inga, has been found in the temperate zone . Of allAcacias, the O rien ta l

‘

Acac ia j ulibrissin,which Forskal has con

founded with Mimosa arborea,is that which supports the greatest

degree of cold. In the botanic garden of Padua there is in theOpen air a tree of thi s species with a stem of considerable thickness,although the mean temperature of Padua 1s below 5 Reaumur

6 F ahr .)

(19) p . 240.

—“Hé a ths .

In these physiogn omic considerations we by no means compriseunder the name of Heaths the whole of the natural family ofE ricaceae, which on account of the similarity and analogy of thefloral parts includes Rhododendron, Befaria, Gaultheria, E scallonia,&c . We confine ourselves to the highly accordant and character


istic form of th e species of E rica,including C alluna (E rica)

'

Vul

garis, L .

,th e 1

common heather.“While, in

‘ E urope, E rica carnea,E . tetralix,E . cinerea, and

Calluna vulgaris,cover large tracts Of ground from the plains of

Germany, France, and E ngland to th e extremity of Norway, South

Africa offers the most varied assemblage of species . O nly one

species which is indigenous in the Southern Hemisphere at theCape of Good Hope, E rica umbellata, is found 1n the NorthernHemisphere

,t'

. e. in the north of Africa,In Spain

,and Portuga l .

E rica vagans and E . arborea also belong to the two opposite coasts

Of the Mediterranean . the first is found in North Africa, nearMarseilles

,In Sicily

,Dalmatia

,and even in E ngland ; the second

in Spain,Ital y

,Istria

,and m the Canaries . (KlO tz sch on the

Geographical Distribution of species of E rica with persistent corollas

,MSS?) The common heather, Calluna vulgaris, is a social

plant covering large tracts from the mouth of the Scheldt to the

western declivity of the Ural . Beyond the Ural,oaks and heaths

cease together : both are entirely wanting in the whole of Northern

Asia, and throughout Siberia to the shores of the Pacific O cean .

Gmel in (Flora Sibirica, t . iv. p . 129) and Pallas (Flora’

Rossic a ,

t . i . pars 2,p . 53) have expressed their astonishment at this disap

pearan ce of the Calluna vulgaris—a disappearance which, on theeastern declivity of the Ural Mountains

,1s even more sudden and

decided than might be inferred from the expressions of the lastnamed great naturalist . Pallas says merely: “Ultra Uralense jugumsen sim deficit, vix in Iseten sibus campis rarissime apparet, et ulte

riori S ibiriae plane deest. Chamisso,Adolph E rman, and Hein

rich Kittlitz,have found Andromedas indeed In Kamtschatka, and

on the north-west coast of America,but no Calluna . The accurate

knowledge which we now possess of the mean temperature of severalparts of Northern Asia

,as well as of the distribution of the annual

temperature into the different seasons of the year, affords no sortof explanation of the cessation of heather to the east of the Ural

Mountains . Joseph Hooker, In a note to his Flora An tarctica, h as

treated and contrasted with great sagacityand clearness two”

very

different phenomena which the distribution of plants presents tous :

on the one hand,uniformity of surface ac companied by a similarity

28

326 PHYSIOSNOMY or PLANTS .

of vege tation; and'

On the other hand,“ instances of a sudden

change in“

the vegetation unaccompanied by any. diveigsity of geolo

gica l or other features (Joseph Hooker, Botany of the Antarctic

Voyage of the E rebus and Terror, 1844, p .

_Is there anyspeci es of E rica l n Central Asia ? The plant Spoken of by Saundersin Turner’s Travels to Thibet (Phil . Trans . vol . lxxix . p . 86), as

having been found l n the Highlands of Nepau l ( together with other

E uropean plants,Vaccinium myrtillus and V. oxycoccus), and

.

de

scribed by h im as E rica vulgaris; is believed by Robert Brown tohave been an Andromeda

,probably Andromeda fastigiata of W

'

al

lich . N0 less striking is the absence of Calluna vulgaris, and of allthe species Of

’

E rica throughout all parts of the Continent of Ame

rica,while the Calluna is found in the Azores and in Iceland . It

has not hitherto been seen in Greenland, but was discovered a few

years ago in Newfoundland . The natural family of the E ricaceaei s also almost entirely wanting in Australia, where it is replaced byE pacrideae Linnaeus described only 102 Species of the genus E rica ;according to Klotz sch ’s examination, this genus really contain s, aft era careful exclusion of all mere varieties

,440true

'

spec ies .

p . 241. Th e Ca c tu sform;

If we take the natural family of the Opuntiaceae separated fromthe Grossulariaceae ( the speci es of Ribes), and, viewed as it is by

Kunth (Handbuch der Botanik, s . we may well rega rd it asbelonging exclusively to America. I am aware that Roxburgh

,in

the Flora Indica (inedita), cites two species of Cactus as belongingto South E astern Asia —Cactus indicus and C . chinensis . Bothare widely disseminated, and are found in a wild state (wh ether theywere originally wild or havebecome so), and are distin c t from CactusOpuntia and C . coc c in el lifer ; but it is remarkable that th e

1 Indian

plant (Cactus indicus)h aS’

no ancient Sanscrit name : Cactus ch l nen SIShas been introduced In St. Helena as a cultivated plant . Now thata more general interest has at length been awakened on the subj e ctof the original distribution of plants

,future investigation will dispel

the doubts which have been felt in several quarters respec ting . th e

existence of true Asiatic Opuntiaceae . . In the animal kingdom par

t icu lar forms are found to occur singly . Tapirs were long regarded


Mexico,upwards of 4 E nglish feet h igh , is above 3 . E nglish

'

feetdiameter

,and weigh s from 700 to 2000 lbs . : while Cactus tna nu s,

which we found near. Sondorillo,in the province of Jaen

,is so small

that,being only slightly rooted in the sand, it g ets between the toes

of dogs . The Meloc ac tuses, which are full of juice in the dryestseasons like th e Ravan ela ofMadagascar (forest-leaf in the language

a vegetable fountains ; and the manner in

horses and mules stamp them open with their hoofs,at the.risk of

injury from the spines,has been already mentioned (vol . i p .

Since the last quarter of a century Cactus opuntia h as extended,

itself m a remarkable manner into Northern Africa, Syria, Greec e,and the whole of the South of E urope ; even penetrating, in Africa,from the coasts far into the interior of the country

,and associating

itself with the indigenous plants .

When one has been accustomed to see Cactuses only l n our hot

houses,one is astonished at the degree of density and hardness which

the ligneous fibres attain in old cactu s stems . The Indians kn owthat cactus wood 1s incorru ptible

,and excell ent for oars and for the

thresholds of doors . There i s hardly anything i n vegetable physiognomy which makes so singu lar and inefi ac eable an impress ion on

'

a

n ewly arrived person , as the sight of an arid plain thickly covered,l ike those near Cumana

,New Barcelona

,and Coro

,and m the pro

vince of J aen de Bracamoros,with columnar and candelabra-like

divided cactus stems.

24 . O rch ideae.

The almost animal sh ap'

e of blo ssoms of O rch ideae is particu larly

grandiflora) ; in the Mosquito ( our Res trepia a n tenn ifera) in theFlor del E spiritu Santo ( also an Angul oa

,according to Florae Peru

vianas Prodrom . p . 118,tab . in the ant-l ike flower of the

Ch iloglottis cornuta (Hooker, Flora antarctica, p . in th e Mexican Bletia speciosa and in the highly curious host of our E uropeanspec ies of Ophrys : O . muscifera

,O . apifera

, O . aranifera,

’

O . arach

nites, ,&c . A predilection for this superbly flowerin g group of

plants h as so, increased,that the number cultivated in

'

E urope by

ANNOTATIONS ANb‘

ADDITIONS. 329

the brothers Loddiges in 1848 has been est imated'

at 2360species ;while in 1843 it was rather more‘ than 1650

,and in 1813

‘

only 115.What a rich mine of stil l unknown superb fioWering-O rch ideae theinterior of Africa must ‘ contain

,ifi t is well watered ! Lindley

,in

his fine work,entit led The Genera and Species of O rchideous

P lants,

” described in 1840precisely 1980species ; at th e end of the.year 1848 Kl ot z sch reckoned 3545 species .

While l n the temperate and cold zones there are only“ terrestrial”

O rch ideae,z'

. e. growing on and close to the ground,tropical coun

tries possess both forms,73. e. the terrestria and the parasitic

,

”

wh ich‘

grow on trunks . of trees . To the first-namedg of these twodivisions belong the tropical genera Neottia

, Cran ich is, and most ofthe Habenarias . We have alsofound both forms growing as alpineplants on th e Slopes of the chain of the Andes of New Granada andQuito . of the parasitical O rch ideae (E pidendreae), Masdevallia uniflow. (at 9600French, or about 10,230E ngli sh feet) , Cyrtoch ilumflexuosun i (at 9480 French, or about 100 E nglish feet), andDendrobium aggregatum (8900 French, or about 9480 E nglish

feet) : and of the terrestrial O rch ideae, the Al ten stein ia paleacea,near Lloa Chiquito

,at the foot of the Volcano of Pichincha . Claude

Gay thinks that the O rchidées said to have been seen growing on

trees in the Island of Juan Fernandez, and even in Chiloe, wereprobably l n reality only parasitical Pourretias

,which extend at least

’

as far south as 40° S . lat. In New Zealand,we find that the tropi

cal form of O rch ideae hangin g from trees extends even to 45° S . lat.

The '

O rch ideae of Auckland’s . and “C ampbell’s I slands, however

(Ch iloglott is, Thelymitra, andnAc ian th u s), grow on ~ the ground» in

moss . In the animal kingdom,

- one tropical form at least advances

much farther to the south . In Macquarie'

Island,in lat . 54°

nearer to the South Pole therefore than Dan tsic is to the North

Pole,there is a native parrot . (See also the section O rch ideae in

my work de DiStribfgeogr. Plant. pp . 241—247 .

(92

) p . The Ca su a rineae.”

Acac ias’

wh ich have phyl lodias instead’

of leaves, some Myrtaceae

Casuarinas, give a uniform character to th e vegeta tion of Austra lia

330 PHYS IOGNOMY or PLANTS .

thin,string-like

,articulated branches

,having th e .j oints provi ded

withm embranous denticul ated sheaths, ha ve been c ompared by tra

vel lers, according to the particul ar.

“ speci es which fell under'

t h eir

observation,either to arborescent E quisetaceae (Horsetails) or to our

Scotch firs . ( See Darwin, Journal of Researches, p . Nearthe coast of Peru the aspect of small thickets of Coll etia and E ph edra

Casuarina quadrivalvis advances, according to~

Labil lardiere,to 43°

known in India and 'on the east coast of Africa ;

(23

) p . 242.—“Need le-16a ved trees .

The family of Coniferae holds so important a .place by th e number

of individuals, by their geographical .distribution,and

.

by t he ‘

vas t

tracts of country in the northern temperate zone covered with t reesof the same species living in society, that we are almost surprised a t

the small number of species of .which“it consists—even including

members wh ioh lbelong to it in essential respec ts, but devia te fromit in a degree by the shape of their leaves and their manner ofgrowth (Dammara, E phedra, and Gnetum,

of Java and New Guinea).The number of known Coniferae is not quite equal -to three-fourths

of the number of described species of palms ; and there are moreknown Aroideae than Coniferae .

-Z u c carin i,

-in his Beitr‘

agen z ur

Morphologie der Con iferen (Abh andl . der mathem . phys'

ika l .‘

Classeder Akademie der Wiss . z u Miinch en

,bd . iii . s . 752, 1837

reckons 216 spec ies,of which 165 belong to the Northern and 51 to

pressus, E phedra, and Podocarpus, found

in the tropical pa rts of Peru,Qui to

,New Granada

,and Mexico

,the

number of species between the tropics rises to 42. The most rec ent .

and excellent work of E ndlicher,Syn ops is Con iferarum,

1847 , con

tains 312 species now living,and 178 fossil species found in the

coal measures,the “hunter-sandstone

,the keuper

,and the Jurassic

formations . The vegetation of the Ancient World offers to us more

particularly forms which, by their simul taneous affinitywi th several


(2132 E .) feet “higher than the summit of E tna ; Considerable

The more considerable the heights at which the Mexican Coniferae

are‘ first met with, the more striking it appears to fin d,

‘

in -the »1sland

of Cuba (where, indeed, on the borders of the torrid zone, northern“

breezes sometM es cool the atmosphere down to 651 ° Reaumu r

,46°

.6 Fah . another species of pine (P. occidentali s of Swartz), growingin the

_plains or on the low hills of the Isle de Pinos

,intermixed with

palmsV

‘

and m ahogany trees (Swietenias).’Columbus men tioh s a

small p ine wood (Pinal) in t h e j ournal of his first voyage (Diariodel 25 de Nov. near Cayo de Moya

,on the north -east of the

Island of Cuba . In Hayt i,also

,P inus occidentalis descends from

the mountains to the sea-shore,near Cape Samana . The trunks of

these Pines,carried by the Gulf Stream to the Islands of Graciosa

and Fayal in th e Azores,were among th e chief indications from

which the great discoverer inferred the existence of unknown lands

to the West ‘

( See my E xamen crit ., t . ii ." p

. 246 Is -it

true that in_J amaica

,notwithstanding the height of its mountains

,

Pinus occidentalis is entirely wantin g ? We may also ask.

what isthe species of Pinus found on the E astern coast

‘

of Gau t imala,as P .

tenuifolia (Benth ) probably belongs only to the mountains nearChinanta

If we cast a general glance on the species which form the upperlimits of arborescent vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere; from

the frigid zone to the E quator, we find,beginning With Lapland,

that,according to Wah lenberg, on the Sulitelma Mountain (lat.it is not n eedle-trees which form the upper limit

,but tha t

birches (Betula alba) extend‘

much higher up than Pinus sylvestr1s

,—Wh 1lst 1n the tem

perate zone

,in the Alps ( lat . Pinus

picea (Du Roi)advances highest, leaving the birches behind ; and mthe Pyrenees (lat. Pinus uncinata (Ram) and P. sylvestris

vars rubra : within the tropics,in lat. 19° in Mexico

,Pinus

Montezumae leaves far behindAlnus t'

olu c c en si s,Quercus spicata, and

Q . cras sipes ; While in the snow mountains of Quito at the E quator,E scal lonia myrtilloides

,Aralia avicenn ifol ia, and Brymis

‘Winteri ,take the lead . The last-named t ree

,which is identica l With Dry

mis granatensis (Mu t ) andWintera aromatica (Murray), presents,

ANNOTATIO NS AND ADDITIONS. 333

as Joseph Hooker has shown (FloraAntarct ica , p . the s triking example of the uninterrupted extension of th e same species oftree from the most southern part of Tierra. del Fuego andHerm itIs lan d

,where it was discovered by Drake

’s E xpedition in 1577, to

the northern h ighl ands of Mexi co ; or through a range of 86 d egreesof latitude, or 5160 geographical miles . Where i t i s not birches(as in the far North), bu t needl e-trees (as m the Swiss Alps and th e

highest mountains, we find above them, still n earer to t h e’

snowysummits which they gracefully enwreath with th eir bright garlands,in E urope and Western Asia

,the Alp roses, the Rh ododendra,

which are replaced on th e“

Sil la dc Ca racas and in th e“ PeruvianParamo de Saraguru by the purple flowers of another genus of E ri

caceae,the beautiful race of Befarias . In Lapland

,the needle-trees

are immediately followed by Rhododendron laponicum ; in the SwissAlps by Rh ododendron ferrugineum and R. hirsutum in the Pyrenees by th e R. ferrugineum only ; and in the Caucasus by R. cau

casicum.5 Decandol le found the Rhododendron ferrugineum growing

singly in the Jura ( in the Creux de Vent), at the moderate altitudeof 3100 (3304 to 3730E .) feet, 5600. (5968 E .) feet lower

down than its proper elevation . If we desire to trace the last zone

of vegetation nearest to the snow lin e in the tropics, ‘we must name,from our own observat ion s

,inthe Mexican part of th e tropical zone,

regions of New Granada,the woolly E speletia grandiflOra , E . corym

bosa and E . argentea and m the Andes of Quito, Cul c itium rufes

Which replace in the last-named mountains th e somewhat morenortherly E speletiasof New Gran ada, to which they bear a strong

physiognomic resemblance . This replacement,the repetition of re

sembling or almost similar forms, l n countries separated either by

seas or by extensive tracts of land,is a wonderfu l law of nature

w hich appears to prevail even in regard t o some of the rarest , formsof vegetation . In

“

Robert Brown’s family of,th e Raiz

'

flesieaefsepaérated from the Cytin

’

eae,the two Hydnoras described by Th unberg

'

and Drege l n Sou th Africa (H . africana and H. triceps) have theircounterpart in South America i n Hydnora americana (Hooker).

even above the limit of ' perpetual snow, the botanist sees'with as

tonishmen t, both in the temperate and ‘ tropical zones,isolated

phaenogamous plants. occur now

“

and then'

sporadic ally'

on rockswhich remain f ree . from the general surrounding ,

snowy covering,

and whi ch may possibly be warmed by heat ascending through open

which is found on the Chimborazo at an elevation ofE .)feet ; in the Swiss Alps, Silene acaul is has been seen at a heightof 10

,680( 11,380E .) feet, being l n the first-named case 600 (640

E .) feet, and m the second 2460(2620E .) feet above the limit of

the snows,that hmi t being taken as it was in the two cases respec t

ively at the time when the plants were found .

In our E uropean Coniferae,the Red and White Pine show great

and remarkable differences l n respect to their distribution . ;Wh ilein th e Swiss Al ps the Red Pine (Pinus picea , Du Roi, foliis c ompresso—tetragon is ; u nfortunately call ed by Linnaeus, and bymostof the botanists ”

of the present day , _

Pinus abies l) forms th e upperlimit of arborescent vegetation at a mean height of 5520 (5883E nglish) feet, only an oc c asional

f

low-growing mountain-alder (Alnus

viridi s, Dec . Betula viridis

,Yill .)advancing now and then stil l nearer

to the snow-line ; theWhite Pine (Pinus abies, Du Roi, Pinus pi cea,Linn . foliis planis, pec tinato—distich is, emarginatis)

‘

ceases,according

to Wah lenberg, more . than a thousand feet lower down. The .Red

Pine does not appear at al l in the South of E urope,in Spain

,the

Apennines,and Greece ; even on the northern slope of

’

the Pyre

nees it is seen only,as Ramond remarks

,at great elevations

,and 18

entirely wanting in the Caucasus. The Red Pine advances i n Scandi navia farther to -the north than the White Pine, of which lastnamed tree. there is in Greece ( on Mounts Parnassus, Taygeta s,

‘ andCE ta)\a l ong, needled variety ( fol iis .apice in tegris,

‘

breviter mu crona

tis),th e Abies Apoll in is of Link , (Lin naea , bd . xv. 1841,s . 529

and E ndlicher,Synopsis Coni ferarum, p .

O n the Himalaya, the Coniferae.

are distinguished by the greatthickness and height of their trunks

,and by the length of their

leaves. The Deodwa'

ra Cedar,Pinus -(properly,

in Sanscrit,dewa-daru

,timber of the Gods) -which is ‘

from 12 to

336 Pnr sroeNoMY o

’

r PLANTS:

( Lama ) his P. cembra ( the German and Siberian pine with ea table

s eeds) is P . his common Larch is P.

leptolepis and hi s supposed Taxus ba ccata'

,the fruits o f

tinct genus,and is the Cephal otaxus drupacea of ‘ Si

’

ebold. The

Islands of Japan,notwithstanding the vicinity Of th e

‘

COD tinen t of

Asia, have a very distinct character ofvegetation . Thunberg’s sup

posed Japanese Weymouth Pine (Pinus Strobus), which would ofi'

er

an important phenomenon,i s only a planted tree, and 18 besides quite

distinct fromthe American species of Pine . It is Pinus korajen sisand -has been brought to . Nipon from the peninsula Of Corea

,

and from Kamtschatka .

O f the 114 species of the Genus Pinus with which we are at present acquainted, not one belongs to the Southern Hemisphsre, forthe Pinus merku sii described by

'

Junghuhn and De Vriese belongsto the part of the Island of Sumatra Which 1s north of the E quator

,

to the district of the Battas ; and Pinus insul aris ( E ndl . althou ghit was at first given in Loudon’s Arboretum as P. t imorien sis

,really

belongs to the Philippines . Besides the Genus Pinus, the SouthernHemisphere

,according to the present state of our -now happily ad

van c ing knowledge of the geography of plants, is entirely without

species of Cu'

pressus,Salisburia (Gingko), Cunninghamia (Pinus

lan ceOla ta,Lamb). Thuja (one Of the spec ies of which, Th . gigantea

,

Nutt . found on th e‘banks ‘

of the Columbia,h as a height of above

180 E ng. feet), Jun ip'

erus,and Taxodium (Mirbel

’s Sch ubertia).

I include t h e last~named genus with the less hesitation,as a Cape of

GoodHope plant (Sprengel’s Sch ubert ia capensis) 1s no Taxodium ,

feren t division of the family of Coniferae.

This absence,f rom the Southern Hemi sphere

,of true. Abiet ineae

,

Jun iperi neae, Cupressineae, and all the Tax'

odineae,as well as of

Torreya, Salisburia adiantifolia, and Cephalotaxus from among the

Taxinese,recalls forcibly the obscurity which still prevail s in the

conditionswhich have determined the original distribution of vegetable forms

,a

'

distribii tion which cannot be sufficiently and sa tisfactorily explained solely by Similarity or diversity of soil, thermic re


lat ion s,or meteorological phenomena . I remarked long ago that the

Southern Hemisphere for example has many plants belonging to thenatural family of Rosaceae, bu t not a Single spec ies o f the genus

Rosa . We learn from Claude Gay that the Rosa chilensis describedby Meyen is only a wild variety of the Rosa centifolia (Linn) , whichh as been for thousands of years a E uropean plant. Such wild variet ies varieties which have become wild) oecupr large tracts

of ground l n Chili,near Valdivia andO sor .no (Gay, Fl ora Chilen

sis, p .

In th e ‘tropica l regi oh of the Northern Hemisphere, we also ,

foundonly one single native rose, our Rosa montezumae, in the Mexicanhighlands near Moran

,at an elevation of 8760(9336 E ngl.) feet.

It i s one of the singular phenomena in the distribution of plants,

that Chili, which has Palms, Pourret ias, and many species of Cac

tus , has no ,

Agave ; although A. americana grows luxuriant ly inRoussillon

,n ear Nice

,near Botzen

,and in Istria

,having probably

been introduced from the NewCon tin en t '

sin ce the end of the 16thcentury

,and in America itself forms a continuous tract of vegeta

tion from North ern -Mexico across the Isthmus of Panama to l th es outhernpart ofPeru. I have long believed that Calceolarias werelimited

,like

.Roses , exclusively to one side of the E quator of the

22 species which we brought back with us, not one was collected tothe north of Quito and the

(Volcano of Pichincha ; but my friend

Professor Kunth remarks that Calceolaria perfoliata, which Bous

s ingau l t and Captain Hall found at Quito, advances to New Gra

nada,and that this species

,as well as C . in tegi ifol ia of Santa Fé de

Bogota,were given by Mutis to the great Linnaeus .

The species of Pinus,which are so frequent i n th e tropical An

tilles and in the tropical mountains of Mexico, do not pas s the ,Is thmus of Panama, and are not found in the equally mountainousparts of the tropical

,

portion of South America, and in the‘ high

plains of New . Granada, Pasto, and.

Quito . I have been both in

the plains and on th e‘moun ta ins from

,the Rio Sinu, n ear the Isth

mus ofP anama, to 12° S . lat. and in this tract of almost 1600

geog1aph ical miles the only forms of needle-trees which I saw

were a Taxus-like species of Podocarpus with stems 60 ( 64 E ng .)feet high (Podocarpus taxifolia), growing in the Pass of Qu indiu

29


and in the Paramo deSaragurii , in 4° 26

’ north,and

'

3 °'

40’ southlati tude ; and an E phedra

;

(E . americana) ,ne ar Gual labamba; north,

of Quito .

Among the Coniferae, there are common to the Northern andSouthern Hemispheres the genera Taxus

,Gnetum

,E phedra

,and

Podocarpus . The last-named genus was distinguished from'

Pinu s

long before L’Heritier by Columbus himself, who wrote on the

25th of November, 1492 : Pinal es en la Serrania de Haiti que

no llevan pinas,pero frutos que parecen a z eyt unos del Axarafe de

Sevilla . ( See my E xamen Crit., t . iii . p There are species

of Taxus from the Cape of Good Hope to 61° N: lat . in’

Scaiidi

navia,or through more than 95 degrees of latitude ; Podocarpus

and E phedra extend almost as far. In Cupuliferae,the

'

species of

oak which we are accustomed to regard as a northern form do notindeed pass beyond the E quator in South America ; but in the Indian

Ar chipelago they re appear in the Southern Hemisphere in the

Island of Java . To the Southern Hemisphere belong exclusivelyten genera of Coniferae

,of which 1 I will name here only the princ i

pal : Araucaria,Da inmara (Agathis Sal . Frenela (with eighteen

New Holl and species), Dacrydium and Lybocedru s, which 18 foundboth i n New Zealand and at the Straits of Magellan . New Zealand h as one species of the genus Dammara (D . australis), and -

no

Araucaria. In New Holland in singular contrast the case is opposite .

Among tree vegetation, it is in the form . of needle-trees th atNatur

'

e presents to us .th e greatest extension in length ( longitudinal

axis) : I‘

say among tree vegetation,because

,as we have already

oceanic Algae, Macrocystis pyrifera , Which isfound between the coast of California and 68° S . lat.

,often attains

from 370 to 400 ( about 400 to 430 E ng.) feet i n length . O f

Coniferae i ( setting aside the six Arauca i ias of Braz il,Chili

,New

Holland, Norfolk Island, and New Caledonia), th e loftiest are thosewhich belong to the northern temperate zone . As in the familyof Palms we found the most gigantic

,the Ceroxylon andieola

,

above 180 French (192 E nglish) feet high, in the temperatemountain climate of the Andes

,so the loftiest Coniferae belong,

in the“

Northern Hemisphere, to'

the temperate north-west coast of

340 PHYSIOGNOMY or ,PLANTS .

Cr'

oppert, and E ndlicher .have already discovered five species Bf

Araucarias belonging to the AncientWorld in the lias, in chalk, andin beds of lignite (E ndlicher, Coniferae fossiles, p . 3011)Pinus Douglasii (Sabine), in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains

and on . the banks of the Columbia River”

(north lat. 43°

The meritorious Scotch botanist from whom this tree is namedperished in 1833 by a dreadful death in collecting plan ts

‘

in the

Sandwich Islands,where he h ad arrived from New California; He

fel l inadvertently into a pit in which a fierce bull.

belongin g tothe cattle ~which have bec ome wild

,had previously fallen

,and was

gored and trampled to death .

~By exact measurement—”a stem of

Pinus Douglasii was 57 % E nglish feet in girth at 3 . feet above theground

,and its height was 245 E nglish feet. (See Journ al of the

Royal Institution,1826

,p .

Pinus trigona (Rafin esqu e), on the western declivity of the RockyMountains

,described in Lewis and Clarke’s Travels to the Source

of the Missouri River a nd across the American Continent to thePacific O cean . (1804 1814

,p . 456. This gigantic Fir

was measured with great care ; the trunks were often 38 to 45

E nglish feet in girth , 6 feet above the ground : one t ree wa s 300E nglish feet high

,and the first 192 feet were without any division

into bra nches .

Pinus Strobus grows in the eastern parts of the United States ofNorth America

,especially on the east of the Mississippi ; but it i s

found again in the Rocky Mounta ins from the sources of the

Columbia to Mount Hood,or from 43 ° to 54° N. lat . It is called

in E u rope the Weymouth Pine, and in North America the WhitePine ; its ordinary height does not exceed 160 to 192 E ng. feet

,

but several trees of 250to 266 E ng. feet have been seen in NewHampshire . (Dwight, Travels, vol . 1. p . 35 ~and E merson’sReport on the Trees and Shrubs growing naturally in the Fores tsof Massachusetts

,-1846

, pp .

~

60

Sequoia gigantea Con'dyloc arpu s ( Sal) from New Cali;

forn ia ; like Pinus trigona, about 300E nglish feet high .

The nature of-the soil,and the circumstan ces of heat and moisture

on which the nourishment of plants depends, no doubt influence th e


d egree to which they flourish,and the increase in the number of

individuals in a species ; but the gigantic height attained. by thetrunks. of a few among the manyoth er nea rly allied species of thesame genus

,depends n ot on soil or climate ; but, in g

th e vegetable

as well .as in the animal.kingdom,

on a specific organ ization and

inherent natural disposition . I will cite, as the greatest contrast to'

the Araucaria imbricata of Chili,the

, Pinus Douglasii of the

is from 245 to 300E ng. feet .in h eight, not a plant taken fromamong a vegetation stunted by cold either of latitude or elevation

'

as . is the case with the small Willow-tree, two inches in height

( Salix arctica); but a small phaenogamous plant belonging to thefin e climate of the southern tropic in the Brazilian province ofGoyaz . The moss-like Tristieh a hypnofl

‘

des,from the monocotyle

dou ons family of th e Podostemeae,hardly reaches the height of 3

lines (n'

loth s

,or less than three-tenths of an E ngli sh inch)" “ E n

traversant le Rio Clare dans la Province de Goyaz,” says an excel

lent observer,Augu ste de St .-Hilaire, j’apercus sur une pierre uneplante don t fla

.

tige'

n’avoit pas plus de trois lignes de haut

‘

et que

j e pris d’abord pour une mousse . C

’étoit cependant une plante

phanérogame,le Tristieh a hypno

'

ides,pourvue d’organes sexuels

comme nos chenes et les'

arbres gigantesques qui a l’entour élevaient

leur cimes maj estueuses .” (Augfiste de St .-Hilaire,* Morphologie

Vegetable,1840

,p .

Besides the height of their stems,the length

,breadth

,and posi

tion of the leaves and fruit,the

'

form of the ramifi cation aspiring orhorizontal,and spreading ou t like a canopy or umbrella—the gradations of color, from a fresh green or silvery gray to a blackish

brown,al l

‘give to Coniferae a peculiar physiognomy and character.

The needles . of Douglas’s Pinus lambertiana from North-west

America a re five " French inches long ; those of Pinus excelsa of~

Wallich, on . the southern1declivity of the Himalaya, near Kat

mandeo,seven French inches ; and those of\ P . longifolia

from the mountains of Kashmeer, above a French foot long.

‘ Inone and the same species the length of the leaves or needles variesin the most striking mann er

,

'

from the influence of soil , air, and

elevation above the level of the sea . In travelling in an east and west

29*

342 -PHYSIOGNOMY or PLANTS.

di rection through eighty degrees of longitude (above 3040geogra

ph ical miles), from the mouth of th e Scheldt through E urope andthe north of Asia to Bogoslowsk in the northern Ural and Barnaulbeyond the Q bi, I have found differences in the length of the needl es

of our common Fir (Pinu s s ylvestris) so great, that sometimes a tra.veller may be misled

,by the shortness and rigidity of the leaves, te

think that he has . discovered/ a new species allied -to the Mountain

Pine, P.

’

rotundata (Link), P. uncinata (Ram) Link has j ustlyremarked (Linnaea, bd . xv. l 841, , s. 489) th at

‘

sueh instances may

be regarded as transitions to Ledebourf

s P. sibirica of the Altai .

.In the _Mexican highlands

,-I .h ave . looked ,with partigular

'

pleasure

on‘ the delicate cheerful green of t h e Ahu ah u ete

,Taxodium dis

t ich um (Rich) , Cupressus disticha (Linn) , which, however, i smuch given to sheddin g its leaves . In

’

this tropical region,

"

the,

above-mentioned tree ( of which the Aztec name S1gn ifi es waterdrum

,from a tl

,water

,and kuehuetl

,a drum, the trunk swelling to

a great thickness) flourishes 5400and 7200(5755 and 7673 E nglish) feet above the level -(of ,

the sea while in the United States ofNorth America it is found in the low grounds of the cypress swampsof Loui siana, in the -43d parallel . In the Southern States of North

,

America, the Taxodium distichum (Cypres chauve)reaches, as in theMexican highlands

,

'

the height of 120(128 E nglish) feet , and theenormous thickness of 30to 37 (32 to 39 E nglish) feet, measured

near the ground. (E merson, Report on the Forest, pp . 49'

and

The roots“

present the striking phenomenon of woody excres

Gen ces which proj ect from 3 to 4 % feet above the ear th, and are coni

cal and rounded,and sometimes tabul ar. Travellers have compared

these excrescences in places where they are very numerous to ~thegrave tablets in a Jewish burying-ground . Auguste de St. Hilaireremarks with much acuteness Ces excroissances . du Cypreschauve, resslemblan t a des bornes,

’

peuvent etre regardées comme desexostoses

,et comme elles vivent dans l’air

,il s’en éch apperoit sans

doute -des bourgeons adventifs,si la n ature . du tissu des plantes

c on iferes(n e s

’opposoit au développement des germes cachés . qui

donnent naissance a ces sortes de bourgeons .” (Morphologie végétable, p . A ‘

singu larly enduring power of vita lity in the roots oftrees of this family is shown by -a phenomenon which has excited the

344 PHYSIOGNOMY O P PLANTS .

tion,of the birch and the common fir in a part Of the Swiss Al ps

,

on the Grimsel . The fir (Pinus sylvestris) extends to 5940, and thebirch (Betula alba) to 6480French (6330and 6906 E ngli sh) feet ;above the birches there is a higher lin e Of Pinus cembra

,whose

upper limit is 6890’

( 7343 E nglish) feet . Here,therefore, .we have

the birch i ntervening between two zones of Coniferae. Accord

ing to the excell ent . observations of Leopold von Buch, and the re

cent'

ones of Martins,who als o visited Spitz bergen, the following

to Betula alba to 70° and Betul a'

n ana quite up to 71°

Pinus cembra is'

altogether wanting in Lapland. (Compare Ungeriiber den E influss des ’Bodens auf die Vertheilung der Gew

'

ach se,

s . 200; Lindblom,Adnot . in geographieam plantaram intra Suec iam

distribu tion em,p . 89 ; Martins, in the Annales. des Sciences natu

relles,t . xviii . 1842

,p .

If the length and arrangement of the needle-sha ped leaves go farto determine the physiognomic character Of Coniferae

,this character

is still more influenced by the specific differences in th e breadth Of

the needles,and the degree Of development Of the parenchyma of

the appendicular organs. Several species Of E phedra may be calledalmost leafless ; but in Taxus, Araucaria, Dammara (Agathis), andthe Salisburia adiantifolia of Smith (Gingko biloba, Linn) , th e surfaces Of the leaves become gradually broader. I have here placedthe genera in morphological succession . The specific names first

chosen by botanists testify in favor of such a succession . The Dammara orientalis of Born eo and

'

J ava , often above ten feet in diameter, was fir st called loran th ifol ia and Dammara australis (Lamb) ofNewZea land

,whi ch is 140 ( 149 E nglish) feet high, was first called

z amaefolia . In both these species of trees the leaves are not needles,but folia alterna

‘

oblongo-lanceolata,opposita

,in arbore adul tiore

seepe alterna, en ervia , striata.

” The under surface of the leaves isthickly set with porous Openings. This passage or transition of theappendicul ar system from th e greatest contraction to a broad-leavedsurface, like all progression from simple to compound, has at once amorphological and a physiognomic interest (Link, Urwelt, th. i .1834

, s . 201 The short-stalked,broad

,cleft leaf of the

Salisburia (Kampfer’s Gingko) has also its breathing pores only on


“

the under side of the leaf. The original native'

country of this tree' is unknown to us . By the connection and intercourse of Buddhistic

communities, it early passed from the temple-gardens of Ch ina .to

those of Japan .

1

'

In travelling from a port on the Pacific toMexico,on Ou r way to

.E urope, I Witnessed the singular and painful Impression Which thefirst sight of a pine forest near Ch ilpan z ingo made on one Of ourcompanions

,who

,f born at Q uito under ' th e equinoctial line

,had

never seen needle-trees,or trees with “ folia acerosa . It Seemed

to him as if the trees were leafleSS ° and he thought that, as we weret lavel ling towards the cold north, he already recognized, in this extreme contraction Of the vegetable organs

,the chilling and Impover

ish ing influence Of the Pole . The traveller Whose impressions Ihere describe

, .whose name n either my friend Bonpland n‘or myself

can pronounce without regret,was Don Carlos Mon tufar ( son of the

Marquis-of Selvalegre), an excellent young man, Whose noble and

ardent love Of freedom led him,a few years later

,in the war Of inde

pen denc e of the Spanish Colonies, to meet courageouslya violentdeath

,of which the dishonor did not fall on him .

(24

) p. 242. The Pothosform,Aroideae.

Caladium and Pothos are exclusively forms of the tropical worldthe species of Arum ' belong more to the temperate zone . A rumitalicum

,A . dracunculus

,and A . tenuifolium; extend to Is tria and

Friuli . No Pothos has yet been discovered in Africa . India '

has

some species Of -this genus (Poth os‘

scanden s and P. pinn‘ata) which

are less b eautiful in’ their physiognomy,and less luxuriant in their

growth,than the American species . We discovered a beautiful and

truly arborescent member of the,

group Of Aroideae (Caladium arbo

reum) having"

stems from 16 to’

21 E nglish feet high, not far fromth e . . c onven t Of Caripe

,to the ‘ east of Cumanas . A very curious

Caladium (Cu l casia scandens) has been discovered by Beauvois inth e kingdomof Benin . (Pal isot de Beauvois, Flore d

’Oware et de

Benin,t . i . 1804, p . 4

,pl . iii .) In th e Pothos-form the parenchyma

is sometimes so much extended that the surface of the leaf Is inter

rupted by holes as in Calla pertusa (Kunth), and Dracontium pertusum (Jacquin), which .We collected in the woods round Cumana .


The Aroideae firs t led a ttention to the remarkable phenomenon ofthe fever-heat

,which in certain plants is sensible by the thermometer

during the development of their inflorescence,and which is con

n ec ted with a great.

and temporary increase of the absorption ofoxygen from “ the atmosphere . Lamarck remarked, in 1789, thisincreas e of temperature at the time of flowering in Arum italicum .

According to Hubert and Bory de St . Vincent, thevi tal heat Of Arum

cordifolium in the Isle of France was found to rise to 35° and 39 °

Reaumur and While th e temperature of the

surroundin g air was only R. E ven in E urope,

Bec‘

querel and Bresch et found as much as 175° Reaumurdi fference

Du troch et remarked a paroxysm,an al ternate de

crease and increase of vital heat, which appeared to reach a double

maximum in the day. Theodore de Saus sure o bserved anal ogousaugmentations Of temperature

,though to a less amount

,only from

to of Reaumur’s scale to in plantsbelonging to other families for example

,in Bign on ia

r

radi can s andCucurbita pepo. In th e latter plant

,the use of a very sensitive

thermoscope shows that the increase of temperature is greater in themale than in the female plant. Du troch et

,who previous to his

early death made such meritorious researches in physics and in vegetable physiology

,found

,by means of thermo-magnetic multiplicators

(Comptes rendus de viii . 1839,p . 454

,t . ix . pp . 614

and an increase of vital'

heat from to Reaumurto Fahr.) in several youngplants (E uph orbia lathyri s,

Lil ium candidum,Papaver somniferum), and even among funguses

in several species ofAgaricus and Lycoperdon . This vital heat di sappeared at night

,but was not prevented by placin g the plants in

A yet more strikin g physiOgn omic co’

ntrast than that of Casuarineae

,Needl e trees

,and the almost leafless Peruvian Colletias

,with

Aroideae,is presented by the comparison of those types of the

greatest contraction of the leafy drgan s with the Nymph aeaceae andNelumbon eae. We find in these

,as in the Aroidese

,leaves

,in which

the cellular tissue forming their . surface is extended to an extremedegree

,supported

‘

on long,fleshy

,succulent leaf-stalks as in Nym

phaea alba N. lutea N. th ermal is ( once call ed N . lotus,from the


rapid ascent to the tops of lofty trees,th e passage from“

tree‘

to tree,and even the crossing of streams by whole herds or troops of gregarions animals

,are all greatly facilita ted by these twining plants or

Lianes.In the South of E urope and in North America

,Hops from among

the Urticeae, and the species of Vitis from among the Ampelideae,belong to the. class of twinin g climbers, and between the tropics we

find cl imbing Grasses or Gramineae. We haveseen,in the plains of,

Bogota,in the pass Of Qu indiu , in the Andes, and in th e Quin s;

producing forests Of Loxa,a

_Bambu sacea alli ed t o Nastus , our Chus

qu ea scandens, twi ne round massive and lofty trunks of treesadornedat the same time with flowering O rch ideae . Th e Bambusa scandens

(Tjankorreh ), which Blume found in Java, belongs probably eitherto the genus Nastu s or to that Of Chusquea

,the Carrizo of the Span

ish settlers“ Twining plants appear to me to be entirely absent inthe Pine-woods of Mexico ; but in New Zealand, besides the Ripogo

num parviflorum Of Robert Brown (a climber belonging to the Smilac eae which renders the forests almost impenetrable),

’

the sweet

smelling Freycinetia Bank s ii, whi ch bel qngs to the Pandan'

eae, twinesround a gigantic Podocarpus 220 E ngli sh feet high, the P . dacryO ides (Rich), called in the native language Kakikatea . (Diefi enbac h ,Travels in New Z ealand

,1843

,vol . i . p .

With climbing Gramineae and Pandan eae are contrasted by theirbeautiful and many-colored blossoms the Passifloras ( ameng which,however

,we even found

'

an arborescent,self-supporting species, Pas

siflora glauca,growing in the Andes of Popayan

,at an elevation of

9840, French E nglish) feet ; the Bignoniaceae, Mutisias,

Aristolochia cordata has a.crimson-colored flower of 17 E nglish ,

inches diameter ! “flores gigantei,pueris mitrae instar in servien tes .

”

Many Of these twining plants have a°

peeu l iar physiognomy and appearan ce, produced by the square shape of their stems, by flatten ingsnot caused by any external pressure

,and by riband-like wavings to

and fro . Cross sections Of Bignonias and Ban isterias show cruciform.

or mosa ic figures produced by the mutual pressure and interpenetra-g

ti on'

Of the stems which twine around each other . (See-very ac cu


rate drawings in Adrien de Jussieu’s Cours de Botanique,pp . 77- 79,

fig.

(26)p . 243 .

4 «Taform of Aines .

To this group of plants,ch aracterized by so great a similarity ofphysiognomy

,belong : Yucca . aloifolia

,which extends as far north

Florida and South Carolina ; Y. angustifolia (Nn th ), which ad

vances as far as the banks of the'

Missouri ; -Aletris arborea ; theDragon-tree of the Canaries and two other Draecaenas from NewZealand ; arborescent E uphorbias ; Aloe dichotoma (Linn ) (formerly the genus Rh ipidodendrum of Wil ldenOw) and the celebra ted Koker-boom of Southern Africa

,with a trunk twenty-One

feet high and above four feet thick,and a top of 400(426 E nglish)

feet in circumference . (Patterson, Reisen in das Land der Hotten

totten und der .Kaffern,1790, s . The forms which I have thus

brought together belong to very\differen t families to th e Lil iac eae,

Asph odeleae, Pandan eae, Amaryll ideae, and E uphorbiaceae ; all, however

,with the exception Of the last

,belonging to the great division

of the Monocotyledones . A Pandanea,Phytelephas -macrocarpa

(Ruiz ), which we found in New Granada on the banks Of the Mag

dalena,with its pinnated leaves

,quite resembles in appearance a

small palm-tree . This Phytelephas,of which the Indian name is

Tagua,is besides

,as

‘

Kunth remarks,th e only one of the Pandan eae

found (according to our present knowledge) in the New Continent.The s ingul ar Agave-like and at the same -time very tall-stemmedDoryanthes excelsa of. New South Wales, which was first describedby the acutely Observing Correa de Serra

,is an Amaryllidea, like

our low-growing Narc issu ses and Jonqu ils .

In the Candelabra shape of plants Of the Aloe form,we must not

confound the branches of an arborescent stem with flower-stalks . Itis the latter which in the American Aloe (Agave Americana, Magueyde Cocuyz a, which is entirely wanting in Chili) as well as in theYucca acaulis (Maguey . de Cocuy) presents in the rapid and giganticdevelopment of the inflorescence

,a candelabrum-like arrangement of

the flowers which,as is well known

,is but tootransient a phenom

enon . In some arborescent E uphorbias, on th e other .hand, thephysiognomic effect is given by th e_

bran ch es and t heir division, or

30

350 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS .

by .ramification properly so called. Lichtenstein,in his RSisen im

siidlich en Africa” ( th . i . s . gives a vivi d description of the imi

pression made upon him by the appea rance of a E uphorbia Ofli c in arum which he found in the Ch amtoos Rivier

,

” in the Colony of theCape of Good Hope ; the form of the tree was so symmetrical thatthe candelabrum-like arrangement was regul arly repeated on a

smaller sca le in each Of the subdivisions of the larger branches,up

to ‘

32 E nglish feet high . Al l the branches were armed with sharpspines .Palms, Yuccas, Al oes, tall -stemmed Ferns, some Aral ias, and

-the

Th eophrasta Where I have seen it growin g luxuriantly; di fferent asthey are in the structure Of their flowers

,yet Offer to the eye in the

nakedness (absence of branches) of their stems, and in the ornamental character of their tops or crowns, a certain degree of physiog

-The 'Melanoselinum decipiens whi ch is sometimes up

wards Of 10or 12 feet high,and whi ch has been introduced into

our gardens from Madeira,belongs to a peculiar group Of arborescent

umbelliferous plants,to which Ara liaceae are otherwise all ied

,a nd

with whi ch other plants, which will doubtless be discovered In course

Of time,will be associated . Ferul a

,

~Heracleum,and Thapsia, do

indeed . attain a considerable height,but they are still herbaceous

plants . Melanoselinum is stil l almost entirely alone as an umbel

l iferous tre‘

e ; Bupleurum (Tenon ia) fruticosum (Linn) of the shoresof the Medi terranean ; Bubon galbanum of the Cape, and Crithmum

maritimum of our sea-shores,are only shrubs . On the other han d,

th e tropical zone,in which

,according to . the Old and very just re

mark of Adanson,Umbelliferae and Cruciferae are almost entirely

wantin g in the plains,presented t o us on the high ridges of the

l iferous plants . Among 38 species of plants whi ch we coll ec ted atelevations where the ~mean temperature is below 10° Reaumur

there vegetate almost .e mosses,and as if they made

pa rt of the rock and of the Often frozen earth,at ' an elevation of

E nglish) feet above the level Of the sea, Myrrhis andi cola

,Fragosa arc tio

’

I'

des, and Pec tO phytum peduncul are,in termin

gled with whi ch there is an equally dwarfed Alpine Draba . The

352'

PHYSIOGNOMY OF‘

PLANTS .

rarely,that in four years we were only twice able to procure blossoms ;

once‘

on the unfrequented banks of the Cassiqu iare ( the arm whichconnects the O rinoco with the Rio Negro and the Amazons River),and once in the province Of Popayan between Buga and Qu ili chao .

‘ It

is striking to see plants in particular lo‘

calities grow with the greatest

vigorWithout producing flowers : it is thus with E uropean O live-trees,which have been planted for centuries between the tropics near Qui to,9000(about 9590E nglish)feet aboy e the level of the sea, and alsoin the Isle Of France

,withWalnut-trees, Hazel-nut s, and, as at Quito,

O live-trees (O lea europea) see Boj er, Hortu s Mauritianu s,1837, p.

291.

As some Of the Bambu sac eae (arborescent grasses) advance intothe temperate zone

,

“

so,within the tropics

,they do not suffer from

the temperate climate Of the mountains . They certainly grow more

luxuriantly as social plants from the seac oast t o the height Of-about

2560E nglish feet ; for example, in the province de las E smeraldas ,west of the Volcano of Pichincha

,where Guadua angustifolia (Bam

busa Guadua, in our Plantes équinoxiales, t . 1. tab . xx .)produces _in

its interior much of the silicious Tabaschir (Sanscrit tvakksch im ,

ox-milk). In the Pass of Quindiu , we saw the Guadua grOwin g at

an elevation which we found by barometric measurement to be 5400

(5755 E nglish) feet above the level Of the Pacific. Nastus borbon icus is called by Bory de St.

’

Vincent a true alpine plant ; he states

that it does not descend lower on the decl ivity of the Volcano in’

t he

Island of Bourbon than 3600(3837 E nglish)feet . This recurrence

or repetition as it were at great elevations of the forms characteristicOf the hot plains

,recalls the mounta in group of

,

palms before pointedOu t by me (Kun th ia Montana, Ceroxylon ‘

andieola,and O reodoxa

frigida), and a grove or thicket of Musaceae sixteen E nglish feethigh (Heliconia, perh aps Maran ta), which I found growing isolatedat

‘

an elevation of 6600 ( 7034 E nglish) feet, on the Silla de Caracc aS. (Relation hist. t . i . p.605 AS, with th e exception ofa few isolated herbaceous . dicotyledones

,grasses form the highest

zone Of phaenogamous vegetation round the snowy summits of’ loftymounta ins, so also, in advancing in a horizonta l direction towardseither pole Of the E arth

,the phaenogamous vegetation terminates

with grasses .

To my young friend Joseph Hooker,who

,but juSt returned with


Sir James Ross from the frozen antarctic regions, is now exploringthe Th ibetian portion of the Himalaya

,the geography of plants is

indebted not only for a great mass of important,

materials,but also

.for excellent general deductions . He calls attention to - the circum

stance that phaenogamous flowering plants (grasses) approach 1 73°

nearer to the North ern than to the Southern .

‘

Pole. In the FalklandIslands

,near the thick masses of Tu ssack grass (Dactylis caeSpitosa ,

Forster,according to Kunth a Festuca), and in Tierra del Fuego or

Fuegia, under the shade of the birch-leaved Fagus antarctica, theregrows the sameT risetum subspicatum which extends over the wholerange of the Peruvian Cordilleras

,and over the Rocky Mountains

to Melville Island, Green land, and Iceland, and which is also found

in the . Swiss and Tyrolese Alps,in the Altai mountains

,in Kamt

sch atka, and in Campbell Island, south of New Zealand ; therefore,

from 54° south to 74 north latitude,or through 1284

° of latitude . Few grasses

,

”saySJoseph Hooker, in his Flora Antarctica,

p .

“

9 7,“have so wide a range as Trisetum subspicatum (Beauv) ,

nor am I -acquainted with any -

other Arctic“

species which. is equally

an inhabitant of the Opposite polar’

regions .” The South Shetland

I slands,which are divided by Bran sfield Strait from D

’Urvil le’sTerre de Louis Philippe and the Volcano of Haddington Peak,situated in° 64° 12’ south latitude

,and 7046 E ngli sh feet high, have

been very recently visited by aBotanist from the United States of

Plant. tab . is “ the most antarctic flowering planthitherto di scovered .

In Deception Island,Of the same group, S . lat . lichens

only are found,and not a single species Of grass ; and so al so, farther

to the south-east,in Cockburn Island ( lat. 64

° near Palmer’s

Land,there .were only found Lecanoras

,Lecideas, and five Mosses,

among which was our German Bryum argenteum :“ thi s seems to

be the u ltima Thul e of ant arctic vegetation .

’ Farther to the south,Za nd-cryptogamic

,as well as phaenogamic, vegetation is entirely

Wanting. In .the great bay formed by Victoria Land, on ‘a small

island which lies opposite to Mount Herschel ( S . lat. 71° and

in Franklin Island,92 geographical miles North of the great velcano

30*


‘

Mount E rebus, E nglish feet high ( lat . 76° 7’

found not a single trace of vegetable life. It is quite different in

respect to the extension even of the forms Of higher vegetable organi

z ation in the high northern latitudes. f Phaenogamous plants there

approach 185° nearer to the Pole than in the Southern Hemisphere :

Walden Island (N . lat. has still ten species . The antarctic

di stances from the Pol e ( Iceland has five times as many floweringplants as the southern group Of Auckland and Campbell Islands)

p .. vu . 74, and 215, with Sir James Ross, Voyage in the Southern

and Antarctic Regions,1839—1843

,vol . ii . p . 335

(98

) p . 244. Ferns .

If, with a naturalist deeply versed in the knowledge of theAgamae,

Dr . Klotz sch , we estimate the whole number of cryptogamic specieshitherto described at this gives to Fungi 8000 ( of which

2580 Mosses and Liver-worts, ac cording to Carl Mull er Of Halle,and Dr. Got tsch e of Hamburgh

,3800 and Ferns 3250. We are

indebted for thi s last important result to the thorough investigationOf all that is known c oncerning this group Of plants by Professor

Kunze of Leipsic . It is remarkable that,of the entire number of

described Fili ces,the family of Polypodiaceae, alone,

’ comprises 2165Species ; while other forms, even Lycopodiaceae and Hymenophyllac eae

, only count 350 and 200. There are,therefore, almost as

Dioscorides, and Pliny, no notice occurs Of the beautiful form ofarborescent ferns ; while, from information derived from the companions of Al exander, Aristobulus, Megasth enes,

‘ and Ncarchus,men tion is mad e of Bamboos quae fis sis in ternodi is lembi vicevec titaban t navigantes ;

” of the Indian trees quarum folia nonminora c lypeo sunt ;

”Of the fig-tree of which the branches ,

takeroot round the parent stem ; and of Palms tantae proceritatis, u t

356 PHYSIOGNOMY'

OF PLANTS.

Zacaria E bn el Awam,Libro de Agricultura

,traduc ido poi

° J. A.

Banqu eri, t . Ii . Madr . 1802,p .

The conditions of mild temperature and an atmosphere nearly

saturat ed with vapor, together with‘

great equabil ity Of climate inrespect to both temperature and moisture

,are fulfill ed on the

declivities Of the mounta ins,in th e valleys of the Andes, and above

all in the mild and humid atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere,

Diemen Islan d (Tasmania), bu t even to the Straits of Magellan

and to Campbell Islands,or to a latitude almost corresponding to

sonia squarrosa grows .vigorously in 46° south latitu de, in DuskyBay (New Zealand) ; D . antarctica of Labill ardiere, in Tasmania ; aThyrsopteris in Juan

'

Fernandez an undescribed Dicksonia,with

stems from 12 to 15 (nearly 13 to 16 E nglish) feet, in the south ofCh ili, not far from Valdi via and a Lomaria

,Of rather, less height,

in th e Straits of Magellan . Campbell Island is stil l nearer to the

South Pole,in lat . and even there the stem of the Aspidium

venustum rises to 4 feet (4 feet 3 inches, E ngli sh) before the fronds

Th e climatic relations under whi ch Ferns in general flourish,are

manifested in the numerical laws of their quotients of dis tribution ,taken in the manner al luded to in an earlier part Of the presentvolume . In the low plains of the great continents within th e tropics

,

th e quotient for ferns is, according . to Robert Brown , and acc ordingto late researches

,1-20th Of all the spec ies of phaenogamou s plants

growing in the same region ; i n the mountainous parts of the greatcontinents in the same latitudes it is from 18 th to 1»6th .. B ut a

nerogamae increases there in such a manner that, in the groups ofislands between the tropics in the Pacific, the ferns equal a fourthand in the solitary, far-detached islands in the Atlantic O cean, St.Helena, and Ascension—a lmost equal the half of the entire phaenogamons vegetation . ( See an excellent memoir of D

’Urvi lle, entitledDistribution géographique des Fougeres sur la surface du Globe, inthe Annales des Sciences Nat. t . vi . 1825

,pp . 51

,66

,and


From the tropics (Where in the great continents D’Urville estimates

the 'ratio generally at 1 20)we see the relative frequen cy o f fernsdec rease rapidly in the temperate zone . The quotients are : forNorth America and for the B ritish Islands

313 , for France {m

'

for

Germany for the dry parts of the south Of Italy {B and for

Greece 511 . Towards the colder regions of the north we see the rela tive frequency increase again rapidly; that is to say, the numberof species of ferns decreases much more slowly than does the number of

,

species of phaenogamous plants . At the same time,the lux

u rian c e,abundance

,and mass Of individuals in each species augments

the illusive impression of a bsolu te numbers . According to Wahl ené

berg’s and Hornemann’s Catalogues, the relative numbers of Filicesare

,for Lapland -

5for Iceland —

1

3

g ,and for Greenland I'r

Such,according to the present state Of our knowledge

,are the

natural laws manifested in the distribu tion'

of the pleasing form Of

Ferns. But it would seem as if in the family of Ferns, which hasso long been regarded as a cryptogamic family

,we had quite recently

arrived on th e traces of another natural law, a morphological one of

propagation . Count Lesz c z yc-Suminski, who happily unites the gift

of microscopic examination . with di stinguished artistic t alent,has

discovered in the prothalli um of ferns an organization by which fru ct ific ation is effected .

'He di stinguish e s a bisexual arrangement in theovule-like cell on the middl e of the theca, and in the ciliated anthe

ridia or Spiral threads before examined by Nageli . The fertilizationis supposed to take place not by pollen tubes but by the movable

ciliated spiral threads . (Suminski -zur E n twickelungs-geschichte der

Farrnkr'

au ter,1848

,s . 10 According to this view, Ferns, as

E hrenberg expresses it (Mona tl . Berichte der Akad . z u Berlin, Ja

nuar 1848,S. would be produced by a microsc Opic fertilization

taking place on the prothallium as a receptacle ; and throughout the

whole remainder of t heir Often arborescent development they would'

be flOWerless and fruitless plants, forming buds or bulbs the sporesor sori on the under Side of the frond not being seeds but flower buds .

(29) p . 244i L i lia ceae.

The principal seat of this form is Africa, where it is both most

varied and most abundant, and where these beautifully flowering


‘

plants are assembled inmasses and determine the aspect and chara cter of the country. The New Continent does

,indeed

,also possess

superb Al stromeri ae and Species of Pancratium,Haemanthus

,and

Crinum (we augmented the hrst-named Of these genera by nine, and

the second by three species); but these American Liliaceae grow dis

persed, and are less social than our E uropean Irideae.

p .

'

244 . Wil lemForm .

Of the leading representative of this form,the Will ow itself, 150

different species are already known . They are spread over the North

ern Hemisphere from the E quator to Lapland . They appear to increase ln number and diversity of form between the 46th and 70th

degrees of north latitude,and especially in the part of north Of

E urope where the configu ration of the land has been so strikingly

indented by early geological changes . O fWillows as trOpica lp lan tsI am acquainted with tenor twelve species

,which

,like the willows

of the Southern Hemisphere,are deserving

’

of particular attention .

As Nature seems as it were to take pleasure in mul tiplying certain

forms of animals,for example

,Anatidae (Lamellirostres) and C0

lumbae, in all the zones of the earth ; so are Willows, the differentand O aks, no less widely disseminated : the latter

( oaks) being always alike in their fruit, though much diversifi ed inthe forms '

of their leaves . In Willows, the similarity of the foliage,of the ramification

,and Of the whole physiognomic appearance, in

the most different climates, is unusually great—a lmost greater thaneven in Coniferae . In .th e southern part Of the temperate zone of

the Northern Hemisphere,the number Of species of wi llows decreases

considerably,yet (according to the Flora atlantica of Desfon tain es)

.Tunis h as stil l a species of its ~ own , resembling Salix caprea ; andE gypt reckons, according to Forskal , five species

,from the catkins

of whose male flowers a medi cine much employed in the E ast,Moie

ch alaf (aqua salic is), is Obta ined by distillation . TheWillow whichI saw in the Canaries is also

,according to Leopold von Buch and

Christian Smith,a peculiar species

,common however to that group

and to the Island of Madeira—S. canariensis . Wall ich’s Cata logue

of the plants of Nepau l , and of the Himalaya, cites from the Indi an

sub-tropical zone thirteen species, partly described by Don, Roxburgh,


cultivated,S . s ieboldiana . From the s outhern temperate z On é Iknow

only two willows described by Thunberg ( S . hirsu ta and S . mucro

nata); they grow by the side Of Protea ~ argen tea (which has itselfvery mu ch

‘

th e physiognomy of aWillow), on the banks of the Orange

River,and their leaves and young ‘ shoots form the food Of the hip

pOpotamu s. Wil lows are entirely wanting in Australia and the

(3 1

) p . 244 . Myrta ceae .

An elegant form, with still , shining, thickly set, generally unindented

,small leaves

,studded with pellucid dots . Myrtaceae give a

peculiar character to three districts of the earth’s surface : theSouth Of E urope

,particularly the calcareous and trachytic i slands

which rise above the surfac e of the Mediterranean; the continent

of New Holland,adorned wi th E ucalyptus, Metrosideros, and Lep

tospermum ; and an intert ropical region, part of which is low, and'

part from nine to ten thousand feet high (about .9590 to ‘

E nglish), in th e Andes of South America . Thi s mountain dist ri ct ,called in Qui te the dis trict of the Paramos, is entirely coveredWithtrees which have a

'

myrtle-like aspect and character,even though they

may not all belong to th e natu ral family of Myrta cae. Here,at the

above-named elevation,grow the . E scallonia myrtilloides, -E . t ubar

,

Simplocos alstonia, some species of Myrica, and the beautiful Myr

tus microphylla which we have figured in the Plantes équinoxiales,

t . i . p . 21,pl . iv. We found it gron onmi ca slate

,and extend

ing to an elevation Of more than ten thousand E nglish feet,On the

Paramo de Saraguru , near Vinayacu and Al to de Pul la, whi ch isadorned with so many lovely alpine flowering plan ts . Myrtus myr

sin oides even extends in the Paramo de Guaman i up toE nglish) feet. O f, the -40 species of the Genus Myrt us

whi ch .we collected in the equinoctial zone,and Of whi ch 37 were

undescribed, much the greater part belonged, however, to the plainsand lower mountains. From the mild tropical mountain climate ofMexico we brought back onl y a single species (Myrtus xalapensis)but the Tierra templada

,towards the Volcano of O rizaba

,must no

doubt contain several more . We found M . maritima near Acapulco,

quite on the sea-coast of the Pacific.“


The E scallonias—among which E . myrt illoides, E . tubar,and

E . floribun da are the ornament of the Paramos,and by their phyJ

Sl ognomy i emind the beholder strongly of the myrtle-form—oncecon stituted

,in combination with“ the E uropean and South American

Alp-roses (Rh ododendrum and Refaria), and with Clethra, Andro

meda; and Gaylu ssac c ia~buxifolia

,the family

v

of E ricem. RobertBrown (see the Appendix to Franklin

’s Narrative .of a Journey to

the Shores of the Polar Sea, 1823, p . 765) has raised them to therank of a separate family

,which Kunth places between Ph iladel

phese and Hamamel ideae.

’

The E scallonia floribunda offers in itsgeographi cal distribution one of the most striking examples

,1n the

habitat of the plant,of proportion between distance from the E qua

tor and vert ical elevation above th eflevel of the sea . In makingthis statement

,I again support myself on the authority of my acute

and judicious friend‘

Auguste de St .-Hilaire (Morphologie vegetable,1840

,p .

“Messieurs de Humboldt et Bonpland ont decouvert dans leur expedition l

’E scal lon ia floribunda a

'

1400toises parles 4° de latitude australe . Jc l’ai retrouvé par les 21° au Brésildans nu pays élevé

,mais pourtant infin iment plus h as que les Andes

du Perou‘

il est commun entre les et les dans les

Campos Geraes, enfin je le revois au Rio de la Plata vers les au

niveau meme l’ocean .

T1ees belonging to the group of Myrtaceae—to which Melaleuca,Metrosideros

,and E ucalyptus belong in the subdivision of Leptof

spermeae—produce partially, eitherwhere the leaves are replaced byphyl lodias ( leaf-sta lk leaves), or by the peculiar disposition or direction of the leaves relatively to the 11nswol len leaf-stalk,

’

a distribution

of stripe s of light and shade unknown in o ur forests of round-leaved

trees . The first botanical travellers wh o visited New Holland werestruck with the singularity of the effect thus produced : Robert

Brown was the first to show that this strange appearance arose fromthe leaf-stalks ( the phyll odias of the Acacia longifolia and A . sua

veolen s) being expanded i n a vertical direction, and from the circumstance that the light

,instead of falling on horizontal surfaces, falls

on and passes between vertical ones . (Adrien de J u ss 1eu CQu1s deBotanique

,pp . 106

,120

,and Darwin, Journal of Researches,

1845,p . Morphological laws in the development of the leafy

3 1


organs determine the peculiar character of the effects produced,the

outlines of light and shade . Phyl lodias,” says ~Kunth

,can

,

according to my view, only occur in famili es which have compoundpinnated leaves ; and in point of fact they h ave

'

as yet only beenfound in Leguminosae ( in Acacias). In E ucalyptus, Metrosideros

,

and Melaleuca,the leaves are Simple ( simplicia), and their edgewise

position arises from

it should be remark

two groups ofand of Acacia ,trees of which those forest-s coleuca there are formed between

detached portions of epidermis

whiteness remind the E uropean

nen ts. In the NewContinent, and especially init scarcely extends beyond the 26th parallel of

cording to Joseph Hooker (Flora Antarctica, p . while,1n the

Southern Hemisphere,according to Claude Gay, the re are in Chili g

10‘spec ies of Myrtus and 22 species of E ugenia, which, intermixed

with Protea ceae (E mbothrium and Lomatia), and with Fagu s obliqua,formforests . The Myrta ceae become more abundant beyond 38° S .

lat. —in the Island of Chiloe, where a Metrosideros-like spec ies ofMyrtus(Myrtus stipularis) forms almost impenetrable thickets unde1the name of Tepuales in Patagonia

,and mE ucgia

,to its extremity

in 565° Si lat. - In the O ld Continent, they prevail in E urope as

farii

as thei

46th parallel of north latitude in Austral ia,Tasmania

,

New Zealand, and th e.

Auckland Islands, they advance to 505°

south latitude .

‘

TZ

(32

) p . 244 . .Hela séoma cew.

This group comprises the genera Melastoma'

(Fo tl1ergilla and Tococa Aubl . and Rhexia (Meriana and O sbeckia), of which we found,on either side of the E quator m tropical America alone

,60new spe

c1es . Bonpland has published a superb work on Melastomaceae, l n


fresh combinations ; even in the icy north ,' h erbs covering th e earth

,

large alpine blossoms,and a serene azure sky cheer a portion of the

year. Hitherto landscape painting h as p ursued amongst us herpleasing task

,famili ar only with the simpler form of our native

floras, but not, therefore, without depth of feeling,“

or without th e

treasu res of creative imagination . E ven in this narrower field,

highly gifted painters, the Caracci, Gaspar Poussin; Claude Lorraine,and Ruysdael

,have

,with magic power

,by th e selection of forms of

trees and by effects of light,found

.

scope wherein to cal l‘forth some

of the most varied and beautiful productions of creative art . The

fame of these master-works can never be impaired by those which Iventure to hope for hereafter

,and to which I coul d not but point

,in

order to recall the ancient but deeply-seated bond which un ites natu

ral knowledge with poetry and wi th artistic feeling ; for we mustever distinguish in landscape painting, as in every other branch of

art,between productions derived from direct obs ervation, and these

which spring from the depths of inward feeling and from the power

of the idealizing min d . The great and beautiful works which ow'

et heir origin to this creative power of the mind applied to landscapepainting

,belong to the poetry of nature

,and

,like man himself, and

the imagination with which he is gifted,are not riveted to the soil

,

or confined to any single region . I allude here more particul arly to

the gradation in the form of trees from Ruysdael and E verdingen,

through Claude Lorraine to Poussin and Annibal Caracci . In the

great masters of the art,we perceive . no trac e of local limitation ; but

an enlargement of the visible s h oriz on,and an increased acquaintance

with the nobler and grander forms of nature,and with the luxuriant

fulness of life 1n the tropical world,cfler the advantage not only of

enriching the material substratum of landscape-painting,but also of

affording a more lively stimul us to less gifte d artists,and of thus

heightening their powers of production .

”

(35

) p . 245. From the rough ba rk of Crescen tia s a nd Gusta via .

In the Crescentia cuj ete ( the Tutuma or Calabash-tree, whoselarge frui t-shells are so useful to the natives for household purposes)—in th e Cyn ometra, the Theobroma ( the Cacao-tree), and the Pe

rigara ( the Gustavia of Linnaeu s) —the delicate flowers break through


the half-carbonized bark . When children eat the fruit of '

th e‘

Pirigara speciosa ( the Chupo), their whOle body becomes tinged withyellow ; it

'

is a j aund ice,which lasts from 24 to 36 h ours, ,

and thendisappears without the use of medicine .

I have never forgotten the impression which I received of the

luxuriant power of vegetation in the tropical world,when

,on enter

ing a Cacao p lantation (Caca hual), in the Valles de Aragua, after adamp night

,I saw for the first time large blossoms springingfrom a

root of the Theobroma deeply‘

imbedded in black earth . It was on eof the most instantaneousmanifestations of the activity of the vegetative organic forces . Northern nations speak of the awakening ofNature at the first breath of th e mild air of spring.

” Such an expression is singularly contrasted with the imagination of the

~Stagyrite

,who recognized in plants forms which lie '

buried in a tranquilslumber that knows no waking

,free from the

,

desires which impelto spontaneous motion .

”

(Aristot . de generat . Animal , v. i . p . 778,and de somno et vigil .,cap . 1

,p . 455

,Bekker.)

(35) p . 245. D raw over their hea ds .

The flowers of our Aristolochia cordata,to which I have already

referred in ‘

Note 25. The largest flowers 1n the world, apart from

Compositae ( in the Mexican Helianthus annuus), belong to Rafflesiaarnoldi

,Aristolochia

,Datura

,Barrington l a, Gustavia,“CarOl in ea,

Lecythis,Nymph aea , Nelumbium,

Victoria regina,Magnolia

,Cactus

,

and to O rchideous and Liliaceous plants .

(37) p : 246. To behold

‘

a ll the sh in ing worlds wh ich stud the

hea ven ly va u ltfrom p ole to p ole?

The finest portion of th e southern celestial h em1sph ere , whereshine the constellations of the Centaur

,the Ship

,and the Southern

Cross,and where the soft lustre of the Magellanic clouds is seen,

remains for ever concealed from the view of the inhabitants of E u

ropef It is only beneath the equinoctial line that Man enjoys t h e

pecu liar privilege of beholding at once all the stars both of the southern and the northern heavens . Some of our northern constellations

seen from thence appear from their low altitude of a surprising and31*

366 PHYSIOGNOMY

almost awful magnitude exampl

th e inhabitant of the tropics sees alalso

,in regions where plains alter1

mountains,Nature surrounds him

forms of plants .


method which,wh ilst it continually aims at generality of conception ,

seeks,at the same time

,to penetrate the specialties of phenomena

by the consideration of'

particular instances .

The enumeration of forms according to physiognomic diversityi s,from the nature of the case

,not susceptible of any strict classi

fi cat ion . Here,as everywhere else

,in the consideration of external

conformation,there are certain leading forms which present the

most striking contrasts : such are ' the groups of arborescent grasses,plants of the aloe form

,the

“

different species of cactus, palms,needl e-trees

,Mimosaceae

,and Musaceae. E ven a few scattered

individuals of th ese groups are sufficient to determine the characterof a district

,and to produce on a non-sc ien t ific but sensitive beholder

a permanent impression . O ther forms, though perhaps much mo re

numerous and preponderating in mass,may not be cal culated—leith er

by the outline and arrangement of the foliage, or by the relation ofthe stem to the branches

,by luxuriant vigor of vegetation, by

cheerful grace ; or, on the other hand, by cheerless c on trac tiorr Of

the appendicul ar organs—to produce any such characteristic impres

As,therefore

,a “physiognomic classification

,or a division into

groups from external aspect or “facies,

” does not admit of being

applied to the whole vegetable kingdom,so also, In such a c lassifica

tion,the grounds on which the division 1S mad e are quite different

from those on which our systems of natural families and of plants

( including the whole of the vegetable kingdom)have been so happilyestablished . Physiognomic classification grounds her divisions and

the choic e of her types on whatever possesses “mass” —such asshape , position, and arrangement of leaves, their size, and the charac ter and surfaces

'

( sh in ing or dull) of the parenchyma ; therefore,on all that are called more

”

especially the “ organs of vegetation,

”

i . e. those on which the preservation—the nourishment and development—of the individual depend : while systematic Botany

,on the

other hand, grounds the arrangement of natural families on theconsideration of the organs of propagation—those on which thecontinuation or preservation of the species depends . (Kunth,Leh rbuch der Botanik

,1847, th . i . s . Schleiden

,die Pflan z e

und ihr Leben,1848

,s . It was already taught in the school


of Aristotle (Probl . 20, 7) that the production of’

seed is the ultimate object of t h e existenc e and life of the plant” Since CasparFried . Wolf (Theoria Gen eration is, 5 and since our great

(German) Poet, the process of development in the organs of fru c ti~fi ca tion has become the morphological foundation of all systematicbotany.

That study,and the study of the physiogn omy of plants, I here

repeat, proceed from two different points of view : the first frOmagreement in the ~infloresc en ce or in the delicate organs of repro

duction ; the second from the form of the parts which constitute

the axes (i . e . the stems and branches), and the shape of the leaves,dependent princ ipally on the distribution of the vascular fascicles .As

,then

,W es and appendicular organs predominate by their

volume and mass,they determine and strengthen the impression

which we receive,they individualize the physiognomic character of

the vegetable form and that of the landscape,Or of the region in

which any of the more strongly-marked and distinguished typesseverally occur . The law 1s .here given by agreement and affinityin the marks taken from the vegetative

,i . e . the nutritive organs .

In all E uropean colonies,the inhabitants have taken occasion

,from

resemblances of physiognomy ( of“ habitus

,

” to bestowthe names of E uropean forms upon tropical plants or trees bearingvery different flowers and fruits from those fromwhich the nameswere originally taken . E verywhere

,In both hemispheres, northern

settlers have thought they found Alders,Poplars

,Apple

“

and O livetrees . They have been misled, in most cases, by

’

th e form of theleaves and the direction of the branches . The illusion 'has beenfavored bythe cherished remembrance of

‘

the trees and plants of

home,and thus E uropean names have been handed down from gene

ration to generation ; and in the slave colonies therehave been addedto them denominations derived from Negro languages .

The contrast so often p resented between a striking agreement ofphysiognomy and the greatest diversity in

, the i nflorescence andfruc tifica tion- betwe‘en the external aspect as determined by theappendicular or leaf-system, and the reproductive organs on which

the groups of the natural systems of botany are founded—is aremarkable and surprising phenomenon . We should have been ia

370 PHYsroc NoMY or PLANTS .

c l in ed beforehand to imagine that the sh ape of what are exclusivelytermed the vegetative organs ( for example, the leaves) would h aVebeen less indep enden t of the stru cture of the organs of reproducti on ,

but 1n reality such a dependence only sh Ows itself m a smal l numberof famil ies—in Ferns

, Grasses, and Cyperaceae, Palms, Coniferae,Umbelliferae

,and Aroideae . In Leguminosae, the agreement in

physiognomic character is scarcely to be recognized until we dividethem into the several groups (Papil ionaceae, Caesalpineae, and Mi

moseae). I may name,of types whi ch

, when compared with each

difference in the structure of the flowers and fruit,Palms and Cycadeac

,the latter being more nearly allied to Coniferae ; Cuscuta,

one of the Convolvulaeae, and the leafless Cassytha, a parasi tical

Laurinea ; E quisetum (belonging to the great“

division of Crypto

gamia) and E phedra,closely allied to Coniferae. On the other

hand,our common gooseberries and currants (Ribes) are so closely

al l ied by their inflorescence to the Cactus,i . e. to ’ the family of

O puntiaceae, that it is only quite recently that they have been'

Sepa

rated from it One and , the same family ( that of Asph odeleae)comprises the gigantic Dracaena draco

,the common asparagus, and

the Al etris with its colored flowers . Not only do simple and coni

pound leaves often belong to the same family,but they even occur

in the same genus. We found in the high plains of Peruand New

Granada, among twelve new species ofWeinmannia, five with fol iis

simpl ic ibus,” and the rest with pinnate leaves . The genus Aralia

shows still greater independence in the form of the leaves .

“ folia

sinipl ic ia , integra, vel lobata, digitata et pinnata . (Compare Kunth,Synopsis Plan tarum quas in itinere c ol legeru n t, Al . de Humbol dte t Am . Bonpland

,t . ii i . pp . 87 and

Pinnated leaves appear to me to.

belong chiefly to families whichare in the highest grade of organic development

,namely

,the Poly

petalse and among these,in the Perigyn ic class, to the Leguminosae,

Rosac eae,'

Terebin th aceae,and Juglandeae and in the Hypogyni c,

to the Aurantiaceae, Cedrelac eee, and Sapindaceae . The beautiful,

doubly-pinnated leaves which form one of the principal ornamentsof the torrid zone

,are most frequent among the Leguminosae, in

Mimoseae,also in some Caesalpineae, Cou l terias, and Gledi tsch ias ;

ON THE

STRUCTURE , AND MODE OF ACTION

VOLCANOS,

IN DIFFE RE NT PARTS or THE GLOBE .

76,

STRUCTURE,AND MODE OF ACTION

hemi sphere,from the E quator to the Poles . In a remote island, sur

rounded by exotic vegetation,beneath a sky where his accustomed

stars no longer shine,the voyager often recognizes with j oy the

argillaceous schists of his birth-place, and the rocks familiar to his

eye in his native land .

This absence of any dependence of geological relations on thepresent constitution of climates does not preclude or even diminish

the salutary influence of numerous observations made in distant regions on the advance and progress of geological science

,though it

imparts to this progress something of a peculiar direction . E veryexpedi tion enriches natural history with new species or new generaof plants and animal s : there are thus presented to us sometimes

forms which connect themselves with previously long known types,and thus permi t us to trace and contemplate in its perfection thereally regular though apparently broken or interrupted network of

organic forms at other times, shapes which appear isolated—either

surviving remnants of extin ct genera or orders,or otherwise mem

bers of still undiscovered groups,stimulating afresh the spirit of

research and expectation . The examination of the solid crust of the

globe does not,indeed

,unfold to us such diversity and variety ; it

p resents to us, on the contrary, an agreement in the constituent

particles,1n the superposit ion of the different kinds of masses, and

in their regular recurrence,which excites the admiration of the geo

legist. In the chain of the Andes,as in the mountains of Middle

E urope, one formation appears, as it were, to summon to itself

another. Rocks of the same name'

exhibit the same outlines ; basaltand dolerite form twin mountains ; dolomite, sandstone, and per

phyry,"

abrupt precipices ; and vitreous feldspathic trachyte, high,dome-like elevations. In the most -distant zones

,large crystals se

parate themselves in a similar manner from the compact texture ofthe primitive mass, as if by an internal development, form groupsin assoc iation, and appear associated in layers, often announcing the" vicinity of new

,independent formations Thus in any single system

of mountains of considerable extent we see the whole inorganicsubstances of which the crust of the earth is composed represented

,

as it were, with more or less di stinctness ; yet , in order to becomecompletely acquainted with the important phenomena of the com

OF VoLeANos . 377

position,the relative age

,and mode of origin of rocks

,we must

c ompare together observations from the most varied and remote

regions . Problems which long perplexed the geologist in his native

landm these northern countries,find their solution near the E quator.

If,as has been already remarked

,new zones do not necessarily pre

sent to us new kmds of,

rock ( i . e. unknown groupings or associationsof simple substances), they, on the other hand, teach us to discernthe great and everywhere equally prevailing laws

,according to which

the strata of the crust of the earth are superposed upon each other,penetrateeach other as veins or dykes, or are uph eaved or elevated

by elastic fo .rcesIf,then

,our geological knowledge 1s thus promoted byresearches

embracing extensive parts of th e earth’s surface, it is not surprisin gthat the particular class of phenomena which form the subj ect ofthe present discussion should long have been regarded from a point

of view the more restricted as , the points of c omparison were of difli

cult,I might almost say arduous and painful, attainment and access.

Until the close of the last century,all real or supposed knowledge

of the structure or form of volcanos, and of the mode of operation of

subterraneanj forc es, was taken from two mountains of the South ofE urope

,Vesuvius and E tna. The former of these being the easiest

of ac cess,and its eruptions

,as is generally the case in volcanos of

small elevation,being most frequent in their occurrence, a hill of

minor elevation became the type which regulated al l the ideasformed respecting phenomena exhibited on a far larger scale in

many vast and distan t regions,as in the mighty volcanos arranged

in linear series in Mexico,South America, and the Asiatic Islands.

Such a proceeding might not unnaturally recall Virgil’s shepherd,

who thought he beheld 1n his humble cottage the type of the E ternal

City,Imperial Rome .

A more carefu l examination of the whole of the Mediterranean,and especial ly of th ese islands and coasts where men awoke to the

noblest intellectual culture,might

,however, have dispelled views

formed from so limited a consideration of nature . Among the Spe

rades,trachytic rocks have been upraised from the deep bottom of

the sea,forming islands resembling that which, in the vicinity of the

Azores,appeared thrice periodically

,at nearly equal intervals, in

378 STRUCTURE , AND MODE or ACTION

three centuries . The'

Peloponnesus h as, between E pidaurus a nd

Troez ene, near Methone, a Monte‘

Nuovo described by Strabo and

seen again by Dodwell , which is higher than the Mon teNuovo Of

th e'

Ph legraean Field near Baiae, and perhaps even higher than th e

new volcano of Joru l lo in the plains of Mexico,whi ch I found surrounded by several thousand small basal tic

'

c ones, which had been

protruded from the earth,and were still smoking. In the Mediter

ran ean and its shores,it is not only frOm the permanent craters of

isolated mountains having a constant communication with the interiOr

, as Stromboli, Vesuvius, and E tna; that volcani c fires breakforth : at Ischia

,on the Monte E pomeo, and also, as it woul d appear

by the accounts of the ancients,in the Lelan

‘

tine plain near Chalcis,lavas ha

‘

ve flowed from fissures which have suddenly opened at thesurface of th e

‘

earth . Besides these phenomena—which fall withinthe hi storic period

,or within th e

'

restric ted domain of well-assured

tradi tion,and which Carl Ritter will collect and elucidate in his mas

terly work on Geography—the shores of the,

Mediterranean exhibit

numerous remains of more ancient volcanic action . In the Southpart of Frhn ce

,

’

in Auvergne,we see a separate

,complete system of

volcanos arranged In lines,trachytic domes alternating with cones of

eruption,fromwhich streams of lava have flowed 1n narrow bands .

The plain of Lombardy,as level as the surface Of the sea, and form

ing an inner Gulf of the Adriatic, surrounds - the trachyt e of the

E ugan ean Hills, where rise domes of granular t rachyte, obsidian ,and pearl-stone, masses connected by a common origin, which breakthrough the lower cretaceous rock and nummulitic l imestone, buthave never flowed in narrow streams . Similar evidences of ancientrevolutions of nature are found in several parts of the mainland ofGreece and in Asia Minor

,

'

eoun trieswhich will one day offer a richfield for geological investigation

,when intellectual light shall revisit

the seatsfrom which it has radiated to theWestern world, and whenoppressed humanity shall no longer be subj ect to the barbarism ofTurkish rule .

I recall the geographical proximity of these various phenomena,

in'

order to show that the basin of the Mediterranean,with its series

of islands , might have offered to an attentive observer much that has

been recently discovered,under various forms

,in South America,


earth,which are situated on -l ong chains of mountains with serrated

crests,and not even always on the middle of the ridge, but . some

times a t its extremi ty : s uch is Pichincha, situated be tween the

Pacific and the city of Qui to,and which acquired celebrity in con

n ec tion with Bouguer’s earliest barometric formulae, and such,are

thevolcanos which rise in the elevated Steppe de les Pastos, itself

ten thousand E nglish) feet high . Al l these summits,which are of various shapes

,consist of trachyte, formerly called

Trap-porphyry : a granul ar,vesicul ar rock composed of different

kinds of feldspar (Labradori te, O ligoklase, and-Al bite), augite,

hornblende,and sometimes interspersed mica

,and even quartz . In

cases where the evidence of the first outburst Or eruption,or I might

say where the ancient structure or scaffolding remains entire, the

isolated conical mount is surrounded by an amphitheatre or i oftycircul ar rampart o f rocky strata superimposed upon each other.Such walls or ring-formed ramparts are called

“ craters of eleva

tion,

” a great and important phen omenon,concerning which a

memorable treatise was presented to our Academy five years ago

(i . e. in by the first geologist of our time, Leopold von

Buch, fromi

wh ose writing s have borrowed several of the viewscontained in the present discussion .

Volcanes which communicate with the atmosphere through permanent openings

,conical basaltic hills

,and craterless trachytic

domes, sometimes as low . as Sarcouy, _ sometimes f _as lofty as the

Chimborazo,form various g roups . Comparative geography shows

us sometimes smal l clusters or dis tinct systems of mountains, withcraters and lava-currents m the Canaries and the Az ores , and with

out craters and without lava e eurren ts,properly so called

,in the

E uganean hills and the Siebengebirge near Bonn ;—and at othertimes the same study describes to us volcanos arranged In singleor double lines extending through many hundred leagues In length

,

these lines being either parallel to thedi

rection of a great chain of

mountains, as in Guatimala, in .Peru, and in Java, or cutting ittransversely or at right angles

,as in tropical Mexico . In this lan d

of the Az tecs the fire-emitting trachytic mountains are the onlyones which attain the elevation of the lofty region Of perpetual

snow ; they a re ranged i n the direction of a parallel of latitude , and

or VOLC‘ANO S . ééf

have probably been raised from a fissure of 420E nglish geograph ical miles long

,traversing the Con tinent from the Pacific to the

A tlantic O cean .

These assemblages of volcanos, whether in rounded groups or mdouble lines

,show in the most conclusive manner tha t the volcanic

agencies do not depend on small or restricted causes, in n ear

proximity to the surface of the earth,but that they are

‘great phen omen a of deep-seated origin . The whole of the eastern part ofthe American Con tinen t,

"

wh ich is poor'

in metals,is,in its

'

present'

state, without fire-emitting mountains, without masses of trachyte,”

and perhaps even without basalt containing olivine . All the Ame

rican volcanos are on t h e Side Of the Continent which is Opposite'

to

Asia,in the chain of th e '

Andeswhich runs nearly in the direction’

of a meridian,and extends over a length of 7200 geographical

miles .

The whole plateau or high-land of Quito,of which Pichincha

,

Cotopaxi,and Tunguragu a form the summits, is t o be viewed as a

single volcanic furnace . The subterranean fire breaks forth sometimes through one and sometimes through another of these openings,which it has been customary to regard as separate and distinctvolcanos . Th e progressive march of the subterranean fire h as been

here directed for three centuries from north“

to south .

'

E ven theearthquakes which occasion such dreadful ravages in this part ofthe world afford remarkable proofs of the existence of subterraneancommunications

,not only between countries where there are no

volcanos ( a fact which had’

long been known), but also between fire

emitting openings situated at’

great distances asunder. Thus in

1797 the volcano of Paste, east of the Guaytara River, emitted

uninterruptedly for three mOn th s a lofty column of smoke, which

column disappeared at the instant'

when,at a distance of 240 geo

graphical miles,the great earthquake of Riobamba and the 1mmen se

eru ption of mud called “Moya” took place,causing the death of

between thirty and forty thousand persons .The sudden appearance of the Island of Sabrina near the Azores,

on the 30th of January,1811

,was the precursor of the terrible

earthquake movements which,much farther to the west,

‘ shook

almost incessantly,from the month of May

,1811

,to June,

382 STRUCTURE , AND MODE OF ACTION

first th eWest India n Islands , - then the plain of the Ohio and Mis

sissippi, and lastly, the Opposite coast of Venezuela .Or Caraccas .

Thirty days after the destruction of the principal city of that pro

vince, the long tranqu il volcano of the Island of .St . Vincent burst

forth in an eruption . A remarkable phenomenon accompanied thi seruption : at the same moment when the explosion took place, onthe 30th of April

,1811

,a loud subterranean noise was heard in

South America,which spread terror and

‘

.dismay Over a di strict of

2200 (German) geographical square miles (35,200 E nglish geographical square miles). The dwellers on the banks of the Apure,near the confluence Of the Rio Nu la

,and the most distant inhabitants

of the sea coas t of Venezuela, alike compared the sound to that ofthe discharge of great pieces of ordnance . Now from the confluence

of the Nula with the Apure (by whi ch latter river I arrived on the

O rinoco) to the volcano of St . Vincent isa di stance in a straightline Of 628 E ngli sh geographical miles . The sound

,which certainly

was not propagated through th e‘

air,must have p roceeded from a

deep-seated subterranean cause,for its intensity was scarcely greater

on the sea coast nearest to the volcano where the eruption was’taking place

,than l n the interiorOf the country

,in the basin of

the Apure and the O rinoco .

It would be unnecessary to multiply examples by citing otherinstances which I have collected ; but, to recal l a phenomenon of

E uropean h is torical importance,I will only farther. mention the

celebrated earthquake of Lisbon . Simul taneously with that event,

on the 1st of November,1755, not only were the Swiss lakes and

the sea near the coast of Sweden violently agitated,but even among

the eastern West Indian Islands, Martinique, Antigua, and Bar

badoes, where the tide never exceeds thirty inches, the sea suddenlyrose more than twenty feet. All these phenomena show the Operation of subterranean forces

,act ing either dynamically in earthquakes

,

in the tension and agitation of the crus t ; or in volcanos, in theproduction and chemical alteration of substances . They al so showthat these forces do not act superficially, in the thin outermost crust

of the globe,but from great depths in the interior of our planet,

through crevices or unfilled veins,afi

'

ec ting simultaneously widely

di stant points of the earth’s surface .


determined,may be substituted for them ; and for a comparison Of

determinations madeO

a t difi'

eren t epochs,angles o f al titude so mea

sured may even h e often preferable to the compli cation of circum

stances which more complete Operations may involve .

Saussure had measured Mount Vesuvius,in 1778, when the two

margins of the crater,the north-western and the south-eastern, ap

peared to him to be of equal he ight. He found the ir height abovethe level of the sea 609 tois es, 3 ,894 E nglish feet. The eruption of

1794 occasioned a breaking down of the margin of the crater on the

southern side,and a consequent inequalitybetween the height of the

two edges which themost unpracticed eye does not fail to distinguisheven at a considerable dis tance . In 1805 Leopold vo

_

n Buch,Cray

Lussac,and myself measured the height of Vesuvius three times

,

and foun d the northern(margin opposite to La Somma ( the Rocca

del Pale) exactly as given by ,

Saussure,but the southern margin

75 toises, or 450French or 479 E nglish’

feet,lower than he had

found it in 1773 . Th e whole elevation Of the volcano on the side

of Torre del Greco ( the side towards whi ch, for the last thirty years,the igneous action has, as it were, been principally directed) hadatthat time diminished one-eighth . The height Of the cone of ashes,as compared with the whole height of the mountain

,is in Vesuvius

as 1 to 3 in Pichincha, as 1 to 10; and in the Peak of Tenerifi'

e,

as 1 to 22. In these three volcanic mountains,the cone of ash es is

therefore,relatively speaking, highest in Vesuvius ; probably be

cause,being a low volcano, the action has been principally by the

summit .

A few months ago (1822) I was enabled not only t o repeat myformer barometric measurements of the h eight of Vesuvius

,but also

,

during the course Of three visits to.

the summit L to make a morecomplete determination of all the edges Of the crater. (

1

) Thesedeterminations may not

'

be without interest,since they include the

long period of great eruptions between 1805 and 1822,and consti

tute perhaps the only known examination and measurement of avolcano at different epochs, m which the different parts of the examination are all truly comparablewith each other. We lea rnfrom it that the margins of craters are a phenomenon of far more

permanent ch arac te1 than had been previously inferred from passing

OF VOLCANos . 385

Observations,and this not only where (as in the Peak of Tenerifife,

and in all the volcanos Of the chain of the Andes) they are visiblycomposed of trachyte, but also elsewhere . According to my lastdeterminations

,the north-west edge of Vesuvius has

,perhaps

,not

altered at all since the time of Saussure, an interval of 49 years ,and the south-eastern side

,on the side towards Bosche Tre Case

,

whic h,in 1794, had become 400French (426 E nglish) feet lower,

h as since then hardly altered 10toises (60 French or 64 E nglishfeet).

If the public j ournals,in describing great eruptions

,Often state

the shape of Vesuvius to have undergone an entire change,and if

these assertions appear to be confirmed by picturesque views sketched at Naples

,the cause of the error consists in the outlines of the

margin of th e crater having been confounded with those of the cOn esof eruption

,accidentally formed in the middle Of the crater

,on its

floor or bottom,which has been upheaved by vapors . Such' a cone

of eruption,con sisting

r

of loosely heaped-up rapilli and scoriae, h adin the course of the y ears 1816—1818 gradually risen so as to beseen above the south-eastern margin of the crater ; and the eru ption

of the month of February 1822 augmented it so much, that it evenbecame from 100 to 110 (about 107 to 117 E ngli sh) feet higherthan the north-western margin of the crater (the Pt oc ca del Pale).

This remarkable cone,which it had become customary in Naples to

regard as th e . true summit of the mountain,fell in

,with a

'

dreadfu l

noise,in the last eruption

,on the night of the 22d of O ctober

so that the floor of the crater,which had been constantly

accessible since 1811, is now 750 ( almost 800 E nglish) feet lowerthan the northern

,and 200 (213 E nglish) feet lower than the

southern edge of the volcano. Variations in the form and relative

position of the cones of eruption—the openings Of which ought notto be confounded

,as they oft en are

,with the crater of the volcano

itself—give to Vesuvius at difi eren t epochs a different appea rance,which would enable a person well acquainted with the history of the

volcano,on a mere inspection of Hackert’s paintings in the palace

of Portici,to tell from the outlines of th e summit, according as the

northern or the sou th ern z side Of the mountain is represented as the3 3

386 STRUCTURE , AND MODE O F ACTION

hi ghest,in what year the artist had taken the sketch from whi ch the

picture was made .

In the last eruption, in the night Of the 23d to the 24th of O cto

ber,twenty-four hours after the falling in of the great cone of scoriae

whi ch has been mentioned, and when the small but numerous currents of lava h ad already flowed off

,the fiery eruption Of ashes and

rapilli commenced z’

it continued without intermission for twelvedays

,but was greatest in the first four days . During this period

,

the detonations in the interior of the volcano were so viOlen t that

the mere concussion of the air (for no earthquake movement wasperceived) rent the ceilings of the rooms in the palace Cf Portici .In the neighboring villages of Resina

,Torre del Greco, Torre del

Annunziata,and Boseh e Tre Case, a remarkable phenomenon was

witnessed . Throughout the whole of that part of the country the

air was so filled with ashes as to cause in the middle of the day pro

found darkness,lasting for several hours : lanterns were carried in

the st reets,as has SO often been done at Quito during the eruptions

Of Pichincha . The flight of the inhabitan ts had never been moregeneral : lava currents are regarded by those who dwell near Vesu

vius with less dread than an eruption of ashes, a phenomenon which

had never been known to such a degree in. modern times ; and the

Obscure tradition of ' the manner in which the destruction of Hercu

lan eum,Pompeii

,and Stabize took place

,filled the imaginations of

men with appalling images .

Th e h ot aqueous vapors which rose ~from the crater during the

eruption and spread themselves in the atmosphere,formed

,in cool

ing, a dense cloud, ( surrounding the column Of fire and ashes,which

rose to a heigh t of between nine and ten thousand feet . So Sudden

a condensation of vapor, and even, as Gray-Lussac _has shown

,the

formation of the cloud itself,augmented the electric tension . Flashes

Of forked l ightning, issuing from the column of ashes,darted in

every di rection ; and the rolling tE unders were distinctly heard, and

distingui shed from the sounds which proceeded from the interior Ofthe volcano . In no other eruption had the play of the electric forcesformed so striking a feature .

O n the morning Of the 26th of O ctober,a surprising rumor pre

vailed, to the effect that a torrent of boiling water was gushing from

888 STRUCTURE , AND M ODE OF ACTION

phenomenon which brings to light an otherwise -unknown fish,the

Pimelodes Cyc lopum,called by the inhabitants Of the highlands of

Quito,

“ Prefi adil la,

”and which I described soon after my return .

When, on the night of the 19th of June, 1698, the summ it of amountain situated to the north of Chimborazo, the Carguaira z o,above E nglish feet high

,fell in

,the country for nearly thirty

E nglish geographical square miles round was covered with mud and

fishes ; and seven years earlier a putrid fever, in the town Of Ibarra,

was ascribed to a similar eruption of fish from the volcano '

of Im

‘

I recall these facts,because they throw some l igh t/on the differ

ence between the eruption of dry ashes and miry inundations of

tufa and trass,carrying with them wood

,ch arcoal

,

‘

and shells . The

quantity of ashes emitted byVesuvius in the recent eruption, likeeverything connected with volcanos and other great natural 'phe:nomena of a character to excite terror

,has been exceedingly exag

gerated in the public papers ; and two Neapolitan chemists, Vicenzo

Pepe and Giuseppe di NObili,notwithstanding the statements of

Monticelli and Covelli to’

th e contrary,even describe the ashes as

containing Silver and gold . According to the results Of my re

searches and inquiries, the thickness of the bed of ashes formed bythe twelve days’ shower was but little above three feet

,towards

Bosche Tre Case , on the Slope Of the cone where rapill i were

mingled with them ; and in the plain, from to 19 inches at the

utmost . Such measurements ought not to be taken in places wherethe ashes have been heaped up by the action of wind, l ike drifted

snowor sand, or have accumulated from being carried thither bywater . The . times are

'

passed for seeking only the marvellous involcanic phenomena

,in the manner of the ancients

,

’

among whomCt esias made the ashes Of E tna to be conveyed as far as the Indianpeninsula . There are in Mexico veins of gold and Silver in trachyticporphyry but in the ashes ‘

Of Vesuvius which I brought back

with me,and which an excellent chemist

,Heinrich Rose

,has ex

amin ed at my request,no traces of either gold or silver have been

discovered .

Al though the above-mentioned resul ts,which are qui te in ac

cordance with the exact observations Of Monticelli,differ much from

OF VOLCANO S . 389

the acc ounts which have been current during the short intervalwhich has elapsed, it is nevertheless true that the eruption of ashesfrom Vesuvius from the 24th to the 28th of last O ctober (1822) 1sthemost memorable of any of which we possess an authentic account

,

since that which occas ioned the death of the elder Pliny. Thequantity of ashes

,is,perhaps

,three times as great as has ever been

in Italy.

“

A stratum Of ashes,from 16 to 19 inches thick

,appears

at first sight insignificant compared with the mass which we findcovering Pompeii ; but, not to speak of the increase which that massh as probably received by the effects of heavy rains and other causesduring the centuries which have. since elapsed, and without renewing the animated debate respect ing the causes of the destruction ofthe Campanian towns

,and which , on the other side of the. Alps

,has

here be recalled to recollection . that the , eruptions of a volcano,at

widely separated epochs,do not well admit of comparison

,as respects

their intensi ty . All inferences derived from analogy are inadequatewhere quantitative relations are concerned ; as the quantity of lavaand a shes

,the height of the column of smoke

,and th e . loudn ess or

intensity Of t h e detonations .

From the geographical. description of Strabo,and from an Opin

ion given by Vitruvius respecting the volcanic origin of pumice,we

perceive that,up to the year of the death of Vespasian

,z'

. 6 . pre

viou s to the eruption which overwhelmed Pompeii, Vesuvius hadmore the appearanc e of an extinct volcano than of a Solfatara .

When, after long repose, the subterranean forces suddenly openedfor themselves new channels, and again broke through the bedso fprimi tive and trachytic rocks, effects must have been produced forwhich subsequent ones do not furnish a standard . Fromthe wellknown letter in which the younger Pliny informs Tacitus of hisuncle’s death

,it may be clearly seen that the renewal Of volcanic

outbursts,or what might be called the revival of th e slumberin g

volcano,began with an eruption of ashes The same thing was

Observed at Jorul lo, when in September, 1759 , the new volcano,breaking through beds of syenite and trachyte

,rose suddenly m the

plain . The country people took flight on finding their huts strewed33*

390 STRUCTURE , AND MODE OF ACTION

with ashes which had been emitted frOm the everywhere opening

tivity, on the contrary, the shower Of ashes marks the termin ationof each particular eruption . There i s a passage in the letter Of th e

th e eruption, the dry ashes which h ad fallen had reached a thi ck

ness Of four or five feet,without accumulation from drift or other

extran eous cause . He writes,in the course of his narrative, Th e

court which h ad to be crossed, tO'

reach the room in whi ch Pliny

was taking h is noonday repose, was so fil led with ashes and pumic e,that

,if he h ad longer delayed coming forth

,he wou l d r

ha'

ve foundthe passage stopped .

” In an enclosed Space like a court, th e

action of wind in drifting the ashes can scarcely have been very

considerable.I have interrupted my general comparative

’

view of volcanos by a

notice of particular Observations made on Vesuvius, part ly z o'

n ac

count Of the great interest excited by the recent eruption, and

partly on account of those recollections of the catastrophes of Pom‘

peii . and Herculaneum,whi ch are almost involuntarily recalled to

our minds by the occurrence of . any considerable shower of ashes .

I have recorded in a note the measurements of height made by myself and others on Vesuvius and in its vicinity.

We have hitherto been considering the structure and mode of

action of th ose volcanos which have a permanent communication

with the interior of the . earth by craters . The summits of such

volcanos consist of masses of trachyte and lava upheaved by elasticforces and traversed by veins . The permanency of their ac tiongives us reason to infer great complexity of ‘structure . Th ey have

,

so to . speak,‘

an individual character which remains unaltered forlong periods Of time . Neighboring mountains iOften present thegreatest differences in their products leucitic and feldspathi c lavas

,

obsidian with pumice,and masses of basalt containing O livin e .

They belong to the most recent terrestrial phenomena,breaking

through almost all the sedimentary strata, and their products ' andlava currents are of

'

later origin than our valleys . Their life,if I ‘

may permit myself to employ this figurative mode of expression,depends on the manner and permanence of their communications

392 STRUCTURE , AND MODE O F ACTION

times approximating more to basal t and somet imes to trachyte ;

and the analogy of artificial igneous products) chemical substancesmay have uni ted in defin ite proportions in a crystal line form : in

all cases we recognize that substances similar in composition have

arrived at th e surface Of the earth by very different ways ; either

simply upheaved,or penetrating through temporary fissures ; and

that breaking through the older rocks ( i . e. the earlier oxidizedcrus t of the globe), they have finally issued as lava currents fromconica l mountains having a permanent crater. To c onfound to

gether phenomena so difl'

eren t,is to throw the geological study of

volcanos and volcanic action back i nto the Obscurity from which, bythe aid of numerous comparative Observations and researches

,it has

gradually begun to emerge .

The ques tion h as often been propoundcd : What is it th at’

burns

in volcanos—what produces the heat which melts and fuses togetherearths and metals ? Modern chemical science h as essayed to an swer,That what burns are the earths

,the metals

,th e alkal ies themselves ;

viz . the metal loids Of th ese substances . The solid and already?

oxidized crust Of the globe sepa rates the surrounding atmosphere,with the oxygen wh ich it contains

,from the inflammable unoxidized

substances in the interior of our planet : when those metalloids come

in contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere there arises di sengagement of heat. Th e great and celebrated chemist who propounded

this explanation of volcanic phenomena soon him se lf relinqui shed it.

O bservations made in mines and caverns in all climates,and which

in concert with M . Ar ago I have collected in a separate memoir,show that

,even at what may be considered a very small depth , th e

temperature of the earth is much above the mean temperature ofthe atmosphere at the same place . A fact so remarkable

,and so

generally confirmed,connects itself with th at which we learn from

volcanic phenomena. Th e depth at which the globe may be re

garded as a molten mass has been ca lculated . The primitive causeof this subterranean heat is

,as in all planets

,the process of formation

itself, the separation of the spherically condensing mass from a cosmical gaseous fluid

,and the cooling of the terrestrial st rata at

different depths by the loss Of heat parted with by radiati on . All

or VOLCANO S . 393

volcanic phenomena are probably the resu lt of a communicationeither peM an en t or transient between the interior and exterior of

the globe . E lastic vapours press the molten oxidizing substances

upwards through deep fissures . .Volcanos might thus be termedintermitting springs or fountains of earthy substances ; c

'

. e. of thefluid mixture of metals

,alkalies

,and earths which solidify into lava

currents and flow softly and tranquill y,when being upheaved they

find a passage by which to escape . In a simil ar manner theAnc ients represented (acc ording to Plato

’s Ph aedon) all volcanicfiery currents as streams flowing from the Pyriphlegethon .

To these considerations and vi ews let me be permitted to addanother more bold . May we not find in this internal heat of ourglobe—( a heat indicated by thermometri c experiments on thewaters of springs rising from different depths

, (3

) as well as by ourobservations on volcanos) -a cause which may explain on e of the

most wonderful phenomena with which the study of fossils h asmade us acquainted ? Tropical forms of animals

,and

,in the vege

table kingdom,arborescent ferns

,palms

,and bambu saceae, are found

buried in the cold regions of the North . E verywhere, the Ancient

World shows a distribution of organic forms at varianc e with our

present climates . To resolve so important a problem,recourse has

been had to several hypotheses ; such as the approach of a comet,a change in the obliquity of the E cliptic

,and a different degree of

intensity in the solar light. None of these explanations are satis

factory at once to the astronomer,the physicist

,and the geologist.

For my part I willingly leave th e axis of the earth in its place, andsuppose no change in the light of the solar disk ( from whose spots acelebrated astronomer was inclined to explain the favorable or un

favorable harvests of particular years); I am di sposed to recognizethat in each planet there exist

,independently of its relation s to the

central body of the system to which it belongs,and independently of

its astronomical position,vari ous causes for. the development of heat ;

—processes of oxidation,precipitations and

'

chemical changes in th e

capacity of bodies,by of electro-magnetic intensity, and

communications opened between th e intern al and external portionsof the planet .

It may be that,in the AncientWorld, exhalations of heat issuing

394 STRUCTURE , AND MODE or ACTION OF VOLCANO S .

forth through the many openings Of the deeply fissured cru st'

of theglobe may have favored

,perhaps for centu ries

,the growth Of paw s

and tree-ferns and the existence of animals requiring a high tempe

rature,over entire countries where now a very different climate

prevails . .According to this view of things (a view already indi

cated by,

me,in a work entitled “Geological E ssay on the Super

position Of Rocks in both the temperature ofvolcanos would be that Of the interior Of the earth ; and the same

cause whi ch,Operating through volcanic eruptions

,now produces

devastating effects,might in primeval ages have clothed the deeply

fissured rocks of the newly oxidiz ed e arth in every gon e with themost luxuriant vegetation .

If,with a view to explain the distribution of tropical forms whose

remains are now discovered buried in northern regions,it should be

assumed that”

the long-haired species of E lephant now found en

closed in ice was originally indigenous in cold climates,and that

forms resembling the same leading type may,as in the case of lions

and lynxes,have been able to live in wholly different climates

,sti ll

this manner of solving the difli cu l ty presented by fossil r emainscannot be extended so as to apply to vegetable productions .

'

Fromreasons with which the study of vegetable physiology makes us

acquainted,Palms

,Musaceae

,and arborescent Monocotyledones

,are

incapable of supporting the deprivation of their appendicular organs

which woul d be caused by the present temperature Of our northernregions and in the geological problem which we have to examine,it appears to me difficul t to separate vegetable and animal remainsfrom each other. The same mode of explanation ought to comprehend both .

I have permitted myself at the conclusion of the ' present discussion to connect with facts collected in different and widely separated countries some uncertain and hypothetical conj ectures. The

philosophical study Of Nature ri ses beyond the requirements Of asimple description Of Nature : it does not consist in a sterile accumu lat ion of isolated facts . It may sometimes be permitted to theactive and curious mind of man to stretch forward from the present

to the stil l obscure future ; to divine that whi ch cannot yet be

clearly known ; and thus to take pleasure in the ancient myths of

geology reproduced in our own days in new and varied forms .

396 STRUCTURE AND ACTION OF VOLCANO S .

B. The lowest a nd Southern Margin of the Crater, opp osi te to Bosche Tre C ase.

T o ises . E ngfft.

After th e erup tion of 17 94 , th is edge bec ame 400 (426

E ng.) fee t low er th an th e Roc ca de1Pa lo ; th erefore , if

w e est ima te th e l a t ter a t 625 toises ( 3996 E ngl ish fee t) 559

Gay-Lu ssa c , Leopold von Ba ch , and Humbol dt, 1805, barome tric

Humbo ldt, 1822, barome tric

C . Height of the Cone of Scorice inside the Cra ter, whi ch fell in on

the 22d of O ctober, 1822.

To ises .

Lord M in to, ba rometric 6 50

Briosc h i , trigonometric , a c cording to differen t c ombina tion se ith er 636 4066

641 4098

Probabl e fi n a l resu l t, for th e h e igh t of th e above-men tion ed con e O f sc oriae ,

646 toises , or 4 130 E ngl ish fee t.

D . Pwnta Nasone, highest summit of the Somma .

To is es . E ng. ft .

Sc h u ckbu rgh , 17 94 , ba rometric , probably compu ted by h isOW n formu la

Humbo ld t, 1822, ba rome tric , Lap la c e’s formu la

E . Pla in of the fl trio del Cava llo.

Humbold t, 1822, barometric

F . Foot of the C one of fi shes.To i ses . E ng . fl .

GayL u ssa c , Leopold von Bush , and Humbo ldt , 1805, barom e tric

Humbold t, 1822, barometric

G. Hermitage del Sa lvatore.To ises . E ng . ft.

Gay-Lussa c , Leopold von Ba ch , an d Humbold t, 1805, barom e tric

Lord M in to , 1822, barometric

Humboldt, 1822, barometric rep ea ted

Part of my measurements have been printed in Mon ticelli’s Storia

de’ fenomeni del Vesuvio,avvenuti negli anni 1821- 1823

,p . 115 ;

ANNOTATIONS Aunl nnm ons. 997

but theneglected correction for th e height of the mercury in thecistern has somewhat disfigured the results as there published .

When it is remembered that the results given in the above tableWere obtained with barometers of very different constructions, atVarious hours of the day

,wi th winds from very different quarters

,

and on the unequally heated declivity of a volcano,in a l ocality in

which the decrease‘

of atmospheric temperature differs greatly from

that which is supposed in our barometric formu laefi—th e a greemen twill be found to be as great as coul d be expected

,and quite satis:

factory.

My measurementsm 1822,at the time of the Congress of Verona,

when I accompanied the late King of Prussia to Naples, were made

with more care and under more favorable circumstances than thoseof 1805. D ifferences of height are besides always to be preferred

to absolute heights,and these show that

,since 1794, the difference

between the heights of the edges of the craterat the Rocca de1Paloand on the side towards Bosche Tre Case has continued almost the

Same . I found it in 1805 exactly 69 toises (441 E nglish feet), andin“

1822 almost 82 toises (524 E nglish feet)? A distinguish-

cd

geologist,Mr.

'

Pou lett’

Scrope,found 74 toises (473 E nglish feet),

although the absolute heights which he assigns to the two sides ofthe crater appear to be rather too small . So little variation in aperi od of twenty-eight years, in which there were such violent commotions in the interior of the crater

,is certain ly

’

a striking pheno

menon .

The height atta ined by cones of scoriae rising from th e floor ofthe crater of Vesuvi us 1s also deserving of particul ar attention . In

1776, Sch u ckburgh found such a cone 615 toises, or 3932 E nglish

feet,above the surface of the Mediterranean z

‘ according to the mea

suremen ts of Lord Minto ( a very accurate observer), the cone ofscoriae which fell m on the 22d of O ctober

,1822

,even attained the

height of toises,or 4156 E nglish feet . O n both occasions

,

therefore,the height of the cones of scoriae in the crater' surpassed

that of the highest part of the margin of the crater. When wecompare together the measurements of the Rocca del Palo from1773 to 1822, we are almost involuntarily led to entertain the boldconj ecture that the north margin of the crater has beengradually

34i

398 STRUCTURE , AND ACTioN or VOLCANOS.

upraised by subterranean forces . The accordance of the three mea

suremen ts between 1773 and 1805 is almost as.

striking as that of

those taken from 1816 to 1822. In the latter period,we cannot

doubt the height being from about 621 to 629 toises (3970to 4022

E nglish feet). Are the measurements made from thirty to fortyyears earlier

,which gave onl y 606 to 609 toises (3875 to 3894

E nglish feet), lesscertain ? At some future day, after longer periods

shall have elapsed, it will bepossible to decide what is due to errors ,

of measurement,and what to an actual rise in the margin of the

crater. There cannot be in this case any accumul ation of loosematerials from above . If the solid trachytelike lava beds of the

Rocca del Pal e really become higher, we must assume them to beupheaved from below by volcanic forces .

My learned and i ndefatigable friend O l tni ann s h as plac ed,

all the

deta ils of the above measurements before the public,accompanied by

a careful critical examination of them,in the Abh andl . derk

'

onigl .

Akademie der Wissenschaften z u Berlin,1822—1823

, s . 3—20.

May th is investigation be the means of inducing geologists frequently to examine hypsometrically thi s low and most easily acce ssible (except

’

Stromboli) of the E uropean volcanos, so that in thecourse of centuries there may be obtained a frequently checked and

accurate account of its periods of development !

(2

) p .

'

391. Where thep ressure is less.

Compare Leopold von Buch'

on the Peak of Tenerifie,in his Phy

sikalisch e Beschreibung der c an arisch en I nseln, 1825, s . 213 ; and

in the Abhandlungen der k'

dn igl . Akademie z u Berlin, 1820- 1821,s .

0

Compare Arago in the Annuaire da Bureau des Longitudes pour1835

, p . 234 . The increase of temperature is in our latitudes 1° ofReaumur of a degree of Fahrenheit) for every 113 Parisianfeet E ngli sh feet), or 1

° Fah . to E nglish feet nearly.

In th e Artesian borin g at New Salzwerk (O eynh ausen’s Bad), not .

far from Minden,which is the greatest known depth below the level

of the sea,the temperature of th e water at 20945~ Parisian feet

(22324 E ng.) is fully Reaumur,or 91° Fahr. ; while the

VITAL FORCE ;

THE RHOD IAN GE NIU S .

[FIRST PRINTE D IN 1795 ]

404 THE vITAL FORCE ;

a shipwrecked vessel, which was only,conj ectured

,from the mer

ch andise it contained, to have come from Rhodes .

O n the foreground of the picture,youths and maidens formed a

closely crowded group . They were without clothing and wellformed

,but at the same time did not exhibit the more noble and

graceful proportions admired in the statues of Praxiteles and Alcamenes . Their robust limbs

,showing the traces

.

of laborious efi'

orts,

and the purely terrestri al expression of their desires and sorrows,

seemed to take from them everythi ng of a di viner character, and

to chain them exclusively to their earth ly habitation . Their hair

was simply ornamented with leaves and field flov’

vers . Their awe

were outstretched towards each other,as ift o indicate their desire of

union,but their troubled looks were

“

turned towards a Genius who,

surrounded by bright light,hovered in the midst . A butterfly was

placed on his shoulder, and i n his hand he h eld on high a lighted’

torch . The contours of his form were soft and childlike,but h is

glance was animated by celestial fire he ' looked down as a masterupon the y ouths and maidens at h is feet . Noth ing else that wascharacteristic coul d be di scovered in the picture . Some personsthought they could make out at its foot the letters I and g, from

whence ( as antiquaries were then no less bold in their conj ecturesthan they now are) they took occasion to infer, In a somewhat

forced mann er,the name of Z enodorus

,thus attributing the work

to a painter of the same name as the artist who at a later‘

period

c as trth e Colossus of Rhodes .

The Rhodian Genius,” however—for su ch was the-name given

to the picture—did . not want —for commentators and interpreters

in Syracuse Amateurs of the arts,and especially the younger

amongst them,on returning from a short visit to Corinth orAthens,

connoisseurship if they had'

not been provided with some new explanation . Some regarded the Genius as the person ifiCation of

Spirit ual Love, . forbidding the enj oyment of sensual pleasures

others said it was the assertion of th e empire of Reason over De

sire the wiser among the c ritics were silent, and presuming some

high,though yet undiscovered meaning, examined meanvvh ile, .with

pleasure, the simple composition of the picture.

OR,THE RHODIAN GE NIUS. 405

Still,however

,the question remained un solved . The picture

had been copied with various additions and sent to Greece, but notthe least light had been thrown on its origin ,

when at length,at

the season of the early rising of the Pleiades,and soon after the re

opening of the navigation of the E gean Sea, ships from Rhodesentered th e port of Syracuse, bearing a precious collection of statues,altars

,candelabras

,and paintings

,which DionysiUs

’s love of art

had caused to,be brought together from different parts of Greece .

Among the paintings was one whi ch was immedi ately recognized asthe companion or pendent of the Rhod ian Genius : the dimensionswere the same

,and the coloring similar

,but in a better state of

preservation . The Genius was stil l the central figure, but the but

terfly was no longer on his shoulder ; hi s head was drooping, andh is torch extinguished and inverted . The .youths and maidenspress ing around him had met and embraced ; their glance, no longer

subdued or sad,announced,on the contrary, emancipation from

'

re

straint,and the fu lfi lmen t of long-cherished desires .

T h e Syracusan ,antiquaries were already seeking to modify the

explanations they had previously proposed,so as to adapt them to

the newly-arrived picture,when Dionysius commanded the latter to

be carried to the house of E pich armu s, a philosopher of thePyth a

gorean school, who dwelt in a remote part of Syracuse called Tyche‘

.

E pich armus rarely presented himself at the court'

of Dionysius for

although the latter. was fond of calling around him the most distin

gu ish ed men from all th e Greek colonial cities, yet, the philosopherfound that the proximity of princes takes even from men of thegreatest intellectual power part of the ir spirit and their freedom .

He d evoted himself unceasingly to the study of natural t hings,their forces .01: powers, the origin of animals and plants, and the

harmonious laws in accordance with which the heavenly bodies,as

,

well as the grains of bail and the flakes of snow,assume their dis

tinc tive forms . Oppressed.with age,and ; unable to proceed far

withou t assistance,he caused himself to be conducted daily

'

to thePoecile, and thence to the entrance of the port, where, as he said, hiseyes received th e Image of the boundless and th e infinite which his

Spirit ever strove in vain to apprehend. He lived, honored alike

406 THE VITAL FORCE

by the tyrant,whose presence he avoided

,and by the lower classes

of the people,whom he met gladly

,and often with fri endl y help .

E xhausted wi th fatigue, he was reposing on his couch, when th enewly-arrived picture was brought to h im by the command of Dionysius . Care had been taken to bring

,at the same time

,

-

a faithful

c opy of the Rhodian Genius,” and the phil osopher desired the two

paintings to be placed side by side before h im . After , having remained for some time

’

With his eyes fixed upon them,and absorbed

in thought,he called his scholars together

,and spoketo them in the

followin g terms,in a voice which was not wi thout emotion

Withdraw the curtain from the window,that Imay enj oy once

more the view of the fair earth animated with living beings . Duringsixty years I have reflected on the internal motive powers of nature

,

and on the di iferen ces of substances : to-day, for the first. t ime, th epicture of the Rhodian Genius leads me to see more clearly th atwhich I had before only Obscurely divined. As living beings are

impelled by natural desires to salutary and fru itful union,so the

raw materials of inorganic nature are moved by simil ar impul ses .

E ven in the reign of primeval night,in the darkn ess of chaos

,ele

mentary principles or substances sought or shunned each other inobedience to indwelling dispositions of amity or enmity. Thus th efire of heaven follows metal

,iron obeys the attraction of th e load

stone,amber rubbed takes up light substances, earth mixes with

earth,salt collects together from the water of the sea

,and the acid

moisture of the Stypteria ( sw amped wpa), as well as the floccul en tsalt Trichitis, love the clay Of Melos . In inanimate nature, all th ings

hasten to unite With each other'

ac cording ‘

t o their particul ar laws .

Hence no terrestrial element ( and Wh o woul d dare to include lightamong the number of such elements ?) is to

'be found anywh ere rin

its pure and primitive simple st ate . E ac h as soon as formed tendsto enter into new combinations

,and th e art

i

of man i s needed to dis

j oin and present in a separated state substances which you woul d

seek in vain i n the interior of the earth,and in the fluid oceans of

air or water. In dead,inorganic matter

,entire inactivity and repose

reign so long as the bonds of'

aflini ty'

c on tinuenndissolved, so long

as no third substance comes to j oin itself to the others . But even

408 THE VITAL FORCE ;

'

N O T E .

I HAVE noticed, in thePreface to the Second and Third E ditions(s . xiii . p . xii . E nglish Trans . th e subj ect of the republication hereof the preceding pages

,which were firSt printed In Schil ler’s Horen

Aphorisms fromthe Chemical Physiology of.Plants,

” appended tomy Subterranean Flora

,in 1793—1 h ad defined the vital force’

as the unknown cause which prevents.

the elementsfromfollowingtheir original aflin ities . The first of my aphorisms were as follows“Rerum n aturani

'

Si totam consideres,magnum atque durabile, quod

inter clementa in tercedit,disCrirhen perspic ies, quorum altera afi n ita

tumlegibu s obtemperantia, altera, vinculis solu tis, varie.jun cta ap

parent . Quod quidemdiscrimen In clementis Ipsis eorumque indole

esse videatu r. Materiam Seguem, zbru tam,in an imam c amvocamu s

,

cujus stamina secundum leges chymicae affin itat is mixta sunt. An i‘

mata atque organica ea pot issimuncorpora appel lamus, quae, licet In

novas mutari formas perpetuo tendant,vi interna qu adam conti

nen tur, quomInu s prl scam sibiqu e in sitam formam rel inquan t .

Vim interna‘

m,

’

quae chymicae aflin itatis vincula resolvit, atque‘

obstat,quominus clementa corporum libere c onjungan tur, vitalem

vocamu s . Itaque nullum c ertius mortis criteriun i putredine datur,qua primae partes vel stamina rerum,

an tiqu is juribu s revoc atis,

legibUs parent . Coi'porum inan imorum nulla pu tredo

esse potest . (Vide Aphorismi ex doctrina Physiologiae ch omicae

Plan tarum,in Humboldt

,Flora Fribergen sis subterranea, 1793, pp .

133

I have placed In the mouth of E pich armu s the above propositions,whi ch were disapproved by the acute Vicq d’Az yr, in his Traite

d’Anatomie et de Physiologic , t. i . p. 5

, bu t are now entertained bymany distinguished persons among my friends . Reflection and con

t inued study in the domains of physiology and chemistry have deeply

shaken my earlier belief in a peculiar so-called vita l force . In 1797,

NOTE . 409

at the close of my work entitled Versuche fiber die gereizte Muskelund Nervenfaser, nebst Vermuth u ngen tiber den chemischen Processdes Lebens in der Thier und Pflan z enwel t” (bd. ii . s. 430 Ialready declared that I by no means regarded the existence of suchpeculiar vital forces as demonstrated . Since that time, I have nolonger called peculiar forces what may possibly only be the Operationof the concurrent action of the several long-known substances andtheir material forces . YVe may, however, deduce from the chemicalrelations of the elements a safer definition of animate and inanimate substances than the criteria which are taken fromvoluntarymotion

,from the circulation of fluids within solids

,from internal

appropriation and from the fibrous arrangements of th e elements .I term that an animated substance of which the parts beingseparated by external agency alter their state of composition afterthe separation

,all other and external relations continuing the same .

”

This definition is merely the enunciation of a'

fact . The equilibriumof the elements in animated or organic matter is preserved by their.being parts of a whole . O ne organ determines another, on e gives toanother its temperature and tone or disposition ; in all which, theseand no other affinities are operative . Thus in organized beings allis reciprocally means and end . The rapidity with which organicparts

,separated from a complete living organism

,Change that state of

combination,differs greatly, according to the degree of their original

dependence,and to th e n ature of the substance . Blood of animals

,

which varies much in the different classes,suffers change sooner than

the juices of plants . Funguses generally decay sooner than leaves

of trees,and muscle more easily than the cutis .

Bones,the elementary structure of which has been very recently

recognized,hair of animals

,wood in plants or trees

,the feath ery

appendages of seeds of plants (Pappus), are not inorganic or Withoutlife ; but even in life they approximate to the state in which they

are found after their separation from the rest of the organism . Thehigher the degree of vitality or susceptibil ity of an animated substance

,the more rapidly does organ ic fl

ch ange in its composition ensueafter separation .

“ The aggregate tota l of the cells Is an organism,

and the organism lives so long as the parts are active in subservience

to the whole . In Opposition to lifeless or inorganic, organic nature

35

410 THE VITAL'

FORCE .

appea rs to0

be self-determining . (Henle, Allgemeine An atomic ;1841

,S . 216 The difficulty of satisfactorily referring th e

vital phenomena of organic life to physical and chemical laws con

sists chiefly ( almost as in the question of predicting meteorologicalprocesses in the atmosphere), in the complication of the phenomena,and in the multiplicity of simultaneously acting forces and of theconditions of their activity .

I have remained faithful,in “ Cosmos

,to the same mode of view

ing and representing what are called Leben skr'

afte,

” vita l force s,

and vita l affinities (Pulteney, in the Transact. of the Royal Soc . ofE dinburgh

,vol . xvi . p . the formation-impulse

,and th e’ active

principle in organization . I have said,in Cosmos

,bd : i . s . 67

( E nglish ed . vol . i . p .

“ The myths of imponderable matterand of vital forces peculiar to each organ ism have complicated andperplexed the view of nature . Under different conditions and forms

of recognition,the prodigious mass of our experimenta l knowledge

has progressively accumul ated,and is now enlarging with increased

rapidity.

"

Investigating reason essays from time to time with vary

ing success to break through ancient forms an d symbols,invented to

’

effect the subj ection of rebellious matter,as it were

,to mechanical

constructions .” Farther on,in the same volume (p . 339 E nglish

,

and 367 of the original), I have said, In a physical description ofthe universe

,it Shoul d still be noticed that the same substances which

compose the organic forms of plants and animals are also found in theinorganic crust of the globe ; and that the same forces or powersWhichgovern inorganic matter are seen to prevail in organic beings likewise

,combining and decomposing the various substances

,regul ating

the forms and properties of organic tissues,but acting in these cases

under complicated conditions yet unexplained, to which the veryvague terms of ‘vital phenomena,

’ ‘operations of vita l forces,

’ have

been assigned,and which have been systematically grouped

,accord

ing to analogies more or less happily imagined .

”

(Compare also the

critical notices on the'

assumption of proper or peculiar vita l forcesin Schleiden’s Botanik als inductive VVissen ch aft (Botany as an ,

Inductive Science), th . i . s . 60,and in the recently published ex

c el len t Untersuchungen iiber th ierisch e E lektric itat (Researches onAnimal E lectricity), by E mil du Bois-Reymond, bd. i . s . xxxiv.

—l .)

THE

PLATE AU OF OAXAMAROA ,

THE ANCIE NT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA .

AFTE R a residence of an entire year on the crest of the Chain ofthe Andes or Antis

, (1

) between 4° north and 4° ‘south latitude

,

in the high plains of New Granada,Pastos

,and Qui to

,whose mean

elevations range between 8500and E nglish feet,we rej oiced

in descending gradually through the milder climate of the Quinayielding forests of Loxa to the plains of the upper part of the courseof the Amazons

,a term incognita rich in magnificent vegetation .

The small town of Loxa has given its name to the most efficacious

of all the species of medicinal Fever Bark : Quina, or Cascarilla fin ade Loxa . It is the precious production of the tree which we havedescribed botanically as Cinchona condamin ea

,but which

,under the

erroneous impression that all the kinds of the Quina or fever bark

of commerce were furnished by the same species of tree,had pre

viou sly been‘ called Cinchona offic in a l is . The Fever Bark was first

brought to E urope towards the middle of the seventeenth century,

either,as Sebastian Badus asserts

,to Alcala de Henares in 1632

,or

to Madrid in 1640,on the arrival of th e wife of the Viceroy

,the

Countess of Chinchon, (

2

)who had been cured of intermittent fever

at Lima,accompanied by her physician

,Juan del Vego . The trees

which yield the finest quality of Quina de Loxa are‘ found from 8 to

12 miles to the southe ast of the town, in th e mountains of Uritu

singa,Villon aco, and Rumisitan a, growing on mica-slate and gneiss,

a t very moderate elevations above the level of the sea, being between

5400and 7200 (5755 and 7673 E nglish) feet, heights about equalrespectively to those of the Hospice on the Grimsel and the Pass of

414 PLAT E AU or CAXAMARCA .

the Great St. Bernard . The proper boundaries of the Quina woods

in this quarter are the small rivers Zamora and Cachiyacu .

The tree is cut down in its fir st flowering season, or in the fourthor seventh year of its age, according as it h as sprung from a vigor

ous root-shoot,or from a seed : we heard with as tonishment that, at

the period of my j ourney,according to offi cial computations, the

coll ectors of Quina (Cascaril leros and Cazadores de Quina, QuinaHunters) only brought in 110hundred weight of the Bark of the

Cinchona condaminea annually.

‘

None of this precious store foundits way at that time into commerce ; the whole was sent from theport of Payta on the Pacific, round Cape Horn to Cadi_z ,

'

for the useof the Spanish court . In - Order t o furnish this small quantity of

Spanish pounds,eight or nine hundred trees were cut down

every year. The older“

and thi cker stems have become more . and

more scarce ; but the luxuriance of vegetation is such that theyounger trees

,which are now resort ed to

,

‘ though o nly 6 inches in

diameter,often attain from 53 to 64 E nglish feet in height . This

beautiful tree,which is adorn ed With leaves above 5 E nglish inches

long and 2 broad,growing in dense woods

,seems always to aspire to

ri se above its neighbors . As its upper branches wave to and fro inthe wind

,their red and shining foliage produces a strange and pecu

liar ch'

eet recogn izable from a great distance . The mean tempera

ture in the woods where th e Cinchona c ondaminea is found,ranges

between and 15° Rea umur and Fahrenheit),which are about the mean annual temperatures of Florence and the

Island of Madeira“

; but the extremes of heat and cold observed atthese two station s of the temperate zone are never felt around Loxa .

Comparisons between the climates of places,one of which is situated

in an elevated tropical plain,and the other in a higher parallel of

la titude,can be from their nature but little satisfactory .

In order to descend south-southe ast from the mountainknot ofLoxa to the hot Valley Of the Amazons

,it is first necessary to pass

over the Pa ramo s Of Chulucanas, Guaman i,and Yamoca—mountain

wil dernesses of a peculiar character of which we have already spoken,

and to which , in the southern parts of the Andes, the n ame of Puna

( a word belonging to the Quichua language) is given . They mostlyrise above 9500 E nglish) feet ; they are stormy, often en,

416 PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA .

to the height of Mont Blanc)—as we were leading our heavi ly ladenmules with great difficulty through the marshy ground on the ele

vated plain del Pul lal , our eyes meanwhile were continual ly dwell

ing on the grand remains of the Inca’s road

,which with a breadth

of twenty-one E ngl ish feet ran by our side for above a Germanmile . It had a deep under-structure

,and was paved with well-cut

blocks of blackish trap-porphyry . Nothing that I had seen of the

remains of Roman roads in Ita ly, ‘in the south of France

,and in

Spain,was more imposing than these works of the ancient Peru

vians,which are moreover situated

,according to my barometric

measurements,at an elevation of E nglish)feet above

the sea,or more than a thousand feet higher than the summit of

the Peak of Ten erifl'

e . The ruins of what is called the Palace ofthe Inca Tupac Yupanqui

,and which are known by the name of the

Paredones del Inca,

” are situated at the same elevation on t h eAssu ay . Proceeding from thence to the southward towards Cuenca

,

the road leads to the small but well-preserved fortress of Canar, (

4

)belonging probably to the same period

,that o f Tupac Yupanqui

1.

or to that of his warlike son,Huayna Capac .

We saw still finer remains of the old Peruvian artificial roads onthe way between Loxa and the Amazons

,at the Baths of the Incas

on the Paramo de Chulucanas,not far from Guan cabamba

,and in

the neighborhood of Ingatambo,at Pomahuaca . These last named

remains are at a so much lower elevation,that I found the difference

of level between the Inca’s Road at Pomahuaca and that on the

Paramo del Assuay upwards of 9100 (about 9700 E nglish) feet.The distance in a straight line is

,by as tronomically determined lati

tudes, exactly 184 E nglish geographical miles, and the ascent of theroad is 3500( 3730E nglish) feet greater than the h eigh t

’

of the Pass

of Mount Cenis above the Lake of Como . There are two great artifi c ial Peruvian paved roads, or systems of roads, covered with flatstones, or sometimes even with cemented gravel (

5) (Macadamized)one passes through the wide and arid plain between the PacificO cean and the chain of the Andes

,and the other over the ridges of

the Cordilleras . Mile-stones,or stones marking the distances

,are

often found placed at equal intervals . The road was conductedacross rivers and deep ravines by three kinds of bridges

,

“stone,wood

,

PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA. 417

and rope bridges (Puentes de Hamaca or de Maroma), and therewere also aqueducts

,or arrangements for bringing water to the Tam

bos (hostelries or caravanserais), and to the fortresses. Both systemsof roads were directed to the central point

, Cuzco, the seat of government of the great empire

,in 13° 31

’ South latitude,and which i s

placed,according to Pentland’s map of Bolivia

,Paris or

E nglish feet above the level of the sea . As th e .Peruvian s

employed no wheel carriages,and the roads were consequently only

designed for the march of troops,for men carrying burdens

,and for

’

lightly laden lamas,we find them occas ionally interrupted

,on account

of the steepness of the mountains,by long flights of steps

,provided

with resting places at suitable intervals . Francisco Pizarro and

Diego Almagro,who on their distant expeditions used the milita ry

roads of the Incas with so much advantage,found great difficulties

for the Spanish cavalry at the places where these steps occurred . (6)

The impediment presented to their march on these occasions was so

much the greater,because

,in the early t imes

'

of the Conqui sta, the

Spaniards used only horses instead of the carefully treading mule,who in the difli cu l t parts of the mountains seems to deliberate onevery step he takes . It was not until a later period that mules were

employed .

Sarmiento,who saw the Roads of the Incas whilst they were still

in a perfect sta te of preservation,asks

,in a “Relacion” which long

lay unread,buried in the Library of the E scurial, how a nation

unac quainted with the u se of iron coul d have completed such grandworks in so high and rocky a region (

‘Caminos tan grandes y tanextending from Cuzco to Quito on -the one hand, and to

the coast of Chili on the other ? The E mperor Charles,” he adds,

“ with all his power,could n ot accomplish even a part of what - the

well-ordered Government of the Incas effected through the obedientpeop le over whom they rul ed . Hernando Pizarro

,the most educated

and civilized of the three brothers,who for his misdeeds suffered a

twenty years’ imprisonment at Medina del Campo, and died at last,at a hun dred years of age

,

“ in the odor of sanctity,” “ en olor de

Santidad,

” exclaims : “ In the whole of Christendom there are nowhere such fine roads as those which we here admire .

” The twoimporta nt capital s and seats of government of the Incas, Cuz co and


Qui to,are 1000E nglish geographical miles apart in a straight line

NN without reckoning the many windings of the

way ; and including the windings, the distance is estimated by Gar

c ilasso de la Vega and other Conquistadores at 500leguas . Not

withstanding the great distance,we

' learn,from the well-confirmed

testimony of the Licentiate Polo de O ndegardo, that Huayna Capac ,whose father had conquered Quito

,caused some of the building

materials for the “princely buildings” ( the houses of the Incas) inthe latter city

,to be brought from Cuzco .

When enterprising races inhabit a land where the form of theground presents to them difli cu l ties on a grand scale which theymay encounter and overcome

,this contest with nature becomes a

means of increasing their strength and power as well as theircourage . Under the despotic

,central izing system of the Inca-rule

,

security and rapidity of communication,especially in the movement

of troops,became an important necessity of government . Hence

the construction of artificial roads on so grand a scale,and hence

also the establishment of a highly improved postal system . Amongnations in very different stages of cultivation

,we see the national

activity display itself with peculiar predilection in some particulardirections

,but we can by no means determine the general state of

culture of a people from the striking development of such part icul ar

and partial activity. E gyptians, Greeks, ( 7) E tru scans, and Romans,

Chinese,Japanese

,and Hindoos show many interesting contrasts in

these respects . It is difli cu l t to pronounce what length of time mayhave been required for the execution of the Peruvian roads . Thegreat works in the northern part of the E mpire of the Inca s

,in the

highlands of Quito,must at all events have been completed in less

than 30 or 35 years,

6 . within th e short period intervening between the defeat of the Rul er of Quitu” and the death of HuaynaCapac, but entire obscurity prevails as

'

to th e'

period of the formation of th e Southern

,and more properly speaking Peruvian roads

.

The mysterious appearance of Manco Capac is usually placed 400years before the landing of Pizarro in the Island of Punatherefore towards the middle of the 12th century

,almost 200years

before th e foundation of the city of Mexico (Tenochtitlan); someSpanish writers even reckon

,instead of 400

,500 and .550years

PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA .

from the syenitic rocks of Z au l aca to the Valley of San Felipe ( richin fossils

,and situatedat the foot of the icy Paramo de Yamoc a),

we were obliged to wade through the Rio de Gu an cabamba (whichflows into the Amazons) no less than twenty-seven times, on accountof the windings of the stream ; while we continually saw near

’

u s,

running in a straight line along the side_

of a steep precipice,the

remains of the high-built road of the Incas with its Tambos. Themountain torrent

,though only from 120to 150E nglish feet broad,

was so strong and rapid that,in fording it

,our heavily laden mul es

were often in danger of being swept away by the flood.fi

Th ey car

ried our manuscripts,our dried plants

,and all that we had ‘ been

collecting for a year past. Under such circumstances,one watches

from the other side of the stream with very anxious suspense untilthe long train of eighteen or twenty beasts of burden has passed in

The same Rio de Guan cabamba, in the lower part of its course,where it has many falls and rapids

,is made to serve in a very singu

lar manner for the conveyance of correspondence with the coast of

the Pacific . In order to expedite more qui ckly the few letters fromTrux illo which are intended for the province of Jaen de Bracamoros,a “ swimming courier

,

” “el correoque nada

,

” as he is called in the

country,is employed . This post messenger

,who is usually a young

Indian,swims in two days from Pomahuaca to Tomep

‘

enda,first by

the Rio de Chamaya ( the name given to the lower part of .the Riode Gu an cabamba), and then by the Amazons . He carefull y plac es

the few letters entrusted to him in a large cotton handkerchief,which

he winds round ' his head in the manner of a turban . When hecomes to waterfalls

,he leaves the river

,and makes a circuit through

the woods . In order to lessen the fatigue of swimming for so longa time

,he sometimes throws one arm round a piece of a very light

kind of wood (Ceiba, Palo de balsa), of a tree belonging to the family of Bombac eae. Sometimes also a friend goes with him to hearhim company . The pair have no concern about provisions

,as they

are always sure of a hospitable reception in any of the scattered

huts,which are abundantly surrounded with fruit trees

,in the beau

tiful Huertas de Pucara and Cavico.

Happily, th e river is free from crocodiles, which, in the upper part

PLATE AU or OAXAMARCA . 421

of the Amazons,are first met with below the cataracts of Mayasi .

These unwieldy and slothful monsters generally prefer the . moretranquil waters . According to my measurements

,the Rio de Cha

maya,from the Ford (Paso) de Pucara to the place where it enters

the Amazons River below the village of Choros,has a fall (

9) of

1668 (1778 E nglish)feet in the short space of 52 E nglish geographical miles . The Governor of the province of Jaen da Bracamorosassured me

.

that letters carried by this singular water-post were rarelyeither wetted or lost. Soon after my return to E urope from Mexico,I received

,in Paris

,letters from Tomependa, which had been sen t

in the manner above described. Several tribes of wild Indians,liv

ing on the banks of the Upper Amaz ons,make their j ourneys in a

similar manner,swimming down the stream sociably in parties . I

had the opportunity of seeing in this manner,in the bed of th e river

,

the heads of thirty or forty persons (men, women, and children), of

th e tribe or the Xibaros, on their arrival at Tomependa . TheCorreo que nada” returns by land by the difficult route of the Paramo del Paredon .

O n approaching the hot climate of the basin of the Amazons,the

eye is cheered by the aspect of a beautiful,and occasionally very

luxuriant vegetation . We h ad never before,not even in the Cana

ries,or on the hot sea-coast of Cumana and Cara c cas, seen .fin er

orange trees than those of the Huertas de Pucara . They were‘ prin

c ipal ly the sweet orange (Citrus aurantium,Risso), and less fre

quently the bitter or Seville'

orange (C . vulgaris,Risso). Laden

with many th ou sands'

of their golden fruits,they attain a height of

sixty or sixty-four E nglish feet ; and, instead of rounded tops orcrowns

,have aspiring branches

,almost like a laurel or bay tree .

Not far from thence,near t h e Ford of Cavico,

'

we were surprised by

a very unexpected sight . We saw a grove of small trees, only abouteighteen or nineteen E nglish feet high

,which

,instead of green

,had

a pparently perfectly red or rose-colored leaves . It wa s a new spe

cies of Bougainvillaea,a genus first established by the elder J u ssieu

,

from a Brazilian specimen in Commerson’s herbarium . The treeswere almost entirely without true leaves

,as what we took for leaves

at a distance,proved to be thickly crowded brac teas . The appearance

w as altogether different,in the purity and freshness of th e color,

36


from the autumnal tints which,in many of our forest trees

,adorn

the woods of the temperate zone at th e season of the fall of the leaf.A single species of the South African family of Proteaceae

,Rh Opa la

ferruginea,descends here from the cold heights of the Paramo de

Yamoc a to the hot plain of”

Chamaya . We often found here thePorlieria hygrometrica (belonging to the Z n phyll eae), which, bythe closing of the leaflets of its finely pinnated foliage

,foretels

'

animpending change of weather

,and especially the approach of rain

,

much better than any of the Mimosaceae. It very rarely deceived us .

We found at Chamaya rafts (balsas) in readiness to convey us toTomependa , which we desired to visit for the purpose of determiningthe difference of longitude between Quito and the ni ou th of the

Chinchipe ( a determination of some importance to the geography

of South America,on account of an old observation of La Conda

mine). (10

) We slept as usual under the Open sky on the sandyshore (Playa de Gu ayan ch i) at the confluence of the Rio de Chamaya with the Amazons . The next day we embarked on the latter

river,and descended it to the Cataracts and Narrows (Pongo, in the

Qu ichua language,from puncu

,door or gate) of Rentema, where

rocks of coarse-grained sandstone ( conglomerate) rise like towers,and form a rocky dam across th e river. I measured a base line onthe flat and sandy shore

,and found that at Tomependa the after

wards mighty River of the Amazons is on ly__

a little above 1386E nglish feet across . In the celebrated River Narrow or Pongo

‘ ofMan seritch e

,between Santiago and San Borj a

,in a mountain ravme

,

where at some points the overhanging rocks and the canopy of

foliage forbid more than a very feeble l ight to penetrate , and whereall the drift-wood, consisting of a countless number of trunks of

trees, is broken and dash ed'

in pieces,the breadth of the stream is

under 160E nglish feet. The rocks by which all these Pongos orNarrows are formed

,undergo many changes in the course of centu

ries . Thus a part of the'

rocks forming the Pongo de Rentema,

spoken “ of above,had been broken

‘

up by a high flood a year beforemy j ou rney , and there has ever been preserved among the inhabitants, by tradition, a

‘ lively recollection of the precipitous fall of the

then towering masses of rock along the. whole of the Pongo—an

event which took place 1n the early pai t of the eighteenth century.


chalk series at the Perte da Rhone,was collected by us

, .both at

Tomependa in the basin of the Amazons and at Micu ipampa—stations of which the elevations di ffer 9900 E nglish) feet . Ina simil ar manner

,in the Amu ich Chain of the Caucasian Daghestan,

the cretaceous beds rise from the banks of the Sulak, which arehardly 530E nglish feet above the sea, to a height of ful ly 9000

(9592 E nglish) feet on the Tsch u num ; while on the summit of the

Sch adagh Mountain, E nglish) feet high, the O streadiluviana (Goldf ) and the same cretaceous beds are again found .

Abich’s excellent observations in the Caucasus would thus appear

to have confirmed in the most brilliant manner Leopold’

vonI

Bu ch fs

geological views on the mountain development of the cretaceous

group .

From the lonely grazing farm of Montan,surrounded by herds of

lamas,we ascended more to the south the eastern declivity of the

Cordilleras,and arrived as night was closing in at an elevated pl ain

wherethe argentiferous mountain of Gualgayoc , the prin cipal site ofthe celebrated silver mi nes of Chota

,afforded us a remarkable

spectacle . The Cerro de Gualgayoc , separated by a deep-cleftravine or valley (Quebrada) from the limestone mountain of Cormolatsch e

,-is an isolated mass of silicious rock traversed by a

multitude of veins of silver which often meet or intersect,and

terminated to the north and west by a deep and almost perpendicul ar precipice . The highest workings are 1445 ( 1540E nglish)feet above the floor of the gallery

,the Socabon de E spinach i . The

outline of the,mountain is broken by numerous tower-like and

pyramidal points ; the summit bears indeed the name of Las

Pu ntas,

” and offers the most decided contrast to the “ roun ded ou t

lines” which the miners are accustomed to attribute to metalliferousdi stricts generally . O ur mountain

,

” said a rich possessor of mineswith whom we had arrived

,stands there like an enchanted castle

( como si fuese un castillo The Gualgayoc reminds

the beholder in some degree of a cone of dolomite,but still more of

the serrated crest of the Monserrat Mounta ins in Catal onia, whichI have also visited

,and which were subsequently described in so

pleasing a manner by my brother. The silver mountain Gualgayoc ,besides being perforated to its summit by many hundred galleries


driven in every direction,presents also natural openings in themass

of the silicious rock,through which the intensely dark blue sky of

these elevated regions is visible to a spectator standing at the foot ofthe mountain . These openings are popularly called “windows

,

” lasventanillas de Gu algayoc .

” Similar “ windows” were pointed outto us in the trachytic walls of the volcanoof Pichincha

,and called

by a similar name ventanillas de Pichincha .

”The strangeness

of the view presented to us was still farther increased by the numerous small sheds and dwelling-houses which nestled on the side of thefortress-like mountain wherever a flat surface admitted their erection .

The miners carry down the ore in baskets,by very steep and dan

gerons paths,to the places where . the process of amalgamation is

performed .

The value of the silver furnished by the mines in the first thi rtyyears (from 1771 to 1802) amounted probably to considerably abovet hirty-two millions of piastres . Notwithstanding the hardness ofthe quartzose rock

,the Peruvians

,before the arrival of the Span iards

( as ancient galleries and excavations testify), extracted rich argentiferous galena on the Cerro de la Lin and on the Chupiqu iyacu , andgold in Curumayo (where native sulphur is also found in the quartz

rock as well as in the Brazilian Itacolumite). We inhabited near

the mines the small mountain town ofMicu ipampa, which is

E nglish) feet above the level of the sea, and where, thoughonly from the E quator

,water freezes in the house nightly

throughout a large portion of the year. In this desert, devoid of

vegetation,live three or four thousand persons,

’who are obliged tohave all their means of subsistence brought from the warm valleys,as they themselves only rear some kinds of kale and excellent salad .

In this wilderness,as in every town in the high mountains of Peru,

ennui leads the richer class of persons,who are not on that account

more cul tivated or more civilized,to pass their time in deep gam

bling : thus wealth quickly won is still more quickly dissipated .

There is much that reminds one of the soldier of Pizarro’s troop,wh o, after t h e pillage of the temple at Cuzco, complained that hehad lost in one night at play a great piece of the sun” ( a goldplate).

I observed the thermometer at Micu ipampa at 8‘“

in ~ the,,

a .

morning 1°

and at noon 7 ° Reaumur and 4M hrenm xh

e”M i ! t


We found among the thin blades of Ichh u-grass (perhaps our Stipaeriostachya), a beautiful Calceolaria (C . sibthorpioides), which weshould not have expected at such an elevation .

Not far from the town of Micu ipampa, in a high plain called

Llanos or Pampa de Navar,there have been found th roughout an

area of above an E ngli sh geographical square mile,immediately

un der the turf,and as it were i ntertwined with the roots of the

alpine grasses,enormous masses of “rich red silver ore and threads of

pure silver ( in remo linos, clavos, and'

vetas man teadas). Anotherelevated plain west of the Purgatorio

,near the Quebrada de Chiquera

,

i s called “Ch oropampa” or the “Field of Shells” (chum ,

in theQuichua language

,signifies shells

,and particul arly small eatable

kinds,bastion

,mcmi llon). The name refers to fossils which belong

to the cretaceous group,and which are found there in su ch abundance

that they early attracted the attention of the natives . Th is is th eplace where there was obtained near the surface a mass of pure gold

spun round with threads of silver in the richest manner. Such an

occurren ce shows how independent many of the ores thrown up from

the interior of the earth into fissures or veins,are of the n ature of

the adjacent rock and of the relative age of the formations brokenthrough . The rock of the Cerro de Gualgayoc and of Fuen testian ahas a great deal of water

,but in the Purgatorio absolute dryness

prevail s . I found to my astonishment that,notwi thstanding the

height of the strata above the level of the sea,the temperature of

the last-named mine was Reaumur while in

the neighboring Mina de Guadalupe, the water in the mine showed

about 9 ° Reaumur As in the open air the thermometer only rises to about 4° Reaumur (41

° the miners,

whose toil is severe,and wh o “

are a lmost without clothing,call the

subterranean heat in the Purgatorio stifling.

The narrow path fromMicu ipampa to the ancient city of theIncas, Caxamarca, is diffi cult even for mules . The name of thetown was origin ally Cassamarca or Ka z amarca

,t’

. e. the Frost town

(mama,as sign ifying a place or locality, belongs to the northern

Chinchaysuyo or Ch in ch aysuyu dial ect, while the word in the generalQui chua language signifies the stories of houses

,and also defences

or forts). O ur way lay for five or six hours over a succ ession of

428 PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA'

.

al lpa is surrounded on th is side by fruit gardens and by irrigatedfields of lucerne (Medicago sativa, campos de alfalfa”) Columnsof smoke are seen at a distance rising from the warm baths of Pultamaroa

,which are still called Banos del Inca . I found the tempe

rature of these sulphur-springs 55° 2 Reaumur Fahrenheit).Atahuallpa spent a part of the year at these baths

,where some slight

remains of his palace still survive the devastating rage of .the Con

qu istadores .

‘

The large and deep basin or reservoir,in which

,ao

cording to tradition,one of the golden chairs in which the Inca was

carried had been sunk and h as t ever since been ‘ sought — in vain,

appeared to me,from the regularity of its circular shape, to have

been artificially excavated in the sandstone rock above one of thefissures through which the springs issue .

O f the fort -and palace of Atahuallpa there are also on ly .

very

slight remains in the town,which is now ad orned with some fine

churches. The destruction of the ancient buildings has been ac c ele

rated by the devouring thirst of gold which led men,before the

close of the sixteenth century,in digging for supposed hidden trea

sures,to overturn walls and carelessly to undermine or weaken the

foundations of all the houses . The palace of the Inca was situatedon a hill of porphyry which had originally been hollowed at thesurface

,so that it surrounds the principal dwelling almost like a

wall or rampart. A state prison and a municipal building (la Casadel Cabildo) have been erected on a part of the ruins . The mostconsiderable ruins still visible

,but which are only from 13 to 16

feet high,are opposite the convent of San Francisco ; they consist,

as may be observed in the h ouSe of the Cacique, of fine cut blocks

of stone two or three feet long,and pla ced upon each other without

cement,as in the Inca-Pilca or strong fortress of Canar, 111 the

high land of Qu ito .

There i s a shaft sunk i n the porphyritic rock which once led into

subterranean chambers,and a gallery

,said to extend to the other

porphyritic dome before spoken of,that of Santa Polonia . ~Such

arrangements show an apprehension of the uncertainties of war,and

the desire to secure the means of escape . The burying of treasureswas an old and very generally prevailing Peruvian custom . There


may still be found subterranean chambers below many of the privatedwellings of Caxamarca .

We were shown steps cut in the rock, and also what is‘

cal led theInca’s foot-bath ( el Iavatorio de los pies). The washing of themonarch’s feet was accompanied by some inconvenient usages ofc ourt etiquette . (

13) Minor buildings,designed according to tradi

tion for the servants,are constructed partly like the o thers of cut

s tones,and provided with sloped roofs

,and partly with well-formed

bricks alternating with silicious cement (muros y obra deIn the latter class of constructions there are vaulted recesses

,the

antiquity of which I long doubted,but , as I now believe, without

suffi cient grounds.

In the principal building,the room is s till shown in which the

unhappy Atahuallpa was kept a prisoner for nine months, (14

) from

November,1532

,and there is pointed out to the traveller the wall

on which the captive signified to what height he would fill the room

with gold if 'set free. This height is given very variously,by Xerez

,

in his Conquista del Peru,

” whi ch Barcia has preserved for us,by

Hernando Pizzaro in his letters,and by other writers of the period .

The pri nce said,that “ gold in bars

,plates

,and vessels

,should be

heaped up as high as he coul d reach with his hand .

” Xerez assignsto the room a length of 23

,and a breadth of 18 E nglish feet . Gar

e ilasso de la Vega,who quitted Peru in his 20th year

,in 1560, esti

mates ‘ the value of the treasure collected from the temples of the

sun at Cuzco, Huaylas,'

Hu amach uc o,and Pachacamac, up to the

fateful 29 th of August 1513 , on which day the Inca was put todeath

,at Ducados de Oro. (

15

)In the chapel of the state prison

,to which I have before alluded

a s built upon the ruins of the Inca’s palace,the stone still marked

by the indelible stains of blood is shown to the credulous . It is a

very~ th in slab

,13 feet long

,placed in front of the altar, and has

probably been taken from the porphyry or trachyte .of the vicinity.

O n e is not permitted to make any -more precise examination by

s triking off a part of the Stone,but the three or four supposed blood

spots appear to be natural collections of hornblende or pyroxide inthe rock . The Licentiate Fernando Montesinos

,who visited Peru

scarcely a hundred years after -the taking of Caxamarca, even at that

430 PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA Z

early period gave currency to the fable that Atahuallpa was beheaded in prison

,and that stains of blood were still visible on the

stone on which the execution had taken place. There is no reason

to doubt the fact,confirmed by many eye-witnesses

,that the Inca

,

in order to avoid being burnt alive,consented to be baptized under

the name of Juan de Atahuallpa by his fanatic persecutor, theDominican monk Vicente de Valverde . He

‘

was put to death bystrangulation (el garrote) publicly, and in the open air . Another

tradition relates,that a chapel was ' raised over the spot where Ata

huallpa was strangled,and that his

”

body rests beneath the stone ; insuch case

,however

,the supposed spots

'

of bloodwould remain unaccounted for. In reality

,however

,the corpse was never placed

beneath the stone in question . After a mass for the dead,and

solemn funereal rites,at which the brothers Pizarro were present in

mourning habits it was conveyed first to'

the churchyard of theconvent of San Francisco

,and .afterwards to Qu ito

,Atah uall pa

’s

birthplace . Th is l ast transfer was in compliance with the expressedwish of the dying Inca . His personal enemy

,the astute Ruminavi

stone-eye,

” a name given from " the disfigurement of one eye by a ‘

wart ;“ rumi” signifying “ stone

,and “ fi au i

” “ eye,

” in tlie Qui

chua language), from political motives caused the body to be buriedat Quito with solemn obsequies .

We found descendants of the‘

monarch,the family of the Indian

Cacique Astorpilco, dwelling in Caxamarca , among the melancholyruins of ancient departed splendor

,ap d

u

living in great poverty and

privation but patient and uncomplaining . Their descent from

Atahuallpa through the female line has never been doubted in Caxa

marca, but trac es'

of'

b’

eard may perhaps indicate some admixture of

Spanish blood . O f the sons of the Great (but for a child of the sunsomewhat free thinking) (

16) Huayna Capac, neither of the two whoswayed the sceptre before the arrival of the Spaniards

,Huascar and

Atahuallpa, left .behind them acknowledged sons. Hu ascar’became

the prisoner of Atahuallpa in the plains of Qu ipaypan , and was soonafterwards secretly murdered by his order. Neither were thereany survw mg male descendants of the two remaining brothers of

Atahuallpa, the insignificant youth Toparca , whom Pizarro caused tobe crowned as Inca in the autumn of 1553

, and the enterprising


stood at th e moment, there was an artificial, large-flowered Dat iiratree (Guanto), formed of gold wire and gold plates, which spread itsbranches over the Inca’s chair

,impressed me deeply but painfully,

for it seemed as if these illus ive and baseless visions were cherishedas consolations in present sufl

'

erings . I asked the lad Since you

and your parents believe so firmly in the existence of,thi s garden,

are not you sometimes tempted in your necessities to dig in search

of treasures so close at hand ?” The boy’s answer was so simple,

and expressed so ful ly the quiet resignation charac teri stic of theaboriginal inh abitants of the country

,that I noted it in Span ish in

my j ournal. “ Such a desire ( ta1 antoj o) does not come to'

u s ;

father says it would be sinfu l (que fuese pecado). If we h ad thegolden branches

,with all their golden fruits

,our white neighbors

wou ld hate and injure us . We have a small field and good wheat

(buen Few of my readers,I think

,will blame me for

recalling here the words of the young Astorpil co and his golden

visions .

The belief,so widely current among the natives

,that

'

to take possession of buried treasures which belonged to the Incas would bewrong

,and would incur punishment and bring misfortune on the

entire race,is connected with another belief which prevailed

,espe

c ial ly in the l 6th and 17th centuries, z'

. e. the future restoration of

a kingdom of the Incas . E very.

suppressed nationality looks for

ward to a day of change, and to a renewal of the old government .The fli ght of Manco Inca

,the brother of Atahuallpa

,into the forests

of Vil capampa on the declivity of the eastern Cordill era, and the

soj ourn of Sayri Tupac and Inca Tupac Amaru in those wildernesses,have left p ermanent recollections . It was believed that the dethroned dynasty had settled between the rivers Apurimac and Beni

,

or still farther to the east in Guiana» The myth of el Dorado andthe golden city of Manoa

,travelling from the 'west to the east

,in

creased these dreams, and Raleigh’s imagination was so inflamed by

them,that he founded an expedition on the h Ope of conquering

‘the imperial and golden city,

’ placin g in it a garrison of three orfour thousand E nglish

,and levying from the E mperor of Guiana,

’

a descendant of Huana Capac,and who holds his cour t with the

same’

magn ificen c c , an annual tribute of sterling,as the

PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA . 433

price of h is promised restoration to the throne in Cuzco and Caxa

marca .

” Wherever th e Peruvian Quichua language has extended,some trac es of such expectations of the return of the Inca’s sove

reign ty continue (17) to exist in the minds of many among those of

the natives who”

are possessed of some knowledge of the history of

their country.

We remained -for five’

days in the town of the Inca Atahuallpa,

which at that time scarc ely reckoned seven or eight thousand inh abitants . O ur departure was delayed by the number of mules which

?

were required for the conveyance of our collections,and by th e

nec essity of making a careful choice of the guides who were to conduct us across the chain of the Andes to the entrance of the long

bu t n arrow Peruvian sandy desert (Desierto de Sechura). The passage over the Cordillera is from north-cast to south-west. Immedi

a tely after quitting the plain of Caxamarc a , on,

ascepding a heightof scarcely '9600 E nglish) feet, th e

’traveller is struck with

the sight of two grotesquely shaped porphyritic summits,Aroma

and Cun t urcaga ( a favorite haunt of the powerful vulturewhich we"

c ommonly call Condor ; kacca , in the Quichua language, signifies“ the These summits consis ted of five

,s ix

,or seven-sided

c olumns,3 7 to 42 E nglish feet high

,and some of them j ointed .

The Cerro Aroma"

is particularly pict uresque . By the distributionof its often converging series

—cf columns pl aced one above another,

it resembles a two-storied building,which

,moreover

,is surmounted

by,a dome or cupola of non-columnar rock. Su ch ‘ou tbursts of por

phyry and trachyte are, as I have beforeremarked; characteristic of

the high crests of the Cordilleras, to which they impart a physiogn omy quite distinct from that presented. by the Swiss Alps

,th e;

Pyrenees, and the'

Siberian Altai.

From Cun turcaga and Aroma we descended by a z ig zag course asteep

~

rocky declivity of 6400 E nglish feet into th e deep-cleft valleyof the Magdalena

,the bottom . of which is still 4260E nglish feet

above th e'

level of the sea .

’

A fewWretched huts, surr ounded bythe same wool

'

or cotton-trees (Bombax discolor)which we had firstseen on the banks of the Amazons

,were called an Indian village:

The scanty v egetation of‘ the valley bears some resemblanceto that

of the provinc e (if Jaen def

Bracamoros,

'

bu t we missed thered groves‘

37

434 FIRST -vrnwor THE PACIFIC .

of Bougainvillaea . This valley is one of the deepest with which Iam acquainted in the chain of the Andes : it is a true t ranversevalley directed from east towest

,deeply cleft

,and hemmed in on the

two sides by the Al tos de Aroma and Gu angamarca . In this val

ley recommences the same quartz formation which we had observedin the Paramo de Yan agu anga , between Micu ipampa and Caxamarca,at an elevation of E nglish feet

,and which

,on th e western

declivity of the Cordil lera,attains a thickness of several thousand

feet,and was long an enigma to me . j Sin ce von Buch has shown us

that the c retaceous group is'

also widely extended in the .highestchains of th e

'

Andes, on either side of the Isthmus of Panama , thequartz formation which we are now considering

,which has perhaps

been altered in its texture by the action of volcanic forces,may be

considered to belong to the Quadersandstein , intermediate between th eupper part of the chalk series and the Gault and Greensand .

' O n

quitting th e mild temperature of the Magdalena Valley, we had to

ascend again for three hours the mountain wall of 5120 E nglish

feet,Opposite to the porphyritic group of the Al to de Aroma . The

_

change of climate in so doing was the more sensible,as we were often

enveloped, in the course of'

the ascent,in a cold fog .

.The longing desire which we fel t,to enj oy once more the open

view of the sea,after eighteen months’ constant soj ourn l n the ever

restricted range of the interior of the mountains,had been height

ened by repeated disappointments . In looking from the summitof the volcano of Pichincha

,over th e dense forests of the Provincia

de las E smeraldas,no sea horizon can be clearly distingu ished

,by

reason of the too great distance of the coast and height of thestation :

’

it i s like looking down from an air-balloon into vacancy .

O n e divines, but one does not distinguish . Subsequently,when

between Loxa and Guan cabamba we reached the Paramo de Gua

mim,where there are several ruined buildin gs of the times of the

Incas,and h em whence the mule-drivers had confidently assured us

that we should see beyond the plain,beyond the low districts of

Piura and Lambajequ e, the sea itself wh ich we , so much desired tobehold

,a thick mist covered both the plain and the distant sea

shore . We’

saw only variously shaped ,masses of rock alternately

436 FIRST v i nw or THE PACIFIC .

inland sea on maps . That which is thus excited in us (19)by childi sh

1mpress ion s, or by accidental circumstances in life, takes at a laterperiod a graver direction

,and often becomes a motive for scientific

labors and distant enterprises .

When after many undulations of the ground, on the summit ofthe steep mountain ridge

,we finally reached the highest point

,the

Alto de Gu angamarca , the heavens, which had long been veiled,became suddenly clear a sharp west wi nd dispersed the mist

,and

the deep blue of the sky in the th in'

m'

oun ta in air appeared between

narrow lines of th ej

highest cirrous clouds . The whole of the

western declivity of the Cordillera by Chorill os and Cascas, c overedwith large blocks of quartz 13 to 15 E nglish feet long, and the

plains of Chala and Molinos, as far as the sea-shore near Truxillo,

lay beneath our eyes in astonishing apparent proximity. We now

saw for the first time the PacificOcean itself; and we saw it clearlyforming along the line of the shore a large mass from whi ch the

light shone reflected, and rising in its immensity to the well-defin ed,no longer merely conj ectured horizon . The j oy it inspired

,and

whi ch “

wa s vividly shared by my companions Bonplan d and CarlosMontufar

,made us forget to open the barometer until we h ad

quitted the Alto de Guangamarca . From our measurement taken

soon after,but somewhat lower down

,at an isolated cattle-farm

called the Hato de Gu angamarca, the point from which we first saw

the sea would be only somewhere between 9380and 9600E nglish

feet above the level of the sea .

Th e view . of the Pacific was peculiarly impressive to one who likemyself owed apart of the formation of h ismind and character

,and

many of the directions which hi s wishes h ad assumed,to intercourse

with one of the companions of Cook . My schemes of travel wereearly made known, in their leadin g dutlines at least, . to GeorgeForster, when I enj oyed the advantage of making my first visit

to E ngland under h is guidance,more th an half a century ago .

Forster’s charming descriptions of O taheite had awakened through

ou t Northern E urope a general interest (mixed, I might almost say,with romantic longings) for the Islands of the Pacific, which had at

that time been seen by very few E uropeans . I toocherished,at the

time of which I am speaking,the hope of soon landing on them ;

FIRST VI E W or THE PACIFIC . 437

for the obj ect of my visit to Lima was twofold—to observe thetransit of Mercury over the solar disk, and to fu lfil an engagementmade with Captain Baudin before I left Paris

,to j oin him in a

voyage of circumnavigation which was to take place as soon as the

Government of the French Republic coul d furnish the requisitefunds .

Whilst we were in the Antilles,North American newspapers

announced that the two Corvettes,Le Géographe and Le Naturah ste

,

would sail round Cape Horn and touch at Callao de Lima . On

receiving this intelligence at Havana,where I then was

,after having

completed my O rinoco j ourney, I relinquished my original plan ofgoing through Mexico to the Philippines

,and hastened to engage a

vessel to c onvey‘

m e from the Island of Cuba to Cartagena de Indias .Baudin’s E xpedition

,however

,took qui te a different route from that

which was announced and expected , instead of sailing round CapeHorn

,as had been designed when it had been intended that Bon

pland and myself should form part of it, it sailed round the Cape of

Good Hope . O n e of the two obj ects of my Peruvian j ourney andof our last passage over the Chain of the Andes failed ; but on theother hand I had

,at the critical moment

,th e raregood fortune of a

perfectly clear day,during a very unfavorable season of the year,

on the misty coa st of Low Peru: I observed the passage of Mercury over the Sun at Callao

,an observation which has become of

some importance towards the exact determination of th e'

longitude

of and of all the south-western part of the New Continent . Thus

,in the intricate relations and graver circumstances of

life,there may often be found associatedwith disappointment, a germ

of compensation .

438 PLAT E AU or CAXAMARCA.

ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS .

(1

) p . 413 . On the r idge of the Cha in of the Andes or Antis .

”

The Inca Garc ilasso, who was well acquainted with the language

of his country,and was fond of dwelling on . et

'

ymologies,a lways

calls the Chain of the Andes las Mon tafias de los Antis: He‘

sa'

ys

po sitively, that th e great Mountain chain east of Cuz co derived‘ i ts

name from the tribe of the Antis,and the Province of Anti

,which

is to the east of " the Capital of the Incas . The Quaternary divi

s ion of the Peruvian E mpire according to the four quarters of theheavens

,reckoned from Cuzco

,borrowed its terminology, not from the

very circumstantial words taken wh ich signify E ast,West, North, andSouth in the Quichua "language (in tip l lu sc in anpata, in tip ya u cun anpata

,in t ip ch au tu ta ch ayananpa ta , in tip c h aupun ch au ch ayanan

pata) but from the names of the Provinces and of th e tribes orraces (Provincias llamadas Anti, Cunti, Chincha y Colla), which areeas t

,west

,north

,and south of the Centre of the E mpire ( the city of

Cuzco). The four parts of the Inca-theocracy are called accordingly

An tisuyu , Cun tisuyu , Chinchasuyu, and Col lasuyu . The word sag/usignifies strip

,

” and also “ part .

” Notwithstanding the great dis

tance,Quito belonged to Chincha suyu ; and in proportion as by their

religious wars the Incas extended still more widely th e prevalence .

of their faith,their language

,and . their absolute form of govern

men t,

, the se Suyu s also acquired larger and unequally increaseddimensions . Th u s

“

th e names of provinces came to be used t o express the different quarters of the heavens ; Nombrar aquellos Partidos era lo mismo

,

” says Garc ilasso,que decir al O riente

,6 al

Poniente . The Snow Chain of the Antis was thus looked upon asan east chain . La Provincia Anti da nombre a las Mon tafi as de

los Antis . Llamaron la parte a del O riente An tisuyu , por la qual

t ambien llaman An ti a toda aquella gran Cordillera de Sierra Nevada

440 PL‘

ATE AU or CAXAMARCA .

having been made by the natives of the country round Loxa, since

even at the present day the Indians of the neighboring vall eys,where intermittent fevers are very prevalent

,shun the u se of bark .

(Compare my memoir, entitled“ fi ber die Chin aw

’

alder,

” in the

Magaz in der Cresel lsch aft n aturforsc h ender Freunde,”z u Berlin,

Jah rg. i . 1807, s . The story of the n atives h aving learnt thevirtues of the C inchona from the lions

,who “ cure themselves of in

termit ten t fevers by gnawing the barktrees” —(Hist . de l

’Ac ad . des Sciences

,année

_

1738,

p . 233)—appears to be entirely of E uropean origin,but a monkish fable . Nothing is known in the NeW '

CQntinent ofthe Lion’s fever for the large se-ca lled American Lion

'

(Fel is

concolor), and the small mountain Lion (Puma), whose footmark‘

s I

have seen on the snow,are never tamed and made the subj ects of

observation ; nor are the different species of Fe linae in either cont inen t accustomed to gnaw the bark of trees: The name of Countess’sPowder (Pul vis Comi tissae), oc casioned by the remedy having beendistributed by the Countess of Chinchon, was afterwards changedto that of Cardinal’s orJ esu it’s powder

,because Cardinal de Luge,

Procurator-Greneral of the order ‘of the Jesuits,spread the know

ledge of this valuable remedy during a j ourney through France,

and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin the more urgently,as the

brethren of the order were beginning to prosecute a lucrative tradein South American Qu ina-bark

,which t hey obta ined through their

missionaries . It is hardly necessary to remark that,in the long

controversy which ensued respecting the good or bad effects of thefever bark

,the Protestant physicians sometimes permitted them

selves to be influenced by religious intolerance and dislike of theJesuits .

(3

) p . 415.-“ Ap osen tos de ll lu la lo .

Respecting these aposentos (dwellings, inns, in the Quichua language ta mp u , whence the Spanish . form tambo), compare Ciega,Chronica del Peru . cap . 41 ( ed . de 1554

,p . 108) and my Vues des

Cordi l léres,Pl . xxiv.


(4

) p . 416 Thefortress of the Cane rIs situated not far from Turch

l

e,at an elevation of 9984

E nglish) feet . I have given a drawing of it in the Vues des Cor

dil leres,Pl . xvn . ( compare also Ciega, cap . 44

,p . i . p . Not

farfrom the .Forta lez a del Cafi ar, in the celebrated ravine of the

Sun,Inti-Guaycu ( in‘ the Quichua or Quech h u a language, h u ag/cco),

is the rock on which the natives think they see a representa tion ofthe Sun

,and of an enigmatical sort of bank or bench, which is called

Inga-Chu ngan a (In cac h u n can a), the In ca’s play . I have drawn

both . See Vues des Cordil leres,Pl . xviii . and xix .

(5

) p .

~416. Art ific i a l roa ds, covered w ith c emen ted gra vel .

Compare VelascohHistoria de Quito, 1844, t . i :-

p . 126—128, and

Prescott,Hist. of the Conquest of. Peru

,vol . i . p . 157 .

(6) p . 417 . Wh ere the roa d wa sn

'

n terrup ted by fligh ts of step s .

Compare Pedro Sancho in Ramu sio,vol . iii . fol . 404

,and E x

tracts from Manuscript Letters of Hern ando Pizarro, employed bythe great historical writer now living at Boston ; Prescott, vol . i . p .

444 . E l ; camino de las Sierras es cosa de ver, porque en verdaden tierra tan fragosa en ' la cristiandad no se han visto tan hermososcaminos

,toda la mayor parte de calzada .

”

(7) p . 418 . Greeks a nd Roma ns show th ese c on tra sts .

”

If,

” says Strabo ( lib . v . p . 235,

'

Cas aub),“ the Greeks, in

building their cities,sought for a happy result by aiming especially

at beauty and solidity,the Romans on the other hand have regarded

particularly,obj ects which the Greeks left unthought of —stone

pavements in the streets ; aqueducts bringing to the city abundant

supplies of water ; and provisions for dra inage so as to wash away

and c arry to the Tiber al l uncleanliness . ‘ They also paved the roadsthrough the country, so that wagons may transport with ease the

goods brought by trading ships .”

p . 419 . The messenger of th e dei ty Nkmteregueteha .

The civilization of ancient Mexico ( the Aztec land of Anahuac),


and that of the Peruvian theocracy or empire of the Incas,the Chil

dren of the Sun,have so engrossed attention in E urope

,that a third

pomt of comparative light and of dawning civilization, which existedamong the nations i nhabiting the mountains of New Granada, waslong almost entirely overlooked . I have touched on this subj ect in‘

some detail in the V'

ue des Cordil leres et Monumens des PeuplesIndigenes de l’Amérique ( ed . in 8vo .) t . ii . p . 220—267 . The formof the

'

government of the Muyscas of New Granada reminds us ofthe constitution of Japan and the relation ' of the Secular Ruler

(Kubo or Seogun , at Jeddo) to the sacred personage, the Dani , atMiyako . When Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada advanced to the hightable

.

land of Bogota (Bacata, 15. e . the extremity of the cultivatedfields

,probably from the proximity of the mountain wall), he found

there three powers or authorities respecting w hose reciprocal relations and subordination there remains some uncertainty The ‘ spi

ritual chief,who was appointed by election

,was the high-priest of

Ira c a or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi,the place of the disappearance of

Nemterequeteba) : the secular ru lers or p rinces were the Zake

(Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and the Zipa of'

Funza . In the feudalconstitution

,th e last-named prince appears to have been originally

subordinate to the Zake .

The Muyscas had a regular mode of computing time,with interc ala tion for amending the lunar year : they used small circular platesof gold

,cast of equal diameter

,as money (any traces of which among

the highly civilized ancient E gyptians have been sought in vain),and they had temples of the Sun with stone columns

,remains of

which have very recently been discovered in the Valley of Leiva .

(Joaquin Acosta, Compendio h istorico del~Descubrimiento de la

Nueva Granada,1848

,pp . 188

,196

,206

,and 208 ; Bulletin de la

Société de Géographie de Paris,1847 , p . The tribe

'

or -raceof the Muyscas ought

,properly speaking

,to be always denoted by

the name of Chibchas ; as’

Muysca, in the Chibcha language, signifiesmerely men

,

” people .

” The origin and elements of the civil izaition introduced are attributed to two mystical forms

,Bochica (Bots

chica) and Nemterequ eteba, which are often confounded together.“

The first of these is still more mythical than the second ; for it was

only Botsch ica who was regarded as divine,and made almost equal


Before the Conquista, the plain tain (Musa), which since the arrivalof the Spaniards has been cultivated In all thewarmer parts of NewGranada, was only found, as Colonel Ac osta

‘

bel ieves (p . at

Choco . O n the name Cundinamarca—applied by a false eruditionto the young republic of New Granada in 1811, a name full ofgolden dreams” ( suenos dorados),

more properly Cundirumarc a (not

Cun turmarca , Garc ilasso, lib . viii . cap . 2)—see also Joaquin Acosta,p . Luis Daza

,who j oined the small invading army of t h e

Conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar which came from the south,

had heard of a distant country abounding In gold,called Cundiru

marca,inhabited by the tribe of th e Chicas

,and whose prince had

solicited Atahuallpa,at Caxamarca , for auxiliary troops . These

Chicas have been confounded with the Chibchas or Muyscas of New

Granada , and thus the name of the unknown more southern coun

try has been unduly transferred to that territory .

(9) p . 421.

-T h e fa l l of the R io de C h amaya .

Compare my Recueil d’Observ. Astron i,vol. i .{p . 304 ; Nivel le

ment barométrique,No . 236- 242.

'

I have given in the Vues des

Cordil leres, Pl . xxxi . a drawing of the “ swimming post,

” as hebinds round his head the handkerchief conta ining the letters .

p . 422. “Which,on a ccoun t of a n old Observa tion of L a

Condamin e,wa s of some

,

imp ortan ce to th e geograp hy of Sou th

Ameri ca .

”

I desired to connect chronometrically Tomependa, the point atwhich La Condamine began his voyage, and oth er

’

places gédgraph i

call y determined by him on the Amazons River,with the town of

Quito . La Condamine h ad been,in June

,1743 (59 years before

me), at Tomependa, which’place I found

,by star observations taken

for three nights,to be in south lat. 5° 31' and west longitude

from Paris 80° 56’37” (from Greenwich 78° 34’ Previous

to .my return to France, the longitude of Quito was in error to thefull amount of 50’g minutes of are, as O ltmanns has shown by myobservations, and by a laborious recalculation of all those previously

made . (Humboldt, Recueil d’Observa tions Astron .

,vol . ii . p . 309

Jupiter’

s satellites,lunar distances, and occultations, give a


sa tisfactory accordance, and all the elements of the calculation are

placed before the public . The too easterly longitude of Quito wastransferred by

‘La Condamine to Cuenca and the Amazons river.Jc fis

,

” says La Condamine,“mon premier essai de navigation sur

u n radeau (balsa) en descendant la riviere de Chinchipe jusqu’a

Tomependa . Il fallut me contenter d’en determiner la latitude etde conclure la longitude par les routes “ J’y fis mon testamentpolitique en rédigeant l’extrait de mes observations le plus Importantes . (Journal du Voyage fait a l

’E quateur, 1751 p . 186.)I

(11

) p . 4 23 . At upwa rds of twelve thou sa nd feet a bove th e

sea wefou nd fossi l ma rin e sh el ls.”

See my E ssa i géognostique sur lo Gisement des Roches, 1823 ,p . 236 ; and for the first zoological determination of the fossilscontained in the cretaceous group in t h e chain of the Andes

,see

Léop . de Buch , Pétrifications'

recueillies en Amérique, par Alex . de

Humboldt et Charles Degenhardt, 1839 ( in pp . 2—3,5, 7, 9 ,

11,and 18—22. Pentland found fossil shells of the Silurian for

mation in Bolivia,on the Nevado de An tak

'

aua,at the height of

French E nglish) feet (Mary Somerville, Physical

Geography, 1849, vol . i . p .

(12

) p . 427 . Where the cha in of the Andes is in tersec ted by

. the magneti c equ a tor .

”

Compare my Relation hi st . du Voyage aux Region s équinoxiales,t . iii . p . 622 ; and Cosmos, bd . i . s . 191 and 432 where

,however,

by oi a s of the press,the longitude is once 48° and

x

afterwards

instead of,as it should ,be, 80

0 54’ from Paris ( or 78

° 32f

from Greenwich), (E nglish edit. p . 173 , and note

(13

) p . 429 .-“Accomp a n ied by in co nven ien t ceremonies of cou rt

etiquette.

”

In conformity with a highly ancient court ceremonial, Atahuallpaspat not on the ground

, -but into .the hand of one of th e principal

ladies present ;“al l

,

” says Garc ilasso, on account of his maj esty .

”

E l Inca nunca escupia en el suelo,sino en la mano de una Senora

38


’

mui principal,por Maj estad (Garc ilasso, Comment . Reales, p .

p .

(14

) p . 429 . Cap tivi ty of Ata hu a llp a .

A short time before the captive Inca was put to death,he was

taken Into the Open air,in compliance with h is request

,to see a

large comet . The greenish-black comet,nearly as thick as a man”

(Garc ilasso says, p . ii . p . 44,una cometa verdin egra, poco menos

gruesa que el cuerpo de un hombre), seen by Atahuallpa before hisdeath

,therefore in July or August

,1533

,and which he supposed

to be the same malignant comet which had appeared at th e‘

death

of his father,Huayna Capac,is certainly the one observed byAppian

(Pingre, Cométograph ie, t . i . p . 496 ; and Galle’s “Notice Of all

the Paths of Comets hitherto computed,

” in “O lber’s Leichtester

Methode die Bahn . eines’

Cometen z u~berechnen

,

” 1847, s .

and which,on the 2l st of July, standin g high in th e north, near

the constellation of Perseus,represented the sword

“

which Perseusholds in his right hand . (Madl er, Astronomie, .1846

,s .

-307 ;

Schnurrer,Die Chronik der Seuchen ' in 'Verbindung mit gleich

zei tigen E rscheinungen,1825

,th . ii . s . Robertson considers

the year of Huayna Capac’s death uncertain ; but, fromth e re

searches of Balboa and Velasco,that event appears to have occurred

towards the close of 1525 : thus the statements of Hevelius (Cometograph ia, p . 844) and of Pingre ( t . i . p . 485) derive confirmationfrom the testimony of Garc ilasso (p . i . p . 321) and the traditionpreserved among the “

amau ta s,que son los

-fi losofos de aquella

Republica .

” I may here introduce the remark,that Oviedo alone,

and certainly erroneously,asserts

,in ' the inedited continuation of

his Historia de las‘

Indias,that the proper name . of the Inca was

not Atahu allpa,but Atabal iva (Presc ot t,

* Conqu est Of Peru,vol . i .

p .

(15

) p . 429 . D uca dos de 0ro

The sum mentioned in the text is that which is stated by Gar:

c il asso de la Vega in the Commentaries reales de'

los Incas,parte ii .

1722, pp . 27 and 51. The statements of Padre BlasValera andof Gomara, Historia de las I ndias, 1553, p . 67

,differ

,however

,


an “ animal” fastened to a cord ; but indeed, even in Spanish,“ res”

is by no means limited to oxen,but may be applied to any tame

cattle . We cannot examine here how far the Padre may havemingled parts of .his own sermons with the heresies of the Inca,with the view Of weaning the natives from the Official and dynasticworship Of the Sun

,the religion of the court . ‘ We see

,in the very

Conservative State policy, and in the maxims of State and proceedings of the Inca Roca

,the conqueror of the province of Charcas,

the solicitude which was felt to guard strictly the lower classes ofthe people from such doubts . This Inca founded schools for the

upper classes only, and forbade, under heavy penalties, to teach thecommon people anything

,

“ lest they should become presumptuous,

and shoul d create disturbances'

in the State !” (No es lecito queen seii en a los hij os de les Plebeios las Cien c ias, ~porque la gente

baj a no se eleve y h

en sobervez ca ymenoscabe la Republica Garc ilasso,p . i . p . Thus the policy of the Inca’s theocracy was almost

the same as that Of the’

Slave States in the United Free States ofNorth America .

(17) pf-433 The restoration of a n emp ire of the Inc a s.

I have treated this subj ect more fully in another place (Relationhist. t . iii . pp . 703—705 and Raleigh thought there was inPeru an Old prophecy

,“ that from Inglaterra

’

th ose Ingas should be

agnine in time to come restored and deliuered from the seru itude ofthe said conquerors . I am resolued that if there were . but a smalarmy afoote in Gui ana marching towards Manoa

,the ch iefe c itie of

Inga,he would yi eld Her Majestie by composition se -many hundred

thousand pounds yearely, as shoul d both defend all enemies abroadand defray all expen ces at home, and that , he wou lde bes ides pay agarrison of 3000or 4000soldiers very royally to defend him againstother nations. The Inca wil be brought to tributewith great gladnes . (Raleigh,

“ The discovery of the large,rich

,and beautiful

E mpire of Guiana,performed in 1595

,according to the edition

published by Sir Robert Sch omburgk, 1848, pp . 119 and 137 .

Thi s scheme of a Restoration promised much that might be very“

agreeable to both sides, but unfortunately the dynasty who were to

be restored,and who were to pay the money

,were wanting


p .,435. Of the exp ed i tion of Vasco Nunez

’

de Ba lboa .

I have already remarked elsewhere ( E xamen critique de l’h istoire

de la Géographi e du Nouvean C ontinent, et des progres de l’Astro

nomie nautique aux 15eme et 16eme siecles,t . i . p . 349) that Co

lumbus knew, fully ten years before Balboa’s expedition

,the exist

ence of the South Sea and its great proximity to the east coast of

Veragua. He was conducted to this kn owledge,not by th eoretical

speculations respecting the configuration of E astern Asia, but by thelocal and positive report s of the natives

, which he collected ,

On hisfourth voyage (May 11, 1502, to

.

November 7, On thisfourth voyage the Admiral went from the coast of Honduras to thePuerto ide Mosquitos

,the western end Of the Isthmus of Panama .

The reports of the natives,and the comments of Columbus on those

reports in the “Carta rarissima” of the 7th of July, 1503, were to

the effect that,not far from the Rio de Belen

,the other sea (the

South Sea) turns (boxa) to the mouths of the Ganges, so th at thecountries of the Au rea (i . e. the countries of the Ch erson esu s aureaOf Ptolemy)are situated, in relat ion to the eastern coasts of Veragu a,as Tortosa (at the mouth of the E bro) Is to Fuenterrabia ( on theBidassoa) in Biscay, or as Venice In relation to Pisa .

” AlthoughBalboa first saw the South Sea from the heights of the Sierra de

p . yet it was not until several days later that Alonso'

Martinde Don Benito, who found a way from .

the mountains of Q uarequ a

to the Gul f of San Miguel,embarked on the South Sea In a canoe .

(Joaqum . Acosta,

_Compendio hist . del Descubrimient o de la NnevaGranada

,p .

As the taking possession of a considerable part of the west coastof the New Continent by the United States of North America, andthe report of the abundance of gold in New California (now calledUpper California), have rendered more urgent than ever th e formation of

”

a communication between the Atlantic States and the re

gions of the west through the Isthmus of Panama, I feel it my dutyto call

~

attention once again to the circumstance that the shortestway to

'

the Shores of the Pacifi c, which was shown by the natives to

Alonso Martin de Don Benito, is in th e eastern part Of the Isthmus,

450 PLATE AU or OAXAMAROA.

and led to the Golfo de San Migu el. We kn ow that Columbus

(Vida del Al mirante por Den Fernando Colon, cap . 90) sought foran estrecho de Tierra firme and In the ofli c ia l documents whichwe possess of the years 1505 and 1507, and especially 1514, men~

tion is made of the desired “ opening” ( abertura), and of the pass

(passe) which should lead directly to the“ Indian Land of Spices .

”

Having for more than forty years been occupied with the subject of

requested me to furn ish,urged th at the Isthmus shoul d be examined

hypsometrically throughout its entire length,and more especially

where,in Darien and the inhospitable former Provincia de Biru

quete,it j oins the Continent Of South Am erica ; an d where, between

the Atrato and the Bay of Cupica ( on the shore of the Pacific), the

my Atlas géographique et physique de la‘ Nenvelle E spagn e,pl . iv. ;

in t he Atlas de la Relation historique, pl . xxi i . and _xxiii . Voyageaux Regions équinoxiales du Nouvean Continent, t . iii . pp . 117—154 ;and E ssai p olitique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle E spagne, ,

t . i.

2de édit. -1825,pp . 202

General Bolivar,at my request

,caused an exact levell ing of the

Isthmus between Panama and the mouth of the Rio Chagres to bemade in 1828 and 1829 by Lloyd and Falmarc . (PhilosophicalTransactions of the Royal Society of London for the year 1830

,

pp . 59 O ther measurements have since been executed by ao

complis hed and experienced French engineers,and p roj ects have

been formed for canals and railways with locks ( and tunnels, butalways in the direction Of a meridian between Portobello and Panama—or .more to the west

,towards Ch agres ‘

and Thus the

most imp orta n t points of the ea stern and sou th-ea stern part of the

Isthmus have remained unexamined on both shores ! SO long asthis part is not examined geographically by means of exact but

easily obtained determinations of latitude and of longitude by ch ro

nometers,as well as hypsometrica lly in the conformation of the Sur

face by b aromet ric measurements of elevation—se long I considerthat the statement I have repeatedly made, and which I now repeat

452 PLATE AU or CAXAMARCA.

alone decide the much dis cussed problem'

either affirmatively or

negatively. That will be done at last which should,and

,

'

h ad myadvice been taken

,would have been done in the first

‘

in stan ce .

(19) p . 436. Tha t wh ich is awakened in us by ch i ldish imp ressions

or by the c ircumstwnces,

of life.

O n th e ~ in c itemen tsi

to the study of nature,compare C osmos, bd.

11. s . 5 (E nglish edit. vol . ii . p .

(20

) p . 437 . Of imp or ta nc e for the exa ct determin a tion of the

longi tude of L ima .

”

At the period of my expedition,the longitude ofL iin a was given

in the maps published in the Deposito h idrografi co de Madrid,from the Observations of Malaspina

, which made”

it 5h ,

'

16m. 53s .

from Paris . The transit of Mercury over the sun’s disk on the 9 thof November

,1802

,which I observed at Callao

,the port of Lima

( in the northern Torreon del Fuerte de San Felipe), gave for Callao,by the mean of the contact of both limbs, 5h . 18m. l 6s . 5

,and

by the exterior contact only 5h . 18m . 18s . ( 79° 34’ Thi s

resul t (obtained from the transit of Mercury) is confirmed bythose of Lartigue

,Duperrey, and Captain Fitz Boy in the E xpedi

tion of the Adventure and Beagle. Lartigue found Cal lao 5h .

17m. 58s . Duperrey Fitz Roy 5h . 18m . 15s . ( all

west of Paris). As I determined the di fference of longitude be

tween Callao and the Convent de San Juan de Dies at Lima bycarrying chronometers between them four times, the observation ofthe transit of Mercury gives th e longitude of Lima 5h . 17m . 51s .

( 79° 27’ 45”W. from Paris

,or 77° 6' 3”W. from Greenwich).

Compare my Recueil d’Observation s astron . vOl . ii : pp . 397, 419 and

428,with my Rélat . hist. t . iii . p . 592.

POT SDAM , fume,1849 .

GE NE RAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTE NTS.

Prefa ce to the F irs t E ditiorz- ~

p . V. to p . VI .

Prefa ce to th e”

Second and Th ird -E di tions—p . vn . to p . .ix.

Note by the Tran s la tor—p : xiStepp es and Deserts—p . 25 to p . 42.

Coast chain and mOu n ta in valleys of Cara c c a s . Lake of Taeari a .

Contrast in respect to the luxuriance of vegetation between t osedistricts and the treeless plains ; Th e steppe regarded as the bottomOf a Mediterranean Sea ; broken strata a little higher than the restof the plain called “ banks .” General phenomena of extensiveplains ; t h e Heaths of E urope , the Pampas an d the Llanos of SouthAmerica, the African Deserts , an d the Steppes of Northern Asia .

Different characters of the vegetable covering of the surface”

. An i

mal life .

“

Pastoral nations , a n d‘

th eir invasive migrations 25—28

Description of the South American plains and prairi es—their extentand climate ; th e latter dependent on the Outline of the coasts , an don the hypsometric conformation of the New Continent. Comparison with th e plains a nd deserts of Africa 29—33

O riginal absence of]

pastoral life in America . Food furnished by the‘

M auritia palm ; the Guaranis’ huts raised on trees 33—36

Since the discovery of America,the Llanos have become more habit

able . E xtraordin ar increase in the number of wild cattle , horses ,a sses , an d mules . Description of,

the season of extreme dryness ,an d of th e rainy season . Appearance of the surface of the grounda n d of th e sky . L ife of the animals—their su fi’erin gs , th e1r confli c t s ; power of adaptation with which certain animals and plantsare endowed . J aguars , crocodiles , an d electric fishes . Unequalconflict between Gymn ot i a n d h orses 36—40

Retrospective glance at the countries surrounding the Steppes andDeserts . Forest wildernesses ”of the O rinoco an d th e Amazons .Indian tribes separated by ' th e

’ wonderful diversity of th eir languages and differences of their habits ; their h ardships , and fre

454 SUMMARiZ OF THE CONTE NTS .

quent variance between the different tribes . Figures graven onthe rocks show that these solitudes were once the seat of aof civilization which has now disappeared

Sc ien tifi c E lu c ida t ions and Add it ions—p . 43 to p . 165.

Th e island-studded Lake of Tacarigu a ; its relations to the neighboring

.

mountain chains . Geological description . Progress of cul tivati on and of E uropean civilization . Varieties of the sugar-cane .Cacao plantations . Great fertility of soil associated within th e

tropics with insalubrity of atmosphere

Banks” or broken strata . General h orizontality Of the surface .

Subsidences of the surface 47—49

Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean Naked stony crust.Tabular masses of syenite wh ether prej udic 1a l to health 49—50

General views respecting the mountain systems Of North and SouthAmerica , embracing the most recent information . Chains runnin gin a south -west an d north-east direction i n Brazil and i n the Atlantic portion of the United States of North America . Th e lowprovince of Chiquitos ; small swellings of the ground constitute thedivision between the waters of th e Gnaporé and Agu apeh i Hi 15

°

an d 17° S. lat. , and between the river basins of the O rinoco andthe Rio Negro l n 2

° and 3° N . lat . 50—51

Continuation of the ch ain of the Andes north of the Isthmus ofPanama (through the Aztec country, where Popocatepetl , 16,626French , or 17 ,720 E n lish feet high , has very recently been againascended by Captain Stone)) in the Sierra de las Grullas and theRocky M ountains . E xcellent scientific investigations Of CaptainFremont. Th e longest barometric levelling ever made , sh ow mg aprofile or vertical section of th e earth’s surface through a space of28° of longitude . Culminating point of the route from the coast ofthe Atlantic to the Pacific . “ South Pass ,” south of the WindRiver Mountains . Swelling of the ground in the Great Basin .

Long contested existence of the Timpan ogos Lake . Coast Chain ,M ar1t imeAlps , or SierraNevada of California . Volcanic eru tions .Falls of th e Columbia 1—59

General consideration s on th e contrasts shown the s aces includedbetween the Cen tral C h ain ( th e Rocky M ount s)andthe divergingchains on the east and west (the A l l egh an ies and the Sierra Nevadaof California) , hypsometric characters of the l ow eastern space,which 18 only from 400to 600 French, or 426 to 639 E n l ish feetabove the level of the sea

,and of the arid

,uninhabited p a in 5000

or 6000 (5330 t o 6400 E ngl ish) feet above the same level , calledt h e Great Basin . Sources of the M ississippi m the Lake of Is ta c aaccording to Nrc ol let

’ high ly meritorious researches . Buffalocountry ; Gomara

’s assertion of buffaloes having been formerly

tamed 111 the northern part of Mexico 59—62

456 SUMMARY or THE CONTE NTS .

Hindu-Coosh (the Parapan isu s and Indian Caucasus‘ of the eu

c ien t s), an d th rough the chain of Demawen d and the Pers ianE lbou rz , to Taurus in Lycia. Near the intersection Of the Kuenliin an d the Bolor, the correspondence of the direction of th e axesof elevation (east an d west in the Kuen-l

'

un and th e Hindu-Coosh ,whereas that of the Himalaya is south-east an d north-west) showsthat th e Hindu-Coosh is a continuation of the Kuen-l iin ,

’

an d notof the Himalaya .

_Th e point where the direction of the Himalaya

changes to south -east and north -west from having been east an dwest

,is about the 79th degree of east longitude from Paris (81

° 22’

Greenwi ch ). Next to the Dh awa l a iri , it is'not, as has been hithert o

supposed, th e J awah irwhich is th e

'

ghes t summit of theHimalaya ;that rank belonging , according to the most recent intelligence rec eived from Dr. J oseph Hooker, to a mountain situated betweenBoutan an d Nepau l in th e meridian of Sikkim, the Kin ch ifrj in ga :the western summit of th is mountain ; which has been measuredby Colonel Waugh, director of the trigonometrical survey of India,is feet, an d its eastern summit feet h igh , accordingto the J ournal of th e Asiatic Society of Bengal , Nov. 1848 : Th e

mountain which is now supposed to be higher th an the Dhawalagiriis figured _

ou the frontispiece of the ma ifi c en t work of J os ephHooker, entitl ed “ Th e Rhododendrons of ikkim-Himalaya, 1849 .

—Determination of the lower limits of the snow-line on the northern and southern declivities of the Himalaya ; its height being ona n average 3400to 4600French , or 3620to 4900E nglish feet hi gheron th e northern fa ce . New data on the subj ect from Hodgson .

Without this remarkable distribution of temperature in the upperstrata of the ,

atmosphere,the mountain lains of Western Thibet

would be uninhabitable to the millions 0 human beings who n ow

dwel l there 83—94

Th e Hion -nu, regarded by Degu ign es an d Johannes Muller as atribe of uns , appear rath er to have been one of th e widely scatt ered tribes of the Turks of the Altai and Tan g-nu moun tains . Th eHuns , whose name was known to Dionysius Perigetes , and who arenoticed by Ptolemy as Chuns (whence the later appellation ofCh u n igard given to a are '

a Finnish race of the Uralmountains 94—95

Figures of the sun and of animals; and other signs carved on rocksi n the Sierra Parime , as wel l as in North America, have often beensupposed to be writing 95—96

Descri tion of the cold mountain elevationsbetween an d(or an d E nglish) feet, which are di stinguished by th eappellation of Paramos character of their vegetation 96—98

Notices of the two groups ofmountains (Pa c ara ima Mountains,and

the Sierra de Chiquitos) which se arate the ‘ three plains of th eLower Orinoco, the Amazons, and t e ‘RiO de la Plata ~ 98

SUMMARY or run CONTE NTS . 457

O n the dogs .of Sou th America ; bot h th e aboriginal race and the des cen dan ts of E uropean dogs wh ich have become wild . Sufferingsof cats when taken to elevations exceeding E n g.)feet 98—102

Th e low tract of the Sahara , and its relations to theAtlas Mountains ,according to th e l a te s t in forma t ipn given by Dauma s , Carette , a n dRen ou . Th e barometric measurements of Fournel make it appearvery probable that part of the North African desert is lower th anthe level O f the sea .

‘

O asis of B iscara ; abundance of. fossil salt inz ones or bands run ning from south -west to north -east. Causes ofthe nocturnal cold in t h e desert according to Mel lon i 102—106

Notices of the ‘River )Vady-Dra ( 1-6th longer ‘

th an the ‘

Rhine,and

dry a large portion of the year), and of the country of Sh eikhBeirouk , a chief independent 'of the E mperor of Morocco

,from

manu script communications of th e Naval Captain Count BouetVi l l aume z .

“

Th e mountain s north of Cape Noun (a name used byE dres i , in which , sin ce the (

15th centu ry, an allusion to th e negative particle has been erroneously

,

sought) attain 8600 (9166 E n glish)

'feet of elevation 106—107

Th e vegetation of the tropical American L lan os consisting of grasses ,compared with the vegetation of the North Asiatic Steppes cons isting O f herbaceous plants In the last-named Steppes , and espec ia l ly t h e more fertile among th em , a leasin g effect is produced inspring by small sn ow-white an d red ow erin g Ros a c em,

Amygda

l eae , species of Astragalus , Crown Im c ria l s , Cypripedias , andTulips . C ontrast with the desolate salt

,

teppes full of Chenopodia c eae, species of Sa lsola an d Atriplex. Considerations on the relative numbers of th e prevail in g families of plants . Th e plainsadj oin ing th e Icy Sea , n orth of th e limit determined by Admiral)Vrangel as th at of th

‘

e r

grow th of Coniferae a n d Amen ta c eac ,”

a re

the domain of cryptogamous plants . Aspe ct and physiognomy ofthe Tundras

, where .th e soil

,which is perpetually frozen , is covered

either with a"

thick c oa t ing of Sphagnum a n d other mosses , or withth e snow-white Cen omyc e an d Stereoc au lOn pa sch a le ,

107—409

Princi a l causes of the very different distribution of temperature inthe u ropean a n d American Continents . Direction a n d curvatureof the isoth ermal lines , or l in es of equal temperature , for th e en tireyear, for th e w inter, an d for th e summer 1097 119

Are there any ,groun ds for believing thatAmerica emerged later tha nthe O ld Con tm en t from the chaotic watery covering ? 119—121

Thermic c ompari‘

soh of th e.

Northe rn an d SouthernHemispheres inhigh latitudes 121—123

Apparent conn ection of the African sea of sand—with those of Pers ia ,Kerman , Belooch is tan , and th e interior of Asia . On ~the western39

458 SUMMARY OF THE CONTE NTS .

part of Moun t Atlas , and the connection of purely mythicaliw ith geographical traditions . Indistinct allusions to igneous cruptions . Triton Lake . Crater-like forms of a locality south ofHann o

’s Bay Of the Gorill a Apes .” Singular description of the

“ hollowAtlas” from the Dia lexes of Marinus Tyriu s 124—127

Notices respecting the Moun tains of the Moon (Dj ebel a l-Komr) in

the in ter1or of Africa by Rein au d , Beke , and Ayrton . Wern e’s

instructive not ice of the second expedition undertaken by the ordersof Meh emet

'

A l i . Th e Abyssinian mountains , which rise , accordin g to Riippel l , almost to the height of Mont Blanc . Th e mostancient notice of snow between the trop ics contained in the In scription ofAdu l is , which is somewhat more modern than J uba . Highmountains which , between 6° an d 4° of north

“

latitude, and~

s t1l l

more to the south , approach th e Bahr el-Abiad . A considerableswelling of the ground d ivides the White

'

Nile from the basin ofthe Gos c h op . Line of separation betw een the waters which flowto the M editerranean and those which flow to the Indian O ceanaccording to Carl Z immerman’s map . Lupata Chain according tothe instructive researches of Wilh elm Peters . 128—134

O ceanic currents . In the northern part of th e Atlantic O cean thewaters are impelled in a true revolving current. Th at ' th e first impulse which causes the Gulf Stream is r

to be sought at the southernextremity of Africa, was already known to Sir

'

Humphry Gilbertin

'

1560. . Influ en c e of the Gulf Stream on the climate of Scandin avia . How it contributed to th e discovery ofAmerica . Instancesof E squimaux who, aided by the f

retu‘

rn ing eas tward flowin g portion of

' the warm Gulf Stream , an d by north-west winds , arr1vedon th e coasts of E urope . Such a case related by Cornelius Neposa n d Pompon iu s M ela (of Indians given by a king of the Boii toQuintus Metellus Celer, Proconsul of Gaul others , in the time ofthe O thos and of Frederic Barbarossa, of olumbu s , and of Cardinal Bembo . Again , in the years 1682 and 1684. natives of Greenland appeared in the O rkneys 134—138

Operation of lichens and other Cryptogami a in the cold and temperate zones in preparing the way for the more rapid establishmentof larger phaenogamous plants . Within the tropics lichens areoften replaced in this respect by succulent plants . M ilk-yieldinganimals of the New Con tm e

’

nt ; the Lama , the Alpaca, the Guanaco 138—141

Cu ltivation of farinaceous grasses 141—144

O n the earliest population ofAmerica 144

Th e coast nation of the Guaranis (Warraus), and the Mauri tia palm“

of the coasts ,“

according to the accounts given by Bembo in theHis toriae Ven etee, and those of Raleigh , Hillhouse , and Robert andBieh ard Seh omburgk 144—150


‘

loped organization . Stemof an Arundin area sixteen to seventeenfeet long from knot to knot

O n the myth or fable of th e Lake of Parime

TheNoc tu rna l l i fe 0f An ima ls in the Primeva l Fores t—p . 205 to P'

.

214 °

Difference between languages in respect to their richness in welldefined expressions for ch aracterizing natural phenomena , such as

the state of vegetation ,the forms of plants , the outlines and group

in g of clouds , t h e appearance of the surface of the ground, and th eforms of rocks an d mountains . Loss which languages suffer bythe disuse of such words , or by their signification bec oming im

paired. Th e misinterpretation of a Span ish word, Monte,”h a scaused the undue extension or introduction of mountains in maps .Primeval Forest ; frequent abuse of the term . Abs ence of th euniformity wh ich is produced by th e association of the same kin dsof trees

, Characteristic of tropical forests . Causes of the impenetrabi l ity of forests between the tropics ; the twining plan ts , Lianes ,often form only a small portion of the underwood 205—210

Appearance of th e‘Rio Apure in the lower part of its course. Marginof th e forest fenced like a ga rden by a low hedge of Sau so (Hermesia). Th e wild animals of the forest lead their young to theriver through small Openings in this hedge . Flocks of large waterhogs or Cavies (Capybara). Fresh-water dolphins 210—212

Wild cries of animals resound throughout the forest .

”Cause of th enocturnal uproar

Contrast with th e stillness which reigns during the noon-tide hourson days Of more than usual heat in the torrid zone . Descriptionof the narrows of the O rinoc o at Baragu an . Humming and flu ttering of insects . L ife stirs audibly in ”

every bush , in th e clefts ofthe bark of trees , and in the earth undermined an d furrowed byHymenopterous insects 213—214

Sc ien tifi c E lu c idat ion s and Add i tions—p . 215 to p . 216.

Characteristic terms in Arabic and Persian descriptive of th e surfaceof the ground (Steppes ; grassy plains , deserts , Richness ofthe old Castilian idiom in words expressive ofthe form ofmountains .Fresh-water skates an d dolphins . In the great rivers of both continente some organic sea-forms are repeated : American nocturnalmonkeys , the three-s triped Douroucoul i of the Ca ss iqu iare 215—216

n sometr ic’

Addenda—p . 217 to p . 223 .

Pentland’smeasurements in th e eastern mounta in chain of Bolivia .

He1gh t of th e volcano of Aconcagua according to Fitz roy a n dDarwm . Western mountain chain of Bolivia 217—219

Mountain systems of North America . Rocky Mountains and th e

SUMMARY O E THE CONTE NTS . 461

Snowy Chain ( Sierra Nevada) of California. 'Lagun a’

de f Tim219—221

Hip

sometric a l profile of th e Highland of Mexico from the city ofexic o

’ to Santa Fé 221—223

Physiognomy of Plan ts .—p . 227 to p . 246

Universal profu se distribution of organic life on the declivities of thehighest mountains , on the ocean , an d in the atmosphere. . Subterranean Flora . Siliciou s-sh e l ledP olyga stri c a in masses of polarice . Podurel lae in tubular holes in the glaciers of the A lps ; th e

'

lacier flea (Desoria glacialis). Small organic creatures in theust, whi ch fal l s like rain in the neighborhood of the AfricanDesert 227—230

History of the vegetable c overing of t h e surface of the globe . Gra

dual extension of vegetation over the bare rocky crust. Lichens ,mosses , and succulent plants . Causes of the present absence ofvegetation in particular districts 230—233

E ach zone has its peculiar character. Al l animal and vegetableforms attached to fixed and always recu rrin Physiognomyof Nature . Analysis of the general impressi on produced by theaspect of

,

a Country or district. Th e several elements which makeup this impression ; outlines of the mountains , azure of the sk

and form of the clouds : but princi ally determined b the vegetab ecovering . Animal organization ar less influ en t ia on the landscape from deficiency of mass . Th e power of locomotion of individu a l s , an d frequently their small size, also contribute to lessentheir general effect on the landscape 1 233—236

E numeration of,

the forms of“

plants which principally determine the

ph ysiognomy of Nature , an d which decrease or increase from thequ a tor to the Poles according to laws which have been made thesubject of investigation 236—238

Palms 238—239 , 3124 321

Plantains or Bananas 239—240, 3214 22

Malvaceae 240, 322—323Mimosae 240, 323

—324E riCeee,.or Heath form 240—241, 324—326Cactus form 241, 326—328O rc h ideee 241—242, 328—329Ca su arinae 242, 329—330Needle trees 242, 330—345Pothos and Aroideae 242, 345—347

462 SUMMARY OF THE CONTE NTS .

L ianes , or'

tw ini ng rope plants

Aloe form 243 , 3491—351

Gramineae

Ferns 244, 354—357L iliaceae 244, 357—358Willow form —360Myrtaceae 244, 360—3 62Mel aStoma ceae 244, 362—363Laurel form

E njoyment derived frOm the Sight of the natural grouping an dl

c on

tr'

aste of these forms of plants . Importance of the physiognomicstudy of pl ants to the landscape painter 244—246

,363—369

Sc ien tifi c E ln c ida tion s and Add i tions—p . 227 to p . 371.

O rganic forms, animal and vegetable, in the hi hest mountain re ionsadj acent to the limit of perpetual Snow in t e Andes and the i lps ;insects carried up involuntarily by ascending currents of air. Th e

Hypu daeu s nivalis of the Swiss Al s . O n the true elevation abovethe sea '

rea ch ed by the Chinchilla lamiger in Chili 247—248

Lec idia s an d Parmelias on rocks not en tirel covered with snow ;some phaenogamous plants also wander in t e Cordilleras beyondthe limits of perpetual snow

,as t h e Saxifraga bou ssin gau l t i , to

E nglish feet above the level of the sea . Grou s of h aen o

gamons plants extend in the Andes to and 1 ,920 ngl ish

eet above the sea ; Species ofCu l c it ium ,E speletia, andRanunculus ;

small umbelliferous plants resemblin g mosses inMyrrhis an dieol a and Fragosa arc t ioides

Measurement of theheight of Chimborazo , and etymology of thename 249—291

O n the greatest absolu te heights which have yet been reached b anyh uman beings in either Continent ; in the Cordilleras an theHimalaya , on th e Chimborazo and the Tarh igan g 251—252

Habits an d haunts,

Of the Condor (Cuntur, in the Inca language), andsingular mode of capturing these powerful birds in an enclosurefenced by palisades 252—255

Useful services rendered by the Gallinazos (Ca th arte sx

u rubu an d C .

aura) i n purifying the air in the neighborhood of human habitations ; these birds sometimes tamed 255

O n what h a s been c alled “ the revivifi c a t ion of Rotiferas ; views ofE hrenberg a n d Doyere . According t o Payen , germs of Crypto


Colossal size and great a e O f some kinds of°

trees ; Dragon‘

tree ofO rotava thirteen, and E dan son i a digitata (Baobab)thirty-two E n glish feet in diameter. Characters cut in the bark of the trees inthe 15th century. Adanson as signs to some of the Baobab trunksin Senegambia an age of between .5100and 6000years 283—288

J udging b the annular rings , th ere are yew-trees (Taxus baccata)from 26

‘ to 3000years old. Is it true that, in the north ern tempera te z on e , the part of the tree turned towards the north has narrower annular rings , as M ichelMontaigne affirmed in 1581? Speciesof trees in whi ch individua ls atta in a size of above twenty-one ortwenty-two E ngl ish feet diameter, and an age of several centuries ,belong to the most difl

'

eren t natural families 288—289

Diameter of the Mexican Sc h ubertia disticha of Santa Maria del Tule402 E nglish feet ; the sacred Banyan fig-tree of Ceylon almost 30;an d th e oak at Saintes (Dep . de la Charente Inférieure)292 E ngl i shfeet. Th e age of the oak tree estimated from its annular rings atfrom 1800to 2000years . Th e root of the rose tree growing againstthe crypt of th e Cath edral ofHildesheim is 800years old. A kindof sea-weed, Macrocystis pyrifera , attains a length of 630-E nglishfeet, exc eeding therefore t h e height of th e loftiest C oniferae, eventhat of the Sequoi a gigantea 289—291

E xamination of the probable number of phaenogamous plants hithertodescribed or preserved in herbariums . Relative numbers . Lawsd iscovered in the geographical distribution of pl ants . Relative

1 numbers of the great divisions of C rypto'

a to Cotyledonousplants , an d of Monocotyl edonous to c oty edon ou s plants , in thetorrid , temperate , and frigid zones . E lements of ari thm eti c a l botan y . Number of individuals ; predominance of social plants . Th e

forms of organic beings are mutually dependent on and limit 'eachother. If we know exactly the number of species of one of thegreat families ofGlumaceae, Legum in osee, or Compos itm, at any onepart of the globe, we may in fer approximatively both the numberof species in the remain ing families , and the entire number ofphaenogamous plants in the same district. Application of the numerical ratios to the direction of the isoth ermal lines . Mysteriousorigina l distribution of types . Absence of Roses in the southern ;an d of C alceolarias

.in z th e northern hemisphere . Wh y has our

heather (Cal lu na vu lgaris), and why have our Oaks never advancedeastward beyond the Ural Mountains into Asia ? Th e ve eta t ion

cycle of each -Species requires for its successful organic eveloment a certain minimum amount of temperature 291—3 3

Analogy between the numerical laws Of the distribution of animal andof ve etable forms . If there are now cultivated in E u rope above

species of phaenogamous plants , and if our herbariums proon ta in , described and undescribed, from to

speC1es of phaenogamous plants , it is probable that the number ofcollected insects and collected ph aen oganiou s plants are nearly

SUMMARY on THE CONTE NTS : 465

equal ; whilst we know that certain well-explored districts in E urope h ave more than three times as many insects as phaenogamousplan ts 303—306

Considerations on the probable proportion which the number of knownphaen ogamous plants bears to the entire number existin g on thesurface of the globe 306—310

Th e different forms of plants successively noticed .~Ph ys i ognomy of

plants treated in a threefold manner ; viz . as to the absolute divers ity of forms , th eir local predominance in comparison with the e1rtire number of Species in different phaenogamous Floras , and theirgeographical climatic distribution 312—363

Greatest extension in height or of the longitudinal axis in arborescentvegetation : examples of 235 to 245 E nglish feet in Pinus lambertiana an d P. douglasii ; of 266 E nglish feet in P. strobus ; of 298and 300E nglish feet in Sequoia gigantea and Pinus trigona . A l l

these exampl es a re from the north -west part of the New Continent.Araucaria excelsa ofNorfolk Island only attains , according to wellassured measurements

,203 to 223 E ngh sh feet ; an d the Mountain

Pa lm‘

of the Cordilleras , Ceroxylon an dieol a , 192 E nglish feet40338—3

These gigantic vegetable forms contrasted with the stem of two incheshigh of a willow-tree stunted by cold of latitude or of mountainelevation ; an d still more remarkably with a phaenogamous plant,Trist ieh a h ypn oides , wh ich, when fully developed in the p lam s ofa tropical country, is on ly

'

a quarter Of an E nglish inch in h eigh tqt13

Bursting forth of blossoms from the rough bark of the Crescentiac uj ete , the Gustavia augusta, and the roots of the Cacao tree . Th e

largest flowers,Raffles ia arnoldi , Aristolochia cordata, M agnolia,

Helianthus annuus,Victoria regina, E uryale amazonica, & c .

364—365

Th e different forms Of plants determine the character of the l andscape as dependent on vegetation in different zones . ~ Ph ysiogn o

mic classification or division . into groups according to external“ facies” or aspect

,entirely different in its principles from the

classification according to the system of natural families . Th e

study of the\physiognomy of plants is based prin c ipa l ly '

on whatare called the vegetative organs , or those on which the preservationof the individu a l depends ‘ systematic botany grounds t h e arran gement of natural families on a consideration of th e reproductiveorgans , or those on which th e p reserva tion of th e sp ec ies depé

e

pds

ml3

Onth e Strac ta re and Mode ofAc tion of Volcanes in the dif eren t Partsof th e E a rth—p . 373 to p . 394.

Influence of j ourneys in distant countries on the generalization of

466 SUMMARY -OF THE CONTE NTS .

ideas,a nd th e progress of physical geology. Influence of the form

of the Mediterranean on the earliest ideas respecting volcanic ph enomena . f Comparative geology of volcanos . .Periodical recurrenceof certain natural changes or revolution s wh ich h ave their originin the interior of the “

globe . Relative preportion Of the height ofvolcanos to that Of their cones of ashes in Pichincha , the Peak ofTen erifl

'

e , an d ,Vesuviu s . Changes in the height Of the summit of

volcanos . M easurements of the h eight of the margins of the craterof Vesuvius , from 1773 to 1822 : the author’s .mea surements comprise the period from 1805 to 1822 375—386

Particular descgiption of the eruption in the night of23—24th O ctober;1822. Falling ,

in of a cone Of cinders 426 E nglish feet in'

height,which previously stood in the interior of the crater. Th e -e ru ptionof ashes , from the 24th to the 28th of O ctober, is the most remarkable O f which ‘ we possess any certa in kn owledge since the deathof the elder Pliny 386—390

Difference between volca nos with permanent craters and the phenomena (very rarely observed with in historic times) in

'

whi ch tra c hy;tic mounta ins open suddenl y, emit lava and ashes , and reclose agamperhaps for ever. Th e latter class of ph enomena are

part icularly

instructive to the geologist, because they recall the ear iest revolutions of the oscillating , upheaved, an d fi ssu red surface of theglobe .

‘

Th ey l ed , in classical antiquity, to the view of the Pyriphl egethon . Volcanes are intermitting earth springs , indicating acommunication (permanen t or transient) between the interior a ndthe exterior of our planet ;

' they are th e result of a reaction of thestil l fluid’ interior against the crust of th e earth ; it is thereforeneedless to ask what chemical substance burns , or supplies material sfor combustion

,in volcanos . 390—393

Th e primitive cause of subterranean heat i s , as in all planets , the process of formation itself, i . e the forming of the aggregating massfrom a cosmical gaseous flu 1d. Power and influ ence of t h e radiation of heat from numerous open fissures an d unfilled veins in th e

AncientWorld. C limate (or atmospheric temperature)at that periodvery independent of the geographical latitude , or of t h e position ofth e planet in respect to the cen tral body ,

’

t h e sun . O rgan ic formsof the present tropical world buried in the icy regions of th e north .

393—394

Sc ien tific E lu cida tion s a nd Additions—p . 395 to p; 399 .

Barometric measurements of Vesuvius: C omparison of'

the height ofdifferen t points of the crater of Vesu viri s 395—398

In c rease'

of temperature with depth , 1° Reaumur for every 113 Parisianfeet, or 1° of Fahrenheit for every E nglish feet. Temperatureof the Artesian wel l a t

’

O eyn h au sen’s Bad (New Salzwerk, near

M inden), the greatest depth yet reached below th e level O f the sea.

Th e hot springs near Carthage led Pa trieiu s , B ishop of Pertusa, in

468 SUMMARY or THE CoNTE NTs :

small mount ain town of M icu ipampa is E nglish feet abovethe level of the sea

From the mountain wilderness of -th e Paramo de Yan agu an ga thetraveller descends into the beautiful valle or rather plateau, ofC axamarc a (the elevation of which is nearly equal t o that of thecity of Quito). Hot 'ba th s of the Incas . Ruins of the Palace ofAtahuallpa inhabited by his descendants , the family ofAstorp il co ,

who live th ere in the greatest poverty. .Strong belief of the stillremaining subterranean

“

golden gardens” oft h e Inca benea th the

ruins ; such certainly existed in th e Valley of Yucay, beneath theTemple of the Su n at Cuzco , and at several other p oints . Conversation with the youthful son of the

”

Curaca Astorpi l c o . Th e roomis still-shown in wh ich (1553) the unhappy Atah uallpa wa s d mp rison ed for nin e ' months , also the wall on which the Inca indicatedthe height to which he would fi l l the room with gold if he sh ouldregain h is liberty. M anner in which the Inca was put to death onthe 29th of August, 1533, and remarks on what are erroneouslycalled “ the indelible stains of blood” on a stone slab in front of thealtar of the chapel of the state prison 427—4 30

HOpe of a restoration of the empire of the Incas (which was alsoeuterta in ed by Raleigh)has been preserved among the natives . Causeof this expectation 432

J ourney from Caxamarc a to“the sea-coast. Passage over the Gordil

lera by t h e Altos de Gu an gamarc a , Often disappointed hope ofenj oyin g th e first view ‘of the Pacific O cean from the crest of theAndes . This hope at last fu lfilled at an elevation of E nglishfc e t 433—437

Sc ien t ifi c E lu c ida t imw and Addi tions—p . 438 to p . 452.

O n th e origin of the name borne by the chain of the Andes 438—439

E poch of the introduction of theQuina-bark in E urope 439—440Remains of the roads of the Incas , and of fort ified dwellings ; Apo

z en tos de Mulalo , Fortaleza del Canar, Inti-Gu aycu 4 40—441

O n the ancient civilizationof the Chibchas orMuyscas ofNew Granada441—443

Potatoes a n d Plan tains , when first cultivated.

E tymology of the word Cundinamarca , which has been corrupted fromC u n dirumarc a , and was used in the first years of re

publican inde

pen den c e to denote the whole‘coun try of New Grana a

Chronometric con nection of the.

town of Quito with Tome

pen da on

the upper waters of the Amazons,and with Callao dc

'

ima, the

SUMMARY OF THE CONTE NTS . 469

position of which was accurately determined by observations of thetran sit Of Mercury on the 9th day Of November, 1802 444—445

Unpleasant etiquette in the Inca’s court. Atahuallpa’S c

4Zpt1v1ty

h i s proposed ransom 5—446

Ph iloso hic doubts ofHuayna Capac (according to the report of PadreB las alera) respecting th e Deity of the Su n . Objections of theInca-government to the extension of knowledge among the poorerand lower classes of the people 447—448

Raleigh’s prOJect for restoring the dynasty of the Incas under E n g

lish protection, for which a yearly tribute of several hundred thousand pounds was to be paid 448

E arliest evidence Obtained by Columbus Of the existence Of th e SouthSea or Pacific O cean . Th e South Sea first beheld by Vasco Nunezde Balboa (25th Sept. and first navigated by Alonso Martinde Don

‘

Benito , 449

On the possibility of the formation of an O ceanic Canal (with fewerlocks tha n the Caledonian Canal) through the Isthmus of Panama .

Points in which the examination has been neglected 449—452

Determination Of the longitude Of Lima 452

472 INDE X .

difference , 30, 109 the southern hemisphere cooler and mois terth an the north ern ,

.

121.

Climatic effects of extensive forests , 112.

Coelebo n e , produces perfect seeds with out any trace of pollen havin g een discovered , 260.

Condor.—Discussion Of the height in the atmosphere to which thecondor ascends , 252.

Coniferae , or needle-trees , 242, 330.

Coral reefs , classified b Darwin , 268 ; his hypothesis Of th e originand growth Of cora reefs , 277 .

Correo que nada, th e “ swimming post” in the upper waters O f th e

Amazons river,420.

Curare,plant from which th e poison is Obtained, 165.

C urrent—Great revolving current of the Atlantic O cean dis cussed,134.

Dogs—E uropean do S have become wild in South America , and livein troops in the ampas , 98 native Peruvian dogs , 99 ; Tsch udi

’s

remarks on the indigenous races Of dogs in America, 101.

Dragon-tree of O rotava, 236, 283 .

E squimaux, instances recorded of their having been carried acrossthe Atlantic to the shores of E urope , 136.

Ferns , 244, 354Figured rocks , i . e. figures engraven on rocks in an extensive district

Of South America , 160.

Fresh water Springs in the ocean near Cuba,Fournel , recent contributions to the physical geography of North ern

Africa , 104.

Fremont, Captain , importance of his eO ra h ic a l memoirs on our .

knowledge of the geo g raphy of ort erica,50; and

'

generally in Note al so 319 .

Geogra h ic a l distribution of plants , laws Of the, 295.

Gob i , t e plateau of, 75, 78 .

Gramineae, 243 , 351.

Guaranis , a tribe inhabit ing the seacoast and rivers near the mouthOf the O rinoco

, 147 .

Granite, leaden-c olored rocks Of, in the O rinoco , 154 .

Great basin , th e elevated lain so called , between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra evada of California

,55 ; forms an inland

closed river basin, 219 .0

Gymnotus,description of its capture in South America .by means of

h orses , 39 .

Heat in lants developed during inflorescence , 346.

Heaths , 40, 324.

Himalaya, on e of the four parallel mountain chains ofCentral Asia , 88.

Hiongn u , 94. 1

Hooker,Dr. J recent determination Of the elevation of the Kinchin

INDE xx 473

J inga , one Of the highest peaks of th e Himal aya , 88 ;‘

On the production of rfect seeds by t h e Coelebogyne , 259 ; remarks on

the geograp ical dist ribution of plants in Antarctic'floras , 309 .

Illimani“

and S orata”

, their height above the sea recently corrected,63 , 90, 217 .

Kashmeer, valley Of, 79 .

Kin c h inj in ga , on e of th e hi hest peaks of th eHima laya ,.its elevationrecently determined, 8

Kuen-liin , one of the four parallel mountain chains’

in Central Asia ,74,

Lama , alpaca , an d gu anaco , three originally distinct species ofanimals

, described, 139 .

Laurels as a characteristic form Of vegetation , 244, 363 .

L ianes, 243 , 347 .

Liliaceae , 244 , 357 .

Llanos , their description , 29 ; climate strongly contrasted with thatof th e African plains , 30; animals which inhabit them, 34 ; their

prevalent vegetation , 107 .

Lumm osity of th e ocean , 261.

Ma lvac eee, 240.

Maranon , or Amazons , upper valley of, 423 .

Mauritia palm,35, 149 .

M elastomaceae , 244, 362.

M imoseae, 240, 323 .

M ississippi , river, its source correctly ascertained, 60.

Moon , mountains of the , their existence , extent, distance from theE quator, and general direction , discussed, 128 .

Mountain chains in Asia, in the direction of aral lel s of latitude , 83those coinciding nearly with meridians, 9 .

Muyscas , ancient civil ization Of the,"

Myrtaceae, 244, 360.

North Americ a , general aspect of its natural features , and considerations on its-physical geography, 51.

O rch ideae, 241, 328.

O rinoco , 169 ; magnitude of the river compared with that of th erivers Plate an d Amazons , 172 ; its sources yet unvisited, 173 ;general description of its course , 174 ; black waters” ' of theUpper O rinoco, 175 ; C ataracts of Atures an d Maypu res , 176 ;d iscussion of questions concerning its sources, 191 ; supposedorigin in a lake , 194.

O toma c s , a tribe on the -O rinoco who use earth as food, 156.

Pacific , the author’s gratification at first seeing .the Pacific from theAlto de Gu angamarc a , 436.

Palms , 238, 312.

474 INDE X .

Panama—Communication by canal or railroad across the Isthmus o fPanama discussed, 449 .

Paramo, a mount a inous region in S outh America SO called, 97 ; its

climate and vegetation, 97 , 414.

Pastorla l l ife almost unknown to the

,original inhabitants of America

,

3

Plants,physiognomy of, essentiallydistinct from a botanical arrange

ment, 235, 236, 369 ; is the principal element in t h e characteristicaspect Of different portions of the earth’s surface , 236 ; about sixteen difl

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eren t forms of plants enumerated , which are chiefly concerned in determin ing the aspect of

.Nature, 237 ; Palms , 238 ;

Plantains or Bananas , 239 ; Malvaceae an d Bomba c eee, 240; M imosas

, 240; Heaths, 240; Cactuses , 241 ; Orch ideee, 241 ; Casua rin eee, 242 Co ‘niferae, 242 Pothos , 242 ; L ianes , AlO

'

éS,243 ; Grasses , 243 ; Ferns , L iliaceae, 244 ; ,

Willows , 244 ;Myrtaceae, Melastomaceae, and Lau rin eae, 244 ; number of specie s,contained in herbariums , 291 ; points of

'

view in which th e l awsOf the geographical distribution of plants may be regarded, 295 ;conj ectures as to the whole number of

'

Species on the globe, 306more than half the number of s ec ies are probably yet unknown ,308 ; heat developed during in oresc en ce, 346 ; general remarkson a h ys iognomi c classification , 367 .

Pothos, 2 345.

Quina (or fever bark), 413 .

Roads, Ol d Peruvian, of the times of the Incas,415.

Rotiferas , their revivifi c at ion ,255.

Sahara (African desert) com osed Of several detached basins , 103 .

Sand-Spoul

t

s

s

o

a phenomenon c ara‘

c terist ic Of the Peruvian Sand Desert ,

Sargasso, Mar de ; its eograph ic a l position discussed, 68 ; is the mostremarkable assem lage of plants Of a single Species yet knownon the globe , 68.

Sch ombu rgk .—Travels Of the brothers Robert and

'

Richard Sc h omburgk important in many respects in regard to th e physical 80

raph y of Guiana and the bordering countries ,’

148, 160, 89 ,99 .

Sleep , summer a nd winter, of animals , 36, 152, 257 .

Snow, l imit of? erpetu al inequality of th is limit on the northern an dsouthern ec11vit ies of th eHimalaya, 92.

Sora té

a an

gl l

li

7

man i ; their h eigh ts above th e sea recently corrected,3 , 9 2

Step es and Deserts , characteristics Of the E uropean , 26 ; African ,26 ; Asiatic , 27 ; South American , 29 ; analogies and contrastsbetween the steppes and the ocean , 26, 49 .

trato , his sluice theory, 279 .

Sugar-cane ; of Tahiti , of theWest Indies , an d of Gu iana, 45.

Tacarigua, Lake of, 25 ; its scenery and vegetation, 43 .

Aspects of Nature - Forgotten Books

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