Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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This Small Subterraneous Glacier Is Situated In A
Region, The Mean Temperature Of Which Is Probably Not Under Three
Degrees; And It Is Not, Like The True Glaciers Of The Alps, Fed By
The Snow Waters That Flow From The Summits Of The Mountains.
During
winter the cavern is filled with ice and snow; and as the rays of
the sun do not penetrate beyond the mouth, the heats of summer are
not sufficient to empty the reservoir.
The existence of a natural
ice-house depends, consequently, rather on the quantity of snow
which enters it in winter, and the small influence of the warm
winds in summer, than on the absolute elevation of the cavity, and
the mean temperature of the layer of air in which it is situated.
The air contained in the interior of a mountain is not easily
displaced, as is exemplified by Monte Testaccio at Rome, the
temperature of which is so different from that of the surrounding
atmosphere. On Chimborazo enormous heaps of ice are found covered
with sand, and, in the same manner as at the peak, far below the
inferior limit of the perpetual snows.
It was near the Ice-Cavern (Cueva del Hielo), that, in the voyage
of Laperouse, Messrs. Lamanon and Monges made their experiments on
the temperature of boiling water. These naturalists found it 88.7
degrees, the barometer at nineteen inches one line. In the kingdom
of New Grenada, at the chapel of Guadaloupe, near Santa-Fe de
Bogota, I have seen water boil at 89.9 degrees, under a pressure of
19 inches 1.9 lines, At Tambores, in the province of Popayan, Senor
Caldas found the heat of boiling water 89.5 degrees, the barometer
being at 18 inches 11.6 lines.
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