Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 132 of 779 - First - Home
These Results Might Lead Us To
Suspect, That, In The Experiment Of M. Lamanon, The Water Had Not
Reached The Maximum Of Its Temperature.
Day was beginning to dawn when we left the ice-cavern.
We observed,
during the twilight, a phenomenon which is not unusual on high
mountains, but which the position of the volcano we were scaling
rendered very striking. A layer of white and fleecy clouds
concealed from us the sight of the ocean, and the lower region of
the island. This layer did not appear above 800 toises high; the
clouds were so uniformly spread, and kept so perfect a level, that
they wore the appearance of a vast plain covered with snow. The
colossal pyramid of the peak, the volcanic summits of Lancerota, of
Forteventura, and the isle of Palma, were like rocks amidst this
vast sea of vapours, and their black tints were in fine contrast
with the whiteness of the clouds.
While we were climbing over the broken lavas of the Malpays, we
perceived a very curious optical phenomenon, which lasted eight
minutes. We thought we saw on the east side small rockets thrown
into the air. Luminous points, about seven or eight degrees above
the horizon, appeared first to move in a vertical direction; but
their motion was gradually changed into a horizontal oscillation.
Our fellow-travellers, our guides even, were astonished at this
phenomenon, without our having made any remark on it to them. We
thought, at first sight, that these luminous points, which floated
in the air, indicated some new eruption of the great volcano of
Lancerota; for we recollected that Bouguer and La Condamine, in
scaling the volcano of Pichincha, were witnesses of the eruption of
Cotopaxi.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 132 of 779
Words from 35742 to 36029
of 211363
