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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Differences
Equally Striking Are Produced By The Influence Of Climate.
The
surface of a lake or large river is less resplendent, when we see
it at an equal distance, from the top of the higher Alps of
Switzerland, than when we view it from the summit of the
Cordilleras of Peru or of Mexico.
In proportion as the air is pure
and serene, the solution of the vapours becomes more complete, and
the light loses less in its passage. When from the shores of the
Pacific we ascend the elevated plain of Quito, or that of Antisana,
we are struck for some days by the nearness at which we imagine we
see objects which are actually seven or eight leagues distant. The
peak of Teyde has not the advantage of being situated in the
equinoctial region; but the dryness of the columns of air which
rise perpetually above the neighbouring plains of Africa, and which
the eastern winds convey with rapidity, gives to the atmosphere of
the Canary Islands a transparency which not only surpasses that of
the air of Naples and Sicily, but perhaps exceeds the purity of the
sky of Quito and Peru. This transparency may be regarded as one of
the chief causes of the beauty of landscape scenery in the torrid
zone; it heightens the splendour of the vegetable colouring, and
contributes to the magical effect of its harmonies and contrasts.
If the mass of light, which circulates about objects, fatigues the
external senses during a part of the day, the inhabitant of the
southern climates has his compensation in moral enjoyment.
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