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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They Returned Anew Whenever, In South America, Or In
Mexico, I Had Occasion To Examine Volcanic Mountains.
When we
reflect how little the labours of mineralogists, and the
discoveries in chemistry, have promoted the knowledge of
The
physical geology of mountains, we cannot help being affected with a
painful sentiment; and this is felt still more strongly by those,
who, studying nature in different climates, are more occupied by
the problems they have not been able to solve, than with the few
results they have obtained.
The peak of Ayadyrma, or of Echeyde,* (* The word Echeyde, which
signifies Hell in the language of the Guanches, has been corrupted
by the Europeans into Teyde.) is a conic and isolated mountain,
which rises in an islet of very small circumference. Those who do
not take into consideration the whole surface of the globe,
believe, that these three circumstances are common to the greater
part of volcanoes. They cite, in support of their opinion, Etna,
the peak of the Azores, the Solfatara of Guadaloupe, the
Trois-Salazes of the isle of Bourbon, and the clusters of volcanoes
in the Indian Sea and in the Atlantic. In Europe and in Asia, as
far as the interior of the latter continent is known, no burning
volcano is situated in the chains of mountains; all being at a
greater or less distance from those chains. In the New World, on
the contrary, (and this fact deserves the greatest attention,) the
volcanoes the most stupendous for their masses form a part of the
Cordilleras themselves.
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