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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Towards The Close Of Day The Wind Increased And The Sea Ran
High.
We directed our course to north-west, in order to avoid the
English frigates, which we supposed were cruising off these coasts.
About nine we spied the light of a fishing-hut at Sisarga, which
was the last object we beheld in the west of Europe.
On the 7th we were in the latitude of Cape Finisterre. The group of
granitic rocks, which forms part of this promontory, like that of
Torianes and Monte de Corcubion, bears the name of the Sierra de
Torinona. Cape Finisterre is lower than the neighbouring lands, but
the Torinona is visible at seventeen leagues' distance, which
proves that the elevation of its highest summit is not less than
300 toises (582 metres). Spanish navigators affirm that on these
coasts the magnetic variation differs extremely from that observed
at sea. M. Bory, it is true, in the voyage of the sloop Amaranth,
found in 1751, that the variation of the needle determined at the
Cape was four degrees less than could have been conjectured from
the observations made at the same period along the coasts. In the
same manner as the granite of Galicia contains tin disseminated in
its mass, that of Cape Finisterre probably contains micaceous iron.
In the mountains of the Upper Palatinate there are granitic rocks
in which crystals of micaceous iron take the place of common mica.
On the 8th, at sunset, we descried from the mast-head an English
convoy sailing along the coast, and steering towards south-east.
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