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 647 of 779 - First - Home
Hunters Do Not
Ascend So High On The Ridges Of Mountains; And In These Countries
Journeys Are Not Undertaken For Such Purposes As Gathering Alpine
Plants, Carrying A Barometer To An Elevated Point, Or Examining The
Nature Of Rocks.
Accustomed to a uniform and domestic life, the
people dread fatigue and sudden changes of climate.
They seem to
live not to enjoy life, but only to prolong it.
Our walks led us often in the direction of two coffee plantations,
the proprietors of which, Don Andres de Ibarra and M. Blandin, were
men of agreeable manners. These plantations were situated opposite
the Silla de Caracas. Surveying, by a telescope, the steep
declivity of the mountains, and the form of the two peaks by which
it is terminated, we could form an idea of the difficulties we
should have to encounter in reaching its summit. Angles of
elevation, taken with the sextant at our house, had led me to
believe that the summit was not so high above sea-level as the
great square of Quito. This estimate was far from corresponding
with the notions entertained by the inhabitants of the city.
Mountains which command great towns, have acquired, from that very
circumstance, an extraordinary celebrity in both continents. Long
before they have been accurately measured, a conventional height is
assigned to them; and to entertain the least doubt respecting that
height is to wound a national prejudice.
The captain-general, Senor de Guevara, directed the teniente of
Chacao to furnish us with guides to conduct us on our ascent of the
Silla.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 647 of 779
Words from 175806 to 176067
of 211363
