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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These Guides Were Negroes, And They Knew Something Of The
Path Leading Over The Ridge Of The Mountain, Near The Western Peak
Of The Silla.
This path is frequented by smugglers, but neither the
guides, nor the most experienced of the militia, accustomed to
pursue the smugglers in these wild spots, had been on the eastern
peak, forming the most elevated summit of the Silla.
During the
whole month of December, the mountain (of which the angles of
elevation made me acquainted with the effects of the terrestrial
refractions) had appeared only five times free of clouds. In this
season two serene days seldom succeed each other, and we were
therefore advised not to choose a clear day for our excursion, but
rather a time when, the clouds not being elevated, we might hope,
after having crossed the first layer of vapours uniformly spread,
to enter into a dry and transparent air. We passed the night of the
2nd of January in the Estancia de Gallegos, a plantation of
coffee-trees, near which the little river of Chacaito, flowing in a
luxuriantly shaded ravine, forms some fine cascades in descending
the mountains. The night was pretty clear; and though on the day
preceding a fatiguing journey it might have been well to have
enjoyed some repose, M. Bonpland and I passed the whole night in
watching three occultations of the satellites of Jupiter. I had
previously determined the instant of the observation, but we missed
them all, owing to some error of calculation in the Connaissance
des Temps.
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