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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Here, As In The West India Islands, Marshy Plains Are
Found At Great Elevations; Not Because The Woody Mountains Attract
The Clouds, But Because They Condense The Vapours By The Effect Of
Nocturnal Refrigeration, Occasioned By The Radiation Of Heat From
The Ground, And From The Parenchyma Of The Leaves.
The mercury was
at 21 inches 5.7 lines.
We shaped our course direct to the eastern
summit. The obstruction caused by the vegetation gradually
diminished; it was, however, necessary to cut down some heliconias;
but these arborescent plants were not now very thick or high. The
peaks of the Silla themselves, as we have several times mentioned,
are covered only with gramina and small shrubs of befaria. Their
barrenness, however, is not owing to their height: the limit of
trees in this region is four hundred toises higher; since, judging
according to the analogy of other mountains, this limit would be
found here only at a height of eighteen hundred toises. The absence
of large trees on the two rocky summits of the Silla may be
attributed to the aridity of the soil, the violence of the winds
blowing from the sea, and the conflagrations so frequent in all the
mountains of the equinoctial region.
To reach the eastern peak, which is the highest, it is necessary to
approach as near as possible the great precipice which descends
towards Caravalleda and the coast. The gneiss as far as this spot
preserves its lamellar texture and its primitive direction; but
where we climbed the summit of the Silla, we found it had passed
into granite.
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