The Highest Summits Of Each Group Are The Silla De Caracas (1350 Toises), The Peak Of Duida (1300 Toises), The Itacolumi And The Itambe* (900 Toises).

(* According to the measure of MM.

Spix and Martius the Itambe de Villa de Principe is 5590 feet high.) But, as I have elsewhere observed, it would be erroneous to judge the height of a chain of mountains solely from that of the most lofty summits. The peak of the Himalayas, accurately measured, is 676 toises higher than Chimborazo (* The Peak Iewahir, latitude 30 degrees 22 minutes 19 seconds; longitude 77 degrees 35 minutes 7 seconds east of Paris, height 4026 toises, according to MM. Hodgson and Herbert.); Chimborazo is 900 toises higher than Mont Blanc; and Mont Blanc 653 toises higher than the peak of Nethou.* (* This peak, called also peak of Anethou or Malahita, or eastern peak of Maladetta, is the highest summit of the Pyrenees. It rises 1787 toises and consequently exceeds Mont Perdu by 40 toises.) These differences do not furnish the relative average heights of the Himalayas, the Andes, the Alps and the Pyrenees, that is, the height of the back of the mountains, on which arise the peaks, needles, pyramids, or rounded domes. It is that part of the back where passes are made, which furnishes a precise measure of the minimum of the height of the great chains. In comparing the whole of my measures with those of Moorcroft, Webb, Hodgson, Saussure and Ramond, I estimate the average height of the top of the Himalayas, between the meridians of 75 and 77 degrees, at 2450 toises; the Andes* (at Peru, Quito and New Grenada), at 1850 toises (* In the passage of Quindiu, between the valley of the Magdalena and that of the Rio Cauca, I found the culminant point (la Garita del Parama) to be 1798 toises; it is however, regarded as one of the least elevated.

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