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Paul and Virginia, Gulliver’s Travels, Sterne’s Sentimental Journey, Sorrows of Werter, Theodosius and Constantia, Castle of Otranto, and Rasselas. 12mo. 7 Portraits. 35. (Li. tx> *s<> DEMOSTHENES. Translated by Leland. Fortrad. 3 5. CHILLINGWORTH’S RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS. 85. 6 ■« V.. \.>AiA/Ul > OR CONTEMPLATIONS ON ■ .***’. ■ **** THE SUBLIME PHENOMENA OE CBEATION; WITH SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS. BY ALEXANDER YON HUMBOLDT. TRANSLATED EROM THE GERMAN BY E. C. OTTE, AND HENRY G. BOHN. WITH A FRONTISPIECE FROM A SKETCH BY THE AUTHOR, A FAC-SIMILE OF HIS HAND¬ WRITING, AND A COMPREHENSIVE INDEX. - «, - LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COYENT GARDEN, 1850. LONDON : PBINTED BY HARRISON AND SON, ST. MARTIN’S LANE. PREFACE BY THE PUBLISHER. Gkeat pains have been taken 'with the present translation, as well in regard to fidelity and style, as in what may be termed the accessories. In addition to all that is contained in the original work, it comprises an interesting view of Chimborazo, from a sketch by Humboldt himself; a fac-simile of the author’s handwriting; head-lines of contents ; transla¬ tions of the principal Latin, French, and Spanish quotations ;* a very complete index; and a conversion of all the foreign measurements. It was at first intended to give both the foreign and English measurements, in juxta-position ; but this plan was abandoned on perceiving that the pages would become overloaded with figures, and present a perplexing and some¬ what appalling aspect, without affording any equivalent advan¬ tage to the English reader. In some few instances, however, where it seemed desirable, and in all the parallel tables, duplicate measurements have been inserted. The French toises are converted into their relative number of English feet; and German miles, whether simple or square, are re¬ duced to our own. The longitudes have been calculated from Greenwich, conformably to English maps, in lieu of those given by Humboldt, which are calculated from Paris. The degrees of temperature, instead of Reaumur’s, are Fahren¬ heit’s, as now the most generally recognised. It here becomes necesssary to say something of the trans- * To instance a few, see pp. 241, 245, 255, 259, 304, 320, 325, 326, 886, 422, 424. *T1 PREFACE. ators, and tlie cause of so much unexpected delay in producing this volume ; the more so as many of the subscribers to the Scientific Library have expressed an interest in the subject, owing, in some measure, to a controversy which arose out of my previous publication of Cosmos. The translation was originally entrusted to E. C. Otte, with an agreement as to time, according to which I had every reason to expect that I should fulfil my engagement to publish it in October last, or at latest in November; but, after much of the manuscript was prepared, the translator’s indisposition and subsequent absence from London, occasioned a serious suspension. In this di¬ lemma I found it necessary to call in aid, as well as to assist personally. The result of this “co-operation of forces” will no doubt prove satisfactory to the reader, inasmuch as every sheet has been at least trebly revised, and it is hoped proportionably improved. In addition to the responsible translator, my principal collaborates has been Mr. E. H. Whitelocke, a gentleman well qualified for the task. All the measurements are calculated by the scientific friend, who fulfilled this department so satisfactorily in my edition of Cosmos. The translation of the pretty poem, The Parrot of A f ares, (page 189,) now first given in English, is contributed by Mr. Edgar A. Bowring. For the additional notes subscribed “ Ed.” I am myself, in most instances, responsible. Much has been said, pro and con, about the sanction of the Author to the several translations of his works. My answer has, I believe, been generally considered satisfactory and conclusive. I have now only to add, that when I wrote to Baron Humboldt, more than a year and a-half ago, presenting PREFACE. Yll him with my then unpublished edition of Cosmos , I announced my intention of proceeding with his other works, and con¬ sulted him on the subject. He replied in the kindest spirit, without intimating any previous engagement, and honoured me with several valuable suggestions. A portion of one of his letters is annexed in facsimile. In consequence of what I then presumed to be his recommendation, I determined to make the Ansichten my next volume, and announced it, long before any one else, though not at first by its English name. At that time I had reason to hope that I should receive the new German edition at least as early as any one, but was disappointed. This circumstance, added to the delay already alluded to, has brought me late into the field. In now, how¬ ever, presenting my subscribers with what I have taken every available means to render a perfect book, I hope I shall afford them ample atonement. A few Avords respecting the work itself. The first edition was published forty-three years ago, the second in 1826, and the third, of which the present volume is a translation, in August last. The difference between the three editions in respect to the text (if I may so distinguish the more enter¬ taining part of the work from the scientific “Illustrations”) is not material, excepting that each has one or more new chapters. Thus to the second edition was added the Essay on Volcanos and the curious allegory on vital force, entitled The Rhodian Genius , and to the third The Plateau of Caxamarca. The additions to the “ Illustrations” however in the third edition are considerable, and comprise a rapid sketch of whatever has been contributed by modern science in illustra¬ tion of the Author's favourite subjects. No intellectual reader can peruse this masterly work a 2 Till PREFACE. without intense interest and considerable instruction. After feasting on the highly wrought and, it may be said, poetical descriptions, written in the Author’s earlier years, he will turn with increased zest to the elaborate illustrations, which, in a separate form, are brought to bear on every subject of the text. This scientific portion, although not at first the most attractive, presents many delightful episodes, which will amply repay the perusal of even those who merely read for amusement. HENRY G. BOHN. York Street, January, 1850. JFAC- SMILE (Q>E TME HAJSJPWITIN© ©E BAR« fflJlffiOLBT. EXTRACTS OF A LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER. -O _ _ s/ s -v * • - 'X X yf/^^- ^,/c, ?i6*i ** m y~ — ' • a- /' ^ ^ xc Xl ->--/ ^ v^77&^ k*./.**‘A*' jSz&s»* a^rL AUTHOR’S PREFACE, TO THE FIRST EDITION. With some diffidence, I here present to the public a series of papers which originated in the presence of the noblest objects of nature, — on the Ocean, — in the forests of the Orinoco, — in the Savannahs of Venezuela, — and in the soli¬ tudes of the Peruvian and Mexican Mountains. Several detached fragments, written on the spot, have since been wrought into a whole. A survey of nature at large, — proofs of the co-operation of forces, — and a renewal of the enjoyment which the immediate aspect of the tropical countries affords to the susceptible beholder, — are the objects at which I aim. Each Essay was designed to be complete in itself; and one and the same tendency pervades the whole. This aesthetic mode of treating subjects of Natural History is fraught with great difficulties in the execution, notwithstanding the mar¬ vellous vigour and flexibility of my native language. The wonderful luxuriance of nature presents an accumulation of separate images, and accumulation disturbs the harmony and effect of a picture. When the feelings and the imagina¬ tion are excited, the style is apt to stray into poetical prose. But these ideas require no amplification here, for the fol¬ lowing pages afford but too abundant examples of such devia¬ tions and of such want of unity. Notwithstanding these defects, which I can more easily X PREFACE. perceive than amend, let me hope that these “ Views ” may afford the reader, at least some portion of that enjoyment which a sensitive mind receives from the immediate contem¬ plation of nature. As this enjoyment is heightened by an insight into the connection of the occult forces, I have sub¬ joined to each treatise scientific illustrations and additions. Everywhere the reader's attention is directed to the per¬ petual influence which physical nature exercises on the moral condition and on the destiny of man. It is to minds oppressed with care that these pages are especially con¬ secrated. He who has escaped from the stormy waves of life will joyfully follow me into the depths of the forests, over the boundless steppes and prairies, and to the lofty summits of the Andes. To him are addressed the words of the chorus who preside over the destinies of mankind : On the mountains is freedom ! the breath of decay Never sullies the fresh flowing air; Oh! nature is perfect wherever we stray; ’Tis man that deforms it with care.^ * These lines are from Schiller’s Bride of Messina, as translated by A. Lodge, Esq See Schiller’s works (Bohn’s ed.) vol. iii. p. 509. AUTHOR’S PREFACE, TO THE SECOND AND THIRD EDITIONS. The twofold object of this work, — an anxious endeavour to heighten the enjoyment of nature by vivid representations, and at the same time to increase, according to the present state of science, the reader’s insight into the harmonious co-operation of forces, — was pointed out by me in the preface to the first edition, nearly half a century ago. I there alluded to the several obstacles which oppose themselves to the sesthetic treatment of the grand scenes of nature. The com¬ bination of a literary and a purely scientific aim, the desire to engage the imagination, and at the same time to enrich life with new ideas by the increase of knowledge, render the due arrangement of the separate parts, and what is required as unity of composition, difficult of attainment. Notwithstand¬ ing these disadvantages, however, the public have continued to receive with indulgent partiality, my imperfect performance. The second edition of the Views of Nature , was published by me in Paris in 1826. Two papers wrere then added, one, “An inquiry into the structure and mode of action of Volcanos in different regions of the earth;” the other, “Vital Force, or The Rhodian Genius.” Schiller, in remembrance of his youth- Xll PREFACE. ful medical studies, loved to converse with me, during my long stay at Jena, on physiological subjects. The inquiries in which I was then engaged, in preparing my work “On the condition of the fibres of muscles and nerves, when irritated by contact with substances chemically opposed,” often im¬ parted a more serious direction to our conversation. It was at this period that I wrote the little allegory on Vital Force, called The Rhodian Genius. The predilection which Schiller entertained for this piece, and which he admitted into his periodical, Die Horen , gave me courage to introduce it here. My brother, in a letter which has recently been published (William von Humboldt’s Letters to a Female Friend, vol. ii. p. 39), delicately alludes to the subject, but at the same time very justly adds; “ The development of a physio¬ logical idea is exclusively the object of the essay. Such semi-poetical clothings of grave truths were more in vogue at the time this was written than they are at present.” In my eightieth year I have still the gratification of com¬ pleting a third edition of my work, and entirely remoulding it to meet the demands of the age. Almost all the scientific illustrations are either enlarged or replaced by new and more comprehensive ones. I have indulged a hope of stimulating the study of nature, by compressing into the smallest possible compass, the numerous results of careful investigation on a variety of interesting subjects, with a view of shewing the importance of accurate numerical data, and the necessity of comparing them with each other, as well as to check the dogmatic smattering and fashionable scepticism which lia%e too long prevailed in the so-called higher circles of society. My expedition into northern Asia (to the Ural, the Altai, PREFACE. Xlll and the shores of the Caspian Sea) in the year 1829, with Ehrenberg and Gustavus Rose, at the command of the Em¬ peror of Russia, took place between the second and third editions of my work. This expedition has ’•essentially con¬ tributed to the enlargement of my views in all that con¬ cerns the formation of the earth's surface, the direction of mountain-chains, the connexion of the Steppes and Deserts, and the geographical distribution of plants according to ascer¬ tained influences of temperature. The ignorance which has so long existed respecting the two great snow-covered moun¬ tain-chains, the Thian-schan and the Kuen-lün, situated between the Altai and Himalaya, has (owing to the inju¬ dicious neglect of Chinese sources of information) obscured the geography of Central Asia, and propagated fancies in¬ stead of facts, in works of extensive circulation. Within the last few months the hypsometric comparisons of the culminating points of both continents have unexpectedly received important and corrective illustration, of which I am the first to avail myself in the following pages. The measure¬ ment (now divested of former errors) of the altitude of the two mountains, Sorata and Illimani, in the eastern chain of the Andes of Bolivia, has not yet, with certainty, restored the Chimborazo to its ancient pre-eminence among the snowy mountains of the new world. In the Himalaya the recent barometric measurement of the Kinchin-jinga (26,438 Parisian, or 28,178 English feet) places it next in height to the Dhawalagiri, which has also been trigonometrically measured with greater accuracy. To preserve uniformity with the two former editions of the Vieius of Nature, the calculations of temperature, unless where the contrary is stated, are given according to the XIV PREFACE. eighty degrees thermometer of Reamur. The lineal measure¬ ment is the old 'French, in which the toise is equivalent to six Parisian feet. The miles are geographical, fifteen to a degree of the equator. The longitudes are calculated from the first meridian of the Parisian Observatory. Berlin, March, 1849. - 'Jrr *"*•■■**. CONTENTS. * ^ 'X >.. \ i \ ' i> $ v s ■% r y \ .i T ft B ~ \ jt i. AJL-i • . \ TT V ( Vi s. « » N . Aw t» Publisher’s Preface ... Author’s Preface, to the First Edition Author’s Preface, to the Second and Third Editions Summary of Contents... Steppes and Deserts ... Illustrations and Additions Cataracts of the Orinoco Illustrations and Additions Nocturnal Life of Animals in the Primeval Forest Illustrations and Additions Hypsometric Addenda Ideas for a Physiognomy of Plants ... Illustrations and Additions On the Structure and Mode of Action of Volcanos in DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE EARTH Illustrations and Additions Vital Force, or The Rhodian Genius ... Illustration and Note... Pnge v ix xi xvii I 22 153 174 191 202 204 210 232 353 376- 380* 386= The Plateau of Caxamarca, the Ancient Capital of the Inca Atahuallpa, and First View of the Pacific from the Ridge of the Andes ... ... ... ... ... 390 Illustrations and Additions ... ... ... ... 421 Index ... 437 b . • SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. ON STEPPES AND DESERTS . pp. 1-21. Coast-chain and mountain-valleys of Caracas. The Lake of Tacarigua. Contrast between the luxuriant abundance of organic life and the treeless plains. Impressions of space. The steppe as the bottom of an ancient inland sea. Broken strata lying somewhat above the surface, and called Banks. Uniformity of phenomena presented by plains. Heaths of Europe, Pampas and Llanos of South America, African deserts, North Asiatic Steppes. Diversified character of the vegetable covering. Animal life. Pastoral tribes, who have convulsed the world — pp. 1-5. Description of the South American plains and savannahs. Their extent and climate, the latter dependant on the outline and hypso- metrical configuration of the New Continent. Comparison with plains and deserts of Africa — pp. 5 — 10. Original absence of pastoral life in America. Nutriment yielded by the Mauritia Palm. Pendant huts built in trees. Guaranes — pp. 10-13. The Llanos have become more habitable to man since the discovery of America. Eemarkable increase of wild Oxen, Horses, and Mules. Description of the seasons of drought and rain. Aspect of the ground and sky. Life of animals, their sufferings and combats. Adapt¬ ability with which nature has endowed animals and plants. Jaguar, Crocodiles, Electric Fishes. Unequal contest between gymnoti and horses — pp. 13-19. Petrospective view of the districts which border steppes and deserts. Wilderness of the forest- region between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. Native tribes separated by wonderful diversity both of language and customs; a toiling and divided race. Figures graven on rocks prove that even these solitudes were once the seat of a civilization now extinct —pp. 19-21. Scientific Illustrations and Additions . . . pp. 22-152. The island-studded Lake of Tacarigua. Its relation to the mountain- chains. Geognostic tableau. Progress of civilization. Varieties of the sugar-cane. Cacao plantations. Great fertility of soil within the tropics accompanied by great atmospheric insalubrity. — pp. 22-26. Banks, or broken floetz-strata. General flatness. Land-slips — pp. 26-28. Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean. Naked stony crust, tabular masses of syenite ; have they a detrimental effect on the atmo¬ sphere! — pp. 28-29. XVlll SUMMARY. STEPPES AND DESERTS. Modern views on the mountain systems of the two American peninsulas. Chains, which have a direction from SAY. to N.E., in Brazil and in the Atlantic portion of the United States of North America. Depression of the Province of Chiquitos; ridges as water¬ marks between the Guapore and Aguapehi in 15° and 17° south lat., and between the fluvial districts of the Orinoco and Rio Negro in 2° and 3° north lat. — pp. 29-31. Continuation of the Andes-chain north of the isthmus of Panama through the territory of the Aztecs, (where the Popocatepetl, recently ascended by Capt. Stone, rises to an altitude of 17,720 feet,) and through the Crane and Rocky Mountains. Valuable scientific investigations of Capt. Främont. The greatest barometric levelling ever accomplished, representing a profile of the ground over 28° of longitude. Culminating point of the route from the coast of the Atlantic to the South Sea. The South Pass southward of the Wind-River Mountains. Swell¬ ing of the ground in the Great Basin. Long disputed existence of Lake Timpanogos. Coast-chain, Maritime Alps, Sierra Nevada of Cali¬ fornia. Volcanic eruptions. Cataracts of the Columbia River — pp. 31-38. General considerations on the contrast between the configuration of the territorial spaces, presented by the two diverging coast-chains, east and west of the central chain, called the Rocky Mountains. Hypsometric constitution of the Eastern Lowland, which is only from 400 to some¬ what more than 600 feet above the level of the sea, and of the arid uninhabited plateau of the Great Basin, from 5000 to more than 6000 feet high. Sources of the Mississippi in Lake Istaca according to Nicollet, whose labours are most meritorious. Native land of the. Bisons; their ancient domestication in Northern Mexico asserted by Gomara— pp. 38-42. Retrospective view of the entire Andes-chain from the cliff of Diego Ramirez to Behring’s Straits. Long prevalent errors concerning the height of the eastern Andes-chain of Bolivia, especially of the Sorata and Illimani. Four summits of the western chain, which, according to Pentland’s latest determinations, surpass the Chimborazo in height, but not the still-active volcano, Aconcagua, measured by Fitz-Roy — pp. 42-44. The African mountain range of Harudje-el-Abiad. Oases of vegeta¬ tion, abounding in springs — pp. 44-46. Westerly winds on the borders of the desert Sahara. Accumulation of sea-weed ; present and former position of the great fucus-bank, from the time of Scylax of Caryanda to that of Columbus and to the present period — pp. 46-50. Tibbos and Tuaryks. The camel and its distribution — pp. 50-53. Mountain-systems of Central Asia between Northern Siberia and India, between the Altai and the Himalaya, which latter range is aggre¬ gated with the Kuen-lün. Erroneous opinion as to the existence of one immense plateau, the so-called “ Plateau de la Tartarie” — pp. 53-56. SUMMARY. STEPPES AND DESERTS. XIX Chinese literature a rich source of orographic knowledge. Gra¬ dations of the High Lands. Gobi and its direction. Probable mean height of Thibet — pp. 56-63. General review of the mountain systems of Asia. Meridian chains : the Ural, which separates lower Europe from lower Asia or the Scythian Europe of Pherecydes of Syros and Herodotus. Bolor, Khingan, and the Chinese chains, which at the great bend of the Thibetan and Assam-Burmese river, Dzangbo-tschu, stretch from .north to south. The meridian elevations alternate between the parallels .of 66° and 77° east long, from Cape Comorin to the Frozen Ocean, like displaced veins. Thus the Ghauts, the Soliman chain, the Paralasa, .the Bolor, and the Ural follow' from south to north. The Bolor gave "rise, among the ancients, to the idea respecting the Imaus, which Aga- thodaemon considered to be prolonged northwards as far as the lowland or basin of the lower Irtysch. Parallel chains, running east and west, the Altai, Thian-schan with its active volcanos, which lie 1528 miles from the frozen ocean at the mouth of the Obi, and 1512 from the Indian Ocean at the mouth of the Ganges ; Kuen-lUn, already recognized by Eratosthenes, Marinus of Tyre, Ptolemy, and Cosmas Indicopleustcs, as the greatest axis of elevation in the Old World, between 354° and 36° lat. in the dii’ection of the diaphragm of Dicaearchus. Himalaya. The Kuen-lUn may be traced, when considered as an axis of elevation, .from the Chinese wrall near Lung-tscheu, through the somewhat more northerly chains of Nan-schan and Kilian-schan, through the mountain node of the “Starry Sea,” the Hindoo Cush (the Paropanisus and Indian Caucasus of the ancients), and, lastly, through the chain of the Demavend and Persian Elburz, as far as the Taurus in Lycia. Not far from the intersection of the Kuen-lUn by the Bolor, the corre¬ sponding direction of the axes of elevation (inclining from east to vrest in the Kuen-lUn and Hindoo Cush, and on the other hand south-east and north-w'est in the Himalaya) proves, that the Hindoo Cush is a prolongation of the Kuen-lUn, and not of the Himalaya which is asso¬ ciated to the latter in the manner of a gang or vein. The point where the Himalaya changes its direction, that is to say, where it leaves its former east-w'esterly direction, lies not far from 81° east long. The Djawrahir is not, as has hitherto been supposed, the next in altitude to the Dhawalagiri, which is the highest summit of the Himalaya ; for, according to Joseph Hooker, this rank is due to a mountain lying in the meridian of Sikhim between Butan and Nepaul, called the Kinchinjinga or Kintschin-Dschunga. This mountain (Kinchinjinga) measured by Col. Waugh, Director of the Trigonometrical Survey of India, has for its western summit an altitude of 28,178 feet, and for its eastern 27,826 feet, according to the Journal of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, November, 1848. The mountain, now considered higher than the Dhaw'alagiri, is represented in the engraving to the title-page of Joseph Hooker’s splendid work, The Rhododendrons of Sikhim Himalaya, 1849. Deter¬ mination of the snow-limits on the northern and southern slopes of the Himalaya; the former lies in the mean about 3620 up to 4900 feet higher. New statements of Hodgson. But for the remarkable distri- XX SUMMARY. STEPPES AND DESERTS. "bution of heat in the upper strata of the air, the table-land of western Thibet would be uninhabitable to millions of human beings — pp. 63-80. The Hiong-nu, whom Deguignes and John Muller considered to be a tribe of Huns, appear rather to be one of the widely spread Turkish races of the Altai and Tangnu mountains. The Huns, whose name was known even to Dionysius Periegetes, and who are described by Ptolemy as Chuns (hence the later territorial name of Chunigard !) are a Finnish tribe, from the Ural mountains, which separate the two continents — pp. 80-81. Representations of the sun, animals, and characters, graven on rocks at Sierra Parime, as well as in H orth America, have frequently been regarded as writing — p. 82. Description of the cold mountain regions between 11,000 and 13,000 Parisian, or 11,720 and 13,850 English feet in height, which have been designated Paramos. Character of their vegetation — p. 83. Orographic remarks on the two mountain clusters (Pacaraima and Sierra de Chiquitos) which separate the three plains of the lower Ori¬ noco, the Amazon, and La Plata rivers from each other — p. 84. Concerning the Dogs of the Hew Continent, the aboriginal as well as those from Europe, which have become wild. Sufferings of Cats at heights surpassing 13,854 feet — pp. 85-88. The Low Land of the Sahara and its relations to the Atlas range, according to the latest reports of Daumas, Carette, and Renou. The barometric measurements of Fournel render it very probable, that part of the north African desert lies below the level of the sea. Oasis of Biscara. Abundance of rock-salt in regions which extend from S.W. to H.E. Causes of nocturnal cold in the desert, according to Melloni — pp. 88-92. Information respecting the River Wadi Dra (one- sixth longer than the Rhine), which is dry during a great part of the year. Some account of the territory of the Sheikh Beirouk, who is independent of the Emperor of Morocco, according to manuscript communications of Capt. Count Bouet Villaumez, of the French Marine. The mountains north of Cape Hun (an Edrisian name, in which by a play of words a negation has been assumed since the 15th century) attain an altitude of 9186 feet — pp. 92-94. Gramineous vegetation of the American Llanos between the tropics, compared with the herbaceous vegetation of the Steppes in Horthern Asia. In these, especially in the most fertile of them, a pleasing effect is afforded in spring by the small snow-white and red flowering Rosacea?, Amygdalese, the species of Astragalus, Crown-imperial, Cypripedias, and Tulips. Contrast with the desert of the salt-steppes lull of Chenopodim, and of species of Salsola and Atriplex. Humerical considerations with respect to the pi’edominant families. The plains which skirt the Frozen Ocean (north of what Admiral Wrangel has described as the boundary of Coniferse and Amentacese), are the domain of cryptogamic plants. Physiognomy of the Tundra on an ever-frozen soil, covered with a thick coating of Sphagnum and other foliaceous mosses, or with the snow-white Cenomyce and Stercocaulon paschale — pp. 94-96. SUMMARY. STEPPES AND DESERTS. XXI Chief causes of the very unequal distribution of heat in the European and American continents. Direction and inflection of the isothermal lines (equal mean-heat of the year, in winter and summer) — pp. 96-105. Is there reason to believe that America emerged later from the ^chaotic covering of waters'? — pp. 105-107. Thermal comparison between the northern and southern hemispheres in high latitudes — pp. 107-109. Apparent connexion between the sand-seas of Africa, Persia, Kerman, Beloochistan, and Central Asia. On the western portion of the Atlas, and the connection of purely mythical ideas, with geographical legends. Indefinite allusions to fiery eruptions. Triton Lake. Crater forms, south of Hanno’s “Bay of the Gorilla Apes.” Singular description of the Hollow Atlas, from the Dialexes of Maximus Tyrius — pp. 110-11. Explanations of the Mountains of the Moon (Djebel-al-Komr) in the interior of Africa, according to Reinaud, Beke, and Ayrton. W erne’s instructive report of the second expedition, wdiich was undertaken by command of Mehemet Ali. The Abyssinian high mountain chain, which, according to Riippell, attains nearly the height of Mont Blanc. The earliest account of the snow between the tropics is contained in the inscription of Adulis, which is of a somewhat later date than Juba. Lofty mountains, which between 6° and 4°, and even more southerly, approach the Bahr-el-Abiad. A considerable rise of ground separates the White Nile from the basin of the Goschop. Line of separation between the waters which flow towards the Mediterranean and Indian seas, according to Carl Zimmermann’s map. Lupata chain, according to the instructive researches of Wilhelm Peters — pp. 114-120. Oceanic currents. In the northern part of the Atlantic the waters are agitated in a true rotatory movement. That the first impulse to the Gulf-stream is to be looked for at the southern ape*c of Africa, was a fact already known to Sir Humphry Gilbert in 1560. Influence of the Gulf- stream on the climate of Scandinavia. How it contributed to the discovery of America. Instances of Esquimaux, who, favoured by north-west winds, have been carried, through the returning easterly inclined portion of the warm gulf-stream, to the European coasts. In¬ formation of Cornelius Nepos and Pomponius Mela respecting Indians, whom a King of the Boii sent as a present to the Gallic Proconsul Quintus Metellus Celer ; and again of others in the times of the Othos, Frederick Barbarossa, Columbus, and Cardinal Bembo. Again, in the years 1682 and 1684, natives of Greenland appeared at the Orkney Islands — pp. 120-125. Effects of lichens and other cryptogamia in the frigid and tempe¬ rate zones, in promoting the growth of the larger phanerogamia. In the tropics the preparatory ground-lichens often find substitutes in the oleaginous plants. Lactiferous animals of the New Continent; the Llama, Alpaca, and Guanaco — pp. 125-128. Culture of farinaceous grasses — pp. 128-131. On the earliest population of America — pp. 131-134. The coast-tribe the Guaranes (Warraus), and the littoral palm Mau- ritia, according to Bembo, Raleigh, Hillhouse, Robert and Richard Schomburgk — pp. 134-136. xxn SUMMARY. CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. Phenomena produced in the Steppe by a long drought. Sand¬ spouts, hot winds, deceptive images by aerial refraction (mirage). The awaking of crocodiles and tortoises after a long summer sleep — pp. 136-142. Otomaks. General considerations respecting the earth-eating of cer¬ tain tribes. Unctuous and Infusorial earths — pp. 142-146. Carved Figures on rocks, which form a belt running east and west from the Rupunuri, Essequibo, and mountains of Pacaraima, to the solitudes of the Cassiquiare. Earliest observation (April, 1749) of such traces of an ancient civilization, in the unpublished travels of the Surgeon Nicolas Hortsmann, of Hildesheim, found among d’Anville’s papers — pp. 147-151. The vegetable poison Curare, or Urari — pp. 151-152. ON THE CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO, NEAR ATURES AND MAYPURES . pp. 153-173. The Orinoco, general view of its course. Ideas excited in the mind of Columbus on beholding its mouth. Its unknown sources lie to the east of the lofty Duida and of the thickets of Bertholletia. Cause of the principal bends of the river — pp. 153-162. The Falls. Raudal of Maypures, bounded by four streams. Former state of the region. In¬ sular form of the rocks Keri and Oco. Grand spectacle displayed on descending the hill Manimi. A foaming surface, several miles in ex¬ tent, suddenly presents itself to view. Iron-black masses of tower¬ like rocks rise precipitately from the bed of the river; the summits of the lofty palms pierce through the clouds of vapour}’ spray — pp. 162-168. Raudal of Atures, another island-world. Rock-dykes, connecting one island with the other. They are the resort of the pugnacious, golden- coloured rock manakin. Some parts of the river-bed in the cataracts are dry, in consequence of the waters having formed for themselves a channel through subterranean cavities. Visit to these parts on the approach of night, during a heavy thunder-storm. Unsuspected pro¬ pinquity of crocodiles — pp. 168-171. The celebrated cave of Ataruipe, the grave of an extinct tribe — pp. 171-173. Scientific Illustrations and Additions pp. 174-190. Abode of the river-cow ( Trichems Manat i) in the sea, at the spot where, in the Gulf of Xagua on the southern coast of the Island of Cuba, springs of fresh water gush forth — pp. 174, 175. Geographical illustration of the sources of the Orinoco — pp.175-179. J uvia ( Bertholletia ), a Lecythidea, remarkable as an instance of lofty organic development. Haulm of an Arundinaria upwards of sixteen feet from joint to joint — pp. 179-180. On the fabulous Lake Parime — pp. 180-188. The Parrot of Atures, a poem by Ernst Curtius. The bird lived in Maypures, and the natives declared that he was not understood, be¬ cause he spoke the language of the extinct Aturjan tribe — pp. 188-190. SUMMARY. NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. XX111 NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST . pp. 191-201. Difference in the richness of languages as regards precise and definite words for characterizing natural phenomena, such as the state of vege¬ tation and the forms of plants, the contour and grouping of clouds, the appearance of the earth’s surface, and the shape of mountains. Loss which languages sustain in such expressive words. The misinterpreta¬ tion of a Spanish word has enlarged mountain-chains on maps, and created new ranges. Primeval Forest. Frequent misuse of this term. Want of uniformity in the association of the arboral species is characteristic of the forests within the tropics. Causes of their im¬ perviousness. The Climbing plants ( Lianes ) often form but a very inconsiderable portion of the underwood — pp. 191-196. Aspect of the Rio Apure in its lower course. Margin of the forest fenced like a garden by a low hedge of Sauso ( Hermesia ). The wild animals of the forest issue with their young through solitary gaps, to approach the river-side. Herds of large Capybarae, or Cavies. Fresh¬ water dolphins — pp. 196-199. The cries of wild animals resound through the forest. Cause of the nocturnal noises — pp. 199-200. Contrast to the repose which reigns at noontide on very hot days within the tropics. Description of the rocky narrows of the Orinoco at the Baraguan. Buzzing and humming of insects; in every shrub, in the cracked bark of trees, in the peiforated earth, furrowed by hymen- opterous insects, life is audible and manifest — pp. 200-201. Scientific Illustrations and Additions . . pp. 202-203. Characteristic denominations of the surface of the earth (Steppes, Savannahs, Prairies, Deserts) in the Arabic and Persian. Richness of the dialects of Old Castile for designating the forms of mountains. Fresh-water rays and fresh-water dolphins. In the giant streams of both continents some organic sea-forms are repeated. American noc¬ turnal apes with cat’s eyes; the tricoloured striped Douroucoali of the Cassiquiare — pp. 202-203. Hvpsometric Addenda. ..... pp. 204-209. Pentland's measurements in the eastern mountain-chain of Bolivia. Volcano of Aconcagua, according to Fitz-Roy and Darwin. Western mountain-chain of Bolivia — pp. 204-205. Mountain systems of North America. Rocky Mountains and snowy chain of California. Laguna de Timpanogos — pp. 205-207. Hypsometric profile of the Highland of Mexico as far as Santa Fe — pp. 207-209. IDEAS FOR A PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS . pp. 210-231. Universal profusion of life on the slopes of the highest mountain summits, in the ocean and in the atmosphere. Subterranean Flora. Siliceous-shelled polygastrica in masses of ice at the pole. Podurellae in the ice tubules of the glaciers of the Alps ; the glacier-flea (. Desoria ■glacialis). Minute organisms of the dust fogs — pp. 210-213. XXIV SUMMARY. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. History of the vegetable covering. Gradual extension of vegeta¬ tion over the naked crust of rock. Lichens, mosses, oleaginous plants. Cause of the present absence of vegetation in certain districts. — pp. 213 -220. Each zone has its peculiar character. All animal and vegetable con¬ formation is bound to fixed and ever-recurring types. Physiognomy of Nature. Analysis of the combined effect produced by a region. The individual elements of this impression. Outline of the mountain ranges; azure of the sky; shape of the clouds. That which chiefly determines the character is the vegetable covering. Animal organiza¬ tions are deficient in mass; the mobility of individual species, and often their diminutiveness, conceals them from view — pp. 220-223. Enumeration of the forms of Plants which principally determine the physiognomy of Nature, and which increase or diminish from the equator towards the Pole, in obedience to established laws — Text. Illustrations. Palms pp. 223-224 pp. 296-304 Banana form . . p. 224 p. 305 Malvaceae . p. 224 pp. 305-307 Mimosae . . p. 225 pp. 307-308 Ericeae . p. 225 pp. 308-310 Cactus form . p. 226 pp. 310-312 Form of Orchideae . . p. 226 pp. 312-313 Casuarime . p. 226 pp. 313-314 Acicular-leaved Trees . p. 227 pp. 314-329 Pothos form, and that of the Aroideee . p. 227 pp. 329-331 Lianes and Climbing plants pp. 227-228 pp. 331-332 Aloes . p. 228 pp. 332-334 Grass form . p. 228 pp. 334-337 Ferns . p. 229 pp. 337-341 Lilies p. 229 pp. 341-343 Willow form . p. 229 p. 343 Myrtles . . p. 229 pp. 343-346 Melastomaceae . . p. 229 p. 346 Laurel form . p. 229 p. 346 Enjoyment resulting from the natural grouping and contrasts these plant-forms. Importance of the physiognomical study of plants to the landscape-painter — pp. 229-231. Scientific Illustrations and Additions . . pp. 232-352. Organisms, both animal and vegetable, in the highest A lpine regions, near the line of eternal snow, in the Andes chain, and the Alps; insects arc carried up involuntarily by the ascending current of air. The small field-mouse ( Hypudmis nivalis ) of the Swiss Alps. On the real height to which the Chinchilla laniger mounts in Chili — pp. 232-233. Lecideae, Parmeliae on rocks not entirely covered with snow; but certain phanerogamic plants also stray in the Cordilleras beyond the SUMMARY. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. XXV boundary of perpetual snow, thus Saxifraga Boussingaulti to 15,773 feet above the level of the sea. Groups of phanerogamic Alpine plants in the Andes chain at from 13,700 to nearly 15,000 feet high. Species ofCul- citium, Espeletia, Ranunculus, and small moss-like umbellifera, Myrrhis andicola, and Fragosa arctioides — pp. 233-234. Measurement of Chim¬ borazo, and etymology of the name — p. 234-236. On the greatest absolute height to which men in both continents, in the Cordilleras and the Himalaya, — on the Chimborazo and Tarhigang — have as yet ascended — p. 236. Economy, habitat, and singular mode of capturing the Condor ( Cuntur , in the Inca language) by means of palisades — pp. 237-239. Use of the Gallinazos ( Cathartes urubit and C. aura ) in the economy of nature, for purifying of the air in the neighbourhood of human dwell¬ ings; their domestication — pp. 239-240. On the so-called revivification of the rotifera, according to Ehrenberg and Doyöre; according to Payen, germs of Cryptogamia retain their power of reproduction in the highest temperature — pp. 240-241. Diminution, if not total suspension, of organic functions in the winter-sleep of the higher classes of animals — p. 242. Summer-sleep of animals in the tropics. Drought acts like the cold of winter. Tenrecs, Crocodiles, Tortoises, and East- African Lepidosirens — pp. 242-244. Pollen, Fructification of Plants. The experience of many years concerning the Coelebogyne ; it brings forth mature seeds in England without a trace of male organs — pp. 244-245. The phosphorescence of the Ocean through luminous animals as well as organic fibres and membranes of the decomposing animalculse. Acalephm and siliceous-shelled luminous infusoria. Influence of ner¬ vous irritability on the coruscation — pp. 245-250. Pentastoma, inhabiting the lungs of the rattle-snake of Cumana — p. 251. Rock-constructing Coral animals. The structure surviving the archi¬ tects. More correct views of the present period. Coast-reefs, Reefs sur¬ rounding islands and Lagoon-islands. Atolls, Coral walls inclosing a lagoon. The royal gardens of Christopher Columbus, The Coral Islands south of Cuba. The living gelatinous coating of the calcareous fabric of the coral-stems allures fishes in quest of food, and also turtles. Singular mode of fishing with the Remora, Echeneis Naucrates (the little angling fish) — pp. 251-258. Probable depth of the coralline structures — pp. 258-260. Besides a great quantity of carbonate of lime and magnesia, the madrepores and Astreae contain also some fluoric and phosphoric acid— pp. 260-261. Oscillating state of the sea-bottom according to Darwin — pp. 261-262. Irruptions of the sea. Mediterranean Sea. Sluice-theory of Strato. Samothracian legends. The Myth of Lyctonia and the submerged Atlantis — pp. 262-266. Concerning the precipitation of clouds — XXVI SUMMARY. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. p. 266. The indurating crust of the earth while giving out caloric. Heated currents of air, which in the primordial period, during the fre¬ quent corrugations of the mountainous strata, and the upheaval of lands, have poured into the atmosphere through temporary fissures and chasms — pp. 266-268. Colossal size and great age of certain genera of trees, e. g., the dragon-tree of Orotava of 13, the Adansonia digitata (Baobab) of 33 feet in diameter. Carved characters of the 15th century. Adanson assigns to certain Baobab-stems of Senegambia an age of from 5000 to 45 000 years — pp. 268-273. According to an estimate based on the number of the annual rings, there are yews (Taxus baccata) of from 2600 to 3000 years old. Whether in the temperate northern zone that part of a tree which faces the north has narrower rings, as Michael Montaigne asserted in 15811 Gigantic trees, of which some individuals attain a diameter of above 20 feet and an age of several centuries, belong to the most opposite natural families -pp. 273-274. Diameter of the Mexican Schubertia disticha of Santa Maria del Tule 43, of the oak near Saintes (Dep. de la Charente inf.) 30 feet. The age of this oak considered by its annual rings to be from 1S00 to 2000 years. The main stem of the rose-tree (27 feet high) at the crypt of the church of Hildesheim is 800 years old. A species of fucus, Macro- evstis pyrifera, attains a length of more than 350 feet, and therefore exceeds all the conifera in length, not excepting the Sequoia gigantea itself— pp. 274-276. Investigations into the supposed number of the phanerogamic species of plants, which have hitherto been described or are preserved in herba¬ riums. Numerical ratios of plant-forms. Discovered laws of the geogra¬ phical distribution of the families. Ratios of the great divisions : of the Cryptogamia to the Cotyledons, and of the Monocotyledons to the Dicoty¬ ledons, in the torrid, temperate, and frigid zones. Outlines of arith¬ metical botany. Number of the individuals, predominance of social plants. The forms of organic beings stand in mutual dependence on each other. If once the number of species in one of the great families of the Glumaceas, Leguminosm, or Composite, on any one point of the earth, be known, an approximative conclusion may be arrived at not only as to the number of all the phanerogamia, but also of the species of all remaining plant-families growing there. Connection of the numerical ratios here treated on in the geographical distribution of the families, with the direction of the isothermal lines. Primitive mystery in the distribution of types. Absence of Boses in the southern, and of Calceolarias in the northern zone. Why has our heath (Calluna vul¬ garis), and why have our Oaks not progressed eastwards across the Ural into Asia 1 The vegetation-cycle of each species requires a certain minimum heat for its due organic development — pp. 273-287. Analogy with the numeric laws in the distribution of animal forms. If more than 35,000 species of phanerogamia are now cultivated in SUMMARY. PIIYSIOGNOMY OR PLANTS. XXV12 Europe, and if from 160,000 to 212,000 phanerogamia are now con¬ tained, described and undescribed, in our herbariums; it is probable that the number of collected insects scarcely equals that number of phanerogamia ; whereas in individual European districts the insects collected preponderate in a threefold ratio over the phanerogamia — - pp. 287-291. Considerations on the proportion borne by the number of the phane¬ rogamia actually ascertained, to the entire number existing on the globe — pp. 291-295. Influence of the pressure of atmospheric strata on the form and life- of plants, with reference to Alpine vegetation — pp. 295-296. Specialities on the plant-forms already enumerated. Physiognomy of plants discussed from three different points of view: the absolute difference of the forms, their local preponderance in the sum total of the phanerogamic Floras, and their geographical as well as climatic dispersion — pp. 296-346. Greatest height of arboral plants; examples of 223 to 246 feet in Pinus Lambertiana and P. Douglasii, of 266 in P. Strobus, of 300 feet in Sequoia gigantea and Pinus trigona. All these examples are from the north-western part of the New Continent. The Araucaria excelsa of Norfolk Island, accurately measured, rises only from 182 to 223 feet; the Alpine palms of the Cordilleras (Ceroxylon andicola), only 190 feet — pp. 322-324. A contrast to these gigantic vegetable forms, presented not merely by the stem of the arctic willow (Salix arctica, two inches in height,) stunted by cold and exposure on the mountains, but also in the tropical plains by the Tristicha hypnoides, a phanerogamic plant which is hardly three French lines (quarter of an inch) in height, when fully developed — pp. 324-325. Bursting forth of blossoms from the rough bark of the Crescentia Cujete, of the Gustavia augusta, from the roots of the Cacao tree. The largest blossoms borne by the Rafflesia Arnoldi, Aristolochia cordata. Magnolia, Helianthus annuus — p. 348. The different forms of plants determine the scenic character of vege¬ tation in the different zones. Physiognomic classification, or distribu¬ tion of the groups according to external facies, is from its basis of arrangement entirely different from the classification according to the system of natural families. The physiognomy of plants is based principally on the so-called organs of vegetation, on which the preser¬ vation of the individual depends ; systematic botany bases the classifi¬ cation of the natural families on the consideration of the organs of reproduction, on which the preservation of the species depends — pp. 348-352. ON TFIE STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION OF VOLCANOS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE EARTH— pp. 353-375. Influence of travels in distant lands on the generalization of our ideas and on the progress of physical orology. Influence of the conformation of the Mediterranean on the earliest ideas respecting volcanic pheno- XXVni SUMMARY. VOLCANOS. RHODIAN GENIUS. mena. — Comparative Geology of Volcanos. Periodical return of certain revolutions in nature, the cause of which lies deep in the interior of the globe. Proportion of the height of volcanos to that of their cone of ashes in the Pichincha, Peak of Teneriffe, and Vesuvius. Changes in the height of volcanic mountain summits. Measurements of the margins of the crater of Vesuvius from 1773 to 1822; the author’s measurements embrace the period from 1805 to 1822 — pp. 353-365. Circumstantial description of the eruption in the night be¬ tween the 24th and 25th of October, 1822. Falling in of a cone of ashe3 more than 400 feet high, which stood in the interior of the crater. The eruption of ashes from the 24th to the 28th of October, was the most memorable among those, of which authentic accounts are possessed, since the time of the elder Pliny — pp. 365-371. Difference between volcanos that are of very diverse forms, with permanent craters, and the phenomena more rarely observed in historic times, in which trachytic mountains suddenly open, eject lava and ashes, and reclose, perhaps for ever. The latter phenomena are peculiarly instructive for geognosy, because they remind us of the earliest revolu¬ tions that occurred in the oscillating, upheaved, fissured surface of the earth. In ancient times they led to the notion of the Pyriphlegethon. Volcanos are intermittent earth-springs, the result of a permanent or transitory connection between the interior and exterior of onr planet, the result of a reaction of the still fluid interior against the crust of the earth ; hence the question is useless, as to what chemical substance burns in the volcanos, and furnishes the material for combustion— pp. 371-373. The primary cause of subterranean heat is, as in all planets, the for¬ mative process itself, the separation of the conglomerating mass from a cosmic vaporous fluid. Power and influence of the calorific radiation from numerous deep fissures, unfilled veins in the primordial world. Great independence, at that period, of the climate (atmospheric tempe¬ rature) in respect to geographical latitude, the position of the planet towards the central body, the sun. Organisms of the present tropical world buried in the icy north — pp. 373-375. Scientific Illustrations and Additions . . . pp. 376-379. Barometric measurements on Vesuvius, comparison of the two crater- margins and the Rocca del Palo — pp. 376-379. Increase of temperature with depth, being 1° of Fahrenheit for ■every 54 feet. Temperature of the Artesian well in Oeynhausen's Bath (New Salt-works near Minden), at the greatest depth yet reached below the level of the sea. As early as the third century the thermal springs near Carthage led Patricius, Bishop of Pertusa, to form correct suppositions respecting the cause of calorific increase in the interior of the earth — p. 379. VITAL FORCE, OR THE RHODIAN GENIUS; AN ALLEGORY. pp. 380-385. Illustrations and Note . pp. 386-389. The Rhodian Genius is the development of a physiological idea in a mythical garb. Difference of views concerning the necessity and non- SUMMARY. TLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA, &C. xxix necessity for the assumption of peculiar vital forces — pp. 386-387. The difficulty of satisfactorily reducing the vital phenomena of the organism to physical and chemical laws is, principally, based on the complexity of the phenomena, on the multiplicity of forces acting simultaneously, as well as on the varying conditions of their activity. Definition of the expressions, animate and inanimate matter. Criteria of the miscent state ensuing upon separation, arc the simple enunciation of a fact — pp. 387-389. THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAIIUALLPA, AND FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC FROM THE RIDGE OF THE ANDES. pp. 390-420. Cinchona, or Quina-woods in the valleys of Loxa. First use of the fever-bark in Europe ; the Vice-Queen Countess of Chinchon — pp. 390- 392. Alpine vegetation of the Paramos. Ruins of ancient Peruvian cause¬ ways; they rise in the Paramo del Assuay almost to the height of Mont Blanc— p. 394. Singular mode of communication, by a swimming courier — p. 399. Descent to the Amazon River. Vegetation around Chamaya and Tomependa; red groves of Bougainvillaea. Rocky ridges which cross the Amazon River. Cataracts. Narrows of thePongode Manseriche, in wffiich the mighty stream, measured by La Condamine, is hardly 160 feet broad. Fall of the rocky dam of Rentema, which for several hours, laid bare the bed of the river, to the terror of the inhabitants on its banks — p. 401. Passage across the Andes chain, where it is intersected by the mag¬ netic equator. Ammonites of nearly 15 inches, Echini and Isocardia of the chalk formation, collected between Guambos and Montan, nearly 12,800 feet above the sea. Rich silver-mines of Chota. The pictu¬ resque, tower-like Cerro de Gualgayoc. An enormous mass of filament¬ ous virgin silver in the Pampa de Navar. A treasure of virgin gold, twined round wdth filamentous silver, in the shell-field (Choropampa), so named on account of the numerous fossils. Outbursts of silver and gold ores in the chalk-formations. The little mountain-town of Micui- pampa lies 11,873 feet above the sea — pp. 402-405. Across the mountain wilderness of the Paramo de Yanaguanga the traveller descends into the beautiful embosomed valley or rather Plateau of Caxamarca (almost at an equal altitude with the city of Quito). Warm baths of the Inca. Ruins of Atahuallpa’s palace, inhabited by his indigent descendants, the family of Astorpilca. Belief entertained there, in the existence of subterranean golden gardens of the Inca; said to be situated in the lovely valley of Yucay, under the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, and at many other points. Conversation with the son of the Curaca Astorpilca. The room is still shown in which the unfortunate Atahuallpa was kept prisoner for nine months, from the November of 1532; also the wall on which he made a mark to indicate XXX SUMMARY. PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. the height to which he would cause the room to be filled with gold, if his persecutors would set him free. Account of the prince’s execution on the 29th of August, 1533, and remarks on the so-called “indelible blood stain” on a stone slab before the altar in the chapel of the city prison — pp. 406-414. How the hope in a restoration of the Inca empire, also indulged in by Raleigh, has been maintained among the natives. Causes of this fanciful belief — p. 414. Journey from Caxamarca to the sea-coast. Passage across the Cor¬ dilleras through the Altos de Guangamarca. The often disappointed hope of enjoying the sight of the Pacific from the crest of the Andes, at last gratified, at a height of 9380 feet — pp. 415-420. Scientific Illustrations and Additions . . . pp. 421-436. On the origin of the name borne by the Andes Chain . . p. 421. Epoch of the introductiou of Cinchona (Peruvian) bark into Europe — p. 422. Ruins of the Inca’s causeways and fortified dwellings; Aposentos de Mulalo, Fortaleza del Canar, Inti-Guaycu — p. 423. On the ancient civilization of the Chibchas or Muyscas of New Granada — p. 425. Age of the culture of the potato and banana — p. 427. Etymology of the word Cundinamarca, corrupted from Cundirumarca, and which, in the first years of republican independence, designated the whole country of New Granada — p. 427. Chronometrie connection of the city of Quito with Tomependa, on the upper course of the Amazon River, and the Callao de Lima, the position of which was accurately determined by the transit of Mercury on the 9th of November, 1802 — p. 428. On the tedious court ceremonies of the Incas. Atahuallpa’s im¬ prisonment and unavailing ransom — p. 429, Free-thinking of the Inca Huayna Capac. Philosophical doubts on the official worship of the sun, and obstacles to the diffusion of know¬ ledge among the lower and poorer classes of people, according to the testimony of Padre Bias Valera — p. 431. Raleigh’s project for the restoration of the Inca dynasty under English protection, which should be granted for an annual tribute of several hundred thousand pounds — p. 432. Columbus’ earliest evidence of the existence of the Pacific. It was first seen on the 25th of September, 1513, by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, and first navigated by Alonso Martin de Don Benito — p. 432. On the possibility of constructing an Oceanic canal though the isthmus of Panama (with fewer locks than the Caledonian Canal). Points, the exploration of which has been hitherto totally neglected — p. 435. Determination of the longitude of Lima — p. 435. ON STEPPES AND DESERTS. At the foot of the lofty granitic range which, in the early age of our planet, resisted the irruption of the waters on the formation of the Caribbean Gulf, extends a vast and boundless plain. When the traveller turns from the Alpine valleys of Caracas, and the island-studded lake of Tacarigua (1), whose waters reflect the forms of the neighbouring bananas, — when he leaves the fields verdant with the light and tender green of the Tahitian sugar-cane, or the sombre shade of the cacoa groves, — his eye rests in the south on Steppes, whose seeming- elevations disappear in the distant horizon. From the rich luxuriance of organic life the astonished tra¬ veller suddenly finds himself on the dreary margin of a treeless waste. Nor hill, nor cliff rears its head, like an island in the ocean, above the boundless plain: only here and there broken strata of floetz, extending over a surface of two hundred square miles, (more than three thousand English square miles*,) appear sensibly higher than the surrounding district. The natives term them banks (2), as if the spirit of language would con ¬ vey some record of that ancient condition of the world, when these elevations formed the shoals, and the Steppes themselves the bottom, of some vast inland sea. Even now, illusion often recalls, in the obscurity of night, these images of a former age. For when the guiding con¬ stellations illumine the margin of the plain with their rapidly rising and setting beams, or when their flickering forms are * It is not intended in every instance to trouble the reader with duplicate measurements ; but they will be introduced occasionally Wherever only one measurement is given, it must be understood as English. — Ed. B VIEWS OF NATURE. 2 reflected in the lower stratum of undulating vapour, a shore¬ less ocean seems spread before us (3). Like a limitless expanse of waters, the Steppe fills the mind with a sense of the infinite, and the soul, freed from the sensuous impres¬ sions of space, expands with spiritual emotions of a higher order. But the aspect of the ocean, its bright surface diver¬ sified with rippling or gently swelling waves, is productive of pleasurable sensations, — while the Steppe lies stretched before us, cold and monotonous, like the naked stony crust of some desolate planet (4). In all latitudes nature presents the phenomenon of these vast plains, and each has some peculiar character or phy¬ siognomy, determined by diversity of soil and climate, and by elevation above the level of the sea. In northern Europe the Heaths which, covered by one sole form of vegetation, to the exclusion of all others, extend from the extremity of Jutland to the mouth of the Scheldt, may be regarded as true Steppes. They are, however, both hilly and of very inconsiderable extent when compared with the Llanos and Pampas of South America, or even with the Prairies on the Missouri (5) and Copper River, the resort of the shaggy Bison and the small Musk Ox. The plains in the interior of Africa present a grander and more imposing spectacle. Like the wide expanse of the Pacific, they have remained unexplored until recent times. They are portions of a sea of sand, which towards the east separates fruitful regions from each other, or incloses them like islands, as the desert near the basaltic mountains of Harudsch (6), where, in the Oasis of Siwah, rich in date- trees, the ruins of the temple of Ammon indicate the venerable seat of early civilization. Neither dew nor rain refreshes these barren wastes, or unfolds the germs of vegetation within the glowing depths of the earth ; for everywhere rising columns of hot air dissolve the vapours and disperse the passing clouds. Wherever the desert approaches the Atlantic Ocean, as STEPPES AND DESERTS. between Wadi Nun and the White Cape, the moist sea-air rushes in to fill the vacuum caused by these vertically ascend¬ ing currents of air. The navigator, in steering towards the mouth of the river Gambia, through a sea thickly carpeted with weeds, infers by the sudden cessation of the tropical east wind (7), that he is near the far- spreading and radiating sandy desert. Flocks of swift-looted ostriches and herds of gazelles wander over this boundless space. With the exception of the newly discovered group of Oases, rich in springs, whose verdant banks are frequented by nomadic tribes of Tibbos and Tuaricks (8), the whole of the African deserts may be regarded as uninhabitable by man. It is only periodically that the neighbouring civilized nations venture to traverse them. On tracks whose undeviating course was determined by commercial intercourse thousands of years ago, the long line of caravans passes from Tafilet to Timbuctoo. or from Mourzouk to Bornou ; daring enterprises, the practicability of which depends on the existence of the camel, the ship of the desert (9), as it is termed in the ancient legends of the East. These African plains cover an area which exceeds almost three times that of the neighbouring Mediterranean. They are situated partly within and partly near the tropics, a position on which depends their individual natural character. On the other hand, in the eastern portion of the old continent the same geognostic phenomenon is peculiar to the temperate zone. On the mountainous range of Central Asia, between the Gold or Altai Mountain and the Kouen-lien (10), from the Chinese wall to the further side of the Celestial Mountains, and towards the Sea of Aral, over a space of several thousand miles, extend, if not the highest, certainly the largest Steppes in the world. I myself enjoyed an opportunity, full thirty years after my South American travels, of visiting that por¬ tion of the Steppes which is occupied by Kalmuck-Kirghis b 2 4 VIEWS OF NATUEE. tribes, and is situated between the Don, the Volga, the Caspian Sea, and the Chinese Lake of Dsaisang, and which consequently extends over an area of nearly 2,800 geogra¬ phical miles. The vegetation of the Asiatic Steppes, which a~e sometimes hilly and interspersed with pine forests, is in its groupings far more varied than that of the Llanos and the Pampas of Caracas and Buenos Ayres. The more beautiful portions of the plains, inhabited by Asiatic pastoral tribes, are adorned with lowly shrubs of luxuriant white-blossomed Itosa- ceae, Crown Imperials (Fritillariae), Cypripedese, and Tulips. As the torrid zone is in general distinguished by a tendency in the vegetable forms to become arborescent, so we also find, that some of the Asiatic Steppes of the temperate zone are characterized by the remarkable height to which flowering plants attain ; as, for instance, Saussureae, and other Synan- thereae ; all siliquose plants, and particularly numerous species of Astragalus. On crossing the trackless portions of the herb- covered Steppes in the low carriages of the Tartars, it is necessary to stand upright in order to ascertain the direction to be pursued through the copse-like and closely crowded plants that bend under the wheels. Some of these Steppes are covered with grass; others with succulent, evergreen, articulated alkaline plants ; while many are radiant with the effulgence of lichen-like tufts of salt, scattered irregularly over the clayey soil like newly fallen snow. These Mongolian and Tartar Steppes, which are intersected by numerous mountain chains, separate the ancient and long- civilized races of Thibet and Hindostan from the rude nations of Northern Asia. They have also exerted a manifold influence on the changing destinies of mankind. They have inclined the current of population southward, impeded the intercourse of nations more than the Himalayas, or the Snowv Mountains of Sirinagur and Gorka, and placed permanent limits to the progress of civilization and refinement in a northerly direction. History cannot, however, regard the plains of Central Asia STEPPES AND DESEPTS. under the character of obstructive barriers alone. They have frequently proved the means of spreading misery and devastation over the face of the earth. Some of the pastoral tribes inhabiting this Steppe, — the Mongols, Getoc, Alani, and Usüni, — have convulsed the world. If in the course of earlier ages, the dawn of civilization spread like the vivifying light of the sun from east to west; so in subsequent ages and from the same quarter, have barbarism and rudeness threatened to overcloud Europe. A tawny tribe of herdsmen (11) of Tukiuish i. e., Turkish origin, the Hiongnu, dwelt in tents of skins on the elevated Steppe of Gobi. A portion of this race had been driven southward towards the interior of Asia, after continuing for a long time formidable to the Chinese power. This shock, (dislodgement of the tribes) was communicated uninterrupt¬ edly as far as the ancient land of the Fins, near the sources of the Ural.*' From thence poured forth bands of Huns, Avars, Chasars, and a numerous admixture of Asiatic races. War¬ like bodies of Huns first appeared on the Volga, next in Pannonia, then on the Marne and the banks of the Po, laying waste those richly cultivated tracts, where, since the age of Antenor, man’s creative art had piled monument on monument. Thus swept a pestilential breath from the Mon¬ golian deserts over the fair Cisalpine soil, stifling the tender, long-cherished blossoms of art ! From the Salt-steppes of Asia, — from the European Heaths, — smiling in summer with their scarlet, honey-yielding flowers. — and from the barren deserts of Africa, we return to the plains of South America, the picture of which I have already begun to sketch in rude outline. * The Huns, on being driven from their ancierft pastures by the Chinese, traversed Asia, 1300 leagues,) and, swelled by the numerous hordes they conquered en route, entered Europe, and gave the first impulse to the great migration of nations. Deguires traces their pro¬ gress with geographical minuteness, and Gibbon tells their story with his usual eloquence in Chap. XX VT. — Ed. G VIEWS OF NATURE. But the interest yielded by the contemplation of such a picture must arise from a pure love of nature. No Oasis here reminds the traveller of former inhabitants, no hewn stone (12), no fruit-tree once cultivated and now growing wild, bears witness to the industry of past races. As if a stranger to the destinies of mankind, and bound to the present alone, this region of the earth presents a wild domain to the free manifestation of animal and vegetable life. The Steppe extends from the littoral chain of Caracas to the forests of Guiana, and from the snow-covered mountains of Merida, on whose declivity lies the Natron lake of Urao, — the object of the religious superstition of the natives, — to the vast delta formed by the mouth of the Orinoco. To the south¬ west it stretches like an arm of the sea (13), beyond the banks of the Meta and of the Yichada, to the unexplored sources of the Guaviare, and to the solitary mountain group to which the vivid imagination of the Spanish warriors gave the name of Paramo tie la Suma Paz, as though it were the beautiful seat of eternal repose. This Steppe incloses an area of 256,000 square miles. Owing to inaccurate geographical data, it has often been described as extending in equal breadth to the Straits of Magellan, unmindful that it is intersected by the wooded plain of the Amazon, which is bounded to the north by the grassy Steppes of the Apure, and to the south by those of the Bio de la Plata. The Andes of Cochabamba and the Brazilian mountains approximate each other by means of separate transverse spurs, projecting between the province of Chiquitos and the isthmus of Villabella (14). A narrow plain unites the Hylcca of the Amazon with the Pampas of Buenos Ayres. The area of the latter is three times larger than that of the Llanos of Venezuela ; indeed so vast in extent, that it is bounded on the north by palms, while its southern extremity is almost covered with perpetual ice. The Tuyu, which re¬ sembles the Cassowary, (Struthio Rhea,) is peculiar to these Pampas, as arc also those herds of wild dogs (15), which dwell STEPPES AND DESERTS. i in social community in subterranean caverns, and often fero¬ ciously attack man, for whose defence their progenitors fought. Like the greater part of the desert of Sahara (16), the Llanos, the most northern plains of South America, lie within the torrid zone* Twice in every year they change their whole aspect, during one half of it appearing waste and bar¬ ren like the Lybian desert ; during the other, covered with verdure, like many of the elevated Steppes of Central Asia (17). The attempt to compare the natural characteristics of remote regions, and to pour tray the results of this comparison in brief outline, though a gratifying, is a somewhat difficult branch of physical geography. A number of causes, many of them still but little under¬ stood (18), diminish the dryness and heat of the New World. Among these are : the narrowness of this extensively in¬ dented continent in the northern part of the tropics, where the fluid basis on which the atmosphere rests, occasions the ascent of a less warm current of air ; its wide extension towards both the icy poles ; a broad ocean swept by cool tropical winds ; the flatness of the eastern shores ; currents of cold sea-water from the antarctic region, which, at first following a direction from south-west to north-east, strike the coast of Chili below the parallel of 35° south lat., and advance as far north on the coasts of Peru as Cape Pariila, where they suddenly diverge towards the west ; the numerous mountains abounding in springs, whose snow-crowned sum¬ mits soar above the strata of clouds, and cause the descent of currents of air down their declivities ; the abundance of rivers of enormous breadth, which after many windings in¬ variably seek the most distant coast ; Steppes, devoid of sand, and therefore less readily acquiring heat ; impenetrable forests, which, protecting the earth from the sun's rays, or radiating heat from the surface of their leaves, cover the richly- watered plains of the Equator, and exhale into the in¬ terior of the country, most remote from mountains and llie 8 VIEWS OF NATURE. Ocean, prodigious quantities of moisture, partly absorbed and partly generated — all these causes produce in the flat portions of America a climate which presents a most striking contrast in point of humidity and coolness with that of Africa. On these alone depend the luxuriant and exuberant vege¬ tation and that richness of foliage which are so peculiarly characteristic of the New Continent. If, therefore, the atmosphere on one side of our planet be more humid than on the other, a consideration of the actual condition of things will be sufficient to solve the problem of this inequality. The natural philosopher need not shroud the explanation of such phenomena in the garb of geological myths. It is not necessary to assume that the destructive conflict of the elements ra«;cd at different epochs in the eastern and western hemispheres, during the early condition of our planet ; or that America emerged subsequently to the other quarters of the world from the chaotic covering of waters, as a swampy island, the abode of crocodiles and serpents (19). South America presents indeed a remarkable similarity to the south-western peninsula of the old continent, in the form of its outlines and the direction of its coast -line. But the internal structure of the soil, and its relative position with respect to the contiguous masses of land, occasion in Africa that remarkable aridity which over a vast area checks the development of organic life. Four-fifths of South America lie beyond the Equator, and therefore in a region which, on account of its abundant waters, as well as from many other causes, is cooler and moister than our northern hemisphere (20). To this, nevertheless, the most considerable portion of Africa belongs. The extent from east to west of the South American Steppes or Llanos, is only one third that of the African Desert. The former are refreshed by the tropical sea wind, while the lat¬ ter, situated in the same parallel of latitude as Arabia and Southern Persia, are visited by currents of air which have STEPPES AND DESERTS. 9 passed over heat-radiating continents. The venerable father of history, Herodotus, so long insufficiently appreciated, has in the true spirit of a comprehensive observer of nature, de¬ scribed all the deserts of Northern Africa, Yemen, Kerman, and Mekran (the Gcdrosia of the Greeks), as far even as Mooltan in Western India, as one sole connected sea of sand (21). To the action of hot land winds, may be associated in Africa, as far as we know, a deficiency of large rivers, of forests that generate cold by exhaling aqueous vapour, and of lofty mountains. The only spot covered with perpetual snow is the western portion of Mount Atlas (22), whose narrow ridge, seen laterally, appeared to the ancient navigators when coasting the shore, as one solitary and aerial pillar of heaven. This mountain range extends eastward to Dakul, where the famed Carthage, once mistress of the seas, lies in crumbling ruins. This range forms a far extended coast-line or Gcetulian rampart, which repels the cool north winds and with them the vapours rising from the Mediterranean. The Mountains of the Moon, Djebel-al-Komr (23), fabu¬ lously represented as forming a mountainous parallel between the elevated plain of Habesch — an African Quito — and the sources of the Senegal, were supposed to rise above the lower sea line. Even the Cordilleras of Lupata, which skirt the eastern coast of Mozambique and Monomotapa, in the same manner as the Andes bound the western shores of Peru, arc covered with eternal snow in the gold districts of Machinga and Mocanga. But these mountains, abundantly watered, arc situated at a considerable distance from the vast desert which extends from the southern declivity of the chain of Atlas to the Niger, whose waters flow in an easterly direction. Possibly, these combined causes of aridity and heat would have proved insufficient to convert such large portions of the African plains into a dreary waste, had not some convulsion of nature — as for instance the irruption of the ocean— -on 10 VIEWS OF NATURE. some occasion deprived these flat regions of their nutrient soil, as well as of the vegetation which it supported. The epoch when this occurred, and the nature of the forces which determined the irruption, are alike shrouded in the obscurity of the past. Perhaps it may have been the result of the great rotatory current (24), which drives the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico over the bank of Newfoundland to the old continent, and by which the cocoa-nut of the West Indies and other tropical fruits have been borne to the shores of Ireland and Norway. One branch of this oceanic current, V after it leaves the Azores, has still, at the present time, a south-easterly course, striking the low range of the sandy coasts of Africa with a force that is frequently fraught with danger to the mariner. All sea-coasts — but I refer here more particularly to the Peruvian shore between Amotape and Coquimbo — afford evidence of the hundreds, or even thou¬ sands of years, which must pass before the moving sand can yield a firm basis for the roots of herbaceous plants, in those hot and rainless regions where neither Lecidem nor other lichens can grow (25). These considerations suffice to explain why, notwithstand¬ ing their external similarity of form, the continents of Africa and South America present the most widely differ¬ ent climatic relations and characters of vegetation. Al¬ though the South American Steppe is covered with a thin crust of fruitful earth, is periodically refreshed by rains, and adorned with luxuriant herbage, its attractions were not suffi¬ cient to induce the neighbouring nations to exchange the beautiful mountain valleys of Caracas, the sea-girt districts, and the richly watered plains of the Orinoco, for this treeless and springless desert. Hence on the arrival of the first Euro¬ pean and African settlers, the Steppe was found to be almost without inhabitants. The Llanos are, it is true, adapted for the breeding of cattle, but the primitive inhabitants of the new continent were STEPPES AND DESERTS. 11 almost wholly unacquainted with the management of animals yielding milk (26). Scarcely one of the American tribes knew how to avail themselves of the advantages which nature, in this respect, had placed before them. The American aborigines, who, from 65° north lat. to 55° south lat., con¬ stitute (with the exception, perhaps, of the Esquimaux,) but one sole race, passed directly from a hunting to an agri¬ cultural life without going through the intermediate stage of a pastoral life. Two species of indigenous horned cattle (the Buffalo and the Musk Ox) graze on the pasture lands of Western Canada and Quivira, as well as in the neighbourhood of the colossal ruins of the Aztek fortress, which rises like some American Palmyra on the desert solitudes of the river Gila. A long-horned Moußon, resembling the so-called pro¬ genitor of the sheep, roams over the parched and barren lime¬ stone rocks of California; while the camel-like Vicunas, Huanacos, Alpacas, and Llamas, are natives of the southern peninsula. But of these useful animals the two first only (viz. the Buffalo and the Musk Ox) have preserved their natural freedom for thousands of years. The use of milk and cheese, like the possession and culture of farinaceous grasses, is a distinctive characteristic of the nations of the old world (27). If some few tribes have passed through Northern Asia to the western coast of America, and preferring to keep within a temperate climate, have followed the course of the ridges of the Andes southward (28), such migrations must have been made by routes on which the settlers were unable to transport either flocks or grain. The question here arises, whether on the downfall of the long- declining empire of the Hiongnu, the consequent migration of this powerful race may not have been the means of drawing from the north-east of China and Korea, bands of settlers, by whom Asiatic civilisation was transported to the new continent ? If the primitive colonists had been natives of those Steppes in which agriculture was unknown, this bold hypothesis (which as yet is but little 12 VIEWS OF NATUEE. warranted by etymological comparisons) would at all events explain the remarkable absence of the Cereals in America. Per¬ haps contrary winds may have driven to the shores of New California one of those Asiatic Priest- colonies who were insti¬ gated by their mystic dreameries to undertake distant voyages, and of which the history of the peopling of Japan, at the time of the Thsinschihuany-ti , affords a memorable instance. (29) If a pastoral life — that beneficent intermediate stage which binds nomadic bands of hunters to fruitful pasture lands, and at the same time promotes agriculture — was unknown to the primitive races of America, it is to the very ignorance of such a mode of life that we must attribute the scantiness of population in the South American Steppes. But this circum¬ stance allowed freer scope for the forces of nature to deve¬ lop themselves in the most varied forms of animal life; a freedom only circumscribed by themselves, like vegetable life in the forests of the Orinoco, where the Ilymensea and the giant laurel, exempt from the ravages of man, are only in danger of a too luxuriant embrace of the plants which surround them. Agoutis, small spotted antelopes, the shielded Armadillo, which, rat-like, terrifies the hare in its subterranean retreat ; herds of slothful Chiguires, beautifully striped Yiverree, whose pestilential odour infects the air; the great maneless Lion; the variegated Jaguar (commonly knovm as the tiger), whose strength enables it to drag to the summit of a hill the body of the young bull it has slain — these, and many other forms of animal life (30), roam over the treeless plain. This region, which may be regarded as peculiarly the habitation of wild animals, would not have been chosen as a place of settlement by nomadic hordes, who like the Indo- Asiatics generally prefer a vegetable diet, had it not possessed some fewr fan-palms (Mauritia) scattered here and there. The beneficent qualities of this tree of life have been univer¬ sally celebrated (31.) Upon this alone subsist the unsubdued tribe of the Guaranes, at the mouth of the Orinoco northward STEPPES AND DESERTS. 13 of the Sierra de Imataca. When they increased in numbers and became over-crowded, it is said that, besides the huts which they built on horizontal platforms supported by the stumps of felled palm-trees, they also ingeniously suspended from stem to stem spreading mats or hammocks woven of the leaf-stalk of the Mauritia, which enabled them, during the rainy season, when the Delta was overflowed, to live in trees in the manner of apes. These pendent huts were partly covered with clay. The women kindled the fire necessary for their culinary occupations on the humid flooring. As the traveller passed by night along the river, his attention was attracted by a long line of flame suspended high in the air, and appa¬ rently unconnected with the earth. The Guaranes owe the preservation of their physical, and perhaps even of their moral independence, to the loose marshy soil, over which they move with fleet and buoyant foot, and to their lofty sylvan domi¬ ciles ; a sanctuary whither religious enthusiasm would hardly lead an American Stylite (32). The Mauritia not only affords a secure habitation, but likewise yields numerous articles of food. Before the tender spathe unfolds its blossoms on the male palm, and only at that peculiar period of vegetable metamorphosis, the medul¬ lary portion of the trunk is found to contain a sago-like meal, which like that of the Jatropha root, is dried in thin bread¬ like slices. The sap of the tree when fermented constitutes the sweet inebriating palm-wine of the Guaranes. The nar¬ row-scaled fruit, which resembles reddish pine-cones, yields, like the banana and almost all tropical fruits, different articles of food, according to the periods at which it is gathered, whether its saccharine properties are fully matured, or whe¬ ther it is still in a farinaceous condition. Thus in the lowest grades of man’s development, we find the existence of an entire race dependent upon almost a single tree ; like certain insects which are confined to particular portions of a flower. Since the discovery of the new continent, its plains (Llanos) 14 VIEWS OF NATUEE. have become habitable to man. Here and there towns (33) have sprung up on the shores of the Steppe-rivers, built to faci¬ litate the intercourse between the coasts and Guiana (the Ori¬ noco district). Everywhere throughout these vast districts the inhabitants have begun to rear cattle. At distances of a day s journey from each other, we see detached huts, woven together with reeds and thongs, and covered with ox-hides. Innumerable herds of oxen, horses, and mules (estimated at the peaceful period of my travels at a million and a half) roam over the Steppe in a state of wildness. The prodigious increase of these animals of the old world is the more re¬ markable, from the numerous perils with which, in these regions, they have to contend. When, beneath the vertical rays of the bright and cloudless sun of the tropics, the parched sward crumbles into dust, then the indurated soil cracks and bursts as if rent asunder by some mighty earthquake. And if, at such a time, two opposite currents of air, by conflict moving in rapid gy¬ rations, come in contact with the earth, a singular spec¬ tacle presents itself. Like funnel-shaped clouds, their apexes (34) touching the earth, the sands rise in vapoury form through the rarefied air in the electrically- charged centre of the whirling current, sweeping on like the rushing water-spout, which strikes such terror into the heart of the mariner. A dim and sallow light gleams from the lowering sky over the dreary plain. The horizon suddenly contracts, and the heart of the traveller sinks with dismay as the wide Steppe seems to close upon him on all sides. The hot and dusty earth forms a cloudy veil which shrouds the heavens from view, and in¬ creases the stifling oppression of the atmosphere (35); while the east wind, when it blows over the long-heated soil, instead of cooling, adds to the burning glow. Gradually, too, the pools of water, which had been pro¬ tected from evaporation by the now seared foliage of the fan-palm, disappear. As in the icy north animals become STEPPES AND DESEETS. 15 torpid from cold, so here the crocodile and the boa-con¬ strictor lie wrapt in unbroken sleep, deeply buried in the dried soil. Everywhere the drought announces death, yet everywhere the thirsting wanderer is deluded by the phan¬ tom of a moving, undulating, watery surface, created by the deceptive play of the reflected rays of light (the mirage, 36). A narrow stratum separates the ground from the distant palm-trees, which seem to hover aloft, owing to the contact of currents of air having different degrees of heat and therefore of density*. Shrouded in dark clouds of dust, and tortured by hunger and burning thirst, oxen and horses scour the plain, the one bellowing dismally, the other with out¬ stretched necks snuffing the wind, in the endeavour to detect, by the moisture in the air, the vicinity of some pool of water not yet wholly evaporated. The mule, more cautious and cunning, adopts another me¬ thod of allaying his thirst. There is a globular and articulated plant, the Melocactus (37), which encloses under its prickly in¬ tegument an aqueous pulp. After carefully striking away the prickles with his forefeet, the mule cautiously ventures to apply his lips to imbibe the cooling thistle juice. But the draught from this living vegetable spring is not always un¬ attended by danger, and these animals are often observed to have been lamed by the puncture of the cactus thorn. Even if the burning heat of day be succeeded by the cool freshness of the night, here always of equal length, the wearied ox and horse enjoy no repose. Huge bats now attack the animals during sleep, and vampyre-like suck their blood ;f or, fastening on their backs, raise festering wounds, in which mosquitoes, hippobosces, and a host of other stinging insects, burrow and nestle. Such is the miserable existence of these * This effect is well represented in Grindlay’s Scenery of the Western Side of India, plate 18. — Ed. ^ + Modern naturalists affirm that all bats are insectivorous. — Ed. . 16 VIEWS OF NATURE. poor animals when the heat of the sun has absorbed the waters from the surface of the earth. When, after a long drought, the genial season of rain arrives, the scene suddenly changes (38). The deep azure of the hitherto cloudless sky assumes a lighter hue. Scarcely can the dark space in the constellation of the Southern Cross be distinguished at night. The mild phosphorescence of the Magellanic clouds fades away. Even the vertical stars of the constellations Aquila and Ophiuchus shine with a flickering and less planetary light. Like some distant moun¬ tain, a single cloud is seen rising perpendicularly on the southern horizon. Misty vapours collect and gradually over¬ spread the heavens, while distant thunder proclaims the approach of the vivifying rain. Scarcely is the surface of the earth moistened before the teeming Steppe becomes covered with Kyllingiae, with the many-panicled Paspalum, and a variety of grasses. Excited by the power of light, the herbaceous Mimosa unfolds its dormant, drooping leaves, hailing, as it were, the rising sun in chorus with the matin song of the birds and the opening flowers of aquatics. Horses and oxen, buoyant with life and enjoyment, roam over and crop the plains. The luxuriant grass hides the beautifully spotted Jaguar, who, lurking in safe con¬ cealment, and carefully measuring the extent of the leap, darts, like the Asiatic tiger, with a cat-like bound on his passing prey. At times, according to the account of the natives, the humid clay on the banks of the morasses (39), is seen to rise slowly in broad flakes. Accompanied by a violent noise, as on the eruption of a small mud-volcano, the upheaved earth is hurled high into the air. Those who are familiar with the phenomenon fly from it; for a colossal water-snake or a mailed and scaly crocodile, awakened from its trance by the first fall of rain, is about to burst from his tomb. When the rivers bounding the plain to the south, as the Arauea, the Apure, and the Payara, gradually overflow their banks, nature compels those creatures to live as amphibious STEPPES AND DESERTS. 17 animals, which, during the first half of the year, were perishing with thirst on the waterless and dusty plain. A part of the steppe now presents the appearance of a vast inland sea (40). The mares retreat with their foals to the higher banks, which project, like islands, above the spreading waters. Day by day the dry surface diminishes in extent. The cattle, crowded together, and deprived of pasturage, swim for hours about the inundated plain, seeking a scanty nourishment from the flowering panicles of the grasses which rise above the lurid and bubbling waters. Many foals are drowned, many are seized by crocodiles, crushed bv their serrated tails, and devoured. Horses and oxen may not unfrequently be seen which have escaped from the fury of this bloodthirsty and gigantic lizard, bearing on their legs the marks of its pointed teeth. This spectacle involuntarily reminds the contemplative ob¬ server of the adaptability granted by an all-provident nature to certain animals and plants. Like the farinaceous fruits of Ceres, the ox and horse have followed man over the whole surface of the earth — from the Ganges to the ltio de la Plata, and from the sea-coast of Africa to the mountainous plain of Antisana, which lies higher than the Peak of Teneriffe (41). An the one region the northern birch, in the other the date- palm, protects the wearied ox from the noonday sun. The same species of animal which contends in eastern Europe with bears and wolves, is exposed, in a different latitude, to the attacks of tigers and crocodiles ! The crocodile and the jaguar are not, however, the only enemies that threaten the South American horse; for even among the fishes it has a dangerous foe. The marshy waters of Bera and Itastro (42) are filled with innumerable electric eels, who can at pleasure discharge from every part of their slimy, yellow-speckled bodies a deadening shock. This species of gymnotus is about five or six feet in length. It is power- fid enough to kill the largest animals when it discharges c 18 VIEWS OF NATURE. its nervous organs at one shock in a favourable direction. It was once found necessary to change the line of road from Uritucu across the Steppe, owing to the number of horses which, in fording a certain rivulet, annually fell a sacrifice to these gymnoti, which had accumulated there in great num¬ bers. All other species of fish shun the vicinity of these for¬ midable creatures. Even the angler, when fishing from the high bank, is in dread lest an electric shock should be conveyed to him along the moistened line. Thus, in these regions, the electric fire breaks forth from the lowest depths of the waters. The mode of capturing the gymnotus affords a picturesque spectacle. A number of mules and horses are driven into a swamp, which is closely surrounded by Indians, until the unusual noise excites the daring fish to venture on an attack. Serpent-like they are seen swimming along the sur¬ face of the water, striving cunningly to glide under the bellies of the horses. By the force of their invisible blows numbers of the poor animals are suddenly prostrated ; others, snorting and panting, their manes erect, their eyes wildly flashing with terror, rush madly from the raging storm ; but the Indians, armed with long bamboo staves, drive them back into the midst of the pool. By degrees the fury of this unequal contest begins to slacken. Like clouds that have discharged their electricity, the wearied eels disperse. They require long rest and nou¬ rishing food to repair the galvanic force which they have so lavishly expended. Their shocks gradually become weaker and weaker. Terrified by the noise of the trampling horses, they timidly approach the brink of the morass, where they are wounded by harpoons, and drawn on shore by non-conducting poles of dry wood. Such is the remarkable contest between horses and fish. That which constitutes the invisible but living weapon of these inhabitants of the water — that, which awakened by the contact of moist and dissimilar particles (43), circulates through STEPPES AND DESERTS. 19 all the organs of animals and plants — that which flashing amid the roar of thunder illuminates the wide canopy of heaven — which binds iron to iron, and directs the silent re¬ curring course of the magnetic needle — all, like the varied hues of the refracted ray of light, flow from one common source, and all blend together into one eternal all-pervading power. I might here close my bold attempt of delineating the natural picture of the Steppe; but, as on the ocean, fancy delights in dwelling on the recollections of distant shores, so will we, ere the vast plain vanishes from our view, cast a rapid glance over the regions by which the Steppe is bounded. The northern desert of Africa separates two races of men which originally belonged to the same portion of the globe, and whose inextinguishable feuds appear as old as the myth of Osiris and Typhon (44). To the north of Mount Atlas there dwells a race characterised by long and straight hair, a sallow complexion, and Caucasian features; while to the south of Senegal, in the direction of Soudan, we find hordes of Negroes occupying various grades in the scale of civilization. In Central Asia the Mongolian Steppe divides Siberian barbarism from the ancient civilization of the peninsula of Ilindostan. In like manner, the South American Steppes are the boun¬ daries of a European semi- civilization (45). To the north, between the mountain chain of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea, lie, crowded together, industrial cities, clean and neat villages, and carefully tilled fields. Even a taste for arts, scientific culture, and a noble love of civil freedom, have long since been awakened within these regions. To the south, a drear and savage wilderness bounds the Steppe. Forests, the growth of thousands of years, in one impenetrable thicket, overspread the marshy region between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon. Huge masses of lead- coloured granite (46) contract the beds of the foaming rivers. Mountains and forests re-echo with the thunder of rushing c 2 20 VIEWS OF NATURE. waters, the roar of the tiger-like jaguar, and the dull rain- foreboding howl of the bearded ape (47). Where the shallower parts of the river disclose a sandbank, the crocodile may be seen, with open jaws, and motionless as a rock, its uncouth body often covered with birds (48); while the chequered boa-constrictor, its tail lashed round the trunk of a tree, lies coiled in ambush near the bank, ready to dart with certain aim on its prey. Rapidly uncoiling, it stretches forth its body to seize the young bull, or some feebler prey, as it fords the stream, and moistening its victim with a viscid secretion, laboriously forces it down its dilating throat (49). In this e-rand and wild condition of nature dwell numerous O races of men. Separated by a remarkable diversity of lan¬ guages, some are nomadic, unacquainted with agriculture, and living on ants, gums, and earth, mere outcasts of humanity (50), such as the Ottomaks and Jarures: others, for instance the Maquiritares and Macos, have settled habitations, live on fruits cultivated by themselves, are intelligent, and of gentler manners. Extensive tracts between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo are inhabited solely by the Tapir and social apes; not by man. Figures graven on the rocks (51) attest that even these deserts were once the seat of a higher civilization. They bear testimony, as do also the unequally developed and varying languages (which are amongst the oldest and most imperishable of the historical records of man), to the changing destinies of nations. While on the Steppe tigers and crocodiles contend with horses and cattle, so on the forest borders and in the wilds of Guiana the hand of man is ever raised against his fellow man. With revolting eagerness, some tribes drink the flowing blood of their foes, whilst others, seemingly un¬ armed, yet prepared for murder, deal certain death with a poisoned thumb-nail (52). The feebler tribes, when they tread the sandy shores, carefully efface with their hands the traces of their trembling steps. STEPPES AND DESERTS. 21 Thus does man, everywhere alike, on the lowest scale of brutish debasement, and in the false glitter of his higher cul¬ ture, perpetually create for himself a life of care. And thus, too, the traveller, wandering over the wide world by sea and land, and the historian who searches the records of bygone ages, are everywhere met by the unvarying and melancholy spectacle of man opposed to man. He, therefore, who amid the discordant strife of nations, would seek intellectual repose, turns with delight to con¬ template the silent life of plants, and to study the hidden forces of nature in her sacred sanctuaries ; or vielding to that inherent impulse, which for thousands of years has glowed in the breast of man, directs his mind, by a mysterious pre¬ sentiment of his destiny, towards the celestial orbs, which, in undisturbed harmony, pursue their ancient and eternal course.'*' * ip a suce meminit stirpis, scseque Dcisque Mens iruitur fclix, et novit in astra reverti. Barclaii Argents, lib. v. Ed. t ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (1) p. 1 — “ The Lake of Tacarigua.” On advancing through the interior of South America, from the coast of Caracas or of Venezuela towards the Brazilian frontier (from the 10th degree of north latitude to the equator), the traveller first passes a lofty chain of mountains (the littoral chain of Caracas) inclining from west to east; next vast tree¬ less Steppes or plains ( Los Llanos ), which extend from the foot of the littoral chain to the left bank of the Orinoco; and, lastly, the mountain range which gives rise to the cata¬ racts of Atures and Maypure. This mountain chain, which I have named the Sierra Parime, passes in an easterly direction between the sources of the Rio Branco and Rio Esquibo, in the direction of Dutch and French Guiana. This region, which is the seat of the marvellous myths of the Dorado, and is composed of a mountain mass, divided into numerous gridiron-like ridges, is bounded on the south by the woody plain through which the Rio Negro and the Amazon have formed themselves a channel. Those who would seek further instruction regarding these geographical relations, may com¬ pare the large chart of La Cruz Olmedilla (1775), which has served as the basis of nearly all the more modern maps of South America, with that of Columbia, which I drew up in accordance with my own astronomical determinations of place, and pub¬ lished in the year 1825. The littoral chain of Venezuela is, geographically considered, a portion of the Peruvian Andes. These are divided at the great mountain node of the sources of the Magdalena (lat. i° 551 to 2° 20f) into three chains, running to the south of PopayjUb the easternmost of which extends into the snowy mountains cf Merida. These mountains gradually decline towards the PaiPmo de his Rosas into the hilly district of Quibor and Tocuyo, which connects the littoral chain of Ve¬ nezuela with the Cordilleras of Cundinamarca. This littoral chain extends morally and uninterruptedly from Portocabello to the promontory of Varia. Its mean elevation is scarcely 750 toises, or 4796 English feCf j but some few sum¬ mits, like the Silla de Caracas (also called tht>' Cerro de Avila)* ILLUSTRATIONS (1). LAKE OF TACARIGUA. 23 which is adorned with the purple-flowering Befaria (the red- blossomed American Alpine rose), rise 1350 toises, or 8633 English feet above the level of the sea. The coast of the Terra Firma everywhere bears traces of devastation, giving evidence of the action of the great current which runs from east to west, and which, after the disintegration of the Caribbean Islands, formed the present Sea of the Antilles. The tongues of land of Araya and Chuparipari, and more especially the coasts of Cumana and New Barcelona, present to the geologist a re¬ markable aspect. The rocky islands of Boracha, Caracas, and Chimanas rise like beacon-towers from the sea, affording evidence of the fearful irruption of the waters against the shattered mountain chain. The Sea of the Antilles may once have been an inland sea, like the Mediterranean, which lias suddenly been connected with the ocean. The islands of Cuba, Hayti, and Jamaica still exhibit the remains of the mountains of micaceous schist which formed the northern boundary of this lake. It is a remarkable fact that the highest peaks are situated at the very point where these islands approach one another the closest. It may be conjectured that the principal nucleus of the chain was situated between Cape Tiburon and Morant Point. The height of the copper moun¬ tains (montanas de cobre) near Saint Iago de Cuba has not yet been measured, but this range is probably higher than the Blue Mountains of Jamaica (1138 toises, or 7277 English feet), whose elevation somewhat exceeds that of the Pass of St. Gothard. I have already expressed my conjectures more fully regarding the valley-like form of the Atlantic Ocean, and the ancient connection of the continents, in a treatise written at Cumana, entitled Fragment d'un Tableau geologique de T Amerique meridionale , which appeared in the Journal de Physique , Messidor, an IX. It is remarkable that Columbus himself makes mention, in his official report, of the connection between the course of the equinoctial current and the form of the coast-line of the Greater Antilles.*1 The northern and more cultivated portion of the province of Caracas is a mountainous region. The marginal chain is divided, like that of the Swiss Alps, into many ranges, enclosing longitudinal valleys. The most remarkable among these is * Examen critique de VHist, de la Geographie, t. iii., pp. 104 — 108. 24 YIEAVS OF NATURE. the charming valley of Aragua, which produces an abundance of indigo, sugar, and cotton, and, what is perhaps the most singular of all, even European wheat. The southern margin of this valley is bounded by the beautiful Lake of Valencia, the ancient Indian name of which was Tacarigua. The con¬ trast presented by its opposite shores gives it a striking re¬ semblance to the Lake of Geneva. The barren mountains of Guigue and Guiripa have indeed less grandeur and solemnity of character than the Savoy Alps; but, on the other hand, the opposite shore, which is covered with bananas, mimosa?, and triplaris, far surpasses in picturesque beauty the vineyards of the Pays de Vaud. The lake is 10 leagues, (of which 20 form a degree of the Equator), i.e., about 30 geographical miles, in length, and is thickly studded with small islands, which continually increase in size, owing to the evaporation being greater than the influx of fresh water. Within the last few years several sandbanks have even become true islands, and have acquired the significant name of Las Aparecidas, or the “ Newly Appeared.’’' On the island of Cura the remarkable species of solanum is cultivated, which has edible fruit, and has been described by Willdenow (in his Hortus Berolinensis , 1816, Tab. xxvii.). The elevation of the Lake of Tacarigua above the level of the sea is almost 1400 French feet (according to my measurement, exactly 230 toises, ?.e., 1471 English feet) less than the mean height of the valley of Caracas. This lake has several species of fish peculiar to itself,'*'“1 and ranks among the most beautiful and attractive natural scenes that I am acquainted with in any part of the earth. When bathing, Bonpland and myself were often terrified by the appearance of the Lava, a species of crocodile-lizard (Dragonne?), hitherto undescribed, from three to four feet in length, of repulsive aspect, but harmless to man. We found in the Lake of Va¬ lencia a Tt/pha, perfectly identical with the European bulrush, the Typha angustifolia — a singular and highly important fact in reference to the geography of plants. In the valleys of Aragua, skirting the lake, both varieties of the sugar-cane are cultivated, viz., the common Cana criolla , and the sp cies newly introduced from the South Sea, the Cana de Otaheiti. The latter variety is of a far lighter and * See my Observations de Zoologie et df Anatomie compares, t. ii., pp. 179—181. ILLUSTRATIONS (1). LAKE OF TACAIIIGUA. more beautiful green, and a field of it may be distinguished from the common sugar-cane at a great distance. Cook and George Forster were the first to describe it; but it would appear, from Forster's treatise on the edible plants of the South Sea Islands, that they were but little acquainted with the true value of this important product. Bougainville brought it to the Isle of France, whence it passed to Cayenne and (subsequently to the year 1792) to Martinique, Saint Domingo or Haiti, and many of the Lesser Antilles. The enterprising but unfortunate Captain Bligli transported it, together with the bread-fruit tree, to Jamaica. From Trini¬ dad, an island contiguous to the continent, the new sugar¬ cane of the South Sea passed to the neighbouring coasts of Caracas. Here it has become of greater importance than the bread-fruit tree, which will probably never supersede so valuable and nutritious a plant as the banana. The Tahitian sugar-cane is more succulent than the common species, which is generally supposed to be a native of Eastern Asia. It likewise yields one-third more sugar on the same area than the Caiia criolla, which is thinner in its stalk, and more crowded with joints. As, moreover, the West Indian Islands are beginning to suffer great scarcity of fuel (on the island of Cuba the sugar-pans are heated with orange-wood), the new plant acquires additional value from the fact of its yielding a thicker and more ligneous cane ( bagciso ). If the introduction of this new product had not been nearly simultaneous with the outbreak of the sanguinarv Negro war in St. Domingo, the prices of sugar in Europe would have risen even higher than they did, owing to the interruption occasioned to agriculture and trade. The important question which here arises, whether the sugar-cane of Otaheiti, when removed from its indigenous soil, will not gradually dege¬ nerate and merge into the common sugar-cane, has been decided in the negative, from the experience hitherto ob¬ tained on this subject. In the island of Cuba a cabaUerin , that is to say, an area of 34,969 square toises (nearly 33 English acres), produces 870 cwt. of sugar, if it be planted with the Tahitian sugar-cane. It is remarkable enough that this important product of the South Sea Islands should be cultivated precisely in that portion of the Spanish colonies •which is most remote from the South Sea. The voyage 26 VIEWS OF NATURE. from the Peruvian shore to Otaheiti may be made in twenty- five days, and yet, at the period of my travels in Peru and Chili, the Tahitian sugar-cane was not yet known in those provinces. The natives of Easter Island, who suffer great distress from want of fresh water, drink the juice of the sugar¬ cane, and, what is very remarkable in a physiological point of view, likewise sea- water. On the Society, Friendly, and Sandwich Islands, the light green and thick stemmed sugar¬ cane is everywhere cultivated. In addition to the Cana de Otaheiti and the Cana criolla , a reddish African sugar-cane is cultivated in the West Indies, which is known as the Cana de Guinea. It is less succulent than the common Asiatic variety, but its juice is esteemed especially well adapted for the preparation of rum. In the province of Caracas the light green of the Tahitian sugar-cane forms a beautiful contrast with the dark shade of the cacao plantations. Few tropical trees have so thick a foliage as the Theobroma Cacao. This noble tree thrives best in hot and humid valleys. Extreme fertility of soil and insalubrity of atmosphere are as inseparably connected in South America as in Southern Asia. Nay, it has even been observed that in proportion as the cultivation of the land increases, and the woods are removed, the soil and the climate become less humid, and the cacao plantations thrive less luxuriantly. But while they diminish in numbers in the province of Caracas, they spread rapidly in the eastern provinces of New Barcelona and Cumana, more especially in the humid woody region lying between Cariaco and the Golfo Triste. (2) p. 1 — “ The natives term this 'phenomenon ‘ banks' ” The Llanos of Caracas are covered with a widely-extended formation of ancient conglomerate. On passing from the valleys of Aragua over the most southern range of the coast chain of Guigue and Villa de Cura, descending towards Para- para, the traveller meets successively with strata of gneiss and micaceous schist, a probably Silurian transition rock of argil¬ laceous schist and black limestone ; serpentine and greenstone in detached spheroidal masses; and lastly, on the margin of the great plain, small elevations of augitic amygdaloid and porphyritic schist. These hills between Parapara and Ortiz appear to me to be produced by volcanic eruptions on the ILLUSTRATION S (2). BANKS. 27 old sea-shore of the Llanos. Further to the north, rise the far- famed cavernous and grotesquely-shaped elevations known as the Morros de San Juan, which form a species of devil's dyke, the grain of which is crystalline, like upheaved dolo¬ mite. They are, therefore, to be regarded rather as portions of the shore than as islands in the ancient gulf. I consider the Llanos to have been a gulf, for when their inconsiderable elevation above the present sea level, the adaptation of their form to the rotation current, running from east to west, and the lowness of the eastern shore between the mouth of the Orinoco and the Essequibo are taken into account, it can scarcely be doubted that the sea once overflowed the whole of this basin between the coast chain and the Sierra de la Parime, extending westward to the mountains of Merida and Pamplona (in the same manner as it probably passed through the plains of Lombardy to the Cottian and Pennine Alps). Moreover, the inclination or line of strike of these Llanos is directed from west to east. Their elevation at Calabozo, a distance of 100 geographical (400 English) miles from the sea, scarcely amounts to 30 toises, or 1 92 English feet ; consequently 15toises (96 English feet) less than the elevation of Pavia, and 45 toises (288 English feet) less than that of Milan in the plain of Lombardy between the Swiss Lepontine Alps and the Ligu¬ rian Apennines. This conformation of the land reminds us of Claudian’s expression, “ curvata tumore parvo planities.” The surface of the Llanos is so perfectly horizontal that in many parts over an area of some 480 English square miles, not a single point appears elevated one foot above the surrounding level. When it is further borne in mind that there is a total absence of all shrubs, and that in some parts, as in the Mesa de Pavones, there is not even a solitary palm-tree to be seen, it may easily be supposed that this sea-like and dreary plain presents a most singular aspect. Far as the eye can range, it scarcely rests on any object elevated many inches above the general level. If the boundary of the horizon did not con¬ tinually present an undefined flickering and undulating out¬ line, owing to the condition of the lower strata of air, and the refraction of light, solar elevations might be determined by the sextant above the margin of the plain as above the horizon of the sea. This perfect flatness of the ancient sea- bottom renders the banks even more striking. They are- 28 VIEWS OF NATURE. composed of broken floetz-strata, which rise abruptly about two or three feet above the surrounding level, and extend uniformly over a length of from 10 to 12 geographical («.., t. i. p. 231 ; t. ii. pp. 243, 313, and 420. Fremont, Upper Cali¬ fornia, 1848, p. 9. See also Duflot de Mofras, Exploration de V Oregon, 1844, t. ii. p. 140. ILLUSTRATIONS (5). THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 35 question previously mooted by the learned American traveller Tanner. Gallatin expressly says in his memoir on the abori¬ ginal races** — “ General Ashley and Mr. J. S. Smith have found the Lake Timpanogo in the same latitude and longitude nearly as had been assigned to it in Humboldt's Atlas of Mexico.” I have purposely dwelt at length on these considerations regarding the remarkable elevation of the soil in the region of the Rocky Mountains, since by its extension and height it undoubtedly exercises a great, although hitherto unappre¬ ciated influence on the climate of the northern half of the new continent, both in its southern and eastern iiortioiis. On this vast and uniformly elevated plateau Fremont found the water covered with ice every night in the month of August. Nor is the configuration of the land les3 important when considered in reference to the social condition and progress of the great North American United States. Although the mountain range which divides the waters attains a height nearly equal to that of the passes of Mount Simplon (6170 Parisian or 6576 English feet), Mount Gothard (6440 Parisian or 6863 English feet), and the great St. Bernard (7476 Parisian or 7957 English feet), the ascent is so prolonged and gradual that no impediments oppose a general intercourse by means of vehicles and carriages of every kind between the Missouri and Oregon territories, between the Atlantic States, and the new settlements on the Oregon (or Columbia) river, or between the coast-lands lying opposite to Europe on the one side of the continent, and to China on the other. The distance from Boston to the old settlement of Astoria on the Pacific at the mouth of the Oregon when measured in a direct line, and taking into account the difference of longi¬ tude, is 550 geographical, i.e., 2200 English miles, or ‘one- sixth less than the distance between Lisbon and Katherinen- burg in the Ural district. On account of this gentle ascent of the elevated plains leading from the Missouri to California and the Oregon territory (all the resting-places measured between the Fort and River Lamarie on the northern branch of the Platte river to Fort Hall on the Lewis Fork of the Columbia, being situated at an elevation of from five to up¬ wards of seven thousand feet, and that in Old Park even at the height of 9760 Parisian or 10,402 English feet !), consi- * In the Archceologia Americana , vol. ii. p. 140. 36 VIEWS OF NATURE. derable difficulty lias been experienced in determining the culminating point, or that of the divortia aqucirum. It is south of the Wind River Mountains, about midway between the Mississippi and the coast line of the Southern Ocean, and is situated at an elevation of 7490 feet, or only 480 feet lower than the pass of the Great Bernard. The emigrants call this culminating point the South Pass.1* It is situated in a pleasant region, embellished by a profusion of artemisite, especially A. tridentata (Nuttall), and varieties of asters and cactuses, which cover the micaceous slate and gneiss rocks. Astronomical determinations place its latitude in the parallel of 42° 24', and its longitude in that of 109° 24' W. Adolf Erman has already drawn attention to the fact, that the line of strike of the great east- Asiatic Aldanian mountain-chain, which separates the basin of the Lena from the rivers flowing towards the Great Southern Ocean, if extended in the form of a great circle on the surface of the globe, passes through many of the summits of the Rocky Mountains between 40° and 55° north lat. “ An American and an Asiatic mountain- chain,” he remarks, “ appear therefore to be only portions of one and the same fissure erupted by the shortest channels.”! The western high mountain coast chain of the Cali¬ fornian maritime Alps, the Sierra Nevada de California , is wholly distinct from the Rocky Mountains, which sink towards the Mackenzie River (that remains covered with ice for a great portion of the year), and from the high table land on which rise individual snow-covered peaks. However inju¬ dicious the choice of the appellation of Rocky Mountains may be, when applied to the most northerly prolongation of the Mexican central chain, I do not deem it expedient to sub¬ stitute for it the denomination of the Oregon Chain, as has frequently been attempted. These mountains do indeed give rise to the sources of three main branches constituting the great Oregon or Columbia river (viz., Lewis’, Clarke’s, and North Fork); but this mighty stream also intersects the chain of the ever snow-crowned maritime Alps of California. The name of Oregon Territory is also employed, politically and officially, to designate the lesser territory of land west of the * Fremont’s Report, pp. 3, 60, 70, 100, and 129. + Compare Erman’s Reise um die Erde, Abtk. i. Bd. 3, s. 8, xYbth. ii. Bd. 1. s. 386, with his Archiv für Wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland. Bd. vi. e. 671, ILLUSTRATIONS (5). CALIFORNIAN COAST RANGE. 37 coast chain, where Fort Vancouver and the Walahmutti settlements are situated ; and it would therefore seem better to abstain from applying the name of Oregon either to the central or to the coast chain. This denomination, moreover, led the celebrated geographer Malte- Brun into a misconcep¬ tion of the most remarkable kind. He read in an old Spanish chart the following passage : — “ And it is still unknown (y aim se ignora ) where the source of this river” (now called the Columbia) “is situated,” and he believed that the word ig nor a signified the name of the Oregon.* The rocks which give rise to the cataracts of the Columbia at the point where the river breaks through the chain, mark the prolongation of the Sierra Nevada of California from the 44th to the 47th degree of latitude. f In this northern pro¬ longation of the chain lie the three colossal elevations of Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, and Mount St. Helen’s, which rise 14,540 Parisian (or 15,500 English) feet above the sea- level. The height of this coast chain or range far exceeds therefore that of the Rocky Mountains. “ During an eight months’ journey along these maritime Alps,” says Captain Fremont,;]; “ we were constantly within sight of snow-covered summits ; and while we were able to cross the Rocky Moun¬ tains through the South Pass at an elevation of 7027 feet, we found that the passes in the maritime range, which is divided into several parallel chains, were more than 2000 feet higher” — and therefore only 1170 (English) feet below the summit of Mount Etna. It is also a very remarkable fact, and one which reminds us of the relations of the eastern and western Cordilleras of Chili, that volcanoes still active are only found in the Californian chain which lies in the closest proximity to the sea. The conical mountains of Regnier and of St. Helen’s are almost invariably observed to emit smoke; and on the 23rd of November, 1843, the latter of these volcanoes erupted a mass of ashes which covered the shores of the Columbia for a distance of forty miles, like a fall of snow. To the volcanic Californian chain belong also in the far north of Russian America, Mount Elias (according to La Perouse 1980 toises, or 12,660 feet, and according to Mala- spina 2792 toises, or 17,850 feet in height), and Mount Fair * See my Essai polit. sur la Nouv. Espagne, t. ii. p. 314. + Fremont, Geographical Memoir upon Upper California, 1848, p. 0. X Report, p. 274 (or Narrative, p. 300). 38 VIEWS OF NATURE. Weather (Cerro de Buen Tiempo, 2304 toises, or 14,733 feet high). Both these conical mountains are regarded as still active volcanoes. Fremont’s expedition, which has proved alike useful in reference to botany and geognosy, like¬ wise collected volcanic products in the Bocky Mountains (as scoriaceous basalt, trachyte, and true obsidian), and discovered an old extinct crater somewhat to the east of Fort Hall (43° 2' north lat., and 112° 28' west long.), but no traces of any still active volcanoes emitting lava and ashes, were to be met with. We must not confound with these the hitherto unexplained phenomenon termed smoking hills , cotes brulees , and terrains ardens , in the language of the English settlers and the natives who speak French. “ Bows of low conical hills,” says the accurate observer M. Nicollet, “ are almost periodi¬ cally, and sometimes for two or three years continually, covered with dense black smoke, unaccompanied by any visible flames. This phenomenon is more particularly noticed in the territory of the Upper Missouri, and still nearer to the eastern declivity of the Bocky Mountains, where there is a river named by the natives Mankizitah-watpa, or the river of smoking earth. Scorified pseudo-volcanic products, a kind of porcelain jasper, are found in the vicinity of the smoking hills.” Since the expedition of Lewis and Clarke an opinion has generally prevailed that the Missouri deposits a true pumice on its banks ; but here white masses of a delicate cellular texture have been mistaken for that substance. Professor Ducatel was of opinion that the phenomenon which is chiefly observed in the chalk formation, was owing to “the decomposition of water by sulphur pyrites and to a re-action on the brown coal floetzes.”^ If before we close these general remarks regarding the configuration of North America we once more cast a glance at those regions which separate the two diverging coast chains from the central chain, we shall find in strong con- trast, on the West, between that central chain and the Cali¬ fornian Alps of the Pacific, an arid and uninhabited elevated plateau nearly six thousand feet above the sea ; and in the East, between the Bocky Mountains and the Alleghanies, (whose highest points, Mount Washington and Mount Marcy, rise, * Compare Fremont’s Bcport, pp. 164, 184, 187, 193, and 299, with Nicollet’s Illustration of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi Hirer, 1843, pp. 39-41. ILLUSTRATIONS (5). MOUNTAIN-CHAIN. 39 according to Lyell, to the respective heights, of 6652 and -5400 feet,) we see the richly watered, fruitful, and thickly- inhabited basin of the Mississippi, at an elevation of from four to six hundred feet, or more than twice that of the plains of Lombardy. The liypsometrical character of this eastern valley, or in other words, its relation to the sea’s level, has only very recently been explained by the ad¬ mirable labours of the talented French astronomer Nicollet, unhappily lost to science by a premature death. His great chart of the Upper Mississippi, executed between the years 1836 and 1840, was based on two hundred and forty astrono¬ mical determinations of latitude, and one hundred and seventy barometrical determinations of elevation. The plain which encloses the valley of the Mississippi is identical with that of northern Canada, and forms part of one and the same depressed basin, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic SeaA Wherever the low land falls in undulations, and slight elevations which still retain their un-English appellation of coteaux des prairies, coteaux des bois, occur in connected rows between the parallels of 47° and 48° north lat., these rows and gentle undulations of the ground separate the waters between Hudson’s Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Such a line of sepa¬ ration between the waters is formed, north of Lake Superior or Kichi Gummi, by the Missabay Heights, and further west by the elevations known as Hauteurs des Terres , in which are situated the true sources of the Mississippi, one of the largest rivers in the world, and which were not discovered till the year 1832. The highest of these chains of hills hardly attains an elevation of from 1500 to 1600 feet. From its mouth (the old French Balize) to St. Louis, somewhat to the south of its confluence with the Missouri, the Missis¬ sippi has a fall of only 380 feet, notwithstanding that the itinerary distance between these two points exceeds 1280 miles. The surface of Lake Superior lies at an elevation of 618 feet, and as its depth in the neighbourhood of the island of Magdalena is fully 790 feet, its bottom must be 172 feet below the surface of the ocean. f Beltrami, who in 1825 separated himself from Major Long’s * Compare my Relation Historique, t. iii. p. 234, and Nicollet, Report to the Senate of the United States, 1843, pp. 7, 57. t Nicollet, op. cit. pp. 99, 125, 128. 40 VIEWS OF NATURE, expedition, boasted that he had found the sources of the Mississippi in Lake Cass. The river passes, in its upper course, through four lakes, the second of which is the one referred to, while the outermost one, Lake Istaca (47° 13f north lat., and 95° west long.), was first recognised as the true source of the Mississippi, in 1832, in the expedition of Schoolcraft and Lieutenant Allen. This stream, which sub¬ sequently becomes so mighty, is only 17 feet in width, and 15 inches deep, when it issues from the singular horse-shoe¬ shaped Lake Istaca. The local relations of this river were first fully established on a basis of astronomical observations of position by the scientific expedition of Nicollet, in the year 1836. The height of the sources, that is to say, of the last access of water received by Lake Istaca from the ridge of separation, called Hauteur de Terre , is 1680 feet above the level of the sea. Near this point, and at the southern declivity of the same separating ridge, lies Elbow Lake, the source of the small llecl River of the north, which empties itself, after many windings, into Hudson's Bay. The Car¬ pathian Mountains exhibit similar relations in reference to the origin of the rivers which empty themselves into the Baltic and the Black Sea. M. Nicollet gave the names of celebrated astronomers, opponents as well as friends, with whom he had become acquainted in Europe, to the twenty small lakes which combine together to form narrow groups in the southern and western regions of Lake Istaca. His atlas is thus converted into a geographical album, remind¬ ing one of the botanical album of the Flora Peruviana of Iluiz and Pavon, in which the names of new families of plants were made to accord with the Court Calendar, and the various alterations made in the Oficiales de la Secre- taria. The east of the Mississippi is still occupied by dense forests; the west by prairies only, on which the buffalo {Bos Americanus ) and the musk ox {Bos moschatus ) pasture. These two species of animals, the largest of the new world, furnish the nomadic tribes of the Apaches- Llaneros and Apaches- Lipanos with the means of nourishment. The Assiniboins occasionally slay from seven to eight hundred bisons in the course of a few days in the artificial enclosures constructed for the purpose of driving together the wild ILLUSTRATIONS (5). MOUNTAIN-CHAIN. 41 herds, and known as bison parks.* The American bison, called by the Mexicans Cibolo , is killed chiefly on account of the tongue, which is regarded as a special delicacy. This animal is not a mere variety of the aurochs of the old world ; although, like other species of animals, as for instance the elk ( C er mis alecs) and the reindeer ( Cervns tarandus ), no less than the stunted inhabitants of the polar regions, it may be regarded as common to the northern portions of all continents, and as affording a proof of their former long existing connec¬ tion. The Mexicans apply to the European ox the Aztec term quaquahue , or horned animal, from quaquahuitl , a horn. The huge ox-horns which have been found in ancient Mexican buildings near Cuernavaca, south-west of the capital of Mexico, appear to me to belong to the bison. The Canadian bison can be used for agricultural labour, and will breed with the European cattle, although it is uncertain whether the hybrid thus engendered is capable of propagating its species. Albert Gallatin, who, before his appearance in Europe as a distin¬ guished diplomatist, had acquired by personal observation a considerable amount of information regarding the uncultivated parts of the United States, assures us that the fruitfulness of the mixed breed of the American buffalo and European cattle is an undoubted fact: “ the mixed breed,” he writes, “ was quite common fifty years ago in some of the north-western counties of Virginia, and the cows, the issue of that mixture, propa¬ gated like all others.” “I do not remember,” he further adds, “ that full-grown buffaloes were tamed ; but dogs would at that time occasionally bring in the young bison-calves, which were reared and bred with European cows. At Monongahela all the cattle for a long time were of this mixed breed. It was said, however, that the cows yielded but little milk.” The favourite food of the buffalo is the Tripsacum dacty loides (known as buffalo-grass in North Carolina) and a hitherto undescribed species of clover allied to the Trifolium repens , and designated by Barton as Trifolium bisonicum. I have elsewheref drawn attention to the fact, that ac¬ cording to a passage of the trustworthy Gomaraj', there * Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das innere Nord- Amerika, bd. i., 1839, s. 443. t See Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 674 (Bohn’s edition). X Historia general de las Indios, cap. 214. 42 VIEWS OF NATURE. lived, as late as the sixteenth century, an Indian tribe in the north-west of Mexico, in 40° north lat., whose greatest wealth consisted in hordes of tamed buffaloes (bueyes con una giba ). Yet, notwithstanding the possibility of taming the buffalo, and the abundance of milk it yields, and notwith- V standing the herds of Lamas in the Peruvian Cordilleras, no pastoral tribes were met with on the discovery of America. Nor does history afford any evidence of the existence, at any period, of this intermediate stage of national development. It is also a remarkable fact that the North American bison or buffalo has exerted an influence on geographical dis¬ coveries in pathless mountain districts. These animals ad¬ vance in herds of many thousands in search of a milder climate, during winter, in the countries south of the Arkansas river. Their size and cumbrous forms render it difficult for them to cross high mountains on these migratory courses, and a well-trodden buffalo-path is therefore followed wherever it is met with, as it invariably indicates the most convenient passage across the mountains. Thus buffalo-paths have indi¬ cated the best tracks for passing over the Cumberland Moun¬ tains in the south-western parts of Virginia and Kentucky, and over the Rocky Mountains, between the sources of the Y ellow- stone and Plate rivers, and between the southern branch of the Columbia and the Californian Rio Colorado. European settlements have gradually driven the buffalo from the eastern portions of the United States. Formerly these migratory animals passed the banks of the Mississippi and the Ohio, advancing far beyond Pittsburgh.* From the granitic rocks of Diego Ramirez and the deeply- intersected district of Terra del Fuego (which in the east contains silurian schist, and in the west, the same schist metamorphosed into granite by the action of subterranean Rre,)f to the North Polar Sea, the Cordilleras extend over a distance of more than 8000 miles. Although not the loftiest, they are the longest mountain chain in the world, being upheaved from one fissure, which runs in the direction of a meridian from pole to pole, and exceeding in linear * Archceologia Americana, vol. ii., 1S36, p. 139. + Darwin, Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Countries visited 1832 — 1836 by the '/Ships Adventure and Beagle, p. 2 66. ILLUSTRATIONS (5). MOUNTAIN-CHAIN. 43 extent the distance which, in the old continent, separates the Pillars of Hercules from the Icy Cape of the Tschnktches, in the north-east of Asia. Where the Andes are divided into several parallel chains, those lying nearest the sea are found to be the seat of the most active volcanoes ; and it has more¬ over been repeatedly observed that when the phenomenon of an eruption of subterranean fire ceases in one mountain chain, it breaks forth in some other parallel range. The cones of eruption usually follow the direction of the axis of the chain; but in the Mexican table-land, the active vol¬ canoes are situated on a transverse fissure, running from sea to sea, in a direction from east and west A Wherever the upheaval of mountain masses in the folding of the ancient crust of the earth has opened a communication with the fused interior, volcanic activity continued to be exhibited on the murally upheaved mass by means of the ramification of fissures. That which we call a mountain chain has not been raised to its present elevation, or manifested as it now ap¬ pears, at one definite period; for we find that rocks, varying considerably in age, have been superimposed on one another, and have penetrated towards the surface through early formed channels. The diversity observable in rocks is owing to the outpouring and upheaval of rocks of eruption, as well as to the complicated and slow process of metamorphism going on in fissures filled with vapour, and conducive to the conduction of heat. The following have for a long time, viz., from 1830 to 1848, been regarded as the highest or culminating points of the Cordilleras of the new continent : — The Nevado de Sorata, also called Ancohuma or Tusubaya (15° 52' south lat.), somewhat to the south of the village of Sorata or Esquibel, in the eastern chain of Bolivia : elevation, 25,222 feet. The Nevado de Illimani , west of the mission of Yrupana (16° 38 south lat.), also in the eastern chain of Bolivia: ele¬ vation, 24,000 feet. The Chimborazo (1° 27' south lat.), in the province of Quito: elevation, 21,422 feet. The Sorata and Illimani were first measured by the dis¬ tinguished geologist, Pentland, in the years 1827 and 1838; * Humboldt, Essai politique, t. ii. p. 173. 44 VIEWS OF NATURE. and since the publication of his large map of the basin of the Laguna de Titicaca, in June, 1848, we learn that the above elevations given for the Sorata and Illimani are 3960 feet and 2851 feet too high. His map gives only 21,286 feet for the Sorata, and 21.149 feet for the Illimani. A more exact calculation of the trigonometrical operations of 1838 led Mr. Pentland to these new results. He ascribes an elevation of from 21,700 to 22,350 feet to four summits of the western Cordilleras; and, according to his data, the Peak of Sahama would thus be 926 feet higher than the Chim¬ borazo, but 850 feet lower than the Peak of Aconcagua. (6) p. 2 — “ The desert near the basaltic mountains of Ilarudsch." Near the Egyptian Natron Lakes, which in Strabo's time had not yet been divided into the six reservoirs by which they are now characterized, there rises abruptly to the north a chain of hills, running from east to west past Fezzan, where it at length appears to form one connected range with the Atlas chain. It divides in north-eastern, as Mount Atlas does in north-western Africa the Lybia, described by Herodotus as inhabited and situated near the sea, from the land of the Berbirs, or Biledulgerid, famed for the abundance of its wild animals. On the borders of Middle Egypt the whole region, south of the 30tli degree of latitude, is an ocean of sand, studded here and there with islands or oases abounding in springs and rich in vegetation. Owing to the discoveries of recent travellers, a vast addition has been made to the number of the Oases formerly known, and which the ancients limited to three, compared by Strabo to spots upon a panther's skin. The third Oasis of the ancients, now called Siwah, was the nomos of Ammon, a hierarchical seat and a resting-place for the caravans, which inclosed within its precincts the temple of the horned Ammon and the spring of the Sun, whose waters were supposed to become cool at certain periods. The ruins of Ummibida ( Omm-Beydah ) incontestably belong to the fortified caravanserai at the Temple of Ammon, and therefore constitute one of the most ancient monuments which have come down to us from the dawn of human civilization.* * Caillaud, Voyage ciSyouah , p. 14 ; Ideler , Fundgruben des Orients bd. iv. s. 399—411. ILLUSTRATIONS (6). MOUNTAINS OF THE HARUDSCH. 45 The word Oasis is Egyptian, and is synonymous with Auasis and Hyasis.* Abulfeda calls the Oases el-Wah. In the latter time of the Caesars, malefactors were sent to the Oases, being banished to these islands in the sandy ocean, as the Spaniards and English transported their malefactors to the Falkland islands and New Holland. The ocean affords almost a better chance of escape than the desert surrounding the Oases; which, moreover, diminish in fruitfulness in propor¬ tion to the greater quantity of sand incorporated in the soil. The small mountain range of Harudsch {Harudje f) consists of grotesquely-shaped basaltic hills. It is the Mons Ater of Pliny, and its western extremity, known as the Soudah mountain, has been recently explored by my unfortunate friend, the enterprising traveller Ritchie. These basaltic eruptions in the tertiary limestone, and rows of hills rising abruptly from fissures, appear to be analogous to the basaltic eruptions in the Vicentine territory. Nature repeats the same phenomena in the most distant regions of the earth. Hornemann found an immense quantity of petrified fishes’ heads in the limestone formations of the White Harudsch ( Harudje el-Abiad ), belonging probably to the old chalk. Ritchie and Lyon remarked that the basalt of the Soudah mountain was in many places intimately mingled with carbonate of lime, as is the case in Monte Berico ; a phenomenon that is probably connected with eruptions through limestone strata. Lyon’s chart even indi¬ cates dolomite in the neighbourhood. Modern mineralogists have found syenite and greenstone, but not basalt, in Egypt. Is it possible that the true basalt, from which many of the ancient vases found in various parts of the country were made, can have been derived from a mountain lying so far to the west ? Can the obsidins lapis have come from there, or are we to seek basalt and obsidian on the coast of the Red Sea ? The strip of the volcanic eruptions of Harudsch, on the borders of the African desert, moreover reminds the geologist of augitic vesicular amygdaloid, phonolite, and greenstone porphyry, which are only found on the northern and western limits of the steppes of Venezuela * Strabo, lib. ii. p. 130, lib. xvii. p. S13, Cas. ; Herod, lib. iii. cap. 26. p. 207, Wessel. t See Ritter’s Afrika , 1822, s. 885, 988, 993, and 1003. 46 VIEWS OF NATURE. and of the plains of the Arkansas, and therefore, as it were, on the ancient coast chains.* * * § (7) p. 3—“ When suddenly deserted by the tropical east wind , and the sea is covered with weeds.” It is a remarkable phenomenon, although one generally known to mariners, that in the neighbourhood of the African coast, (between the Canaries and the Cape de Verde islands, and more especially between Cape Bojador and the mouth of the Senegal,) a westerly wind often prevails instead of the usual east or trade wind of the tropics. The cause of this phenomenon is to be ascribed to the far-extending desert of Zahara, and arises from the rarefaction, and consequent vertical ascent of the air over the heated sandy surface. To fill up the vacuum thus occasioned, the cool sea-air rushes in, producing a westerly breeze, adverse to vessels sailing to America ; and the mariner, long before he perceives any con¬ tinent, is made sensible of the effects of its heat-radiating sands. As is well known, a similar cause produces that alternation of sea and land breezes, which prevails at certain hours of the day and night on all sea- coasts. The accumulation of sea- weed in the neighbourhood of the western coasts of Africa has been often referred to by ancient writers. The local position of this accumulation is a problem which is intimately connected with the conjec¬ tures regarding the extent of Phoenician navigation. The Periplus, which has been ascribed to Scylax of Caryanda, and which, according to the investigations of Niebuhr and Letronne, was very probably compiled in the time of Philip of Macedon, contains a description of a kind of fucus sea. Mar de Sargasso , beyond Cerne ; but the locality indicated appears to me very different from that assigned to it in the work “ De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus,” which for a long time, but incorrectly, bore the great name of Aristotle, f “ Driven by the east wind,” says the pseudo- Aristotle, “ Phoenician * Humboldt, lielat. hist., t. ii. p. 142, and Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, v. ii. pp. 91 and 405. f Compare Scyl. Caryand. Peripl., in Hudson, vqI. ii. p. 53, with Aristot. de Mirab. Auscidt. in Op. omnia, ex rec. Bekkeri, p. 884, § 136. , ILLUSTRATIONS (7). MEADOWS OF SEA-WEED. 47 mariners came in a four days’ voyage from Gades to a place where the sea was found covered with rushes and sea-weed (Opvov ml cfrvKos). The sea- weed is uncovered at ebb, and overflowed at flood tide.” Does he not here refer to a shoal lying between the 34th and 36th degrees of latitude? Has a shoal disappeared there in consequence of volcanic revo¬ lution? Vobonne refers to rocks north of Madeira.* In Scylax it is stated that ‘ ‘ the sea beyond Cerne ceases to be navigable in consequence of its great shallowness, its mud¬ diness, and its sea-grass. The sea-grass lies a span thick, and it is pointed at its upper extremity, so that it pricks.” The sea-weed which is found between Cerne (the Phoenician station for merchant vessels, Gaulea; or, according to Gosse- lin, the small estuary of Fedallah, on the north-west coast of Mauritania,) and Cape Verde, at the present time by no means forms a great meadow or connected group, “ mare herbidum ,” such as exists on the other side of the Azores. Moreover, in the poetic description of the coast given by Festus Avienus, f in which, as Avienus himself very distinctly acknowledges, he availed himself of the journals of Phoenician ships, the impediments presented by the sea- weed are described with great minuteness ; but Avienus places the site of this obstacle much further north, towards lerne, the Holy Isle. Sic nulla late flabra propellunt ratem. Sic segnis humor aequoris pigri stupet. Adjicit et illud, pluriniiim inter gurgites Exstare fucum, et saspe virgulti vice Retinere puppim .... Haec inter undas multa CEespitem jacet, Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit. When we consider that the sea- weed ( facus ) the mud or slime (7777X0$), the shallowness of the sea, and the perpetual calms, are always regarded by the ancients as characteristic of the Western Ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules, we feel inclined, especially on account of the reference to the calms , to ascribe this to Punic cunning, to the tendency of a great trading people to hinder others, by terrific descriptions, from competing with them in maritime trading westwards. But even * See also Edrisi, Geogr. Nub., 1619, p. 157. t Ora Maritima, v. 109, 122, 388, and 408. 48 VIEWS OF NATURE. in the genuine writings of the Stagyrite,* the same opinion is retained regarding the absence of wind, and Aristotle attempts to explain a false notion, or, as it seems to me, more correctly speaking, a fabulous mariner's story, by an hypo¬ thesis regarding the depth of the sea. The stormy sea be¬ tween Gades and the Islands of the Blest (Cadiz and the Canaries) can in truth in no way be compared with the sea, which lies between the tropics, ruffled only by the gentle trade-winds ( vents alises ), and which has been very charac¬ teristically named by the Spaniards! El Golfo de las Damas. From very careful personal researches and from compari¬ son of the logs of many English and French vessels, I am led to believe that the old and very indefinite expression Mar de Sargasso, refers to two fucus banks, the larger of which is of an elongated form, and is the easternmost one, lying between the parallels of 19° and 34°, in a meridian 7° westward of the Island of Corvo, one of the Azores ; while the smaller and westernmost bank is of a roundish form, and is found between Bermuda and the Bahama Islands (lat. 25° — 31°, long. 66° — 74°). The principal diameter of the small bank, which is traversed by ships sailing from Baxo de Plata (Caye d' Argent,) northward of St. Domingo to the Bermudas, appears to me to have a N. 60° E. direction. A transverse band of fucus natans, extending in an east-westerly direction between the latitudes of 25° and 30°, connects the greater with the smaller bank. I have had the pleasure of seeing thess' views adopted by my lamented friend Major Pennell, and confirmed, in his great work on Currents, by many new observations.'! The two groups of sea-weed, together with the transverse band uniting them, constitute the Sargasso Sea of the older writers, and collectively occupy an area equal to six or seven times that of Germany. The vegetation of the ocean thus offers the most remark¬ able example of social plants of a single species. On the main land the Savannahs or grass plains of America, the heaths ( ericeta ), and the forests of Northern Europe and Asia, * Aristot. Meteorol., ii. 1, 14. •f Acosta, Historia natural y moral de las Indias, lib. iii. cap. 4. + Compare Humboldt, Relation historigue, t. i. p. 202, and Examen Critique, t. iii. pp. 68-69, with Rennell’s Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic Ocean, 1832, p. 184. ILLUSTRATIONS (7). FOCUS BANKS. 49 in which are associated coniferous trees, birches, and willows, produce a less striking uniformity than do these thalassophytes. Our heaths present in the north not only the predominating Calluna vulgaris, but also Erica tetralix, E. ciliaris, and E. cinerea; and in the south, Erica arborea, E. scoparia, and E. Mediterranea. The uniformity of the view presented by the Fucus natans is incomparably greater than that of any other assemblage of social plants. Oviedo calls the fucus banks “meadows,” praderias de yerva. If we consider that Pedro Velasco, a native of the Spanish harbour of Palos, by following the flight of certain birds from Eayal, discovered the Island of Flores as early as 1452, it seems almost impos¬ sible, considering the proximity of the great fucus bank of Corvo and Flores, that no part of these oceanic meadows should have been seen before the time of Columbus by Por¬ tuguese ships driven westward by storms. We learn, however, from the astonishment of the com¬ panions of the admiral, when they were continuously sur¬ rounded by sea- grass from the 16tli of September to the 8th of October, 1492, that the magnitude of the phenomenon was at that period unknown to mariners. In the extracts from the ship's journal given by Las Casas, Columbus cer¬ tainly does not mention the apprehensions which the accumu¬ lation of sea- weed excited, or the grumbling of his companions. He merely speaks of the complaints and murmurs regarding the danger of the very weak but constant east winds. It was only his son, Fernando Colon, who in the history of his father’s life, endeavoured to give a somewhat dramatic delinea¬ tion of the anxieties of the sailors. According to my researches, Columbus made his way through the great fucus bank in the year 1492, in latitude 28^°, and in 1493, in latitude 37°, and both times in the longitude of 38°-41°. This can be established with tolerable certainty from the estimation of the velocity recorded by Columbus, and “the distance daily sailed over;” not indeed by dropping the log, but by the information afforded by the running out of half-hour sand-glasses ( ampolletas ). The first certain and distinct account of the log, ( catena della poppa,) which I have found, is in the year 1521, in Pigafetta’s Journal of Magellan’s Circumnavigation of the World.* The deter- * See Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 631, and note; Bohn’s edition. 50 VIEWS OF NATURE. mination of the ship's place during the days in which Colum¬ bus was crossing the great bank is the more important, because it shews us that for three centuries and a half the total accumulation of these socially- living thalassophytes, (whether consequent on the local character of the sea's bottom or on the direction of the recurrent Gulf stream,) has re¬ mained at the same point. Such evidences of the persistence of great natural phenomena doubly arrest the attention of the natural philosopher, when they occur in the ever-moving oceanic element. Although the limits of the fucus banks oscillate considerably, in accordance with the strength and direction of long predominating winds, yet we may still, in the middle of the nineteenth century, take the meridian of 41° west of Paris (or 8° 38' west of Greenwich) as the principal axis of the great bank. Columbus, with his vivid imaginative force, associated the idea of the position of this bank with the great physical line of demarcation, which according to him, “ separated the globe into two parts, and was intimately con¬ nected with the changes of magnetic deviation and of climatic erlations.” Columbus when he was uncertain regarding the longitude, attempted to determine his place (February, 1493,) by the appearance of the first floating masses of tangled weed (de la 'primer a yerva) on the eastern border of the great Corvo bank. The physical line of demarcation was, by the pow¬ erful influence of the Admiral, converted on the 4th of May, 1493, into a political one, in the celebrated line of demar¬ cation between the Spanish and Portuguese rights of pos¬ session*. (8) p. 3 — “ The Nomadic Tribes of Tibbos and Tuaryks.” These two nations, which inhabit the desert between Bornou, Fezzan, and Lower Egypt, were first made more accurately known to us by the travels of Hornemann and Lyon. The Tibbos or Tibbous occupy the eastern, and the Tuaryks (Tueregs) the western portion of the great sandy ocean. The former, from their habits of constant moving, were named by the other tribes “birds.” The Tuaryks are subdivided into two tribes — the Aghadez and the Tagazi. These are often caravan leaders and merchants. They speak * See my Examen Critique, t. iii. pp. 64 — 99 ; and Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 655. Bohn’s edition. ILLUSTRATIONS (9). THE CAMEL. 51 tlie same language as the Berbers, and undoubtedly belong to the primitive Lybian races. They present the remarkable physiological phenomenon that, according to the character of the climate, the different tribes vary in complexion from a white to a yellow, or even almost black hue ; but they never have woolly hair or negro features.*' (9) p. 3 — “ The ship of the desert.1' In the poetry of the East, the camel is designated as the land-ship , or the ship of the desert ( Sefxjnet-el-bad\jet\ ). The camel is, however, not only the carrier in the desert, and the medium for maintaining communication between different countries, but is also, as Carl Ritter has shown in his admirable treatise on the sphere of distribution of this animal, “ the main requirement of a nomadic mode of life in the patriarchal stage of national development, in the torrid regions of our planet, where rain is either wholly or in a areat decree absent. No animal's life is so closelv associated O O # .... by natural bonds with a certain primitive stage of the deve¬ lopment of the life of man, as that of the camel among the Bedouin tribes, nor has any other been established in like manner by a continuous historical evidence of several thousand years. “The camel was entirely unknown to the culti¬ vated people of Carthage through all the centuries of their flourishing existence, until the destruction of the city. It was first brought into use for armies by the Marusians, in Western Lybia, in the times of the Caesars ; perhaps in con¬ sequence of its employment in commercial undertakings by the Ptolemies, in the valley of the Nile. The Guanches, inhabiting the Canary Islands, who were probably related to the Berber race, were not acquainted with the camel before the fifteenth century, when it was introduced by Norman conquerors and settlers. In the probably very limited com¬ munication of the Guanches with the coast of Africa, the smallness of their boats must necessarily have impeded the transport of large animals. The true Berber race, which wras diffused throughout the interior of Northern Africa, and to which the Tibbos and Tuaryks, as already observed, belong, * Exploration ecientifique de V Alger ie, t. ii. p. 343. + Chardin, Voyages, nouv. ed. par Langtes, 1811. t. iii. p. 376. J Asien , Bd. viii., Abth. 1, 1847, s. 610, 758. E 2 52 YIEWS OE NATURE. is probably indebted to the use of the camel throughout the Lybian desert and its oases, not only for the advantages of internal communication, but also for its escape from com¬ plete annihilation and for the maintenance of its national ex¬ istence to the present day. The use of the camel continued, on the other hand, to be unknown to the negro races, and it was only in company with the conquering expeditions and proselyting missions of the Bedouins through the whole of Northern Africa, that the useful animal of the Nedschd, of the Nabatheans, and of all the districts occupied by Aramean races, spread here, as elsewhere, to the westward. The Goths brought camels as early as the fourth century to the Lower Istros (the Danube), and the Ghaznevides transported them in much larger numbers to India as far as the banks of the Ganges.” We must distinguish two epochs in the distri¬ bution of the camel throughout the northern part of the African continent; the first under the Ptolemies, which operated through Cyrene on the whole of the north-west of Africa, and the second under the Mahommedan epoch of the conquering Arabs. It has long been a matter of discussion, whether those domestic animals which were the earliest companions of mankind, as oxen, sheep, dogs, and camels, are still to be met with in a state of original wildness. The Hiongnu, in Eastern Asia, are among the nations who earliest trained wild camels as domestic animals. The compiler of the great Chinese work, Si-yu-wen-kien-lo* , states that in the middle of the eighteenth century, wild camels, as well as wild horses and wild asses, still roamed over Eastern Turkestan. Hadji Chalfa, in his Turkish Geography, written in the seventeenth century, speaks of the very frequent hunting of the wild camel in the high plains of Kashgar, Turfan, and Khotan. Schott finds in the writings of a Chinese author, Ma-dschi, that wild camels exist in the countries north of China and west of the basin of the Hoang-ho, in Ho-si or Tangut. Cuvier \ alone doubts the present existence of wild camels in the inte¬ rior of Asia. He believes that they have merely “ become wild;” since Calmucks, and others professing kindred Bud- * Historici Regionum Occidentalium, quee Si-yu vocantur, vim et auditu cognitcirum. t Regne animal , t. i. p. 257. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE PLATEAUX OF ASIA. 53 dhist doctrines, set camels and other animals at liberty, in order “ to acquire to themselves merit for the other world.” The Ailanitic Gulf of the Nabatheans was the home of the wild Arabian camel, according to Greek witnesses of the times of Artemidorus and Agatharchides of Cnidus.* The discovery of fossil camel-bones of the ancient world in the Sewalik hills (which are projecting spurs of the Himalaya range), by Cap¬ tain Cautley and Dr. Falconer, in 1834, is especially worthy of notice. These remains were found with antediluvian bones of mastodons, true elephants, giraffes, and a gigantic land tortoise ( Colossochelys ), twelve feet in length and six feet in height. f This camel of the ancient world has been named Camelus sivcilensis , although it does not show any great difference from the still living Egyptian and Bactrian camels with one and two humps. Forty camels have very recently been introduced into Java, from Teneriffe^. The first experiment has been made in Samarang. In like manner, reindeer were only introduced into Iceland from Norway in the course of the last century. They were not found there when the island was first colonised, notwithstanding its proximity to East Green¬ land, and the existence of floating masses of ice.§ (10) p. 3 — “ Between the Altai and the Kuen-liin .” The great highland, or, as it is commonly called, the mountain plateau of Asia, which comprises the lesser Bucharia, Songaria, Thibet, Tangut, and the Mogul country of the Chalcas and Olotes, is situated between the 36th and 48th degrees of north latitude and the meridians of 81° and 118° E. long. It is an erroneous idea to represent this part of the interior of Asia as a single, undivided mountainous swelling, continuous like the plateaux of Quito and Mexico, and situated from seven to upwards of nine thousand feet above the level of the sea. I have already shown in my “Researches respecting the Mountains of Northern India, ||” that there is not in this sense any con¬ tinuous mountain plateau in the interior of Asia. * Eitter, Asien, Bd. viii. s. 670, 672, and 746. •f- Humboldt, Cosmos, Bohn’s ed., vol. i. p. 281. 7 Singapore Journal of the Indian Archipelago, 1847, p. 286. § Sartorius von Waltershausen, Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island, 1847, s. 41. || Humboldt, Premier Memoire sur les Montagnes de l'Inde, in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. iii. 1816, p. 303; Second Me¬ moire, t. xiv. 1820, pp. 5 — 55. 54 VIEWS OF NATURE. My views concerning the geographical distribution of plants, and the mean degree of temperature requisite for certain kinds of cultivation, had early led me to entertain considerable doubts regarding the continuity of a great Tartarian plateau be¬ tween the Himalaya and the chain of the Altai. This plateau continued to be characterized, as it had been described by Hippocrates, as “ the high and naked plains of Scythia, which, without being crowned with mountains, rise and extend to beneath the constellation of the Bear.’'1* Klaproth has the un¬ deniable merit of having been the first to make us acquainted with the true position and prolongation of two great and entirely distinct chains of mountains, — the Kuen-lün and the Thian-schan, in a part of Asia which better deserves to be termed “ central,” than Kashmeer, Baltistan, and the Sacred Lakes of Thibet (the Manasa and the Ravanahrada). The importance of the Celestial Mountains (the Thian-schan) had indeed been already surmised by Pallas, without his being conscious of their volcanic character ; but this highly- gifted investigator of nature, led astray by the hypotheses of the dog¬ matic and fantastic geology prevalent in his time, and firmly believing in “ chains of mountains radiating from a centre,” saw in the Bogdo Oola (the Mons Augustus , or culminating point of the Thian-schan,) such “ a central node, whence all the other Asiatic mountain chains diverge in rays, and which dominates over all the rest of the continent!” The erroneous idea of a single boundless and elevated plain, occupying the whole of Central Asia, the “ Plateau de la Tartaric A originated in France, in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It was the result of historical combina¬ tions, and of a not sufficiently attentive study of the writings of the celebrated Venetian traveller, as well as of the naive relations of those diplomatic monks who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (thanks to the unity and extent of the Mogul empire at that time), were able to traverse almost the whole of the interior of the continent, from the ports of Syria and of the Caspian Sea to the east coast of China, washed by the great ocean. If a more exact acquaintance with the language and ancient literature of India were of an older date among us than half a century, the hypothesis of this central plateau, occupying the wide space between the Himalaya and @ Dc A (ire et Aquis, § xevi. p. 7 f. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE PLATEAUX OF INDIA. 5*5 the south of Siberia, would no doubt have sought support from some ancient and venerable authority. The poem of the Mahabharata appears, in the geographical fragment Bhisch- makanda, to describe “ Meru” not so much as a mountain as an enormous swelling of the land, which supplies with water the sources of the Ganges, those of the Bhadrasoma (Irtysch), and those of the forked Oxus. These physico-geographical views were intermingled in Europe with ideas of other kinds, and with mythical reveries on the origin of mankind. The lofty regions from which the waters were supposed to have first retreated (for geologists in general were long averse to the theories of elevation) must also have received the first germs of civilization. Hebraic systems of geology, based on ideas of a deluge, and supported by local traditions, favoured these assumptions. The intimate connexion between time and space, between the beginning of social order and the plastic condition of the surface of the earth, lent a peculiar import¬ ance and an almost moral interest to the Plateau of Tartary, which was supposed to be characterized by uninterrupted continuity. Acquisitions of positive knowledge, — the late matured fruit of scientific travels and direct measurements, — with a fundamental study of the languages and literature of Asia, and more especially of China, have gradually demon¬ strated the inaccuracy and exaggeration of those wild hypo¬ theses. The mountain plains (dpo7reöta) of Central Asia are no longer regarded as the cradle of human civilization, and the primitive seat of all arts and sciences. The ancient nation of Bailly's Atlantis, which d’Alembert has happily described as “ having taught us everything but its own name and existence,” has vanished. The inhabitants of the Oceanic Atlantis were already treated, in the time of Posidonius, as having a merely apocryphal existence.*1 A plateau of considerable but very unequal elevation runs with little interruption, in a S.S.W.-N.N.E. direction, from Eastern Thibet towards the mountain node of Kentei, south of Lake Baikal, and is known by the names of Gobi, Scha-mo, (sand desert,) Scha-ho, (sand river,) and Ilanhai. This swell¬ ing of the ground, which is probably more ancient than the elevation of the mountain-chains by which it is intersected, is situated, as we have already remarked, between 81° and 118° * Strabo, lib. ii. p. 102; and lib. xiii. p. 598, Casaub. 56 VIEWS OE NATURE. east longitude from Greenwich. Measured at right angles to its longitudinal axis, its breadth in the south, between Ladak, Gertop, and ITlassa (the seat of the great Lama), is 720 miles: between Hami in the Celestial Mountains, and the great curve of the Iloang-ho, near the In-schan chain, it is scarcely 480; but in the north, between the Khanggai, where the great city of Karakhorum once stood, and the chain of Khin-gan-Petscha, which runs in a meridian line (in the part of Gobi traversed in going from Kiachta to Pekin by way of Urga), it is 760 miles. The whole extent of this elevated ground, which must be care¬ fully distinguished from the more eastern and higher mountain- range, may be approximately estimated, including its deflec¬ tions, at about three times the area of France. The map of the mountain-ranges and volcanoes of Central Asia, which I constructed in 1839, but did not publish until 1843, shows in the clearest manner the hypsometric relations between the mountain-ranges and the Gobi plateau. It was founded on the critical employment of all the astronomical determinations accessible to me, and on many of the very rich and copious orographic descriptions in which Chinese literature abounds, and which were examined at my request by Klaproth and Sta¬ nislaus Julien. My map marks in prominent characters the mean direction and the height of the mountain-chains, toge¬ ther with the chief features of the interior of the continent of Asia from 30 to CO degrees of latitude, between the meridians of Pekin and Cherson. It differs essentially from any map hitherto published. The Chinese enjoyed a triple advantage, by means of which they were enabled to enrich their earliest literature with so considerable an amount of orographic knowledge re¬ garding Upper Asia, and more especially those regions situated between the In-schan, the alpine lake of Khuku-noor, and the shores of the Hi and Tarim, lying north and south of the Celestial Mountains, and which were so little known to 'Western Europe. These three advantages were, besides the peaceful conquests of the Buddhist pilgrims, the warlike expeditions towards the west (as early as the dynasties of Han and Thang, one hundred and twenty-two years before our era, and again in the ninth century, when conquerors ad¬ vanced as far as Ferghana and the shores of the Caspian Sea); the religious interest attached to certain high mountain sum- ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE PLATEAUX OF ASIA. 57 mits, on account of the periodical performance of sacrifices, in accordance with pre-existing enactments; and lastly, the early and generally known use of the compass for determining the direction of mountains and rivers. This use, and the know¬ ledge of the south-pointing of the magnetic needle, twelve centuries before the Christian era, gave a great superiority to the orographic and hydrographic descriptions of the Chinese over those of Greek and Roman authors, who treated less fre¬ quently of subjects of this nature. The acute observer Strabo was alike ignorant of the direction of the Pyrenees and of that of the Alps and Apennines.'1' To the lowlands belong almost the whole of Northern Asia to the north-west of the volcanic Celestial Mountains (Thian-schan) ; the steppes to the north of the Altai and the Sayanic chain; and the countries which extend from the mountains of Bolor, or Bulyt-tagh (Cloud Mountains in the Uigurian dialect), which run in a north and south direction, and from the upper Oxus, whose sources were dis¬ covered in the Pamershian Lake, Sir-i-kol (Lake Victoria), by the Buddhist pilgrims Hiuen-thsang and Song-yun in 518 and 629, by Marco Polo in 1277, and by Lieutenant Wood in 1838, towards the Caspian Sea; and from Lake Tenghiz or Balkasch, through the Kirghis Steppe, towards the Aral and the southern extremity of the Ural Mountains. In the vicinity of mountainous plains, whose elevation varies from 6000 to more than 10,000 feet above the sea’s level, we may assuredly be allowed to apply the term lowlands to districts which are only elevated from 200 to 1200 feet. The first of these heights correspond with that of the city of Mannheim, and the second with that of Geneva and Tübingen. If we extend the application of the word plateau, which has so frequently been misused.' by modern geographers, to elevations of the soil which scarcely present any sensible difference in the cha¬ racter of the vegetation and climate, physical geography, owing to the indefiniteness of the merely relatively important terms of high and low land, will be unable to distinguish the connexion between elevation above the sea’s level and climate, between the decrease of the temperature and the increase in elevation. When I was in Chinese Dzungarei, * Compare Strabo, lib. ii. pp. 71, 128; lib. iii. p. 137; lib. iv. pp. 199, 202; lib. v. p. 211, Casaub. 58 VIEWS OF NATURE. between the boundaries of Siberia and Lake Saysan (Dsai- sang), at an equal distance from the Icy Sea and the mouth of the Ganges, I might assuredly consider myself to be in Central Asia. The barometer, however, soon showed me that the elevation of the plains watered by the Upper Irtysch between Ustkamenogorsk and the Chinese Dzungarian post of Choni- mailachu (the sheep- bleating) was scarcely as much as from 850 to 1170 feet. Pansner's earlier barometric determinations of height, which were first made known after my expedition, have been confirmed by my own observations. Both afford a refutation of the hypotheses of Chappe D’Auteroche (based on calculations of the fall of rivers) regarding the elevated position of the shores of the Irtysch, in Southern Siberia. Even further eastward, the Lake of Baikal is only 1420 feet above the level of the sea. In order to associate the idea of the relation between low¬ lands and highlands , and of the successive gradations in the elevation of the soil, with actual data based on accurate mea¬ surements, I subjoin a table, in which the heights of the ele¬ vated plains of Europe, Africa, and America are given in an ascending scale. With these numbers we may then further compare all that has as yet been made known regarding the mean height of the Asiatic plains, or true lowlands. Toises. Feet. Plateau of Auvergne .... 170 1,087 yy of Bavaria ... 260 1,663 yy of Castille ..... 350 2,238 of Mysore ..... 460 2,942 yy of Caracas ..... 480 3,070 yy of Popayan ..... 900 5,755 » of the vicinity of the Lake of Tzana, in Abyssinia .... 950 6,075 yy of the Orange River (in South Africa) 1000 6,395 yy of Axum (in Abyssinia) 1100 7,034 yy of Mexico ..... 1170 7,482 yy of Quito ..... 1490 9,528 yy of the Province de los Pastös . 1600 10,231 yy of the vicinity of the Lake of Titicaca 2010 12,853 No portion of the so-called Desert of Gobi, which con. sists in part of fine pasture lands, has been so thoroughly investigated in relation to its differences of elevations as the zone which extends over an area of nearly 600 miles, be- ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE PLATEAUX OE ASIA. 59 tween the sources of the Selenga and the Chinese wall. A very accurate barometrical levelling was executed, under the auspices of the Academy of St. Petersburgh, by two distin¬ guished savans — the astronomer George Fuss, and the bota¬ nist Bunge. They accompanied a mission of Greek monks to Pekin, in the year 1832, in order to establish there one of those magnetic stations whose construction I had recom¬ mended. The mean height of this portion of the Desert of Gobi amounts hardly to 4263 feet, and not to 8000 or 8500 feet, as had been too hastily concluded from the measure¬ ments of contiguous mountain summits by the Jesuits Ger- billon and Yerbiest. The surface of the Desert of Gobi is not more than 2558 feet above the level of the sea between Erghi, Durma, and Scharaburguna ; and scarcely more than 320 feet higher than the plateau of Madrid. Erghi is situated midway, in 45° 3 P north lat., and 1110 26' east long., in a depression of the land extending in a direction from south¬ west to north-east over a breadth of more than 240 miles. An ancient Mongolian saga designates this spot as the former site of a large inland sea. Heeds and saline plants, generally of the same species as those found on the low shores of the Caspian Sea, are here met with; while there are in this central part of the desert several small saline lakes, the salt of which is carried to China. According to a singular opinion prevalent among the Mongols, the ocean will at some period return, and again establish its dominion in Gobi. Such geo¬ logical reveries remind us of the Chinese traditions of the bitter lake , in the interior of Siberia, of which I have else¬ where spoken.^ The basin of Kashmir, which has been so enthusiasti¬ cally praised by Bernier, and too moderately estimated by Victor Jacquemont, has also given occasion to great hyp¬ sometric exaggerations. Jacquemont found by an accu¬ rate barometric measurement that the height of the Wulur Lake, in the valley of Kashmir, near the capital Sirinagur, was 5346 feet. Uncertain determinations by the boiling- point of water gave Baron Carl von Hügel 5819 feet, and Lieutenant Cunningham only 5052 feet.f The mountainous * Humboldt, Asie centrale, t. ii. p. 141; Klaproth, A sie polyglotta, p. 232. 4 Compare my Asie centrale, t. iii. p. 310, with the Journal of the Asiatic Soc.of Bengal, vol. x. 1841, p. 114. 60 VIEWS OF NATURE. districts of Kashmir, which has excited so great an interest in Germany, and whose climatic advantages have lost some¬ what of their reputation since Carl von Hügel's account of the four months of winter snow in the streets of Sirinagur,* does not lie on the high crests of the Himalaya, as has com¬ monly been supposed, but constitutes a true cauldron-like valley on their southern declivity. On the south-west, where the rampart-like Pir Panjal separates it from the Indian Pun- jaub, the snow-crowned summits are covered, according to Vigne, by basaltic and amygdaloid formations. The latter are very characteristically termed by the natives schischak deyu, or devil's pock-marks. j* The charms of the vegetation have also been very differently described, according as tra¬ vellers passed into Kashmir from the south, and left behind them the luxuriant and varied vegetation of India; or from the northern regions of Turkestan, Samarkand, and Ferghana. Moreover, it is only very recently that we have obtained a clearer view regarding the elevation of Thibet, the level of the plateau having long been uncritically confounded with the mountain tops rising from it. Thibet occupies the space between the two great chains of the Himalaya and the Kuen- liin, and forms the elevated ground of the valley between them. The land is divided from east to west, both by the inhabitants and by Chinese geographers, into three parts. We distinguish Upper Thibet, with its capital, H'lassa (pro¬ bably 9592 feet high) ; Middle Thibet, with the town of Leh or Ladak (9995 feet); and Little Thibet, or Baltistan, called the Thibet of Apricots (Sari-Butan), in which lie Iskardo (6300 feet), Gilgit, and south of Iskardo, but on the left bank uf the Indus, the plateau Deotsuh, whose elevation wras deter¬ mined by Vigne (1 1,977 feet). On carefully examining all the notices we have hitherto possessed regarding the three Thi- bets, and which will have been abundantly augmented during the present year by the brilliant boundary surveying expedi¬ tion under the auspices of the Governor-general, Lord Dal- housie, we soon become convinced that the region between the Himalaya and the Kuen-lün is no unbroken table-land, but that it is intersected by mountain groups, which un¬ doubtedly belong to perfectly distinct systems of elevation. * See Ins Kashmir , Bd. ii. s. 196. T Yigne, Travels in Kashmir , 1842, vol. i. pp. 237 — 293. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE PLATEAUX OE ASIA. 61 Actual plains are very few in number : the most considerable are those between Gertop, Daba, Schang-thung (the Shep¬ herd’s Plain), the native country of the shawl-goat, and Schipke (10,449 feet); those round Ladak, which attain an elevation of 13,429 feet, and must not be confounded with the depressed land in which the town lies; and finally, the plateau of the Sacred Lakes, Manasa and Ravanahrada (pro¬ bably 14,965 feet), which was visited by Father Antonio do Andrada as early as the year 1625. Other parts are entirely filled with compressed mountain masses, “ rising,” as a recent traveller observes, “ like the waves of a vast ocean.” Along the rivers, the Indus, the Sutledge, and the Yaru-dzangbo- tschu, which was formerly regarded as identical with the Buramputer (or correctly the Brahma-putra), points have been measured which are only between 6714 and 8952 feet above the sea; and the same is the case with the Thibetian villages Pangi, Kunawur, Kelu, and Murung.* From many carefully collected determinations of heights, I think that we are justified in assuming that the plateau of Thibet between 73° and 85° east long, does not attain a mean elevation of 11,510 feet: this is hardly the elevation of the fruitful plain of Caxamarca in Peru, and is 1349 and 2155 feet less than the plateau of Titicaca, and of the street pave¬ ment of the Upper Town of Potosi (13,665 feet). That beyond the Thibetian highlands and the Gobi, whose outline has been already defined, Asia presents considerable depressions, and indeed true lowlands, between the parallels of 37° and 48°, where once an immeasurable continuous plateau was fabulously supposed to exist, is proved by the cultivation of plants which cannot flourish without a cer¬ tain degree of temperature. An attentive study of the travels of Marco Polo, in which mention is made of the cultivation of the vine, and of the production of cotton in northern lati¬ tudes, had long ago directed the attention of the acute Klaproth to this point. In a Chinese work, bearing the title Information respecting the recently conquered Barbarians (Sin- kiang-wai-tan-ki-lio), it is stated that “ the country of Aksu, somewhat to the south of the Celestial Mountains, near the rivers which form the great Tarim-gol, produces grapes, pomegranates, and numberless other fruits of singular excel- * Humboldt, A sie Centrale , t. iii. pp. 281—325. 62 VIEWS OF NATURE. lence ; also cotton (Gossypium religiosum), which covers the fields like yellow clouds. In summer the heat is extremely great, and in winter there is here, as at Turfan, neither intense cold nor heavv snow.” The neighbourhood of Khotan. Kaschgar, and Yarkand still, as in the time of Marco Polo,* * * §“' pays its tribute in home-grown cotton. In the oasis of Hami (Khamil), above 200 miles east of Aksu, orange trees, pome¬ granates, and the finer vines are found to flourish. The products of cultivation which are here noticed lead to the belief that over extensive districts the elevation of the soil is very slight. At so great a distance from the sea side, and in the easterly situation which so much increases the degree of winter cold, a plateau, as high as Madrid or Munich, might indeed have a very hot summer, but would hardly have, in 43° and 44° latitude, an extremely mild and almost snowless winter. I have seen a high summer heat favour the cultivation of the vine, as at the Caspian Sea, 83 feet below the level of the Black Sea (at Astrachan, latitude 46° 21/); but the winter cold is there from — 4° to — 13°. Moreover, the vine is sunk to a greater depth in the ground after the month of November. We can understand that cul¬ tivated plants, which, as it were, live only in the summer, as the vine, the cotton plant, rice, and melons, may be cultivated with success between the latitudes of 40° and 44°, on plateaux at an elevation of more than 3000f feet, and may be favoured by the action of radiant heat ; but how could the pomegranate trees of Aksu, and the orange trees of Hami, whose fruit Father Grosier extolled as excellent, endure a long and severe winter (the necessary consequence of a great elevation+)? Carl Zimmerman § has shown it to be extremely probable that the Tarim depression, or the desert between the moun¬ tain chain of Thian-schan and Kuen-liin, where the steppe river Tarimgol discharges itself into the Lake of Lop, formerly described as an alpine lake, is hardly 1280 feet above the level of the sea, or only twice the elevation of Prague. Sir Alexander Burnes also ascribes to Bokhara only * II Milione di Marco Polo, pubbl. dal Conte Baldelli, t. i. pp. 32 and 87. + 500 toises in the German, accurately 3197 feet. Tk. + Asie centrale, t. ii. pp. 48 — 52 and 429. § In the learned Analyses of his Karte von Inner Asien, 1841, s. 99. THE MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 63 an elevation of 1188 feet. It is most earnestly to be desired that all doubt regarding the elevation of the plateaux of Central Asia, south of 45° north latitude, should finally be re¬ moved by direct barometrical measurements, or by determi¬ nations of the boiling point of water, conducted with greater care than is usual in these cases. All our calculations of the difference between the limits of perpetual snow and the maximum elevation of vine cultivation in different climates, rest at present on too complex and uncertain elements. In order as briefly as possible to rectify that which has been advanced in the former edition of the present work, regard¬ ing the great mountain systems which intersect the interior of Asia, I subjoin the following general review: — We begin with the four ‘parallel chains , which run, with tolerable regu¬ larity, from east to west, and are connected together by means of a few detached transverse lines. Differences of direction indicate, as in the Alps of Western Europe, a difference in the epoch of elevation. After the four parallel chains (the Altai, the Thian-schan, the Kuen-lwi, and the Himalaya ) we must consider as following the direction of meridian, the Ural, the Bolor, the Khingan, and the Chinese chains, which, with the great inflection of the Thibetian and Assam- Birmese Dzangbo- tschu incline from north to south. The Ural divides a de¬ pressed portion of Europe from a similarly low portion of Asia. The latter was called bv Herodotus,-*'1 and even earlier by Pherecydes of Syros, Scythian or Siberian Europe, and comprised all the countries to the north of the Caspian and of the Iaxartes, which flows front east to west, and may therefore be regarded as a continuation of our Europe, “as it now exists, extending lengthwise across the continent of Asia.” 1. The great mountain system of the Altai (the “gold mountains” of Menander of Byzantium, an historical writer of the seventh century ; the Altai-alin of the Moguls, and the Kin-schan of the Chinese') forms the southern boundary of the great Siberian lowlands, and running between 50° and 52^° north latitude, extends from the rich silver mines of the Snake Mountains, and the confluence of the Uba and the Irtysch, to the meridian of Lake Baikal. The divisions and names of the “ Great” and the “ Little Altai,” taken from an obscure passage of Abulghasi, should be wholly avoided.f * Ed. Schweighaiiser, t. v. p. 204. f A sie centrale, t. i. p. 247. 64 VIEWS OF NATURE. The mountain system of the Altai comprehends — ( a ) the Altai proper, or Kolywanski Altai, which is entirely imder the Russian sceptre : it lies to the west of the intersecting fissures of the Telezki Lake, which follow the direction of the meri¬ dian ; and in ante-historic times probably constituted the eastern shore of the great arm of the sea, by which, in the direction of the still existing lakes, Aksakal-Barbi and Sary- Kupa,* the Aralo-Caspian basin was connected with the Icy sea ; — (b) East of the Telezki chains, which follow the direction of the meridian, the Sayani, Tangnu, and Ulangom, or Malakha ranges, all tolerably parallel with each other, and following an east and west direction. The Tangnu, which merges in the basin of the Selenga, has, from very remote times, constituted the national boundary between the Turkish race, to the south, and the Kirghis (Hakas, identical with 2aKai), to the north. f It is the original seat of the Samoieds or Soyotes. who wandered as far as the Icy Sea, and were long regarded in Europe as a race inhabiting ex¬ clusively the coasts of the Polar Sea. The highest snow- covered summits of the Kolywan Altai are the Bielucha and the Katunia Pillars. The latter attain only a height of about 11,000 feet, or about the height of Etna. The Daurian high¬ land, to which the mountain node of Kemtei belongs, and on whose eastern margin lies the Jablonoi Chrebet, divides the depressions of the Baikal and the Amur. 2. The mountain system of the Thian-schan, or the chair, of the Celestial Mountains, the Tcngri-tagh of the Turks (Tukiu), and of the kindred race of the Hiongnu, is eight times as long, in an east and west direction, as the Pyrenees. Beyond, that is to say, to the west of its intersection with the meridian chain of the Bolor and Kosuyrt, the Thian-schan bears the names of Asferah and Aktagh, is rich in metals, and is intersected with open fissures, which emit hot vapours lumi¬ nous at night, and which are used for obtaining sal-ammoniac. £ East of the transverse Bolor and Kosyurt chain, there follow successively in the Thian-schan, the Kashgar Pass (Kaschgar- dawan), the Glacier Pass of Djeparle, which leads to Kutch and Aksu in the Tarim basin ; the volcano of Pe-schan, which * A sie centrale, t. ii. p. 138. + Jacob Grimm, Gesch. der deutschen Sprache, 1848, Th. i. s. 227. + Asie centrale, t. ii. pp. 18 — 20. ILLUSTRATIONS (1( ). MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 65 erupted fire and streams of lava at least as late as the middle of the seventh century ; the great snow-covered massive ele¬ vation of Bogdo-Oola; the Solfatara of Urumtsi, which fur¬ nishes sulphur and sal-ammoniac (nao-scha), and lies in a coal district ; the volcano of Turfan (or volcano of Ho-tscheu or Bischbalik), almost midway between the meridians of Turfan (Kune Turpan), and of Pidjan, and which is still in a state of activity. The volcanic eruptions of the Thian-schan chain reach, according to Chinese historians, as far back as the year 89, a.d., when the Hiongnu were pursued by the Chinese from the sources of the Irtysch as far as Kutcli and Kharaschar*. The Chinese General, Teu-hian, crossed the Thian-schan, and saw “ the Fire Mountains, which sent out masses of molten rock that flow to the distance of many Li” The great distance of the volcanoes of the interior of Asia from the sea coast is a remarkable and isolated phenomenon. Abel Remusat, in a letter to Cordierf , first directed the atten¬ tion of geologists to this fact. This distance, for instance, in the case of the volcano of Pe-schan, from the north or the Icy Sea at the mouth of the Obi, is 1528 miles; and from the south or the mouths of the Indus and the Ganges, 1512 miles; so central is the position of fire-emitting volcanoes in the Asiatic continent. To the west its distance from the Caspian at the Gulf of Karuboghaz, is 1360 miles, and from the east shores of the Lake of Aral, 1020 miles. The active volcanoes of the New World had hitherto offered the most remarkable examples of great distance from the sea coast, but in the case of the volcano of Popocateptl, in Mexico, this distance is only one hundred and thirty-two miles, and only ninety-two, one hundred and four, and one hundred and fifty-six, respectively in the South American volca¬ noes Sangai, Tolima, and de la Fragua. All extinct vol¬ canoes, and all trachytic mountains, which have no perma¬ nent connexion with the interior of the earth, have been excluded from these statements J. East of the volcano of Turfat, and of the fruitful Oasis of Hami, the chain of the Thian-schan merges into the great elevated tract of Gobi, which runs in a S.W. and N.E. direction. This interruption * Klaproth, Tableau hist, de VAsie, p. 108. + Annales des Mines, t. v. 1820, p. 137. t Asie centrale , t. ii. pp. 16 — 55, 69 — 77, 341, 356. F 66 VIEWS OE NATU EE. of the mountain chain continues for more than 9^ degrees of longitude ; it is caused by the transversal intersection of the Gobi, but beyond the latter, the more southern chain of In- schan (Silver Mountains), proceeding from west to east, to the shores of the Pacific near Pekin (north of the Pe-tscheli), forms a continuation of the Thian-schan. As we may regard the In-schan as an eastern prolongation of the fissure from which the Thian-schan is upheaved, so we may also be inclined to consider the Caucasus as a western prolongation of the same range, beyond the Great Aralo-Caspian basin or of the low¬ lands of Turan. The mean parallel or axis of elevation of the Thian-schan oscillates between 40° 40; and 43° north latitude; that of the Caucasus (inclining, according to the map of the Russian Staff, fromE.S.E. to W.N.W.) between 41° and 44°.* Of the four parallel chains that traverse Asia, the Thian-schan is the only one of which no summit has as yet been mea¬ sured. 3. The mountain system of the Kuen-lün (Kurkun or Kul- kun), including the Hindoo-Coosh, with its western prolon¬ gation in the Persian Elburz and Demavend, and the American chain of the Andes, constitute the longest lines of elevation on our planet. At the point where the meridian chain of the Bolor intersects the Kuen-lün at right angles, the latter receives the name of Onion Mountains (Tclisung-ling), a term also applied to a portion of the Bolor at the inner eastern angle of. intersection. Bounding Thibet in the north, the Kuen-lün runs in a regular direction from east to west, in the parallel of 36° north latitude ; until the chain is broken in the meridian of H'lassa, by the vast mountain node which surrounds the Sea of Stars, Sing ■ so-hai (so celebrated in the mythical geography of the Chinese), and the Alpine lake of Khuku-noor. The chains of Nan-sehan and Kilian-schan, lying somewhat further north, and extending to the Chinese wall near Liang-tsheu, may almost be regarded as the eastern prolongation of the Kuen-lün. To the west of the inter¬ section of the Bolor and the Kuen-lün (Tclisung-ling), the regular direction of the axes of elevation (inclining from east to west in the Kuen-lün and Hindoo-Coosh, and from south- * Baron von Meyendorff in the Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France , t. ix. 1837 — 1838, p, 230. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 67 east to north-west in the Himalaya) proves, as I have else¬ where attempted to show, that the Hindoo-Coosh is a pro¬ longation of the Kuen-lün and not of the Himalaya.*1 From the Taurus in Lycia to the Kafiristan, the chain follows the parallel of Rhodes (the diaphragm of Dicocarchus) over a dis¬ tance of 45 degrees of longitude. The grand geological views of Eratosthenes,! which were further developed by Marinus of Tyre, and by Ptolemy, and according to which “ the prolongation of the Taurus in Lycia was continued, in the same direction, through all Asia as far as India,” appear in part to be based on representations derived by the Persians and Indians from the Punjaub. “ The Brahmins maintain,” says Cosmas Indicopleustes, in his Christian Topography!, “ that a line drawn from Tzinitza (Thinse) across Persia and Romania, would exactly pass over the centre of the inhabited earth.” It is remarkable, as Era¬ tosthenes observes, that this greatest axis of elevation in the old world passes directly through the basin (the depression) of the Mediterranean, in the parallels of 35^° and 36° north lati¬ tude, to the Pillars of Hercules. § The most eastern portion of Hindoo-Coosh is the Paropanisus of the ancients, the Indian Caucasus of the companions of the great Macedonian. The name of Hindoo- Coosh, which is so frequently used by geo¬ graphers, does not in reality apply to more than one single mountain pass, where the climate is so severe, as we learn from the travels of the Arabian writer, Ibn Batuta, that many Indian slaves frequently perish from the cold. || The Kuen-lün still exhibits active fire-emitting eruptions at the distance of several hundred miles from the sea-coast. Flames, visible at a great distance, burst from the cavern of the mountain of Scliin- khieu, as I learn from a translation of the Yuen-thong-ki, made by my friend Stanislaus Julien. The loftiest summit in the Hindoo-Coosh, north-west of Jellalabad, is 20,232 feet above the level of the sea ; to the west, towards Herat, the * Asie centrale, t. i. pp. xxiii et 118 — 159; t. ii. pp. 431 — 434, 465. + Strabo, lib. ii. p. 68 ; lib. xi. pp. 490, 511 ; lib. xv. p. 6S9. £ Montfaucon, Collectio nova Patrum, t. ii. p. 137. § Compare Asie centrale, t. i. pp. xxiii et 122 — 138 ; t. ii. pp. 430 — 434, with Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 543, Bohn’s ed. II Travels, p. 97. U Asie centrale, t. ii. pp. 427, 483. f 2 68 VIEWS OF NATURE. chain sinks to 2558 feet, rising again north of Teheran, in the volcano of Demavend, to the height of 14,675 feet. 4. The mountain system of the Himalaya lias a normal direction from east to west, running more than 15 degrees of longitude (from 81* to 97°), or from the colossal moun¬ tain Dhawalagiri (28,072 feet) to the intersection of the Dzangbo-tscheu (the Irawaddy of Dalrymple and Klaproth), whose existence was long regarded as problematical, and to the meridian chains, which cover the whole of Western China, and form the great mountain group, from which spring the sources of the Kiang, in the provinces of Sse-tschuan, Hu-kuang, and Kuang-si. Next to the Dhawalagiri, the Kinchinjinga, and not the more eastern peak of Schamalari, as has hitherto been supposed, is the highest point of this portion of the Himalaya, which inclines from east to west. The Kinchinjinga, in the meridian of Sikhim, between Butan and Nepal, between the Schamalari (23,980 feet) and the Dhawalagiri, is 28,174 feet in height. It is only within the present year that it has been trigo¬ nometrically measured with exactness, and as I learn from India through the same channel, “ that a new measure¬ ment of the Dhawalagiri still leaves it the first place among all the snow-crowned summits of the Himalaya,” this moun¬ tain must necessarily have a greater elevation than the 28,072 feet hitherto ascribed to it.* The point of deflection in the direction of the chain is, near the Dhawalagiri, in 81° 22^ cast longitude. From thence the Himalaya no longer follows a due west direction, but runs from S.E. to N.W., as a vast connecting system of veins between Mozufer-abad and Gilgit, merging into a part of the Hindoo-Coosli chain in the south of Kafiristan. Such a turn and alteration in the line of the axis of elevation of the Himalaya (from E. — W. to S.E — N.W.) certainly indicates, as in the western region of our European Alpine mountains, a different age or period of elevation. The course of the Upper Indus, from the sacred lakes of Manasa and llavana-hrada, (at an elevation of 14,965 feet,) in the vicinity of which this great river takes its origin, to Iskardo, and to the plateau of Deotsuh (at an elevation of 12,994 feet), measured by Vigne, follows in the Thi- * From a letter of Dr. Joseph Hooker, the learned botanist to the last Antarctic expedition, dated Darjeeling, 25th of July, 1848. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 69 betian highlands the same north-westerly direction as the Himalaya. Here are situated the Djawahir, whose height was long since accurately determined at 26,902 feet, and the Alpine valley of Caschmere (never visited by winds or storms), where, at an elevation of only 5346 feet, lies the lake of Wulur, which freezes every winter, and whose surface is never broken by a single ripple. After considering the four great mountain systems of Asia, which, in their normal geognostic character, are true parallel chains, we must turn to the long series of alternating eleva¬ tions following a direction from north to south, and which extend from Cape Comorin, opposite to the island of Ceylon, to the Icy Sea, alternating between the parallels of 66° and 77° east longitude, from S.S.E. to N.N.W. To this system of meridian chains, whose alternations remind us of faults in veins, belong the Ghauts, the Soliman chain, the Paralasa, the Bolor, and the Ural range. This interruption of the profile of the elevation is so constituted, that each new chain begins in a degree of latitude beyond that to which the preceding one had attained, all alternating successively in an opposite direction. The importance which the Greeks (pro¬ bably not earlier than the second century of our era) attached to these chains running from north to south, induced Agatho- deemon and Ptolemy {Tab. vii. et viii.) to regard the Bolor under the name of Imaus as an axis of elevation, which extended as far as 62° north latitude into the basin of the lower Irtyscli and Obi.*4 As the vertical height of mountain summits above the sea's level (however unimportant the phenomenon of the more or less extensive folding of the crust of a planetary sphere may be in the eyes of geognosists) will always continue, like all that is difficult of attainment, to be an object of general curiosity, the present would appear to furnish a fitting place for the introduction of an historical notice relative to the gra¬ dual advance of hypsometric knowledge. When I returned to Europe in 1804, after an absence of four years, not one of the high snow-crowned summits of Asia (in the Himalaya, the Hindoo-Coosh, or the Caucasus) had been yet measured with any degree of accuracy. I was unable, therefore, to * Asie centrale, t. i. pp. 138, 151, 198; t. ii. p. 367. 70 VIEWS OF KATUF-E. compare my determinations of the heights of perpetual snow in the Cordilleras of Quito or the mountains of Mexico, with any results obtained in India. The important travels of Turner, Davis, and Saunders to the highlands of Thibet, were indeed accomplished in the year 1783; but the intelligent Colebrooke justly observed that the height of the Schamalari (28° 51 north latitude, 89° 30' east longitude, somewhat north of Tassisudan), as given by Turner, rested on a foundation quite as slight as the assumed measurements of the heights seen from Patna and Kafiristan by Colonel Crawford and Lieutenant. Macartney.* The admirable labours of Webb, Hodgson. Herbert, and the brothers Gerard, have indeed thrown con¬ siderable light on the question concerning the heights of the colossal summits of the Himalaya; but yet, in 1808, the hypsometric knowledge of the East Indian mountain chains was still so uncertain, that Webb wrote to Colebrooke, “ The height of the Himalaya still remains undetermined. It is true that I have ascertained that the summits visible from the elevated plains of Rohilkand are 21,000 feet higher than that plateau, but we are ignorant of their absolute height above the sea.” In the year 1820 it first began to be currently reported in Europe that there were not only much higher summits in the Himalaya than in the Cordilleras, but that Webb had seen in the pass of Niti, and Moorcroft in the Thibetian plateau of Daba, and the sacred lakes, fine corn-fields and fertile pasture- lands at elevations far exceeding the height of Mont Blanc. This announcement was received in England with great incre¬ dulity, and opposed by doubts regarding the influence of the refraction of light. I have shown the unsoundness of such doubts in two printed treatises on the mountains of India, in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique. The Tyro¬ lese Jesuit, Father Tiefenthaler, who in 1766 penetrated as far as the provinces of Kemaun and Nepal, had already divined the importance of the Dhawalagiri. We read on his map: “ Montes Albi, qui Indis Doing hi?', nive ohsiti Captain Webb always employs the same name. Until the measure¬ ments of the Djawahir (30° 22/ north latitude, and 79° 58/ * Compare Turner in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xii. p. 234, with Elphinstone, Accoxmt of the Kingdom of Caubul, 1815, p. 95, and Francis Hamilton, Account of Nepal, 1S19, p. 92. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 71 east longitude, 26,902 feet in elevation), and of the Dha¬ walagiri (28° 40 north latitude, and 83° 2P east longitude, 28,072 feet in elevation), were made known in Europe, the Chimborazo, which, according to my trigonometrical mea¬ surement, was 21,422 feet, in height,* * * § was still every¬ where regarded as the loftiest summit on the earth. The Himalaya appeared, therefore, at that time, to be 4323 feet or 6620 feet higher than the Cordilleras, according as the comparison was made with the Djawahir or the Dhawalagiri. Pentland’s South American travels, in the years 1827 and 1838, directed attention to two snow-crowned summits of Upper Peru, east of the lake of Titicaca, which were conjectured to be respectively 3824 and 2578 feet higher than the Chimborazo. f It has been already observed, | that the most recent computations in the measurements of the Sorata and Illimani have shown the error of this hypsometric assertion. The Dhawalagiri, therefore, on whose declivity in the river-valley of Ghandaki, the Salagrana Ammonites, so cele¬ brated in the Brahminical ritual as symbols of the testaceous incarnation of Vishnu, are collected, still indicates a differ¬ ence of elevation between both continents of more than 6600 feet. The question has been asked, whether there may not be still greater heights in the rear of the southernmost chain, which has been as yet measured with more or less exactitude. Colonel George Lloyd, who in 1840 edited the important observations of Captain Alexander Gerard and his brother, entertains the opinion, that in that part of the Himalaya, which he somewhat indefinitely names the “Tartaric Chain” %/ (and consequently in Northern Thibet, in the direction of the Ivuen-liin, perhaps in the Kailasa of the sacred lakes or beyond Leh) there are mountain-summits which attain an elevation of from 29,000 to 30,000 feet, one or two thousand feet higher, therefore, than the Dhawalagiri. § No definite opinion cau be formed on the subject until we are in the possession * Recueil d' Observations astronomiques, t. i. p. 73. + Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes pour 1830, pp. 320, 323. X See Illustration (5), p. 44. § See Lloyd and Gerard, Tour in the Himalaya, 1840, vol. i., pp. 143, 312, and Asie centrale , t. iii., p. 324. VIEWS OF NATURE. of actual measurements, since the indication which led the natives of Quito, long before the arrival of Bouguer and La Condamine, to regard the summit of the Chimborazo as the culminating point — or the highest point within the region of perpetual snow — is rendered very deceptive in the temperate zone of Thibet, where the radiation of the table-land is so effective, and where the lower limit of perpetual snow does not constitute a regular line of equal level as in the tropics. The greatest elevation above the level of the sea that has been reached by man on the sides of the Himalaya is 19,488 feet. This elevation was gained by Captain Gerard, with seven barometers, as we have already observed, on the moun¬ tain of Tarhigang, somewhat to the north-west of Schipke.* This happens to be almost the same height as that to which I myself ascended up on the Chimborazo (on the 23rd of June, 1802), and which was reached thirty years later (16th of December, 1831) by my friend Boussingault. The un- attained summit of the Tarhigang is, moreover, 1255 feet higher than the Chimborazo. The passes across the Himalaya from Hindostan to Chinese Tartary, or rather to Western Thibet, especially between the rivers Buspa and Scliipke, or Langzing Khampa, are from 15,347 to 18,544 feet in height. In the chain of the Andes I found that the pass of Assuay, between Quito and Cuenca, at the Ladera de Cadlud, was also fully 15,566 feet above the level of the sea. A great part of the Alpine plains of the interior of Asia would lie buried throughout, the whole year in snow and ice, if the limits of perpetual snow were not singularly elevated, probably to about 16,626 feet, by the force of the heat radiated from the Thibetian plain, the constant serenity of the sky, the rarity of the for¬ mation of snow in the dry atmosphere, and by the power¬ ful solar heat peculiar to the eastern continental climate, which characterizes the northern declivity of the Himalaya. V * Fields of barley (of Hordeum hexcistichon) have been seen in Kunawur at an elevation of 14,700 feet and another varitey of barley, called Ooa, and allied to Hordeum cocleste , even * Colebrookc, in the Transactions of the Geological Society, vol. vi. p. 411. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). MOUNTAIN CHAINS OF ASIA. 73 much higher. Wheat thrives admirably well in the Thibetian highlands, up to an elevation of 12,000 feet. On the northern declivity of the Himalaya, Captain Gerard found that the upper limits of the birch woods ascend to 14,069 feet; and small brushwood used bv the natives for fuel in their huts is even found within the parallels of 30° 45' and 31° north latitude, at an elevation of 16,946 feet, and therefore nearly 1280 feet higher than the lower snow-limit in the equatorial regions. It follows from the data hitherto collected that on the northern declivity of the Himalaya the mean of the lower snow-line is at least 16,626 feet, whilst on the southern declivity it falls to 12.980 feet. But for this remarkable distribution of heat in the upper strata of the atmosphere, the mountain plain of Western Thibet would be rendered uninhabitable for the millions of men who now occupy it.* In a letter which I have lately received from India from Dr. Joseph Hooker, who is engaged in meteorological and geological observations, as well as in the study of the geo¬ graphy of plants, he says, “ Mr. Hodgson, whom we here- consider more thoroughly conversant than any other geo¬ grapher with the hypsometric relations of the snow ranges, recognises the correctness of the opinions you have advanced in the third part of your Asie centrale , regarding the cause of the unequal height of the limit of perpetual snow on the northern and the southern declivity of the Himalaya range. In the trans-Sutledge region (in 36 J north latitude) we often observed the snow limit as high as 20,000 feet, whilst in the passes south of Brahmaputra, between Assam and Birmah (in 27° north latitude), where the most southern snow-capped mountains of Asia are situated, the snow limit sinks to 15,000 feet.” I believe we ought to distinguish between the extreme and the mean elevations, but in both we find the formerly disputed difference between the Thi¬ betian and the Indian declivities manifested in the clearest manner. * Compare my investigation regarding the snow-limit on both declivi¬ ties of the Himalaya in my Asie centrale, t. ii., pp. 435 — 437; t. iii^ pp. 281 — 326; and in Cosmos, vol. i.; p. 337, Bohn’s ed. 74 VIEWS OF NATURE. My results for the mean height of the snow line as given in A sie centrale, t. iii., p. 326. Feet. Northern declivity . 16,626 Southern „ . 12,981 Extremes according to Dr. Hooker’s Letter. Feet. Northern declivity . 20,000 Southern „ . 15,000 Difference . 3,645 Difference . 5,000 The local differences vary still more, as may be seen from the series of extremes given in Aste centrale , t. iii., p. 295. Alexander Gerard saw the snow-limit ascend to 20,463 feet on the Thibetian declivity of the Himalaya; and Jacquemont found it as low as 11.500 feet on the south-Indian declivity, north of Cursali on the Jumnautri. [The recent investigations of Lieutenant Strachey show that M. Humboldt has been led astray, when treating of the Himalaya, by the very authorities on whom he placed the most reliance. The results of his inquiries on this point are given in the first volume of the Cosmos (Bohn's Ed.), pp. 9 and 338. As the subject is one of considerable interest we give a brief sketch of Lieutenant Strachey’s* recent labours, confining ourselves to his own views, and omitting (for want of space) his somewhat lengthy exposition of the errors committed by the authorities quoted by Humboldt. The following are his personal observations regarding the southern limit of the belt of ’perpetual snow. “ In this part of the Himalaya it is not, on an average of years, till the beginning of December, that the snow line appears decidedly to descend for the winter. After the end of September, indeed, when the rains are quite over, light falls of snow are not of very uncommon occurrence on the higher mountains, even down to 12,000 feet; but their effects usually disappear very quickly, often in a few hours. The latter part of October, the whole of November, and the begin¬ ning of December, are here generally characterised by the beautiful serenity of the sky; and it is at this season, on the southern edge of the belt, that the line of perpetual snow is seen to attain its greatest elevation. “ The following are the results of trigonometrical measure- * Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. New Series. No. xxviii. p. 287. ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE SNOIV-LINE. 75 ments of the elevation of the inferior edge of snow on spurs of the Treslü and Nandadevi groups of peaks, made, before the winter snow had begun, in November, 1848. Point observed. Height as observed on face exposed to the East. Height on face exposed to West. Observed from Almorah. From Almorah, (height, 5586 ft.) From Binsar, (height, 7969 ft.) Mean. No. Feet. Feet. et. Feet. 1 16,599 16,767 16,683 15,872 2 16,969 17,005 16,987 • • • • 3 17,186 17,185 17,185 14,878 4 15,293 15,361 15,327 . . The points 1, 2 and 3 are in ridges that run in a south¬ westerly direction. The dip of the strata being to the north¬ east, the faces exposed to view from the south are for the most part very abrupt, and snow never accumulates on them to any great extent. This in some measure will account for the height to which the snow is seen to have receded on the eastern exposures, that is, upwards of 17,000 feet. On the western exposures the ground is less steep, and the snow is seen to have been observed at a considerable less elevation; but it was in very small quantities, and had probably fallen lately, so that I am inclined to think that its height, viz., about 15,000 feet, rather indicates the elevation below which the light autumnal falls of snow were incapable of lying, than that of the inferior edge of the perpetual snow. It is further to be understood, that below this level of 15,000 feet the mountains were absolutely without snow, excepting those small isolated patches that are seen in ravines, or at the head of glaciers, which, of course, do not affect such calculations as these. On the whole, therefore, I consider that the height of the snow-line on the more prominent points of the southern edge of the belt may be fairly reckoned at 16,000 feet at the very least. “ The point No. 4 was selected as being in a much more retired position than the others. It is situate not far from the head of the Pindur river. It was quite free from snow at 15,300 feet, and I shall therefore consider 15,000 feet as the 76 VIEWS OF NATURE. elevation of the snow-line in the re-entering angles of the chain. “ I conclude, then, that 15,500 feet, the mean of the heights at the most and least prominent points, should be assigned as the mean elevation of the snow-line at the southern limit of the belt of perpetual snow in Kumaon; and I conceive that whatever error there may be in this estimate will be found to lie on the side of diminution rather than of exaggeration. “ This result appears to accord well with what has been observed in the Bissehir range. The account given by Dr. Gerard of his visit to the Shatul Pass on this range, which he undertook expressly for the purpose of determining the height of the snow-line, contains the only definite information as to the limit of the perpetual snow at the southern edge of the belt that is to be found in the whole of the published writings of the Gerards; and the following is a/short abstract of his observations. Dr. Gerard reached tliG summit of the Shatul Pass, the elevation of which is 15,500 feet, on the 9th of August, 1822, and remained there till the 15th of the same month. He found the southern slope of the range generally free from snow, and he states that it is sometimes left without any whatever. On the top of the pass itself there was no snow ; but on the northern slope of the mountain it lay as far down as about 14,000 feet. On his arrival rain was falling, and out of the four days of his stay on this pass it either rained or snowed for the greater part of three. The fresh snow that fell during this time did not lie below 16,000 feet, and some of the more precipitous rocks remained clear even up to 1 7,000 feet. “ The conclusion to which Dr. Gerard comes from these facts is, that the snow-line on the southern face of the Bissehir range is at 15,000 feet above the sea. But I should myself be more inclined, from his account, to consider that 15,500 feet was nearer the truth; and in this view I am confirmed by verbal accounts of the state of the passes on this range, which I have obtained from persons of my acquaintance, who have crossed them somewhat later in the year. The differ- cnce, however, is after all trifling. “ Such is the direct evidence that can be offered on the height of the snow-line at the southern limit of the belt of perpetual snow: some additional light, may, however, be ILLUSTRATIONS (10). THE SNOW-LINE. 77 thrown on the subject generally by my shortly explaining the state in which I have found the higher parts of the mountains at the different seasons during which I have visited them. “ In the beginning of May, on the mountains to the east of the Ramganga river, near Namik, I found the ground on the summit of the ridge, called Champ wa, not only perfectly free from snow at an elevation of 12,000 feet, but covered with flowers, in some places golden with calsha and ranunculus polypetalus, in others purple with primulus. The snow had in fact already receded to upwards of 12,500 feet, behind which even a few little gentians proclaimed the advent of spring. “ Towards the end of the same month, at the end of the Pindur, near the glacier from which that river rises, an open spot on which I could pitch my tent could not be found above 12,000 feet. But here the accumulation of snow, which was considerable in all ravines even below 11,000 feet, is mani¬ festly the result of avalanches and drift. The surface of the glacier, clear ice as well as moraines, was quite free from snow up to nearly 13,000 feet; but the effect of the more retired position of the place in retarding the melting of the snow, was manifest from the less advanced state of the vege¬ tation. During my stay at Pinduri the weather was very bad, and several inches of snow fell; but, excepting where it had fallen on the old snow, it all melted off again in a few hours, even without the assistance of the sun’s direct rays. On the glacier, at 13,000 feet, it had all disappeared twelve hours after it fell. “ On revisiting Pinduri about the middle of October, the change that had taken place was very striking. Now not a sign of snow was to be seen on any part of the road up to the very head of the glacier; a luxuriant vegetation had sprung up, but had already almost entirely perished, and its remains covered the ground as far as I went. From this elevation, about 13.000 feet, evident signs of vegetation could be seen to extend far up the less precipitous mountains. The place is not one at which the height of the perpetual snow can be easily estimated, for on all sides are glaciers, and the vast accumulations of snow from which they are supplied, and these cannot always be readily distinguished from snow in situ ; but as far as I could judge, those places 'which might be 78 VIEWS OF NATURE. considered as offering a fair criterion were free from snow up to 15,000, or even 16,000 feet. “ Towards the end of August I crossed the Barjikang Pass, between Ralam and Juhar, the elevation of which is about 15,300 feet. There was here no vestige of snow on the ascent to the pass from the south-east, and only a very small patch remained on the north-western face. The 'shew of the continuation of the ridge in a southerly direction was cut off by a prominent point, but no snow lay on that side within 500 feet of the pass, while to the north I estimated that there wras no snow in considerable quantity within 1500 feet or more, that is, nearly up to 17,000 feet. The vegetation on the very summit of the pass was far from scanty, though it had already begun to break up into tufts, and had lost that character of continuity "which it had maintained to within a height of 500 or 600 feet. Species of Potentilla, Sedum, Saxifraga, Corydalis, Aconitum, Delphinium, Thalictrum, Ranunculus Saussurea, Gentiana, Pedicularis, Primula, Rheum, and Polygonum, all evidently flourishing in a congenial cli¬ mate, showed that the limits of vegetation and region of perpetual snow were still far distant. “ In addition to these facts, it may not be out of place to mention that there are two mountains visible from Almorah, Rigoli-gudri, in Garhwal between the lvailganga and Nan- däkni, and Chipula, in Kumaon, between the Gori and Dauli (of Darina), both upwards of 13,000 feet in elevation, from the summits of which the snow disappears long before the end of the summer months, and which do not usually again become covered for the winter till late in December.” These remarks are followed by an exposition of the errors into which Webb, Colebrooke, Hodgson, A. Gerard, and Jacquemont, have fallen. The heights assigned by these tra¬ vellers must all be rejected; nor can it be considered at all surprising that any amount of mistake, as to the height of the snow-line, should be made, so long as travellers cannot dis¬ tinguish snow from glacier ice, or look for the boundary of perpetual snow at the beginning of the spring.” With regard to the northern limit of the belt of perpetual snow , Lieutenant Stracliey's observations were made in Sep¬ tember, 1848, on his way from Milam into Hundes, via Unta- dliura, Kyungar-gbat, and Balch-dhura, at the beginning of ILLUSTRATIONS (10), THE SNOAV-LINE. 79 the month; and on his road back again, vid Lakhur-ghät, at the end of the month. “ Of the three passes that we crossed on our way from Milam, all of them being about 17,000 feet in elevation, the first is Wata-dhara, and we saw no snow on any part of the way up to its top, which was reached in a very disagreeable drizzle of rain and snow. The final ascent to the pass from the south is about 1000 feet. The path leads up the side of a ravine, down which a small stream trickles, the ground having a generally even and rounded surface. Neither on any part of this nor on the summit of the pass itself, which is tolerably level, were there any remains of snow whatever. On the ridge to the right and left there were patches of snow a few hundred feet above ; and on the northern face of the pass an accumulation remained that extended about 200 feet down, apparently the effect of the drift through the gap in which the pass lies. Below this again the ground was every¬ where quite free from snow. On the ascent to Wata-dliara, at perhaps 17,000 feet, a few blades of grass were seen, but on the whole it may be said to have been utterly devoid of vegetation. On the north side of the pass, 300 or 400 feet below the summit, a cruciferous plant w'as the first met with. “ The Kyungar pass, which is four or six miles north of Wata-dhara, was found equally free from snow on its southern face and summit, which latter is particularly open and level . The mountains on either side were also free from snow to some height; but on the north a large bed lay a little way down the slope, and extended to about 500 feet from the top. On this pass a boragineous plant in flowrer wras found above 17,000 feet; a species of Urtica wras also got about the same altitude, and we afterwards saw it again nearly as high up on the Lakhur pass. “ In our ascent to the Balch pass no snow wras observed on any of the southern spires of the range, and only one or twro very small patches' could be seen from the summit on the north side. The average height of the top of this range can hardly be more than 500 feet greater than that of the pass; and as a whole it certainly does not enter the region of perpetual snow. As viewed from the plains of Handes, it cannot be said to appear snowy, a few only of the peaks being tipped. 80 YIEWS OF NATÜEE. “ We returned to Milam via Chirchun. The whole of the ascent to the Lakhur pass was perfectly free from snow to the very top, i.e. 18,300 feet, and many of the neighbouring moun¬ tains were bare still higher. The next ridge on this route is Jainti-dhara, which is passed at an elevation of 18,500 feet, but still without crossing the least portion of snow. The line of perpetual snow is however evidently near; for though the Jainti ridge was quite free, and some of the peaks near us were clear probably to upwards of 19,000 feet, yet in more sheltered situations unbroken snow could be seen considerably below us; and on the whole I think that 18,500 feet must be near the average height of the snow-line at this place.” A brief recapitulation of the principal results of Lieutenant Strachey's inquiries shows us that “ the snow-line or the southern edge of the belt of perpetual snow in this portion of the Himalaya is at an elevation of 15,000 feet, while on the northern edge it reaches 18,500 feet; and that on the mountains to the north of the Sutlej, or still further, it recedes even beyond 19,000 feet. The greater elevation which the snow-line attains on the northern edge of the belt of perpetual snow is a phenomenon not confined to the Thibetan declivity alone, but extending far into the interior of the chain ; and it appears to be caused by the quantity of snow that foils on the the northern portion of the mountains being much less than that which falls farther to the south along the line where the peaks, covered with perpetual snow, first rise above the less elevated ranges of the Himalaya.” The letters of Dr. Joseph Hooker published during the present year (1849) in the Athenäum (pp. 431 and 1039) may also be consulted with advantage.] (11) p. 5 — “A tawny tribe of Herdsmen.” The Hiongnu (Hioung-nou), whom Deguignes and with him many other historians long believed to be identical with the Huns, inhabited the vast Tartarian tract of land which is bordered on the east by Uo-lcang-lio, the present territory of the Mant-schn, on the south by the Chinese wall, on the west by the U-siün, and on the north by the land of the Eleuthes But the Hiongnu belong to the Turkish, and the Huns to the Finnish or Uralian race. The northern Huns, a rude people of herdsmen, unacquainted with agriculture, were of a blackish ILLUSTRATIONS (11). THE HUNS. 81 brown complexion. The southern Huns, or Ilajatehah, called by the Byzantines Euthalites or Nephthalites, and inhabiting the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, had fairer skins. These pursued agriculture, and dwelt in towns. They are frequently termed White Huns , and d’Herbelot even regards them as Indo-Scythians. In Deguignes* an account will be found of the Punu, the leader or Tanju of the Huns, and of the great drought and famine which led to the migration of a portion of the nation northwards about the year 46 a.d. All the details, given in his celebrated work regarding the Hiongnu, have been recently submitted by Klaproth to a rigid and learned scrutiny. From the result of his investigations it wovdd appear, that the Hiongnu belong to the widely dif¬ fused Turkish races of the Altai and Tangnu mountain dis¬ tricts. The name of Hiongnu was a general name for the Ti, Thu-kiu or Turks, in the north and north-west of China, even in the third century before the Christian era. The southern Hiongnu submitted themselves to the Chinese, and in con¬ junction with the latter destroyed the empire of the northern Hiongnu, who were in consequence compelled to flee to the west, and thus appear to have given the first impulse to the migration of nations in Central Asia. The Huns, who were long confounded with the Hiongnu (as the Uigures were with the Ugures and Hungarians) belonged, according to Klaproth, f to the Finnish race of the Uralian mountains, which race has been variously intermixed with Germans, Turks, and Samoiedes. The Huns (O vwoC) are first mentioned by Dionysius Peri- egetes, a writer who was able to obtain more accurate informa¬ tion than others regarding the interior of Asia, because, as a learned man and a native of Charax on the Arabian Gulf, he was sent back to the East by Augustus, to accompany thither his adopted son, Caius Agrippa. Ptolemy, a century later, writes the word Xovvoi with a strong aspiration, which, as St. Martin observes, is agan met with in the geographical name of Chunigard. * Hist. gen. des Huns, des Turcs, etc., 17 56, t. i. P. 1, p. 217, P. 2, pp. Ill, 125, 223, 447. t See Klaproth, Asia Poiyglotta, pp. IS 3, 211; Tableaux Historiques de VAsie, pp. 102, 109. G 82 VIEWS OF NATURE. (12) p. G — “ No hewn stone.” Representations of the sun and figures of animals have cer¬ tainly been found graven in rocks on the banks of the Orinoco, near Caicara, where the woody region borders on the plain, but in the Llanos themselves not a trace of these rough memo¬ rials of earlier inhabitants has ever been discovered. It is to be regretted that no accurate account has reached us of a monument which was sent to Count Maurepas, in France, and which, according to Kalm, was discovered in the prairies of Canada, 900 French leagues (about 2700 English miles) west of Montreal, by M. de Veran drier, while engaged on an expedition to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. * This tra¬ veller met in the plains with huge masses of stone erected by the hand of man, on one of which there was an inscription believed to be in the Tartar languagef . How can so important a monument have remained uninvestigated? Can it actually have borne an alphabetical inscription, or are we not rather to believe that it must have been an historical picture, like the so-called Phoenician inscription, which has been discovered on the bank of the Taunton river, and whose authenticity has been questioned by Court de Gebelin? I indeed regard it as highly probable that these plains were once traversed by civil¬ ised nations, and it seems to me that this fact is proved by the existence of pyramidal grave-works or burrows and bulwarks of extraordinary length, between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanys, on which Squier and Davis have now thrown new light in their account of the ancient monuments of the Missis¬ sippi valley 4 M. de Verandrier was despatched, about the year 1746, on this expedition by the Chevalier de Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada; and several Jesuits in Quebec assured Kalm that they had actually had this so-called inscrip¬ tion in their hands, and that it was graven on a small tablet which was found inlaid in a hewn pillar. I have in vain requested several of my friends in France to make inquiries regarding this monument, in the event of its being in the Collection of Count Maurepas. I have also found equally uncertain ac- * See Kalm’s Reise, Tli. iii. p. 416. t Archceologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts published by the Society of A ntiquarians of London, vol. viii. 1787, p. 304. 7 Relat. hist. t. iii. p. 155. 83 ILLUSTRATIONS (13). THE PARAMOS. counts of the alphabetical writing of the American aboriginal races, in a work of Pedro de Cieqa de Leon,*4 in Garcia, f and in Columbus’s^ journal of his first voyage. M. de Verandrier maintained also that traces of the ploughshare were observed for days together in travelling over the grassy plains of Western Canada; a circumstance that other travellers, prior to him, likewise profess to have noticed. But the utter ignorance of the primitive nations of North America regarding this implement of agriculture, the want of beasts of draught, and the vast extent of surface over which these tracks extend through the prairie, tend rather to make me adopt the opinion that this singular appearance of furrows is owing to some movement of water over the earth's surface. (13) p. 6 — “It spreads like an arm of the seal The great steppe, which extends from the mouth of the Orinoco to the snowy mountains of Merida, from east to west, deflects towards the south in the parallel of 8° north latitude, and occupies the whole space between the eastern declivity of the elevated mountains of New Granada and the Orinoco, which here flows in a northerly direction. That portion of the Llanos, which is watered by the Meta, Vichada, Zama, and Guaviare, connects as it were the valley of the Amazon with that of the Lower Orinoco. The word Paramo , which I have frequently employed in this work, signifies in the Spanish colonies all alpine regions which are situated from 11,000 to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, and whose climate is rude, ungenial, and misty. In the higher Paramos hail and snow fall daily for many hours continuously, and yield a beneficial supply of humidity to the alpine plants, not from the absolute quantity of vapour in the higher strata of the air, but by the frequency of the aqueous deposits occasioned by the rapidly changing currents of air, and the variations of the electric tension. The trees found in these regions are low, and spread out in an umbrella-like form, have gnarled branches, which are constantly covered with fresh and evergreen foliage. They are * Chronica del Peru, P. 1, cap. 87. (Losacon letras en los edificioa de Yinaque.) ■f Origen de los Indios, 1607, lib. iii. cap. 5, p. 258. 7 Navarrete, Viages de los Pspa.ioles, t. i. p. 67. G 2 84 VIEWS OF NATURE. mostly large-flowering laurel and myrtle-leaved alpine shrubs, Escallonia tubar, Escallonia myrtilloides , Chuquirciga insignis , Ar alien, Weinmannice, Frezierce, Gualtherice, and Andromeda reticulata , may be regarded as the representatives of the physiognomy of this vegetation.* To the south of the town of Santa Fe de Bogota lies the celebrated Paramo de la Suma Paz, an isolated mountain group, in which, according to Indian legends, great treasures are concealed; and hence issues a small stream or brook, which pours its foaming waters through a remarkable natural bridge in the rocky ravine of Icononzo. In my Latin treatise, De Distributione geographica Planta¬ rum secundum cceli temperiem et altitudinem montium, 1817, p. 104, I have thus endeavoured to characterise these Alpine regions: “ Altitudine 1700 — 1900 hexapod: asperrimte so- litudines, quae a colonis hispanis uno nomine Paramos appel- lantur, tempestatum vicissitudinibus mire obnoxiae, ad quas solutm et emollitec defluunt nives ; ventorum flatibus ac mm- borum grandinisque jactu tumultuosa regio, quae aeque per diem et per noctes riget, solis nubila et tristi luce fere nun- quam calefacta. Habitantur in hac ipsa altitudine sat magnac civitates, ut Micuipampa Peruvianorum, ubi thermometrum centes. meridie inter 5° et 8°, noctu — 0°.4 consistere vidi; Huancavelica, propter cinnabaris venas celebrata, ubi altitu¬ dine 1835 hexap. fere totum per annum temperies mensis Martii Parisiis.” (14) p. 0 — “ The Cordilleras of Cochabamba and the Brazilian mountains approximate to one another by means of separate transverse chains The immense space between the eastern coasts of South America and the eastern declivity of the chain of the Andes is contracted by two mountain masses, which partially separate from one another the three valleys or plains of the Lower Orinoco, the Amazon, and the ltio de la Plata. The more northern mountain mass, called the group of the Parime, is opposite to the Andes of Cundinamarca, which, after extending far towards the east, assume the form of one elevated mountain, between the parallels of 66° and 68° west longitude. It is connected by the narrow mountain ridge of Pacaraima with the granitic hills of French Guiana, as I have clearly indi¬ cated in the map of Columbia vdiich I drew up from my own * Humboldt et Bonpland, Planten ceqxdnoctiales, fasc. ii. WILD DOG. 85 ILLUSTRATIONS (15). astronomical observations. The Caribs, in their long expedi¬ tions from the missions of Carony to the plains of Rio Branco, and even to the Brazilian frontier, are obliged to traverse the crests of Pacaraima and Quimiropaca. The second group of mountains, which separates the valley of the Amazon from that of La Plata, is the Brazilian, which approximates to the promontory of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the province of Chiquitos, west of the Parecis hills. As neither the group of the Parime, which gives rise to the cataracts of the Orinoco, nor the Brazilian group, is directly connected with the chain of the Andes, the plains of Venezuela and those of Patagonia are directly connected with one another.* (15) 6 — Herds of wild dogs In the Pampas of Buenos Ayres the traveller meets with European dogs, which have become wild. They live grega¬ riously in holes and excavations, in which they conceal their young. When the horde becomes too numerous, several families go forth, and form new settlements elsewhere. The Euixqiean dog barks as loudly after it has become wild, as ■dues the indigenous American hairy s2>ecies. Garcilaso asserts that, prior to the arrival of the Sjianiards, the Peru¬ vians had a race of dogs called Ferros gozgues; and he calls the indigenous dog Allco. In order to distinguish this animal from the European variety, it is called in the Qquichua language Runa-allco, Indian dog, or dog of the natives. The hairy Runa-allco ap2)ears to be a mere variety of the she2)herd’s dog. It is, however, smaller, has long ycllow- ochry coloured hair, is marked with white and brown spots, and has erect and 2>ointed ears. It barks continually, but seldom bites the natives, however it may attack the whites. When the Inca Pachacutec, in his religious wars, conquered the Indians of Xauxa and Huanca (the 2)rcsent valley of Huancaya and Jauja), and compelled them by force to submit to the worship of the sun, he found that dogs were made the objects of their adoration, and that the priests used the skulls of these animals as wind instruments. It would also appear that the flesh of this canine divinity was eaten by the belie vers, f The veneration of dogs in the valley of the * See Humboldt’s geognostic view of South America, in his Relation historique, t. iii. pp. 188 — 244. + Garcilaso de la Vega, Commentarios Reales, P. i., p. 184. 86 VIEWS OF NATURE. Huancaya is probably the reason why the skulls, and even whole mummies, of these animals are sometimes found in the Huacas, or Peruvian graves of the most ancient period. Von Tschudi, the author of an admirable treatise on the Fauna Peruana, has examined these skulls, and believes them to belong to a peculiar species, which he calls Canis ingce, and which is different from the European dog. The Huancas are still, in derision, called ;t dog- eaters” by the inhabitants of other provinces. Among the natives of the Rocky Moun¬ tains of North America, cooked dog's flesh is placed before the stranger guest, as a feast of honour. Captain Fremont was present at such a dog-feast in the neighbourhood of Fort Laramie, which is one of the stations of the Hudson's Bay Com¬ pany for trading in skins and peltries with the Sioux Indians/* * * §' The Peruvian dogs were made to play a singular part during eclipses of the moon, being beaten as long as the darkness continued. The Mexican Techichi , a variety of the common dog, which was called in Anahuac Chichi, was the only com¬ pletely dumb dog. The literal signification of the word Techichi is “ stone-dog,” from the Aztec, teil, a stone. This dog was eaten according to the ancient Chinese custom, and the Spaniards found this food so indispensable before the introduction of horned cattle, that the race was gradually almost entirely extirpated. f Buffon confounds the Techichi with the Koupara of Guiana, j which is, however, identical with the Procyon or Ursus cancrivorus, the Raton crabier, or the crab-eating Aguara-guaza of the coasts of Patagonia. § Linnaeus, on the other hand, confounds the dumb dog with the Mexican Itzcuintepotzotli, a canine species which has not hitherto been perfectly described, and which is said to be characterised by a short tail, a very small head, and a large hump on the back. The name signifies a hump-backed dog, and is derived from the Aztec itzcuintli, another word for dog, and tepotzotli, humped or a humpback. I was much struck in America, especially in Quito and Peru, with the great num¬ ber of black hairless dogs. They are termed Chiens tares by Buffon, and are the Canis a> gyp tius of Linnaeus. This species is common amongst the Indians, who, however, * Fremont’s Exploring Expedition, IS 45. p. 42. + Clavigero, Storia antica del Messico, 1780, t. i. p. 73. J Buffon, t. xv., p. 155. § Azara, Ear les Quadruples du Paraguay, t. i. p. 315. ILLUSTRATIONS (15). WILD DOG. 87 generally despise them, and treat them ill. All European dogs multiply rapidly in South America; and if no species are to be met Avith equal to those of Europe, it is partly owing to want of care, and partly to the circumstance that the finest Ararieties (as the elegant greyhound and the Danish tiger breed) haA'e never been introduced. Von Tschudi makes the singular remark, that on the Cor¬ dilleras, at elevations of more than 12,000 feet, delicate breeds of dogs and the European domestic cat are exposed to a particular kind of mortal disease. “ Innumerable at¬ tempts have been made to keep cats as domestic animals in the toA\m of Cerro de Pasco (lying at an elevation of 14,100 feet above the sea’s le\Tel); but such endeaArours have invariably been frustrated, as both cats and dogs have died in convulsions at the end of a feAV days. The cats, after being attacked by convulsive fits, attempt to climb the walls, but soon fall to the ground exhausted and motion¬ less. I frequently obseiwed instances in Yauli of this chorea¬ like disease ; and it seems to arise from insufficient atmospheric pressure.” In the Spanish colonies, the hairless dog, AArhich is called Perro chinesco , or chino, is supposed to be of Chinese origin, and to have been brought from Canton, or from Manila. According to Klaproth, the race has been \Tery common in the Chinese Empire from the earliest ages of its culture. Among the animals indigenous to Mexico, there was a A’ery large, totally hairless, and dog-like Avolf, named Xoloitzcuintli, from the Mexican xolo or xolotl, a servant or slave.* The result of Tschudi’s observations regarding the American indigenous races of dogs are as follows: — There are two varieties almost specifically different — 1. The Canis cciraibicus of Lesson, totally hairless, with the exception of a small tuft of Avhite hair on the forehead and at the tip of the tail ; of a slate-gray colour, and without Aroice. This variety Avas found by Columbus in the Antilles, by Cortes in Mexico, and by Pizarro in Peru (where it suffers from the cold of the Cordil¬ leras) ; and it is still ATery frequently met Avith in the warmer districts of Peru, under the name of Perros chinos. 2. The Canis ingce, A\diich belongs to the barking species, and has a pointed nose and pointed ears; it is hoav used for Avatching sheep and cattle; it exhibits many variations of colour, in- * On the dogs of America, see Smith Barton’s Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania, p. i., p. 34. 88 VIEWS OF NATURE. cluced by being crossed with European breeds. The Cams ingce follows man up the heights of the Cordilleras. In the old Peruvian graves, the skeleton of this dog is sometimes found resting at the feet of the human mummy, presenting an emblem of fidelity frequently employed by the mediaeval sculptors.* * * §' European dogs, that had become wild, were found in the island of St. Domingo, and in Cuba, in the early periods of the Spanish conquest.! In the savannahs between the Meta, Arauca, and Apure, dumb dogs (perros mudos ) were used as food as late as the sixteenth century. The natives called them Majos or Auries, says Alonzo de Herrera, who under¬ took an expedition to the Orinoco, in 1535. The highly intel¬ ligent traveller Gisecke found this variety of non-barking dogs in Greenland. The dogs of the Esquimaux live entirely in the open air, scraping for themselves at night holes in the snow, and howling like wolves, in concert with one of the troop, who sits in the middle, and takes the lead in the chorus. The Mexican dogs were castrated, in order that their flesh might become more fat and delicate. On the borders of the province of Durango, and further north, near the Slave Lake, the natives load the larger dogs with their buffalo-skin tents, (at all events they did so formerly,) when, on the change of seasons, they seek a different place of abode. These various details may all be regarded as characteristic of the mode of life led by the nations of Eastern Asia.']; (16) p. 7 — Like the greater part of the Desert of Sahara , the Llanos lie within the Torrid Zone." Significant denominations, particularly such as refer to the form of the earth's surface, and which arose at a period when there was only very uncertain information respecting different regions and their hypsometric relations, have led to various and long-continued geographical errors. The ancient Ptolemaic denomination of the “ Greater and Lesser Atlas’ '§ has exercised the injurious influence here indicated. There is no doubt that the snow-covered western summits of the Atlas of Morocco may * J. J. von Tschudi, Untersuchungen Hier die Fauna Peruana, s. 247—251. t Garcilaso, P. i. 1723, p. 326. J Humboldt, Essai polit., t. ii. p. 44S, and Fetation hist., t. ii. p. 625. § Geogr., lib. iii. cap 1. 89 ILLUSTRATIONS (16). THE SAHARA. be regarded as the Great Atlas of Ptolemy; but where is the limit of the Little Atlas ? Are we still to maintain the divi¬ sion into two Atlas chains (which the conservative tendency of geographers has retained for 1700 years) in the territory of A1 giers, and even between Tunis and Tlemse? Are we to seek a Greater and a Lesser Atlas between the coast and the parallel chains of the interior? All travellers familiar with geognostic views, who have visited Algeria since it has been in the possession of the French, contest the meaning con¬ veyed by the generally adopted nomenclature. Among the parallel chains, that of Jurjura is generally supposed to be the highest of those which have been measured; but the well-informed Fournel (who was long Ingenieur en chef des Mines de V Algerie') affirms that the mountain range of Aures, near Batnah, which even at the end of March was found covered with snow, has a greater elevation. Fournel con¬ tests the existence of a Little and a Great Atlas, as I do that of a Little and a Great Altai*. There is but one Atlas, for¬ merly called Dyris by the Mauritanians, “ a name that must be applied to the foldings (rides, suites de cretes ), which form the division between the waters flowing to the Mediter¬ ranean and towards the lowland of the Sahara.” The lofty Atlas chain of Morocco inclines from north-east to south-west, and not, like the Eastern Mauritanian portion of the Atlas, from east to west. It rises into summits which, according to Renou, attain an elevation of 11,400 feet, exceeding, there¬ fore, the height of Etnaf . A singularly formed highland, of an almost square shape (Sahab el-Marga), is situated in 33° north lat., and is bounded to the south by high elevations. From thence the Atlas declines in height in a westerly direc¬ tion towards the sea, about a degree south of Mogador. This south-western portion bears the name of Idrar-N-Deren. The northern boundaries of the extended low region of the Sahara in Mauritania, as well as its southern limits towards the fertile Sudan, have hitherto been but imperfectly inves¬ tigated. If we take the parallels of 16^° and 32-4-° north lat. as the outer limits, we obtain for the Desert, includ¬ ing its oases, an area of more than 1,896,000 square miles; * Humboldt, Asie centrale, t. i. pp. 247, 252. + Exploration scientifique de V Algerie, de 1840 a 1842, publiee par ordre du Gouvernement ; Sciences hist, et geogr., t. viii., 1846, pp. 3Ö4, 373. 90 YIEWS OF NATURE. or between nine and ten times the extent of Germany, and almost three times that of the Mediterranean, exclusive of the Black Sea. The best and most recent intelligence, for which we are indebted to the French observers, Colonel Daumas, and MM. Fournel, Renou, and Carette, shows us that the Desert of Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that the number and the population of the fertile Oases is very much greater than had been imagined from the awfully desert character of the country between Insalah and Timbuctoo, and the road from Mourzouk, in Fezzan, to Bilma, Tirtuma, and Lake Tschad. It is now generally affirmed that the sand covers only the smaller portion of the lowlands. A similar opinion had been previously advanced by my Siberian travelling companion, the acute observer Ehren¬ berg, from what he had himself seen-*. Of larger wild animals, only gazelles, wild asses, and ostriches are to be met with. “ That lions exist in the desert,” says M. Carette, “is a myth popularised by the dreams of artists and poets, and has no foundation but in their imagination. This animal does not cpiit the mountains where it finds shelter, food, and drink. When the traveller questions the natives concerning these wild beasts, which Europeans suppose to be their com¬ panions in the desert, they reply, with imperturbable sang froid , ‘ Have you, then, lions in your country which can drink air and eat leaves? With us lions require running water and living flesh ; and therefore they only appear where there are wooded hills and water. We fear only the viper ( lefa ), and, in humid spots, the innumerable swarms of mosquitoes which abound there j\’ ” While Dr. Oudney, in his long journey from Tripoli to Lake Tschad, estimated the elevation of the Southern Sahara at 1637 feet, and German geographers even ventured to add an additional thousand feet, Fournel, the engineer, has, by careful barometric measurements, based on corresponding observations, made it tolerably probable that a part of the northern desert is below the sea's level. The portion of the desert which is now called “ Le Zaliara d'Algerie,” advances to the chains of hills of Metlili and el-Gaous, where lies the most northern of all the Oases, el-Kantara, fruitful in dates. This low basin, which reaches the parallel of 34° lat., receives * Exploration scientif. de VAlgerie, Hist, et geogr.. t. ii. p. 332. t Ibid. t. ii. pp. 126— 120, and. t. vii. pp. 94, 97. ILLUSTRATIONS (16). THE SAHARA. 91 the radiant heat of a stratum of chalk, inclined at an angle of 65° towards the south, and which is full of the shells of Inoceramus*. “Arrived at Biscara (Biskra),” says Fournel, “ an indefinite horizon, like that of the sea, lay spread before us.” Between Biscara and Sidi Ocba the land is only 243 feet above the seas level. The inclination increases considerably towards the south. In another workf, where I have brought together all the points that refer to the depres¬ sion of some portions of continents below the level of the sea, I have already noticed that, according toLe Pere, the bitter lakes {lacs amers ) on the isthmus of Suez, when they have but little water, and, according to General Andreossy, the Natron lakes of Fayoum, are also lower than the level of the Mediterranean. Among other manuscript notices of M. Fournel, I possess a geognostic vertical profile, with all the inflexions and inclina¬ tions of the strata, representing the surface the whole way from the coast near Philippeville to a spot near the Oasis of Biscara in the Desert of Sahara. The direction of the line on which the barometric measurements were taken is south 20° west; but the points of elevation determined are pro¬ jected, as in my Mexican profiles, on a different plane, one from N. to S. Ascending uninterruptedly from Constantine, whose elevation is 2123 feet, the highest point is found be¬ tween Batnah and Tizur, at only 3581 feet. In the part of the desert which lies between Biscara and Tuggurt, Fournel has succeeded in digging a series of artesian wells j‘. We learn from the old accounts of Shaw, that the inhabitants of the country were acquainted with a subterranean supply of water, and related fabulous tales of a “ sea under the earth (bahr tohl el-erd).” Fresh waters, which flow between clay and marl strata of the old chalk and other sedimentary for¬ mations, under the action of hydrostatic pressure, form gushing fountains when the strata are pierced§. The phenomenon of fresh water being often found near beds of rock salt, need not surprise the geognosist, acquainted with mining operations, since Europe offers many analogous phenomena. * Fournel, Sur les Gisemens de Muriate de Soude en A Igerie, p. 6, in the Annales des Mines, 4me serie, t. ix. 1846, p. 546. 4 A sie centrale, t. ii. p. 320. X Comptes rendus de l' Academie des Sciences, t. xx. 1845, pp. 170, 882, 1305. § See Shaw, Voyages dans plusieurs parties de la Berlerie, t. i. p. 169, and Kennel, Africa, Append, p. lxxxv. 92 VIEWS OF NATURE. The riches of the desert in rock-salt, and its employment for purposes of building, have been known since the time of Herodotus. The salt zone of the Sahara (zone salifere du desert) is the most southern of the three zones which pass through Northern Africa from south-west to north-east, and is believed to be connected with the beds of rock-salt in Sicily and Palestine described by Friedlich Hoffman, and by Ro¬ binson*. The trade in salt with Sudan, and the possibility of culti¬ vating the date-tree in the many Oasis-like depressions, caused probably by earth-slips in the beds of tertiary chalk or Keuper-gypsum, have equally contributed to animate the desert, at various parts, by human intercourse. The high •temperature of the air, which renders the day’s march so oppressive across the Sahara, makes the coolness of the night (of which Denham and Sir Alexander Burnes frequently com¬ plained in the African and Asiatic deserts) so much the more remarkable. Mellonif ascribes this coolness (which is proba¬ bly produced by the radiation of heat from the ground), not to the great purity of the heavens (irraggiamento calorifico per la grande serenitä di cielo nell’ immensa e deserta pianura dell’ Africa centrale), but to the extreme calm, and the ab¬ sence of all movement in the air throughout the whole nightj. The river Quad-Dra (Wadi Dra), which is almost dry the greater part of the year, and which, according to Renou§, is one- sixth longer than the Rhine, flows into the Sahara in 32° north latitude, from the southern declivity of the Atlas of Morocco. It runs at first from north to south, until in 29° north lat., and 5° 8' west long., it deflects at right angles to the west, and traversing the great fresh-water lake of Debaid, flows into the sea at Cape Nun, in lat. 28° 46', and long. 11° 8'. This re¬ gion, which was first rendered celebrated by the Portuguese discoveries of the fifteenth century, and whose geography has subsequently been shrouded in the deepest obscurity, is now known on the coast as the country of the Scheik of Beirouk * Fournel, Sur les Gisemens de Muriate de Soude en Algerie, pp. 08-41 ; and Karsten, Ueher das Vorkommen des Kochsalzes auf der Oberfläche der Erde, 1846, s. 497, 648, 741. f Memoria sulV abbassamento di temperatura durante le notti placide e serene , 1847, p. 55. t Consult, also, on African Meteorology, Aime, in the Exp1 or. de l' Algerie, Phys. Gener. t. ii., 1846, p. 147. § Explor. de I’Alg., Hist, et Geogr. t. viii. pp. 65 —78. ILLUSTRATIONS (16). DESERT OF SAHARA. 93 (whose dominions are independent of the Emperor of Mo¬ rocco). It was explored, in the months of July and August, 1840, by the French Count, Captain de Bouet-Yillaumez, under the orders of his government. From manuscript and official reports it would appear that the mouth of the Quad-Dra is at present so much blocked up by sand as to have an open chan¬ nel of only about 190 feet. The Saguiel-el-Hamra, — still very little known, — which comes from the south, and is supposed to have a course of at least 600 miles, flows into the same mouth at a point somewhat farther eastward. The length of these deep, but generally dry, river-beds is astonishing. They are ancient furrow's, similar to those which I observed in the Peruvian desert at the foot of the Cordilleras, between the latter and the shores of the Pacific. In Bouet's manuscript narrative*, the mountains which rise to the north of Cape Nun are esti¬ mated at the great height of 9,186 feet. It is generally supposed that Cape Nun was discovered in 1 433 by the Knight Gilianez, despatched under the order of the ce¬ lebrated Infante, Henry, Duke of Viseo, and founder of the Academy of Sagres, which was presided over by the pilot and cosmographer, Mestre Jacome, of Majorca; but the Portulano Mediceo , — the work of a Genoese navigator of the year 1351, — already contains the name of “ Cavo di Non.” The doubling of this Cape was as much dreaded as has been since then the passage round Cape Horn ; although it is only 23' north of the parallel of Teneritfe, and might be reached by a few days’ sail from Cadiz. The Portuguese adage, “ Quern passa o Cabo de Num, ou tornara ou nao,” could not intimidate the Infante, whose heraldic French motto of “ Talent de bien faire,” well expressed his noble, enterprising, and vigorous character. The name of this Cape, which has long been supposed to originate in a play of words on the negative particle, does not appear to me to be of Portuguese origin. Ptolemy placed on the north-west coast of Africa a river JSfuius, in the Latin version Nunii ostia. Edrisi refers to a town, Nul, or Wadi Nun, somewhat further south, and about three days’ journey in the interior, named by Leo Afri- canus Belad de Non. Several European navigators had pene¬ trated far to the south of Cape Nun before the Portuguese squadron under Gilianez. The Catalan, Don Jayme Ferrer, in 1346, as we learn from the Atlas Catalan , published at * Relation de V Expedition de la Malouine. 94 VIEWS OF NATURE. Paris by Buchon, had advanced as far as the Gold River (Rio do Ouro ), in 23° 56' north lat. ; while the Normans, at the close of the fourteenth century, reached Sierra Leone in 8° 30' north latitude. The merit of having been the first to cross the equator in the Western Ocean incontrovertibly belongs, like so many other great achievements, to the Portuguese. (17) p. 7. — “ As a grassy plain , resembling many of the Steppes of Central Asia." The Llanos of Caracas, of the Rio Apure and the Meta, which are the abode of numerous herds of cattle, are, in the strictest sense of the word, grassy plains. The two families of the Cyperacem and the Gramineae, which are the principal representatives of the vegetation, yield numerous forms of Paspalum ( Rasp alum leptostachyum, P. lenticular e), of Kyllingia ( Kyllingia monocephala ( Rottb .) K. oclorata ), of Pa- nicum ( Panicum granuliferum , P. micranthum ), of Antepliora, Aristida, Yilfa, and Anthisteria ( Anthisteria reflexa , A. foliosa ). It is only here and there that any herbaceous dicotyledon, as the low-growing species of Mimosa intermedia and M. dormiens, which are so grateful to the wild horses and cattle, are found interspersed among the Graminese. The natives very characteristically apply to this group the name of “ Dormideras,” or sleepy plants, because the delicate and feathery leaves close on being touched. For many square miles not a tree is to be seen ; but where a few solitary trees are found, they are, in humid districts, the Mauritia Palm, and, in arid spots, a Proteacea described by Bon- pland and myself, the Rhopala complicata ( Chaparro hobo ), which Willdenow regarded as an Embothrium; also the useful Palma de Covija or de Sombrero ; and our Corypha inermis, an umbrella palm allied to Chamserops, and used by the natives for the covering of their huts. How much more varied and rich is the aspect of the Asiatic plains! In a great portion of the Kirghis and Kalmuck Steppes which I have traversed (extending over a space of 40 degrees of longitude), from the Don, the Caspian Sea and the Orenburg-Ural river Jaik, to the Obi and the Upper Irtysch, near the Lake Dsai- sang, the extreme range of view is never bounded by a hori¬ zon in which the vault of heaven appears to rest on an un¬ broken sea-like plain, as is so frequently the case in the Llanos, Pampas, and Prairies of America. I have, indeed. ILLUSTRATIONS (17). VEGETATION OF THE STEPPES. 95 never observed anything approaching to this phenomenon, excepting, perhaps, where I have looked only towards one quarter of the heavens, for the Asiatic plains are frequently intersected by chains of hills, or clothed with coniferous woods. The Asiatic vegetation, too, in the most fruitful pasture lands, is by no means limited to the family of the Cyperaceae, but is enriched by a great variety of herbaceous plants and shrubs. In the season of spring, small snowy white and red flowering Rosaceae and Amygdaleae ( Spiraea , Crataegus, Prunus spinosa, Amygdalus nana), present a pleasing appearance. I have elsewhere spoken of the tall and luxuriant Synan- thereae (Saussurea amara, S. salsa, Artemisice, and Centaurece ), and of leguminous plants, (species of the Astragalus, Cytisus and Caragana). Crown Imperials ( Fritillaria ruthenica and F. meleagroides), Cypripediae and tulips gladden the eye with their varied and bright hues. A contrast is presented to this charming vegetation of the Asiatic plains by the dreary Salt Steppes, especially by that portion of the Barabinski Steppe which lies at the base of the Altai Mountains, between Barnaul and the Serpent Mountain, and by the country to the east of the Caspian. Here the social Chenopodiae, species of Salsola, Atriplex, Salicornias, and Halimocnemis crassifolia*, cover the clayey soil with patches of verdure. Among the five hundred phanerogamic species which Claus and Göbel collected on the Steppes, Synantherece, Chenopodiae, and Cruciferae were more numerous than the grasses ; the latter constituting only TxTth of the whole, and the two former yth and yth. In Germany, owing to the alternation of hills and plains, the Glumaceae (comprising the Gramineac, Cyperaceae, and Juncaceae) constitute yth, the Synanthereae (Compositae) -|-th, and the Cruciferae y¥tli of all the German Phanerogamic species. In the most northern part of the flat land of Siberia, the extreme limit of tree and shrub vegetation {Coniferce and Amentacece) is, according to Admiral Wran¬ gell's fine map, 67° 15* north lat., in the districts contiguous to Behring's Straits, while more to the west, towards the banks of the Lena, it is 71°, which is the parallel of the North Cape of Lapland. The plains bordering on the Polar Sea are the domain of Cryptogamic plants. They are called Tundra (Tuntur in Finnish), and are vast swampy districts, covered * Göbel, Reise in die Steppe des südlichen Russlands , 1838, tk. ii. s. 244, 301. 96 VIEWS OF NATURE. partly with a thick mantle of Sphagnum palustre and other Liverworts, and partly with a dry snowy-white carpet of Cenomyce rangiferina (Reindeer-moss), Stereocaulon paschale, and other lichens. “ These Tundra ,” says Admiral Wrangell, in his perilous expedition to the Islands of New Siberia, so rich in fossil wood, “•accompanied me to the extremest Arctic coast. Their soil is composed of earth that has been frozen for thousands of years. Jn the dreary uniformity of the landscape, and surrounded by reindeer, the eye of the travel¬ ler rests with pleasure on the smallest patch of green turf that shows itself on a moist spot.” (18) p. 7. — A diversity of causes diminishes the dryness and heat of the New Continent. I have endeavoured to compress the various causes of the humidity and lesser heat of America into one general cate¬ gory. It will of course be understood, that I can only have reference here to the general hygroscopic condition of the atmosphere, and the temperature of the whole continent; for in considering individual regions, as for instance, the island of Margarita, or the coasts of Cumana and Coro, it will be found that these exhibit an equal degree of dryness and heat with any portion of Africa. The maximum of heat, at certain hours of a summer’s day, considered with reference to a long series of years, has been found to be almost the same in all regions of the earth, whether on the Neva, the Senegal, the Ganges, or the Orinoco, namely, between 93° and 104° Fahr., and on the whole not higher ; provided that the observation be made in the shade, far from solid radiating bodies, and not in an atmosphere filled with heated dust or granules of sand, and not with spirit-ther¬ mometers, which absorb light. The fine grains of sand (form¬ ing centres of radiant heat) which float in the air, were proba¬ bly the cause of the fearful heat (122° to 133° Fahr, in the shade) in the Oasis of Mourzouk to which my unhappy friend Ritclrc, who perished there, and Captain Lyon, were exposed, for weeks. The most remarkable instance of a high temperature, in an air probably free from dust, is mentioned by an observer ■who well knew how to arrange and correct all his instruments with the greatest accuracy. Riippel found the temperature 110°. 6 Fahr, at Ambukol, in Abyssinia, with a cloudy sky, a strong south-west wind, and an approaching thunder-storm. ILLUSTRATIONS (18). CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 97 The mean annual temperature of the tropics, or the actual cli¬ mate of the region of palms, is on the main land between 78°. 2 and 85°. 5 Fahr., without any sensible difference between the observations made in Senegal, Pondichery, and Surinam*. The great coolness, one might almost say coldness , which prevails during a great portion of the year in the tropics, on the coast of Peru, and which causes the mercury to fall to 59° Fahr., is, as I hope to show in another place, not to be «attributed to the effect of neighbouring mountains covered with snow, but rather to the mist ( cjarua ) which obscures the sun's disk, and to a current of cold sea-water commencing in the antarctic regions, and which coming from the south-west, strikes the coast of Chili near Valdivia and Concepcion, and is thence propelled with violence, in a northerly direction, to Cape Parina. On the coast of Lima, the temperature of the Pacific is 60°. 2 Fahr., whilst it is 79°. 2 Fahr, under the same parallel of latitude when outside the current. It is singular, that so remarkable a fact should have remained unnoticed, until my residence on the coast of the Pacific, in October, 1802. The variations of temperature, of many parts of the earth, depend principally on the character of the bottom of the aerial ocean, or in other words, on the nature of the solid or fluid (continental or oceanic) base on which the atmosphere rests. Seas, traversed in various directions by currents of warm and cold water (oceanic rivers), exert a different action from articulated or inarticulated continental masses or islands, which may be regarded as the shoals in the aerial ocean, and which, notwithstanding their small dimensions, exercise, even to great distances, a remarkable degree of influence on the climate of the sea. In continental masses, we must dis¬ tinguish between barren sandy deserts, savannahs, (grassy plains,) and forest districts. In Upper Egypt and in South America, Nouet and myself found, at noon, the temperature of the ground, which was composed of granitic sand, 154° and 141° Fahr. Numerous careful observations instituted at Paris, have given, according to Arago, 122° and 126°. 5 Fahr.f The Savannahs, which, between the Missouri and the Missis¬ sippi, are called Prairies, and which appear in the south at * Humboldt, Memoire sur les Lignes Isothennes, 1817, p. 54. A sic, centrale, t. iii. Mahlmann, Table IV. t A sie centrale, t. iii. p. 176. H 98 VIEWS OF NATUEE. the Llanos of Venezuela and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, are covered with small monocotyledons, belonging to the family of the Cyperaceae, and with grasses, whose dry pointed stalks, and whose delicate, lanceolate leaves radiate towards the unclouded sky, and possess an extraordinary power of emission. Wells and Daniell* have even seen in our latitude, where the atmosphere has a much less considerable degree of transparency, the thermometer fall to 14°. 5, or 18° Fahr, on being placed on the grass. Melloni has most ably shownf that in a calm, which is a necessary condition of a powerful radiation, and of the formation of dew, the cooling of the stratum of grass is promoted by the falling to the ground of the cooler particles of air, as being the heavier. In the vicinity of the equator, under the cloudy sky of the Upper Orinoco, the Rio Negro and the Amazon, the plains are covered with dense primeval forests ; but to the north and south of this woody district, there extend, from the zone of palms and of tall dicotyledonous trees in the northern hemi¬ sphere, the Llanos of the Lower Orinoco, the Meta, and Guaviare; and in the south, the Pampas of the Rio de la Plata and of Patagonia. The area thus covered by grassy plains, or Savannahs, in South America, is at least nine times greater than that of France. The forest region acts in a threefold manner, by the coolness induced by its shade, by evaporation, and by the cooling pro¬ cess of radiation. Forests uniformly composed in our tem¬ perate zone of“ social ” plants, belongingto the families of the Coniferm or Amentaceog (the oak, beech, and birch), and under the tropics composed of plants not living socially, protect the ground from direct insolation, evaporate the fluids they have themselves produced, and cool the contiguous strata of air by the radiation of heat from their leafy appendicular organs. The leaves are by no means all parallel to one another, and pre¬ sent different inclinations towards the horizon ; and according to the laws established by Leslie and Fourier, the influence of this inclination on the quantity of heat emitted by radiation is such, that the radiating power of a given measured surface a, having a given oblique direction, is equal to the radiating power of a leaf of the size of a projected on a horizontal * Meteor. Essays, 1827, pp. 230, 278. + SulV Abbassamento di Temperatur a durante le Notti placide e serene, 1847, pp. 47, 53. ILLUSTKATIONS (18). CLIMATE OF AMEKICA. 99 plane. In tlie initial condition of radiation of all the leaves which form the summit of a tree, and which partially cover each other, those which are directly presented towards the unclouded sky, will be first cooled. This production of cold (or the exhaustion of heat by emission) will be the more considerable in proportion to the thinness of the leaves. A second stratum of leaves has its up¬ per surface turned to the under surface of the former, and will give out more heat by radiation towards that stratum than it can receive from it. The result of this unequal exchange will then be a diminution of temperature for the second stratum also. A similar action will extend from stratum to stratum, till all the leaves of the tree, by their greater or less radiation, as modified by their difference of position, have passed into a condition of stable equilibrium, of which the law may be deduced by mathematical analysis. In this manner, in the serene and long nights of the equinoctial zone, the forest air, which is contained in the interstices between the strata of leaves, becomes cooled by the process of radia¬ tion ; for a tree, a horizontal section of whose summit would hardly measure 2000 square feet, would, in consequence of the great number of its appendicular organs (the leaves), produce as great a diminution in the temperature of the air as a space of bare land or turf many thousand times greater than 2000 square feet.* I have thus sought to develope somewhat fully the complicated relations which the action of great forest regions exerts on the atmosphere, because they have so often been touched upon in connection with the im¬ portant question of the climate of ancient Germany and Gaul. As in the old continent, European civilization has had its principal seat on the western coast, it could not fail to be early remarked that under equal degrees of latitude the oppo¬ site eastern littoral region of the United States of North America was several degrees colder, in mean annual tempe¬ rature, than Europe, which is, as it were, a western peninsula of Asia, and bears much the same relation to it as Brittany does to the rest of France. The fact, however, escaped notice that these differences decrease from the higher to the lower latitudes, and that they are hardly perceptible below 30°. For the west coast of the New Continent exact observations * Asie centrale, t. iii. pp. 195 — 205. H 2 100 VIEWS OF NATURE. of the temperature are still almost entirely wanting ; but the mildness of the winter in New California shows that in reference to their mean annual temperature, the west coasts of America and Europe under the same parallels, scarcely present any differences. The annexed table gives the mean annual temperatures, which correspond to the same geogra¬ phical latitudes, on the eastern coast of the New Continent and the western coast of Europe : — Similar Degrees of Latitude. Eastern Coast of America. Western Coast of Europe. Mean Temperature of tlie Year, of Winter, and Summer. Difference be¬ tween the annual Temperature of Eastern Ame¬ rica and WesternEurope. — 0°.4 57° 10' Nain . , . 25°. 7 - 45°. 7 31°. 5 20°. 7 57° 4P ... ••• Gottcnburg 46°.4 62°. 4 47° 34' 47° 30' 48° 50' St. John's Biula , Paris 23° 38°. 1 50°. 5 51°.7 31°. 1 69°.8 O O Q O i .o 64°. 6 13°.6 44° 39' Halifax . . 24°.l 43°. 5 - 44° 50' ... Bordeaux 63°.0 42°.8 57°. 2 - 71°.l 13°.7 ( continued ) ILLUSTRATIONS (18). CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 101 Similar Degrees of Latitude. Eastern Coast of America. Western Coast of Europe. Mean Temperature of the Year, of Winter, and Summer. Difference be¬ tween the annual Temperature of Eastern Ame¬ rica and WesternEurope. o o CO ■x New York . . ••• 32°.2 52°.5 72°. 9 39° 57' Philadelphia . ... 32°.2 52°.2 - 72°. 7 38° 53' Washington . . 36°.0 54°.9 - 7l°.l 9°. 3 r-H iO o O • • • ■ » * Naples . . 49°. 5 61°. 0 - 74°. 9 38° 52' • • • • Lisbon . . 52°. 2 61°. 5 - - 71°.l 29° 48' 30° 2' St. Augustin . • • • • Cairo . . 59°. 5 72°. 3 - 81°.5 58°. 5 71°.8 84°.6 o * o In the preceding table the number placed before the frac¬ tion represents the mean annual temperature, the numerator of the fraction, the mean winter temperature, and the deno¬ minator the mean summer temperature. Besides the more marked difference between the mean annual temperatures, there is also a very striking contrast between the opposite coasts in respect to the distribution of heat over the different seasons of the year ; and it is indeed this distribution which exerts the greatest influence on our bodily feelings and on the process of vegetation. Dove* makes the general remark, that * Temperatur -tafeln nebst Bemerkungen über die Verbreitung der Wärme auf der Oberfläche der Erde, 1848, s. 95. 102 VIEWS OF NATURE. tlie summer temperature of America is lower under equal de¬ grees of latitude than that of Europe. The climate of St. Pe- tersburgh (lat. 59° 56,), or to speak more correctly, the mean annual temperature of that city, is found on the eastern coast of America, in lat. 47° 30', or 12° 30' more to the south; and in like manner we find the climate of Königsberg (lat. 54° 43;) at Halifax in lat. 44° 39'. Toulouse (lat. 43° 36') corresponds in its thermic relations to Washington. It is very hazardous to attempt to obtain any general results respecting the distribution of heat in the United States of North America, since there are three regions to be dis¬ tinguished — 1, the region of the Atlantic States, east of the Alleghany s ; 2, the Western States, in the wide basin between the Alleghanys and the Ilocky Mountains, watered by the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Arkansas, and the Missouri ; and 3, the elevated plains between the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range of New California, through which the Oregon or Columbia river wends its course. Since the com¬ mendable establishment by John Calhoun of uninterrupted observations of temperature, made on a uniform plan, at thirty-five military stations, and reduced to diurnal, mensal, and annual means, we have attained more correct climatic views than were generally held in the time of Jefferson, Rarton, and Volney. These meteorological stations extend from the point of Florida and Thompson's Island (West Key), lat. 24° 33;, to the Council Bluffs on the Missouri; and if we reckon Fort Vancouver (lat. 45° 37'), among them, they in¬ clude a space extending over forty degrees of longitude. It cannot be affirmed that on the whole the second region has a higher mean annual temperature than the first, or Atlantic. The further advance towards the north of cer¬ tain plants on the western side of the Alleghanys, depends partly on the nature of those plants and partly on the differ¬ ent distribution through the seasons of the year of the same annual amount of heat. The broad valley of the Mississippi enjoys, at its northern extremity, the warming influence of the Canadian lakes, and at the south, that of the Mexican Gulf-Stream. These five lakes (Lakes Superior, Michigan, Hu¬ ron, Erie, and Ontario,) cover an area of 92,000 square miles. The climate is so much milder and more uniform in the vicinity of the lakes, that at Niagara, for instance (in 43° 15 ILLUSTRATIONS (18). CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 103 north lat.), the mean annual winter temperature is only half a degree below the freezing-point, whilst, at a distance from the lakes, in 44° 53' north lat. at Fort Snelling, near the conflu¬ ence of the river St. Peter with the Mississippi, the mean winter temperature is 15°. 8 Fahr.* At this distance from the Canadian lakes, whose surface is from five to upwards of six hundred feet above the sea's level, whilst the bottom of Lakes Michigan and Huron is five hundred feet beloio it, recent observations have shown that the climate of the country possesses the actual continental character of hotter summers and colder winters. “ It is proved,” says Forry, “ by our thermometrical data, that the climate west of the Alleghany chain is more excessive than that on the Atlantic side.” At Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas river, which falls into the Mis¬ sissippi, in lat. 35° 47', where the mean annual temperature hardly equals that of Gibraltar, the thermometer was observed, in August, 1834, to rise to 117° Fahr, when in the shade, and without any reflected heat from the ground. The statements so frequently advanced, although unsup¬ ported by measurements, that since the first European settle¬ ments in New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the de¬ struction of many forests on both sides of the Alleglianys, has rendered the climate more equable, — making the winters milder and the summers cooler, — are now generally discredited. No series of thermometric observations worthy of confidence extend further back in the United States than seventy-eight years. We find from the Philadelphia observations that from 1771 to 1824, the mean annual heat has hardly risen 2°. 7 Fahr.; — an increase that may fairly be ascribed to the exten¬ sion of the town, its greater population, and to the numerous steam-engines. This annual increase of temperature may also be owing to accident, for in the same period I find that there was an increase of the mean winter temperature of 2° Fahr. ; but with this exception the seasons had all become somewhat warmer. Thirty-three years’ observations at Salem in Massa¬ chusetts show scarcely any difference, the mean of each one oscillating within 1° of Fahrenheit, about the mean of the whole number ; and the winters of Salem, instead of having been rendered more mild, as conjectured, from the eradication * See the admirable treatise by Samuel Forry, oil The Climate of the United States, 1842, pp. 37, 39, 102. 104 VIEWS OF NATURE. of the forests, have become colder by 4° Fahr, during the last thirty-three years.* As the east coast of the United States may be compared, in equal latitudes, with the Siberian and Chinese eastern coasts of Europe, in respect to mean annual temperature, so the western coasts of Europe and America have also very justly been compared together. I will here only adduce a few in¬ stances from the western region of the Pacific, for two of which, viz., Sitka, (New Archangel,) in Russian America, and Fort George, (having the same latitudes respectively as Got- tenburg and Geneva,) we are indebted to Admiral Lütke’s voyage of circumnavigation. Iluluk and Danzig are situated in about the same parallel of latitude, and although the mean temperature of Iluluk, owing to its insular climate and the cold sea current contiguous to it, is lower than that of Danzig, the winters of the former are milder than those of the Baltic city. Sitka . . . Lat. 57° 3' Long. 135° 16' W. 33°. 3 44°. 6 55°.0 Gottenburg . Lat. 57° 41' Long. 11° 59' E. 31°. 6 46°. 4 62°. 4 Fort George . Lat. 46° 18' Long. 123° 58' W. 37°. 8 50°. 2 60. °0 Geneva . . Lat. 46° 12' Altitude 129S feet 33°. 6 49°. 8 63°. 5 Cherson . . Lat. 46° 3S' Long. 32° 39' E. 25°. 0 53°.l 71°.0 Snow is hardly ever seen on the banks of the Oregon or Columbia river, and ice on the river lasts only a few days. The lowest temperature which Mr. Ball ever observed there (in 1838) was 18°. 4 Falir.f A cursory glance at the summer and * Forry, Op. Cit., pp. 97, 101, 107. + Message from the President of the United States to Congress, 1844, p. 160, and Forry, Op. Cit., pp. 49, 67, 73. ILLUSTRATIONS (18). CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 105 winter temperatures given above, suffices to show that a true- insular climate prevails on and near the western coasts ; whilst the winter cold is less considerable than in the western part of the old continent, the summers are much cooler. This contrast is made most apparent when we compare the mouth of the Oregon with Forts Snclling and Howard, and the Coun¬ cil Bluffs in the interior of the Mississippi and Missouri basin. (44° — 46° north lat.,) where, to speak with Buffon, we find an excessive or true continental climate, — a winter cold, which on some days is — 32° or even — 37° Fahr., followed by a mean summer's heat, which rises to 69° and 71°.4 Fahr. (19) p. 8. — “As if America had emerged later from the chaotic covering of waters A The acute natural inquirer Benjamin Smith Barton, ex¬ presses himself thus accurately :* — “ I cannot but deem it a puerile supposition, unsupported by the evidence of nature, that a great part of America has probably later emerged from the bosom of the ocean than the other continents.” I have already elsewhere treated of this subject in a memoir on the primitive nations of America :f — “The remark has been too frequently made by authors of general and well-attested merit that America was in every sense of the word a new continent. The luxuriance of vegetation, the vast mass of waters in the rivers, and the continued activity of great volcanoes, confirm the fact (say these writers,) that the still agitated and humid earth is in a condition approximating more closely to the chaotic primordial state of our planet than the old continent. Such ideas appeared to me, long before my travels in those regions, no less unphilosophical than at variance with gene¬ rally acknowledged physical laws. These imaginary repre¬ sentations of an earlier age and a want of repose, and of the increase of dryness and inertia with the increased age of our globe, could only have been framed by those who seek to discover striking contrasts between the two hemispheres, and who do not endeavour to consider the construction of our ter¬ restrial planet from one grand and general point of view. Are we to regard the southern as more recent than the northern part of Italy, simply because the former is almost constantly disturbed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions? How * Fragments of the Nat. Hist, of Pennsylvania, P. I., p. 4. + See Neue Berlinische Monatschrift , Bd. xv., 1806, § 190. 106 VIEWS OF NATURE. inconsiderable, moreover, are tlie phenomena presented by our volcanoes and earthquakes, when compared with the convul¬ sions of nature which the geognosist must conjecture to have occurred in the chaotic condition of our globe, when mountain masses were upheaved, solidified, or cleft asunder ? Different causes must also occasion a diversity of effects in the forces of nature in parts of the earth remote from one another. The volcanoes in the new continent,” (of which I still count about twenty-eight.) “ may probably have continued longer active, because the high mountain ridges on which they are erupted in rows upon long fissures are nearer to the sea, and because this vicinity appears to modify the energy of the subterranean fire, in a manner which, with few exceptions, has not yet been explained. Besides, both earthquakes and fire-erupting moun¬ tains act periodically. At present” (this I wrote forty-two years ago,) “physical disquietude and political repose prevail in the new continent, whilst in the old continent the calm repose of nature is contrasted with the dissensions of different nations. The time may however come, when this strange contrast between physical and moral forces may change its theatre of action from one quarter of the world to another. Volca¬ noes enjoy centuries of repose between their manifestations of activity ; and the idea that in the older countries nature must be characterized by a certain repose and quietude, has no other foundation than in the mere caprice of the imagination. There exists no reason for assuming that one side of our planet is older or more recent than the other. Islands, as the Azores and many flat islands of the Pacific, which have been upheaved by volcanoes, or been gradually formed by coral animals, are indeed more recent than many plutonic formations of the European central chain. Small tracts of land, as Bohemia and Kashmeer, and many of the valleys in the moon, inclosed by a ring of mountains, may continue for a long time under the form of a sea, owing to partial inunda¬ tions, and after the flowing off of these inland waters, the bottom, on which plants would gradually manifest themselves, might indeed be figuratively regarded as of more recent origin. Islands have been connected together into continen¬ tal masses by upheaval, whilst other parts of the previously existing land have disappeared in consequence of the subsidence of the oscillating ground; but general submersions can, from hydrostatic laws, only be imagined as embracing simultane- ILLUSTRATIONS (20). SOUTHERN TEMPERATURE. 107 ously all parts of the earth. The sea cannot permanently submerge the vast lowlands of the Orinoco and the Amazon, without at the same time destroying our Baltic lands. More¬ over the succession and identity of the floetz strata, and of the organic remains of plants and animals belonging to the primitive world, inclosed in those strata, show that several great depositions have occurred almost simultaneously over the whole earth.”* (20) p. 8. — “ The Southern Hemisphere is cooler and more humid than the Northern .” Chili, Buenos Ayres, the southern part of Brazil, and Peru, enjoy the cool summers and mild winters of a true insular climate , owing to the narrowness and contraction of the continent towards the south. This advantage of the Southern Hemisphere is manifested as far as 48° or 50° south lat., but beyond that point, and nearer the Antarctic Pole, South America is an inhospitable waste. The different degrees of latitude at which the southern extremities of Australia, including Van Diemen's Island, of Africa, and America, ter¬ minate, give to each of these continents its peculiar character. The Straits of Magellan lie between the parallels of 53° and 54° south lat. ; and notwithstanding this, the thermometer falls to 41° Fahr, in the months of December and January, when the the sun is eighteen hours above the horizon. Snow falls almost daily in the lowlands, and the maximum of atmo¬ spheric heat observed by Churruca in 1788, during the month of December, and consequently in the summer of that region, did not exceed 52°.2 Fahr. The Cabo Pilar, whose turret-like rock is only 1394 feet in height, and which forms the south¬ ern extremity of the chain of the Andes, is situated in nearly the same latitude as Berlin. f Whilst in the Northern Hemisphere all continents fall, in their prolongation towards the Pole, within a mean limit, which corresponds tolerably accurately with 70°, the southern extremities of America, (in Tierra del Fuego, which is so * On the vegetable remains found in the lignite formations of the north of America and of Europe, compare Adolph Brongniart, Pro¬ drome d'une Hist, des Vegetaux Fossiles , p. 179, and Charles L jell’s Travels in North America, vol. ii., p. 20. + lielacion del Viage al Estrecho de Magallanes (Apendice, 1793), p. 70. VIEWS OF NATURE. 108 deeply indented by intersecting arms of the sea,) of Aus¬ tralia, and of Africa, are respectively 34°, 46°30' and 56° distant from the South Pole. The temperature of the unequal extents of ocean which separate these southern extremities from the icy Pole contributes essentially towards the modifica¬ tion of the climate. The areas of the dry land of the two hemispheres separated by the equator are as 3 to 1 . But this deficiency of continental masses in the Southern Hemisphere is greater in the temperate than in the torrid zone, the ratio being in the former at 13 to 1, and in the latter as 5 to 4. This great inequality in the distribution of dry land exerts a perceptible influence on the strength of the ascending atmospheric current, which turns towards the South Pole, and on the temperature of the Southern Hemisphere generali)’. Some of the noblest forms of tropical vegetation, as for instance tree-ferns, advance south of the equator to the parallels of from 46° to 53°, whilst to the north of the equator they do not occur beyond the tropic of Cancer.* Tree-ferns thrive admirably well at Hobart Town in Van Diemen’s Land (42° 53' lat.), with a mean annual temperature of 52°. 2 Fahr., and therefore on an iso¬ thermal line less by 3°. 6 Fahr, than that of Toulon. Rome, which is almost one degree of latitude further from the equator than Hobart Town, has an annual temperature of 59°. 7 Fahr. ; a winter temperature of 46°. 6 Fahr., and a summer tempera¬ ture of 86° Fahr. ; whilst in Hobart Town these three means are respectively 52°, 42°. 1, and 63° Fahr. In Dusky Bay, New Zealand, tree-ferns thrive in 46° 8' lat., and in the Auck¬ land and Campbell Islands in 53° lat.f In the Archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, having a mean winter temperature of 33° Fahr., and a mean summer tem¬ perature of only 50° Fahr., in the same latitude as Dublin, Captain King found “ vegetation thriving most luxuriantly in large woody-stemmed trees of Fuchsia and Veronica;” whilst this vigorous vegetation, which, especially on the western coast of America (in 38° and 40° south lat.), has been so picturesquely described by Charles Darwin, suddenly dis¬ appears south of Cape Horn, on the rocks of the Southern Orkney and Shetland Islands, and of the Sandwich Archipelago. Uhese islands, but scantily covered with grass, moss, and * See Robert Brown, Appendix to Flinders ’ Voyage, pp. 57 5, 584 ; and Humboldt, De Distributions Geographica Plantarum, pp. 81 — 85. t Jos. Hooker, Flora Antarct., 1844, p. 107. ILLUSTRATIONS (20). SOUTHERN TEMPERATURE. 109 Hebens, Terres de Desolation , as they have been called by French navigators, lie far to the north of the Antarctic Polar Circle; whilst in the Northern Hemisphere, in 70° lat., on the extremest verge of Scandinavia, fir-trees reach a height of more than 60 feet A' If we compare Tierra del Fuego, and more particularly Port Famine, in the Straits of Magellan, 53 0 38' lat., with Berlin, which is situated one degree nearer 38°. 9 the equator, we shall find for Berlin, 47°. 3 co0‘ ; and for 34°. 7 , bl 0 Port Famine, 42°. 6 ^qcTq Fahr. I subjoin the few certain data of temperature which we at present possess of the tempe¬ rate zones of the Southern Hemisphere, and which may be compared with the temperatures of northern regions in which the distribution of summer heat and winter cold is so unequal. I make use of the convenient mode of notation already explained in which the number standing before the fraction indicates the mean annual temperature, the numerator the winter, and the denominator the summer temperature. Places. South Mean Annual, Winter, and Latitude. Summer Temperatures. Sydney and Paramatta (New Holland) . . 33° 50' 64°. 6 54°. 5 77°. 5 58°.5 Cape Town (Africa) . 33° 55' 65°. 7 — 73°. 2 52°. 5 Buenos Ayres . . . 34° 17' 62°. 4 — 73°. 0 Monte Video . . . 34° 54/ 67° 57°.4 77°. 5 Plobart Town (Van 42°. 1 Diemen’s Land) 42° 45' 52°. 5 — 63°. 0 Port Famine (Straits of 34°. 7 Magellan) .... oo CO o CO 42°. 6 — 50°. 0 * Compare Darwin in the Journal of Researches, 1845, p. 244, with Kinginvol. i. of the Narr, of the Voyages of the Adventure and the Beagle , p. 577. 110 VIEWS OF NATURE. (21) p. 9. — “ One connected sea of sandy As we may regard the social Erica as furnishing one con¬ tinuous vegetable covering spread over the earth’s surface, from the mouth of the Scheldt to the Elbe, and from the ex¬ tremity of Jutland to the Harz mountains, so may we likewise trace the sea of sand continuously through Africa and Asia, from Cape Blanco to the further side of the Indus, over an extent of 5,600 miles. The sandy region mentioned by Herodotus, which the Arabs call the Desert of Sahara, and which is interrupted by oases, traverses the whole of Africa like a dried arm of the sea. The valley of the Nile is the eastern boundary of the Lybian desert. Beyond the Isthmus of Suez and the porphyritic, syenitic, and greenstone rocks of Sinai begins the Desert mountain plateau of Nedschd, which occupies the whole interior of the Arabian Peninsula, and is bounded to the west and south by the fruitful and more highly favoured coast-lands of Hedschaz and Hadhramaut. The Euphrates forms the eastern boundary of the Arabian and Syrian desert. The whole of Persia, from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean, is intersected by immense tracts of sand ( bcjaban ), among which we may reckon the soda and potash Deserts of Kerman, Seistan, Beludschistan, and Mekran. The last of these barren wastes is separated by the Indus from the Desert of Moultan. (22) p. 9. — “ The western portion of Mount Atlas T The question of the position of the Atlas of the ancients has often been agitated in our own day. In making this inquiry, ancient Phoenician traditions are confounded with the state¬ ments of the Creeks and Romans regarding Mount Atlas at a less remote period. The elderProfessor Ideler, who combined a profound knowledge of languages with that of astronomy and mathematics, was the first to throw light on this obscure sub¬ ject; and I trust I may be pardoned if I insert the communi¬ cations with which I have been favoured by this enlightened observer. “ The Phoenicians ventured at a very early period in the world’s history to penetrate beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. They founded Gades and Tartessuson the Spanish, and Lixus, together with many other cities on the Mauritanian coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. They sailed northward along these shores ILLUSTRATIONS (22). MOUNT ATLAS. m to the Cassiterides, from whence they obtained tin, and to the Prussian coasts where they procured amber found there; whilst southward they penetrated as far as Madeira and the Cape de Yerd Islands. Amongst other regions they visited the Archipelago of the Canary Isles, where their attention was arrested by the Peak of Teneriffe, whose great height appears to be even more considerable than it actually is from the circumstance of the mountain projecting directly from the sea. Through their colonies established in Greece, especially under Cadmus in Boeotia, the Greeks were made acquainted with the existence of this mountain which soared high above the region of clouds, and with the ‘Fortunate Islands’ on which this mountain was situated, and which were adorned ■with fruits of all kinds, and particularly with the golden orange. By the transmission of this tradition through the songs of the bards, Homer became acquainted with these remote regions, and he speaks of an Atlas to whom all the depths of ocean are known, and who bears upon his shoulders the great columns which separate from one another the hea¬ vens and the earth,' * * * § and of the Elysian Plains , described as a wondrously beautiful land in the west.’‘f Hesiod expresses himself in a similar manner regarding Atlas, whom he repre¬ sents as the neighbour of the Hesperides.j The Elysian Plains, which he places at the western limits of the earth, he terms the ‘ Islands of the Blessed. ’§ Later poets have still further embellished these myths of Atlas, the Hesperides, their golden apples, and the Islands of the Blessed, which are destined to be the abode of good men after death, and have connected them with the expeditions of the Tyrian God of Commerce, Melicertes, the Hercules of the Greeks. “ The Greeks did not enter into rivalship with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in the art of navigation until a com¬ paratively late period. They indeed visited the shores of the Atlantic, but they never appear to have advanced very far. It is doubtful whether they had penetrated as far as the Canary Isles and the Peak of Teneriffe ; but be this as it may, they were aware that Mount Atlas, which their poets had described * OcL, i. 52, + II., iv. 561. X Theog., v. 517. § Op. et Dies ; v. 167. 112 VIEWS OF NATURE. as a very high mountain situated on the western limits of the earth, must be sought on the western coast of Africa. This too was the locality assigned to it by their later geographers Strabo, Ptolemy, and others. As however no mountain of any great elevation was to be met with in the north-west of Africa, much perplexity was entertained regarding the actual position of Mount Atlas, which was sought sometimes on the coast, sometimes in the interior of the country, and sometimes in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, or further southward, fn the first century of the Christian era, when the armies of Rome had penetrated to the interior of Mauritania and Numidia, it was usual to give the name of Atlas to the mountain chain which traverses Africa from west to east in a parallel direction with the Mediterranean. Pliny and Solinus were both, how¬ ever, fully aware that the description of Atlas given by the Gi •cek and Roman poets did not apply to this mountain range, and they therefore deemed it expedient to transfer the site of Mount Atlas, which they described in picturesque terms, in accordance with poetic legends, to the terra incognita of Cen¬ tral Africa. The Atlas of Homer and Hesiod can, therefore, be none other than the Peak of Teneriffe, while the Atlas of Greek and Roman geographers must be sought in the north of Africa. ” I will only venture to add the following remarks to the learned explanations of Professor Ideler. According to Pliny and Solinus, Atlas rises from the midst of a sandy plain (c medio arenarum ), and its declivity affords pasture to ele¬ phants, which have undoubtedly never been known in Tene- riffe. That which we now term Atlas is a long mountain ridge. How could the Romans have recognised one isolated conical elevation in this mountain range of Herodotus? May the cause not be ascribed to the optical illusion by which every mountain chain, when seen laterally from an oblique point of view, appears to be of a narrow and conical form ? I have often, when at sea, mistaken long mountain ranges for isolated mountains. According to Höst, Mount Atlas is covered with perpetual snow near Morocco. Its elevation must therefore be upwards of 11,500 feet at that particular spot. It seems to me very remarkable that the barbarians, the ancient Mauritanians, if we are to believe the testimony of Pliny, called Mount Atlas Dgris. This mountain chain ILLUSTRATIONS (22). MOUNT ATLAS. 113 is still called by the Arabs Daran , a word that is almost identical in its consonants with Dyris. Hornius,* on the other hand, thinks that he recognises the term Dyris in the word Ayadyrma , the name applied by the Guanches to the Peak of Teneriffe.f As our present geological knowledge of the mountainous parts of North Africa, which, however, must be admitted to be very limited, does not make us acquainted with any traces of volcanic eruptions within historic times, it seems the more remarkable that so many indications should be found in the writings of the Ancients of a belief in the existence of such phenomena in the Western Atlas and the contiguous west coast of the continent. The streams of fire so often mentioned in Hanno' s Ship's Journal might indeed have been tracks of burning grass, or beacon fires lighted by the wild inhabitants of the coasts as a signal to warn each other of threatening danger on the first appearance of hostile vessels. The high summit of the “ Chariot of the Gods,” of which Hanno speaks (the Qeu>v bxvpa), may also have had some faint reference to the Peak of Teneriffe; but farther on he describes a singular configuration of the land. He finds in the gulf, near the Western Horn, a large island, in which there is a salt lake, which again contains a smaller island. South of the Bay of the Gorilla Apes the same conformation is re¬ peated. Does he refer to coral structures, lagoon islands (Atolls), and to volcanic crater lakes, in the middle of which a conical mountain has been upheaved ? The Triton Lake was not in the neighbourhood of the lesser Syrtis, but on the western shores of the Atlantic.! The lake disappeared in an earth¬ quake, which was attended with great fire-eruptions. Dio¬ dorus § says expressly irvpbg er^vriiyaTa yeydXa. But the most wonderful configuration is ascribed to the hollow Atlas, in a passage hitherto but little noticed in one of the philosophical * De Originibus A mericanornm, p. 195. f On the connexion of purely mythical ideas and geographical tra¬ ditions, and on the manner in which the Titan Atlas gave occasion to the image of a mountain beyond the Pillars of Hercules supporting the heavens, see Letronne, Essai sur les Ide.es cosmographiqv.es qui se rattachent au norn d’ Atlas, in Ferussac’s Bulletin universel des Sciences, Mars 1831, p. 10. J A sie centrale, t. i., p. 179. § Lib. iii., 53, 55. I 114 VIEWS OF NATURE. Dialexes of Maximus Tyrius, a Platonic philosopher who lived in Rome under Commodus. His Atlas is situated “ on the continent where the Western Lybians inhabit a projecting peninsula.” The mountain has a deep semi-circular abyss on the side nearest the sea ; and its declivities are so steep that they cannot be descended. The abyss is filled with trees, and “ one looks down upon their summits and the fruits they bear as if one were looking into a well.”* * * § The description is so minute and graphic that it no doubt sprung from the recollection of some actual view. (23) p. 9. — “ The Mountains of the Moon , Djebel-al-Komr The Mountains of the Moon described by Ptolemy ,f otXrivqQ opor, form on our older maps a vast uninterrupted mountain chain, traversing the whole of Africa from east to west. The existence of these mountains seems certain ; but their extent, their distance from the equator, and their mean direction, still remain problematical. I have indicated in another work | the manner in which a more intimate acquaintance with Indian idioms and the ancient Persian or Zend teaches us that a part of the geographical nomenclature of Ptolemy con¬ stitutes an historical memorial of the commercial relations that existed between the West and the remotest regions of Southern Asia and Eastern Africa. The same direction of ideas is apparent in relation to a subject that has very recently become a matter of investigation. It is asked, whether the great geographer and astronomer of Pelusium merely meant in the denomination of Mountains of the Moon (as in that of “ Island of Barley,” (Jabadiu, Java) to give the Greek translation of the native name of those mountains; whether, as is most probable, El-Istachri, Edrisi, Ibn-al- Vardi, and other early Arabian geographers, simply trans¬ ferred the Ptolemaic nomenclature into their own language; or whether similarity in the sound of the word and the manner in which it was written misled them ? In the notes to the translation of Abd-Allatif’s celebrated description of Egypt, my great teacher, Silvestre de Sacy,§ expressly says, The * Maximus Tyrius, viii., 7, ed. Markland. 4 Lib. iv., cap. 9. Z Cosmos, vol. ii., p. 559. Bolm’s ed.. § Edition de 1S10, pp. 7, 353. ILLUSTRATIONS (23). MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON. 115 name of the mountains regarded by Leo Africanus as furnish¬ ing the sources of the Nile, has generally been rendered ‘ Mountains of the Moon,’ and I have adhered to the same practice. I do not know whether the Arabs originally bor¬ rowed this denomination from Ptolemy. It may indeed be inferred that at the present day they understand the word in the sense of moon , pronouncing it kamar; I do not think however, that such was the practice of the older Arabs, who pronounced it komr, as has been proved by Makrizi. Aboul- feda positively rejects the opinion of those who would adopt the pronunciation kamar, and derive the word from the name of the moon. As, according to the author of Kamous, the word komr , considered as the plural of , signifies an object of a greenish or dirty white colour, it would appear that some authors have supposed that this mountain derived its name from its colour.” The learned Reinaud, in his recent excellent translation of Abulfeda (t. ii., p. i., pp. 81, 82), regards it as probable that the Ptolemaic interpretation of the name of Mountains of the Moon (op?? ]vala) was that originally adopted by the Arabs. He observes that in the Moschtarek of Yakut, and in Ibn-Said, the mountain is written al-Komr, and that Yakut writes in a similar manner the name of the Island of Zendj (Zanguebar). The Abyssinian traveller Beke, in his learned and critical treatise on the Nile and its tributaries,*' endea¬ vours to prove that Ptolemy, in his (rtXnvtjg öpog, merely fol¬ lowed the native name, for the knowledge of which he was indebted to the extensive commercial intercourse which then existed. He says, “ Ptolemy knew that the Nile rises in the mountainous district of Moezi, and in the languages which are spoken over a great part of Southern Africa (as, for in¬ stance, in Congo, Monjou, and Mozambique), the word moezi signifies the moon. A large tract of country situated in the south-west was called Mono-Muezi, or Mani-Moezi, i.e., ■ the land of the King of Moezi (or Moon-land); for in the same family of languages in which moezi or muezi signifies the moon, mono or mani signifies a king. Alvarezf speaks * See Journal of the Royal Geographical Society cf London, vol. xvii., 1847, pp. 74 — 7G. t Viaggio nella Etlnovia (Ramusio, vol. i., p. 249). i 2 116 VIEWS OF NATURE. of the ‘ regno di Manicongo,’ or territory of the king of Congo.” Beke’s opponent, Ayrton, seeks the sources of the White Nile (Bahr el-Abiad), not as do Arnaud, Werne, and Beke, near the equator, or south of it (in 31° 22' E. long, from Greenwich), but far to the north-east, as does Antoine d’Abbadie, in the Godjeb and Gibbe of Eneara (Iniara), therefore in the high mountains of Habesch, in 7° 20' north lat., and 35° 221 east long, from Greenwich. He is of opinion that the Arabs, from a similarity of sound, may have inter^ preted the native name Gamaro, which was applied to the Abyssinian mountains lving south-west of Gaka, and in which, the Godjeb (or White Nile) takes its rise, to signify a moun¬ tain of the moon (Djebel al-Ivamar); so that Ptolemy himself, who was familiar with the intercourse existing; between Abys- sinia and the Indian Ocean, may have adopted the Semitic interpretation, as given by the descendants of the early Arab immigrants. ^ The lively interest which has recently been felt in England for the discovery of the most southern sources of the Nile in¬ duced the Abyssinian traveller above referred to, (Charles Beke) at a recent meeting of the “ British Association for the advancement of Science,” held at Swansea, more fully to develope his ideas respecting the connection between the Mountains of the Moon and those of Habesch. “ The Abys¬ sinian elevated plain,” he says, “generally above 8000 feet high, extends towards the south to nearly 9° or 10° north lati¬ tude. The eastern declivity of the highlands has, to the in¬ habitants of the coast, the appearance of a mountain chain. The plateau, which diminishes considerably in height towards its southern extremity, passes into the Mountains of the Moon, which run not east and west, but parallel to the coast, or from N.N.E. to S.S.W., extending from 10° north to 5° south latitude. The sources of the White Nile are situated in the Mono-Moezi country,, probably in 2° 30' south latitude, not far from where the river Sabaki, on the eastern side of the Mountains of the Moon, falls into the Indian Ocean, near Melindeh, north of Mombaza. Last autumn (1847), the two Abyssinian missionaries Rebmann and Dr. Krapf * Compare Ayrton, in the Journal of the Royal Geog. Soc., vol. xviii., 1848, pp. 53, 55, 59—63, with Ferd. Werne’s instructive Exped. zur Entd. der Nil-Quellen, 1848, s. 534—536. ILLUSTRATIONS (23). SOURCES OF THE NILE. 117 were still on the coast of Mombaza. They have established in the vicinity, among the Wakamba tribe, a missionary station, called Rabbay Empie, which seems likely to be very useful for geographical discoveries. Families of the Wakamba tribe have advanced westward five or six hundred miles into the interior of the country, as far as the upper course of the river Lusidji, the great lake Nyassi or Zambeze (5° south lat.?), and the vicinal sources of the Nile. The expedition to these sources, which Friedrich Bialloblotzky, of Hanover, is preparing to undertake” (by the advice of Ecke), “is to start from Mombaza. The Nile coming from the west referred to by the ancients is probably the Bahr-el-Ghazal, or Keilah, which falls into the Nile in 9U north lat., above the mouth of the Godjeb or Sobat.” Russegger's scientific expedition — undertaken in 1837 and 1838, in consequence of Mehemed Ali's eager desire to parti¬ cipate in the gold washings of Fazokl on the Blue (Green) Nile, Bahr el-Azrek — has rendered the existence of a Mountain of the Moon very doubtful. The Blue Nile, the Astapus of Ptolemy, rising from Lake Coloe (now called Lake Tzana), winds through the colossal Abyssinian range of mountains; while to the south-west there appears a far extended tract of low land. The three exploring expeditions which the Egyptian Government sent from Chartum to the confluence of the Blue and the White Nile (the first under the command of Selim Bimbaschi, in November, 1839; the next, which was attended by the French engineers Arnaud, Sabatier, and Thibaut, in the autumn of 1840; and the third, in the month of August, 1841), first removed some of the obscurity which had hitherto shrouded our knowledge of the high mountains, which between the parallels of 6" — 4°, and probably still further southward, extend first from west to east, and subsequently from north-west to south-east, towards the left bank of the Bahr-el-Abiad. The second of Mehemet Ali's expeditions first saw the mountain chain, according to Werne’s account, in 11° 20' north lat., where Gebel Abul and Gcbel Kutak rise to the height of 3623 feet. The high land continued to approach the river more to the south from 4° 4-7 north lat. to the parallel of the Island of Tchenker in 4° 4!, near the point at which terminated the expedition commanded by Selim and Feizulla Effendi. The shallow river breaks its way through v O 118 VIEWS OF NATURE. the rocks, and separate mountains again rise in the land of Bari to the height of more than 3200 feet. These are pro¬ bably a part of the Mountains of the Moon, as they are given in our most recent maps, although they are not covered with perpetual snow, as asserted by Ptolemy.* * * § The line of per¬ petual snow would assuredly not be found in these parallels of latitude below an elevation of nearly 15,500 feet above the sea's level. It is not improbable that Ptolemy extended the knowledge he may have possessed of the high mountains of Habesch, near Upper Egypt and the Red Sea, to the country of the sources of the White Nile. In Godjam, Kaffa, Miecha, and Sami, the Abyssinian mountains rise from 10,000 to nearly 15,000 feet, as we learn from exact measurements; (not according to those of Bruce, who gives to Chartum an elevation of 5041 feet, instead of the true height, 1524 feet!) Riippell, who ranks amongst the most accurate observers of the present day, found Abba Jarat (in 13° 10* north lat.) onlv 70 feet below the elevation of Mont Blanc. + The same %> i observer states that a plain, elevated 13,940 feet above the Red Sea, was barely covered with a thin layer of freshly killen snow.t The celebrated inscription of Adulis, which, according to Niebuhr, is of somewhat later date than the age of Juba and Augustus, speaks of “Abyssinian snow that reaches to the knee,” and affords, I believe, the most ancient record in antiquity of snow within the tropics, § as the Paro- panisus is 12° lat. north of that limit. Zimmermann’s map of the district of the Upper Nile shows the dividing line where the basin of the great river termi¬ nates in the south-east, and which separates it from the domain of the rivers belonging to the Indian Ocean, viz. ; from the Doara which empties itself north of Magadoxo ; from the Teb on the amber coast of Ogda; from the Goschop whose abundant waters are derived from the confluence of the Gibu and the Zebi, and which must be distinguished from the Godjeb, rendered celebrated since 1839 by Antoine d’Abba- die, Beke, and the Missionary Krapf. In a letter to Carl Ritter I hailed with the most lively joy the appearance of the * Lib. iv., cap. 9. 4 See Riippell, Beisein Abyssinien, bd. i., s. 414; bd. ii., s. 443. 4 Humboldt, A sie centrale, t. iii., p. 272. § Op. cit., t. iii., p. 235. ILLUSTRATIONS (23). SOURCES OF TITE ]S ILE. 119 combined results of tlie recent travels of Beke, Krapf, Isen- berg, Russegger, Rüppel, Abbadie, and Werne, as ably and comprehensively brought together in 1843 by Zimmermann. “ If a prolonged span of life,” I wrote to him, “ bring with it many inconveniences to the individual himself, and some to those about him, it yields a compensation in the mental enjoy¬ ment, afforded by comparing the earlier state of our knowledge with its more recent condition, and of seeing the growth and development of many branches of science that had long con¬ tinued torpid, or whose actual fruits hypercriticism may even have attempted to set aside. This genial enjoyment has from time to time fallen to our lot in our geographical studies, and more especially in reference to those portions of which we could hitherto only speak with a certain timid hesitation. The internal configuration and articulation of a continent depends in its leading characters on several plastic relations which are usually among the latest to be elucidated. A new and excellent work of our friend, Carl Zimmermann, on the district of the Upper Nile and of the eastern portions of Central Africa, has made me more vividly sensible of these considerations. This new map indicates, in the clearest man¬ ner, by means of a special mode of shading, all that still remains unknown, and all that by the courage and per¬ severance of travellers of all nations (among which our own countrymen happily play an important part), has already been disclosed to us. We may regard it as alike im¬ portant and useful that the actual condition of our know¬ ledge, should, at different periods, be graphically represented by men well acquainted with the existing and often widely scattered materials of knowledge, and who not merely de¬ lineate and compile, but who know how to compare, select, and, where it is practicable, test the routes of travellers by astronomical determinations of place. Those who have con¬ tributed as much to the general stock of knowledge as you have done, have indeed an especial right to expect much, since their combinations have greatly increased the number of con¬ necting points ; yet I scarcely think that when, in the year 1822, you executed your great work on Africa, you could have anticipated so many additions as we have received.” It must be admitted that, in some cases, we have only' acquired a knowledge of rivers, their direction, their branches, and 120 VIEWS OE NATURE. their numerous synonymes according to various languages and dialects; but the courses of rivers indicate the configura¬ tion of the surface of the earth, and exert a threefold influence' they promote vegetation, facilitate general intercourse, and are pregnant with the future destiny of man. The northern course of the White Nile, and the south¬ eastern course of the great Goschop, show that both rivers are separated by an elevation of the surface of the earth: although we are as yet but imperfectly acquainted with the manner in which such an elevation is connected with the highlands of Iiabesch, or how it may be prolonged in a southerly direction beyond the equator. Probably, and this is also the opinion of my friend Carl Hitter, the Lupata Mountains, which, according to the excellent Wilhelm Peters, extend to 26° south lat., are connected by means of the Mountains of the Moon with this northern swelling of the earth’s surface (the Abyssinian Highlands). Lupata , according to the last-named African traveller, signifies, in the language of Tette, closed , when used as an adjective. This mountain- range which is only intersected by some few rivers would thus be the closed or barred. “The Lupata chain of the Portuguese writers,” says Peters, “is situated about 90 leagues from the mouth of the Zambeze, and has an elevation of little more than 2000 feet. This mural chain has a direction due north and south, although it frequently deflects to the east or the west. It is sometimes interrupted by plains. Along the coast of Zanzibar the traders in the interior appear to be acquainted with this long, but not very high range, which extends between 6° and 26° south lat. to the Factory of Lourenzo- Marques on the Rio de Espirito Santo (in the Delagoa Bay of the English). The further the Lupata chain extends to the south, the nearer it approaches the coast, until at Lourenzo- Marques it is only 15 leagues distant from it.” (24) p. 10 — “ The consequence of the great rotatory movement of the ivatersT The waters of the northern part of the Atlantic between Europe, Northern Africa, and the New Continent, are agitated by a continually recurring gyratory movement. Under the tropics the general current to which the term rotation -stream might appropriately be given in consideration of the cause ILLUSTRATIONS (24). THE GULF STREAM. 121 from which it arises, moves, as is well known, like the trade wind from east to west. It accelerates the navigation of vessels sailing from the Canary Isles to South America ; while it is nearly impossible to pursue a straight course against the current from Carthagena de Indias to Cumana. This bend to the west, attributed to the trade winds, is accelerated in the Caribbean Sea by a much stronger movement, which originates in a very remote cause, discovered as early as 1560 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and confirmed in 1832 by llen- nell. The Mozambique current, flowing from north to south between Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa, sets on the Lagullas Bank, and bends to the north of it round the southern point of Africa. After advancing with much violence along the western coast of Africa beyond the equator to the island of St. Thomas, it gives a north-westerly direction to a portion of the waters of the South Atlantic, causing them to strike Cape St. Augustin, and follow the shores of Guiana beyond the mouth of the Orinoco, the Boca del Drago, and the coast of Paria. f The New Continent from the Isthmus of Panama to the northern part of Mexico forms a dam or barrier against the movements of the sea. Owing to this obstruc¬ tion the current is necessarily deflected in a northerly direc¬ tion at Yeragua, and made to follow the sinuosities of the coast-line from Costa Ilica, Mosquitos, Campeche, and Tabasco. The waters which enter the Mexican Gulf between Cape Catoclie of Yucatan, and Cape San Antonio de Cuba, force their way back into the open ocean north of the Straits of Bahama, after they have been agitated by a great rota¬ tory movement between Vera Cruz, Tamiagna, the mouth of the Bio Bravo del Norte, and the Mississippi. Here they form a warm, rapid current, known to mariners as the Gulf Stream, which deflects in a diagonal direction further and further from the shores of North America. Ships bound for this coast from Europe, and uncertain of their geographical longitude, are enabled by this oblique direction of the current to regulate their course as soon as they reach the Gulf Stream by observations of latitude only. The bearings of this current were first accurately determined by Franklin, Wil¬ liams, and Pownall. * Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. p. 14. + Rennell, Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic Ocean , 1832, pp. 96, 136. 122 VIEWS OF NATURE. From the parallel of 41° north lat. this stream of warm water follows an easterly direction, gradually diminishing in rapidity as it increases in breadth. It almost touches the southern edge of the Great Newfoundland Bank, where I found the greatest amount of difference between the temperature of the waters of the Gulf Stream and those exposed to the cooling action of the banks. Before the warm current reaches the Western Azores it separates into two branches, one of which turns at certain seasons of the year towards Ireland and Norway, while the other flows in the direction of the Canary Isles and the western coast of Northern Africa. The course of this Atlantic current, which I have described more fully in the first volume of my travels in the regions of the tropics, affords an explanation of the manner in which, notwithstanding the action of the trade winds, stems of the South American and West Indian dicotyledons have been found on the coasts of the Canary Islands. I made many observations on the temperature of the Gulf Stream in the vicinity of the Newfoundland Bank. This current bears the warmer water of lower latitudes with great rapidity into more northern regions. The temperature of the stream is therefore from about 4°^ to 7° Fahr, higher than that of the contiguous and unmoved water which constitutes the shore as it were of the warm oceanic current. The flying-fish of the equinoctial zone ( Exocetus volitans ), is borne by its predilection for the warmth of the water of the Gulf Stream far to the north of the temperate zone. Floating sea-weed ( Fucus natans ), chiefly taken up by the stream in the Mexican Gulf, makes it easy for the navigator to recognize when he has entered the Gulf Stream, whilst the position of the branches of the sea¬ weed indicate the direction of the current. The mainmast of the English ship of war, the Tilbury, which was destroyed by fire in the seven years’ war on the coasts of Saint Domingo, was carried by the Gulf Stream to the northern coasts of Scotland: and casks filled with palm-oil, the remains of the cargo of an English ship wrecked on a rock off Cape Lopez in Africa, were in like manner carried to Scotland, after having twice traversed the Atlantic Ocean, once from east to west between 2° and 12® north lat., following the course of the equinoctial current, and once from west to east between 45° and 55° north lat. by help of the Gulf Stream. Itennell, in ILLUSTRATIONS (24). THE GULP STREAM. 123 the work already referred to, p. 347, relates the voyage of a bottle inclosing a written paper which had been thrown from the English ship Newcastle in 38° 52' north lat., and 63° 58' wrest long., on the 20tli of January, 1819, and which was first seen on the 2nd of June, 1820, at the Rosses in the north-west of Ireland, near the Island of Arran. Shortly before my arrival at Teneriffe a stem of South American cedar-wood ( Cedrela odorata ), thickly covered with lichens, was cast ashore near the harbour of Santa Cruz. The effects of the Gulf Stream in stranding on the Azorean Islands of Fayal, Flores, and Corvo, bamboos, artificially cut pieces of wood, trunks of an unknown species of pine from Mexico or the West Indies, and corpses of men of a peculiar race, having very broad faces, have mainly contributed to the discovery of America, as they confirmed Columbus in his belief of the existence of Asiatic countries and islands situated in the west. The great discoverer even heard from a settler on the Cap de la Yerga in the Azores “ that persons in sailing west¬ ward had met vTith covered barks, which were managed by men of foreign appearance, and appeared to be constructed in such a manner that they could not sink, almadias con casa moveclha qne nunca se Kunden .” There are well authenticated proofs, however much the facts may have been called in question, that natives of America (probably Esquimaux from Greenland or Labrador), were carried by currents or streams from the north- wrest to our own continent. James Wallace*1 relates that in the year 1682 a Greenlander in his canoe wras seen on the southern extremity of the Island of Eda by many persons, who could not, however, succeed in reaching him. In 1684a Greenland fisherman appeared near the Island of Westram. In the church at Burra there was suspended an Esquimaux boat, which had been driven on shore by currents and storms. The inhabitants of the Orkneys call the Green¬ landers who have appeared amongst them Finnmen. In Cardinal Bembo’s History of Venice I find it stated, that in the year 1508 a small boat, manned by seven persons of a foreign aspect, was captured near the English coast by a French ship. The description given of them applies perfectly to the form of the Esquimaux ( homines erant septem mediocri statura, colore subobscuro , lato et patente vidtu , cicatriceque unci * Account of the Islands of Orkney (1700), p. 60. 124 VIEWS OF NATURE. violacea signato). No one understood their language. Their clothing was made of fish skins sewn together. On their heads they wore coronam e culmo pictam, septem quasi auricuhs intextam. They ate raw flesh, and drank blood as we would wine. Six of these men perished during the voyage, and the seventh, a youth, was presented to the King of France, who was then at Orleans.* * * § The appearance of men called Indians on the coasts of Germany under the Othos and Frederic Barbarossa in the tenth and twelfth centuries, and as Cornelius Nepos (in his Frag¬ ments ),f Pomponius Mela,;}; and Pliny§ relate, when Quintus Metcllus Celer was Proconsul in Gaul, may be explained by similar effects of oceanic currents and by the long continuance of north-westerly winds. A king: of the Boii, or, as others say, of the Suevi, gave these stranded dark-coloured men to JMetellus Celer. Gomara|| regards these Indian subjects of the King of the Boii as natives of Labrador, lie writes, Si ya no fliesen de Tierra del Labrador, y los tuviesen los Romanos por Indianos enganados cn el color. It may be inferred that the appearance of Esquimaux on the northern shores of Europe was more frequent in earlier times, for we learn from the investigations of Bask and Finn Magnusen, that this race had spread in the eleventh and twelfth century in considerable numbers, under the name of Skrälingers, from Labrador as far south as the Good Vinland, i.e. the shore of Massachussets and Connecticut.^! As the winter cold of the most northern part of Scandinavia is ameliorated by the action of the Gulf Stream, which carries American tropical fruits (as cocoa-nuts, seeds of Mimosa scandens and Anacardium occidental) beyond G2° north lat. ; so also Iceland enjoys from time to time the genial influence of the diffusion of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream far to the northward. The sea coasts of Iceland, like those of the Faroe Isles, receive a large number of trunks of * Bembo, Historien Venetce, ed. 1718, lib. vii. p. 257. + Ed. Van. Staveren, cur. Bardili, t. ii. 1820, p. 356. X Lib. iii, cap. 5, § 8. § Hist. Hat. ii. 67. II Historia Gen. de las Indicts. Saragossa, 1553, fol. vii. H See Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 604 (Bohn’s ed.) and Examen critique de MI ist. de la G eographie, t. ii. pp. 247 — 278. ILLUSTRATIONS (26), ANIMALS YIELDING MILK. 125 trees, driven thither from America; and this drift-wood, which formerly came in greater abundance, was used for the purposes of building, and cut into boards and laths. The fruits of tropical plants collected on the Icelandic shores, especially between Raufarhaven and Vapnafiord, show that the movement of the water is from a southerly direction.^ (25) p. 10. — “ Lecidece and other Lichens.'' In northern regions, the absence of plants is compensated for by the covering of Bceomyces rose us. Cenomyce rangiferi- nus, Lecidea muscorum , Lecidea icmadophila , and other cryp- togamia which are spread over the earth, and which may be said to prepare the way for the growth of grasses and other herbaceous plants. In the tropical world, where mosses and lichens are only observed to abound in shady places, some few oily plants supply the place of the lowly lichen. (26) p. 11. — “ The Care of Animals yielding milk. — Buins of the Aztek fortress." The two oxen already named, Bos americanus and Bos moschatus , are peculiar to the northern part of the American continent. But the natives — Queis neque mos, neque cultus erat, nee. jüngere tauros Yirg. iEn. i. 316. drank the fresh blood, and not the milk, of these animals. Some few exceptions have indeed been met with, but only among tribes who at the same time cultivated maize. I have already observed that Gomara speaks of a people in the north-west of Mexico who possessed herds of tame bisons, and derived their clothing, food, and drink from these animals. This drink was probably the blood, f for, as I have frequently remarked, a dislike of milk, or at least the absence of its use, appears before the arrival of Europeans to have been common to all the natives of the New Continent, as well as to the inhabitants of China and Cochin China, notwith¬ standing their great vicinity to true pastoral tribes. The herds of tame lamas which were found in the highlands of Quito, Peru, and Chili, belonged to a settled and agricultural * Sartorius von Waltershausen, Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island, 1847, s. 22—35. T Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii. p. 416. 126 VIEWS OE NATURE. population. Pedro de Ciecja de Leon* seems to imply, although assuredly as a very rare exception to the general mode of life, that lamas were employed on the Peruvian moun¬ tain plain of Callao for drawing the plough, f Ploughing was, however, generally conducted in Peru by men only.j Barton has made it appear probable that the American buffalo had from an early period been reared among some West Canada tribes on account of its flesh and hide.§ In Peru gnd Quito the lama is nowhere found in its original wild condition. According to the statements made to me by the natives, the lamas on the western declivity of the Chimborazo became wild at the time when Lican. the ancient residence of the rulers of Quito, was laid in ashes. In Central Peru, in the Ceja de la Montana, cattle have in like manner become completely wild ; a small but daring race that often attacks the Indians. The natives call them “ Yacas del Monte ” or“Vacas Cimarronas.”|| Cuvier's assertion that the lama had descended from the guanaco, still in a wild state, which had unfortunately been extensively propagated by the admir¬ able observer, Meyen,^ has now been completely refuted by Tschudi. The Lama, the Paco or Alpaca, and the Guanaco are three originally distinct species of animals.** The Guanaco (Hua- nacu in the Qquichua language) is the largest of the three, and the Alpaca, measured from the ground to the crown of the head, the smallest. The Lama is next to the Guanaco in height. Herds of Llamas, when as numerous as I have seen them on the elevated plateaux between Quito and Itiobamba, are a great ornament to the landscape. The Moromoro of Chili appears to be a mere variety of the lama. The different species of camel-like sheep found still wild at elevations of from 13,000 to upwards of 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, are the Yicufia, the Guanaco, and the Alpaca ; of these the two latter species are also found tame, although this is but rarely the * Chronica del Peru, Sevilla, 1553, cap. 110, p. 264. + See Gay, Zoologia de Chili, M ami f er os, 1847, p. 154. t See the Inca Garcilaso, Commentaries reales, P. 1, lib. v. cap. 2, p. 133; and Prescott, Hist, of the Conquest of Pern, 1847, vol. i. p. 136. § Fragments of the Nat. Hist, of Pennsylvania, P. 1, p. 4. II Tschudi, Fauna Peruana, s. 256. "II Pieise um die Erde, th. iii. s. 64. ** Tschudi, s. 22*. 237. ILLUSTRATIONS (26). RUINS OF THE AZTEK FORTRESS. 127 case with the Guanaco. The alpaca does not bear a warm climate as well as the lama. Since the introduction of the more useful horse, mule, and ass (the latter of which exhibits great animation and beauty in tropical regions), the lama and alpaca have been less generally reared and employed as beasts of burden in the mining districts. But their wool, which varies so much in fineness, is still an important branch of industry among the inhabitants of the mountains. In Chili the wild and the tame guanaco are distinguished by sjiecial names, the former being called ‘‘Luan” and the latter “ Chilihueque.” The wide dissemination of the wild Guanacos from the Peruvian Cordilleras to Tierra del Fuego, sometimes in herds of 500 heads of cattle, has been facilitated by the circumstance that these animals can swim with great facility from island to island, and are not therefore impeded in their passage across the Patagonian channels or fiords.* South of the river Gyla, which together with the llio Colorado pours itself into the Californian Gulf (Mar de Cortes), lie in the midst of the dreary steppe the mysterious ruins of the Aztek Palace, called by the Spaniards “ las Casas Grandes."’ When, about the year 1160, the Azteks first appeared in Anahuac, having migrated from the unknown land of Aztlan, they remained for a time on the borders of the Gyla river. The Franciscan monks, Garces and Font, who saw the “ Casas Grandes ” in 1773, are the last travellers who have visited these remains. According to their state¬ ment, the ruins extended over an area exceeding sixteen square miles. The whole plain w as covered with the broken frag¬ ments of ingeniously painted earthenware vessels. The principal palace, if the word can be applied to a house formed of unburnt clay, is 447 feet in length and 277 feet in breadth, f The Taye of California, a delineation of which is given by the Padre Venegas, appears to differ but inconsiderably from the Ovis musimon of the Old Continent. The same animal has also been seen in the Stony Mountains near the source of the River of Peace, and differs entirely from * See the pleasing descriptions in Darwin’s Journal, 1845, p. G6. ■f See a rare work printed at Mexico, in 1792, and entitled Cronica serdfica y Apostölica del Colegio de Propaganda Fide de la Santa Cruz de Queretaro, por Fray Juan Domingo Arricivita. 128 VIEWS OF NATURE. the small white and black spotted goat-like animal found on the Missouri and Arkansas. The synonyme of Antilope furcifer, A. tememazama, (Smith,) and Ovis montana is still very uncertain. (27) p. 11. — “ The culture of farinaceous grasses .” The original habitat of the farinaceous grasses, like that of the domestic animals which have followed man since his earliest migrations, is shrouded in obscurity. Jacob Grimm has ingeniously derived the German name for corn. Getraide , from the old German “ gitragidi,” “ getregede.” “It is as it were the tame fruit ( f rug es , frumentum ) that has fallen into the hands of man, as we speak of tame animals in opposition to those that are ■wild.”* “ It is a most striking fact that on one half of our planet there should be nations who are wholly unacquainted with the use of milk and of the meal yielded by narrow-eared grasses, ( Tlordeacece and Avenacece) whilst in the other hemisphere nations may be found in almost every region who cultivate cereals and rear milch cattle. The culture of different cereals is common to both hemispheres; but while in the New Conti¬ nent we meet with only one species, maize, which is cultivated from 52° north to 46° south lat., we find that in the Old World the fruits of Ceres, (wheat, barley, spelt, and oats.) have been everywhere cultivated from the earliest ages recorded in history. The belief that wheat grew wild in the Leontine plains as well as in other parts of Sicily was common to several ancient nations, and is mentioned as early as Diodorus Siculus. f Cereals were also found in the alpine meadow of Enna. Diodorus says expressly, “ The inhabitants of the Atlantis were unacquainted with the fruits of Ceres , owing to their having separated from the rest of mankind before those fruits were made known to mortals.” Sprengel has collected several interesting facts from which he is led to conjecture that the greater number of our European cereals originally grew wild in Northern Persia and India. He supposes for in¬ stance that summer wheat was indigenous in the land of the Musicani, a province of Northern India barley, antiquissi- * Jacob Grimm, Gesch. der Deutschen Sprache, 1848, th. i. s. 62 t lib. v. pp. 199, 232. Wessel. + Strabo, xv. 1017. ILLUSTRATION S (27). CEREALS. 129 mum frumentum, as Pliny terms it, and which was also the only cereal known to the Guansches of the Canaries, originated, according to Moses of Chorene,* * * §' on the banks of the Araxes or Kur in Georgia, and according to Marco Polo in Balascham, in Northern India ;f and Spelt originated in Hamadan. My intelligent friend and teacher. Link, has however shown in a comprehensive and critical treatise, | that these passages are open to much doubt. In a former essay of my own.§ I expressed doubts regarding the existence of wild cereals in Asia, and considered them to have become wild. Reinhold Forster, who before his voyage with Captain Cook made an expedition for purposes of natural history into the south of Russia by order of the Empress Catherine, reported that the two-lined summer barley ( Hordeum distichon) grew wild near the confluence of the Samara and the Volga. At the end of September in the year 1829, Ehrenberg and myself also herborised on the Samara, during our journey from Orenburg and Uralsk to Saratow and the Caspian Sea. The quantity of wheat and rye plants growing wild on uncultivated ground in this district was certainly very remarkable; but the plants did not appear to us to differ from the ordinary kinds. Ehrenberg received from M. Carelin a species of rye, Secale fragile , that had been gathered on the Ivirghis Steppe, and which Marshal Bieberstein for some time conjectured to be the mother plant of our cultivated rye, Secale cereale. Michaux's herbarium does not show (according to Achill Richard’s testimony), that Spelt ( Triticum spelta ) grows wild at Hamadan in Persia, as Olivier and Michaux have been sup¬ posed to maintain. More confidence is due to the recent accounts obtained through the unwearied zeal of the intelligent traveller, Professor Carl Koch. He found a large quantity of rye ( Secede cereale var. ß. pectinated) in the Pontic Moun¬ tains, at heights of more than 5000 or 6000 feet above the level of the sea, on spots where this species of grain had not within the memory of the inhabitants been previously cultivated. “ Its appearance here is the more important,” he remarks, “ because with us this grain never propagates * Geogr. Armen., ed. "Winston, 1736, p. 3G0. + Ramusio, vol. ii. p. 10. Z Abhandl. der Bert. Alcad. 1816, s. 123. § Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, 1805, p. 28. K 130 "VIEWS OF NATURE. itself spontaneously.” Koch collected in the Schirwan part of the Caucasus a kind of grain which he calls Hordeum spontaneum , and regards as the originally wild Hordeum zeocriton. (Linn.)^ A negro slave of the great Cortes was the first who cultiva¬ ted wheat in New Spain, from three seeds which he found amongst some rice brought from Spain for the use of the troops. In the Franciscan convent at Quito I saw, pre¬ served as a relic, the earthen vessel which had contained the first wheat sowed in Quito bv the Franciscan monk. Fray Jodoco Bixi de Gante, a native of Ghent in Flanders. The first crop was raised in front of the convent, on the “ Plazuela de S. Francisco,” after the wood which then ex¬ tended from the foot of the Volcano of Pichincha had been cleared. The monks, whom I frequently visited during my stay at Quito, begged me to explain the inscription on the cup, which according to their conjecture contained some hidden allusion to wheat. On examining the vessel, I read in old German the words “ Let him who drinks from me, ne’er forget his God.” This old German drinking cup excited in me feelings of veneration! Would that everywhere in the New Continent the names of those were preserved who, instead of devastating the soil by bloody conquests, confided to it the first fruits of Ceres ! There are “ fewer examples of a general affinity of names in terms relating to the different species of corn and objects of agriculture than to the rearing of cattle. Herdsmen when they migrated to other regions had still much in common, while the subsequent cultivators of the soil had to invent special words. But the fact that in comparison with the Sanscrit, Homans and Greeks seem to stand on the same footing with Germans and Slavonians, speaks in favour of the very early contemporaneous emigra¬ tion of the two latter. Yet the Indian java ( frumentum hordeum ), when compared with the Lithuanian jawai, and the Finnish jywa, affords a striking exception. ”f (28) p. 11. — ■“ Preferring to keep within a cooler climate.'' Throughout the whole of Mexico and Peru we find the trace of human civilisation confined to the elevated table- * Carl Koch, Beiträge zur Flora des Orients. Heft. 1, s. 139, 142. + Jacob Grimm, Gfesch. der deutschen Sprache, th. i. s. 09, ILLUSTRATIONS (29). PEOPLING OF JAPAN. 131 lands. We saw the ruins of palaces and baths on the sides of the Andes, at an elevation of from 10.230 to 11,510 feet. None but northern tribes migrating from the north towards the equatOx could have remained from preference in such a climate. (29) p. 12. — “The history of the peopling of Japan.” I believe I have succeeded in showing, in my work on the monuments of the American primitive races A by an examination of the Mexican and Thibetian- Japanese calen¬ dars, by a correct determination of the position of the Scansile Pyramids, and by the ancient myths which record four revolutions of the world and the dispersion of mankind after a great deluge, that the 'western nations of the New Continent maintained relations of intercourse with those of Eastern Asia, long before the arrival of the Spaniards. These observations have derived additional weight, since the appearance of my work, from the facts recently published in England, France, and the United States, regarding the remarkable pieces of sculpture carved in the Indian style, which have been discovered in the ruins of Guatimala and Yucatan. f The ancient architectural remains found in the peninsula of Yucatan testify more than those of Palen que, to an astonishing degree of civilization. They are situated between Valladolid, Merida, and Campeche, chiefly in the western portion of the country. But the monuments on the island of Cozumel, (properly Cuzamil,) east of Yuca¬ tan, were the first which were seen by the Spaniards in the expedition of Juan de Grijalva in 1518. and in that of Cortes in 1519. Their discovery tended to diffuse throughout Europe an exalted idea of the advanced condition of ancient * Vues des CorclilUres et Monuments des peuples indigenes de VAmerique, 2 tomes. Compare the work of D. Antonio del Rio, entitled Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City discovered near Palenque, 1822, trans¬ lated from the orig. manuscr. report by Cabrera, p. 9, tab. 12 — 14 (Rio's researches were made in the year 1787); with Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, 1843, vol. i. pp. 391, 429 — 434, and vol. ii. pp. 21, 54, 56, 317- 323; with the magnificent work of Catherwood, Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, 1844; and lastly with Prescott, The Conquest of Mexico, vol. iii. Append, p. 360. 132 VIEWS OF NATURE. Mexican civilization. The most important ruins of the peninsula of Yucatan (unfortunately not yet thoroughly measured and drawn by architects) are those of the “ Casa del Gobernador ” of Uxmal, the Teocallis and vaulted con¬ structions at Kabah, the ruins of Labnan with its domed pillars, those of Zayi which exhibit columns of an order of architecture nearly approaching the Doric, and those of Chiche with large ornamented pilasters. An old manuscript written in the Maya language by a Christian Indian, which is still in the hands of the “ Gefe politico of Peto, Don Juan Rio Perez, gives the different epochs ( Kahmes of 52 years) at which the Toltecs settled in different parts of the peninsula. Perez would infer from these data that the architectural remains of Chiche go back as far as the fourth century of our era, whilst those of Uxmal belong to the middle of the tenth century; but the accuracy of these historical deductions is open to great doubt.* I regard the existence of a former intercourse between the people of Western America and those of Eastern Asia as more than probable, although it is impossible at the present time to say by what route and with which of the tribes of Asia this intercourse was established. A small number of individuals of the cultivated hierarchical castes may perhaps have sufficed to effect great changes in the social condition of Western America. The fabulous accounts formerly current regarding Chinese expeditions to the New Continent refer merely to expeditions to Fusang or Japan. It is, however, possible that Japanese and Sian-Pi may have been driven by storms from the Corea to the American coasts. We know as matters of history that Bonzes and other adventurers navigated the Eastern Chinese seas in search of a remedial agent capable of making man immortal. Thus under Tschin-chi-liuang-ti three hundred young couples were dispatched to Japan in the year 209 before our era, who, instead of returning to China, settled on the Island of Nipon.f May not accident have led to similar expeditions to * Stephens, Incid. of Travel in Yucatan, vol. i. p. 439, and vol. ii. p. 273. + Klaproth, Tableaux historiques de V Arie, 1824, p. 79; Nouveau Journal asiatique, t. x. 1832, p. 335; and Humboldt, Examen cri¬ tique, t. ii. pp. 62 — 67. ILLUSTRATIONS (29). PEOPLING OF JAPAN. 133 the Fcx Islands, to Alaschka, or New California? As the western coasts of the American continent incline from north¬ west to south-east, and the eastern coasts of Asia from north east to south-west, the distance between the two continents in the milder zone, which is most conducive to mental deve¬ lopment (45° lat.), would appear too considerable to admit of an accidental settlement having been made in this lati¬ tude. We must therefore assume that the first landin«: took place in the ungenial climate of 55 and 65°, and that cultivation, like the general advance of population in America, progressed by gradual stations from north to south.’" It was even believed in the beginning of the sixteenth century that the fragments of ships from Catayo, i.c. from Japan or China, had been found on the coasts of the Northern Dorado, called also Quivira and Cibora.f We know as yet too little of the languages of America entirely to renounce the hope that, amid their many varieties, some idiom may be discovered, that has been spoken with certain modifications in the interior of South America and Central Asia, or that might at least indicate an ancient affinity. Such a discovery would undoubtedly be one of the most brilliant to which the history of the human race can hope to attain! But analogies of language are only deserving of confidence where mere resemblances of sound in the roots are not alone the object of research, but attention is also directed to the organic structure, the grammatical forms, and those elements of language which manifest themselves as the pro¬ duct of the intellectual power of man. (30) p. 12 — “ Many other forms of animal life." The Steppes of Caracas abound in flocks of the so-called Cervas mexicanus. This stag when young is spotted, and re¬ sembles the roe. We have frequently met with perfectly white varieties, which is a very striking fact when the high tempe¬ rature of this zone is taken into consideration. The Cervas mexicanus is not found on the declivities of the Andes in the equatorial region, at an elevation exceeding from 4476 to 5115 feet, but another white deer, which I could scarcely distinguish by any one specific characteristic from the * Relat. hist. t. iii. pp. 155 — 160. 4 Gomara, Hist, general de las Lidias, p. 117. 134 VIEWS OF NATUEE. European species, ascends to an elevation of nearly 13,000 feet. The Cavia capybara is known in the province of Caracas by the name of Chiguire. This unfortunate animal is pursued in the water by the crocodile, and on land by the tiger or jaguar. It runs so badly that we were often able to catch it with our hands. The extremities are smoked and eaten as hams, but have a most unpleasant taste, owing to the flavour and smell of musk by which they are impregnated; and on the Orinoco we gladly ate monkey-hams in preference. These beautifully striped animals — the Vwerra mapurito , Vioerra zorilla, and Viverra vittata — exhale a fetid odour. (31.) p. 12 — “ The Guaranes and the fan-palm Mauritia .” The small coast tribe of the Guaranes (called in British Guiana, the Warraws, or Guaranos, and by the Caribs U-ara-u) inhabit not only the swampy delta and the river network of the Orinoco (more particularly the banks of the Manamo grande and the Cano Macareo), but also extend, with very slight differences in their mode of living, along the sea¬ shore, between the mouths of the Essequibo and the Boca de Navios of the Orinoco.* According to the testimony of Schorn- burgk, the admirable observer referred to in the note, there are still about 1700 AVarraus or Guaranos living in the vicinity of Cumaca, and along the banks of the Barime river, which empties itself into the gulf of the Boca de Navios. The social habits of the tribes settled in the delta of the Orinoco were known to the great historian Cardinal Bembo, the cotemporary of Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Arespucci, and Alonzo de Hojeda. lie saysf quibusdam in locis propter paludes incolee domns in arboribus cedijicant. It is hardly probable that instead of the Guaranos at the mouth of the Orinoco, Bembo should here allude to the natives of the country near the mouth of the gulf of Maracaibo, where Alonzo de Hojeda, in August, 1499, (when accompanied by Arespucci and Juan de la Cosa) found a population having their dwellings fondata sopra lacqua come Venezia (“k built like A7enice on the water ”).| Vespucci, in the account of his * Compare my Relation historique, t. i. p. 492, t. ii. pp. 653, 703, 6ith Richard Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch Guiana, th. i. 1847, s. 2, 120, 173, 194. t Historice Venetce, 1551, p. 88. 7 See text of Riccardi in my Examen crit. t. iv. p. 496. ILLUSTRATIONS (31). MAURITIA PALM. 135 travels, in which we meet with the first traces of the etymo¬ logy of the name of the province of Venezuela (Little Venice) as used for the province of Caracas, speaks only of houses built on a foundation of piles, and makes no mention of habi¬ tations in trees. Sir Walter Raleigh bears a subsequent and incontrovertible evidence to the same fact, for he says expressly in his description of Guiana, that on his second voyage in 1 595, when in the mouth of the Orinoco, “ he saw the fire of the Tivitites and Qua-raw- etes” (so he calls the Guaranes), “ high up in the trees.”* * * § There is a drawing of the fire in the Latin edition of this work,f and Raleigh was the first who brought to England the fruit of the Mauritia palm, which he very justly compared, on account of its scales, to fir-cones. Father Jose Gumilla, who twice visited the Guaranes as a missionary, says, indeed, that this tribe have their dwelling in the Palmares (palm groves) of the morasses; but while he speaks more definitely of pendent habitations supported by high pillars, makes no mention of platforms attached to still growing trees 4 Hillhouse and Sir Robert Schomburgk§ are of opinion that Bembo, through the relations of others, and Raleigh, by his own observation, were deceived into this belief in consequence of the high tops of the palm trees being lighted up in such a manner by the fires below them, that those sailing by thought the habitations of the Guaranes were attached to the trees themselves. “ We do not deny,'’ says Schomburgk, “ that in order to escape the attacks of the mosquitos, the Indian sometimes suspends his hammock from the tops of trees, but on such occasions no fires are made under the hammock.” || According to Martius, the beautiful Palm, Moricke, Mau- * Raleigh, Discovery of Guiana, 1596, p. 90. f Brevis ct adrniranda Descriptio regni Guiance (Norib. 1599), tab. 4. X Gumilla, Ilistoria natural, civil y geografica de las Naciones situadas en las riveras del Rio Orinoco, nueva impr., 1791, pp. 143, 145, 163. § See Journal of the Royal Geogr. Society, vol. xii. 1842, p. 175, and Description of the Murichi, or Ita Palm, read in the meeting of the British Association held at Cambridge, June 1845 ( published in Simond's Colonial Magazine). || See also Sir Robert Schomburgk’s new edition of Raleigh's Dis¬ covery of Guiana (1848), p. 50. VIEWS OF HAT U RE. ; 36 ritia flexuosa, Quieteva, or It a Palm.'1' belongs, together with Calamus, to the family of the Lepidocaryse or Coryphese. Linnaeus has described it very imperfectly, as he erroneously considered it to be devoid of leaves. The trunk is 26 feet nigh, but it probably does not attain this height in less than 120 or even 150 years. The Mauritia extends high up the declivity of the Duida, north of the Esmeralda mission, where I found it in great beauty. It forms, in moist places, fine groups of a fresh and shining verdure, reminding us of that of our alders. The trees preserve the moisture of the ground by their shade, and hence the Indians believe that the Mauritia draws water around its roots by some mysterious attraction. In conformity with an analogous theory they advise, that serpents should not be killed, because the de¬ struction of these animals is followed by the drying up of the lagoons. Thus do the rude children of nature confound cause and effect! Gumilla calls the Mauritia flexuosa of the Gua- ranes the tree of life (“ arbol de la vida”). It is found on the mountains of Ronaima, east of the sources of the Orinoco, as high as 4263 feet. On the unfrequented banks of the Rio Atabapo, in the interior of Guiana, we discovered a new species of Mauritia having a prickly stem; our Mauritia aculeata .f (32) p. 13. — “ An American Stylit e A The founder of the sect of Stylites, the fanatical Pillar- saint, Simeon Sisanites of Syria, the son of a Syrian herdsman, is said to have passed thirty-seven years in holy contempla¬ tion, elevated on five columns, each higher than the preceding. He died in the year 461. The last of the pillars which he occupied was 40 ells in height. For seven hundred years there continued to be followers of this mode of life, who were called Sancti Columnar es , or Pillar-saints. Even in Germany, in the see of Treves, attempts were made to found similar aerial cloisters ; but the dangerous practice met with the con¬ stant opposition of the bishops.^ * 15 email, Missionary Labours in British Guiana, 1S47, pp. 34, 44. + Humboldt, Bonpland, et Ivuntk, Nova genera et species Plan - tarum, t. i. p. 310. J Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles., 1755, p. 215. ILLUSTRATIONS (36). THE MIRAGE. 137 (33) p. 14. — “ Towns on the banks of the Steppe-rivers .” Families wlio live by raising cattle and do not take part in agricultural pursuits have congregated together in the middle of the Steppe, in small towns, which, in the cultivated parts- of Europe, would scarcely be regarded as villages. Among these are Calabozo, which, according to my astronomical observations, is situated in 8° 56' 14" north lat., and 67° 43A west long. ; Villa del Pao (8° 38' 1" north lat., and 66° 57' west long.); Saint Sebastian, and others. (34) p. 14. — “ Funnel-shaped clouds .” \ The singular phenomenon of these sand-spouts, of which we see something analogous on the cross roads of Europe, is especially characteristic of the Peruvian sandy desert between Amotape and Coquimbo. Such dense clouds of sand may endanger the safety of the traveller who does not cautiously avoid them. It is remarkable that these partial and opposing currents of air should arise only when there is a general calm. The aerial ocean resembles the sea in this respect; for here, too, we find that the small currents ( filets de courant ) in which the water may frequently be heard to flow with a splashing sound, occur only in a dead calm (calme plat). (35) p. 14. — “ Increases the stifling oppression .” I have observed in the Llanos de Apure, at the cattle farm of Guadalupe, that the thermometer rose from 92°. 7 to 9 7°. 2 Fahr, whenever the hot wind began to blow from the desert, which was covered either with sand or short withered grass. In the middle of the sand-cloud the thermometer stood for several minutes together at 111° Fahr. The dry sand in the village of San Fernando dc Apure had a tempera¬ ture of 126° Fahr. (36) p. 15. — “ The phantom, of a moving undulating surfaced The well known phenomenon of the mirage is called in Sanscrit “ the thirst of the gazelle.”* All objects appear to, float in the air, while their forms are reflected in the lower stratum of the atmosphere. At such times the whole desert * See my Relat. hist., t. i. pp. 29G, G25; t. ii. p. 161. 138 VIEWS OF NATURE. resembles a vast lake, whose surface undulates like waves, Palm trees, cattle, and camels sometimes appear inverted in the horizon. In the French expedition to Egypt, this optical illusion often nearly drove the faint and parched soldiers to dis¬ traction. This phenomenon has been observed in all quarters of the world. The ancients were alsoacquainted with the re^ markable refraction of the rays of light in the Lybian Desert. We find mention made in Diodorus Siculus of strange illusive appearances, an African Fata Morgana , together with still more extravagant explanations of the conglomeration of the particles of air A (37) p. 15. — “ The Melocactus The Cactus melocactus is frequently from 10 to 12 inches in diameter, and has generally 14 ribs: The natural group of the Cactaceoe, the whole family of the Nopalese of Jussieu, belongs exclusively to the New Continent. The Cactus assumes a variety of shapes, being ribbed and melon- like {JMelocacti) ; articulated (Opuntice) ; upright-like columns ( Cerei) ; of a serpentine or creeping form (lihipsalides) ; or provided with leaves ( Pereskice ). Many extend high up the slopes of the mountains. Near the foot of the Chimborazo, in the sandy table-land around Riobamba, I found a new species of Pitahaya ( Cactus sepium ), even at an elevation of 10,660 feet.f (38) p. 16. — “ The scene suddenly! changes in the Steppe .” I have endeavoured to describe the approach of the rainy .season, and the signs by which it is announced. The deep blue of the heavens in the tropics is occasioned by the imperfect solution of vapour. The cyanometer indicates a lighter shade of blue as soon as the vapours begin to fall. The dark spot in the constellation of the Southern Cross becomes indistinct in proportion as the transparency of the atmosphere decreases, and this change announces the approach of rain. The bright radiance of the Magellanic clouds ( Nubecula major and JSubecula minor ) then gradually hides away. The fixed stars which had before been shining with a calm, steady, planet- * Lib. iii. p. 184, Rhod., p. 219, Wessel. + Humboldt, Bonpland, efc Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum cequinoct. Oibis Novi, t. iii. p. 370. ILLUSTRATIONS (41). PLAIN OF ANTISANA. 139 like light, are now seen to scintillate in the zenith.* All these phenomena are the result of the increased quantity of aqueous vapour floating in the atmosphere. (39) p. 16. — “ The humid day soil is seen to rise slowly in a broad fake." Drought produces the same phenomena in animals and plants as the abstraction of heat. During the dry season many tropical plants lose their leaves. The crocodile and other amphibious animals conceal themselves in the mud and lie apparently dead, like animals in cold regions who are thrown into a state of hybernation. f (40) p. 17. — “ A vast inland sea." Nowhere are these inundations on a larger scale than in the network of streams formed by the Apure, the Arachuna, the Pajara, the Arauca, and the Cabuliare. Large vessels sail across the country over the Steppe for 40 or 50 miles. (41) p. 17. — “ To the mountainous plain of Antis ana." The great mountain plateau which surrounds the volcano of Antisana is 13,473 feet above the level of the sea. The pressure of the atmosphere is so inconsiderable at this height, that blood will flow from the nostrils and mouth of the wild bull when hunted with dogs. (42) p. 17. — “ The marshy waters of B era and Rastro." I have elsewhere more circumstantially described the capture of the gymnotus. J Mons. Gay Lussac and myself were perfectly successful in the experiments we conducted without a chain on a living gymnotus, which was still very vigorous when it reached Paris. The discharge of electricity is entirely dependent on the will of the animal. We did not observe any electric sparks, but other physicists have done so on numerous occasions. (43) p. 18. — “ Awahened by the contact of moist and dissimidar particles." In all organic bodies dissimilar substances come into * Compare Arago in my Relation hist., t. i. p. 623. 4 See my Relat. histor., t. ii. pp. 196, 626. X Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomie cornparee, t. i. pp. S3— 87, and Rilat. hist., t. ii. pp. 173-190. 140 VIEWS OF NATURE. contact with each other, and solids are associated with fluids. Wherever there is organization and life, there must be electric tension, or, in other words, a voltaic pile must be brought into play, as the experments of Nobili and Mat- teucci, and more especially the late most admirable labours of Emil Dubois, teach us. The last-named physicist has suc¬ ceeded in “ manifesting the presence of the electric muscular current in living and wholly uninjured animal bodies he shows that “the human body, through the medium of a cop¬ per wire, can at will cause the magnetic needle at a distance to deflect first in one direction and then in another.”'* I have myself witnessed these movements produced at will, and have thus unexpectedly seen much light thrown on phenomena, to which I had laboriously and ardently devoted so many years of my earlier life. (44) p. 19. — “ The myth of Osiris and Typhon .” Respecting the struggle of two human races, the Arabian shepherd tribes of Lower Egypt and the cultivated agri¬ cultural races of Upper Egypt; on the subject of the fair¬ haired Prince Baby or Typhon , who founded Pelusium ; and on the dark-complexioned Dionysos or Osiris; I would refer to Zoega’s older and almost universally discarded views as set forth at p. 5 77 of his masterly work “ Be origine et asu obeliscoram.” (45) p. 19 — “ The boundaries of European semi-civilization .” In the Capitania General de Caracas, as well as in all the eastern part of America, the civilization formerly introduced by Europeans is limited to the narrow strip of land which skirts the shore. In Mexico, New Granada, and Quito on the other hand, European civilization has penetrated far into the interior of the country and advanced up to the ridges of the Cordilleras. There existed already in the fifteenth century an earlier stage of civilization among the inhabitants of the last-named region. Wherever the Spaniards perceived this culture they pursued its track, regardless whether the seat of it was at a distance from the sea, or in its vicinity. The * ancient cities were enlarged and their former significant * Untersuchungen über thierische Electricität , von Emil du Bois- Raymond, 1S48, bd. i. s. xv. ILLUSTRATIONS (47). THE BEARDED APE. 141 Indian names mutilated, or exchanged for those of Christian saints. (46) p. 19 — Huge masses of leaden-coloured granite .” In the Orinoco, and more especially at the cataracts of Maypures and Atures (not in the Black River or Rio Negro), all blocks of granite, even pieces of white quartz, wherever they come in contact with the water, acquire a grayish black coating, which does not penetrate beyond O'Ol of a line into the interior of the rock. The traveller might almost suppose that he was looking at basalt, or fossils coloured with graphite. Indeed, the crust does actually appear to contain manganese and carbon. I say appears” to do so, because the phenomenon has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Something per¬ fectly analogous to this was observed by Rozier in the syenitic rocks of the Nile (near Syene and Philse) ; by the unfortu¬ nate Captain Tuckey on the rocky banks of the Zaire; and by Sir Robert Scliomburgk at BerbiceA On the Orinoco these leaden-coloured rocks are supposed when wet to give forth noxious exhalations, and their vicinity is believed to be con¬ ducive to the generation of fevers. f It is also remarkable that the South American rivers generally, which have black waters ( aguas negras ), or waters of a coffee brown or wine yellow tint, do not darken the granite rocks ; that is to say, they do not act upon the stone in such a manner as to form from its constituent parts a black or leaden-coloured crust. (47) p. 20 — “ The rain-foreboding hotel of the bearded ape.” Some hours before the commencement of rain, the melan¬ choly cries of various apes, as Simla senicidus, Simla beelzebub , &c., fall on the ear like a storm raging in the distance. The intensity of the noise produced by such small animals can only be explained by the circumstance that one tree often contains a herd of seventy or eighty apes. I have elsewhere spoken of the laryngeal sac, and the ossification of the larynx of these animals .| * Reisen in Guiana tend am Orinoho, s. 212. + See my Relat. lust., t. ii. pp. 299--304. t See my anatomical treatise in Recueil d' Observations di Zoologie, vol. i. p. 18. m VIEWS OF NATURE. (48) p. 20 — “Its uncouth body often covered with birds.” The crocodiles lie so motionless, that I have often seen fla¬ mingoes ( Phoenicopterus ) resting on their heads, while the other parts of the body were covered, like the trunk of a tree, with aquatic birds. (49) p. 20 — “Down its dilating throat.” The saliva with which the boa covers its prey tends to pro¬ mote rapid decomposition. The muscular flesh is rendered gelatinously soft under its action, so that the animal is able to force entire limbs of its slain victim through its swelling throat. The Creoles call the giant boa Trag arena do ( stag - swallower ), and fabulously relate that the antlers of a stag which could not be swallowed by the snake have been seen fixed in its throat. I have frequently observed the boa constrictor swimming in the Orinoco, and in the smaller forest streams, the Tuamini, the Temi, and the Atabapo. It holds its head above water like a dog. Its skin is beautifully speckled. It has been asserted, that the animal attains a length of 48 feet, but the longest skins which have as yet been carefully measured in Europe do not exceed from 21 to 23 feet. The South American boa (a Python) differs from the East Indian.* (50) p. 20 — “Living on gums and earth.” It is currently reported throughout the coasts of Cumana, New Barcelona, and Caracas (which the Franciscan monks of Guiana are in the habit of visiting on their return from the missions,) that there are men living on the banks of the Orinoco who eat earth. On the 6th of June, 1800, on our return from the Rio Negro, when we descended the Orinoco in thirty-six days, we spent the day at the mission inhabited by these people (the Otomacs). Their little village, which is called La Concepcion de Uruana, is very picturesquely built against a granite rock. It is situated in 7° 8' 3" north lat. ; and ac¬ cording to my chronometrical determination, in 67° IS' west longitude. The earth which the Otomacs eat, is an unctuous, almost tasteless clay, true potter's earth, of a yellowish grey ^ * On the Ethiopian Boa, see Diodor. SicuL, lib. iii. p. 204, ed. Wesseling. ILLUSTRATIONS (50). THE CTOMACS. 143 colour, in consequence of a slight admixture of oxide of iron. They select it with great care, and seek it in certain banks on the shores of the Orinoco and Meta. They distinguish the fla¬ vour of one kind of earth from that of another ; all kinds of clay not being alike acceptable to their palate, They knead this earth into balls measuring from four to six inches in diameter, and bake them before a slow fire, until the outer surface assumes a reddish colour. Before they are eaten, the balls are again moistened. These Indians are mostly wild, uncivilized men, who abhor all tillage. There is a proverb current among the most distant of the tribes livino; on the Orinoco, when they wish to speak of anything very unclean, “ so dirty that the Otomacs eat it.” As long as the waters of the Orinoco and the Meta are low, these people live on fish and turtles. They kill the former with arrows, shooting the fish as they rise to the sur¬ face of the water with a skill and dexterity that has frequently excited my admiration. At the periodical swelling of the rivers, the fishing is stopped, for it is as difficult to fish in deep river water as in the deep sea. It is during these intervals, which last from two to three months, that the Otomacs are observed to devour an enormous quantity of earth. We found in their huts considerable stores of these clay balls piled up in pyramidal heaps. An Indian will consume from three- quarters of a pound to a pound and a quarter of this food daily, as we were assured by the intelligent monk, Fray llamon Bueno, a native of Madrid, who had lived among these Indians for a period of twelve years. According to the testimony of the Otomacs themselves, this earth constitutes their main support in the rainy season. In addition, they however eat, when they can procure them, lizards, several species of small fish, and the roots of a fern. But they are so partial to clay, that even in the dry season, when there is an abundance of fish, they still partake of some of their earth- balls, by way of a bonne Louche after their regular meals. These people are of a dark, copper-brown colour, have un¬ pleasant Tartar-like features, and are stout, but not protu¬ berant. The Franciscan who had lived amongst them as a missionarv. assured us that he had observed no difference in the condition and well-being of the Otomacs during the periods in which they lived on earth. The simple facts are therefore 144 VIEWS OF NATURE. as follows: — The Indians undoubtedly consume large quantities of clay without injuring their health : they regard this earth as a nutritious article of food, that is to say, they feel that it will satisfy their hunger for a long time. This property they ascribe exclusively to the clay, and not to the other articles of food which they contrive to procure from time to time in addition to it. If an Otomac be asked what are his winter provisions — the term winter in the torrid parts of South America imptying the rainy season— he will point to the heaps of clay in his hut. These simple facts do not, however, by any means decide the questions : whether clay can actually be a nutritious substance ; whether earths can be assimilated in the human body; whether they only serve as ballast ; or merely distend the walls of the stomach, and thus appease the cravings of hunger? These are questions which I cannot venture to decide.* It is singular, that Father Gumilla, who is generally so credulous and uncritical, should have denied the fact of earth being eaten by and for itself. f He maintains that the clay-balls are largely mixed with maize- hour, and crocodile's fat. But the missionarv Fray Ramon Bueno, and our friend and fellow-traveller, the lay-brother Fray Juan Gonzales, who perished at sea off the coast of Africa (at the time we lost a portion of our collections), both assured us, that the Otomacs never mix their clay cakes with crocodile’s fat, and we heard nothing in Uruana of the admix¬ ture of hour. The earth which we brought with us, and which was chemi- cally investigated by M.Vauquelin, is quite pure and unmixed. May not Gumilla, by confounding heterogeneous facts, have intended to allude to a preparation of bread from the long pod of a species of Inga? as this fruit is certainly buried in the earth, in order to hasten its decomposition. It appears to me especially remarkable, that the Otomacs should not lose their health by eating so much earth. Has this tribe been habituated for generations to this stimulus? In all tropical countries men exhibit a wonderful and almost irresistible desire to devour earth, not the so-called alka¬ line or calcareous earth, for the purpose of neutralizing acidity, but unctuous, strong-smelling clay. It is often found * Relat. hist., t. ii. pp. 618-620. t Ilistoria del Rio Orinoco, nueva impr., 1791, t. i. p. 179. ILLUSTRATIONS (50) THE OTOMACS. 1-15 necessary to shut children up in order to prevent their run¬ ning into the open air to devour earth after recent rain. The Indian women who are engaged on the river Magdalena, in the small village of Banco, in turning earthenware pots, continually fill their mouths with large lumps of clay, as I have frequently observed, much to my surprise.* Wolves eat earth, especially clay, during winter. It would be very important, in a physiological point of view, to examine the excrements of animals and men that eat earth. Individuals of all other tribes, excepting the Otomacs, lose their health if they yield to this singular propensity for eating clay. In the mission of San Borja we found the child of an Indian woman, which, according to the statement of its mother, would hardly eat anything but earth. It was, however, much emaciated, and looked like a mere skeleton. Why is it that in the temperate and cold zones this morbid eagerness for eating earth is so much less frequently mani¬ fested, and is indeed limited almost entirely to children and pregnant women, whilst it would appear to be indigenous to the tropical lands of every quarter of the earth ? In Guinea the negroes eat a yellowish earth, which they call caouac; and when they are carried as slaves to the West Indies they even endeavour there to procure for themselves some similar species of food, maintaining that the eating of earth is perfectly harmless in their African home. The caouac of the American islands, however, deranges the health of the slaves who par¬ take of it ; for which reason the eating of earth was long since forbidden in the West Indies, notwithstanding which a species of red or yellowish tuff ( un tuf rouge jaunatre) was secretly sold in the public market of Martinique in the year 1751. “ The negroes of Guinea say that in their own country they habitually eat a certain earth, the flavour of which is most agreeable to them, and which does not occasion them any in¬ convenience. Those who have addicted themselves to the excessive use of caouac are so partial to it, that no punishment can prevent them from devouring this earth ”f In the island of Java, between Sourabaya and Samarang, Labillardiere saw * This was also observed by Gilj, Saygio di Storia Americana , t. ii. p. 311. f Thibault de Chanvalon, Voyage d la Martinique, p. 85. L 146 VIEWS OF NATURE. small square reddish cakes publicly sold in the villages. The natives called them tana ampo ( tanah signifies earth in Malay and Javanese); and on examining them more closely, he found that they were cakes made of a reddish clay, and intended for eating.* The edible clay of Samarang has recently (1847) been sent, by Molmike, to Berlin in the shape of rolled tubes like cinnamon, and has been examined by Ehrenberg. It is a fresh-water formation deposited in tertiary limestone, and composed of microscopic polvgastrica (Gallionella, Navicula) and of Phytolitharia.f The natives of New Caledonia, to appease their hunger, eat lumps as large as the fist of friable steatite, in which Vauquelin detected an appreci¬ able quantity of copper.;}; In Popayan and many parts of Peru calcareous earth is sold in the streets as an article of food for the Indians. This is eaten together with the Coca (the leaves of the Enytkroxylon peruvianum ). We thus find that the practice of eating earth is common throughout the whole of the torrid zone among the indolent races who inhabit the most beautiful and fruitful regions of the earth. But accounts have also come from the north, through Berzelius and Betzius, from which we learn, that in the most remote parts of Sweden hundreds of cartloads of earth containing infusoria are annually consumed by the country people as bread-meal, more from fancy (like the smoking of tobacco) than from necessity. In some parts of Finland a similar kind of earth is mixed with the bread. It consists of empty shells of animalcules, so small and soft, that thev break between the teeth without any perceptible noise, filling the stomach without yielding any actual nourishment. Chronicles and archives often make mention during times of war of the employment as food of infusorial earth, which is spoken of under the indefinite and general term of “ mountain meal.” Such, for instance, was the case in the Thirty Years’ War, at Camin in Pomerania, Muskau in the Lausitz, and Kleiken in the Dessau territory; and subsequently in 1719 and 1733, at the fortress of Wittenberg. § * Voyage ä la Recherche de La Perouse , t. ii. p. 322. t Bericht über die Verhandl. der Ah ad. d. PFiss. zu Berlin aus dem J. 1848, s. 222—225. + Voy. ä la Bech. de La Perouse, t. ii. p. 205. § Sec Ehrenberg, Ueber das unsichtbar wirkende organiche Leben. 1842, s. 41. ILLUSTRATIONS (51). SCHOMBURGK’S RESEARCHES. 147 (51) p. 20. — “ Images graven in rocks .” In the interior of South America, between the parallels of 2° and 4U north lat., lies a wooded plain inclosed by four rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare. Here we find granitic and syenitic rocks, which, like those of Caicara and Uruana, are covered with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles, tigers, utensils of domestic use, signs of the sun and moon, &.c. This remote portion of the earth is at present wholly uninhabited throughout an extent of more than 8000 square miles. The neighbouring tribes, who occupy the lowest place in the scale of humanity, are naked wandering savages, "who could not possibly have carved hieroglyphics in stone. A whole range of these rocks covered with symbolical signs may be traced from Rupunuri, Essequibo, and the mountains of Paearaima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the Yupura, extending over more than eight degrees of longitude. These carvings may belong to very different periods of time, for Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations of a Spanish galliot,* which must necessarily have been of a date subsequent to the beginning of the six¬ teenth century, and that in a wilderness where the inhabitants were probably as rude then as they now are. But it must not be forgotten, as I have already elsewhere observed, that nations of very different descent, but in similarly uncivilized con¬ ditions, possessed of the same disposition to simplify and generalize outlines, and urged by identical inherent mental tendencies, may be led to produce similar signs and symbols. f At the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in London a, memoir was read on the 17tli of November, 1836, by Sir Robert Schomburgk, “ On the religious traditions of the Macusi Indians, who inhabit the Upper Mahu, and a portion of the Paearaima mountains,” and who have therefore not changed their habitation for a century (since the journey of the intrepid Hortsmann). “ The Macusis,” says Sir Robert Schomburgk, “ believe that the only being who survived a * Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoko übersetzt von Otto Scliom- burgk, 1841, s. 500. + Compare Relation Mstorique , t. ii. p. 589, with Mar this, Ueber die Physiognomie des Pflanzenreichs in Brasilien, 1824, s. 14. 148 VIEWS OF NATURE. general deluge, repeopled the earth by converting stones into human beings.” This myth, which is the fruit of the lively imagination of these tribes, and which reminds us of that of Deucalion and Pyrrha, shows itself in a somewhat modified form among the Tamanacs of the Orinoco. When these people are asked how the human race survived this great Hood, the age of waters of the Mexicans, they unhesitatingly reply, “ that one man and one woman were saved by taking refuge on the summit of the lofty mountain of Tamanacu, on the banks of the Asiveru, and that they then threw over their heads the fruits of the Mauritia palm, from the kernels of which sprang men and women, who again peopled the earth.” Some miles from Encaramada there rises in the midst of the savannah the rock of Tepu-Mereme; i.e., the “ painted rock,” which exhibits numerous figures of animals and symbolical signs, having much resemblance to those which we observed at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara, (7° 5' to 7° 40' north lat., and 66° 28' to 67° 23' west long.) Similarly carved rocks are found be¬ tween the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (2° 5' to 3° 20' lat.); and what is most striking, also 560 miles further eastward in the solitudes of the Parime. The last-named fact is proved beyond a doubt, by the journal of Nicolas Hortsmann of Hildesheim, of which I have seen a copy in the handwriting of the celebrated d'Anville. That simple and modest traveller wrote down every day on the spot whatever had struck him as worthy of notice ; and his narrative deserves perhaps the more confidence from the fact that the great disappointment he ex¬ perienced in having failed in the object of his researches, which was the discovery of the Lake of Dorado, with its lumps of gold and a diamond mine (which proved to be merely rock crystal of a very pure kind), led him to look with a certain degree of contempt on all that fell in his way. On the bank of the Rupunuri, at the point where the river, winding between the Macarana mountains, forms several small cascades ; and before reaching the country immediately surrounding the Lake of Amucu, he found, on the 16th of April, 1749, “ rocks covered with figures,” or, as he says in Portuguese, “ de varias letras” (with various letters or characters). We were shown, at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs said to be characters drawn by line and rule ; * ILLUSTRATIONS (51). SCHOMBURGIv’s RESEARCHES. 149 but they were merely ill-formed figures of the heavenly bodies, crocodiles, boa-constrictors, and utensils used in the prepara¬ tion of manioc-meal. I found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) neither a symmetrical arrangement nor any trace of characters drawn with a regard to regularity in space and size. The word “ letras ” in the journal of the German Surgeon (Hortsmann) must not, therefore, I am disposed to think, be taken in the strictest sense. Schomburgk did not succeed in finding the rocks observed by Hortsmann, but he has described others which he saw on the bank of the Essequibo, near the cascade of Waraputa. “ This cascade,” he says, “ is celebrated not only for its height, but also for the great number of figures hewn in the rock, which bear a great resemblance to those that I have seen on the island of St. John, (one of the Virgin Islands,) and which I consider to be without doubt the work of the Caribs, by whom this part of the Antilles was peopled in former times. I made the most strenuous efforts to hew away a portion of the rock carved with inscriptions, which I was desirous of taking with me ; but the stone was too hard, and my strength had been wasted by fever. Neither threats nor promises could prevail on the Indians to aim a single stroke of the hammer against these rocks — the venerable monuments of the culture and superior skill of their forefathers. They regard them as the work of the Great Spirit ; and all the different tribes we met were acquainted with them, although living at a great distance. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions who seemed to expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall on my head. I now saw clearly that all my efforts were fruitless, and I was therefore obliged to content myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these monuments.” The last resolution was undoubtedly the best, and the editor of the English journal, to my great satisfaction, subjoins in a note the remark, “ that it is to be wished that others may sue- V ceed no better than Schomburgk, and that no traveller belong¬ ing to a civilized nation will in future attempt the destruction of these monuments of the unprotected Indians.” The symbolical signs which Sir Robert Schomburgk found in the fluvial valley of the Essequibo, near the rapids of Waraputa,*' resemble, indeed, according to his observation^ * Richard Schomburgk, Reisen in Britisch Guiana , th. i. g. 320. 150 TIE WS OF NATURE. the genuine Carib carvings of one of the smaller Virgin Islands (St. John); but notwithstanding the wide extent of the Carib invasions, and the ancient power of that fine race, I cannot believe that this vast belt of carved rocks which intersects a great portion of South America from west to east, is actually to be ascribed to the Caribs. These remains seem rather to be traces of an ancient civilization, which may have belonged to an epoch when the tribes, whom we now distinguish by vari¬ ous names and races, were still unknown. The veneration which is everywhere shown by the Indians for these rude carvings of their predecessors, proves that the present races have no idea of the execution of similar works. Nay, more than this, between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, many of these hieroglyphic figures are found sculptured on the sides of rocks at a height which can now only be reached by means of extremely high scaffolding. When asked who can have carved these figures, the natives answer with a smile, as if it were a fact of which none but a white man could be ignorant, that “ in the days of the great waters their father sailed in canoes at this height.” Here we find a geological dream serving as a solution of the pro¬ blem presented by a long extinct civilization. I would here be permitted to subjoin a remark, which I borrow from a letter addressed to me by Sir Robert Schom- burgk, the distinguished traveller already mentioned. “ The hieroglyphic figures are much more widely extended than you probably have conjectured. During my expedition, the object of which was the exploration of the river Corentyn, I not only observed several gigantic figures on the rock of Timeri (4° 30' north lat. and 57° 30' west long ), but I also discovered similar ones in the vicinity of the great cataracts of the river Corentyn (in 4° 21' 30" north lat. and 57° 551 30" west long.) These figures have been executed more carefully than any others which I met with in Guiana. They are about 12 feet in height and appear to represent human figures. The head-gear is extremely remarkable; it surrounds the entire head, spreads far out, and is not unlike the glory repre¬ sented round the heads of Saints. I left drawings of these images in the colony, which I hope some day to be able to lay collectively before the public. I have seen less complete figures on the Cuyuwini, a river which, flowing from the ILLUSTRATIONS (51). SCHOMBU RGk’s RESEARCHES. 151 north-west, empties itself into the Essequibo in 2° 16' north lat. ; and I subsequently found similar figures on the Esse¬ quibo itself in 1° 40' north lat. These figures, therefore, as appears from actual observations, extend from 7° 10' to 1° 40' north lat., and from 57° 30' to 66° 30' west long. The zone (or belt) of the sculptured rocks (as far as it has yet been inves¬ tigated) thus extends over an area of 192,000 square miles, and includes within its circuit the basins of the Corentyn, Essequibo, and Orinoco — a circumstance that enables us to judge of the former population of this portion of the con¬ tinent.” Remarkable relics of a former culture, consisting of granitic vessels ornamented with beautiful representations of laby¬ rinths, and the earthenware forms resembling the Roman masks, have been discovered among the wild Indians on the Mosquito coast. I had them engraved in the picturesque Atlas appended to the historical portion of my travels. Antiquarians are astonished at the resemblance of these al- greco vessels to those which embellish the Palace of Mitla (near Oaxaca, in New Spain). The large-nosed race, who are so frequently sculptured in relief on the Palenque of Guatimala and in Aztec pictures, I have never observed in Peruvian carvings. Klaproth recollects having noticed that the Chaikas, a horde of Northern Mongolia, had similar large noses. It is universally known, that many races of the North American, Canadian, and copper-coloured Indians, have fine aquiline noses, which constitute an essential physiognomical mark of distinction between them and the present inhabitants of New Granada, Quito, and Peru. Are the large-eyed, fair¬ skinned natives of the north-west coast of America, of whom Marchand speaks as living in 54° and 58° north lat., descended from the Usuns, an Alano-Gothic race of Central Asia? (52) p. 20. — “ Deal certain death with a poisoned thumb-nail.'” The Otomacs frequently poison their thumb-nails with curare. The mere impress of the nail proves fatal, should the curare become mixed with the blood. We have in our pos¬ session the creeping plant, from the juice of which the curare is prepared, in the Esmeralda Mission, on the Upper Orinoco, * Archceologia Britannien , vol. v. 1779, pp. 818-324; and vol. vi. 1782, p. 107. 152 VIEWS OF NATURE. but, unfortunately, we did not find the plant when in blossom. From its physiognomy, it seems to be allied to Strychnos * Since I wrote the above notice of the Curare, or Urari , as the plant and poison were called by Raleigh, the brothers Robert and Richard Schomburgk have rendered important service to science by making us accurately acquainted with the nature and mode of preparing this substance, which I was the first to bring to Europe in any considerable quantity. Richard Schomburgk found this creeping plant in flower in Guiana, on the banks of the Pomeroon and Sururu, in the territory of the Caribs, who are, however, ignorant of the mode of preparing the poison. Ilis instructive workf gives the chemical analysis of the juice of the Strychnos toxifera , which, notwithstanding its name and organic structure, con¬ tains, according to Boussingault, no trace of strychnine. Vir¬ chow's and Miinter's interesting physiological experiments show that the curare or urari poison does not appear to destroy by resorption from without, but chiefly when it is absorbed by the animal substance after the separation of the continuity of the latter; that curare does not belong to tetanic poisons; and that it especially produces paralysis, i.e., a ces¬ sation of voluntary muscular movement, while the function of the involuntary muscles (as the heart and intestines) con¬ tinues unimpaired. £ * Sec my Relat. historique, t. ii. pp. 547 — 556. + Reisen in Britisch Guiana, th. i. s. 441 — 461. + Compare also the older chemical analysis of Boussingault, in the Ann ales de Chimie et Physique, t. xxxix. 1828, pp. 24 — 37. ON THE CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO, Near A hires and May pur es. In the preceding section, which I made the subject of an Academical Lecture, I have delineated those boundless plains, whose natural character is so variously modified by climatic relations, that what in one region appear as barren treeless wastes or deserts, in another are Steppes or far-stretching Prairies. With the Llanos of the southern portion of the New Continent, may be contrasted the fearful sandy deserts in the interior of Africa ; and these again with the Steppes of Central Asia, the habitation of those world-storming herds¬ men, who, once pouring forth from the east, spread barbarism and devastation over the face of the earth. While on that occasion (1806), I ventured to combine many massive features in one grand picture of nature, and endeavoured to entertain a public assembly with subjects, somewhat in accordance with the gloomy condition of our minds at that period, I will now, confining myself to a more limited circle of phenomena, pourtray in brighter tints the cheerful picture of a luxuriant vegetation, and fluvial valleys with their foaming mountain torrents. I M ill describe tMro scenes of Nature from the wild regions of Guiana, — Atures and Maypures, the far-famed Cataracts of the Orinoco, — wdiich, previously to my own travels, had been visited by few Europeans. The impression Mrhich is left on the mind by the aspect of natural scenery is less determined by the peculiar character of the region, than by the varied nature of the light through 154 VIEWS OF MURE. which we view, or mountain or plain, sometimes beaming beneath an azure sky, sometimes enveloped in the gloom of lowering clouds. Thus, too, descriptions of nature affect us more or less powerfully, in proportion as they harmonize with the condition of our own feelings. For the physical world is reflected with truth and animation on the inner susceptible world of the mind. Whatever marks the cha¬ racter of a landscape: the profile of mountains, which in the far and hazy distance bound the horizon; the deep gloom of pine forests; the mountain torrent, which rushes headlong to its fall through overhanging cliffs: all stand alike in an ancient and mysterious communion with the spiritual life of man. From this communion arises the nobler portion of the enjoyment which nature affords. Nowhere does she more deeply impress us with a sense of her greatness, nowhere does she speak to us more forcibly than in the tropical world, beneath the “Indian sky,” as the climate of the torrid zone was called in the early period of the Middle Ages. While I now, therefore, venture to give a delineation of these regions, I am encouraged to hope that the peculiar charm which belongs to them will not be unfelt. The remembrance of a distant and richly endowed land, the aspect of a free and powerful vegetation, refreshes and strengthens the mind; even as our soaring spirit, oppressed with the cares of the present, turns with delight to contemplate the early dawn of mankind and its simple grandeur.* Western currents and tropical winds favour the passage over that pacific arm of the sea (1) which occupies the vast valley stretching between the New Continent and Western Africa. Before the shore is seen to emerge from the highly curved expanse of waters, a foaming rush of conflicting and * Humboldt, in. this and other pages -of his lecture, addressed, it should be remembered, to the citizens of Berlin, in 1806, evidently alludes to the troubles of the times.— Ed. CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 155 intermingling waves is observed. The mariner who is un¬ acquainted with this region would suspect the vicinity of shoals, or a wonderful burst of fresh springs, such as occur in the midst of the Ocean among the Antilles (2). On approaching nearer to the granitic shores of Guiana, he sees before him the wide mouth of a mighty river, which gushes forth like a shoreless sea, flooding the ocean around with fresh water. The green waves of the river, which assume a milky white hue as they foam over the shoals, con¬ trast with the indigo-blue of the sea, which marks the waters of the river in sharp outlines. The name Orinoco, which the first discoverers gave to this river, and which probably owes its origin to some confusion of language, is unknown in the interior of the country. For in their condition of animal rudeness, savage tribes only de¬ signate by peculiar geographical names, those objects which might be confounded with others. Thus the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Magdalena, are each simply termed The River , the Great River , and The Great Water; whilst, those who dwell on the banks of even the smallest streams distin¬ guish them by special names. The current produced by the Orinoco between the South American Continent and the asphaltic island of Trinidad is so powerful, that ships, with all their canvass spread, and a westerly breeze in their favour, can scarcely make way against it. This desolate and fearful spot is called the Bay of Sadness ( Golfo Triste ), and its entrance the Dragon's Mouth ( Boca del Drago ). Here isolated cliffs rise tower-like in the midst of the rushing stream. They seem to mark the old rocky barrier (3) which, before it was broken through by the current, connected the island of Trinidad with the coast of Paria. The appearance of this region first convinced the bold navigator Columbus of the existence of an American con¬ tinent. “ Such an enormous body of fresh water,” concluded 156 VIEWS OF NATURE. this acute observer of nature, “ could only be collected from a river having a long course ; the land, therefore, which supplied it must be a continent, and not an island.” As, according to Arrian, the companions of Alexander, when they penetrated across the snow-crowned summits of Paropani- sus (4), believed that they recognized in the crocodile- teeming Indus a part of the Nile,'" so Columbus, in his ignorance of the similarity of physiognomy which charac¬ terises all the products of the climate of palms, imagined that the New Continent was the eastern coast of the far projecting Asia. The grateful coolness of the evening air, the ethereal purity of the starry firmament, the balmy fragrance of flowers, wafted to him by the land breeze — all led him to suppose, (as we are told by Herrera, in the Decades (5),) that he was approaching the garden of Eden, the sacred abode of our first parents. The Orinoco seemed to him one of the four rivers, which, according to the venerable tradition of the ancient world, flowed from Paradise, to water and divide the surface of the earth, newly adorned with plants. This poetical passage in the Journal of Columbus, or rather in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, written from Haiti in October, 1498, presents a peculiar psychological interest. It teaches us anew, that the creative fancy of the poet manifests itself in the discoverer of a world, no less than in everv other form of human greatness. When we consider the great mass of water poured into the Atlantic Ocean by the Orinoco, we are naturally led to ask which of the South American rivers is the Greatest — the Ö Orinoco, the Amazon, or the La Plata ? The question is as indeterminate as the idea of Greatness itself. The Pio de la O Plata has undoubtedly the widest mouth, its width mea¬ suring 92 miles across; but this river, like those of Great Britain, is comparatively of but inconsiderable length. Its shallowness, too, is so great as to impede navigation at * Hist., lib. vi., initio. CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 15 7 Buenos Ayres. The Amazon, which is the longest of all rivers, measures 2380 miles from its rise in the Lake of Lauricocha to its estuary. Yet its width in the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, near the cataract of Rentama, where I measured it at the foot of the picturesque mountain of Patachuma, is scarcely equal to that of the Rhine at Maycnce. The Orinoco is narrower at its mouth than either the La Plata or the Amazon, while its length, according to my astronomical observations, does not exceed 1120 geographical miles. But in the interior of Guiana, 560 miles from its estuary, I found that at high water the width of the river measured upwards of 17,265 feet. Its periodical swelling here raises the level of the waters every year from 30 to 36 feet above the lowest water-mark. We are still with¬ out sufficient data for an accurate comparison between the enormous rivers which traverse the South American Con¬ tinent. For such a comparison it would be necessary to ascertain the profile of the river-bed, as W'ell as the velo¬ city of the water, which varies very considerably at different points. If the Orinoco, in the Delta formed by its variously divided and still unexplored branches, as well as in the regu¬ larity of its rise and Tall, and in the number and size of its crocodiles, exhibits numerous points of resemblance to the Nile; there is this further analogy between the two rivers, that they for a long distance wind their impetuous way, like forest torrents, between granitic and syenitic rocks, till, slowly rolling their waters over an almost horizontal bed, skirted by treeless banks, they reach the sea. An arm of the Nile (the Green Nile, Bahr-el-Azrek), from the celebrated mountain lake, near Gondar, in the Gojam Alps, in Abyssinia, to Syene and Elephantis, winds its way through the mountain range of Schangnlla and Sennar; and in like manner the Orinoco rises on the southern slope of 158 VIEWS OF NATURE. a mountain chain, which stretches between the parallels of 4° and 5° north lat., from French Guiana, in a westerly direction towards the Andes of New Granada. The sources of the Orinoco have never been visited by any European (6), nor even by any natives who have held intercourse with Europeans. When, in the summer of 1800, we ascended the Upper Orinoco, we passed the mission of Esmeralda, and reached the mouths of the Sodomoni and the Guapo. Here soars high above the clouds, the mighty peak of the Yeonnamari or Duida; a mountain which presents one of the grandest spec¬ tacles in the natural scenery of the tropical world. Its alti¬ tude, according to my trigonometrical measurement, is 8278 (8823 English) feet above the level of the sea. Its southern slope is a treeless grassy plain, redolent with the odour of pine-apples, whose fragrance scents the humid evening air. Among lowly meadow plants rise the juicy stems of the anana, whose golden yellow fruit gleams from the midst of a bluish green diadem of leaves. Where the mountain springs break forth from beneath the grassy covering, rise isolated groups of lofty fan-palms, whose leaves, in this torrid region, are never stirred by a cooling breeze. To the east of the Duida mountain, begins a thicket of wild cacao trees, among which are found the celebrated almond tree, Bertholletia excelsa , the most luxurious product of a tropical vegetation (7). Here the Indians collect colossal stalks of grass, whose joints measure upwards of 18 feet from knot to knot, which they use as blow-pipes for the discharge of their arrows (8). Some Franciscan monks have penetrated as far as the mouth of the Chiguire, where the river is already so narrow that the natives have suspended over it, near the waterfall of the Guaharibes, a bridge woven of the stems of twining plants. The Guaicas, of palish complexion and short stature, armed with poisoned arrows, oppose all further progress eastward. Therefore, all that has been advanced to prove that the CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 159 Orinoco derives its source from a lake must be regarded as a fable (9). In vain the traveller seeks to discover the Lake of El Dorado, which, in Arrowsmitli's maps, is set down as an inland sea measuring upwards of 20 geographical (80 English) miles. Can the little reed-covered lake of Amucu, near which rises the Pirara (a branch of the Mahu), have given rise to this myth? This swamp lies, however, 4° to the cast of the region in which we may suppose the sources of the Orinoco to be situated. Here tradition placed the island of Pumacena, a rock of micaceous schist, whose shining brightness has played a memorable, and, for the deluded adventurers, often a fatal, part in the fable of El Dorado , current since the sixteenth century. According to the belief of many of the natives, the Magellanic clouds of the southern sky, and even the glorious nebulae in the constellation Argo, are mere reflections of the metallic brilliancy of these silver mountains of the Parime. It was besides an ancient custom of dogmatising geographers to make all the most considerable rivers of the world originate in lakes. The Orinoco is one of those remarkable rivers which, after numerous windings, first towards the west and then to the north, finally return towards the east in such a manner as to bring both its estuary and its source into nearly the same meridian. From the Chiguire and the Gehette as far as the Guaviare, the course of the Orinoco inclines westward, as if it would pour its waters into the Pacific. Here branches ofi* to the south, the Cassiquiare, a remarkable river, but little known to Europeans, which unites with the Pio Negro, or as the natives call it, the Guainia: furnishing the only example of a bifurcation which forms in the very interior of a continent a natural connection between two great river valleys. The nature of the soil, and the junction of the Guaviare and Atabapo with the Orinoco, cause the latter to deflect suddenly northwards. From a want of correct geographi- 160 VIEWS OF NATURE. cal data, the Guaviare, flowing in from the west, was long regarded as the true source of the Orinoco. The doubts advanced since 1797 by an eminent geographer, M. Buache, regarding the possibility of a connection with the Amazon, have, I trust, been completely set at rest by my expedition. In an uninterrupted voyage of 920 miles, I penetrated through a remarkable net-work of rivers, from the Bio Negro, along the Cassiquiare, into the Orinoco; across the interior of the continent, from the Brazilian boundary to the coast of Caracas. In the upper portion of this fluvial district, between 3° and 4° north lat., nature has exhibited, at many different points, the puzzling phenomenon of the so-called blade waters. The Atabapo, whose banks are adorned with Carolinias and arbo¬ rescent Melastomas, the Temi, Tuamini, and Guainia, are all rivers of a brown or coffee colour, which, under the deep shade of the palms, assumes a blackish, inky tint. When placed in a transparent vessel, the water appears of a golden yellow colour. These black streams reflect the images of the southern stars with the most remarkable clearness. Where the waters flow gently they afford the astronomer, who is making observations with reflecting instruments, a most ex¬ cellent artificial horizon. An absence of crocodiles as well as of fish — greater coolness • — less torment from stinging mosquitoes — and salubrity of atmosphere, characterize the region of the black rivers. They probably owe their singular colour to a solution of carburetted hydrogen, to the rich luxuriance of tropical vegetation, and to the abundance of plants on the soil over which they flow. Indeed, I have observed that on the western declivity of the Chimborazo, towards the shores of the Pacific, the over¬ flowing waters of the Bio de Guayaquil gradually assume a golden yellow, approaching to a coffee colour, after they have covered the meadows for several weeks. Near the mouths of the Guaviare and Atapabo grows one » CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 161 of the noblest forms of the palm-tree, the Piriguao (10), whose smooth stem, which is nearly 70 feet in height, is adorned with delicate flag-like leaves having curled margins. [ know no palm which bears equally large and beautifully coloured fruits. They resemble peaches in their blended tints of yellow and crimson. Seventy or eighty of these form one enormous cluster, of which each stem annually ripens three. This noble tree might be termed the peach- palm. Us fleshy fruit, owing to the extreme luxuriance of vegetation, is generally devoid of seed; and it yields the natives a nu¬ tritious and farinaceous article of food which, like the ba¬ nana and the potato, is capable of being prepared in many different ways. To this point, that is, as far as the mouth of the Guaviare, the Orinoco flows along the southern declivity of the chain of ibc Parime. From its left bank, across the equator, and as far us the parallel of 15° south lat., extends the boundless wooded plain of the river Amazon. At San Fernando de Ata- bapo the Orinoco, turning off abruptly in a northerly direc¬ tion, intersects a portion of the mountain chain itself. Here are the great waterfalls of Atures and Maypures, and here the bed of the river is everywhere contracted by colossal masses of rocks, which give it the appearance of being divided by natural dams into separate reservoirs. At the entrance of the Meta stands, in the midst of an enormous whirlpool, an isolated rock, which the natives very aptly term the “Flock of Patience,” because when the waters are low, it sometimes retards for two whole days the ascent of the navigator. Here the Orinoco, biting deep into its shores, forms picturesque rocky bays. Opposite the Indian mission of Carichana, the traveller is surprised by a most remarkable prospect. Involuntarily his eye is arrested by a steep granite rock, “El Mogote de Cocuyza,” a cubi¬ form mass, which rises precipitously to a height of more than 200 feet ; and whose summit is crowned with a luxuriant forest. M 162 VIEWS OF XATUHE. Like a Cyclopic monument of simple grandeur, this bold pro¬ montory towers high above the tops of the surrounding palms, cutting the deep azure of the sky with its strongly marked outlines, and lifting, as it were, forest upon forest. On descending beyond Carichana, the traveller arrives at a point where the river has opened itself a passage through the narrow pass of Baraguan. Here we everywhere recog¬ nise traces of chaotic devastation. To the north, towards Uruana and Encaramada, rise granite rocks of grotesque appearance, which, in singularly formed crags of dazzling whiteness, gleam brightly from amidst the surrounding groves. At this point, near the mouth of the Apure, the stream leaves the granitic chain, and flowing eastward, separates as far as the Atlantic, the impenetrable forests of Guiana from the Savannahs, on whose far distant horizon the vault of heaven seems to rest. Thus the Orinoco surrounds on the south, west, and north, the high mountain chain of the Parime, which occupies the vast space between the sources of the Jao and of the Caura. No cliffs or rapids obstruct the course of the river from Carichana to its mouth, excepting, indeed, the “Hell’s Mouth” (Boca del Inferno) near Muitaco, a whirlpool occasioned by rocks, as at Atures and May pures, which does not, however, block up the whole breadth of the stream. In this district, which is contiguous to the sea, the only dangers encountered by the boatmen arise from the natural timber- floats, against which canoes are often wrecked at night. These floats consist of forest trees which have been uprooted and torn away from the banks by the rising of the waters. They are covered, like meadows, with blooming water-plants, and remind us of the floating gardens of the Mexican lakes. After this brief glance at the course of the Orinoco and its general features, I pass to the waterfalls of Maypures and Atures. From the high mountain-group of Cunavami, between the sources of the rivers Sipapo and Ventuari, a granite ridge pro- CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 163 jects to the far west towards the mountain of Uniama. From this ridge descend four streams, which mark, as it were, the limits of the cataracts of Maypures ; two bound Sipapo and Sanariapo, on the eastern shore of the Orinoco; and two the Cameji and Toparo, on the western side. At the "site of the missionary village of Maypures the mountains form a wide bay opening towards the south-west. Here the stream rushes foaming down the eastern declivity of the mountain, while far to the west traces remain of the ancient and now forsaken bank of the river. An extensive Savannah stretches between the two chains of hills, at an elevation of scarcely 30 feet above the upper water-level of the river, and here the Jesuits have erected a small church formed of the trunks of palms. The geognostical aspect of this region, the insular form of the rocks of Keri and Oco, the cavities worn in the former by the current, and which are situated at exactly the same level as those in the opposite island of Uivitari; all these indica¬ tions tend to prove that the Orinoco once filled the whole of this now dried-up bay. It is probable that the waters formed a wide lake, as long as the northern dam withstood their passage. When this barrier gave way, the Savannah now inhabited by the Guareke Indians emerged as an island. The river may perhaps long after this have continued to surround the rocks of Keri and Oco, which now picturesquely project, like castellated fortresses, from its ancient bed. After the gradual diminution of the waters, the river withdrew wholly to the eastern side of the mountain chain. This conjecture is confirmed by various circumstances. Thus, for instance, the Orinoco, like the Nile at Phike and Syene, has the singular property of colouring black the red¬ dish-white masses of granite, over which it has flowed for thousands of years. As far as the waters reach one observes on the rocky shore a leaden-coloured manganeseous and perhaps carbonaceous coating which has penetrated scarcely one- m 2 164 VIEWS OF NATURE. tenth of a line into the stone. This black coloration, and the cavities already alluded to, show the former water level of the Orinoco. These black cavities may be traced at elevations of from 160 to 192 feet above the present level of the river on the rocks of Keri, in the islands of the cataracts; in the gneiss-like hills of Cumadanimari, which extend above the island of Tomo ; and lastly at the mouth of the Jao. Their existence proves, what indeed we learn from all the river¬ beds of Europe, that those streams which still excite our admiration by their magnitude, are but inconsiderable re¬ mains of the immense masses of water belonging to a former age. These simple facts have not escaped even the rude natives of Guiana. Everywhere the Indians drew our attention to these traces of the ancient water-level. Nay, in a Savannah near Uruana there rises an isolated rock of granite, which, according to the testimony of persons worthy of credit, exhi¬ bits at an elevation of between 80 and 90 feet, a series of figures of the sun and moon, and of various animals, especially crocodiles and boa-constrictors, graven, almost in rows. At the present day this perpendicular rock, which well deserves the careful examination of future travellers, cannot be ascended without the aid of scaffolding. In a similarly remarkable elevated position, the traveller can trace hieroglyphic characters carved on the mountains of Uruana and Encaramada. If the natives are asked how these characters could have been graven there, they answer that it was done in former times, when the waters were so high that their fathers’ canoes floated at that elevation. Such lofty condition of the water level must therefore have been coeval with these rude memorials of human skill. It indicates an ancient distribu¬ tion of land and water over the surface of the globe widely different from that which now exists; but which must not be ■confounded with that condition when the primeval vegetation CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 165 of our planet, the colossal remains of extinct terrestrial animals, and the oceanic creatures of a chaotic world, found one common grave in the indurating crust of our earth. At the most northern extremity of the cataracts our atten¬ tion is attracted by what are called the natural representations of the Sun und Moon. The rock of Keri, to which I have more than once referred, derives its name from a glistening white spot seen at a considerable distance, and in which the Indians profess to recognize a striking resemblance to the disc of the full moon. I was not myself able to climb this precipitous rock, but it seems probable that the white spot is a large knot of quartz, formed by a cluster of veins in the greyish-black granite. Opposite to the Keri rock, on the twin mountain of the island of Uivitari, which has a basaltic appearance, the Indians point, with mysterious admiration, to a similar disc, which they venerate as the image of the Sun, Camosi. The geogra¬ phical position of these two rocks may have contributed to their respective appellations, for I found that Keri was turned towards the west, and Camosi towards the east. Some etymological inquirers have thought they could recognize an analogy between the American word Camosi and the word Camosh, a name applied in one of the Phoenician dialects to the sun, and identical with the Apollo Chomeus or Beel- pliegor and Amun. The lofty falls of Niagara, which are 150 feet in height, derive their origin, as is well known, from the combined pre¬ cipitation of one enormous mass of water. Such, however, is not the case with respect to the cataracts of Maypures, nor are they narroAV straits or passes through which the stream rushes with increasing velocity, like the Pongo of Man- seriche on the Amazon, but rather to be regarded as a countless number of small cascades succeeding each other like steps. The Randal , (as the Spaniards term this kind of cataract.) is formed by an archipelago of islands and rocks, 166 VIEWS OE NATURE. which so contract the bed of the river that its natural width of more than 8500 feet is often reduced to a channel scarcely navigable to the extent of 20 feet. At the present day the eastern side is far less accessible and far more dangerous than the western. At the mouth of the Cameji the boatmen unload their cargo that they may leave the empty canoe, or, as it is here called, the Piragua , to be piloted by Indians well acquainted with the Itaudal, as far as the mouth of the Toparo, where all danger is supposed to be past. Where the rocks or slielvy ledges, (each of which has its particular name.) are not above two or three feet in height, the natives venture to shoot the rapid with their canoes. When, however, they have to ascend the stream, they swim in advance of the piragua, and after much labour, and, perhaps, many unsuccessful efforts, succeed in throwing a rope round a point of rock project- imr above the breakers, and bv this means draw the canoe against the stream, which, in this arduous operation, is often water-logged, or upset. Sometimes the canoe is dashed to pieces on the rock, and this is the only danger the natives fear. With bleeding- bodies they then strain every nerve to escape the fury of the whirlpool and swim to land. Where the rocky ledges are very high and form a barrier by extending across the entire bed of the river, the light canoe is hauled to land and dragged for some distance along the shore on branches of trees which serve the purpose of rollers. The most celebrated and most perilous ledges are those of Purimarimi and Manimi, which are between nine and ten feet in height. It was with surprise I found, by barometrical measurements, that the entire fall of the Itaudal, from the mouth of the Cameji to that of the Toparo, scarcely amounted to more than 30 or 32 feet. (A geodesic levelling is not practicable, owing to the inaccessibility of the locality and the pestiferous atmosphere, which swarms with mosquitoes.) I say CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 167 with surprise, for I hence discovered that the tremendous roar and wild dashing of the stream arose from the contraction of its bed by numerous rocks and islands, and the counter-currents produced by the form and position of the masses of rock. The truth of my assertion regarding the inconsiderable height of the whole fall will be best verified by observing the cata¬ racts, in descending to the bed of the river, from the village of Maypures, across the rocks of Manimi. At this point the beholder enjoys a most striking and won¬ derful prospect. A foaming surface, several miles in length, intersected with iron-black masses of rock projecting like battlemented ruins from the waters, is seen at one view. Every islet and every rock is adorned with luxuriant foiest trees. A perpetual mist hovers over the watery mirror, and the summits of the lofty palms pierce through the clouds of vapoury spray. When the rays of the glowing evening sun are refracted in the humid atmosphere, an exquisite optical illusion is produced. Coloured bows appear, vanish, and re-appear, while the ethereal picture dances, like an ignis fatuus, with every motion of the sportive breeze. During the long rainy seasons, the falling waters carry down quantities of vegetable mould, which accumulating, form islands of the naked rocks ; adorning the barren stone with blooming beds of Melastomes and Droseras, silver-leaved Mimosce, and a variety of ferns. They recal to the mind of the European those groups of vegetation which the inhabitants of the Alps term courtils , blocks of granite bedecked with flowers which project solitarily amid the Glaciers of Savoy. In the blue distance the eye rests on the mountain chain of Cunavami, a far-stretching chain of hills which terminates abruptly in a sharply truncated cone. We saw this conical hill, called by the Indians Calitamini, glowing at sunset as if in crimson flames. This appearance daily returns. No one has ever been in the immediate neighbourhood of this mountain. Possibly its dazzling brightness is produced 168 VIEWS OF NATURE. by the reflecting surface of decomposing talc, or mica schist. During the five days that we passed in the neighbourhood of the cataracts, we were much struck by the fact that the roar of the rushing torrent was three times as great by night as by day. The same phenomenon is observed in all European waterfalls. To what can we ascribe this effect in a solitude where the repose of nature is undisturbed? Pro¬ bably to ascending currents of warm air, which producing an unequal density of the elastic medium, obstruct the propa¬ gation of sound by displacing its waves ; causes which cease after the nocturnal cooling of the earth's surface. The Indians showed us traces of ruts caused by wheels. They speak with wonder of the horned cattle, (oxen,) which at the period of the Jesuit missions used to draw the trucks, that conveyed the canoes, along the left shore of the Orinoco, from the mouth of the Cameji to that of the Toparo. The canoes at that time were transported without the dis¬ charge of their cargoes, and were not as now injured by being constantly dragged over sharp-pointed rocks, or stranded. The topographical plan which I have sketched of the locality, shews that a canal might be opened between the Cameji and the Toparo. The valley in which these two abundantly watered rivers flow is a gentle level ; and the canal, of which I suggested a plan to the Governor- General of Venezuela, would become a navigable arm of the Orinoco, and supersede the old and dangerous bed of the river. The Iiaudal of Atures is exactly similar to that of Maypures, like which it consists of a cluster of islands between which the river forces itself a passage extending from 18,000 to 24,000 feet. Here too a forest of palm trees rises from the midst of the foaming surface of the waters. The most celebrated ledges of the cataract are situated between the islands of Avaguri and Javariveni, between Suripamana and Uirapuri. CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 169 When M. Bonpland and myself were returning from the banks of the Rio Negro, we ventured to pass the latter, that is the lower half, of the Raudal of Atures in our loaded canoe. We several times disembarked to climb over rocks, which, like dykes, connected one island with another. At one time the water shoots over these dykes ; at another it falls into their cavities with a deafening hollow sound. In some places considerable portions of the bed of the river are per¬ fectly dry, in consequence of the stream having opened for itself a subterranean passage. In this solitude the golden- coloured Rock Manakin ( Pipra rupicola) builds its nest. This bird, which is as pugnacious as the East India cock, is one of the most beautiful birds of the tropics, and is re¬ markable for its double moveable crest of feathers with which its head is decorated. In the Raudal of Canucari the dyke is formed of piled-up granitic boulders. We crept into the interior of a cavern, whose humid walls were covered with conferva) and phos¬ phorescent Byssus. The river rushed over our heads with a terrible and stunning noise. By accident we had an oppor¬ tunity of contemplating this grand scene longer than we desired. The Indian boatmen had left us in the middle of the cataract, to take the canoe round a small island, at the other extremity of which, after a considerable cir¬ cuit, we were to re-embark. For an hour and a half we remained exposed to a fearful thunder-storm. Night was approaching, and we in vain sought shelter in the fissures of the rocks. The little apes which we had carried with us for months in wicker cages, attracted by their plain¬ tive cries large crocodiles, whose size and leaden-grey colour indicated their great age. I should not have alluded to the appearance of these animals in the Orinoco, where they are of such common occurrence, were it not that the natives had assured us that no crocodiles had ever been seen among the cataracts; indeed, on the strength of that assertion, we 170 VIEWS OE NATURE. had repeatedly ventured to bathe in this portion of the river. Meanwhile our anxiety increased every moment, lest, drenched as we were and deafened by the thundering roar of the falling waters, we should be compelled to spend the long tropical night in the midst of the Raudal. At length, however, the Indians made their appearance with our canoe. Their delay had been occasioned by the inaccessibility of the steps they had to descend, owing to the low state of the water; which had obliged them to seek in the labyrinth of channels a more practicable passage. Near the southern entrance of the Kaudal of Atures, on the right bank of the river, lies the cavern of Ataruipe, so celebrated among the Indians. The surrounding scenery has a grand and solemn character, which seems to mark it as a national burial-place. With difficulty, and not without danger of being precipitated into the depths below, we clambered a steep and perfectly bare granite rock, on whose smooth surface it would be hardly possible to keep one’s footing were it not for large crystals of feldspar, which, defying the action of weather, project an inch or more from the mass. On gaining the summit, a wide prospect of the surrounding country astonishes the beholder. From the foaming bed of the river rise hills richly crowned with woods, while beyond its western bank the eye rests on the boundless Savannah of the Meta. On the horizon loom like threatening clouds the mountains of Uniama. Such is the distant view; but immediately around all is desolate and contracted. In the deep ravines of the valley moves no living thing save where the vulture and the whirring goat-sucker wing their lonely way, their heavy shadows gleaming fitfully past the barren rock. The cauldron-shaped valley is encompassed by mountains, whose rounded summits bear huge granite boulders, measuring from 40 to more than 50 feet in diameter. They appear CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 171 poised on only a single point of tlieir surface, as if the slightest shock of the earth would hurl them down. The further side of this rocky valley is thickly wooded. It is in this shady spot that the cave of the Ataruipe is situated ; properly speaking, however, it is not a cave, but a vault formed by a far projecting and overhanging cliff, — a kind of bay hollowed out by the waters when formerly at this high level. This spot is the grave of an extinct tribe (11). We counted about six hundred well preserved skeletons, placed in as many baskets, formed of the stalks of palm-leaves. These baskets, called by the Indians 7napires, are a kind of square sack varying in size according to the age of the deceased. Even new-born children have each their own mapire. These skeletons are so perfect, that not a rib or a finger is wanting. The bones are prepared in three different ways : some are bleached, some dyed red with onoto, the pigment of the Bixa Orellana; others like mummies, are anointed with fragrant resin and wrapped in banana leaves. The Indians assured me that the corpse was buried during several months in a moist earth, which gradually destroyed the flesh ; and that after being disinterred, any particles of flesh still adhering to the bones were scraped off with sharp stones. This practice is still continued among many tribes of Guiana. Besides these baskets or mapires, we saw many urns of half-burnt clay, which appear to contain the bones of whole families. The largest of these urns are upwards of three feet in height and nearly six feet in length, of an elegant oval form, and greenish colour; with handles shaped like crocodiles and serpents, and the rims bordered with flowing scrolls and labyrinthine figures. These ornaments are pre¬ cisely similar to those which cover the walls of the Mexican palace at Mitla. They are found in every clime and every stage of human culture, — among the Greeks and Romans, no less than on the shields of Otaheitans, and other South Sea islanders, — in all regions where a rhythmical repetition of 172 VIEWS OF NATURE. regular forms delights the eye. The causes of these resem- blances, as I have explained elsewhere, are rather to be refer¬ red to psychical conditions, and to the inner nature of our mental qualifications, than as affording evidence in favour of a common origin and the ancient intercourse of nations.' * Our interpreters could give us no certain information re¬ garding the age of these vessels ; but that of the skeletons did not in general appear to exceed a hundred years. There is a legend amongst the Guareke Indians, that the brave Atures, when closely pursued by the cannibal Caribs, took refuge on the rocks of the cataracts, — a mournful place of abode, in which this oppressed race perished, together with its lan¬ guage! (12) In the most inaccessible portion of the Raudal other graves of the same character are met with; indeed it is probable that the last descendants of the Atures did not become extinct until a much more recent period. There still lives and it is a singular fact, an old parrot in Maypures which cannot be understood, because, as the natives assert, it speaks the language of the Atures ! We left the cave at nightfall, after having collected, to the extreme annoyance of our Indian guides, several skulls and the perfect skeleton of an aged man. One of these skulls has been delineated by Blumenbach in his ad¬ mirable craniological work;f but the skeleton, together with a large portion of our natural history collections, especially the entomological, was lost by shipwreck off the coast of Africa on the same occasion when our friend and former travelling companion, the young Franciscan monk, Juan Gonzalez, lost his life. As if with a presentiment of this painful loss, we turned from the grave of a departed race with feelings of deep emo- * This subject is elaborately discussed in Ileeren’s various works.- — Ed. + Blumeribach, Collectiones suce Craniorum diversarum gentium, &c., 4 to, Gotting., 1798-1828.— Ed. CATARACTS OF THE ORINOCO. 173 lion. It was one of those clear and deliciously cool nights so frequent beneath the tropics. The moon stood high in the zenith, encircled by a halo of coloured rings, her rays gilding the margins of the mist, which in well defined outline hovered like clouds above the foaming; flood. Innumerable insects poured their red phosphorescent light over the herb-covered surface, which glowed with living fire, as though the starry canopy of heaven had sunk upon the grassy plain. Climbing Bignonia, fragrant Vanillas, and golden-flowered Banisterias, adorned the entrance of the cave, while the rustling palm- leaves waved over the resting-place of the dead. Thus pass away the generations of men ! — thus perish the records of the glory of nations! Yet when every emanation of the human mind has faded — when in the storms of time the monuments of man's creative art are scattered to the dust — an ever new life springs from the bosom of the earth. Un¬ ceasingly prolific nature unfolds her germs, — regardless though sinful man, ever at war with himself, tramples beneath his foot the ripening fruit ! ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (1) p. 154 — “ Across that pacific arm of the sea.” The Atlantic Ocean, between tlie parallels of 23° south lat. and 70° north lat., has the form of a furrowed longitudinal valley, in which the advancing and receding angles are oppo¬ site to each other. I first developed this idea in my work entitled Essai d un Tableau Geologique de V Amerique meri- dionale , which was published in the Journal de Physique , t. liii. p. 61.* From the Canary Isles, especially from 21° north lat., and 23° west long., to the north-east coast of South America, the surface of the ocean is so calm, and the waves so gentle, that an open boat might navigate it in safety. (2) p. 155 — “ Fresh springs among the Islands of the Antilles.” On the southern coast of the Island of Cuba, south-west of the harbour of Batabano, in the Gulf of Xagua, at a distance of eight to twelve miles from the shore, springs of fresh water gush from the bed of the ocean, probably from the action of hydrostatic pressure. The jet is propelled with such force that boats use extreme caution in approaching this spot, which is well known for its counter current producing a heavy swell. Trading vessels sailing along the coast, which do not purpose putting into port, sometimes visit these springs, in order to provide themselves, in the midst of the ocean, with a supply of fresh water. The freshness of the water increases with the depth from which it is drawn. River cows ( Tri- checus manati ), which do not generally inhabit salt water, are frequently killed here. This singular phenomenon (the fresh springs), of which no mention had hitherto been made, was most accurately investigated by my friend, Don Francisco Lemaur, who made a trigonometrical survey of the Bahia de Xagua. I did not myself visit Xagua, but remained in the insular group situated further to the south (the so-called Jardines del Reg), to make astronomical determinations of their latitude and longitude. (3) p. 155 — “ Ancient rochy barrier.” Columbus, whose unwearied spirit of observation wras di- * Gilbert’s Annalen der Physik, bd. xvi. 1804, s. 394 — 449. ILLUSTRATIONS (3 - 6). ANCIENT ROCKY BARRIER. 175 rected on every side, proposes in his letters to the Spanish monarchs, a geognostic hypothesis regarding the configura¬ tion of the larger Antilles. Being fully impressed with the idea of the strength of the Equinoctial current, which has often a westerly direction, he ascribes to it the disintegration of the group of the smaller Antilles, and the singularly lengthened configuration of the southern coasts of Porto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica, all of which follow almost exactly the direction of parallels of latitude. On his third voyage (from the end of May, 1498, to the end of November, 1500), when, from the Boca del Drago to the Island of Margarita, and afterwards from that island to Haiti, he felt the whole force of the equi¬ noctial current, “ that movement of the waters which accords with the movement of the heavens — movimiento de los cielos ,” he says expressly that the violence of the current has torn the Island of Trinidad from the mainland. He refers the sove¬ reigns to a chart which he sends them — a “ pintura de la tier r a” drawn by himself, to which frequent reference is made in the celebrated lawsuit against Don Diego Colon respecting the rights of the first Admiral. “ Es la carta de marear y figura que liizo el Almirante senalando los rumbos y vientos por los quales vino ä Paria, que dicen parte del Asia.”* (4) p. 156 — ‘■‘■Across the snow-crowned Paropanisus .” In Diodorus’ description of the Paropanisus, f we seem to recognise a delineation of the Peruvian chain of the Andes. The army passed through inhabited districts in which snow daily fell ! (5) p. 156 — “ Ilerrera in his Decades .” Historia general de las Inclias Occidentals, Dec. i. lib. iii. cap. 12 (ed. 1601, p. 106); Juan Batista Munoz, Historia del Nuevo Mundo , lib. vi. c. 31, p. 301; Humboldt, Examen Crit., t. iii. p. 111. (6) p. 158 — “ The Sources of the Orinoco have never been visited by any European .” Thus I wrote respecting these sources in the year 1807, in * Navarrete, Viages y Descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Espanoles, t. i. pp. 253, 280; t. iii. pp. 539, 587. f Diodor. Sicul., lib. xvii. p. 553 (Rhodom.) VIEWS OE NATU HE. 176 the first edition of the Ansichten der Natur , and I repeat with equal truth the same statement after an interval of forty-one years. The travels of the brothers Robert and Richard Schomburgk, so important in reference to all departments of natural science and geography, have established other and more interesting facts; but the problem of the situation of the sources of the Orinoco has been only partially solved by Sir Robert Schomburgk. M. Bonpland and myself ad¬ vanced from the west as far as Esmeralda, or the con- fiuenee of the Orinoco with the Guapo; and I was enabled, by the aid of well-attested information, to describe the upper course of the Orinoco to above the mouth of the Gehette, and to the small waterfall (Raudal) de los Gua- haribos. From the cast Sir Robert Schomburgk, proceed¬ ing from the mountains of the Majonkong Indians, the inhabited portion of which he estimated by the boiling point of water to be 3517 feet in height, succeeded in reaching the Orinoco by the Padamo River, which the Majonkongs and Guinaus (Guaynas?) call Paramu.* I had placed this con¬ fluence of the Padamo with the Orinoco in my Atlas, in 3° 12; N. lat , and 65° 46r W. long. . but Schomburgk found it by direct observation in 2° 53' lat. and 65° 48' W. long. The main object of this traveller's journey was not ‘ natural history,’ but the solution of the prize question proposed by the Royal Geographical Society of London, in November, 1834, — on the connection of the coast of British Guiana with the easternmost point which I had reached on the Upper Ori¬ noco. After undergoing many sufferings, this object was tho¬ roughly achieved. Robert Schomburgk reached Esmeralda, with his instruments, on the 22nd of February, 1839. His determinations of the latitude and longitude of the place agreed more closely with mine than I had anticipated. Let us here allow the observer to speak for himself: — “ Words are in¬ adequate to describe the feelings which overwhelmed me when I sprang on shore. My object was attained; my observations, be gun on the coast of Guiana, were brought into connection with those of Humboldt at Esmeralda, and I freely admit that at a time when my physical powers had almost entirely deserted me, and when I was surrounded by dangers and dif¬ ficulties of no ordinary kind, the recognition which I hoped * It eisen in Guiana , 1341, s. 448. ILLUSTRATIONS (6). SOURCES OF THE ORINOCO. 177 for from him, was the sole inducement which inspired me with a fixed determination to press forward towards the goal which I had now reached. The emaciated figures of my Indian companions and my faithful guides proclaimed more fully than any words could do, what difficulties we had had to surmount, and had surmounted.” After citing ex¬ pressions so gratifying, I must be permitted to subjoin the opinions I expressed regarding this great undertaking promoted by the Royal Geographical Society of London, in my Preface to the German edition of Robert Schomburgk’s Ac¬ count of his Travels, published in 1841. “Immediately after my return from Mexico, I indicated the direction and the routes by which the unknown portion of the South American Continent between the sources of the Orinoco, the mountain chain of Pacaraima, and the sea-shore near Esse- quibo, might be explored. These wishes, so strongly expressed in the personal narrative of my journey, have at length, after the lapse of nearly half a century, been for the most part fulfilled. I rejoice that I have been spared to see so important an enlargement of our geographical knowledge ; I rejoice too in seeing a courageous and well-conducted enterprise, requiring the most devoted perseverance, executed by a young man, to whom I feel bound no less by the ties of similarity of pur¬ suits than those of country. These circumstances were alone able to overcome the aversion and disinclination which I en¬ tertain, perhaps unjustly, for introductory prefaces by a dif¬ ferent hand than that of the author himself. But I could not resist the impulse of expressing thus publicly my sincere esteem for the accomplished traveller who, led on by the meritorious idea of penetrating from east to west, from the Valley of the Essequibo to Esmeralda, has succeeded, after five years of efforts and. of sufferings (the extent of which I well appreciate from my own experience), in attaining the object of his ambition. Courage for the sudden accom¬ plishment of a hazardous undertaking is easier to find, and implies less inward strength, than the resolution to endure with resignation long-continued physical sufferings, excited by absorbing mental interest; and still to press forward, un¬ dismayed by the certainty of having to retrace his steps under equal'1 y great privations and with enfeebled powers. Serenity of mind, which is almost the first requisite for an N 178 VIEWS OF NATUEE. enterprise in inhospitable regions, a passionate love for any department of scientific labour (be it natural history, astro¬ nomy, hypsometrics, or magnetism), a pure feeling for the enjoyment which nature is capable of imparting, are elements which, when they combine together in one individual, ensure valuable results from a great and important journey.” I will preface my consideration of the question of the sources of the Orinoco with my own conjectures in relation to the subject. The perilous route travelled in 1739 by the surgeon Nicolas Hortsmann, of Hildesheim: in 1775 by the Spaniard Don Antonio Santos, and his friend Nicolas Rodri¬ guez; in 1793 by the Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Line of Para, Don Francisco Jose Rodriguez Barata; and (according to manuscript maps, for which I am indebted to the former Portuguese Ambassador in Paris, Chevalier de Brito) by several English and Dutch settlers, who in 1811 travelled from Surinam to Para by the portage of the Rupu- nuri and by the Rio Branco; — divides the terra incognita of the Parime into two unequal parts, and serves to mark the position of a very important point in the geography of those regions — viz., the sources of the Orinoco, which it is no longer possible to remove to an indefinite distance towards the east, without intersecting the bed of the Rio Branco, which flows from north to south through the fluvial district of the Upper Orinoco; while this portion of the great river itself pursues for the most part a direction from east to west. The Brazilians, since the beginning of the present century, have from political motives manifested a vivid interest in the ex¬ tensive plains east of the Rio Branco.* Owing to the position of Santa Rosa on the Uraricapara, whose course ap¬ pears to have been pretty accurately determined by Portu¬ guese engineers, the sources of the Orinoco cannot be situated east of the meridian of 63 J 81 west long. This is the eastern limit beyond which they cannot be placed, and taking into con¬ sideration the state of the river at the Randal de los Gua- haribos (above Cano Chiguire, in the country of the strikingly fair-skinned Guaycas Indians, and 52' east of the great Cerro * See the Memoir which I drew up at the request of the Portuguese Government, in 1817, “ Sur la fixation des limites des Guyanes Fran- gaisc et Portuguaise.” Schoell, Archives historiques et politiqu.es, on Eecueil d.e Pieces otficiclles , Memoires , Ac. t. i. 1818, pp. 48 — 58. ILLUSTRATIONS (6). SOURCES OF TIIE ORIONCO. 179 Duida), it appears to mo probable that the Orinoco in its upper part does not extend, at the utmost, beyond the meri¬ dian of 64° S' west long. This point is, according to my combinations, 4° 12' west of the little lake of Amucu, which was reached by Sir Robert Schomburgk. I will now detail the conjectures of that traveller, after having first given my own earlier ones. According to him the course of the Upper Orinoco, to the east of Esme¬ ralda, is directed from south-east to north-west; my estima¬ tions of latitude for the mouths of the Padamo and the Gehette appear to be respectively 19; and 36; too small. Schomburgk conjectures that the sources of the Orinoco are situated in lat. 2° 30', and the fine “ Map of Guayana, to illustrate the route of R. H. Schomburgk,” which accom¬ panies the splendid English work entitled Views in the Inte¬ rior of Guiana , places its geographical sources in 64° 561 west long., i.e., 1° 6' west of Esmeralda, and only 48^ of longitude nearer to the Atlantic than I had determined the position of this point. Astronomical combinations led Schom¬ burgk to place the mountain of Maravaca, which is about ten thousand feet high, in 3° 4P lat. and 65° 48' west long. The Orinoco was scarcely three hundred yards wide near the mouth of the Padamo or Paramü, and more to the west, where it expands to a width of from four to six hundred yards, it was so shallow, and so full of sandbanks, that the expedition was obliged to dig channels, as the river bed was only fifteen inches deep. Fresh-water dolphins were still to be seen in great numbers everywhere — a phenomenon which the zoologists of the eighteenth century would not have expected to find in the Orinoco and the Ganges. (7) p. 158 — “ The most luxurious product of a tropical climate .” The Bertholletia excelsa (Juvia), of the family of Myrtacece (and placed in Richard Schomburgk’ s proposed division of Lecythideae), was first described in Plantes Equinoxiales , t. i. 1808, p. 122, tab. 36. This colossal and magnificent tree offers, in the perfect development of its cocoa-like, round, close-grained, woody fruit, inclosing the three-cornered and also woody seed-vessels, the most remarkable example of luxuriant organic development. The Bertholletia grows in n 2 180 VIEWS OF NATURE. the forests of the Upper Orinoco, between the Padamo and the Ocamu, in the vicinity of the mountain of Mapaya, as well as between the rivers Amaguaca and GehetteA (8) p. 158 — “ Grass stalks, tohose joints measure upivards of eighteen feet from knot to k?iot.” Robert Schomburgk, when visiting the small mountainous country of the Majonkongs, on his route to Esmeralda, was fortunate enough to determine the species of Arundinaria, which furnishes the material for these blowing-tubes. He says of this plant: ‘‘It grows in large tufts, like the bambusa; the first joint rises, in the old cane, without a knot, to a height of from 16 to 17 feet before it begins to bear leaves. The entire height of the Arundinaria, growing at the foot of the great mountain-cluster of Maravaca, is from 30 to 40 feet, with a thickness of scarcely half an inch in diameter. The top is always inclined ; and this species of grass is peculiar to the sandstone mountains between the Ventuari, the Paramu (Padamo), and the Mavaca. The Indian name is Curata, and, therefore, from the excellence of these celebrated long blowing- tubes, the Majonkongs and Guinaus of these districts have acquired the name of the Curata nation.”! (9) p. 159 — “ Fabulous origin of the Orinoco from a lake” The lakes of these regions (some of which are wholly imaginary, while the real size of others has been much exag¬ gerated by theoretical geographers) may be divided into two groups. The first of these groups comprise those situate between Esmeralda (the most easterly mission on the Upper Orinoco), and the Rio Branco : to the second, belong the lakes presumed to exist in the district between the Rio Branco and French, Dutch, and British Guiana. This general view, of which travellers should never lose sight, proves that the ques¬ tion of whether there is another Lake Parime eastward of the Rio Branco, besides the Lake Amucu, seen by Hortsmann, Santos, Colonel Barata, and Schomburgk, has nothing whatever to do with the problem of the sources of the Orinoco. As the name of my distinguished friend the former Director of the Hydrographic Office at Madrid, Don Felipe Bauza, is * It elation historique, t. ii. pp. 474 — 496, 558 — 562. 4 Reisen in Quiana und am Orinoko, 451. ILLUSTRATIONS (9). LAKE PARI ME. 181 of great weight in questions of geography, the impartiality which ought to influence every scientific investigation makes it incumbent on me to mention that this learned man was inclined to the view that there must be lakes west of the Rio Branco, at no great distance from the sources of the Orinoco. lie wrote to me from London shortly before his -death, “ I wish you were here that I might converse with you respecting the geography of the Upper Orinoco, which lias occupied you so much. I have been fortunate enough to rescue from entire destruction the papers of the General of Marine, Don Jose Solano, father of the Solano who perished in so melancholy a manner at Cadiz. These documents relate to the settlement of the boundary line between the Spaniards and Portuguese, with which Solano had been charged since 1754, in conjunction with the Escadre Chef Yturriaga and Don Vicente Doz. In all these plans and sketches I find a Laguna Parime sometimes as a source of the Orinoco, and sometimes as wholly detached from it. Are we then to assume that there is another lake further eastward to the north-east of Esmeralda?” Loffling, the celebrated pupil of Linnaeus, accompanied the last-named expedition to Cumana in the capacity of botanist. He died on the 22nd of February, 1756, at the mission of Santa Eulalia de Murucuri (somewhat to the south of the confluence of the Orinoco and Caroni), after traversing the missions on the Piritu and Caroni. The documents of which Bauza speaks are the same as those on which the great map of De la Cruz Olmedilla is based. They have served as the foundation of all the maps of South America, which appeared in England, France, and Germany, before the end of the last century; and have also served for the two maps executed in 1756 by Father Caulin, the historiographer of Solano's ex¬ pedition, and by M. de Surville, Keeper of the Archives in the Secretarv of State's Office at Madrid, who was but an un- skilful compiler. The contradictions abounding in these maps show the little reliance that can be placed on the results of this expedition. Nay more. Father Caulin, above referred to, acutely details the circumstances which gave rise to this fable of the lake of Parime ; and the map of Surville, which accompanies his work, not only restores this lake, under the name of the White Lake, and the Mar Dorado, but indi¬ cates another smaller one, from which flow partly by means 182 VIEWS OF NATURE. of collateral branches, the Orinoco, Siapa, and Ocaino. I was able to convince myself on the spot of the following facts well known in the missions; that Don Jose Solano did not do more than cross the cataracts of Atures and Maypures ; that he did not reach the confluence of the Guaviare and the Orinoco in 4° 3^ north lat., and 68° 9^ west long.; and that the astronomical instruments of the boundary expedition were neither carried to the isthmus of the Pimiehin and the Eio Negro, nor to the Cassiquiare; and even on the Upper Orinoco, not beyond the mouth of the Atabapo. This vast extent of territory was not made the scene of any accurate observa¬ tions before my journey, and has subsequently to Solano's expedition been traversed only by some few soldiers who had been sent on exploring expeditions ; while Don Apolinario de Fuente, whose journal I obtained from the archives of the province of’Quixos, has gathered without discrimination every¬ thing from the fallacious narratives of the Indians that could flatter the credulity of the Governor Centurion. No member of the expedition had seen a lake, and Don Apolinario was unable to advance beyond the Ccrro Yumarique and Gehette. Although a line of separation, formed by the basin of the Rio Branco, is now established throughout the whole extent of the country, to which we are desirous of directing the inquiring zeal of travellers, it must yet be admitted, that our geo¬ graphical knowledge of the district west of this valley between 62° and 66° long., has made no advance whatever i'or at least a century. The repeated attempts made by the Government of Spanish Guiana since the expeditions of Iturria and Solano, to reach and to pass over the Pacaraima Mountains, have been attended by very unimportant results. AY hen the Spaniards, in proceeding to the missions of the Catalonian capuchins of Barccloneta, at the confluence of the Caroni and the Rio Paragua, ascended the last-named river southward to its junction with the Paraguamusi, they founded at this point the mission of Guirion, which, at first, bore the pompous appellation of Ciudad de Guirion. I place it in about 4° 30* north latitude. From thence the Governor Centurion, in consequence of the exaggerated accounts given by two Indian chiefs, Paranacare and Arimuicapi, respect¬ ing the powerful tribe of the Ipurucotos, was excited to search for lEl Dorado,’ and in carrying what were then called spiritual conquests still further, founded, beyond the ILLUSTRATIONS (9). LAKE PARIME. 183 Pacaraima Mountains, the two villages of Santa Rosa and San Bautista de Caudacacla. The former was situate on the upper eastern bank of the Uraricapara, a tributary of the Uraricuera, which I find in the journal of Rodriguez under the name of the Rio Curaricara; the latter, at from 24 to 28 miles further east-south-east. The astronomo-geographer of the Portuguese Boundary Commission, Captain Don Antonio Pires de Sylva Pontes Leme, and the Captain of Engineers, Don Ricardo Franco cV Almeida de Serra, who between 1787 and 1804. surveyed with the greatest care the whole course of the Rio Branco and its upper tributaries, call the most western part of the Uraricapara, “ The Valley of Inundation.” They place the Spanish mission of Santa Rosa in 3° 46; north lat., and mark the route that leads from thence northward across the mountain chain to the Cano Anocapra, a branch of the Paraguamusi, which forms a connecting passage between the basin of the Rio Branco and that of the Caroni. Two maps of these Portuguese officers, embracing all the details of the trigometrical survey of the bends of the Rio Branco, the Uraricuera, the Tacutu, and the Mahn, were most kindly communicated to Colonel Lapie and myself by the Count o Linhares. These valuable unpublished documents, of which ' I have availed myself, are still in the hands of the learned geographer, who long since began to have them engraved at his own expense. The Portuguese sometimes call the whole of the Rio Branco by the name of Rio Parime, and sometimes limit this appellation to one branch only, the Uraricuera, some¬ what below the Cano Mayari and above the old mission of San Antonio. As the words Paragua and Parime alike imply water, great water, lake, and sea, we cannot wonder at finding them so often repeated among tribes living at great distances from each other; as, for instance, by the Omaguas on the Upper Maranon, by the Western Guaranis, and by the Caribs. In all parts of the world, as I have already re¬ marked, large rivers are called by those who live on their banks “ the River,” without any specific denomination. Paragua, the name of a branch of the Caroni, is also the term applied by the natives to the Upper Orinoco. The name Orinucu is Tamanakish; and Diego de Ordaz first heard it used in the year 1531, when he ascended to the mouth of the Meta. Besides the Valley of Inundation above mentioned 184 VIEWS OF NATURE. we find other large pieces of water between the Rio Xumuru and the Parime. One of these bays is a branch of the Tacutu, and the other of the Uraricuera. Even at the base of the Paca- raima Mountains the rivers are subject to great periodical overflowings ; and the Lake Amucu, of which we shall subse¬ quently speak more fully, exhibits exactly the same character at the commencement of the plains. The Spanish missions, Santa Rosa and San Bautista de Caudacacla, or Cayacaya, founded in the years 1770 and 1773, by the Governor Don Manuel Centurion, were destroyed before the close of the last century ; and since that time, no new attempt has been made to advance from the basin of the Caroni to the southern declivity of the Pacaraima Mountains. The territory east of the valley of the Rio Branco has of late years been made the subject of several successful explor¬ ations. Mr. Hillhouse navigated the Massaruni as far as the Bay of Caranang, whence, as he says, a path would lead the traveller, in two days, to the source of the Massaruni: and. in three days, to the tributaries of the Rio Branco. With respect to the windings of the great river Massaruni, described by Mr. Ilillhouse, he himself observes, in a letter addressed to me from Demerara, 1st January, 1831, that “ the Massaruni, reckoning from its sources, flows first to the west, then for one degree of latitude to the north ; afterwards nearly 200 miles eastward; and, finally, to the north and north-north-east till it merges in the Essequibo.” As Mr. Hillhouse was unable to reach the southern declivity of the Pacaraima chain, he was not acquainted with the Amucu Lake; and he says himself, in his printed report, that “ from the accounts given him by the Accaouais, who are continually traversing the country between the shore and the Amazon River, he is convinced there is no lake in this district.” This assertion occasioned me some surprise, as it was directly opposed to the views I had previously formed regarding the Lake Amucu, from which flows the Canu Pirara, according to the accounts given by the travellers Hortsmann, Santos, and Rodriguez (and which had inspired me with the more confi¬ dence, because they entirely coincide with the recent Portu¬ guese manuscript charts). Finally, after five years of expec¬ tation, Schomburgk’s journey has removed all farther doubt. “ It is difficult to believe,” savs Mr. Hillhouse, in his into- 1 * ILLUSTRATIONS (9). LAKE PAItlME. 185 resting memoir on the Massaruni, “ that the tradition of a large inland sea is wholly unfounded. According to my views, the following circumstance may have given rise to the belief in the existence of the fabulous lake of the Parime. At some distance from the rocky fall of Teboco the waters of the Massaruni present to the eye as little motion as the calm surface of a lake. If at a more or less remote period the hori¬ zontal granitic strata of Teboco had been totally compact and without fissures, the waters must have been at least 50 feet above their present level, and there would have been formed an immense lake 10 or 12 miles in width, and 1500 or 2000 miles in length.”* The extent of this supposed inundation is not the only reason which prevents me from acceding to this explanation; for I have seen plains (Llanos), where, during the rainy season, the overflowing of the tributaries of the Orinoco annually covered a surface of 6400 square miles. The laby¬ rinth of ramifications between the Apure, Arauca, Capanaparo, and Sinaruco (see maps 17 and 18 of my Physical Atlas), is then wholly lost sight of; the configuration of the river beds can no longer be traced, and the whole appears like one vast lake. But the locality of the fabulous Dorado, and of the Lake Parime, belongs historically to quite a different part of Guiana, namely, that lying south of the Pacaraima mountains. This myth of the White Sea and of the Dorado of the Parime, has arisen, as I endeavoured thirty years ago to show in another work, from the appearance of the micaceous rocks of the Ucucuamo, the name Rio Parime (Rio Branco), the inun¬ dations of the tributaries; and especially from the existence of the lake Amucu, which is in the neighbourhood of the Rio Rupunuwini (Rupunuri), and is connected by means of the Pirara with the Rio Parime. I have had much pleasure in finding that the travels of Sir Robert Schomburgk have fully conoborated these earlv views. The section of his map which gives the course of the Essequibo and of the Rupunuri is quite new, and of great importance in a geographical point of view. It places the Paca¬ raima chain between 3° 52' and 4° north lat., while I had given its mean direction from 4° to 4° 10'. The chain reaches the confluence of the Essequibo and Rupunuri in 3° 57' north lat., and 58° 1' west longitude; I had placed it half a degree too * Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1836, Sept. p. 316. 186 VIEWS OE NATURE. far to the north. Schomburgk calls the last-named river Rupununi, according to the pronunciation of the Macusis; and gives as the synonymes Rupunuri, llupunuwini and Opununy, which have arisen from the difficulty the Carib tribes of these districts find in pronouncing the letter “r.” The position of the lake Amucu and its relations to the Maliu (Maou) and Tacutu (Tacoto) correspond per¬ fectly with my map of Colombia drawn in 1825. We agree equally well regarding the latitude of the lake of Amucu, for while he places it in 3° 33', I considered it to be in 3° 35'; the Cano Pirara (Pirarara) which connects the Amucu with the Rio Branco, flows from it towards the north, and not to the west as I had marked it. The Sibarana of my map, the sources of which Hortsmann placed to the north of the Cerro XJcucuamo near a fine mine of rock crystal, is the Siparuni of Schomburgk's map. His Waa-Ekuru is the Tavaricaru of the Portuguese geographer Pontes Lerne, and is the branch of the Rupunuri which lies the nearest to the lake of Amucu. The following remarks from the report of Sir Robert Schomburgk throw some light on the subject in question. “ The lake of Amucu,” says this traveller, “is without doubt the nucleus of the Lake of Parime and of the supposed White Sea. In December and January, when we visited it, it was scarcely a mile in length, and was half covered with reeds.” The same observation occurs on D Anville’s map of 1748. “ The Pirara flows from the lake to the W.N.W. of the Indian village of Pirara and falls into the Maou or Maliu. The last- named river rises, according to the information given me. north of the ridge of the Pacaraima mountains, which in their eastern portion do not attain a greater elevation than about 1600 feet. The sources of the river are on a plateau, from whence it is precipitated in a beautiful waterfall, known as the Corona. We were on the point of visiting this fall, when on the third day of our excursion to the mountains, the indisposition of one of my companions compelled me to return to the station at the lake Amucu. The Malm has black coffee-coloured water, and its current is more impetuous than that of the Rupunuri. In the mountains through which it pursues its course it is about 60 yards in breadth. Its environs are here extremely picturesque. This valley as well as the bank of the Buroburo, which flows into the Siparuni, are inhabited by the Macusis. ILLUSTRATIONS (9). LAKE PARIME. 187 In April the whole Savannahs are overflowed, and then present the peculiar phenomenon of the waters belonging to two different river basins commingling together. It is pro¬ bable that the vast extent of this temporary inundation may have given rise to the fable of the lake of Parime. During the rainy season a water communication is formed in the inte¬ rior of the country between the Essequibo, the Rio Branco, and the Gran Para. Some groups of trees, rising like Oases on the sand-hills of the Savannahs, present, at the time of the inundation, the appearance of islands scattered over a lake ; and these are without doubt the Ipomucena islands of Don Antonio Santos.” In D'Anville’s manuscripts, which his heirs kindly allowed me to examine, I find that Hortsmann of Hildesheim, who described these districts with great care, saw a secoifd Alpine lake, which he places two day’s journey above the con¬ fluence of the Mahu with the Rio Parime (Tacutur). It is a black water lake, situated on the summit of a mountain. Ide explicitly distinguishes it from the lake of Amucu, which he describes as “ covered with rushes.” The descriptions given by Plortsmann and Santos coincide with the Portuguese manu¬ script maps of the Marine Bureau at Rio Janeiro, in not indicating the existence of an uninterrupted connection be¬ tween the Rupunuri and the lake of Amucu. In D'Anville’s maps of South America, the rivers are better drawn in the first edition published in 1748, than in the more exten¬ sively circulated one of 1760. Schomburgk’s travels fully con¬ firm the independence of the basin of the Rupunuri and Essequibo ; but he draws attention to the fact that, during the rainy season, the Rio Waa-Ekuru, a tributary of the Rupunuri, is in connection with the Cano Pirara. Such is the condition of these river-channels, which are still but little developed, and almost entirely without separating ridges. The Rupunuri and the village of Anai, 3° 56' north latitude, 58° 3 west longitude, are at present recognised as the political boundaries between the British and Brazilian domains in these desert regions. Sir Robert Schomburgk was compelled by severe illness to make a protracted stay at Anai. Pie bases his clironometrical determinations of the position of the lake of Amucu on the mean of many lunar distances, east and west, which he measured during his sojourn at Anai. His 188 Y1EWS OF NATURE. determination? of longitude for these points of the Parime are in general ™ie degree more east than those in my map of Colombia. While I am far from calling in question the result of these lunar observations taken at Anai, I may be allowed to observe that the calculation of these distances is of im¬ portance, when it is desired to carry the comparison fr un the lake of Amucu to Esmeralda, which I found in 66° 19' west longitude. Thus then we see the great Mar de la Parima, (which it was -so difficult to remove from our maps, that even after my return from America it was still supposed to be 160 miles in length,) reduced by recent investigations to the lake of Amucu, mea¬ suring only two or three miles in circumference. The illu¬ sions entertained for nearly two hundred years, and which in the last Spanish expedition, in 1775, for the discovery of El Dorado, cost several hundred lives, have finally terminated by enriching geography with some few results. In the year 1512 thousands of soldiers perished in the expedition, under ¬ taken by Ponce de Leon, to discover the “ Fountain of Youth,” on one of the Bahama Islands, called Binimi, which is hardly to be found on any of our maps. This expedition led to the conquest of Florida, and to the knowledge of the great oceanic current, or gulf-stream, which flows through the Straights of Bahama. The thirst after gold, and the desire of rejuvenescence — the Dorado and the Fountain of Youth — stimulated, to an almost equal extent, the passions of man¬ kind. (10) p. 161 — “ The Piriguao, one of the noblest forms of the Palm.” Compare Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth, Nova Genera Plantarum , and Plant, cequinoct ., t. i. p. 315. (11) p. 171 — “ The grave of an extinct race.” During my stay in the forests of the Orinoco, researches were being made, by royal command, in reference to these bone-caves. The missionary of the cataracts had been falsely accused of having discovered in these caves treasures which the Jesuits had concealed there prior to their flight. (12) p. 172 — c* When his language perished. with him.” The parrot of the Atures has been made the subject of a ILLUSTRATIONS (12). PARROT OF ATURES. 189 charming poem by my friend Professor Ernst Curtins, the tutor of the promising young Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia. The author will forgive me for closing the present section of the “ Views of Nature” with this poem, which was not de¬ signed for publication, and was communicated to me by letter. THE PARROT OF ATURES. Where, through deserts wild and dreary, Orinoco dashes on. Sits a Parrot old and weary, Like a sculptur’d thing of stone. Through its rocky barriers flowing, Onward rolls the foaming stream ; Waving palms on high are glowing In the sun’s meridian beam. Ceaselessly the waves are heaving, Sparkling up in antic play; While the sunny rays are weaving Rainbows in the feathery spray. Where yon billows wild are breaking. Sleeps a tribe for evermore, Who, their native land forsaking, Refuge sought on this lone shore. As they lived, free, dauntless ever, So the brave Atunans died ; And the green banks of the river All their mortal relics hide. Yet the Parrot, ne’er forgetting Those who loved him, mourns them still, On the stone his sharp beak whetting, While the air his wailings fill. Where are now the youths who bred him, To pronounce their mother tongue, — Where the gentle maids who fed him. And who built his nest when young? 190 VIEWS OF NATURE. All, alas! are lifeless lying, Stretch'd upon their grassy bed; Nor can all his mournful crying, E’er awake the slumbering dead. Still he calls with voice imploring, To a world that heeds him not; Nought replies but waters roaring— No kind soul bewails his lot. Swift the savage turns his rudder, When his eyes the bird behold; None e’er saw without a shudder That Aturian Parrot old! THE NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST. If tlie faculty of appreciating nature, in different races of man, and if tlie character of the countries they now inhabit, or have traversed in their earlier migrations, have more or less enriched the respective languages by appropriate terms, expressive of the forms of mountains, the state of vegetation, the appearances of the atmosphere, and the contour and grouping of the clouds, it must be admitted that by long use and literary caprice many of these designations have been diverted from the sense they originally bore. Words have gradually been regarded as synonymous, which ought to have remained distinct; and languages have thus lost a portion of the expressiveness and force which might else have imparted a physiognomical character to descriptions of natural scenery. As an evidence of the extent to which a communion with nature, and the requirements of a laborious nomadic life, may enrich language, I would recall the abundance of characteristic denominations employed in Arabic and Persian, to distinguish plains, steppes, and deserts (1), according as they are entirely bare, covered with sand, or intersected by tabular masses of rock; or as they are diversified by spots of pasture land and extended tracts of social plants. The old Castilian dialects are no less remarkable (2) for the copiousness of their terms descriptive of the physiognomy of mountains, especially in reference to those features which recur in all regions of the earth, and which proclaim afar 192 VIEWS OF NATURE. off the nature of the rock. As the declivities of the Andes and the mountainous parts of the Canaries, the Antilles, and the Philippines, are all inhabited by races of Spanish descent; and as the nature of the soil has there influ¬ enced the mode of life of the inhabitants to a greater de¬ gree than in other parts of the world, excepting perhaps in the Himalaya and the Thibetian Highlands; so also the designations expressive of the forms of mountains in trachytic, basaltic, and porphyritic districts, as well as in schistose, calcareous, and sandstone formations, have been happily preserved in daily use. Under such circumstances, newly formed words become incorporated with the common stock. Speech acquires life from everything which bears the true im¬ press of nature, whether it be by the definition of sensuous impressions received from the external world, or by the expres¬ sion of thoughts and feelings that emanate from our inner being. In descriptions of natural phenomena, as well as in the choice of the expressions employed, this truth to nature should be especially kept in view. The object will be the best attained by simplicity in the narration of whatever we have ourselves observed and experienced, and by closely examining the locality with which the subject-matter is con¬ nected. Generalisation of physical views, and the enumera¬ tion of results, belong principally to the study of the Cosmos, which, indeed, must still be regarded as an inductive science; but the vivid delineation of organic forms (animals and plants,) in their picturesque and local relations to the multi¬ form surface of the earth, although limited to a small section of terrestrial life, still affords materials for this study. I£ acts as a stimulus to the mind wherever it is capable of appreciating the great phenomena of nature in an aesthetic point of view. To these phenomena belongs especially the boundless forest district which, in the torrid zone of South America, con- NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 193 connects the river basins of the Orinoco and the Amazon. This region deserves, in the strictest sense of the word, to be called a primeval forest — a term that has, in recent times, been so frequently misapplied. Primeval (or primitive), as applied to a forest, a nation, or a period of time, is a word of rather indefinite signification, and generally but of relative import. If every wild forest, densely covered with trees, on which man has never laid his destroying hand, is to be re¬ garded as a primitive forest, then the phenomenon is common to many parts both of the temperate and the frigid zones ; if, however, this character consists in impenetrability, through which it is impossible to clear with the axe, between trees measuring from 8 to 12 feet in diameter, a path of any length, primitive forests belong exclusively to tropical regions. This impenetrability is by no means, as is often erroneously supposed in Europe, always occasioned by the interlaced climbing “ lianes,” or creeping plants, for these often consti¬ tute but a very small portion of the underwood. The chief obstacles are the shrub-like plants which fill up every space between the trees, in a zone where all vegetable forms have a tendency to become arborescent. If travellers, the moment they set foot in a tropical region, and even while on islands, in the vicinity of the sea-coast, imagine that they are within the precincts of a primeval forest, the misconception must be ascribed to their ardent desire of realizing a long-cherished wish. Every tropical forest is not primeval forest. I have scarcely ever used the latter term in the narrative of my travels ; although, I believe, that of all investigators of nature now living, Bonpland, Martius, Poppig, Robert and Richard Schomburgk, and myself, have spent the longest period of time in primeval forests in the interior of a great continent. Notwithstanding the striking richness of the Spanish language in designations, (descriptive of natural objects, of which I have already spoken), yet one and the same word monte is employed for a mountain and a forest, for cerro o 194 VIEWS OF NATURE. ( Montana ), and for selva. In a work on tlie true breadth and the greatest extension of the chain of the Andes towards the east, I have shown how this two-fold signification of the word monte has led to the error, in a fine and extensively circulated English map of South America, of marking ranges of high mountains in districts occupied only by plains. Where the Spanish map of La Cruz Olmedilla, which formed the basis of so many others, indicated Cacao Woods, Montes de Cacao (3), Cordilleras were supposed to exist, although the Cacao-tree affects only the hottest of the low lands. If we comprehend, in one general view, the woody region which embraces the whole of South America, between the grassy plains of Venezuela (los Llanos de Caracas') and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, lying between 8° north and 19° south latitude, we perceive that this connected Hylcea of the tropical zone is unequalled in extent by any other on the surface of the earth. Its area is about twelve times that of Germany. Traversed in all directions by rivers, some of whose direct and indirect tributary streams (as well . those of the second as of the first order) surpass the Danube and Rhine in the abundance of their waters, it owes the won¬ derful luxuriance of its vegetation to the two-fold influence of great humidity and high temperature. In the temperate zone, particularly in Europe and Northern Asia, forests may be named from particular genera of trees which grow toge¬ ther as social plants ( plantce sociales ), and form separate woods. In the Oak, Pine, and Birch fbrests of the northern regions, and in the Linden or Lime Woods of the east¬ ern, there usually predominates only one species of Amen- tacece, Coniferoe or Tiliaceoe; while sometimes a single species of Piniferse is intermixed with trees of deciduous foliage. Such uniformity of association is unknown in tro¬ pical forests. The excessive variety of their rich sylvan flora renders it vain to ask, of what do the primeval forests consist. Numberless families of plants are here crowded NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 195 together; and even in small spaces, plants of the same species are rarely associated. Every day, and with every change of place, new forms present themselves to the traveller's attention; often flowers, beyond his reach, although the shape of the leaf and the ramifications of the plant excite his curiosity. The rivers, with their innumerable branches, are the only means of traversing the country. Astronomical observations, or in the absence of these, determinations by compass of the bends of the rivers, between the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and the Rio Negro, have shewn that two lonely mission- stations might be situated only a few miles apart, and yet the monks thereof, in visiting each other would require a day and a half to make the passage in their hollow- tree canoes, along the windings of small streams. The most striking evidence of the impenetrability of some portions of these forests, is afforded by a trait in the habits of the American tiger, or panther-like Jaguar. While the intro¬ duction of European horned cattle, horses, and mules, has yielded so abundant a supply of food to the beasts of prey in the extensive grassy and treeless plains of Yarinas, Meta, and Buenos Ayres ; that these animals, (owing to the unequal contest between them and their prey,) have considerably increased since the discovery of America; other individuals of the same species lead a toilsome life in the dense forests contiguous to the sources of the Orinoco. The distressing loss of a large mastiff, the faithful companion of our travels, while we were bivouacking near the junction of the Cassiquiare with the Orinoco, induced us on our return from the insect- swarming Esmeralda, to pass another night on the same spot (uncertain whether he was devoured by a tiger) where we had already long sought him in vain. We again heard in the immediate neighbourhood the cries of the Jaguar, probably the very same animal to which we owed our loss. As the cloudy state of the sky rendered it impossible to conduct o 2 196 VIEWS OF NATURE. astronomical observations, we made our interpreter ( lenguaraz ) repeat to us what the natives, our boatmen, related of the tigers of the country. The so called black Jaguar is, as we learnt, not unfrequently found among them. It is the largest and most blood-thirsty variety, and has a dark brown skin marked with scarcely dis¬ tinguishable black spots. It lives at the foot of the mountain ranges of Maraguaca and Unturan. “The love of wandering, and the rapacity of the Jaguars,” said our Indian narrator, one of the Durimond tribe; “often lead them into such impene¬ trable thickets of the forest, that they can no longer hunt on the ground, and then live for a long time in the trees — the terror of the families of monkeys, and of the prehensile-tailed viverra. ( Cercoleptes.')" The journal which I wrote at the time in German, and from which I borrow these extracts, was not entirely exhausted in the narrative of my travels (published in French). It contains a circumstantial description of the nocturnal life of animals ; I might say, of their nocturnal voices in the tropical forests. And this sketch seems to me to be especially adapted to constitute one of the chapters of the Views of Nature. That which is written down on the spot, or soon after the impres¬ sion of the phenomena has been received, may at least claim to possess more freshness than what is produced by the recol¬ lection of long passed events. We reached the bed of the Orinoco by descending from west to east along the Itio Apure, whose inundations I have noticed in the sketch of the Deserts and Steppes. It was the period of low water, and the average breadth of the Apure was only a little more than 1200 feet; while the Orinoco, at its confluence with the Apure (near the granite rocks of Curiquima, where I was able to measure a base-line), was still upwards of 12,180 feet. Yet this point (the rock of Curiquima,) is 400 miles in a straight line from the sea and from the delta of the Orinoco. Some of the plains, watered by NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 197 the Apure and the Payara, are inhabited by Yaruros and Achaguas, who are called savages in the mission-villages established by the monks, because they will not relinquish their independence. In reference to social culture, they however occupy about the same scale as those Indians, who, although baptized and living “under the bell’* ( baxo la cam - fmna'), have remained strangers to every form of instruction and cultivation. On leaving the Island del Diamante, where the Zambos, who speak Spanish, cultivate the sugar-cane, we entered into a grand and wild domain of nature. The air was filled with countless flamingoes ( Phcenicoptems ) and other water-fowl, which seemed to stand forth from the blue sky like a dark cloud in ever- varying outlines. The bed of the river had here contracted to less than 1000 feet, and formed a perfectly straight canal, which was inclosed on both sides by thick woods. The margin of the forest presents a singular spectacle. In front of the almost impenetrable wall of colossal trunks of Csesalpinia, Cedrela, and Desmanthus, there rises with the greatest regularity on the sandy bank of the river, a low hedge of Sauso, only four feet high; it consists of a small shrub, Hermesia castanifolia , which forms a new genus (4) of the family of Euphorbiacese. A few slender, thorny palms, called by the Spaniards Piritu and Corozo (perhaps species of Mariinezia or Badris ) stand close alongside ; the whole resembling a trimmed garden hedge, with gate-like openings at considerable distances from each other, formed undoubtedly by the large four-footed animals of the forests, for convenient access to the river. At sunset, and more particularly at break of day, the American Tiger, the Tapir, and the Peccary ( Pecari , Dicotyles ) may be seen coming forth from these openings accompanied by their young, to give them drink. When they are disturbed by a passing Indian canoe, and are about to retreat into the forest, they do not attempt to rush violently through these hedges of Sauso, but proceed 198 VIEWS OF NATURE. deliberately along the bank, between the hedge and river, affording the traveller the gratification of watching their motions for sometimes four or five hundred paces, until they disappear through the nearest opening. During a seventy- four days’ almost uninterrupted river navigation of 1520 miles up the Orinoco, to the neighbourhood of its sources, and along the Cassiquiare, and the Rio Negro— during the whole of which time we were confined to a narrow canoe — the same spectacle presented itself to our view at many different points, and, I may add, always with renewed excite¬ ment. There came to drink, bathe, or fish, groups of crea¬ tures belonging to the most opposite species of animals; the larger mammalia with many-coloured herons, palamedeas with the proudly- strutting curassow (Crax Alector, C. Pauxi). “It is here as in Paradise” ( es como en el Paradiso), remarked with pious air our steersman, an old Indian, who had been brought up in the house of an ecclesiastic. But the gentle peace of the primitive golden age does not reign in the paradise of these American animals, they stand apart, watch, and avoid each other. The Capybara, a cavy (or river-hog) three or four feet long (a colossal repetition of the common Brazilian cavy, ( Ccivia Aguti), is devoured in the river by the crocodile, and on the shore by the tiger. They run so badly, that we were frequently able to overtake and capture several from among the numerous herds. Below the mission of Santa Barbara de Arichuna we passed the night as usual in the open air, on a sandy flat, on thu bank of the Apure, skirted by the impenetrable forest. We had some difficulty in finding dry wood to kindle the fires with which it is here customary to surround the bivouac, as a safeguard against the attacks of the Jaguar. The air was bland and soft, and the moon shone brightly. Several croco¬ diles approached the bank; and I have observed that fire attracts these creatures as it does our crabs and many other aquatic animals. The oars of our boats were fixed upright NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 199 in the ground, to support our hammocks. Deep stillness pre¬ vailed, only broken at intervals by the blowing of the fresh¬ water dolphins (5), which are peculiar to the river net- work of the Orinoco (as, according to Colebrooke, they are also to the Ganges, as high up the river as Benares) ; they followed each other in long tracks. After eleven o'clock, such a noise began in the contiguous forest, that for the remainder of the night all sleep was impos¬ sible. The wild cries of animals rung through the woods. Among the many voices which resounded together, the Indians could only recognise those which, after short pauses, were heard singly. There was the monotonous, plaintive, cry of the Aluates (howling monkeys), the whining, flute-like notes of the small sapajous, the grunting murmur of the striped nocturnal ape (6) ( Nyctipithecus trivirgatus, which I was the first to describe), the fitful roar of the great tiger, the Cuguar or maneless American lion, the peccary, the sloth, and a host of parrots, parraquas (Or talkies), and other pheasant-like birds. Whenever the tigers approached the edge of the forest, our dog, who before had barked incessantly, came howling to seek protection under the hammocks. Sometimes the cry of the tiger resounded from the branches of a tree, and was then always accompanied by the plaintive piping tones of the apes, who were endeavouring to escape from the unwonted pursuit. If one asks the Indians why such a continuous noise is heard on certain nights, they answer, with a smile, that “ the animals are rejoicing in the beautiful moonlight, and cele¬ brating the return of the full moon.” To me the scene appeared rather to be owing to an accidental, long-continued, and gradually increasing conflict among the animals. Thus, for instance, the jaguar will pursue the peccaries and the tapirs, which, densely crowded together, burst through the barrier of tree-like shrubs which opposes their flight. Terrified at the confusion, the monkeys on the tops of the trees join their 200 VIEWS OF KATUKE. cries with those of the larger animals. This arouses the tribes of birds who build their nests in communities, and suddenly the whole animal world is in a state of commotion. Further experience taught us, that it was by no means always the festival of moonlight that disturbed the stillness of the forest; for we observed that the voices were loudest during violent storms of rain, or when the thunder echoed and the lightning flashed through the depths of the woods. The good-natured Franciscan monk who (notwithstanding the fever from which he had been suffering for many months), accompanied us through the cataracts of Atures and Maypures to San Carlos, on the Rio Negro, and to the Brazilian coast, used to say, when apprehensive of a storm at night, “ May Heaven grant a quiet night both to us and to the wild beasts of the forest!-’ A singular contrast to the scenes I have here described, and which I had repeated opportunities of witnessing, is pre¬ sented by the stillness which reigns within the tropics at the noontide of a day unusually sultry. I borrow from the same journal the description of a scene at the Narrows of Baraguan. Here the Orinoco forms for itself a passage through the western part of the mountains of the Parirne. That which is called at this remarkable pass a Narrow ( Angostura del Baraguan ), is, however, a basin almost 5700 feet in breadth. With the exception of an old withered stem of Aubletia ( Apeiba Tiburbu), and a new Apocinea ( Allamanda Salicifo- lia ), the barren rocks were only covered with a few silvery croton shrubs. A thermometer observed in the shade, but brought within a few inches of the lofty mass of granite rock, rose to more than 122° Fahr. All distant objects had wavy undulating outlines, the optical effect of the mirage. Not a breath of air moved the dust-like sand. The sun stood in the zenith; and the effulgence of light poured upon the river, and which, owing to a gentle ripple of the waters, was brilliantly reflected, gave additional distinct¬ ness to the red haze which veiled the distance. All the NOCTURNAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 201 rocky mounds and naked boulders were covered with large, thick-scaled Iguanas, Gecko-lizards, and spotted Salamanders. Motionless, with uplifted heads and widely extended mouths, they seemed to inhale the heated air with ecstasy. The larger animals at such times take refuge in the deep recesses of the forest, the birds nestle beneath the foliage of the trees, or in the clefts of the rocks ; but if in this apparent still¬ ness of nature we listen closely for the faintest tones, we detect, a dull, muffled sound, a buzzing and humming of insects close to the earth, in the lower strata of the atmo¬ sphere. Everything proclaims a world of active organic forces. In every shrub, in the cracked bark of trees, in the perforated ground inhabited by hymenopterous insects, life is everywhere audibly manifest. It is one of the many voices of nature revealed to the pious and susceptible spirit of man. ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (1) p. 191. — “ Characteristic denominations in Arabic and Persian .” More than twenty words might be cited by which the Arabs distinguish between a Steppe (tanufah), according as it may be a Desert without water, entirely bare, or covered with siliceous sand, and interspersed with spots of pasture land (Sahara, Kafr, Mikfar, Tih, Mehme). Sahl is a depressed plain ; Dakkah a desolate elevated plateau. In Persian Beya- ban is an arid sandy waste (as the Mongolian Gobi and the Chinese Han-hai and Scha-mo) ; Yaila is a Steppe covered with grass rather than with low-growing plants (like the Mongolian Kiidah, the Turkish Tala or Tschol, and the Chi¬ nese Huang). Deschti-reft is a naked elevated plateau.* (2) p. 191. — “ The old Castilian dialects .” Pico, picaclio, mogote, cucuruclio, espigon, loma tendida, mesa, panecillo, farallon, tablon, pena, penon, penasco, peho- leria, roca partida, laxa, cerro, sierra, serrania, cordillera, monte, montana, montanuela, cadena de montes, los altos, malpais, reventazon, bufa, See. (3) p. 194. — “ Where the map had indicated Montes de Cacao." On the range of hills from which the lofty Andes de Cuchao have originated, see my Relation historique , t. iii. p. 238. (4) p. 197. — “ Hermesia The genus Hermesia, the Sauso, has been described by Bonpland, and is delineated in our Plantes equinoxiales , t. i- p. 162, tab. xlvi. (5) p. 199.-—“ The fresh-water dolphin .” These are not sea dolphins, which, like some species of Pleuronectcs (Hat fish which invariably have both eyes on one side of the body), ascend the rivers to a great distance, as, * Humboldt, Relation historique, t. ii. p. 153. ILLUSTEAT LONS (6). NOCTURNAL APE. 203 for instance, the Limande ( Plcuronectes Limanda ), which is found as far inland as Orleans. Some forms of sea fish, as the dolphin and skate ( Raia ), are met with in the great rivers of both continents. The fresh-water dolphin of the Apure and the Orinoco differs specifically from the Delphinus gange- ticus as well as from all sea dolphins.*4 (6) p. 199. — “ The striped nocturnal monkey .” This is the Douroucouli or Cusi-cusi of the Cassiquiare which I have elsewhere described as the Simla trivirgataf from a drawing made by myself of the living animal. We have since seen the nocturnal monkey living in the mena¬ gerie of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. J Spix also met with this remarkable little animal on the Amazon River and called it Nyctipithecus vociferous. * See my Relation historique, t. ii. pp. 223, 239, 406--413. + Recueil d' Observations de Zoologie et d’ Anatomie comparee, t. i. pp. 306--311, tab. xxviii. $ Op. cit., t. ii. p. 340. Potsdam, June 1849. HYPSOMETRIC ADDENDA. I am indebted to Mr. Pentland, whose scientific labours have thrown so much light on the geology and geography of Bolivia, for the following determinations of position, which he communicated to me in a letter from Paris (October 1848), subsequent to the publication of his great map. Jtevado of Sorata, or Ancohuma. South Latitude. Longitude. Height. South Peak . 15° 5P 33" 68° 33' 55” 21,286 North Peak . 15° 49' 18" 68° 33' 52" 21,043 Illimani. South Peak . 16° 38' 52" 67° 49' 18" 21,145 Middle Peak . 16° 38' 26" 67° 49' 17" 21,094 N orth Peak . 16° 37' 50" 67° 49' 39" 21,060 The numbers representing the heights are. with the excep¬ tion of the unimportant difference of a few feet in the South Peak of Illimani, the same as those in the map of the Lake of Titicaca. A sketch of the Illimani, as it appears in all its majesty from La Paz, was given at an earlier date by Mr. Pentland in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society A But this was five years after the publication of the first mea¬ surements in the Annuaire du Bureau des Lontjitudcs for 1830, p. 323, which results I myself hastened to disseminate in Germany.f The Nevado de Sorata lies to the east of the village of Sorata or Esquibcl, and is called in the Ymarra lan¬ guage, according to Pentland, Ancomani, Itanrpu, and 111- liainpu. In Illimani we recognize the Ymarra word illi, snow. If, however, in the eastern chain of Bolivia the Sorata was long assumed to be 3962 feet, and the Illimani 2851 feet too high, there are in the western chain of Bolivia, according to Pentland s map of Titicaca (1848), lour peaks east of Arica between the latitudes 18° 7' and 18° 25', all of which exceed Chimborazo in height, which itself is 21,422 feet. These four peaks are : — English feet. French feet. Pomarape Gualateiri Parinacota Bahama . 21,700 21,960 22,030 22,350 20,360 20,604 20,670 20,971 * Yol. v. (1835), p. 77. t Hertha, Zeitschrift für Erd und Völkerkunde, von Berghaus, bd. xiii. 1829, s. 3-29. HYPSOMETRIC ADDENDA. 205 Berghaus has applied to the chains of the Andes in Bolivia, the investigation which I published'1' regarding the proportion, which varies extremely in different mountain-chains, of the mountain ridge (the mean height of the passes), to the high¬ est summits (or the culminating points). He finds, f according to Pentland’s map, that the mean height of the passes in the eastern chain is 13,505, and in the western chain 14,496 feet. The culminating points are 21,285 and 22,350 feet ; consequently the ratio of the height of the ridge to that of the highest sum- mit is, in the eastern chain, as 1 : 1* * * § ** *57, and in the western chain as 1 : 1.54. This ratio, which is, as it were, the mea¬ sure of the subterranean upheaving force, is very similar to that in the Pyrenees, but very different from the plastic form of the Alps, the mean height of whose passes is far less in comparison with the height of Mont Blanc. In the Pyrenees these ratios are as 1 : P43, and in the Alps as 1 : 2'09. But, according to Fitzroy and Darwin, the height of the Sahama is still surpassed by 848 feet by that of the volcano Aconcagua (south lat. 32° 39;), in the north-east of Valpa¬ raiso in Chili. The officers of the expedition of the Adven¬ ture and Beagle found, in August 1835, that the Aconcagua was between 23,000 and 23,400 feet in height. If we reckon it at 23,200 feet it is 1776 feet, higher than Chimborazo.]: According to more recent calculations, § Aconcagua is deter¬ mined to be 23,906 feet. Our knowledge regarding the systems of mountains, which, north of the parallels of 30° and 31°, are distinguished as the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California , has been vastly augmented during the last few years in the astro- nomico -geographical, hypsometric, geognostic, and botanical departments, by the excellent works of Charles Fremont, || of Dr. W islizcnus,^! and of Lieutenants Abert and Peck.*** There * Annates des Sciences Naturelles, t. iv. 1825, pp. 225-253. + Berghaus, Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, hand. ix. s. 322-326. X Fitzroy, Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, 1839, vol. ii. p, 481 ; Darwin, Journal of Researches, 1845, pp. 253 and 291. § Mary Somerville, Physical Geogr., 1849, vol. ii. 425. || Geographical Memoir upon Upper California, an illustration of his Map of Oregon and California, 1848. ^ Memoir of a Tour in Northern Mexico, connected with Col. Doniphan' s Expedition, 1848. ** Expedition on the Upper Arkansas, 1845, and Examination of New Mexico in 1846 and 1847. 206 VIEWS OF NATURE. prevails throughout these North American works a scientific spirit deserving of the warmest acknowledgment. The re¬ markable plateau, referred to in p. 34, between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California, which rises uninterruptedly from 4000 to 5000 French (4260 to 5330 English) feet high, and is termed the Great Basin, presents an interior closed river-system, thermal springs, and salt lakes. None of its rivers, Bear River, Carson River, and Humboldt River, find a passage to the sea. That which. a process of induction and combination, I represented in my great map of Mexico, executed in 1804, as the Lake of Timpanogos, is the Great Salt Lake of Fremont's map. It is 60 miles long from north to south, and 40 miles broad, and it communicates with the fresh- water Lake of Utah, which lies at a higher level, and into which the Timpanogos or Timpanaozu River enters from the eastward, in lat. 40° 1 3 . The fact of the Lake of Timpanogos not having been placed in my map sufficiently to the north and west, arose from the entire absence, at that period, of all astronomical determinations of position of Santa Fe in New Mexico. For the western margin of the lake the error amounts to almost fifty minutes, a difference of absolute lon¬ gitude which will appear less striking when it is remembered that my itinerary map of Guanaxuato could only be based for an extent of 15° of latitude on determinations made bv the compass (magnetic surveys), instituted by Don Pedro de Rivera. § These determinations gave my talented and prema¬ turely lost fellow-labourer, Herr Friesen, 105° 36; as the lon¬ gitude of Santa Fe, while, by other combinations, I calculated it at 1 04° 5 F. According to actual astronomical determinations the true longitude appears to be 106°. The relative position of the strata of rock salt found in thick strata of red clav, south-east of the Great Salt Lake (Laguna de Timpanogos), with its many islands, and near the present Fort Mormon and the Utah Lake, is accurately given in my large map of Mexico. I may refer to the most recent evidence of the tra¬ veller who made the first trustworthy determinations of posi¬ tion in this region. “ The mineral or rock salt, of which a specimen is placed in Congress Library, was found in the place marked by Humboldt in his map of New Spain (north- * Humboldt, Essai polit. sur la Nouvdle Espagne, t. i. pp. 127-T36. HYPSOMETRIC ADDENDA. 207 cm half), as derived from the journal of the Missionary Father Escalante, who attempted (1777) to penetrate the unknown country from Santa Fe of New Mexico to Monterey of the Pacific Ocean. South-east of the Lake Timpanogos is the chain of the Wha-satcli Mountains ; and in this, at the place where Humboldt has written Montagnes de sei gemme , this mineral is found.”* A great historical interest is attached to this part of the highland, especially to the neighbourhood of the Lake of Timpanogos, which is probably identical with the Lake of Teguayo, the ancestral seat of the Aztecs. This people, in their migration from Aztlan to Tula, and to the valley of Tenochtitlan in Mexico, made three stations at which the ruins of Casas grandes are still to be seen. The first halting- place of the Aztecs was at the Lake of Teguayo, south of Quivira, the second on the Rio Gila, and the third not far from the Presidio de Llanos. Lieutenant Abert found on the banks of the Rio Gila the same immense quantity of elegantly painted fragments of delf and pottery scattered over a large surface of country, which, at the same place, had excited so much astonishment in the missionaries Francisco Garces and Pedro Fonte. From these products of the hand of man, it may be inferred that there was a time when a higher human civilization existed in this now desolate region. Re¬ petitions of the singular architectural style of the Aztecs, and of their houses of seven stories, are at the present time to be found far to the east of the Rio Grande del Norte; as, for in¬ stance, at Taos. f The Sierra Nevada of California is parallel to the coast of the Pacific; but between the latitudes of 34° and 41°, between San Buenaventura and the Bay of Trinidad, there runs, west of the Sierra Nevada, a small coast chain whose culminating point, Monte del Diablo, is 3674 feet high. In the narrow valley, between this coast chain and the great Sierra Nevada, flow from the south the Rio de San Joaquin, and from the north the Rio del Sacramento. It is in the allu¬ vial soil on the banks of the latter river that the rich gold- * Fremont, Geogr. Mem. of Upper California, 1848, pp. 8 and 67; see also Humboldt, Essai politique, t. ii. p. 261. t Compare Abert’s Examination of New Mexico, in the Documents of Congress, No. 41, pp. 489 and 581--605, with my Essai pol., t. ii. pp. 241--244. 208 VIEWS OE NATURE. washings occur, which are now proceeding with so much activity. Besides the hypsometric levelling and the barometric mea¬ surements to which I have already referred (see page 33), between the mouth of the Kanzas River in the Missouri and the coast of the Pacific, throughout the immense expanse of 28° of longitude, Dr. Wislizenus has successfully prosecuted the levelling commenced by myself in the equinoctial zone of Mexico, to the north as far as to lat. 35° 38', and consequently to Santa Fe del Nuevo Mexico. We learn with astonishment that the plateau which forms the broad crest of the Mexican Andes by no means sinks down to an inconsiderable height, as was long supposed to be the case. I give here, for the first time, according to recent measurements, the line of levelling from the city of Mexico to Santa Fe, which is within 16 miles from the Rio del Norte. French feet. English feet. Mexico ..... 7008 7469 Ht. Tula ..... 0318 6733 Ht. San Juan del Bio 6090 6490 Ht. Queretaro .... 5970 6362 Ht. Celaya ..... 5646 6017 Ht. Salamanca .... 5496 5761 Ht. Guanaxuato .... 6414 6836 Ht. Silao ..... 5546 5911 Br. Villa de Leon .... 5755 6133 Br. Lagos ..... 5983 6376 Br. Aguas Calientes 5875 6261 Br. San Luis Fotosi 5714 6090 Br. Zacatecas .... 7544 S038 Br. Fresnillo .... 0797 7244 Br. Durango ..... 6426 6848 (Oteira) Parras ..... 4678 4985 Ws. Saltillo ..... 4917 5240 Ws. El Bolson de Mapimi . | ^om 3600 4200 38361 447 6 j Ws. Chihuahua .... 4352 4638 Ws. Cosiquiriachi .... 5886 6273 Ws. Passo del Norte (on the Eio Grande del Norte) .... ■3577 3810 Ws. Santa Fe del Nuevo Mexico 6612 7047 Ws. The attached letters Ws., Br., and lit., indicate the baro¬ metric measurements of Dr. Wislizenus, Obergrath Burkart, and myself. To the valuable memoir of Dr. Wislizenus there HYPSOMETRIC ADDENDA. 209 are appended three profile delineations of the country; one from Santa Feto Chihuahua over Passo del Norte: one from Chihuahua over Parras to Reynosa ; and one from Fort Inde¬ pendence (a little to the east of the confluence of the Missouri and the Kanzas River) to Santa Fe. The calculation is based on daily corresponding observations of the barometer, made by Engelmann at St. Louis, and by Lilly in New Orleans. If we consider that in the north and south direction the dif¬ ference of latitude between Santa Fe and Mexico is more than 16°, and that, consequently, the distance in a direct meridian direction, independently of curvatures on the road, is more than 960 miles; we are led to ask whether, in the whole world, there exists any similar formation of equal extent and height (between 5000 and 7500 feet above the level of the sea). Four-wheeled waggons can travel from Mexico to Santa Fe. The plateau, whose levelling I have here described, is formed solely by the broad, undulating, flattened crest of the chain of the Mexican Andes ; it is not the swelling of a valley between two mountain-chains, such as the “ Great Basin ” between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California, in the Northern Hemisphere, or the elevated plateau of the Lake of Titicaca, between the eastern and western chains of Bolivia, or the plateau of Thibet, between the Himalava and the Kuenliin, in the Southern Hemisphere. P IDEAS FOR A PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. When the active spirit of man is directed to the investi¬ gation of nature, or when in imagination he scans the vast fields of organic creation, among the varied emotions excited in his mind there is none more profound or vivid than that awakened by the universal profusion of life. Every¬ where — even near the ice-bound poles, — the air resounds with the song of birds and with the busy hum of insects. Not only the lower strata, in which the denser vapours float, but also the higher and ethereal regions of the air, teem with animal life. Whenever the lofty crests of the Peruvian Cor¬ dilleras, or the summit of Mont Blanc, south of Lake Leman, have been ascended, living creatures have been found even in these solitudes. On the Chimborazo (1), which is upwards of eight thousand feet higher than Mount Etna, we saw but¬ terflies and other winged insects. Even if they are strangers carried by ascending currents of air to those lofty regions, whither a restless spirit of inquiry leads the toilsome steps of man, their presence nevertheless proves that the more pliant organization of animals may subsist far beyond the limits of the vegetable world. The Condor (2), that giant among the vultures, often soared above us at a greater altitude than the summits of the Andes, and even higher than would be the Peak of Teneriffe were it piled upon the snow-crowned sum¬ mits of the Pyrenees. Rapacity and the pursuit of the soft- woolled Vicunas, which herd, like the chamois, on the snow- covei'ed pastures, allure this powerful bird to these regions. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 211 But if the unassisted eye shows that life is diffused through¬ out the whole atmosphere, the microscope reveals yet greater wonders. Wheel-animalcules, brachioni , and a host of micro¬ scopic insects are lifted by the winds from the evaporat¬ ing waters below. Motionless and to all appearance dead, they float on the breeze, until the dew bears them back to the nourishing earth, and bursting the tissue which incloses their transparent rotating (3) bodies, instils new life and motion into all their organs, probably by the action of the vital prin¬ ciple inherent in water. The yellow meteoric sand or mist (dust nebuloc) often observed to fall on the Atlantic near the Cape de Verde Islands, and not unfrequently borne in an easterly direction as far as Northern Africa, Italy, and Central Europe, consists, according to Ehrenberg’ s brilliant discovery, of agglomerations of siliceous-shelled microscopic organisms. Many of these perhaps float for years in the highest strata of the atmosphere, until they are carried down by the Etesian winds or by descending currents of air, in the full capacity of life, and actually engaged in organic increase by spontaneous self- division. Together with these developed creatures, the atmosphere contains countless germs of future formations ; eggs of insects, and seeds of plants, which, by means of hairy or feathery crowns, are borne forward on their long autumnal journey. Even the vivifying pollen scattered abroad by the male blossoms, is carried by winds and winged insects over sea and land, to the distant and solitary female plant (4). Thus, wheresoever the naturalist turns his eye, life or the germ, of life lies spread before him. But if the moving sea of air in which we are immersed, and above whose surface we are unable to raise ourselves, yields to many organic beings their most essential nourish¬ ment, they still require therewith a more substantial species of food, which is provided for them only at the bottom of this gaseous ocean. This bottom is of a twofold kind : the 212 TIE’» VS OF NATURE. smaller portion constituting the dry earth, in immediate con¬ tact with the surrounding atmosphere ; the larger portion consisting of water, — formed, perhaps, thousands of years ago from gaseous matters fused by electric fire, and now inces¬ santly undergoing decomposition in the laboratory of the clouds and in the pulsating vessels of animals and plants. Organic forms descend deep into the womb of the earth, wherever the meteoric rain-waters can penetrate into natural cavities, or into artificial excavations and mines. The domain of the subterranean cryptogamic flora was early an object of my scientific researches. Thermal springs of the highest tempera¬ ture nourish small Hydropores, Conferva) and Oscillatoria?. Not far from the Arctic circle, at Bear Lake, in the New Continent, ltichardson saw flowering plants on the ground which, even in summer, remains frozen to the depth of twenty inches. It is still undetermined where life is most abundant : whe¬ ther on the earth or in the fathomless depths of the ocean. Ehrenberg’s admirable work on the relative condition of animalcular life in the tropical ocean and the floating and solid ice of the Antarctic circle, has spread the sphere and horizon of organic life before our eves. Siliceous-shelled Polygastrica and even Coscinodiscte, alive, with their green ovaries, have been found enveloped in masses within twelve degrees of the Pole; even as the small black glacier flea, Desoria, Glacialis , and Podurelke, inhabit the narrow tubules of ice of the Swiss glaciers, as proved by the researches of Agassiz. Ehrenberg has shown that on some microscopic infusorial animalcules ( Synedra and Cocconeis), other species live parasitically ; and that in the Gallionellse the extraordinary powers of division and development of bulk are so great, _that an animalcule invisible to the naked eye can in four days form two cubic feet of the Bilin polishing slate. In the ocean, gelatinous sea- worms, living and dead, shine like luminous stars (5). converting by their phosphorescent PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 213 light the green surface of the ocean into one vast sheet of fire. Indelible is the impression left on my mind by those calm tropical nights of the Pacific, where the constellation of Argo in its zenith, and the setting Southern Cross, pour their mild planetary light through the ethereal azure of the sky, while dolphins mark the foaming waves with their luminous furrows. But not alone the depths of ocean, the waters, too, of our own swamps and marshes, conceal innumerable worms of wonderful form. Almost indistinguishable by the eye are the Cyclidice, the Euglenes, and the host of Naiads divisible by branches like the Lemna (Duckweed), whose leafy shade they seek. Surrounded by differently composed atmospheres, and de¬ prived of light, the spotted Ascaris breathes in the skin of the earth-worm, the silvery and bright Leucophra exists in the body of the shore Nais, and a Pentastoma in the large pulmonary cells of the tropical rattle-snake (6). There are animalcules in the blood of frogs and salmon, and even, according to Nordmann, in the fluid of the eyes of fishes, and in the gills of the bream. Thus are even the most hidden recesses of creation replete with life. We purpose in the following pages to consider the different families of plants, since on their existence entirely depends that of the animal creation. Incessantly are they occupied in organizing the raw material of the earth, assimilating by vital forces those elements which after a thousand metamorphoses become enno¬ bled into active nervous tissue. The glance which we direct to the dissemination of vegetable forms, reveals to us the fulness of that animal life which they sustain and preserve. The verdant carpet which a luxuriant Flora spreads over the surface of the earth is not woven equally in all parts ; for while it is most rich and full where, under an ever-cloudless sky, the sun attains its greatest height, it is thin and scanty near the torpid poles, where the quickly-recurring frosts too speedily blight the opening bud or destroy the ripening fruit. 214 VIEWS OF NATURE. Yet everywhere man rejoices in the presence of nourish¬ ing plants. Even where from the depths of the sea, a volcano bursting through the boiling flood, upheaves a scoriaceous rock, (as once happened in the Greek Islands) ; or, to instance a more gradual phenomenon, -where the united labours of the coral animal (Litliophytes) (7) have piled up their cellular dwellings, on the crests of submarine mountains, until after toil¬ ing for thousands of years their edifice reaches the level of the ocean, when its architects perish, and leave a coral island. Thus are organic forces ever ready to animate with living forms the naked rock. How seeds are so suddenly trans¬ ported to these rocks, whether by birds, or by winds, or by the waves of ocean, is a question that cannot be decided, owins; to the Great distance of these islands from the coasts. But no sooner has the air greeted the naked rock, than, in our northern countries, it gradually acquires a covering of velvet¬ like fibres, which appear to the eye to be coloured spots. Some of these are bordered by single and others by double rows, while others again are traversed by furrows and divided into compartments. As they increase in age their colour darkens. The bright glittering yellow becomes brown, and gradually the bluisli-grey mass of the Leprarite changes to a dusty black. As the outlines of this vegetable surface merge into each other with increasing age, the dark ground acquires a new covering of fresh circular spots of dazzling whiteness. Thus one organic tissue rises, like strata, over the other; and as the human race in its development must pass through, definite stages of civilization, so also is the gradual distri¬ bution of plants dependent on definite physical laws. In spots where lofty forest trees now rear their towering summits, the sole covering of the barren rock was once the tender lichen ; the long and immeasurable interval was filled up by the growth of grasses, herbaceous plants, and shrubs. The place occupied in northern regions by mosses and lichens is supplied in the tropics by Portulacas, Gomphrenas, and other PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 215 low and oleaginous marine plants. The history of the vege¬ table covering and of its gradual extension over the barren surface of the earth, has its epochs, as well as that of the migratory animal world. But although life is everywhere diffused, and although the organic forces are incessantly at work in combining into new forms those elements which have been liberated by death; yet this fulness of life and its renovation differ according to difference of climate. Nature undergoes a periodic stag¬ nation in the frigid zones ; for fluidity is essential to life. Animals and plants, excepting indeed mosses and other Cryptogamia, here remain many months buried in a winter sleep. Over a great portion of the earth, therefore, only those organic forms are capable of full development, which have the property of resisting any considerable abstraction of heat, or those which, destitute of leaf-organs, can sustain a protracted interruption of their vital functions. Thus, the nearer we approach the tropics, the greater the increase in variety of structure, grace of form, and mixture of colours, as also in perpetual youth and vigour of organic life. This increase may readily be doubted by those who have never quitted our own hemisphere, or who have neglected the study of physical geography. When in passing from our thickly foliated forests of oak, we cross the Alps or the Pyrenees and enter Italy or Spain, or when the traveller first directs his eye to some of the African coasts of the Mediter¬ ranean, he may easily be led to adopt the erroneous inference that absence of trees is a characteristic of hot climates. But they forget that Southern Europe wore a different aspect, when it was first colonised by Pelasgian or Carthaginian settlers ; they forget too that an earlier civilization of the human race sets bounds to the increase of forests, and that nations, in their change -loving spirit, gradually destroy the decorations which rejoice our eye in the North, and which, more than the records of history, attest the youthfulness of 216 VIEWS OF NATURE. our civilization. The great catastrophe by which the Medi¬ terranean was formed, when the swollen waters of an inland sea burst their way through the Dardanelles and the Pillars of Hercules, appears to have stripped the contiguous lands of a large portion of their alluvial soil. The records of the Samothracian traditions (8) preserved by Greek writers seem to indicate the recent date of this great convulsion of nature. Moreover, in all the lands bathed by the Mediterranean, and which are characterised by the tertiary and cretaceous forma¬ tions (Nummulites and Neocomian rocks), a great portion of the earth’s surface is naked rock. The picturesque beauty of Italian scenery depends mainly on the pleasing contrast between the bare and desolate rock and the luxuriant vegeta¬ tion which, island-like, is scattered over its surface. Where the rock is less intersected by fissures, so that the water rests longer on its surface, and where it is covered with earth (as on the enchanting banks of Lake Albano), there even Italy has her oak-forests, as shady and verdant as could be desired by an inhabitant of the North. The boundless plains or steppes of South America, and the deserts beyond the Atlas range of mountains, can only be regarded as mere local phenomena. The former are found to be covered, at least in the rainy season, with grasses and low almost herbaceous Mimosa}; while the latter are seas of sand in the interior of the Old Continent, — vast arid tracts sur¬ rounded by borders of evergreen forests. Here and there only a few isolated fan-palms remind the wanderer that these a. dreary solitudes are a portion of animated nature. Amid the optical delusions occasioned by the radiation of heat, we see the bases of these trees at one moment hovering in the air, at the next their inverted image reflected in the undulating strata of the atmosphere. To the west of the Peruvian Andes, on the shores of the Pacific, I have passed weeks in tra¬ versing these waterless deserts. The origin of this absence of plants over large tracts of PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 217 land, in regions characterised on every side by the most exuberant vegetation, is a geological phenomenon which has hitherto received but little attention ; it undoubtedly arises from former revolutions of nature, such as inundations, or from volcanic convulsions of the earth’s surface. When once a region loses its vegetable covering, if the sand is loose and devoid of springs, and if vertically ascending currents of heated air prevent the precipitation of vapour (9), thousands of .years may elapse before organic life can penetrate from the green shores to the interior of the dreary waste. Those who are capable of surveying nature with a compre¬ hensive glance, and abstract their attention from local pheno¬ mena, cannot fail to observe that organic development and abundance of vitality gradually increase from the poles to¬ wards the equator, in proportion to the increase of animating- heat. But in this distribution every different climate has allotted to it some beauty peculiar to itself : to the Tropics- belong variety and magnitude in vegetable forms; to the North the aspect of its meadows and the periodical renova¬ tion of nature at the first genial breath of spring. Every zone, besides its own peculiar advantages, has its own distinc¬ tive character. The primeval' force of organization, notwith¬ standing a certain independence in the abnormal development of individual parts, binds all animal and vegetable structures to fixed ever- recurring types. For as in some individual organic beings we recognise a definite physiognomy, and as descriptive botany and zoology are, strictly speaking, analyses of animal and vegetable forms, so also there is a certain natural physiognomy peculiar to every region of the earth. That which the painter designates by the expressions “ Swiss scenery” or “ Italian sky” is based on a vague feel¬ ing of the local natural character. The azure of the sky, the effects of light and shade, the haze floating on the distant horizon, the forms of animals, the succulence of plants, the bright glossy surface of the leaves, the outlines of mountains* 218 VIEWS OF NATURE. all combine to produce the elements on which depends the impression of any one region. It must be admitted, however, that in all latitudes the same kind of rocks, as trachyte, basalt, porphyritic schist, and dolomite, form mountain groups of exactly similar physiognomy. Thus the greenstone cliffs of South America and Mexico resemble those of the Fichtel mountains of Germany, in like manner as among animals, the form of the Allco, or the original canine race of the New Continent, is analogous to that of the European race. The inorganic crust of the earth is as it were independent of cli¬ matic influences ; perhaps, because diversity of climate aris¬ ing from difference of latitude is of more recent date than the formations of the earth, or that the hardening crust, in solid¬ ifying and discharging its caloric, acquired its temperature from internal and not from external causes (10). All forma¬ tions are, therefore, common to every quarter of the globe and assume the like forms. Everywhere basalt rises in twin mountains and truncated cones ; everywhere trap-porphyry presents itself to the eye under the form of grotesquely- shaped masses of rock, while granite terminates in gently rounded summits. Thus, too, similar vegetable forms, as pines and oaks, alike crown the mountain declivities of Sweden and those of the most southern portion of Mexico (11). But notwithstanding all this coincidence of form, and resemblance of the outlines of individual portions, the grouping of the mass, as a whole, presents the greatest diversity of character. As the oryctognostic knowledge of minerals differs from geology, so also does the general study of the physiognomy of nature differ from the individual branches of the natural sciences. The character of certain portions of the earth's surface has been described with inimitable truthfulness by George Forster in his travels and smaller works, by Goethe in the descriptive passages which so frequently occur in his immortal writings, by Buffon, Bernardin de St. Pierre, and Chateaubriand. Such descriptions are not only calculated to PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 219 yield an enjoyment of the noblest kind, but the know¬ ledge of the character of nature in different regions is also most intimately associated with the history of the human race and its mental culture. For although the dawn of this culture cannot have been determined solely by physical influ¬ ence, climatic relations have at any rate to a great extent influenced its direction, as well as the character of nations, and the degree of gloom or cheerfulness in the dispositions of men. How powerfully did the skies of Greece act on its inhabitants! Was it not among the nations who settled in the beautiful and happy region between the Euphrates, the Halys, and the iEgean Sea, that social polish and gentler feelings were first awakened? and was it not from these genial climes that our forefathers, when religious enthusiasm had suddenly opened to them the Holy Lands of the East, brought back to Europe, then relapsing into barbarism, the seeds of a gentler civilization? The poetical works of the Greeks and the ruder songs of the primitive northern races owe much of their peculiar character to the forms of plants and animals, to the mountain- valleys in which their poets dwelt, and to the air which surrounded them. To revert to more familiar objects, wrho is there that does not feel himself differently affected beneath the embowering shade of the beechen grove, or on hills crowned with a few scat¬ tered pines, or in the flowrering meadow where the breeze murmurs through the trembling foliage of the birch? A feeling of melancholy, or solemnity, or of light buoyant animation is in turn awakened by the contemplation of our native trees. This influence of the physical on the moral world — this mysterious reaction of the sensuous on the ideal, gives to the study of nature, when considered from a higher point of view, a peculiar charm which has not hitherto been sufficiently recognised. However much the character of different regions of the earth may depend upon a combination of all these external 220 VIEWS OF NATU HE. phenomena, and however much the total impression may be influenced by the outline of mountains and hills, the physi¬ ognomy of plants and animals, the azure of the sky, the form of the clouds, and the transparency of the atmosphere, still it cannot be denied that it is the vegetable covering of the earth's surface which chiefly conduces to the effect. The animal organism is deficient in mass, while the mobility of its individual members and often their diminutiveness remove them from the sphere of our observation. Vegetable forms, on the other hand, act on the imagination by their enduring magnitude — for here massive size is indicative of age, and in the vegetable kingdom alone are age and the manifestation of an ever-renewed vigour linked together. The colossal Dragon Tree (12), which I saw in the Canary Isles, and which measured more than sixteen feet in diameter, still bears, as it then did, the blossoms and fruit of perpetual youth. When the French adventurers, the Bethencourts, conquered these Fortunate Isles in the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Dragon Tree of Orotava, regarded by the natives with a veneration equal to that bestowed on the olive tree of the Acropolis at Athens, or the elm at Ephesus, was of the same colossal magnitude as at present. In the tropics a grove of Ilymcneco and Cesalpinim is probably a memorial of more than a thousand years. On taking one general view of the different phanerogamic species which have already been collected into our herbariums (13), and which may now be estimated at considerably more than 80,000, we find that this prodigious quantity presents some few forms to which most of the others may be referred. In determining those forms, on whose individual beauty, dis¬ tribution, and grouping, the physiognomy of a country’s vegetation depends, we must not ground our opinion (as from other causes is necessarily the case in botanical systems) on the smaller organs of propagation, that is, the blossoms and fruit; but must be guided solely by those elements of mag- PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 221 nitude and mass from which the total impression of a district receives its character of individuality. Among the principal forms of vegetation there are, indeed, some which constitute entire families, according to the so-called “ natural system” of botanists. Bananas and Palms, Casuarineae and Coniferae, form distinct species in this mode of arrangement. The systematising botanist, however, separates into different groups many plants which the student of the physiognomy of nature is compelled to associate together. Where vegetable forms occur in large masses, the outlines and distribution of the leaves, and the form of the stems and branches lose their indi¬ viduality and become blended together. The painter — and here his delicate artistical appreciation of nature comes espe¬ cial^ into play — distinguishes between pines or palms and beeches in the background of a landscape, but not between forests of beech and other thickly foliated trees. The physiognomy of nature is principally determined by sixteen forms of plants. I merely enumerate such as I have observed in my travels through the old and new world during many years’ study of the vegetation of different latitudes, between the parallels of 60° north and 12° south. The number of these forms will no doubt be considerably increased by travellers penetrating further into the interior of conti¬ nents, and discovering new genera of plants. We are still wholly ignorant of the vegetation of the south-east of Asia, the interior of Africa and New Holland, and of South America from the Amazon to the province of Chiquitos. Might not a region be some day discovered in which ligneous fungi, Ceno - myce rangiferina, or mosses, form high trees ? Neckera clen- dro'ides, a German species of moss, is in fact arborescent, and the sight of a wood of lofty mosses could hardly afford greater astonishment to its discoverers than that experienced by Europeans at the aspect of arborescent grasses (bamboos) and the tree-ferns of the tropics, which are often equal in height to our lindens and alders. The maximum size and degree of development attainable by organic forms of any genus, whe- 222 VIEWS OP NATTJEE, ther of animals or plants, are determined by laws with which we are still unacquainted. In each of the great divisions of the animal kingdom, as insects, reptiles, Crustacea, birds, fishes, or mammalia, the dimensions of the body oscillate between certain extreme limits. But these limits, based on the observations hitherto contributed to science, may be en¬ larged by new discoveries of species with which we are at present unacquainted. In land animals a high degree of temperature, depending on latitude, appears to have exercised a favourable influence on the genetic development of organization. Thus the small and slender form of our lizards expands in the south into the colossal, unwieldy, and mail-clad body of the formidable croco¬ dile. In the huge cats of Africa and America, the tiger, lion, and jaguar, we find, repeated on a larger scale, the form of one of the smallest of our domestic animals. But if we penetrate into the recesses of the earth, and search the tombs of plants and animals, the fossil remains thus brought to light not only manifest a distribution of forms at variance with the present climates, but they also reveal colossal struc¬ tures, which exhibit as marked a contrast with the small types that now surround us, as does the simple yet dignified heroism of the ancient Greeks, when compared with what is recognized at the present day as “ greatness of character.” If the temperature of the earth has undergone considerable, perhaps periodically recurring changes, and, if even the relations between sea and land, and the height and pres¬ sure of the atmospheric ocean (14), have not always been the same, then the physiognomy of nature, and the magnitude and forms of organic bodies, must also have been subject to many variations. Enormous Pacliydermata, elephantine Mastodons, Owen’s Mylodon robustus, and the Colossochelys,'>* a land tortoise upwards of six feet in height, once inhabited forests of colossal Lepidodendra, cactus-like Stigmarise, and * Fossil remains of this gigantic antediluvian tortoise are now in the British Museum. — Ed. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 223 numerous genera of Cycadeae. Unable accurately to delineate the physiognomy of our aging and altering planet according to its present features, I will only attempt to bring prominently forward those characteristics which specially appertain to each individual group of plants. Notwithstanding all the richness and adaptability of our language, the attempt to designate in words, that which, in fact, appertains only to the imitative art of the painter, is always fraught with difficulty. I would also wish to avoid that wearying effect which is almost unavoidably inseparable from a long enumeration of indi¬ vidual forms. We will begin with Palms (15), the loftiest and most stately of all vegetable forms. To these, above all other trees, the prize of beauty has always been awarded by every nation; and it was from the Asiatic palm- world, or the adja¬ cent countries, that human civilization sent forth the first rays of its early dawn. Marked with rings, and not unfrequently armed with thorns, the tall and slender shaft of this graceful tree rears on high its crown of shining, fan-like, or pinnated leaves, which are often curled like those of some gramineoe. Smooth stems of the palm, which I carefully measured, rose to a height of 190 feet. The palm diminishes in size and beauty as it recedes from the equatorial towards the temper¬ ate zones. Europe owns amongst its indigenous trees only one representative of this form of vegetation, the dwarfish coast palm ( Chamcerops ), which, in Spain and Italy, is found as far north as 44° lat. The true palm climate has a mean annual temperature of 78° to 81°. 5 Fahr., but the date-palm, which has been brought to us from Africa, and is less beau¬ tiful than other species of this family, vegetates in the south of Europe in districts whose mean temperature is only from 59° to 62° 4' Fahr. Stems of palms and skeletons of elephants are found buried in the interior of the earth in Northern Europe ; their position renders it probable that they were not drifted from the tropics towards the north, but that, in the great revolutions of our planet, climates, and the physiognomy '224 VIEWS OF NATURE. of nature which is regulated by climate, have been, in many respects, altered. In all regions of the earth the palm is found associated with the plantain or banana; the Scitaminece and Musacece of botanists, Heliconia, Amomum , and Strelitzia. This form has a low, succulent, and almost herbaceous stem, the summit of which is crowned with delicately striped, silky, shining leaves of a thin and loose texture. Groves of bananas form the ornament of humid regions ; and on their fruit the natives of the torrid zone chiefly depend for subsistence. Like the fari¬ naceous cereals or corn-yielding plants of the north, the banana has accompanied man from the earliest infancy of his civilization (16). By some Semitic traditions the primitive seat of these nutritious tropical plants has been placed on the shores of the Euphrates, and by others, with greater proba¬ bility, in India, at the foot of the Himalaya mountains. Greek legends cite the plains of Enna as the home of the cereals. Whilst, however, the cereals, spread by culture over the northern regions, in monotonous and far extending tracts, add but little to the beauty of the landscape ; the inhabitant of the tropics, on the other hand, is enabled, by the pro¬ pagation of the banana, to multiply one of the noblest and most lovely of vegetable productions. The form of the Malvaceae (17) and Bombaceae, represented by Ceiba , Cavanillcsia, and the Mexican hand tree ( Cheiroste - mon), has immensely thick stems, with lanuginous, large, cordate, or indented leaves, and magnificent flowers, frequently of a purple-red. To this group belongs the Bahobab, or monkey bread-tree, Adcinsonia digit ata, which, with a moderate height, has occasionally a diameter of 32 feet,**4 and may probably be regarded as at once the largest and most ancient organic memorial of our planet. The Malvaceae already begin to im¬ part to the vegetation of Italy a peculiarly southern character. * The weight of the lower branches bends them to the ground, so that a single tree forms a hemispherical mass of verdure sometimes 150 feet in diameter. — Ed. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 225 The temperate zone in our old continent unfortunately is wholly devoid of the delicately pinnate Mimosas (18), whose predominating forms are Acacia , Desmanthus , Gleditschia , Porleria , and Tamarinclus. This beautiful form occurs in the United States of North America, where, under equal parallels of latitude, vegetation is more varied and luxuriant than in Europe. The Mimosas are generally characterised, like the Italian pine, by an umbellate expansion of then branches. An extremely picturesque effect is produced by the deep blue of a tropical sky gleaming through the delicate tracery of their foliage. Heaths (19), which more especially belong to an African group of plants, include, according to physiognomic cha¬ racter and general appearance, the Epacridese and Diosmem, many Proteacese, and the Australian Acacias, which have no leaves but mere flattened petioles (phyllodia). This group bears some resemblance to acicular-leaved forms, with which it contrasts the more gracefully by the abundance of its cam- panulate blossoms. The arborescent heaths, like some few other African plants, extend as far as the northern shores of the Mediterranean. They adorn the plains of Italy, and the Cistus groves of southern Spain, but I have nowhere seen them growing more luxuriantly than on the declivities of the Peak of Teyde at Teneriffe. In the countries bordering on the Baltic, and further northward, the appearance of this form of plants is regarded with apprehension, as the precursor of drought and barrenness. Our heaths, Erica ( Calluna ) vulgaris , and Erica tetralix , E. carnea and E. cinerea , are social plants, against whose extension agricultural nations have contended for centuries, with but little success. It is singular that the principal representative of this family should be peculiar to one side of our planet alone. There is only one of the three hundred known species of Erica to be met with in the new continent, from Pennsylvania and Labrador to Nootka Sound and Alaschka. Q 226 VIEWS OE NATTTHE. The Cactus form (20), on the other hand, is almost peculiar to the new continent; it is sometimes globular, sometimes articulated, sometimes rising in tall polygonal columns not unlike organ-pipes. This group forms the most striking contrast with the Lily and Banana families, and be¬ longs to that class of plants which Bernardin de St. Pierre felicitously terms vegetable fountains of the Desert. In the parched arid plains of South America, the thirsting animals eagerly seek the Melon-cactus , a globular plant half-buried in the dry sand, whose succulent interior is concealed by formidable prickles. The stems of the columnar cactus attain a height of more than 30 feet; their candelabra-like rami¬ fications, frequently covered with lichens, reminding the tra¬ veller, by some analogy in their physiognomy, of certain of the African Euphorbias. While these plants form green Oases in the barren desert, the Orchideae (21) shed beauty over the most desolate rocky clefts, and the seared and blackened stems of those tropical trees which have been discoloured by the action of light. The Vanilla form is distinguished by its light green succulent leaves, and by its variegated and singularly shaped blossoms. Some of the orchideous flowers resemble in shape winged insects, while others look like birds, attracted by the fragrance of the honey vessels. An entire life would not suffice to enable an artist, although limiting himself to the specimens afforded by one circumscribed region, to depict the splendid Orchidea? which embellish the deep alpine valleys of the Peruvian Andes. The form of the Casuarinere (22), leafless, like almost all the species of Cactus, comprises a group of trees having- branches resembling the Equisetum, and is peculiar to the islands of the Pacific and to the East Indies. Traces of this type, which is certainly more singular than beautiful, may however be found in other regions of the earth. Plunder's Equisetum altissimum, Forskäl's Ephedra aphylla of North PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 227 Africa, the Peruvian Colletia, and the Siberian Calligonum Pallasia, are nearly allied to the form of the Casuarinas. While the Banana form presents us with the greatest degree of expansion, the Casuarinas and the acicular-leaved (23) trees exhibit the greatest contraction of the leaf-vessels.. Pines, Thujas, and Cypresses constitute a northern form but rarely met with in the tropics and in some coniferoe ( Dommara Salisburia ), the leaves are both broad and acicular. Their ever¬ green foliage enlivens the gloom of the dreary winter land¬ scape, while it proclaims to the natives of the polar regions that, although snow and ice cover the surface, the inner life of plants, like the Promethean fire, is never wholly ex¬ tinct on our planet. Besides the Orchidem, the Pothos tribe of plants (24) also yields a graceful covering to the aged stems of forest trees in the tropical world, like the parasitic mosses and lichens of our own climes. Their succulent herbaceous stalks are furnished with large leaves, arrow-shaped, digitate, or elongated, and invariably furnished with thick veins. The blossoms of the Aroideae are inclosed in spathes, by which their vital heat is increased; they are stemless, and send forth aerial roots. Pothos, Dracontium, Caladium, and Arum are all kindred forms ; and the last-named extends as far as the coasts of the Mediterranean, contributing, together with succulent Tussi- lago (Coltsfoot), high thistles, and the Acanthus, to give a luxuriant southern character to the vegetatiou of Spain and Italy. This Arum form is associated, in the torrid regions of South America, with the tropical Lianes or creeping plants (25), which exhibit the utmost luxuriance of vegetation in Paulli- nias, Banisterias, Bignonias, and Passion-flowers. Our ten- drilled hops and vines remind us of this tropical form. On the Orinoco the leafless branches of the Bauhinia are often upwards of 40 feet in length, sometimes hanging perpen¬ dicularly from the summit of lofty Swietenise, (Mahogany Q 2 228 YIEWS OF NATURE. trees), sometimes stretched obliquely like ropes from a mast ; along these the tiger-cat may be seen climbing to and fro with wonderful agility. The self-sustaining form of the bluish -flowered Aloe tribe (26) presents a marked contrast to the pliant climbing lianes with their fresh and brilliant verdure. When there is a stem it is almost branchless, closely marked with spiral rings, and surrounded by a crown of succulent, fleshy, long- pointed leaves, which radiate from a centre. The lofty- stemmed aloe does not grow in clusters like other social plants, but stands isolated in the midst of dreary solitudes, imparting to the tropical landscape a peculiar melancholy (one might almost say African) character. To this aloe form belong, in reference to physiognomic resemblance and the impression they produce on the land¬ scape: the Pitcairnias, from the family of the Bromeliacece, which in the chain of the Andes grow out of clefts in the rock; the great Pournetia pyramidata (the Atschupalla of the elevated plateaux of New Grenada) ; the American aloe (Agave), Bromelia Ananas and B. Karatas; those rare species of the family of the Euphorbiacese, which have thick, short, candelabra-like divided stems; the African aloe, and the Dragon tree, Dracaena Draco , of the family of the Asplio- delece; and lastly the tall flowering Yucca, allied to the Liliacece. While the Aloe form is characterised by an air of solemn repose and immobility, the grass form (27), especially as regards the physiognomy of the arborescent grasses, is expres¬ sive of buoyant lightness and flexible slenderness. In both the Indies, bamboo groves form arched and shady walks. The smooth and often inclined and waving stem of the tropical grasses exceeds in height our alders and oaks. As far north as Italy, this form already begins, in the Arundo Donax , to raise itself from the ground, and to determine, by height as well as mass, the natural character of the country. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 229 The form of Ferns (28), like that of grasses, also assumes nobler dimensions in the torrid regions of the earth, and the arborescent ferns, which frequently attain the height of above forty feet, have a palm-like appearance, although their stem is thicker, shorter, and more rough and scaly, than that of the palm. The leaf is more delicate, of a loose and more transparent texture, and sharply serrated on the margins. These colossal ferns belong almost exclusively to the tropics, but there they prefer the temperate localities. As in these latitudes diminution of heat is merely the consequence of an increase of elevation, we may regard mountains that rise 2000 or 3000 feet above the level of the sea as the prin¬ cipal seat of these plants. Arborescent ferns grow in South America, side bv side with that beneficent tree whose stem * %/ yields the febrifuge bark, and both forms of vegetation are indicative of the happy region where reigns the genial mild¬ ness of perpetual spring. I have now to mention the form of the Liliaceous plants (29), Amaryllis, Ixia, Gladiolus, and Pancratium, with their flag¬ like leaves and splendid blossoms, the principal home of which is Southern Africa; also the Willow form (30), which is indigenous in all latitudes, and is represented in the plateaux of Quito, not by the shape of its leaves, but in the form of its ramification, in Schinus Molle; also the Myrtle-form (31) ( Metrosicleros , Eucalyptus , Escallonia myrtelloides) ; Melas- tomacese (32); and the Laurel form (33). It would be an undertaking worthy of a great artist to study the character of all these vegetable groups, not in hot¬ houses, or from the descriptions of botanists, but on the grand theatre of tropical nature. Flow interesting and instructive to the landscape painter (34) would be a work that should present to the eye accurate delineations of the sixteen principal forms enumerated, both individually and in collective contrast! What can be more picturesque than the arborescent Ferns, which spread their tender foliage above the Mexican laurel- 230 VIEWS OF NATURE. oak ! wliat more charming; than the aspect of banana-groves, shaded by those lofty grasses, the Guadua and Bamboo! It is peculiarly the privilege of the artist to separate these into groups, and thus the beautiful images of nature, if we may be permitted the simile, resolve themselves beneath his touch, like the written works of man, into a few simple elements. It is beneath the glowing rays of a tropical sun, that the noblest forms of vegetation are develojied. In the cold North the bark of trees is covered only with dry lichens and mosses, while beneath the tropics the Cymbidium and the fragrant Vanilla adorn the trunks of the Anacardias and the gigantic Fig-tree. The fresh green of the Pothos leaves and of the Dracontias contrast with the many coloured blossoms of the Orchidece; climbing Bauhinias, Passion-flowers and golden flowered Banisterias encircle every tree of the forest. Deli¬ cate blossoms unfold themselves from the roots of the Theo¬ broma , and from the thick and rough bark of the Crescentia and Gustavia (35). Amid this luxuriant abundance of flowers and foliage, amid this exuberance and tangled web of creeping plants, it is often difficult for the naturalist to recognise the stems to which the various leaves and blossoms belong. A single tree, adorned with Paullinias, Bignonias, and Dendro- bias, forms a group of plants, which, separated from each other, would cover a considerable space of ground. In the tropics, plants are more succulent, of a fresher green, and have larger and more glossy leaves, than in the northern regions. Social plants, which give such a character of uniformity to European vegetation, are almost wholly absent in the equatorial zone. Trees, almost twice as high as our oaks, there bloom with flowers as large and splendid as our lilies. On the shady banks of the Magdalena River, in South America, grows a climbing Aristolochia , whose blossoms, measuring four fret in circumference, the Indian children sportively draw on their heads as caps (36). In PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 231 the South Indian Archipelago, the flower of the Rafflesia is nearly three feet in diameter, and weighs above fourteen pounds. The extraordinary height to which not only individual mountains but even whole districts rise in tropical regions, and the consequent cold of such elevations, affords the inha¬ bitant of the tropics a singular spectacle. For besides his own palms and bananas, he is surrounded by those vegetable forms which would seem to belong solely to northern latitudes. Cypresses, pines, and oaks, barberry shrubs and alders (nearly allied to our own species) cover the mountain plains of Southern Mexico and the chain of the Andes at the equator. Thus nature has permitted the native of the torrid zone to behold all the vegetable forms of the earth without quitting his own clime, even as are revealed to him the luminous worlds which spangle the firmament from pole to pole (37). These and many other of the enjoyments which nature affords are denied to the nations of the North. Many constel¬ lations and many vegetable forms, including more especially the most beautiful productions of the earth (palms, tree-ferns, bananas, arborescent grasses, and delicately feathered mi¬ mosas), remain for ever unknown to them; for the puny plants pent up in our hothouses, give but a faint idea of the majestic vegetation of the tropics. But the rich development of our language, the glowing fancy of the poet, and the imitative art of the painter, afford us abundant compensation ; and enable the imagination to depict in vivid colours the images of an exotic Nature. In the frigid North, amid barren heaths, the solitary student may appropriate all that has been discovered in the most remote regions of the earth, and thus create within himself a world as free and imperishable as the spirit from which it emanates. ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (1) p. 210 — “ On the Chimborazo , upwards of eight thousand feet higher than Etna.” Small singing birds, and even butterflies, (as I have myself witnessed in the Pacific,) are often met with at great distances from the shore, during storms blowing off* land. In a similar manner insects are involuntarily carried into the higher regions of the atmosphere, to an eleva¬ tion of 17,000 to 19,000 feet above the plains. The light bodies of these insects are borne upwards by the ver¬ tically ascending currents of air caused by the heated con¬ dition of the earth’s surface. M. Boussingault, an admirable chemist, who ascended the Gneiss Mountains of Caracas, while holding the appointment of Professor in the newly established Mining Academy at Santa Fe de Bogota, witnessed, during his ascent to the summit of the Silla, a phenomenon which confirmed in a most remarkable manner this vertical ascent of air. He and his companion, Don Mariano de Rivero, observed at noon a number of luminous whitish bodies rise from the valley of Caracas to the summit of the Silla, an elevation of 5755 feet, and then sink towards the adjacent sea coast. This phenomenon was uninterruptedly prolonged for a whole hour, when it was discovered that the bodies, at first mistaken for a flock of small birds, were a number of minute balls of grass-haums. Boussingault sent me some of this grass, which was immediately recognised by Pro¬ fessor Kuntli as a species of Yilfa, a genus of grass which together with Agrostis is of frequent occurrence in the provinces of Caracas and Cumana. It was the Vilfa tenacis- sima of our Synopsis Plantarum ccquinoctialium Orbis Novi , t. i. p. 205. Saussure found butterflies on Mont Blanc, and Ramond observed them in the solitudes around the summit of Mont Perdu. When MM. Bonpland, Carlos Montufar, and myself, on the 23rd of June, 1802, ascended the eastern declivity of Mount Chimborazo, to a height of 19,286 feet, and where the barometer had fallen to 1P84 inches, we found winged insects buzzing around us. We recognised them to ILLUSTRATIONS (1). THE CHIMBORAZO. 233 be Diptera, resembling flies, but it was impossible to catch these insects standing on the rocky ledges ( cuchillo ), often less than a foot in breadth, and between masses of snow pre¬ cipitated from above. The elevation at which we observed these insects was almost the same as that in which the naked trachytic rock, which projected from the eternal snows around, exhibited the last traces of vegetation in Lecidea geographica. These insects were flying at an elevation of 18,225 feet, or nearly 2660 feet higher than the summit of Mont Blanc: and somewhat below this height, at an elevation of 16,626 feet, and therefore also above the region of snow, M. Bonpland saw yellow butterflies flying close to the ground. The mammalia which live nearest to the region of perpetual snow, are, in the Swiss Alps, the hybernating marmot, and a very small field- mouse, (Hypudeeus nivalis,) described by Martius, which on the Faulhorn lays up, almost under the snow, a store of the roots of phanerogamic alpine plants.*' The opinion prevalent in Europe, that the beautiful rodent, the Chinchilla, whose soft and glossy fur is so much esteemed, is found in the highest mountain regions of Chili, is an error. The Chin¬ chilla laniger (Gray) lives only in a mild lower zone, and does not advance further south than the parallel of 35°. f Whilst among our European Alps, Lecideas, Parmelias, and Umbilicarias but scantily clothe with a few coloured patches those rocks that are not wholly covered with snow, we found in the Andes, at elevations of 13,700 to nearly 15,000 feet, some phanerogamic plants which we were the first to describe; as for instance, the woolly species of Fraylejon, (Culcitiuni nivale, C. rufescens, and C. reflexum, Espeletia grandiflora, and E. argentea) Sida pichinchensis, Ranunculus nubigenus, R. Gusmanni with red or orange-coloured flowers, the small moss-like umbelliferous plant, Myrrhis andicola, and Fragosa arctioides. On the declivity of the Chimborazo, the Saxi¬ fraga Boussingaulti, described by Adolph Brongniart, grows beyond the limits of perpetual snow on loose blocks of stone at an elevation of 15,770 feet above the level of the sea, and not at 17,000 as has been stated in two admirable English * Actes de la Societe Helvetique, 1843, p. 324. t Claudio Gay, Historia fisica y politica de Chile, Zoologia, 1844', p. 91. 234 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. journals.* This Saxifrage, discovered by Boussingault, must therefore be regarded as the highest growing phanerogamic plant in the world. The vertical height of Chimborazo is, according to my measurement, 21,422 feet.f This result is a mean between those which have been given by the French and Spanish Academicians. The principal differences do not here depend on different assumptions for the refraction, but on a difference in reducing the measured line to the level- of the sea. This reduction can only be made in the Andes by the barometer, and hence every so-called trigonometric measure¬ ment must also necessarily be a barometric one, whose result will vary according to the different formula; employed. Owing to the enormous mass of the mountain chain, we can only obtain very small angles of altitude, when the greater portion of the whole height has to be measured trigono¬ metrically, and the observation is made at some low and dis¬ tant point near the plain or the level of the sea. It is on the other hand extremely difficult to obtain a convenient base line, as the space that is to be determined barometrically increases with every step we advance towards the mountain. These obstacles have to be encountered by every traveller who on the high table-lands, which surround the summit of the Andes, selects a spot for performing a geodetic operation. On the pumice-covered plain of Tapia, to the west of the Rio Chambo, at a height of 9477 feet, barometrically deter¬ mined, I measured the Chimborazo. The Llanos de Luisa, and more especially the plain of Sisgun, whose elevation is 12,150 feet, would yield greater angles of altitude. I had on one occasion made every preparation necessary for the measurement of Mount Chimborazo, from the plain of Sisgun, when the summit of the mountain was suddenly shrouded in a dense cloud. Some hypothetical suggestions, regarding the probable deri¬ vation of the name of the far-famed “Chimborazo,” may not be wholly unwelcome to etymologists. The district in which the mountain is situated is called Chimbo, a word which La * Compare my A sie centrale, t. iii. p. 262, with Hooker, Journal of Botany, vol. i. 1834, p. 327, and the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xvii. 1834, p. 380. + Becueil d'Observ. astron., t. i. Intr. p. lxxii. ILLUSTRATIONS (1). THE CHIMBORAZO. 235 Condamine* derives from chimpani , to cross a river. “Chim¬ borazo” means, according to him, “the snow of the opposite bank,” from the fact of a brook being crossed at the village of Chimbo, in sight of the huge snow-covered mountain. (In the Qquichua language chimpa signifies the opposite bank or side; chimpani to cross a river, bridge, &c.) Several natives of the province of Quito assured me that Chimborazo meant simply the snow of Chimbo. In Carguai-razo we meet with the same termination, and it would appear that “razo” is a provincial word. The Jesuit Holguin, whose excellent vocabulary! I possess, is not acquainted with the word razo. The genuine term for snow is ritti. On the other hand, my friend, Professor Buschmann, an admirable linguist, remarks that in the Chincliaysuyo dialect, (employed north of Cuzco as far as Quito and Pasto) raju, the / being apparently guttural, signifies snow.j As chimpa and chimpani do not well suit on account of the «, we may seek a definite meaning for the first portion of the name of the mountain and of the village Chimbo, in the Qquichua word “chimpu,” which is used to express a coloured thread or fringe (serial de lana, hilo 6 bor- lilla de colores); the redness of the sky (arreboles), and the halo round the sun and moon. The name of the mountain might be thus derived from this word, without reference to the district or village. At all events, whatever may be the etymology of the word Chimborazo, it should be written in the Peruvian manner Chimporazo, as the Peruvians have no h in their alphabet. May not the name of this colossal mountain be wholly inde¬ pendent of the Inca language, and have come down from a bygone age? The Inca or Qquichua language had not been introduced long prior to the Spanish invasion into the king¬ dom of Quito, where the now wholly extinct Puruay language had been previously used. The names of other mountains, as Pichincha, Ilinissa, and Cotopaxi, are wholly devoid of mean¬ ing in the language of the Incas, and are therefore undoubt- * Voyage ä VEquateur, 1751, p. 184. F Vocabulario de la Lengua general de todo el Peru Uamada Lengua Qquichua 6 del Inca, Lima, 1608. + See the word in Juan de Figueredo’s vocabulary of Ckinchaysuyo words appended to Diego de Torres Kubio, Arte, y Vocabulario de la Lengua Quichua, reimpr. en Lima, 1751, fol. 222, b. 236 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. edly of higher antiquity than the introduction of the worship of the sun, and of the court- language of the rulers of Cuzco. The names of mountains and rivers belong in all regions of the earth to the most ancient and authentic relics of languages ; and my brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt, in his investigations into the former distribution of the Iberian races, has made ingenious use of these names. A singular and unexpected statement has recently been made,* “that the Incas, Tupac Yupanqui, and Huayna Capac. were astonished on their first conquest of Quito, to find a dialect of their Qquichua language in use among the natives.” Prescott, however, seems to regard this as a very bold assertion, f If we could suppose the pass of St. Gothard, Mount Athos, or the Itigi, piled on the summit of the Chimborazo, we should have the elevation which is at present ascribed to the Dhawalagiri in the Himalaya. The geologist who regards the interior of our planet from a more general point of view, and to whom not the directions, but the relative heights of the rocky projections, which we designate mountain chains, appear but as phenomena of little importance, will not be astonished if at some future period mountain summits should be discovered between the Himalaya and the Altai, which should surpass in height those of Dhawalagiri and Djewahir as much as these exceed that of Chimborazo. | The great height to which the snow-line recedes in summer on the nor¬ thern declivity of the Himalaya, owing to the heat radiated from the elevated plateaux in Central Asia, renders the moun¬ tain, notwithstanding that it is situated in 29 to 30^° north lat., as accessible as are the Peruvian Andes in the region of the tropics. Captain Gerard has moreover recently ascended the Tarhigang as high, if not 117 feet higher, § than I ascended the Chimborazo. Unfortunately, as I have elsewhere more fully shown, these mountain ascents, beyond the line of per¬ petual snow, however they may engage the curiosity of the public, are of very little scientific utility. * Yclasco, Historia de Quito, t. i. p. 185. t Hist, of the Conquest of Peru, vol. i. p. 125. 7 See my Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples indigenes del’Amerique, t. i. p. 116; and the Memoir entitled Ueber zwei Ver¬ suche den Chimborazo zu besteigen 1802 and 1831, in Schumacher’s Jahrbuch für 1837, S. 176. § Critical Researches on Philology and Geography, 1824, p. 144. ILLUSTRATIONS (2). THE CONDOR. 237 (2) p. 210 — “ The Condor , that giant among vultures I have elsewhere*1 given the natural history of the Condor, which before my travels had been variously misstated. The name is properly Cuntur in the Inca language; Manque, among the Araucanes in Chili; Sarcoramphus Condor accord¬ ing to Dumeril. I sketched the head of this bird from life, of the natural size, and had my drawing engraved. Next to the Condor, the Lämmergeier of Switzerland, and the Falco destructor (Baud.), probably Linnceus’ Falco Harpy ia, are the largest of all flying birds. The region which may be regarded as the common resort of the Condor, begins at the elevation of Mount Etna. It embraces atmospheric strata which are from 10,000 to 19,000 feet above the level of the sea. Humming birds also, which in their summer flights advance as far as 61° north lat. on the western coast of America, and are on the other hand found in the Archipelago of the Tierra del Fuego, were seen by Von Tschudi in Puna at an elevation of 14,600 feet.f There is a pleasure in comparing the largest and the smallest of the feathered inhabitants of the air. The largest among the Condors found in the Cordilleras, near Quito, measure nearly 15 feet across the expanded wings, and the smaller ones 8^ feet. This size, and the visual angle at which the birds are seen vertically above one's head, afford an idea of the enormous height to which the Condor soars in a clear sky. A visual angle of four minutes, for instance, would give a vertical elevation of 7330 feet. The cavern (Mackay) of Antisana, opposite the mountain of Chussulongo, and where we measured the birds soaring over the chain of the Andes, lies at an elevation of nearly 16,000 feet above the surface of the Pacific ; the absolute height which the Condor reached must therefore be 23,273 feet, a height at which the barometer scarcely stands at 12’ 7 inches; but which, however, does not exceed that of the loftiest summit of the Himalaya. It is a remarkable physiological phenomenon that the same bird, which wheels for hours together through these highly rarefied regions, should be able suddenly, as for instance on the western declivity of the volcano of Pichincha, to descend to * See my JRecueil d' Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomie com • paree, vol. i. p. 26 — 45. f Fauna Peruana , Ornithol. p. 12. 238 VIEWS, See. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. the sea- shore, and thus in the course of a few hours traverse, as it were, all climates. At heights of 23,000 feet and upwards the membranous air-sacs of the Condor must undergo a re¬ markable degree of inflation after being filled in lower regions of the atmosphere. Ulloa, more than a hundred years ago, expressed his asto¬ nishment that the Vulture of the Andes could soar at heights where the pressure of the atmosphere was less than fifteen inches.-1' An opinion was at that time entertained, from the analogy of experiments made with the air-pump, that no animal could exist under this slight amount of atmospheric pressure. I have myself, as has already been mentioned, seen the barometer fall to 14’85 inches on the Chimborazo; and my friend, M. Gay-Lussac, breathed for a quarter of an hour an atmosphere in which the pressure was only 12 -9 inches. It must be admitted that man, when wearied by muscular exertion, finds himself in a state of painful exhaustion at such elevations ; but in the Condor, the respiratory process seems to be performed with equal facility under a pressure of 30 or of 13 inches. This bird probably raises itself voluntarily to a greater height from the surface of our earth than any other living creature. I use the expression “voluntarily,” since small insects and siliceous-shelled infusoria are frequently borne to greater elevations by a rising current of air. It is probable that the Condor flies even higher than the above calculations would appear to show. I remember observing near the Cotopaxi, in the pumice plain of Suni- guaicu, at an elevation of 14,471 feet above the level of the sea, this bird soaring at such a height above my head that it appeared like a black speck. But what is the smallest angle under which faintly illumined objects can be distinguished ? Their form (linear extension) exercises a great influence on the minimum of this angle. The transparency of the mountain air is so great under the equator, that in the province of Quito, as I have elsewhere stated, the white cloak ( poncho ) of a horse¬ man may be distinguished with the naked eye at a horizontal distance of 89,664 feet, and therefore under an angle of thirteen seconds. It was my friend Bonpland whom we observed, from the pleasant country-seat of the Marques de Selvalegre, * Voyage de VAmerique meridionale , t. ii. p. 2. 1752; Observation* astronomiques et physiques, p. 110. ILLUSTRATIONS (2). THE CONDOR. 239 moving along a black rocky precipice on the volcano of Pichinclia. Lightning conductors, being thin elongated objects, are visible, as Arago has observed, from the greatest distances and under the smallest angles. The account I have given in my Monograph of the Condor ( Zoologie , pp. 26 — 45) of the habits of this powerful bird in the mountain districts of Quito and Peru has been confirmed by a more recent traveller, Gay, who has explored the whole of Chili, and described it in his admirable work, Historia fisica y politic a de Chile. This bird which, singularly enough, like the Lamas, Vicunas, Alpacas and Guanacos, is not found be¬ yond the equator in New Granada, penetrates as far south as the Straits of Magellan. In Chili, as in the elevated plateaux of Quito, the Condors, which usually live in pairs, or even alone, congregate in flocks for the purpose of attacking lambs and calves, or seizing on young Guanacos (Guanacillos). The havoc annually committed by the Condor among the herds of sheep, goats and cattle, as well as among the wild vicunas, alpacas and guanacos of the chain of the Andes is very con¬ siderable. The Chilians assert that this bird when in captivity can endure hunger for forty days; when in a free state, however, its voracity is excessive, and it then, like the vulture, feeds by preference on carrion. The mode of catching these birds, by an inclosure of pali¬ sades such as I have already described, is as successful in Chili as in Peru, for the bird after being rendered heavy from excess of food is obliged to run a short distance with half- extended wings before it can take flight. A dead ox which is already in an incipient state of decomposition, is strongly inclosed with palisades, within which narrow space the Condors throng together; being unable, as already observed, to fly on account of the excess of food which they have de¬ voured, and impeded in their run by the palisades, these birds are either killed by the natives with clubs, or are caught alive by the lasso. The Condor was represented as a symbol of strength on the coinage of Chili immediately after the first declaration of political independence.* The different species of Gallinazos, which are much more considerable in point of numbers than the Condors, are also * Claudio Gay, Historia fisica y politica de Chile, publicada bajo los auspicios del Supremo Gobierno; Zoologia, pp. 194 — 198. 240 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. far more useful than the latter in the great economy of Nature for destroying and removing animal substances that are becoming decomposed, and thus purifying the atmosphere in the neighbourhood of human dwellings. In tropical America, I have sometimes seen seventy or eighty of these creatures collected round a dead ox : and I am able, as an eye-witness, to confirm the fact that has of late erroneously been called in question by ornithologists, that the appearance of one single king- vulture (who is not larger than the Gallinazos) is sufficient to put a whole assemblage of these birds to flight. No contest ever takes place; but the Gallinazos (two species of which, (Catiianes urubu and C. aura,) have been confounded together by an unfortunately fluctuating nomen¬ clature) are intimidated by the sudden appearance and the courageous demeanour of the richly coloured “ Sarcoram- phus Papa.” As the ancient Egyptians protected the Per- cnopteri, which purified the atmosphere, so also the wanton destruction of Gallinazos is punished in Peru by a fine (: multa ), which, according to Gay, amounts in some cities to 300 piastres for every bird. It is a remarkable fact, that this species of vulture, as was already testified by Don Felix de Azara, if trained early, will so accustom themselves to the person who has reared them, that they will follow him on a journey for many miles, flying after his carriage across the Pampa. (3) p. 211 — “ Encloses their rotating bodies .” Fontana, in his admirable treatise “on the poison of the viper,” vol. i. p. 62, mentions that he succeeded in restoring to animation, after two hours' immersion in a drop of water, a wheel- animalcule which had lain in a dried and motionless condition for the space of two years and a half.'1' The so-called reanimation of Rotifera has very recently again been made a subject of lively discussion, since observ¬ ations have been conducted with more exactness and subjected to a stricter criticism. Baker affirmed that in 1771, he had revived paste-cels which Needham had given him in the year 1744! Franz Bauer saw his Vibrio tritici , which had lain four years in a dry state, move on being moistened. The * On the action of water, see my Versuche über die gereizte Muskel - und Nervenfi xser, Bd. ii. S. 250. ILLUSTRATIONS (3). VITAL TENACITY OF INFUSORIA. 241 \ remarkably careful and experienced observer, Doyere,*4 draws the following conclusions from his beautiful experiments: that Ilotifera revive, i. e. pass from a motionless state to one of motion, after being exposed to a cold of 11°. 2 Fahr., or to a heat of 113° Fahr.; that they preserve the property of reviving in dry sand up to a temperature of 159° Fahr.; but that they lose this property and remain immoveable if warmed in moist sand to 131° Fahr. only;f and that the possibility of this so-called revivification is not prevented by their being exposed to desiccation for twenty-eight days in barometric tubes, in vacuo, even should chloride of lime or sulphuric acid be employed.]; Doyere has also seen Ilotifera slowly revive after being dried without sand, (desseches a nu,) a fact which Spallanzani denies. § “Desiccation conducted in an ordinary temperature might be open to many objections which are not perhaps wholly obviated by the employment of a dry vacuum; but when we observe that the Tardigrades irrevoc¬ ably perish in a temperature of 131° Fahr, if their tissues are permeated with water, whereas they can, when dried, support a temperature that may be estimated at 248° Fahr., we are disposed to admit that the sole condition required for animal revivification is the perfect integrity of organic structure and continuity.” In like manner, the sporules, or germinating cells of cryp- togamic plants, which Kunth compares to the propagation of certain phanerogamic plants by buds (bulbillm), retain their power of germination in the highest temperature. Accord¬ ing to the most recent experiments of Payen, the sporules of a small fungus (Oidium aurantiacum), which invests the crumb of bread with a reddish feathery coating, do not even lose their vegetative powers by being exposed in closed tubes- for half an hour to a temperature of 183° to 208° Fahr, before- being strewn on fresh, unspoilt dough. May not the newly discovered and wonderful monad (Monas prodigiosa), which- causes blood-like spots in mealy substances, have been mixed with this fungus ? * See his Memoire sur les Tardigrades et sur leur propriete de revenir cl la vie (1842). + Doyöre, Op. cit. p. 119. £ Doyere, Op. cit. pp. 130 — 133. § Doyfere, Op. cit. pp. 117 and 129. B 242 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. Ehrenberg, in his great work on Infusoria (p. 492 — 496), has given the most complete history of all the observations instituted on the so-called revivification of Iiotifera. He believes, that notwithstanding all the means of desiccation employed, the organization-fluid still remains in the apparently dead animal. He contests the hypothesis of “ latent life” ; for death, he says, “ is not life in a torpid state, but the absence of life.” The hybernation or winter-sleep of both warm and cold¬ blooded animals, as dormice, marmots, sand-martins ( Hirundo riparia , according to Cuvier)* * * §, and of frogs and toads, affords us evidence of the diminution, if not of the complete suspension, of the organic functions. Frogs awakened from their winter-sleep by warmth, can remain eight times longer under water, without drowning, than frogs in the breeding season. It seems as if the respiratory functions of the lungs require a less degree of activity after the long suspension of their excitability. The circumstance of the sand-martin burying itself during the winter in marshes, is a phenomenon which, while it scarcely admits of a doubt, is the more remarkable, because in birds, the function of respiration is so extremely energetic, that, according to Lavoisier’s experiments, two sparrows in an ordinary con¬ dition will, in the same time, decompose as much atmospheric air as a Guinea-pig. f Winter-sleep is not supposed to be general to the whole species of these sand-martins, but only to some few individuals .J As in the frigid zone deprivation of warmth produces winter- sleep in some animals, so in the torrid regions, within the tropics, an analogous phenomenon is manifested that has not hitherto been sufficiently regarded, and to which I have applied the term summer-sleep. § Drought and a continuous high temperature act like the cold of winter in reducing excitability. Madagascar, excepting a very small portion of its southern extremity, lies within the tropics, and here, as was already observed by Bruguiere, the hedgehog-like Tenrecs (Center es, Illiger), one species of which ( C. ecau- * Regne animal, 1S29, t. i. p. 396. + Lavoisier, Memoires de Chimie, t. i. p. 119. J Milne Edwards, Elements de Zoologie. 1334, p. 543. § Relat. hist., t. ii. pp. 192, 626. ILLUSTRATIONS (3). HYBERNATION, OR LATENT LIFE. 243 datus ) was introduced into the Isle of France (20° 9r, latitude), sleep during excessive heat. The objection advanced by Desjardins, that the time of their sleep falls within the season of winter in the southern hemisphere, can scarcely be regarded as applicable in reference to a country, where the mean tem¬ perature of the coldest month is nearly 7° Fahr, above that of the hottest month in Paris; and this circumstance can¬ not therefore change the three months’ summer-sleep of the Tenrec in Madagascar and Port Louis (Isle of France) into actual hybernation. In a similar manner, the Crocodile in the Llanos of Vene¬ zuela, the land and water Tortoises on the Orinoco, and the colossal Boa, and many of the smaller species of serpents, lie torpid and motionless in the hardened ground, through¬ out the hot and dry season of the year. The missionary Gilij relates, that the natives, in seeking the dormant Terekai (land-tortoises), which lie buried in dry mud to the depth of 16 or 17 inches, are often bitten by serpents suddenly awakened, and which had buried themselves with the tortoises. An admirable observer, Dr. Peters, who has only just returned from the eastern coast of Africa, writes to me as follows : “ I could not obtain any certain information regarding the Tenrec during my short stay in Madagascar, but I am, on the other hand, well aware, that in the portion of eastern Africa where I spent several years, different species of tortoises (Pentonyx and Trionices) remain enclosed for months together, without food, in the parched and indurated ground, during the dry season of this tropical country. The Lepidosiren also remains motionless and coiled up in the hardened earth, from May to December, wherever the swamps have been dried up.” We thus meet with an enfeeblement of certain vital func¬ tions in numerous and very different classes of animals, and, what is peculiarly striking, without the same phenomenon pre¬ senting itself in organisms nearly allied, and belonging to one and the same family. The northern glutton (Gulo), allied to the badger (Meles), does not, like the latter, sleep during the winter ; whilst, according to Cuvier, “ a Myoxus (Dormouse of Senegal, Myoxus Coupeii) which had probably never expe¬ rienced a winter- sleep in its tropical home, fell into a state of hybernation at the beginning of winter, the first year :t was r 2 244 VIEWS, kc. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. brought to Europe.” This enfeeblement of the vital functions and vital activity passes through several gradations, accord¬ ing as it extends to the processes of nutrition, respiration and muscular movement, or induces a depression of the cerebral and nervous systems. The winter-sleep of the solitary bear and of the badger is not attended with rigidity, and hence the awakening of these animals is easy, and, as I frequently heard in Siberia, very dangerous to the hunters and country people. The recognition of the gradation and connec¬ tion of these phenomena leads us to the so-called vita minima of the microscopic organisms, which occasionally fall in the Atlantic in showers of meteoric dust, and some of which have green ovaries and are engaged in a self-generating process. The apparent revivification of the Ilotifera and of the sili¬ ceous-shelled Infusoria is only the renewal of long enfeebled vital functions — a condition of vitality never entirely extin¬ guished, but merely revived by excitation. Physiological phenomena can only be comprehended by being traced through the entire series of analogous modifications. (4) p. 211 — “ Winged Insects."' The fructification of dioecious plants was at one time princi¬ pally ascribed to the agency of the wind. It has been shown by Kolreuter, and also with much ingenuity by Sprengel, that bees, wasps and numerous small winged insects, are the main agents in this process. I use the phrase “main agents”, since I cannot regard it as consonant to nature that fructification should be impossible without the intervention of these insects, as Willdenow has also fully shewn.*“' On the other hand dichogamy, sap-marks, ( macules indican tes), coloured spots indicating the presence of honey-vessels, and fructification by insects, appear to be almost inseparable from one another.f The statement often repeated since Spallanzani, that the dioecious common hemp ( Cannabis sativa ), which was intro¬ duced into Europe from Persia, bears ripe seeds without being in the neighbourhood of pollen-tubes, has been entirely refuted by more recent investigations. When seeds have been obtained, anthers in a rudimentary state have been found near the ovarium, and these may have been capable of yield- * Grundriss der Kräuterhunde, 4te Aufi. Berl. 1805. s. 405 — 412. T Auguste de St. Hilaire, Lemons de Botanique, 1840, pp. 565— 571. ILLUSTRATIONS (5). PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE OCEAN. 245 ing some grains of fructifying pollen. Such hermaphrodism is frequent in the whole family of Urticece, but a singular and hitherto unexplained phenomenon is manifested in the forcing-houses at Kew by a small New Holland shrub, the Ccelebogyne of Smith. This phanerogamic plant brings forth seeds in England without exhibiting any trace of male organs, and without the bastard introduction of the pollen of any other plant. “ A species of Eupliorbiacem,” (?) writes the distin¬ guished botanist, Jussieu, “ the Ccelebogyne, which, although but recently described, has been cultivated for many years in English conservatories, has several times borne seeds, which were evidently perfect, since the well-formed embryos they contained have produced similar plants. The most careful observations have hitherto failed in discovering the slightest trace of anthers or even pollen in the flowers, which are dioecious. No male plants of this kind are known to exist in England. The embryo cannot therefore have come from the pollen, which is wholly deficient, but must have been formed entirely in the ovule. In order to obtain a fresh and confirmatory explanation of this important and isolated physiological phenomenon, I lately addressed myself to my young friend. Dr. Joseph Hooker, who after having accompanied Sir James Ross in his Antarctic voyage, has now joined the great Thibeto- Himalayan expedition. Dr. Hooker wrote to me as follows from Alexandria, at the close of December, 1847, prior to his embarkation at Suez: “Our Ccelebogyne still flowers with my father at Kew, as well as in the Gardens of the Horti¬ cultural Society. It ripens its seeds regularly. 1 have re¬ peatedly examined it with care, but have never been able to discover a penetration of pollen utricles into the stigma, nor any traces of their presence in the latter or in the style. In my herbarium the male blossoms are in small catkins.” (5) p. 212 — “ Like luminous stars.” The phosphorescence of the ocean is one of those splendid phenomena of nature which excite our admiration, even when we behold its recurrence every night for months together. The ocean is phosphorescent in all zones of the earth, but he who has not witnessed the phenomenon in the tropics, and * Adrien de Jussieu, Cours elementaire de Botanique, 1840, p. 463. 246 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. especially in the Pacific, can form but a very imperfect idea of the majesty of this brilliant spectacle. The traveller on board a man-of-war, when ploughing the foaming waves before a fresh breeze, feels that he can scarcely satisfy himself with gazing on the spectacle presented by the circling waves. Wherever the ship's side rises above the waves, bluish or reddish flames seem to flash lightning-like upwards from the keel. The appearance presented in the tropical seas on a dark night is indescribably glorious, when shoals of dolphins are seen sporting around, and cutting the foaming waves in long and circling lines, gleaming with bright and spariding light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana and the Peninsula of Maniquarez, I have spent hours in enjoying this spectacle. Le Gentil and the elder Forster ascribed these flames to the electrical friction of the water on the vessel as it glides forward — an explanation that must, in the present condition of our physical knowledge, be regarded as untenable.* There are probably few subjects of natural investigation which have excited so many and such long-coutinued con¬ tentions as the phosphorescence of sea-water. All that is known with certainty regarding this much disputed question may be reduced to the following simple facts. There are many luminous mollusca which possess the property when alive of emitting at will a faint phosphoric light; which is of a bluish tinge in Nereis ?ioctiluca. Medusa pelcigica var. /3,f and in the pipe-like Monophora noctiluca , discovered in Baudin’s expedition. j The luminosity of sea-water is in part owing to living light-bearing animals, and in part to the organic fibres and membranes of the same, when in a state of decomposition. The first-named of these causes of the phosphorescence of the ocean is undoubtedly the most common and the most widely diffused. The more actively and the more efficiently that travellers engaged in the study * Joh. Tieinli. Forster, Bemerkungen auf seiner Reise um die Welt, 1783, s. 57; Le Gentil, Voyage dans les Mers de Unde, 1772, t. i. pp. 685— 69S. t Forskaal, Fauna cegyptiaco-arabica, s. Descriptions animalium qzice in itinere oricntali observavit, 1775, p. 109. 7 Bory de St.- Vincent, Voyage dans les lies des Mers di Afrique> 1804 t. i. p. 107, pi. vi. ILLUSTRATIONS (5). PHOSPHORESCENCE OP THE OCEAN. 247 of nature have learnt to employ powerful microscopes, the more our zoological systems have been enriched by new groups of mollusca and infusoria, whose property of emitting light either at will or from external stimulus has been recognised. The luminosity of the sea, as far as it depends on living organisms, is principally owing, among zoophytes, to the Acalephse (the families of Medusae and Cyanese), to some Mollusca, and to an innumerable host of Infusoria. Among the small Acalephoe (Sea-nettles), the Mcimmaria scintUlans presents us, as it were, with the glorious image of the starry firmament reflected in the surface of the sea. When full- grown this little creature scarcely equals in size the head of a pin. The existence of siliceous-shelled luminous infusoria was first shown by Michaelis at Kiel. He observed the coruscation of the Peridinium, (a ciliated animalcule,) of the Cuirass-monad ( Prorocentrum micans ), and of a rotifer, which he named Synchata baltica,* the same that Focke subsequently found in the lagoons of Venice. My distin¬ guished friend and fellow traveller in Siberia, Ehrenberg, succeeded in keeping two luminous Infusoria of the Baltic alive for nearly two months at Berlin. I examined them with him in 1832; and saw them coruscate in a drop of sea- water on the darkened field of the microscope. When these luminous Infusoria (the largest of which was only A and the smallest from to -Ag- of a Parisian line in length) were exhausted, and ceased to emit sparks, they would renew their flashing on being stimulated by the addition of acids or by the application of a little alcohol to the sea- water. By repeatedly filtering fresh sea-water, Ehrenberg suc¬ ceeded in procuring a fluid in which a large number of these light-emitting animalcules were accumulated.! This acute observer has found in the organs of the Photocharis which give off* flashes of light (either voluntarily or when stimulated), a cellular structure of a gelatinous character in the interior, and which manifests some similarity with the electric organ of the Gymnotus and the Torpedo. “■When the Photocharis is irritated, in each cirrus a kindling and a gleaming of separate sparks may be observed, which gradually increase and at length illuminate the * Michaelis, U eher das Leuchten der Ostsee hei Kiel, 1830, s. 17. f Abhandlung en der Ai: ad. der Wiss. zu Berlin aus dem J. 1833, s. 307, 1834, s. 537—575, 1838, s. 45, 258. 248 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OE PLANTS. whole cirrus; until the living flame runs also over the back of this nereid-like animalcule, making it appear under the microscope like a burning thread of sulphur with a greenish-yellow light. In the Oceania ( Thaumanthias ) hemi - sphcerica, the number and position of the sparks correspond accurately, at the thickened base, with the larger cirri or organs which alternate with them, a circumstance that merits special attention. The manifestation of this wreath of fire is an act of vitality, and the whole development of light an organic vital process, which exhibits itself in Infusorial animals as a momentary spark of light, and is repeated after short intervals of rest.”* The luminous animals of the ocean appear, from these con¬ jectures, to prove the existence of a magneto-electric light¬ generating vital process in other classes of animals besides fishes, insects, mollusca, and acalephoe. Is the secretion of the luminous fluid which is effused in some animalcules, and which continues to shine for a long period without further influence of the living organism (as, for instance, in Lam- pyrides and Elaterides, in the German and Italian glow-worms, and in the South American Cucuyo of the sugar-cane), merely the consequence of the first electric discharge, or is it simply dependent on chemical composition? The luminosity of insects surrounded by air assuredly depends on physiological causes different from those which give rise to a luminous condition in aquatic animals, fishes, Medusae, and Infusoria. The small Infusoria of the ocean, being surrounded by strata of salt¬ water which constitutes a powerful conducting medium, must be capable of an enormous electric tension of their flashing organs to enable them to shine so vividly in the water. They strike like the Torpedo, the Gymnotus, and the Electric Silurus of the Nile, through the stratum of water: whilst electric fishes which, in connection with the galvanic circuit, are capable of decomposing water, and of imparting magnetic power to steel needles, (as I showed more than half a century ago,f and as John Davy has more recently confirmed, J) yield * Ehrenberg, Ueber das Leuchten des Meeres, 1836, s. 110, 158, 160, 163. ■f Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser, bd. i. s. 438 — 441; see also Obs. de Zoologie et d’ Anatomie comparee, vol. i. p. 84. + Philosophical Transactions for the year 1834, part ii. pp. 545 — 547. ILLUSTRATIONS (5). PHOSPHORESCENCE OF TIIE OCEAN. 249 no indications of electricity through the smallest intervening stratum of flame. The considerations which we have here developed render it probable that one and the same process operates, alike in the smallest living organisms invisible to the naked eye, in the eontests of the serpent-like Gymnoti, in the flashing luminous Infusoria which impart such glorious brilliancy to the phospho¬ rescence of the sea, in the thunder-cloud and in the terrestrial or polar light (the silent magnetic flashes), which, caused by an increased tension of the interior of the earth, are announced, for some hours previously, by the sudden variations of the magnetic needle.*' Sometimes one cannot, even with high magnifying powers, discover any animalcules in the luminous water; and yet, wherever a wave breaks in foam against a hard body, and, indeed, wherever water is violently agitated, flashes of light become visible. The cause of this phenomenon depends probably on the decomposing fibres of dead Mollusca, which are diffused in the greatest abundance throughout the water. If this luminous water be filtered through finely woven cloths, the fibres and membranes appear like separate luminous points. When we bathed at Cumana, in the gulf of Cariaco, and walked naked on the solitary beach in the beautiful evening air, parts of our bodies remained luminous from the bright fibres and organic membranes which adhered to the skin, nor did they lose this light for some minutes. If we consider the enormous quantity of Mollusca which animate all tropical seas, we can hardly wonder that sea-water should be luminous, even where no fibres can be visibly separated from it. From the endless subdivision of the masses of dead Dcu/ysce and Medusce the whole ocean may, in fact, be regarded as a fluid containing gelatine, and, as such, luminous and of a nauseous taste ; unfit for the use of man, but capable of affording nourishment to many species of fish. On rubbing a board with a portion of the Medusa hysocella , the surface thus rubbed recovers its phosphorescence when friction is applied by means of the dry finger. During my voyage to South America I occasionally placed a Medusa on a tin plate, and I then observed that if I struck the plate with another metallic * See my letter to the editor of the Annalen der Physik und Chemie, bd. xxxvii. 1836, s. 242 — 244. 250 VIEWS, SiC. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. substance the slightest vibrations of the tin were sufficient to cause the animal to emit light. How do the blow and the vibra¬ tions here act? Is the temperature momentarily augmented, or are new surfaces presented? or, again, does some gaseous matter such as phosphuretted hydrogen, exude in consequence of this impulse, and burn when it comes in contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere, or with that dissolved in the sea¬ water, and by which the respiration of the Mollusca is main¬ tained ? This light-exciting effect of the blow is most remark¬ able in a cross or sugar-loaf sea, {pier clapoteuse,) where the waves, clashing from opposite directions, rise in a conical form. I have seen the ocean, in the tropics, luminous in the most opposite kinds of weather, but most strongly so before a storm, or in a sultry and hazy atmosphere with thick clouds. Heat and cold appear to exercise but little influence on this phenomenon, for, on the Bank of Newfoundland, the phos¬ phorescence is frequently very brilliant in the severest winter. Occasionally, too, the sea will be highly luminous one night, and not at all so on the following, notwithstanding an apparent identity of external conditions. Does the atmo¬ sphere favour this development of light? or do all the dif¬ ferences observed during this phenomenon depend on the accidental circumstance of the sea being more or less impreg¬ nated, in some parts, with the gelatinous portions of mol- lusca? Perhaps these phosphorescent social animalcules only rise to the surface under certain conditions of the atmosphere. It has been asked, why our fresh- water swamps which are filled with polyps are not phosphorescent. It would appear that, both in animals and plants, a peculiar mixture of organic particles favours this development of light ; thus, for instance, the wood of the willow is more frequently found to be luminous than that of the oak. In England, salt-water has been rendered luminous by mixing herring-brine with it ; indeed, it will be easy for any one to convince himself by galvanic experiments, that the luminosity of living animals depends on nervous irritation. I have observed strong phos¬ phorescence emitted from a dying Elater noctilucus , on touch¬ ing the ganglion of its fore leg with zinc and silver. Medusae also occasionally emit a stronger light at the moment the galvanic circuit is completed.* * Humboldt, Relcit. hist., t. i. pp. 79, 533. Kespecting the wonder- ILLUSTRATIONS (6). PARASITIC YERMES. 251 (6) p. 213 — “ Which inhabits the lungs of the Rattlesnake of the tropics .” The animal which I formerly named an Echinorhynchus , and to which I even applied the term Porocephalus , appears, on a closer inspection, according to Rudolphi’s better grounded opinion, to belong to the division of Pentastoma A It is found in the abdominal cavity and the wide-celled lungs of a species of Crotalus , which, in Cumana, occasionally infests even the interior of houses, and preys on mice. The Ascaris lumbrici f lives beneath the skin of the common earth-worm, and is the smallest of all the species of Ascaris. Leucophra nodulata , Gleichen’s pearl animalcule, has been observed by Otto Friedrich Müller in the interior of the reddish Nais lit- toralis.\ It is probable that these microscopic animals are. in their turn, inhabited by others. All are surrounded by air, deficient in oxygen, and copiously charged with hydrogen and carbonic acid. It is extremely doubtful whether any animal could exist in pure nitrogen , although such an opinion did, formerly indeed, seem warranted with reference to Fischer’s Cisticlicola farionis , since, according to Fourcroy’s experi¬ ments, the swimming-bladder of fish was presumed to contain air wholly devoid of oxygen. But the experiments made by Erman, and confirmed by myself, prove that the swimming-bladder of fresh-water fish never contains pure nitrogen. § In sea fish as much as T80 parts of oxygen have been found, while, according to Biot’s views, the purity of the air depends on the depth at which the fishes live. || (7) p. 214 — “ The united LithophytesP According to Linnams and Ellis the calcareous Zoophytes, (among which Madrepores, Meandrinae, Astroeee, and Pocil- ful development of mass and power of increase in the Infusorial animal¬ cules, see Ehrenberg, Infus., s. xiii. 291 and 512. “ The galaxy of the smallest organisms,” he says, “ passes through the genera Monas (where they are often only W of a line), Vibrio, and Bacterium,” (s. xix. 244.) * Kudolphi, Entozoorum Synopsis, pp. 124, 434. + See Gözen’s Eingeweidewürmer, tab. iv. fig. 10. J Müller, Zoologia danica, Fasc. ii. tab. lxxx. a — e. § Humboldt et Provencal, Sur la respiration des Poissons, in Rec. d’Obs. de Zoologie, vol. ii. pp. 194 — 216. || Memoir es de Physique et de Chimie de la Societe d'Arcueil, t. i. 1807, pp. 252—281. 252 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. lop ora? especially produce mural coral-reefs,) are inhabited and invested by animalcules, which were long supposed to be allied to the Nereids belonging to Cuvier's Annelida (jointed worms). The anatomy of these gelatinous animalcules has been made known by the acute and comprehensive re¬ searches of Cavolini, Savigny, and Ehrenberg. We have learned that, in order to understand the whole organism of the (so-called) rock-building animals, we must not consider the scaffolding which remains after their death, namely, the layers of lime formed into delicate lamella? by a vital function of secretion, as foreign to the soft membranes of the food¬ receiving animal. Besides our increased knowledge of the wonderful for¬ mation of the living coral-stocks, a more correct view has gradually gained ground respecting the extensive influence which the coral world has exercised on the appearance of low island groups above the level of the sea, on the migration of land-plants, and the successive extension of the domain of the Floras* and, indeed, in some parts of the ocean, on the distri¬ bution of the human race and of languages. ' As minute social organisms the corals play an import¬ ant part in the general economy of nature, although they do not, as people began to believe after Capt. Cook's voyages of discovery, build up islands or enlarge continents from almost unfathomable depths of the ocean. They excite the liveliest interest, whether regarded as physiological objects, and as illustrating the various gradations of animal form, or in con¬ nection with the geography of plants, and the geognostic relations of the earth's crust. According to the comprehen¬ sive views of Leopold von Buch, the whole Jura-formation consists of “ large elevated coral-banks of the ancient world, surrounding at a certain distance the old mountain chains.” According to Ehrenberg' s classification A coral-animals, (in English works often incorrectly termed coral-insects,) are separable into the monostomous Anthozoa, which are either free and with the power of detaching themselves, as Animcd- corals; or are attached in the manner of plants, as Phyto-corals. To the first order (Zoocorallia) belong the Hydras or Arm- polyps of Trembley, the Actinia?, radiant with the most * Abhandlungen der A {'ad. der Wiss. zu Berlin aus dem J. 1832, ß. 393—432. ILLUSTRATIONS (7). CORAL ANIMALS. 9 wOo splendid colours, and the mushroom-corals; and to the second order belong the Madrepores, the Astraeae, and the ' Ocellinac. The Polyps of the second order are those which from their cellular, wave-resisting, wall-works are the principal subject of this illustration. The wall- work is composed of the aggre¬ gate of the coral-trunks, which, however, do not suddenly lose their combined vitality, like a dead forest tree. Every coral-trunk arises by a process of gemmation in ac¬ cordance with certain laws, and forms one complete structure, each portion being formed by a great number of organically distinct individual animals. In the group of Phyto-corals these cannot separate themselves spontaneously, but remain united with one another by lamellae of carbonate of lime. Hence each coral-trunk by no means possesses a central point of common vitality.*1 The propagation of coral-animals, accord¬ ing to the difference of the orders, is by eggs, spontaneous division or gemmation. This last kind of propagation presents the greatest variety of forms in the development of individuals. The Coral-reefs (or, as Dioscorides designates them, sea- plants, a forest of stony-trees, Lithodendra), are of three kinds; namely, Coast-reefs , (shore-reefs, fringing-reefs), which are directly connected with continental or insular coasts, as on the north-east coast of New Holland, between Sandy Cape and the dreaded Torres Straits, and almost all the coral-banks of the Red Sea examined for eighteen months by Ehrenberg and Hemprich; Island-surrounding reefs (barrier-reefs, encir¬ cling-reefs), as at Vanikoro in the small archipelago of Santa Cruz, north of the New Hebrides, and at Puynipete, one of the Carolinas ; and Coral-banks surrounding lagoons (Atolls or Lagoon-islands). This very natural division and nomencla- clature have been introduced by Charles Darwin, and are most intimately connected with the very ingenious explana¬ tion which this intellectual naturalist has given of the gradual origin of these wonderful forms. While, on the one hand, Cavolini, Ehrenberg, and Savigny have completed the scientific anatomical knowledge of the organization of coral-animals, on the other, the geographical and geological relations of coral- islands have been investigated, first by Reinhold and George Eorster in Cook's second voyage, and then, after a long * Ehrenberg, Op. cit., s. 419. 254 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. interval, by Chamisso, Peron, Quoy and Gaimard, Flinders, Liitke, Beecbey, Darwin, d'Urville, and Lottin. The coral-animals and their stony cellular scaffoldings be¬ long, for the most part, to the warm tropical seas ; and the reefs occur most frequently in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus we find the Atolls or Lagoon Islands crowded together in the so-called coral-sea between the north-east coast of New Holland, New Caledonia, Solomon's Islands, and theLouisiade Archipelago; in the group of the Low Islands (Low Archi¬ pelago), eighty in number ; in the Fidji, Ellice, and Gilbert Islands; and in the Indian Ocean, north-east of Madagascar, under the name of the Atoll group of Saya de Malha. The great Chagos Bank, whose structure and dead coral- trunks have been thoroughly investigated by Captains Moresby and Powell, is the more interesting to us, because we may regard it as a prolongation of the more northern Laccadive and Maidive Islands. I have previously directed attention in ano¬ ther work* to the importance of the order of succession of the Atolls, which are exactly in the direction of a meridian as far as 7° south lat., in reference to the general mountain system, and the form of the earth’s surface, in Central Asia. The meridian-chains, which mark the intersection of many moun¬ tain-systems running from east to west at the great bend of the Thibetian river Tzang-bo, correspond with the great meridian mountain rampart of the Ghauts and of the more northern Bolor in further or trans-Gangetic India. Here lie the parallel chains of Cochin China, Siam, and [Malacca, as well as those of Ava and Arracan, which, after courses of unequal length, all terminate in the gulfs of Siam, Martaban, and Bengal. The bay of Bengal appears like an arrested effort of nature to produce an inland sea. A deep inbreak of the waters, between the simple western system of the Ghauts, and the very complex eastern trans-Gangetic system, has swal¬ lowed up a great part of the eastern lowlands, but met with an impediment not so easily overcome in the early existing and extensive table-land of Mysore. An oceanic inbreak of this nature has given rise to two almost pyramidal peninsulas of very different length and narrowness; and the prolongation of two opposing meridian systems, the mountain system of Malacca in the east, and the * Asie centrale , t. i. p. 218. ILLUSTRATIONS (7). CORAL ANIMALS. 255 Ghauts of Malabar in the west, manifests itself in submarine, symmetrical series of islands, on the one side in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are poor in corals, and on the other in three long-extended archipelagos of Atolls — the Laccadives, the Maldives, and Chagos. The last, called by mariners the Chagos Bank, forms a lagoon, belted by a narrow, and already much broken coral-reef. The length of this lagoon is 88, and its breadth 72 miles. Whilst the enclosed lagoon is only from 1 7 to 40 fathoms deep, bottom was scarcely found at a depth of 210 fathoms at a small distance from the outer margin of the coral wall, which appears to be now sinking.* At the coral-lagoon, known as Keeling- Atoll, south of Sumatra, Captain Titz-Roy states, that at only 2000 yards from the reef, no soundings were found with 7200 feet of line. “ The forms of coral, which in the Red Sea rise in thick wall¬ like masses, are Mseandrinoe, Astras, Favia, Madrepores (Porites), Pocillopora (Hemprichii), Millepores, and Hetero- pores. The latter are among the most massive, although they are branched. The deepest coral trunks, which magnified by the refraction of light, appear to the eye to resemble the dome of a cathedral, belong, as far as could be determined, to Maean- drinae and Astraeae.”f A distinction must be made between single and in part free polyp-trunks, and those which form wall-like rocks. If the accumulation of building polyp-trunks in some regions is so striking, it is no less astonishing to observe the perfect absence of these structures in other and often adjacent regions. Their presence or absence must be determined by certain, still uninvestigated, relations of currents, by the par¬ tial temperature of the water, and by the abundance or defi¬ ciency of nutriment. That certain delicate-branched corals, with less calcareous deposition on the side opposite to the mouth, prefer the stillness of the interior lagoons, is not to be denied; but this preference for still water must not, as has too often happened, | be regarded as a peculiarity of the whole class of these animals. According to the expe¬ riences of Ehrenberg and Chamisso in the lied Sea and in * Darwin, Structure of Coral Reefs, pp. 39, 111,, and 183. *t* Ehrenberg’s Manuscript Notes. J Annales des Sciences naturelles, t. ri., 1825, p. 277« 256 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. tlie Marshall Islands, which abound in Atolls and lie east of the Caroline Islands, and according to the observations of Captains Bird Allen and Moresby in the West Indies and in the Maldives, we find that living Madrepores, Millepores, Astrseas, and Maeandrinas, can support “a tremendous surf;"* and indeed seem to prefer localities the most exposed to the action of storms. The vital forces of the organism regulating the cellular structure, which with age acquires a rocky hardness, resist most triumphantly the mechanical forces, — the shock of moving waters. In the South Pacific there is a perfect absence of coral- reefs at the Galapagos and along the whole of the west coast of the New Continent, notwithstanding their vicinity to the numerous Atolls of the Low Islands, and the Archipelago of Mendana or the Marquesas. It is true that the current of the South Pacific, which washes the coasts of Chili and Peru, (and whose low temperature I observed in the year 1802,) is only 60°. 1 Fahr., while the undisturbed water at the sides of the cold current is from 81°. 5 to 83°. 7 Fahr, at Punta Parima, where it deflects to the west. Moreover at the Galapagos there are small currents between the islands, having a tempera¬ ture of only 58°. 3 Fahr. But this lower temperature does not prevail further northwards along the coasts of the Pacific from Guayaquil to Guatimala and Mexico, neither does it prevail in the Cape de Yerd Islands, on the whole west coast of Africa, or at the small islands of St. Paul, St. Helena, Ascension, and San Fernando Noronha; yet in none of these are there coral-reefs. If this absence of reefs characterises the western coasts of America, Africa, and New Holland, they are, on the other hand, of frequent occurrence on the eastern coasts of tropical America, on the African coast of Zanzibar, and on the southern coast of New South Wales. The best opportunities I have enjoyed for personally examining coral banks have been in the Gulf of Mexico, and south of the Island of Cuba, in the so-called “Gardens of the King and Queen' ’ {Jar dines y Jardinillos del Hey y de la Reyna). It was Christopher Columbus himself who, on his second voyage, in May, 1494, gave this name to this little group of islands, because from the pleasant association of the silver-leaved arborescent Tour- * Darwin, Coral Reefs, p. 63 — 65. CORAL REEFS. 257 ILLUSTRATIONS (7). nefortia gnapholoides, of flowering species of Doliclios, of Avicennia nitida, and mangrove-thickets (Rhizophora), the coral-islands formed as it were an archipelago of floating gardens. “ Son Cayos verdes y grciciosos llenos de arboledas says the admiral. On my voyage from Batabano to Trinidad de Cuba, I remained for several days in these gardens, which lie to the east of the great Isle of Pines, abounding in maho¬ gany, for the purpose of determining the longitude of the different Cayos. The Cayos Flamenco , Bonito , de Diego Perez , and de Piedras , are coral islands, rising only from 8 to 15 inches above the level of the sea. The upper edge of the reef does not consist merely of dead polyp-trunks, but is rather formed of a true conglomerate, in which angular pieces of coral, lying in various directions, are embedded in a cement composed of granules of quartz. In Cayo de Piedras I saw such embedded masses of coral, some of them measuring upwards of three cubic feet. Several of the West Indian smaller coral islands have fresh water, a phenomenon which merits a careful investigation wherever it occurs (as for instance near lladak in the South Sea),* since it has some¬ times been ascribed to hydrostatic pressure, acting from a distant coast (as in Venice, and in the Bay of Xagua, east of Batabano), and sometimes to the filtration of rain -water, f The living gelatinous covering of the calcareous fabric of the coral-trunks attracts fishes and even turtles in search of food. In the time of Columbus the now desolate district of the Jardines del Rey was animated by a singular branch of industry pursued by the inhabitants of the sea- coasts of Cuba, who availed themselves of a little fish, the Remora, or sucking-fish (the so-called Ship-holder), probably the Echeneis naucrates, for catching turtles. A long and strong line, made of the fibres of the palm, was attached to the tail of the fish. The Remora (called in Spanish Peres , or reversed, because at first sight the back and abdomen might easily be mistaken for each other), attaches itself by suction to the turtle through the indented and moveable cartilaginous plates of the upper shell that covers * Cliamisso, in Kotzebue's Entdeckungsreise, bd. iii., s. 108. t See my Essai Politique sur Vile de Cuba, t. ii. p. 137. s 258 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. the head. The Remora, says Columbus, would rather let itself be torn to pieces than relinquish its prey, and the little fish and the turtle are thus drawn out of the water together. “Nostrates,” says Martin Anghiera, the learned secretary of Charles V, “ piscem Reversum appellant, quod versus venatur. Non aliter ac nos canibus gallicis per a)quora campi lepores insectamur, illi (incolse Cubso insulae) venatorio pisce pisces alios capiebant.”* * * § We learn from Dampier and Commerson, that this artifice of employing a sucking-fish to catch other fishes is very common on the eastern coasts of Africa, near Cape Natal and Mozambique, as well as on the island of Madagascar.! An acquaintance with the habits of animals, and the same necessities, lead to similar artifices and modes of capture amongst tribes having no connection with one another. Although, as we have already remarked, the actual seat of the Lithophytes who build calcareous walls, lies within a zone extending from 22 to 24 degrees on either side of the equator, yet coral-reefs, favoured, it is supposed, by the warm Gulf Stream, are met with around the Bermudas in 32° 23' lat., and these have been admirably described by Lieutenant Nelson-! In the southern hemisphere corals (Millepores and Cellepores) are found singly as far as Chiloe and even to the Chonos-Archi- pelago and Tierra del Fuego, in 53° lat., while Retepores have even been found as far as 72^° lat. Since Captain Cook's second voyage, the hypothesis advanced by him as well as by Reinhold and George Forster, that the flat coral islands of the South Pacific have been built up by living agents from the depths of the sea's bottom, has found numerous advocates. The distinguished naturalists Quoy and Gaimard, who accompanied Captain Freycinet on his voyage of circumnavigation in the frigate “ Uranie,” were the first who expressed themselves, in 1823, with much free¬ dom against the views advanced by the two Forsters (father and son), by Flinders, and Peron.§ “ In directing the * Petr. Martyr, Oceania, 1532, Dec. 1, p. 9; Gomara, Hist, de las Indias, 1553, fol. xiv. Lacepbde, Hist. not. des Poissons, t. i. p. 55. £ Tratisactions of the Geological iSoc., 2nd Ser. vol. v. P. 1, 1837, p. 103. § Annates des Sciences naturelles, t. vi., 1S25, p. 273. ILLUSTRATIONS (7). CORAL-REEFS. 259 attention of naturalists to coral-animalcules,” they say, “we hope to be able to prove that all which has been hitherto affirmed or believed up to the present time, regarding the immense structures they are capable of raising, is for the most part inexact, and in all cases very greatly exaggerated. We are rather of opinion that coral-animalcules, instead of rearing perpendicular walls from the depths of the Ocean, only form strata or incrustrations of some few toises in thick¬ ness.” Quoy and Gaimard (p. 289) have also expressed an opinion, that Atolls (coral walls inclosing a lagoon) owe their origin to submarine volcanic craters. They have undoubtedly underrated the depth at which animals who construct coral-reefs (as for example the Astrsea) can exist, as they place the extreme limits at from 26 to 32 feet below the level of the sea. Charles Darwin, a naturalist, who has known how to enhance the value of his own observa¬ tions by a comparison with those of others in many parts of the world, places the region of living coral-animals at a depth of 20 or 30 fathoms,* which corresponds with that in which Professor Edward Forbes found the greatest number of corals in the FEgean Sea. This is Professor Forbes’s fourth region of marine-animals, as given in his ingenious memoir on the Provinces of Depth, and the geographical distribution of Mol¬ lusca at perpendicular distances from the surface. f It would appear, however, that the depth at which corals live is very different in the different species, especially in the more delicate ones which do not form such considerable struc¬ tures. Sir James Poss, in his Antarctic expedition, brought up corals from a great depth with the lead ; and these he remitted for accurate examination to Mr. Stokes and Professor Forbes. Westward of Victoria Land, in the neighbourhood of the Coulman Island, in 72° 31' south lat., and at a depth of 270 fathoms, Retepora cellulosa, a Hornera, and Prymnoa Rossii, (the latter very similar to a species common to the coasts of Norway,) were found alive and in a perfectly * See Darwin's Journal, 1845, p. 467, also his Structure of Coral Beefs, pp. 84 — 87 ; and Sir Kobert Schomburgk, Hist, of Barbadoes, 1848, p. 636. t Report on AEgean Invertebrata in the Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the British Association, held at Cork in 1843, pp. 151, 161. s 2 260 VIEWS, Sec. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. fresli condition.* * * §' In tlie far north too, the Greenland Umbellaria Grcenlandica has been brought up alive by whale fishers from a depth of 236 fathoms. f The same relation between species and locality is met with among sponges, which however are now regarded as belonging more to plants than to zoophytes. On the shores of Asia Minor, the common marine sponge is brought up from depths varying from 5 to 30 fathoms, although one very small species of the same genus is only found at a depth of at least 180 fathoms.]; It is difficult to divine what hinders the Astraeas, Madrepores, Mceandrinas, and the whole group of tropical phyto-corals, which are capable of constructing large cellular calcareous walls, from living in very deep strata of water. The decrease of temperature is very gradual, the diminution of light nearly the same, and the existence of numerous Infusoria at great depths of the Ocean proves that there cannot here be any deficiency of food for polyps. In opposition to the hitherto generally adopted opinion respecting the absence of all organisms and living creatures in the Dead Sea, it is wortliv of notice that my friend and fellow-labourer, M. Valenciennes, has received, through the Marquis Charles de l'Escalopier, and through the French Consul Botta, beautiful specimens of Porites elongata from the Dead Sea. This fact is the more interesting, because this species is not found in the Mediterranean, but only in the lied Sea, which, according to Valenciennes, has but few organisms in common with the Mediterranean. As a sea-fish, a species of Pleuronectes, advances far into the interior of France, and accustoms itself to gill-respiration in fresh water, so also does a remarkable flexibility of organization exist in the above- mentioned coral-animal (Porites elongata of Lamarck), as the same species lives both in the Dead Sea, which is super¬ saturated with salt, and in the open ocean near the Sechelles Islands. § According to the most recent chemical analyses of the younger * See floss, Voyage of Discovery in the Southern and Antarctic Begions, vol. i. pp. 334, 337. + Ehrenberg-, in the Ahhandl. der Deri. Akad. aus dem J. 1832, s. 430. $ Forbes and Spratt, Travels in Lycia, 1847, vol. ii. p. 124. § See my A sie centrale , t. ii. p. 517. ILLUSTRATIONS (7). CORAL-REEFS. 261 Silliman, the genus Porites, like many other cellular coral- trunks (Madrepores, Astrseas, and Maeandrinas of Ceylon and the Bermudas), contains besides from 92 to 95 per cent, of carbonate of lime and magnesia, a portion of fluorine and phosphoric acid.* The presence of fluorine in the hard skeleton of the polyps reminds us of the fluoride of calcium found in fish bones according to Morechini’s and Gay-Lus¬ sac's experiments at Rome. Silex is mixed only in very small quantities, with the fluoride of calcium and phosphate of lime found in the coral-trunks; but one coral animal allied to the Horn corals (Gray’s Hyalonema, Glass thread) has an axis of fibres of pure silex, resembling a hanging tuft of hair. Professor Forchhammer, who has recently been engaged in a thorough analysis of sea- water in the most op¬ posite parts of the earth's surface, finds the quantity of lime- in the Caribbean Sea remarkably small, it being only whilst in the Cattegat it amounts to -^e disposed to ascribe this difference to the numerous coral-banks near the West India Islands, which appropriate the lime to themselves, and thus exhaust the sea-water. f Charles Darwin has with great ingenuity developed the genetic connection between shore-reefs, island-encircling reefs, and lagoon islands, i. e., narrow, annular coral banks which surround inner lagoons. According to his views, these three kinds of structure depend upon the oscillating condition of the bottom of the sea, or on periodical elevations and subsidences. The often-advanced hypothesis, according to which the lagoon-islands, or atolls, mark by their circularly enclosed coral-reefs, the outline of a submarine crater, raised on a volcanic crater-margin, is opposed by the great extent of their diameters, which are in some instances upwards of 30, 40, or even 60 miles. Our fire-emitting mountains have no such craters, and if we would compare the lagoon, with its submerged mural surface and narrow encircling reef, with one of the annular lunar mountains, we must not forget that these annular mountains are not volcanoes, but tracts of land * Compare James Dana (geologist in the United States’ Exploring Expedition under the command of Captain Wilkes), On the Structure and Classification of Zoophytes, 1846, pp. 124 — 131. t Report of the Sixteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held in 1846, p. 91. 262 VIEWS, See. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. enclosed by -walls. According to Darwin, the following is the process of formation. An island mountain closely en¬ circled by a coral reef subsides, while the fringing reef that had sunk with it, is constantly recovering its level owing to the tendency of the coral animals to regain -the surface by renewed perpendicular structures; these constitute first a reef encircling the island at a distance, and subsequently, when the inclosed island has wholly subsided, an atoll. According to this view, which regards islands as the most prominent parts, or the culminating points of the submarine land, the relative position of the coral islands would disclose to us what -we could scarcely hope to discover by the sounding line, viz., the former configuration and articulation of the land. This attractive subject (to the connection of which with the migra¬ tions of plants and the distribution of the races of men we drew attention at the beginning of this note), can only be fully elucidated when we shall succeed in acquiring further knowledge of the depth and nature of the different rocks which serve as a foundation for the lower strata of the dead polyp-trunks. (8) p. 216 — “ Of (he Samothracian Traditions .” Diodorus has preserved to us these remarkable traditions, the probability of which has invested them with almost his¬ torical certainty in the eyes of geologists. The island of Samothrace, once also named Ethiopea, Dardania, and Leu- cania or Leucosia in the Scholiast of Apollonius Khodius, the seat of the aucient mysteries of the Cabiri, was inhabited by the remnant of an aboriginal people, several words of whose vernacular language were preserved in later times in sacrificial ceremonies. The position of Samothrace, opposite to the Thracian llebrus, and near the Dardanelles, explains why a more circumstantial tradition of the great catastrophe of an outburst of the waters of the Pontus (Euxine) should have been especially preserved in this island. Sacred rites were here performed at altars erected on the supposed limits of this inundation; and among the Samothracians, as well as the Boeotians, a belief in the periodical destruction of the human race (a belief which also prevailed among the Mexicans in their myth of the four destructions of the world) was associated with ILLUSTRATIONS (8). SAMOTHRACIAN TRADITIONS. 263 historical recollections of individual inundations.*1 According to Diodorus, the Samothracians related that the Black Sea had been an inland lake, which, swelled by the influx of rivers (long prior to the inundations which had occurred among other nations) had burst, first through the straits of the Bosphorus, and subsequently through those of the Hellespont. f These ancient revolutions of nature have been considered in a special treatise, by Dureau de la Malle, and all the facts known regarding them collected by Carl von Hoff, in an im¬ portant work on the subject.'! The Samothracian traditions seem reflected as it were in the Sluice-theory of Strato of Lampsacus, according to which the swelling of the waters in the Euxine first formed the passage of the Dardanelles, and next the opening through the Pillars of Hercules. Strabo, in the first book of his Geography, has preserved among the critical extracts from the works of Eratosthenes, a remarkable fragment of the lost work of Strato, which presents views that embrace almost the whole circumference of the Mediterranean. “ Strato of Lampsacus,” says Strabo, § “ enters more fully than the Lydian Xanthus (who has described the impressions of shells far from the sea) into a consideration of the causes of these phenomena. He maintains, that the Euxine had formerly no outlet at Byzantium, but that the pressure of the swollen mass of waters caused by the influx of rivers had opened a passage, whereupon the water rushed into the Propontis and the Hellespont. The same thing also happened to our sea (the Mediterranean), for here too a passage was opened through the isthmus at the Pillars of Hercules, in consequence of the filling of the sea by currents, which in flowing off left the former swampy banks uncovered and dry. In proof of this, Strato affirms, first, that the outer and inner bottoms of the sea are different; then that there is still a bank running under the sea from Europe to Lybia, which shows that the inner and outer sea were formerly not united ; next that the Euxine is extremely shallow, while the Cretan, * Otfr. Miiller, Geschichten Hellenischer Stämme und Städte, bd. i. .s. 65, 119. + Biodor. Sicul. lib. v. cap. 47, p. 369. Wesseling. X Geschichte der natüralichen Veränderungen der Erdoberfläche , Th. i. 1822, s. 105 — 162, and Creuzer’s Symbolik, 2te Aufl. th. ii. ß. 285, 318, 361. § Lib. i. p. 49, 50. Casaub. 264 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. the Sicilian and the Sardinian seas are, on the contrary, very deep ; the cause of this being that the former is filled with mud from the numerous large rivers flowing into it from the north. Hence too the Euxine is the freshest, and the streams flowing from it are directed towards the parts where the bot¬ tom is deepest. It would also appear that if these rivers continue to flow into the Euxine, it will some day be com¬ pletely choked with mud, for even now, its left side is becom¬ ing marshy in the direction of Salmydessus (the Thracian Apollonia), at the part called by mariners ‘ The Breasts,’ before the mouth of the Ister and the desert of Scythia. Perhaps, therefore, the Lybian Temple of Ammon may also have once stood on the sea-shore, its present position in the interior of the country being in consequence of such off-flow¬ ings of rivers. Strato also conjectures that the fame and celebrity of the Oracle (of Ammon) is more easily accounted for, on the supposition that the temple was on the sea-shore, since its great distance from the coast would otherwise make its present distinction and fame inexplicable. Egypt also was in ancient times overflowed by the sea as far as the marshes of Pelusium, Mount Casius, and Lake Serbonis; for when¬ ever in digging it happened that salt-water was met with, the borings passed through strata of sea-sand and shells, as if the country had been inundated, and the whole dis¬ trict around Mount Casius and Gerrlia had been a marshy sea, continuous with the Gulf of the Red Sea. When the sea (the Mediterranean) retreated, the country vTas uncovered, leaving, however, the present Lake Serbonis. Subsequently the waters of this lake also flowed off, convert¬ ing its bed into a swamp. In like manner the banks of Lake Mceris resemble more the shores of a sea than those of a river.” An erroneous reading introduced as an emendation by Grosskurd, in consequence of a passage in Strabo,* gives in place of Mceris, “ the Lake Haknyris,” but the latter was situated near the southern mouth of the Danube. The Sluice-theory of Strato led Eratosthenes of Cyrene (the most celebrated in the series of the librarians of Alex¬ andria) to investigate the problem of the uniformity of level in all external seas flowing round continents, although with less success than Archimedes in his treatise on floating, * Lib. xvii. p. S09. Casaub. ILLUSTRATIONS (8). SAMO THRACIAN TRADITIONS. 265 bodies.* * * §1 The articulation of tlie northern coasts of the Me¬ diterranean as well as the form of its peninsulas and islands had given origin to the geognostic myth of the ancient land of Lyctonia. The origin of the lesser Syrtis, of the Triton Lake,f and of the whole of Western Atlas, J had been em¬ bodied in an imaginary scheme of fire-eruptions and earth¬ quakes. § I have recently entered more fully into this ques¬ tion, || in a passage with which I would be allowed to close this note : “ The northern shore of the Mediterranean possesses the advantage of being more richly and variously articulated than the southern or Lybian shore, and this was, according to Strabo, already noticed by Eratosthenes. Here we find three peninsulas, the Iberian, the Italian, and the Hellenic, which, owing to their various and deeply indented contour, form, together with the neighbouring islands and the oppo¬ site coasts, many straits and isthmuses. Such a configuration of continents and of islands that have been partly severed and partly upheaved by volcanic agency in rows, as if over far- extending fissures, early led to gcognostic views regard¬ ing eruptions, terrestrial revolutions, and outpourings of the swollen higher seas into those below them. The Euxine, the Dardanelles, the Straits of Gades, and the Mediterranean with its numerous islands, were well fitted to originate such a system of sluices. The Orphic Argonaut, who pro¬ bably lived in the Christian era, has interwoven old mythical narrations in his composition. He sings of the division of the ancient Lyctonia into separate islands, ‘ when the dark¬ haired Poseidon in anger with Father Kronion struck Lyctonia, with the golden trident.’ Similar fancies, which may often certainly have sprung from an imperfect knowledge of geo¬ graphical relations, were frequently elaborated in the erudite Alexandrian school, which was so devoted to everything con¬ nected with antiquity. Whether the myth of the breaking up of Atlantis be a vague and western reflection of that of * Strabo, lib. i. p. 51 — 5G, lib. ii. p. 1U4. Casaub. f Diod. iii. 53— 55. X Maximus Tyrius, viii. 7. § Compare my Examen critique de l’hist. de la Geographie, t. L p. 179, t. iii. p. 136. il Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 4SI. (Bohn’s edition). 266 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. Lyctonia, as I have elsewhere shown, to be probable, or whether, according to Otfried Müller, ‘ the destruction of Lyctonia (Leuconia) refers to the Samothracian tradition of a great flood, which changed the form of that district,’ is a question which it is here unnecessary to decide.” (9) p. 217 — “ Precipitation from the clouds .” The vertical ascent of currents of air is one of the principal causes of the most important meteorological phenomena. Where a desert or a sandy surface devoid of vegetation is surrounded by a high mountain-chain, the sea-wind may be observed driving a dense cloud over the desert, without any precipitation of vapour taking place before it reaches the crest of the mountains. This phenomenon was formerly very unsatisfactorily referred to an attraction supposed to be exer¬ cised by the mountain-chain on the clouds. The true cause appears to lie in the ascent from the sandy plain of a column of warm air, which prevents the condensation of the vesicles of vapour. The more barren the surface, and the greater the degree of heat acquired by the sand, the higher will be the ascent of the clouds, and the less readily will the vapour be precipitated. Over the declivities of mountains these causes cease. The play of the vertical column of air is there weaker; the clouds sink, and their disintegration is effected by a cooler stratum of air. Thus deficiency of rain and absence of vegetation in the desert stand in a reciprocal action to one another. It does not rain because the barren and bare surface of sand becomes more strongly heated and radiates more heat; and the desert is not converted into a steppe or grassy plain because without water no organic development is possible. (10). p. 218 — “ The indurating and heat-emitting mass of the earthy If according to the hypothesis of the Neptunists (now long since obsolete), the so-called primitive rocks were also pre¬ cipitated from a fluid, the transition of the earth's crust from a condition of fluidity to one of solidity, must have been fol¬ lowed by the liberation of an enormous quantity of caloric, which would have given rise to new evaporation and new precipitations. The more recent these precipitations, the ILLUSTRATIONS (51). TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH. 267 more rapid, the more tumultuous, and the more uncrystalline would they have been. Such a sudden liberation of caloric from the indurating crust of the earth, independent of the latitude, and the position of the earth’s axis, might indeed occasion local elevations of temperature in the atmosphere, which would influence the distribution of plants. The same cause might also occasion a kind of porosity which seems to be indicated by many enigmatical geological phe¬ nomena in floetz rocks. I have developed my conjectures on this subject in detail in a small memoir on primitive porosity.*4 According to the views I have more recently adopted, it appears to me that the variously shattered and fissured earth, with its fused interior, may long have continued in the primeval period, to impart to its oxidised surface a high degree of temperature, independent of its position with respect to the sun and to latitude. What an influence would not, for instance, be exercised for ages to come on the climate of Germany by an open fissure a thousand fathoms in depth, extending from the Adriatic Gulf to the northern coast? Although in the present condition of the earth, long-continued radiation has almost entirely restored the stable equilibrium of temperature first calculated by Fourier in his Theorie analytique de la Chaleur , and the outer atmosphere is now only brought into direct communication with the molten interior of the earth, by means of the insignificant openings of a few volcanoes ; yet in the primitive condition of our planet, this interior emitted hot streams of air into the atmosphere through the various clefts and fissures formed by the fre¬ quently recurring foldings (or corrugations) of the mountain strata. This emission was wholly independent of latitude. Every newly formed planet must thus in its earliest condition have regulated its own temperature, which was, however, subsequently changed and determined by its position in rela¬ tion to the central body, the sun. The moon's surface also exhibits traces of this reaction of the interior upon the crust. (11) p. 218 — “ The mountain-declivities of the most southern parts of Mexico.1'’ The spherical greenstone in the mountain district of Gua- * See my work. Versuche über die chemische Zersetzung des Luft- Jcreises, 1799, p. 177; and Moll’s Jahrbücher der Berg- und Hütten¬ kunde, 1797, p. 234. 268 VIEWS, kc. THYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. naxuato is perfectly similar to that of the Fichtelberg in Franconia. Both form grotesque domes, which break through and are superinqiosed on transition argillaceous schists. In the same manner pearl-stone, porphyritic schist, trachyte, and pitch-stone porphyry present analogous forms in the Mexican mountains, near Cinapecuaro and Moran, in Hun¬ gary, Bohemia, and in Northern Asia. (12) p. 220 — “ The Colossal Dragon-tree of Orotava.” This colossal dragon-tree (Dracmna draco) stands in the garden of M. Franqui, in the little town of Orotava, called formerly Taoro, one of the most charming spots in the world. In June, 1799, when we ascended the Peak of Teneriffe, we found that this enormous tree measured 48 feet in circum¬ ference. Our measurement was made at several feet above the root. Nearer to the ground Le Dru found it nearly 79 feet. Sir G. Staunton asserts that at an elevation of ten feet from the ground, its diameter is still 12 feet. The height of the tree is not much more than 69 feet. Accord¬ ing to tradition it would appear that this tree was venerated by the Guanches (as was the ash-tree of Ephesus by the Greeks, the Plantain of Lydia, which Xerxes decorated with ornaments, also the sacred Banyan-tree of Ceylon), and that in the year 1402, which was the period of Bethen- court's first expedition, it was as large and as hollow as in the present day. When it is remembered that the dragon-tree is everywhere of very slow growth, we may conclude that the one at Orotava is of extreme antiquity. Berthollet says, in his description of Teneriffe, “ On comparing the young dragon-trees which grows near this colossal tree, the calcu¬ lations we are led to make on the a^e of the latter strike the mind with astonishment.’ ’*•* The Dragon-tree has been culti¬ vated from the most ancient times in the Canary isles, in Madeira, and Porto Santo, and that accurate observer, Leopold von Buch, found it growing wild near Iguesti in Teneriffe. Its original habitat is not therefore the East Indies, as has long been believed ; and its appearance does not afford any refutation of the opinion of those who regard the Guanches as a wholly isolated primitive Atlantic race, having no intercourse * Nova Acta Acad . Leop. Carol. Natures Curiosorum, t. xiii. 1827, p. 781, ILLUSTRATIONS (12). THE COLOSSAL DRAGON-TREE. 269 with African or Asiatic nations: The form of the Dracamcc is repeated on the southern extremity of Africa, in the Isle of Bourbon, in China, and in New Zealand. In these remotely distant regions we recognise species of the same genus, but none are to be found in the New Continent, where this form is supplied by the Yucca. The Drcicamci borealis of Aiton is a true Convallaria, the nature of both being perfectly identical.* I have given a representation, in the last plate of the Picturesque Atlas of my American journey, + of the dragon- tree of Orotava, taken from a drawing made in 1776 by F. d’Ozonne, and which I found among the posthumous papers of the celebrated Borda, in the still unprinted journal en¬ trusted to me by the Depot de la Marine, and from which I have borrowed important astronomically-determined geogra¬ phical, data besides many barometrical and trigonometrical notices.'!' The measurement of the dragon-tree in the Villa Franqui was made in Borda’s first voyage with Pingre in 1771, and not in the second, made 1776 with Varela. It is asserted, that in the fifteenth century, during the early periods of the Norman and Spanish conquests, mass was performed at a small altar erected in the hollow trunk of this tree. Unfortunately, the Dracaena of Orotava lost one side of its leafy top in the storm of the 21st of July, 1819. There is a fine large English copper-plate engraving, which gives an exceedingly true representation of the present con¬ dition of the tree. The monumental character of these colossal living forms, and the impression of reverence which they have created among all nations, have led, in modern times, to a more care¬ ful study of the numerical determination of their age, and of the size of their trunks. The results of such investigations in¬ duced the elder Decandolle, (the author of the important treatise, entitled De la Longevife des Arbres,) Endlicher, Unger, and other distinguished botanists to conjecture, that the age of many existing vegetable forms may extend to the earliest historical times, if not to the records of the Nile, at least to those of Greece and Italy. In the Bibliotheque Universelle * Humboldt, Relat. hist., t. i. pp. 118, 639. f Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples indigenes de V Amerique, pi. lxix. + Relat. hist., t. i., p. 282. 270 VIEWS, kc. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. de Geneve (t. xlvii. 1831, p. 50) we find tlie following passage: “Numerous examples seem to confirm the idea, that there still exist, on our planet, trees of a prodigious antiquity — the witnesses, perhaps, of one or more of its latest physical revo¬ lutions. If we consider a tree as the combination of as many individual forms as there have been buds developed on its sur¬ face, one cannot be surprised if the aggregate resulting from the continual addition of new buds to the older ones, should not necessarily have any fixed termination to its existence.” In the same manner, Agardli says: “If in each solar year new parts be formed in the plant, and the older hardened ones be replaced by new parts capable of conducting sap, we have a type of growth limited by external causes alone.” He ascribes the short duration of the life of herbaceous plants, “to the preponderance of the production of blossoms and fruit over the formation of leaves.” Unfruitfulness in a plant insures a prolongation of its life. Endlicher adduces the instance of an individual plant of Medicago sativa, var. ß versicolor, which lived eighty years because it bore no fruit.* To the dragon-trees, which, notwithstanding the gigantic development of their closed vascular bundles, must be classed, in respect to their floral parts, in the same natural family as Asparagus and the garden onion, belongs the Adansonia, (the monkey bread-tree, Baobab ), undoubtedly among the largest and most ancient inhabitants of our planet. In the earliest voyages of discovery made by Catalans and Portuguese, the sailors were accustomed to carve their names on these two species of trees ; not always from a mere wish of perpetuating their memory, but also as “ marcos,” or signs of possession, and of the rights which nations assume in virtue of first discovery. The Portuguese mariners often selected for carving on the trees, as a “marco,” or mark of possession, the elegant French motto talent de bien faire , so frequently employed by the Infante Don Henrique, the Discoverer. Thus Manuel de Faria y Sousa says expressly ;f “Era uso de los primeros Navcgantes de dexar inscrito el motto del Infante, talent de bien faire , en la corteza de los arboles.”^; (It was the custom * Grundzüge derBotanilc, 1843, § 1003. t Asia Portuguesa , t. i., cap. 2., pp. 14, 18. J Compare also Barros, Asia, dec. i. liv. ii., cap. 2, t. i. (Lisboa, 1778,) p. 148. TTJLLSTRATIONS (12). THE GREAT AGE OF TREES. 27 1 of the early navigators to inscribe the motto of the Infante in the bark of the trees.) The above-named motto, cut on the bark of two trees by Portuguese navigators in the year 1435, and therefore twenty- eight years before the death of the Infante Don Henrique, Duke of Yiseo, is singularly connected, in the history of dis¬ coveries, with the discussions that have arisen from a com¬ parison of Vespucci’s fourth voyage with that of Gonzalo Coelho (1503). Vespucci relates, that the Admiral's ship of Coelho's squadron was wrecked on an island which was some¬ times supposed to be that of »San Fernando Noronha; some¬ times, Penedo de San Pedro ; and sometimes, the problematical island of St. Matthew. The last-named island was discovered on the 15th of October, 1525, by Garcia Jofre de Loaysa in south lat., in the meridian of Cape Palmas, and almost in the Gulf of Guinea. He remained there eighteen days at anchor, and found crosses, orange-trees that had become wild, and two trunks of trees having inscriptions that bore the date of ninety years back.''-4 I have in another place, f in an in¬ quiry regarding the trustworthiness of Amerigo Vespucci, more fully considered this problem. The oldest description of the Baobab (Adansonia digitata) is that of the Venetian, Aloysius Cadamosto, (whose real name was Alvise da Ca da Mosto) in 1454. He found at the mouth of the Senegal, (where he joined Antoniotto Usodimare), trunks, whose circumference he estimated at 17 fathoms, or 112 feet.J He might have compared them to dragon-trees, which he had already seen. Perrottet says,§ that he had seen monkey-bread fruit trees, which had a diameter of about thirty-two feet, with a height of only from seventy to eighty-five feet. The same dimensions had been given by Adanson in his voyage, 1748. The largest trunks of the monkey bread-fruit trees, which he himself saw, in 1749, some on one of the small Magdalena islands near Cape de Verd, and others at the mouth of the Senegal, were from 26 to nearly 29 feet in diameter, with a height of little more than 70 feet, and a top measuring upwards of 180 feet across. * ISTavarrete, t. v, pp. 8, 247, 401. t Examen critique de VHist. de la Geographie, t. v. pp. 129-132. X Ramusio, vol. i. p. 109. § Flore de Senegambie* * * § p. 7G. VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. ^ ^ Adanson, however, makes the remark that other travellers had found trunks having a diameter of about 32 feet.* * * § French and Dutch sailors had carved their names on the trunks in characters six inches in length. One of these inscriptions was of the fifteenth century ,f while all the others were of the sixteenth. From the depth of the cuts, which tire covered with new layers of wood.j and from a comparison of the thickness of trunks, whose various ages were known, Adanson computed the age of trees having a diameter of 32 feet at 5150 years. § He however cautiously subjoins the following remarks, in a quaint mode of spelling which I do not alter: “le calcul de l’aje de chake couche n'apas d'exactitude geometrike.” In the village of Grand Galarques, also in Sene- gambia, the negroes have adorned the entrance of a hollow Baobab with carvings cut out of wood still green. The inner cavity serves as a place of general meeting in which the community debate on their interests. This hall reminds us of the hollow (specus) in the interior of a plantain in Lycia, in which the Roman ex-consul. Lucinius Mutianus, entertained twenty-one guests. Pliny (xii. 3) gives to a cavity of this kind the somewhat ample breadth of eighty Roman feet. The Baobab was seen by Rene Caillie in the valley of the Niger near Jenne, by Cailliaud in Nubia, and by Wilhelm Peters along the whole eastern coast of Africa, where this tree, which is called Mulapa, i.c. Nlapa-tree, or more cor¬ rectly muti-nlapa , advances as far as Lonrenzo Marques, almost to 26° south lat. The oldest and thickest trunks seen bv Peters “ measured from 60 to 75 feet in circumference.” Although Cadamosto observed, in the fifteenth century, eminentia non quadrat magnitudini ; and although Golberry§ found, in the “ Yallee des deux Gagnacks,” trunks only * This tree was formerly called “the Ethiopian sour gourd;” Julius Scaligcr, who gave it the name of Guanabanus, instances one, which seventeen men with outstretched arms could not encompass. The wood is very perishable, and the negroes place in the hollow of these trees the corpses of their conjurors, or of such persons who they suppose would enchant or desecrate the ground, if buried in the usual way. — Ed. t Families des Plantes d' Adanson, 1763, P. I. pp. ccxv — ccxviii. The fourteenth century is here stated, but this is no doubt an error. + Adrien de Jussieu, Cours de Botanique, p. 62. § Voyage au Senegal, 1757, p. 66. II Fragmens d'un voyage en Afrique , t. ii. p. 92. ILLUSTRATIONS (12). LONGEVITY OE THE YEW TREE. 273 64 feet in height whose diameter was 36 feet,” this dis¬ proportion between thickness and height must not be assumed to be general. “Very old trees,” says the learned traveller, Peters, “ lose their crowns by gradual decay, while they continue to increase in circumference. On the eastern coast of Africa one not unfrequently meets with trees having a diameter of more than 10 feet which reach the height of nearly 70 feet.” While therefore the bold calculations of Adanson and Perrottet assign to the Adansonias measured by them, an age of 5150 or even 6000 years, which would make them coeval with the builders of the Pyramids, or even with Menes, and would place them in an epoch when the Southern Cross was still visible in Northern Germany;* the more certain estimations yielded by annular rings, and by the relation found to exist between the thickness of the layer of wood and the duration of growth, give us, on the other hand, shorter periods for our tem¬ perate northern zone. Decandolle finds that of all Euro¬ pean species of trees, the yew attains the greatest age ; and according to his calculations, 30 centuries must be assigned as the age of the Taxus baccata of Braburn in Kent, from 25 to 26 to the Scotch yew of Fortingal, and 14^ and 12 re¬ spectively to those of Crowhurst in Surrey and Ripon (Foun¬ tains Abbey) in Yorkshire.! Endlicher remarks that “another yew-tree in the churchyard of Grasford, North Wales, which measures more than 50 feet in girth below the branches, is more than 1400 years old, whilst one in Derbyshire is esti¬ mated at 2096 years. In Lithuania linden trees have been felled which measured 87 feet round, and in which 815 annular rings have been counted.”! In the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere some species of the Eucalyptus attain an enormous girth, and as they at the same time attain a height of nearly 250 feet, they afford a singular contrast to our yew trees, which are colossal only in thickness. Mr. Back¬ house found in Emu Bay, on the shore of Van Diemen's Land, * Cosmos , vol. ii. p. 662. (Bohn’s Edition.) f Decandolle, de la Longevity des Arbres, p. 65. Fine engravings of the venerable yew at Fortingal, Fountains Abbey, Ankerwyke, &c., will be found in Strutt’s magnificent work on forest trees. A very full account of the Yew-tree, with engravings, will also be found in Loudon’s A rboretum Britannicum. — Ed. X Endlicher, Grundzüge der Botanik , s. 399. T 274 YIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. Eucalyptus trunks which, with a circumference of 70 feet at the base, measured as much as 50 feet at a little more than 5 feet from the ground.^ It was not Malpighi, as has been generally asserted, but the intellectual Michel Montaigne, who had the merit of first showing, in 1581, in his Voyage en Italie, the relation that exists between the annual rings and the age of the tree.f An intelligent artisan, engaged in the preparation of astronomical instruments, first drew Montaigne's attention to the significance of the annual rings, asserting that the part of the trunk directed towards the north had narrower rings. Jean Jacques Rousseau entertained the same opinion ; and his Emile, when he loses himself in the forest, is made to direct his course in accord¬ ance with the deposition of the layers of wood. Recent phyto- anatomical observations^ teach us, however, that the acceleration of vegetation as well as the remission of growth, and the varying production of the circles of the ligneous bundles (annual deposits) from the cambium cells, depend oil other influences than position with respect to the quarter of the heavens. Trees which in the case of some examples attain a diameter of more than 20 feet, and an age of many centuries, belong to very different natural families. We may here instance Baobabs, Dragon trees, various species of Eucalyptus, Taxodium distichum, (Rich.,) Pinus Lambertiana, (Douglasii,) Hymenoca Courbaril, Ccesalpiniete, Bombax, Swietenia Maha¬ goni, the Banyan tree ( Ficus religiosa ), Liriodendron tuli- pifera(?), Platanus orientalis, and our Lindens, Oaks, and Yews. The celebrated Taxodium distichon, the Ahuahuete of the Mexicans ( Cupressus d is tic ha, Linn., Schuhertia disticha , Mirbel), of Santa Maria del Tule, in the State of Oaxaca, has not a diameter of 60 feet, as stated by Decandolle, but exactly 40^ feet.§ The two beautiful Ahuahuetes which I have frequently seen at Chapoltepec (growing in what was probably once a garden or pleasure ground of Montezuma) measure, according to the instructive account in Burkardt's * Gould, Birds of Australia, vol. i. Introd. p. xv. t* Adrien de Jussieu, Cours elementaire de Botanique, 1840, p. 61. + Kunth, Lehrbuch der Botanik, tli. i. 1847, s. 146, 164; Liudlev, Introduction to Botany, 2nd ed. p. 75. § Mühlenpfordt, Versuch einer getreuen Schilderung der Republik Mexico, bd. i. s. 153. ILLUSTKATIONS (12). GREAT AGE AND SIZE OF TREES. 275 travels (bd. i. s. 268) only 36 and 38 feet in circumference, and not in diameter, as has often been erroneously maintained. The Buddhists of Ceylon venerate the colossal trunk of the sacred fig-tree of Anurahdepura. The Banyan, which takes root by its branches, often attains a thickness of 30 feet, and forms, as Onesicritus truly expresses himself, a leafy roof resembling a many-pillared tent.-1' On the Bombax Ceiba see early notices from the time of Columbus in Bembo.f Among those oak trees which have been very accurately measured, the largest in Europe is undoubtedly the one near Saintes on the road to Cozes, in the Department de la Charente inferieure. This tree, which has an elevation of 64 feet, mea¬ sures very nearly 30 feet in diameter near the ground, while 5 feet higher up it is nearly 23 feet, and where the main branches begin more than 6 feet. A little room, from 1 0 feet 8 inches to 12 feet 9 inches in width and 9 feet 7 inches in height, has been cleared in the dead part of the trunk, and a semicircular bench cut within it from the green wood. A window gives light to the interior, and hence the walls of this little room, which is closed by a door, are gracefully clothed with ferns and lichens. From the size of a small piece of wood that had been cut out over the door, and in which two hundred ligneous rings were counted, the age of the oak of Saintes must be estimated at 1800 or 2000 years. J With respect to the rose-tree ( Rosa canina) reputed to be a thousand years old, which grows in the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, I learn from accurate information, based on authen¬ tic records, for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Stadt¬ gerichts-Assessor Römer, that the main stem only has an age of eight hundred years. A legend connects this rose-tree with a vow of the first founder of the cathedral, Louis the Pious ; and a document of the eleventh century says, “that when Bishop Hezilo rebuilt the cathedral, which had been burnt down, he enclosed the roots of the rose-tree within a vault still * Lassen, Indische Altherthumshunde, bd. i. s. 260. See an inte¬ resting account of the Banyan tree in Forbes’ Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 25 — 28. The tree there described (the famous Cubbeer-Burr ) comprises 350 large trunks and more than 3000 small ones, and extends over an area of several thousand feet. Milton alludes to the Banyan tree in his Paradise Lost, book ix. line 1100, &c. — Ed. f Historian Venetce, 1551, fol. 83. J Annates de la Societe d' Agriculture de la Rochelle, 1843, p. 380. t 2 276 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. remaining, raised on the latter the walls of the crypt, which was re-consecrated in 1061, and spread the branches of the rose-tree over its sides.” The stem, still living, is nearly 27 feet in height, and only 2 inches thick, and spreads across a width of 32 feet over the outer wall of the eastern crypt. It is undoubtedly of very considerable antiquity, and well worthy of the renown it has so long enjoyed throughout Germany. If excessive size, in point of organic development, may in general be regarded as a proof of a long protraction of life, special attention is due, among the thalassophytes of the sub¬ marine vegetable world, to a species of fucus, Macrocystis pyri- fera, Agardh ( Fucus yiyanteus). This marine plant attains, according to Captain Cook and George Forster, a length of 366 feet, and exceeds therefore the height of the loftiest Coniferous trees, not excepting Sequoia gigantea , Endl. ( Taxodium sem- pervirens , Hook, and Arnott) of California.* Captain Fitz-Roy has confirmed this statement.! Macrocystis pyrifera grows from 64° south lat. to 45° north lat., as far as the Bay of San Francisco on the north-west coast of the New Continent; indeed Joseph Hooker believes that this species of Fucus advances as far as Kamtschatka. In the waters of the Ant¬ arctic seas it is even seen floating between the pack-ice. J The cellular band and thread-like structures of the Macro¬ cystis (which are attached to the bottom of the sea by an adhesive organ resembling a claw) seem to be limited in their length by accidental disturbing causes alone. (13) p. 220 — “ Phanerogamic plants already recorded in herbariums .” Three questions must be carefully distinguished from one another : 1 . How many species of plants have been described in printed works? 2. How many of those discovered — that is to say included in herbariums — still remain undescribed? 3. How many species probably exist on the surface of the earth? Murray's edition of the Linmean system contains, including cryptogamic plants, only 10,042 species. Willde- now, in his edition of the Species Plantarum from 1797 to * Darwin, Journal of Researches into Nat. Hist., 1845, p. 239. t Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. ii. p. 363. X Flora Antarctica, p. vii, 1 and 178; and Camille Montagne, Beta - nique cryptogame da Voyage de laBonite , 1846, p. 36. ILLUSTRATIONS (13). EXTENT OE BOTANICAL SPECIES. 277 1807, lias described as many as 17,457 species of phanero¬ gamia, reckoning from Monandria to Polygamia dioecia. If to these we add 3000 species of crvptogamic plants, we shall bring the number as given by Willdenow to 20,000. More recent investigations have shown how far this estimate of the species described, and of those preserved in herbariums, falls short of the truth. Robert Brown*' first enumerated above 37,000 phanerogamia, and I at that time attempted to describe the distribution of 44,000 species of phanerogamic and cryptogamic plants, over the different portions of the world already explored. f Decandolle finds, on comparing Persoon's Enchiridium with his Universal System divided into twelve families, that more than 56,000 species of plants may be enumerated from the writings of botanists and European herbariums. | If we consider how many new species have been described by travellers since that time, (my expedition alone afforded 3600 of the 5800 collected species of equi¬ noctial plants), and if we bear in mind that there are assuredly upwards of 25.000 phanerogamic plants, cultivated in all the different botanical gardens, we shall soon see how much Decandolle’s estimate is below the truth. From our complete ignorance of the interior of South America (Mato-Grosso, Paraguay, the eastern declivity of the Andes, Santa-Cruz de la Sierra, and all the countries lying between the Orinoco, the Rio Negro, the Amazon, and Puruz), of Africa, of Madagascar, and Borneo, and of Central and Eastern Asia, the idea involuntarily presents itself to the mind that we are not yet acquainted with one third, or probably even with one fifth part of the plants existing on the earth. Drege has collected 7092 phanerogamic species in Southern Africa alone; and he believes that the flora of that region consists of more than 1 1 ,000 phanerogamic species, seeing that in Germany and Switzer¬ land, on an equal area (192,000 square miles,) Koch has described only 3300, and Decandolle only 3645 phanerogamia in France. 1 would here also instance the new genera, con¬ sisting partly of high forest trees, which are still being dis¬ covered in the neighbourhood of large commercial towns in the lesser Antilles, although they have been visited by Euro¬ peans for the last three hundred years. Such considerations, * General Remarks on the Botany of Terra Australis, p. 4. 4 Humboldt, de distributions geographica Plantarum, p. 23. + Essai elementaire de Geographie botanique , p. G2. 278 YIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OE PLANTS. which I purpose developing more fully at the close of this illustration, seem to verify the ancient myth of the Zend- Avesta, that “the creating primeval force called forth 120,000 vegetable forms from the sacred blood of the bull.” If therefore no direct scientific solution can be afforded to the question, how many vegetable forms — leafless crvptogamia (water algce, fungi, and lichens), characese, liverworts, folia- ceous mosses, marsilaceae, lycopodiaceoe, and ferns — exist on the dry land, and in the wide basin of the sea, in the present condition of the organic terrestrial life of our planet, it only remains for us to employ an approximative method for ascertain¬ ing with some degree of probability certain “extreme limits” (numerical data of minima). Since the year 1815, I have, in my arithmetical considerations on the geography of plants, calculated the numbers expressing the ratio which the aggre¬ gate of species of different natural families bears to the whole mass of the phanerogamia in those countries where the latter is sufficiently determined. Robert Brown,* the greatest botanist of our age, had, prior to my researches, already determined the numerical proportion of the principal divisions of vegetable forms, as for instance of acotyledons ( Agamce , cryptogamic or cellular plants) to cotyledons ( Phanerogamia , or vascular plants), and of monocotyledons ( Endogenes ) to dicotyledons ( Exogena i). lie finds the ratio of monocotyledons to dicotyle¬ dons in the tropical zone as in the proportion of 1 to 5, and in the frigid zone, in the parallels of 60J north, and 55° south lat. as 1 to 2^.f The absolute numbers of the species are compared together in the three great divisions of the vegetable kingdom, according to the method developed in Brown’s work. I was the first who passed from these principal divisions to the individual families, and considered the number of the species contained in each, in their ratio to the whole mass of phanerogamia belonging to one zone.| * Formerly librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, now President of the Linnman Society. — Ed. + Robert Brown, General remarks on the botany of Terra Australis , in Flinders' Voyage, vol. ii. p. 338. I Compare my essay, De distributione geographica Plantarum secundum codi temperiem et altitudmem montium, 1817, pp. 24 — 44; and see the further development of numerical relations as given by me in the Dictionnaire des Sciences naturelles, t. xviii. 1820, pp. 422 — 436; and in the Annul es de Chimie et de Physique, t. xvi. 1821* pp. 267—292. ILLUSTRATIONS (13). GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 279 The numerical relations of the forms of plants, and the laws observed in their geographical distribution, admit of being considered from two very different points of view. When we study plants in their arrangement according to natural fami¬ lies, without regard to their geographical distribution, the question arises: What are the fundamental forms or types of organization, in accordance with which the greater number of their species are formed ? Are there more Glumacece than Composite on the earth's surface? Do these two orders of plants combined, constitute one-fourth of the phanerogamia ? What numerical relation do monocotyledons bear to dicoty¬ ledons? These are questions of general phytology, a science that investigates the organization of plants and their mutual connection, and therefore has reference to the now existing state of vegetation. If, on the other hand, the species of plants that have been connected together according to their structural analogy, are considered not abstractedly, but in accordance with their climatic relations, and their distribution over the earth’s sur¬ face, these questions acquire a totally different interest. We then examine what families of plants predominate in the torrid zone more than towards the polar circle over other phanero¬ gamia? We inquire, whether the Composite are more nume¬ rous in the new than in the old world, under equal geogra¬ phical latitudes or between equal isothermal lines ? Whether the forms which gradually lose their predominance in advanc¬ ing from the equator to the poles, follow a similar law of decrease in ascending mountains situated in the equatorial region? Whether the relations of the different families to the whole mass of the phanerogamia differ under equal iso¬ thermal lines in the temperate zones on either side of the equator? These questions belong to the geography of plants properly so called, and are connected with the most important problems that can be presented by meteorology and terrestrial physics. Thus the predominance of certain families of plants determines the character of a landscape, and whether the aspect of the country is desolate or luxuriant, or smil¬ ing and majestic. Grasses, forming extended Savannahs, or the abundance of fruit-yielding palms, or social coniferous trees, have respectively exerted a powerful influence on the material condition, manners, and character of nations, and on the more or less rapid development of their prosperity. 280 VIEWS, See. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. In studying the geographical distribution of forms, we may consider the species, genera, and natural families of plants separately. A single species, especially among social plants, frequently covers an extensive tract of land. Thus we have in the north, Pine or Fir forests, and Heaths ( ericeto ); in Spain, Cistus groves : and in tropical America, collections of one and the same species of Cactus, Croton, Brathys, or Bam- busa Guadua. It is interesting to study more closely these relations of individual increase, and of organic development; and here we may inquire, what species produces the greatest number of individuals iu one certain zone; or, merely what are the families to which the predominating species belong in different climates. In a very high northern latitude, where the Compositor and the Ferns stand in the ratios of 1 : 13 and 1 : 25 to the sum of all the phanerogamia {i. c., where these ratios are found by dividing the sum total of all phanerogamia by the number of species included in the family of the Composite, or in that of the Ferns) ; one single species of Fern may, however, cover ten times more space than all the species of the Com¬ posite taken together. In this case the Ferns predominate over the Composite by their mass, and by the number of the individuals belonging to the same species of Pteris, or Poly¬ podium; but they will not be found to predominate, if we only compare the number of the different specific forms of the Filices, and of the Composite, with the sum total of all Phane¬ rogamia. As, therefore, multiplication of plants does not follow the same laws in all species, and as all do not produce an equal number of individuals, the quotients obtained by dividing the sum of all phanerogamic plants by the species of one family, do not alone determine the leading features impressed on the landscape, or the physiognomy of nature peculiar to different regions of the earth. If the attention of the travelling botanist be arrested by the frequent repetition of the same species, by its mass, and the uniformity of vegetation thus produced, it will be still more forcibly arrested by the infrequency of many other species useful to man. In tropical regions, where the Rubiaceco, Myrtles, Legnminosar, or Terebinthaceac, compose the forests, one is astonished to meet with so few trees of Cinchona, or of certain species of mahogany ( Swietema ), of Heematoxylon, Styrax, or balsamic Myroxylon. .1 would also here refer to the scanty and detached occurrence of the precious febrifuge-bark trees (species of Cinchona) ILLUSTRATIONS (13). CINCHONA-BARK HUNTERS. 281 ■which I had an opportunity of observing on the declivity of the elevated plains of Bogota and Popayan, and in the neigh¬ bourhood of Loxa, in descending towards the unhealthy valley of the Catamayo, and to the river Amazon. The febrifuge- bark hunters (Cazadores de Cascarilla), as those Indians and Mestizoes are called at Loxa, who each year collect the most efficacious of all the medicinal barks, the Cinchona Condaminea , among the lonely mountains of Caxanuma, Uritusinga, and Bumisitana, undergo considerable danger in climbing to the summits of the highest forest-trees, in order to obtain an extended view, from which they may distinguish the scattered, slender, and aspiring trunks of the Cinchona, by the reddish tint of their large leaves. The mean temperature of this important forest region (between 4° and 4|° south lat.) varies from 60u to 68° Fahr., at an absolute height of from 6400 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea.* In considering the distribution of species, we may also, independently of individual multiplication and mass, compare together the absolute number which belong to each family. Such a mode of comparison, which was employed by Decan- dolle,f has been extended by Kunth to more than 3300 of the species of Composite with which we are at present acquainted. It does not show what family preponderates by individual mass, or by the number of its species, over other phanerogamic forms, but it simply indicates how many of the species of one and the same family are indigenous in any one country or portion of the earth. The results of this method are, on the whole, more exact, because they are obtained by a careful study of the separate families, without requiring that the whole number of the phanerogamia of every country should be known. Thus, for instance, the most varied forms of Ferns are found in the tropical zone, each genus presenting the greatest number of species in the temperate, humid, and shaded mountainous parts of islands. While these species are less numerous in passing from tropical regions to the temperate zone, their absolute nmnber diminishes still more in approach¬ ing nearer to the poles. Although the frigid zone, as, for instance, Lapland, supports species of the families which are * Humboldt et Bonpland, Plantes equinoxiales, t. i. p. 33, tab. 10. f See his work, Regni Vegetabilis Systema naturale, t. i. pp. 128, 396, 439, 464, 510. 282 TIE WS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS best able to resist the cold, Ferns predominate more over other phanerogamia in Lapland than either in France or Germany, notwithstanding the absolute inferiority of the gross number of ferns indigenous to the northern zone, when compared with other countries. These relations are, in France and Germany, as and yT, while in Lapland they are as yk-. These numerical relations (obtained by dividing the sum total of all the phanerogamia of the different floras by the species of each family) were published by me in 1817, in my Prolegomena de distributione geographica Plantarum , and corrected in accordance with the great works of Robert Brown, in my Essay on the Distribution of Plants over the earth's surface, which I subsequently wrote in French. These relations, as we advance from the equator towards the poles, necessarily vary from the ratios obtained by a comparison of the absolute number of the different species belonging to each family. We often see the value of the fractions increase by the decrease of the denominator, whilst the absolute number of the species is reduced. In the fractional method which I have followed as the most applicable to questions relating to the geography of plants, there are two variable quantities ; for in passing from one isothermal line to another, we do not find the sum total of the phanerogamia change in the same propor¬ tion as the number of the species of one particular family. In proceeding from the consideration of these species to that of the divisions established in the natural system accord- V ing to an ideal series of abstractions, we may direct our attention to genera or races, to families, or even to still higher classes of division. There are some genera, and even whole families, which exclusively belong to certain zones ; not merely because they can only thrive under a special combination of climatic relations, but also because they first sprang up within very circumscribed localities, and have been checked in their migrations. The larger number of genera and families have, however, their representatives in all regions of the earth, and at all elevations. The earliest inquiries into the distri¬ bution of vegetable forms had reference to genera alone, and are to be found in the valuable work of Treviranus.* This method is, however, less appropriate for yielding general results, than that which compares the number of the species of * Biologie , bd. ii. s. 47, 63, 83, 129. ILLUSTRATIONS (13). DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 283 each family, or the great leading divisions (acotyledons, mono¬ cotyledons, and dicotyledons) , with the sum total of the phanero- gamia. In the frigid zone, the variety of forms, or the number of the genera, does not decrease- in an equal degree with that of the species, there being in these regions relatively more genera and fewer species.*1 The case is almost the same on the summits of high mountain-chains, where are sheltered individual members of many different genera which one would be disposed to regard as belonging exclusively to the vegetation of the plain. I have deemed it expedient to indicate the different points of view from which the laws of the distribution of vegetable forms may be considered. It is only when these points of view are confounded together, that we meet with contradic¬ tions, which have been unjustly attributed to uncertainty of observation.! When expressions like the following are em¬ ployed: “This form, or this family diminishes as it approaches towards the cold zone,” or “the true habitat of this form is in such or such a parallel of latitude;” or “this is a southern form,” or, again, “it predominates in the temperate zone;” it should be definitely stated whether reference is made to the absolute number of the species, and the proportion of their predominance according to the increase or decrease of lati¬ tude; or whether the meaning conveyed is, that a family, when compared with the whole number of the plianerogamia of a flora, predominates over other families of plants. The impression conveyed to the mind of the predominance of forms, depends literally on the conception of relative quantity. Terrestrial physics have their numerical elements as well as the cosmical system, and it is only by the united labours of botanical travellers that we can hope gradually to arrive at a knowledge of the laws which determine the geogra¬ phical and climatic distribution of vegetable forms. I have already observed that in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, the Composite (^Synanthereae) and the Glumaceae (in which latter division I place the three families of the Gramme ae, the Cyperoideae, and the Juncaceae) constitute the fourth part of all plianerogamia. The following numerical * Decandolle, Theorie elem.entairc de la Botanique, p. 190; Hum¬ boldt, Nova genera et species Plantarum , t. i. pp. xvii. 1. •f- Jahrbücher der Gewächskunde, bd. i. Berlin, 1818, s. 18, 21, 3d, 284 YIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. relations are the result of my investigations for seven great families of the vegetable kingdom in one and the same tem¬ perate zone: Glumaceae 1 (Grasses alone -1-) Composite ± Leguminosae -1- Labiatae _L. 2 4 Umbelliferse _1_ 4 o Amentaceee (Cupuliferte, Betulinece, and Salicinece) A_. Cruciferae — L. The forms of organic beings are reciprocally dependent on one another. Such is the unity of nature, that these forms limit each other in obedience to laws which are probably con¬ nected with long periods of time. When we have ascertained the number of the species on any particular part of the earth’s surface belonging to one of the great families of the Glumacem, the Leguminoscc, or the Composite, we may with some degree of probability, form approximative con¬ clusions regarding the number of all the phanerogamia, as well as of the species belonging to the other families of plants growing in the country. The number of the Cy- peroidese determines that of the Composite, and the number of the latter determines that of the Leguminoste; and these estimates, moreover, enable us to ascertain in what classes and orders the Floras of a country are still incomplete, teaching us what harvests may still be reaped in the respective families, if we guard against confounding together very different systems of vegetation. The comparison of the numerical proportions of families in the different zones which have as yet been well explored, has led me to a knowledge of the laws which determine the nu¬ merical increase or decrease of vegetable forms constituting a natural family, in proceeding from the equator to the poles, when compared, for instance, with the whole mass of phane¬ rogamia peculiar to each zone. We must here have regard not only to the direction, but also to the rapidity or measure of the increase. We see the denominator of the fraction, which expresses the ratio, increase or diminish. Thus, for instance, the beautiful family of the Leguminosae diminishes ILLUSTRATIONS (13). RATIO OF DISTRIBUTION. 285 in proportion as it recodes from the equinoctial zone to the north pole. If we find its ratio for the torrid zone (from 0° to 10° of latitude) y1^-, we shall have for the part of the tem¬ perate zone (lying between 45° and 52°) y1^, and for the frigid zone (between 67° and 70° lat.) only y*y. The direction followed by the great family of the Leguminosce (viz., increase towards the equator) is also that of the llubiacecc, the Euphor- biaccm, and especially the Malvaceae. On the other hand, the Gramineee and the Juncacese (the latter more than the former), the Ericeac, and Amentaceae, diminish towards the torrid zone. The Composite, Labiatce, Umbelliferae, and Cruci ferae, diminish from the temperate zone towards the pole and the equator, and the two latter families most rapidly in the direction of the equatorial region; whilst in the temperate zone the Cruciferae are three times more abundant in Europe than in the United States of North America. In Greenland the Labiates are reduced to only one species, and the Umbel- lifcras to two, while the whole number of the phanerogamia still amounts, according to Ilornemann, to 315 species. It must at the same time be observed that the development of plants of different families, and the distribution of their forms, do not depend alone on the geographical, or even on the isothermal latitude ; the quotients not being always equal on one and the same isothermal line in the temperate zone, as for instance in the plains of America and in those of the Old Continent. Within the tropics there is a very marked differ¬ ence between America, the East Indies, and the western coast of Africa. The distribution of organic beings over the surface of the earth does not depend solely on the great complication of thermic and climatic relations, but also on geological causes which continue almost wholly unknown to us, since they have been produced by the original condition of the earth, and by catastrophes which have not affected all parts of our planet simultaneously. The large pachydermata are no longer found in the New Continent, while they still exist under analogous climates in Asia and Africa. These differences, instead of deterring us from the investigation of the laws of nature, should rather stimulate us to study them in all their intricate modifications. The numerical laws of families, the frequently striking agreement between the ratios, where the species constituting 286 VIEWS, &.C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. these families are for the most part different, lead us into that mysterious obscurity which envelopes everything connected with the fixing of organic types in the different species of animals and plants, and with all that refers to formation and development. I will take as examples two neighbour¬ ing countries — France and Germany — which have both been long since explored. In France many species of Gramineoe, Umbelliferse, Cruciferm, Composite, Lcguminoscc, and Labiatse are wanting, which are some of the commonest in Germany, and yet the ratios of these six large families are almost iden¬ tical in both countries. Their relations, which I here give, are as follows: Families. Gramineae. Umbelliferae. Cruciferas. Compositae. Leguminosae. Labiatax This correspondence in the number of species of one family compared to the whole mass of the phanero- gamia of Germany and France would not exist, if the absent German species were not replaced in France by other types of the same families. Those who delight in con¬ jectures respecting the gradual transformation of species, and who regard the different parrots, peculiar to islands situated near each other, as merely transformed species, will ascribe the remarkable uniformity presented by the above numerical ratios to a migration of the same species, which having been altered by climatic influences, continuing for thousands of years, appear to replace each other. But why have our common Fleath, (Calluna vulgaris,) and our Oaks not penetrated to the east of the Ural Mountains, and passed from Europe to northern Asia? Why is there no species of the genus Rosa in the southern, and scarcely any Calceolaria in the northern hemisphere? These are points that cannot be explained by peculiarities of temperature. The present distribution of forms (fixed forms of organization) is no more explained by thermal relations alone, than by the Germany. France l l 1 3 .... 1 3 l l 2 2 .... 2 1 1 l 1 8 19 1 1 8 .... fj- I 1 1 8 T 379 ILLUSTRATIONS (3). DEPTHS OF SPRINGS. strata of the Rocca clel Palo actually rise, we must assume that they are upheaved from below by volcanic forces. My learned and indefatigable friend, Oltmanns, has pub¬ lished the details of all these measurements with critical remarks.^ Would that this work might incite geognosists to enter upon a series of hypsometric observations, by which, in the course of time, Vesuvius, which is, excepting Strom¬ boli, the most accessible of all European volcanos, may be thoroughly understood in all periods of its development. (2) p. 371 — “ At elevations where the pressure is less." Compare Leopold von Buch on the Peak of Teneriffe, in his Physikalische Beschreibung der canarischen Inseln , 1825, s. 213, and in the Abhandlungen der Iconigl. Akademie zu Berlin , aus den J. 1820 — 21, s. 99. (3) p. 373 — “ Springs which rise from different depths'." Compare Arago in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes pour 1835, p. 234. The increase of the temperature is in our latitudes 1° Fahr, for nearly every 54 feet. In the Artesian boring at the New Salt-works (Oeynhausen’s Bath) near Minden, which is the greatest known depth that has been reached below the surface of the sea, the temperature of the water at 2231 feet, is fully 91° Fahrenheit, whilst the mean upper temperature of the air may be assumed at 49° *3 Fahr. It is very remarkable that, even in the third century, Saint Patricius, bishop of Pertusa, should have been led, from the thermal springs near Carthage, to form a very correct view of such an increase of heat.t * See Abhandl. der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Jahr 1822 und 1823, s. 3—20. f Acta S. Pcitricii, p. 555, ed. Ruinart; Cosmos, vol. i. p. 220, (Bohn’s edition). VITAL FORCE, or THE RHODIAN GENIUS. The Syracusans, like the Athenians, had their Poecile, where representations of gods and heroes, the works of Grecian and Italian art, adorned the richly decorated halls of the Portico. Incessantly the people streamed thither; the young warrior to feast his eyes upon the deeds of his fore¬ fathers, the artist to contemplate the works of the great masters. Among the numerous paintings which the active enterprise of the Syracusans had collected from the mother country, there was but one which for full a century had con¬ tinued to attract the attention of every visitor. Even when the Olympian Jupiter, Cecrops, the founder of cities, and the heroic courage of Harmodius and Aristogiton, failed to attract admirers, a dense crowd still pressed round this one picture. Whence this preference ? Was the painting a rescued work of Apelles, or did it bear the impress of the school of Callimachus: No! although it possessed both grace and beauty, yet neither in the blending of the colours, nor in the character and style of its composition, could it be com¬ pared with many other paintings in the Poecile. The crowd — and how numerous are the classes included in this denomination — ever admires and wonders at what it does not understand ! For more than a century had that painting been publicly exhibited, and yet, although Syracuse contained within its narrow limits more artistic genius than all the * A Portico in Athens containing a picture gallery painted chiefly by Polygnotus, with the assistance of Micon and Pansenus. Zeno taught his doctrines there, and was in consequence called the Stoic, from stoa, a portico, and his school the Stoic-school. — Ed. THE RHODIAN GENIUS. 381 rest of sea-girt Sicily, the riddle of its meaning still remained unsolved. It was not even known to what temple it had formerly belonged, for it had been saved from a stranded vessel, which was only conjectured, from the freight it carried, to have come from Rhodes. The foreground of the picture was occupied by a numerous group of youths and maidens, whose uncovered limbs, although well formed, were not cast in that slender mould which we so much admire in the statues of Praxiteles and Alcamenes. The fuller development of their limbs, which bore indications of laborious exercise, — the human expression of passion and of care stamped on their features, — all seemed to divest them of a heavenly or God-like type, and to fix them as creatures of the earth. Their hair was simply adorned with leaves and wild flowers. Their arms were extended towards each other with impassioned longing, but their earnest and mournful gaze was rivetted on a Genius, who, surrounded by a brilliant halo, hovered in the midst of the group. On his shoulder was a butterfly, and in his right hand he held aloft a flaming torch. His limbs were moulded with child-like grace; his eye radiant with celestial light. He looked imperiously upon the youths and maidens at his feet. No other characteristic traits could be distinguished in the picture. Some, however, thought they could perceive at his foot the letters C and f , and as antiquarians were then no less bold than they are non', they inferred, though far from happily, that the artist was called Zenodorus, the name borne at a later date by the modeller of the Colossus of Rhodes. “The Rhodian Genius,” for so this mysterious painting was called, did not however want for interpreters in Syra¬ cuse. Virtuosi, especially the younger of them, on their return from a flying visit to Corinth or Athens, would have deemed themselves deficient in all pretensions to connoisseur- ship, had they not immediately advanced some new explanation. Some regarded the Genius as the personification of spiritual 382 VIEWS OE NATURE. Love, forbidding tlie enjoyment of sensual pleasures; others were of opinion that the dominion of Reason over the Passions was here signified. The wiser preserved silence, and while they conjectured that the painting was intended to represent something of a sublimer character, delighted to linger in the Poecile to admire the simple composition of the group. The question continued to remain undecided. Copies of the painting, with various additions, were sent to Greece, but without eliciting any explanation respecting its origin. At length, however, when at the early rising of the Pleiades the JEgean Sea was again opened to navigation, ships from Rhodes entered the port of Syracuse. They contained a treasure of statues, altars, candelabras, and pictures, which a love of art had caused the Dionysii to collect in Greece. Among the paintings there was one which was instantly recognised as the companion to the u Rhodian Genius.” It was of the same size, and exhibited a similar tone cf colouring, although in a better state of preservation. The Genius stood as before in the centre, but without the butterfly ; his head was drooping, his torch extin¬ guished and reversed. The group of youths and maidens thronged simultaneously around him in mutual embrace ; their looks were no longer sad and submissive, but announced a wild emancipation from restraint, and the gratification of long-nourished passion. The Syracusan antiquaries had already begun to accommo¬ date their former explanations of the “Rhodian Genius” to the newly arrived painting, when the Tyrant ordered it to be conveyed to the house of Epicharmus. This philosopher of the school of Pythagoras dwelt in the remote part of Syracuse called Tyche. He seldom visited the court of the Dionysii, not but that learned men from all the Greek colonies as¬ sembled there, but because proximity to princes is apt to rob the most intellectual of their spirit and freedom. He occu¬ pied himself unceasingly in studying the nature of things and THE HHODIAN GENIUS. 383 their forces, the origin of plants and animals, and those harmonious laws by which the celestial bodies on a large, and the snow-flake and the hail-stone on a small scale, assume a globular form. Decrepid with age, he caused himself to be carried daily to the Poecile, and thence to the harbour of Nasos, where, as he said, the wide ocean presented to his eye an image of the Boundless and the Infinite, which his mind strove in vain to comprehend. lie was honoured alike by the lower classes and by the tyrant, but he avoided the latter, while he joyfully cultivated and often assisted the former. Epichannus lay weak and exhausted on his couch, when the newly arrived work of art was brought to him by the command of Dionysius. He was furnished at the same time with a faithful copy of the “Rhodian Genius,” and the philosopher now caused both paintings to be placed before him. He gazed on them long and earnestly, then called together his scholars, and in accents of emotion thus addressed them : “ Itemovc the curtain from the window, that I mav once more feed my eyes with the sight of the richly animated and living earth. Sixty years long have I pondered on the inter¬ nal springs of nature and on the differences inherent in matter, but it is only this day that the ‘ Rhodian Genius ’ has taught me to see clearly that which before I had only conjectured. While the difference of sexes in all living beings beneficently binds them together in prolific union, the crude matters of inorganic nature are impelled by like instincts. Even in the darkness of chaos, matter was accumulated or separated according as affinity or antagonism attracted or repelled its various parts. The celestial fire follows the metals, the magnet, the iron ; amber when rubbed attaches light bodies ; earth blends with earth ; salt separates from the waters of the sea and joins its like, while the acid moisture of the siypteria [(7TV7rTT]p[a yypd ) and the fleecy salt Trichitis, love the clay of Melos. Everything in inanimate nature hastens to associate 384 VIEWS OF NATURE. itself with its like. No earthly element (and who will dare to class light as such?) can therefore be found in a pure and virgin state. Everything as soon as formed hastens to enter into new combinations, and nought, save the disjoining art of man, can present in a separate state ingredients which ye would vainly seek in the interior of the earth, or in the moving oceans of air and water. In dead inorganic matter absolute repose prevails as long as the bonds of affinity remain unsevered, and as long as no third substance intrudes to blend itself with the others ; but even after this disturbance unfruitful repose soon again succeeds. “ Different, however, is the blending of the same substances in animal and vegetable bodies. Here vital force imperatively asserts its rights, and, heedless of the affinity and antagonism of the atoms asserted by Democritus, unites substances which in inanimate nature ever flee from each other, and separates that which is incessantly striving to unite. “ Draw nearer to me, my disciples, and recognise in the ‘ Rhodian Genius,’ in the expression of his youthful vigour, in the butterfly on his shoulder, in the commanding glance of his eye, the symbol of vital force as it animates every germ of organic creation. The earthly elements at his feet are striving to gratify their own desires and to mingle with one another. Imperiously the Genius threatens them with up¬ raised and high-flaming torch, and compels them, regardless of their ancient rights, to obey his laws. “Look now on the new work of art which the Tyrant has sent me to explain ; and turn your eyes from the picture of life to the picture of death. The butterfly has soared up¬ wards, the extinguished torch is reversed, and the head of the youth is drooping. The spirit has fled to other spheres, and the vital force is extinct. Now the youths and maidens join their hands in joyous accord. Earthly matter again resumes its rights. Released from all bonds they impe¬ tuously follow their sexual instincts, and the day of his death THE RHODIAN GENIUS. 385 is to them a day of nuptials. — Thus dead matter, animated by vital force, passes through a countless series of races, and perchance enshrines in the very substance in which of old a miserable worm enjoyed its brief existence, the divine spirit of Pythagoras. “Go, Polycles, and tell the Tyrant what thou hast heard! And ye, my beloved, Euryphamos, Lysis, and Scopas, come nearer — and yet nearer to me! I feel that the faint vital force within me can no longer retain in subjection the earthly matter, which now reclaims its freedom. Lead me once more to the Poecile, and thence to the wide sea-shore. Soon will ye collect my ashes.” * The very same idea is expressed in Schiller’s Wall: under the Linden Trees. — Ed. 386 VIEWS, &C. THE EJIODIAN GENIUS. ILLUSTRATION AND NOTE. In the Preface to the Second and Third Editions of this work (See preliminary pages of this translation) I have already noticed the republication of the preceding tale, which was first printed in Schiller's Horen (for the year 1795, part 5, pages 90 — 96). It embodies the development of a physiological idea in a semi-mythical garb. In the year 1793, in the Latin Aphorisms from the Chemical Physiology of Plants , appended to my Subterranean Flora , I had defined the vital force as the unknown cause which prevents the elements from following their original attractive forces. The first of my aphorisms ran thus: — “Rerum naturam si totam consideres, magnum atque durabile, quod inter elementa intercedit, discrimen perspicies, quorum altera affinitatum legibus obtemperantia, altera, vin- culis solutis, varie juncta apparent. Quod quidem discrimen in elementis ipsis eorumque indole neutiquam positum, quum ex sola distributione singulorum petendum esse videatur. Materiam segnem, brutam, inanimam earn vocamus, cujus stamina secundum leges chymicce affinitatis mixta sunt. Animata atque organica ea potissimum corpora appellamus, quae, licet in novas mutari formas perpetuo tendant, vi interna quadam continentur, quominus priscam sibique insitam for- mam relinquant. “Vim internam, quae chymicse affinitatis vincula resolvit, atque obstat, quominus elementa corporum libere conjun- gantur, vitalem vocamus. Itaque nullum certius mortis criterium putredine datur, qua primae partes vel stamina rerum, antiquis juribus revocatis, affinitatum legibus parent. Corporum inanimorum nulla putredo esse potest.”*' * See Aphorismi ex doctrina Physiologic chemicce Plantarum, in Humboldt , Flora Fribergensis subterranea, 1 793, pp. 133 — 136. Trans¬ lation ; — “If you attentively consider the whole nature of things, you will discover a great and permanent difference amongst elements, some of which obeying the laws of affinity, others independent, appear in various combinations. This difference is by no means inherent in the elements themselves and in their nature, but seems to be derived solely from their particular distribution. We call that matter inert, brute, and ILLUSTRATION (*). TITAL FORCES. 387 These opinions, against which the acute Vicq d’Azyr has protested in his Traite d' Anatomie, vol. i. p. 5, but which are still entertained by many eminent persons among my friends, I have placed in the mouth of Epicharmus. Reflec¬ tion and prolonged study in the departments of physiology and chemistry have deeply shaken my earlier belief in pe¬ culiar, so-called vital forces. In the year 1797, at the con¬ clusion of my Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nerven¬ faser , nebst Vermuthungen über den chemischen Process des Lebens in der Thier- und Pflanzenwelt (vol. ii. pp. 430 — 436), I already declared that I by no means regarded the existence of these peculiar vital forces as established. Since that period I have not applied the term peculiar forces to that which may possibly be produced only by the combined action of the separate already long known substances and their material forces. We may, however, deduce a more certain definition of animate and inanimate substances from the chemical rela¬ tions of the elements, than can be derived from the criteria of voluntary movement, the circulation of fluid in solid parts, and the inner appropriation and fibrous arrangement of the elements. I call that substance animate “whose volun¬ tarily separated parts change their composition after separation has taken place, the former external relations still continuing the same.” This definition is merely the expression of a fact. The equilibrium of the elements is maintained in animate matter by virtue of their being parts of one whole. One organ determines another, one gives to another the tem¬ perature, the tone as it were, in which these, and no other affinities operate. Thus in organisation all is reciprocal, means and end. The rapidity with which organic parts change their compound state, when separated from a complex of living organs, differs greatly according to the degree of inanimate, the particles of which are combined according to the laws of chemical affinity. On the other hand, we call those bodies animate and organic, which, although constantly manifesting a tendency to assume new forms, are restrained by some internal force from relinquishing that originally assigned them. That internal force, which dissolves the bonds of chemical affinity, and prevents the elements of bodies from freely uniting, we call vital. Accordingly, the most certain criterion of death is putrescence, by which the first parts, or stamina of things, resume their pristine state, and obey the laws of affinity. In inanimate bodies there can be no putrescence.” 2 c 2 388 VIEWS, bcc. THE KHODIAN GENIUS. their dependence, and the nature of the component materials. The blood of animals, which is variously modified in the different classes, undergoes a change earlier than the juices of plants. Fungi generally decompose more rapidly than the leaves of trees ; and muscle more readily than the cutis. Bone, the elementary structure of which has only been understood of late years, the hair of animals, the ligneous part of vegetable substances, the shells or husks of fruit, and the feathery calix ( pappus ) of plants, are not inorganic and devoid of life; but approximate, even in life, to the condition which they manifest after their separation from the rest of the organism. The higher the degree of vitality or irritability of an animate substance, the more striking or rapid will be the change in its compound state after separation. “The aggregate of the cells is an organism, and the organism lives as long as its parts continue actively sub¬ servient to the whole. Considered antithetically to inanimate nature, the organism appears to be self-determining. The difficulty of satisfactorily referring the vital phenomena of organism to physical and chemical laws, depends chiefly (and almost in the same manner as the prediction of meteorological processes in the atmosphere) on the complication of the phenomena, and on the great number of the simultaneously acting forces, as well as the conditions of their activity. I have faithfully adhered in the Cosmos to the same mode of representing and considering the so-called vital forces, and affinities,! the formative impulse and the principle of organising activity. I there wrote as follows:! “The mythical ideas long entertained of the imponderable substances, and vital forces, peculiar to each mode of organization, have com¬ plicated our views generally, and shed an uncertain light on the path we ought to pursue. “The most various forms of intuition have thus, asm after age, aided in augmenting the prodigious mass of empirical knowledge, which in our own day has been enlarged with ever-increasing rapidity. The investigating spirit of man * Henle, Allgemeine Anatomie, 1841, pp. 216 — 219. i* Pulteney Alison, in tlie Transact, of the Royal Roc. oj Edinburgh , vol. xvi. p. 305. X Cosmos, vol. i. p. 58. (Bohn's Edition.) ILLUSTRATIONS YITAL FORCES. 389 strives, from time to time, with varying success, to break through those ancient forms and symbols invented to subject rebellious matter to rules of mechanical construc¬ tion.” Further in the same work,' * I have said, “It must, how- over, be remembered, that the inorganic crust of the earth contains within it the same elements that enter into the structure of animal and vegetable organs. A physical cosmo¬ graphy would therefore be incomplete, if it were to omit a consideration of these forces, and of the substances which enter into solid and fluid combinations in organic tissues, under conditions which, from our ignorance of their actual nature, we designate by the vague term of vital forces , and group into various systems, in accordance with more or less per¬ fectly conceived analogies.”! * Vol. i. p. 349. (Bohn’s Edition.) i- Compare also the critique on the acceptation of special vital forces in Schleiden’s Botanik als inductive Wissenschaft, part i. pp. 60, and the lately published and admirable treatise of Emil du Bois-Reymond, Untersuchungen über thierische Eiektricität, vol. i. pp. xxxiv — 1. THE PLATEAU, OR TABLE-LAND, ÖF CAXAMARCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA, AND THE FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, From the Ridge of the Andes. After having sojourned for a whole year on the ridge of the Andes, or Antis, (1), between 4° north and 4° south latitude, amidst the table-lands of New Granada, Pastos, and Quito, and consequently at an elevation varying between 8500 and 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, it is delightful to descend gradu¬ ally through the more genial climate of the Cinchona or Quina Woods of Loxa, into the plains of the Upper Amazon. There an unknown world unfolds itself, rich in magnificent vegetation. The little town of Loxa has given its name to the most effi¬ cacious of all fever barks, — the Quina, or the Cascarilla fina de Loxa. This bark is the precious produce of the tree, which we have botanically described as the Cinchona Conda- minea ; but which, (from the erroneous supposition that all the Cinchona known in commerce was obtained from one and the same tree,) had previously been called Cinchona officinalis. The fever bark first became known, in Europe, about the middle of the seventeenth century. Sebastian Badus affirms, that it was brought to Alcala de Henares in the year 1632; but according to other accounts, it was brought to Madrid in 1640, when the Countess de Chinchon (2), the wife of the Peru- THE PLATEAU OE CAXAMARCA. 391 vian Viceroy, arrived from Lima, (where she had been cured of an intermittent fever,) accompanied by her physician, Juan del Vego. The finest kind of Cinchona is obtained at the distance of from eight to twelve miles southward of the town of Loxa, among the mountains of Uritusinga, Villonaco, and Rumisitana. The trees which yield this bark grow on mica slate and gneiss, at the moderate elevations of 5755 and 7673 feet above the level of the sea, nearly corresponding, respectively, with the heights of the Hospital on the Grimsel, and the Pass of the Great St. Bernard. The Cinchona Woods in these parts are bounded by the little rivulets Zamora and Cachyacu. The tree is felled in its first flowering season, or about the fourth or seventh year of its growth, according as it may have been reared from a strong shoot or from seed. At the time of my journey in Peru we learned, with surprise, that the quantity of the Cinchona Condaminea annually obtained at Loxa by the Cascarilla gatherers, or Quina hunters ( Casca- rilleros and Cagadores de Quina) , amounted only to 110 hun¬ dred weight. At that time none of this valuable product found its way into commerce ; all that was obtained was ship¬ ped at Payta, a port of the Pacific, and conveyed round Cape Horn to Cadiz, for the use of the Spanish Court. To procure the small supply of 11,000 Spanish pounds, no less than 800 or 900 Cinchona trees were cut down every year. The older and thicker stems are becoming more and more scarce ; but, such is the luxuriance of growth, that the younger trees, which now supply the demand, though measuring only six inches in diameter, frequently attain the height of from 53 to 64 feet. This beautiful tree, which is adorned with leaves five inches long and two broad, seems, when growing in the thick woods,, as if striving to rise above its neighbours. The upper branches spread out, and when agitated by the wind the leaves have a peculiar reddish colour and glistening appearance which is distinguishable at a great distance. The mean temperature of 392 VIEWS OF NATURE. the woods of the Cinchona Condaminea varies between 60° and 66° Fahrenheit; that is to say, about the mean annual temperature of Florence and the Island of Madeira: but the extremes of heat and cold experienced at those points of the temperate zone, are never felt in the vicinity of Loxa. How¬ ever, comparisons between climates in very different degrees of latitude, and the climate of the table-lands of the tropical zone, must, from their very nature, be unsatisfactory. Descending from the mountain node of Loxa, south-south¬ east, into the hot valley of the Amazon Fiver, the traveller passes over the Paramos of Chulucanas, Guamani, and Yamoca. These Paramos are the mountainous deserts, which have been mentioned in another portion of the present work; and which, in the southern parts of the Andes, are known by the name of Puna, a word belonging to the Quichua language. In most places, their elevation is about 10,125 feet. They are stormy, frequently enveloped for several successive days in thick fogs, or visited by terrific hail-storms; the hail-stones being not only of different forms, generally much flattened by rota¬ tion, but also run together into thin floating plates of ice called papa-cara, which cut the face and hands in their fall. During this meteoric process, I have sometimes known the thermometer to sink to 48° and even 43° Fahrenheit, and the electric tension of the atmosphere, measured by the voltaic electrometer, has changed, in the space of a few minutes, from positive to negative. When the temperature is below 43° Fahrenheit, snow falls in large flakes, scattered widely apart; but it disappears after the lapse of a few hours. The short thin branches of the small leaved myrtle-like shrubs, the large size and luxuriance of the blossoms, and the perpetual freshness caused by the absorption of the moist atmosphere — all impart a peculiar aspect and character to the treeless vegetation of the Paramos. No zone of Alpine vegetation, whether in temperate or cold climates, can be compared with that of the Paramos in the tropical Andes. THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 393 The solemn impression which is felt on beholding the deserts of the Cordilleras, is increased in a remarkable and unexpected manner, by the circumstance that in these very regions there still exist wonderful remains of the great road of the Incas, that stupendous work by means of which, com¬ munication was maintained among all the provinces of the empire along an extent of upwards of 1000 geographical miles. On the sides of this road, and nearly at equal distances apart, there are small houses, built of well-cut free¬ stone. These buildings, which answered the purpose of sta¬ tions, or caravanseries, are called Tambos, and also Inca- Filca, (from Pircca, the Wall). Some are surrounded by a sort of fortification; others were destined for baths, and had arrangements for the conveyance of warm water : the larger ones were intended exclusively for the family of the sovereign. At the foot of the volcano Cotopaxi, near Callo, I had pre¬ viously seen buildings of the same kind in a good state of pre¬ servation. These I accurately measured, and made drawings from them. Pedro de Cie^a, who wrote in the sixteenth cen¬ tury, calls these structures Aposentos de Mulalo (3). The pass of the Andes, lying between Alausi and Loxa, called the Paramo del Assuay, a much frequented route across the Ladera de Cadlud, is at the elevation of 15,526 feet above the level of the sea, and consequently almost at the height of Mont Blanc. As we were proceeding through this pass, we expe¬ rienced considerable difficulty in guiding our heavily laden mules over the marshy ground on the level height of the Pullal ; but whilst we journeyed onward for the distance of about four miles, our eyes were continually rivetted on the grand remains of the Inca Hoad, upwards of 20 feet in breadth. This road had a deep under-structure, and was paved with well- hewn blocks of black trap porphyry. None of the Roman roads which I have seen in Italy, in the south of France and in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of 394 VIEWS OF NATURE. the ancient Peruvians ; and the Inca road is the more extra¬ ordinary, since, according to my barometrical calculations, it is situated at an elevation of 13,258 feet above the level of the sea, a height exceeding that of the summit of the Peak of TenerifFe by upwards of 1000 feet. At an equal elevation, are the ruins said to be those of the palace of the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, and known by the name of the Paredones del Inca, situated on the Assuay. From these ruins the Inca road, running southward in the direction of Cuenca, leads to the small but well-preserved fortress of the Cafiar (4), probably belonging to the same period, viz. : the reign of Tupac Yupanqui, or that of his warlike son Huayna Capac. We saw still grander remains of the ancient Peruvian Inca road, on our way between Loxa and the Amazon, near the baths of the Incas on the Paramo of Chulucanas, not far from Guancabamba, and also in the vicinity of Ingatambo, near Pomahuaca. The ruins at the latter place are situated so low, that I found the difference of level between the Inca road at Pomahuaca, and that in the Paramo del Assuay, to be upwards of 9700 feet. The distance in a direct line, as deter¬ mined by astronomical latitudes, is precisely 184 miles; and the ascent of the road is about 3730 feet greater than the elevation of the Pass of Mont Cenis, above the Lake of Como. There are two great causeways, paved with flat stones, and in some places covered with cemented gravel (5), on Macadam’s plan. One of these lines of road runs through the broad and barren plain lying between the sea-coast and the chain of the Andes, whilst the other passes along the ridge of the Cordilleras. Stones, marking the distances at equal intervals, are frequently seen. The rivulets and ravines were crossed by bridges of three kinds ; some being of stone, some of wood, and others of rope. These bridges are called by the Peruvians, Puentes de Hamaca, or Puentes THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 395 de Maroma. There were also aqueducts for conveying water to the Tambos and fortresses. Both lines of road were directed to Cuzco, the central point and capital of the great Peruvian empire, situated in 13° 31' south lat., and according to Pentland’s Map of Bolivia, at the elevation of 11,378 feet above the level of the sea. As the Peruvians had no wheeled carriages, these roads were constructed for the march of troops, for the conveyance of burthens borne by men, and for flocks of lightly laden Lamas ; conse¬ quently, long flights of steps (6), with resting-places, were formed at intervals in the steep parts of the mountains. Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro, in their expeditions to remote parts of the country, availed themselves with much advantage of the military roads of the Incas ; but the steps just mentioned were formidable impediments in the way of the Spanish cavalry, especially as in the early period of the Conquista, the Spaniards rode horses only, and did not make use of the sure-footed mule, which, in mountainous precipices, seems to reflect on every step he takes. It was only at a later period that the Spanish troops were mounted on mules. Sarmiento, who saw the Inca roads whilst they were in a perfect state of preservation, mentions them in a Relcicioil wThicli he wrote, and which long lay buried in the Library of the Escurial. “ How,” he asks, “ could a people, unacquainted with the use of iron, have constructed such great and magni¬ ficent roads, ( caminos tan grandes, y tan sovervios ), and in regions so elevated as the countries between Cuzco and Quito, and between Cuzco and the coast of Chili?” ‘‘The Emperor Charles,” he adds, “with all his power, could not have accom¬ plished even a part of what was done by the well-directed Government of the Incas, and the obedient race of people under its rule.” Hernando Pizarro, the most educated of the three brothers, who expiated his misdeeds by twenty years of captivity in Medina del Campo, and who died at 396 VIEWS OF NATURE. 100 years of age, in the odour of sanctity (en olor de Santidad ), observes, alluding to the Inca roads: “Throughout the whole of Christendom, no such roads are to be seen as those which we here admire.” Cuzco and Quito, the two principal capi¬ tals of the Incas, are situated in a direct line south-south¬ east, north-nortli-west in reference the one to the other. Their distance apart, without calculating the many windings of the road, is 1000 miles; including the windings of the road, the distance is stated by Garcilaso de la Vega, and other Conquistadores, to be “500 Spanish leguas.” Not¬ withstanding this vast distance, we are informed, on the unquestionable testimony of the Licentiate Polo de Onde- gardo, that Huayna Capac, whose father conquered Quito, caused certain materials to be conveyed thither from Cuzco, for the erection of the royal buildings, (the Inca dwellings). In Quito, I found this tradition still current among the natives. When, in the form of the earth, nature presents to man formidable difficulties to contend against, those very diffi¬ culties serve to stimulate the energy and courage of enter- prizing races of people. Under the despotic centralizing system of the Inca Government, security and rapidity of communication, especially in relation to the movement of troops, were matters of urgent state necessity. Hence the construction of great roads, and the establishment of very excellent postal arrangements by the Peruvians. Among nations in the most various degrees of civilization, national energy is frequently observed to manifest itself, as it were by preference, in some special direction; but the advancement consequent on this sort of partial exertion, however strikingly exhibited, by no means affords a criterion of the general culti¬ vation of a people. Egyptians, Greeks (7), Etruscans, and Homans, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians, present examples of these contrasts. It would be difficult to determine, what space of time may have been occupied in the execution of the THE PLATEATJ OE CAXAMARCA. 397 Peruvian roads. Those great works, in the northern part of the Inca Empire, on the table-land of Quito, must certainly have been completed in less than thirty or thirty-five years ; that is to say, in the short interval between the defeat of the Ruler of Quito, and the death of the Inca Iluayna Capac. With respect to the southern, or those specially styled the Peruvian roads, the period of their formation is involved in complete obscurity. The date of the mysterious appearance of Manco Capac is usually fixed 400 years prior to the arrival of Francisco Pizarro, (who landed on the Island of Puna in the year 1532), consequently, about the middle of the twelfth century, and full 200 years before the foundation of the city of Mexico (Tenoclititlan) ; but instead of 400 years, some Spanish writers represent the interval between Manco Capac and Pizarro to have been 500, or even 550 years. However the history of the Peruvian empire records only thirteen reign¬ ing princes of the Inca dynasty, which, as Prescott justly observes, is not a number sufficient to fill up so long a period as 550, or even 400 years. Quezalcoatl, Botchia, and Manco Capac, are the three mythical beings, with whom are connected the earliest traces of cultivation among the Aztecs, the Muyscas, (properly Chibchas), and the Peruvians. Quezalcoatl, who is described as bearded and clothed in black, was High Priest of Tula, and afterwards a penitent, dwelling on a mountain near Tlaxapuchicalco. He is repre¬ sented as having come from the coast of Panuco; and, therefore, from the eastern part of Anahuac, on the Mexican table-land. Botchia, or rather the bearded, long-robed Nem- terequeteba (8), (literally messenger of God, a Buddha of the Muyscas), came from the grassy steppes eastward of the Andes chain, to the table -lands of Bogota. Before the time of Manco Capac, some degree of civilization already existed on the picturesque shores of the Lake of Titicaca. The fortress of Cuzco, on the hill of Sacsahuaman, was built 398 VIEWS OF NATURE. on the model of the more ancient structures of Tiahuanaco. In like manner, the Aztecs imitated the pyramidal buildings of the Toltecs, and the latter copied those of the Olmecs (Hulmecs) ; and thus, by degrees, we arrive at historic ground in Mexico as early as the sixth century of the Christian era. According to Siguei^a, the Toltecic Step Pyramid of Cholula, Avas copied from the Hulmecic Step Pyramid of Teotihuacan. Thus, through every stage of civilization, we pass into an earlier one, and as human intelligence was not aroused simultaneously in both continents, we find that in every nation the imaginative domain of mythology imme¬ diately preceded the period of historical knowledge. The early Spanish Conquistadores were filled with admiration on first beholding the roads and aqueducts of the Peruvians ; yet not only did they neglect the preservation of those great works, but they even wantonly destroyed them. As a natural consequence of the destruction of the aqueducts, the soil was rendered unfertile by the want of irrigation. Never¬ theless, those works, as well as the roads, were demolished for the sake of obtaining stones ready hewn for the erection of new buildings ; and the traces of this devastation are more observable near the sea -coast, than on the ridges of the Andes, or in the deeply cleft valleys with which that mountain-chain is intersected. During our long day’s journey from the syenitic rocks of Zaulac to the valley of San Felipe, (rich in fossil remains and situated at the foot of the icy Paramo of Yamoca), we had no less than twenty-seven times to fbrd the Rio de Guancabamba, which falls into the Amazon. We were compelled to do this on account of the numerous sinuosities of the stream, whilst on the brow of a steep preci¬ pice near us, we had continually within our sight the vestiges of the rectilinear Inca road, with its Tambos. The little mountain stream, the Rio de Guancabamba, is not more than from 120 to 150 feet broad; yet so strong is the current, that our heavily laden mules were in continual danger of THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 399 being swept away by it. The mules carried our manuscripts, our dried plants, and all the other objects which we had been, a whole year engaged in collecting; therefore, every time that we crossed the stream, we stood on one of the banks in a state of anxious suspense until the long train of our beasts of burthen, eighteen or twenty in number, were fairly out of danger. This same Rio de Guancabamba, which in the lower part of its course has many falls, is the channel for a curious mode of conveying correspondence from the coast of the Pacific. For the expeditious transmission of the few letters that are sent from Truxillo to the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, they are despatched by a swimming courier, or, as he is called by the people of the country, “ el correo que nadci.” This courier, who is usually a young Indian, swims in two days from Pomahuaca to Tomependa; first proceeding by the Rio de Chamaya, (the name given to the lower part of the Rio de Guancabamba) and then by the Amazon river. The few letters of which he is the bearer, he carefully wraps in a large cotton handkerchief, which he rolls round his head in the form of a turban. On arriving at those parts of the rivers in which there are falls or rapids, he lands, and goes by a circuitous route through the woods. When wearied by long- continued swimming, he rests by throwing one arm on a plank of a light kind of wood of the family of the Bombacese, called by the Peruvians Ceiba, or Palo de balsa. Sometimes the swimming courier takes with him a friend to bear him company. Neither troubles himself about provisions, as they are always sure of a hospitable reception in the huts which are surrounded by abundant fruit-trees in the beautiful Huer¬ tas of Pucara and Cavico. Fortunately, the river is free from crocodiles, which are first met with in the upper course of the Amazon, below the cataract of Mayasi; for the slothful animal prefers to live in the more tranquil waters. According to my calculation, 400 VIEWS OF NATURE. the Rio de Chamaya has a fall (9) of 1778 feet, in the short distance of 52 geographical miles; that is to say, measuring from the Ford (Paso) de Pucara, to the point where the Chamaya disembogues in the river Amazon, below the village of Choros. The Governor of the province Jaen de Bracamoros assured me, that letters sent by the singular water post conveyance just mentioned, are seldom either wetted or lost. After my return from Mexico, I myself received, when in Paris, letters from Tomependa, which had been transmitted in this manner. Many of the wild Indian tribes, who dwell on the shores of the Upper Amazon, per¬ form their journeys in a similar manner ; swimming sociably down the stream in parties. On one occasion, I saw the heads of thirty or forty individuals, men, women, and chil¬ dren, of the tribe of the Xibaros, as they floated down the stream on their way to Tomependa. The Correo que nada returns by land, taking the difficult route of the Paramo del Paredon. On approaching the hot climate of the basin of the Ama¬ zon, the aspect of beautiful and occasionally very luxuriant vegetation delights the eye. Not even in the Canary Islands, nor on the warm coasts of Cumana and Caracas, had we be¬ held finer orange-trees than those which we met with in the Huertas de Pucara. They consisted chiefly of the sweet orange-tree (Citrus aurantium, Risso); the bitter orange-tree (Citrus vulgaris , Risso) was less numerous. These trees, laden with their golden fruit in thousands, attain there a height of between 60 and 70 feet; and their branches, instead of grow¬ ing in such a way as to give the trees rounded tops or crowns, shoot straight up like those of the laurel. Near the ford of Cavico a very unexpected sight surprised us. Yvc saw a grove of small trees, about 18 or 19 feet high, the leaves of which, instead of being green, appeared to be of a rose colour. This proved to be a new species of Bougainvillaea, a genus first determined by J ussieu the elder, from a Brazilian PLATEAU OF C AX AM AFC A. 401 specimen in Commer son's Herbarium. But on a nearer ap¬ proach we found that these trees were really without leaves, properly so called, and that what, from a distant view, we had mistaken for leaves, were bright rose-coloured bracts. Owing to the purity and freshness of the colour, the effect was totally different from that of the hue which so pleasingly clothes many of our forest- trees in autumn. The Ilhopala ferruginea, a species of the South African family of the Proteaceae, has found its way hither, having descended from the cool heights of the Paramo de Yamoca into the warm plains of the Cha- maya. We likewise frequently saw here the beautifully pin¬ nated Porlieria hygrometrica, one of the Zygophylleae, which, by the closing of its leaves, indicates change of weather, gene¬ rally the approach of rain. This plant is more certain in its tokens than any of the Mimosaceas, and it very rarely deceived us. At Chamaya we found rafts ( balsas ) in readiness to convey us to Tomependa, where we wished to determine the difference of longitude between Quito and the mouth of the Chinchipe ; a point of some importance to the geography of South America on account of an old observation of La Condamine (10). We slept as usual in the open air, and our resting-place was on the sandy shore called the Playa de Guayanchi, at the conflu¬ ence of the Rio de Chamaya and the Amazon. Next morning we proceeded down the latter river as far as the Cataract and the Narrows, or the Pongo of Rentema. Pongo, the name given to River Narrows by the natives, is a cor¬ ruption of the word Puncu, which, in the Quichua language, signifies a door or gate. In the Pongo de Rentema huge masses of rock consisting of coarse-grained sandstone (conglo¬ merate), rise up like towers and form a rocky dam across the stream. I measured a base line on the flat sandy shore, and found that the Amazon River, which, further east¬ wards, spreads into such mighty width, is, at Tomependa, scarcely 1400 feet broad. In the celebrated River Narrows, 402 VIEWS OE NATURE. called the Pongo de Manseriche, between Santiago and San Borja, the breadth is less than 160 feet. The Pongo de Manseriche is formed by a mountain ravine, in some parts of which the overhanging rocks, roofed by a canopy of foliage, permit only a feeble light to penetrate, and by the force of the current all the drift-wood, consisting of trunks of trees in countless numbers, is broken and dashed to atoms. The rocks by which all these Pongos are formed, have, in the course of centuries, undergone many changes. The Pongo de Rentema, which I have mentioned above, was, a year before my visit to it, in part broken up by a high flood; indeed the inhabitants of the shores of the Amazon still preserve by tradition a lively recollection of the sudden fall of the once lofty masses of rock along the whole length of the Pongo. This fall took place in the early part of the last century, and the debris suddenly dammed up the river and impeded the current. The consequence was, that the inhabitants of the village of Puyaya, situated at the lower part of the Pongo de Rentema, were filled with alarm on beholding the dry bed of the river ; but, after the lapse of a few hours, the waters recovered their usual course. There appears to be no reason for believing that these remarkable phenomena are occasioned by earthquakes. The river, which has a very strong current, seems, as it were, to be incessantly labouring to improve its bed. Of the force of its efforts some idea may be formed from the fact that, notwithstanding its vast breadth, it sometimes rises upwards of 26 feet above its ordinary level in the space of 20 or 30 hours. We remained seventeen days in the hot valley of the Maranon or the Amazon River. To proceed from thence to the coast of the Pacific it is necessary to cross the chain of the Andes, between Micuipampa and Caxamarca (in 6° 57 S. lat., and 78° 34/ W. long.), at a point where, according to my observa¬ tions, it is intersected by the magnetic equator. At a still higher elevation are situated the celebrated silver mines of PLATEAU OE CAXAMARCA. 403 Chota. Then, after haying passed the ancient Caxamarca (the scene, 316 years ago, of the most sanguinary drama in the history of the Spanish Conquista), and also Aroma and Gangamarca, the route descends, with some interruptions, into the Peruvian lowlands. Here, as in nearly all parts of the Andes, as well as of the Mexican Mountains, the highest points are picturesquely marked by tower-like masses of erupted porphyry and trachyte, the former frequently presenting the effect of immense columns. In some places these masses give a rugged cliff-like aspect to the mountain ridges; and in other places they assume the form of domes or cupolas. They have here broken through a formation, which, in South America, is extensively developed on both sides of the equa¬ tor, and which Leopold von Buch, after profound research, has pronounced to be cretaceous. Between Guambos and Montan, nearly 12,800 feet above the level of the sea, we found marine fossils (11) (Ammonites about 15 inches in diameter, the large Pecten alatus, oyster- shells, Echini, Isocardias, and Exogyra polygona). A species of Cidaris, which, in the opinion of Leopold von Buch, does not differ from one found by Brongniart in the old chalk at the Perte du Ithone, we collected in the basin of the Amazon at Tomependa, and likewise at Micuipampa; that is to say, at elevations differing the one from the other by no less than 10,550 feet. In like manner, in the Amuich chain of the Caucasian Daghestan, the chalk of the banks of the Sulak, scarcely 530 feet above the level of the sea, is again found on the Tchunum, at the elevation of full 9600 feet, whilst, on the summit of the Shadagh Mountain, 13,950 feet high, the Ostrea diluviana (Goldf.), and the same chalk, present themselves. Abich’s admirable Caucasian observations furnish the most decided confirmation of Leopold von Buch’s geognostic views respecting the cretaceous Alpine development. From the solitary farm of Montan, surrounded with flocks of Lamas, we ascended further southward the eastern declivity 2d2 404 VIEWS OF NATURE. of the Cordilleras, until we reached the level height in which is situated the argentiferous mountain Gualgayoc, the prin¬ cipal site of the far-famed mines of Chota. Night was just drawing in, and an extraordinary spectacle presented itself to our observation. The Cerro de Gualgayoc is separated by a deep cleft-like valley (Quebrada), from the limestone mountain Cormolache. The latter is an isolated liornstone rock, presenting, on the northern and western sides, almost perpendicular precipices, and containing innumerable veins of silver, which frequently intersect and run into each other. The highest shafts are 1540 feet above the floor of the stoll or ground-work, called the Socabon de Espinachi. The outline of the mountain is broken by numerous towrer-like points and pyramidal notches ; and hence the summit of the Cerro de Gualgayoc bears the name of Las Puntas. This mountain presents a most decided contrast to that smoothness of surface which miners are accustomed to regard as charac¬ teristic of metalliferous districts. “ Our mountain,” said a wealthy mine-owner whom we visited, “ looks like an en¬ chanted castle (como si fuese un castillo encantado ).” The Gualgayoc bears some resemblance to a cone of dolomite, but it is still more like the notched ridges of the Mountain of Mon- serrat in Catalonia, which I have also visited, and which has been so pleasingly described by my brother. Not only is the silver mountain Gualgayoc perforated on every side, and to its very summit, by many hundred large shafts, but the mass of the siliceous rock is cleft by natural openings, through which the dark blue sky of these elevated regions is visible to the observer standing at the foot of the mountain. The people of the country call these openings windows ( Las venta- nillas de Gualgayoc). On the trachytic walls of the volcano of Pichincha similar openings were pointed out to us, and there, likewise, they were called windows, ( Ventanillas de Pichincha.) The singular aspect of the Gualgayoc is not a little increased by numerous sheds and habitations, which PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 405 lie scattered like nests over the fortress-looking mountain wherever a level spot admits of their erection. The miners carry the ore in baskets, down steep and dangerous footpaths, to the places where it is submitted to the process of amalga¬ mation. The value of the silver obtained from the mines of Gualgayoc during the first thirty years of their being worked, from 1771 to 1802, is supposed to have amounted to upwards of thirty- two millions of piastres. Notwithstanding the hardness of the quartzose rock, the Peruvians, even before the arrival of the Spaniards, extracted rich argentiferous galena from the Cerro de la Lin, and also from the Chupiquiyacu; of this fact many old shafts and galleries bear evidence. The Peruvians also obtained gold from the Curimayo, where also natural sulphur is found in the quartz rock as well as in the Brazilian Itaco- lumite. We took up our temporary abode, in the vicinity of the mines, in the little mountain town of Micuipampa, situated at an elevation of 11,873 feet above the sea, and where, though only 6° 43' from the equator, water freezes within doors, at night, during a great part of the year. This wil¬ derness, almost devoid of vegetation, is inhabited by 3000 or 4000 persons, who are supplied with articles of food from the warm valleys, as they themselves can grow nothing but some kinds of cabbage and salad, the latter exceedingly good. Here, as in all the mining towns of Peru, ennui drives the richer inha¬ bitants, who, however, are not the best informed class, to the dangerous diversions of cards and dice. The consequence is, that the wealth thus quickly won is still more quickly spent. Here one is continually reminded of the anecdote related of one of the soldiers of Pizarro's army, who complained that he had lost in one night’s play, “a large piece of the sun,” meaning a plate of gold which he had obtained at the plunder of the Temple of Cuzco. At Micuipampa the ther¬ mometer, at eight in the morning, stood at 34°.2, and at noon, at 47°. 8 Fahrenheit. Among the thin Ichhu-grass (possibly. 406 VIEWS OF NATURE. our Stipa eriostachya), we found a beautiful Calceolaria ( C. Sibthorpioides) , which we should not have expected to see at such an elevation. Near the town of Micuipampa there is a high plain called the Llano or the Pampa de Navar. In this plain there have been found, extending over a surface of more than four English square miles, and immediately under the turf, im¬ mense masses of red gold ore and wire-like threads of pure silver. These are called by the Peruvian miners remolinos , clavos, and vetas manteadas , and they are overgrown by the roots of the Alpine grasses. Another level plain, to the west of the Purgatorio, and near the Quebrada de Chiquera, is called the Choropampa (the Muscle- Shell Plain), the word churu signifying in the Quichua language a muscle or cockle, particularly a small eatable kind, which the people of the country now distinguish by their Spanish names hostioji or mexillon. The name Choropampa refers to fossils of the cretaceous formation, which in this plain are found in such immense numbers that at an early period they attracted the attention of the natives. In the Choropampa there has been found near the surface of the earth, a rich mass of pure gold, spun round, as it were, with threads of silver. This fact proves how slight may be the affinity between many of the ores upheaved from the interior of the earth, through fissures and veins, and the nature of the adjacent rock, and how little relative antiquity exists between them and that of the forma¬ tion they have broken through. The rock of the Gualgayoc, as well as that of the Fuentestiana, is very watery, whilst in the Purgatorio perfect dryness prevails. In the Purgatorio, notwithstanding the height of the strata above the sea-level, I found to my astonishment, that the temperature in the mine was 6 7°. 4 Fahr., whilst in the neighbouring Mina de Guada¬ lupe the water in the mine was about 52°. 2 Fahr. In the open air the thermometer indicates only 42°. 1 Fain*., and the miners, who labour verv hard, and who work almost without PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 407 clothing, say that the subterranean heat in the Purgatorio is stifling. The narrow path from Micuipampa to the ancient Inca city Caxamarca is difficult even for mules. The original name of the town was Cassamarca or Kazamarca, that is to say, the City of Frost. Marca, in the signification of a district or town, belongs to the northern dialect of the Chinchaysuyo, or the Chinchasuyu, whilst in the common Quichua language the word means the story of a house, and also a fortress and place of defence. F or the space of five or six miles, the road led us through a succession of Paramos, where we were without intermission exposed to the fury of a boisterous wind and the sharp angular hail peculiar to the ridges of the Andes. The height of the road is for the most part between 9600 and 10,700 feet above the sea-level. There I had the oppor¬ tunity of making a magnetic observation of general interest, viz., for determining the point where the north inclination of the needle passes into the south inclination, and also the point at which the traveller has to cross the magnetic equa¬ tor (12). Having at length reached the last of these mountain wildernesses, the Paramo de Yanaguanga, the traveller joy¬ fully looks down into the fertile valley of Caxamarca. It presents a charming prospect, for the valley, through which winds a little serpentine rivulet, is an elevated plain of an oval form, in extent from 96 to 112 square miles. The plain bears a resemblance to that of Bogota, and like it is probably the bed of an ancient lake; but in Caxamarca there is wanting the myth of the miracle-working Botchia, or Idacanzas, the High Priest of Iraca, who opened a passage for the waters through the rocks of Tequendama. Caxa- marca lies 640 feet higher than Santa Fe de Bogota, and consequently its elevation is equal to that of the city of Quito ; but being sheltered by surrounding mountains, its climate is much more mild and agreeable. The soil of 408 VIEWS OF NATURE. Caxamarca is extraordinarily fertile. In every direction are seen cultivated fields and gardens, intersected by avenues of willows, varieties of the Datura (bearing large red, white, and yellow flowers), Mimosas, and beautiful Quinuar trees (our Polylepsis villosa, a Rosacea approximating to the Alchemilla and Sanguisorba). The wheat harvest in the Pampa de Caxamarca is, on the average, from fifteen to twenty-fold ; but the prospect of abundant crops is sometimes blighted by night frosts, caused by the radiation of heat towards the cloudless skv, in the strata of dry and rarefied mountain air. These night frosts are not felt within the roofed dwellings. Small mounds, or hillocks, of porphyry (once perhaps islands in the ancient lake) are studded over the northern part of the plain, and break the wide expanse of smooth sandstone. From the summit of one of these porphyry hillocks, we enjoyed a most beautiful prospect of the Cerro de Santa Polonia. The ancient residence of Atahuallpa is on this side, surrounded by fruit gardens, and irrigated fields of lucern (Medicago sativa), called by the people here Campos de alfalfa. In the distance are seen columns of smoke, rising from the warm baths of Pul- tamarca, which still hear the name of Banos del Inca. I found the temperature of these sulphuric springs to be 156°. 2 Fahr, Atahuallpa was accustomed to spend a portion of each year at these batl.s, where some slight remains of his palace have survived the ravages of the Conquistadores. The large deep basin or reservoir ( el tragadero ) for supplying these baths with water, appeared to me, judging from its regular circular form, to have been artificially cut in the sandstone rock, over one of the fissures whence the sjrnng flows. Tradition records that one of the Inca’s sedan-chairs, made of gold, was sunk in this basin, and that all endeavours to recover it have- proved vain. Of the fortress and palace of Atahuallpa, there also remain but few vestiges in the town, which now contains some beautiful churches. Even before the close of the sixteenth PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 40D century, tlie thirst for gold accelerated the work of destruc¬ tion, for, with the view of discovering hidden treasures, walls were demolished and the foundations of buildings reck¬ lessly undermined. The Inca’s palace is situated on a hill of porphyry, which was originally cut and hollowed out from, the surface, completely through the rock, so that the latter surrounds the main building like a wall. Portions of the ruins have been converted to the purposes of a town jail and a Municipal Hall (Casa del Cabildo). The most curious parts of these ruins, which however are not more than between 13 and 16 feet in height, are those opposite to the monastery of San Francisco. These vestiges, like the remains of the dwelling of the Caciques, consist of finely-hewn blocks of free¬ stone, two or three feet long, laid one upon another without cement, as in the Inca-Pilca, or fortress of the Canar, in the high plain of Quito. In the porphyritic rock there is a shaft which once led to subterraneous chambers and into a gallery, (by miners called a stoll,) from which, it is alleged, there was a communication with the other porphyritic rocks already mentioned; — those situated at Santa Polonia. These arrangements bear evidence of having been made as precautions against the events of war, and for the security of flight. The burying of treasure was a custom very generally practised among the Peruvians in former times ; and subterraneous chambers still exist be¬ neath many private dwellings in Caxamarca. We were shown some steps cut in the rock, and the foot¬ bath used by the Inca {el lavcitorio de los pies). The operation of washing the sovereign’s feet was performed amidst tedious court ceremonies (13). Several lateral structures, which, according to tradition, were allotted to the attendants of the Inca, arc built some of free-stone with gable roofs, and others of regularly shaped bricks, alternating with layers of siliceous cement. The buildings constructed in this last-mentioned style, to which the Peruvians give the name of Muros y obra 410 VIEWS OF NATURE. de tapia, have little arched niches or recesses. Of their antiquity I was for a long time doubtful, though I am now convinced that my doubts were not well-grounded. In the principal building, the room is still shown in which the unfortunate Atahuallpa was confined for the space of nine months, from the date of November, 1532 (14). The notice of the traveller is still directed to the wall, on which he made a mark to denote to what height he would fill the room with gold, on condition of his being set free. This height is variously described. Nerez in the Conquista del Peru (which Barcia has preserved to us), Hernando Pizarro in his letters, and other writers, all give different accounts of it. The captive monarch said, “ that gold in bars, plates, and vessels should be piled up as high as he could reach wfith his hand.” The dimensions of the room, as given by Xerez, are equiva¬ lent to 23 feet in length and 18 in breadth. Garcilaso de la Vega, who quitted Peru in 1560, in his twentieth year, estimates that the treasures brought from the temples of the Sun in Cuzco, Iiuaylas, Huamachuco, and Pachacamac, up to the fatal 29th of August, 1533, the day of the Inca's death, amounted to 3,838,000 ducados de oro (15). In the chapel of the town jail, which, as I have mentioned above, is erected on the ruins of the Inca Palace, a stone, stained, as it is alleged, with “indelible spots of blood,- ’ is viewed with horror by the credulous. It is placed in front of the altar, and consists of an extremely thin slab, about 13 feet in length, probably a portion of the porphyry or trachyte of the vicinity. To make an accurate examination of this stone, by chipping a piece off, would not be permitted. The three or four spots, said to be blood stains, appear in reality to be nothing but hornblende and pyroxide run together in the fundamental mass of the rock. The Licentiate Fer¬ nando Montesinos, though he visited Peru scarcely a hundred years after the taking of Caxamarca, gave currency to the fabulous story that Atahuallpa was beheaded in prison, and that PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 411 traces of blood were still visible on a stone on which the execution had taken place. There appears no reason to question the fact, since it is borne out by the testimony of many eye-witnesses, that the Inca willingly allowed himself to be baptized by his cruel and fanatical persecutor, the Dominican monk, Vicente de Valverde. He received the name of Juan de Atahuallpa, and submitted to the erec- mony of baptism to avoid being burnt alive. He was put to death by strangulation {el garrote), and his execution took place publicly in the open air. Another tradition relates that a chapel was erected above the stone on which Atahuallpa was strangled, and that the remains of the Inca repose beneath that stone. Supposing this to be correct, the alleged spots of blood are not accounted for. The fact is, however, that the body was never deposited under the stone in question. After the performance of a mass for the dead and other solemn funeral ceremonies, at which the brothers Pizarro were present in deep mourning (!), the body was conveyed first to the cemetery of the Convento de San Francisco, and after¬ wards to Quito, Atahuallpa’ s birthplace. This removal to Quito was in compliance with the wish expressed by the Inca prior to his death. His personal enemy, the crafty Ruminavi, from artful political motives, caused the body to be interred in Quito with great solemnity. Ruminavi (literally the stone -eye) received this name from a defect in one of his eyes, occasioned by a wart. (In the Quichua language rumi signifies stone, and navi eye.) Descendants of the Inca still dwell in Caxamarca, amidst the dreary architectural ruins of departed splendour. These descendants are the family of the Indian Cacique, or, as he is called in the Quichua language, the Curaca Astorpilca. They live in great poverty, but neverthe¬ less contented and resigned to their hard and unmerited fate. Their descent from Atahuallpa, through the female line, has never been a doubtful question in Caxamarca; but traces of 412 VIEWS OF NATURE. beard would seem to indicate some admixture of Spanish blood. Huascar and Atahuallpa, two sons of the great Huayna Capac (who for a child of the Sun was somewhat disposed to free- thinking) (16), reigned in succession before the invasion of the Spaniards. Neither of these two princes left any acknow¬ ledged male heirs. In the plains of Quipaypan, Huascar was made prisoner by Atahuallpa, by whose order he was shortly after secretly put to death. Atahuallpa had two other brothers. One was the insignificant youth Toparca, who in the autumn of 1533 Pizarro caused to be crowned as Inca; and the other was the enteiqirising Manco Capac, who was likewise crowned, but who afterwards rebelled : neither of these two princes left any known male issue. Atahuallpa indeed left two children ; one a son, who received in Christian baptism the name of Don Francisco, and who died young; the other a daughter, Dona Angelina, who became the mis¬ tress of Francisco Pizarro, with whom she led a wild camp life. Doha Angelina had a son by Pizarro, and to this grand¬ son of the slaughtered monarch the Conqueror was fondly attached. Besides the family of Astorpilca, with whom I became acquainted in Caxamarca, the families of Carguaraicos and Titu-Buscamayca were, at the time I visited Peru, regarded as descendants of the Inca dynasty. The race of Buscamayea has since that time become extinct. The son of the Cacique Astorpilca, an interesting and amiable youth of seventeen, conducted us over the ruins of the ancient palace. Though living in the utmost poverty, his imagination was filled with images of the subterranean splendour and the golden treasures which, he assured us, lay hidden beneath the heaps of rubbish over which we were treading. He told us that one of his ancestors once blind¬ folded the eyes of his wife, and then, through many intricate passages cut in the rock, led her down into the subterra¬ nean gardens of the Inca. There the lady beheld, skilfully imitated in the purest gold, trees laden with leaves and PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 413 fruit, with birds perched on their branches. Among other things, she saw Atahuallpa’s gold sedan-chair ( una de las andas ) which had been so long searched for in vain, and which is alleged to have sunk in the basin at the Baths of Pultamarca. The husband commanded his wife not to touch any of these enchanted treasures, reminding her that the period fixed for the restoration of the Inca empire had not yet arrived, and that whosoever should touch any of the treasures would perish that same night. These golden dreams and fancies of the youth were founded on recollections and traditions transmitted from remote times. Golden gar¬ dens, such as those alluded to ( Jardines 6 huertas de oro), have been described by various writers who allege that they actually saw them; viz., by Cieza de Leon, Parmento, Garcilaso, and other early historians of the Conquista. They are said to have existed beneath the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, at Caxamarca, and in the lovely valley of Yucay, which was a favourite seat of the sovereign family. In places in which the golden Huertas were not under ground, but in the open air, living plants were mingled with the artificial ones. Among the latter, particular mention is always made of the high shoots of maize and the maize- cobs ( mazorcas ) as having been most successfully imitated. The son of Astorpilca assured me that underground, a little to the right of the spot on which I then stood, there was a large Datura tree, or Guanto, in full flower, exquisitely made of gold wire and plates of gold, and that its branches over¬ spread the Inca’s chair. The morbid faith with which the youth asserted his belief in this fabulous story, made a profound and melancholy impression on me. These illusions are cherished among the people here, as affording them consolation amidst great privation and earthly suffering. I said to the lad, “ Since you and your parents so firmly believe in the existence of these gardens, do you not, in your poverty, sometimes feel a wish to dig for the treasures that lie so 414 VIEWS OF NATURE. near you?” The young Peruvian’s answer was so simple and so expressive of the quiet resignation peculiar to the abori¬ ginal inhabitants of the country, that I noted it down in Spanish in my Journal. “ Such a desire ital antojo ),” said he, “never comes to us. My father says that it would be sinful {eque fuese pecado). If we had the golden branches, with all their golden fruits, our white neighbours would hate us and injure us. We have a little field and good wheat (buen trigo ).” Few of my readers will I trust be displeased that I have recalled here the words of young Astorpilca and his golden dreams. An idea generally spread and firmly believed among the natives is, that it would be criminal to dig up and take possession of treasures which may have belonged to the Incas, and that such a proceeding would bring misfortune upon the whole Peruvian race. This idea is closely connected with that of the restoration of the Inca dynasty, an event which is still expected, and which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was looked forward to with especial confidence. Oppressed nations always fondly hope for the day of their emancipation, and for the re-establishment of their old forms of government. The flight of Manco Inca, the brother of Atahuallpa, who retreated into the forests of Vilcapampa, on the declivity of the Eastern Cordillera; and the abode of Sayri Tapac and Inca Tupac Amaru in those wildernesses, are events which have left lasting recollections in the minds of the people. It is believed that descendants of the de¬ throned dynasty settled still further eastward in Guiana, between the rivers Apurimac and Beni. These notions were strengthened by the myth of el Dorado and the golden city of Manoa, which popular credulity carried from the west and propagated eastward. So greatly was the imagination of Sir Walter Raleigh inflamed by these dreams, that he raised an expedition in the hope of conquering “ the imperial and golden city.” There he proposed to establish a garrison of PLATEAU OE CAXAMARCA. 415 three or four thousand English, and to levy from “ the Em¬ peror of Guiana, a descendant of Huayna Capac, and who holds his Court with the same magnificence, an annual tribute of <£300,000 sterling, as the price of the promised restoration to the throne in Cuzco and Caxamarca.” Wherever the Peruvian Quichua language prevails, traces of the expected restoration of the Inca rule (17) exist in the minds of many of the natives possessing any knowledge of their national history. We remained five days in the capital of the Inca Atahuallpa, which, at that time, numbered only 7000 or 8000 inhabit¬ ants. Our departure was delayed by the necessity of obtain¬ ing a great number of mules to convey our collections, and of selecting careful guides to conduct us across the chain of the Andes to the entrance of the long but narrow Peruvian sandy desert called the Desierto de Sechura. Our route across the Cordilleras lay from north-east to south-west. Having passed over the old bed of the lake, on the pleasant level height of Caxamarca, we ascended an eminence at an ele¬ vation of scarcely 10,230 feet: and we were then surprised by the sight of two strangely-shaped porphyritic mounds called the Aroma and the Cunturcaga. The latter is a favourite haunt of the gigantic vulture, which we call the Condor ; kacca, in the Quichua language, signifying the rocks. The porphyritic heights just mentioned are in the form of columns having five, six, or seven sides, from 37 to 42 feet in height, and some of them are crooked and bent as if in joints. Those which crown the Cerro Aroma are remarkably picturesque. The peculiar distribution of the columns, which are ranged in rows one above another, and frequently converging, presents the appearance of a two- storied building, roofed by a dome of massive rock, which is not columnar. These erupted masses of porphyry and trachyte are, as I have on a former occasion remarked, cha¬ racteristic of the ridges of the Andes, to which they impart a 416 VIEWS OF NATURE. physiognomy totally different from that of the Swiss Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Siberian Altai. From Cunturcaga and Aroma we descended, by a zigzag route, a steep declivity of 6400 feet into the cleft-like valley of the Magdalena, the lowest part of which is 4260 feet above the sea level. Here there is an Indian village consisting of a few miserable huts, surrounded by the same species of cotton-trees ( Bombax discolor ), which we first observed on the banks of the Amazon. The scanty vege¬ tation of the valley of Magdalena somewhat resembles that of the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, but we missed, with regret, the red groves of Bougainvillcea. Magdalena is one of the deepest valleys I have seen in the chain of the Andes. It is a decided cleft, running transversely from east to west, and bounded on each side by the Altos of Aroma and Guan- gamarca. Here recommences the same quartz formation which was so long enigmatical to me. We had previously observed it in the Paramo de Yanaguanga, between Micui- pampa and Caxamarca, at an elevation of 11,722 feet, and on the western declivity of the Cordillera it attains the thickness of many thousand feet. Since Leopold von Buch has proved that the cretaceous formation is widely ex¬ tended, even in the highest chains of the Andes, and on both sides of the isthmus of Panama, it may be concluded that the quartz formation, of lyhich I have just made mention (perhaps transformed in its texture by the action of volcanic power), belongs to the free sandstone intervening between the inner chalk and the gault and greensand. From the genial valley of the Magdalena we again proceeded westward, and, for the space of two hours and a half, we ascended a stecji wall of rock 5116 feet high, which rises opposite to the porphyri- tic groups of the Alto de Aroma. In this ascent we felt the change of temperature the more sensibly, as the rocky accli¬ vity was frequently overhung with cold mist. After having travelled for eighteen months without inter PLATEAU OE CAXAMAUCA. 417 mission, within the restricted boundaries of the interior of a mountainous country, we felt an ardent desire to enjoy a view of the open sea, a desire which was heightened by repeated disappointments. Looking from the summit of the volcano of Picliincha, over the thick forests of the Provincia de las Esmeraldas, no sea horizon is distinctly discernible owing to the great distance and the height of the point of view. It is like looking down from a balloon into empty space ; the fancy divines objects which the eye cannot distinguish. Afterwards, when, between Loxa and Guancabamba, we ar¬ rived at the Paramo de Guamani (where there are many ruins of buildings of the times of the Incas), our mule-drivers con¬ fidently assured us that, beyond the plain, on the other side of the low districts of Piura and Lambajeque, we should have a view of the sea. But a thick mist overhung the plain and obscured the distant coast. We beheld only variously-shaped masses of rock, now rising like islands above the waving sea of mist, and now vanishing. It was a view similar to that which we had from the Peak of Teneritfe. We experienced a similar disappointment whilst proceeding through the Andes Pass of Guangamarca, which I am now describing. Whilst we toiled along the ridges of the mighty mountain, with ex¬ pectation on the stretch, our guides, who were not very well acquainted with the way, repeatedly assured us that, after proceeding another mile, our hopes would be fulfilled. The stratum of mist, in which we were enveloped, seemed some¬ times to disperse for a moment, but whenever that happened, our view was bounded by intervening heights. The desire which we feel to behold certain objects is not excited solely by their grandeur, their beauty, or their im¬ portance. In each individual this desire is interwoven with pleasing impressions of youth, with early predilections for particular pursuits, with the inclination for travelling, and the love of an active life. In proportion as the fulfilment of a wish may have appeared improbable, its realization affords the 2 E 418 VIEWS OF NATURE, greater pleasure. The traveller enjoys, m anticipation, the happy moment when he shall first behold the constellation of the Cross, and the Magellanic clouds circling over the South Pole ; when he shall come in sight of the snow of the Chim¬ borazo, and of the column of smoke ascending from the vol¬ cano of Quito ; when, for the first time, he shall gaze on a grove of tree-ferns, or on the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The days on which such wishes are fulfilled mark epochs in life, and create indelible impressions ; exciting feel¬ ings which require not to be accounted for by any process of reasoning. The longing wish I felt to behold the Pacific from the lofty ridges of the Andes was mingled with recollections of the interest with which, as a boy, I had dwelt on the narra¬ tive of the adventurous expedition of Vasco Nunez de Bal¬ boa (18). That happy man, whose track Pizarro followed, was the first to behold, from the heights of Quarequa, on the isthmus of Panama, the eastern part of the great “ South Sea.” The reedy shores of the Caspian, viewed from the point whence I first beheld them, viz., from the Delta formed by the mouths of the Volga, cannot certainly be called pic¬ turesque, yet the delight I felt on first beholding them, was enhanced by the recollection that, in my very earliest child¬ hood, I had been taught to observe, on the map, the form of the Asiatic inland sea. The impressions aroused within us in early childhood, or excited by the accidental circumstances of life (19), frequently, in after years, take a graver direc¬ tion, and become stimulants to scientific labours and great enterprises. After passing over many undulations of ground, on the rugged mountain ridges, we at length reached the highest point of the Alto de Guangamarca. The sky, which had so long been obscured, now suddenly brightened. A sharp south¬ west breeze dispersed the veil of mist; and the dark blue canopy of heaven was seen between the narrow lines of the highest feathery clouds. The whole western declivity of the PLATEAU OF CAXAMAKCA. 419 Cordillera (adjacent to Cliorillos and Cascas), covered with huge blocks of quartz 13 or 15 feet long; and the plains of Chala and Molinos, as far as the sea coast near Truxillo, lay extended before our eyes, with a wonderful effect of apparent proximity. We now, for the first time, commanded a view of the Pacific. We saw it distinctly; reflecting along the line of the coast an immense mass of light, and rising in immea¬ surable expanse until bounded by the clearly-defined horizon. The delight which my companions, Bonpland and Carlos Montufar, shared with me in viewing this prospect, caused us to forget to open the barometer on the Alto de Guangamarca. According to a calculation which we made at a place some¬ what lower down (an isolated farm called the Hato de Guanga¬ marca), the point at which we first gained a view of the ocean, must have been at no greater an elevation than between 9380 and 9600 feet. The view of the Pacific was solemnly impressive to one, who, like myself, was greatly indebted for the formation of his mind, and the direction given to his tastes and aspirations, to one of the companions of Captain Cook. I made known the general outline of my travelling schemes to John Forster, when I had the advantage of visiting England under his guidance, nowmore than halfa century ago. Forster’s charming pictures of Otaheite had awakened throughout Northern Europe a deep interest (mingled writh a sort of romantic longing), in favour of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. At that period, when but few Europeans had been fortunate enough to visit those islands, I cherished the hope of seeing them, at least in part; for the object of my visit to Lima was twofold : first, to observe the transit of Mercury over the solar disc, and secondly, to fulfil a promise I had made to Captain Baudin, on my departure from Paris. This promise was to join him in the circumnavigatory voyage which he was to undertake as soon as the French Republic could furnish the necessary funds. 2 e 2 420 VIEWS OF MATURE. American papers circulated in the Antilles announced that the two French corvettes, Le Geographe and Le Natu¬ ralisten were to sail round Cape Horn, and to touch at Callao de Lima. This information, which I received when in the Ilavannah, after having completed my Orinoco journey, caused me to relinquish my original plan of proceeding through Mexico to the Philippines. I lost no time in engag¬ ing a ship to convey me from Cuba to Cartagena de Indias. But Captain Baudin’s expedition took quite a different course from that which had been expected and announced. Instead of proceeding by the way of Cape Horn, as had been intended at the time when it was agreed that Bonpland and I should join it, the expedition sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. One of the objects of my visit to Peru, and of my last journey across the chain of the Andes, was thus thwarted; but I had the singular good fortune, at a very unfavourable season of the year, in the misty regions of Lower Peru, to enjoy a clear bright day. In Callao I observed the passage of Mercury over the sun's disc, an observation of some importance in aiding the accurate determination of the longitude of Lima (20), and of the south-western part of the new continent. Thus, amidst the serious troubles and disappointments of life, there may often be found a grain of consolation. ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (1) p. 390 — “ On the Ridge of the Andes or Antis.” The Inca Garcilaso, who was well acquainted with the native language of his country, and who loved to trace etymologies, invariably calls the chain of the Andes, “ las Montanas de los Antis.” He states positively that the great mountain-chain, eastward of Cuzco, derives its name from the race of the Antis and from the province Anti, which was situ¬ ated to the east of the capital of the Incas. The quaternary divisions of the Peruvian empire, according to the four cardinal points, reckoning from Cuzco, did not derive their names from the very circumstantial words (having reference to the sun) which in the Quicliua language signify east, west, north, and south (intip llucsinanpata, intip yaucunanpata, intip chaututa chayananpata, intip chaupunchau chayananpata). Those divisions were named from provinces and races of people (Provincias llamadas Anti, Cunti, Chincha y Colla) situated to the east, west, north, and south, with reference to the city of Cuzco, which was the centre of the empire. The four divisions of the Inca theocracy were accordingly named Antisuyu, Cuntisuyu, Chinchasuyu, and Collasuyu ; the word Suyu signifying strip or part. Notwithstanding the great distance between them, Quito belonged to Chinchasuyu ; and in proportion as the Incas, by their religious wars, ex¬ tended their faith, their language, and their despotic govern¬ ment, these Suyus acquired greater dimensions and became more unequal in magnitude. With the names of the provinces was thus associated an indication of their position; and “ to name those provinces,” observes Garcilaso, “ was the same as to say to the east or to the west.” (Nombrar aquellos Partidos era lo mismo que decir al Oriente, 6 al Poniente.) The snow- chain of the Andes was regarded as an eastern chain. “ La Provincia Anti da nombra a las Montanas de los Antis. Llamäron a la parte del Oriente Antisuyu, por la qual tambien llaman Anti a toda aquella gran Cordillera de Sierra Nevada que pasa al Oriente del Peru, por dar a entender, que esta al 422 YIEWS, &C. PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. Oriente.” ( Commentarios Reales, p. i. pp. 47, 122.)*' Later writers have supposed the name of the Andes chain to be derived from the word Anta, which, in the Quichua lan¬ guage, signifies copper. That metal was indeed of the highest importance to a people who for their edged- tools .or cutting instruments, employed not iron, but a sort of copper mixed with tin ; but still the name of copper mountains would scarcely have been extended over so vast a chain. Professor Buschmann has justly observed, that the final “ a ” is retained in the word anta when it forms part of a compound ; and Garcilaso expressly adduces as an example anta , copper, and antamarca , province of copper. Moreover in the ancient language of the Inca empire (the Quichua), words and their compounds are so simple in formation that the conversion of “a” into is out. of the question; so that Anta, copper, and Anti or Ante (the country or an inhabitant of the Andes or the mountain-chain itself) must be regarded as words totally distinct from each other. In dic¬ tionaries of the Quichua language, with explanations in Spanish, the word Anti or Ante has the following interpreta¬ tions : la tierra de los Andes ; — el Indio, kombre de los Andes ; — la iSierra de los Andes. The original signification or derivation of the word is buried in the darkness of past ages. Besides Antisuyu, some other compounds of which Anti or Ante forms a part, are, Anteruna (the native inhabitant of the Andes), Anteunccuy or Antionccoy (the sickness of the Andes; mal de los Andes pestifero.) (2) p. 390 — “ The Countess de Chinchon .” This lady was the wife of the Viceroy Don Geronimo Fer¬ nandez de Cabrera, Bobadilla y Mendoza, Conde de Chinchon, who governed Peru from 1629 to 1639. The cure of the O Vice-Queen took place in the year 1638. A tradition which is current in Spain, but which I have frequently heard con¬ tradicted in Loxa, names Juan Lopez de Canizares, Corre- gidor of the Cabildo de Loxa, as the person by whom the * Translation. — “ From the Province Anti the Montanas of the Antis received their name. Antisuyu signified the eastern direction, and for that reason the name Anti was given to all that part of the great Cor¬ dillera of Sierra Nevada which runs along the east of Peru, to denote that it was situated in the east.” ( Commentarios Beales, pt. i. pn. 47» 122.) — Ed. ILLUSTRATIONS (2). QUINA OR CINCHONA BARK. 423 Quina (Cinchona) bark was first brought to Lima, and uni¬ versally recommended as a medicine. In Loxa, I have heard it affirmed that the salutary properties of the tree were long previously, though not generally, known in the mountainous regions. Immediately after my return to Europe, I expressed doubts whether the discovery had really been made by the natives in the vicinity of Loxa, for the Indians in the neigh¬ bouring valleys, where intermittent fevers are very prevalent, have an aversion to the Quina bark.* The story which sets forth that the natives learned the virtues of the Cinchona from the lions, “who cure themselves of intermittent fever by gnawing the bark of the Quina tree,”f appears to be merely a monkish fiction, and wholly of European origin. No such disease as the lion's fever is known in the New Continent ; for the so-called great American lion ( Felis concolor ) and the small mountain lion (the Puma , whose footmarks I have seen on the snow) are never tamed, consequently never become the subjects of observation. Nor are the various species of the feline race, in either continent, accustomed to gnaw the bark of trees. The name “ Countess’s Powder” ( Pulvis Comi- tissce ) originated in the circumstance of the bark having been dealt out as a medicine by the Countess de Chinchon. But this name was subsequently metamorphosed into “Cardinal's” or “Jesuit’s” Powder, because Cardinal de Lugo, Procurator- General of the Order of the Jesuits, made known the medicine, whilst he was on a journey through France, and recommended it the more urgently to Cardinal Mazarin, as the brethren of the Order were beginning to carry on a profitable trade in the South American Quina bark, which they contrived to obtain through their missionaries. It is scarcely necessary to mention that Protestant physicians suffered themselves some¬ times to be influenced by religious intolerance and hatred of the Jesuits, in the long controversy that was maintained, respecting the good or evil effects of the fever bark. (3) p. 393 — “ Aposentos de MulaloP The Aposentos are dwellings or inns. They are called in * See my Treatise on the Quina Woods, inserted in the Magazin der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, Jahrg. i. 1807, 6. 59. + Histoii } de VAcad. des Sciences, annee 1738. Paris, 1740, p. 233. 424 VIEWS, &CC. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAKCA. the Quichua language Tampu , whence the Spanish term Tambo (an inn). On the subject of these Aposentos see Ciena’s Chronica del Peru (cap. 41 ed. de 1544, p. 108), and my Vues des Cordilleres (PL xxiv). (4) p. 394 — “ The fortress of the Cahar." This fortress is situated near Turche, and at an elevation of about 10,640 feet.**1 Not far distant from the Fortaleza del Cahar is situated the celebrated ravine of the sun, called the Inti- Guay cu (in the Quichua language huaycco ). In this ravine there are some rocks on which the natives imagine they see the image of the sun, and a bench called the Inga-Chungana (Incachuncana), the Inca's play. I made drawings of both. ( Vues des Cord., pi. xviii. et xix.) (5) p. 394 — “ Causeways covered with cemented gravel .” See Velasco's Historia de Quito, 1844, (t. i. p. 126 — 128), and Prescott's History of the Conquest of Peru , (vol. i. p. 157.) (6) p. 395 — “ Flights of Steps.'' See Pedro Sancho in Itamusio, vol. iii. fol. 404, and the Extracts from Manuscript Letters of Hernando Pizarro, of which Mr. Prescott, the great historical writer, now at Boston, has so advantageously availed himself (vol. i. p. 444). “El camino de las sierras es cosa de ver, porque en verdad en tierra tan fragosa en la cristiandad no se han visto tan her- mosos caminos, toda la mayor parte de calzada.’'f (7) p. 396 — “ Greeks, Romans, fyc., present examples of these contrasts." “The Greeks,” says Strabo, (lib. v. p. 235, Casaub,) “in building their cities sought to produce a happy result by aiming at the union of beauty and solidity ; but, on the other hand, the Homans directed particular attention to objects which the Greeks neglected; paving the streets with stone, • * I have given a drawing of it in the Vues des Cordilleres, pi. xvii. ; see also Cie^a, cap. 44, P. i. p. 120. ■f Translation. — “The road of the Sierras is wonderful to behold; for truly, throughout all Christendom, there are not to be seen such beau¬ tiful roads on such rugged ground, and, for the most part they are paved/ ILLUSTRATIONS (8). NEMTEREQUETEBA. 425 building aqueducts to provide a plentiful supply of water, and constructing drainage for carrying all the uncleanliness of the city into the Tiber. They likewise paved all the roads in the country, so that the merchandize brought by trading vessels might be conveniently transported from place to place.” (8) p. 397 — “ Nemterequeteba, the messenger of God.” Civilization in Mexico (the Aztec country of Anahuac), and in that country which, in the Peruvian theocracy, was called the Empire of the Sun, has so rivetted the attention of Europe, that a third point of dawning civilization, the moun¬ tainous regions of New Granada, was long totally lost sight of. I have already treated this subject in some detail A4, The government of the Muyscas of New Granada bore some resemblance to the constitution of Japan: the tem¬ poral ruler corresponded with the Cubo or Seogun at Jeddo, and the spiritual ruler was like the sacred Da'iri at Meaco. The table-land of Bogota was called by the natives of the country Bacata, i. e., the utmost limit of the cultivated plains considered with reference to the mountain wall. When Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada advanced thither he found the country ruled by three powers, whose relative subordination one to another is not now clearly understood. The spiritual chief was the electoral high priest of Iraca or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi, the place at which Nemterequeteba is said to have disappeared), the temporal princes were the Zake (Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and the Zipa of Funza. The last-named prince seems to have been, in the feudal constitution, originally subordinate to the Zake. The Muyscas had a regular system of computing time, with intercalation for the amendment of the lunar year. For money they made use of small circular gold plates, cast, and all equal in diameter, (a circumstance worthy of remark, as traces of coinage even among the ancient and highly civilized Egyp¬ tians have hitherto been sought in vain). Their temples of the Sun were built with stone columns, some vestiges of which have recently been discovered in Leiva.f The race of * See Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples indigenes de V Amerique, ed. in 8vo. t. ii. pp. 220 — 267. d Joaquin Acosta, Compendio historico del Descubrimiento de la. 426 VIEWS, &C. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAKCA. the Muyscas should properly be distinguished by the deno¬ mination Chibchas; for Muysca, in the Chibcha language, merely signifies men ox people. The origin and the elements of civilization, introduced among the Muyscas, were attributed to two mythical beings, Bochica and Nemterequeteba, who are frequently confounded one with another. Bochica was the most mythical of the two ; having been in some degree regarded as divine and even equal to the Sun. His fair com¬ panion Cliia or Huythaca occasioned, through her magical art, the submersion of the beautiful valley of Bogota, and for that reason she was banished from the earth by Bochica, and made to revolve round it as the moon. Bochica struck' the rocks of Tequendama, and thereby opened a passage through which the waters flowed off, in the neighbourhood of the Giants’ Field (Campo de Gigantes), where, at the elevation of 8792 feet above the level of the sea, the bones of elephant-like Mastodons have been discovered. It is stated by Captain Coch¬ rane,*1 and by Mr. John Ranking,! that animals like the Mastodon still live in the Andes, and that they cast their teeth. Nemterequeteba, surnamed Chinzapogua, (el enviado de Dios, the envoy of God,) was regarded as a human being. He is represented as a bearded man, who came from the East, from Pasca, and who disappeared at Sogamoso. The foundation of the sanctuary of Iraca is sometimes ascribed to Nemterequeteba and sometimes to Bochica. The latter, it would appear, also bore the name of Nemterequeteba, and, therefore, that the one should have been confounded with the other, on such unliistoric ground, is a circumstance easily accounted for. My old friend Colonel Acosta, in his admirable work en¬ titled Compendio de la Historia de la Naeva Granada , endea¬ vours to show, through the evidence of the Quichua language, that New Granada is the native land of the potato plant. In the Compendio (p. 18-5), he observes, k* that as the potato ( Solanum tuberosum') is known in Usme by the indigenous name Yomi , and not by the Peruvian name, and as it was found by Quesada, cultivated in the province of Velez in Nueva Granada, 1848, pp. 188, 196, 206, and 20S; Bulletin de la Bociete de Geographie de Baris, 1847, p. 114. * Journal of a Residence in Columbia , 1825, vol. ii. p. 390. + Historical Researches on the Conquest of Peru, 1827, p. 397. ILLTJSTEATIONS (8). THE POTATO PLANT. 427 1537, a period when its introduction from Chile, Peru, and Quito must have been improbable, the plant may be regarded as indigenous to New Granada.” It must, however, be borne in mind that the Peruvians had invaded Quito, and made themselves completely masters of it before 1525, in which year the death of the Inca Huayna Capac occurred. Indeed, the southern provinces of Quito fell under the dominion of Tupac Inca Yupanqui at the close of the fifteenth century.* The history of the first introduction of the potato into Europe is, unfortunately, involved in much obscurity, but the merit of the introduction is still very generally supposed to be due to Sir John Hawkins, who is said to have brought the plant from Santa Fe in the year 1563 or 1565. But a fact, which appears to be better authenticated, is, that the first potatoes grown in Europe were those planted by Sir Walter .Raleigh on his estate at Youghal in Ireland, from whence they were conveyed to Lancashire. The Banana-tree {Musa), which, since the arrival of the Spa¬ niards, has been cultivated in all the warmer parts of New Granada, is believed, by Colonel Acosta (p. 205), to have been known only in Choco before the Conquista. The name Cundinamarca, which by affected erudition was applied to the young republic of New Granada in the year 1811, a name suggestive of golden dreams (suenos dorados), would properly be Cundirumarca, not Cunturmarca.f Luis Daza, who accompanied the small invading army commanded by the Conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar, who advanced from the south, mentions having heard of a distant country, rich in gold, and inhabited by the race of the Chicas. This country, Daza states, was called Cundirumarca, and its prince solicited auxiliary troops from Atahuallpa in Caxamarca. The Chichas have been confounded with the Chibchas or Muyscas of' New Granada; and by a similar mistake the name of the unknown more southerly region has been transferred to this country. (9) p. 400 — “ Fall of the Rio de Chamaya .” See my Recneil des Observ. Astron ., vol. i. p. 304; Nivelle¬ ment Barometrique, No. 236-242. I made a drawing of the * Prescott’s Conquest of Pent, vol. i. p. 332. + See Garcilaso, lib. viii. cap. 2; also Joaquin Acosta, p. 189. 428 VIEWS, kc. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. swimming courier, representing him in the act of winding round his head the handkerchief containing the letters. See Vues des Cordilleres , pi. xxxi. (10) p. 401 — “A point of some importance to the geography of South America, on account of an old observation of La Condamine." My object was to connect chronometrically, Tomependa, (the starting-point of La Condamine’s journey) and other places on the Amazon river, geographically determined by him, with the town of Quito. La Condamine was in Tome¬ penda in June, 1743; consequently, 59 years before I visited that place, which I found, after astronomical observations made during three consecutive nights, to be situated in south lat. 5° 3L 28", and west long. 78° 34' 55"). By my observations, and a laborious recalculation of all those previously made, Olt- mannshas shewn that until the time of my return to France the longitude of Quito had been erroneously determined, and that the error made a difference of full 50b arc-minutes.* Jupiter's satellites, lunar distances, and occultations afford a satisfactory accordance, and all the elements of the calculation are before the public. The too easterly longitude which had been determined for Quito was, by La Condamine, carried to Cuenca and the Amazon river. “Je fis,” says La Condamine, “ mon premier essai de navigation sur un radeau (balsa) en descendant la riviere de Chinchipc jusqu'ä Tomependa. II fallut me contenter d'en determiner la latitude et de conclure la longitude par les routes. J'y fis mon testament politique en redigeant 1' extrait de mes observations les plus impor¬ tantes. ”f (11) p. 403 — “ At the elevation of nearly 12,800 feet above the sea , ive found marine fossils A See my Essai geognostique sur le Gisement des Roches , 1823, p. 23G; and for the first zoological determination of the fossils contained in the cretaceous formation of the Andes chain, see Leopold de Buch, Petrifi cations recueillies en Amenque par Alex, de Humboldt et Charles Degenhardt, 1839 (in fob), pp. 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 22. Pentland found * See Humboldt, Recueil des Observ. Astron. vol. ii. pp. 309 — 359. t Journal du Voyage fait ä V Equateur, 1751, p. 1S6. ILLUSTRATIONS (14). CAPTIVITY OF ATAHUALLPA. 429 fossil shells of the Silurian formation in Bolivia, and on the Nevado of Antakana at the elevation of 17,480 feet. (See Mary Somerville's Physical Geography , 1849, vol. i. p. 185.) (12) p. 407 — “ The point at which the Andes- chain is intersected by the magnetic equator .” See my Relation Hist, du Voyage aux Regions Equmoxiales , t. iii. p. 622; and Cosmos , vol. i. pp. 191, 432 ; where, through errors of the press, the longitude is in one place marked 48° 40', and in another 80J 40', whereas it ought to be 80° 54'. (13) p. 409 — “ Tedious court ceremonies." Conformably with an ancient ceremonial, Atahuallpa spat, not on the ground, but into the hand of a distinguished lady of the Court circle. “This was done,” observes Garcilaso, “ by reason of his majesty.” “ El Inca nunca escupia cn el suelo, sino en la mano de una Senora mui principal, por Magestad.” (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales , p. ii. p. 46.) (14) p. 410 — “ Captivity of Atahuallpa." The captive Inca was, at his own desire, a short time before he was put to death, conducted into the open air, for the purpose of seeing a large comet, described to have been of a greenish black hue, and nearly as thick as a man’s body; (“ una cometa verdinegra , poco menos gruesa que el cuerpo de un hombre," Garcilaso, p. ii. p. 44). This comet, which Atahuallpa saw shortly before his death, (therefore, in July or August, 1533), he supposed to be the same comet of evil omen, which had appeared at the death of his father Huayna Capac, and was certainly identical with that observed by AppianA The comet was seen by Appian, on the 21st of July, standing high in the north, near the constellation of Perseus ; and it appeared like a sword held by Perseus, in his right hand.f The year in which the Inca Huayna Capac * Pingre, Cometo graphic, t. i. p. 496; and Galle’s Verzeichnissailer Usher berechneten Cometenbahnen, in Olbers’ Easiest method of calcu¬ lating the course of a Comet, 1847, p. 206. + Mädler’s Astronomie, 1846, p. 307; also Schnurrer’s Chronik der Seuchen in Verbindung mit gleichzeitigen Erscheinungen,” 1825, part ii. p. 82. 430 VIEWS, &C. PLATEAU OP CAXAMAECA. died, is considered by Robertson not to be satisfactorily deter¬ mined; but the investigations of Balboa and Velasco shew, that the event must have occurred about the end of 1525. The statements of Hevelius ( Cometographie , p. 844), and of Pingre (vol. i. p. 485), obtain additional confirmation from the testimony of Garcilaso, (p. i. p. 321,) and the traditions preserved among the Amautas (“ que son los filosofos de aquella republica”). I may here add the remark, that Oviedo is certainly incorrect in stating in the yet unpublished con¬ tinuation of his “ Historia de las Indias ,” that the name of the Inca was not Atahuallpa, but Atabaliva. See Prescott’s Conquest of Peru, vol. i. p. 498. (15) p. 410 — “ Ducados de Orof (3,838,000 golden ducats.) The sum mentioned in the text is that stated by Garcilaso de la Vega A On this subject, however. Padre Bias Valera and Gomera give different accounts.! Moreover, it is difficult to ascertain the precise value of the Ducado Castellano or Peso de Oro.j; The intelligent historian, Prescott, has had the opportunity of consulting a manuscript, bearing the promising title of “ Acta de Reparticion del Rescate de Atahuallpaf (Act of assessment for the ransom of Atahuallpa). The Peruvian booty shared by the brothers Pizarro and by Almagro, appears to be too highly estimated by Prescott, who says it amounted to 3,500,0001. sterling, but the ransom money, the treasures of the different temples of the Sun, and of the Huertas de Oro, were all included in that amount. § (16) p. 412 — “ The great Huayna Capac , who. for a Child of the Sun, teas somewhat disposed to free- thinking . ’ ’ The nightly disappearance of the sun excited, in the mind of the Inca, many philosophic doubts respecting the govern¬ ment of the world by that luminary. Among the Inca’s re¬ marks on this subject, as recorded by Padre Bias Valera, are the following: — “ Many maintain that the sun lives and is the * Commentarios reales de las Incas , parte ii. 1722, pp. 27, 51. + Historia de las Indias, 1533, p. 67. See my Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, ed. 2, t. iii. p. 424. + See the Essai politique, t. iii. p. 371, 377; and also Joaquin Acosta’s Descubrimiento de la Nneva Granada, 1848, p. 14. § Prescott’s Conquest of Peru ? vol. i. pp. 464 — 477. ILLUSTB. (16). FKEE-THINKENG OE HUATNA CAPAC. 431 creator and maker of all things (el hacedor de todas las cosas ) ; but whosoever desires to do a thing completely must continue at his task without intermission. Now many things are done when the sun is absent, therefore, he cannot be the creator of all. It may also be doubted whether the sun be really living, for, though always moving round in a circle, he is never weary (no se cansa ). If the sun were a living thing he would, like ourselves, become weary ; and if he were free, he would, doubtless, sometimes move into parts of the heavens in which we never see him. The sun is like an ox bound by a rope, being obliged always to move in the same circle (como zina Res atada qzie siempre hace un mismo cerco ), or like an arrow which can only go where it is sent, and not where it may itself wish to go.” (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales , p. i. lib. viii. cap. 8, p. 276.) The Inca’s simple comparison of the circling movement of a heavenly body to that of an ox fastened by a rope is very curious, owing to a circumstance which may be explained here. Huayna Capac died at Quito in 1525 (seven years prior to the invasion of the Spaniards), and his empire was divided between Iluascar and Atahuallpa. Now, in the native language of Peru, the name Iluascar sig¬ nifies rope, and Atahuallpa means a cock or a fowl. Instead of res Huayna Capac probably used the word signifying, in his native language, animal generally ; but, even in Spanish, the word res is not applied exclusively to oxen, but is employed to denote cattle of all kinds. How far the Padre, with the view of weaning the natives from the dynastic service of the Inca, may have mingled passages from his own sermons with the heresies of the Inca, we need not here inquire. That it was deemed very important to keep these doubts from the knowledge of the lower classes of the people is evident, from the very conservative policy and the state maxims of the Inca Roca, the conqueror of the province of Charcas. This Inca founded schools exclusively for the higher classes, and, under heavy penalties, prohibited instruction being given to the common people, lest it should render them presumptu¬ ous, and cause them to disturb the State. (No es licito que ensenen a los hijos de los Plebeios las Ciencias, porque la gente baja no se eleve y ensobervezca y menoscabe la Repub- lica; Garcilaso, p. i. p. 276.) Thus the theocracy of the Incas may be said to have resembled the Slave States in the free land of the North American Union- 432 VIEWS, &C. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. (17) p. 415 — “ Expected restoration of the Inca rule." I have treated this subject at length in another work. Sir Walter Raleigh had heard of an old prophecy current in Peru, which foretold “ that from Inglaterra those Ingas shoulde be againe in time to come restored and deliuered from the seruitude of the said conquerors. I am resolued that if there were but a small army afoote in Guiana marching towards Manoa, the chicfe citie of Inga, he would yield her Majesty by composition, so many hundred thousand pounds yearely, as should both defend all enemies abroad and defray all expenses at home, and that he woulde besides pay a garrison of 3000 or 4000 soldiers very royally to defend him against other nations. The Inca will be brought to tribute with great glad- nes.” A restoration project, which promised to be highly satisfactory to both parties, but, unfortunately for the success of the scheme, the dynasty which was to be restored and which was to pay for the restoration was wanting. (18) p. 418 — “ The adventurous expedition of Vasco Nunez de Balboa .” I have, in another work, mentioned the fact that Columbus, long before his death, full ten years prior to Balboa's expedi¬ tion, was aware of the existence of the South Sea, and its near proximity to the eastern coast of VeraguaA Columbus was led to the knowledge of this fact, not by theoretical speculations on the configuration of Eastern Asia, but by positive and local in¬ formation obtained from the inhabitants themselves, information which he collected on his fourth voyage (11th May, 1502, to the 7th November, 1504). This fourth voyage led the Admiral from the coast of Honduras to the Puerto de Mosquitos, and even as far as the western extremity of the Isthmus of Panama. The natives reported (and Columbus commented on their re¬ ports in the Carta rarissima of the 7 th of July, 1503), “that not far from the Rio de Bclen, the other sea (the South Sea), turns * Relation hist., t. iii. pp. 703, 705, 713. 4 Raleigh, The Discovery of the large, rich . and beautiful Empire of Guiana, performed in 1595. Edition published by Sir Robert Schomburgk, 1848, pp. 119 and 137. + Examen critique de Vhistoire de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent et des progres de V Astronomie nautique aux 1 ome et lQme siecles, t. i. p. 349. ILLUSTRATIONS (18). CALIFORNIA. 433 (boxa) to the mouths of the Ganges ; so that the countries of the Aurea (i.e., the Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy) are situated, in relation to the eastern shores of Yeragua, as Tor- tosa (at the mouth of the Ebro) is in relation to Fuentarabia (on the Bidassoa) in Biscay, or as Venice in respect to Pisa.” But, although Balboa first saw the South Sea from the heights of the Sierra de Quarequa, on the 25th of September/* it was several days later before Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, who had discovered a passage from the mountains of Quarequa to the gulf of San Miguel, embarked on the South Sea in a canoe, f The recent acquisition of the western coast of the New Con¬ tinent by the United States of North America, and the fame of the golden treasures of New (now called Upper) California, have rendered the question of forming a direct communication between the shores of the Atlantic and the western regions, by the isthmus of Panama, more urgent than ever. I, there¬ fore, consider it my duty here once more to direct attention to the fact, that the shortest route to the shores of the Pacific, as pointed out by the natives to Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, is in the eastern part of the Isthmus, and led to the Golfo de San Miguel. We know that Columbus^ sought for a narrow pass (estrecho de tierra firme) ; and in the official documents extant, of the dates of 1505, 1507, and especially in that of 1514, mention is made of the sought-for opening (abertura), and of the pass (passo), which, in this district, should lead directly to the “Indian Land of Spices.” A channel of communication between the Atlan¬ tic and the Pacific, is a subject which has more or less occupied my attention for the space of forty years ; and in my published works, as well as in the several memoirs which, with honourable confidence, the Free States of Spanish America have requested me to write, I have constantly recommended a hypsometrical survey of the Isthmus throughout its whole length, but more especially at two points, viz., where at Darien and what was formerly the deserted province of Biruquete, it joins the South American Continent, and where, * Peter Martyr’s Epist. dxl. p. 296. + Joaquin Acosta, Compendio hist, del Descubrimiento de la Nueva Granada, p. 49. J Vida del Almirante por Don Fernando Colon, cap. 90. 2 F 434 VIEWS, &C. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAE.CA. between Atrato and the Bay of Cupica, on the shore of the Pacific, the mountain chain of the Isthmus almost entirely disappears. In the year 1828 and 1829, General Bolivar, at my request, caused the Isthmus between Panama and the mouth of the Bio Chagres to be accurately levelled by Lloyd and Falmarc.f Since that time, other measurements have been executed by intelligent and experienced French engineers, and plans have been drawn out for canals and railways with locks and tunnels. But these measurements have invariably been made in the meridian direction between Porto- bello and Panama, or west¬ ward from thence, towards Chagres and Cruces. The most important points of the eastern and south-eastern parts of the Isthmus, on both shores, have in the meantime been over¬ looked. Until those parts shall be described geographically, according to accurate (but easily obtained) chronometrical determinations of latitude and longitude; and hypsometrically, with reference to their superficial conformation, by barome¬ trical measurements and elevation's, I see no reason to alter the views I have always entertained on this subject. Accord¬ ingly, at the present time (1849), I here repeat the opinion I have often before expressed; viz., that the assertion is ground- ess and altogether -premature , that the Isthmus of Panama is unsuited to the formation of an Oceanic Canal — one with fewer sluices than the Caledonian Canal — capable of affording an unimpeded passage, at all seasons of the year, to vessels of that class which sail between New York and Liverpool, and between Chili and California. According to examinations, the results of which the Direc- tors of the Deposito Hidrografico of Madrid have caused to be inserted in all their maps since 1809, it appears that on the Antillean shore of the Isthmus, the creek called the Ensenada de Mandinga, stretches so far to the south that its distance from the Pacific shore, eastward of Panama, appears to be only between 4 and 5 German geographical miles ( 1 5 to * See my A lias geographique et \ physique de la Nouv. Espagne, pi. iv. and Atlas de la Relation historique, pl.xxii. xxiii. ; also my Voyage aux regiones Iquinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, t. iii. pp. 117 — 154, and Essai politique sur la royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, t. i. 2nde ed. 1825, pp. 202 — 248. + Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Soc. of London for the year 1830, pp. 59—68. ILLUSTRATIONS (18). ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 435 an equatorial degree) or 16 to 20 English geographical miles. On the Pacific coast also, the deep Golfo de San Miguel, into which falls the Rio Tuyra, with its tributary the river Chu- chunque (Chucunaque), runs far into the Isthmus. The river Chuchunque too, in the upper part of its course, runs within 16 geographical miles of the Antillean shore of the Isthmus, westward of Cape Tiburon. For upwards of twenty years I have been repeatedly consulted on the problem of the Isthmus of Panama, by companies having ample pecuniary means at their disposal; but in no instance has the simple advice I have given been followed. Every engineer who has been scientifically educated knows the fact that between the tro¬ pics, even without corresponding observations, good baro¬ metrical measurements (horary variations being taken into account) may be relied on as correct, within from 75 to 96 feet. Besides it would be easy to establish, for the space of a few months, one on each shore, two fixed barometric stations; and frequently to compare the portable instruments used in the preliminary levelling with each other, and with those at the fixed stations. The point demanding the most attentive examination is that where the range of mountains between the Isthmus and the main continent of South America sinks into hills. Considering the importance of this subject to the commercial interests of the whole world, the examination should not, as heretofore, be restricted within narrow bounds. A complete comprehensive survey, including the whole eastern part of the Isthmus — the results of which would be alike useful in .facilitating every possible scheme, whether of canals or railroads — can alone decide the much discussed problem, either affirmatively or negatively. This work wifi in the end be undertaken, but had my advice been adopted, it would have been done at first. (19) p. 418 — “ Impressions excited by the accidental circum¬ stances of life.'” In Cosmos I have adverted to the incitements to the Study of Nature. (Yol. ii. p. 371, Bohn’s edition.) (20) p. 420 — “ Of importance in determining the longitude of Lima.” At the time of my expedition the longitude of Lima, 2 f 2 436 VIEWS, &C. PLATEAU OE CAXAMARCA. as determined by Malaspina and marked in the maps pub¬ lished by the Deposito Hidrografico de Madrid, was 5b 16' 53". The transit of Mercury over the Sun’s disc, on the 9th of November, 1802 (which I observed at Callao, the port of Lima, from the Round Tower of the Fort of San Felipe), gave for Callao, by the mean of the contact of both limbs, 5h 18' 16" 5; by the external contact only, 5h 18' 18" (79° 34' 30"). This result, obtained from the transit of Mercury, has been confirmed by Lartigue and Duperrey; and by ob¬ servations made during Capt. Fitzroy’s expeditions of the “Adventurer” and the “Beagle.” Lartigue fixed the longi¬ tude of Callao at 5*» 17' 58"; Duperrey made it 5h 18' 16"; and Capt. Fitzroy 5*> 18' 15". After having calculated the longitudinal difference between Callao and the Convent of San Juan de Dios at Lima, by carrying chronometers from the one place to the other during four journeys, I found that the observations of the transit of Mercury determined the longitude of Lima to be 5h 17' 51" (79° 27' 45" W. from Paris, or 77° 6' 3" W. from Greenwich.) See my Recueil (V observations astro?i., vol. ii. p. 397, and Relation hist ., t. iii. p. 592. Potsdam, June , 1849. THE END. INDEX Abyssinia, elevation of the mountains of, 110, 118. Acaeim, various species of, in South Ame¬ rica, 307 ; of Australia, 313. Accaouais, tribe of the, 184. Acliaguas, savage tribe of, 197. Acicular, or needle-leaved trees, natural history of, and their extensive geogra¬ phical diffusion, 314, et seq.; varieties of, 325, 328. Aconcagua, elevation of the volcano of, 205. Actinea, the, 252. Adansonia, a colossal species of dragon- tree (known as the Baobab or monkey- bread tree), 270, 271, 273. Aerial Ocean, the influence of its pres¬ sure on plants, 292, 295, 296. Africa, extensive barren plains in the interior of, 2; deserts of, uninhabitable by man, 3; Oasis of, 2; deserts of de¬ scribed by Herodotus, 9; causes of excessive heat, 9; mountains of, 9; Northern Africa one connected sea of sand, 9, 110; character of its vegeta¬ tion, 10; two races of men separated by the great north desert, 19, 140; nomadic tribes of, 50. Agouti, the antelope of South America, 12. Aguas Calientes, elevation of, 208. Ahuahuetes, a colossal species of tree, 274. Air, currents of, on the vertical ascent of, 266 ; influence of its pressure on plants, 292, 295, 296. Alders, 231. Allco, a Peruvian dog, 218. Alleghanys, temperature of the, 102, 103. Almond tree, the Bertholletia excelsa, 158, 179. Aloes, one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is princi¬ pally determined, 228, 332; various species of, 334. Alpine regions, elevation and temperature of, 84. Altai, mountain plateau of, 53 ; the moun¬ tain-chain of, 63, 64. Aluates, the plaintive cry of the, 199. Amazon, plain of the, 6; the wild luxu¬ riance of its regions, 19; called the “ Great River” by the natives, 155 ; its extent, 157; boundless wooded plain of the, 161. - , Upper, plains of, 390; breadth of, at Tomependa, 401. Amentacese, 194, 2S5. America, migrations to, through Northern Asia, 11, 131; absence of cereal food in, 12; pastoral life unknown to the aborigines, 12; on the cosmological origin of, 105 ; the southern hemisphere cooler than the northern, 107. - , North, inclination of the eastern shore, 29; natural features and con¬ figuration of, 31-40 ; no pastoral tribes discovered among the aborigines, 42; on the climate and distribution of heat in, 102 et seq. - , South, the vast Steppes of, 6, 8, 85 ; physical causes of the diminution of heat, 7, 96 et seq.; presents a remark¬ able similarity to the south-western continent of the old world, 8, 105 ; cha¬ racter of its vegetation, 10; aborigines of, 1 1 ; cattle of, 1 1 ; quadrupeds of, 12, 133; the regions by which the Steppes of, are bounded, 19; the wild luxuri¬ ance of nature, 19; various races of man, 20; mountain systems of, 30, 31; forests of, 98; general disquisition on the climate of, 96-109; vast savannahs of, 98; early civilization of, 130, 131; limits of European civilization in, 140; carved rocks found in, 147-151 ; the great rivers of, 155 et seq.; different routes proposed in the unknown por¬ tions of, 177 ; Schomburgk’s journey across the continent of, 176, 177; the early maps of, 181 ; their uncer¬ tainty, 182; immense extent of the woody region between the plains of 2 G 438 INDEX. Venezuela, and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, 194; the vegetable kingdom of, as yet imperfectly explored, 292-294; Humboldt’s journey across, from Caxamarca to the Pacific, 393-420. Ammon, temple of, 2; nomos of, 44; the probability of its having stood on the sea-shore, 264. Ammonites, found on the Andes, 403. Amucu, lake of, 159, 179, 184, 185; where situated, 186, 187. Amygdalese, 95. Anai, village of, 1S7. Andes, chain of the, 31 ; the seat of ac¬ tive volcanos, 43; inhabited by the Spanish race, 192; chain of, in Boli¬ via, various elevations of the, 205 ; so¬ journ on the ridge of the, 290 ; paramos of the, 292; Humboldt’s journey across, from Caxamarca to the Pacific Ocean, 390-420; elevation of, at the Paramo del Assuay, 393; succession of Para¬ mos, 407 ; picturesquely marked by masses of erupted porphyry and tra¬ chyte, 403; marine fossils found 12,800 feet above the level of the sea, 403; illustrative notes of the, 421 ; deriva¬ tion of, 423; the point where they are intersected by the magnetic equa¬ tor, 407, 429. Animal kingdom, great divisions of the, 222. Animal life existing in the solitudes of the loftiest mountains, 210; in the atmo¬ sphere, in the waters, and the earth, 211-214. Animalcules of the atmosphere, the water, and the earth, 211-214. Animals which yield milk, 11, 125, 126; of South America, 12, 133; struggles ■and conflicts of, 17; on the hyber¬ nation of, 242, 243; domestic, inquiry respecting the origin of, 52; noctur¬ nal life of, in the primeval forests of South America, 191 et seq.; traits of, 198, 199; various cries of, 199, 200; illustrative notes, 202. Antilles, sea of the, 23; springs among the islands of the, 155, 174; inhabited by the Spanish race, 191. Antisana, mountainous plain of, 17; great elevation of, 139; cavern of, its great elevation, 237 ; volcano of, 371. Anurahdepura, the sacred fig-tree of, 275. Aparecidas las islands so called, 24. Apes, the foreboders of rain, 20, 141; nocturnal cry of, 199, 203. Aposentos de Mulalo, of the Andes, 393, 423. Apure, Itiver, steppes of the, 6 ; observa¬ tions on, 194. - , Llanos de, temperature of, 137. Aqueducts, of the Peruvians, 398. Aragua, valley of, 24. Arborescent vegetation, 322. Aristolocliia, immense blossoms of the, 230, 348. Armadillo, of South America, 12. Arum cordifolium, vital heat of the, 330. Arundinaria, 180. Ascaris, 213, 251. Asia, Central, contains the largest steppes in the world, 3, 4, 94; the mountain plateaux of, 53-62 ; table of elevations, 58; general review of the mountain chains of, 63-73; the volcanos of, distant from the sea, 65 ; vegetation of the steppes of, 95. Astrtese, the, 253. Atabapo, the river, 159 ; blackness of its water, 160. Atahuallpa, the ancient fortress and pa¬ lace of, 408-411; his captivity, 410, 429; historical notices of, 411 et seq.; death of, and the appearance of a comet, 429 ; his descendants at Caxa¬ marca, 11, 411-413. Ataruipe, cave of, the tomb of an extinct tribe, 171, 18S; numerous skeletons found, 171, 172. Atlantic Ocean, northern waters of, agi¬ tated by a gyratory movement, 120- 122; form of a longitudinal furrowed valley, 154, 174; calmness of its sur¬ face in certain latitudes, 154, 174. Atlantic and Pacific, immense advan¬ tages to be derived from a communica¬ tion, 433. Atlantis, Island of, 55. Atlas, Mount, covered with perpetual snow, 9; inhabitants to the north of, 19; Greater and Lesser, remarks on, 8S, S9; elevation of, 89; on the position of the Atlas of the ancients, 110-113. Atmosphere, animalcules of the, 211; the influence of its pressure on plants, 222, 295, 296. Atolls (coral-walls), situation of, 254 ; origin of, 259; process of formation of, 262. INDEX. 439 Attires, cataracts of the, 153 et scq.; general account of, 162 et seq. - , the brave Indian tribe, melancholy legend of, 172; verses on the parrot of, 189. Australia, Acacias, Myrtacese, and Ca- suarinae, the principal vegetable forms of, 313. Auvergne, plateau of, its elevation, 58. Avars, early migration of the, 5. Avenacere, 128. Axum, plateau of, its elevation, 58. Azteks, ruins of the fortress of the, 127 ; seat of the, 207 ; relics of civilization found, 207 ; pyramidal buildings of the, 398. Badger, hybernation of the, 244. Balboa, Vasco de, his adventurous expe¬ dition over the South American Con¬ tinent, 418, 432. Balch Pass, elevation of the, 79. Bambusacese, one of the most beautiful ornaments of tropical climates, 334, 335. Bananas, 221 ; one of the plants by which the aspect of Nature is princi¬ pally determined, 224, 227 ; cultivated from the earliest infancy of civiliza¬ tion, 305. Banisterias, 173. Banks,” of steppes, probably the marine shoals of the primeval world, 1, 26; phenomena of, explained, 27 ; com¬ posed of floetz strata, 28; immense tracts of, in the deserts of Africa and Asia, 28. Banvan-tree, colossal size of, 275. Baobab, colossal dimensions of the, 271, 272. Baraguan, narrow pass of, 1 62. Barjikang Pass, elevation and vegetation of the, 78. Basalt, formation of, 218. Bats of the South American steppes, 15. Bavaria, plateau of, its elevation, 58. “ Bay of Sadness,” 155. Bear, hybernation of the, 224. Bees, discovered at the summit of the Rocky Mountains, 33. Befaria, the purple-flowering, 23. Beke, on the Mountains of the Moon, 115, 116. Bengal, bay of, an arrested effort of Nature to form an inland sea, 254. Bertholletia excelsa, colossal size of, 158, 179. Bignonia, 173. Binimi, fatal expedition to, 188. Birds, hybernation of, 242; the ratio of their numerical distribution, 288. Bison, of North America, 40-42. Bixa Orellana, pigment of, 171. Black Sea. See Euxine. Boa-constrictor of the Orinoco, 20, 142; periodic torpidity of, 243. Bolivia, geographical observations on, 204, 205. Bolson de Massimi, el, elevation of, 208. Bombaceae, one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is prin¬ cipally determined, 224. Botany. See Plants and Vegetation. Bougainvillaea, new and beautiful species of, 400, 401. Brahmins, geographical notions of the, 67. Branco River, 178, 181, 182, 183, 184. Buenos Avres, situation and temperature of, 109. Buffalo, of South America, 11, 125, 126; of the Mississippi, 40-42. Butterflies, on the summit of Mont Blanc and on the Chimborazo, 232, 233. Cacao, Montes de, 194-202. Cactus, the, 15, 138; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Natureis principally determined, 225 ; indige¬ nous to America, 310; its natural his¬ tory, 311, 312. Caladiurn, belongs exclusively to tropi¬ cal climates, 329. California, mountain coast-range of, 36, 37 ; volcanos still active in, 37 ; its golden treasures, and the advantages of the discovery, 433. Cameji, on the Orinoco, 163; mouth of the, 166. Camel, ‘‘ the ship of the desert,” 3, 51; great utility of the, 51 ; natural history of the, 52, 53. Camosi, rock of, 165. Canada, monument discovered in the prairies of, 82. Canar, fortress of, 394, 424. Canaries, inhabited by the Spanish race, 191. Carouac, the food of the Indians, 145. 2 g 2 440 INDEX. Cape Nun, situation of, 93. Cape Town, situation and temperature of, 139. Capybara, of the Orinoco, 198. Caracas, alpine valleys of 1, 2, 4; the vast steppes of, 6; littoral chain of, 22; a mountainous region, 23 ; sugar¬ cane of, 26 ; Llanos of, 26, 94; plateau of, its elevation, 58. Carguairazo, volcano of, falling in of the summit from an eruption, and curious phenomenon, 367. Caribbean Gulf, 1. - Islands, disintegration of the, 23. Carichana, Indian mission of, 161. Carolinias, 160. Carpathian Mountains, general features of the, 40. Casas Grandas, ruins of an Aztek palace, 126. Cashmere, valley of, 69. Cassiquiare, the river of, 159, 160. Castacem, 13S. Castille, plateau of, its elevation, 58. Casuarineas, 221; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 226 ; the prin¬ cipal vegetable form of Australia, 313, 314; physiognomy of the, 330. Cataracts of the Orinoco, dissertation on the, 139 et seq.; illustrative notes to, 174-190. - of Maypures and Atures, general account of, 162 et seq. Cattle of South America, 11, 125; vast quantities of, in the Pampas of, 14, 137. Caura, sources of the, 162. Causeways of the Inca road over the the Andes, 394, 424. Caxamarca (the ancient capital of the Inca Atahuallpa), Humboldt’s journey over the plateau or table-land of, 390- 420; the scene of the sanguinary his¬ tory of the Spanish conquest, 403 ; ori¬ ginally called Cassamarca, the “ City of Frost,’’ 407 ; fertile valley of, 407 ; general description of, 40S ; ancient fort and palace of Atahuallpa, 408-411; de¬ scendants of the Inca resident at, 411 — 415 ; Humboldt’s departure from, 415; and arrival at the Pacific, 419; illus¬ trative notes on, 421-436. Cayos Flamenco, Bonito, &c. coral islands of, 257. Celaya, elevatiou of the, 208. Central fire of the earth connected with volcanic eruptions, 65, 66, 67, 360, 361, 372. Cereals, on the culture of, 128, 129. Cerro Duida River, 178. Cervus Mexicanus, 133. Cesalpineas, 220. Chagos Bank, formed of coral, 254,255. Chamaya, Rio de, 399, 400, 401 ; fall of its waters, 400, 427. Chasars, early migration of the, 5. Cherson, situation and temperature of, 104. Chiguires, herds of, in South America, 12, 135. Chihuahua, elevation of, 208. Chimborazo, elevation of, 43 ; butterflies and other winged insects found on the summit of, 210, 232; peculiar colour of the water flowing from, 160; eleva¬ tion of the four peaks, Pomarape, Gua- lateiri, Parinacota, and Sahama, 204; the vertical height, 234; probable de¬ rivation of the name, 234; defined as “ the snow of Chimbo,” 235 ; the name probably transmitted from a bygone age, 235. Chinchilla, the, 233. Chinchon, Countess de, biographical no¬ tices of, 390, 422. Chinese, ancient orographic knowledge of the, 56. Choropainpa, plain of, 406. Chota, ruins of, 204; silver mines of, 402, 403. Cidaris, species of, 403. Cinchona, its first discovery and medi¬ cal virtues, 390,422; its hab’tat and natural history, 391. Cinchona bark hunters, 281. Civilization, limits of, in South America, 19, 140; and remains of, 207; pro¬ gressive stages of, 398; in ancient Mexico and Peru, 425. Climate, of South America, 7; general disquisition on, 95 et seq.; of North America, 100 et seq.; forms the vari¬ ous characteristics of nations, 219. Climbing plants, 331, 332. Coast Reefs, situation of, 253. Cochabamba, Cordilleras of, S4. Cocuyza, el Mogote de, rock of, 161. Ccelebogyne, germination of the, 245. Colossochelys, 222. Columbia, cataracts and shores of the, 37. Columbus, his voyage through the fucus INDEX 44V banks of tlie ocean, 49, 50; liis first discovery of the new continent, 156, 175, 432; his observations on the equi¬ noctial currents, 175. Composite, numerical relations of the, 279, 2S0, 281, 283, 284, 286; nume¬ rous species of, 291. Condor, the giant among vultures, 210, 237 ; various names of the, 237 ; its native region, 237; immense altitude to which it soars, 237, 238; its habits, 239; mode of capture, 239. Conifer®, 194, 221 ; on the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Natureis principally determined, 227 ; their ex¬ tensive geographical diflusion, 314, 322, 323, et seq. Coral animals, labours of the, 214. - animalcules, wonderful formation of, 252 et seq.; depth at which they can exist, 259. - Islands, 257. - Reefs, natural history of, 253, 257 et seq. Corals, the greatest number in the riEgean Sea, 259; various forms of, in the Red Sea, 255. Cordilleras, of South America, vast ex¬ tent of, 42; names of the highest points, 43; of Cochabamba, 84; of Peru, 210; deserts of the, 393; re¬ mains of the great road of the Incas across the, 393. Corentyn River, exploration of the, 150. Cormolache, mountain of, 404. Cosiquiriachi, elevation of, 208. Cosmos, quoted. See Humboldt. Creeping Plants, 227, 331. Crescentia, delicate blossoms from the rough bark, 230, 34S. Crocodile, of the Orinoco, 20, 142, 198; periodic torpidity of, 243. Crotalus, the, 251. Crucifer®, 95, 285, 2S6. Cryptogamia, 215; wonderful regermina¬ tion of the, 241 ; numerical distribu¬ tion of, 337. Cumadanimari, hills of, 1 64. Cumana, expedition to, 181. Cunabami, mountain group of, 162. Cupilifer®, their geographical distribu¬ tion, 322. Curata, the Indian name of the colossal grass of South America, 180. Curare, an Indian poison, 151, 152. Curtius, Professor, his verses on the Par¬ rot of the Atures, 189. Cusco, the capital of the Incas of Peru, 395 ; ancient fortress of, 397, 39S. Cyathea speciosa, 338. Cyclidi®, the, 213. Cynometia, delicate blossoms spring from the rough bark, 348. Cyperace® (Cypresses), 94, 95, 231, 284 ; gigantic forms of, 326. Date Palms, geographical situation of, 297, 302. Dead, Indian method of preserving the, 171. Dead Sea, specimens of the Porites elon- gata from the, 260. Delf and Pottery, remains of, found in South America, 207. Deserts, general view of, 1 et seq.; of Africa, 2, 3 ; probable causes of their sterility, 10; of Northern Africa. 110. See Steppes. Dhawalagiri, elevation of the, 6S, 71, 236. Dicotyledons, numerous species of, 292. Diodorus, his traditions respecting the primeval formation of the Mediterra¬ nean and of Samothrace, 262, 263. Dioecious Plants, fructification of, 244, 246. Djawahir, elevation of the, 69, 71. Djebel-al-Komr, the Mountains of the Moon, 9. Dogs, wild, herds of, in South America, 85 ; objects of Indian adoration, 85 ; natural history of, 86-88. Dolphins of the Orinoco, 199, 202. Dorado, fabulous, 185, 188. “ Dormideras," the name of, applied to certain plants, 94. Dormouse, hybernation of the, 243. Dragon Tree, colossal dimensions of the, 220, 268 et seq.; its habitats, 268; its prodigious age, 269, 270. Dragon’s Mouth, at the entrance of the Orinoco, 155, 175. Drought of the Steppes, 14, 15; effects of the change from, 16, 139. Duida, the mountain of, described, 158. Durango, in Mexico, elevation of, 268. Earth, the food of the Otomaks and other Indians, 142-146; on the indurating and heat-emitting mass of the, 218, 267, 268. 442 TNDEX. Earthquake, submersion of a forest by an, 28 ; evidence of subterranean fire communications, 360; of 1811 and IS 1 3, which shook the various parts of the New Continent, 260. Eels, electric, 17 ; mode of capturing, 18; experiments on, 113. Egypt, once overflowed by the sea, 264 ; left uncovered by the retreat of the Mediterranean, 261. El Dorado, the fable of, 159. Elater Noctilucus, phosphorescence emit¬ ted from the, 250. Elbow Lake, situation of, 40. Electric Fishes, 248. Electricity, operations and extent of, 19, 140. Elements, perpetual struggle of the, 3S7. Elias, Mount, an active volcano, 37. Elysian Plains, of the ancients, 111. Encaramada, engravings on the rock of, 164. Engravings on the rocks of central America, 147, 148; on the rocks of Uruana and Encaramada, 164. Ephedra, the different species of, 328. Epicharmus, the philosopher of Syracuse, his illustrations of vital force from the painting of the “ Rhodian Genius,” 383—385. Equinoctial Current, observations on the, 175. Eratosthenes, geographical views of, 67. Ericaceae, 308, 310; the vegetable cover¬ ing of the earth's surface, 110, 225. See Heaths. Escalloniae, of the family of the Eriaceae, geographical distribution of, 344. Esmeralda, town of, 176, 179. Esquimaux. See Indians. Euglenes, the, 213. Euphorbiaceae, 197, 245, 285. Euxine, primeval outburst of the waters of, 262; originally an inland lake, 263; forced the passage of the Dardanelles, 263; extract from Strabo, recording the primeval convulsion of its waters on the authority of Strato, 263. Fan Palms of South America, 12, 13, 135, 136. Fair Weather, Mount, an active volcano, 38. Ferns, growth of, in different climates, 108 ; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is princi- cipally determined, 229, 337-340 ,* numerical relation and geographical distribution of, 280, 337 ; climatic re¬ lations under which they flourish, 339, 340. Fish, the swimming-bladder of, 251. Flamingoes, multitudes of, 197. Floetz, strata of, 1. Flora Japonica, curious properties of the, 320. Forests of South America, 19, 98 ; plants composing the, 2S0. - primeval, on the nocturnal life of animals in the, 191 et seq.; between the Orinoco and the Amazon, 193; de¬ finition and description of, 193; the Spanish word Monte applied both to a forest and a mountain, 193; between the plains of Venezuela and Pampas of Buenos Ayres, immense extent of, 194; of Europe and Northern Asia, 194 ; impenetrability of some portions of, 195; illustrative notes, 202. Fort George, situation and temperature of, 104. Fossils, Marine, found on the Andes, 403, 428. “ Fountain of Youth,” fatal expedition to discover the, 1S8. Fremont, Captain, geographical investi¬ gations of, 29, 32 ; lofty peak called after his name, 32, 33. Fresnillo, elevation of, 20S. Frogs, vitality of, under water, 242. Fucus, immense size of the marine Ma- crocystis pyrifera, 276; banks of the ocean, 47-50. Galapagos, the, 256. Gallinazos, different species of, 239 ; ap¬ preciated for their utility, 240. Gallionellte, 212. Gambia, the river, 3. Gebette River, 179. Geneva, situation and temperature of, 104. Geognostic (or Geological) profiles, 33. Gerard, Dr., his visit to Shahil Pass, 76. Gila River, delf and pottery found on the banks of, 207. Globe, primeval, distribution of land and water different from the present, 164. Glumaceae, 95 ; numerical relation of the, 279, 283, 284. INDEX 443 Gobi, Steppe of, 5, 58 ; elevation of, 59. Gomphrenas, 214. Gonzales, Juan, shipwrecked, 172. Gotliard, Mont, height of, 35. Gottenburg, situation and temperature of, 104. Gramiuese, 94, 285, 2S6. Granite, masses of leaden-coloured, 19, 141 ; turned black by the waters of the Orinoco, 163, 164. Grasses of the Steppes, 1 6 ; farinaceous, culture of, 128; colossal stalks of a species of, 158, 180; arborescent, 221 ; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 228, 334-337. Greeks, extent of their maritime disco¬ veries, 111. Grossulariacese, 310. Guaharibes, waterfall of the, 151. Guaicas, tribe of the, 158. Guainia, the river, 159, 160. Gualgaya, argentiferous mountain of, 404 ; vralue of silver obtained from, 405. Guamani, Paramo de, 417. Guanaco, of South America, 126. Guanaxuato, elevation of, 208. Guancabamba, Rio de, 398; the swim¬ ming couriers of, 399, 400. Guanches, race of the, 51. Guangamarca, Andes pass of, 417, 418. Guaranes, a tribe of South America, 12, 13, 134, 135. Guareke Indians, savannahs inhabited by the, 163; melancholy legend of the, 172; their extinction, 172; skeletons and skulls of, 172. Guaviare, the river, 159, 160. Guayaquil, Rio de, peculiar blackness of its water, 160. Guaycas, Indians, 178. Guiana, the granitic stones of, 155; im¬ penetrable forests of, 161 ; method of preserving the dead among the tribes of, 171; observations on the coast of, 176. Guinea, negroes of, eat earth, 145. Guiriou, mission of, 182. Gulf-stream of Mexico, 121-124. Gustavia, delicate blossoms spring from the rough bark, 230, 318. Gymnotus, the electric eel, 17 ; mode of capturing, 18; experiments on, 139. Hami, oasis of, 62. Hanno, Periplus of, 113. Harudsch, desert near the mountains of, 2 ; basaltic mountains of, 44 ; geologi¬ cal features of, 45. Heat, physical causes for the diminution of in South America, 7 ; general dis¬ quisition on, 96 et seq.; of North America, 103 et seq.; of the interior of the earth, 373, 379. Heaths, of northern Europe, may be regarded as steppes, 2. - , (Ericaceae), one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of nature is principally determined, 225 ; the habi¬ tats and natural history of, 308, 309. Hedgehog, hybernation of the, 242. “Hell’s Mouth,” the whirlpool so called, 162. Hermesia castanifolia, 197, 202. Herodotus, has described the deserts of Northern Africa, 9. Herrera, his observations on the voyage of Columbus, 156, 175. Hesperides, of the ancients, 111. Hillhouse, Mr., navigates the Massaruni, 184, 185. Himalaya, estimated height of the, 32; mountain plateau of the, 54 ; the moun¬ tain chain of, 63, 68; observations of various travellers, 70; general eleva¬ tion of, 71; on the perpetual snow-line of the, 74. Hindoo-Coosh, situation of the, 67. Hiongnu, a tribe of Eastern Asia, 52, 80,81. Hobart Town, situation and temperature of, 109. Hordacege, 128. Horse, the constant attendant of man, 17 ; everywhere exposed to attack, 17. Huancaya, canine worship of the Indians of, 85. Huayna Capac, of the family of the Incas, 412, 430, 431. Humboldt, Alexander von, his journey over the plateau or table-land of Caxa- marca to the shores of the Pacific, 390-420 (see Caxamarca); illustrative notes of the journey, 421-436. - , works of, referred to in various notes ; — Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 152, 278. Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 205, 255, 258, 328. 444 INDEX Asie Centrale, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 89, 91, 97, 99, 113, 234, 260, Cosmos, 41, 49, 53, 73, 114, 118, 124, 265, 273, 303, 305, 346, 388, 389. De Distributione geographica plan¬ taruni, 278, 296, 304, 338, 343. Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, 31, 34, 37, 43, 88, 206, 257, 305, 306,430, 434. Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, 84, 129, 136, 138, 277, 2S1, 305, 306. Examen Critique de l’Histoire de la Geographie, 32, 48, 50, 88, 134, 2 16, 265, 271, 316, 322. Fragment d’un tableau geologique de l’Amerique Meridionale, 23. Letter to the Editor of the Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 249. Memoire sur les Montagnes de l’Inde, 53. Memoire sur les Lignes Isothermes, 87. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 185. llecueil d' Observations Astrono- miques, 234, 238, 428. Recueil d Observations de Zoologie et d’Anatomie Comparee, 24, 139, 141, 203, 237, 251. Relation Historique du Voyage aux Regions equinoxiales, 29, 29, 46, 48, 82, 85, 133, 134, 137, 139, 141, 144, 147, 152, 180,202, 203, 242, 250, 269, 305, 336, 338, 432, 434. Sur la Fixation des limites des Guyanes Fran^aise et Portu- guaise, 178. Treatise on the Quina Woods, 423. Uber die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser, 295. "V nes des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples indigenes de l'Ame- rique, 131, 236, 269, 424, 425. Humming-birds, seen at an elevation of 14,600 feet, 237. Huns, early migration of the, 5 ; various races of, 80, 81. Hybernation of animals, 242, 243. Hydras, the, 252. Hykea, of the Amazon, 6. Iiymeneie, 220. Hypsometric observations on the heights of mountains and their peaks, 204— 209. Illimani Peaks, situation and elevation of, 204. Inca roads of Peru, remains of, 393-397, 424; flights of steps, 395, 424. Inca Roca. State policy of, 431. Iucas of Peru, their early conquest of Quito, 236; ancient fort and palace of the, at Caxamarca, 40S-411; descen¬ dants of, 411-413; treasures taken from their temples by the Spaniards, 410, 430; their -worship of the Sun, 430,431 ; expected restoration of their ancient rule, 415, 432. SeeAtahuallpa. India, mountain plateaux of, 55. Indians, driven on the coast of Germany, 124; of the Orinoco, method of pre- serving their dead, 171. Infusoria, vital tenacity of 241, 242, 244; marine, luminosity of the, 247 et seq. Insect life in the atmosphere, the ocean, and the earth, 211-214. Insects, carried to an elevation of 19,000 feet above the plains, 232, 233. “ Inundation, the Valley of,” 183. Ipomucena Islands, 1S7. Ipurucotos, tribe of the, 182. Islands formed of coral reefs, 257. Italian scenery, 216; sky, 217. Jagua Palm, beauties of the 392. Jaguar, of South America, 12; traits of the, 195, 196, 197. Jainti-dhara, elevation of the, 80. Jao, sources of the, 162; mouth of, 164. Japan, history of the peopling of, 12, 131 ; the character of its vegetation different from that of the Asiatic continent, 320. Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, rich collec¬ tions of the, 287, 288. Jardines del Rev, 257. Jarures, race of the, 20. Juncaceae, 95,285. Kalmuck-Kirghis tribes, extensive steppes occupied by, 3. Kashmir, valley of, its elevation, 59. Keeling-Atoll, a coral lagoon, 255. Keri, rocks of, 163, 164, 165. Kinchinjinga, the highest point of the Himalaya, 68. Kuen-liin, the mountain plateau of, 53; the mountain chain of, 63, 66, 67. INDEX. 445 Kyllyngise, the steppes covered with, 16. I Kynngar Pass, elevation and vegetation of, 79. Labiatje, 285, 286. Lagoon Islands, 254; hypothesis respect¬ ing, 26 1 . Lagos, elevation of, 208. Lake Istaca, sources and elevation of, 40. - Superior, its elevation, 39. Lakhur Pass, ascent to the, 80. Lama, of South America, 126. Landscape-painters, leading forms of ve¬ getation, instructions to, 346. - painting, on the beauties of, as de¬ rived from the vegetable kingdom, 346, 347. Languages, variety of, in the South American wilds, 20 ; changes in the terms of, 191; in language truth to nature should be the chief object, 192. Latent life, disquisition on, 242, 243. Lecidess, 10, 125. Leguininosac, 280, 284, 285, 286. Lemaur, Don F., his trigonometrical survey of the Bahia de Xagua, 174. Lepidosiren, periodic torpidity of, 243. Leprarise, the, 214. Leucopria, 213; modulata, 251. Lianes, or creeping plants, one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 227, 331. Lichens, 10, 125. Liliacere, one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is chiefly determined, 229, 341 . Lima, observations for determining the longitude of, 420, 435, 436. Limande, of the Orinoco, 203. Lions, of South America, 12; nocturnal roar of, 199; not to be found in the Sahara, 90. Lithodendra, the, 253. Lithophytes, the, 214, 251 et seq. Llanos of South America, 2; the great plains of the, 7 ; extent of, 8; adapted for breeding cattle, 10; have become habitable to man, 13, 14; extension of, 22; of Caracas, 26,27, 94; elevation of, 27; of Barcelona, 28; effect of, on the mind, 28; general observations on, 29; of the valley of the Amazon, 83; situated in the torrid zone, SS ; de A pure, temperature of, 137 ; exten¬ sively overflowed by the Orinoco, 185. Lölfling’s expedition to Cumana, 181. Loudon’s Arboretum, &c., quoted, 273. Loxa, town of, 390. Luminosity of sea-water, 246; attributed to Mollusca, 247 et seq. Lupata, Cordilleras of, covered with eter¬ nal snow, 9; mountain range of, 120. Lyctonia, ancient land of, 265, 266. Macos, race of the, 20. Macrocystis pyrifera, a species of marine fucus, colossal size of, 276. Macusi Indians, religious traditions of the, 147. Madagascar River, hedgehogs and tor¬ toises of, 242, 243. Madrepores, the, 253. Magdalena River, called “ The Great Water," by the natives, 155; valley of, 416. Magellan, straits of, the temperature of, 107. Magnetic needle, physical effects of the sudden variations of the, 249. Mahu River, description of the, 186. Majonkong Indians, mountainous country of the, 176, 180. Malvaceae (Mallows), one of the vege¬ table forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 224; its various families, 305, 306 ; on the natural history of the, 306. Mammalia, the ratio of their numerical distribution, 287, 288. Man, various races of, in the South American wilds, 20, 142; his ferocity in a savage state, 20, 151; discordant elements of, even in civilized lite, 21; everywhere is man opposed to man, 21 ; the monuments of his creative genius pass away, while the ]i/e-springs of Nature remain eternal, 173. Manco Capac, his mysterious appearance in Peru, 397. Manimi, perilous cataract ledges of, 166. Mapires, the coffins of the Indians, 171. Maps, of South America, 181. Maquitares, race of the, 20. Mar de Sargasso, geographical situation of, 48. Maranon, valley of, 402. Maravaca, mountain of, 179. Marmot, the, 233. 446 INDEX. Massaruni River, navigated, 184, 185. Mastodons, elephantine, 222. Matter, vital force of, affinitive and re¬ pulsive, 383; various combinations of, 384, 385. Mauritia-palms of South America, 12; useful and nutritious properties of, 13, 135, 136. Maypures, cataracts of, 153 et seq. ; general account of the waterfalls of, 162, et seq.; missionary village of, 163; Parrot of, 172. Mediterranean, great catastrophe by which it was formed, 216, 262-265; Strato’s account of, 263. • - , three peninsulas of the, Iberian, Italian, and Hellenic, 265. Medusa hysocella, electric light struck Irom the, 249. Mehemet Ali, his exploring expeditions to the Mountains of the Moon, 117. Melastomacese, 160; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 229, 346. Melocactuses, the, 15,138,226; vegeta¬ ble springs, 312. Meta, w'hirlpool and rock at the entrance of the, 161. Mexican Gulf, rotatory stream of the, 121-124 ; coral islands in the, 256. Mexico, plateau of, its elevation, 58 ; elevation of, in the equinoctial zone, 208; general elevation of, 209 ; the Conifera; and oaks of, 315 et seq . Microscope, wonderful discoveries of the, 211. Migrations, through northern Asia to the western coast of America, 11, 131. Mimosas, the steppes of South America covered with, 16, 216; one of the vege¬ table forms by which the aspect of Natureis principally determined, 224 ; the habitat and natural history of, 307, 308. Mirage, deceptive appearances of the, 13,137. Mississippi, its sources and elevation, 39; the forest, prairies of, 40 ; temperature of the valley of the, 102, 103. Missouri, deposits of the, 38. Moeris, Lake, probably once connected with the sea, 244. Mollusca, marine luminosity of the, 216, 247 et seq. Monad, question respecting the, 241. Mongolian Steppe, in Central Asia, 4, 19. Monkeys of South America, cries of, 199, 203. Monocotyledons, numerous species of, 21 2. Moon, natural representations of, 165. - , Mountains of the, 9 ; disquisition on, 114, 115. Mont Blanc, 210. Monte, the term, in Spanish, applied both to mountain and forest, 194. Monte Video, situation and temperature of, 104. - Nuovo, in the Peloponnesus, 356. Mouflon, the long-horned, of South Ame¬ rica, 11. Mountains, of South America, system of, 30, 31 ; plan for measuring the heights of, 33; vast range in North America, 35-38 ; the Cordilleras the longest chain in the world, 42, 43 ; plateaux of Asia, 53-62 ; table of elevations, 5S; general view of the great moun¬ tain chains of Asia, 63-73; on the snow-lines of, 73 et seq. ; masses of, in South America, 84; numerous terms for, in the Castilian dialects, 191, 202 ; the names of, derived from the most ancient relics of languages, 236 ; trans¬ parency of the atmosphere of, 238 ; process of their formation, 262. Mule, instinctive cunning of the, for allaying his thirst, 15. Musk Ox, of South America, 11, 125; of the Mississippi, 40. Muyscas, the ancient inhabitants of New Granada, 425 ; civilization of, 426. Mvlodon robustus, 222. Myrtacem (Myrtles), 179, 2S0; of Aus¬ tralia, 312; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 229, 343—345. Mysore, plateau of, its elevation, 58. Naiads, the, 213. Nations, characteristics of, formed by climate, 219. Natron Lakes, of Egypt, 44. Nature, the study of, conducive to intel¬ lectual repose, 21 ; her powerful influ¬ ence in the regions of the tropics, 154, 215; the life-springs of, ever prolific and eternal, 173; the many voices of, revealed in animal existence, 200-201 ; periodic stagnation of 215 ; great con¬ vulsion of, in the Mediterranean, 216, INDEX. 447 262-265 ; general physiognomy of, 218, 219 ; principally determined hy sixteen forms of plants, 221 ; vital force of, illustrated by Epicharmus, 383-385. Negroes, various hordes of, in Africa, 19. Nemterequeteba, the ancient Peruvian "messenger of God,” 397, 425,426. Nevado de Sorata, immense elevation of, 43. - de Illimani, elevation of, 43. - situation and elevation of peaks, 204. New Granada, the ancient seat of civiliza¬ tion, 425, 426 ; the native land of the potato, 426, 427. Niagara, origin of the falls of, 165. Nile, on the sources of the, 115-129; windings of, in Abyssinia, 157. Noon-day, the stillness of in the tropics, contrasted with the night, 200 ; all larger animals then take refuge in the forest, 201. Oaks, cover the mountain plains of the equator in South America, 231 ; im¬ mense size and age of an oak in the department of Charente, 275 ; elevated situation of, growing in Mexico, 135. Oases, of the African desert, 2, 3 ; num¬ ber of, in Egypt, 44 ; the name of, Egyptian, 45. Ocean, vegetation of the, 48, 49 ; phos¬ phorescence of the, 212, 245. Ocellinge, the, 253. Oco, rock of, 163. Opuntiacese, 310. Orange River, its elevation, 58. - trees, number and magnitude of, in the Huertas de Pucara, 400. Orchidese, natural history of the, 312, 313; one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is princi¬ pally determined, 226, 227. Oregon, territory of, 35 ; temperature of, 104. Orinoco, the wild luxuriance of its re¬ gions, 19; rock engravings on the banks of, 82 ; the great steppe extend¬ ing from the mouth of the, 81 ; ac¬ counts of the cataracts of, 1 5 3 e t seq the name unknown in the interior of the country, 155; simply called “the river,’’ 155; current produced by the, 155, themighty -waters ofpouredinto the Atlantic, 156; general description of, 157 et seq.; its general course and remarkable windings, 159; picturesque rocky vales of, 161 ; its course along the chain of the Parime, 161, 162; separates the forest of Guiana from the extensive savannahs, 162; danger to boatmen from floating forest trees, 162; possesses the singular property of colouring black the reddish masses of granite, 163, 164; on the sources of the. 158, 175, 176, 178, 180; the ancient water level considerably de¬ pressed, 164; illustrative notes, 174- 190; passes through the mountains of the Parime, 200. Orotava, colossal dragon-tree of, 268, 269. Orphic Argonaut, mythical narrations of, 265. Otaheiti, sugar cane of, 25. Otomacs, or Ottomaks, a tribe of Indians who eat earth, lizards, &c., 20, 142, 143; observations on, 144, 145; the poison curare used bv, 151. Ox, the constant attendant of man, 17; everywhere exposed to attack, 17. Pacaraima Mountains, 1S2, 183, 1S4. - , latitude of, 185, 186. Pachydermata, 222. Paciflc Ocean, first view of, from the Guangamarca of the Andes, 419; im¬ mense advantages to be derived from a direct communication with the Atlan¬ tic, 433. Paco, of South America, 126. Padano River, 176,179. Padurello, 212. Palms of South America, 12, 13, 135, 136, 298; the Piriguao, one of the noblest forms of the, 161, 185; the family of, 221 ; the most stately of all vegetable forms, by which the aspect of nature is principally determined, 223 ; on the habitat and natural his¬ tory of, 297-304; form and colour of the fruit, 303. Pampa de Navar, 406. Pampas of South America, 2 ; general observation on, 29. Panama, Isthmus of, various measure¬ ments of, 434, 435. Paragua, a general name for water or sea, 193. Paraguamusi River, 183. Paramo de la Suma Paz, the mountain group of the Caracas, its elevation, vegetation, &c., 4, 84; the highest 448 INDEX. Alpine regions, 83, 9-1 ; of the Andes, in Peru, elevation and description of, 392, 407. Paramu River, 176. Parasitic vermes, 251. Pari me, mountain chain of the, 161, 162, 200; the terra incognita of South America, 178; the lake of, alleged to he the source of the Orinoco, 181, Zabulon, 187; a general name for water or sea, 183; the great Mar de la, proved to be the Lake Amucu, 188. Pavopanisus, the snow-crowned summits of 155, 175. Parras, elevation of, 208. Paspalum, the steppes covered with, 16. Passo del Norte, elevation of, 208. Pastos, Province de los, its elevation, 58. Peccarv, tracts of the, 197. Pentastoma, 213; a division of the para¬ sitic vermes, 251. Peru, remains of the great road formed by the Incas, 393-397. Periplus of Scylax, 46. Peru, Pizarro’s invasion of, 395, 397 ; historical notions of, 397; treasures taken from the temples of, by the Spaniards, 410, 430; ancient worship of the sun, 430, 431. Petrifactions, wonderful phenomena pre¬ sented by the study of, 373. Phanerogamic plants, 220, 233, 276; immense variety of, 276-278; nume¬ rical relations of 279 et seq. Philippines, inhabited by the Spanish race, 191. Phoenicians, extent of their discoveries, 110, 111. Phosphorescence of the ocean, 212, 245. Photocharis, luminosity of the, 247. Phyllodia, 345. Phyto-corals, 252, 253. Pinduri, perpetual snow-line of the, 77. Pine forest at Chilpanzingo, 328, 329 ; of South America, 194, 231 ; elevated situation of some growing in Mexico, 315; various species of, in Europe, 31S; their geographical distribution, 321 ; gigantic forms of, 323-325. Pinnate leaves, physiognomy of, 352. Piragua, mouth of the, 166. Pirara River, course of the, 1S6. Pirigara, singular properties of the, 348. Piriguao, one of the noblest species of palm-trees, 161, 185. Pizarro’s invasion of Peru, 395, 397. Plains, desert, of Africa, 2; vast extent of, 3 ; of Asia, 4. Plains. See Steppes, Llanos, &c. Plantains, one of the plants by which the aspect of Nature is principally deter¬ mined, 224, 227; immense one in Lycia, 272. Plants, various species of, in the great Asiatic Steppes, 4; different charac¬ teristics of, in Africa and South Ame¬ rica, 10; on the cultivation of, in elevated plateaux, 62; in the Llanos of the Caracas, 94; the farinaceous grasses, 128; ideas on the physiognomy of, 210-231; illustrative notes, 232- 352; universality of their existence, 214; causes of the absence of, over large tracts of land, 216, 217; sixteen forms by which the aspect of Nature is principal^ determined, 221-229 et passim; Palms, 223; Plantains, or Bananas, Malvaceae and Bombaceae, 224; Mimosas, Heaths, 225; Cac¬ tuses, Orchide®, Casuarineae, 226; Coniferae, Pothos, Lianes, 227 ; Aloes, Grasses, 228; Ferns, Liliaceae, Wil¬ lows, Myrtaceae, Melastomaceae, and Laurineae, 229; on the numerous species of Phanerogamia, and their ex¬ tensive geographical distribution, 276- 294; illustrative notes on the various forms of plants which principally de¬ termine the aspect of Nature, 296-346 et passim; as yet imperfectly explored in South America, 292-294 ; gigantic pines and cypresses, 323, 324, 326; beauties of the aspect of, 346, 349; general view of the physiognomy of, 349-352; on the similarity of vegeta¬ tive forms, 351. In addition to the plants above enumera¬ ted, the following which occur pas¬ sim, are referred to under their respec¬ tive alphabetical entries: — Acaci®, Alders, Amentaceae, Amygdale®, Aris- tolochias, Arundaria, Bambusace®, Banyans, Bignonias, Carolinas, Cala- diums, Caesalpina. Composites, Crescen- tia, Crucifer®, Cryptogamia, Cupu- lifer®, Custace®, Cyaceas, Cynometia, Cyperace®, Diced®, Dicotyledons, Ephidi®, Ericaceae, Escalloneae, Eu- phorbiaceae, Fucus, Glumace®, Gus- tavia, Hymenere, Juucaceae, Labiatae, Leguminos®, Melastomas, Melocactus, Monocotyledons, Oaks, Opuntiace®, INDEX. 449' Phyllodla, Pinifera, Polypodiacese, Portulaceae,Rosaceae, Rubraceee, Saxi¬ frage, Synantherese, Teiebinthace®, Theobroma, Tiliaceae, Umbellifer®, Urticese, Yews, &c. Plata, Steppes of, 6. Plateaux, mountain, of Mexico, general elevation of, 209 ; of Caxamarca, Humboldt’s journey over the, 390-420; of Asia, 53-62 ; table of elevations, 5S. Pleuronectes, a species of sea-fish, 260. Pliny’s account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 369, 370. Podocarpus taxifolia, its geographical distribution, 322. Poison, used by the Otomaks, 151, 152. Polygastriea, 212. Polypodiaceae, family of the, 338. Polyps, natural history of the, 253. Pompeii buried by an eruption of Vesu¬ vius, 369. Pongo River, 401, 402. Pontus. See Euxine. Popayan, plateau of, its elevation, 58. Popocatepetl, volcano of, 65. Porites elongata, 260, 261. Porlieria hygrometrica, 401. Port Famine, situation and temperature of, 109. Portulacas, 214. Potato plant, the native produce of New Granada, 426, 427. Fothos, one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is princi¬ pally determined, 227, 329 ; belongs exclusively to tropical climates, 329. Prairies on the Missouri, 2. Primeval Forest. See Forest. Pumacena, the island of, 159. Pumice, volcanic origin of, 369. Purinarimi, perilous cataract ledge of, 1 66 . Qüad-Dra, the river, its course through the Sahara, 92. Quadrupeds of South America, 12, 133; of the Mississippi, 40. Queretaro, elevation of, 208. Quina Bark and Tree, notices of, 423. Quito, plateau of, its elevation, 58; the first conquest of, by the Incas of Peru, 236 ; the table-land of, one volcanic hearth, 360 ; one of the capitals of the Incas, 396. Rafflesia, immense flowers of the, 231. Rain, general effects of, after drought in the Steppes, 16, 13S. Rattlesnake, vermes which inhabit the lungs of the, 251. Raudal, the cataract of, 165, dangerous navigation of, 166. Red Sea, coral reefs in the, 255. Reinaud, M., on the Mountains of the Moon, 115. Remora, the sucking fish, an agent for catching turtle, 257, 258. “ Rhodian Genius,” dissertation on the mysterious painting so called, 3S0-385 ; the principles of vital force illustrated from, by Epicharmus, 3S3; illustrative note, 386-389. Rliopala ferruginea, 401. Rio de la Plata, its magnitude, 156. Rivers, effects of, overflowing their banks, 17; of South America, 156; of the Caracas, the peculiar blackness of the water, 160; a generic name for, usu¬ ally adopted by those inhabiting their banks, 183; the only means of travers¬ ing the continent of South America, 195 ; the names of, derived from the most ancient relics of languages, 236. Roads, remains of the great road of the Incas, 393-397. Rocca del Palo, the highest northern margin of the crater of Vesuvius, 376. “ Rock of Patience,” at the entrance of the River Meta, 161. Rocks of .South America, images graven in, 20, 147, 148. Rocky Mountains, estimated height of, 32 ; extent of, 35; observations on the, 205, 206. Rome, temperature of, 108. Rose Tree, great size and longevity of one in the Cathedral of Hildesheim, 275, 276. Rosacese, growing in the Asiatic Steppes, 4, 95 ; ratio of their distribution, 321. Rotation Stream of the Atlantic, 120-122. Rotifera, wonderful revivification of the, 211 , 240, et seq. Rubiacese, 280, 285. Rupunuri, Lake of, 187. Sabrina, sudden appearance of, attri¬ buted to volcanic subterranean fire, 360. Sacramento River in California, 207. Saliama, elevation of the, 205. Sahara, the great desert of, two races of 450 INDEX. men separated by the, 19, 140 ; disqui¬ sition on, 89-93; traverses Africa like a dried-up arm of the sea, 110. St. Bernard, Mount, height of, 35. Salamanca, in Mexico, elevation of, 208. Salt Lake, Great, 206. Saltillo, elevation of, 20S. Samarang, edible clay of, 146. Samothrace, traditions of, 216,262, 265; aborigines of, 262; position of, 262. San Fernando de Atabapo, 161. San Juan del Rio, elevation of, 208. San Luis Potosi, elevation of 208. Sanariapo, on the Orinoco, 163. Sand-martin, hybernation of the, 242. Sand-spouts, fury of, when passing over the steppes, 14, 137, 266. Santa Barbara de Arichuna, mission of, 198. Santa Fe del Nueva Mexico, elevation of, 20S. Sapajous, nocturnal cry of the, 199. Sarcoramphus Papa, the, 240. Saussurese, growing on the Asiatic steppes, 4. Savannahs of South America, 98 ; on the borders of the Orinoco, 162; inha¬ bited by the Guareke Indians, 163; overflowed in April, 187. Saxifrage, 233. Schomburgk, Sir R., his antiquarian re¬ searches in South America, 147-151; his observations on the sources of the Orinoco, 176; his journey across the continent of South America, 177; his account of the Lake of Amucu, 186. Sculptured rocks, in South America, 147-151. Sea, on the uniformity of its level, 264, 265. Sea-coasts, length of time before vegeta¬ tion appears on the, 10. Sea-water, on the phosphorescence of, 245 ; attributed to luminous mollusca, 246, 247. Ssa-weeds, phenomenon of their accumu¬ lation on the western coast of Africa, 56 ; of the ocean, 47-50. Seeds, transferred to barren rocks, 214. Senega], inhabitants to the south of, 19. Serpents, periodic torpidity of, 243. Shahul Pa»s, elevation of, 76. Sierra Nevada of California, observations on the, 205, 206 ; situation of, 207. Sierra Parime, mountain-chain of the, 22. Silao, elevation of, 208. Silla, ascent to the summit of the, 232. Silver, value of, obtained from the mines of Gualgayoc and other Peruvian mountains, 405. Simplon, Mount, height of, 35. Sipapo, on the Orinoco, 163. Sisgun, elevation of the plain of, 234. Sitka, situation and temperature of, 104. Siwah, oasis of, 44. Snow, mountains eternally covered with, 9. Snow-line of mountains, 73 et seq. ; of the Himalaya, 236. Solano, Don Jose, documents of, 181. Spanish race, inhabitants of parts of the Andes, the Canaries, the Antilles, and the Philippines, 192. Springs from the bed of the ocean, 155, 174; which rise from different depths, dependent on internal heat, 373-379. Stag, a native of South America, 133. Stars, glorious spectacle of the, at the Equator, 231, 349. Steppes and Deserts, general view of, 1-21 ; in the Caracas, 1 ; sterility and monotony of, 2 ; the heaths of northern Europe may be regarded as such, 2; in the interior of Africa, 3, 9; in cen¬ tral Asia the largest in the world, 3 ; covered with various plants and herbs, 4 ; have retarded civilization, 5 ; of South America, 6 et seq. ; of Africa, causes of their sterility, 10 ; towns sprung up on the rivers of, in South America, 14, 137; fury of the whirl¬ winds passing over the, 14; drought of the, and mirage, 15 ; genial effects of rain after drought, 16, 138 ; like a vast inland sea, 17, 139; the view of the regions by which they are bounded in Africa and America, 19, 140 ; illustra¬ tive notes to the article on, 22-125; tracts of, covered w ith naked rock, 28; of northern Asia, 57 ; extending from the mouth of the Orinoco, 83 ; of Central Africa, 94, 95 ; vegetation of, 95 ; the different features of, in Africa and Asia, 153 ; various terms for ex¬ pressing in the Arabic and Persian languages, 191, 202; of South Ame¬ rica, may be regarded as mere local phenomena, 216. Straehey, Lieut., his observations on the snow-line of the Himalaya, 74. Strato, his statement respecting the pri- INDEX. 451 meval convulsion of the waters of the Mediterranean and the Euxine, 163. Strychnos, an Indian poison, 152 Stylites, seat of the, 13, 136. Sugar-cane, varieties of the, 24, 25, 26. Sun, worship of, by the Peruvians, 430, 431. Sun and Moon, representations of, on the rocks of the Orinoco, 165. Swimming couriers of the Rio de Guan- cabamba, 399. 400. Swiss scenery, 217. Sydney, situation and temperature of, 109. Synanthereae, 95. Syracuse, the painting of “ The Rhodian Genius” at, 380-385. Temi, the river, blackness of its water, 160. Tacarigua, lake 'of, 1; its surrounding scenery and vegetation, 22. Tapir, traits of the, 197. Tartar steppes, 4. Taye, an animal of California, 127. Taxus baccata, peculiar properties of, 320. Teboco, rocky falls of, 185. Teguayo, Lake of, 207. Temperatures, mean annual, of South America and Europe, tables of, 100, 101. Teneriffe, Peak of, the volcano, 371, 379. Tepu-elieremi, carved rock of, 148. Terebinthacese, 280. Terra del Fuego, temperature of, 108. Terra-firma, coast of, 23. Theobroma, delicate blossoms spring from the roots, 230, 348. Theobroma Cacao, of South America, 26. Thian-schan, the mountain-chain of, 63, 64, 66. Thibet, mountain plateau of, 55 ; eleva¬ tion and geographical situation of, 60 plains of, 61. Tibbos, nomadic tribes of Africa, 50. Tiger, American, traits of the, 195, 196, 197 ; its nocturnal roar, 199. Tiliacete, 194 Timpanago, Lake of, supposed to be the Great Salt Lake, 35 ; longitude of, 206. Titicaca, Lake of, elevation of the pla¬ teau of, 5S. Tomependa, town of, on the Andes, 401, 428. Tomo, island of, 164. Toparo, on the Orinoco, 163; mouth of the. 166. Tortoises, periodic torpidity of, 243, Trees, immense size and antiquity of, 271-276; on the relation existing be¬ tween the annular rings and their age, 274; natural families of, 274; heights to which they grow, 327. Trinidad, asphaltic island of, 155; ori¬ ginally torn from the mainland, 175. Tropical winds favourable to the mariner, 154, 174. Tropics, beauties of evening scenery, 173; contain every variety and magnitude of vegetable forms, 217, 231. Tuamini, the river, blackness of its water, 160. Tuarycks, nomadic tribes of Africa, 50. Tukiuish, an Asiatic tribe, 5. Tula, elevation of, 208. Tundra, the name of crvptogamic plants in the arctic, regions, 95, 96. Turtle, curious mode of catching, by means of the sucking-fish, 257, 258. Tuyu, a bird of South America, 6. Tzana, lake of, its elevation, 58. Uivitaui, island of, 163, 165. Umbellaria Groenlandica, 266. Umbellifera, 285, 286. Ummibida, ruins of, 44. Uniami, mountain of, 163. Ural chain of mountains, 63. Uraricapara river, 183, 184. Urns used for preserving the ashes of the dead, 171, 172. Urticese, 245. Uruana, engraving on the rocks of, 164. Valencia, lake of, 24. Vanilla form of the Orchidese, 173, 226, 230; the fragrant, 230. Vapour, the precipitation of, 217, 266. Vegetation, length of time before it fixes itself on the sea coast, 10 ; different characters of, in Africa and South Amo rica, 10; natural history of the vegeta¬ ble covering of the earth, 214; vegeta¬ tion most exuberant in the tropics, 217, 220, 231 ; entire families of, 221 ; the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is principally determined, 221— 229; their numerical relations and geographical distribution, 276 et seq.; ratio of distribution, 285; as yet im¬ perfectly explored in South America, 292-294 ; the leading vegetable forms instructive to the landscape painter. 452 INDEX. 346; general view of, 349-352; simi¬ larity of vegetable forms, 351. See Plants. Venezuela, littoral chain of, 22; its ex¬ tent and elevation, 22; description of, 23. Vermes, parasitical, 251. Vesuvius, elevation of, and various mea¬ surements of the margins of the crater, 363, 376, 377 ; great eruptions of, 364 -366, 368 et seq.; Rocca del Palo, the highest northern margin of the crater of, 376, 377 ; measurement of the Punta Nasone, and of the Hermitage of Salvatore, 377 ; height to which the scoria; rise from the bottom of the crater, 378. Vilfa, species of, 232. Villa de Leon, elevation of, 208. Vital force, dissertation on, 3S0-389 ; illustrated by Epicharmus from the painting of the Rhodian Genius,” 383; symbols of its existence and ex¬ tinction, 384; definition of, 386; illus¬ trative note, 386-3S9. Viveme. a native of South America, 12, 134. Volcanos, still active in the Californian chain of mountains, 37, 38 ; of Acon¬ cagua, 205 ; of the interior of Asia and of the New World, 65; general view of their structure and mode of action in different parts of the earth, 353-375 ; previous to the eighteenth century, all our knowledge derived from observa¬ tions of Vesuvius and Etna, 355 ; sudden volcanic fissures in various parts of the earth, 356, 357 ; various heights of, 358; craters of elevation, the importance of, 359 ; various groups of, with fire-emit¬ ting mouths, 359 ; the table-land of Quito one immense volcanic hearth, 360; the subterranean fire progressive from north to south, 360; earthquakes evidence of subterranean volcanic com¬ munication, 360, 361 ; elevation of Vesuvius, and various measurements of the margins of the crater, 373, 376, 377 ; great eruptions of, 364-366, 368 ct seq.; in the chain of the Andes, penetrate above the snow-line, 367 ; caused the lofty summit of Mount Carguairazo to fall in, when the whole surrounding country was covered with mud and fishes, 367; volcanic origin of pumice, 369 ; Pompeii buried by an eruption of Vesuvius, 369 ; Pliny’s account of, 369, 370; the summits of upheaved masses of trachyte and lava, 370; Peak of Tenerifle, 371; sudden appearance and disappearance of, 371; what generates the heat of, 372-374; volcanic phenomena the result of a connection between the interior and exterior of our planet, 373; illustra¬ tive notes of, 376-378. Waraputa, cascade of, 149. Wada-dhara, elevation and vegetation of, 79. Water, peculiar blackness of some of the South American rivers, 160. West wind, phenomenon of its prevalence on the African coast, 46. Western currents of the ocean favourable to the mariner, 154, 174. Wha-satch mountains, 207. Wheat, first culture of, in New Spain, 130. Wheel animalcules, wonderful revivifi¬ cation of the, 211, 240, 241. White Sea, myth of the, 1S5. Willows, one of the vegetable forms by which the aspect of Nature is princi¬ pally determined, 229, 331, 342. Words, changes in the meaning of, 191. Worms, immense variety in the depth of the waters, 212. Xagua, gulf of, springs of fresh water in the, 174. Yanaguanga, paramo of, 407. Yaruros, savage tribe of, 197. Yew, its geographical distribution, 322; its great longevity, 273. Yucatan, architectural remains in, 131, 132. Zacatecas, elevation of, 208. Zahara, phenomenon of the west winds on the African coast attributable to, 46. 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