Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, During the Years 1799-1804, by Alexander De Humboldt, and Aime bonpland: ; With Maps, Plans, & C.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1815 Excerpt: ... descend to thirteen or fourteen hundred toises of absolute elevation, lithe plants of Teneriffe do not reach the summit of the volcano, it is not because the perpetual suowsJ, and the cold of OfChinerfe the Europeans have formed, by corruption) Tchineriffe and Teneriffe. t I have partly sketched this picture of the vegetation of the Canaries from the manuscript notes of M. Broussonet. When I published my first " Essay on the Geography of the Equinoctial Plants of the New World," I begged this distinguished naturalist, who had long resided at Mogadore, in the empire of Morocco, and at Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, to communicate to me his ideas relative to the geographical distribution of plants in those countries. He yielded to my entreaty with that complaisance and urbanity, which he constantly exercised in his communications with learned foreigners. v V Though the Peak of Tenerifle is covered with snow during the winter months only, it ia nevertheless possible) that fche volcano reaches the limit of the perpetual snows corresponding to its latitude, and that the total absence of the snows in summer is owing to the isolated situation of the mountain in the midst of the seas, to the frequency of the ascending hot winds, or the elevated temperature of the ashes of the Piton: but we are unable to solve these doubts, ia the present state of our knowledge. the surrounding atmosphere, lav down limits which they cannot pass; it is the scorified lava of the Malpays, the powdered and barren pumice stone of the Piton, which impede the migration of the plants toward the brink of the crater. From the parallel of the mountain of Mexico to that of the Pyrenees and the Alps, between the 20th and the 45th degrees, the curve of the perpetual snows has not been deter...