THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID ASPECTS OF NATURE, DIFFERENT LANDS AND DIFFERENT CLIMATES; WITH lElucfoattona. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. TRANSLATED BY MRS. SABINE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. If. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS PATERNOSTER ROW ; AND JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1849. Wilson and Ogilvy, Skinner Street, Snowhill, London. it CONTENTS OF VOL. II. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS 3 Annotations and Additions . . . . . . 33 Postscript on the Physiognomic Classification of Plants . 205 ' ON THE STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION OF VOLCANOS, IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE GLOBE .... 214 Annotations and Additions 243 THE VITAL FORCE, OR THE RHODIAN GENIUS . . .251 Note . * .r . .259 THE PLATEAU O-F CAXAMARCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA, and the First View of the Pacific Ocean, from the Crest of the Andes . . . 267 Annotations and Additions . 303 General Summary of the CONTENTS of the Second Volume . 327 INDEX 341 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. VOL. II. ASPECTS OF NATURE IN / DIFFERENT U M)S AND DIFFERENT CLIMATES. PHYSIOGNOMY OE PLANTS. WHEN the active curiosity of man is engaged in interrogating Nature, or when his imagination dwells on the wide fields of organic creation, among the multifarious impressions which his mind receives, perhaps none is so strong and profound as that of the universal profusion with which life is everywhere distributed. Even on the polar ice the air resounds with the cries or songs of birds, and with the hum of insects. Nor is it only the lower dense and vaporous strata of the atmosphere which are thus filled with life, but also the higher and more ethereal regions. Whenever Mont Blanc or the summits of the Cordilleras have been ascended, living creatures have been found there. On the Chimborazo, (l) eight thousand feet higher than Etna, we found butterflies and other winged insects, borne by ascending currents of air to those almost unapproachable solitudes, which man, led by PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. a restless curiosity or unappeasable thirst of knowledge, treads with adventurous but cautious steps : like him strangers in those elevated regions, their presence shows us that the more flexible organization of animal creation can subsist far beyond the limits at which vegetation ceases. The condor, (2) the giant of the Vulture tribe, often soared over our heads above all the summits of the Andes, at an altitude higher than would be the Peak of Teneriffe if piled on the snow-covered crests of the Pyrenees. The rapacity of this powerful bird attracts him to these regions, whence his far-seeing eye may discern the objects of his pursuit, the soft-wooled Vicunas, which, wandering in herds, frequent,' like the Chamois, the mountain pastures adjacent to the regions of perpetual snow. But if the unassisted eye sees life distributed throughout the atmosphere, when armed with the microscope we discover far other marvels. Eotiferse, Brachionse, and a multitude of microscopic animalculse, are carried up by the winds from the surface of evaporating waters. These minute creatures, motionless and apparently dead, are borne to and fro in the air until the falling dews bring them back to the surface of the earth, dissolve the film or envelope which encloses their transparent rotating bodies, (3) and, probably by means of the oxygen which all waters contain, breathe new irritability into their dormant organs. According to Ehrenberg's brilliant discovery, the yellow sand or dust which falls like rain on the Atlantic near the Cape de Verde Islands, and is occasionally carried even to Italy and Middle Europe, consists of a multitude of siliceous PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. shelled microscopic animals. Perhaps many of them float for years in the upper strata of the atmosphere, until they are brought down by vertical currents or in accompaniment with the superior current of the trade- winds, still susceptible of revivification, and multiplying their species by spontaneous division in conformity with the particular laws of their organisation. But, besides creatures fully formed, the atmosphere con- tains innumerable germs of future life, such as the eggs of insects and the seeds of plants, the latter provided with light hairy or feathery appendages, by means of which they are wafted through the air during long autumnal wanderings. Even the fertilizing dust or pollen from the anthers of the male flowers, in species in which the sexes are separated, is carried over land and sea, by winds and by the agency of winged insects, (4) to the solitary female plant on other shores. Thus wherever the glance of the inquirer into Nature pene- trate0 he sees the continual dissemination of life, either fully formed or in the germ. If the aereal ocean in which we are submerged, and above the surface of which we cannot rise, be indispensable to the existence of organised beings, they also require a more sub- stantial aliment, which they can find only at the bottom of this gaseous ocean. This bottom is of two kinds; the smaller portion consisting of dry land in immediate contact with the external atmosphere, and the larger portion con- sisting of water, which may perhaps have been formed thousands of years ago by electric agencies from gaseous substances, and which is now incessantly undergoing decom- 6 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. position in the laboratories of Nature, in the clouds and in the pulsating vessels of animals and plants. Organic forms also descend deep below the surface of the earth, wherever rain or surface water can percolate either by natural cavities or by mines or other excavations made by man : the sub- terranean cryptogamic Flora was an object of my scientific research in the early part of my life. Thermal springs of very high temperature nourish small Hydropores, Conferva?, and Oscillatoria. At Bear Lake, near the Arctic Circle, Richardson saw the ground, which continues frozen through- out the summer at a depth of twenty inches, covered with flowering plants. We do not yet know where life is most abundant, — whether on continents or in the unfathomed depths of the ocean. Through the excellent work of Ehrenberg, " Uber das Yerhalten des kleinsteri Lebens," we have seen the sphere of organic life extend, and its horizon widen before our eyes, both in the tropical parts of the ocean and in the fixed or floating masses of ice of the Antarctic seas. Siliceous- shelled Polygastrica, and even Cosciuodiscse, with their green ovaries, have been found alive enveloped in masses of ice only twelve degrees from the Pole; the small black Glacier flea (Desoria glacialis) and Podurellse inhabit the narrow tubular holes examined by Agassiz in the Swiss glaciers. Ehrenberg has shown that on several microscopic Infusoria (Synedra, Cocconeis) others live as parasites, and that in the Gallionellse such is their prodigious power of development, or capability of division, that in the space of four days an animalcule invisible to the naked eye can form PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 7 two cubic feet of the Bilin polishing slate. In the sea, gela- tinous worms, living or dead, shine like stars, (5) and by their phosphoric light change the surface of the wide ocean into a sea of fire. Ineffaceable is the impression made on my mind by the calm nights of the torrid zone, on the waters of the Pacific. I still see the dark azure of the firmament, the. constellation of the Ship near the zenith, and that of the Cross declining towards the horizon, shedding through the perfumed air their soft and planetary lustre ; while bright furrows of flashing light marked the track of the dolphins through the midst of the foaming waves. Not only the ocean, but also the waters of our marshes, hide from us an innumerable multitude of strange forms. The naked eye can with difficulty distinguish the Cyclidias, the Euglenes, and the host of Naids divisible by branches like the Lemna or Duckweed, of which they seek the shade. Other creatures inhabit receptacles where the light cannot penetrate, and an atmosphere variously composed, but differ- ing from that which we • breathe : such are the spotted Ascaris, which lives beneath the skin of the earthworm ; the Leucophra, of a bright silvery colour, in the interior of the shore Naid; and a Pentastoma, which inhabits the large pulmonary cells of the rattlesnake of the tropics. (6) There are animalculse in the blood of frogs and of salmon, and even, according to Nordmann, in the fluids of the eyes of fishes and in the gills of the Bleak. Thus the most hidden recesses of creation teem with life. We propose in these pages to direct our attention to the vegetable world, on the existence of which that of animals is dependent. Plants are inces- 8 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. santly engaged in disposing into order towards subsequent organization the raw materials of which the earth is com- posed : it is their office, by their vital forces or powers, to prepare those substances which, after undergoing a thousand modifications, are gradually converted to nobler purposes in the formation of nervous tissues. In directing our considera- tion towards the various families of plants, we shall at the same time glance at the multitude of animated beings to which they afford nutriment and protection. The carpet of flowers and of verdure spread over the naked crust of our planet is unequally woven ; it is thicker where the sun rises high in the ever cloudless heavens, and thinner towards the poles, in the less happy climes where returning frosts often destroy the opening buds of spring, or the ripening fruits of autumn. Everywhere, however, man finds some plants to minister to his sup- port and enjoyment. If new lands are formed, the organic forces are ever ready to cover the naked rock with life. Sometimes, as at an early period among the Greek Islands, volcanic forces suddenly elevate above the surface of the boiling waves a rock covered with Scoriae : some- times, by a long-continued and more tranquil series of phe- nomena, the collective labours of united Lithophytes (7) raise their cellular dwellings on the crests of submarine mountains, until, after thousands of years, the structure reaches the level of the ocean, when the creatures which have formed it die, leaving a low flat coral island. How are the seeds of plants brought so immediately to these new shores ? by wandering birds, or by the winds and waves of PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 9 the ocean ? The distance from other coasts makes it diffi- cult to determine this question ; but, no sooner is the rock of the newly raised islands in direct contact with the atmosphere, than there is formed on its surface, in our nor- thern countries, a soft silky net-work, appearing to the naked eye as coloured spots and patches. Some of these patches are bordered by single or double raised lines run- ning round their margins; other patches are crossed by similar lines traversing them in various directions. Gra- dually the light colour of the patches becomes darker, the bright yellow which was visible at a distance changes to brown, and the bluish gray of the Leprarias becomes a dusty black. The edges of neighbouring patches approach and run into each other ; and on the dark ground thus formed there appear other lichens, of a circular shape and dazzling whiteness. Thus an organic film or covering establishes itself by successive layers ; and as mankind, in forming settled communities, pass through different stages of civili- sation, so is the gradual propagation and extension of plants connected with determinate physical laws. Lichens form the first covering of the naked rock, where afterwards lofty forest trees rear their airy summits. The successive growth of mosses, grasses, herbaceous plants, and shrubs or bushes, occupies the intervening period of long but undetermined duration. The part which lichens and mosses perform in the northern countries is effected within the tropics by Portulacas, Gomphrenas, and other low and succulent shore plants. The history of the vegetable covering of our planet, and its gradual propagation over the desert crust of the 10 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. earth, has its epochs, as well as that of the migrations of the animal world. Yet although organic life is everywhere diffused, and the organic powers are incessantly at work in reconnecting with each other the elements set free by death or dissolution, the abundance and variety of organised beings, and the rapidity with which they are renewed, differ in different climates. In the cold zones, the activity of organic life undergoes a temporary suspension during a portion of the year by frost ; fluidity is an essential condition of life or vital action, and animals and plants, with the exception of mosses and other cryptogamia, are in those regions buried for several months of each year in winter sleep. Over a large part of the earth, therefore, there could only be developed organic forms capable of supporting either a considerable diminution of heat, or, being without leaves, a long interruption of the vital functions. Thus we see variety and grace of form, mixture of colours, and generally the perpetually youthful energy and vigour of organic life, increase as we approach the tropics. This increase can be denied only by those who have never quitted Europe, or who have neglected the study of physical geography. When, leaving our oak forests, we traverse the Alps or the Pyrenees, and enter Italy or Spain, or when we direct our attention to some of the African shores of the Mediterranean, we might easily be led to draw the erroneous inference that hot countries are marked by the absence of trees. But those who do so, forget that the South of Europe wore a different aspect on the first arrival of Pelasgian or Carthaginian colonies ; they forget that an PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 11 ancient civilisation causes the forests to recede more and more, and that the wants and restless activity of large com- munities of men gradually despoil the face of the earth of the refreshing shades which still rejoice the eye in Northern and Middle Europe, and which, even more than any historic documents, prove the recent date and youthful age of our civilization. The great catastrophe which occasioned the formation of the Mediterranean, when the swollen waters of what was previously an immense lake burst through the barriers of the Dardanelles and of the Pillars of Hercules, appears to have stripped the adjacent countries of a large portion of their coating of vegetable mould. The traditions of Samothrace, (8) handed down to us by Grecian writers, appear to indicate the recentness of the epoch of the ravages caused by this great change. In all the countries which surround the Mediterranean, and which are charac- terised by beds of the tertiary , and cretaceous periods (nummulitic limestone and neocomian rocks), great part of the surface of the earth consists of naked rock. One especial cause of the picturesque beauty of Italian scenery is the contrast thus afforded between the bare rock, and the islands if I may so call them of luxuriant vegeta- tion scattered over its surface. Wherever the rock is less intersected with fissures, so that it retains water at the surface, and where it is covered with vegetable mould, there, as on the enchanting shores of the Lake of Albano, Italy has her oak forests, with glades as deeply embowered and verdure as fresh as those which we admire in the North of Europe. 12 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. The deserts to the south of the Atlas, and the immense plains or steppes of South America, must be regarded as only local phenomena. The latter, the South American steppes, are clothed, in the rainy season at least, with grass, and with low-growing almost herbaceous mimosas. The African deserts are, indeed, at all seasons devoid of .vegeta- tion ; seas of sand, surrounded by forest shores clothed with perpetual verdure. A few scattered fan-palms alone recall to the wanderer's recollection that these awful solitudes be- long to the domain of the same animated terrestrial creation which is elsewhere so rich and so varied. The fantastic play of the mirage, occasioned by the effects of radiant heat, sometimes causes these palm trees to appear divided from the ground and hovering above its surface, and sometimes shews their inverted image reflected in strata of air undu- lating like the waves of the sea. On the west of the great Peruvian chain of the Andes, on the coasts of the Pacific, I have passed entire weeks in traversing similar deserts destitute of water. The origin of extensive arid tracts destitute of plants, in the midst of countries rich in luxuriant vegetation, is a geognostical problem which has hitherto been but little considered, but which has doubtless depended on ancient revolutions of nature, such as inundations or great volcanic changes. When once a region has lost the covering of plants with which it was invested, if the sands are loose and mobile and are destitute of springs, and if the heated atmosphere, forming constantly ascending currents, prevents precipitation taking place from clouds (9), thou- PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 13 sands of years may elapse ere organic life can pass from the verdant shores to the interior of the sandy sea, and repossess itself of the domain from which it had been banished. Those, therefore, who can view nature with a comprehen- sive glance and apart from local phenomena, may see from the poles to the equator organic life and vigour gradually augment with the augmentation of vivifying heat, But, in the course of this progressive increase there are reserved to each zone its own peculiar beauties; to the tropics, variety and grandeur of vegetable forms ; to the north, the aspect of its meadows and green pastures, and the periodic re- awakening of nature at the first breath of the mild air of spring. Each zone, besides its- own peculiar advantages, has its own distinctive character. Primeval laws of organi- sation, notwithstanding a certain degree of freedom in the abnormal development of single parts, bind all animal and vegetable forms to fixed ever-recurring types. As we re- cognise in distinct organic beings a determinate phy- siognomy, and as descriptive botany and zoology, in the restricted sense of the terms, consist in a detailed analysis of animal and vegetable forms, so each region of the earth has a natural physiognomy peculiar to itself. The idea indicated by the painter by expressions such as "Swiss nature/' "Italian sky," &c., rests on a partial per- ception of this local character in the aspect of nature. The azure of the sky, the lights and shadows, the haze resting on the distance, the forms of animals, the succulency of the plants and herbage, the brightness of the foliage, the outline 14 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. of the mountains, are all elements which determine the total impression characteristic of each district or region. It is true that in every zone the same kinds of rocks, trachyte, basalt, porphyritic schists, and dolomite, form groups having the same physiognomy and aspect. The greenstone precipices of South America and Mexico resemble those of the Eichtel-Gebirge of Germany, just as among animals the form of the Allco, or native race of dogs of the New Continent, corresponds perfectly with that of the Euro- pean race. For the inorganic crust of the globe shews itself independent of climatic influences ; whether it be that differences of climate depending on differences of latitude were. more recent than the formation of the rocks, or that the mass of the earth in solidifying and parting with its heat regulated its own temperature, (lft) instead of. receiving it from without. Thus all the kinds of rock with which we are acquainted may be met with in all parts of the globe, and everywhere affect the same characteristic forms. Every- where basalt rises in twin mountains and truncated cones ; everywhere the porphyritic trap appears in grotesquely ar- ranged masses, and granite in rounded summits. Also similar forms of trees — pines and oaks — adorn the declivities of the mountains of Sweden, and those of the most southern part of Mexico. (n) Yet, notwithstanding these correspondences of form, and this similarity of outline in the component parts of the picture, their grouping gives to the whole the greatest difference of character. Mineralogy is not more distinct from geology than is the individual description of natural objects from a general PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 15 description of the physiognomy of nature. George Eorster, in the narrative of his voyages, and in his other publications, — Goethe, in the descriptions of nature which so many of his immortal works contain, — Buffon, Bernardin de St. Pierre, and Chateaubriand, have traced with inimitable truth of description the character of some of the zones into which the earth is divided. Not only do such descriptions afford us mental enjoyment of a high order, but the knowledge of the character which nature assumes in different regions is moreover intimately connected with the history of man, and of his civilisation. For although the commencement of this civilisation is not solely determined by physical relations, yet the direction which it takes, the national character, and the more grave or gay dispositions of men, are dependent in a very high degree on climatic influences. How powerfully have the skies of Greece acted on its inhabitants ! The nations settled in the fair and Tiappy regions bounded by the Euphrates, the Halys, and the Egean Sea, also early attained amenity of manners and delicacy of sentiment. When in the middle ages religious enthusiasm suddenly re-opened the sacred East to the nations of Europe who were sinking back into barbarism, our ancestors in returning to their homes brought with them gentler manners, acquired in those delightful valleys. The poetry of the Greeks, and the ruder songs of the primitive northern nations, ^owe great part of their peculiar character to the aspect of the plants and animals seen by the bard, to the mountains and valleys which surrounded him, and to the air which he breathed. And to recall more familiar objects, who does not 16 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. feel himself differently affected in the dark shade of the beech, on hills crowned with scattered fir-trees, or on the turfy pasture, where the wind rustles in the trembling foliage of the birch ? These trees of our native land have often suggested or recalled to our minds images and thoughts, either of a melancholy, of a grave and elevating, or of a cheerful character. The influence of the physical oh the moral world, — that reciprocal and mysterious action and reaction of the material and the immaterial, — gives to the study of nature, when regarded from higher points of view, a peculiar charm, still too little recognised. But if the characteristic aspect of different portions of the earth's surface depends conjointly on all external pheno- mena,— if the contours of the mountains, the physiognomy of plants and animals, the azure of the sky, the form of the clouds, and the transparency of the atmosphere, all combine in forming that general impression which is the result of the whole, yet it cannot be denied that the vegetable covering with which the whole earth is adorned is the principal ele- ment in the impression. Animal forms are deficient in mass, and the individual power of motion which animals possess, as well as often the smallness of their size, with- draw them from our sight. The vegetable forms, on the contrary, produce a greater effect by their magnitude and by their constant presence. The age of trees is marked by their size, and the union ol age with the manifestation of constantly renewed vigour is a charm peculiar to the vege- table kingdom. The gigantic Dragon-tree of Orotava, (12) (as sacred in the eyes of the inhabitants of the Canaries as PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 17 the olive-tree in the Citadel of Athens, or the Elm of Ephe- sus), the diameter of which I found, when I visited those Islands, to be more than 16 feet, had the same colossal size, when the Trench adventurers, the Bethencourts, conquered these gardens of the Hesperides in the beginning of the fifteenth century ; yet it still flourishes, as if in perpetual youth, bearing flowers and fruit. A tropical forest of Hy- menseas and Csesalpiniese may perhaps present to us a monu- ment of more than a thousand years' standing. If we embrace in one general view the different species of phaenogamous plants at present contained in herbariums, the number of which may now be estimated at considerably above 80000, (13) we shall recognise in this prodigious multitude certain leading forms to which many others may be referred. In determining these leading forms or types, on the individual beauty, the distribution, and the grouping of which the physiognomy of the vegetation of a country depends, we must not follow the march of systems of botany, in which from other motives the parts chiefly regarded are the smaller organs of propagation, the flowers and the fruit ; we must, on the contrary, consider solely that which by its mass stamps a peculiar character on the total impression prodwced, or on the aspect of the country. Among the leading forms of vegetation to which I allude, there are, indeed, some which coincide with families belonging to the " natural systems" of botanists. Such are the forms of Bananas, Palms, Casuarineae, and Coniferae. But the botanic systematist divides many groups which the physiognomist is obliged to unite. When plants or trees present them- VOL. n. c 18 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. selves in masses, the outlines and distribution of the leaves and the form of the stems and of the branches are blended together. The painter (and here the artist's delicate tact and appreciation of nature are demanded) can distinguish in the middle distance and background of a landscape groves of palms or pines from beech woods, but he cannot distinguish the latter from woods consisting of other deciduous forest trees. Above sixteen different forms of vegetation are princi- pally concerned in determining the aspect or physiognomy of Nature. I mention only those which I have observed in the course of my travels both in the New and Old Continents, where during many years I have attentively examined the vegetation of the regions comprised between the 60th degree of North and the 12th degree of South latitude. The number of these forms will no doubt be considerably augmented when travellers shall have penetrated farther into the interior of Continents, and discovered new genera of plants. In the South-eastern part of Asia, the interior of Africa and of New Holland, and in South America from the river of the "Amazons to the province of Chiquitos, the .vegetation is still entirely unknown to us. How if at some future time a country should be discovered in which ligneous fungi, Cenomyce rangiferina, or mosses, should form tall trees ? The Neckera dendroides, a German spe- cies of moss, is in fact arborescent ; and bamboos (which are arborescent grasses) and the tree ferns of the tropics, which are often higher than our lime-trees and alders, now pre- sent to the European a sight as surprising as would be that PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 19 of a forest of tree mosses to its discoverer. Tlie absolute size and the degree of development attained by organic forms of the same family (whether plants or animals), de- pend on laws which are still unknown to us. In each of the great divisions of the animal kingdom, insects, Crustacea, reptiles, birds, fishes, or mammalia, the size of the body oscillates between certain extreme limits. But these limits, which have been established by observation as far as it has yet gone, may be corrected by the discovery of species with which we are still unacquainted. In land animals the higher temperatures of the low latitudes appear to have favoured organic development. The small and slender form of our lizards is exchanged in the south for the gigantic, heavy, and cuirassed bodies of crocodiles. In the formidable tiger, lion, and jaguar, we see repeated, on a larger scale, the form of the common cat. one of the smallest of our domestic animals. If we penetrate into the interior of the earth, and search the cemeteries in which the plants and animals of the ancient world lie entombed, the fossil remains which we discover not only announce a distribution inconsistent with our .present climates, — they also disclose to us gigantic forms that contrast no less with those which now surround us, than does the simple heroism of the Greeks with the character of human greatness in modern times. Has the temperature of our planet undergone considerable changes, — possibly of periodical recurrence ? If the proportion between land and sea, and even the height , of the aerial ocean and its pressure, (14) have not always been the same, the pliysiog- 20 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. nomy of nature, and the dimensions and forms of organised beings, must also have been subjected to various alterations. Huge Pachydermata, Mastodons, Owen's Mylodon robustus, and the Colossochelys, a land-tortoise above six feet high, have existed, and in the vegetable kingdom there have been forests composed of gigantic Lepidodendra, cactus-like Stig- marias, and numerous kinds of Cycadese. Unable to depict fully according to its present features the.physiognomy of our planet in this its, later age, I will only venture to attempt to indicate the characters which principally distinguish those vegetable groups which appear to me to be most strongly marked by physiognomic differences. However favoured by the richness and flexibility of our native language, it is still an arduous and hazardous undertaking when we attempt to trace in words that which belongs rather to the imitative art of the painter. I feel also the necessity of avoiding as much as possible the wearisome impression almost in- separable from all lengthened enumerations. We will begin with palms, (15) the loftiest and noblest of all vegetable forms, that to which the prize of beauty has been assigned by the concurrent voice of nations in all ages ; for the earliest civilisation of mankind belonged to countries bordering on the region of palms, and to parts of Asia where they abound. Their lofty, slender, ringed, and, in some cases, prickly stems, terminate in aspiring and shining either fanlike or pinnated foliage. The leaves are frequently curled, like those of some gramineae. Smooth polished stems of palms carefully measured by me had attained 192 English feet in height. In receding from PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 21 the equator and approaching the temperate zone, palms diminish in height and beauty. The indigenous vegetation of Europe only comprises a single representative of this form of plants, the sea-coast Dwarf-palm or Chamserops, which, in Spain and Italy, extends as far north as the 44th parallel of latitude. The true climate of palms has a mean annual temperature of 20°.5 — 22° Eeaumur (78°.2— 81°.5 Fahr). The Date, which is much inferior in beauty to several other genera, has been brought from Africa to the south of Europe, where it lives, but can scarcely be said to nourish, in a mean temperature not exceeding 12°— 13°.5 Eeaumur (59°— 62°.4 Fahr). Stems of palms and fossil bones of elephants are found buried beneath the surface of the earth in northern countries, in positions which make it appear probable that their presence is not to be accounted for by their having been drifted thither from the tropics, and we are led to infer that in the course of the great revolutions which our planet has undergone, great changes of climate, and of the physiognomy of nature as dependent on climate, have taken place. In all parts of the globe the palm form is accom- panied by that of Plantains or Bananas; the Scita- mineae and Musacese of botanists, Heliconia, Amomum, and Strelitzia. In this form, the stems, which are low, succulent, and almost herbaceous, are surmounted by long, silky, delicately-veined leaves of a thin loose texture, and bright and beautiful verdure. Groves of plantains and bananas form the ornament of moist places 22 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. in the equatorial regions. It is on their fruits that the subsistence of a large part of the inhabitants of the torrid zone chiefly depends, and, like the farinaceous cereals of the north, they have followed man from the infancy of his civilisation (l6). The aboriginal site of this nutritious plant is placed by some Asiatic fables or traditions on the banks of the Euphrates, and by others, with more probability, at the foot of the Himalaya. Grecian fables named the fields of Enna as the happy native land of the cereals ; and if in northern climes, where corn is cultivated in immense unbroken fields, their monotonous aspect adds but little to the beauty of the landscape, the inhabitant of the tropics, on the other hand, in rearing groves of plantains wherever he fixes his habitation, contributes to the adorn- ment of the earth's surface by the extension of one of the most noble and beautiful forms of the vegetable world. The form of Malvaceae (17) and Bombacea?, represented by Ceiba, Cavanillesia, and the Mexican hand- tree Cheiros- temon, has enormously thick trunks; large, soft, woolly leaves, either heart-shaped or indented ; and superb flowers frequently of a purple or crimson hue. It is to this group of plants that the Baobab, or monkey bread-tree, (Adan- sonia digitata), belongs, which, with a very moderate elevation, has a diameter of 32 English feet, and is probably the largest and most ancient organic monument on our planet. In Italy the Malvaceae already begin to impart to the vege- tation a peculiar southern character. The delicately pinnated foliage of the Mimosa form (18), of which Acacia, Desmanthus, Gleditschia, Porleria, and PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 23 Tamarindus are important members, is entirely wanting in our temperate zone in the old continent, though found in the United States, where, in corresponding latitudes, vege- tation is more varied and more vigorous than in Europe. The umbrella-like arrangement of the branches, resembling that seen in the stone pine of Italy, is very frequent among the Mimosas. The deep blue of the tropic sky seen through their finely divided foliage has an extremely picturesque effect. The Heath form (19) belongs more especially to the old world, and particularly to the African continent and islands : taking for our guides physiognomic character and general aspect, we may class under it the Epacridese and Diosmese, many Proteaceee, and those Australian Acacias which have mere leaf-stalks instead of leaves (phyllodias) . This form has some points of similarity with that of needle trees, and the partial resemblance enhances the effect of the pleasing contrast which, when these two are placed together, is afforded by the abundant bell-shaped blossoms of the heaths. Arborescent heaths, like some other African plants, extend to the northern shores of the Mediterranean : they adorn Italy, and the cistus-covered grounds of the south of Spain. The declivity of the Peak of Teneriffe is the locality where I have seen them growing with the greatest luxuriance. In the countries adjoining the Baltic, and farther to the north, the aspect of this form of plants is unwelcome, as an- nouncing sterility. Our heaths, Erica (Calluna) vulgaris, Erica tetralix, E. carnea, and E. cinerea, are social plants, and for centuries agricultural nations have combated their 24 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. advance with little success. It is remarkable 'that the extensive genus which is the leading representative of this form appears to be almost limited to one side of our planet. Of the 300 known species of Erica only one has been discovered across the whole extent of the New Continent, from Pensylvania and Labrador to Nootka and Alashka. The Cactus form, (20) on the other hand, is almost exclu- sively American. Sometimes spherical, sometimes articulated or jointed, and sometimes assuming the shape of tall upright polygonal columns resembling the pipes of an organ, this group presents the most striking contrast to those of Liliaceee and Bananas. It comprises some of the plants to which Bernardin de St. Pierre has applied the term of " vegetable fountains in the desert/' In the waterless plains of South America the animals suffering from thirst seek the melon- cactus, a spherical plant half buried in the dry sand, and encased in formidable prickles, but of which the interior abounds in refreshing juice.. The stems of the columnar cactus rise to a height of 30 or 32 feet; they are often covered with lichens, and, dividing into candelabra-like branches, resemble, in physiognomy, some of the Euphorbias of Africa. While the above-mentioned plants nourish in deserts almost devoid of other vegetation, the Orchidese (21) enliven the clefts of the wildest rocks, and the trunks of tropical trees blackened by excess of heat. This form (to which the Vanilla belongs) is distinguished by its bright green succulent leaves, and by its flowers of many colours and strange and curious shape, sometimes resembling that of PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 25 winged insects, and sometimes that of the birds which are attracted by the perfume of the honey vessels. Such is their number and variety that, to mention only a limited district, the entire life of a painter would be too short for the delineation of all the magnificent Orchidese which adorn the recesses of the deep valleys of the Andes of Peru. The Casuarina form (22), leafless, like almost all species of Cactus, consists of trees with branches resembling the stalks of our Equisetums. It is found only in the islands of the Pacific and in India, but traces of the same singular rather than beautiful type are seen in other parts of the world. Plunder's Equisetum altissimum, EorskaFs Ephedra aphylla from the north of Africa, the Peruvian Colletias, and the Siberian Calligonum pallasia, are nearly allied to the Casuarina form. As the Banana form shews the greatest expansion, so the greatest contraction of the leaf-vessels is shewn in Casuarinas, and in the form of Needle trees (23) (Coniferae). Pines, Thuias, and Cypresses, belong to this form, which prevails in northern regions, and is comparatively rare within the tropics : in Dammara and Salisburia the leaves, though they may still be termed needle-shaped, are broader. In the colder latitudes the never-failing verdure of this form of trees cheers the desolate winter landscape, and tells to the inhabitants of those regions that when snow and ice cover the ground the inward life of plants, like the Promethean fire, is never extinct upon our planet. Like mosses and lichens in our latitudes, and like orchideae in the tropical zone, plants of the Pothos form (24) clothe 26 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. parasitically the trunks of aged and decaying forest trees : succulent herbaceous stalks support large leaves, sometimes sagittate, sometimes either digitate or elongate, but always with thick veins. The flowers of the Aroideee are cased in hooded spathes or sheaths, and in some of them when they expand a sensible increase of vital heat is perceived. Stem- less, they put forth aerial roots. Pothos, Dracontium, Cala- dium, and Arum, all belong to this form, which prevails chiefly in the tropical world. On the Spanish and Italian shores of the Mediterranean, Arums combine with the suc- culent Tussilago, the Acanthus, and Thistles which are almost arborescent, to indicate the increasing luxuriance of southern vegetation. Next to the last-mentioned form of which the Pothos and Arum are representatives, I place a form with which, in the hottest parts of South America, it is frequently associated, — that of the tropical twining rope-plants, or Lianes, (25) which display in those regions, in Paullinias, Banisterias, Bignonias, and Passifloras, the utmost vigour of vegetation. It is represented to us in the temperate latitudes by our twining hops, and by our grape vines. On the banks of the Orinoco the leafless branches of the Bauhinias are often between 40 and 50 feet long : sometimes they hang down perpendicularly from the high top of the Swietenia, and sometimes they are stretched obliquely like the cordage of a ship : the tiger-cats climb up and descend by them with wonderful agility. In strong contrast with the extreme flexibility and fresh light- coloured verdure of the climbing plants, of which we have just PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 27 been speaking, are the rigid self-supporting growth and bluish hue of the form of Aloes, (26) which, instead of pliant stems and branches of enormous length, are either without stems altogether, or have branchless stems. The leaves, which are succulent, thick, and fleshy, and terminate in long points, radiate from a centre and form a closely crowded tuft. The tall-stemmed aloes are not found in close clusters or thickets like other social or gregarious plants or trees ; they stand singly in arid plains, and impart thereby to the tropical regions in which they are found a peculiar, melancholy, and I would almost venture to call it, African character. Taking for our guides resemblance in physiognomy, and influence on the impression produced by the landscape, we place together under the head of the Aloe form, (from among the Bromeliacese) the Pitcairnias, which in the chain of the Andes grow out of clefts in the rocks ; the great Pournetia pyramidata, (the Atschupalla of the elevated plains of New Granada); the American Aloe, (Agave); Bromelia aranas and B. karatas ; from among the Euphorbiacese the rare species which have thick short candelabra-like divided stems ; from the family of Asphodelese the African Aloe and the Dragon tree, (Dracaena draco) ; and lastly, from among the Liliaceee, the tall flowering Yucca. If the Aloe form is characterised by an almost mournful repose and immobility, the form of Graminese, (27) especially the physiognomy of arborescent grasses, is characterised, on the contrary, by an expression of cheerfulness and of airy grace and tremulous lightness, combined with lofty stature. Both in the East and West Indies groves of Bamboo form 28 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. shaded over-arching walks or avenues. The smooth. polished and often lightly- waving and bending stems of these tropical grasses are taller than our alders and oaks. The form of Graminese begins even in Italy, in the Arundo donax, to rise from the ground, and to determine by height as well as mass the natural character and aspect of the country. The form of Ferns, (28) as well as that of Grasses, becomes ennobled in the hotter parts of the globe. Arborescent ferns, when they reach a height of above 40 feet, have something of a palm-like appearance ; but their stems are less slender, shorter, and more rough and scaly than those of palms. Their foliage is more delicate, of a thinner and more trans- lucent texture, and the minutely indented margins of the fronds are finely and sharply cut. Tree ferns belong almost entirely to the tropical zone, but in that zone they seek by preference the more tempered heat of a moderate elevation above the level of the sea, and mountains two or three thousand feet high may be regarded as their principal seat. In South America the arborescent ferns are usually found associated with the tree which has conferred such benefits on mankind by its fever-healing bark. Both indicate by their presence the happy region where reigns a soft perpetual spring. I will next name the form of Liliaceeous plants, (29) (Amaryllis, Ixia, Gladiolus, Pancratium) with their flag-like leaves and superb blossoms, of which Southern Africa is the principal country; also the Willow form (30), which is indi- genous in all parts of the globe, and is represented in the elevated plains of Quito, (not in the shape of the leaves but PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 29 ill that of the ramification), by Schinus Molle ; Myrtaceae (31), (Metrosideros, Eucalyptus, Escalloniamyrtilloides); Melasto- macese (32), and the Laurel form (33). It would be an enterprise worthy of a great artist to study the aspect and character of all these vegetable groups, not merely in hot-houses or in the descriptions of botanists, but in their native grandeur in the tropical zone. How interesting and instructive to the landscape painter (34) would be a work which should present to the eye, first separately and then in combination and contrast, the leading forms which have been here enumerated ! ' How picturesque is the aspect of tree-ferns spreading their delicate fronds above the laurel-oaks of Mexico; or groups of plantains over- shadowed by arborescent grasses (Guaduas and Bamboos) ! It is the artist's privilege, having studied these groups, to analyse them : and thus in his hands the grand and beautiful form of nature which he would pourtray resolves itself, (if I may venture on the expression) like the written works of men,, into a few simple elements. It is under the burning rays of a tropical sun that vegetation displays its most majestic forms. In the cold north the bark of trees is covered with lichens and mosses, whilst between the tropics the Cymbidium and fragrant Vanilla enliven the trunks of the Anacardias, and of the gigantic fig trees. The fresh verdure of the Pothos leaves, and of the Dracon- tias, contrasts with the many-coloured flowers of the Orchidese. Climbing Bauhinias, Passifloras, and yellow flowering Banis- terias, twine round the trunks of the forest trees. Delicate blossoms spring from the roots of the Theobroma, and from 30 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. the thick and rough bark of the Crescentias and the Gustavia. (35) In the midst of this profusion of flowers and fruits, and in the luxuriant intertwinings of the climbing plants, the naturalist often finds it difficult to discover to which stem the different leaves and flowers really belong. A single tree adorned with Paullinias, Bignonias, and Dendrobium, forms a group of plants which, if disentangled and sepa- rated from each other, would cover a considerable space of ground. In the tropics vegetation is generally of a fresher verdure, more luxuriant and succulent, and adorned with larger and more shining leaves than in our northern climates. The " social" plants, which often impart so uniform and mono- tonous a character to European countries, are almost entirely absent in the Equatorial regions. Trees almost as lofty as our oaks are adorned with flowers as large and as beautiful as our lilies. On the shady banks of the Bio Magdalena in South America, there grows a climbing Aristolochia bearing flowers four feet in circumference, which the Indian boys draw over their heads in sport, and wear as hats or helmets. (36) In the islands of the Indian Archipelago the flower of the Kafflesia is nearly three feet in diameter, and weighs above fourteen pounds. The great elevation attained in several tropical countries not only by single mountains but even by extensive districts, enables the inhabitants of the torrid zone — surrounded by palms, bananas, and the other beautiful forms proper to those latitudes — to behold also those vegetable forms which, demanding a cooler temperature, would seem to belong to PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 31 other zones. Elevation above the level of the sea gives this cooler temperature even in the hottest parts of the earth; and Cypresses, Pines, Oaks, Berberries and Alders, (nearly allied to our own) cover the mountainous districts and elevated plains of Southern Mexico and the chain of the Andes at the Equator. Thus it is given to man in those regions to behold without quitting his native land all the forms of vegetation dispersed over the globe, and all the shining worlds which stud the heavenly vault from pole to pole. (37) These and many other of the enjoyments which Nature affords are wanting to the nations of the North. Many constellations, and many vegetable forms, — and of the latter, those which are most beautiful, (palms, tree ferns, plantains, arborescent grasses, and the finely- divided feathery foliage of the Mimosas), — remain for ever unknown to them. Indi- vidual plants languishing in our hot-houses can give but a very faint idea of the majestic vegetation of the tropical zone. But the high cultivation of our languages, the glowing fancy of the poet, and the imitative art of the painter, open to us sources whence flow abundant compensations, and from whence our imagination can derive the living image of that more vigorous nature which other climes display. In the frigid North, in the midst of the barren heath, the solitary student can appropriate mentally all that has been discovered in the most distant regions, and can create within himself a world free and imperishable as the spirit by which it is conceived. ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 33 ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (l) p. 3. — " On the Chimborazo, eight thousand feet higher than Etna" Small singing birds, and even butterflies, are found at sea at great distances from the coast, (as I have several times had opportunities of observing in the Pacific), being carried there by the force of the wind when storms come off the land. In the same involuntary manner insects are transported into the upper regions of the atmosphere, 16000 or 19000 feet above the plains. The heated crust of the earth occasions an ascending vertical current of air, by which light bodies are borne upwards. M. Boussingault, an excellent chemist who, as Professor at the newly insti- tuted Mining Academy at Santa Fe de Bogota, visited the Gneiss Mountains of Caraccas, in ascending to the summit of the Silla witnessed, together with his companion Don Mariano de Rivero, a phenomenon affording a remarkable ocular demonstration of the fact of a vertically ascending current. They saw in the middle of the day, about noon, whitish shining bodies rise from the valley of Caraccas to the summit of the Silla, which is 5400 (5755 E.) feet high, and then sink down towards the neighbouring sea coast. These movements continued uninterruptedly for the , VOL. II. D 34 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. space of an hour, and the objects, which at first were mistaken for a flock of small birds, proved to be small agglomerations of straws or blades of grass. Boussingault sent me some of the straws, which were immediately recog- nised by Professor Kunth for a species of Vilfa, a genus which, together with Agrostis, is very abundant in the provinces of Caraccas and Cumana : it was the Vilfa tena- cissima of our Synopsis Plantarum sequinoctialium Orbis Novi, T. i. p. 205. Saussure found butterflies on Mont Blanc, as did Eamond in the solitudes which surround the summit of the Mont Perdu. When Bonpland, Carlos Montufar, and myself, reached, on the 23d of June, 1802, on the eastern declivity of the Chimborazo, the height of 18096 (19286 E.) feet— a height at which the barometer sank to 13 inches 11-^ lines (14.850 English inches), we saw winged insects fluttering around us. We could see that they were Dipteras, resembling flies, but on a sharp ridge of rock (cuchilla) often only ten inches wide, between steeply descending masses of snow, it was impossible to catch the insects. The height at which we saw them was nearly the same at which the uncovered trachytic rock, piercing through the eternal snows, gave to ' our view, in Lecidea geographica, the last traces of vegetation. The insects were flying at a height of about 2850 toises (18225 E. feet), or about 2600 E. feet higher than Mont Blanc. Somewhat lower down, at about 2600 toises (10626 E. feet), also therefore within the region of perpetual snow, Bonpland had seen yellow butterflies flying very near the ground. According to our present knowledge the Mam- ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 35 malia which live nearest to the region of perpetual snow are in the Swiss Alps, the Marmot which sleeps through the winter, and a very small field-mouse (Hypudseus nivalis), described by Martins, which on the Eaulhorn lays up a store of the roots of phsenogamous alpine plants almost under the snow. (Actes de la Societe Helvetique, 1843, p. 324.) The beautiful Chinchilla, of which the bright and silky fur is so much prized, is often supposed by Euro- peans to be an inhabitant of the high mountain regions of Chili : this, however, is an error ; the Chinchilla laniger (Gray) only lives in the mild temperature of the lower zone, and is not found farther south than the parallel of 35°. (Claudio Gay, Historia fisica y politica de Chile, Zoologia, 1844, p. 91.) While on our European Alps, Lecideas, Parmelias, and Umbilicarias form only a few coloured patches on the rocks which are not completely covered with snow, in the Andes, beautiful flowering phsenogamous plants, first described by us, live at elevations of thirteen to fourteen thousand feet (13700 to nearly 15000 E.) We found there woolly species of Culcitiuin and Espeletia (C. nivale, C. rufescens, and C. reflexum, E. grandiflora, and E. argentea), Sida pichinchensis, Ranunculus nubigenus, E/. Gusmanni with red or orange-coloured blossoms, the small moss-like umbelliferous plant Myrrhis andicola, and Fragosa arctioides. On the declivity of the Chimborazo the Saxifraga boussingaulti, described by Adolph Brongniart, grows beyond the limit of perpetual snow on loose boulders of rock, at. 147 96 (15770 E.) feet above the level of the sea, not at 17000, as stated 36 PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. in two estimable English journals. (Compare my Asie Centrale, T. iii. p. 262, with Hooker, Journal of Botany, vol. i. 1834, p. 327, and Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xvii. 1834, p. 380.) The Saxifrage discovered by Boussingault is certainly, up to the present time, the highest known phsenogamous plant on the surface of the earth. The perpendicular height of the Chimborazo is, according to my trigonometrical measurement, 3350 toises (21422 E. feet.) (Kecueil d'Observ. Astron., vol. i., Introd. p. Ixxii.) This result is intermediate between those given by French and Spanish academicians. The differences depend not on different assumptions for refraction, but on differences in the reduction of the measured base lines to the level of the sea. In the Andes this reduction could only be made by the barometer, and thus every measurement called a trigonometric measurement is also a barometric one, of which the result differs according to the first term in the formula employed. If in chains of mountains of great mass, such as the Andes, we insist on determining the greater part of the whole altitude trigonometrically, mea- suring from a low and distant point in the plain or nearly at the level of the sea, we can only obtain very small angles of altitude. On the other hand, not only is it difficult to find a convenient base among mountains, but also every step increases the portion of the height which must be determined barometrically. These difficulties have to be encountered by every traveller who selects, among the ele- vated plains which surround the Andes, the station at which he may execute his geodesical measurements. My measure- ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 37 ment of the Chimborazo was made from the plain of Tapia, which is covered with pumice. It is situated to the west of the .Rio Chambo, and its elevation, as determined by the barometer, is 1482 toises (9477 E. frrt.) The Llanos de Luisa, and still more the plain of Sisgun, which is 1900 toises (12150 E. feet) high, would have given greater angles of altitude ; I had prepared everything for making the measurement at the latter station when thick clouds concealed the summit of Chimborazo Those who are engaged in investigations on languages may not be unwilling to find here some conjectures re- specting the etymology of the widely celebrated name of Chimborazo. Chimbo is the name of the Corregimiento or District in which the mountain of Chimborazo is situated. La Condamine (Voyage a 1'Equateur, 1751, p. 184) deduces Chimbo from " chimpani," " to pass over a river/' Clrimbo-rago signifies, according to him, "la neige de Tautre bord," because at the village of Chimbo one crosses a stream in full view of the enormous snow-clad mountain. (In the Quiclma language " chimpa" signifies the " other, or farther, side;" and chimpani signifies to pass or cross over a river, a bridge, &c.) Several natives of the province of Quito have assured me that Chimborazo signifies merely " the snow of Chimbo." We find the same termination in Carguai-razo. But r'azo appears to be a provincial word. The Jesuit Holguin, (whose excellent " Vocabulario de la Lengua general de toclo el Peru llamada Lengua Qquichua 6 del Inca," printed at Lima in 1608, is in my possession,,) knows nothing of the word "razo." The genuine word 38 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. for snow is " ritti." On the other hand, my learned friend Professor Buschmann remarks that in the Chinchaysuyo dialect (spoken north of Cuzco up to Quito and Pasto,) raju (the / apparently guttural) signifies snow; see the word in Juan de Figueredo's notice of Chinchaysuyo words appended to Diego de Torres Rubio, Arte, y Yoca- bulario de la Lengua Quichua, reimpr. en Lima, 1754 ; fol. 222, b. For the two first syllables of the name of the mountain, and for the village of Chimbo, (as chimpa and chimpani suit badly on account of the a), we may find a definite signification by means of the Quichua word chimpu, an expression used for a coloured thread or fringe (serial de lana, hilo 6 borlilla de colores), — for the red of the sky (arreboles), — and for a halo round the sun or moon. One may try to derive the name of the mountain directly from this word, without the intervention of the village or district. In any case, and whatever the etymology of Chimborazo may be, it must be written in Peruvian Chimporazo, as we know that the Peruvians have no b. But what if the name of this giant mountain should have nothing in common with the language of the Incas, but should have descended from a more remote antiquity ? According to the generally received tradition, it was not long before the arrival of the Spaniards that the Inca or Quichua language was introduced into the kingdom of Quito, where the Puruay language, which has now entirely perished, had previously prevailed. Other names of mountains, Pichincha, Ilinissa, and Cotopaxi, have no signification at all in the language of the Incas, and are therefore certainly older ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 39 than the introduction of the worship of the sun and the court language of the rulers of Cuzco. In all parts of the world the names of mountains and rivers are among the most ancient and most certain monuments or memorials of languages ; and my brother Wilhelm von Humboldt has employed these names with great sagacity in his researches on the former diffusion of Iberian nations. A singular and unexpected statement has been put forward in recent years (Velasco Historia de Quito., T. i. p. 185) to the effect that "the Incas Tupac Yupanqui and Huayiia Capac were astonished to find at their first conquest of Quito a dialect of the Quichua language already in use among the natives." Prescott, however, appears to regard this statement as doubtful. (Hist, of the Conquest of Peru, Yol. i. p. 115.) If the Pass of St. Gothard, Mount Athos, or the Bigi, were placed on the summit of the Chimborazo, it would form an elevation equal to that now ascribed to the Dha- walagiri in the Himalaya. The geologist who rises to more general views connected with the interior of the earth, regards, not indeed the direction, but the relative height of the rocky ridges which we term mountain chains, as a phenomenon of so little import, that he would not be astonished if there should one day be discovered between the Himalaya and the Altai, summits which should surpass the Dhawaligiri and the Djawahir as much as these surpass the Chimborazo. (See my Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples indigenes de TAmerique, T. i. p. 116; and my Notice on two attempts to ascend the Chimborazo, in 1802 and 1831, in Schumacher's Jahrbuch 40 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. for 1847, S. 176.) The great height to which the snow line on the northern side of the Himalaya is raised in summer, by the influence of the heat returned by radiation from the high plains of the interior of Asia, renders those mountains, although situated in 29 to 30J degrees of latitude, as accessible as the Peruvian Andes within the tropics. Captain Gerard has attained on the Tarhigang an elevation as great, and perhaps (as is maintained in the Critical Researches on Philosophy and Geography) 117 English feet greater than that reached by me on the Chimborazo. Unfortunately, as I have shewn more at large in another place, these mountain journies beyond the limits of per- petual snow (however they may engage the curiosity of the public) are of only very inconsiderable scientific use. (2) p. 4. — « The Condor, the giant of the Vulture tribe." In my Kecueil d'Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomic comparee, vol. i. pp. 26-45, I have given the natural history of the Condor, which, before my journey to the equatorial regions, had been much misrepresented. (The name of the bird is properly Cuntur in the Inca language ; in Chili, in the Araucan, Manque ; Sarcoramphus Condor of Dumerik) I made and had engraved a drawing of the head from the living bird, and of the size of nature. Next to the Condor, the Lammergeier of Switzerland, and the Palco destructor of Daudin, probably the Ealco Harpyia of Linnaeus, are the largest flying birds. The region which may be regarded as the ordinary haunt of the Condor begins at the height of Etna, and comprises ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 4i atmospheric strata from ten to eighteen thousand (about 10600 to 19000 English) feet above the level of the sea. Humming birds, which make summer excursions as far as 61° N. latitude on the north-west coast of America on the one hand, and the Tierra del Fuego on the other, have been seen by Von Tschudi (Fauna Peruana, Ornithol. p. 12) in Puna as high as 13700 (14600 English) feet. There is a pleasure in comparing the largest and the smallest of the feathered inhabitants of the air. Of the Condors, the largest individuals found in the chain of the Andes round Quito measured, with extended wings, 14 (nearly 15 English) feet, and the smallest 8 (8J English) feet. From these dimensions, and from the visual angle at which the bird often appeared vertically above our heads, we are enabled to infer the enormous height to which the Condor soars when the sky is serene. A visual angle of 4', for example, gives a perpendicular height above the eye of 6876 (7330 English) feet. The cave (Machay) of Antisana, which is opposite the mountain of Chussulongo, and from whence we measured the height of the soaring bird, is 14958 (15942 English) feet above the surface of the Pacific. This would give the absolute height attained by the Condor at fully 21834 (23270 English) feet; an elevation at which the barometer would hardly reach 12 French inches, but which yet does not surpass the highest summits of the Himalaya. It is a remarkable physiological phenomenon, that the same bird, which can fly round in circles for hours in regions of an atmosphere so rarified, should sometimes suddenly descend, as on the western declivity of the Yolcano of Pichincha, to 42 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. the sea-shore, thus passing rapidly through all gradations of climate. The membranous air-bags of the Condor, if filled in the lower regions of the atmosphere, must undergo extra- ordinary distension at altitudes of more than 23000 English feet. Ulloa, more than a century ago, expressed his astonish- ment that the vulture of the Andes could soar in regions where the atmospheric pressure is less than 14 French inches, (Voyage de TAmerique meridionale, T. ii. p. 2, 1752 ; Observations astronomiques et physiques, p. 110). It was then believed, in analogy with experiments under the air- pump, that no animal could live in so low a pressure. I have myself, as I have already noticed, seen the barometer sink on the Chimborazo to 13 French inches 11 '2 lines (34.850 English inches). Man, indeed, at such elevations, if wearied by muscular exertion, finds himself in a state of very painful exhaustion ; but the Condor seems to perform the functions of respiration with equal facility under pres- sures of 30 and 13 English inches. It is apparently of all living creatures on our planet the one which can remove at pleasure to the greatest distance from the surface of the earth ; I say at pleasure, for minute insects and siliceous- shelled infusoria are carried by the ascending current to possibly still greater elevations. The Condor probably flies higher than the altitude found as above by computation. I remember en the Cotopaxi, in the pumice plain of Suniguaicu, 13578 (14470 English) feet above the sea, to have seen the bird soaring at a height at which he appeared only as a small black speck. What is the smallest angle under which feebly illuminated objects can be discerned ? Their form, (linear ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. -13 extension) lias a great influence on the minimum of thi? angle. The transparency of the mountain atmosphere at the equator is such that, in the province of Quito, as I have elsewhere noticed, the white mantle or Poncho of a horse- man was distinguished with the naked eye at a horizontal distance of 84132 (89 6 6 5' English) feet; therefore under a visual angle of 13 seconds. It was my friend Bonpland, whom, from the pleasant country seat of the Marques de Selvalegre, we saw moving along the face of a black precipice on the Yolcano of Pichincha. Lightning conductors, being long thin objects, are seen, as has already been remarked by Arago, from the greatest distances, and under the smallest angles. The accounts of the habits of the Condor in the moun- tainous districts of Quito and Peru, given by me in a monograph on this powerful bird, have been confirmed by a later traveller, Gay, who has explored the whole of Chili, and has described that country in an excellent work entitled Historia fisica y politica de Chile. The Condor, which, like the Lamas, Vicunas, Alpacas, and Guanacos, does not extend beyond the equator into New Granada, is found as far south as the Straits of Magellan. In Chili, as in the mountain plains of Quito, the Condors, which at other times live either solitarily or in pairs, assemble in flocks to gttack lambs and calves, or to carry off young Guanacos (Guanacillos). The ravages annually committed among the herds of sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as among the wild Vicunas, Alpacas, and Guanacos of the Andes, are very considerable. The inhabitants of Chili assert that, in cap- 44 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. tivity, the Condor can support forty days' hanger; when free, his voracity is excessive, and, vulture-like, is directed by preference to dead flesh. The mode of capture of Condors in Peru by means of pali- sades, as described by me, is practised with equal success in Chili. When the bird has gorged himself with flesh, he cannot rise into the air without first running for some little distance with his wings half expanded. A dead ox, in which decom- position is beginning to take place, is strongly fenced round, leaving within the fence only a small space, in which the Condors attracted by the prey are crowded together. "When they have gorged themselves with food, the palisades not permitting them to obtain a start by running, they become, as remarked above, unable to rise, and are either killed with clubs by the country people, or taken alive by the lasso. On the first declaration of the political independence of Chili, the Condor appeared on the coinage as the symbol of strength. (Claudio Gay, Historia fisica y politica de Chile, publicada bajo los auspicios del Supremo Gobierno ; Zoologia, pp. 194-198.) Tar more useful than the Condor in the great economy of Nature, in the removal of putrefying animal substances and in thus purifying the air in the neighbourhood of human habitations, are the different species of Gallinazos, of which the number of individuals is much greater. In tropical America I have sometimes seen as many as 70 or 80 assem- bled at once round a dead animal; and I am able, as an eye-witness, to confirm the fact long since stated, but which has recently been doubted by ornithologists, of the whole ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 45 assembly of these birds in such cases taking flight on the appearance of a single king-vulture, who yet is no larger than the Gallinazos. No combat ever takes place ; but the Gallinazos (the two species of which, Cathartes urubu and C. aura, have been confounded with each other by an un- fortunately ftuctuating nomenclature) appear to be terrified by the sudden appearance and courageous demeanour of the richly coloured Sarcoramphus papa. As the ancient Egyptians protected the bird which rendered them similar services towards the purification of their atmosphere, so in Peru the careless or wanton killing of the Gallinazos is punished with a fine, which in some towns amounts, accord- ing to Gay, to 300 piastres for each bird. It is a remarkable circumstance, stated so long ago as by Don Felix de Azara, that these species of vultures, if taken young and reared, will so accustom themselves to the person who feeds them, that they will follow him on a journey for many miles, flying after the waggon in which he travels over the Pampas. (3) p. 4. — " Their rotating bodies" Fontana, in his excellent work " Uber das Viperngift," Bd. i. S. 62, relates that he succeeded, in the course of two hours, by means of a drop of water, in bringing to life a rotifera which had lain for two years and a half dried up and motionless. On the action and effect of water, see my " Yersuche tiber die gereizte Muskel-und JNervenfaser," Bd. ii. S. 250. What has been called the revivification of Eotiferss, since observations have been more exact and hnve hnd to undergo 46 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. stricter criticism, has been the subject of much animated discussion. Baker affirmed that he had resuscitated, in 1771, paste-eels which Needham had given him in 1744! Franz Bauer saw his Vibrio tritici, which had been dried up for four years, move again on being moistened. An ex- tremely careful and experienced observer, Doyere, in his Memoire sur les Tardigrades, et sur leur propriete de revenir a la vie (1842). draws from his own fine experiments the folio wing conclusions: — Rotiferse come to life, i. e. pass from a motionless state to a state of motion, after having been exposed to temperatures of 19°. 2. Reaumur below, and 36° Reaumur above, the freezing point; i. e. from 11°. 2 to 113°.0 Fah. They preserve the capability of apparent revivification, in dry sand, up to 56°.4 R. (158°.9 Eah.) ; but they lose it, and cannot be excited afresh, if heated in moist sand to 44° only (131°.0 Pah.) Doyere, p, 119. The possibility of revivification or reanimation is not pre- vented by their being placed for twenty-eight days in baro- meter tubes in vacuo, or even by the application of chloride of lime or sulphuric acid (pp. 130-133). Doyere has also seen the rotiferse 'come to life again very slowly after being dried without sand (desseches a nu), which Spallan- zani had denied (pp. 117 and 129). "Toute dessiccation faite a la temperature ordinaire pourroit souffrir des objec- tions auxquelles Temploi du vide sec n'eut peut-etre pas completement repondu : mais en voyant les Tardigrades perir irrevocablement a une temperature de 44°, si leurs tissus sont penetres d'eau, tandis que desseches ils sup- portent sans perir une chaleur qu'on peut e valuer a 96° ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 47 Reaumur, on doit etre dispose a admettre que la revivifica- tion n'a dans F animal d'autre condition que Pintegrite de composition et de connexions organiques." In the same way, in the vegetable kingdom, the sporules of cryptogamia, which Kunth compares to the propagation of certain pha?- nogamous plants by buds (bulbillse), retain their germinat- ing power in the highest temperatures. According to the most recent experiments of Payen, the sporules of a minute fungus (Oi'dium aurantiacum), which covers the crumb of bread with a reddish feathery coating, do not lose their power of germination by being exposed for half an hour in closed tubes to a temperature of from 67° to 78° Reaumur (182°.75 to 207°.5 Pah.), before being strewed on fresh perfectly unspoilt dough. May not the newly discovered monad (Monas prodigiosa), which causes blood-like spots on mealy substances, have been mingled with this fungus ? Ehrenberg, in his great work on Infusoria (S. 492-496), has given the most complete history of all the investiga- tions which have taken place on what is called the revivifi- cation of rotiferse. He believes that, in spite of all the means of desiccation employed, the organization-fluid still remains in the apparently dead animal. He contests the hypothesis of "latent life;" death, he says, is not "life latent, but the want of life." We have evidence of the diminution, if not of the entire disappearance or suspension of organic functions, in the hybernation or winter sleep both of warm and cold-blooded animals, in the dormice, marmots, sand martins (Hirundo riparia) according to Cuvier (Regue animal, 1829, T. i. p. 48 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 396), frogs and toads. Frogs, awakened from winter-sleep by warmth, can support an eight times' longer stay under water without being drowned, than frogs in the breeding season. It Amid seem as if the functions of the lungs in respiration, for some time after their excitability had been suspended, required a less degree of activity. The circum- stance of the sand-martin sometimes burying itself in a morass is a phenomenon which, while it seems not to admit of doubt, is the more surprising, as in birds respiration is so extremely energetic, that, according to Lavoisier's experiments, two small sparrows, in their ordinary state, decomposed, in the same space of time, as much atmo- spheric air as a porpoise. (Lavoisier, Memoires de Chimie, T. i. p, 119.) The winter-sleep of the swallow in question (the Hirundo riparia) is not supposed to belong to the entire species, but only to have been observed in some indi- viduals. (Milne Edwards, Elemens de Zoologie, 1834, p. 543.) As in the cold zone the deprivation of heat causes some animals to fall into winter- sleep, so the hot tropical coun- tries afford an analogous phseriomenon, which has not been sufficiently attended to, and to which I have applied the name of summer-sleep. (Relation historique, T. ii. pp. 192 and 626.) Drought and continuous high temperatures act like the cold of winter in diminishing excitability. In Mada- gascar, (which, with the exception of a very small portion at its southern extremity, is entirely within the tropical zone,) as Bruguiere had before observed, the hedgehog-like Ten- recs (Centenes, Illiger), one species of which (C. ecaudatus) ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 49 has been introduced into the Isle of Prance, sleep during great heat. Desjardins makes, it is true, the objection that the time of their slumber is the winter season of the southern hemisphere ; but in a country in which the mean tempera- ture of the coldest month is 3° Reaumur (6°. 7 5 Fall.) above that of the hottest month in Paris, this circumstance cannot change the three months' " summer-sleep" of the Tenrec in Madagascar and at Port Louis, into what we understand by a winter-sleep, or state of hybernation. In the hot and dry season, the crocodile in the Llanos of Venezuela, the land and water tortoises of the Orinoco, the huge boa, and several smaller kinds of serpents, become torpid and motionless, and lie incrusted in the indurated soil. The missionary Gili relates that the natives, in seek- ing for the slumbering Terekai (land tortoises), which they find lying at a depth of sixteen or seventeen inches in dried mud, are sometimes bitten by serpents which become sud- denly aroused, and which had buried themselves at the same time as the tortoise. An excellent observer, Dr. Peters, who has just returned from the East Coast of Africa, writes thus to me on the subject : — " During my short stay at Madagascar I could obtain no certain information respecting the Tenrec ; but, on the other hand, I know that in the East of Africa, where I lived for several years, different kinds of tortoises (Pentonyx and Trionchydias) pass months during the dry season of this tropical country inclosed in the dry hard earth, and without food. The Lepidosiren also, in places where the swamps are dried up, remains coiled up VOL. II. £ 50 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. and motionless, encased in indurated earth, from May to December." Thus we find an annual enfeeblement of certain vital functions ir/many and very different classes of animals, and, what is particularly striking, without the same phenomena being presented by other living creatures nearly allied to them, and belonging to the same family. The northern glutton (Gulo), though allied to the badger (Meles), does not like him sleep during the winter ; whereas, according to Cuvier's remark, " a Myoxus (dormouse) of Senegal (Myoxus coupeii), which could never have known* winter- sleep in his tropical home, being brought to Europe fell asleep the first year on the setting in of winter." This tor- pidity or enfeeblement of the vital functions and vital acti- vity passes through several gradations, according as it extends to the processes of nutrition, respiration, and mus- cular motion, or to depression of the activity of the brain and nervous system. The winter-sleep of the solitary, bears and of the badger is not accompanied by any rigidity, and hence the reawakening of these animals is so easy, and, as was often related to me in Siberia, so dangerous to the hunters and country people. The first recognition of the gradation and connection of these phenomena leads us up to what has been called the " vita minima" of the micro- scopic organisms, which, occasionally with green ovaries and undergoing the process of spontaneous division, fall from the clouds in the Atlantic band-rain. The apparent revivifica- tion of rotiferse, as well as of the siliceous-shelled infusoria, is only the renewal of long-enfeebled vital functions, — ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 51 a state of vitality which was never entirely extinct, and which is fanned into a fresh flame, or excited anew, by the appropriate stimulus. Physiological phenomena can only be comprehended by being traced throughout the entire series of analogous modifications. (4) p. 5.— " Winged insects!' Formerly the fertilization of flowers in which the sexes are separated was ascribed principally to the action of the wind : it has been shown by Kolreuter, and with great in- genuity by Sprengel, that bees, wasps, and a host of smaller winged insects, are the chief agents. I say the chief agents, because to assert that no fertilization is possible without the intervention of these little animals appears to me not to be in conformity with nature, as indeed has been shown in detail by Willdenow. (Grundriss der Krauterkunde, 4te Aufl., Berl. 1805, S. 405-412.) On the other hand, Dichogamy, coloured spots- or marks indicating honey- vessels (maculae indicantes), and fertilization by insects, are, m much the greater number of cases, inseparably associated. (Compare Auguste de St. Hilaire, Lecous de Botanique, 1840, p. 565-571.) The statement which has been often repeated since Spallanzani, that the dioecious common hemp (Cannabis sativa) yields perfect seeds without the neighbourhood of pollen-bearing vessels, has been refuted by later experiments. When seeds have been obtained, anthers in a rudimentary state, capable of furnishing some grains of fertilizing dust, have been discovered near the ovarium. Such hermaphro- 52 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. ditism is ^quent in the entire family of Urticese, but a peculiar and still unexplained phenomenon has been presented in the forcing-houses at Kew by a small New Holland shrub, the Crelebogyne of Smith. This phsenogamous plant pro- duces in England perfect seeds without trace of male organs, or the hybridising introduction of the pollen of other species. An ingenious botanist, Adrien de Jussieu, in his " Cours Elementaire de Botanique," 1840, p. 463, expresses himself on the subject as follows : — Un genre d'Euphorbiacees (?) assez nouvellement decrit mais cultive depuis plusieurs annees dans les serres d'Angleterre, le Ccelebogyne, y a plu- sieurs fois fructine, et ses graines etaient evidemment par- faites, puisque non seulement on y a observe un embryon bien constitue, mais qu'en le semant cet embryon s'est deve- loppe en une plante semblable. Or les fleurs sont dioiques ; on ne connait et ne possede pas (en Angleterre) de pieds males, et les recherches les plus minutieuses, faites par les meilleurs observateurs, n'ont pu jusqu'ici faire decouvrir la moindre trace d'antheres ou seulement de pollen. I/embryon ne venait done pas de ce pollen, qui manque entierement : il a du se former de toute piece dans 1'ovule." In order to obtain a fresh confirmation or elucidation of this highly important and isolated phenomenon, I addressed myself not long since to my young friend Dr. Joseph Hooker, who, after making the Antarctic voyage with Sir James Boss, has now joined the great Thibeto- Himalayan expedition. Dr. Hooker wrote to me in reply, on his arrival at Alexandria near the end of December 1847jibefore embarking at Suez: " Our Ccelebogyne still flowers with my father at Kew as well ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 58 as in the Gardens of the Horticultural Society, It ripens its seeds regularly : I have examined it repeatedly very closely and carefully, and have never been able to discover a penetration of pollen-tubes either in the style or ova- rium. In my herbarium the male- blossoms are in small catkins." (5) p. 7.— -"Shine like stars." The luminosity of the ocean is one of those superb natural phenomena which continue to excite our admiration even when we have seen them recur every night for months. The sea is phosphorescent in every zone ; but those who have not witnessed the phenomenon within the tropics, and especially in the Pacific, have only an imperfect idea of the grand and majestic spectacle which it affords. When a man-of-war, im- pelled by a fresh breeze, cuts the foaming waves, the voyager standing at the ship's side feels as if he could never be satis- fied with gazing on the spectacle which presents itself to his view. Every time that in the rolling of the vessel her side emerges from the water, blue or reddish streams of light appear to dart upwards like flashes of lightning from her keel. Nor can I describe the splendour of the appearance presented on a dark night in the tropic seas by the sports of a troop of porpoises. As they cut through the foaming waves, fol- lowing each other in long winding lines, one sees their mazy track marked by intense and sparkling light. In the Gulf of Cariaco, between Cumana and the Peninsula of Maniquarez, I have stood for hours enjoying this spectacle. Le Gentil and the elder Forster attributed the flashing to the electric friction excited by the ship in moving through 54 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. the water, but the present state of our knowledge does not permit us to receive this as a valid explanation. ( Joh. Reinh. Forster's Bemerkungen auf seiner Eeise urn die Welt, 1783, S. 57 ; Le Gentil, Yoyage dans les Mers de 1'Inde, 1779, T. i. p. 685-698.) Perhaps there are few natural subjects of observation which have been so long and so much debated as the luminosity of the waters of the sea. What we know with certainty on the subject may be reduced to the following simple facts. There are several luminous animals which, when alive, give out at pleasure a faint phosphoric light : this light is, in most instances, rather bluish, as in Nereis noctiluca, Medusa pelagica var. ft (Eorskal, Fauna JEgyptiaco-arabica, s. De- scriptiones animalium quse in itinere oriental! observavit, 1775, p. 109), and in the Monophora noctiluca, dis- covered in Baudin's expedition, (Bory de St.-Vincent, Voyage dans les lies des 'Mers d'Afrique, 1804, T. i. pf 107, pi. vi.) The luminous appearance of the sea is due partly to living animals, such as are spoken of above, and partly to organic fibres and membranes derived from the destruction of these living torch-bearers. The first of these causes is undoubtedly the most usual and most extensive. In proportion as travellers engaged in the investigation of natural phenomena have become more zealous in their researches, and more experienced in the use of excellent microscopes, we have seen in our zoological systems the groups of Mollusca and Infusoria, which become luminous either at pleasure or when excited by external stimulus, in- crease more and more. The luminosity of the sea, so far as it is produced by ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 55 living organic beings, is principally due, in the class of Zoo- phytes, to the Acalephae (the families of Medusa and Cyanea), to some Mollusca, and to a countless host of Infusoria. Among the small Acalephse, the Mammaria scintillans offers the beautiful spectacle of, as it were, the starry firmament reflected by the surface of the sea. This little creature, when full grown, hardly equals in size the head of a pin. Michaelis, at Kiel, was the first to show that there are luminous sili- ceous-shelled infusoria : he observed the flashing light of the Peridinium (a ciliated animalcule), of the cuirassed Monad the Prorocentrum micans, and of a rotifera to which he gave the name of Synchata baltica. (Michaelis iiber das Leuch- ten der Ostsee bei Kiel, 1830, S. 17.) The same Synchata baltica was subsequently discovered by Eocke in the Lagunes of Venice. My distinguished friend and Siberian travelling companion, Ehrenberg, has succeeded in keeping luminous infusoria from the Baltic alive for almost two months in Berlin. He shewed them to me in 1832 with a microscope in a drop of sea-water: placed in the dark I saw their flashes of light. The largest of these little infusoria were l-8th, and the smallest from l-48th to l-96th of a Paris line in length {a Paris line is about nine-hundredths of an English inch) : after they were exhausted, and had ceased to send forth sparkles of light, the flashing was renewed on their being stimulated by the addition of acids or of a little alcohol to the sea-water. By repeatedly filtering water taken up fresh from the sea, Ehrenberg succeeded in obtaining a fluid in which a greater number of these luminous creatures were concentrated. 56 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. ( Abhandlungen der AkaJ. der Wiss. zu Berlin aus dem J. 1833,8.307; 1834,8.537-575; 1838, 8.45 and 258.) This acute observer has found in the organs of the Photo- caris, which emits flashes of light either at pleasure or when irritated or stimulated, a cellular structure with large cells and gelatinous interior resembling the electric organs of the Gymnotus and the Torpedo. "When the Photocaris is irritated, one sees in each cirrus a kindling and nickering of separate sparks, which gradually increase in intensity until the whole cirrus is illuminated ; until at last the living fire runs also over the back of the small Nereis-like animal, so that it appears in the microscope like a thread of sulphur burning with a greenish-yellow light. It is a circumstance very deserving of attention, that in the Oceania (Thaumantias) hemisphserica the number and situation of the sparks corre- spond exactly with the thickened base of the larger cirri or organs which alternate with them. The exhibition of this wreath of fire is a vital act, and the whole development of light is an organic vital process which in the Infusoria shows itself as an instantaneous spark of light, and is repeated after short intervals of repose." (Ehrenberg liber das Leuchten des Meeres, 1836, 8. 110, 158, 160, and 163.) According to these suppositions, the luminous creatures of the ocean show the existence of a magneto -electric light- evolving process in other classes of animals than fishes, insects, Mollusca, and Acalephse. Is the secretion of the luminous fluid which is effused in some luminous creatures, and which continues to shine for some time without any farther influence of the living animal (for example, in ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 57 Lampyrides and Elaterides, in the German and Italian glow- worms, and in the South American Cucuyo which lives on the sugar-cane), only a consequence of the first electric dis- charge, or is it simply dependent on chemical mixture? The shining of insects surrounded by air has doubtless other physiological causes than those which occasion the luminosity of inhabitants of the water, fishes, Medusae, and Infusoria, The small Infusoria of the ocean, being surrounded by strata of salt water which is a good conducting fluid, must be capable of an enormous electric tension of their light-flashing organs to enable them to shine so intensely in the water. They strike like Torpedos, Gymnoti, and the Tremola of the Nile, through the stratum of water ; while electric fishes, in connexion with the galvanic circuit, decompose water and impart magnetism to steel bars, as I showed more than half a century ago (Versuche iiber die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser, Bd. i. S. 438-441, and see also Obs. de Zoo- logie et d' Anatomic comparee, vol. i. p. 84) ; and as John Davy has since confirmed (Phil. Trans, for 1834, Part ii. p. 545-547), do not pass a flash through the smallest inter- vening stratum. The considerations which have been developed make it probable that it is one and the same process which operates in the smallest living organic creatures, so minute that they are not perceived by the naked eye, — in the com- bats of the serpent-like gymnoti, — in flashing luminous infusoria which raise the phosphorescence of the sea to such a degree of brilliancy; — as well as in the thunder- cloud, and in the auroral terrestrial, or polar light (silent 58 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. magnetic lightnings), which, as the result of an increased tension in the interior of the globe, are announced for hours beforehand by the suddenly altered movements of the magnetic needle, (See my letter to the Editor of the Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Bd. xxxvii. 1836, S. 242-244). Sometimes one cannot even with high magnifying powers discern any animalcules in the luminous water ; and yet, whenever the wave strikes and breaks in foam against a hard body, a light is seen to flash. In such case the cause of the phenomenon probably consists in the decaying animal fibres, which are disseminated in immense abun- dance throughout the body of water. If this luminous water is filtered through fine and closely woven cloths, these little fibres and membranes are separated in the shape of shining points. When we bathed at Cumana in the waters of the Gulf of Cariaco, and afterwards lingered awhile on the solitary beach in the mild evening air without our clothes, parts of our bodies continued luminous from the shining organic particles which had adhered to the skin, and the light only became extinct at the end of some minutes. Considering the enormous quantity of animal life in all tropical seas, it is, perhaps, not surprising that the sea water should be luminous, even where no visible organic particles can be detached from it. From the almost infinite subdivision of the masses of dead Dagysse and Medusse, the sea may perhaps be looked on as a gelatinous fluid, which as such is luminous, distasteful to, and undrinkable by man, and capable of affording nourishment to many fish. If ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 59 one rubs a board with part of a Medusa hysocella, the part so rubbed regains its luminosity on friction with a dry finger. On my passage to South America I sometimes placed' a Medusa on a tin plate. "When I struck another metallic substance against the plate, the slightest vibrations of the tin were sufficient to cause the light. What is the manner in which in this case the blow and the vibrations act? Is the temperature momentarily augmented ? Are new surfaces exposed ? or does the blow press out a fluid, such as phosphuretted hydrogen, which may burn on coming into contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere or of the air held in solution by the sea-water. This light-exciting influence of a shock or blow is particularly remarkable in a "cross sea/' i. e. when waves coming from opposite directions meet and clash. I have seen the sea within the tropics appear luminous in the most different states of weather ; but the light was most brilliant when a storm was near, or with a sultry atmos- phere and a vaporous thickly-clouded sky. Heat and cold appear to have little influence on the phenomenon, for on the Banks of Newfoundland the phosphorescence is often very bright during the coldest winter weather. Sometimes under apparently similar external circumstances the sea will be highly luminous one night and not at all so the following night. Does the atmosphere influence the disengagement of light, or do all these differences depend on the accident of the observer sailing through a part of the sea more or less abundantly impregnated with gelatinous animal substances? Perhaps it is only in certain states of the 60 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. atmosphere that the light-evolving auimalculse come in large numbers to the surface of the sea. It has been asked why the fresh water of our marshes, which is filled with polypi, is never seen to become luminous. Both in animals and plants, a particular mixture of organic particles appears to be required in order to favour the production of light. "Willow-wood is oftener found to be luminous than oak-wood. In England experiments have succeeded in making salt- water shine by pouring into it the liquor from pickled herrings. It is easy to shew by galvanic experiments that in living animals the evolution of light depends on an irri- tation of the nerves. I have seen an Eiater noctilucus which was dying emit strong flashes of light when I touched the ganglion of his fore leg with zinc and silver. Medusae sometimes shew increased brightness at the moment of completing the galvanic circuit. (Humboldt, Eelat. Hist. T. i. p. 79 and 533.) Respecting the wonderful development of mass and power of increase in Infusoria, see Ehrenberg, Infus. S. xiii. 291 and 512. He observes that "the galaxy of the minutest organisms passes through the genera of Vibrio and Bac- terium and that of Monas, (in the latter they are often onty ToVo °f a une>) S. xix. and 244. (6) p. 7. — " Which inhabits the large pulmonary cells of the rattle-snake of the tropics." . This animal, which I formerly called an Echinorhynchus or even a Porocephalus, appears on closer investigation, and according to the better founded judgment of Rudolphi, to ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 61 belong to the division of the Pentastomes. (Budolphi, Entozoorum Synopsis, p. 124 and 434.) It inhabits the ventral cavities and wide-celled lungs of a species of Cro- talus which lives in Cumana, sometimes in the interior of houses, where it pursues the mice. Ascaris lumbrici (Gozen's Eingeweidewiirmer, Tab. iv. Fig. 10,) lives under the skin of the common earthworm, and is the smallest of all the species of Ascaris. Leucophra nodulata, Gleichen's pearl-animalcule, has been observed by Otto Friedrich Muller in the interior of the reddish Nais litto- ralis. (Muller, Zoologia danica, Fasc. II. Tab. Ixxx. a — e.) Probably these microscopic animals are again inhabited by others. All are surrounded by air poor in oxygen and variously mixed with hydrogen and carbonic acid. Whether any animal can live in pure nitrogen is very doubtful. It might formerly have been believed to be the case with Fischer's Cistidicola farionis, because according to Fourcro/s experiments the swimming bladders of fish appeared to contain an air entirely deprived of oxygen. Erman's experience and my own shew, however, that fresh-water fishes never contain pure nitrogen iii their swimming bladders. (Humboldt et Prove^al, sur la respiration des Poissons, in the Eecueil d'Observ. de Zoologie, Vol. ii. p. 194-216.) In sea-fish as much as 0*80 of oxygen has been found, and according to Biot the purity of the air would appear to depend on the depth at which the fish live. (Memoires de Physique et de Chimie de la Societ6 d'Arcueil, T. i. 1807, p. 252-281.) 62 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. (7) p. 8.— " The collected labours of united Lithophytes." Following Linnaeus and Ellis, the calcareous zoophytes, — among which Madrepores, Meandrinse, Astrese, and Pocillo- porse, especially, produce wall-like coral-reefs, — are inhabited by living creatures which were long believed to be allied to the Nereids belonging to CuvierV Annelidas, The anatomy of these gelatinous little creatures has been elucidated by the ingenious and extensive researches of Cavolini, Savigny, and Ehrenberg. We have learnt that in order to under- stand the entire organization of what are called the rock- building coral animals, the scaffolding which survives them, i. e.} the layers ol lime, which in the form of thin delicate plates or lamellse are elaborated by vital functions, must not be regarded as something extraneous to the soft membranes of the food-receiving animal. Besides the more extended knowledge of the wonderful formation of the animated coral stocks, there have been gradually established more accurate views respecting the influence exercised by corals on other departments of Nature, — on the elevation of groups of low islands above the level of the sea> — on the migrations of land-plants and the successive extension of the domains of particular Floras, — and, lastly, in some parts of the ocean, on the diffusion of races of men, and the spread of particular languages. As minute organic creatures living in society, corals do indeed perform an important part in the general economy of Nature, although they do not, as was begun to be believed at the time of Cook's voyages, enlarge continents and build ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 63 up islands from fathomless depths of the ocean. They excite the liveliest interest, whether considered as subjects of physiology and of tlie stady of the gradation of animal forms, or whether they are regarded in reference to their influence on the geography of plants and on the geological relations of the crust of the Earth. According to the great views of Leopold von Buch, the whole formation of the Jura consists of " large raised coral-banks of the ancient world surround- ing the ancient mountain chains at a certain distance." In Ehrenberg's Classification, (Abhandlungen der Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin aus dem, J. 1832, S. 393-432) Coral- animals, (often improperly called, in English works, Coral- insects) are divided into two great classes : the single- mouthed Anthozoa, which are either free or capable of detaching themselves, being the animal-corals, Zoocorallia ; and those in which the attachment is permanent and plant- like, being the Phyto-corals. To the first order, the Zoocorallia, belong the Hydras or Arm-polypi of Trembley, the Actiniae decked with beautiful colours, and the mushroom- corals ; to the second order or Phyto-corals belong the Madrepores, the Astrseids, and the Ocellinae. The Polypi of the second order are those which, by the cellular wave- defying ramparts which they construct, are the principal subject of the present note. These ramparts consist of an aggregate of coral trunks, which, however, do not instantly lose their common vitality as does a forest tree when cut down. Every coral-trunk is a whole which has arisen by a forma- tion of buds taking place according to certain laws, the 64 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. parts of which the whole consists forming a number of organically distinct individuals. In the group of Phyto- corals these individuals cannot detach themselves at pleasure, but remain united with each other by thin plates of carbonate of lime. It is not, therefore, by any means the case that each trunk of coral has a central point of common vitality or life. (See Ehrenberg's Memoir above referred to, S. 419.) The propagation of coral-animals takes, place, in the one order, by eggs or by spontaneous division ; and in the other order, by the formation of buds. It is the latter mode of propagation which, in the development of individuals, is the most rich in variety of form. Coral-reefs, (according to the definition of Dioscorides, sea-plants, a forest of stone-trees, Lithodendra), are of three kinds ; — coast reefs, called by the English " shore or fring- ing reefs," which are immediately connected with the coasts of continents or islands, as almost all the coral banks of the Red Sea seen during an eighteen months' examination by Ehrenberg and Hemprich; — "barrier-reefs," "encir- cling-reefs," as the great Australian barrier-reef on the north-east coast of New Holland, extending from Sandy Cape to the dreaded Torres Strait; and as the encircling-reefs surrounding the islands of Vanikoro (between the Santa Cruz group and the New Hebrides) and Poupynete (one of the Carolinas; — and lastly, coral banks enclosing lagoons, forming " Atolls" or " Lagoon-islands." This highly natural division and nomenclature have been in- troduced by Charles Darwin, and are intimately con- nected with the explanation which that ingenious and ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 65 excellent investigator of nature has given of the gradual production of these wonderful forms. As on the one hand Cavolini, Ehrenberg, and Savigny have perfected the scientific anatomical knowledge of the organisation of coral- animals,, so on the other hand the geographical and geo- logical relations of coral-islands have been investigated and elucidated, first by Eeinhold and George Forster in Cook's Second Voyage, and subsequently, after a long interval, by Chamisso, Peron, Quoy and Gaimard, Flinders, Lutke, Beechey, Darwin, d'Urville, and Lottin. The coral-animals and their stony cellular structures or scaffolding belong principally to the warm tropical seas, and the reefs are found more frequently in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere. The Atolls or Lagoon Islands are crowded together in what has been called the Coral-Sea, off the north-east coast of New Holland, including New Cale- donia, the Salomon's Islands, and the Louisiade Archipe- lago ; in the group of the Low islands (Low Archipelago), eighty in number ; in the Fidji, Ellice, and Gilbert groups ; and in the Indian Ocean, on the north-east of Madagascar, under the name of the Atoll group of Saya de Malha. The great Chagos bank, of which the structure and rocks of dead coral have been thoroughly examined by Captain Moresby and by Powell, is so much the more interesting, because we may regard it as a continuation of the more northerly Laccadives and Maldives. I have already called attention elsewhere (Asie Centrale, T. i. p. 218), to the importance of the succession of these Atolls, running exactly in the direction of a meridian and continued as far as 7° VOL. II. J 66 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. south latitude, to the general system of mountains and the configuration of the earth's surface in Central Asia. They form a kind of continuation to the great rampart-like mountain elevations of the Ghauts and the more northern chain of Bolor, to which correspond in the trans- Gangetic Peninsula the North and South Chains which are intersected near the great bend of the Thibetian Tzang-bo Kiver by several transverse mountain systems running east and west. In this eastern peninsula are situated the chains of Cochin China, Siam, and Malacca which are parallel with each other, as well as those of Ava and Arracan which all, after courses of unequal length, terminate in the Gulfs or Bays of Siam, Martaban, and Bengal. The Bay of Bengal appears like an arrested attempt of nature to form an inland sea. A deep invasion of the ocean, between the simple western system of the Ghauts, and the eastern very complex trans-Gangetic system of mountains, has swallowed up a large portion of the low lands on the eastern side, but met with an obstacle more difficult to overcome in the existence of the extensive high plateau of Mysore. Such an invasion of the ocean has occasioned two almost pyramidal peninsulas of very different dimensions, and differently proportioned in breadth and length; and the continuations of two mountain systems (both running in the direction of the meridian, i. e., the mountain system of Malacca on the east, and the Ghauts of Malabar on the west), shew themselves in submarine chains of mountains or symmetrical series of islands, on the one side in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are very poor ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 67 in corals, and on the other side in the three long- extended groups or series of Atolls of the Laccadives, the Maldives, and Chagos. The latter series, called by navigators the Chagos-bank, forms a lagoon encircled by a narrow and already much broken, and in great measure submerged, coral reef. The longer and shorter diameters of this lagoon, or its length and breadth, are respectively 90 and 70 geographical miles. Whilst the enclosed lagoon is only from seventeen to forty fathoms deep, the depth of water at a small distance from the outer margin of the coral, (which appears to be gradually sinking), is such, that at half a mile no bottom was found in sounding with a line of 190 fathoms, and, at a somewhat greater distance, none with 210 fathoms. (Darwin, Structure of Coral Reefs, p. 39, 111, and 183.) At the coral lagoon called Keeling- Atoll, Captain Fitz-ftoy, at a distance of only two thousand yards from the reef, found no soundings with 1200 fathoms. " The corals which, in the Eed Sea, form thick wall-like masses, are species of Meandrina, Astrsea, Eavia, Madrepora (Porites),Pocillopora (hemprichii),Millepora, andHeteropora. The latter are among the most massive, although they are somewhat branched. The corals which lie deepest below the surface of the water in this locality, and which, being mag- nified by the refraction of the rays of light, appear to the eye like the domes or cupolas of a cathedral or other large building, belong, so far as we were enabled to judge, to Meandrina and Astrsea." (Ehrenberg, manuscript notices.) It is necessary to distinguish between separate and in part 68 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. free and detached polypifers, and those which form wall-like structures and rocks. If we are struck with the great accumulation of building polypifers in some regions of the globe, it is not less sur- prising to remark the entire absence of their structures in other and often nearly adjoining regions. These differences must be determined by causes which have not yet been tho- roughly investigated ; such as currents, local temperature of the water, and abundance or deficiency of appropriate food. That certain thin-branched corals, with less deposit of lime on the side opposite to the opening of the mouth, prefer the repose of the interior of the lagoon, is not to be denied , but this preference for the unagitated water must not, as has too often been done (Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1825, T. vi. p. 277), be regarded as a property belonging to the entire class. According to Ehrenberg's experience in the Red Sea, that of Chamisso in the Atolls of the Mar- shall Islands east of the Caroline group, the observations of Captain Bird Allen in the West Indies, and those of Capt. Moresby in the Maldives, living Madrepores, Millepores, and species of Astraea and of Meandrina, can support the most violent action of the waves, — -" a tremendous surf," — (Darwin, Coral Reefs, pp. 63-65), and even appear to prefer the most stormy exposure. The living organic forces or powers regulating the cellular structure, which with age acquires the hardness of rock, resist with wonder- ful success the mechanical forces acting in the shock of the agitated water. In the Pacific, the Galapagos Islands, and the whole ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 69 Western Coast of America, are entirely without coral reefs, although so near to the many Atolls of the Low Islands, and the Archipelago of the Marquesas. This absence of corals might perhaps be ascribed to the presence of colder water, since we know that the coasts of Chili and Peru are washed by a cold current coming from the south and turning to the westward off Punta Parina, the temperature of which I found, in 1802, to be only 12°.5 Reaumur (60°.2 Pah.), while the undisturbed adjacent masses of water were from 22° to 23° Reaumur (81°.5 to 83°.8 Pah.) ; and there are also among the Galapagos small currents run- ning between the islands, having a temperature of only 11°.7 Reaumur (58°.2 Pah.) But these lower temperatures do not extend farther to the north along the shores of the Pacific, and are not found upon the coasts of Guayaquil, Guatimala, and Mexico ; nor does a low temperature pre- vail at the Cape de Verd Islands on the "West Coast of Africa, or at the small islands of St. Paul (St. Paul's rocks), or at St. Helena, Ascension, or San Pernando Noronha, — which yet are all without cora reefs. While this absence of coral reefs appears to characterise the western coasts of Africa, America, and Australia, on the other hand such reefs abound on the eastern coasts of tropical America, of Africa, on the coasts of Zanzibar and Australia, and on that of New South Wales. The coral banks which I have chiefly had opportunities of observing are those of the interior of the Gulf of Mexico, 'and those to the south of the Island of Cuba, in what are called the " Gardens of the King and Queen" (Jardines y Jardinillos 70 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. del Rey y de la Reyna) . It was Columbus himself who, on his second voyage, in May 1494, gave that name to this little group of islands, because the agreeable mixture of the silver-leaved arborescent Tournefortia gnapholoides, flower- ing species of Dolichos, Avicennia nitida, and mangrove hedges, gave to the coral islands the appearance of a group of floating gardens. " Son Cayos verdes y graciosos llenos de arboledas," says the Admiral. On the' passage from Ba- tabano to Trinidad de Cuba, I remained several days in these gardens, situated to the east of the larger island, called the Isla de Pinos, which is rich in mahogany trees : my stay was for the purpose of determining the longitude of the different keys (Cayos). The Cayo Mamenco, Cayo Bonito, Cayo de Diego Perez, and Cayo de piedras, are coral islands rising only from eight to fourteen inches above the level of the sea. The upper edge of the reef does not consist simply of blocks of dead coral ; it is rather a true conglomerate, in which angular pieces of coral, cemented together with grains of quartz, are embedded. In the Cayo de piedras I saw such embedded pieces of coral measuring as much as three cubic feet. Several of the small West Indian coral islands have fresh water, a phenomenon which, wherever it presents itself, (for example, at Radak in the Pacific ; see Chamisso in Kotzebue's Entdeckungs-Reise, Bd. iii. S. 108), is de- serving of examination, as it has sometimes been ascribed to hydrostatic pressure operating from a distant coast, (as at Venice, and in the Bay of Xagua east of Batabano), and sometimes to the filtration of rain water. (See my Essai politique sur Tile de Cuba, T. ii. p. 137.) ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 71 The living gelatinous investment of the stony calcareous part of the coral attracts fish, and even turtles, who seek it as food. In the time of Columbus the now unfrequented locality of the Jardines del Eey was enlivened by a singular kind of fishery, in which the inhabitants of the coasts of the Island oP Cuba engaged, and in which they availed themselves of the services of a small fish. They employed in the capture of turtle the Eemora, once said to detain ships (probably the Echeneis Naucrates), called in Spanish " Reves," or reversed, because at first sight his back and abdomen are mistaken for each other. The remora attaches itself to the turtle by suction through the interstices of the indented and moveable cartilaginous plates which cover the head of the latter, and " would rather," says Columbus, " allow itself to be cut in pieces than lose its hold." The natives, there- fore, attach a line, formed of palm fibres, to the tail of the little fish, and after it has fastened itself to the turtle draw both out of the water together. Martin Anghiera, the learned secretary of Charles Y., says, " Nostrates piscem- reversum appellant/ quod versus venatur. Non aliter ac nos canibus gallicis per sequora campi lepores insectamur, illi (incolae Cubse insulse) venatorio pisce pisces alios capie- bant." (Petr. Martyr, Oceanica, 1532, Dec. I. p. 9; Go- mara, Hist, de las Indias, 1553, fol. xiv.) We learn by Dampier and Commerson that this piscatorial artifice, the employing a sucking-fish to catch other inhabitants of the water, is much practised on the East Coast of Africa, at Cape Natal and on the Mozambique Channel, and also in the Island of Madagascar. (Lacepede, Hist. nat. des Pois- 72 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. sons, T. i. p. 55.) The same necessities combine with a knowledge of the habits of animals to induce the same artifices and modes of capture among nations who are en- tirely unconnected with each other. Although, as we have already remarked, the zone in- cluded between 22 or 24 degrees of latitude on either side of the equator, appears to be the true region of the calca- reous saxigenous lithophytes which raise wall-like struc- tures, yet coral reefs are also found, favoured it is supposed by the warm current of the Gulf-stream, in lat. 32° 23', at the Bermudas, where they have been extremely well de- scribed by Lieutenant Nelson. (Transactions of the Geo- logical Society, 2d Series, 1837, Vol. V. Pt. i. p. 103.) In the southern hemisphere, corals, (Millepores and Cellepores), are found singly as far south as Chiloe, the Archipelago of Chonos, and Tierra de Puego, in 53° lat. ; and Eetepores are even found in lat. 72-^-°. Since the second voyage of Captain Cook there have been many defenders of the hypothesis put forward by him as well as by Reinhold and George Porster, according to which the low coral islands of the Pacific have been built up by living creatures from the depths of the bottom of the sea. The distinguished investigators of nature, Quoy and Gaimard, who accompanied Captain Preycinet in his voyage round the world in the frigate Uranie, were the first who ventured, in 1823, to express themselves with great bold- ness and freedom in opposition to the views of the two Porsters (father and son), of Plinders, and of Peron. (Annales des Sciences Naturelles, T. vi., 1825, p. 273.) ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 73 "Enappelant Inattention des naturalistes sur les animalcules des coraux, nous esperons demontrer que tout ce qu'on a dit ou cru observer jusqu'a ce jour relativement aux im- menses travaux qu'il sont susceptibles d'executer, est le plus souvent inexact et toujours excessivement exagere. Nous pensons que les coraux, loin d'elever des profondeurs de Focean des murs perpendiculaires, ne forment que des couches ou des encroutemens de quelques toises d'epaisseur." Quoy and Gaimard also propounded (p. 289) the conjec- ture that the Atolls, (coral walls enclosing a lagoon) , pro- bably owed their origin to submarine volcanic craters. Their estimate of the depth below the surface of the sea at which the animals which form the coral reefs (the species of Astrsea, for example) could live, was doubtless too small, being at the utmost from 25 to 30 feet (26^ to 32 E.) An investigator and lover of nature who has added to his own many and valuable observations a comparison with those of others in all parts of the globe, Charles Darwin, places with greater certainty the depth of the region of living corals at 20 to 30 fathoms. (Darwin, Journal, 1845, p. 467 ; and the same writer's Structure of Coral Reefs, p. 84-87 ; and Sir Robert Schomburgk, Hist, of Barbadoes, 1848, p. 636.) This is also the depth at which Professor Edward Eorbes found the greatest number of corals in the Egean Sea : it is his " fourth region" of marine animals in his very ingenious memoir on the " Provinces of Depth" and the geographical distribution of Mollusca at vertical distances from the surface. (Report on ^Egean Invertebrata in the Report of the 13th Meeting of the British Association, held at Cork in 1843, pp. 151 and 161.) The depths at which corals 74 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. live would seem, however, to be very different in different species, and especially in the more delicate ones which do not form such large masses. Sir James Ross, in his Antarctic Expedition, brought up corals with the sounding lead from great depths, and entrusted them to Mr. Stokes and Professor Eorbes for more thorough examination. On the west of Victoria Land, near Coulman Island, in S. lat. 72° 31', at a depth of 270 fathoms, Retepora cellulosa, a species of Hornera, and Prymnoa Rossii, were found quite fresh and living. Prymnoa Rossii is very analogous to a species found on the coast of Norway. (See Ross, Yoyage of Discovery in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, vol. i. pp. 334 and 337.) In a similar manner in the high northern regions the whalers have brought up Umbel! aria grsenlandica, living, from depths of 236 fathoms. (Ehrenberg, in the Abhandl. der Berk Akad. aus dem J. 1832, S. 430.) We find similar relations of species and situation among sponges, which, indeed, are now considered to belong rather to plants than to zoophytes. On the coasts of Asia Minor the common sponge is found by those engaged in the fishery at depths varying from 5 to 30 fathoms; whereas a very small species of the same genus is not found at a less depth than 180 fathoms. (Forbes and Spratt, Travels in Lycia, 1847, Yol. ii. p. 124.) It is difficult to divine the reason which prevents Madrepores, Meandrina, Astrsea, and the entire group of tropical Phyto-corals which raise large cellular calcareous structures, from living in strata of water at a considerable depth below the surface of the sea. The dimi- nution of temperature in descending takes place but slowly ; ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 75 that of light almost equally so ; and the existence of nume- rous Infusoria at great depths shews that the polypifers would not want for food. In opposition to the hitherto generally received opinion of the entire absence of organic life in the Dead Sea, it is deserving of notice that my friend and fellow labourer, M. Valenciennes, has received through the Marquis Charles de 1'Escalopier, and also the French consul Botta, fine specimens of Porites elongata from the Dead Sea. This fact is the more interesting because this species is not found in the Mediterranean, but belongs to the Red Sea, which, accord- ing to Yalenciennes, has but few organic forms in common with the Mediterranean. I have before remarked that in France a sea fish, a species of Pleuronectes, advances far up the rivers into the interior of the country, thus becoming accustomed to gill-respiration in fresh water ; so we find that the coral-animal above spoken of, the Porites elongata of Lamarck, has a not less remarkable flexibility of organi- sation, since it lives in the Dead Sea, which is over-saturated with salt, and in the open ocean near the Seychelle Islands. (See my Asie Centrale, T. ii. p. 517.) According to the most recent chemical analyses made by the younger Silliman, the genus Porites, as well as many other cellular polypifers, (Madrepores, Andrseas, and Meandrinas of Ceylon and the Bermudas), contain, besides 92-95 per cent, of carbonate of lime and magnesia, some fluoric and phosphoric acids. (See p. 124-131 of "Structure and Classification of Zoophytes/' by James Dana, Geologist of the United States' Exploring Expedition, under the command 76 PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. of Captain Wilkes.) The presence of fluorine in the solid parts of polypifers reminds us of the fluorate of lime in the bones of fishes, according to the experiments of Morechini and Gay Lussac at Rome. Silex is only found mixed in very small quantity with fluorate and phosphate of lime in coral stocks ; but a coral-animal allied to the Horn-coral, Gray's Hyalonerna, has an axis of pure fibres of silex resembling a queue or braided tress of hair. Professor Forchhammer, who has been lately engaged in a thorough analysis of the sea-water from the most different parts of the globe, finds the quantity of lime in the Caribbean Sea remarkably small, being only 247 parts in* ten thousand, while in the Categat it amounts to 371 parts in ten thousand. He is disposed to attribute this difference to the many coral-banks among the West Indian Islands, which appropriate the lime, and lower the per centage remaining in the sea- water. (Report of the 16th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held in 1846, p. 91.) Charles Darwin has developed in a very ingenious manner the probable genetic connection between fringing or shore- reefs, island-encircling reefs, and lagoon-islands, i. e., narrow ring-shaped reefs enclosing interior lagoons. According to his views these three varieties of form are dependent on the oscillating condition of the bottom of the sea, or on periodic elevations and subsidences. The hypothesis which has been several times put forward, according to which the closed ring or annular form of the coral-reefs in Atolls or Lagoon Islands marks the configuration of a submarine volcano, the structure having been raised on the margin of the ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 77 crater, is opposed by their great dimensions, the diameters of many of them being 30, 40, and sometimes even 60 geographical miles. Our fire-emitting mountains have no such craters ; and if we would compare the lagoon, with its submerged interior and narrow enclosing reef, to one of the annular mountains of the moon, we must not forget that those lunar mountains are not volcanoes, but wall-surrounded districts. According to Darwin, the process of formation is the following : — He supposes a mountainous island sur- rounded by a coral-reef, (a " fringing reef" attached to the shore), to undergo subsidence: the "fringing reef" which subsides with the island is continually restored to its level by the tendency of the coral-animals to regain the surface of the sea, and becomes thus, as the island gradually sinks and is reduced in size, first an " encircling reef" at some distance from the included islet, and subsequently, when the latter has entirely disappeared, an atoll. According to this view, in which islands are regarded as the culminating points of a submerged land, the relative positions of the different coral islands would disclose to us that which we could hardly learn by the sounding line, concerning the con- figuration of the land which was above the surface of the sea at an earlier epoch. The entire elucidation of this attractive subject, (to the connection of which with the migrations of plants and the diffusion of races of men attention was called at the commencement of the present note), can only be hoped for when inquirers shall have succeeded in ob- taining greater knowledge than is now possessed of the depth and the nature of the rocks on which the lowest strata of the dead corals rest. 78 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. (8) p. 11.— " Traditions of Samothrace." Diodorus has preserved to us this remarkable tradition, the probability of which renders it in the eyes of the geologist almost equivalent to a historical certainty. The Island of Samothrace, formerly called also .^Ethiopea, Dar- dania, Leucania or Leucosia in the Scholiast to Apollonius Rhodius, and which was a seat of the ancient mysteries of the Cabin, was inhabited by the remains of an ancient nation, several words of whose language were preserved to a later period in the ceremonies accompanying sacrifices. The situa- tion of this island, opposite to the Thracian Hebrus and near the Dardanelles, renders it not surprising that a more detailed tradition of the catastrophe of the breaking forth of the waters of the Euxine should have been preserved there. Rites were performed at altars supposed to mark the limits of the irruption of the waves; and in Samo- thrace as well as in Boeotia, a belief in the periodically recurring destruction of mankind, (a belief which was also found among the Mexicans in the form of a myth of four destructions of the world), was connected with historical recollections of particular inundations. (Otfr. Muller Geschichten Hellenischer Stamme und Stadte, Bd. i. S. 65 and 119.) According to Diodorus, the Samothracians re- lated that the Black Sea had once been an inland lake, but that, being swollen by the rivers which flow into it, it had broken through, first the strait of the Bosphorus, and afterwards that of the Hellespont ; and this long before the inundations spoken of by other nations. (Diod. Sicul. lib. v. cap. 47, p. 369, Wesseling.) These ancient revolutions ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 79 of nature have been treated of in a special work by Dureau de la Malle, and all the information possessed on the subject has been collected in Carl von HofFs important work, enti- tled Geschichte der natiirlichen Veranderungen der Erd- oberflache, Th. i. 1822, S. 105-162; and in Creuzer's Symbolik, 2te Aufl. Th. ii. S. 285, 318, and 361. A reflex, as it were, of the traditions of Samothrace appears in the " Sluice theory" of Strato of Lampsacus, according to which the swelling of the waters of the Euxine first opened the passage of the Dardanelles, and afterwards caused the outlet through the pillars of Hercules. Strabo has preserved to us in the first book of his Geography, among critical extracts from the works of Eratosthenes, a remark- able fragment of the lost writings of Strato, presenting views which extend to almost the entire circumference of he Mediterranean. " Strato of Lampsacus/' says Strabo (Lib. i. p. 49 and 50, Casaub.), " is even more disposed than the Lydian Xan- thus," (who had described impressions of shells at a distance from the sea) " to expound the causes of the things which we see. He asserts that the Euxine had formerly no outlet at Byzantium, but the sea becoming swollen by the rivers which ran into it, had by its pressure opened the passage through which the waters flow into the Propontis and the Hellespont. He also says that the same thing has happened to our Sea (the Mediterranean) ;" " for here, too, when the sea had become swoUen by the rivers, (which in flowing into it had left dry their marshy banks), it forced for itself a passage through the isthmus of land connecting the 80 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. Pillars. The proofs which Strato gives of this are, first that there is still a bank under water running from Europe to Libya, shewing that the outer and inner seas were formerly divided; and next that the Euxine is the shallowest, the Cretan, Sicilian, and Sardoic Seas being on the contrary very deep ; the reason being that the Euxine has been filled with mud by the many and large rivers flowing into it from the North, while the other seas continued deep. The Euxine is also the freshest, and the waters flow towards the parts where the bottom of the sea is lowest. Hence he inferred that the whole of the Euxine would finally be choked with mud if the rivers were to continue to flow into it : and this is already in some degree the case on the west side of the Euxine towards Salmydessus (the Thracian Apollonia), and at what are called by mariners the " Breasts" off the mouth of the Ister and along the shore of the Scythian Desert. Perhaps the Temple of Ammon (in Lybia) may once have stood on the sea-shore, and causes such as these may explain why it is now far inland. This Strato thought might account for the celebrity of the Oracle, which would be less surprising if it had been on the sea-shore; whereas its great distance from the coast made its present renown inexplicable. Egypt, too, had been formerly overflowed by the sea as far as the marshes of Pelusium, Mount Casius, and Lake Ser- bonis ; for, on digging beneath the surface, beds of sea-sand and shells are found ; shewing that the country was formerly overflowed, and the whole district round Mount Casius and Gerrha was a marshy sea which joined the gulf ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 81 of the Bed Sea. When our Sea (the Mediterranean) retreated, the land was uncovered ; still, however, leaving the Lake of Serbonis : subsequently this lake also broke through its bounds and the water flowed off, so that the lake became a swamp. The banks of Lake Mceris are also more like sea than river banks." An erroneously corrected - reading introduced by Grosskurd on account of a passage in Strabo, Lib. xvii. p. 809, Gas., gives instead of Mreris "the Lake Halmyris:" but this latter lake was situated not far from the mouth of the Danube. The sluice-theory of Strato led Eratosthenes of Gyrene (the most celebrated of the series of librarians of Alexandria, but less happy than Archimedes in writing on floating bodies), to examine the problem of the equality of level of all external seas, i. e., seas surrounding the Continents. (Strabo, Lib. i. p. 51-56; Lib. ii. p. 104, Casaub). The varied outlines of the northern shores of the Mediterranean, and the articulated form of the peninsulas and islands, had given occasion to the geognostical myth of the ancient land of Lyctonia. The supposed mode of origin of the smaller Syrtis and of fEe Triton Lake (Diod. iii. 53-55) as well as that of the whole Western Atlas (Maximus Tyrius, viii. 7) were drawn in to form part of an imaginary scheme of igneous eruptions and earthquakes. (See my Examen crit. de 1'hist. de la Geographic, Vol. i. p. 179; T. iii. p. 136.) I have recently touched more in detail on this subject (Kosmos, Bd. ii. S. 153; Engl. ed. p. 118-119) in a passage which I permit myself to subjoin : — " A more richly varied and broken outline gives to the VOL. II. G 82 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. northern shore of the Mediterranean an advantage over the southern or Lybian shore, which according to Strabo was remarked by Eratosthenes. The three great peninsulas, the Iberian, the Italian, and the Hellenic, with their sinuous and deeply indented shores, form, in combination with the neighbouring islands and opposite coasts, many straits and isthmuses. The configuration of the continent and the islands, the latter either severed from the main or volcani- cally elevated in lines, as if over long fissures, early led to geognostical views respecting eruptions, terrestrial revo- lutions, and overpourings of the swollen higher seas into those which were lower. The Euxine, the Dardanelles, the Straits of Gades, and the Mediterranean with its many islands, were well fitted to give rise to the view of such a system of sluices. The Orphic Argonaut, who probably wrote in Christian times, wove antique legends into his song ; he describes the breaking up of the ancient Lyktonia into several islands, when ' the dark-haired Poseidon, being wroth with Father Kronion, smote Lyktonia with the golden trident/ Similar phantasies, which indeed may often have arisen from imperfect knowledge of geographical circumstances, proceeded from the Alexandrian school, where erudition abounded, and a strong predilection was felt for antique legends. It is not necessary to de- termine here whether the myth of the Atlantis broken into fragments should be regarded as a distant and western reflex of that of Lyktonia (as I think I have elsewhere shewn to be probable), or whether, as Otfried Miiller con- siders, " the destruction of Lyktonia (Leuconia) refers to ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 83 the Samothracian tradition of a great flood which had changed the form of that district." (9) p. 12. — u Prevents precipitation taking place from clouds." The vertically-ascending current of the atmosphere is a principal cause of many most important meteorological phenomena. "When a desert or a sandy plain partly or entirely destitute of plants is bounded by a chain of high mountains, we see the sea breeze drive the dense clouds over the desert without any precipitation taking place before they have reached the mountain-ridge. This phenomenon was formerly explained in a very inappropriate manner by a supposed superior attraction exercised by the mountains on the clouds. The true reason of the phenomenon appears to consist in the ascending column of warm air which rises from the sandy plain, and prevents the vesicles of vapour from being dissolved. The more complete the absence "of vegetation, and the more the sand is heated, the greater is the height of the clouds, and the less can any fall of rain take place. When the clouds reach the mountains these causes cease to operate ; the play of the vertically-ascending atmo- spheric current is feebler, the clouds sink lower, and dissolve in rain in a cooler stratum of air. Thus, in deserts, the want of rain, and the absence > of * vegetation, act and react upon each other. It does not rain, because the naked sandy surface having no vegetable covering, becomes more power- fully heated by the solar rays, and thus radiates more heat ; and the absence of rain forbids the desert being converted 84 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. into a steppe or grassy plain, because without water no organic development is possible. , (10) p. 14. — " The mas$ of the earth in solidifying and parting with its heat" If, according to the hypothesis of the Neptunists, now long since obsolete, the so-called primitive rocks, were precipitated from a fluid, the transition of the crust of the earth from a fluid to a solid state must have been accompanied by ail enormous disengagement of heat, which would in turn have caused fresh evaporation and fresh precipitations. The later these precipitations, the more rapid, tumultuous, and uncrys- talline they would have been. Such a sudden disengagement of heat might cause local augmentations of temperature independent of the height of the pole or the latitude of the place, and independent of the position of the earth's axis ; and the temperatures thus caused would influence the dis- tribution of plants. The same sudden disengagement of heat might also occasion a species of porosity, of which there seem to be indications in many enigmatical geological phe- nomena in sedimentary rocks. I have developed these con- jectures in detail in a small memoir " iiber ursprungliche Porositat." (See my work entitled Versuche iiber die che- mische Zersetzung des Luftkreises, 1799, S. 177; and Moll's Jahrbiicher der Berg- und Hiittenkunde, 1797, S. 234.) According to the newer views which I now entertain, the shattered and fissured earth, with her molten interior, may long have maintained a high temperature on her oxy- dised surface, independently of position in respect to the sun ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 85 and of latitude. Would not the climate of Germany be wonderfully altered, and that perhaps for centuries, if there were opened a fissure a thousand fathoms in depth, reach- ing from the shores of the Adriatic to the Baltic ? If in the present condition of our planet, the stable equilibrium of temperature, first calculated by Fourier in his Theorie ana- lytique de la chaleur, has been almost completely restored by radiation from the earth into space; and if the external atmo- sphere now only communicates with the molten interior through the inconsiderable openings of a few volcanoes, — in the earlier state of things numerous clefts and fissures, produced by the frequently recurring corrugations of the rocky strata of the globe, emitted streams of heated air which mingled with the atmosphere and were entirely independent of latitude. Every planet must thus in its earliest condition have for a time determined its own temperature, which afterwards -becomes dependent on the position relatively to the central body, the Sun. The surface of the Moon also shows traces of this reaction of the interior upon the crust. (11) p. 14. — " The mountain declivities of the southern part of Mexico" The greenstone in globular concretions of the mountain district of Guanaxuato is quite similar to that of the Franco- nian Fichtel-Gebirge. Both form grotesquely shaped sum- mits, which pierce through and cover the transition argilla- ceous schists. In the same manner, pearl stone, porplryritic schists, trachyte, and pitch-stone porphyry, constitute rocks similar in form in the Mexican mountains near Cinapecuaro and Moran, in Hungary, in Bohemia, and in Northern Asia. 86 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. (12) p. 16.—" The dragon-tree of Orotava." This colossal dragon-tree, Dracaena draco, stands in the garden of Dr. Franqui in the small town of Oratava, the ancient Taoro, one of the most delightful spots in the world. In June 1799, when we ascended the Peak of Teneriffe, we measured the circumference of the tree, and found it nearly 48 English feet. Our measurement was taken several feet above the root. Lower down, and nearer to the ground, Le Dru made it nearly 79 English feet. Sir George Staunton found the diameter still as much as 12 feet at the height of 10 feet above the ground. The height of the tree is not much above 69 English feet. According to tradition, this tree was venerated by the Guanches (as was the ash-tree of Ephesus by the Greeks, or as the Lydian plane-tree which Xerxes decked with ornaments, and the sacred Banyan-tree of Ceylon), and at the time of the first expedition of the Bethencourts in 1402, it was already as thick and as hollow as it now is. Remembering that the Dracseua grows extremely slowly, we are led to infer the high antiquity of the tree of Orotava. Bertholet, in his description of Teneriffe, says, "En comparant les jeunes Dragonniers, voisins de Farbre gigantesque, les calculs qu'on fait sur Tage de ce dernier effraient rimagination." (Nova Acta Acad. Leop. Carol. Naturae Curiosorum, T. xiii. 1827, p. 781.) The dragon-tree has been cultivated in the Canaries, and in Madeira and Porto Santo, from the earliest times ; and an accurate observer, Leopold von Buch, has even found it wild in Teneriffe, near Igueste. Its original country, therefore, is not India, as had long been believed ; nor does its appear- ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 87 ance in the Canaries contradict the opinion of those who regard the Guanches as having been an isolated Atlantic nation without intercourse with African or Asiatic nations. The form of the Dracaenas is repeated at the southern extre- mity of Africa, in the Isle of Bourbon, and in New Zealand. [n all these distant regions species of the genus in question are found, but none have been met with in the New Continent, where its form is replaced by that of the Yucca. Dracaena borealis of Aiton is a true Convallaria, and has all the "habitus" of that genus. (Humboldt, Ed. hist. T. i. p. 118 and 639.) I have given a representation of the dragon-tree of Orotava, taken from a drawing made by E. d'Ozonne in 1776, in the last plate of the Picturesque Atlas of my American journey. (Yues des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples indigenes de TAmerique, PL Ixix.) I found d'Ozonne's drawing among the manuscripts left by the cele- brated Borda, in the still unprinted travelling journal entrusted to me by the Depot de la Marine, and from which I borrowed important astronomically-determined geographical, as well as barometric and trigonometric notices. (Eel. hist. T. i. p. 282.) The measurement of the dragon-tree of the Yilla Pranqui was made on Borda's first voyage with Pingre, in 1771; not in his second voyage, in 1776, with Yarela. It is affirmed that in the early times of the Norman and Spanish Conquests, in the 15th century, Mass was said at a small altar erected in the hollow trunk of the tree. Un- fortunately the dragon-tree of Orotava lost one side of its top in the storm of the 21st of July, 1819. There is a fine and large English copperplate engraving which represents the present state of the tree with remarkable truth to nature. 88 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. The monumental character of these colossal living vege- table forms, and the kind of reverence which has been felt for them among all nations, have occasioned in modern times the bestowal of greater care in the numerical determi- nation of their age and the size of their trunks. The re- sults of these inquiries have led the author of the important treatise, " De la longevite des Arbres," the elder Decan- dolle, Endlicher, Unger, and other able botanists, to consider it not improbable that the age of several individual trees which are still alive goes back to the earliest historical periods, if not of Egypt, at least of Greece and Italy. It is said in the Bibliotheque Universelle de- Geneve, 1831, T. Ixvii. p. 50: — "Plusieurs exemples semblent confirmer Tidee qu'il existe encore sur le globe des arbres d'une anti- quite prodigieuse, et peut-etre temoins de ses dernieres revolutions physiques. Lorsqu'on regarde un arbre comme un agregat d'autant d'iudividus" soud£s ensemble qu'il s'est developpe de bourgeons a sa surface, on ne peut pas s'etonner si, de nouveaux bourgeons s'ajoutant sans cesse aux anciens, Fagr6gat qui en re suite n'a point de terme necessaire a son existence." In the same manner Agardh says : — " If in trees there are produced in each solar year new parts, so that the older hardened parts are replaced by new ones capable of conducting sap, we see herein a type of growth limited only by external causes." He ascribes the shortness of the life of herbs, or of such plants as are not trees, "to the preponderance of the production of flowers and fruit over the formation of leaves." Unfruitful- ness is to a plant a prolongation of life. Endlicher cites the example of a plant of Medicago sativa, var. 0 versicolor, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 89 which, bearing no fruit, lived eighty years. (Grundziige der Botanik, 1843, S. 1003). With the dragon trees, which, notwithstandiiig the gi- gantic development of their closed vascular bundles, must by reason of their floral parts be placed in the same natural family with asparagus and garden onions, we must asso- ciate the Adansonia (monkey bread-tree, Baobab,) as being certainly among the largest and oldest inhabitants of our planet. In the very first voyages of discovery of the Cata- lans and Portuguese, the navigators were accustomed to cut their names on these two species of trees, not merely to gratify the desire of handing down their names, but also to serve as marks or signs of possession, and of whatever rights nations claim on the ground of being the first discoverers. The Portuguese navigators often used as their " marco" or token of possession the French motto of the Infant Don Henrique the Discoverer. Manuel de Faria y Sousa says in his Asia Portuguesa (T. i. cap. 2, pp. 14 and 18) : — "Era nso de los primeros Navegantes de dexar inscrito el Motto del Infante, talent de Men faire, en la corteza de los arboles." (Compare also Barros, Asia, Dec. I. liv. ii. cap. 2, T. i. p. 148; Lisboa, 1778.) The above-named motto cut on the bark of two trees by Portuguese navigators in 1435, twenty-eight years there- fore before the death of the Infante, is curiously con- nected in the history of discoveries with the elucidations to which the comparison of Vespucci's fourth voyage with that of Gonzalo Coelho, in 1503, has given rise. Vespucci re- lates that Coelho's admiral's ship was wrecked on an island 90 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. which has been sometimes supposed to be San Eernando Noronha, sometimes the Peiiedo de San Pedro, and some- times the problematical Island of St. Matthew. This last- named island was discovered by Garcia Jofre de Loaysa on the 15th of October, 1525, in 2£° S. lat,, in the meridian of Cape Palmas, almost in the Gulf of Guinea. He remained there eighteen days at anchor, found crosses, as well as orange trees which had been planted and had become wild, and on two trunks of trees inscriptions dating back ninety years. (Navarrete, T. v. pp. 8, 247, and 401.) I have examined the questions presented by this account more in detail in my in- quiries into the trustworthiness of Amerigo Vespucci. (Exa- men critique de 1'hist. de la Geographic, T. v. pp. 129-132.) The oldest description of the Baobab (Adansonia digitata), is that given by the Venetian Aloysius Cadamosto (the real name was Alvise da Ca da Mosto), in 1454. He found at the mouth of the Senegal, trunks of which he estimated the circumference at seventeen fathoms, or 102 feet, (Eamusio, Vol. i. p. 109) : he might have compared them with Dragon trees which he had seen before. Perrottet says in his "More de Senegambie" (p. 76), that he had seen monkey bread-trees which, with a height of only about 70 or 80 feet, had a diameter of 32 English feet. The same dimensions had been given by Adanson, in the account of his voyage in 1748 ; the largest trunks which he himself saw (in 1749) in one of the small Magdalena islands near Cape de Verd, and in the vicinity of the mouth of the Senegal River, were from 26 to 28J English feet in diameter, with a height of little more than 70 feet, and a top about 180 feet broad; ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 91 but he adds at the same time, that other travellers had found trunks of nearly 32 English feet diameter. French and Dutch sailors had, cut their names on the trees seen by Adanson in letters half a foot long ; the dates added to the names shewed these inscriptions to be all of the 16th cen- tury, except one which belonged to the 15th. (In Adan- son's " Families des Plantes," 1763, P. I. pp. ccxv.- ccxviii., it stands as the 14th century, but this is doubtless an error of inadvertence.) From the depth of the inscrip- tions, which were covered with new layers of wood, arid from the comparison of the thickness of different trunks of the same species in which the relative age of the trees was known, Adanson computed the probable age of the larger trees, and found for a diameter of 32 English feet 5150 years. (Voyage au Senegal, 1757, p. 66.) He prudently adds (I do not alter his curious orthography) : — " Le calcul de 1'aje de chake couche n'a pas d'exactitude geometrike." In the village of Grand Galarques, also in Senegambia, the negroes have ornamented the entrance of a hollow Baobab tree with sculptures cut out of the still fresh wood; the interior serves for holding meetings in which their interests are debated. Such a hall of assembly reminds one of the hollow or cave (specus) of the plane tree in Lycia, in which Lucinius Mutianus, who had previously been consul, feasted with twenty-one guests. Plino (xii. 3) assigns to such a cavity in a hollow tree the somewhat large allowance of a breadth of eighty Boman feet. The Baobab was seen by Eene Caillie in the Valley of the Niger near Jenne, by Caillaud in Nubia, and by Wilhelm Peters along the whole eastern coast of Africa (where 92 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. it is called Mulapa, i. e. Nlapa-tree, more properly Muti- nlapa) as far as Lourenzo Marques, almost to 26° of S. lat. Although Cadamosto said in the 1 5th century " eminentia non quadrat magnitudini," and although Golberry (Frag- mens d'un Yoyage en Afrique, T. ii. p. 92) found in the " Yallee des deux Gagnacks" trunks which, with 36 English feet diameter near the roots, were only 64 English feet high, yet this great disproportion between height and thickness must not be regarded as general. The learned traveller Peters remarks that ' ' very old trees lose height by the gra- dual decay of the top, while they continue to increase in girth. On the East Coast of Africa one sees not unfre- quently trunks of little more than ten feet diameter reach a height of 69 English feet/' If, according to what has been said, the bold estimations of Adanson and Perottet assign to the Adansonias measured by them an age of from 5150 to 6000 years, which would make them contemporaneous with the epoch of the building of the Pyramids or even with that of Menes, a period when the constellation of the -Southern Cross was still visible in Northern Germany (Kosmos, Bd. iii. S. 402 and 487; Eng. ed. p. 293, and note 146), on the other hand, the more secure estimations made from the annual rings of trees in our northern temperate zone, and from the ratio which has been found to subsist between the thickness of the layer of wood and the time of growth, give us shorter pe- riods. Decandolle finds as the result of his inquiries, that of all European species of trees the yew is that which attains the greatest age. He assigns to the yew (Taxus baccata) of ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 93 Braborne, in the comity of Kent, thirty centuries; to the Scotch yew of Fortingal, from twenty-five to twenty- six; and to those of Crowhurst in Surrey, and Eipon in York- shire, respectively, fourteen and a half and twelve centuries. (Decandolle, de la longevite des arbres, p. 65.) Endlicher remarks that the age of another yew tree, in the Churchyard of Grasford, in North "Wales, which measures 52 English feet in circumference below the branches, is estimated at 1400 years, and that of a yew in Derbyshire at 2096 years. In Lithuania lime trees have been cut down which were 87 English feet in circumference, and in which 815 annual rings have been counted." (Endlicher, Grundziige der Bo- tanik, S. 399.) In the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere some species of Eucalyptus attain an enormous girth, and as they also reach to a great stature (above 230 Paris, 245 English, feet), they are singularly contrasted with our yew trees, whose great dimension is in thickness only. Mr. Backhouse found in Emu Bay, on the coast of Van Diemen Land, trunks of Eucalyptus which measured 70 English feet round the trunk near the ground, and five feet higher up 50 English feet. (Gould, Birds of Australia, "Vol. I. Introd. p. xv.) It is not, as is commonly stated, Malpighi, but the ingenious Michel Montaigne, who has the merit of having been the first, in 1581, in his Voyage en Italic, to notice the relation of the annual rings to the age of the tree. (Adrien de Jussieu, Cours elementaire de Botanique, 1840, p., 61.) A skilful artist, engaged in the preparation of astronomical instruments, had called the attention of Mon- 94s PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. taigne to the annual rings ; and he also maintained that the rings were narrower on the north side of the tree. Jean Jacques Rousseau had the same belief ; and his Emile, if he loses himself in a forest, is to direct himself by the indica- tions afforded by the relative thickness of the layers of wood. More recent observations on the anatomy of plants teach us, however, that both the acceleration and also the retardation or intermission of growth, or the varying production of circles of ligneous fascicles (annual deposits) from the Cam- bium cells, depend on influences which are wholly distinct from the quarter of the heavens towards which one side of the annual rings is turned. (Kunth, Lelirbuch der Botanik, 1847, T. i. S. 146 and 164; Lindley, Introduction to Bo- tany, 2d edition, p. 75.) Trees which in individual cases attain a diameter of more than twenty feet, and an age extending to many centuries, belong to the most different natural families. I may name here Baobabs, Dragon-trees, some species of Eucalyptus, Taxodium disticum (Rich.), Pinus Lambertiana (Douglas), Hymensea courbaril, Ceesalpiniese, Bombax, Swietenia maha- goni, the Banyan tree (Ficus religiosa), Liriodendron tulipifera? Platanus orientalis, and our Limes, Oaks, and Yews. The celebrated Taxodium distichon, the Ahuahuete of the Mexicans, (Cupressus disticha Linn., Schubertia disticha Mirbel), at Santa Maria del Tule, in the state of Oaxaca, has not a diameter of 57, as Decandolle says, but of exactly 38 Trench (40-i- English) feet. (Miihlenpfordt, Versuch einer getreuen Schilderung der Republik Mexico, Bd. i. S. 153.) The two fine Ahuahuetes near Chapoltepec, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 95 which I have often seen, and which are probably the surviving remnants of an ancient garden or pleasure-ground of Montezuma, measure, (according to Burkart's account of his travels, Bd. i. S. 268, a work which otherwise con- tains much information), only 36 and 38 English feet in circumference; not in diameter, as has often been erro- neously asserted. The Buddhists in Ceylon venerate the gigantic trunk of the sacred fig-tree of Anourahdepoura. The Indian fig-tree or Banyan, of which the branches take root round the parent stem, forming, as Onesicritus well described, a leafy canopy resembling a many -pillared tent, often attain a thickness of 28 (29|- English) feet diameter. (Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, Bd. i. S. 260.) On the Bombax ceiba, see early notices of the time of Columbus, in Bembo's Historise Yenetse, 1551, fol. 83. Among oak-trees, of those which, have been accurately measured, the largest in Europe is no doubt that near the town of Saintes, in the Departement de la Charente Infe- rieure, on the road to Cozes. This tree, which is 60 (64 English) feet high, has a diameter of 27 feet 8J inches (29i English feet) near the ground ; 21 £ (almost 23 Eng- lish) feet five feet higher up ; and where the great boughs commence 6 Parisian feet (6 feet 5 inches English.) In the dead part of the trunk a little chamber has been arranged, from 10 feet 8 inches to 12 feet 9 inches wide, and' 9 feet 8 inches high (all English measure), with a • serai-circular bench cut out of the fresh wood. A window gives light to the interior, so that the sides of the chamber (which is closed with a door) are clothed with ferns and 96 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. lichens, giving it a pleasing appearance. Judging by the size of a small piece of wood which has been cut out above the door, and in which the marks of 200 annular rings have been counted, the oak of Saintes would be between 1800 and 2000 years old. (Annales de la Societe :asitical Laurinea; Equisetum (belonging to the great divisio^ of Cryp- togamia), and Ephedra, closely allied to Coniferae. On the other hand, our common gooseberries and currants (Ribes) are so closely allied by their inflorescence to the Cactus, «, e. to the family of Opuntiaceae, that it is only quite recently that they have been separated from it ! One and the same family (that of Asphodeleae) comprises the gigantic Dracaena draco, the common asparagus, and the Aletris with its coloured flowers. Not only do simple and compound leaves often belong to the same family, but they even occur in the same genus. We found in the high plains of Peru and New Granada, among twelve new species of Weininannia, five VOL. II. P 210 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. with " foliis simplicibus," and the rest with pinnate leaves. The genus Aralia shews still greater independence in the form of the leaves : ' ' folia simplicia, integra, vel lobata, digi- tata et pinnata." (Compare Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum quas in itinere collegerunt, Al. de Humboldt et Am, Bon- pland, T. iii, p. 87 and 360.) Pinnated leaves appear to me to belong chiefly to families which are in the highest grade of organic development, namely, the Polypetalse ; and among these, in the Perigynic class, to the Leguminosse, Rosacese, Terebinthacese, and Juglandese ; and in the Hypogynic, to the Aurantiaceae, Cedrelacese, and Sapindacese. The beautiful doubly- pinnated leaves which form one of the principal ornaments of the torrid zone, are most frequent among the Leguminosse, in Mimosese, also in some Csesalpiniese, Coulterias, and Gleditschias ; never, as Kunth remarks, in Papilionaceae. " Folia pinnata^' and " folia composite" are never found in Gentianese, Rubiaceae, and Myrtaceas. In the morpholo- gical development presented by the abundance and variety of form in the appendicular organs of Dicotyledones, we can at present discern only a small number of general laws. ON THE STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION OF VOLCANOS, IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE GLOBE. STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION OF VOLCANOS, IN DIFFERENT FARM OF THE GLOBE. (This dissertation was read in a public assembly of the Academy at Berlin, on the 24th of January, 1823.] WHEN we reflect on the influence which, for some centuries past, the progress of geography and the multiplication of distant voyages and travels have exercised on the study of nature, we are not long in perceiving how different tin's in- fluence has been, according as the researches were directed to organic forms on the one hand, or on the other to the study of the inanimate substances of which the earth is composed — to the knowledge of rocks, their relative ages, and their origin. Different forms of plants and animals enliven the surface of the earth in every zone, whether the temperature of the atmosphere varies in accordance with the latitude and with the many inflections of the isothermal lines on plains but 214 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION little raised above the level of the sea, or whether it changes rapidly hi ascending in an almost vertical direction the steep declivities of mountain-chains. Organic nature gives to each zone of the earth a peculiar physiognomy ; but where the solid crust of the earth appears unclothed by vegetation, inorganic nature imparts no such distinctive character. The same kinds of rocks, associated in groups, appear in either hemisphere, from the equator to the poles. In a remote island, surrounded by exotic vegetation, beneath a sky where his accustomed stars no lon^r shine, the voyager often re- cognises with joy the argillaceous schists of his birth-place, and the rocks familiar to his eye in his native land. This absence of any dependence of geological relations on the present constitution of climates does not preclude or even diminish the salutary influence of numerous observa- tions made in distant regions on the advance and progress of geological science, though it imparts to this progress something of a peculiar direction. Every expedition en- riches natural history with new species or new genera of plants and animals : there are thus presented to us some- times forms which connect themselves with previously long known types, and thus permit us to trace and contemplate in its perfection the really regular though apparently broken or interrupted network of organic forms : at other times shapes which appear isolated, — either surviving remnants of extinct genera or orders, or otherwise members of still un- discovered groups, stimulating afresh the spirit of research and expectation. The examination of the solid crust of the globe does not, indeed, unfold to us such diversity and va or VOLCANOS. 215 riety ; it presents to us, on the contrary, an agreement in e constituent particles, in the superposition of the 'erent kinds of masses, and in their regular recurrence, hich excites the admiration of the geologist. In the chain of the Andes, as in the mountains of middle Europe, one formation appears, as it were, to summon to itself another. Rocks of the same name exhibit the same outlines ; basalt and dolerite form twin mountains ; dolomite, sandstone, and porphyry, abrupt precipices ; and vitreous feldspathic tra- chyte, high dome-like elevations. In the most distant zones large crystals separate themselves in a similar manner from the compact texture of the primitive mass, as if by an internal development, form groups in association, and ap- pear associated in layers, often announcing the vicinity of new independent formations. Thus in any single system of mountains of considerable extent we see the whole inorganic substances of which the crust of the earth is composed re- presented, as it were, with more or less distinctness ; yet, in order to become completely acquainted with the important phenomena of the composition, the relative age, and mode of origin of rocks, we must compare together observations from the most varied and remote regions. Problems which long perplexed the geologist in his native land in these nor- thern countries, find their solution near the equator. If, as has been already remarked, new zones do not necessarily pre- sent to us new kinds of rock (i. e. unknown groupings or associations of simple substances), they, on the other hand, teach us to discern the great and every where equally pre- vailing laws, according to which the strata of the crust of 216 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION the earth are superposed upon each other, penetrate each other as veins or dykes, or are upheaved or elevated by elastic forces. If, then, our geological knowledge is thus promoted by researches embracing extensive parts of the earth's surface, it is not surprising that the particular class of phenomena which form the subject of the present discussion should long have been regarded from a point of view the more restricted as 'the points of comparison were of difficult, I might almost say arduous and painful, attainment and access. Until the close of the last century all real or supposed knowledge of the structure or form of volcanos, and of the mode of operation of subterranean forces, was taken from two moun- tains of the South of Europe, Vesuvius and Etna. The former of these being the easiest of access, and its eruptions, as is generally the case in volcanos of small elevation, being most frequent in their occurrence, a hill of minor elevation became the type which regulated all the ideas formed re- specting phsenomena exhibited on a far larger scale in many vast and distant regions, as in the mighty volcanos arranged in linear series in Mexico, South America, and the Asiatic Islands. Such a proceeding might not unnaturally recall Virgil's shepherd, who thought he beheld in his humble cottage the type of the eternal City, Imperial Rome. A more careful examination of the whole of the Mediter- ranean, and especially of those islands and coasts where men. awoke to the noblest intellectual culture, might, however, have dispelled views formed from so limited a consideration of nature. Among the Sporades, trachytic rocks have been OF VOLCANOS. 217 upraised from the deep bottom of the sea, forming islands resembling that which, in the vicinity of the Azores, ap- peared thrice periodically, at nearly equal intervals, in three centuries. The Peloponnesus has, between Epidaurus and Troezene, near Methone, a Monte Nuovo described by Strabo and seen again by Dodwell, which is higher than the Monte Nuovo of the Phlegrsean Melds near Baia3, and perhaps even higher than the new volcano of Jorullo in the plains of Mexico, which I found surrounded by several thousand small basaltic cones which had been protruded from the earth and were still smoking. In the Mediterranean and its shores, it is not only from the permanent craters of iso- lated mountains having a constant communication with the interior, as Stromboli, Vesuvius, and Etna, that volcanic fires break forth : at Ischia, on the Monte Epomeo, and also, as it would appear by the accounts of the ancients, in the Lelantine plain near Chalcis, lavas have flowed from fissures which have suddenly opened at the surface of the earth. Besides these phsenomena, which fall within the historic period, or within the restricted domain of well- assured tradition, and which Carl Bitter will collect and elucidate in his masterly work on Geography, — the shores of the Mediterranean exhibit numerous remains of more ancient volcanic action. In the south part of France, in Auvergne, we see a separate complete system of volcanos arranged in lines, trachytic domes alternating with cones of eruption, from which streams of lava have flowed in narrow bands. The plain of Lombardy, as level as the surface of the sea, and forming an inner Gulf of the Adriatic, surrounds 218 STRUCTURE AXD MODE OF ACTION the trachyte of the Euganean Hills, where rise domes of granular trachyte, obsidian, and pearl-stone, masses con- nected by a common origin, which break through the lower cretaceous rock and nummulitic lime-stone, but have never flowed in narrow streams. Similar evidences of ancient re- volutions of nature are found in several parts of the main- land of Greece and in Asia Minor, countries -which will one day offer a rich field for geological investigation, when intellectual light shall revisit the seats from which it has radiated to the western world, and when oppressed humanity shall no longer be subject to the barbarism of Turkish rule. I recall the geographical proximity of these various phse- nomena, in order to shew that the basin of the Mediterra- nean, with its series of islands, might have offered to an attentive observer much that has been recently discovered, under various forms, in South America, Teneriffe, and the Aleutian Islands near the polar circle. The objects to be observed were assembled within a moderate distance; yet distant voyages, and the comparison of extensive regions in and out of Europe, have been required for the clear percep- tion and recognition of the resemblance between volcanic phsenomena and their dependence on each other. Our ordinary language, which often givespermanency and ap- parent authority to the first-formed erroneous views of natural phsenoinena, but which also often points instinctively to the truth, — our ordinary language, I repeat, applies the term " volcanic" to all eruptions of subterranean fires or molten substances ; to columns of smoke and vapour rising from rocks, as at Colares after the great earthquake of Lisbon, OF VOLCANOS. 219 to " Salses" or mud volcanos, argillaceous cones emitting mud, asphalte, and hydrogen, as at Girgenti in Sicily, and at Turbaco in South America ; to the Geysers, hot springs in which, as in those of Iceland, the waters, pressed by elastic vapours, rise in jets to a considerable altitude ; and, in general, to all operations of natural forces having their seat in the interior of our planet. In Central America (Guatimala), and in the Philippine Islands, the natives even distinguish formally between water- and fire-volcanos, Yol- canes de agua y de fuego, giving the former name to those mountains from which subterranean waters issue from time to time with violent earthquake shocks and a hollow noise. Not denying the connexion of the different phenomena which have been referred to, it yet appears desirable to give greater precision to the terms empfcyed in the physical as well as in the mineralogical part of geology, and not to apply the word " volcano" at one moment to a mountain terminating in a permanent igneous opening or fiery crater, and at another to every subterranean cause of volcanic phenomena. In the present state of our planet the most ordinary form of volcanos is indeed in all parts of the globe that of an isolated conical mountain, such as Vesuvius, Etna, the Peak of Teneriffe, Tunguragua, and Cotapaxi. I have myself seen such volcanos varying in size from the smallest hill to an elevation of 18000 (19184 English) feet above the sea. But besides these isolated cones there are also permanent openings 'or craters, having established channels of communication with the interior of the earth, which are situated on long chains of mountains with serrated 220 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION crests, and not even always on the middle of the ridge, but sometimes at its extremity : such is Pichincha, situated between the Pacific and the city of Quito, and which acquired celebrity in connection with Bouguer's earliest barometric formulae, and such are the volcanos which rise in the elevated Steppe de los Pastos, itself ten thousand (10657 English) feet high. All these summits, which are of various shapes, consist of trachyte, formerly called Trap- porphyry : a granular vesicular rock composed of different kinds of feldspar (Labradorite, Oligoklase, and Albite), augite, hornblende, and sometimes interspersed mica, and even quartz. In cases where the evidence of the first outburst or eruption, or I might say where the ancient struc- ture, or scaffolding remain entire, the isolated conical mount is surrounded by an amphitheatre or lofty circular rampart of rocky strata superimposed upon each other. Such walls or ring-formed ramparts are called "craters of elevation," a great and important phenomenon, concerning which a me- morable treatise was presented to our Academy five years ago (i. e. in 1818), by the first geologist of our time, Leopold von Buch, from whose writings I have borrowed several of the views contained in the present discussion. Yolcanos which communicate with the atmosphere through permanent openings, conical basaltic hills, and craterless trachytic domes, sometimes as low as Sarcouy, sometimes as lofty as the Chimborazo, form various groups. Comparative geography shows us sometimes* small clusters or distinct systems of mountains, with craters and lava-currents in the Canaries and the Azores, and without craters and without OF VOLCANOS. 221 lava-currents, properly so-called, in the Euganean hills and the Siebengebirge near Bonn ; — and at other times the same study describes to us volcanos arranged in single or double lines extending through many hundred leagues in length, these lines being either parallel to the direction of a great chain of mountains, as in Guatimala, in Peru, and in Java, or cutting it transversely or at right angles, as in tropical Mexico. In this land of the Aztecs the fire-emitting trachytic mountains are the only ones which attain the elevation of the lofty region of perpetual snow ; they are ranged in the direction of a parallel of latitude, and have probably been raised from a fissure 420 English geographical miles long, traversing the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. These assemblages of volcanos, whether in rounded groups or in double lines, show in the most conclusive manner that the volcanic agencies do not depend on small or restricted causes, in near proximity to the surface of the earth, but that they are great phenomena of deep-seated origin. The whole of the eastern part of the American continent, which is poor in metals, is, in its present state, without fire-emitting mountains, without masses of trachyte, and perhaps even without basalt containing olivine. All the American volcanos are on the side of the continent w^hidi is opposite to Asia, in the chain of the Andes which runs nearly in the direction of a meridian, and extends over a length of 7200 geographical miles. The whole plateau or high-land of Quito, of which Pichincha, Cotopaxi, and Tunguragua form the summits, 222 STEUCTUEE AND MODE OF ACTION is to be viewed as a single volcanic furnace. The subter- ranean fire breaks forth sometimes through one and some- times through another of these openings, winch it has been customary to regard as separate and distinct volcanos. The progressive march of the subterranean fire has been here directed for three centuries from North to South. Even the earthquakes which occasion such dreadful ravages in this part of the world afford remarkable proofs of the existence of subterranean communications, not only between countries where there are no volcanos (a fact which had long been known), but also between fire- emitting openings situated at great distances asunder. Thus in 1797 the volcano of Pasto, east of the Guaytara Kiver, emitted uninterruptedly for three months a lofty column of smoke, which column disappeared at the instant when, at a distance of 240 geographical miles, the great earthquake of Biobamba and the immense eruption of mud caJed " Moya" took place, causing the death of between thirty and forty thousand persons. The sudden appearance of the Island of Sabrina near the Azores, on the 30th of January, 1811, was the precursor of the terrible earthquake movements which, much farther to the west, shook almost incessantly, from the month of May 1811 to June 1813, first the West Indian Islands, then the plain of the Ohio and Mississipi, and lastly, the opposite coast of Venezuela or Caraccas. Thirty days after the destruction of the principal city of that province, the long tranquil volcano of the Island of St. Vincent burst forth in an eruption. A remarkable phenomenon accom- OF VOLCANOS. 223 panied this eruption : at the same moment when the explo- sion took place, on the 30th of April, 1811, a loud subterranean noise was heard in South America, which spread terror and dismay over a district of 2200 (German) geographical square miles (35200 English geographical square miles). The dwellers on the banks of the Apure near the confluence of the Bio Nula, and the most distant inhabitants of the sea coast of Venezuela, alike compared the sound to that of the discharge of great pieces of ord- nance. Now from the confluence of the Nula with the Apure (by which latter river I arrived on the Orinoco) to the volcano of St. Yincent is a distance in a straight line of 628 English geographical miles. The sound, which cer- tainly was not propagated through the air, must have proceeded from a deep-seated subterranean cause ; for its intensity was scarcely greater on the sea coast nearest to the volcano where the eruption was taking place, than in the interior of the country, in the basin of the Apure and the Orinoco. It would be unnecessary to multiply examples by citing other instances which I have collected, but, to recall a phe- nomenon of European historical importance, I will only farther mention the celebrated earthquake of Lisbon. Simultaneously with that event, on the 1st of November, 1755, not only were the Swiss lakes and the sea near the coast of Sweden violently agitated, but even among the eastern West Indian Islands, Martinique, Antigua, and Barbadoes, where the tide never exceeds thirty inches, the sea suddenly rose more than twenty feet. All these pheno- 224 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION mena show the operation of subterranean forces, acting either dynamically in earthquakes, in the tension and agita- tion of the crust ; or in volcanos, in the production and chemical alteration of substances. They also show that these forces do not act superficially, in the thin outermost crust of the globe, but from great depths in the interior of our planet, through crevices or unfilled veins, affecting simul- taneously widely distant points of the earth's surface. The greater the variety of structure in volcanos, or in the elevations which surround the channel through which the molten masses of the interior of the earth reach its surface, the greater the importance of submitting tliis structure to strict investigation and measurement. The interest attaching to these measurements, which formed a particular object of my researches in another quarter of the globe, is enhanced by the consideration that at many points the magnitude to be measured is found to be a variable quantity. The phi" losophical study of nature endeavours, in the vicissitudes of phenomena, to connect the present with the past. If we desire to investigate either the fact of a periodical return, or the law of progressive variations or changes in phenomena, it is essential to obtain, by means of observa- tions carefully made and connected with determinate epochs, certain fixed points which may afford a base for future numerical comparisons. If we only possessed determina- tions made once in each period of a thousand years, of the mean temperature of the atmospheie and of the earth in different latitudes, or of the mean height of the barometer at the level of the sea, we should know whether, and in what OF VOLCANOS. ratio, the temperature of different climates had increased or decreased, or whether the height of the atmosphere had undergone changes. Such points of comparison are also needed for the inclination and declination of the magnetic needle, as well as for the intensity of the magneto-electric forces, on which, within the circle of this Academy, two ex- cellent physicists, Seebeck and Erman, have thrown so much light. As it is an honourable object for the exertions of scientific societies to trace out perseveringly the cosmical variations of temperature, atmospheric pressure, and mag- netic direction and intensity, so it is the duty of the geolo- gical traveller, in determining the inequalities of the earth's surface, to attend more particularly to the variable height of volcanos. The endeavours made by me for this object in the Mexican mountains, in respect to the Volcan de Toluca, the Popocatepetl, the Cofre de Perote or Nauhcampatepet), and the Jorullo, and also the volcano of Pichincha in the Andes of Quito, have been continued since my return to Europe at different epochs on Vesuvius. Where complete trigonometric or barometric measurements are wanting, accurate angles of altitude, taken at points which are exactly determined, may be substituted for them ; and for a com- parison of determinations made at different epochs, angles of altitude so measured may even be often preferable to the complication of circumstances which more complete operations may involve. Saussure had measured Mount Vesuvius, in 1773, when the two margins of the crater, the north-western and the south- eastern, appeared to him be of equal height. He found their VOL. II. Q 226 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION height above the level of the sea 609 toises, 3894 English feet. The eruption of 1794 occasioned a breaking down of the margin of the crater on the southern side, and a conse- quent inequality between the height of the two edges which the most unpractised eye does not fail to distinguish even at a considerable distance. In 1805, Leopold von Buch, Gay- Lussac, and myself, measured the height of Vesuvius three times, and found the northern margin opposite to La Somma, (the Eocca del Palo), exactly as given by Saussure, but the southern margin 75 toises, or 450 French or 479 English feet, lower than he had found it in 1773. The whole eleva- tion of the volcano on the side of Torre del Greco (the side towards which, for the last thirty years, the igneous action has, as it were, been principally directed,) had at that time diminished one-eighth. The height of the cone of ashes, as compared with the whole height of the mountain, is in Yesuvius as 1 to 3; in Pichincha, as 1 to 10 ; and in the Peak of Teneriffe, as 1 to 22. In these three volcanic mountains, the cone of ashes is therefore, relatively speaking, highest in Yesuvius ; probably because, being a low volcano, the action has been principally by the summit. A few months ago (in 1822) I was enabled not only to repeat my former barometric measurements of the height of Yesuvius, but also, during the course of three visits to the summit, to make a more complete determination of all the edges of the crater (J). These determinations may not be without interest, since they include the long period of great eruptions between 1 805 and 1822, and constitute perhaps the only known examination and measurement of a volcano OF VOLCANOS. 227 at different epochs, in which the different parts of the exa- mination are all truly comparable with each other. We learn from it that the margins of craters are a phenomenon of far more permanent character than had been previously inferred from passing observations, and this not only where (as in the Peak of Teneriffe, and in all the volcanos of the chain of the Andes,) they are visibly composed of trachyte, but also elsewhere. According to my last determinations, the north-west edge of Vesuvius has, perhaps, not altered at all since the time of Saussure, an interval of 49 years ; and the south-eastern side, on the side towards Bosche Tre Case, which, in 1794, had become 400 French (426 English) feet lower, has since then hardly altered 10 toises (60 French or 64 English feet). If the public journals, in describing great eruptions, often state the shape of Vesuvius to have undergone an entire change, and if these assertions appear to be confirmed by picturesque views sketched at Naples, the cause of the error consists in the outlines of the margin of the crater having been confounded with those of the cones of eruption acci- dentally formed in the middle of the crater on its floor or bottom which has been upheaved by vapours. Such a cone of eruption, consisting of loosely heaped-up rapilli and scoriae, had in the course of the years 1816-1818 gradually risen so as to be seen above the south-eastern margin of the crater; and the eruption of the month of February 1822 augmented it so much, that it even became from 100 to 110 (about 107 to 117 English) feet higher than the north- western margin of the crater (the Rocca del Palo), This 228 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION remarkable cone, which it had become customary in Naples to regard as the true summit of the mountain, fell in, with a dreadful noise, in the last eruption, on the night of the 22d of October (1822) : so that the floor of the crater, which had been constantly accessible since 1811, is now 750 (almost 800 English) feet lower than the northern, and 200 (213 English) feet lower than the southern edge of the volcano. Yariations in the form and relative position of the cones of eruption, — the openings of which ought not to be confounded, as the}' often are, with the crater of the vol- cano itself,1 — give to Vesuvius at different epochs a different appearance, which would enable a person well acquainted with the history of the volcano, on a mere inspection of Hackert's paintings in the palace of Portici, to tell from the outlines of the summit, according as the northern or the southern side of the mountain is represented as the highest, in what year the artist had taken the sketch from which the picture was made. In the last eruption, in the night of the 23d to the 24th of October, twenty-four hours after the falling in of the great cone of scoriae which has been mentioned, and when the small but numerous currents of lava had already flowed off, the fiery eruption of ashes and rapilli commenced : it continued without intermission for twelve days, but was greatest in the first four days. During this period the detonations in the interior of the volcano were so violent that the mere concussion of the air, (for no earthquake movement was perceived), rent the ceilings of the rooms in the palace of Portici; In the neighbouring villages of OF VOLCANOS. 229 Resina, Torre del Greco, Torre del Annunziata, and Bosche Tre Case, a remarkable phenomenon was witnessed. Throughout the whole of that part of the country the air was so filled with ashes as to cauk-e in the middle of the day profound darkness, lasting for several hours : lanterns were carried in the streets, as has so often been done at Quito during the eruptions of Pichincha. The flight of the inhabitants had never been more general : lava currents are regarded by those who dwell near Vesuvius with less dread than an eruption of ashes, a phenomenon which had never been known to such a degree in modern times; and the obscure tradition of the manner in which the destruction of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabise took place, filled the imaginations of men with appalling images. The hot aqueous vapours which rose from the crater during the eruption and spread themselves in the atmo- sphere, formed, in cooling, a dense cloud, surrounding the column of fire and ashes, which rose to a height of between nine and ten thousand feet. So sudden a condensation of vapour, and even, as Gay-Lussac has shewn, the formation of the cloud itself, augmented the electric tension. Flashes of forked lightning, issuing from the column of ashes, darted in every direction ; and the rolling thunders were distinctly heard, and distinguished from the sounds which proceeded from the interior of the volcano. In no other eruption had the play of the electric forces formed so striking a feature. On the morning of the 26th of October, a surprising rumour prevailed, to the effect that a torrent of boiling water was gusliing from the crater, and pouring down the 230 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION slope of the cone of ashes. The learned and zealous ob- server of the volcano, Monticelli, soon discovered that this erroneous rumour had arisen from an optical illusion. The supposed torrent of water was in reality a flow of dry ashes, which, being as loose and moveable as shifting sands, issued in large quantities from a crevice in the upper margin of the crater. The cultivated fields had suffered much from a long-continued drought which had preceded the eruption ; towards its close the " volcanic thunder-storm" which has been described produced an exceedingly violent and abun- dant fail of rain. This phenomenon is associated in all climates with the close of a volcanic eruption. As during the eruption the cone of ashes is generally enveloped in cloud, and as it is in its immediate vicinity that the rain is most violent, torrents of mud are seen to descend from it in all directions, which the terrified husbandman imagines to consist of waters which have risen from the interior of the volcano and overflowed the crater; while geologists have erroneously thought they recognised in them either sea-water or muddy products of the volcano, te Erup- tions boueuses," or, in the language of some old French systematists, products of an igneo-aqueous liquefaction, Where, as is generally the case in the Andes, the summit of the volcano rises into the region of perpetual snow, (even attaining, in some cases, an elevation twice as great as that of Etna), the melting of the snows renders such inunda- tions as have beer described far more abundant and disastrous. The phenomena in question are meteorologically connected with the eruptions of volcanos, and are variously modified OF VOLCANOS. 231 by the height of the mountain, the dimensions of that part of it which is always covered with snow, and the extent and degree to which the sides of the cone of cinders become heated ; but they are not to be regarded as volcanic pheno- mena properly so called. Yast cavities also often exist on the slope or at the foot of volcanos which, communicating through many channels with the mountain torrents, form large subterranean lakes or reservoirs of water. When earthquake shocks, which, in the Andes, usually precede all igneous eruptions, convulse the entire mass of the volcano, these subterranean reservoirs are opened, and there issue from them water, fishes, and tufaceous mud. This is the singular phenomenon which brings to light an otherwise unknown fish, the Pimelodes Cyclopum, called by the inha- bitants of the highlands of Quito " Prenadilla," and which I described soon after my return. When, on the night of the 19th of June, 1698, the summit of a mountain situated to the north of Chimborazo, the Carguairazo, above 19000 English feet high, fell in, the country for nearly thirty English geographical square miles round was covered with mud and fishes ; and seven years earlier a putrid fever, in the town of Ibarra, was ascribed to a similar eruption of fish from the volcano of Imbaburu. I recall these facts, because they throw some light on the difference between the eruption of dry ashes and miry inun* dations of tufa and trass, carrying with them wood, charcoal, and shells. The quantity of ashes emitted by Vesuvius in the recent eruption, like every thing connected with volcanos and other great natural phenomena of a character to excite 232 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION terror, has been exceedingly exaggerated in the public papers ; and two Neapolitan chemists, Yicenzo Pepe and Giuseppe di Nobili, notwithstanding the statements of Monticelli and Covelli to the contrary, even describe the ashes as containing silver and gold. According to the results of my researches and inquiries, the thickness of the bed of ashes formed by the twelve days' shower was but little above three feet, towards Bosche Tre Case, on the slope of the cone where rapilli were mingled with them; and in the plain, from 15£ to 19 inches at the utmost. Such measurements ought not to be taken in places where the ashes have been heaped up by the action of wind, like drifted snow or sand, or have accumulated from being carried thither by water. The times are passed for seeking only the marvellous in volcanic phenomena, in the manner of the ancients among whom Ctesias made the ashes of Etna to be conveyed as far as the Indian peninsula. There are in Mexico veins of gold and silver in trachytic porphyry ; but in the ashes of Vesuvius which I brought back with me, and which an excellent chemist, Heinrich Rose, has examined at my re- quest, no traces of either gold or silver have been discovered. Although the above mentioned results, which are quite in accordance with the exact observations of Monticelli, differ much from the accounts which have been current during the short interval which has elapsed, it is nevertheless true that the eruption of ashes from Vesuvius from the 24th to the 28th of last October (1822) is the most memorable of any of which we possess an authentic account, since that which occasioned the death of the elder Pliny. The quantity of OF VOLCANOS. 233 ashes is, perhaps, three times as great as has ever been seen to fall since volcanic phenomena have been attentively ob- served in Italy. A stratum of ashes, from 16 to 19 inches thick, appears at first sight insignificant compared with the mass which we find covering Pompeii ; but, not to speak of the increase which that mass has probably received by the effects of heavy rains and other causes during the centuries which have since elapsed, and without renewing the animated debate respecting the causes of the destruction of the Cam- panian towns, and which, on the other side of the Alps, has been carried on with a considerable degree of scepticism, it should here be recalled to recollection that the eruptions of a volcano, at widely separated epochs, do not well admit of comparison, as respects their intensity. All inferences de- rived from analogy are inadequate where quantitative rela- tions are concerned; as the quantity of lava and ashes, the height of the column of smoke, and the loudness or intensity of the detonations. From the geographical description of Strabo, and from an opinion given by Yitruvius respecting the volcanic origin of pumice, we perceive that, up to the year of the death of Vespasian, i. e. previous to the eruption which overwhelmed Pompeii, Vesuvius had more the appearance of an extinct volcano than of a Solfatara. When, after long repose, the subterranean forces suddenly opened for themselves new channels, and again broke through the beds of primitive and trachytic rocks, effects must have been produced for which subsequent ones do not furnish a standard. Prom the well- known letter in which the younger Pliny informs Tacitus of 234 STRUCTURE AND MODE OP ACTION his uncle's death, it may be clearly seen that the renewal of volcanic outbursts, or what might be called the revival of the slumbering volcano, began with an eruption of ashes. The same thing was observed at Jorullo when, in September 1759, the new volcano, breaking through beds of syenite and trachyte, rose suddenly in the plain. The country- people took flight on finding their huts strewed with ashes which had been emitted from the everywhere opening ground. In the ordinary periodical manifestations of vol- canic activity, on the contrary, the shower of ashes marks the termination of each particular eruption. There is a passage in the letter of the younger Pliny which shews clearly that, at a very early stage of the eruption, the dry ashes which had fallen had reached a thickness of four or five feet, without accumulation from drift or other extraneous cause. He writes, in the course of his narrative, " the court which had to be crossed to reach the room in which Pliny was taking his noon-day repose was so filled with ashes and pumice, that, if he had longer delayed coming forth, he would have found the passage stopped." In an enclosed space like a -court, the action of wind in drifting the ashes can scarcely have been very considerable. I have interrupted my general comparative view of vol- canos by a notice of particular observations made on Vesuvius, partly on account of the great interest excited by the recent eruption, and partly on account of those recollections of the catastrophes of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which are almost involuntarily recalled to our minds by the occurrence of any considerable shower of ashes. I have OF VOLCANOS. 235 recorded in a note the measurements of height made by myself and others on Vesuvius and in its vicinity. We have hitherto been considering the structure and mode of action of those volcanos which have a permanent com- munication with the interior of the Earth by craters. The summits of such volcanos consist of masses of trachyte and lava upheaved by elastic forces and traversed by veins. The permanency of their action gives us reason to infer great complexity of structure. They have, so to speak, an indi- vidual character which remains unaltered for long periods of time. Neighbouring mountains often present the greatest differences in their products : leucitic and feldspathic lavas, obsidian with pumice, and masses of basalt containing olivine. They belong to the most recent terrestrial phse- nomena, breaking through almost all the sedimentary strata, and their products and lava currents are of later origin than our valleys. Their life, if I may permit myself to employ this figurative mode of expression, depends on the manner and permanence of their communications with the interior of the Earth. They often continue for centuries in a state of repose, are then suddenly rekindled, and end by becoming Solfataras, emitting aqueous vapours, gases, and acids; sometimes, however, as in the case of the Peak of Teneriffe, we find that their summit has already become a laboratory of regenerated sulphur ; while from the sides of the mountain there still issue large torrents of lava, basaltic in the lower part, but towards the upper part, where the pressure is less, (2) presenting the form of obsidian with pumice. Distinct from these volcanos provided with permanent 236 STEUCTTJEE AND MODE OF ACTION craters, there is another class of volcanic phenomena more rarely observed, but particularly instructive to the geologist, as they recall the ancient world or the earliest geological revolutions of our planet. Trachytic mountains open suddenly, emit lava and ashes, and close again, perhaps never to reopen. Thus it was with the gigantic mountain of Antisana in the chain of the Andes, and with the Monte Epomeo in Ischia in 1302. Sometimes such an outbreak has even taken place in plains : as in the high plateau of Quito, in Iceland at a distance from Mount Hecla, and in Euboea in the Lelantine Fields. Many of the upheaved islands belong to this class of transitory phenomena. In all these cases the communication with the interior of the earth is not permanent, and the action ceases as soon as the cleft or fissure forming a temporary channel closes again. Yeins or dykes of basalt, dolerite, and por- phyry, which in different parts of the earth traverse almost all formations, and masses of syenite, augitic porphyry, and amygdaloid, which characterise the recent transition and oldest sedimentary rocks, have probably been formed in a similar manner. In: the youth of our planet, the sub- stances of the interior being still fluid, penetrated through the everywhere fissured crust of the globe, sometimes becoming solidified in the form of rocky veins or dykes of granular texture, and sometimes spreading out in broad sheets, and resembling superimposed strata. The volcanic products or rocks transmitted to us from the earlier ages of our planet have not flowed in narrow bands like the lavas of the isolated conical volcanos of the present time. The OF VOLCANOS. 237 mixtures of augite, titaniferous iron, feldspar, and hornblende, may have been the same at different epochs, sometimes approximating more to basalt and sometimes to trachyte ; and, (as we learn from the important researches of Mit- scherlich, and the analogy of artificial igneous products) chemical substances may have united in definite proportions in a crystalline form : in all cases we recognise that sub- stances similar in composition have arrived at the surface of the earth by very different ways ; either simply upheaved, or penetrating through temporary fissures ; and that breaking through the older rocks, (/. e. the earlier oxydized crust of the globe), they have finally issued as lava currents from conical mountains having a permanent crater. To confound together phenomena so different is to throw the geological study of volcanos and volcanic action back into the obscurity from which, by the aid of numerous comparative observations and researches, it has gradually began to emerge. The question has often been propounded : What is it that burns in volcanos, — What produces the heat which melts and fuses together earths and metals ? Modern chemical science has essayed to answer, that what burns are the earths, the metals, the alkalies themselves ; viz. the me- talloids of those substances. The solid and already-oxydised crust of the globe separates the surrounding atmosphere, with the oxygen which it contains, from the inflammable unoxy- dised substances in the interior of our planet : when those metalloids come in contact with the oxygen of the atmos- phere there arises disengagement of heat. The great and celebrated chemist who propounded this explanation of vol- 238 STRUCTURE AND MODE OF ACTION canic phenomena soon himself relinquished it. Observations made in mines and caverns in all climates, and which in concert with M. Arago I have collected in a separate memoir, shew that, even at what may be considered a very small depth, the temperature of the Earth is much above the mean temperature of the atmosphere at the same place. A fact so remarkable, and so generally confirmed, connects itself with that which we learn from .volcanic phenomena. The depth at which the globe may be regarded as a molten mass has been calculated. The primitive cause of this subterranean heat is, as in all planets, the process of formation itself, the separation of the spherically condensing mass from a cosmical gaseous fluid, and the cooling of the terrestrial strata at different depths by the loss of heat parted with by radiation. All volcanic phenomena are probably the result of a communication either permanent or transient between the interior and exterior of the globe. Elastic vapours press the molten oxydising substances upwards through deep fissures. Yolcanos might thus be termed intermitting springs or fountains of earthy substances ; i. e. of the fluid mixture of metals, alkalis, and earths which solidify into lava currents and flow softly and tranquilly, when being upheaved they find a passage by which to escape. In a similar manner the Ancients represented (according to Plato's Phaedon) all volcanic fiery currents as streams flowing from the Pyriphlegethon. To these considerations and views let me be permitted to add another more bold. May we not find in this internal heat of our globe, — (a heat indicated by thennometric OP VOLCANOS. 229 experiments on the waters of springs rising from different depths, (3) as well by our observations on volcanos), — a cause which may explain one of the most wonderful phe- nomena with which the study of fosssils has made us ac- quainted ? Tropical forms of animals, and, in the vegetable kingdom, arborescent ferns, palms, and bambusacea?, are found buried in the cold regions of the North. Everywhere the ancient world shews a distribution of organic forms at variance with our present climates. To resolve so important a problem, recourse has been had to several hypotheses ; such as the approach of a comet, a change in the obliquity of the Ecliptic, and a different degree of intensity in the solar light. None of these explanations are satisfactory at once to the astronomer, the physicist, and the geologist. For my part I willingly leave the axis of the Earth in its place, and suppose no change in the light of the solar disk (from whose spots a celebrated astronomer was inclined to explain the favourable or unfavourable harvests of particular years) ; I am disposed to recognise that in each planet there exist, independently of its relations to the central body of the system to which it belongs, and independently of its astro- nomical position, various causes for the development of heat; — processes of oxydation, precipitations and chemical changes in the capacity of bodies, by increase of electro- magnetic intensity, and communications opened between the internal and external portions of the planet. It may be that in the Ancient World, exhalations of heat issuing forth through the many openings of the deeply 240 STRUCTURE AND MODE OP ACTION fissured crust of the globe may have favoured, perhaps for centuries, the growth of palms and tree-ferns and the exist- ence of animals requiring a high temperature, over entire countries where now a very different climate prevails. According to this view of things (a view already indi- cated by me in a work entitled " Geological Essay on the Superposition of Bocks in both Hemispheres") the temperature of volcano? would be that of the interior of the earth, and the same cause which, operating through volcanic eruptions, now produces devastating effects, might in primeval ages have clothed the deeply fissured rocks of the newly oxydised earth in every zone with the most luxuriant vegetation. If, with a view to explain the distribution of tropical forms whose remains are now discovered buried in northern regions, it should be assumed that the long-haired species of Elephant now found enclosed in ice was originally indi- genous in cold climates, and that forms resembling the same leading type may, as in the case of lions and lynxes, have been able to live in wholly different climates, still this manner of solving the difficulty presented by fossil remains cannot be extended so as to apply to vegetable productions. From reasons with which the study of vegetable physiology makes us acquainted, Palms, Musacese, and arborescent Monocotyledones, are incapable of supporting the deprivation of their appendicular organs which would be caused by the present temperature of our northern regions ; and in the geological problem which we have to examine, it appears to OP VOLCANOS. 241 I ine difficult to separate vegetable and animal remains from each other. The same mode of explanation ought to com- •prehend both. I have permitted myself at the conclusion of the present discussion to connect with facts collected in different and widely separated countries some uncertain and hypothetical conjectures. The philosophical study of Nature rises beyond the requirements of a simple description of Nature : it does not consist in a sterile accumulation of isolated facts. It may sometimes be permitted to the active and curious mind of man to stretch forward from the present to the still obscure future ; to divine that which cannot yet be clearly known ; and thus to take pleasure in the ancient myths of geology reproduced in our own days in new and varied forms. VOL. II. ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 243 ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (l) p. 226. — "A more complete determination of the height of all parts of the margin of the crater!' Oltmanns, my astronomical fellow labourer, of whom, alas ! science has been early deprived, re-calculated the barometric measurements of Vesuvius referred to in the pre- ceding memoir (of the 22d and 25th of November, and of the 1st of December, 1822), and has compared the results with the measurements which have been communicated to me in manuscript by Lord Minto, Yisconti, Monticelli, JBrioschi, and Poulett Scrope. A. Eocca del Palo, the highest and northern margin of the Crater of Vesuvius. Toises. Eng. ft. Saussure, barometric measurement computed in 1773, probably by Deluc's formula . . . 609 — 3894 Poli, 1794, barometic. '. ;V . . . . 606 — 3875 Breislak, 1794, barometric (but, like Poll, the for- mula employed uncertain) 613 — 3920 Gay-Lussac,LeopoldvonBuch,andHumboldt, 1805, barometric, computed by Laplace's formula, as are also all the barometric results which follow . 603 — 3856 Brioschi, 1810, trigonometric . . . . 638 — 4080 Visconti, 1816, trigonometric. . . ; . 622 •— 3977 Lord Minto, 1822, barometric, often repeated . 621 — 7931 244 STRUCTURE AND ACTION OF VOLCANOS. Toises. Eng. ft. Poulett Scrope, 1822, barometric, somewhat un- certain from the proportion between the diameters of the tube and cistern being unknown . . 604 — 3862 Monticelli and Covelli, 1822 624 — 3990 Humboldt, 1822 629 — 4022 Most probable result 317 toises, or 2027 English feet, above the Hermitage ; or 625 toises, or 3996 English feet, above the level of the sea. B The lowest and southern margin of the crater opposite to Bosche Tre Case. Toises. Eng. ft. After the eruption of 1794 this edge became 400 (426 Eng.) feet lower than the Rocca del Palo ; therefore if we estimate the latter at 625 toises (3996 English feet) 559 — 3574 Gay-Lussac, Leopold von Buch, and Humboldt, 1805, barometric 534 — 3414 Humboldt, 1822, barometric . "' '' V . . 546 — 3491 C. Height of the cone of scoria inside the crater, which fell in on the Wld of October, 1822. Toises. En£. ft. Lord Minto, barometric 650 — 4156 Brioschi, trigonometric, according to different com- binations either 636 — 4066 Or . . ... . . . . 641 — 4098 Probable final result for the height of the above-mentioned cone of scoriae 646 toises, or 4130 English feet. D. Punta Nasone, highest summit of the Somma. Toises. Eng. ft. Schuckburgh, 1794, barometric, probably computed by his own formula 584 — 3734 Humboldt, 1822, barometric, Laplace's formula . 586 — 3747 ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 245 E. Plain of the Atrio del Cttvallo. Toises. Eng. ft. Humboldt, 1822, barometric . . . .403 — 2577 F. Foot of the cone of ashes. Toises. Eii£. ft. Gay-Lussac, Leopold von Buch, and Humboldt, 1805, barometric 370 — 2366 Humboldt, 1822, barometric . . . . 388 — 2481 G. Hermitage del Salvatore. Toises. Eng. ft. Gay-Lussac, Leopold von Buch, and Humboldt, 1805, barometric 300 — 1918 Lord Minto, 1822, barometric .':<• U it^f t /.'i 307'9 — 1969 Humboldt, 1822, barometric repeated . t^iciv-i; 3087 — 1974 Part of my measurements have been printed in Monticelli's Storia de' fenomeni del Yesuvio, avvenuti negli anni 1821- 1823, p. 115 ; but the neglected correction for the height of the mercury in the cistern has somewhat disfigured the results as there published. When it is remembered that the results given in the above table were obtained with barometers of very different constructions, at various hours of the day, with winds from very different quarters, and on the unequally heated declivity of a volcano, in a locality in which the decrease of atmospheric temperature differs greatly from that which is supposed in our barometric formulae, — the agreement will be found to be as great as could be expected, and quite satisfactory. My measurements in 1822, at the time of the Congress of Yerona, when I accompanied the late King of Prussia to 246 STRUCTURE AND ACTION OF VOLCANOS. Naples, were made with more care and under more favourable circumstances than those of 1805. Differences of height are besides always to be preferred to absolute heights, and these show that since 1794 the difference between the heights of the edges of the crater at the Rocca del Palo and on the side towards Bosco Tre Case has continued almost the same. I found it in 1805 exactly 69 toises (441 English feet), and in 1822 almost 82 toises (524 English feet). A distinguished geologist, Mr. Poulett Scrope, found 74 toises (473 English feet), although the absolute heights which he assigns to the two sides of the crater appear to be rather too small. So little variation in a period of twenty-eight years, in which there were such violent commotions in the interior of the crater, is certainly a striking phenomenon. The height attained by cones of scorise rising from the floor of the crater of Vesuvius is also deserving of particular attention. In 1776 Schuckburgh found such a cone 615 toises, or 3932 English feet, above the surface of the Medi- terranean : according to the measurement of Lord Minto, (a very accurate observer,) the cone of scoriae which fell in on the 22d of October, 1 822, even attained the height of 650 toises, or 4156 English feet. On both occasions, therefore, the height of the cones of scoriae in the crater surpassed that of the highest part of the margin of the crater. When we compare together the measurements of the Kocca del Palo from 1773 to 1822, we are almost involuntarily led to entertain the bold conjecture that the north margin of the crater has been gradually upraised by subterranean forces. The accordance of the three measurements between 1778 ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 247 and 1805 is almost as striking as that of those taken from 1816 to 1822. In the latter period we cannot doubt the height being from about 621 to 629 toises (3970 to 4022 English feet). Are the measurements made from thirty to forty years earlier, which gave only 606 to 609 toises (3875 to 3824 English feet), less certain ? At some future day, after longer periods shall have elapsed, it will be possible to decide what is due to errors of measurement, and what to an actual rise in the margin of the crater. There cannot be in this case any accumulation of loose materials from above. If the solid trachyte-like lava beds of the Boca del Palo really become higher, we must assume them to be upheaved from below by volcanic forces. My learned and indefatigable friend Oltmanns has placed all the details of the above measurement before the public, accompanied by a careful critical examination of them, in the Abhandl. der konigl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1822-1823, S. 3-20. May this investigation be the means of inducing geologists frequently to examine hypso- metrically this low and most easily accessible (except Strom- boli) of the European volcanos, so that in the course cf centuries there may be obtained a frequently checked and accurate account of its periods of development.! (2) p. 235. — " 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 konigl. Akademie zu Berlin, 1820-1821, S. 99. 248 STRUCTURE AND ACTION OP "VOLCANOS. (3) p. 239. — " Waters of springs rising from different depths?' Compare Arago in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes pour 1835, p. 234. The increase of temperature is in our latitudes 1° of Eeaumur (2°.25 of a degree of Fahrenheit) for every 113 Parisian feet (120.5 English feet), or 1° Fah. to 53.5 English feet nearly. In the Artesian boring at New Salzwerk (Oeynhausen's Bad), not /ar from Minden, which is the greatest known depth below the level of the sea, the temperature of the water at 2094J Parisian feet (2232J Eng.) is fully 26°.2 Eeaumur, or 91° Fahr.; while the mean temperature of the air above may be taken at 7°. 7 Eeaumur, or 4 9°. 2 Fahr. It is very remarkable that in the third century Saint Patricius, Bishop of Pertusa, was led by seeing the hot springs near Carthage to a very just view respecting the cause of such an increase of heat. (Acta S. Patricii, p. 555, ed. Euinart; Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 231,— English Edition, Vol. i. p. 211.) THE VITAL FORCE; OR, THE RHODIAN GENIUS. [FIRST PKINTKD IN 1795.] THE VITAL FORGE, THE RHODIAN GENIUS. THE Syracusans, like the Athenians, had their Pcecile, in which representations of gods and heroes, the works of Gre- cian and Italian art, adorned the halls, glowing with varied colours. The people resorted thither continually; the young warriors to contemplate the exploits of their ancestors, the artists to study the works of the great masters. Among the numerous paintings which the active zeal of the Syracusans had collected from the mother country, there was one which, for a century past, had particularly attracted the attention of spectators. Sometimes the Olympian Jove, Cecrops the founder of cities, and the heroic courage of Harmodius and Aristogiton, would want admirers, while men pressed in crowded ranks around the picture of which we speak. AY hence this preference? Was it a rescued work of Apelles, or of the school of Callimachus? No; it pos- sessed indeed grace and beauty; but yet neither in the blending of the colours, nor in the character and style of the entire picture, could it be compared with many other paintings in the Poecile. The multitude (comprehending therein many classes of 252 THE VITAL FORCE, society), often regard with astonishment and admiration what they do not comprehend : this picture had occupied its place for a hundred years ; but though Syracuse contained within the narrow limits enclosed by its walls more of the genius of art than the whole of the remainder of sea-sur- rounded Sicily, no one had yet divined the hidden meaning of the design. It was even uncertain to what temple the painting had originally belonged, for it had been rescued from a shipwrecked vessel, which was only conjectured from the merchandise it contained to have come from Rhodes. On the foreground of the picture youths and maidens formed a closely crowded group. They were without clothing and well formed, but at the same time did not exhibit the more noble and graceful proportions admired in the statues of Praxiteles and Alcamenes. Their robust limbs, shewing the traces of laborious efforts, and the purely terrestrial expression of their desires and sorrows, seemed to take from them every thing of a diviner character, and to chain them exclusively to their earthly habitation. Their hair was simply ornamented with leaves and field-flowers. Their arms were outstretched towards each other, as if to indicate their desire of union, but their troubled looks were turned towards a Genius who, surrounded by bright light, hovered in the midst. A butterfly was placed on his shoulder, and in his hand he held on high a lighted torch. The contours of his form were soft and child-like, but his glance was animated by celestial fire : he looked down as a master upon the youths and maidens at his feet. Nothing else that was characteristic could be discovered in the pic- OR THE RHODIAN GENIUS. S53 ture. Some persons thouglit they could make out at its foot the letters £ and e, from whence (as antiquaries were then no less bold in their conjectures than they now are), they took occasion to infer, in a somewhat forced mari- ner, the name of Zenodorus ; thus attributing the work to a painter of the same name as the artist who at a later period cast the Colossus of Rhodes. The "Rhodian Genius/' however, — for such was the name given to the picture, — did not want for commentators and interpreters in Syracuse. Amateurs of the arts, and especially the younger amongst them, on returning from a short visit to Corinth or Athens, would have thought it equivalent to renouncing all pretensions to connoisseurship if they had not been provided with some new explanation. Some regarded the Genius as the personification of Spiritual Love, forbidding the enjoyment of sensual pleasures ; others said it was the assertion of the empire of Reason over Desire : the wiser among the critics were silent, and presuming some high though yet undiscovered meaning, examined mean- while with pleasure the simple composition of the picture. Still, however, the question remained unsolved. The picture had been copied with various additions and sent to Greece, but not the least light had been thrown on its origin ; when at length, at the season of the early rising of the Pleiades, and soon after the reopening of the navigation of the Egean Sea, ships from Rhodes entered the port of Syra- cuse, bearing a precious collection of statues, altars, cande- labras, and paintings, which Dionysius's love of art had caused to be brought together from different parts of Greece. 254 THE VITAL FORCE Among the paintings was one which was immediately re- cognised as the companion or pendent of the Ilhodian Ge- nius : the dimensions were the same, and the colouring similar, but in a better state of preservation : the Genius was still the central figure, but the butterfly was no longer on his shoulder ; his head was drooping, and his torch ex- tinguished and inverted. The youths and maidens pressing around him had met and embraced ; their glance, no longer subdued or sad, announced, on the contrary, emancipation from restraint, and the fulfilment of long-cherished desires. The Syracusan antiquaries were already seeking to modify the explanations they had previously proposed, so as to adapt them to the newly-arrived picture, when Dionysius commanded the latter to be carried to the house of Epichar- mus, a philosopher of the Pythagorean school, who dwelt in a remote part of Syracuse called Tyche. Epicharmus rarely presented himself at the court of Dionysius, for although the latter was fond of calling around him the most distin- guished men from all the Greek colonial cities, yet the phi- losopher found that the proximity of princes takes even from men of the greatest intellectual power part of their spirit and their freedom. He devoted himself unceasingly to the study of natural tilings, their forces or powers, the origin of animals and plants, and the harmonious laws in accordance with which the heavenly bodies, as well as the grains of hail and the flakes of snow, assume their distinc- tive forms. Oppressed with age, and unable to proceed far without assistance, he caused himself to be conducted daily to the Pcecile, and thence to the entrance of the port, where, OR THE EHODIAN GENIUS. 255 as he said, his eyes received the image of the boundless and the infinite which his spirit ever strove in vain to apprehend. He lived honoured alike by the tyrant, whose presence he avoided, and by the lower classes of the people, whom he met gladly, and often with friendly help. Exhausted with fatigue, he was reposing on his couch, when the newly-arrived picture was brought to him by the command of Dionysius. Care had been taken to bring, at the same time, a faithful copy of the " Ehodian Genius," and the philosopher desired the two paintings to be placed side by side before him. After having remained for some time with his eyes fixed upon them, and absorbed in thought, he called his scholars together, and spoke to them in the following terms, in a voice which was not without emo- tion : — " Withdraw the curtain from the window, that I may enjoy once more the view of the fair earth animated with living beings. During sixty years I have reflected on the internal motive powers of nature, and on the differences of substances : to-day for the first time the picture of the Ehodian Genius leads me to see more clearly that which I had before only obscurely divined. As living beings are im- pelled by natural desires to salutary and fruitful union, so the raw materials of inorganic nature are moved by similar impulses. Even in the reign of primeval night, in the darkness of chaos, elementary principles or substances sought or shunned each other in obedience to indwelling dispositions of amity or enmity. Thus the fire of heaven follows metal, iron obeys the attraction of the loadstone, 256 THE VITAL FORCE, amber rubbed takes up light substances, earth mixes with earth, salt collects together from the water of the sea, and the acid moisture of the Stypteria (cri^rr/pta vypa), as well as the flocculent salt Trichitis, love the clay of Melos. In inanimate nature all things hasten to unite with each other according to their particular laws. Hence no terrestrial element (and who would dare to include light among the numbei of such elements ?) is to be found anywhere in its pure and primitive simple state. Each as soon as formed tends to enter into new combinations, and the art of man is needed to disjoin and present in a separated state substances which you would seek in vain in the interior of the earth, and in the fluid oceans of air or water. In dead inorganic matter, entire inactivity and repose reign so long as the bonds of affinity continue undissolved, so long as no third substance comes to join itself to the others. But even then, the action and disturbance produced are soon again suc- ceeded by unfruitful repose. " It is otherwise, however, when the same substances are brought together in the bodies of plants and animals. In these the vital force or power reigns supreme, and regardless of the mutual amity or enmity of the atoms recognised by Democritus, commands the union of substances which in inanimate nature* shun each other, and separates those which are ever seeking to enter into combination. " Now come nearer to me, my friends ; look with me on the first of the pictures before us, and recognise in the Ehodian Genius, in the expression of youthful energy, in the butterfly on hi§ shoulder, and in the commanding glance of OR THE RHODIAN GENIUS. 257 his eye, the symbol of vital force animating each individual germ of the organic creation. At his feet are the earthy elements desiring to mix and unite, conformably to their particular tendencies. The Genius,, holding aloft his lighted torch with commanding gesture, controls and constrains them, without regard to their ancient rights, to obey his laws. " Now view with me the new picture which the tyrant has sent to me for explanation : turn your eyes from the image of life to that of death. The butterfly has left its former place and soars upwards ; the extinguished torch is reversed, the head of the youth has sunk : the spirit has fled to other spheres, and the vital force is dead. Now the youths and maidens joyfully join hands, the earthy substances resume their ancient rights : they are freed from the chains that bound them, and follow impetuously after long restraint the impulse to union. — Thus inert matter, animated awhile by vital force, passes through an innumerable diversity of forms, and perhaps in the same substance which once enshrined the spirit of Pythagoras, a poor worm may have enjoyed a momentary existence. " Go, Polycles, and tell Dionysius what thou hast heard ; — and" you my friends, Euryphamos, Lysis, and Scopas, come nearer to me and support me ; I feel that in my weakened frame the enfeebled vital power will not long hold in sub- jection the earthly substances which reclaim their ancient liberty. Lead me once again to the Poecile, and thence to the sea shore ; soon you will collect my ashes."" VOL. II. S NOTE. 259 NOTE. I HAVE noticed in the Preface to the Second and Third Editions (S. xiii., p. xii. English Trans.) the subject of the republicatiori here of the preceding pages, which were first printed in Schiller's Horen (Jahrg. 1795, St. 5, S. 90-96). They contain the development of a physiological idea clothed in a semi-mythical garb. In the Latin "Apho- risms from the Chemical Physiology of Plants" appended to my "Subterranean Elora," in 1793,— I had denned the " vital force" as " the unknown cause which prevents the elements from following their original affinities." The first of my aphorisms were as follows : — " Rerum naturam si totam consideres, magnum atque durabile, quod inter elementa intercedit, discrimen perspicies, quorum altera affiuitatum legibus obtemperantia, altera, vinculis solutis^ varie juncta apparent. Quod quidem discrimen in elementis ipsis eorumque indole neutiquam positum, quum ex sola distributioue singulorum petendum esse videatur. Materiam segnem, brutam, inanimam earn vocamus, cujus stamina secundum leges chymicse affinitatis mixta sunt. Animata atque organica ea potissimum corpora appellamus, quse, licet in novas mutari formas perpetuo tendant, vi interna quaclam continentur, quominus priscam sibique insitarn formam relin- quant. x THE VITAL FORCE. " Yim internam, quse chymicse affinitatis vincula resolvit, atque obstat, quominus elementa corporum libere conjun- gantur, vitalem vocamus. Itaque nullum certius mortis criterium putredine datur, qua primse partes vel stamina rerum, antiquis juribus revocatis, affinitatum 1-egibus parent. Corporum inanimorum nulla putredo esse potest." (Yide Apliorismi ex doctrina Physiologise chemica3 Plantarum, in Humboldt, Mora Fribergensis subterranea, 1793, p. 133- 136). I have placed in the mouth of Epicharmus the above propositions, which were disapproved by the acute Yicq d'Azyr, in hisTraite d'Anatomieet de Physiologic, T. i.p. 5, but are now entertained by many distinguished persons among my friends. Reflection and continued study in the domains of physiology and chemistry have deeply shaken my earlier belief in a peculiar so-called vital force. In 1797, at the close of my work entitled "Yersuche iiber die gereizte Muskel und Nervenfaser, nebst Yermuthungen iiber den chemischen Process des Lebens in der Thier und Pflanzenwelt" (Bd. ii. S. 430-436), I already declared that I by no means regarded the existence of such peculiar vital forces as demonstrated. Since that time I have no longer called peculiar forces what may possibly only be the opera- tion of the concurrent action of the several long-known substances and their material forces. We may, however deduce from the chemical relations of the elements a safer definition of animate and inanimate substances, than the criteria which are taken from voluntary motion, from the circulation of fluids within solids, from internal appropria- NOTE. 261 tion, and from the fibrous arrangements of the elements. I term that an animated substance " of which the parts being separated by external agency alter their state of composition after the separation, all other and external relations con- tinuing the same/' This definition is merely the enunciation of a fact. The equilibrium of the elements in animated or organic matter is preserved by their being parts of a whole. One organ determines another, one gives to another its temperature and tone or disposition, in all which, these, and no other, affinities are operative. Thus in organised beings all is reciprocally means and end. The rapidity with which organic parts, separated from a complete living organism, change their state of combination, differs greatly, according to the degree of their original dependence, and to the nature of the substance. Blood of animals, which varies much in the different classes, suffers change sooner than the juices of plants. Funguses generally decay sooner than leaves of trees, and muscle more easily than the cutis. Bones, the elementary structure of which has been very recently recognised, hair of animals, wood in plants or trees, the feathery appendages of seeds of plants (Pappus), are not inorganic or without life ; but even in life they approximate to the state in which they are found after their separation from the rest of the organism. The higher the degree of vitality or susceptibility of an animated sub- stance, the more rapidly does organic change in its compo- sition ensue after separation. ' ' The aggregate total of the cells is an organism, and the organism lives so long as the parts are active in subservience to the whole. In oppo- 262 THE VITAL FOKCE. sition to lifeless or inorganic, organic nature appears to be self-determining." (Henle, Allgemeine Anatomic, 1841, S. 216-219). The difficulty of satisfactorily referring the vital phenomena of organic life to physical and chemical laws, consists chiefly (almost as in the question of pre- dicting meteorological processes in the atmosphere), in the complication of the phenomena, and in the multiplicity of simultaneously acting forces and of the conditions of their activity. I have remained faithful in " Kosmos" to the same mode of viewing and representing what are called " Lebens- krafte," vital forces, and vital affinities, (Pulteney, in the Transact, of the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. xvi. p. 305), the formation-impulse, and the active principle in organisa- tion. I have said, in Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 67, (English Ed. vol. i. p. 62), " The myths of imponderable matter and of vital forces peculiar to each organism have complicated and perplexed the view of nature. • Under different conditions and forms of recognition the prodigious mass of our expe- rimental knowledge has progressively accumulated, and is now enlarging with increased rapidity. Investigating reason essays from time to time with varying success to break through ancient forms and symbols, invented to effect the subjection of rebellious matter, as it were, to mechanical constructions." Farther on in the same volume, (p. 339 English, and 367 of the original,) I have said, " In a phy- sical description of the universe, it should still be noticed that the same substances which compose the organic forms of plants and animals are also found in the inorganic crust NOTE. . of the globe ; and that the same forces or powers which govern inorganic matter are seen to prevail in organic beings likewise, combining and decomposing the various substances, regulating the forms and properties of organic tissues, but acting in these cases under complicated conditions yet unexplained, to which the very vague terms of l vital phae- nomena/ 'operations of vital forces/ have been assigned, and which have been systematically grouped, according to analogies more or less happily imagined." (Compare also the critical notices on the assumption of proper or peculiar vital forces in Schleiden's Botanik als inductive Wissenchaft (Botany as an Inductive Science), Th. i. S. 60, and in the recently published excellent Untersuchungen uber thierische Elektricitat (Researches on Animal Electricity), by Emil du Bois-Eeymond, Bd. i. S. xxxiv.-l.) THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA AND THE FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, FROM THE CREST OF THE ANDES. THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMABCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA. AFTER a residence of an entire year on the crest of the chain of the Andes or Antis(1), between 4° North and 4° South Latitude, in the high plains of New Granada, Pastos, and Quito, whose mean elevations range between 8500 and 12800 English feet, we rejoiced in descending gradually through the milder climate of the Quina-yielding forests of Loxa to the plains of the upper part of the course of the Amazons, a terra incognita rich in magnificent vegetation. The small town of Loxa has given its name to the most efficacious of all the species of medicinal Fever-Bark : Quina, or Cascarilla fina de Loxa. It is the precious production of the tree which we have described botanically as Cinchona condaminea, but which, under the erroneous impression that all the kinds of the Quina or fever bark of commerce were furnished by the same species of tree, had previously been called Cin- chona officinalis. The Fever Bark was first brought to Europe towards the middle of the seventeenth century, 268 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. either, as Sebastian Badus asserts, to Alcala de Henares in 1632, or to Madrid in 1640, on the arrival of the wife of the Yiceroy, the Countess of Chinchon (2), who had been cured of intermittent fever at Lima, accompanied by her physician, Juan del Vego. The trees which yield the finest quality of Quina de Loxa are found from 8 to 12 miles to the south east of the town, in the mountains of Uritusinga, Yillonaco, and Rumisitana, growing on. mica-slate and gneiss, at very moderate elevations above the level of the sea, being between 5400 and 7200 (5755 and 7673 English) feet, heights about equal respectively to those of the Hospice on the Grimsel and the Pass of the great St. Bernard. The proper boundaries of the Quina-woods in this quarter are the small rivers Zamora and Cachiyacu. The tree is cut down in its first flowering season, or in the fourth or seventh year of its age, according as it has sprung from a vigorous root-shoot, or from a seed : we heard with astonishment that at the period of my journey, according to official computations, the collectors of Quina (Cascarilleros and Cazadores de Quina, Quina Hunters), — only brought in 110 'hundred weight of the Bark of the Cinchona condaminea annually. None of this precious store found its way at that time into commerce ; the whole was sent from the port of Payta on the Pacific, round Cape Horn to Cadiz, for the use of the Spanish Court. In order to furnish this small quantity of 11000 Spanish pounds, eight or nine hundred trees were cut down every year. The older and thicker stems have become more and more scarce ; PLATEAU OF CAXAMA11CA. 269 but the luxuriance of vegetation is such that* the younger trees which are now resorted to, though only 6 inches in diameter, often attain from 53 to 64 English feet in height. This beautiful tree, which is adorned with leaves above 5 English inches long and 2 broad, growing in dense woods, seems always to aspire to rise above its neighbours. As its upper branches wave to and fro in the wind, their red and shining foliage produces a strange and peculiar effect recognisable from a great distance. The mean tem- perature in the woods where the Cinchona condaminea is found, ranges between 12^° and 15° Eeaumur (60°.2 and 65°.8 Fahrenheit), which are about the mean annual tem- peratures of Florence and the Island of Madeira ; but the extremes of heat and cold observed at these two stations of the temperate zone are never felt around Loxa. Comparisons between the climates of places, one of which is situated in an elevated tropical plain, and the other in a higher parallel df latitude, can be from their nature but little satisfactory. In'order to descend South-South-East from the mountain knot of Loxa to the hot Valley of the Amazons, it is first necessary to pass over the Paramos of Chulucanas, Guamani and Yamoca,— mountain wildernesses of a peculiar character of which we have already spoken, and to which, in the southern parts of the Andes, the name of Puna (a word belonging to the Quichua language) is given. They mostly rise above 9500 (10125 English) feet ; they are stormy, often enveloped for days in dense mist, or visited by violent and formidable showers of hail, — consisting not merely of hailstones of different spherical forms, usually a 270 PLATEAU OF CAXAMA11CA. good deal flattened by rotation, but also sometimes of less regular forms, the hail having run together into thin plates of ice (papa-cara) which cut the face and hands. At such times I have occasionally seen the thermometer sink to 7° or 5° Reaumur, (47°.8 and 43°. 2 Eahr.) and the electric tension of the atmosphere, measured by Volta's electrometer, pass in a few minutes from positive to negative. "When the temperature sinks below 5° Reaumur, (43°.2 Fahrenheit) snow falls in large and thinly scattered flakes. The vegetation of the Paramos has a peculiar physiognomy and character, from the absence of trees, the short close branches of the small-leaved myrtle- like shrubs, the large sized and numerous blossoms, and the perpetual freshness of the whole from the constant and abundant supply of moisture. . No zone of Alpine vege- tation in the temperate or cold parts of the globe can well be compared with that of the Paramos in the tropical Andes. The impressions produced on the mind by the natural characters of these wildernesses of the Cordilleras are height- ened in a remarkable and unexpected manner, from its being in those very regions that we still see admirable remains of the gigantic work, the artificial road of the Incas, which formed a line of communication through all the provinces of the Empire, extending over a length of more than a thousand English geographical miles. We find, placed at nearly equal distances apart, stations con- sisting of dwelling houses built of well-cut stone ; they are a kind of Caravanserai, and are called Tambos and some- times Inca-pilca (from pircca, the wall?). Some of them are, surrounded by a kind of fortification ; others were PIATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 271 constructed for baths with arrangements for conducting hot water ; the larger were designed for the use of the family of the Monarch himself. I had previously seen, measured, and drawn with care, buildings of the same kind in a good state of preservation at the foot of the volcano of Coto- paxi, near Callo. Pedro de Ciega, writing in the 16th century, called them "Aposentos de Mulalo/' (3) In the pass between Alausi and Loxa, called the Paramo del Assuay, — (a much frequented route across the Ladera de Cadlud, 14568 French or 15526 English feet above the level of the sea, or almost equal to the height of Mont Blanc), — as we were leading our heavily laden mules with great difficulty through the marshy ground on the elevated plain del Pullal, our eyes meanwhile were continually dwelling on the grand remains of the Inca's road, which with a breadth of twenty- one English feet ran by our side for above a German mile. It had a deep under-structure, and was paved with well-cut blocks of blackish trap-porphyry. Nothing that I had seen of the remains of Roman roads in Italy, in the South of France, and in Spain, was more imposing than these works of the ancient Peruvians, which are moreover situated, according to my barometric measurements, at an elevation of 12440 (13258 English) feet above the sea, or more than a thousand feet higher than the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe. The ruins of what is called the Palace of the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, and which are known by the name of the " Pare- doues del Inca," are situated at the same elevation on the Assuay. Proceeding from thence to the southward towards Cuenca, the road leads to the small but well preserved '272 PLATEAU OF C AX AM A RCA. fortress of Canar (4), belonging probably to the same period, that of Tupac Yupanqui, or to that of his warlike son, Huayna Capac. We saw still finer remains of the old Peruvian artificial roads on the way between Loxa and the Amazons, at the Baths of the Incas on the Paramo de Chulucanas, not far from Guancabamba, and in the neighbourhood of Ingatambo, at Pomahuaca. These last named remains are at a so much lower elevation, that I found the difference of level between the Inca's Road at Pomahuaca and that on the Paramo del Assuay upwards of 9100 (about 9700 English) feet. The distance in a straight line is by astronomically determined latitudes exactly 184 English geographical miles, and the ascent of the road is 3500 (3730 English) feet greater than the height of the Pass of Mount Cenis above the Lake of Corno. There are two great artificial Peruvian paved roads or systems of roads, covered with flat stones, or sometimes even with cemented gravel (5) (Macadamised); one passes through the wide and arid plain between the Pacific Ocean and the chain of the Andes, and the other over the ridges of the Cordilleras. Mile-stones, or stones marking the distances, are often found placed at equal intervals. The road was conducted across rivers and deep ravines by three kinds of bridges, stone, wood, and rope bridges (Puentes de Hamaca or de Maroma), and there were also aqueducts, or arrangements for bringing water to the Tambos, (hostel- ries or caravanserais) and to the fortresses. Both systems of roads were directed to the central point, Cuzco, the seat of government of the great empire, in 13° 31' South lati- PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 273 tude, and which is placed, according to Pentland's map of Bolivia, 10676 Paris or 11378 English feet above the level of the sea. As the Peruvians employed no wheel carriages, and the roads were consequently only designed for the march of troops, for men carrying burdens, and for lightly laden lamas, we find them occasionally interrupted, on account of the steepness of the mountains, by long flights of steps, provided with resting places at suitable intervals. Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro, who on their distant expeditions used the military roads of the Incas with so much advantage, found great difficulties for the Spanish Cavalry at the places where these steps occurred (6). The impediment presented to their march on these occasions was so much the greater, because in the early times of the Con- quista, the Spaniards used only horses instead of the care- fully treading mule, who in the difficult parts of the moun- tains seems to deliberate on every step he takes. It was not until a later period that mules were employed. Sarmiento, who saw the Roads of the Incas whilst they were still in a perfect state of preservation, asks in a t ' Ee- lacion" which long lay umead, buried in the Library of the Escorial, "how a nation unacquainted with the use of iron could have completed such grand works in so high and rocky a region (" Caminos tan grandes y tan sovervios"), extending from Cuzco to Quito on the one hand, and to the coast of Chili on the other ? The Emperor Charles/' he adds, " with all his power could not accomplish even a part of what the well-ordered Government of the Incas effected through the obedient people over whom they ruled." VOL. ii, T 274 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. Hernando Pizarro, the most educated and civilised of the three brothers, who for his misdeeds suffered a twenty years' imprisonment at Medina del Campo, and died at last at a hundred years of age " in the odour of sanctity/' " en olor de Santidad," exclaims : " in the whole of Christendom there are nowhere such fine roads as those which we here admire/' The two important capitals and seats of govern- ment of the Incas, Cuzco and Quito, are 1000 English geo-. graphical miles apart in a straight line (SS.E., NN.W.), without reckoning the many windings of the way ; and in- cluding the windings, the distance is estimated by Garcilaso de la Yega and other Conquistadores at "500 leguas." Notwithstanding the great distance, we learn from the well- confirmed testimony of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, that Huayna Capac, whose father had conquered Quito, caused some of the building materials for the "princely buildings/' (the houses of the Incas) in the latter city, to be brought from Cuzco. When enterprising races inhabit a land where the form of the ground presents to them difficulties on a grand scale which they may encounter and overcome, this contest with nature becomes a means of increasing their strength and power as well as their courage. Under the despotic centralizing system of the Inca-rule, security and rapidity of communication, especially in the movement of troops, became an important necessity of government. Hence the construction of artificial roads on so grand a scale, and hence also the establishment of a highly improved postal system. Among nations in very different stages of culti- PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 275 vation we see the national activity display itself with peculiar predilection in some particular directions, but we can by no means determine the general state of culture of a people from the striking development of such particular and partial activity. Egyptians, Greeks (7), Etruscans, and Romans, Chinese, Japanese, and Hindoos, shew many interesting contrasts in these respects. It is difficult to pronounce what length of time may have been required for the execution of the Peruvian roads. The great works in the northern part of the Empire of the Incas, in the highlands of Quito, must at all events have been completed in less than 30 or 85 years ; i. e. within the short period intervening between the defeat of the Ruler of " Quitu" and the death of Huayna Capac, but entire obscurity prevails as to the period of the formation of the Southern, and more properly speaking Peruvian, roads. The mysterious appearance of Manco Capac is usually placed 400 years before the landing of Pizarro in the Islend of Puna (1532), therefore towards the middle of the 12th century, almost 200 years before the foundation of the city of Mexico (Tenochtitlan) ; some Spanish writers even reckon, instead of 400, 500 and 550 years between Manco Capac and Pizarro. But the history of the empire of Peru only recognises thirteen ruling princes of the Inca-dynasty, a number which, as Prescott very justly remarks, is not suf- ficient to occupy so long an interval as 550 or even 400 years. Quetzalcoatl, Botschica, and Manco Capac, are the three mythical forms with which the commencements of civilisa- tion among the Aztecs, the Muyscas (more properly Chib- 276 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. chas), and the Peruvians, are connected. Quetzalcoatl, bearded, clothed in black, a high priest of Tula, subse- quently a penance-performing anchorite on a mountain near Tlaxapuchicalco, comes to the highlands of Mexico from the coast of Panuco ; therefore from the eastern coast of Ana- huac. Botschica, or rather Nemterequeteba (8) (a Buddha of the Muyscas), a messenger sent by the Deity, bearded and wearing long garments, arrives in the high plains of Bogota from the grassy steppes east of the chain of the Andes. Before Manco Capac a degree of civilisation already pre- vailed on the picturesque shores of the Lake of Titicaca. The strong fort of Cuzco, on the hill of Sacsahuaman, was formed on the pattern of the older constructions of Tiahua- naco. In the same manner the Aztecs imitated the pyra- midal structures of the Toltecs, and these, those of the Olmecs (Hulmecs) ; and gradually ascending, we arrive, still on historic ground in Mexico, as far back as the sixth cen- tury of our Era. According to Siguenza, the Toltec step- pyramid (or Teocalli) of Cholula is a repetition of the form of the Hulmec step-pyramid of Teotihuacan. Thus as we penetrate through each successive stratum of civilisation we arrive at an earlier one ; and national self-consciousness not having awoke simultaneously in the two continents, we find in each nation the imaginative mythical domain always im- mediately preceding the period of historic knowledge. Notwithstanding the tribute of admiration which the first Conquistadores paid to the roads and aqueducts of the Peru- vians, not only did they neglect the repair and preservation of both these classes of useful works, but they even wantonly PLATEAU OF CAXAMA11CA 277 destroyed them ; and this still more towards the sea-coast, (for the sake of obtaining fine cut stones for new buildings ; and where the want of water consequent on the destruction of the aqueducts has rendered the soil barren), than on the ridges of the Andes, or in the deep-cleft valleys by which the mountain chain is intersected. In the long day's journey from the syenitic rocks of Zaulaca to the Valley of Sari Felipe (rich in fossils, and situated at the foot of the icy Paramo de Ya- moca), we were obliged to wade through the Rio de Guan- cabamba (which flows into the Amazons), no lees than twenty-seven times, on account of the windings of the stream; while we continually saw near us, running in a straight line along the side of a steep precipice, the remains of the high built road of the Incas with its Tambos. The mountain torrent, though only from 120 to 150 English feet broad, was so strong and rapid that, in fording it, our heavily laden mules were often in danger of being swept away by the flood. They carried our manuscripts, our dried plants, and all that we had been collecting for a year past. Under such circumstances one watches from the other side of the stream with very anxious suspense until the long train of eighteen or twenty beasts of burden have passed in safety. The same Eio de Guancabamba, in the lower part of its course, where it has many falls and rapids, is made to serve in a very singular manner for the conveyance of correspond- ence with the coast of the Pacific. In order to expedite more quickly the few letters from Truxillo which are in- tended for the province of Jacn de Bracamoros, a " swimming 278 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. courier/' " el correo que nada," as lie is called in the country, is employed. This post messenger, who is usually a young Indian, swims in two days from Pomahuaca to Toinependa, first by the Rio de Chamaya (the name given to the lower part of the Eio de Guancabamba), and then by the Amazons. He carefully places the few letters entrusted to him in a large cotton handkerchief, which he winds round his head in the manner of a turban. When he comes to waterfalls he leaves the river, and makes a circuit through the woods. In order to lessen the fatigue of swimming for so long a time, he sometimes throws one arm round a piece of a very light kind of wood (Ceiba, Palo de balsa), of a tree be- longing to the family of Bombacea3. Sometimes also a friend goes with him to bear him company. The pair have no concern about provisions, as they are always sure of a hospitable reception in any of the scattered huts, which are abundantly surrounded with fruit trees, in the beautiful Huertas de Pucara and Cavico. Happily the river is free from crocodiles, which, in the upper part of the Amazons, are first met with below the cataracts of Mayasi. These unwieldy and slothful monsters generally prefer the more tranquil waters. According to my measurements the Rio de Chamaya, from the Ford (Paso) de Pucara to the place where it enters the Amazons Eiver below the village of Choros, has a fall (9) of 1668 (1778 English) feet in the short space of 52 English geographical miles. The Governor of the province of Jaen de Bracamo- ros assured me that letters carried by this singular water- post were rarely either wetted or lost. Soon after my return PLATEAU* OF CAXAMA.RCA. 279 to Europe from Mexico, I received, in Pans, letters from Tomependa, which had been sent in the manner above described. Several tribes of wild Indians, living on the banks of the Upper Amazons, make their journeys in a similar manner, swimming down the stream sociably in parties. I had the opportunity of seeing in this manner, in the bed of the river, the heads of thirty or forty persons (men, women, and children), of the tribe of the Xibaros, on their arrival at Tomependa. The "Correo que nada" returns by land by the difficult route of the Paramo del Paredon. On approaching the hot climate of the basin of the Amazons, the eye is cheered by the aspect of a beautiful, and occasionally very luxuriant vegetation. We had never before, not even in the Canaries or on the hot sea coast of Cumana and Caraccas, seen finer orange trees than those of the Huertas de Pucara. They were principally the sweet orange (Citrus aurantiuni, Eisso), and less frequently the bitter or Seville orange (C. vulgaris, Eisso). Laden with many thousands of their golden fruits, they attain a height of sixty or sixty-four English feet ; and, instead of rounded tops or crowns, have aspiring branches, almost like a laurel or bay tree. Not far from thence, near the Ford of Cavico, we were surprised by a very unexpected sight. We saw a grove of small trees, only about eighteen or nineteen English feet high, which, instead of green, had apparently perfectly red or rose-coloured leaves. It was a new species of Bougain- villaea, a genus first established by the elder Jussieu, from a Brazilian specimen in Commerson's herbarium. The trees were almost entirely without true leaves, as what we took 280 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. for leaves at a distance, proved to be thickly crowded brae- teas. The appearance was altogether different, in the purity and freshness of the colour, from the autumnal tints which, in many of our forest trees, adorn the woods of the temperate zone at the season of the fall of the leaf. A single species of the South African family of Proteacese, Hhopala ferruginea, descends here from the cold heights of the Paramo de Yamoca to the hot plain of Chamaya. We often found here the Porlieria hygrometrica (belonging to the Zygophyllese), which, by the closing of the leaflets of its finely pinnated foliage, foretels an impending change of weather, and especially the approach of rain, much better than any of the Mimosacea3. It very rarely deceived us. We found at Chamaya rafts (balsas) in readiness to convey us to Tomependa, which we desired to visit for the purpose of determining the difference of longitude between Quito and the mouth of the Chinchipe (a determination of some importance to the geography of South America on account of an old observation of La Condamine). (10) We slept as usual under the open sky on the sandy shore (Playa de Guayanchi) at the confluence of the Rio de Chamaya with the Amazons. The next day we embarked on the latter river, and descended it to the Cataracts and Narrows (Pongo in the Quichua language, from puncu, door or gate) of Renterna, where rocks of coarse-grained sandstone (conglo- merate) rise like towers, and form a rocky dam across the river. I measured a base line on the flat and sandy shore, and found that at Tomependa the afterwards mighty Biver of the Amazons is only a little above 1386 English feet across. In the celebrated River Narrow or Pongo of Manseritche, PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 281 between Santiago and San Borja, in a mountain ravine where at some points the overhanging rocks and the canopy of foliage forbid more than a very feeble light to penetrate, and where all the drift wood, consisting of a countless number of trunks of trees, is broken and dashed in pieces, the breadth of the stream is under 160 English feet. The rocks by which all these Pongos or Narrows are formed undergo many changes in the course of centuries. Thus a part of the rocks forming the Pongo de E/entema, spoken of above, had been broken up by a high Hood a year before my jour- ney ; and there has even been preserved among the inhabi- tants, by tradition, a lively recollection of the precipitous fall of the then towering masses of rock along the whole of the Pongo, — an event which took place in the early part of the eighteenth century. This fall, and the consequent blocking up of the channel, arrested the flow of the stream ; and the inhabitants of the village of Puyaya, situated below the Pongo de Kentema, saw with alarm the wide river-bed entirely dry : but after a few hours the waters again forced their way. Earthquake movements are not supposed to have occasioned this remarkable occurrence. The powerful stream appears to be as it were incessantly engaged in im- proving its bed, and some idea of the force which it exerts may be formed from the circumstance, that notwithstanding its breadth it is sometimes so swollen as to rise more than 26 English feet in the course of twenty or thirty hours. "We remained for seventeen days in the hot valley of the Upper Maranon or Amazons. In order to pass from thence to the shores of the Pacific, the Andes have to be crossed at 282 PLATEAU OP CAXAMARCA. the point where, between Micuipampa and Caxamarca (in 6° 57' S. lat. and 78° 34' W. long, from Greenwich), they are intersected, according to my observations, by the magnetic equator. Ascending to a still higher elevation among the mountains, the celebrated silver mines of Chota are reached, and from thence with a few interruptions the route descends until the low grounds of Peru are gained; passing inter- mediately over the ancient Caxamarca, > where -316 years ago the most sanguinary drama in the annals of the Spanish Conquista took place, and also over Aroma and Gangamarca. Here, as almost everywhere in the Chain of the Andes and in the Mexican Mountains, the most elevated parts are picturesquely marked by tower-like outbreaks of porphyry (often columnar), and trachyte. Masses of this kind give to the crest of the mountains sometimes a cliff-like and preci- pitous, and sometimes a dome-shaped character. They have here broken through calcareous rocks, which, both on this and on the northern side of the equator, are largely deve- loped ; and which, according to Leopold von Buch's researches, belong to the cretaceous group. Between Guambos and Montan, 12000 French (12790 English) feet above the sea, we found marine fossils (n) (Ammonites nearly fifteen English inches in diameter, the large Pecten alatus, oyster shells, Echini, Isocardias, and Exogyra polygona). A species of Cidaris, which, according to Leopold von Buch, cannot be distinguished from that which Brongniart found in the lower part of the chalk series at the Perte du Rhone, was collected by us, both at Tomependa in the basin of the Amazons and at Micuipampa, — stations of which the ele- PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 283 vations differ 9900 (10551 English) feet. In a similar manner, in the Amuich Chain of the Caucasian Daghestan, the cretaceous beds rise from the banks of the Sulak, which are hardly 530 English feet above the sea, to a height of fully 9000 (9592 English) feet on the Tschunum; while on the summit of the Schadagh Mountain, 13090 (13950 English) feet high, the Ostrea diluviana (Goldf.) and the same creta- ceous beds are again found. Abich's excellent observations in the Caucasus would thus appear to have confirmed in the most brilliant manner Leopold von Buch's geological views on the mountain development of the cretaceous group. From the lonely grazing farm of Montan surrounded by herds of lamas, we ascended more to the south the eastern declivity of the Cordilleras, and arrived as night was closing in at an elevated plain where the argentiferous mountain of Gualgayoc, the principal site of the celebrated silver mines of Chota, afforded us a remarkable spectacle. The Cerro de Gualgayoc, separated by a deep-cleft ravine or valley (Quebrada) from the limestone mountain of Cormolatsche, is an isolated mass of siliceous rock traversed by a multitude of veins of silver which often meet or intersect, and terminated to the north and west by a deep and almost perpendicular precipice. The highest workings are 1445 (1540 English) feet above the floor of the gallery, the Socabon de Espinachi. The outline of the mountain is broken by numerous tower- like and pyramidal points; the summit bears indeed the name of " Las Puiitas," and offers the most decided contrast to the " rounded outlines" which the miners are accustomed to attribute to metalliferous districts generally. " Our mouu- 284 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. tain/' said a rich possessor of mines with whom we had arrived^ "stands there like an enchanted castle (como si fuese un Castillo encantado)." The Gualgayoc reminds the beholder in some degree of a cone of dolomite, but still more of the ^serrated crest of the Monserrat Mountains in Cata- lonia, which I have also visited, and which were subsequently described in so pleasing a manner by my brother. The silver mountain Gualgayoc, besides being perforated to its summit by many hundred galleries driven in every direction, presents also natural openings in the mass of the siliceous rock, through which the intensely dark blue sky of these elevated regions is visible to a spectator standing at the foot of the mountain. These openings are popularly called "windows," "las ventanillas de Gualgayoc." Similar " windows" were pointed out to us in the trachytic walls of the volcano of Pichincha, and called by a similar name, — " ventanillas de Pichincha." The strangeness of the view presented to us was still farther increased by the numerous small sheds and dwelling-houses, which nestled on the side of the fortress-like mountain wherever a flat surface permitted their erection. The miners carry down the ore in baskets by very steep and dangerous paths to the places where the process of amalgamation is performed. The value of the silver furnished by the mines in the first thirty years (from 1771 to 1802) amounted probably to considerably above thirty-two millions of piastres. Notwith- standing the hardness of the quartzose rock, the Peruvians, before the arrival of the Spaniards (as ancient galleries and excavations testify), extracted rich argentiferous galena on PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 285 the Cerro de la Lin and on the Chupiquiyacu, and gold in Curumayo (where native sulphur is also found in the quartz rock as well as in the Brazilian Itacolumite). "We inhabited near the mines the small mountain town of Micuipampa, which is 11140 (11873 English) feet above the level of the sea, and where, though only 6° 43' from the equator, water freezes in the house nightly throughout a large portion of the year. In this desert devoid of vegetation live three or four thousand persons, who are obliged to have all their means of subsistence brought from the warm valleys, as they themselves only rear some kinds of kale and excellent salad. Tn this wilderness, as in every town in the high mountains of Peru, ennui leads the richer class of persons, who are not on that account more cultivated or more civilised, to pass their time in deep gambling : thus wealth quickly won is still more quickly dissipated. There is much that reminds one of the soldier of Pizarro's troop, who, after the pillage of the temple at Cuzco, complained that he had lost in one night at play "a great piece of the sun" (a gold plate). I observed the thermometer at Micuipampa at 8 in the morning 1°, and at noon 7° Reaumur (34°.2 and 47°.8 Fahrenheit). We found among the thin blades of Ichhu-grass (perhaps our Stipa eriostachya), a beautiful Calceolaria (C. sibthor- pioides), which we should not have expected at such an elevation. Not far from the town of Micuipampa, in a high plain called Llanos or Pampa de Navar, there have been found throughout an area of above an English geographical square mile, immediately under the turf, and as it were intertwined 238 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. with the roots of the alpine grasses, enormous masses of rich red silver ore and threads of pure silver (in remolinos, clavos, and vetas manteadas) . Another elevated plain west of the Purgatorio, near the Quebrada de Chiquera, is called "Choropampa" or the "Field of Shells" (churu, in the Quichua language, signifies shells, and particularly small eatable kinds, hostion, mexillon] . The name refers to fossils which belong to the cretaceous group; and which are found there in such abundance that they early attracted the atten- tion of the natives. -This is the place where there was obtained near the surface a mass of pure gold spun round with threads of silver in the richest manner. Such an occurrence shows how independent many of the ores thrown up from the interior of the earth into fissures or veins, are of the nature of the adjacent rock and of the relative age of the formations broken through. The rock of the Cerro de Gualgayoc and of Fuentestiana has a great deal of water, but in the Purgatorio absolute dryness prevails. I found to my astonishment that notwithstanding the height of the strata above the level of the sea, the temperature of the last named mine was 15°.8 Keaumur (67°.4 Fahr.) ; while in the neighbouring Mina de Guadalupe the water in the mine showed about 9° Eeaumur (5 2°. 2 Fahr.) As in the open air the thermometer only rises to about 4° Eeaumur (41° Fahr.), the miners, whose toil is severe, and who are almost without clothing, call the subterranean heat in the Purgatorio stifling. The narrow path from Micuipampa to the ancient city of the Incas, Caxamarca, is difficult even for mules. The name PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 287 of the town was originally Cassamarca or Kazamarca, i. e. the Frost town ; (marca, as signifying a place or locality, belongs to the northern Chinchaysuyo or Chinchaysuyu dia- lect, while the word in the general Quichua language signifies the stories of houses, and also defences or forts). Our way lay for five or six hours over a succession of Paramos, where we were exposed almost incessantly to the fury of the wind and to the sharp-edged hail so peculiar to the ridges of the Andes. The height of the route above the level of the sea is generally between nine and ten thousand feet (about 9600 and 10660 Eng.) It afforded me, however, the opportunity of making a magnetic observation of general interest; i. e. the determination of the point where the North Inclination of the Needle passes into South Inclina- tion, or where the traveller's route crosses the Magnetic Equator. (12) On reaching at length the last of these mountain wilder- nesses, the Paramo de Yanaguanga, the traveller looks down with increased pleasure on the fertile valley of Caxamarca. It affords a charming prospect : a small river winds through the elevated plain, which is of an oval form and about six or seven German geographical square miles in extent (96 or 112 English geographical square miles). The plain re- sembles that of Bogota : both are probably the bottoms of ancient lakes ; but at Caxamarca there is wanting the myth of the wonder-working Botschica or Idacanzas, the high priest of Iraca, who opened for the waters a passage through the rock of Tequendama. Caxamarca is situated 600 (640 Eng.) feet higher than Santa Fe de Bogota, 288 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. therefore almost as high as the city of Quito ; but being sheltered by surrounding mountains it enjoys a far milder and more agreeable climate. The soil is extremely fertile, and the plain full of cultivated fields and gardens tra- versed by avenues of Willows, large flowered red, white, and yellow varieties of Datura, Mimosas, and the beautiful Quinuar-trees (our Polylepsis villosa, a Eosacea allied to Alchemilla and Sanguisorba) . Wheat yields on an average in the Pampa de Caxamarca fifteen to twentyfold, but the hopes of a plentiful harvest are sometimes disappointed by night frosts, occasioned by the great radiation of heat towards the unclouded sky through the dry and rarefied mountain air : the frosts are not felt in the roofed houses. In the northern part of the plain, small porphyritic domes break through the widely extended sandstone strata, and probably once formed islands in the ancient lake before its waters had flowed off. On the summit of one of these domes, the Cerro de Santa Polonia, we enjoyed a pleasing prospect. The ancient residence of Atuhuallpa is surrounded on this side by fruit gardens and by irrigated fields of lucerne (Medicago sativa, " campos de alfalfa"). Columns of smoke are seen at a distance rising from the warm baths of Pultamarca, which are still called Bafios del Inca. I found the temperature of these sulphur-springs 55°.2 .Reaumur (]56°.2 Fahrenheit). Atahuallpa spent a part of the year at these baths, where some slight remains of his palace still survive the devastating rage of the Conquistadores. The large and deep basin or reservoir in which, according to tradition, one of the golden chairs in which the Inca was PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 289 carried had been sunk and has ever since been sought in vain, appeared to me, from the regularity of its circular shape, to have been artificially excavated in the sandstone rock above one of the fissures through which the springs issue. Of the fort and palace of Atahuallpa there are also only very slight remains in the town, which is now adorned with some fine churches. The destruction of the ancient buildings has been accelerated by the devouring thirst of gold which led men, before the close of the sixteenth century, in digging for supposed hidden treasures, to overturn walls and carelessly to undermine or weaken the foundations of all the houses. The palace of the Inca was situated on a hill of porphyry which had originally been hollowed at the surface, so that it surrounds the principal dwelling almost like a wall or rampart. A state prison and a municipal building (la Casa del Cabildo) have been erected on a part of the ruins. The most considerable ruins still visible, but which are only from 13 to 16 feet high, are opposite the convent of San Francisco ; they consist, as may be observed in the house of the Cacique, of fine cut blocks of stone two or three feet long, and placed upon each other without cement, as in the Inca-Pilca or strong fortress of Canar in the high land of Quito. There is a shaft sunk in the porphyritic rock which once led into subterranean chambers, and a gallery said to extend to the other porphyritic dome before spoken of, that of Santa Polonia. Such arrangements shew an apprehension of the uncertainties of war, and the desire to secure the means of escape. The burying of treasures was an old and very gene- VOL. II. U 290 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. rally prevailing Peruvian custom. There may still be found subterranean chambers below many of the private dwellings of Caxamarca. We were shown steps cut in the rock, and also what is called the Inca's foot-bath (el lavatorio de los pies). The washing of the monarch's feet was accompanied by some inconvenient usages of court etiquette. (13) Minor buildings, designed according to tradition for the servants, are constructed partly like the others of cut stones, and provided with sloped roofs, and partly with well formed bricks alternating with siliceous cement (muros y obra de tapia). In the latter class of constructions there are vaulted recesses, the antiquity of which I long doubted, but, as I now believe, without sufficient grounds. In the principal building the room is still shown in which the unhappy Atahuallpa was kept a prisoner for nine months (14) from November 1532, and there is pointed out to the traveller the wall on which the captive signified to what height he would fill the room with gold if set free. This height is given very variously, by Xerez in his " Conquista del Peru" which Barcia has preserved for us, by Hernando Pizarro in his letters, and by other writers of the period. The prince said that "gold in bars, plates, and vessels, should be heaped up as high as he could reach with his hand." Xerez assigns to the room a length of 23, andx a breadth of 18 English feet. Garcilaso de la Vega, who quitted Peru in his 20th year, in 1560, estimates the value of the treasure collected from the temples of the sun at Cuzco, Huaylas, Huamachuco, and Pachacamac, up to the PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 291 fateful 29th of August 1553, on which day the Inca was put to death, at 3,838,000 Ducados de Oro (15). In the chapel of the state prison, to which I have before alluded as built upon the ruins of the Inca's palace, the stone still marked by the indelible stains of blood is shown to the credulous. It is a very thin slab, 13 feet long, placed in front of the altar, and has probably been taken from the porphyry or trachyte of the vicinity. One is not permitted to make any more precise examination by striking off a part of the stone, but the three or four supposed blood spots appear to be natural collections of hornblende or pyroxide in the rock. The Licentiate Fernando Monte- sinos, who visited Peru scarcely a hundred years after the taking of Caxamarca, even at that early period gave currency to the fable that Atahuallpa was beheaded in prison, and that stains of blood were still visible on the stone on which the execution had taken place. There is no reason to doubt the fact, confirmed by many eye-witnesses, that the Inca, in order to avoid being burnt alive, consented to be baptised under the name of Juan de Atahuallpa by his fanatic persecutor, the Dominican monk Yicente de Yalverde. He was put to death by strangulation (el garrote) publicly, and in the open air. Another tradition relates that a chapel was raised over the spot where Atahuallpa was strangled, and that his body rests beneath the stone; in such case, however, the supposed spots of blood would remain unac- counted for. In reality, however, the corpse was never placed beneath the stone in question. After a mass for the dead, and solemn funereal rites, at which the brothers Pizarro 292 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. were present in mourning habits (!), it was conveyed first to the churchyard of the convent of San Francisco, and after- wards to Quito, Atahuallpa' s birthplace. This last transfer was in compliance with the expressed wish of the dying Inca. His personal enemy, the astute Rumifiavi (" stone- eye," a name given from the disfigurement of one eye by a wart ; " rumi," signifying " stone," and " naui," " eye," in the Quichua language), from political motives caused the body to be buried at Quito with solemn obsequies. We found descendants of the monarch, the family of the Indian Cacique Astorpilco, dwelling in Caxamarca, among the melancholy ruins of ancient departed splendour, and living in great poverty and privation; but patient and uncomplaining. Their descent from Atahuallpa through the female line has never been doubted in Caxamarca, but traces of beard may perhaps indicate some admixture of Spanish blood. Of the sons of the Great (but for a child of the sun some- what free thinking), (16) Huayna Capac, neither of the two who swayed the sceptre before the arrival of the Spaniards, Huascar and Atahuallpa, left behind them acknowledged sons. Huascar became the prisoner of Atahuallpa in the plains of Quipaypan, and was soon afterwards secretly mur- dered by his order. Neither were there any surviving male descendants of the two remaining brothers of Atahuallpa, the insignificant youth Toparca, who Pizarro caused to be crowned as Inca in the autumn of 1553, and the enterprising Manco Capac, similarly crowned, but who afterwards rebelled again. Atahuallpa left indeed a son, whose Christian name was Don Francisco, (but who died very young), and a daughter, PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 293 Dona Angelina, by whom Francisco Pizarro (with whom she led a wild and warlike life), had a son whom he loved fondly, grandchild of the slaughtered monarch. Besides the family of the Cacique Astorpilco, with whom I was acquainted at Caxamarca, the Carguraieos and Titu Busca- mayta were pointed out at the period of my visit as belonging to the Inca dynasty ; but the Buscamayta family has since become extinct. The son of the Cacique Astorpilco, a pleasing and friendly youth of seventeen, who accompanied me over the ruins of the palace of his ancestor, while living in extreme poverty, had filled his imagination with images of buried splendour and golden treasures hidden beneath the masses of rubbish upon which we trod. He related to me that one of his more immediate forefathers had bound his wife's eyes, and then conducted her through man) labyrinths cut in the rock into the subterranean garden of the Incas. There she saw, skilfully and elaborately imitated, and formed of the purest gold, artificial trees, with leaves and fruit, and birds sitting on the branches ; and there too was the much sought for golden travelling chair (una de las andas) of Atahuallpa. The man commanded his wife not to touch any of these enchanted riches, because the long foretold period of the restoration of the empire had not yet arrived, and that whoever should attempt before that time to appropriate aught of them would die that very night. These golden dreams and fancies of the youth were founded on recol- lections and traditions of former days. These artificial " golden gardens" ( Jardines o Huertas de oro) were often PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. described by actual eye-witnesses, Cieza de Leon Sarmiento, Garcilaso, and other early historians of the Conquest. They were found beneath the temple of the sun at Cuzco, in Caxa- marca, and in the pleasant valley of Yucay, a favourite resi- dence of the monarch's family. Where the golden Huertas were not below ground, living plants grew by the side of the artificial ones : among the latter, tall plants and ears of maize (mazorcas) are mentioned as particularly well executed. The morbid confidence with which the young Astor- pilco assured me that below our feet, a little to the right of the spot on which I stood at the moment, there was an artificial large-flowered Datura tree (Guanto), formed of gold wire and gold plates, which spread its branches over the Inca's chair, impressed me deeply but painfully, for it seemed as if these illusive and baseless visions were cherished as consolations in present sufferings. I asked the lad — " Since you and your parents believe so firmly in the existence of this garden, are not you sometimes tempted in your necessities to dig in search of treasures so close at hand ?" The boy's answer was so simple, and expressed so fully the quiet resignation characteristic of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, that I noted it in Spanish in my journal. " Such a desire (tal antojo) does not come to us ; father says it would be sinful (que fuese pecado) . If we had the golden branches with all their golden fruits our white neighbours would hate and injure us. We have a small field and good wheat (buen trigo)." Tew of my readers, I think, will blame me for recalling here the words of the young Astorpilco and his golden visions. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 295 The belief, so widely current among the natives, that to take possession of buried treasures which belonged to the Incas would be wrong, and would incur punishment and bring misfortune on the entire race, is connected with another belief winch prevailed, especially in the 1 6th and 17th centuries, ». e. the future restoration of a kingdom of the Incas. Every suppressed nationality looks forward to a day of change, and to a renewal of the old government. The flight of Manco Inca, the brother of Atahuallpa, into the forests of Vilcapampa on the declivity of the eastern Cordillera, and the sojourn of Sayri Tupac and Inca Tupac Amaru in those wildernesses, have left permanent recollections. It was believed that the dethroned dynasty had settled between the rivers Apurimac and Beni, or still farther to the east in Guiana. The myth of el Dorado and the golden city of Manoa, travelling from the west to the east, increased these dreams, and Raleigh's imagination was so inflamed by them, that he founded an expedition on the hope of "conquering 'the imperial and golden city/ placing in it a garrison of three or four thousand English, and levying from the ' Emperor 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 his promised restoration to the throne in Cuzco and Caxamarca." Wherever the Peruvian Quichua language has extended, some traces of such expec- tations of the return of the Inca's sovereignty continue (17) to exist in the minds of many among those of the natives who are possessed of some knowledge of the history of their country. 296 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. "We remained for five days in the town of the Inca Ata- huallpa, which at that time scarcely reckoned seven or eight thousand inhabitants. Our departure was delayed by the number of mules which were required for the conveyance of our collections, and by the necessity of making a careful choice of the guides who were to conduct us across the chain of the Andes to the entrance of the long but narrow Peruvian sandy desert (Desierto de Sechura). The passage over the Cordillera is from north-east to south-west. Imme- diately after quitting the plain of Caxamarca, on ascending a height of scarcely 9600 (10230 English) feet, the traveller is struck with the sight of two grotesquely shaped porphyritic summits, Aroma and Cunturcaga (a favourite haunt of the powerful vulture which we commonly call Condor; kacca in the Quichua language signifies "the rock.") These summits consisted of five, six, or seven- sided columns, 37 to 42 English feet high, and some of them jointed. The Cerro Aroma is particularly picturesque. By the distribution of its often converging series of columns placed one above another, it resembles a two-storied build- ing, which, moreover, is surmounted by a dome or cupola of non-columnar rock. Such outbursts of porphyry and trachyte are, as I have before remarked, characteristic of the high crests of the Cordilleras, to which they impart a phy- siognomy quite distinct from that presented by the Swiss Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Siberian Altai. From Cunturcaga and Aroma we descended by a zig-zag course a steep rocky declivity of 6400 English feet into the deep cleft valley of the Magdalena, the bottom of which PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 297 is still 4260 English feet above the level of the sea. A few wretched huts, surrounded by the same wool or cotton- trees (Bombax discolor) which we had first seen on the banks of the Amazons, were called an Indian village. The scanty vegetation of the valley bears some resemblance to thai of the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, but we missed the red groves of Bougainvillsea. This valley is one of the deepest with which I am acquainted in the chain of the Andes : it is a true transverse valley directed from east to west, deeply cleft, and hemmed in on the two sides by the Altos de Aroma and Guangamarca. In this valley recommences the same quartz formation which we had observed in the Paramo de Yanaguanga, between Micui- pampa and Caxamarca, at an elevation of 11720 English feet, and which, on the western declivity of the Cordillera, attains a thickness of several thousand feet, and was long an enigma to me. Since von Buch has shown us that the cretaceous group is also widely extended in the highest chains of the Andes, on either side of the Isthmus of Panama, the quartz formation which we are now considering, which has perhaps been altered in its texture by the action of volcanic forces, may be considered to belong to the Quader- sandstein, intermediate between the upper part of the chalk series, and the Gault and Greensand. On quitting the mild temperature of the Magdalena valley we had to ascend again for three hours the mountain wall of 5120 English feet, opposite to the porphyritic group of the Alto de Aroma. The change of climate in so doing was the more sensible, as we were often enveloped in the course of the ascent in a cold fog. 298 FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. The longing desire which we felt to enjoy once more the open view of the sea after eighteen months' constant sojourn in the ever restricted range of the interior of the mountains, had been heightened by repeated disappointments. In looking from the summit of the volcano of Pichincha, over the dense forests of the Provincia de las Esmeraldas, no sea horizon can be clearly distinguished, by reason of the too great dis- tance of the coast and height of the station : it is like looking down from an air-balloon into vacancy. One divines, but one does not distinguish. Subsequently, when between Loxa and Guancabamba we reached the Paramo de Guamini, where there are several ruined buildings of the times of the Incas, and from whence the mule- drivers had confidently assured us that we should see beyond the plain, beyond the low districts of Piura and Lambajeque, the sea itself which we so much desired to behold, a thick mist covered both the plain and the distant sea shore. We saw only variously shaped masses of rock alternately rise like islands above the waving sea of mist, and again dis- appear, as had been, the case in our view from the Peak of Teneriffe. "We were exposed to almost the same disappoint- ment in our subsequent transit over the pass of Guanga- marca, at the time of which I am now speaking. As we toiled up the mighty mountain side, with our expectations continually on the stretch, our guides, who were not per- fectly acquainted with the road, repeatedly promised us that at the end of the hour's march which was nearly concluded, our hopes would be realised. The stratum of mist which enveloped us appeared occasionally to be about FIKST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. 299 to disperse, but at such moments our field of view was again restricted by intervening heights. The desire which we feel to behold certain objects does not depend solely on their grandeur, their beauty, or their importance ; it is interwoven in each individual with many accidental impressions of his youth, with early predilection for particular occupations, with an attachment to the remote and distant, and with the love of an active and varied life. The previous improbability of the fulfilment of a wish gives besides to its realisation a peculiar kind of charm. The traveller enjoys by anticipation the first sight of the constellation of the cross, and of the Magellanic clouds circling round the Southern Pole, — of the snow of the Chimborazo, and the column of smoke ascending from the volcano of Quito, — of the first grove of tree-ferns, and of the Pacific Ocean. The days on which such wishes are realised form epochs in life, and produce ineffaceable im- pressions; exciting feelings of which the vividness seeks not justification by processes of reasoning. With the long- ing which I felt for the first view of the Pacific from the crests of the Andes, there mingled the interest with which I had listened as a boy to the narrative of the adventurous expedition of Yasco Nunez de Balboa, (18) the fortunate man who (followed by Francisco Pizarro) first among Euro- peans beheld from the heights of Quarequa, on the Isthmus of Panama, the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean,— the "South Sea." The reedy shores of the Caspian, at the place where I first saw them, i. e. from the Delta formed by the mouths of the Volga, cannot certainly be called pictu- 300 FIEST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. resque ; yet I viewed them with a gratification heightened almost into delight by the particular interest and pleasure with which, in early childhood, I had looked at the shape of this Asiatic inland sea on maps. That which is thus excited in us (19) by childish impressions, or by accidental circum- stances in life, takes at a later period a graver direction, and often becomes a motive for scientific labours and distant enterprises. When after many undulations of the ground, on the summit of the steep mountain ridge, we finally reached the highest point, the Alto de Guangamarca, the heavens which had long been veiled became suddenly clear : a sharp west wind dispersed the mist, and the deep blue of the sky in the thin mountain air appeared between narrow lines of the highest cirrQus clouds. The whole of the western declivity of the Cordillera by Chorillos and Cascas, covered with large blocks of quartz 13 to 15 English feet long, and the plains of Chala and Molinos as far as the sea shore near Truxillo, lay beneath our eyes in astonishing apparent proximity. We now saw for the first time the Pacific Ocean itself; and we saw it clearly : forming along the line of the shore a large mass from which the light shone reflected, and rising in its immensity to the well-defined, no longer merely conjectured horizon. The joy it inspired, and which was vividly shared by my companions Bonpland and Carlos Montufar, made us forget to open the barometer until we had quitted the Alto de Guangamarca. From our measure- ment taken soon after, but somewhat lower down, at an isolated cattle-farm called the Hato de Guangamarca, FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. 301 the point from which we first saw the sea would be only somewhere between 9380 and 9600 English feet above the level of the sea. The view of the Pacific was peculiarly impressive to one who like myself owed a part of the formation of his mind and character, and many of the directions which his wishes had assumed, to intercourse with one of the companions of Cook. My schemes of travel were early made known, in their leading outlines at least, to George Forster, when I enjoyed the advantage of making my first visit to England under his guidance, more than half a century ago. Forster' s charming descriptions of Otaheite had awakened throughout Northern Europe a general interest (mixed, I might almost say, with romantic longings) for the Islands of the Pacific which had at that time been seen by very few Europeans. I too cherished at the time of which I am speaking the hope of soon landing on them ; for the object of my visit to Lima was twofold, — to observe the transit of Mercury over the solar disk, and to fulfil an engagement made with Captain Baudin before I left Paris, to join him in a voyage of circumnavigation which was to take place as soon as the Government of the French Eepublic could furnish the requisite funds. Whilst we were in the Antilles, North American news- papers announced that the two Corvettes, Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste, would sail round Cape Horn and touch at Callao de Lima. On receiving this intelligence at Havana, where I then was, after having completed my Orinoco journey, I relinquished my original plan of going through Mexico to 302 FIKST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. the Philippines, and hastened to engage a vessel to convey me from the Island of Cuba to Cartagena de Indias. Bau- din's Expedition, however, took quite a different route from that which was announced and expected ; instead of sailing round Cape Horn, as had been designed when it had been intended that Bonpland and myself should form part of it, it sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. One of the two objects of my Peruvian journey and of "our last passage over the Chain of the Andes failed ; but on the other . hand I had, at the critical moment, the rare good fortune of a perfectly clear day, during a very unfavourable season of the year, on the misty coast of Low Peru. I observed the passage of Mercury over the Sun at Callao, an observation which has become of some importance towards the exact determination of the longitude of Lima (20), and of all the south-western part of the JNlew Continent. Thus in the intricate relations and graver circumstances of life, there may often be found, associated with disappointment, a germ of compensation. ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 303 ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. (!) p. 267.— "On the ridge of the Chain of the Andes or Antis." The Inca Garcilaso, who was well acquainted with the language of his country and was fond of dwelling on ety- mologies, always calls the Chain of the Andes las Montanas de los Antis. He says positively, that the great Mountain chain east of Cuzco derived its name from the tribe of the Antis, and the Province of Anti which is to the east of the Capital of the Incas. The Quaternary division of the Peruvian Empire according to the four quarters of the Heavens, reckoned from Cuzco, borrowed its terminology not from the very circumstantial words taken which sig- nify East, West, North, and South in the Quichua lan- guage (intip lluscinanpata, intip yaucunanpata, intip chau- tuta chayananpata, intip chaupuuchau chayananpata) • but from the names of the Provinces and of the tribes or races, (Provincias llamadas Anti, Cunti, Chincha y Colla), which are east, west, north, and south of the Centre of the Empire (the city of Cuzco) . The four parts of the Inca- theocracy are called accordingly Antisuyu, Cuntisuyu, Chinchasuyu, and Collasuyu. The word suyu signifies " strip," and also "part." Notwithstanding the great distance, Quito be- 304 PLATEAU OP CAXAMARCA. longed to Chinchasuyu ; and in proportion as by their re- ligious wars the Incas extended still more widely the preva- lence of their faith, their language, and their absolute form of government, these Suyus also acquired larger and un- equally increased dimensions. Thus the names of provinces came to be used to express the different quarters of the heavens ; " Nombrar aquellos Partidos era lo mismo," says Garcilaso, " que decir al Oriente, 6 al Poniente." The Snow Chain of the Antis was thus looked upon as an East chain. " La Provincia Anti da nombre a las Montafi as de los Antis. Llamaron la parte a 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 en- tender, que esta al Oriente." (Commentaries Reales, P. I. p. 47 and 122.) Later writers have tried to deduce the name of the Chain of the Andes from "anta," which signifies " copper" in the Quichua language. This metal was indeed of the greatest importance to a nation whose tools and cutting instruments were made not of iron but of copper mixed with tin ; but the name of the " Copper Mountains" can hardly have been extended to so great a chain; and besides, as Professor Buschmann very justly remarks, the word anta retains its terminal a when making part of a compound word : anta, cobre, y antamarca Pro- vincia de Cobre. Moreover, the form and composition of words in the ancient Peruvian language are so simple that there can be no question of the-passage of an a into an i ; and thus ".anta" (copper) and "Anti or Ante" (meaning as dictionaries of the country explain " la tierra de los Andes, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 305 el Indio h ombre de los Andes, la Sierra de los Andes/' i. e. the country of the Andes, an inhabitant ?of the Andes, or the chain of mountains themselves), are and must continue two wholly different and distinct words. There are no means of interpreting the proper name (Anti) by connecting it with any signification or idea ; if such connection exist it is buried in the obscurity of the past. Other Composites of Anti besides the above-mentioned Antisuyuare "Anteruna" (the native inhabitant of the Andes), and Anteunccuy or Antionccoy, (sickness of the Andes, rnal de los Andes pestifero) . (2) p. 268.— « The Countess of Chine/ion." She was the wife of the Viceroy Don Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera, Bobadilla y Mendoza, Conde de Chinchon, who administered the government of Peru from 1629 to 1639. The cure of the Vice-Queen falls in the year 1638. A tradition which has obtained currency in Spain, but which I have heard much combated at Loxa, names a Corregidor del Cabildo de Loxa, Juan Lopez de Canizares, as the person by whom the Quina-bark was first brought to Lima and generally recommended as a remedy. I have heard it asserted in Loxa that the beneficial virtues of the tree were known long before in the mountains, though not generally. Immediately after my return to Europe I expressed the doubts I felt as to the discovery having been made by the natives of the country round Xioxa, since even at the present day the Indians of the neighbouring valleys, where inter- mittent fevers are very prevalent, shun the use of VOL. n. x 306 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. bark. (Compare my memoir entitled "liber die Cliina- walder" in the " Magazin der Gesellschaft naturforscliender Treunde" zu Berlin, Jahrg. I. 1807, S. 59.) The story of the natives having learnt the virtues of the Cinchona from the lions who " cure themselves of intermittent fevers by gnawing the bark of the China (or Quina) trees," — (Hist, de 1'Acad. des Sciences, annee 1738, Paris, 1740, p, 233),— appears to be entirely of European origin, and nothing but a monk- ish fable. Nothing is known in the New Continent of the ' ' Lion's fever," for the large so-called American Lion (Pelis concolor), and the small mountain Lion (Puma) whose foot- marks I have seen on the snow, are never tamed and made the subjects of observation ; nor are the different species of Feliiise in either continent accustomed to gnaw the bark of trees. The name of Countess's Powder (Pulvis Comi- tissse), occasioned by the remedy having been distributed by the Countess of Chinchon, was afterwards changed to that of Cardinal's or Jesuit's powder, because Cardinal de Lugo, Procurator-General of the order of the Jesuits, spread the knowledge of this valuable remedy during a journey through Prance, and recommended it to Cardinal Mazarin the more urgently, as the brethren of the order were beginning to pro- secute a lucrative trade in South American Quina-bark which they obtained through their missionaries. It is hardly ne- cessary to remark, that in the long controversy which ensued respecting the good or bad effects of the fever bark, the protestant physicians sometimes permitted themselves to be influenced by religious intolerance and dislike of the Jesuits, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 307 (3) p. 27l.—"Aposentos de Mulalos." Respecting these aposentos (dwellings, inns, in the Quiclma language tampu, whence the Spanish form tambo), compare Ciega, Chronica del Peru, cap. 41, (ed. de 1554, p. 108) and my Yues des Cordilleres, PL xxiv. (4) p. 272.— « The fortress of the Canar" Is situated not far from Turche, at an elevation of 9984 (10640 English) feet. I have given a drawing of it in the Yues des Cordilleres, PL xvii. (compare also Ciega, cap. 44, P. i. p. 120). Not far from the Portaleza del Canar, in the celebrated ravine of the Sun, Inti-Guaycu, (in the Qui- chua or Qquechhua language, huaycco), is the rock on which the natives think they see a representation of the sun and of an enigmatical sort of bank or bench which is called Inga- Chungana (Incachuncana), the Inca's play. I have drawn both. See Yues des Cordilleres, PL xviii. and xix. (5) p. 272. — "Artificial roads covered with cemented gravel" Compare Yelasco, Historia de Quito, 1844, T. i. p. 126- 128, and Prescott, Hist, of the Conquest of Peru, Yol. i. p. 157. (6) p. 273. — " Where the road was interrupted by flights of steps." Compare Pedro Sancho in Eamusio, Yol. iii. fol. 404, and Extracts from Manuscript Letters of Hernando Pizarro, 308 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAHCA. employed by the great historical writer now living at Boston ; Prescott, 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 hermosos caminos, toda la mayor parte de calzada." (7) p. 275. — " Greeks and Romans < shew these contrasts." " If," says Strabo,' (Lib. v. p. 235, Casaub) "the Greeks in building their cities sought for a happy result by aiming especially at beauty and solidity, the Romans on the other hand have regarded particularly, objects which the Greeks left unthought of ; — stone pavements in the streets ; aqueducts bringing to the city abundant supplies of water ; and pro- visions for drainage so as to wash away and carry to the Tiber all uncleanliness. They also paved the roads through the country, so that waggons may transport with ease the goods brought by trading ships." (8) p. 276. — " The messenger of the deity N,emterequeteba" The civilisation of ancient Mexico (the Aztec land of Anahuac), and that of the Peruvian theocracy or empire of the Incas, the children of the Sun, have so engrossed atten- tion in Europe, that a third point of comparative light and of dawning civilisation, which existed among the nations inhabiting the mountains of New Granada, was long almost entirely overlooked. 1 have touched on this subject in some detail in the Vue des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples Indigenes de FAmerique (ed. in 8vo.) T. ii. p. 220- ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 309 267. The form of the government of the Muyscas of New Granada reminds us of the constitution of Japan and the relation of the Secular Buler (Kubo or Seogun at Jeddo) to the sacred personage the Dairi at Miyako. When Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada advanced to the high table land of Bogota (Bacata, i. e. the extremity of the cultivated fields, probably from the proximity of the mountain wall), he found there three powers or authorities respecting whose reciprocal relations and subordination there remains some uncertainty. The spiritual chief, who was appointed by election, was the high priest of Iraca or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi, the place of the disappearance of Nemterequeteba) : the secular rulers or princes were the Zake (Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and the Zipa of Eunza. In the feudal constitution the last- named prince appears to have been originally subordinate to the Zake. The Muyscas had a regular mode of computing time, with intercalation for amending the lunar year : they used small circular plates of gold, cast of equal diameter, as money (any traces of which among the highly civilised ancient Egyptians have been sought in vain), and they had temples of the Sun with stone columns, remains of which have very recently been discovered in the Yalley of Leiva. (Joaquin Acosta, Compendio historico del Descubrirniento de la Nueva Granada, 1848, p. 188, 196, 206, and 208; Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic de Paris, 1847, p. 114.) The tribe or race of the Muyscas ought properly speaking to be always denoted by the name of Chibchas ; as Muysca in the Chibcha language signifies merely " men," " people." 310 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. The origin and elements of the civilisation introduced are attributed to two mystical forms, Bochica (Botschica) and Nemterequeteba which are often confounded together. The first of these is still more mythical than the second ; for it was only Botschica who was regarded as divine, and mad? almost equal to the Sun itself. His fair companion Chia or Huythaca occasioned by her magical arts the overflowing of the valley of Bogota, and for so doing was banished by Bots- chica from the earth, and made to revolve round it for the first time, as the moon. Botschica struck the rock of Te- quendama, and gave a passage for the waters to flow off near the field of the Giants (Campo de Gigantes) in which the bones of elephant-like mastodons lie buried at an eleva- tion of 8250 (8792 Engl.) feet above the level of the sea. Captain Cochrane (Journal of a Residence in Colombia, 1825, Vol. ii. p. 390) and Mr. John Ranking (Historical Researches on the Conquest of Peru, 1827, p. 397), state that animals of this species are still living in the Andes, and shed their teeth! Nemterequeteba, also called Chinzapogua (enviado de Dios) is a human .person, a bearded man, who came from the East, from Pasca, and disappeared at Sogamoso. The foundation of the sanctuary of Iraca is sometimes ascribed to him and sometimes to Botschica, and as the latter is said to have borne also the name of Nemqueteba, the confusion between the two, on ground so unhistoric, is easily accounted for. My old friend Colonel Acosta, in his instructive work entitled Compendio de la Hist, dela Nueva Granada, p. 185, endeavours to prove by means of the Chibcha language that ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 311 " potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) bear at Usme the native non-Peruvian name of Yomi, and were found by Quesada already cultivated in the province of Velez as early as 1537, a period when their introduction from Chili, Peru, and Quito, would seem improbable, and therefore that the plant may be regarded as a native of New Granada," I would remark, however, that the Peruvian invasion and complete possession of Quito took place before 1525, the year of the death of the Inca Huayna Capac. The southern provinces of Quito even fell under the dominion of Tupac Inca Yupanqui at the conclusion of the 15th century (Prescott, Conquest of Peru, Vol. i. p. 332.) In the unfortunately still very obscure history of the first introduction of the potato into Europe, the merit of its introduction is still very generally attributed to Sir John Hawkins, who is sup- posed to have received it from Santa Ee in 1563 or 1565. It appears more certain that Sir Walter Raleigh planted the first potatoes on his Irish estate near Youghal, from whence they were taken to Lancashire. Before the con- quista, the plantain (Musa), which since the arrival of the Spaniards has been cultivated in all the warmer parts of New Granada, was only found, as Colonel Acosta believes, (p. 205) at Choco. On the name Cundinamarca, — applied by a false erudition to the young republic of New Granada in 1811, a name " full of golden dreams" (suenos dorados), more properly Cundirumarca (not Cunturmarca, Garcilaso, lib. viii. cap. 2), — see also Joaquin Acosta, p. 189. Luis Daza, who joined the small invading army of the Conquis- tador Sebastian de Belalcazar which came from Jhe south, had heard of a distant country abounding in gold, called 312 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. Cundirumarca, inhabited by the tribe of the Chicas, and whose prince had solicited Atahuallpa at Caxamarca for auxiliary troops. These Chicas have been confounded with the Chibchas or Muyscas of New Granada ; and thus the name of the unknown more southern country has been unduly transferred to that territory. (9) p. 278.— " The fall of the Rio de Chamaya." Compare my Eecueil d'Observ. Astron., vol. i. p. 304 ; Nivellement baroinetrique, No. 236-242. I have given in the Vues des Cordilleres, PI. xxxi. a drawing of the " swim- ming post/' as he binds round his head the handkerchief containing the letters. (10) p. 280. — " Which, on account of an old observation of La Condamine, was of some importance to the geography of South America." I desired to connect chronometrically Tomependa, the point at which La Condamine began his voyage, and other places geographically determined by him on the Amazons river, with the town of Quito. La Condamine had been in June 1743, (59 years before me) at Tomependa, which place I found, by star observations taken for1 three nights, to be in south lat. 5° 31' 2b", and west longitude from Paris 80° 56' 37" (from Greenwich 78° 34' 55"). Previous to my return to Prance the longitude of Quito was in error to the full amount of 50 f minutes of arc, as Oltmanns has shown by my observations, and by a laborious recalculation of all those previously made. (Humboldt, Eecueil d' Obser- vations Astron., vol. ii. p. 309-359). Jupiter's satellites, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 313 lunar distances, and occupations, give a satisfactory accord- ance, and all the elements of the calculation are placed before the public. The too easterly longitude of Quito was transferred by La Condamine to Cuenca and the Amazons river. " Je fis," says La Condamine, ' ' mon premier essai de navigation sur un radeau (balsa) en descendant la riviere de Chinchipe jusqu'a Tomependa. II fallut nle contenter d'en determiner la latitude et de conclure la longitude par les routes. J'y fis mon testament politique en redigeant Textrait de mes observations le plus importantes." (Journal du Voyage fait a TEquateur, 1751, p. 186.) (ll) p. 282. — " At upwards of twelve 'thousand feet above the sea we found fossil marine shells." See my Essai geognostique sur le Gisement des Roches, 1823, p. 236; and for the first zoological determination of the fossils contained in the cretaceous group in the chain of the Andes, see Leop. de Buch, Petrifications re- cueillies en Amerique, par Alex, de Humboldt et Charles Degenhardt, 1839 (in fol.), pp. 2-3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 18-22. Pentland found fossil shells of the Silurian formation in Bolivia, on the Nevado de Antakiiua, at the height of 164000 French (17480 English) feet, (Mary Somerville, Physical Geography, 1849, Yol. i. p. 185). (12) p. 287. — " Where the chain of the Andes is inter- sected by the magnetic equator" Compare my Relation hist, du Voyage aux Regions equinoxiales, T. iii. p. 622 ; and Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 191 314 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. and 432 ; where, however, by errors of the press, the longi- tude is once 48° 40', and afterwards 80° 40', instead of, as it should be, 80° 54' from Paris (or 78° 32' from Green- wich), (English edit. p. 173, and note 159). (13) p. 290. — "Accompanied by inconvenient ceremonies of Court etiquette" In conformity with a highly ancient Court ceremonial, Atahuallpa spat not on the ground, but into the hand of one of the principal ladies present ; " all," says Garcilaso, ff on account of his majesty." El Inca nunca escupia en el suelo, sino en la mano de una Sefiora mui principal, por Majestad, (Garcilaso, Comment. Eeales, P. ii. p. 46). (14) p. 290.— " Captivity of Atahuallpa !y • A short time before the captive Inca was put to death, he was taken into the open air, in compliance with his re- quest, to see a large comet. The " greenish black comet, nearly as thick as a man," (Garcilaso says, P. ii. p. 44, una cometa verdinegra, poco menos gruesa que el cuerpo de un hombre), seen by Atahuallpa before his death, therefore in July or August 1533, and which he supposed to be the same malignant comet which had appeared at the death of his father, Huayna Capac, is certainly the one observed by Appian (Pingr6, Cometographie, T. i. p. 496 ; and Galleys " Notice of all the Paths of Comets hitherto computed," in " Giber's Leichtester Methode die Bahn eines Cometen zu berechnen," 1847, S. 206), and which, on the 21st of July, standing high in the north, near the constellation of Perseus, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 315 represented the sword which Perseus holds in his right hand. (Madler, Astronomie, 1846, S. 307 ; Schnurrer, Die Chrouik der Seuchen in Verbindung mit gleichzeitigen Erscheinungen, 1825, Th. ii. S. 82.) Robertson considers the year of Huajna Capac's death uncertain; but, from the researches of Balboa and Velasco, that event appears to have occurred towards the close of 1525 : thus the statements of Hevelius (Cometographia, p. 844), and of Pingre (T. i. p. 485), derive confirmation from the testimony of Garcilaso (P. i. p. 321) and the tradition preserved among the " amautas, que son los filosofos de aquella Republica." I may here introduce the remark, that Oviedo alone, and certainly erroneously, asserts, in the inedited continuation of his Historia de las Indias, that the proper name of the Inca was not Atahuallpa, but Atabaliva (Prescott, Conquest of Peru, Vol. i. p. 498.) The sum mentioned in the text is that which is stated by Garcilaso de la Vega in the Commentaries reales de los Incas, Parte ii. 1722, pp. 27 and 51. The statements of Padre Bias Valera and of Gomara, Historia de las Indias, 1553, p. 67, differ, however, considerably. Compare my Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne (ed. 2), T. iii. p. 424). It is, moreover, no less difficult to determine the value of the Ducado, Castellano, or Peso de Oro. (Essai pol. T. iii. pp. 371 and 377; Joaquin Acosta, Descubri- miento de la Nueva Granada, 1848, p. 14.) The modern excellent historical writer, Prescott, has been able to avail 316 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. himself of a manuscript bearing the very promising title, " Acta de Repartition del Kescate de Atahuallpa." The estimate of the whole Peruvian booty which the brothers Pizarro and Almagro divided amongst themselves at the (I believe) too large value of three and a half millions of pounds sterling, includes doubtless the gold of the ransom and that taken from the different temples of the Sun and from the enchanted gardens, (Huertas de Oro). (Prescott, Conquest of Peru, Vol. i. pp. 464-477.) (16) p. 292.—" The great, but, for a Son of the Sun, somewhat free-thinking Huayna Capac" The nightly absence of the Sun excited in the Inca many philosophical doubts as to the government of the world by that luminary. Padre Bias Valera noted down the remarks of the Inca on the subject of the Sun : " Many maintain that the Sun lives, and is the Maker and Doer of all things (el hacedor de todas las cosas) ; but whoever would com- plete any thing must remain by what he is doing. Now many things take place when the Sun is absent ; therefore he is not the original cause of all things. It seems also doubtful whether he is living; for though always circling round, he is never weary (no se cansa). If he was living, he would become weary, as we do ; and if he was free, he would surely move sometimes into parts of the heavens where we never see him. The Sun is like an animal fastened by a cord so as always to move in the same round, (como una Res atada que siempre hace un mismo cerco) ; or as an arrow which only goes where it is sent, ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 317 and not where it chooses itself." (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales, P. i. lib. viii. cap. 8, p. 276.) The view taken of the circling round of a heavenly body, as if it was fastened to a cord, is very striking. As Huayna Capac died at Quito in 1525, seven years before the arrival of the Spaniards, he no doubt used, instead of " res atada," the general ex- pression of an " animal " fastened to a cord ; but indeed, even in Spanish, "res" is by no means limited to oxen, but may be applied to any tame cattle. We cannot examine here how far the Padre may have mingled parts of his own sermons with the heresies of the Inca, with the view of weaning the natives from the official and dynastic worship of the Sun, the religion of the Court. We see in the very conservative State policy, and in the maxims of State and proceedings of the Inca Roca, the conqueror of the province of Charcas, the solicitude which was felt to guard strictly the lower classes of the people from such doubts. This Inca founded schools for the upper classes only, and forbade, under heavy penalties, to teach the common people any thing, " lest they should become presumptuous, and should create disturbances in the State!" (No es lecito que ensenen a los hijos de los Plebeios las Ciencias, porque la gente baja no se eleve y ensobervezca y msnoscabe la Re- pub lica; Garcilaso, P. i. p. 276.) Thus the policy of the Inca's theocracy was almost the same as that of the Slave States in the United Eree States of North America. (17) p. 295. — " The restoration of an empire of the Incas." I have treated this subject more fully in another place 318 PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. (Relation hist. T. iii. p. 703-705 and 713). Raleigh thought there was in Peru an old prophecy "that from Inglaterra those Ingas should be againe in time to come restored and deliuered from the seruitude of the said con- querors. I am resolued that if there were but a srnal army afoote in Guiana marching towards Manoa, the chiefe citie of Inga, he would yield Her Majestic by composition so many hundred thousand pounds yearely, as should both defend all enemies abroad and defray all expences 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 wil be brought to tribute with great gladnes." (Raleigh, " The Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, performed in 1595," according to the edition published by Sir Robert Schomburgk, 1848, p. 119 and 137.) This scheme of a Restoration promised much that might be very agreeable to both sides, but unfortunately the dynasty who were to be restored, and who were to pay the money, were wanting ! (18) p. 299. — " Of the expedition of Vasco Nunez de Balboa." I have already remarked elsewhere (Examen critique de Thistoire de la Geographic du Nouveau Continent, et des progres de 1' Astronomic nautique aux 15 erne et 16 erne siecles, T. i. p. 349) that Columbus knew fully ten years before Balboa's expedition the existence of the South Sea and its great proximity to the east coast of Veragua. He was conducted to this knowledge not by theoretical specula- ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 319 tions respecting the configuration of Eastern Asia, but by the local and positive reports of the natives, which he col- lected on" his fourth voyage (May 11, 1502, to November 7, 1504). On this fourth voyage the Admiral went from the coast of Honduras to the Puerto de Mosquitos, the western end of the Isthmus of Panama. The reports of the natives, and the comments of Columbus on those reports in the "Carta rarissima" of the 7th of July, 15 03, were to the effect that " not far from the Rio de Belen the other sea (the South Sea) turns (boxa) to the mouths of the Ganges, so that the countries of the Aurea (i. e. the countries of the Chersonesus aurea of Ptolemy) are situated in relation to the eastern coasts of "Veragua, as Tortosa (at the mouth of the Ebro) is to Puentarrabia (on the Bidassoa) in Biscay, or as Venice in relation to Pisa." Although Balboa first saw the South Sea from the heights of the Sierra de Quarequa on the 25th of September (Petr. Martyr, Epist. dxl. p. 296), yet it was not until several days later that Alonso Martin de Don Benito, who found a way from the mountains of Quarequa to the Gulf of San Miguel, embar&ed on the South Sea in a canoe. (Joaquin Acosta, Compendio hist, del Descubrimiento de la Nueva Granada, p. 49.) As the taking possession of a considerable part of the west coast of the New Continent by the United States of North America, and the report of the abundance of gold in New California (now called Upper California) have rendered more urgent than ever the formation of a communication between the Atlantic States and the regions of the West through the Isthmus of Panama, I feel it my duty to call 320 PLATEAU OF CAXAMATICA. attention once again to the circumstance that the shortest way to the shores of the Pacific, which was shown by the natives to Alonso Martin de Don Benito, is in the eastern part of the Isthmus, and led to the Golfo de San Miguel. We know that Columbus (Yida del Almirante por Don Fernando Colon, cap. 90) sought for an " estrecho de Tierra firme" ; and in the official documents which we possess of the years 1505 and 1507, and especially 1514, mention is made of the desired " opening" (abertura), and of the pass (passo), which should lead directly to the " Indian Land of Spices." Having for more than forty years been occupied with the subject of the means of communication between the two seas, I have constantly, both in my printed works and in the different memoirs which with honourable confidence the Free States of Spanish America have requested me to furnish, urged that the Isthmus should be examined hypso- metrically throughout its entire length, and more especially where, in Darien and the inhospitable former Provincia de Biruquete, it joins the continent of South America ; and where, between the Atrato and the Bay of Cupica (on the shore of the Pacific), the mountain chain of the Isthmus almost entirely disappears. (See in my Atlas geographique et physique de la Nouvelle Espagne, PL iv. ; in the Atlas de la Relation historique, PL xxii. and xxiii. ; Yoyage aux Regions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, T. iii. p. 117- 154 ; and Essai politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, T. i. 2de edit. 1825, p. 202-248.) General Bolivar at my request caused an exact levelling of the Isthmus between Panama and the mouth of the Rio ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 321 Chagres to be made in 1828 and 1829 by Lloyd and Falmarc. (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for the year 1830, p. 59-68.) Other measure- ments have since been executed by accomplished and expe- rienced French engineers, and projects have been formed for canals and railways with locks and tunnels, but always in the direction of a meridian between Portobello and Panama, — or more to the west, towards Chagres and Cruces. Thus the most important points of the eastern and south-eastern part of the Isthmus have remained un- examined on both shores ! So long as this part is not exa- mined geographically by means of exact but easily obtained determinations of latitude and of longitude by chronometers, as well as hypsometrically in the conformation of the surface by barometric measurements of elevation, — so long I consider that the statement I have repeatedly made, and which I now repeat in 1849, will still be true; viz. " that it is as yet un- proved and quite premature to pronounce that the Isthmus does not admit of the formation of an Oceanic Canal (i. e. a canal with fewer locks than the Caledonian Canal) permit- ting at all seasons the passage of the same sea-going ships between New York and Liverpool on the one hand, and Chili and California on the other." On the Atlantic side (according to examinations which the Direccion of the Deposito hidrografico of Madrid have entered on their maps since 1809) the Enseuada de Man- dinga penetrates so deeply towards the south that it appears to be only four or five German geographical miles, fifteen to an equatorial degree, (i. e. 16 or 20 English geographical VOL. n. Y 322 PLATEAU OP CAXAMARCA. miles), from the coast of the Pacific on the east of Panama. On the Pacific side the isthmus is almost equally indented by the deep Golfo de San Miguel, into which the Rio Tuyra falls, with its tributary river the Chuchunque (Chu- chunaque). This last-named stream in the upper part of its course approaches within 16 English geographical miles of the Atlantic side of the isthmus to the west of Cape Tiburon. For more than twenty years I have had inquiries made from me on the subject of the problem of the Isthmus of Panama, by associations desirous of employing conside- rable pecuniary means : but the simple advice which I have given has never been followed. Every scientifically educated engineer knows that between the tropics, (even without corresponding observations), good barometric measurements (the horary variations being taken into account) afford results which are well assured to less than from 70 to 90 French or 75 to 96 English feet. It would besides be easy to establish for a few months on the two shores two fixed corresponding barometric stations, and to compare repeatedly the portable instruments employed in preliminary levelling, with each other and with those at the fixed stations. Let that part be particularly examined where, near the continent of South America, the separating mountain ridge sinks into hills. Seeing the importance of the subject to the great commerce of the world, the research ought not, as hi- therto, to be restricted to a limited field. A great and com- prehensive work, which shall include the whole eastern part of the Isthmus, — and which will be equally useful for every possible kind of operation or construction, — for canal, or for ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 323 railway, —can alone decide the much discussed problem either affirmatively or negatively. That will be done at last, which should, and, had my advice been taken, woidd have been done in the first instance. (19) p. 300 — " Thai which is awakened in us ly childish impressions or by the circumstances of life." On the incitements to the study of nature, compare Kosmos, Bd. ii. S. 5, (English edit. vol. ii. p. 5), p. 302.— " Of importance for the exact determi- nation of the longitude of Lima" At the period of my Expedition, the Longitude of Lima was given in the maps published in the Deposito hidro- grafico de Madrid, from the observations of Malaspina, which made it 5h. 16m. 53s. from Paris. The transit of Mercury over the Sun's disk on the 9th of November, 1802, which I observed at Callao, the Port of Lima, (in the northern Torreon del Fuerte de San Felipe) gave for Callao by the mean of the contact of both limbs 5h. 18m. 16s. 5, and by the exterior contact only 5h. 18m. 18s. (79° 34 30''). This result (obtained from the Transit of Mercury) is confirmed by those of Lartigue, Duperrey, and Captain FitzRoy in the Expedition of the Adventure and Beagle. Lartigue found Callao 5h. 17m. 58s., Duperrey 5h. 18m. 16s., and FitzRoy 5h. 18m. 15s. (all West of Paris). As I determined the difference of longitude between Callao and the Convent de San Juan de Dios at Lima by carrying chronometers between them four times, the observation of 324 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. the transit of Mercury gives the longitude of Lima 5h. 17m. 51s. (79° 27' 45" W. from Paris, or 77° 06' 03" W. from Greenwich). Compare my Eecueil ^observations astron. Vol. ii. p. 397, 419 and 428, with my Eelat. hist. T. iii. p. 592. Potsdam, June 1849. GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OE THE SECOND VOLUME. GENERAL SUMMARY CONTENTS OP VOL. II. Physiognomy of 'Plants— -p. 1 to p. 31. Universal profuse distribution of organic life on the declivities of the highest mountains, on the ocean, and in the atmosphere. Sub- terranean Flora. Siliceous-shelled Polygastrica in masses of polar ice. Podurellse in tubular holes in the glaciers of the Alps ; the glacier flea (Desoria glacialis). Small organic creatures in the dust which falls like rain in the neighbourhood of the African Desert 3—8 History of the vegetable covering of the surface of the globe. Gra- dual extension of vegetation over the bare rocky crust. Lichens, mosses, and succulent plants. Causes of the present absence of vegetation in particular districts 8 — 13 Each zone has its peculiar character. All animal and vegetable forms attached to fixed and always recurring types. Physiognomy of Nature. Analysis of the general impression produced by the aspect of a country or district. The several elements which make up this impression ; outlines of the mountains, azure of the sky, and form of the clouds : but principally determined by the vegetable covering. Animal organisation far less influential on the landscape from defi- ciency of mass. The power of locomotion of individuals, and 328 SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OP VOL. II. frequently their small size, also contribute to lessen their general effect on the landscape 13—16 Enumeration of the forms of plants which principally determine the physiognomy of Nature, and which decrease or increase from the equator to the poles according to laws which have been made the subject of investigation 17 — 20 Palms 20, 21, 126—140 Plantains or Bananas 21, 22, 140, 141 Malvaceae 22, 141—143 Mimosae 22, 23, 143—145 Erice£e, or Heath form 23, 24, 145—147 Cactus form 24, 147—151 Orchideaj. 24, 25, 151, 152 Casuarineae .25, 152, 153 Needle trees . . . . . . . .25, 153-175 PothosandAroidese.- . . ..." . . .26,175—178 Lianes, or twining rope plants . . . . .26, 178 — 180 Aloe form . . . 27,380—183 Graminege ... . '. . . . .27, 28, 18B-187 Eerns ......... 28,188—193 Liliacese 28, 193 Willow form . 28, 193—196 Myrtacese 28, 196—200 Melastomaceae 28, 200 Laurel form 28, 200 Enjoyment derived from the sight of the natural grouping and con- SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 329 trasts of these forms of plauts. Importance of the physiognomic study of plants to the landscape painter . . 29—31, 200—203 Scientific Elucidations and Additions— -p. 33 to p. 210. Organic forms, animal and vegetable, in the highest mountain regions adjacent to the limit of perpetual snow in the Andes and the Alps ; insects carried up involuntarily by ascending currents of air. The Hypudaeus nivalis of the Swiss Alps. On the true elevation above the sea reached by the Chinchilla laniger in Chili . . 33 — 35 Lecidias and Parmelias on rocks not entirely covered with snow ; some phsenogamous plants also wander in the Cordilleras beyond the limits of perpetual snow, as the Saxifraga boussingaulti, to 15770 English feet above the level of the sea. Groups of phseno- gamous plants extend in the Andes to 13700 and 14920 English feet above the sea ; species of Culcitium, Espeletia, and Ranunculus ; small umbelliferous plants resembling mosses in appearance ; Myrrhis andicola and Fragosa arctioides. . . .35, 36 Measurement of the height of Chimborazo, and etymology of the name 36—39 On the greatest absolute heights which have yet been reached by any human beings in either continent; in the Cordilleras and the Himalaya, on the Chimborazo and the Tarhigang . . .40 Habits and haunts of the Condor (Cuntur in the Inca language), and singular mode of capturing these powerful birds in an enclosure fenced by palisades 40 — 44 'Useful services rendered by the Gallinazos (Cathartes urubu and C. aura) in purifying the air in the neighbourhood of human habita- tions ; these birds sometimes tamed . . . .44,45 330 SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. On what has been called the revivification of Rotiferae ; views of Ehrenberg and Doyere. According to Payen, germs of Crypto- gamia preserve their power of germination even after being ex- to the highest temperatures 45—47 Diminution, if not entire suspension, of organic functions in the winter sleep of animals belonging to the higher classes . 47, 48 Summer sleep of animals in the tropical zone ; great dryness acts like winter cold. Tenrecs, crocodiles, tortoises, and the Lepidosiren of Eastern Africa. 48-51 Anther dust or pollen; fertilization of flowers. The Coelebogyne found to produce perfect seeds in England without any traces of pollen being discovered 51 — 53 The luminosity of the ocean produced by living luminous animals and by decaying fibres and membranes of animals. Acalephse and siliceous-shelled luminous Infusoria. Influence on the luminosity of a stimulus applied to the nerves . . . . 53 — 60 Pentastomes inhabiting the pulmonary cells of the rattle-snake of Cumana ; . . . . . . . . . 60, 61 Hock-building corals. The scaffolding or solid material which survives the death of the coral animals. More correct views of recent times. Shore reefs, encircling reefs, and lagoon islands. Atolls, or coral walls enclosing a lagoon. The coral islands to the south of Cuba, the Jardines del Hey of Columbus. The living gelatinous investment of the calcareous scaffolding of the coral trunks attracts fish and turtles in search of food. Singular mode of fishing by the aid of the Remora (the Echeneis naucrates) .... 62 — 72 Probable greatest depth of coral structures . . . 72—75 SUMMARY OP THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 331 Besides much carbonate of lime and magnesia, Madrepores and Astreeas also contain some fluoric and phosphoric acids . 75, 76 Oscillatory state of the bottom of the sea according to Darwin 76—79 Traditions of Samothrace. Irruptions of the sea. Mediterranean. Sluice theory of Strato. Myth of Lyktonia, and the "Atlantis broken into fragments" 78—83 On the causes which prevent the sinking down of clouds and precipi- tation taking place from them 83 — 84 Heat disengaged from the crust of the earth while solidifying. Hot currents of air which in the early ages of the earth, from frequent corrugations of the strata and elevations of land, may have been diffused in the atmosphere from temporary fissures . . 84,85 Colossal size and great age of some kinds of trees ; Dragon tree of Orotava thirteen, and Adansonia digitata (Baobab) thirty-two English feet in diameter. Characters cut in the bark of the trees in . the 15th century. Adanson assigns to some of the Baobab trunks in Senegambia an age of between 5100 and 6000 years . 86-92 Judging by the annular rings, there are yew-trees (Taxus baccata) from 2600 to 3000 years old. Is it true that in the northern temperate zone the part of the tree turned towards the north has narrower annular rings, as Michel Montaigne affirmed in 1581 ? Species of trees in which individuals attain a size of above twenty- one or twenty-two English feet diameter, and an age of several centuries, belong to the most different natural families . 92—94 Diameter of the Mexican Schubertia disticha of Santa Maria del Tule 40| English feet; the sacred Banyan fig-tree of Ceylon almost 30; and the oak at Saintes (Dep. de la Charente Infe'rieure) 29^ English feet. The age of the oak tree estimated from its annular rings at 332 SUMMARY OP THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. from 1800 to 2000 years. The root of the rose tree growing against the crypt of the Cathedral of Hildesheim is 800 years old. A kind of sea-weed, Macrocystis pyrifera, attains a length of 630 English feet, exceeding therefore the height of the loftiest Coni- ferae, even that of the Sequoia gigantea .... 94 — 97 Examination of the probable number of phsenogamous plants hitherto described or preserved in herbariums. Relative numbers. Laws discovered in the geographical distribution of plants. Relative num- bers of the great divisions of Cryptogamia to Cotyledonous plants, and of Monocotyledonous to Dicotyledonous plants, in the torrid, temperate, and frigid zones. Elements of arithmetical botany. Number of individuals ; predominance of social plants. The forms of organic beings are mutually dependent on and limit each other. If we know exactly the number of species of one of the great families of Glumacese, Leguminosse, or Compositse, at any one part of the globe, we may infer approximatively both the number of species in the remaining families, and the entire number of phsenogamous plants in the same district. Application of the numerical ratios to the direction of the isothermal lines. Mys- terious original distribution of types. Absence of Roses in the southern, and of Calceolarias in the northern hemisphere. Why has our heather (Calluna vulgaris), and why have our oaks never advanced eastward beyond the Ural Mountains into Asia ? The vegetation cycle of each species requires for its successful organic development a certain minimum amount of temperature. 97—113 Analogy between the numerical laws of the distribution of animal and of vegetable forms. If there are now cultivated in Europe above 35000 species of phsenogamous plants, and if our herbariums pro- bably contain, described and undescribed, from 160000 to 212000 species of phsenogamous plants, it is probable that the number of collected insects and collected phsenogamous plants are nearly SUMMAKY OF THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 333 equal; whilst we know that certain well-explored districts in Europe have more than three times as many insects as phseno- gamous plants . . 113 — 119 Considerations on the probable proportion which the number of known phsenogamous plants bears to the entire number existing on the surface of the globe . . . . . . 119—125 The different forms of plants successively noticed. Physiognomy of plants treated in a threefold manner ; viz. as to the absolute di- versity of forms, their local predominance in comparison with the entire number of species in different phaenogamous Floras, and their geographical climatic distribution . . . 126 — 200 Greatest extension in height or of the longitudinal axis in arborescent vegetation : examples of 235 to 245 English fefit in Pinus lamber- tiana and P. douglasii ; of 266 English feet in P. strobus ; of 298 and 300 English feet in Sequoia gigantea and Pinus trigona. All these examples are from the north-west part of the New Continent. Araucaria excelsa of Norfolk Island only attains, according to well-assured measurements, 203 to 223 English feet; and the Mountain Palm of the Cordilleras, Ceroxylon andicola, 192 English feet . 165—168 These gigantic vegetable forms contrasted with the stem of two inches high of a willow-tree Stunted by cold of latitude or of moun- tain elevation; and still more remarkably with a phsenogamous plant, Tristicha hypnoides, which, when fully developed in the plains of a tropical country, is only a quarter of an English inch in height ' 169 Bursting forth of blossoms from the rough bark of the Crescentia cujete, the Gustavia augusta, and the roots of the Cacao tree. The largest flowers, Eamesia arnoldi, Aristolochia cordata, Mag- 334 SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. nolia, Helianthus annuus, Victoria regina, Euryale amazonica, &c. , 203, 240 The different forms of plants determine the character of the landscape as dependent on vegetation in different zones. Physiognomic classification or division into groups according to external " facies" or aspect, entirely different in its principles from the classification according to the system of natural families. The study of the physiognomy of plants is based principally on what are called the vegetative organs, or those on which the preservation of the individual depends ; systematic botany grounds the arrangement of natural families on a consideration of the reproductive organs, or those on which the preservation of the species depends 205 — 210 On the Structure and Mode of Action of Volcanos in the different Parts of the Earth- -p. 211 to p. 241. Influence of journeys in distant countries on the generalisation of ideas, and the progress of physical geology. Influence of the form of the Mediterranean on the earliest ideas respecting volcanic phenomena. Comparative geology of volcanos. Periodical recur- rence of certain natural changes or revolutions which have their origin in the interior of the globe. Relative proportion of the height of volcanos to that of their cones of ashes in Pichincha, the Peak of Teneriffe, and Vesuvius. Changes in the height of the summit of volcanos. Measurements of the height of the margins of the crater of Vesuvius from 1773 to 1822 : the author's measurements comprise the period from 1805 to 1822, 213—228 Particular description of the eruption in the night of 23-24 October, 1822. Falling in of a cone of cinders 426 English feet in height, which previously stood in the interior of the crater. The eruption of ashes from the 24th to the 28th of October is the most STJMMAEY OP THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 335 remarkable of which we possess any certain knowledge since the death of the elder Pliny 228—235 Difference between volcanos with permanent craters ; and the phenomena (very rarely observed within historic times) in which trachytic mountains open suddenly, emit lava and ashes, and reclose again perhaps for ever. The latter class of phenomena are particularly instructive to the geologist, because they recall the earliest revolutions of the oscillating, upheaved, and fissured surface of the globe. They led, in classical antiquity, to the view of the Pyriphlegethon. Yolcanos are intermitting earth springs, indicating a communication (permanent or transient) between the interior and the exterior of our planet ; they are the result of a reac- tion of the still fluid interior against the crust of the earth ; it is therefore needless to ask what chemical substance burns, or supplies materials for combustion, in volcanos . . 235 — 238 The primitive cause of subterranean heat is, as in all planets, the process of formation itself, i. e. the forming of the aggregating mass from a cos - mical gaseous fluid. Power and influence of the radiationof heat from numerous open fissures and unfilled veins in the ancient world. Climate (or atmospheric temperature) at that period very indepen- dent of the geographical latitude, or of the position of the planet in respect to the central body, the sun. Organic forms of the present tropical world buried in the icy regions of the north 238 — 241 Scientific Elucidations and Additions—}*. 243 to p. 248. Barometric measurements of Vesuvius. Comparison of the height of different points of the crater of Vesuvius . . 243 — 247 Increase of temperature with depth, 1° Reaumur for every 113 Parisian feet, or 1° of Fahrenheit for every 5 3 '5 English feet. Temperature of the Artesian well at Oeynhausen's Bad (New 336 SUMMAKtf OF THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. Salzwerk, near Minden), the greatest depth yet reached below the level of the sea. The hot springs near Carthage led Patricks, Bishop of Pertusa, in the 3rd century, to form just conjectures respecting the cause of the increase of temperature in the interior of the earth . 248 The Vital Force, or the Rhodian Genius— -p. 249 to p. 257. Note to "The Vital Force, or the Rhodian Genius"—^. 259 to p. 263. The Rhodian Genius, the development of a physiological idea in a mythical garb. Difference of views respecting the hypothesis of peculiar vital forces 259, 260 The difficulty of satisfactorily reducing the vital phenomena of organisation to physical and chemical laws, is principally founded on the complication of the phenomena, and on the multiplicity of simultaneously acting forces, as well as the varying conditions of the activity of those forces. Definition of the expressions " ani- mate" and " inanimate" substances. Criteria derived from the composition of the elements after a substance has been separated into parts by external agency are the simple enunciation of facts 260—263 The Plateau of Caxamarca, the ancient residence of the Inca Atahnallpa, and the first view of the Pacific from the crest of the Andes — p. 265 to p. 302. Quina-producing forests in the valleys of Loxa. First use of the fever-bark in Europe; the Countess of Chinchon, wife of the Viceroy 267—269 SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 337 Alpine vegetation of the Paramos. Remains of ancient Peruvian artificial roads ; they rise in the Paramo del Assuay almost to the height of the summit of Mont Blanc . . . 269—277 Singular mode of communication by a " swimming post" messenger. Descent to the Amazons river. Vegetation round Chamaya and Tomependa; Red Groves of Bougainvillaea. Ridges of rock traverse the Amazons. Its breadth at the Pongo de Manseriche less than 160 English feet. The falling in of masses of rock at Rentema left the bed of the river below the falls dry for some hours, to the great alarm of those who lived on the banks . 279 — 281 Passage across the chain of the Andes at the part where it is inter- sected by the magnetic equator. Ammonites nearly 15 English inches long, Echini, and Isocardias of the cretaceous group, collected between Guambos and Montan, 12790 English feet above the level of the sea. Rich silver mines of Chota. The pictu- resquely towering Cerro de Gualgayoc. Large mass of pure native silver in filaments or wire found in the Pampa de Navar. A fine piece of pure gold, wound round with similar threads of silver, found in the Choropampa (field of shells), so called from the numerous fossils. Outbursts of silver and gold ores amongst the cretaceous rocks. The small mountain town of Micuipampa is 11874 English feet above the level of the sea . . 282—286 From the mountain wilderness of the Paramo de Yanaguanga the traveller descends into the beautiful valley, or rather plateau, of Caxamarca (the elevation of which is nearly equal to that of the city of Quito). Hot baths of the Incas. Ruins of the Palace of Atahuallpa inhabited by his descendants, the family of Astorpilco, who live there in the greatest poverty. Strong belief of the still remaining subterranean " golden gardens" of the Inca beneath the ruins ; such certainly existed in the valley of Yucay, VOL. II. Z 338 SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OP VOL. II. beneath the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, and at several other points. Conversation with the youthful son of the Curaca Astorpilco. The room is still shewn in which (1553) the unhappy Atahuallpa was imprisoned for nine months, also the wall on which the Inca indicated the height to which he would fill the room with gold if he should regain his liberty. Manner in which the Inca was put to death on the 29th of August, 1533, and remarks on what are erroneously called " the indelible stains of blood" on a stone slab in front of the altar of the chapel of the' state prison, 287 — 295 Hope of. a restoration of the empire of the Incas (which was also entertained by Raleigh) has been preserved among the natives. - Cause of this expectation 295 Journey from Caxamarca to the sea-coast. Passage over the Cordillera by the Altos de Guangamarca. Often disappointed hope of enjoying the first view of the Pacific Ocean from the crest of the Andes. This hope at last fulfilled at an elevation of 9380 English feet 296—302 Scientific Elucidations and Additions — p. 303 to p. 324. On the origin of the name borne by the chain of the Andes 303 — 305 Epoch of the introduction of the Quina-bark in Europe 305, 306 Remains of the roads of the Incas, and of fortified dwellings ; Apo- zentos de Mulalo, Eortalezar del Canar, Inti-Guaycu 307, 308 On the ancient civilisation of the Chibchas or Muyscas of New Granada . . 308—310 Potatoes and Plantains, when first cultivated . . . 311 Etymology of the word Cundinamarca, which has been corrupted SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OP VOL. II. 339 from Ctmdirumarca, and was used in the first years of republican independence to denote the whole country of New Granada, 311, 312 Chronometric connection of the town of Quito with Tomependa on the upper waters of the Amazons, and with Callao de Lima, the position of which was accurately determined by observations of the transit of Mercury on the 9th day of November, 1802, 312, 313 Unpleasant etiquette in the Inca's court. Atahuallpa's captivity,; his proposed ransom ....... 314 Philosophic doubts of Huayna Capac (according to the report of Padre Bias Valera) respecting the Deity of the Sun. Objections of the Inca- government to the extension of knowledge among the poorer and lower classes of the people .... 316, 317 Raleigh's project for restoring the dynasty of the Incas under English protection, for which a yearly tribute of several hundred thousand pounds was to be paid .... 317, 318 Earliest evidence obtained by Columbus of the existence of the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. The South Sea first beheld by Vasco Nufiez de Balboa (25th Sept. 1513), and first navigated by Alonso Martin de Don Benito . . . ... . 318, 319 On the possibility of the formation of an oceanic canal (with fewer locks than the Caledonian Canal) through the Isthmus of Panama. Points in which the examination has been neglected 319 — 323 Determination of the longitude of Lima . . ' . 323, 324 INDEX. ADANSONJA digitata (monkey-bread tree), one of the largest and oldest trees of the globe, ii. 89. Allco, the native Peruvian dog, i. 108. Aloe, ii. 27, 180. Altai, one of the four parallel mountain chains in Central Asia, i. 86. American races, connection between the inhabitants of "Western America and Eastern Asia probable, but its nature and period uncertain, i. 176. Andes, etymological considerations connected with the word Andes or Antis, ii. 303. Animal life, its universal diffusion, ii. 1. Asia, Central, general review of its mountain systems, i. 85 . Atlas. — The position of the ancient Atlas discussed, i. 144. Atahuallpa, site of his ancient palace, ii, 289 ; his prison, 290 ; death, 291 ; descendants, 292 ; notice of the comet which appeared in the year on which the Inca was put to death, 313. Banks, slightly elevated portions of the Llanos, called "Banks" by the natives, i. 2, 33. Boa, swims in the South American rivers, and carries its head above water like a dog, i. 190. Bogota, the seat of an ancient civilisation of the Muyscas or Chibchas, ii. 309. Cactus, ii. 24, 147. Camel, i. 68 ; Bitter's memoir on the diffusion of the camel, present existence in a wild state, i. 70 ; fossil in the Sewalik hills, i. 71. Casas grandes, ruins of an Aztec palace, i. 168. 342 INDEX. Casuarineae, ii. 25, 152. Caxamarca, the ancient capital of the Incas, ii. 267, 28?. Cereals. — Original country of the principal Cereals discussed, i. 169. Chibchas, ii. 309. Chimborazo, conjectures as to the origin of the name, ii. 37. Chota, silver mines of, ii. 282, Cinchona, fever-bark, or quina. ii. 267, 305. Climate of the eastern or flat portions of South America widely diiferent from that of Africa in the same latitudes, causes of the difference, i. 8, 123 ; the southern hemisphere cooler and moister than the northern, 139. Climatic effects of extensive forests, i. 126. Ccelebogyne, produces perfect seeds without any trace of pollen having been discovered, ii. 51. Condor. — Discussion of the height in the atmosphere to which the condor ascends, ii. 40. Coniferse, or needle trees, ii. 25, 175. Coral reefs, classified by Darwin, ii. 64 ; his hypothesis of the origin and growth of coral reefs, 76. Correo que nada, the " swimming post" in the upper waters of the Amazons river, ii. 277. Curare, plant from which the poison is obtained, i. 203. Current. — Great revolving current of the Atlantic Ocean discussed, i. 159. Dogs. — European dogs have become wild in South America, and live in troops in the Pampas, i. 107 ; native Peruvian dogs, 108 ; Tschudi's remarks on the indigenous races of dogs in America, 111. Dragon-tree of Orotava, ii. 16, 85. Esquimaux, instances recorded of their having been carried across the Atlantic to the shores of Europe, i. 162. Ferns, ii. 28, 188. Figured rocks, i. e. figures engraven on rocks in an extensive district of South America, i. 196. Fresh- water springs in the ocean near Cuba, i. 233. INDEX. 343 Fonrnel, recent contributions to the physical geography of Northern Africa, i. 115. Fremont, Captain, importance of his geographical memoirs on our knowledge of the geography of North America, i. 37, and generally in Note (5), also i. 280. Geographical distribution of plants, laws of the, ii. 102. Gobi, the plateau of, i. 74, 79. Graminese, ii. 27, 183. Guaranis, a tribe inhabiting the sea-coast and rivers near the mouth of the Orinoco, i. 178. Granite, leaden-coloured rocks of, in the Orinoco, i. 188,. Great basin, the elevated plain so called, between the Rocky Mountains an the Sierra Nevada of California, i. 44 ; forms an inland closed river basin, 280. Gymnotus, description of its capture in South America by means of horses, i. 22. Heat in plants developed during inflorescence, ii. 175. Heaths, ii. 23, 145. Himalaya, oue of the four parallel mountain chains of Central Asia, i. 92. Hiongnu, i. 101. Hooker, Dr. J., recent determination of the elevation of the Kinchinjinga, one of the highest peaks of the Himalaya, i. 93 ; on the production of perfect seeds by the Ccelebogyne, ii. 51; remarks oil the geographical distribution of plants in Antarctic floras, ii. 122. Illimani and Sorata, their height above the sea recently corrected, i. 57, 96, 277. Kashmeer, valley of, i. 80. Kinchinjinga, one of the highest peaks of the Himalaya, its elevation recently determined, i. 92. Kuen-liin, one of the four parallel mountain chains in Central Asia, i. 72, 90. Lama, alpaca, and gnanaco, three originally distinct species of animals, described, i. 166. 344 INDEX. Laurels as a characteristic form of vegetation, ii. 28, 200. Lianes, ii. 26, 178. Liliaceae, ii. 28, 193. Llanos, their description, i. 7 ; climate strongly contrasted with that of the African plains, 8 ; animals which inhabit them, 15 ; their prevalent vege- tation, 120. Luminosity of the ocean, ii. 53. Malvaceee, ii. 22. Maranon, or Amazons, upper valley of, ii. 281. Mauritia palm, i. 16, 181. Melastomacese, ii. 28, 200. Mimosese, ii. 22, 145. Mississipi, river, its source correctly ascertained, i. 52. Moon, mountains of the, their existence, extent, distance from the Equator, and general direction, discussed, i. 149. Mountain chains in Asia, in the direction of parallels of latitude, i. 85 ; those coinciding nearly with meridians, i. 94. Muyscas, ancient civilisation of the, ii. 308. Myrtacese, ii. 28, 196. North America, general aspect of its natural features, and considerations on its physical geography, i. 39. Orchideffi, ii. 24, 151. Orinoco, i. 207 ; magnitude of the river compared with that of the rivers Plate and Amazons, 211 ; its sources yet unvisited, 213 ; general de- scription of its course, 214 ; " black waters" of the Upper Orinoco, 215 ; cataracts of Atures and Maypures, 217; discussion of questions con- cerning its sources, 239 ; supposed origin in a lake, 243. Otomacs, a tribe on the Orinoco who use earth as food, i. 190. Pacific, the author's gratification at first seeing the Pacific from the Alto de Guangamarca, ii. 300. Palms, ii. 20, 128. INDEX. 345 Panama. — Communication by canal or railroad across the Isthmus of Panama discussed, ii. 319. Paramo, a mountainous region in South America so called, i. 105 ; its climate and vegetation, i. 105, ii. 269. Pastoral life almost unknown to the original inhabitants of America, i. 13. Plants, physiognomy of, essentially distinct from a botanical arrangement, ii. 14, 17, 208 ; is the principal element in the characteristic aspect of different portions of the earth's surface, 16 ; about sixteen different forms of plants enumerated, which are chiefly concerned in determining the aspect of Nature, 18 ; Palms, 20 ; Plantains or Bananas, 21 ; Malvaceae and Bombacese, 22; Mimosas, 22; Heaths, 23; Cactuses, 24 ; Orchidese, 24 ; Casuarineae, 25 ; Coniferse, 25 ; Pothos, 26 ; Lianes, 26; Aloes, 27; Grasses, 27; Ferns, 28; Liliacese, 28; Willows, 28 ; Myrtaceas, Melastomacese, and Laurinese, 29 ; number of species contained in herbariums, 97 ; points of view in which the laws of the geographical distribution of plants may be regarded, 102 ; con- jectures as to the whole number of species on the globe, 119 ; more than half the number of species are probably yet unknown, 121 ; heat deve- loped during inflorescence, 175 ; general remarks on a physiognomic classification, 205. Pothos, ii. 26, 175. Uuina (or fever bark), ii. 267. Roads, old Peruvian, of the times of the Incas, ii. 270. Rotiferse, their revivification, ii. 45. Sahara (African desert) composed of several detached basins, i. 114. Sand-spouts a phenomenon characteristic of the Peruvian Sand Desert, i. 183. Sargasso, Mar de ; its geographical position discussed, i. 63 ; is the most remarkable assemblage of plants of a single species yet known on the globe, i. 64. Schomburgk. — Travels of the brothers Robert and Richard Schomburgk im- portant in many respects in regard to the physical geography of Guiana and the bordering countries, i. 178, 197, 236, 250. 346 INDEX. Sleep, summer and winter, of animals, i. 18, 185 ; ii. 48. Snow, limit of perpetual; inequality of this limit on the northern and southern declivities of the Himalaya, i. 98. Sorata and Illimani ; their heights above the sea recently corrected, i. 57, 96, 277. Steppes and Deserts, Characteristics of the European, i. 2 ; African, i. 3 ; Asiatic, i. 4; South American, i. 7 ; analogies and contrasts between the steppes and the ocean, i. 2, 35. Strato, his sluice theory, ii. 78. Sugar-cane; of Tahiti, of the West Indies, and of Guiana, i. 31. Tacarigua, Lake of, i. 1 ; its scenery and vegetation, i. 27. Temperature. — Contrast between the temperature of the east coast of America and the west coast of Europe in the same latitudes, i. 129 ; general remarks on the temperature of the United States of America, i. 131. Thian-schan, one of the four parallel mountain chains in Central Asia, i. 72, 82. Thibet, occupying the valley between the great chains of the Kuen-liin and Himalaya, divided into Upper, Middle, and Little Thibet; its mean elevation and description, i. 81. Tibbos, i. 67. Timpanogos, Laguna de, i. 44 ; is the Great Salt Lake of Fremont, 280. Traditions of Samothrace, ii. 78. Trees, age of, ii. 86 ; trees of highest growth, ii. 165. Trisetum subspicatum, an inhabitant both of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, ii. 186. Tuaricks, i. 67. Urwald, or primeval forest, a name too lightly used, i. 261 ; true character of a primeval forest, 262; description of the nocturnal life of wild animals in the Urwald, 266. Vegetation, its propagation and extension over newly formed lands, ii. 8 ; the absence of trees erroneously supposed to characterise hot countries, 10 ; extensive arid tracts in countries otherwise of luxuriant vegetation a INDEX. 347 geological problem which has not been sufficiently considered, 12 ; characteristic aspect of vegetation in the tropics, 30 ; characteristic vegetation of the Alps and Andes at great elevations, 35. Vesuvius, measurements of height at different periods, ii. 225, 243 ; parti- culars of the eruption of 1822, 228. Vital force, the, or Rhodian Genius, ii. 251. Volcauos of the Thian-schau chain situated in the interior of Asia far distant from the sea, i. 88 ; structure and mode of action of, ii. 213 ; instances of extensive, volcanic connection, 221 ; importance of repeating exact measurements of the heights of craters, 224. Willows, ii. 28, 193. THE END. Wilson and Ogilvy, Printers, 57, Skinner Street, SnowhUl, London. 1 NEW WORKS IN MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL LITERATURE, PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. * CLASSIFIED INDEX. AGRICULTURE & RURAL AFFAIRS. Pages Rowton's British Poetesses - - 26 Pages Russell's Bedford Correspondence - 6 Bayldon on Valuing Rents, etc. . • -6 Crocker's Land Surveying ... 9 Shelley's Literary Men of Italv, etc. - 17 Kminent French Writers - 17 Johnson's Farmer's Encyclopaedia - - 15 Southey's Lives of the British Admirals - 17 London's Encyclopedia of Agriculture - 1* ,, Self-Instruction for Farmers, etc. 18 ,, (Mrs.) Lady'sOountry Companion 18 Low's Breeds of the DomesticatedAnimals 19 „ Life of Wesley - 29 „ Life and Correspondence - 28 Tavlbr's Lovoli 30 Townsend's Twelve eminent Judges - U , Elements of Agriculture - - 19 Waterton's Autobiography and Essays - .12 On Landed Property - - - IS , On the Domesticated Animals - 19 BOOKS OF GENERAL UTILITY. Parnell on Roads ----- 2-) Stewart on Transfer of Landed Property 2J Thomson on Fattening Cattle, etc. - 30 Acton's (Eliza) Cookery Book - - 5 Black's Treatise on Brewing ... 6 Cabinet Lawyer (The) ... 7 ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND Donovan's Domestic Economy - - 17 Foster's Hand book of Literature - - 11 ARCHITECTURE. Hints on Etiquette ----- 13 Hudson's F.xecutor's Guide - Id Ballon the Manufacture of Tea - .- •> Brande's Dictionary of Science, etc. - 7 On Making Wills - - - 15 Loudon's Self Instruction - 18 Budge's Miner's Guide •••••?"'-'+ ,, (Mrs.) Amateur Gardener - 18 Cartoons (The Prize) Cresy's Encycl. of Civil Engineering - J D'Agincourt's History of Art - - - » Mauuder's Treasury of Knowledge - - 21 ,, Scientific and Literary Treasury 21 ,i Treasury of History - - 21 Dresden Gallery -••'"•« Eastlake on Oil Painting ' " ' }? ,, Biographical Treasury . - 21 Natural History - " » '-22 Evans's Sugar Planter's Manual - - " Ferirusson on Beauty in the Arts - - J' Gwilt's Encyclopaedia of Architecture - ]\ Havdon's Lectures on Painting & Design »•* Holland's Manufactures in Metal - - i/ Jameson's Sncred and Legendary Art - 15 London's Rural Architecture - « Moseley's Engiireering and Architecture 23 Parnell on Roads 24 Porter's Manufacture of Silk - '/ Parkes's Domestic Duties - 24 Pocket and the Stud - 25 Pycroft's Course of English Reading - 25 „ Collegian's Guide - 25 Reader's Time Tables - 25 Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 25 Riddle's Eng.-Lat. and Lat.-Eng. Diet. - 26 Robinson's Art of Curing, Pickling, etc. 26 „ . Art of Making British Wines, 26 nowton s Debater - - - ^6 ,, Porcelain & Glass 17 Reid (Dr.) on Warming and Ventilating 25 Rohner's Musical Composition - - *o Steam Engine (The) , by the Artisan Club 5 Suitor's Instructor (The) - - - 29 Thomson's Management of Sick Room - 30 ,, Interest Tables - - - 30 Urc's Dictionary of Arts, etc. - - a] Wood on Railroads ----- 32 Webster's Encycl. of Domestic Economy S2 Zumpt's Latin Grammar - - - • $6 BIOGRAPHY. BOTANY AND GARDENING. Andersen's (H. C.) Autobiography - 5 Ball on the Cultivation of Tea - - 5 Bell's Lives of the British Poets - - 17 Callcott's Scripture Herbal ... $ Dunham's Karl y Writers of Britain - 17 Drummond on Natural Systems - - 10 ,, Lives of the British Dramatists 17 Evans's Sugar Planter's Manual - - 11 Korster'sStatesmenoftheCommonwealth 17 Henslow's Botany ..... 17 LiieofJebb - - - - 17 Foss's Judges of England - 11 Hoare On the Grape Vine on Open Walls 13 ,, On the Roots of Vines - 13 (Jra-it (Mrs.) Memoir and Correspondence 12 Humphreys's Black Prince ... 14 Hooker's British Flora - - - l;s ,, Guide to Kew Gardens - - 13 Lindley's Theory of Horticulture - - IS ,, Eminent Foreign Statesmen - 17 ,, Int'odu'.-tion to Botany - .16 Kindersley's De Bayard - 15 Leslie's Life of <"onstable - - - 16 ,, Svi opsis of British Flora - . 16 Mackintosh's Life ol Sir T. More - . 20 ,, Hortus Lignosus Londinensis - 19 Maunders BiographicalTrensury - - 21 Encyclopedia ot Trees & Shrubs 18 Roscoe's Lives of Eminent British Lawyers 17 „ Gardening - 18 London: Printed by M. .MAS-JIT, Ivy L;;ne, Puteruofcter iiow. 2 CLASSIFIED INDEX Paites London's Encyclopedia of Plants • 18 Pages Mackintosh's History of England - - 17 ,, Miscellaneous Woriu - 20 M'Cnlloch's Dictionary, Historical, Geo- graphical, and Statistical - - 20 Maunder's Treasury of History - - 21 Milner's Church Historv - - - 22 Moore's History of Ireland - 17 Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History - - 23 Mure's Ancient Greece - - - 23 Nicolas's Chronology of History - - 17 Passages from Modern History - - 28 Ranke's History of the Reformation - 25 Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 25 Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - - - 26 Home, History of 17 Rowton's British Poetesses - - 26 Russell's Bedford Correspondence - 6 Scott's HUtory of Scotland - - 17 Sedgwick's France ----- 27 Sinnett's Byways of History - - 28 Southey's Doctor, etc. - - - - 29 Stebbing's History of the Christian Church I/ Self-Instruction tor Gardeners 18 ,, (Mr.) Amateur Gardener - - 18 Repton's Landscape Gardening, etc. - 25 Uivers's Rose .Amateur's Guide - - 26 Rogers's Vegetable Cultivator - - - 26 CHRONOLOGY. Blair's Chronological Tables - - - 6 Bosanquet's Chronology of Ezra, etc. - 6 Bunsen's Ancient Enypt 7 Nicolas's Chronology of History - 17 Riddle's Ecclesiastical Chrouology - - 26 COMMERCE AND MERCANTILE AFFAIRS. Banfield and Weld's Statistics - 6 Gray on -Money ------ 12 M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce - 20 Reader's Time Tables - - - - 25 Steel's Shipmaster's Assistant - - - 29 Thomson's Tables of Interest - - - 30 Walford's Customs' Laws - - - 31 GEOGRAPHY AND ATLASES. Butler's Ancient and Modern Geography 7 „ Atlas of Modern Geography - 7 ,, ,, Ancient Geography - 7 ., General Geography - 7 De Strzelecki's New South \Vales • - 9 Erman's Travels through Siberia - - 10 Stephen's Essays -'.--. 29 Switzerland, H'istorv of - - - - 17 Sydney Smith's Works - - - - 28 Thirl wall's Historv of Greece - - /- 30 Tooke's Historiesbf Prices - 31 Turner's History of England - - 31 Welsford's Mitliridates - - - - 32 Zumpt's Latin Grammar - - - - 32 JUVENILE BOOKS. Hall's Large General Atlas - 13 M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary - 20 Mitchell's Australian Expedition - - 22 Murray's Encyclopaedia ol Geography - 23 Parrot's Ascent of Mount Ararat - - 24 HISTORY AND CRITICISM. Bell'* History of Russia - 17 Blair's Chron. and Historical Tables - 6 Bloomfield's Translation of Thucydides - 6 ,, Edition ot Thucydides - - 6 Bunsen's Ancient K.gvpt - - - 7 Conybeare and Howsbn's St. Paul - - 8 Cooley's Maritime an.l Inland Discovery 17 Crowe's Historv of France - - 17 De Sismoudi's Fait of the Roman Empire 17 „ Italian Republics - - 17 Dunham's History of Spain and Portugal 17 „ Europe in the Middle Ages - 17 ,, History of the German Kmpire 17 Calicott's Home among Strangers 8 Gertrude - - - - - - - 12 Gower's Scientific Phenomena - - 12 Howitt's Boy's Country Book - - - 14 „ Children s Year - 14 Mackmtosh's°Lifi of Sir T. More - - 20 Marcet s Conversations- Oil Chemistry 20 On Natural Philosophy - - 20 On Political Economy - - - 20 On Vegetable Phjsiology - 21 On Land and W«ter - - - - 21 Marryat's Masterman lieady - - - 21 ,, Privateer's-Man - - - 21 „ Settlers in Canada - 21 „ Mission; or, Scenes in Africa 21 Passages from Modern History - - 28 Pycroft's Course of English Reading - 25 Twelve Years Ago ----- 31 MEDICINE. Bull's Hints to Mothers - 7 „ Management ut Children - - 7 Copland's Dictionarv of Medicine - - 8 Elliotson's Human Physiology - - 10 Holland'* Medical Notes • 13 Latham On Diseases ot the Heart - - 16 PereiraOn FooH and Diet - 24 Thomson On Food - ... 30 MISCELLANEOUS. Barnes's Electoral Law of Belgium • 5 Cartoons (Tlie Prize) - 8 Colti.n's Lacon ------ 9 De Jaenisch On Chess Openings - - 9 De la (iravlere s Last Naval War - 9 De Morgan On Probabilities - 17 De Strzulecki's New South Wales - - 9 Dresden (iallt-rv - - - - - 10 Duulop's History of Fiction - 10 V, History of Poland - I/ Dunlop's History of Fiction - - 10 Kastlake's History of Oil Painting - 10 Eccleston's English Antiquities - - 10 Foss's Judges of Kngland - - - H Foster's European Literature - - - 11 Fergus's United States of America - 17 Gibbon's Roman Empire - - - - 12 Grant (Mrs ) Memoir and Corespondence 12 Grattan's History of Netherlands - 17 Grimblot's Willi-mi III. and Louis XIV. 12 Harrison On the English Language - 13 Haydon's Lectures on I'aintingaiid Design 13 Humphreys'* IllaeU Prince ... 14 Jeffrey's ( Lord) Contribution* - - 15 Keightley's Outlines ol Historr - - 17 Kemble's Anglo-Saxons in England - 15 Laing's Kings of Norway ... 16 Lindo's Jews of Spain and Portugal - - 18 Macaulay's Essays - - - 19 „ History of England • - 19 TO MESSRS. LONGMAN AND Co.'s CATALOGUE. Pages Field On Prison Discipline - 11 Gardiner's Sights in Italy ... 11 Cover's Scientific Phenomena - - 12 Graham's English • - 12 Grant's Letters from the Mountains - 12 Hooker's Kew Guide - 13 Howitt's Rural Life of England - - 14 „ Visits to Remarkable Places - 14 „ Student Life of Germany - 14 „ Rural and Social Life of Germany 14 ,, Colonisation and Christianity - 14 Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions - - 15 Loodon's(Mrs.) Lady'sCountryCoropanion 18 Macaulay 's Critical and Historical Essays 19 Mackintosh's 'Sir J.) Miscellaneous Works 10 Maitland's Church in the Catacombs - 20 NeckerDeSanssure's on Education - 23 Pascal's Miser llanrous Writings - - 24 Plunkett On the Navy .... 25 Pycroft's Collegian's Guide - 25 „ Course of English Reading . 25 Remembrance of Bouchurch - - - 25 Rich's Companion to the Latin Dictionary 25 Richter's Levana - • - - - 26 Riddle's Latin Di.-tionaries - 26 BShuer's Musical Composition - -26 Row-ton's Debater ----- 26 Sandford's Parochialia - ... 26 Seaward 's Narrative of his Shipwreck - 27 Southey's Common Place Book - - 29 „ Doctor, etc. - 29 Suitor's Instructor (The) - - - 29 Sydney Smith's Works .... 23 Thomson on Food of Animals, etc. - - 30 Walker's Chess Studies - 32 Welsford's Mithridates .... 32 Willoughl.y'M'-ady) Diary - - - 32 Zumpfs Latin Grammar ... - 32 NATURAL HISTORY IN GENERAL. Callow's Popular Conchologv 8 Doubleday's Butterflies and Moths - 10 Gray and Mitchell's Ornithology - - 12 „ ,, Accipitres - - 12 Kirby and Spence's Entomology - - 15 Lee's Taxidermy - - 16 ,, Elements of Natural History- - 16 Mannder's Treasury of Natural History 22 Stephens' British Beetles - 29 Swainsonon the Study of Natural History 17 ,, Animals .... 17 Quadrupeds .... 17 „ Birds ----- 17 ,, Animals in Menageries - 17 „ Fish, Amphibia, and Reptiles 17 ,, Insects ... 17 ., Malacology - - .17 Habits aiid Instincts - - 17 „ Taxidermy - 1? Tartou's Shells of the Uritish Islands - 31 W.-iterton's Kssavs on Natural History - 32 Wegtwood's Classification of Insects - 32 NOVELS AND WORKS OF FICTION. Callcott's Home among Strangers - 8 Dunlnp's History of Fiction - 10 Hull's Midsummer Eve - - - 12 Lady Willuughby's Diary - - - 32 Landor's Fountain of Arethusa - - 16 Madame De Malgurt .... 20 Marryut's Mastcrnian Ready - - 21 .„ Privateer's-Man - 21 „ Settlers in Canada - - - 21 „ Mission; or, Scenes iu Africa - 21 Senior's Cbarles Vernou - - - 27 Southey's Doctor, etc. - - - 29 Twelve Years Ago - 31 ONE VOLUME ENCYCLOPAEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES. Pages BUine'R, of Rural Sports - - 6 Branife's, of Science, Literature, aud Art 7 Copland's, of Medicine ... g Cresy's, of Civil Engineering ... 9 Gwilt's, of Architecture ... - 12 Johnson's Firmer - - 15 Loudon's, of Trees and Shrubs - - 18 ,, of Gardening .... 18 ,, of Agriculture - - - - 18 ,, of Plants ----- 18 of Rural Architecture - - 18 M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary - 20 ,, Dictionary of Commerce - 20 Murrav's F.ncyciopK-dia of Geography - 23 Ure's Arts, Manufactures, and Mines - 31 Webster's Domestic Economy - - 32 POETRY AND THE DRAMA. Aikin's (Dr.) British Poets - 27 Chalenor's Walter Gray - 8 Flowers and their Kindred *ThoughU - II GnJds.nith's Poems, illustrated - - 12 Gray's Elegy, illuminated - - - 12 L.E. L.'s Poetical Works - 16 Linwood's Antl.ologia Oxoniensis - - 18 Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome - - 19 Mackay's En.livh Lakes - - . - 20 Montgomery's Poetical Works - - 22 Moore's Irish Melodies - - - 22 & 23 „ Lalla Rookh - 22 „ Poetic al Works .... 22 Rowton's British Poetesses - . - 26 Shakspeare, by Bowdler - - 27 Songs. Madrigals, and Sonnets - .28 Southey's Poetical Works - - - 29 ,, British Poets ... 27 Thomson's Seasons, illustrated - - 30 ,, with Notes, by Dr. A. T. Thomson 30 POLITICAL ECONOMY AND STATIST ICS. Banfield and Weld's Statistics - - 6 Banifs's Electoral Laws of Belgium - 5 Gray's Lectures on Money - - 12 M'Culloch's Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Dictionary - - - 20 M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce - 20 „ Literature of Polit. Economy 20 „ On Succession to Property - 20 „ On Taxation and Funding - 20 „ Statistics of the British Empire 20 Marcel's Conversations on Polit. Economy 20 Tooke's Histories of Prices - - - 31 Twiss's (Dr.) View of Political Economy 31 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL WORKS, ETC. Amy Herbert, edited by Rev. W Sewell Barrett's Old Testament Criticisms - Bloomfield's Greek Testament ,, College and School ditto . ,, Lexicon to Greek Testament Bunsen's Church of the Kuture Burder's Oiiciitnl Customs Burns's Christian Philosophy ... ,, Christian Fragments - Callcott's Scripture Herbal ... Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul - Cooper's Sermons - Coqnerel's Christianity - Dale's Domestic Liturgy Dibdiu's Sunday Library .... CLASSIFIED INDEX. Discipline ------ Ecclesiastes (illuminnted) - Knglishman's Hebrew Concordance Greek Concordance Etheridge's Acts and F.pistles Forster's Historical Geography of Arabia ,, Life of Bishop Jebb - From Oxford to Rome - - - - Gertrude, edited by the Rev. W. Sewell - Hook's (Dr.) Le.-tures on Passion Week Home's Introduction to the Scriptures - ,, Compendium of ditto Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art - Jebb's Correspondence with Knox - ,, Translation ot the Psalms - Kip's Christmas in Rome - Knox's (Alexander) Remains - Laneton Parsonage Letters to my Unknown Friends Maitland's Church in the Catacombs Margaret Percival - Maxims, etc. of the Saviour - Milner's Church History - Miracles of Our Saviour - - - lloore on the Power of the Soul - „ on the Use of the Body „ on Man and his Motives - MorelPs Philosophy of Relii-ion - Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History - Neale's Closing Scene - - - - Parables of Our Lord - Parkes's Domestic Duties Pascal's Letters, by Pearce - Pitmnn's Sermons on the Psalms Ranke's Reformation - Resl in the Church - - - - - Riddle's Letters from a Godfather - Saudford On Female Improvement - ,, On Woman - „ 's Parochialia - Sermon on the Mount (The) - - - Shunammile (The Good) - - Sinclair's Journey of Life - ,, Business of Life - Sketches (The) - Smith's (G.) Perilous Times - - - „ Religion of Ancient Britain ,, Sac-red Annals - (J.) St. Paul's Shipwreck - Soames'.s Latin Church - - - , - Solomon's Song (illuminated) - Southey's Life of Wesley - Stebbing's Christian Church - ,, Reformation - Stephen's Church of Scotland Sydney Smith's Sermons - Tale's History of St. Paul ' - Tayler's (Rev. C. B.) Margaret - - ,< . . Lady Mary - Taylor's (Jeremy) Works - - - ., '(Isaac) Loyola - Tomline's Introduction to the Bible Turner's Sac-red History - Twelve Years Ago - - Walker's Elementa Liturgica - Wardlaw On the Socii.ian Controversy - Wilberforce's View of Christianity Willoughby's (Lady) Diary Wilson's Lands of the Bible - Wisdom of Johnson's Rambler, etc. Woodward's Sermons and Essays - RURAL SPORTS. Blaine'sDictionaryofSports - Ephemera on Angling - - - - Hawbuck Grange - Pages - 9 - 10 - 10 - 10 - 11 11 11 1 12 13 13 14 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 20 21 22 22 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 24 24 24 25 25 25 25 27 Pages Hawker's Instructions to Sportsmen - 13 Jones's Norway Salmon Fisher - - 15 Lou;lon's(Mrs.) Lady's Country Companion 18 Pocket and the Stud - 25 Stable Talk and Table Talk - - 29 THE SCIENCES IN GENERAL, AND MATHEMATICS. Baker's Railway Engineering 5 Brande's Dictionary of Science, etc. - 7 Brewster's Optics ----- 17 Conversations on Mineralogy 8 Dela Bech'eon the Geology of Cornwall, etc. 9 Donovan's Chemistry - 17 Farey on the Steam Kngine - - - 11 Fosbroke on the Arts of the Ancients - 17 Gower's Scientific Phenomena - - 12 Hers.chel's Natural Philosophy - - 17 ,. Astronomy - - 17 Holland's Manufactures in Metal - 17 Humboldt's Cosmos .... 14 Hunt's Researches on Light - - 15 Kater and Lardner's Mechanics - - 17 Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia - - 17 ,, Hydrostatics and Pneumatic* - 17 ,, and \V «lker's Klectricity - 17 „ Arithmetic ... 17 ,, Geometry - - - 17 ,, Treatise on Heat - - 17 Low's Chemistry .... 19 Marcel's Conversations on the Sciences 10,21 Mattencci On Physical Phenomena - 21 Memoirs of the Geological Survey - - 22 Moseley's Practical Mechanics - - 23 „ F.ngineering and Architecture 23 Owen's Comparative Anatomy - - 23 & 24 Peschel's Physics - - - - - 24 Phillips'* PalJeozoicFossilsof Cornwall, etc. £4 ,, Mineralogy, by Prof. Miller - 24 ,, Treatise on Geology - - - 17 Portlock's Geology of Londonderry - 25 Powell's Natural Philosophy - - - 17 Ritchie (Robert) on Railways - - 26 Steam Engine (Ure), by the Artisan Club 5 Thomson's School Chemistry - - 30 TRAVELS. Borrer's Campaign in Algeria - Costello's (Miss) North Wales Coulter's California, etc. Pacific - De Strzelecki's New South Wales • Dunlop's Central America i Erman's Travels through Siberia - | Gardiner's Sights in Italy I Jones's Norway Guide Kip's Holydaysin Rome Laing's Tourin Sweden Maekay's English Lakes Marryat's Borneo - - - - Mitchell's Expedition into Australia Nozrani in Kgypt and Syria - Parrot's Ascent of Mount Ararat I Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck Von Orlich's Travels in India Wilson's Travels in the Holy Laud VETERINARY MEDICINE 6 i Pocket and the Stud 10 Stable Talk and Table Talk - 13 Thomson on Fattening Cattle NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS PUBLISHED BY MESSES. LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. AMY HERBERT. By a Lady. Edited by tlie Rev. William Sewell.B.D. of Exeter College, Oxford. New Edition. 2 TO!S. foolscap 8vo. 9*. cloth. ANDERSEN.— THE TRUE STORY OF MY LIFE; A Sketch. 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BALL.— AN ACCOUNT OF THE CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA IN CHINA: derived from Personal Observation during an Official Residence in that Country of upwards of Twentv Years ; and illustrated by the best Authorities. Chinese as well as European. With some Remarks on the Experiments now making for the Intro- duction of the Culture of the Tea Tree in other parts of the World. By S. Ball, Esq late Inspector of Teas to the East India Company in China. 8vo. with Plates and Woodcuts, 14*. cloth. BANFIELD AND WELD.— THE STATISTICAL COMPANION; Exhibiting the most interesting Facts in Moral and Intellectual, Vital, Kconomical, and Political Statistics, at home and abroad . Compiled from Official and other authentic Sources, byT. C. Banfielil. Statistical Clerk to the Council of Education; and C. R. Weld, Assistant Secretary to the Ro>al Society. Foolscap 8vo. 5*. cloth. 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