428 VIEWS, &CC. PLATEAU OF CAXAMAHCA. 



swimming courier, representing him in the act of winding 

 round his head the handkerchief containing the letters. See 

 Vues des Cordilleres, pi. xxxi. 



(10) p. 401 — "A point of some importance to the geography of 

 South America, on account of an old observatio?i of La 

 Condamine." 



My object was to connect chronometrically, Tomependa, 

 (the starting-point of La Condamine's journey) and other 

 places on the Amazon river, geographically determined by 

 him, with the town of Quito. La Condamine was in Tome- 

 penda in June, 1743; consequently, 59 years before I visited 

 that place, which I found, after astronomical observations made 

 during three consecutive nights, to be situated in south lat. 

 5° 31' 28", and west long. 78° 34' 55"). By my observations, 

 and a laborious recalculation of all those previously made, Olt- 

 manns has shewn that until the time of my return to France 

 the longitude of Quito had been erroneously determined, and 

 that the error made a difference of full 50£ arc-minutes.* 

 Jupiter's satellites, lunar distances, and occupations afford a 

 satisfactory accordance, and all the elements of the calculation 

 are before the public. The too easterly longitude which had 

 been determined for Quito was, by La Condamine, carried to 

 Cuencaand the Amazon river. " Je fis," says La Condamine, 

 " mon premier essai de navigation sur un radcau (balsa) en 

 descendant la riviere de Chinchipe jusqu'a Tomependa. II 

 fallut me contenter d'en determiner la latitude et de conclure 

 la longitude par les routes. J'y fis mon testament politique 

 en redigeant l'extrait de mes observations les plus impor- 

 tantes."f 



(11) p. 403 — " At the elevation of nearly 12,800/e^ above the 

 sea, we found marine fossils."' 



See my Essai geognostique sur le Gisemcnt des Bodies, 

 1823, p. 236; and for the first zoological determination of 

 the fossils contained in the cretaceous formation of the 

 Andes chain, see Leopold de Buch, Petrifications recueillies en 

 Amerique par Alex, de Humboldt et Charles Degenhardt, 

 1839 (in fol.), pp. 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 22. Pentland found 



* See Humboldt, Recueil des Observ. Astron. vol. ii. pp. 309 — 359. 

 t Journal du Voyage fait a V Equateur, l7ol ; p. 186. 



