276 



COSMOS. 



for a long time. Such fame has in like manner belonged to 

 Mount Blanc, in the Swiss Alps — not on account of its height, 

 which only exceeds that of Monte Rosa by about 557 feet; 

 not on account of the danger overcome in its ascent — but on 

 account of the value and multiplicity of the physical and geo- 

 logical views which ennoble Saussure's name, and the scene 

 of his untiring industry. Nature appears greatest where, be- 

 sides its impression on the senses, it is also reflected in the 

 depths of thought. 



The series of volcanoes of Peru and Bolivia, still entirely 

 belonging to the equinoctial zone, and, according to Pentland, 

 only covered with perpetual snow at an elevation of 16,945 

 feet (Darwin, Journal, 1845, p. 244), attains the maximum 

 of its elevation (22,349 feet) at about the middle of its length 

 in the Sahama group, between 18° 7* and 18° 25' south lati- 

 tude. There, in the neighborhood of Arica, appears a sin- 

 gular, bay-like bend of the shore, which corresponds with a 

 sudden alteration in the axial direction of the chain of the 

 Andes, and of the series of volcanoes lying to the west of it. 

 Thence, toward the south, the coast-line, and also the vol- 

 canic fissure, no longer strike from southeast to northwest, 

 but in the direction of the meridian, a direction which is 

 maintained until near the western entrance into the Straits 

 of Magellan, for a distance of more than two thousand miles. 

 A glance at the map of the ramifications and groups of mount- 

 ains of the chain of the Andes, published by me in the year 

 1831, exhibits many other similar agreements between the 

 outline of the New Continent and the near or distant Cor- 

 dilleras. Thus, between the promontories of Aguja and San 

 Lorenzo (5^° to 1° S. lat.), both the coast-line of the Pacific 

 and the Cordilleras are directed from south to north, after 

 being directed so long from southeast to northwest, between 

 the parallels of Arica and Caxamarca ; and in the same way 

 the coast-line and the Cordilleras run from southwest to 

 northeast, from the mountain group of Imbaburu, near Quito, 

 to that of Los Robles,* near Popayan. With regard to the geo- 



* The micha-schist mountain group de Los Robles (lat. 2 ° 2') and of 

 the Paramo de las Papas (lat. 2° 20') contains the Alpine lakes, La- 

 guna de S. Iago and L. del Buey, scarcely six miles apart ; from the 

 former springs the Cauca, and from the latter the Magdalena, which, 

 being soon separated by a central mountain chain, only unite with 

 each other in the parallel of 9° 27', in the plains of Mompox andTen- 

 erife. The above-mentioned mountain group, between Popayan, Al- 

 maguer, and Timana, is of great importance in connection with the 

 geological question whether the volcanic chain of the Andes of Chili, 



