9c2 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



ally great, being 60 miles at Quito, 

 and 150, or 200 in Mexico, and 

 some districts of the Peruvian ter- 

 ritory. This stupendous ridge is 

 intersected, in Peru and New Gra- 

 nada, as we have seen, by frequent 

 clefts or ravines of amazing depth; 

 but, to the north of the isthmus of 

 Panama, it softens down by de- 

 grees, and spreads out into the vast 

 elevated plain of Mexico. In the 

 former provinces, accordingly, the 

 inhabitants are obliged to travel on 

 horseback or on foot, or even to be 

 carried on the backs of Indians ; 

 whereas carriages drive with ease 

 through the whole extent of New 

 Spain, from Mexico to Santa Fe, 

 along a road of more than 1,500 

 miles." 



" The most important feature of 

 the American Continent is the very 

 general and enormous elevation of 

 its soil. In Europe, the highest 

 tracts of cultivated land seldom rise 

 more than 2,000 feet above the 

 sea ; but in the Peruvian territory, 

 extensive plains occur at an alti- 

 tude of 9,000 feet, and three-fifths 

 of the vice-royalty of Mexico, com- 

 prehending the interior provinces, 

 present a surface of half a million 

 of square miles, which runs nearly 

 level, at an elevation from 6,000 to 

 8,000 feet, equal to that of the ce- 

 lebrated passages of Mount Cenis, 

 of St. Gothard, or of the great St. 

 Bernard. These remarkable facts 

 are deduced chiefly from barome- 

 trical observations. But Humboldt 

 has adopted a very ingenious mode, 

 infinitely superior to any descrip- 

 tion, of representing, at one view, 

 the collective results of his topo- 

 graphical and mineralogical sur- 

 vey. He has given profiles or ver- 



tical sections of the countries whidi 

 he visited, across the continent, 

 from Acapulco to Mexico, and 

 thence to Vera Cruz; from Mexi- 

 co to Guanaxuato, and as far as the 

 volcanoof Jerullo; and from Mexi- 

 co to Valladolid. These beautiful 

 plates are in every way highly in- 

 teresting. 



" The central Andes are rich be- 

 yond conception in all the metals, 

 lead only excepted. One of the 

 most curious ores in the bowels of 

 those mountains is the pacos, a 

 compound of clay, oxyd of iron, 

 and the muriate of silver with na- 

 tive silver. The mines of Mexico 

 and Peru, so long the objects of 

 envy and admiration, far from be- 

 ing yet exhausted, promise, under 

 a liberal and improved system, to 

 become more productive than ever. 

 But nature has blended with those 

 hidden treasures the active ele- 

 ments of destruction. The whole 

 chain of the Andes is subject to 

 the most terrible earthquakes. 

 From Catopaxi to the South Sea, 

 no fewer than forty volcanoes are 

 constantly burning, some of them, 

 especially the lower ones, ejecting 

 lava, and othersdischarging themu- 

 riatc of ammonia, scorified basalt 

 and porphyry, enormous quantities 

 of water, and especially moya, or 

 clay mixed with sulphur, and car- 

 bonaceous matter. Eternal snow 

 invests their sides, and forms a bar- 

 rier to the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms. Near that confine, the 

 torpor of vegetation ia marked by 

 dreary wastes. 



" In these wide solitudes, the con- 

 dor, a fierce and powerful bird of 

 prey, fixes its gloomy abode. Its 

 size, however, has been greatly ex- 

 aggerated ; it is not larger than the 



Lcemmer 



