M. Humboldt on trvo Aitempts to ascend Ch'irnhorazo. 297 



step-like, one above ibe other. Proceeding first through the 

 Llanos de Luisa, then after rather a gradual ascent of scarcely 

 5000 feet in length, we reached the table land (Llano) of Sis- 

 gun. The first step (stufe) is at a height of 10,200 feet, the se- 

 cond 11,700. These grass grown plains thus equal in eleva- 

 tion, respectively, the highest summit of the Pyrenees (Peak 

 Nethou) and the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe. The per- 

 fect horizontality of these table-lands allows us to infer the 

 long continuance of stagnant water. The traveller imagines he 

 sees before him the bottom of a lake. On the acclivity of the 

 Swiss Alps, ^there is sometimes observed this phenomenon of 

 small step-like plains, lying one above the other, which, like 

 the emptied basins of alpine lakes, are united by narrow open 

 passes. The widely extended grass lands (los Pajonales) are 

 on Chimborazo, as everywhere around the high summits of 

 the Andes, so monotonous that'the family of the grasses (species 

 of Paspalam, Andropogon, Bromus, Dejeuxia, Stipa) are sel- 

 dom interrupted by dicotyledonous plants. There prevails al- 

 most the heathy scenery which I have seen in the barren part 

 of Northern Asia. The flora of Chimborazo, in general, ap- 

 peared to us less rich than that of the other snow mountains 

 which surround the city of Quito. But a few Calceolariae, Com- 

 positae, (Bidens, Eupatorium, Dumerilia paniculata, Werneria 

 nubigena) and Gentianae, among which the beautiful Gentiana 

 cernua shining forth with purple flowers, — rear themselves on 

 the iiigh plain of Sisgun, between the associated grasses. These 

 belong, for the most part, to the genera of Northern Europe. 

 Th.' tt-mperature of the air generally prevailing in these regions 

 of Jilpine grasses, elevated respectively 1600 and 2000 toises, 

 fluctuates by day between 4° and 16° C. (39°.2 and 60°.8 F.), 

 by night between 0° and 10° (32° and 50° R). The mean 

 temperature of the whole year, according to my collective ob- 

 servations in the neighbourhood of the Equator, appears to be 

 about 9° * (48°.2 ¥.). In the flat lands of the Temperate 

 Zorir, this is the mean temperature of the north of Germany, 



* All temperatures mentioned in this paper are expressed in degrees of the 

 centigrade thermometer. (The cquivalunt degree of P'ahrenheit have been 

 since ailded — Tb.) 



