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VITT. Short Account of Trovcls between the Tropics, hj 

 Messrs. HuMUOLDT and JioNPX.AND, in 1/99, 1600, 

 ISOl, 1802, 1S03, and 1804. By J. C. Delame- 



THERIE. 



{Concluded from p. 3^'-'.] 



XJuRiNG his residence at Quito M. Humboldt received a 

 !etter from the French National Institute, informing him 

 that captain Baudin had set out IbrNew Holland, pursuing 

 an easterly course by the Gape of Good Hope. He fomid 

 it necessary therefore to give up all idea of joining him, 

 though our travellers had enteftained this hope for thirteen 

 nionths, by which means they lost the advantage of an easy 

 passage from the Havaiinah to Mexico ij.nd the Philippines. 

 It had made them travel by sea apd by land more than a 

 thousand leagues to the south, e^cposed to every extreme of 

 temperature, from summits covered with perpetual snow to 

 the bottom of those profound ravines where the thermor 

 meter stands night and day between 25** and 31° of Reau- 

 mur. But, accustomed to disappointments of every kind, 

 they readily consoled themselves on account of their fate'. 

 Ihcv were once more sensible that man must depend only 

 on what can be produced bv his own energy ; and Baudin's 

 voyage, or rather the false intelligence of the direction he 

 had taken, made them traverse immense countries towards 

 which no naturalist perhaps would otherwise have turned 

 his researches. M. Humboldt being then resolved to pursue 

 his own expedition, proceeded from Quito towards the river 

 Amazon and Lima, with a view of making the important 

 observation of the transit of Mercury over the sun's disk. 



Our travellers first visited the ruins of Laetacunga, 

 Hambato, and Riobamba, a district convulsed by the 

 dreadful earthquake of the year 1797. They passed through 

 the snows of Assonay to Cuenca, and thence with great 

 difficulty, on account of the carriage of their instruments 

 and packages of plants, by the paramo of Saraguro to 

 Loxa. It was here, in the forest!? of Gonzanama and Ma- 

 lacates, that they studied the valuable tree which first made 

 known to man the febrifuge qualities of cinchona. The 

 extent of the territory which their travels embraced, gave 

 them an advantage never before enjoyed by any botanist, 

 namely, that of comparing the different kinds of cinchona 

 of Santa Fe, I'opayan, Cuenca, Loxa, and Jaen, with the 

 cusjKt anil cuspcre of Cuniana and Rio Carony, the latter 

 ofwliich, named improperly Cortex an gusiurce, appears to 



belong 



