Sid aad 
3 
E 
‘ 
Colombia between the Years 1820 and 1830. 9 
sion, at 5a. m., it stood at 619-0. The mean of these two 
months is 70°-21, or 2° 21 higher than the estimate of Humboldt. 
The clearness and beauty of the sky, during almost the whole 
period of my residence, is also a circumstance opposed to Hum- 
boldt’s “celum sepe nubibus grave que post solis occasum terre 
appropinquant.” De Distributione Geog. Plant. p. 98. I remera- 
ber but once to have seen a fog in the streets of the city. Fu- 
ture observations will show whether any change of climate has 
really taken place, or whether the differences observed be only 
such variations as may be frequently remarked in the same place 
betwixt one year and another. ‘The mean of the whole temperate 
mountain region may be reckoned at 67°-80; that is, if we limit 
ourselves to the districts partially cultivated sod inhabited. The 
declivities of the Andes, still covered with vast and humid forests, 
have probably their temperature proportionably lowered. "Thus 
the village of Mindo, on the western declivity of Pinchinca, gm- 
bosomed in humid forests, at 3,932 feet of elevation has a medium 
temperature of 65°-5, the same with that of Popayan. 
4. The elevated plains of the Andes, betwixt 8,000 and 11,000 
feet, on which were anciently united the most powerful and civ- 
ilized indigenous nations beneath the dominion of the Zipas of 
Tunja and Bogota and the Incas of Quito, and where the gregt 
mass of Indian population is still to be found, have a general me- 
dium temperature of 59°°37, modified however by local circum- 
stances, and particularly by the proximity of the Nevados. Thus 
the village of Guaranda, placed at the base of Chimborazo, though 
nearly 500 feet less elevated, is at least one degree colder than 
the city of Quito, sheltered on all sides by the ramifications of 
Pichincha. 'The city again is above one degree. warmer than its 
suburbs on the plains of Anaguito and. Turupamba to the north 
and south. Riobamba is about two hundred feet below Quito; 
yet its situation on an open plain, bordered by the snowy moun- 
tains of Chimborazo, Tunguragua, and La Candelaria, renders 
the climate colder and more variable ; while the town of Hamba- 
to, only 300 feet lower than Quito, but built in a nook of the 
river which runs near it, and shut in by dry, sandy elevations, 
has a climate about 2°-0 warmer; so that sugar-cane is cultiva- 
ted in its immediate vicinity. The general uniformity of tem- 
perature, which spreads a certain monotony over tropical regions, 
is joined, at great elevations, to a = variability which must 
Vol. xxxvir, No. 1.—July-Oct. 1839. 
