Colombia between the Years 1820 and 1830. 9 



sion, at 5 a. m., it stood at 61^-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 ahnost the whole 

 period of my resideiice, is also a circumstance opposed to Hum- 

 boldt's ^'C€elu7?i s^pe nubibus grave qum post solis occasnm terr<B 

 appropinquanV^ De Distributione Gcog. Plant, p. 98, I remem- 

 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 on§ year and another. The mean of the whole temperate 

 mountain region, may be reckoned at 67^-80 j that is, if we limit 

 ourselves to the districts partially cultivated and 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, em- 

 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 1 1,000 

 feet, on which were anciently united the most j>owerful and civ^- 

 ilized indigenous nations beneath the dominion of the Zipas of 

 Tunja and Bogota and the Incas of Quito, and where the great 

 mass of Indian population is still to be found, have a getieral me- 

 dium temjierature of 59^-37, modified however by local circum- 

 stances, and particularly by iheproximity of the Nevados. Thus 

 the village of Guarandaj 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 abov^e 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 ou an open plain, bordered by the snowy moun- 

 tains of Chiraborazo, Tunguragua, and I.a 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 miiformity of tem- 



perature, which spreads a certain monotony over tropical regions, 

 is joined, at great elevations, to a daily variability which must 



Vol. xxxTii, No. 1.— JuJy-Oct. 1839. 2 



