436 FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. 



inland sea on maps. That which is thus excited in us ( 19 ) by childish 

 impressions, or by accidental circumstances in life, takes at a later 

 period a graver direction, and often becomes a motive for scientific 

 labors and distant enterprises. 



When after many undulations of the ground, on the summit of 

 the steep mountain ridge, we finally reached the highest point, the 

 Alto de Guangamarca, the heavens, which had long been veiled, 

 became suddenly clear : a sharp west wind dispersed the mist, and 

 the deep blue of the sky in the thin mountain air appeared between 

 narrow lines of the highest cirrous clouds. The whole of the 

 western declivity of the Cordillera by Chorillos and Cascas, covered 

 with large blocks of quartz 13 to 15 English feet long, and the 

 plains of Chala and Molinos, as far as the sea-shore near Truxillo, 

 lay beneath our eyes in astonishing apparent proximity. We now 

 saw for the first time the Pacific Ocean itself; and we saw it clearly : 

 forming along the line of the shore a large mass from which the 

 light shone reflected, and rising in its immensity to the well-defined, 

 no longer merely conjectured horizon. The joy it inspired, and 

 which was vividly shared by my companions Bonpland and Carlos 

 Montufar, made us forget to open the barometer until we had 

 quitted the Alto de Guangamarca. From our measurement taken 

 soon after, but somewhat lower down, at an isolated cattle-farm 

 called the Hato de Guangamarca, the point from which we first saw 

 the sea would be only somewhere between 9380 and 9600 English 

 feet above the level of the sea. 



The view, of the Pacific was peculiarly impressive to one who like 

 myself owed a part of the formation of his mind and character, and 

 many of the directions which his wishes had assumed, to intercourse 

 with one of the companions of Cook. My^ schemes of travel were 

 early made known, in their leading outlines at least, to George 

 Forster, when I enjoyed the advantage of making my first visit 

 to England under his guidance, more than half a century ago. 

 Forster's charming descriptions of Otaheite had awakened through- 

 out Northern Europe a general interest (mixed, I might almost say, 

 with romantic longings) for the Islands of the Pacific, which had at 

 that time been seen by very few Europeans. I too cherished, at the 

 time of which I am speaking, the hope of soon landing on them ; 



