LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



perilous situation at that time, and I will not therefore 

 dwell on the subject here. 



" The South American ports, though not terra incog- 

 nita, have proved of much interest, especially those of the 

 western coast. The Andes were the first objects we saw 

 on approaching the coast. They form the background in 

 the Chilian and Peruvian landscape. The eye climbs 

 mountain beyond mountain in the front of the scene, and 

 finally rests on the snowy summits of this towering ridge. 

 The general character of it was more massy, more even in 

 its outline, and unbroken in its surface, than my fancy 

 had pictured to me. Here and there, however, conical 

 peaks towered aloft, and by their wide, turreted shapes 

 and columnar structure diversify the character and 

 heighten the grandeur of the scene. I made two excur- 

 sions among the Cordilleras, and in one reached an eleva- 

 tion of 12,000 feet. I had the pleasure of sleeping 

 through a windy night near several acres of perpetual 

 snows. Water froze half an inch thick within a few feet 

 of us; but the interest the scene had excited, together 

 with a couple of blankets, and a fire of Alpine plants, 

 kept us comfortable through twelve hours of darkness. 

 These Alpine plants, as they were the first I had seen of 

 them, astonished and delighted me with their singulari- 

 ties. Although regular flowering plants, they grow to- 

 gether in the form of a short tuft, the whole so hard and 

 the leaves so closely compacted that the foot struck 

 against them scarcely makes more impression than on the 

 adjoining rocks; they can prevent in these wintry regions 

 the escape of the little heat they originate. One little 

 flower particularly attracted my attention and led my 

 mind upward to Him whose wisdom and goodness were 

 here displayed. It was scarce an inch high and stood by 

 itself, here and there one, over the bleak, rocky soil. A 

 small tuft of leaves densely covered with down above 

 formed a warm repose for a single flower which spread 

 over it its purple petals. I should delight to add some 

 of these strange forms of vegetation to Benjamin's flower- 

 garden. But they lose all their peculiarities in a warmer 

 climate. Even the hard Alpine turf, a few hundred feet 

 below, spreads out and assumes the forms of the plants of 

 temperate latitudes. I find that these mountains are 

 mostly composed of I was about to transgress. I, how- 



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