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 almost the whole 

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

 boldt's ''•ccelwm scBpe nubibus grave quoi post solis occasum terrcB 

 appropinquantJ^ De Distributione Geog. 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 one year and another. The mean of the whole temperate 

 mountain region may be reckoned at 67°-80; that is, if we lim.it 

 ourselves to the districts partially cultivated and inhabited. The 

 decUvities 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 powerful 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 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 j 

 yet its situation on an open plain, bordered by the snowy moun- 

 tains of Chimborazo, Tunguragua, and La Oandelaria, 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 daily variabihty which must 

 Vol. xxxvii, No. i.— July-Oct. 1839. g 



