398 



ALTITUDES DETERMINED IN ECUADOR, appendix. 



cealed during the whole time, and we were more or less in a cloud. At the 

 Hacienda of Antisana, which is surrounded by extensive grassy slopes, and is 

 about 6000 feet below the summit, during our three days' stay, I noted no 

 higher temperature than 49° Faht. In the calculations for the height of 

 Antisana the observed air temperature, namely 55° Faht., has been employed ; 

 and in almost all other cases the observed temperatures have been employed, 

 and have not been assumed. Yet I cannot but feel that a closer approxi- 

 mation to the truth might have been obtained (especially in the case of 

 Antisana) if assumed (and very much lower) air temperatures had sometimes 

 been used.- 



My immediate predecessors in Ecuador, Messrs. Reiss and Stiibel, printed 

 a list at Quito in 1871 of many hundreds of altitudes which had been deter- 

 mined by them by mercurial barometer. ^ There is a fair agreement between 

 their altitudes and my own, and generally a close accordance in cases where 

 the determinations are from the mean of a number of observations by 

 each observer. Amongst towns, villages, and farms, the following may be 

 quoted : — 



Whymper. 



9,343 feet. 



9,141 ,, 



9,839 ,, 



8,606 „ 



9,039 „ 



7,970 „ 



8,894 „ 



8,100 ,, 



9,323 ,, 



10,708 „ 



13,306 ., 



11,629 „ 



9,400 „ 



9,217 „ 



11,805 „ 



14,480 „ 



Quito . 



Latacunga . 



Machachi 



Ambato 



Riobamba 



Cotocachi 



Guaranda 



Penipe 



Cayambe 



Mocha 



Hac. Antisana 



,, Ped regal 



,, Candelaria 



, , Guachala 

 La Dormida, Cayambe 

 Pass of Abraspungo 



LIeiss & Stubel. 



9,350 feet. 



9,190 





9,629 





8,556 





9,180 





8,048 





8,753 





8,104 





9,357 





10,774 





13,370 





11,585 





9,491 





9,190 





11,749 





14,410 





1 In Nature, February 5, 1880, it is eaid, on the authoritj' of Professor Plantamoiir, 

 "it happens every year that the temperature on the St. Bernard, during several hours, 

 or even during several days, of December, is higher than that of Geneva. During 

 December 1879, this anomaly lasted for a longer period of time than usual ; the average 

 temperature of December on the St. Bernard (2070 metres above Geneva) was 8° "4 C. 

 higher than that at Geneva. . . . Professor Plantamour observes how difficult it is in 

 such cases to determine the mean temperature of tlie stratum of air between the two 

 stations, and how great the error of the barometrical levelling and of the reduction of 

 the observed pressure to tiie sea-level would be if we applied the barometrical formula to 

 such cases." 



■■' This list, which will be invaluable to future travellers in Ecuador, is more likely 

 to be procured at Dresden or Berlin than in Quito. 



