541 



it cannot be doubted that among the five sys- 

 tems of mountains on the east of the Andes, 

 and of which one only belongs to the southern 

 hemisphere,, the chain of the shore of Venezuela 

 is the most elevated (having a culminant point 

 of 1350 toises, and a mean height from the line 

 of elevation of 750), we yet recognize with sur- 

 prize, that the mountains of eastern America 

 (whether continental or insulary), differ very 

 inconsiderably in height above the level of the 

 Ocean. The Jive groupes are all nearly of a mean 

 height of from Jive to seven hundred toises ; and 

 the culminant points (maxima of the lines of ele- 

 vation), from one thousand to thirteen hundred 

 toises. That conformity of construction on an 

 extent twice as great as Europe, appears to me 

 a very remarkable phenomenon. No summit 

 on the east of the Andes of Peru, Mexico, and 

 Upper Louisiana, enters within the limit of per* 

 petual snow *. It may be added, that with 

 the exception of the Alleghanies, no snow falls 

 sporadically in any of the eastern systems which 



* Not even the White Mountains of the state of New 

 Hampshire, to which Mount Washington belongs. Long 

 before the accurate measurement of Captain Partridge, I had 

 proved (in 1804), by the laws of the decrease of heat, that no 

 summit of the White Mountains could attain the height as- 

 signed to them by M. Cutler, of 1600 toises. (See my 

 Spanish memoir : Ideas sobre el limite inferior de la nieve 

 perpetua in V Aurora b Correo de la Havana^o. 220, p. 142.) 



