dent of its sublimity, can we observe at the same time such diversity of seasons? Where could we so well seek for a spot, where, at a glance, we might embrace the winter of Siberia, and the summer verdure and luxuriancy of Italy? "Où l'homme peut-il n'avoir qu'à tourner la tête pour parcourir dans un clin-d'œil, toutes les horreurs de l'hiver & les richesses de l'Eté, quatre-vingt lieues de plaines fertiles, couvertes de villes, de vignobles, de champs, & de bestiaux; & vingt mille pieds de glaces encore plus voisines & qui forment l'horison de ces campagnes ?. *

These striking, and in the wide extent of nature, perhaps unequalled features, yield to the imagination a pleasure, abundantly surpassing common things: for, not to confine ourselves merely to the contemplation of snow and ice, and the assurances they give of perpetuity to the rivers, of which they are the source; if we reflect on the formation of these mountains, on their age, their succession, on the causes which could accumulate rocky elements to so great an elevation; on the origin of these elements, and of the revolutions which each hath undergone, into what an abyss of thought are we plunged! with

*Bourrit.

with what admiration do we contemplate the mighty works of God!

It is with a feeling of this enthusiastic nature, that philosophic men in general are impressed, who ascend the Alps, where the air is pure and subtile, where they have more facility of respiration, and where they experience a lightness of body with a perfect serenity of mind. "Our meditations, in such situations," observes Rousseau, 'partake of I know not what-of grandeur and sublimity; but, they are proportioned to the objects by which we are surrounded, and we enjoy them in voluptuous tranquillity. As we elevate ourselves above the abodes of men, it would seem we threw from our minds all low and terrestrial sentiments; and in proportion as we draw nearer to the etherial regions, we feel our souls contract some portion of their unalterable purity. The spectacle has in it something magical, and almost supernatural. It hurries away our judgment and our senses. greater our ascent, the greater our emancipation from what we left below. From finite ideas, we dare to think of infinity; from extension, we reach forward to immensity; and from the momentary bustles of our little world, we pass to the immoveable stability of the universe."

The

But,

But, these Alps, considerable as their ele vation may be, are not the parts of the globe which ascend highest into the atmosphere: for a long time, it was thought, the Pic of Teneriffe was the loftiest mountain in our hemisphere; but this was an error; Mont Blanc, we now know, exceeds Teneriffe, and not only Mont Blanc,

but many other of the Alps of Savoy and Switzerland. Mont Blanc, as an integral elevation, and independent of any measurement from the level of the sea, might seem to be the highest mountain of the earth; but this does not accord with general and fair calculation. Chimboraço, though inferior in itself to Mont Blanc, is yet more elevated, from its base being very considerably higher above the level of the ocean. At the same time, that if Mont Blanc could be transported to the foot of Chimboraço, Chimboraço, all prodigious as it is supposed, would appear of very insignificant dimensions. The base of Chimboraço is upwards of ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. How great

the difference between this and the base of Mont Blanc ! but, at the same time, as mountains simply, Mont Blanc is half as high again as Chimboraço: the difference, however, between Mont Blanc and two other celebrated mountains, will strike you still more. The

ele.

vation of Ætna is 10,954 feet, and that of Vesuvius 3,900 feet; in all 14,854. Now Mont Blanc is 15,562 feet, or thereabouts, which makes it higher by 808 feet, than Vesuvius and Etna, like Pelion and Ossa piled one upon the other.

Notwithstanding this superior elevation of the soil, though not of the mountains, of the Cordelliers, the air is found to be infinitely more fit for respiration on the Cordelliers, than the Alps, at the same elevation. This has occasioned some perplexity; particularly, as it had been calculated, that at a given number of feet of elevation, you receded as from the Equator a degree; and consequently, that at about half the height of Mont Blanc, you would be advanced to a cold equal to that of the 80th degree of latitude. The less rigid temperature was, indeed, attributed to the Cordelliers, from their being placed more in the neighbourhood of the Equator, and from their atmosphere being impregnated with heavier and grosser vapour. A physical reason, undoubtedly of some weight; for the fogs and dense air, which are there experienced, are proof and evidence sufficient, of the grossness of the vapor. But,

VOL. II.

B

I ap

I apprehend, we must look to some other cause for this atmospheric difference.

Quito, the capital of Peru, is situated between two chains of the Cordelliers, about 40 leagues from the sea, and on an elevation of soil of about two-thirds of the height of Mont Blanc. The mountains lose their heads in the clouds, and are almost all covered with enormous masses of snow, as old as the summits on which they are spread. The valley in which Quito has been built, exceeds considerably the summit of the highest of the Pyrenees; and yet here, and in the same point of view, you will see blossoms and fruits, plowing, sowing, and gathering the plenteous harvest, as is even with astonishment observed in the teeming regions of the torrid zone. How are these phænomena to be accounted for? But, we will not anticipate; the discussion will soon come regularly before us. For the present, be it sufficient, that we are convinced of the matter of fact; that situation, which, with us would be as unproductive as the frozen deserts of Greenland, are yet in more happy circumstances, fertile, and luxuriantly productive.

Moun