Mountain adventures in various parts of the world . ry, and at a period when, notwithstandingsome symptoms of popular commotion, most of theinhabitants seem only to direct their attention tophysical objects, such as the fertility of the year, thelong drought, or the conflicting winds of Petare, andCatia, I expected to find many individuals wellacquainted with the lofty surrounding I was disappointed ; and we could not find inCaracas a single individual who had visited the sum-mit of the Silla. Hunters do not ascend so high onthe ridges of mountains, and in these countries jour-ne
Mountain adventures in various parts of the world . ry, and at a period when, notwithstandingsome symptoms of popular commotion, most of theinhabitants seem only to direct their attention tophysical objects, such as the fertility of the year, thelong drought, or the conflicting winds of Petare, andCatia, I expected to find many individuals wellacquainted with the lofty surrounding I was disappointed ; and we could not find inCaracas a single individual who had visited the sum-mit of the Silla. Hunters do not ascend so high onthe ridges of mountains, and in these countries jour-neys are not undertaken for such purposes as gather-ing Alpine plants, carrying a barometer to an elevatedpoint, or examining the nature of rocks. Accus-tomed to a uniform and domestic life, the peopledread fatigue and sudden changes of seem to live not to enjoy life, but only to pro-long it. Our walks led us often in the direction of twocoffee-plantations, the proprietors of which, DonAndres de Ibarra and M. Blandin, were men of agree-. THE SILLA OF CARACAS. 313 able manners. These plantations were situatedopposite the Silla de Caracas. Surveying, by a tele-scope, the steep declivity of the mountain, and theform of the two peaks by which it is terminated, wecould form an idea of the difficulties we should haveto encounter in reaching its summit. Angles ofelevation, taken with the sextant at our house, hadled me to believe that the summit was not so highabove sea-level as the great square of Quito. Thisestimate was far from corresponding with the notionsentertained by the inhabitants of the city. Moun-tains which command great towns, have acquired,from that jrery circumstance, an extraordinary cele-brity in both continents. Long before they havebeen accurately measured, a conventional height isassigned to them, and to entertain the least doubtrespecting that height is to wound national Captain-General, Senor de Guevara, directed theteniente of Chacao to
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Keywords: ., bookauthorheadleyj, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1876
