Thus, in the sphere of natural investigation, as in poetry and
painting, the delineation of that which appeals most strongly to the
imagination, derives its collective interest from the vivid truthfulness
with which the individual features are portrayed.
[footnote] *See, generally my 'Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, et le
Tableau physique des Regions Equinoxiales', 1807, p. 80-88. On the diurnal
and nocturnal variations of temperature, see Plate 9 of my 'Atlas Geogr. et
Phys. du Nouveau Continent'; and the Tables in my work, entitled 'De
distributione Geographica Plantarum, secundum coeli tempriem, et altitudinem
Montium', 1817, p. 90-116; the meteorological portion of my 'Asie Centrale',
t. iii., p. 212, 224; and, finally, the more recent and far more exact
exposition of the variations of temperature experienced in correspondence
with the increase of altitude on the chain of the Andes, given in
Boussingault's Memoir, 'Sur la profondeur a laquelle on trouve, sous les
Tropiques, la couche de Temperature Invariable.' (Ann. de Chimie et de
Physique, 1833, t. liii., p. 225-247.) This treatise contains the
elevations of 128 points, included between the level of the sea and the
declivity of the Antisana (17,900 feet), as well as the mean temperature of
the atmosphere, which varies with the height between 81 degrees and 35
degrees F.
Pages:
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78