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Show 248 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. and myself reached on the 23d of June, 1802, on the eastern declivity of the Chimborazo, the height of 18,096 (19,286 E.) feet--a height at which the barometer sank to 13 inches 11-j lines (14.850 English inches), we saw winged insects fluttering around us. We could see that they were Dipteras, resembling flies, but on a sharp ridge of rock (cuchilla) often only ten inches wide, between steeply descending masses of snow, it was impossible to catch the insects. The height at which we saw them was nearly the same at which the uncovered trachytic rock, piercing through the eternal snows, gave to our view, in Lecidea geographica, the last traces of vegetation. The insects were flying at a height of about 2850 toises (18,225 E. feet), or about 2600 E. feet higher than Mont Blanc. Somewhat lower down, at about 2600 toises (15,626 E. feet), also therefore within the region of perpetual snow, Bonpland had seen yellow butterflies flying very near the ground. According to our present knowledge, the Mammalia which live nearest to the region of perpetual snow are in the Swiss Alps, the Marmot which sleeps through the winter, and a very small field-mouse (Hypudreus nivalis), described by Martins, which on the Faulhorn lays up a store of the roots of phrenogamous alpine plants almost under the snow. ( Actes de la Societe Helvetique, 1843, p. 324.) The beautiful Chinchilla, of which the bright and silky fur is so much prized, is often supposed by Europeans to be an inhabitant of the high mountain regions of Chili: this, however, is an error; the Chinchilla laniger (Gray) only lives in the mild temperature of the lower zone, and is not found farther south than the parallel of 35°. (Claudio Gay, Historia fisica y politica de Chile, Zoologia, 1844, p. 91.) While on our European Alps, Lecideas, Parmelias, and Umbilicarias form only a few colored patches on the rocks which are not completely covered with snow, in the Andes, beautiful flowering phrenogamous plants, first described by us, live at elevations of thirteen to fourteen thousand feet (13,700 to nearly 15,000 E.) We found there woolly species of Culcitium and Espeletia (C. nivale, C. rufescens, and C. reflexum, E. grandiflora, and E. argentea), Sida pichinchensis, Ranunculus nubigenus, R. Gusmanni with red or orange-colored blossoms, the small moss-like umbelliferous |
