Notes of a naturalist in South America

33

I am not aware that the concurrent conclusions as to the height of this mountain have been verified by accurate observations, but the height commonly given appears to be a close approximation to the truth.

34

“Flora Antarctica,” vol. ii. p. 289.

35

See Appendix B.

36

It is unfortunate that the Spaniards who had the naming of so large a part of the American continent should have shown so little inventive faculty. When they did not adopt a native name for a river, they rarely got beyond Red River, Black River, or Big River, and wherever we turn we encounter a Rio Colorado, a Rio Negro, or a Rio Grande.

37

The constant inconvenience of employing such cumbrous expressions as Argentine Confederation or Argentine territory for a state of such vast extent and such yearly increasing importance must be felt by every one who has occasion to speak or write about this region of America. I trust that I shall be forgiven if in this book, as well as elsewhere, I have taken the liberty of applying a single name, which has nothing about it so strange as that it should not long since have come into use.

38

The Paranà, with its great tributary the Paraguay, drains an area of more than 1,100,000 square miles; the basin of the Uruguay is reckoned at 153,000 square miles.

39

The term provinces, commonly applied to the federated States, is misleading, and should be laid aside.

40

Much information respecting this country is to be found in a volume entitled, “The Argentine Republic,” published in 1876 for the Centenary Exhibition at Philadelphia. It contains a series of papers prepared by Mr. Richard Napp, assisted by several German men of science.

41

Dr. Hann (“Klimatologie,” p. 657, et seq.) has discussed the causes of the prevalent high barometric pressure on both coasts of temperate South America, and has shown that in winter the area of maximum pressure moves northward towards the Tropic of Capricorn.

42

The species common here is allied to T. stricta, but is not, I think, identical.

43

The best general account of the geology of Brazil that I have seen is contained in a short paper by Orville A. Derby, entitled, “Physical Geography and Geology of Brazil.” It was published in the Rio News, in December, 1884, and, through the kindness of Mr. Geikie, i have seen a reprint in the library of the School of Mines.

44

Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 1879, p. 564.

45

See his valuable work, “Climats, Géologie, Faune et Géographie Botanique du Bresil.”

46

“Klimatologie,” p. 382.

47

Darwin’s estimate of the height was one thousand feet, while Professor Moseley gives double that amount. I incline to think that the lower figure is nearer to the truth.

48

I borrow this statement from the excellent “Lehrbuch der Klimatologie,” by Dr. Julius Hann. Stuttgart, 1883.

49

See Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 1882, pp. 451–453.

50

It is remarkable that there is no reference to the investigations of M. de St. Robert, and the formula deduced from them, in the article on the “Barometrical Measurement of Heights,” in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

51

Published by the War Department, United States Army, Professional Papers of the Signal Service, No. xv.

52

Air nearly saturated with vapour is lighter than air relatively dry; and hence it may happen that, when a current of moist air meets one relatively dry, it will flow over the latter if they are nearly at the same temperature, but if the drier current be much warmer, it may flow beneath it.

53

On this subject see Handbuch der Klimatologie, by Julius Hann, pp. 141, et seq. See also Tables I. and II. in a report on thermometric observations in the Alps, by J. Ball, in Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 1862, pp. 366–368.

54

See “Die Barometrischen Höhenmessungen und ihre Bedeutung für die Physik der Atmosphäre,” Leipzig, 1870, by R. Rühlmann.

55

I use the term “eccentricity” in the popular sense, to express the distance of the focus from the centre of the ellipse.

56

Viewed in the light of Mr. Langley’s recent researches on solar radiation, all these numerical determinations are probably far from the truth; but the errors do not much affect the present argument.

57

The observations at Stanley Harbour, which are those adopted by Dr. Hann (Klimatologie, p. 697), show temperatures notably lower than those recorded for a place in the islands lying farther south, which are given in the Zeitschrift der Œsterreichischen Gesellschaft für Meteorologie, vol. v. p. 369. The mean of the two is probably nearly correct.

58

These figures are derived from the tables given in the Anales de la Oficina Meteorologica Argentina, by B. Gould, vol. iii. The figures show a considerable amount of annual variation. The monthly means of the six months from February to July, 1879, exceed those of the same period in 1878 by more than 2° Fahr.