" When there, she
made them lift her up, that she might boast she had been higher than any
man in Europe. The ascent of these awful solitudes is most perilous,
owing to the narrow paths, tremendous ravines, icy barriers, precipices,
etc. In many places every step has to be cut in the ice, the party being
tied to each other by ropes, so that if one slips he may be held up by
the rest, and silence is enforced, lest the noise of talking should
dislodge the avalanches of the Aiguille du Midi. The view from the
mountain is inexpressibly grand. On the Alps the limit of the vine is an
elevation of 1,600 feet; below 1,000 feet, figs, oranges and olives are
produced. The limit of the oak is 3,800 feet, of the [Transcriber's Note:
The original text reads 'chesnut'] chestnut 2,800 feet,of the pine 6,500
feet, of heaths and furze to 8,700 and 9,700 feet; and perpetual snow
exists at an elevation of 8,200 feet.
On the Andes, in lat. 2 degrees, the limit of perpetual snow is 14,760
feet; in Mexico, lat. 19 degrees, the limit is 13,800 feet; on the
peak of Teneriffe, 11,454 feet; on Mount Etna, 9,000 feet; on the
Caucasus, 9,900 feet; in the Pyrenees, 8,400 feet; in Lapland,
3,100 feet; in Iceland, 2,890 feet. The walnut ceases to grow at an
elevation of 3,600 feet; the yellow pine at 6,200 feet; the ash at
4,800 feet, and the fir at 6,700 feet. The loftiest inhabited spot
on the globe is the Port House of Ancomarca, on the Andes, in
Peru, 16,000 feet above the level of the sea.
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