Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-04-13

knowledge would write lessons Of piety on every
leaf. Every turf would be fragrant shrine:
The earth in its light would rear ten thousand al
tars around us. The air we breathe would be IN
cense. And heaven, beyond towering arch or
temples dome, would bear us to contemPlations'
glorious, sublime, unspeakabe, OF the adorable
Creator"
Lotfy flight of the Condor.-The region which
NAV be considered as the habitual abode OF the
Condor. begins at height equal to that OF htha,
and comprehends strata of air at an elevation OF
from 500 to 1s, 900 feet above the level OF the
sea. The largest individuals that are met win
in the chain of the Andes of Quito, are about IA
feet from the tip of one wing to that OF the other
and the smallest only eight. From these dimen-
sions, and from the visual angle under which THIS
bird sometimes appears perpendiculariy above
our heads, it may be Judged to what piouiSl,ous
height it rises when the sky is clear. "neh
seen, for example, under an angle OF four min
utes, it must be at perpendicular distance 0,
6,876 feet The Cave of Antlsiana, SITUATED
opposite the mountain of Chussulongo, and from
which we measured the bird soaring, Is situated
at height of 1858 feet above the level OF the
Pacific Ocean Thus, the absolute height winch
the Condor attained was 90, 854 feet, an elevation
At which the barometer scarcely rises to / 2 inch
es, II is a somewhat remarkable physiological
phenomenon, that this bird, which for hours con-
tinues to hy about in regions where the air is so
rarifed, all at once descends to the edge OF the
sea, as along the western slope of the volcano OF
Pinchincha, and thus in few minutes passes as
it were through all the varieties of climate
At height Of 10000 feet, the air-cells OF the
Condor which are filled in the lowest regions,
must be inflated in an extraordinary manner
Sixty years ago UllOa expressed his astomshment
at the circumstance that the vulture OF the Andes
could fly at height where the mean pressure OF
ne air is only IA inches.
| Atheights like these man in general finds him.
self reduced to most painful state of debility.
In the Condor, on the contrary, the act of respl-
ration appears to be performed with equal ease,
IN mediums where the pressure differs from IL to
80 inches Of all living beingsit is without doubt
the one that can rise at will to the greatest dis
lance from the earth's surface. Isay, at will,
because small insects are carried still higher by
ascending currents. Probably the height which
the Condor attains is greater than that which we
have found by the calculation mentioned above.
remember that on Cotopaxi, in the Plain of Su-
niguacu, covered with pumice, and elevated 49,
| 578 feet above the level of the sea, perceived
the bird at such height that it appeared like
black dot. The transparency of the air of noun
tains is so great under the equator, that, in the
province of Quito, as have elsewhere shown,
the poncho or white mantle of person on horse
back is distinguishable at HORIZONTAL distance
of s4,O5s feet Edinburgh New Philosoph'-
| cal Journal.
From the Darien (Geo.) Phenir, Of Apra l..
DIED, today, after an existence Of not quite
fifteen months, the Darien PhGnir. Consump
tor inherited from its ancestor, the Darien Ca
sette,, may perhaps be assigned as one of the re-
mote causes of its death, but the proximate agent
was undoubtedly starvation: for it the appe-
tite of the cormorant, it had scarcely palladium
enough to subsst swallow. Yet neither hunger
nor disease could subdue its spirit or damp its
cheerfulness. To the last it forebore complaint,
and gave up the ghost laughing at the pale mes
senger of destruction. By borrowing from Pope,
an epitaph is appended:
How cursed or lauded once avails thee not
BY whom conducted or by whom begot:
A heap of pr is all remains of thee
Ills all thou art, and all thou e'er wilt be.