Note 12 — Chapter II
Reading edition
It would be plausible to assume that the ice melted much more rapidly than is generally supposed. Charles Darwin, in his "Naturalist's Voyage around the World," p. 245, states that "during one very dry and long summer, all the snow disappeared from Aconcagua, although it attains the prodigious height of twenty-three thousand feet. It is probable that much of the snow at these great heights is evaporated, rather than thawed."