Note 69 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
According to M. Charpentier, the area of the base of the Pyrenees is 1720 square English miles. As the mean elevation of the passes gives the mean height of the mountains, Baron Humboldt estimated from the height of 23 passes over the Pyrenees that the mean crest of that chain is 7990 feet high, which is 300 feet higher than the mean height of the Alps, though the peaks in the Alps have a greater elevation than those of the Pyrenees in the ratio 14⁄10 to 1.