We study properties of the random metric space called the Brownian map. For every r>0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$r>0$$\end{document}, we consider the connected components of the complement of the open ball of radius r\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$r$$\end{document} centered at the root, and we let Nr,ε\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\mathbf {N}_{r,\varepsilon }$$\end{document} be the number of those connected components that intersect the complement of the ball of radius r+ε\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$r+\varepsilon $$\end{document}. We then prove that ε3Nr,ε\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\varepsilon ^3\mathbf {N}_{r,\varepsilon }$$\end{document} converges as ε→0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$\varepsilon \rightarrow 0$$\end{document} to a constant times the density at r\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$r$$\end{document} of the profile of distances from the root. In terms of the Brownian cactus, this gives asymptotics for the number of points at height r\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$r$$\end{document} that have descendants at height r+ε\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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\begin{document}$$r+\varepsilon $$\end{document}. Our proofs are based on a similar approximation result for local times of super-Brownian motion by upcrossing numbers. Our arguments make a heavy use of the Brownian snake and its special Markov property.