340 HALL’S EXCURSIONS. 
Treatise “ De Distributione Geographica Plantarum, p. 107,” 
names the plants already mentioned and several others, as 
growing **Propter nives, altitudine 2000—2460 hexapo- 
darum." But to return to our journey, we proceeded with 
a bright sunshine at the foot of the rocky ridge, commanding 
on our right an unbounded prospect over the woods of 
Esmeraldas, which extend to the sea-coast of the Pacific. 
The ocean is said to be visible in clear weather ; but the 
mists evaporating from this mass of forest generally closed 
the horizon: the distance, in a straight line, is about eighty 
miles. The volcano soon rose before us, with its wall of 
dark rocks, contrasted by the pale sands, heaped everywhere 
round it, and extending over the plain below, giving a dull 
desolate appearance to the landscape. There is, at the 
eastern extremity, a wide gap, or break, in the rocky edge, 
which renders the approach to the crater more practicable 
than it would otherwise be. The ascent is, however, too 
steep to be attempted on horseback. We accordingly dis- 
mounted; and though the whole elevation is not above 500 
feet, the toil of struggling up, knee-deep in loose sand, joined 
to the oppression of breathing the rarified atmosphere, 
obliged us to make such frequent halts, as would have 
appeared to a spectator below, ignorant of the circumstances, 
to denote any thing but pedestrian vigour. We took at least 
half an hour to ascend, while less than ten minutes brought us 
readily to the bottom, on our return. We reached the edge 
of the crater at about half-past 7 ; a few minutes’ delay would 
have deprived us of the whole prospect; the clouds were 
fast rolling up the ravine, but two columns of smoke were 
distinctly visible, rising near the foot of a cliff, which seemed 
incrusted with sulphur. The activity of the volcano, a fact 
considered problematical in Quito, was thus placed beyond a 
doubt. The form of the crater is different from the idea 
commonly entertained of a kind of circular basin. It is an 
immense ravine, widening probably into a considerable valley, 
with a descent towards the woods of Mindo, that is, in a 
direction nearly opposite to Quito ; the occasional eruptions 
