l5 Travels between the Tropics, by Mejf. Humboldt cif Bonphnd. [Aug. I p 



<w)'ds where they faw no vefliges of man. 

 Wh n they arrive.^ bare-footeJ, and 

 drenched with continual rsin, in the vul- 

 ley of the nver Cnuca, they flopped at 

 Caihago and Buga, and proreeded along 

 the piovince ol Choco.the country of pli- 

 fina, which is tound hetween roiled 

 fragments of baialtes, filled wi'h olivin 

 and augire, green rock, (the grunjlein of 

 Wfrnev), and folfil wood. 



. They ai'ce'ided hi C;dot'> and Qi)ilichao, 

 where gold is waHied, to Popiyan, vifiied 

 by Bougutr when he returned lo France, 

 and (iuiated at the bottom of the fnowy 

 volcanoes of Put ace ■\r.-}. Sotara, one of 

 the m' rt piiKuelqut- fiiuatiors and in tlie 

 rood dtlighitul Climate of the univerle, 

 %vhtte Reaumur's •beimomcter ftandscun- 

 ftaiitly b;lween i 7 and 19 degrees When 

 thty haii icached, with iru'h difficulty, 

 the crater of the volcano o{ Purace, fided 

 with boiling wat'^r, which from the inidft 

 of thefnow thriws up, with a horrid roar- 

 ing, V p.'urs of tulphiirated hydrogen, our 

 travel ers [alied from Popayrin by the Iteep 

 cofddleras of AlniJguer a F^rto, avoid- 

 ing the contagious air of tiie valley of 

 Paiia. 



FiomPafto, a townfituated at the bot- 

 tom >i a burning volcano, ihey traverl'ed 

 by Guachucal the high plateau of the pro- 

 vine of Paltcs, (epaiated from the Paci- 

 fic Ocean by the AnHes of the volcano of 

 Chili and Cumb'l, and celebrated tor its 

 great fe' liiiy in wheat and t}M erytro.xy- 

 hit Perunjiaitum, calUd coco?.. At length, 

 aftir a journey of four months on mules, 

 they arnvea ar the towns of Ibarra and 

 Quito, This long paffagc through the 

 ccrdilitra or the high Andes, at a leafon 

 which rendt red the ro.ids impalTabie, and 

 during which tiiey were exp ifed to rains 

 which c niinued ftvtii or eight hours a 

 <3ay, encumbered with a great number of 

 inltrumenis and voluminous colleftions, 

 would have been almrft impoffihle, with- 

 out the generous and kmd alliftanceof M. 

 Mtndiune'ta, viceroy of Santa Fe, and the 

 Laron dc Carondtiel, prefident of Quito, 

 who, being equ illy zcalousfor the piogrefs 

 of fcience, cauled the roads and the nioft 

 dangerous bridges to be repaired on a 

 route ot 450 leagues in length. 



Meflls. Humbolit and Bonpland arrived 

 en liie 6ih of January 1802, at Quito, a 

 cjpilai celebrated in the annals of agro- 

 nomy by the labours of La Condamine, 

 Bougner, Godin, and Don Jorge-Juin and 

 Ulloa ; juftiy celebrated alfo liy the great 

 amiablenefs of its inhabitants and their 

 happy tiilpofii ion for the arts. Our tra- 

 velers continued their gtological and ba- 



tanical refearches for eight crnincmontlis 

 in the kingdom of Qu^ito ; a country ren- 

 dered perhaps the moft interelting in the 

 world by the colofial heiglit of its fnowy 

 fummits i the aflivity of its vokanoes, 

 which in turns throw up ilames, rocks, 

 mud, and hydro-fulphureous water; the 

 frequency of its earthquakes, oneofwiiich, 

 on the 7th of February 1797, fwallowed 

 up in a few feconds nearly 4.0,01.0 inhabi- 

 tants j its vegetation j the remains of Pe- 

 ruvian architecture ; and, above all, the 

 manners of its antient inhabitants. 



After two fruitlefs attempts, they fuc- 

 ceeded in twice afcending to the crater of 

 the volcano of Pmchinca, where they made 

 experiments on the analyfis of the air ; its , 

 eleffric charge, magnetifm, hygrofcopy, 

 eleifiici'y, and the temperature of boiling 

 water. La Condamine faw the fame crater, 

 which he very properly compares to the 

 chaos of the poets j but he was there with- 

 out inflruments, and could remain only 

 Ibme minutes. 



In his time this immenfe mouth, hollow- 

 ed out in bal'altic porphyry, was cooled 

 and filled with fnow : our travellers found 

 it again on fire ; and this intelligence was 

 ddtrefiing to the town of Quito, which is 

 diftant only about four or five ihoufand 

 toifes. Here M. Humboldt was in danger 

 of lofing his life. Being alone with an 

 Indian, who was as little acquainted witli 

 the crater as liimfdf, and walking over a 

 lifTure concealed by a thin (fratum of con- 

 gealed liiow, he had almoft fallen into 

 it. 



Our travellers, during their ftay in the 

 kingdom of Qiiito, made feveral excur- 

 fions to the fnowy mountains of Antifana, 

 Cotopaxi, Tunguragua, and Chimborazo» 

 which is the highelt fummit of our earth, 

 and which the French academicians mea- 

 fured only by approximation. They ex- 

 amined in particular the geognoflic part of 

 the Cordillera of the Andes, refpedling 

 which nothing haii yet been publifhed in 

 Europe ; mineralogy, as we may fay, be- 

 inij I, ewer than the voyage of La Conda- 

 iriine,whofeuniverlal genius and incredible 

 acfivity embraced every thing elie that 

 could be intcreffing to the fciences. The 

 trigonometrical and barometrical mealure- 

 mcnts of M. Humboldt have proved that 

 fomeof tiiefe volcanoes, and efpecially that 

 ot Tunguragua, have become confuierably 

 lower fince 1753 ; a refult which accords 

 with what the inhabitants of PclHleo and 

 the plains of Tapia have oblierved. 



M, Humboldt found that all thefe large 

 malfcs were the woik of cryftallization. 

 •' Every thing I have feen," fays he in a 



letter;} 



